Obliterati

I would like to preface this with the fact that i like the ship knowledge idea. It allows players to modify their ships as they see fit and buff it in one direction or another. I'll break down some of the issues with the grind. Which is entirely to much. Part of the problem is that only battle experience is allocated. I encourage the Devs to spend a few hours determining the average battle experience yield and time it takes per mission. Then get a rough idea of how many hours it takes to unlock a full ship to 5 knowledge slots. A small ship will take 3-5 hours to unlock. While i first rate literally takes 60-70+ in game hours of constant grinding. Which is NOT fun. 7th and 6th rates are perfectly fine where they are. The typical ship takes 3-5k xp to max out. Which is not terrible even though it will take 3-5 hours to do. The reason is because the first 3 slots are unlocked within 30 minutes to an hour. 5th rates are much more difficult but still not completely broken. I believe the main problem is that the ships the 5th rates typically shoot yield about the same amount of experience that the 6th rates receive. Making the grind significantly longer. Especially when it takes 5 times as much experience as the largest 6th rates. The 5th rates therefore suffer from a grinding issue where leveling one ship to max takes longer than it takes to get from 350 to 650 crew. The primary reason for this is because only battle experience is allocated. You also have to consider the fact that a SINGLE ship takes that long. There are a lot of 5th rates that are used effectively for PVP. Without ship knowledge and only a single durability. People are unlikely to risk those ships. 4th rates are in a mission sweet spot. Technically they can earn significantly more battle experience per mission than the 5th rates. Since they sink much larger ships. However, the same problem occurs as the 5th rates the grind is significantly longer than it takes to crew up to the next level. 3rd rates don't even have a roll in the game. Why would you spend 30-40 hours in game hard core grinding to level up the ship knowledge slots? Simply put they aren't worth the time when a 2nd rate is faster, does more damage and tanks better. 2nd rates have a roll in the game but only 1 is worth sailing when you stack them up against each other. Even it takes upwards of 40 hours of constant grinding not counting sailing time to complete. 1st rates several of these ships are worth sailing however, i've yet to find even a single person with more than 2 slots unlocked. The reason is because its entirely to slow. People look at the time it requires and say hello kitty that. They don't even attempt to try. Seriously the total grinding time not counting sailing time to the mission is over 70 hours. So to recap. The larger ships all take entirely to long. The max experience requirements are way to high. In fact the 4th to 1st rates should likely be halved. With all experience counting. That way even if you don't do as well as one player and get all the kills. You can still level at a decent rate with the mission experience. Crafting on the other hand needs a serious pass again. Specifically. Why is the only way to gain experience with crafting building ships? seriously?

Since nations cannot take ports from other nations. This concept no longer works. Which is my entire point about nations are redundant with this conquest proposal.

What is the point of nations under this new system? realistically speaking it doesn't matter at all. Having nation specific rules just creates advantages or disadvantages that shouldn't exist.

Inversely this is a terrible idea. Because then it benefits the attacker way more than it does the defender. Specifically it will now be the norm to generate lots of fake PBs with no repercussions to the Attacker. This is a truely dumb system if this is the case. I'll be happy to use superior numbers to generate 3 PBs or superior funds to instantly warbomb. Then crush the enemy in a port they cannot show up for.

The victory battle point was not awarded to the British yesterday for the Cartegena defense. Also the -2 was not taken away from the dutch for losing the Port Battle.

Typically you need a minimum of 3 to max out a ship in a particular way. Additionally the last 2 equate to about 10-15% extra damage output or extra insurance for things like boarding.

The grinding for high rated ships takes entirely to long. Specifically it takes as more time to get 5 ship knowledge slots on a single first rate than it does to get max crew rank. When you consider the fact that all XP counts towards player rank while only battle xp counts for ship knowledge. Here is one example of a bucentaure 2nd rate just to get it to 4 ship knowledge slots. Assumption: you get 1500 battle xp per mission on average. Which is not likely for most people. Assumption: Average time per fleet mission 25 minutes. Xp required for 4th ship knowledge slot on a buc. 88,350 88,350 divided by 1500 = 58.9 missions x 25 minute= 1472.5 minutes divided by 60 = 24.5 hours of constant grinding, not counting sailing time or finding a partner. Just to get the 4th ship knowledge slot. Please consider reducing this time sink by at least half. After grinding 3 ships, Buc, Victory and Locean up multiple slots. I feel like nothing has been achieved and the game is getting incredibly repetitive. Especially when solo missions are even worse because you get 1 ship worth 700 xp at best. Even if you kill it in under 10 minutes. It still takes longer to level.

You get killed using the tactics you yourself use. then cry about quitting... AAA+ would cry again.

Green on green is allowed if both captains agree. Period. Technically lighting each other on fire to prevent capture is called scuttling the ship. This is a legitimate tactic.

All ships should be pulled in. Otherwise they'll fill non-hauling pve ships with low weight high value items. Cartegena tar for example. AI helpers are basically pointless anyway. Though it will give more value to the fleet perks. Which is good in my opinion.

And one hell of a lot more expensive Nice job pirates!

Honestly there would have been a lot more US sinks except the decision was made, correctly, to chase the victory. Leaving a significant number of US ships time to disengage and repair. Resulting in the eventual overpowering of the Dutch. Though when you consider time and effort 3rd rates are definitely disposable when compared to a victory. As a result its more of a win win. Most of the US players won the XP/gold system. The Dutch won the material victory.

Yeah, himself. He's played the diplomat of the US, Brits, French, Pirates all at the same time.

