Tom Farseer

@admin @Ink This indeed looks problematic.

Ooooh that sounds nice!

1. UI - to get player numbers up again 2. Rebalance AI-Reinforcements - to keep those new/returning players from dropping out again 3. Upgrade rebalance/ reduce stackability - see reason behind point number 2 4. Rebalancing of SoL attributes (Thickness, HP, Firepower etc...) - Make more ships viable in OW PvP (eg. Wasa) and PBs (Vic/Santi/Buc) 5. "Premium" ships only accessible by ingame currency/special events (hard to balance between useless and pay2win otherwise), provide paints and maybe custom clan flags as microtransactions instead. (6. an Alt-free game - I know, I know... not gonna happen... )

The battle right before that. This could have been a fair clean fight. Instead the Spanish ran and left three of their Captains to die. Nothing more needs to be said...

The title says it all, basically. Right now the overall effect of stacked mods with similar boni seems a bit extreme to me. While realism sometimes has to make way for playability and fun, I personally think that it's a bit ridiculous to have Ships of the line zoom around going clost to 14 knots. A speed stacked Teak/Teak Bellona for example easily outguns and outtanks a Wo/Wo Indefatigable, but the Indefatigable has almost no chance of running in such an encounter. This seems a bit overboard to me. (pun very much intended ) My suggestion would be to either reduce the effect of speedmods according to ship rating, much akin to the way knowledge books like powder monkeys have less of an effect on higher rates. Another possible solution would be to limit the maximal speed bonus to something like 4 % making stacking of more than two mods useless. The same principle applies to repair mods and skills. Sailing a ship with northern masters, steel toolbox and expert carpentry/combat carpenter reports, will essentially enable one to build half a new ship in battle. Granted those books are rare, and the mods are fairly expensive, but as long as economy is like it is, with some people having 100M gold or more in the bank, that argument goes in the other direction, creating a large non-skill-related gap between players. To be clear: This is NOT an advertisment along the lines of "Upgrades are blatantly overpowered, skill makes no difference anymore" . The final exam very much shows the opposite, as one can easily sink both AI ships without the rageboarding meta. Just takes a little more patience. This suggestion is about moderation and enhancing the importance of skill and patience. An expensive Upgrade has to have it's value, it just shouldn't knock balance out of the water completely.

I wouldn't go so far as 200% but on principle I like the idea. All the more so because @admin said in one thread (don't rember wich) that repairs is supposed to b a money sink by design.

Welcome to the life of an Ingermanland Captain. It's a long known bug, that seems quite pesky to fix. Ususally the Devs give affected players their ship back. Don't know about the book though...

Not as far as I know. I got sunk by a Bellona in Hispaniola less than two weeks ago. So definitely after the patch that introduced "Frigate only" Patrols. @admin Could we get a clear answer from the devs side? I can find no reliable info on it anywhere.

The one experience I had with reinforcements was me happening on a battle just outside Port Antonio, so I know my perspective is somewhat limited. Sir Loorkon in his Endy had tagged an LGV. The reinforcement was a Surprise. I joined the battle about 7-8 minutes after it started. By then Loorkon had almost killed the LGV (around 30% odf structure left) and the "reinforcement" was sailing around 400-500 m downwind of the battle. Not a scratch on it, the attacker didn't even need to chain. So either the guy in the LGV was trying to run from his own reinforcements, or they spawned in too far away. My suggestions are: Make sure Reinforcements spawn somewhere decent. (With the wind gauge or between the attacker and the attacked.) Make sure the reinforcements acutally fit the attacker. Even a buffed up Surprise will not damage a half decent Endymion quickly enough to save an attacked trader, assuming the attacker isn't a newbie himself. @admin I know you did not ask about player's skills, but I'd say it is linked to wether the reinforcements work, depending on how you want them to work. If they are supposed to give a newbie a fighting chance in case he get's attacked by another newbie, its probably fine. If they are supposed to offer new players some protection from anyone except other new players, they seem a bit underpowered.

Ok, Thanks! Good to know that 4th rates count as frigates for this. It can be a bit confusing with the different historic rating systems. (Eg. Connie being a (Super-)Frigate but 4th rate. Aggy obviously being a 4th rate as a small SoL)

Can anyone give me a definitive list of which Patrol Missions are frigates only? I read in Global chat several times that La Mona was supposed to be frigates only. Seeing as I just got sunk by DreamMaker in his Aggy (good mast sniper, that one...), this obviously isn't the case. PS: Edited for spelling.

I took the liberty and ran Lucky's post piecewise through google translate. (edited for Typo and weird google translation error, that lucky corrected)

I there ar reason Lucky L's post right above mine here got deleted? It may have been in chinese, but it was easy to grasp it's meaning via google translator. @Lucky L did you delete it yourself? If not why are people with a language barrier denied from answering their accusers? @admin

Point taken.

I get that kiting in the Patrol Zone is both useless and kind of a dick move. But can anyone explain to me what the problem is with people staying in the instance for the 15 minutes after a battle ends? Some use it for repairs, other people start dicking around demasting each other for fun ( you know who you are 😘). How can this be considered griefing?

Huh. Good to know. Thanks very much!

Between a Herc and a Navybrig? Oo

Just to clarify the rather brief F11 report I sent earlier. While unlocking knowledge slots on the Herc I noticed that regardless of crew setup befor pulling (Sailing/Guns/Boarding etc) and/or (de)activated broadsides (F5) the 'Fire Deck Guns' option in the boaring menu permanently stayed disabled (greyed out). Boarding preparation also had no effect on it. Is this just me missing something obvious?

My two cents on the tutorials and exams: The tutorials are fine as a basis but as of now incomplete. In my opinion there should be at least two more tutorials: Adavanced Sailing Tutorial: Covering tacking, counter rudder, getting out of irons in case a tack fails (unlikely on a brig) and maybe speed control via sail trim (turning the yards) Combat Navigation Tutorial: Explain why getting the weather gauge (and keeping it!) is important, and why it is so important to keep a decent angle relative to the enemy. The demasting exam as it is right now involves a bit too much luck for my taste, mainly because of the atrocious dispersion of the guns used in the exam. Maybe give the players a bit of a hand, there by installing something along the line of Congreve's Sights on the ship. You can finish it on time the first try, but if you are unlucky it can take you hours. This frustrates otherwise potentially good players. (Btw. to any of you talking about hitting the mast 40odd times without demasting: Maybe there's a bug in there? I killed both masts with exactly ten hits at the base each.) The tutorials should at least give the player sufficient knowledge (if not neccessarily the required practice) to finish the final exam. Right now this is sadly not the case. A player who doesn't know about angling, or when to run for a moment and repair will be crushed by the two cerbs and probably leave the game frustrated. If you give players a bit more knowledge and make it clearer, that they can always return to try the exams again, after gaining a bit more experience, you can get many more competent players aboard. At the moment, the game basically suggests (not in clear words but rather via ommitting clear explanations) that succeeding in the exams is the minimum skill requirement to even start the game. So I suppose a bit more communication via the ingame interface could do wonders here. The final exams can (and should) be hard, just tell people clearly that it is above beginner level. Fair winds and following seas, Gents!