Bjerg Bjergsson

A tax would help considerably and I feel like that has been suggested a few times. If a port owner (Lord) had the ability to manage tax rates however, there needs to be consequences for setting high taxes too though (perhaps a % chance to rebel and go neutral/pirate/American haha). It would help rein in the doom fleets a little bit due to costs, but you could also get some weird financial issues with alts and stuff basically laundering money for the clans. I'm not sure.. As Hodo also said there is not really any sort of PvP promotion. Most conflict seems bizarrely personal "omg you brought a cutter and attacked my 1st rate I'm reporting you/destroying your nation" or the like. I don't think encouraging religious or cultural differences as a basis for war is a good idea purely for happy server pop and economic differences as a primary motivator for conflict will result in a haves vs. have-nots fight which will only depopulate the server.. I seem to be ending all my recent posts with ".." and that is probably reflective of my overall mood post-wipe.

I'm more or less on the fence about going back over to Global (I started there once upon a time) and bringing my little 10 man clan. The frustrating thing at this stage is that it would mean giving up all our xp which we have spent many many many months grinding out. That would be a very hard sell..

If you can only play 2 or 3 hours a day and that "isn't enough time" then this game is DOA. There needs to be a middle ground otherwise we will end up with a very small pop in a very big sea very quickly...

Hmmm.. I think this idea needs some refinement but it's not altogether crazy I think in terms of pure language "borrow" a ship of the line could be changed to "posted to" or something like that. Also perhaps enable you to have a SOL for a period which would run from the time hostility is raised until soon after a port battle would theoretically occur (say 25 hours). This would reduce the number of SOLs on the waters (something the devs sought with the construction requirements) and also make them a "special event" while still not reducing them to JUST PBs. The timer would start once the "posting" is issued but the posting could be traded (within the 25 hour period) so that others could sail it should you have to do silly things like go to work or sleep. It would serve to balance the strengths and weaknesses of minor nations vs. stronger ones too and perhaps also stimulate some OW PvP both creating and countering hostility generation or hunting down or interrupting the SOLs while they are sailing to and fro.

I'm (VGA) Bergsson in the cutter towards the end of the video above. A well presented case and lots of citations of various admin posts etc. A little disappointed the music didn't last until the end of the video, but let's be honest it was always going to be a bit of a let down from the start wasn't it with 7th rates vs. 1st rates. I'm not trying to stir up any ill will towards anyone, it's a game and it is under development so I'm going to present the exact nature of my side of the story and leave Admin to do as they will and accept whatever comes. I am the head of a 10 person clan of widely varied degrees of skill (3 Rear Admirals, 1 Commodore, a Post Captain and then the rest is all M&C and below). I play considerably more than they do but we schedule some gameplay once or twice a week when we can. Since the wipe, as a combined Clan we have raised about 300-400k gold using what resource gathering we can. Part of that coin has gone towards moving and establishing our small clan in the Belize area. The biggest ship we have in our clan at this point is one free Indefatigable with guns, one without and the rest are cutters or Privateers (I hesitate to call our Trader Brigs big ships..). Such was the setting I found myself in when I noticed the call-out on Nation chat that the Spanish were raising hostility adjacent to Belize, thus threatening the establishment of our new home. I set sail in the only ship available to me that wasn't a trade ship or an unarmed 5th rate to attempt to drive down hostility or to make it harder. Hearing that the Spaniards were mustering 18 1st Rates did make me decide to equip an Open Magazine perk as I figured if I was engaged by them I could at least hopefully explode near them. I made my way to an area they had been reported in and there found what was undoubtedly their 1st Rate fleet engaged with a BR rank I now forget. Regardless and perhaps in a moment of insanity I vowed to throw myself upon the enemy in the hopes that I could choke them with my body if I couldn't engage them with a ship even close to equal rank. The above video is an accurate depiction of the ensuing event. What is not captured is that Henry Turner and I agreed that should we reach a suitable distance and it seem like there was no hope and had we not already been set aflame by the Spaniards than we would endeavour to ignite each other. This clearly displeased the Spanish and I will point out that I offered my condolences that I could not meet them in a ship worthy of their show of force during the battle itself. They quickly dispatched myself and Mr. Turner without much issue and soon after I found myself in nearby Omoa. I sailed out in the cutter provided and stumbled upon the fleet once again. To my surprise they were headed away! It seems that the cutters were enough to drive them off, though I am shocked given the ease with which Cutters are defeated by 18 1st rates and various other ships as well. I followed along and there was a rather heated discussion as to what happened and again I offered my condolences that I couldn't answer them in kind. This battle was the first I'd heard of this whole scenario being an "exploit" and I find it odd that it is being termed that way given I joined the battle like I join every other battle. There was no warning, no sign that I was jumping in on a PVE battle (it never even occurred to me that the huge Spanish fleet only wanted to PVE). Admittedly I don't read the Tribunals and much of the threads in this region of the board so I had no idea that this manner of gameplay was an issue. I understand the Spanish clan's frustrations at their hard work being done away with given the ease of a Basic Cutter's acquisition and the difficulty of a 1st rates (I think GB has some 4th rates but I've only read about it in Nation chat), but I'm confused as to how else we are suppose to respond if all we can muster are 5, 6 and 7th rates? The response I heard repeatedly from the Spaniards was "get organized" but my clan is pretty organized for it's small size but at the same time we don't have the hours in the week to put into whatever tasks are required to get 1st rates. So if this is an official exploit than surely something more substantial needs to be done in game to prevent it from happening!? Of equal importance in my view is the necessity to enable players without ships of the line to still defend their territory without being labelled as "destroying the game" and harassed in private and global chat. I don't really know what the solution is, I haven't had much time to think of one as I've been writing out my account. Nonetheless if it creates such anger and frustration (and I have no doubt they feel justified in such emotions) than clearly there needs to be a more proactive and lasting solution that benefits both sides of the conflict. To the players of VLTRA, while I feel this could be handled better (perhaps by everyone), I have no ill will and will of course abide by any Admin decision. I do hope to see you all on the seas soon - and perhaps from equal sized deck next time. o7

