Porpoise

I really do not understand this race for the highest rank. You will once find yourself out of content and tired from endless waiting for big port battles. If there is no fun in progressing and trying all possible ships then I will tell you a secret. If you do not go trought the learning curve properly, you will suck hard in the end. That is proven statement from every MMO I played starting with WoT, ending with EVE online.

I like to see the Brits supporting ideas to change the pyrat faction. Any connection to the map situation on PVP1? LOL Seriously. I think that pyrate faction needs to be changed and be more competitive/hardocore to play than any other nation. Basicaly, they should be more like small gang-solo OW roamers making out their living from PVP and chasing traders. Pyrats should havet strong PVP focus, much stronger than any other nation and also much better loot drops (materials, upgrades, goods) I think operation from freeports is possible as long as there are NPCs buying stuff. I would also like to see possibility to acquire the letter of marque from your original nation which which will allow you to use ports of this nation and trade there. Of course something like reputation is needed. When you kill the faction ships - you lose reputation towards that faction. When you fight along with nation, the reputation towards it will rise and when it reeches certain level, the letter of marque will be offered. With low reputation you will be also kill on sight for the NPCs belonging to that faction. Ability to raid ports is also needed. This should be the way where pirates get most of their supplies. Maybe an ability to turn a port into neutral one could work too. If you want to reduce ability of pirates to craft, then you have to give them some advantages from capturing players ships. For example when a pirate captures players ship, then the ship will come with increased durability etc.. There are many suggestions, but I think we will see nothing like this.

Well I have no problems finding PVP for myself. I am speaking about viable solo/small gang targets. It is not plenty, but they are here. Generally people tend to be carebears too much. Give them a chance to gather wealth and shoot harmless NPCs and they will do it. They do not like to lose, but there is actually no real win without taking a risk. It is simple as that. Most of people are sheep, PVPers are the wolves. I think there should be no safezone or newbie friendly mechanics in the game. The loss of a virtual ship costs you literally nothing, only your self confidence. If you can learn from this experience you will overcome the problems and be good at the game. If you do not, then you will most likely start to flood forums with topics like: more durability to ships please, make no PVP zones on the PVP server, give us unconquerable ports to keep us carebearing at any time and reduce the teleport times... Guys wake up, the loss of the ship costs you nothing. You do not need the biggest ship to be successful in NA. For example the Surprise costs 200-300k and comes with 5 durability, that is 40-50k per life. You earn that much from running 1 captain mission, participating in killing 1 NPC fleet or killing another player in PVP. Do not be scared. Experiment and you will be rewarded.

Cheaper ships... look at the EVE. Every ship is unique and thousands of them are burned every day. Willing to PVP is only a state of mind dude.

Empire has far to anything being called safe zone. I played EvE for 8 years and I know what I am talking about. There are wars, ganks and much less predictable environment than in 0 or low. This system can not work here. Probably only tagging into the battle near capital should be disabled. This environment is not that complex as in eve. And EVE is not an open world. There are 7000 instances called systems with own rules. But I would like to see many of the EVE mechanics to be implemented - like 1 ship - 1 life etc.

Just no. You are killing sandbox with protective rules. A nation needs only 4 ports to fully satisfy it's needs and there is no need to own multiple ports at the moment. When all ports will be set to neutral, the most populated nations will take huge advantage of it at the start. I think we need new PB mechanics which brings less, but much more intense fights for ports. There must be economical motivation to get the port, because now you have no advantage in having them. The whole RvR system needs to be reworked. Now I consider it being something like demo.

Honestly, I think all ships should have 1 durability only. This should go along with lower crafting requirements of ships and modules. 5 durability is just too much.

Well the flag mechanics is here to blame. We need new mechanics that will open only few ports to being captured every day. This will result in more predicted actions and bigger PVP engagements. This attacking windows should be based on the players activity in the area, not only on buying the flag. I think that simplified system that works in EVE online could fit here perfectly with some modifications. 1) you will buy flag for the specific port and assemble the fleet - it will start the timer (60-120 minutes?) 2) the attacking fleet has to go to this port and fight in the battle that opens in certain time with X slots for both sides. If there are no enemies, the battle is automatically won by the other side. Both sides will see when the battle starts and will have plenty of time to gather forces and join the free slots. 3) if the attacker wins the battle there will be new timer for final PB (24 hours) 4) standard PB window opens when this timer runs out - classic PB with towers etc. When defenders lose, they lose the port. This will calm the situation on the map avoiding switching multiple ports every day and it will definitely help smaller nations to defend precious ports. The most important thing of all is to bring some purpose to having multiple harbors. Now every nation needs only 4 of them to fully satisfy own economical needs.

