Peleliu

I am a casual player. I spend most of my time hunting npcs, crafting, and trading. I have been in 1 PB and only a little other pvp. I like the lone wolf approach and play style. I play this game to blast holes in other ships, and go where I want, when I want, and do whatever I want. Why do I suddenly need to ask for permission to set down a building from someone else "on my side"? I see it locking me out of trading and crafting and chaining me to people I don't know and may not want to know. Please explain how this change will help me and improve my gaming experience?

I am fine with the idea of 1 durability ships and module changes. I always thought crafting and economy end of the game needed some help...it certainly needs some tuning. With the coming wipe of ships and related changes perhaps it is time to reconsider how ranks work. I would propose that the current rank structure be scrapped. The only purpose it currently serves is crew size. Perhaps a better way to structure ranks is to have a 2-tier system. The first tier would be tied to experience in a particular ship (as the dev post seems to imply is happening). Ships themselves don't change, but an experienced captain and crew can get the best out of a ship. I would suggest 10 ranks per ship with each rank giving a very small incremental bonus to crew related stats as you go from rank 1 to 10...say 1% per level to gunnery and handing abilities. These would cap at 10% at rank 10, but would be further boosted by refits/modules to customize a ship. At least newer players won't be totally outclassed and given luck and good handling and gunnery may very well win some fights against a more experienced captain in a similar ship. Ranks should be gained at roughly the rate of 1 rank per 2 victorious combats vs a similar BR opponent (perhaps even 1:3, 1:5 or 1:10 if you want to make it a bit more of a grind time-sink) The second tier would be tied to ship ratings. Once you achieve 10 ranks in any combination you are rated competent enough to move into the next rated class of ships i.e. 2 ranks in a lynx, 3 ranks in a cutter, and 5 in a pickle allow you to move up to 6th rates. Crew sizes of course would be tied to the ship and not the captain's rank and something we would never have to worry about. Crew sizes would only vary if you fitted an upgrade/refit allowing it. I do, however like the idea of having to medkit your crew or buying replacements to bring the ship back to full strength once in port. Fleet ships...I am torn between eliminating them as a hassle or allowing you to take 1 smaller fleet ship below your currently rated hull...so a captain rated for 6th rates could have a 7th rate in his fleet....someone rated for 3rd rates anything from 4th to 7th. As for the other two announced changes: The server merge and PVE zone seems reasonable. The port building economic control changes seem like a train wreck waiting to happen.

I am a fairly new player, but have invested a lot of my time on the trading and crafting aspects of the game. The shipbuilding changes are certainly interesting and tie into things I have been thinking about for some time. Perhaps the following suggestions for a player focused economy have some merit: Blueprints: Blueprints should be a gold sink. Remove chance drops from crafting and simply make all blueprints (including the current event only BPs) available for purchase in each national capital. We should be focused on building and fighting ships not on making countless useless ships in the hopes of getting a BP drop. Of course BPs seem an unneccessary complication anyway. We could just drop the idea of BPs altogether and focus on crafting and tinkering with the ships. Ships: NPC sales should be basic cutters only. You want something bigger and better you need to buy it from a player or take it on the high seas. I like the ideas presented so far for more customization. I would like to see even more...like the ability to add or subtract chasers to anything (for a suitable penalty of course). Grey vs Gold: I am one of the guilty ones who makes only the worst or only the best. The multi-tier system isn't working as intended. I am in favor of a single tier system. Player ships are fully customizable. Captured ships should be random attributes, but within parameters determined by ship class. I am also torn on the durability issue. As a crafter I favor 1 durability. As a captain I favor 5. Perhaps durabilty should be removed and turned into a % based chance of total loss. Lowering the chance of loss can be part of the customization process such as hull strength or crew quality. Buildings & NPC Goods: Remove player resource extraction and buildings from the game. It seems to add nothing to gameplay. The money sink can be shifted to blueprints. Focus instead on the crafting and trading side. Raw resources should be produced only by npcs. Imported European/world goods should be available only from captured enemy traders (and perhaps limited supplies at national capitals). Everything else from cannons to Marines should be player made or received from broken ships. Traders can keep up the trading game by moving goods around exactly as they do now to meet player and npc supply/demand. I once thought fishing was a cute addition, but it is more and more a distraction. Just make fish a raw resource. Outposts: Eliminating BPs and resource extraction would mean you need to add another gold sink. Perhaps add maintenance costs to outposts other than the capital. Failure to pay upkeep would lock up assets in that outpost until unil the fee is paid. Labor: This, not money, is the true throttle for ship production and it should remain so. It is much easier to tinker with one factor like labor than it is for all the other factors that make up crafting in the game.