Really the diplomacy time and effort related to trying to organize the herd of cats that is the pirate nation. Is not worth the effort now. Before we could ignore the smaller clans with a coalition of the larger groups. Which of course no longer exist. Also when you get right down to it. You can be just as much of a pirate (more so due to bugs atm) as a nation player. Simply put in order to facilitate a leveling zone for newbies and crafting at a decent price for those whom want to do that sort of thing. A nation is the only way to do it currently. So that lead to a bit of mental math. 1. None of us wanted to go to the zerg nations (brit or US) 2. Spain is completely disorganized and lacks players 3. Danies are dead 4. Sweden put us right back in the same place we started. The game is big why not move to new waters? 5. The French have Slamz 6. You can still do commerce raiding as a nation player. So there was no reason I can't continue freeport camping as a nation player. Process of elimination left Dutch. They have a good community as well. Diplomacy would be easier and since they have few clans, more organization. Basically with us gone. There is no real power block with the pirates to "deal" with. The SE have never gotten their act together. What continually happened at perdenales and now Puerto de Espana is proof of that. I don't forsee the pirates turning into a threat for anyone until at least the next reset when some US players on PVP1 switch over.

I know for a fact i hit a US trader yesterday that had just taken an NPC trader. He had taken command of the damaged trader and had cargo. When i got to the loot screen. All i was given was 1 redwood log. this has been reported multiple times by every pirate i know.

I haven't blamed anyone. The YOLO i'm talking about isn't the same yolo you're referencing. Its one thing to make the last spirited drive in an attempt to take one down with you in a losing situation. Its another to throw a winning battle away by turning away from your own fleet because you refuse to join comms and yolo into the enemy solo. Thereby losing a winning battle. That is more of a leroy jenkins ploy.

I'd like to correct this patently false statement. You always had perdenales. Meaning you pretty much always were within reinforcement range. You also always had handy French NPC fleets you could use to drag into battle for cover. You never experienced true pirate life because of this fact. Go up to Sunbury and gank out of there for awhile. You'll see what i mean when you can't counter them when they drop 10 ships on top of you by spawning AI. Though even up there. Some French NPC fleets spawn.

I have no problem hitting cerbs in a 3rd rate... size does matter. smaller is more effective in this case. For example I defeated a frigate and a mercury yesterday with a basic cutter (separate battles). Mercury because there was a small AI ship there and i had longs vs his caronades. Frig cause he was slow and used caronades, For the same reason (assuming 1.5 hours is enough time) a lone cutter could beat a 3rd rate. However, a cerb is larger and slow enough for a 3rd rate to bring its broadsides to bear. I don't care who is driving the cerb. I'm 100% positive i can defeat any cerb in a 3rd rate... A good cutter pilot might not be so easy. The damn annoying flies. Plus a single broadside can take half the HP off a side of a basic cerb. The southern guys haven't really learned this. I mean shit they were telling me last night about the puerto de espana fight and how their 3rd rate (didn't even bother to join comms). Yolo'd in the last 15 minutes. Blooming idiot is what that is.

not my decisions personally i'm not management. OMG wants pew pew with no thought. Invictus wanted PVE - (internal strife probably lead to this request) effectively killing the aspirations of several in CF and OMG. CF was to diplomatic to just say F it and do X. Also tried to avoid the burnout factor which probably caused burnout. SE pirates (FC, SIN, BSO etc) - just wants to enjoy their corner of the world. completely disorganized. YOLO attitudes to fleet warfare. I'd say it was more of a case were no one was rowing together. The really sad thing is that the plan was to go up to Jamaca and fight the brits too. But instead everyone jumped ship. The pirates will likely end up with no ports now. The brits and the US have no intention of aggressively fighting each other. OMG isn't the only group that switched. So try again. You have a shit ton of new french faces.

Yeah totally true. Except most of your numbers are ex pirates. Kind of funny your ignoring that fact.

Slamz your posts are TLDR. Seriously buddy short and sweet. Personally I agree that passivity and some internal strife lead to the fall of pirates. From the 75 players or so that defended Aves and the south that night against your little nation circle jerk. Less than 25 actives remain. Disorganized as hell (SE refuse to even get on the same comms). There are probably another 20 effectively solo pirates. Whom think its a great idea to take basic cerbs into a fleet battle against 3rd rates. I don't blame OMG for leaving one bit. Personally i was pissed as hell when i heard Invictus didn't want to fight for 2 more weeks. Though picking the pirates to fight just because you didn't get your way was a bit childish. Though if Invictus hadn't flip flopped. We might have made a good go of it for lawls and fun all around. As it stands thats not really possible. I think we'll see a revitalization of pirates after new mechanics are implemented, but for now i don't really see the pirates rebuilding. No real reason to. Hence the mass exodus to other nations. I expect most of the remaining pirates will base from freeports and ignore most PBs.

I personally find it hilarious. OMG switches sides saying they wanted PVPs and to stop grinding empty port battles. What is the first thing they do? Login 5 minutes after shut down specifically to grind empty port battles... F'n HILARIOUS in my humble opinion.

I'd say at this point 60-70% of the pirate combat power has jumped ship to another nation. With more leaving every single day. Sure there are some smaller clans and individuals whom can't really field 3rd rates left. Most of the rest have decided to just freeport hop and give up nation building.

It'll be fun to be a pirate and do piratey things eventually. Reinforcements, neutral ports, lack of NPC fleets all kind of work together to screw the pirates over in their current form. That and Mortimer is by far the worst location for a capital on the map. Unless your on at least equal footing with the other nations. The simple truth is there is no benefit to being a pirate with the current mechanic. Only negatives. Any nation can play the exact same way a pirate could. Such as freeport commerce raiding. I hope they intend on changing that soon. So pirates wont be so reliant on ports anymore.

i know of very few that kept anything but a combat ship there.