Galt

I mean, it does go with the metaphor, yea. Let's see if you can pull it off. See you tonight.

The original poster (link below) is from WWII when German forces surrounded the British and French forces at Dunkirk. A movie just came out about this which is where the version above comes from. In this case we, the French, are the Germans (See Rabman's profile picture for response) and you have put yourself in the position of the allies (who lost that battle.) https://www.quora.com/Did-these-fliers-really-exist-during-the-evacuation-of-Dunkirk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dunkirk (In case you aren't familiar with the battle)

total of 1400 crew at RA = 650 Bellona, 2x 375 Indiamen. What is the issue here? There is plenty for you to run a line ship with two frigates to support you. You could even run 3 connies and be fine. I am not understanding your non-issue.

Ships should have a build time associated with them. A countdown representing how long it actually took to build the ship (and you can only have one ship building at any given time. 5th rates and down construct instantly, or within the day, 4th rates take 24 hours, 3rd rates take 48 hours, 2nd rates take 96 hours, and a 1st rate takes 168. I think they are already plenty expensive to build but it couldn't hurt to increase it a little bit. Add a crafting timer and I bet you'll see fewer ships being sunk (especially lineships) and more ships being captured. I am thinking about how Eve online (a very successful "hardcore" space-ship game) approaches crafting. It takes 8 weeks IRL time to build a Titan (space 1st rate?) and while I think that is too long for something in Alpha, if this game starts to pick up after launch, I think it should be considered. I get that people like to sail ships of the lines, I do. I love my line ships, I feel like I am my best player in them. But increase the diversity of frigates and below and I think you'll see people are more willing to forgo their Bellona every time they sail in favor of a smaller ship. People sail lineships all the time because that's what the enemy is in. Start getting more people into frigates and you won't be as effective in a SoL because they just can't keep up. I think upping or removing the speedcap in battle is a good move forward. 3rd rates are the best all around ship, they still took several months IRL to build (if not longer.)

No, and they should fix that. But this also plays into the previous conversation of giving some sort of gun load out information when you start the tag. It should be easy to make people think you are a heavy frigate even though you aren't.

To be fair, if you lose those odds you deserve to lose everything. I wasn't bitter when I lost all my books and paints a few months ago. I sail with the captain that did it now and I don't expect anything back. He won it fair and square. Losing a battle honorably, especially in a trader, isn't something to be ashamed or scared of. Yeah it can suck having to recover (I took a couple months off the game and now I am back on the blue) but in the end that is part of the game's experience for traders. You are going to lose, but I prefer it not to be every time so I always run as heavy as possible. A LO/WO indy is no joke. Put some carta, basic hull, and pino masts and you're pretty much set for life. If the ship sinks, it sinks. You recover, move on, and go make more of that sweet, sweet gold. But I would definitely think twice about facing down three indiamen, with a captain I have experienced before and I know to be even a decent player. Even if the player is the only one using guns, the AI would appear to have guns with the dummies and I'd peace out. No use risking a valuable quin just for some PvP marks that I stand a better chance to get on a less lucky player. Hell, you can just load Quakers on your fleet ships to make it look like they are packing but don't have to worry about them keeping themselves tagged into the battle. TL,DR: Don't use it if you can't afford to lose it

I think the worst thing about the Indiaman is the very distinctive stern carvings. If you could remove those, paint it black with a white stripe then I think people would really thing twice tagging you. I also really love the idea of the tag just displaying the rate and what gunload you can expect. I think these dummy guns can go a long way to deter people with that kind of vague information. Really rewards you for knowing the subtle differences between some ships. (I still mix up connies and trincs) I usually like to run a really heavy trader: LO/WO, large caliber guns all around and two fir/fir fully fit indiamen in fleet. They run sails while you tank it out. I lasted a really long time until @Le Raf Boom came along.

or carry three, some other product to fill the difference in tonnage, and you'll know that if you are tagged they are aren't virtually guaranteed to lose the ship and the cargo.

Reasonably, you are correct. but apparently there is an issue with traders not running guns and while I would feel comfortable in a quin taking on an indiaman, I know a few captains with much less confidence. Plus this is something that actual traders did making it more historically accurate and it doesn't really take anything away from the game.

