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Obliterati

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Posts posted by Obliterati

  1. 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?

    • Like 1
  2. 8 minutes ago, Anne Wildcat said:

    How about players not in a war company can only enter freeports & national ports.  Other port entry require smuggler flag. (Like now)

    Players in a war company can enter national ports and any port that company owns. 

    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. 

  3. 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. 

  4. 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. 

  5. 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.

  6. 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.

    • Like 1
  7. Well are you attacking them as they leave a free port starting their trading run? or are you hiding near a resources heavy port waiting for them to leave?  Again, intelligently think about it. Have you tried positioning yourself between an iron port and a capital and only attack the ones going back to capital?

     

    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.

  8. The SE pirates at least have the respect of their enemies.  Their "YOLO" strategies are holding stronger than yours.  France uses the same "YOLO" strategy, and now you are openly admitting defeat.  So call it YOLO, but if it works it works.  When ever I lose, at anything, I reflect on what I did wrong and what they did right.  I recommend you do the same instead of blaming others.  

     

    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.

  9. We learned to survive with an economy using zero controlled ports and Free Towns. The mechanics are there, you just have to figure it out. Not 2 weeks or 2 years would have changed our situation. Ports give us an excuse to fight and park our boats but really they are just fancy garages. They aren't really necessary however. 

     

     

    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.

  10. Any Frenchman would, in fact, we've taken down several pirate player 3rd rates using a couple Mercuries even.   It's not the size of your ship, it's how you use it. ;)  A video is even being passed around France of a player in a Cutter defeating a player in a Belle Poulle!  Again, stop thinking that ports matter, stop thinking that ship size matter, stop thinking that "under-strength" ships can't win.  This midset will be your true downfall, more so than anything another nation can do to you.  That mindset almost destroyed France, but we changed how we thought and changed how we played.   And as you can see, it works. 

     

    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.

  11. Kind of funny that if it is true, then you are ignoring the fact that it is due to your decisions and lack of a clear plan and capability to execute it. 

     

    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 is 10 players.....10!  They are not the majority of France.  And let's say that they were for argument sake.....then your grand pirate alliance of roughly 100 members was destroyed by 10.  Maybe your strategy sucked then, maybe you should learn from the enemy and alter your strategy, but after reading defensive post after defensive post, I doubt your egos would allow you to admit you were wrong.  You'd rather blame your defeat on someone else not yourself. 

     

     

    OMG isn't the only group that switched. So try again. You have a shit ton of new french faces.

  12. I hear you just fine and I can read between the lines too.  You are now outnumbered and face the home port disadvantage.  We beat you in the PdE battle in spite of having a majority of Cerbs at prime hours.  The trend has now been reversed.  The French will recap every single port.  In two weeks time there will no longer be a black port on the eastern side.  In the meantime, we have squadrons hunting every black ship in sight - for sport and trophies.  A number of you have taken to surrendering their 3rd rates as a hobby.  So, either you can vacate our waters, suffer a miserable existence, or join a real faction - however painful the process is entirely up to you.  I hope you try to resist myself - as I take particular pleasure sinking CF players and mounting their heads on my wall.

     

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

  13. 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.

     

  14. 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.

    • Like 1
  15. 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.

    • Like 1
  16. 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.

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