What if you had a tag on a ship prior to it entering the mission regardless of ship type, you get pulled in as well? That way you maintain a smooth transition and also do away with "hiding in missions" when you start getting close.

Figured it out! In my eagerness to play the game after installing a new SSD i forgot to update my drivers!

Game won't start just gives me error and tells me to send you the logs. Tried starting the automatic error reporter uploader thing and it gave me another error log. Posting first Error log for the game - if you want i can post the other error log as well? crash.dmp error.log report.ini

Honestly there are too many magic moments in this game for me. Part of the reason it's one of my most-played games really. Here are some that I managed to snag screenshots of. Running screen for the battle fleets on their approach to hostile ports. Navigating via map and compass across the Caribbean and still managing to meet my friend mid-ocean. Getting my first glimpse of the Dutch architecture at their capital. My first time getting a stern rake in a PvP port battle. They lined up so beautifully..

My god she's a beaut!

Being able to craft labour contracts with your hours (50 hours + 50 fishmeat to craft a 300 hour labour contract for example) and then sell them on the market would be a pretty nice way to trickle some of that wealth down to newer players. It would be a decent first step on the crafting path and it would be a decent way of making some starting funds (to buy a ship, crew, and equipment ), it helps the whole crafting system and it encourages players to recruit new people into the game in order to get more labour hours into the market. I'm pretty content with a total wipe (the XP remaining is nice though) as I understand in the etch-a-sketch of alpha/beta testing you need to have as close to release conditions as possible. With the way so many things affect each other econ/political/gameplay wise I think the more changes you can throw in during the wipe the better. I don't think we're close enough to the fine-tuning stage to be doing little tweaks here and there.

I am excited for the wipe. I fought a Frenchman the other day (I in a blue Indefatigable I picked up in the fire sale and he in a gold Cecilia) and I had naught but green and blue mods while he had a few exceptional. It was pretty one-sided with him in a more maneuverable and quicker to accelerate ship but it was clear the moment he popped his hull repair that I was facing an even steeper uphill fight. I managed to land a few broadsides enough to reduce one side to the point where he used his sail repair and fled. He commented as he left that I was the toughest Indie he'd fought and I saluted him as a worthy opponent but it got me thinking - had I been in an exceptional Indie with exceptional mods as he had would I have won it? This wipe will hopefully balance the playing field a little more and no longer will the richer Captain be so buoyed by wealth. Skill shall overcome!

There is one thing stopping a group of friends and a random group from working towards opening a PB and entering it and fighting. 1 dura ships in an uncertain market.

