The Spud

How many and what ports are Danish now, only Morant?

Make it so crafters can put up a "shopping list" in a clan "warehouse", and people can just add the goods to the order list of the crafter. So it would say like Live Oak Logs 0/50 and you could add your 20 live oak logs to that list, so it says Live Oak Logs 20/50. And the crafter can collect the list once it is complete. This way whoever gives his goods knows who is going to use it and if the guy is trustworthy. You can still have a "common" warehouse, so you can put stuff in there too but this way you don't know who is going to use it. Overall a good idea, i think allot of these smaller clans with lower level players will also benefit from this alot.

As a brit to a pirate, I like that you don't go trowing mud at anybody, and just are happy you had great fun, no matter if it is a win or a lose, and like you said that is what it is all about. We need more posts with people congratulating eachother over a great battle. +1 for you! Fun is the key word in this game...nicely done.

Ooh sweet... shame i had to log out before all this.

Did we take those two ports back from the danes/pirates? Not realy clear on how it is written if we won or not?

The fun fact is, for the rest of this games lifespan, the first Victory to sink was a pirate being flipped by The Royal Navy. Doesn't matter how many ports you can cap in a night, this will be brought up from time to time...

And maybe give a little pop up, like the scoreboard the players in the PB see. Would be cool, I would definitely spectate a port battle if I could...

I don't think a wipe is needed right now, maybe a wipe before full release. But for the love of god, don't wipe my XP, take my ships, take my gold, but If I would seriously need to climb back up from my basic cutter to master and commander, I don't think I would ever have enough courage to do all that XP grinding again. Its too much fun in my surprise right now, or just derank one or two ranks, max.

I think port battles should involve more ships. I've put it in another thread, make it a bit tournament like. Make three seperate battles of 25vs25, once the attackers or defenders BR drops below a certain number that side loses. Sunk, escaped, capped or surrendered ships are out of the PB. The remaining force will fight the final battle, 25vs25 (highest BR ships of both sides, so even the ones who are still afloat of the lost rounds can join in). Rounds could be more or less evened out. This will: 1 - Make PB les frequent 2 - Give incentive to the players not sailing a 3rd rate to go to the PB anyways 3 - Will probably sink alot more 3rd rates, making the final battle probably alot more diverse (as both sides fielding 75 3rd rates will probably be not so frequent) 4 - Will probably replace a big part of the defending/attacking done outside the PB, wich is usualy gank or get ganked. 5 - This should also solve the problem of nog having a PB slot. 6 - Alot more tactics could be involved, like getting the bigger ships first etc. Con's will be that smaller nations might have trouble fielding 75 ships. I think this might make PB more intresting for everybody, and maybe alot less frequent. Again some people think it is fine like it is, I just think it is missing something right now. This might create some epic, diverse battles... Thoughts?

This is great, the only question I have is. Wouldn't it be a bit "unfair" to have midshipmen, lieutenants, etc. experience increase when you rank up and give additional bonusses to gunnery, rigging and sailing? Where now a low level could buy high end upgrades if he has the gold for it, or if a friend gives it to him. If supposingly we drop the upgrades and implement a skilltree like mentioned. You would essentialy need to be higher ranked to be able to get improved reload times etc. Might be a bit unbalanced. It would be off course realistic that if a crew sticks with you, they gain more experience the longer they are at sea. But as a gameplay point of view it would make the top tier players even better. A possibility would be, also a tad realistic, is to make experience depend on the shiprate or specific ship type. So if you level up to next possible shiprate or change ship, it would seem logical that your crew would have to gain new experience with the new ship that sails different, where the cannon type is different, or the gun deck is higher lower to the sealine. Otherwise over all, nice post, great idea, nice addition with a diagram etc... example for all sugestion posts!

