Obi-Heed Kenobi
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Posts posted by Obi-Heed Kenobi
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Get rid of Loki. It's not fun to use Loki, and it's not fun to be Loki'd (it's more annoying than anything else).
If I were a NEW PLAYER, I think I'd be pretty frustrated with it.
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4 minutes ago, admin said:
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Duguyi Trouin/HMS Implacable
The great tragedy for the age of sail history happened when the ship that participated in Trafalgar was sank by a decision of some idiot in the British Government in 1949- We have made amends, the beautiful ship has been fully restored and is now available for sailing in all its glory in Naval Action.
...Winning.
And yes, that was a tragedy of the highest order.
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8 hours ago, admin said:
not going to happen. Player created NPC transporters are technologically impossible
What everyone is missing is this.
1000 players online is not really 1000 players, its 1000 players right now (this second). In reality it is up to 10,000 players per day.
If each of them creates and NPC trader on OW - this will create 10000 ships (which will sail when player logged off too) which is impossible on the technology side.
Remember that the whole british *****ing royal navy had only 500 combat worthy ships at its glory time (it had more but most were in ordinary and in repairs). NA has more than 1500 NPCs and up to 2500 players.That makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.
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59 minutes ago, Farrago said:
As someone who does a lot of solo trader hunting, I would love the ability to send trade ship prizes to port after capture. But I wonder if that would instead be the new exploit: I’m a Pirate. My Russian alt trader leaves Vera Cruz loaded with goods. 5 minutes later he surrenders to my Pirate who sends the prize to Mortimer. Bam. 5 minutes = big bucks.
It would be nice to see the amount of time required to dump cargo increased. I capture a lot of empty ships.
I like the proposal for a "prize crew" perk, that would convert the capped trader to AI. I think that would add a lot to the game, from a variety of angles - and it's got a basis in history.
But, you've raised a good point. So, maybe the following two additions:
1. The capped AI automatically goes to your closest OP. So, using the VC example, if your primary account is using Tumbado as a base, that's where your captured trader goes. Or, if you've actually sailed all the way to VC from Mortimer's, so be it - you invested the time in doing that.
2. Maybe limit the prize crew to what you have on your primary ship, and code in an additional restriction not allowing you to replenish crew at sea. Meaning, once you've gotten your primary ship down to a minimum crew, no more prize crews until you visit an open port and get more sailors.
3. Obviously, the time for your capped AI ship to reach port would be whatever it would take in the OW.
Personally, I think something along these lines would be great.
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I like selling them for a ridiculous amount of money that I'm not willing to earn from AFK trading....
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On 1/12/2020 at 1:37 AM, Captain2Strong said:
I attacked a skulled AI lately and boarded it with double the amount of crew and it killed more people than me(about 4 times as much) when I used attack against fire grenades
Hehe, I learned that, and then got Loki'd while in the midst of boarding the elite ship. I won, but was down to something like 50 crew. With a USS against a belle poule or something.
Never again!
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A couple suggestions:
1. Real-world shipwrecks
To encourage active cruising of the OW in areas where other players are, increase bottle-drops in areas where other players have been sunk in battle (perhaps only PvP) for ## mins/hours after the battle. The bottle then drops to a wreck from the battle, and you get both the normal shipwreck reward, plus something that was on the actual ship (say, an activated book or upgrade). This would in essence be a variation of the fishing perk, couple with a logbook.
That would encourage another use of the logbook, as well as require sailing in the OW in proximity to other players.
It could be a book, and the ingredients for the book itself could be: 10xlogbooks (need to encourage accumulating something through playing the game), plus a carpentry/repair book, and the addition of something like a "navigation" book. To actually use the book, you'd have to have the book active, along with a logbook in use.
2. OW Book Changes
Create a perk that allows changing of books while in the OW. I'd suggest this be a perk rather than something else - something along the lines of having a clerk or librarian on board your ship. I'd include a cooldown period on use of the perk.
3. Longboats
With looted dubloons now being an important aspect of econ, why not introduce an "away boats" upgrade that allows a player to dispatch longboats to loot the enemy ship. This would cut down on a lot of frustration, add some realism along with some risk.
I'd suggest something along the lines of the following. Each longboat temporarily costs you 20 crew. Number of longboats required is dependent on ship class (1 longboat for a 7th rate, 2 for a 6th rate, and so on). Longboats can't be launched if another enemy is within ### yards, and will be lost if an enemy later sails within that distance. Sailors assigned to longboats are lost for the rest of the battle.
For materials, I'd say make it roughly equivalent to what building a cutter takes.
I'd also make these an upgrade rather than a book, because in real life, each ship would require its own boats.
I wouldn't bother trying to visually include the boats. Just a nod in that direction would be helpful, *especially* to those who grinding AI.
