The Spud

Well its a bit like we saw with gold upgrades pre wipe, I had some good ones but most of them were craftables but didn't stop me from doing PvP. Like with the upgrades, you have some players that are dead set on getting all those top notch upgrades, and they'll either grind PvE or they'll buy them for top dollar. Either way, they did the effort for it, so I grant them that. I haven't been doing tons of grinding, but I still got a couple nice upgrades anyways, and at some point I'll probably have the majority of them, and so will everybody probably. On the other hand, upgrades don't matter if you don't know what you are doing, as in the oponent can have all the upgrades he wants but if he shows his stern he'll lose cannons and crew non the less. But I get your point.

I think we don't always need these items for top notch PvP, but the fact we can only get them trough Sealed Bottles, PvE drops and dead mans chests (dunno?) is a bit weird. Chests and sealed bottles are luck for the most part, you can't force it. But PvE missions are like the lottery, its like gambling, i'll do just one more I'm feeling lucky. Its just a dead certainty you get gold (much needed), combat marks (for fancy stuff), XP (for ya ship), XP for your rank and the occasional repairs/cannons and upgrades, you don't realy risk anything and the rewards are plentyfull, its also always accesable. I must have done like 20 missions in my frigate this week, which would be roughly 30-35 ships (mostly 2 x 6th rate, sometimes 1 x 5th rate), and I got one Beltinck pump, one reinforced masts (6-7) and one time the "Distribution of cargo", which was a realy lucky find. Out of maybe the 20-25 ships I actualy looted. So I would say droprate is not too bad. Should just get more rewards doing PvP to be honest.

Sound like they need a Plan B for the server...

Pressing F5 will also cut the gunnery crew requirements in half, say it was 200 for both broadsides and you got 160 crew (so it show gunnery 160/200), if you press F5 to lock a broaside it will change this to (160/100) at which point the "extra" 60 crew will spread to sailing (if activated) and afterwards to boarding (even when not active) so it shows 100/100 on gunnery might show 80/80 on sails and 30/0 on boarding. This is handy when for instance in a lineship you know you won't be shooting your left broadside for a long time (linefights), you disable the left side and it will put the extra crew in sailing which makes you more manouverable. Do take in mind that it takes time for your crew to 'restation" to the gunnery department when you open the broadside up again. Correct me if i'm wrong on this, its since pre wipe I checked this.

The Conquest Marks are not ideal cause once the lines are drawn for a nation, and you don't have any lordship in any of the regions, and this continious for multiple weeks of status quo (like we have had on the EU server with some nations) the game starts to feel boring realy realy fast. And like I have seen on the British nation, when the opportunity occurs to have a PB, even this was an arranged port activation, you have every man and his horse show up to enter. Imagine if Brits would attack, even if we would have a full PB fleet, some people will just rush in cause they smell conquest marks even if they don't have a PB ship. You can't deny them the entry, its the game, you can enter nothing against the rules there. But it rather feels like its every man for himself and not all for one, one for all. Which ads to the state british are in. I say remove conquest marks and replace them with PvP marks, give PvP marks according to the BR of the ship you sunk, for instance 140PvP marks for a surprise, 250 for indefatigable. And increase admiralty prices accordingly. The Lord Protector gives a daily PvP marks "pension" instead of conquest marks. If (like with crew) the amount of mounted cannons on the ship are also translated to the BR rating of a ship (no cannons = nearly no BR), alt farming or just mutual agreements of PvP farming will be unprofitable in the long run. This mechanic will create more OW PvP, nations who are legging behind in the armsrace can go out and hunt in enemy waters to get more PvP marks to close the gap. The better captains (not those in the biggest clan) will be those getting the most PvP marks, and the easiest acces to bigger ships. You'll never have the feeling that your with your back against the walls cause you can't match anything the enemy brings.

We had to go out and fight cause we, unlike every other nation, had no coal to even put long guns on our ships. The British nation started out with a handicap from the very beginning and we never recovered from that. You can organise a 3rd class football team as good as you want, if you're up against Real Madrid its going to be the same end result every time. We simply don't have the CM, nor the ships to be of any challenge at the moment. If you guys want to settle an old score thats fine, but I think the guys you want to settle a score with are on the global server mate.

We don't even have a full 4th rate port battle fleet, I don't know what you guys want to get out of this "war", but if its good fights and glorious victories I have bad news for you. Have fun sinking every 5th rate on your way to KPR.

I can imagine if there is profit to be a made a pirate would have sold his own mother.

Let trading between different nations only be possible in freeports?

All it needs is maybe a better indicator as to what fire mode you are in, maybe collor code it.

Would just be a matter of time before people get falsly listed as "unfaithfull traders".

