Farrago

Yes. That is the system we have now. But you don’t agree that it would be more in line with the period and make more sense if the biggest reward for a captain was returning a prize to the admiralty? Our system of combat medals and missions skews this away from logical outcome. Perhaps now that we have fractional kills for assists, a capture and return to port could count as .25 kill?

I agree. I am amazed when some experienced captains and the devs claim how quickly we’ll all simple rank up after an XP wipe. I just don’t think that’s true. There is a lot that players need to do in this game that gives little to no XP. Now imagine doing it all in light 5ths and smaller ships. Hell, even imagine doing it in heavier 5ths and 4th rates. Even once you can crew them, they are rare and almost all difficult to get. One may not be able to casually throw it into the abyss of 1 v 5 AI grind like we used to do with heavy Indefatigables to gain rank. I used to say that it didn’t matter if XP got wiped and did understand the merits of a level playing field at start. Not anymore. My own progression was made far more enjoyable by being able to sail with equipped, experienced, high ranking captains. I ended up learning more, learning more quickly, and sailing nicer stuff. It was fun.

Totally agree. Unfortunately it would be exploitable to farming of alts. I’d suggest that if you capture a ship by boarding or surrender, you get the “kill” after returning it and selling it to a friendly port. In fact, IMO this should be the most highly rewarded course of action.

Elite Surprise dropped either Iron Knees or Diagonal Riders (I don’t remember which: it was a useless one) and 700ish doubloons. There’s two ways to approach this. Either there should be a bunch of Elites (like IMO there are now) and it stays with smaller chances of a really valuable drop. Or Fewer Elites on the water and chances go way up.

I gave you very detailed advice several days ago. You’ve also asked similar basic beginner question of “what do I do” in other threads and in the Spanish language section. Have you tried ANY of the advice you have been given previously? It’s been fairly complete. Please let us know what you have tried of the things which have been suggested to you that has not worked.

Agree 100%

Perhaps I did write with too much hyperbole. I recognize that you proposed restrictions on the secret island use. However, the benefits you mention of having ports somewhere else would be outweighed by the safety and ease you propose of building in the secret islands. It just didn’t work in a game to design a mechanic and then provide a means to completely circumvent that mechanic. I am optimistic about ultra strong nations not lasting forever. They may last a long time but eventually it gets boring, personalities start clashing, it’s harder to work together the more people you have, and jealousies develop. There has always been a way in game to be the strongest. But which nation has always been the strongest? Not one. Anyway, it’s clear that I don’t agree with your secret island proposal. I would like to see things in game to simulate the difficulties of ruling a vast empire, thus putting more pressure on the Zerg if it exists. Exponentially rising port costs, depletion of overfarmed resources, unhappy populations, clan wars, bonus for joining small nation... there are many ways to do this without creating a mechanic to “go around” normal gameplay. Fair sails.

Why? You can have 8 outposts. More than 2 dozen ships. Hopefully front lines will be fixed. It seems like clans and/or nations tend to expand bigger than they can handle or in to areas they can’t support. It’s a real life player and in game captain recruitment problem, not a game mechanics problem.

I think 250k sounds about right: that’s only 2-3 delivery missions HOWEVER all activities in ports buying, selling, delivery missions, resource harvesting, repairing should generate tax income. In fact, if all of that is taxed, 250k may not be high enough. We won’t know without it being tested.

Exactly. I am all in favor of Pirates having distinct mechanics but until such a time as being a Pirate means other advantages and disadvantages — until they are unique — having this one different characteristic doesn’t make sense.

Deleted because apparently I sounded like, at least to the OP, that I was implying that I was a developer. I don't agree, but whatever. I simply meant to point out that AI Port Battles and Hostility had already been tested. If they are going to put it on the PVE server, the Devs probably already know everything they need to know about how it works to kill robots to raise hostility and how it works to kill robots to win a port battle. And port improvements are being tested currently. By all means, at release give the PVE server anything they want that will make it a better game for them on their server. Fair sails to captains on both servers.

I actually think it would be better if a captains individual shipyard was upgradable to port bonuses rather than every shipyard in a port. Resource development and defenses would still be port level improvements but shipyard an individual. Clans would maintain the same control they have now. Clans would still have an advantage as they can coordinate their production line and donate labor. However, small clans and solo players could develop a role as ship merchants. It would also put a small slowing brake on the wave of super ships.

Why waste our time then with doing this to the secret islands. Just give us all a button to push to get the ship and/or materials we want. Oh, wait, they did already do that with DLC. But I digress, I see no reason to implement your suggestion if we are going to keep RVR, port investements, hauling of materials in game. It would make them all a waste of time. Everything would be up in the island paradise. i get that you worry what happens as one nation (or nations) fall further and further behind the power curve. In the past, those things have tended to work out. Ultimately we may need to deal with map wins and map wipes but just because nations fall behind that power curve doesn’t mean we should just get rid of the things that make a nation powerful.

PVE hostility missions and PVE port battles have already been tested. They’re boring, but they work.

This issue continues. Using Chrome on an iPhone.