Tenet

I'm no longer Dutch, and I'm taking action, not complaining. I believe that to preserve constant fighting and growth in skill on the server, any attempts at mega-alliances and zerg-tactics need to be stopped. I'm leaving to join the front line in this struggle. If you were slightly more patient and slightly more polite to potential allies, perhaps I would have managed to convince others to join the cause. Please try not to jump to conclusions about people, and focus on the biggest problem. You are on the frontlines already? Excellent, politely pressure the rest to follow.

When VCO and TF joined GB, they broke the balance of this server, they broke their word to avoid a US+GB mega-alliance, by simply absorbing a big part of US into GB. SKMARSH knows this is true, and this is why he is out in Global chat making threats against anyone that argues this point. Christendom knows this is true, and this is why he distracts by blaming the Developers for not merging Global with EU. It's all a distraction for a power grab, for the desire to tilt the game in their favor and win by default. The ICS rebellion was a distraction. This war with CCCP was a distraction. These past two threads were all one big distraction. Stop insulting each other and open your eyes to the REAL INSULT that is the GB megathreat. All of you French, Pirates, Danes, Dutch, Swedes have two choices: - Keep up the squabbling and mutual insults while the GB horde laughs and makes you their bitches one by one. If you are really scared of losing some pixels in a video game, choose this route. - Join forces, coordinate and fight GB until two of their bigger clans agree to switch nations and bring balance to the server. You would be surprised what could be achieved when you stop trying to insult and one-up each other and work together. Restore proper order in the server, restore GB to it's former size, and then, after that very tough struggle, you can resolve all your other differences.

Some data to help people decide - if you never tried producing War Supplies: You can currently only make 3 War Supplies per-account per day, the cost of one is ~325 LH (account averages` ~900+ LH per day). This alone, even before the 10K gold base resource cost and required sailing makes them tough to get. If you consider opportunity cost of 200g per LH, the price of one War Supply is 76K gold. Even a 1:1 conversion rate to Conquest Marks would be a crippling way to produce rated ship permits. Perhaps the actual implemented rate should be better. I support this idea as it may eventually reduce the pressure to "trade" ports for conquest mark farming.

Kudos for the very useful guide. A very interesting note comparison from the perspective of far less experience. This isn't just a guide for the pirate, but also a guide for the competent guard.

Some have flashy quotes and bite at ears, while others keep their belts and dignity. -- Evander Holyfield

For the record: You attacked Dutch traders well under 24 hours of showing up on the political map of this server, using an information gap as people weren't aware there is a hostile faction involved. This is the behavior of wild dogs and lawless brigands. Dutch and French are raiding each other's traders on a daily basis, yet neither side would willingly choose to lose face over a couple of pixel ships.

Here's the record of events: You show up under 24 hours ago and post that you exist, that you switched to the Global Server, that you will be playing on it as the Danes, and that all agreements are null and void. Dutch start notifying members of the danger, but people wake up and login in various places and it takes time to spread the information about the hostility. You attack a Dutch trader within those first hours, well clear of the 24 hours people typically provide, exploiting this information gap to make a quick profit. It's your right to build that kind of reputation, and our right to record the facts as they happened.

If you dislike CCCP agreements that were made in your absence, you should have provided all parties involved 24 hours notice that all agreements are removed. You were not an active member of Denmark-Norge when it was written. Attacking our traders in under a day since showing up on the map will not earn you any respect. You seem to behave awfully similar to the French, conveniently trying to isolate Denmark and further sabotage it's reputation.

@ OP: Why are you attacking Neutral Dutch Traders? If you ACTUALLY represent some part of Danish interests why have you NOT notified Dutch 24H in advance before engaging in hostile actions - the trade agreement is multiple weeks old. Where were you during all these events. WHY IS YOUR FORUM ACTIVITY 3 HOUR OLD, AND NOT AT LEAST A WEEK DURING THESE PAST NEGOTIATIONS? Awfully convenient to show up on forums MERE HOURS after French threaten CCCP. Are you an actual Danish player or just a French/British alt trying to stir drama?

Because one nation has ~100 active people, while the others have 60, 50, 30 or 25. The only balanced way to fight is to uphold some alliances.

Considering all the Rudder HTTime buffs are - X % , yes, this looks like a negative to me.

On topic of tragic misunderstandings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edr7yOvbZak NSFW (suggestive) English close captions work, but are unnecessary.

When France, Denmark and Dutch fight - which nation is laughing?

Slamz, I like your idea, and the modification. I think the problem is that Dock space has been nerfed with Durability change. We should have more Dock space altogether.

Solo Mission - regular Combat Mission spawned 3x Rookie Snows. TBH, even just two of these will be quite the challenge since 60 crew doesn't seem to reduce their reload enough. I prefer if rookies faced fatter ships with less powerful guns, not glass cannons that melt them if shots connect. Will test it once more and F11. Many people are tempted to offer Suggestions on how to beat those 3x Rookie Snows more effectively - that's not the problem. Try to perceive the game from the perspective of someone who just bought the game and knows nothing, and an average person that will get frustrated way earlier than ask for help.