If you trade, don't trade with people you have never seen around on the national chat etc. Be extra suspicious if the guy is low ranked, only joined recently or is not in a clan (but a known clan). Clans don't take these things lightly and if it should happen you get a bad deal and can prove it the clan might be willing to compensate for your loss and the guy will be kicked out of the clan. There are plenty of trustworthy crafters out there, if you want to be realy sure ask to be given something of equal value while he uses your goods to craft. Or ask in global if anyone ever did business with that guy.

I say ditch the PvE marks for a bit more gold, throw out the conquest marks and only use PvP marks. Capping ports gives you X amount of PvP marks (allot more then conquest marks). And instead of giving them the name PvP marks. Use "Reputation Points", as in the admiralty/pirates have taken note of you humble and honourable succes in defeating the enemy and as your reputation has risen you stand a bigger chance of getting a nicer boat/upgrades etc... The current system with pensions is just not the right way to go forward and keep the game interesting for a large group of players for a large amount of time. When you are in a disadvantage there is no real way for a nation to change this quickly. And every day you fail to do this the difference gets bigger and the chances of levelling the field is severely reduced. On top of that it severly reduces the chances of pubbies, or lower ranked clan members to get into a portbattle. Use PvP marks for all matters PvP, OW Battles and PB conquests, and it offers an alternative for nations who are knocked back. At the same time we got rid of the rewards for screeners as they get PvP marks.

Its just the beauty of this game, matches can be won in so many different ways. One manouver on the right time can just flip the balance in your favour. Its sometimes just being creative with what you have.

Its a very ahistorical scenario to be honest these conquest marks. What do you think spain would actualy have done if spain (just an example) has the biggest fleet in the carribean, they wouldn't be sending more SoL's. Instead the admiralty of the smallest fleet would be writing home to ask for reinforcements. Now those who have nearly no fleet get nearly no extra fleet, and the biggest fleet is just pumping out SoL's like there is no tomorrow.

It will only fail for the individuals. Clans will support the clanmembers that put in allot of effort to keep the clan running. This will be screeners, crafters, traders, etc.

I agree, if defending is enough does it mean that if say pirates generate hostility in the gulf, it would be enough for the spanish to get marks if they just show up to defend. Does this require the Pirates to be in the PB, or is an empty defence enough?

Yes true. I was not asking it in that regard. But it answered my question. Thanks. I mainly wanted to know it caus my nation lost a nice amount of regions we could never defend, just wanted to know if the enemy was having a pension for that or not. But now I know.

Any conquest done before this patch will not grant players any "pension", only conquest that happens after the patch can generate "pension"?

So this only starts from the moment the updates is active? Meaning nobody receives conquest marks as long as no regions need to defend themselves or regions get conquered?

Captains, As the devs said they are looking into reworking the Mark system, i got the following suggestion: Rework the PvP marks, so that the rewarded marks are equal to the BR of the sunk ship. Obviously the purchase price in the admiralty store would need to be increased accordingly. This would have a number of advantages, as lower levelled players or at least those in a lower level ship are a less rewarding target. A cutter is 30br, so only 30PvP marks are to be made. While at the same time a surprise gives 140PvP marks, a frigate 170, indy 250PvP marks. It would also make it easier to devide PvP marks amongst people who got an assist. Possible farming will be even less rewarding, as to make it worth the effort they would need to sink a fairly big ship. If at some point cannon broadside weight would be calculated in the BR rate (meaning no cannons = nearly no BR rating), just like they do with the crew. Farming would be even less rewarding. EDIT: Would obviously work the same for PvE marks.

As a dutch speaking guy, i would like to point out that the chat of Destroyer says "Doe dan" which means "go on then". Which means there must have been a bit of a heated conversation going on between the two before one side started firing upon the other. Might be destroyer asked the guy to leave, and a heavy discussion erupted. I know I have nothing to do with this matter, just like to point it out as "Nijmegen" might not be around to defend himself.

Its not like all the other players on the server are not smart enough to figure out how to exploit to get conquest marks, we just don't. Its not like you SORRY guys can't win a PB fight without better gear.

We just all know if this doesn't get any fitting consequences, other nations will do the same. And when they are threatened with "deranking", then they'll just point towards this thread and the devs will have no other choice but to leave it as it is.

You can loan a 100k and give it to your friend, but you will be the one who's going to have to pay back the bank. So unless you never battle, which I doubt, you will indeed have fooled the bank in giving you a 100k. If you do battle the bank will automaticaly deduct 25 or 50% from your gains. You can not take indefinite loans, one account can have a max debt of 100k with the bank. You can transfer the money as much as you want, to maybe make it untrackable for the devs. But unless the account who loaned never ever battles (which only alts would do maybe) the money will be payed back at some point. Optionaly you can reloan the money you allreay payed back, say you payed back 20k, so your outstanding debt is 80k, you can then take up. The only loophole is that someone would loan it and would never battle, so they would never pay it back. Which I think nobody would ever do, except ALTS.