I think a good way to maybe help traders who seem so insistent on not carrying guns on their ships would be to add in Quaker guns. They would make the ship look like it was fully armed but it wouldn't take away nearly as much weight as normal guns. This would mean more traders would likely survive hunters (since they look to be properly armed (serious, why would you ever not have guns on your ship‽)) but they also would't have the (x) tons removed from their hold space so they can still carry full load. (Seriously, why is this an issue? The amount of cargo space you lose is negligible...) Plus this is just a historic things that a lot of traders carried at this time and it actually helped traders intimidate man o wars from engaging. Edit: Basically you could buy three kinds of dummy cannons to mimic longs, mediums, or carros, and load them into any gun slot on any ship. It would be up to the attacker to know what the actual possible gun load out for each kind of ship is to know if they are feasible of not. They wouldn't require any crew and they would only take up maybe a half ton or so (they are just big logs painted black). I don't feel that this should get in the way of any current content planned for upcoming patched, I also don't think this would take hardly any resources to implement. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quaker_gun https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Pulo_Aura https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bali_Strait_Incident

This is a perfect example of how good clan flags can/would be

I feel like a "manufacturing port" is fundamentally the same as a "Naval base" in this case since most people do their crafting where their cwh. I think it would be better to have production and consumption ports be different options. Production ports are the ones you can build production buildings in, where you can buy goods to sell at consumption ports. I thin consumption ports can benefit from trade missions like in Elite: Dangerous where they have quotas to fill and will pay top dollar to whoever can fill them. These are the ports that generate money for the clans. And the Naval Base is where most of the crafting is done. It's the hub that clans can use to establish a real presence i the area. I think that the cost for a production port should be ~250,000 a day, they will make a little money from people buying goods there to ship to naval bases and consumption ports. Naval bases should be between 350,000 and 500,00 a day because you, ideally, would have a high number of players going in an out of here, crafting here, setting this as their fb. Then consumption ports would cost the 100,00 a day to balance them a bit but these would be the ports that clans can tax for the most profits. I really like the idea of forcing clans to capture a few ports in an area if they ever want to be able to effectively operate from the area. You need shipyard to replace what you lose and production ports to get the resources. Consumption ports, realistically, would be the ones of least strategic importance since they don't have the goods you would want to build ships but they are still mandatory unless you want to just hemorrhage gold.

Nice try Andrew Wilson, who let him in here?!

@King of Crowns You all go through all my stuff yet or do I need to come back?

We needed this to be able to look, at a glance, and see what resources we have; rather than just scrolling through the list in game. I was able to monitor changes while not in game, map out resource needs for people to collect, determine if we had enough of "x" to provide x number of ships. It was just a much more efficient way of looking at the warehouse. I also have a partially completed resource that shows all the materials any ship needs that would utilize this spreadsheet to see what ships you could build with what you have in the CWH.

I made this a year or so ago for when I was managing the logistics for a clan I was in at the time. If you like punishing yourself like I do, I figured I would blank it out and export it so everyone else can take advantage. I have not updated it to reflect resources that may have been added or removed since like November of last year. Use it or don't, better to have it and not need it than visa versa. Clan Warehouse Spreadsheet.xlsx

What are your opinions about something like this for Pirates and clan emblems? Personalized jacks are something I'd really like to see.

maybe add a "Transport Refit" for people to carry marines and only enough sailors to work the sails. You wouldn't want too many guns to increase your speed. The sole purpose being to get close to the shallows, hitting a landing button, then your are pretty much done for the battle. You need x number of marines to storm the beaches and take the town while still making sure your fleet is big enough to hold off the enemy.

From reading this feels just like ganking noobs but with extra steps. People keep trying to find ways of getting players out of the safe zones when it's usually the only thing keeping these people alive. I never had any issues hunting at KPR because player battles stay open for a while, there are a lot of players running around fighting AI, I can almost always find a mission or something to jump in. If people want to PvP with you, believe me they will be easy to find. But people who work mostly in the safe zone (in my case) do so to provide ships that are needed for PvP and RvR. Ships are expensive and I can't afford to always ONLY PvP every second of game to provide the rest of the community with content. I venture out to fight on my terms and when I do I usually don't have an issue finding one (win or lose.) I know most have you have played enough to know where to look for players to fight. If you just can't possibly wait another second without shooting at another person then feel free to set up in Nav and sail on down. Jump in some missions, get a group together and brits might just organize and come try to sink you. Or hell, just tell me where your shipyards are and I will make a point to come say hey.

TheRedBaron has been trolling battles, bumping into green players (often attempting to take bowsprits) and pushing people into the wind. @admin I have some video evidence but I am waiting until I have conclusive proof before bringing it to Tribune

or 1.5x the PvP marks and put chests in the PvP rewards store?

I liked the idea that someone had where every nation gets a port near PaP and that region of ports becomes an FFA RvR region (no port timers.) OW is always allowed, why not designate an area with the same rules for RvR.

that sounds about right, with 12lb meds or longs and 6 pounders up front. a fair looking 5th rate. It looks like there are a large amount of square rigs so it should be a better brig.

very good news, coming from a global player. I like the return to old fashioned timers with a good catch. This adds a completely new level of strategy in regards to instant port timers so be sure to keep pb ships in your valuable ports. I for one won't be using that 1 time teleport just in case I need to move something immediately for an instant pb. I am glad to hear that there is a merge and it will be good to see some old faces.

Join me and together we will rule this Middle Earth...