GrubbyZebra

Right, which is why the Basic Hooks having a larger reduction than Hooks is anachronistic. It should be the other way around, like Basic Ladders and Ladders.

This looks to be a screen grab from the Naval Action assistant site, have you verified these stats in-game (it could be a site error, not a game error)? j/w

@admin, It is not broken, it is working: There are many traders out on the water due to the high ROI (1 run can net a few million, which means more time for other in-game activities), which provides more targets for PvP. The high income means ships are more disposable (who cares if you lose a 500k or 1m ship when you can earn twice that without even thinking about it). Not having contracts on trade goods is frustrating for some players, but makes the trading game far more equitable for all. The staggered, psuedo-random, gradual drop times of trade goods means the market is not cornered by those on right after reset. (I am just as likely to get a high-profit item at 10PM as 8AM, and even then, I f I buy out the shop, there may well be more of that item 20 minutes after I leave port). Having all county capitals as consumers of some items means that while I can invest several hours to make long-distance sails for high profits (maximum sale price can require a 4-5 hour sail), I don't have to do so (i can sail for less than an hour and make 1/3 or 1/2 as much profit, which can still be several times higher than I paid for the item). Compared to trading before, I find the current game far more enjoyable.

No, I didn't know that. Must be why I've mentioned in my last 2 or 3 posts. As for "the internet and discord and reddit and youtube, etc", well, a) you should not expect or encourage players to leave the game to find information, as this is just a bad model for retention, and b) discord requires you know where on discord to look for information. I'm not talking about the game doing "every little thing", I am talking about the game providing a more thorough new player experience. And where did I say people are super fragile? I'm simply providing suggestions for how to make improvements to the trading game specifically as it relates to a day-one player. Or are the only ideas allowed ones you agree with?

Not because he wasted a little bit of time, but because he paid for a game that provided virtually no initial direction to get started, thus the player did not find purpose within the game and moved on. The only reason I tried again was because I paid full price, but had I gotten it on sale, I probably never would have given it a second thought, which is sad, because I have literally played thousands of hours since, sailing to literally every part of the map, and general thoroughly enjoying myself (even the more frustrating parts like getting pwned off Saint Nicolas 3 times in a row, once in my Mercury, then two more times by the same player in my newly acquired basic cutter I was sailing home in). You can condescend all you want, but it is simply a question of perceived value. If I pay $20 or $40 or $1 for a thing, I have a certain expectation as to what I will get from that thing (quality, service, enjoyment, whatever is appropriate). In terms of a game, if a player pays money and spend 30 minutes or an hour in the game without ever getting any sort of clear indication of how to actually play (not the tutorials which teach mechanics of battle, or the tips which give a broad overview of the game itself) like is found with the mission system (I would contend this is a primary reason missions exist to begin with), then the expectation of enjoyment is likely not met and the player is likely to move on to something else, or possibly ask for a refund (which is happening, apparently). The exams are hard (which is fine), which is another source of initial frustration to a new player, because they have no frame of reference for the appropriateness of that difficulty (they likely view it as another part of the tutorial, which it is not) , and there is no mechanism by which to actually accomplish the missions without going out into OW and capturing a ship, then what is there incentive to stick around? As far as they can tell, they have likely bought an unplayable game (an impression which a lot of the steam reviews will unfortunately reinforce). That said, there are several possible solutions: Make the basic cutter a trade ship. With its prohibition on attacking other players, entering player battles, and limited hold capacity, its usefulness is limited in this regard to anybody but new players. If you wanted to ensure this new classification would not be abused by experienced players, code a rank-dependent smuggler flag that would be permanently turned off once reaching rank 2. The advantage to this proposal is it is a quick and dirty solution that would require minimal development resources. The disadvantage to this proposal is that it doesn't address the underlying lack of initial direction. Make additional in-game tool-tips for new player to give a guided experience during rank 1 play: Direct the player to the tutorials to learn basic battle mechanics (and possible even through the first 3 exams). Upon completion of that task, have them accept a mission to capture an NPC trader in Open World (this would need to be added as a mission type limited to 1 completion only) Then direct them to Open World to capture said trader by highlighting the "leave port" button and the target ship. Once they capture the trader and return to port with it, direct them to accept a passenger delivery mission. Once they complete that mission, the initial tutorial is over, as the player has now been exposed to the basics of the game (aside from crafting). The advantage of this proposal is that it provides a much richer new player experience that will give a basic understanding of combat, Open World, trading, and the mission system. The disadvantage is that it would require significantly more development resources to implement. Do nothing and leave people to fend for themselves

You don't get much from PVP of 6th and 7th rates, and really not much from 5th rates, either (which is all I can currently crew), just dubloons (I'm not sure if you get medals from 5th rate PvP as I haven't been involved in any since getting enough crew to engage in them). Therefore, in order to get chests, you must take missions from the admiralty or attack open-world NPC fleets. But, since Admin has clarified that Loki won't work in missions, then the argument I initially made is moot, as loki provides materially no different game mechanic than an enemy player jumping into any other OW battle instance.

Do knock Loran-C, its repeatability still exceeds GPS.