I hope there will be also a reverse mechanic for joining the Pirates. For example buying a pardon from one of the nations with long term cooldown (3 months) etc.

OMG, what about bringing more ideas like this to the incomplete game?

Free SOL, which are endgame content, should not be available. This is hurting the economy more than you think. The market for 3rd rates is non existent, because there is simply no demand for them. Currently there is a lot of money in the game, but nothing you can buy for them. I think that more people will be attracted to crafting when AI prize ships will be removed and the economy will be more easier to understand. Now the whole economy is just a giant mess. You need plenty of them to gain XP in PVE.

Well yes, dolphins and whales are important.

Well the Swedish and US do the same in our waters. I am not a friend of the current mission entry mechanics. I think 2 minutes timer is OK, but all sides should be able to join. Btw. I engaged only 1 player in his mission and it was a frigate. I do not now how, but he managed to dissangage instantly right after the battle started.

I am sure there is plenty of players who just sell what they produce. I am more concerned about the purpose in having multiple ports. Now every nation needs only 1 port of each production type to keep the resources income at maximum level. So, why should we care about ports?

This is a sandbox. Your nation is here to protect the "safezones" for your low level players. If your Flag Captains and Admirals let us to kill smaller ships right at your doorstep, it is only their failure to protect their own territory. I am pyrat for a reason. I seek ships to kill and plunder solo or in small group. I do not participate in port battles because I do not want to be someones monkey. The experienced players should seek and destroy outlaws like me, not crying that I am preying on newbs or smaller ships. PS: The Snow I killed tagged me (I had no intention to engage him) and the brig was actually a Post Captain. Yes, I have captured an AFK player, but who goes AFK in sandbox, deserves to die, or lose assets. This game is all about OW awareness. There were Trincos and Renommees out there and they did not even try to help their mates just because they are scared of PVP in anything else than captured AI 3rd rate. Cheers.

Yes sure, taking out Belle Poule and Cutter with Renommee is seal clubbing and what the hell are you talking about? No fighting zone? I must laugh into your face sir. All of them got 2 minutes to receive help from your mighty nation, but your Trincos and Frigs were just too scared to PVP and help them out. You are just gank nation, nothing more, nothing less. The only thing that Britain achieved was destroying the Spanish super underpopulated nation. Your war effort against Pirates or Danes proves that.

Great to hear that there will be an option for all the Hornblowers in game.

Pitty nobody of the Pirates defended Savanna de Mar.T'was really funny killing Brits in my Ren-0-Meh just in front of the Kingston. I scored Snow, Niagara, Brig, Belle Poule, Basic Cutter in 3 hours and I captured an undercrewed AFK Frigate, what was actually super LOL. All of these fights proved that Brits are nothing more than runnabees. Even the Chicken was trying to escape against Renommee. Brits do not fight unless they got 5 Vickies on grid. Pirates rule the wawes. YARRR.

Or we can use plastic - transparent sails to hide the ships maybe. What do you think? And of course this should be premium content for real money. Seriously: I would like to see different paintjobs as cosmetic features, but camouflage is silly.

yes, that explained everything to me

I think we need somehing like Venus - a ship to acompany Constitution in super-frigate class. She must be feeling lonely right now.

I agree. I would allow only traders and unrated ships to be captured and the other ships sold to the admirality for gold and XP. This would be a great boost for the working economics and really working RvR where every lost ship counts.

Captured 3rd rates are not a medicine to cure 1st rate spam dissease. Big ships like 1st rates come into game with 1 durability and you need 13 days of labour hours to build one with the new production system. No nation can afford losing so much resources on a daily bases. Now everybody wants Victory/Santissima, but 80% of players will switch back to 3rd rate after losing theirs 1st rate simply because it will take them over week to gather resources or money to buy/build a new one. Many of them will rather buy a 3rd or Bellona with 3 lives. If you do not remove the option to use captured third rates then they will simply sail them while saving the resources for the Victory, so IMHO the "Free" 3rd rates will only increase the number of players sailing Victory in the end.

There should be option to Start a new character with 0 xp and level.

There should be some multiplier based on BR of your ship.