Isaac J Smith

Perhaps this is something more suited to a unique pirate mechanic. Make the nation more clan focused than nation focused, but allow a larger clan friends-list. Other nations, no thanks unless the port is opened to all. We have enough internal nation drama as it is, without a troll clan constantly causing problems.

I think the number of slots are fine for combat players, but Crafter players have a very hard time having their crafting outposts as well as the outposts required for combat. IMO, 2 more slots (for 10 total) does not provide much more but certainly improves QoL for crafter players in enjoying the game. Also, no to DLC. Cosmetic DLC is best DLC.

Pirate Frigate - Outlaw (Black Pearl basically)

L'Ocean Sangre

Christian - Dutch Green

The biggest issue I have is that the DLC ships can be redeemed anywhere and get the bonuses with any woods, whilst crafted ships have to be sailed out from the port or get towed if you want bonuses. Easiest solution IMO is to give the ship the bonuses of the port you redeem it in. Want to get a Ratt now? Then you have no bonuses. If that is an issue, then use your tow or sail it from the crafting ports like everyone else has to.

Well I guess we got our answer today. Random bonuses for DLC Ships, can now be better than what our nation can produce at our best ports. Haven't seen an all 4's yet, but probs will soon enough. At least cap it to 3 bonuses max level 2 if you're going to go this route. Better yet, make it so if you want bonuses you have to redeem at a bonus port. No DLC ship should be better than what a nation can theoretically produce.

I would recommend using a port with Labor Discount. Reason being it normally costs 500 LH for it, but with discount it costs 300 - with a contract giving you 500 LH, this effectively allows you to get infinite LH.

They weren't a few days ago though IMO. I'm almost certain I was seeing progress to my 4th slot

I have submitted an F11, but want to check if anyone has noticed this as well to confirm that I'm not going crazy. It appears that despite the most recent patch notes we received (which are the release notes despite numerous changes in the last 3 weeks) Where it mentions that: However, I now notice that my Indiaman (which I'm pretty sure was close to having 4 slots unlocked a few days ago) has now been locked to 3 knowledge slots - with no progress upon hover to unlock the 4th. Is this intended?

Rather than only officer, also create a "Shipbuilder" role - that way you don't have to promote your crafters to officer. Shipbuilder can access the ship crafting resources when building a ship only, and maybe even they could tie it into the clan docks so that the crafted ship automatically goes into the clan docks (if there is space) where then only officers can withdraw.

I'd rather customisation DLCs (as they can be found in world too) than ship DLCs

Hmm that's interesting. Could allow shipbuilders to access ship materials in CWH without requiring officer perms or an officer too.

Simple solution would be to increase the hostility cap from 10v10 to 25v25 (players) with AI not counting (so if 25 joined in on AI side, it would be 25v50), and then limit it to 1 active hostility mission per port.

I gotta be honest, I was not looking forward to the wipe. But surprisingly, I'm actually enjoying all the smaller ship engagements as well as leveling crafting again. And agree with the paints. Or just let us pick a primary, secondary, and tertiary colour.

I can confirm it can be done. Completed it here myself. Dunno what is causing your issue though. Hopefully Ink and co. can find it

Soon™

PvE is now down for release prep too, so might not be long now (a day or so probs if that).

Yeah. Maybe it isn't just maintenance? I really hope this is the case. I just want the wipe done with now so I can actually focus on progression and not feel like I'm wasting my time. EDIT: Up as I typed this - No wipe

I expect it will probably be on the steam front page. Generally EA games on steam get that luxury when they go into release.

Perhaps a solution could be to randomly assign timers to all the neutral ports? This is exactly the sort of things which should be tested before release which haven't.

Remember everyone will be in basic cutters. It will take a while for people to be able to raise hostility with any sort of expediency.

OT: Typically people who are unhappy about something are more likely to talk about it in my experience. I usually take most reviews and add about 15-20% to figure out where I think it actually belongs. This thread is a perfect example.

As to my opinion now: I agree that a full wipe is necessary for release; however, how can I trust the development team? First it was keep ranks/craft XP, then that went. Second it was keep books/knowledge, and now that is gone too. At this point, what is to stop the development team deciding after 6 months of play that the game has stagnated and a full player wipe is needed to bring players in again? I will certainly be playing after release, but I will always be cautious now of the potential for the development team to change what will happen in the future at the whims of their late night coding sessions. This cloud will be forever hanging over those of us from the old guard, regardless of any assurances we may get. The development team now has a proven track record of going back on what they say. I also personally think this is too rushed in order to make it in time for the Steam Sale. There are many features (Raid, Port bonus changes, PB BR limits) which are completely missing, broken, or unbalanced and could have a significant impact on a release product. A balance problem/bug in EA/alpha/beta is easy to work around (too bad is a valid excuse). Once you have a release product, this excuse doesn't fly anymore.

AFAIK that is a permanent gift for testing. Pretty good IMO, as they didn't have to give us anything