There is the Tips pull down that new players get in the top right corner of the port window that explains the basics of trading and the economy, among other things.

You could limit the "smuggler flag" on the cutter to rank 1 only if you were worried about spies, although, tbh, a higher ranked player spying won't really care to much if he enters the town on a trader or a basic cutter. A basic cutter being able to enter or leave an enemy town doesn't really change that aspect of the game, so that particular argument against it doesn't really make much sense. we already have this more or less in the little "tips" box that is on by default for new players in port, it doesn't solve the problem of the player not having a trader or the means to obtain one from the start of the game. Personally, I remember hitting "leave dock" and "enter port", with a bit of sailing around KPR harbour, for the first 15 minutes or so when I just purchased the game. I wanted to sail, and I wanted a purpose to start me off in the sandbox. The delivery missions did just that, but I couldn't figure out how to get a ship to do them on for a time (I actually logged off that first day after about 30 minutes of aimless fiddling, I took to google to find out I had to capture and NPC trader, and that was frustratingly difficult). So why not make the ship the player does have able to function like a trader (a very limited one, they can't attack other players, and can't join battles)? This way, should the player so desire, they can sign up, log in, grab a mission, and complete it without having to do any additional reading or training. Beats spending 2 hours with the tutorial and first exam just to fail and be in the exact same starting position as your first experience with the game. The point is this: the game is slow and has a steep learning curve, so giving new players an actual taste of being involved in the OW, at least, from the start can go a long way towards helping retention and enjoyment. If that means changing some of the functionality of the basic cutter, so be it (it still won't hold the cargo for a delivery mission, all you could do is take a passenger somewhere).

For the cargo runs, they should reaslise this fairly easily as the cargo weighs 800t (which won't fit on low rank non-trader ships, or even a tlynx) but generally, the basic cutter should also be able to enter enemy ports, at least for low ranked players.

But doesn't such an outcome fit with the "every nation is at war" mentality of the developers?

Why? The enemy of my enemy and what not. Just keep the flag the actual nation flag of the player, so everyone can decide who to shoot at first.

Feel free to redeem and give to me. I like having one in my docks.

According to @admin on the loki rune thread, loki doesn't work in missions, so I would presume it also doesn't work in the exams. (has to be an OW battle).

I know how the yacht was given, it just seems that since the devs are intent on not having ships in game that are not available to everyone, I wouldn't mind them including the yacht in this (so I don't have to beg it off folks that have it). As for the gunboat, it is a fun ship, but I have never gotten a gold chest in this game in almost 3k hours of playing. Mission chests, silver chests, epic chests, deadmans chests, sure, but never a gold chest, and never a gunboat. I'd pay a couple bucks for a gunboat DLC.

Oh, I like the idea of having the yacht and pandora being special ships only available to certain early adopters. My post was more that since they are going to make the Pandora available to everyone, do the same for the yacht.

nm, was already answered.

I dunno, I've done the final exam a half a dozen times over the past couple of months (don't ask), and the AI seems to always behave in a substantially similar manner.

There is a much more mundance and technical reason for limits like these, allocating hardware resources to improve performance.

The Indefatigable started life as a 64-gun Ardent class 3rd rate (e.g. Agamemnon), but the version we have in game is the razeed 44-gun frigate version. I think the United States, Constitution, and Indefatigable should all be the same rank in game (4th rate, tbh), as in the game they are more or less comparable ships. And, since the Agamemnon (which the Indefatigable is a razeed version of essentially) is a 4th rate in game, as opposed to a 3rd rate, then that means the 3 frigates should be 5th rates.

They could add some diversity to the town models using the same LOD without impacting performance, i.e. not all towns looking like Spanish missions.

@admin, thanks for the response. The additional information is good to know. I'm actually ok with it if that is the case. I had not seen anywhere where that limitation has been made clear.

@adminthat's just it, though. The addition of the Loki Rune removes this ability, as a player picking a target no longer means that is target they end up facing. You encourage PVE on the PVP server by chest dropping, missions, etc. So you are, in fact, "forcing" (or at least STRONGLY encouraging) players to attack NPC ships on both servers in order to advance in the game. So, I ask you this: How did the addition of the Loki Rune satisfy these three requirements: I would contend it violates #1 by increasing a negative outcome for a majority of players, that it violates #2 by not providing a benefit to new players (increases the change of new players getting surprised by a veteran appearing in an NPC battle), and violates #3 as now players can potentially lose rewards from NPC battles that they have been working hard to earn over the course of the battle. (I presume you will say removing it now will violate #3, but that is simply a convenient "out" at this point that does not address the actual concerns).

Admiralty Connection

Can you add the yacht and gunboat to this list, as well? Always hated that there was no other way to get those vessels (although yachts were transferable during early release, at least). Also, and this is a bit more a serious ask @admin, can you allow crafting XP to be gained by other crafting activities (workshop, forge) so that clans don't need to have everyone in the clan build expensive and otherwise pointless shipyards to gain crafting XP. Tie crafting XP to labour hours cost at a ratio of 1 XP per 5 LH spent (basing this off the current XP awarded for crafting Tlynx, Mercury, and Prince).