Jack Spencer

By the time you have crafted or purchased a decent ship, there can be a sizable investment. The upgrades often cost more than the ship itself or require a grind to either find rare materials like copper or a port that sells upgrades. If combat marks or PvP Marks are needed to procure upgrades like Naval Hull Refit, then even more time is required. The ship becomes an investment some players are reluctant to loose.

Quote from a previous post (Experience Points XP) "For me the XP is a very confusing and often misleading determination of combat experience and ability under fire. For example, I currently have the rank of Captain (Post Captain) which means I have earned 10,000 XP and can manage 400 crew and sail a Trin. About 80% of my XP comes from fishing, trading, exploring = 8000 XP About 10% comes from Missions against AI = 1000 XP About 10% comes from actual PvP combat = 1000 XP So my conclusion is that I have only 2000 XP in actual combat (if you want to count the mission AI), a First Lieutenant rank and I should only be sailing 6th rates in combat. I seems to me that OW sailing XP should be a separate ranking from a combat XP ranking."

One possible scenario for trader ships which might be considered: I generally sail my traders with no cannons to increase speed. If a trader with no cannons was attacked in PvP, then no marks would be awarded. The attacker wouldn't know until capture whether cannons were aboard or not. Let the attacker assume the risk of getting only cargo and ship.

Even if your sailing one of Marcus' well crafted traders, this generally means sailing with 1/2 or less cargo capacity to keep speed and dumping the cargo if threatened with attack. Even if you now have a faster ship, the chain shot is now so effective you are down to 60-70% sail in no time and the repair time delay after repairing leaves little chance of escape.

IMO, if the "Recently Killed" designation lasts for 1 hour (?), then during that period a ship with that designation should not be able to attack or be attacked.

"PVP works better when ships act like ships. These are age of sail ships, not littoral combat vessels that can be completely gutted and refitted for entirely different tasks within days. This isn't WOT. The way upgrades work right now feels like a micro transaction game where you are being pushed to spend money on them to be competetive, but there is no way to buy them... you just have to grind away for hours and hours on boring AI while dodging gankers tactical players who employ local numerical superiority." Once a ship is built, I don't think added mods of any nature are needed. The differences in speed/hull strength etc. should be determined by the wood (framing/planking) used. Some knowledge improvements for gunnery/sailing/boarding could be available. If a trade ship needs to be faster, sail without guns and at 1/2 cargo. Traders (except the Spanish Armada fleets) normally didn't have guns anyway. Until the ridiculous ganking is brought under control, all we provide is target practice. I was trying to sneak trade goods into a port sailing a basic cutter with no guns. I was ganked at a 5:1 ratio by port campers. Who the hell is so hard up that they gank a basic cutter?

Has something changed or do I not understand Patrol Areas? Up until two days ago, When I engaged a trader the ship sailed straight toward the area boundary which could be clearly seen. Once the trader crossed the area boundary, I could wait for the trader to sink and salvage cargo. I could get gold for damage, combat points and exp points. For the last two days, some traders sail in one direction but no boundary is seen or crossed. Some ship traders seem aware of the boundary, which I can't see and reverse or change course instead of continuing straight. Now in battles when I get sunk, I only get exp points, no gold or Combat marks or PvP marks. Before I could click on the Mission in port and would be asked if I wanted to collect my rewards. Now I get no such notice. So now unless I win, no matter how much damage I do, all I end up with is exp points.

Within 2:15 min of a Patrol Area Trader Brig capture when the game crashed to login screen. Couldn't log back in.

I agree! Sail repair during battle should only happen once. The current practice of shooting upper sails seems to take 30-40% off speed. I thing jury rigging should only repair about 15-20%. If the whole mast or bowsprit are lost, no repair should restore the mast and sails during battle. The same for hull repairs. Only emergency leaks and fires should be allowed after one hull repair. This may require making it harder to demast the upper sails or shot less effective at hitting masts and sails.

Thanks for the ride. Have really enjoyed and learned a lot by watching. Thanks for all work work in putting the Chronicles together - great opening, good action, great stills of paintings, fun music and songs. Hope you decide to continue, at least on occasion.. Arrrrrrrr Matie

I have watched several videos in which demasted ships have been able to at least partially rebuild the mast and sails. I can see sails on intact masts being repaired, but what ship crew during a battle has the time and resources to reset a mast? I think the broken mast and the attached sails should not be eligible for repair.

1. By "sail away in mission" are you sailing until "Battle over" appears or sailing away from enemy without being tagged for 3 minutes while still being persued? While waiting 3 minutes, are you in or out of the mission. 2. If you are still in the mission, what has changed to give you a "safe" Mission? If you are out of the mission, how do you get back in?