The first goal is confusing to me. The massive inflation that existed in game was a direct result of the fine woods experiment. Instead of just doing a "fine woods wipe" there was a decision to do a buyout at a high value. This caused the market to flood with gold and prices skyrocketed accordingly. Only last week or so did I see ship price drop to what they once were with roughly 300-500k for a decent but not exceptional 5th rate (now that ships are getting wiped the price is dropping even lower). Inflation wasn't really a major problem before fine woods so this seems like a nonissue. Additionally, limiting access to production lets very few people set the prices (as some have already pointed out this too can lead to inflation through a scarcity of supply). If you are in a situation where the same group of landowners hold titles to multiple ports then absenteeism could result in catastrophic economic collapse with resources growing even scarcer (and with 1 dura ships the demand for resources is going to be high). The economics of this just don't add up. It is important to note we will have 1 dura ships if we have a means of production that rests in the hands of 25 landowners per region (since port battles are only for regional capitals). This means that for a nation on their back heels (reduced to one region) to field 100 ships of all ratings, those 25 must manufacture all supplies, parts and material for 100 ships - not including those that must be replaced due to combat loss. Should any of those 25 landowners have a vacation or a personal real world problem then suddenly your available producers drops even more. By focusing means of production like this it magnifies every single bump and setback and that all trickles down the process. Suddenly there is a sharp decline in iron ingots because Landowner A is visiting his Grandmother for a week. The price of iron skyrockets and suddenly ship prices fluctuate. Based on what has been presented so far this strikes me as the makings of a volatile market more than a steady one. I do agree with the second goal. Incentive to conquer and participate in conquest is a great goal. Perhaps I am mistaken but I thought that the point of Raids was to encourage this?

I'd recommend having a Steam Sale to help populate the noob zone (also so I can have an easier time convincing other people to buy in). Otherwise it looks good and I can't wait to test it out!

Go ahead and pull Kraken Fleet off the list. We've either moved to PvP1 or are no longer active.

Can you please lock this thread? It's pretty clear nothing is getting done except make PvP2 look bad (I jumped to PvP1 this week as a result of this ongoing BS). No one is saying anything remotely important or relevant to the National News (nothing here is newsworthy it's just playground name calling and bullying). Cheers and good sailing all.

Kraken Fleet (KF) GB 25 or so members 5 or so active

I'd be interested in smaller, more localized weather effects too. Not just storms but rain squalls and patches of fog too (could be in OW as well as battles). This would add some strategic texture* to battles, maybe you need to duck into the fog to repair or try and make an escape from an equally matched, but better managed ship by running into a rain squall. * By strategic texture I am referring to the space in which a battle takes place. Right now we have land - which has been an awesome addition in its own right, however there are great variations that can be added through randomized rain squalls that could pass through a battle after x amount of time passes, or a fog patch that builds over an area of the "map" and than dissipates. (fog in battle effects)

I've never called a Pirate a moron. Not sure where you're getting that from. Also, I've encountered quite a few honourable and gentlemanly Pirates - no problems there. My issue is surrounding the ongoing attacks on new players and while I'm sure some of you continue to be honourable and gentlemanly it is the ones who aren't that concern me in relation to server pop. So congrats, you helped 5 newbies and that is appreciated, but you are one Pirate out of many and there are lots (in every Nation pop) who are jackwagons. The issue with a capital port blockade is that the jackwagons can now have access to the newbies and not be as forgiving as you. So, our limited knowledge combined we probably have a good idea that the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Some Pirates are helpful to newbs and some are jackwagons, same as in GB and I imagine everywhere else too. The difference is that there aren't other Nations "blockading" each others ports and preying on each other's newbies. Because honourable or not if you get sunk outside a home port - and there are a half dozen 5th rate and higher ships lingering outside the harbour mouth are you going to go want to go back out again in your brig and get whipped again or will you just log off? I get that Pirates think they're taking the high road with all this honour and word and stuff, but it's a game. I feel that this blockade is more detrimental to our playerbase (not to mention spurring yet more drama in an already drama filled server) than anything I've yet encountered in the game. We all know that the map wipe is coming and sadly I expect the server pop will continue to decline until it does.

Clearly there are more than one egos at play here. I'm behind resolving this however we can because it's at this point damaging to the server and the player base. The stupidity I see on both sides has grown so large it's pushing people off our server and if the Pirates can't be the ones to suck it up princess then hopefully Cordova can be the bigger man.