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Thanks for the gift, and Merry Christmas to you all.
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1 hour ago, admin said:
We do not plan to change anything about seasoned woods.
Their bonuses are much lower than historical hardness and weight benefits, and time to season is much lower than historical.
We know what these woods will achieve and are happy with starting this process
Costs of power growth will no longer be gradual and will be exponential. This is the only way to balance power in MMOs.
Like I said, I don't see a problem with the idea. Seasoned/aged/cured wood is a real thing. And, an earlier post was absolutely right - a significant portion of the wood set aside would end up warped or damaged.
With that being said, isn't there a better mechanism for implementation? Why not have a simulated timer on the woods in your warehouse, where you can tag it for seasoning, and wait for a "real world" month (or whatever) before using it? Or a timer on a ship built out of it?
What I'm saying is - anything to reduce the grind. Anything to reduce the potential that this elite upgrade is only for elite players/clans/nations.
But...the idea is sound in theory and in history.
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I don't have a huge problem with the concept, at least in theory. It's well-known that some ships were purposefully built from green wood, in the name of building them fast, and knowing they wouldn't last as long.
With that being said, does the implementation here add anything meaningful to the game? After all, it's not like there's anything particularly special to curing wood in real life - it's a matter of time more than anything else (look it up).
If this is definitely a permanent addition, s there a better way to implement this?
For instance, let's say there's a PB scheduled in 2 hours, and I want/need a big boat. As in the 18yh century, if I build that ship fast, it will probably have to be from green wood.
So, instead of this additional building that seems difficult to obtain, why not tweak the idea a little. If I craft a ship for immediate use, it pops out as ordinary wood. But, if I click the box for "seasoned wood," maybe I have to wait 24 hours (or whatever time is deemed appropriate) to take possession?
That way, there's a meaningful cost attached, just as in the 18th century, it will limit proliferation of seasoned ships (instant gratification being what it is), and you do away with a meaningless grind.
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2 hours ago, van Veen said:
Be careful what you wish for. You might not want realistic weather in this game.
Predominant wind direction is from E-NE over the whole year across vast areas of the caribbean. In the Gulf it's E-SE and along the U.S. coast there is more variance in wind direction. But the bottom line is this: you cannot sail from Panama to Willemstad on direct course.
Yep. That's the disadvantage. Just depends on how realistic you want the game to be - that might be pushing it too far.
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When I used to have Microsoft Flight Simulator, there was a downloadable program that would pull data from aviation weather stations across the world, and then plug that into the simulator. It included winds and precipitation. So, if it was windy and raining at Miami, you would land in wind and rain. If there were headwinds in the real world, you'd have a headwind in the simulator.
Now something like that would be pretty cool in this game. Could be some drawbacks (storms can last for days without moving much), but still, I think that would be neat.
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I think most of the criticism is well-intended, from players with good intentions. Yes, there are some who don't mean well, but I do think most of us would like to see the game succeed.That's certainly true for me.
This isn't your typical "shoot-em-up, with lasers" game. Instead, these are ships from centuries ago. That's a niche market, and I suspect most of us, along with the devs, have some kind of appreciation for history, tradition, the sea, etc. Maybe that's not true, but it is for me - and I don't think you make a game about warships from the 18th century unless you've got some kind of love for it.
It's also worth remembering that there are a lot of different languages, and there are a lot of different cultural values. What might seem like constructive criticism to me might not be received the same way in, I don't know, Russia. Or, maybe my words aren't well-chosen, or any of a lot of other issues that pop up with different languages and cultures.
Anyway, I do appreciate the effort the devs have put into this game. It's a game I enjoy. I certainly don't agree with every decision that has been made, but that doesn't mean I need to stomp my feet and be a jerk (and I've been tempted, that's for sure).
So, yes, I believe a "thank you" is in order.
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15 minutes ago, jodgi said:
It's not a dumb question. We used to be able to swear around here, but it was deemed necessary to impose some moderation. That was done with tongue-in-cheek (for our collective amusement), so when you write "funk" but replace the n with a c it's gets auto corrected to hello Kitty.
I love it. Thanks!
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Potentially dumb question - what the heck does "hello kittying" someone mean? Just to generally screw them over?
I mean, everytime I see it written, I laugh, because it makes me think of a 3 year old's lunchbox. But I don't actually know what it means.
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6 minutes ago, Saryk said:
That would only keep widening the gap between good and bad players, which is not the idea I'd like to go towards for player retention.
I like ship knowledge for the RP element behind it : your gunnery officer might have to learn how a certain ship behaves, i.e. how much she heels, how many people can go around carrying shots and powder, etc... to optimize his job on that ship : ship knowledge.
