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In conjunction with the universal message board every port would have (a public section and a section only visible to nationals) according to my earlier suggestion... ...here... ... by help of such message board I imagine our traders could hire compatriots for escorting them from port A to port B. The longer the distance, the higher the price. It does not stop at this: Not only could they offer their escorts money as payment, but the game will reward the escorting players with PvP marks for every merchantman which came through and arrived safely. Plus the PvP marks and combat marks escorts will regularly make when they fence off any interceptors and sink those. Merchant will not get marks, because his objective is met by his cargos having arrived at destination. So in this mission our fighters and our traders have to do something together which satisfies both (and maybe a successful enemy as well). So this is a more positive use of the PvP mark system, not only destructive. Gratifications for helping some guys bringing their valuables where they want them. I think they could even hire several escort captains if their cargo justifies the extra expense. Like it is an Indiaman full of upgrade modules, or a clan shifts its warehouse from one place to another, or transports full of copper ingots, cartagena tars or white oak. Ships loaded with gold and silver coins like a Spanish treasure fleet. Contracting merchant appoints a convoy commander (could be himself or one of the escort captains he trusts the most) which determines the route. If group is attacked on the journey it behaves like a battle group, so all ships get pulled into battle instance. However, convoy commander can decide to detach one of his escort captains (if they are several) and have him encounter sighted enemies, so the rest of the fleet can proceed without delay by the starting battle, leaving the unit behind which is busy with the enemy. I think it is best to give every participant of such merchant fleet escort mission his reward in PvP marks/combat marks, if he sailed only half way and went into battle (even lost it), or stayed until destination port was reached. So they won't quarrel who is doing what on the journey and facing disadvantages. Because priority task is, the merchant ships make it to port and the mission is accomplished. I imagine a thrilling hide-and-seek adventure for such merchant escort missions to happen. Spies in ports may get a wink what's scheduled and inform their nations where and when to strike. How many marks? Think of a multiplier distance + number surviving traders. If no trader arrives, no marks (except those individually won in combat): mission failed.

Spotted this quoted elsewhere and what follows is a possible partial explanation and at least a partial solution. I am not a zero-risk player but I started on PvE. I am a long-term Civilization player and I rather blundered into NA while looking for something more interesting than Sid Meyer's Pirates. I've never done anything even remotely similar to NA or online multiplayer. The US nation on PvE was a place to sort out the game mechanics. But there is structural obstacle in the economy that frankly contributes to boredom on PvE. It affects the Caribbean server as well, but less obviously so. I've posted about this before. There seems to be very little interest in the community on the matter. The bottom-up view on this is that the inability to see contract activity without visiting a port creates a functional bottleneck in player economic activity. It is probably not an issue with high server populations. But in a low population environment, either on the server as a whole, or in a particular region, it is going to be a game killer. The effect on PvE is that a player very rarely can get a contract filled outside of a national capital. At any price. It is a feedback loop. Since since the econ activity is in the Capital, that is where you do the contracts, and resulting in very little buy/sell activity outside of it. Which means a PvE player really can't get very far from a national capital if they are interested in at least some interaction with other players. I circuited Cuba scouting the area (from Charleston) and the Caribbean region was pretty much a player desert. My opinion, is that at a minimum, player buy/sell contracts need to be on equal footing in the trader tool with the port stock. I watch port stock looking for reasonable consistency in availability before I spend time sailing any distance. The same thing ought to be true of buy / sell contracts rather than the current complete crapshoot. It would be nice to see the same thing with ship sales but making contracts visible would remove the bottleneck. The econ activity would be present elsewhere to actually support shipyards outside the green zone. In the PvP environment it is possible to kludge around the problem by maxing out outpost permits. But addressing contract visibility would help here as well. Player activity would start to spread out beyond the green zones and at least some of the argument about green zone mechanics and OW incentives would become irrelevant. Including the argument over taxes. Would like at least a yes, this is on our radar, or we have this alternative in mind, or no. An explanation would be nice, but I can live with a flat no, and I will not quibble with that, or any explanation you offer. I suspect this is not a trivial coding project and it is your game.

Hello all! So i wanted to suggest an idea for Naval Action in which a player (Merchant/Trader Intended) could hire some muscle to help protect them when transporting their ships or goods. Now that the game mechanics have changed and that we cannot teleport with items in our cargohold it is now required that players physically transport these items to where they wish to craft or sell them. Goal: To provide a Job/Contract type system in which players can be hired at a cost to escort the player issuing the contract. The Idea: 1.) The Player wishing to start the contract (Merchant/Trader) gathers their assets at a port and decides whether they wish to risk transporting it solo or to hire some player escorts. 2.) The Player plots their route Port A (Where they want to start) to Port B (Where they want to finish) 3.) If the player chose to open an Escort Contract the player creates a contract and sets the starting port, ending port, number of players they're hiring, and reward price. 4.) In the port menu on the user interface a new button will be created called "Escort Missions" or "Escort Contracts" where players can click open/current mission contracts and ask to join. The current/open mission contracts will ONLY show the starting location and not the destination for safety reasons. 5.) The player who started the group (who owns the contract mission) will see the players asking to join their escort fleet and they can accept/decline the invitation. This will be a "handshaking" system where the player asking to join sends the request and the other player has to approve the request.When a player sends a request to join the escort fleet it will tell relay the player's name, rank, and current ship. Example Rear Admiral Woody051 would like to join your Escort Fleet. Current Ship: Constitution. ACCEPT / DECLINE 6.) Once the escort group is assembled they gather up and begin sailing towards the designated destination. Once they arrive the group leader can click fulfill contract and the members or the group will each receive their payout. Pros: Adds content to the game Encourages group gameplay Creates a new job for players as a way to earn income Assists in the dispersion of the in-game resources More assets can be transported if larger merchant fleets are organized Players are rewarded for positive gameplay Cons: Some merchants/traders are too paranoid about letting others knowing where they're going Restrictions must be in place so the escorts don't just sail ahead or not stay with the group Some players might just tell enemies where they're heading. Difficulty in determining fair reward prices for hired help Escorts might "tag" or attack ships along the way against the fleet's wishes. If any of you have ever played or are familiar with the game Silkroad Online you may already be familiar with a similar system. In Silkroad there is a 3 profession system. Traders/Merchants, Hunters, and Thieves. Traders trade goods between cities for profits. Thieves prey on traders and steal anything they can to sell on the black market and they kill hunters. Hunters are like a form of "police" per say as they go around hunting down thieves and they can be hired to follow and escort Traders.

Creating a new post for those that may not have come across the OW public map, that is buried in the other thread. Map is updated: http://arcg.is/1F3BtOD Still looking to use a better base map with rose compass etc. New content and features have been added: Combat areas Trade Routes Fleets Capitals Lore As always looking for content and submissions. Please submit content by reviewing the location on the OW map and posting latitude/longitude location. Lat/Long tools are available on the bottom of the map. NOTE: content on the map is open to change quickly and is not validated, viewers beware. Quartermaster