I think the devs have a hard nut to crack to make this whole game a bit balanced and keep it fun at the same time. Some points I find to be somewhat unbalancing the game: Port Battles Like said in this post, the amount of Port Battles and the way they are is just off. What would be more logical is to only have the frontline ports marked as capable. So you would only have ports capable that are right next to an enemy port. As to me it would seem prety inacurate that a danish fleet would just cap a port right smack in the middle of brit territory, they would probably never have done that during the age of sail. This way you would have a limited amount of ports that are capable, and might make defending and attacking it a bit more tactical, as people, both friends and enemies will probably hang around that port because they know something will go down sooner or later. Alternatively, one might make a port battle this way that non regional capital Port Battles can have a variable BR entry. For example a PB that only allows for Surprises, Rennomee's, BP, Frigs and pirate frigs. To give PB a bit of variety. Alternative to Port Battles, make a port battle a bit tournament style to involve more ships. Start with three normal seabattles with 25vs25 (or divide the available number to make BR more or less even). A sunk, surrendered, capped or escaped ship is out of the league. When one sides BR dropes below a set number, that side loses. You then have a port battle with the 25 ships that have the highest BR vs the other 25 best. This will need some tinkering with time etc, but it would be a nicer over all gameplay. And it would make the whole defending a bit obsolete. Instead of carrying a flag to a port, just start the PB right away. Anybody can enter for a set amount of time, and as the timer goes to 0 the port tournament starts. Free towns Although I like this addition and the security it gives, it does seem kinda strange that effectively a whole enemy fleet can hide in a single free port behind enemy lines. You cap a ship, send it to your outpost at that free town, teleport with a bunch of friends and just create complete mayhem out of nowhere. Prety historicaly incorrect. Or we should be able to see a list of players per nation in that port, who they are and what they are sailing. As if a real "free port" would have existed, you would probably be in a "peace" zone, but still be able to see who is there and what they are sailing. This makes it far more predictable for what you might expect. Because lets be honest, if the danes wouldn't have had "Ile a Vache" I would realy doubt they would be having as much ports as they have now. Maybe make outposts in a free port only hold 1 ship instead of 5. Dunno, it just seems strange you can have the whole area surrounded by friendly ports, and still get ganked out of nowhere.

These are probably people you don't want to do deals with IRL either....

Basicaly every single one can make a post like this, doesn't mean anything realy. Probably just a Lieutenant Commander who just won a gank against some Brits, and is floating on a little cloud of succes right now... Enjoy the moment.

I just feel that there is something not completely right with PB and that they only seem to field 3rd rates right now. On the other hand, day after day more people are able to sail a 3rd rate, and more and more people will be after a 3rd rate. So capping AI 3rd rates will be harder, as they will all be "harvested" (unless the game spawns a new 3rd rate whenever an AI 3rd ate is destroyed or capped). These disposable 3rd rates might become a bit rare, and crafted ones will take their places. Haven't sailed 3rd rates or above, but I imagine if a victory or a santissima is an extreme nightmare to work efficiently on a PB, they might just resolve to live oak 3rd rates in the end. Making a PB a tad less boring? We might just need a bit of variëty in the 3rd rate and above, some with more fire power, some with more armour. Just to make it a bit more tactical. Otherwise I don't want things nerfed or changed much, It just all seems a bit dull right now.

The "HMS Bangers 'n Mash" a snow type ship, sailed by her careing captain "The Spud", sailed up and down Haïti when the waters were still Britishly calm. Sinked many ships, capped many traders, killed many traitors,... Stored away at PR and sold to the highest bidder after gold was needed for the purchase of a new ship the "HMS Champ" a fine Surprise. Legend goes, she's still stealing Danish and Pirate souls...aka Satans Little Helper.

I think the devs know there is alot of tweaking to do to make this game interesting for all players over a prolonged period of time, and finding that spot on balance will be a hard nut to crack. Your suggestion is a very good idea, but I think at this point they still have so many features to add to the game that in the end the gameplay may change so much that the whole game will be played differently, and maybe allot slower. But I do agree that it would be verry unfortunate to have one nation just crush all the small nations, and kill the funn in a couple of months.