Starting with only the British, French and Spanish as nations would be interesting. I assume that would also mean having only the basic cutter and acquiring or building only those ships common to those 3 nations. So eliminate ships such as Cony, Rattlesnake, Essex (before capture by the British). Maybe the game could allow exploration of the east coast of the US, establishing outposts/ports and declaring independence (once again) and forming a US nation. So then US ships could be built. I agree that pirates should not be a nation and should play the game by roaming about pillaging and raiding, and capturing ships. Pirate infamy comes from hit and run tactics, not from capturing and holding ports. becoming a nation, or building ships. What pirate or clan of pirates in the real world ever had the facility, resources or organization to build a ship beyond a basic cutter? Pirates should sail only what they can capture. Pirates should be able to raid outposts and ports, steal resources they can carry in their holds, but not be able to capture and hold a port.

I would like to see a difference between combat and merchant experience points. I have a rank of Master and Commander, but the majority of my experience is sailing traders and crafting in PvE. I would estimate 75% of my EP is non-combat. And it really shows up when I attempt Missions or OW Trader Attacks. My combat experience is probably somewhere around Junior Lt. With 2 rankings - one for merchants and one for combat, the ship you are sailing would better reflect you abilities.

In PvE Combat Missions, how do you get the "X" for the cargo in ships that you sink? The sunk ship is almost always upwind. By the time I get turned around and tack upwind the hull is usually underwater but the masts are sticking up and the map still shows the the wreck icon. I drift slowly (less than 2 kts or stop) over the wreck but very seldom get the "X". What am I doing wrong?

I would like to be able to do a ship refit by changing the ship planking without building a new ship. Certainly it was a common practice to renew and /or replace the ship planking during refits or repair. There are now 7 wood planking types plus Crew Space. Example: if you built an Oak Frame ship with Oak Planking and decided you needed more speed or structure, etc., you could replank the ship with another wood type. This should probably require a Shipyard Level 2. You would loose the cost and labor of the original planking (or could recover a percentage of the cost) and then spend the cost and labor for the new planking. This way you would keep the original wood framing, have a new planking type, and not have to build a whole new ship.

Thanks for your reply! No, I didn't think to hit Tab. So you are probably right - it sank.

In 6th rate single Combat Missions, I keep getting 3 Rookie Brigs (combined BR = 90; broadside weight = 96) compared to my Rattlesnake (BR 50; broadside weight = 36 with 4 pdrs). So I started taking a fleet ship with me. In another 3 Rookie mission, my fleet ship got down to about 1/3 structure left so I issued an order to Retreat. The fleet ship proceeded to depart and I managed to sink all three Rookies. The battle lasted about 20 minutes after my fleet left. The description about Retreat says that a fleet ship will leave the battle after 2 minutes and is considered safe. I know none of the Rookies chased my fleet ship as I could see them all chasing me. The Battle Over notice indicated it was safe to leave the area. There was no sign of my fleet ship on the battle map. When I got back to port I had no fleet ship. What happened to the fleet ship?

I recently did a 5th rate fleet mission to see if there was any change. I entered the mission with a Surprise and found myself facing 7 AI. Now at the most I have 1 fleet slot. How are you going to enter this fleet mission with 5-7 other fleet ships and risk loosing the majority of your fleet even if you had the slots for that many. I in PvE I have never understood how it is possible to sail around with fleets of 4+ ships. Where do all these slots come from. I used to really enjoy the fleet missions in PvE when you were joined by a good number of AI ships on your side. If they sank, no loss to you. Now with these ridiculous odds, I just turned around and leave the battle.

1. When the Trader Tool shows an item "available" in a port, I would like that item to be there if I arrive within a set period of time. I don't know how many hours I have spent sailing to a port only to find the item is not available even though the TT indicates availability in that port. If there are not enough players in PvE to generate a decent economy then I would like to see to AI maintain a minimum level in the "available" ports unless player activity for that item exceeds the minimum. 2. As I currently understand the ship perks in the port screen, the selected perks seem to apply to all player ships in that port. It costs 50 combat marks to reset the perks. I would like to see no cost for ship perks. 50 is a steep cost and discourages modifying perks to tailor a ship to a specific task. I would like to be able to have one set of perks for Mission Combat, another set of perks for traders, and another set for OW capping traders. If you make a mistake or change your mission for a ship or ships, it currently takes too long to reset. 3. I would like to see most AI traders unarmed. In the era we are sailing, I doubt that most traders were armed due to cannon weight reducing cargo capacity and most crews were not trained for combat. An occasional armed trader could provide an element of surprise in an attack, especially when sailing in pirate infested waters. Again I am referring to PvE, PvP can get shot at all they want.