One of the rookies in our nation reported that his missions spawned 3x Rookie Snows at 2nd Lieutenant (Tweede Luitenant) level, 3000 gold 125XP mission. I made a Caguarian / Sabicu NavyBrig, equipped with 6pd Meds and went with him to test it out. I'm fairly experienced at fighting these, and I barely survived (had to repair twice). A rookie will be guaranteed to lose their ship every time. Sequence of events in mission fighting these 3x Rookie Snows: - Aimed at the left-most to gain wind advantage, traded broadsides. The Snow did equal damage. Other Snows chipped half a bar more. - Tack successfully after broadside, switch to other side and give the first target another broadside. - Lose 3 bars of HP to the combined broadsides of the 3 snows as they reload. They may be shooting carronades (?) and the 60 crew does not seem to affect their reload significantly when working one side. - Fast Tack 3 more times to build separation, stop taking damage at about 3 bars of HP left on either side. Proceed to kill closes Snow. (the rate of damage I was taking before I obtained some separation seems to support the snows having carronades) - Used Repair #1, then repeat and kill the second snow. One side of my ship gone, structure of hull at 60% (!) - Used Repair #2 and go for Boarding action, ramming, slowing and boarding the 3rd Rookie Snow, 100 vs 60 relatively easy win. Could only safely loot the last ship, which recovered some of the repairs and dropped 6 meds. Reward: 18000g + 304 xp. Risked: 160K worth of ship + guns + repairs. Such rewards are really not worth the risk either, will have to survive 8-9 missions just to make enough money to buy a replacement. Problems: I needed to not only know how to tack, turn through the wind, efficiently, which is already difficult for most rookies to do once, and can be very unforgiving if they don't know how to maintain speed/energy. I needed to carry two sets of hull repairs, and know how to use them properly while running away. I needed to land 90% of my shots to be effective enough to sink the first 2 ships before I was sunk - and with tacking that required shooting at medium-long range at times. I also needed to know how to win boarding actions aggressively - because the AI comes with marines and can overcome the numerical disadvantage. I was doing that while sailing a very tanky option for 6th rate, possibly the tankiest. A normal brig or snow would have sunk (or required even more consistency and skill). Softer woods would have probably made me sink as well, particularly if it was a store bought with crew space. Boarding all three ships was not an option either - they would sink your ship and you can't use a captured one to survive. @admin - Please make the game easy for Rookies. Don't make them quit with such brutal tough battles. 1v1 against ANY Snow, rookie or otherwise, is challenging enough for someone learning to manual sail in his first Brig. 1v2 should only appear at higher mission levels, as a choice for more challenge. Rookies need to feel welcome and have some easy fun time to fall in love with your great game. The game becomes difficult later on, it should start out easy.

I would like to test the 10% suggestion, and to give the Endymion a 0.5 kn nerf to base speed. The discussions of PvP merits of each ship are a distraction (and would complicate this unnecessarily once you include Turn-Duels vs. Group Fights).

Pretty good production, will be recommending for rookies. Well done!

Thank you for the writeup Bach. I hope we will get a similarly detailed explanation from ICS and CCCP/Danes. If they are honest, we will get a separate view. If they are dishonest, we will get a record of the misinformation. It's interesting that a Dane + French alliance against the Dutch was considered. That would guarantee an eventual Dutch loss unless GB gets involved directly, with multiple clans pledging to shift East. Is GB ready to do that? Will the Dutch attempt to switch sides instead? Will the West vs. East war start in earnest? Exciting times ahead.

They could also eject the lower decks, but with a much slower process requiring moving and lifting each one through the cargo hatch. This could be a neat feature if implemented right - for example, topdeck could be instantly ejectable, but the bottom would take X seconds and may not work during a storm.

One key thing the devs could do to improve this system tremendously is to separate the Teams from the Nations. This is a niche' game that tends to appeal to age of sail Enthusiasts, people that read the Aubrey Maturin series, or Hornblower, people that came in contact in some way with the sea and these beautiful ships. This culture is dominated by the British, US and Pirate stories - and most people will chose such a team, particularly if they are listed at the top of the list of the server. If instead anyone could be any nation, and had to pick one of 3 arbitrary teams, like in a classic RvR setup, this nationalism would not pollute the team choices and we would have a more balanced server.

Do you recognize the existence of the RvR / sport-PvP type that I outlined, or not? Do you recognize that some players will always shift to the underdog to ensure the system is balanced? They clearly oppose the very nature of "server domination".

Vllad's breakdown omits a type. I quoted it since you failed to read the original post and joined in this chorus of personal attacks. Edit: In your own great post in suggestions you claimed to prefer 3 more or less equal teams for RvR instead of the 8 teams we have right now. Do you take that post back? By attacking the Dutch and the Danes, for whatever reason, the French have guaranteed that a third "team" did not emerge, and that the only relevant teams are going to be GB and Pirates. It's the forces of inflexibility and tribalism that have split up the USA, and it's the same forces that have split up the French, and Vllad was completely off by blaming it on "player types", whether in jest or not.

You're playing to lose.

If you weren't roleplaying and lying to yourself, you wouldn't be posting on this forum at all.