Couldn't we just make it so you could just name your own ship, like every ship you sail (as you can only sail one at a time) has the same name? So it would read " Master and commander, Captain Obvious, sailing "The Example" a 38 gun frigate" or something in OW. And like someone above said it just says the name and then the amount of cannons, and the type of ship.

Sound like a teleshop add, but good point!

Haven't realy seen anything about Lord Protectors, gonna check it out later... my bad.

I was thinking about the following. All people who have an outpost in a port could vote for a governor. For now a governor wouldn't be of much use, if not any use, but when they implement some production buildings etc... a governor could have a small side role. Lets say the governor can build some buildings in a port that give all player production buildings a small boost. The port could generate labour hours very slowely, and the governor could decide if the hours are put in small % of extra production of something. Or if they are put in some extra defence. But all the gains should be very minimal to only a few %. The governor could get some small amounts of gold represented by the amount of traded goods. Additionaly the generation of labour hours in a port could depend on the amount of outposts located in that port. So that the safest ports are actualy better developped than the "front" ports. This way for a nation outer outposts might be better defended, and the safer ports might be better in producing resources.

I was refering to a situation where you would only have one dura per ship, and that 400 or 500k exceptional ship you just crafted or bought, with all the upgrades you want on it, would just take one unfair fight to be completely gone (some ramming, some friendly fire, just unfair in general) . If you have 5 dura, you just lose one dura, and you have at least another 4 fights before you could lose it. As long as the game mechanics aren't balanced out to the point that one would consider having at least like 40% chance of succes in any situation, I think 1 dura would frustrate and make people rage quit. I am talking about these 25 vs 1 fights, unrealistic ship flipping, etc... just situations that make you just lose in an unfair way. I have no problem losing a nice ship or a dura in a good fight, I like the tactics, the manual sailing. A good skipper can do alot with very little. But 25 vs 1 is just overkill. I would never coniniously fight a game knowing I am at an overwhelming disadvantage every time. Untill that is sorted, keep the 5 dura in. A totaly different game, but I played DayZ for a long time, and I could play for a month with the same character nearly daily. When I eventualy got killed I wasn't bothered a bit about it, because eventhough you could end up in a situation that put you in serious disadvantage, you never realy felt like it was unfair. So if I could consider every fight to be fair, I would even recommend only one dura on all ships...

I am all for a good fight, and even if you lose in the end, if you give them a hard time it was well worth it. If you have 5 dura you care less about losing a ship, but if all ships would be one dura only, people would probably only fight the battles they know they could win, and that would be against an oponent that tries to run away. So, probably like you are implying, its prety good as it is...

There is this thin line between realism and playability and the key is to find the right balance. If all battles would be "fair", why not do 1 dura? But if you pull out your Exceptional gold ship with all the whistles and bells you have been saving up for, for like weeks, and just get caught in a very unfair battle, played very nasty, you will probably rage quit/ uninstall the game. And if you wouldn't then at least 95% of the other players would. If it would cost nearly the same to add dura than it is to buy/build a new one, why not let people replenish their dura? People should realy start to consider other players in this game have different views on the game, and want different experiences. Nobody can expect a game to be exactly how they want it to be. If the devs would cater to the needs of only one part of the players, this game will not have a long and prosper life... keep it fun.

I don't think we need to narrow down a game, so it becomes playable for both casual and high end players. We need to broaden up the game so it is enjoyable for all types of players. We need: - More Mission Types - In depth economy, allowing casual players to narrow down to one specific resource type, so they can be of importance to the nation but one a narrow scale. - More ships - Diplomacy -... The game should not be a long mission grind towards the end game Port Battles, with a PvP every now and then. It needs to be broadened up in features, so you don't realy feel like "having seen it all" so fast. The game can not only rely on hardcore players as a playerbase, as this will shorten the lifespan. The more players the better, without limmiting the hardcore players.

I think this is a good idea actualy. +1