Barbancourt

There still isn't much actual purpose to what I'm doing besides exploring the different ports and trying to understand what's available in their markets and at what prices. However, I was just happy that I saw 5 players sailing around in one session.

While waiting for the wipe I switched to something more productive than sinking. (test server) I redeemed one of the free trader lynxes and have been doing delivery missions, visiting various ports trying to find reasonable missions and the required commodities for them. $$$ During yesterday evening's couple hours of sailing I actually encountered 5 players between Christiansted and Gustavia, at a time when only about 20 were logged in.

Yeah, I was just about to put into port

Latitude should be accurate on a clear night. Longitude should be vague. In cloudy weather you should have no info. In storm, you should be scared.

Is there a max for NPC fleet BR? There's often one floating around Christensted with a BR of 4900. It has 9+ Victory/Santissima type ships. That one is easier to find than solo Cutters. Is it a standard captiol port fleet? BTW, you might be able to detect that I'm a noob trying to catch up with and understand everything that's happening in the game so I can get started after wipe. Lots of opinions, not much experience.

Two hours is a perfectly reasonable amount of time for being "active in the game". If that's not enough there is going to be a very serious lack of players. Doesn't mean you're going to be Admiral Fancypants leading the fleet on the Victory, but it should be enough to enjoy most aspects of the game.

Instead of getting snarky (am I misreading?), keep in mind that many players have about 2 hours max to get something done in game. I understand what you're trying to say, but in turn you should be able to understand that people value their time and this is a game that requires a lot of it. The battles in this game take a half hour plus, AFTER you've finally found a suitable target and isolated it. I haven't seen a lot of solo cutters and privateers for me to chase when I start out in my Basic Cutter soon. Just one in the last few days, IIRC. (coordinating with other players takes even more time) It is a good point that some of these ships seem to sail regular routes and maybe there's some information sharing we can do as players to improve efficiency, but at the same time I hope they aren't on really predictable routes, and I wouldn't want "hunting" to be THAT easy for those who want to find their own game in the wild.

New players are going to need to struggle through a lot of PVE battles before they're ready for any PVP, regardless of where they intend to end up.

France is down at Fort-Royal on Martinique, a long way from the US. I pop into the game now and then at fairly random times for a short sail, so coordinating am meet-up over that distance would be tricky. Some time a few months after the wipe I was thinking of taking a long sail completely around the game world - Martinique to Bermuda to the northernmost US port, then all along the continental coasts to the southernmost port and back to Martinique.

I saw one of those this morning - sailed through a small point and fort around Charlestown or Basseterre.

I'm on the test server, as France. I was going to be France on global after the wipe, if France needs players for balance.

I've had the game for over a year, but none of my old characters have a significant amount of XP to transfer so I'm starting from scratch in terms of XP. Right now I'm just trying to figure out how to beat NPC ships with guns on the test server, because I can try different ships for free until i've lost all the free test server starter gold. Armed ships always sink me, even if they're much smaller. I've been attacking ships with much lower battle strength, but after 45+ minutes of manouvering they still sink me even if I manage to create leaks or set them on fire. Over an hour for zero XP and a lost ship and cargo, LOL. Anyhow, as I've been losing ships I've started wondering what the actual goal of the game is and how to get there without wasting my time. Whatever the goal is I'm not getting there by attacking even lightly armed ships, and is risking whatever cannons I can afford to purchase just not going to pay off early on?

Is there something I should be trying to accomplish in my little yacht beyond practice and grinding XP, or is climbing the XP ladder basically it?

Reading the forums I've found that I don't really understand much about the game that's being discussed here. Especially the PVE and crafting stuff. To some extent with just what we're actually supposed to be doing. When I launch my basic cutter and yacht after the wipe what are the first things I should start doing? I've had my fill of capturing helpless NPC traders, and moved up to battling NPCs with similar number of guns what usually wreck me. Do I start out by just tooling around looking for small ships to battle until I get enough gold reward to put cannons on my yacht and a privateer, and then take those out and do more of the same? Do I do the smallest type of missions from the port over and over? Do I need to go back to tedious stomping of NPC traders to try to collect some useful resources by looting them? (looting being much more difficult and less profitable now than it used to be, so probably a bigger time sink)

Cutters...cutters everywhere!

"Night flipping" is something we should be working to avoid.

We will have to see whether it's possible to make progress. Sloops are fine, but after a while people are going to throw in the towel if they can't get beyond victimizing lynxes.

How are you supposed to find PvP if you don't go to enemy waters?

How are normal adults supposed to be able to play the game if you have to coordinate a time that's convienent for others to be able to do anything yourself?

Which is why if there's going to be trouble you should be able to see it coming over the horizon, not have it invisibly camping on top of your spawn.

He's suggesting you aren't supposed to go near enough to "enemy waters" to find a decent chance of PvP opportunities. How we're supposed to get PvP if everyone stays at home port is a mystery to me.

Do people really have a dozen plus ships sitting around? Three ships seems enough for anyone.

Too exceptional means most of the players don't get to take part. That's probably just fine for the exceptional few, but hardly satisfying for most.

I enjoy doing the OW sailing when I have time for it.

I tried to fight a rattlesnake today, and got my rear kicked badly when I failed to knock down any masts. Maybe that's because I was never able to close the distance enough? It's hardly worth aiming with the amount the waves toss the ship in the span of a broadside. The guns also always seem to load just as a swell hits. I'm back in the privateer for a little bit....