I fought like hell to save that Ensign. I stayed on that Trinc's stern in my Rattlesnake and could have raked him all night long until I boarded him, but since he jumped into that newbie's Fleet Order I also had to contend with 3 AI ships getting in the way as well so I had to bail after the Ensign got sunk. So yeah, I don't just sit back and do nothing. That being said I'm not fool enough to think that taking a 1st rate out by myself to engage the Pirate fleet hanging off KPR is going to be anything but a slaughter, and with the few hours I have a week to game I'd rather play a game I have a fighting chance at winning - as would most people. So instead they sit in port or they go play other games and the server pop dwindles and some blame "Rear Admirals" for not wanting to lose ships to a fleet or it seems they blame Cordova. Is the issue here really all falling on Cordova, who was not elected leader of GB nor spokesman for my clan at least? Or is it that Pirate Politics - which clearly are a thing - are in fact broken because agreements can be made by one man and broken at a whim with repercussions that are completely beyond only those making the agreements? I get that you are pissed, I'm pissed and it sounds like lots of other people are pissed. Surely there can be a better solution than what we have now?

While I don't know the specific details regarding Cordova double crosses etc., the fact that Pirates are now jumping into newbie GB's missions and attacking cutters and brigs is detrimental to new joiners. I personally have seen a DEVIL ranked member of WHORE in a Trinc attacking an Ensign in an undercrewed Navy Brig - twice. It strikes me as contrary to the "working to build the server" mentality I've often seen touted on these forums, while also being contrary to the "looking for a good fight" excuse I've also seen used by Pirates outside KPR. I find it equally "high school drama" to be punishing new players for some guy's broken promises and a detriment to the PVP2 server in general. Maybe that's the strategy? Depopulate the GB nation (and thus lower the PVP2 server pop even more..) because Pirates are almost 2 months into being butthurt over some guy's lies/doublecrosses/plots/whatever? If you're having a hard time finding a good fight now, keep sinking newbies while they are trying to do their missions outside KPR and see what the server looks like. It's gonna be hard to blame Cordova for that..

I'm just going to drop this here and I imagine it may be somewhat unpopular but it struck me as an interesting thought so what the hell. Given the "allegiance-less" nature of pirates, coupled with the rather disproportionate abilities of pirates regarding alliance/war (they can make/break alliances or agreements as they see fit without adhering to the politics metagame, possibly backdooring someone they had agreements with) I wonder if part of the "pirate problem" is their social unity. They are "flag-less" but still can form clans and for all intents and purposes *act* like a nation. Indeed they have all the social trappings of a Nation with relatively little in the way of downsides. As an idea, I propose to make the Pirate the "individual" that they seek to truly be, tied to neither nation nor clan. Pirates would have no ability to form clans, no Nation chat and possibly even limited Global chat access. Conversation would have to be in port or on the high seas or through Private Messages with friends made previously. The idea is to truly make Pirates structural individualists not just "rebels" in name alone. Alliances may be between ships you bump into while out sailing, it may be between friends you've met in the past or it may be with no one in particular. Piracy to me, should be a solitary life full of danger and difficulty (reflecting the skill level required) where every ship that they encounter could be an enemy, be it a pirate or a national. Anyways, I like the OP and have made my vote, but I just thought it was an interesting avenue to explore.

I often can't put in 4, 6 or 12 hours a day. And I think it would be crippling to the diplomacy game to have it restricted to only those who can. At the same time, in my limited experience with diplomacy in it's current state I have spent probably 10-12 hours in negotiations (out of hundreds of hours of gameplay) and had a fun time of it. To me, the sailing game, the merchant game and the diplomacy game should all be viable ways to spend your time. If I log on and instead of taking ports or crafting ships to sell, I negotiate treaties or rally votes, should I be penalized for spending my time that way by having my vote removed? It's a tough struggle between participation and discouraging alt-voting and I'm still not sure I've seen a solution I like. Votes aside, I think Diplomacy and Economy have the opportunity to be tied together nicely. Mechanics would need to be added to support it but the base tools are there I believe. As a simplistic example of what I am suggesting, say Britain and US establish a Diplomatic Trade Deal for 2 to 1 Tea for Cotton for a single round of voting period (1-2 weeks). This results in a lower cotton market price in KPR reflecting the increase in supply (and a lower tea price in US capital) but with a larger demand in GB ports for Tea Plantation buildings to satisfy their side of the demand. Traders could ship goods (or AI trader traffic would increase along those trade routes with cargoes reflective of that deal). Something like this could be highly valued by the lower pop smaller nations as a way of garnering wealth and resources without direct conflict and conquest. As a bonus, Pirates or hostile nations could prey upon the increased trade traffic and deduce the deal through the make up of cargoes.