That's fine, too.
What I was thinking was more along the lines of completely certain tasks, which would also teach game mechanics that you're otherwise stuck learning by trial and error.
For instance, for a gunnery officer, the requirements could be something like AB% accuracy, C% of crew killed through stern taking, and D% of enemy shots deflected through proper positioning.
Those are all things you don't really know about just starting the game, and you don't really learn the importance of tactics like hull deflections until you either randomly see it in battle or someone happens to mention it.
Something along those lines might be a fun way to introduce you to game mechanics, and also be a quasi-realitic way of getting ships officers.
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On 10/20/2019 at 4:56 AM, Thonys said:
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(EVE does not have slot restrictions only cpu; in our case it should be only manpower/ officers academy for example)
Maybe, instead of the knowledge slots, there could be officer slots that give bonuses, and you have to earn officers through meaningful accomplishments.
For instance, to get a gunnery officer, you have to beat an elite AI by sinking with 100% accuracy for each class of ship. Maybe, to get a staysails bonus, you have to board an enemy using nothing but staysails for each class. And so forth.
Kind of like the tutorials. Maybe just add a few tutorial missions with those kind of requirements as you advance in rank.
I don't know. Seems like that might be more "fun" than just grinding out XP.
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25 minutes ago, ZWAJO said:
Your wasting your time mate, @Wraith and the handful like him would love nothing more than to be able to teleport to every trader, pve'r and noob in game and sink them in one volley... they don't want balance or gameplay they want easy kills... and @admin for some ungodly reason has decided to listen to them. Best not to even waste your breath they'll just shout you down with inane prattle about being a PvP game and get gud. You really have to just decide to play or not, cause the dev's aren't listening.
I wouldn't go that far.
I think what a lot of us would like to see is system where it's PvP when you want, or when you've assumed the risk of it (sailing in the OW, traders are fair game - see any tonnage war in history).
Speaking strictly for myself, what I don't want to see is PvP crammed down our throats. Again, speaking personally, I don't always have the time requirement for a good PvP fight, for instance if the kiddo is about to wake up. If you catch me, fair is fair, and if I've really got to go I'll just surrender and apologize for it, but still...if I'm out tagging AI just for the fun of it, don't force me into it every single time.
Plus, to be competitive at PvP as the game currently stands, you've got to have unboxed your ship. That pretty much requires PvE, and forcing PvP on people who haven't unboxed ships yet is pretty discouraging for all but the most dedicated.
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A few more thoughts on Loki:
1. Why not make it so it disguises a warship as a trader? Or makes a player appear to be AI in the OW? Or makes an Enemy Player appear to be friendly (the "giveaway" could be that the name displayed is not in your nation)? That kind of false flag has at least a basis in some kind of reality, and in history (Q-ships have been used since, what, at least the 1700's). I think something along those lines would vastly improve both the concept and the game as a whole.
2. I'm not sure a player's perks should apply when using Loki. For instance, if I'm fighting AI, in 50% of instances it's because I don't have the time to do PvP (kid about to wake up, work obligations, etc.). AI is a quick battle for some quick fun/dubs/XP/etc. If some jackwagon jumps into a battle using control, I can't leave quickly, and I'm stuck doing the PvP I was trying to avoid in the first place. Now, if that's the intent, so be it - but I think it might be an improvement to disable a player's perks on entering a battle using Loki.
Anyway, that's my two cents on the latest patch. It's got some good features, that need to be polished. Keep at it.
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After 6 hours or so on the new patch, here's my feedback.
1. You now have to get dubloons from PvE. Yes, you can get some 500-dub missions, but the reality is that for coastal trading (which is all most of us really do), the wind gusts locations don't help. I don't really have a problem with the concept of getting dubloons from PvE, but there are a few issues with the implementation.
2. As you can only realistically get dubloons from PvE, you have to do PvE. Again, no big deal, but now you've got Loki. In numerous instances, I've had opponents jump in via Loki. A few times I've been half-sunk at the time of joining, because I've been fighting a fleet of larger ships by myself. No big deal - until you see the Loki player start to loot the ships you just sank.
3. Loki feels dirty, at least to me. I've got one sitting my warehouse, but I can't bring myself to use it. I haven't enjoyed when other players have jumped without notice into my PvE, and I won't pay that forward to other players. So, although I've yet to lose to a Loki player, I'd say it's diminished my enjoyment of the game.
4. Additionally, since there's now a substantial risk of fighting both another player and AI when engaging in PvE (because, to reduce the battle timers, I'll only attack AI with a higher BR than me, which usually means fleets), there's an increased chance of losing a ship, that requires dubs to build, in the quest to find dubs. Again, this isn't a huge deal, but it's worth thinking about - why should I risk a dubs-required ship (Aggie or bigger) to make dubs, which are likely to be a lesser amount than required to build the ship?
5. The Loki players don't risk anything (I don't think?). Granted, I don't think they gain anything either (do they?), but if there's nothing to lose by jumping into someone else's battle, well...lame.
6. Steam says I've got 1200 hours in game. For me, that's almost entirely actual playing time - I don't do AFK.
So, with those observations in mind, here are my critiques and suggestions:
A. The changes aren't all bad. The wind gusts and Loki are good ideas, but I think the implementation needs to change.
B. For the wind gusts, change it to wind zones as has been mentioned elsewhere. If you can tie it into weather-type events, that will be great. It really will.
C. For the wind gusts, make them a mechanism for travel and finding action - but *not* actually engaging the opponent. That doesn't "feel" right to me.
D. For Loki, again, it's not a bad idea. But, change the implementation a little. For instance, don't allow Loki joins into PVE battles more than X minutes old. Don't allow Loki joins into battles where it's 1 player against a fleet with a higher BR. Announce when it's a Loki join, and let us know who the other player is. Maybe even make it an "ask to join" kind of system. Assign some kind of cost to the Loki player, so it's an actual contest rather than it feeling like someone just trying to be a pain in the rear end.
E. I'm not quite at the point others are. But, when I write "it's diminished my enjoyment of the game," well, that sucks. Because this is a game I like. Please listen to our feedback. You don't have to change anything, but at least take it into account.
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28 minutes ago, Fluffy Fishy said:
Some collections from general understanding of historic sailing from books like "Seamanship in the age of sail" and various publications by people like Brian Lavery and Robert Gardiner. The reports for the knots themselves come from The Admiralty reports from the back of "Nelson's Ships - A History of the vessels in which he served" by Peter Goodwin. There's a useful selection of reports and tables at the back and just makes for easy reference for this kind of thing, its a great book if you are interested in some examples of history of specific ships. The ISBN is: 0811710076
Awesome. Thank you for the reference. I'll be ordering that at the next paycheck. Reading the first-hand reports, and/or sources based directly on them, is great.
Naval history is something I've got an...interest in. One of the most informative things I've done is to read the actual reports of war patrols from US submarines in the Pacific War. It doesn't put you on the boat, but you can almost imagine cruising back at 10 knots in a submarine stinking of diesel and BO, trying to type those out on a typewriter.
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12 minutes ago, Wraith said:
...tobacco baron activities....
I had forgotten this! That was great. What was it - tobacco was used for medkits or something, and was both in high demand and also fairly difficult to process so not everyone wanted to do it? Something like that.
Anyway, that was a real economy, and it's something missing from the game now - and something that would add a great dynamic to have back.
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1 minute ago, ZWAJO said:
It was never about the missions so much as it was about the trade goods system... currently lets say your a pirate, to make money you've got to leave mort town in an large trade ship and sail half way across the map to turn a profit... the odds of you clearing the Inagua zone are almost zero... let alone making it to say new orleans. and if your polish don't even bother. All I want is a trade system that works off of say things like iron,coal,wood etc and have ports buy and sell them at varying prices... doesn't have to be huge difference but it allows localized trading in smaller ships for newer players and less time intensive trading for casuals.
But isn't that: 1) the inherent risk of being a pirate; and 2) the inherent risk of trading?
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12 minutes ago, admin said:
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We plan to remove speed indicators some once we add the skill knot log (if this happens - not guaranteed). Removing indicators will bring peace of mind.
In addition to that we will add barometer that will help predict wind change and wind strenght (changing speeds between classes in real time)
Current wind gusts will lock this all together.....
This sounds like a pretty cool idea. If you could tie a barometer to "wind bonus zones," I think you'd have a pretty solid system.
What I mean is, rather than a pinpoint spot where you push a button, you see the Hg start dropping and, if you sail through a spot of some particular size, you get the bonus. Maybe the closer you get to the center, the greater the bonus, like a hurricane. And, if you added in the possibility of damage from the hurricane...made some dynamic OW storm graphics....
I think that would be pretty good, pretty immersive, and an all-around good addition to the game.
Forthcoming patch information
in Patch notes
Posted
I like the concept the devs have expressed - cutting down on the BS tagging.
How hard would it be to have a system that measures the difference in ship speed? And, if the chaser is even slightly faster, allow the battle to continue so long as tagging continues? And, if the chaser is slower, the battle ends once the separation is greater than, I don't know, 1000m (or whatever seems fair)?
That would keep the chases you've described, and allow an opportunity for a slower ship to slow down the faster via damage (historical basis is the chance of knocking away a spar or the like), but possibly also cut down on the BS?
Would that be too difficult to code?
Any thoughts?