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@admin I have the following suggestion to introduce a way to generate data for modeling a meaningful Battle Rating. Taking data from the logs you have now will result in a bad starting position for any iterative process, whether it is applied by hand or automated. It will require many iterations to get to a stable solution. The reason for this is, the fact that you have (if I understand it correctly) data that encompasses different phases of the game with several buffs and nerfs along the way. This would at least explain why the Wasa has the same BR as the Bellona, despite being worse in every aspect except for a light advantage in turning rate and a negligibly better sailing profile. Also ships not being used does not mean they are weak (e.g. the Agamemnon,) there are just better alternatives that are as easy to obtain (why sail an Aggy if you can afford and crew a Bellona?) My suggestion is as follows: Create a build of a battle instance. Load one AI ship on both sides, with equivalent starting postions (eg. facing each other at a beam reach). Pair each ship with every other ship. Run the battle as often as you can, considering resources, for every pairing. This will create a set of data that shows each ships relative performance without taking into account different skill levels and knowledge stuff or fleet composition etc.. Use this ranking as a base for a BR order, which can be adjusted on data that will be accumulated from then on. You will get a starting point for the proess that resembles the current situation without the many tunings of the past. EDIT: This post is solely about the way that data is acquired, not about how it is used to calculate BR!

I hereby suggest the following: - that the 80BR limit that separates the shallow PB from the deep water PB to be raised to 160BR - that the most powerful ship able to enter shallow PB to be 160BR and all others to be addressed accordingly, mainly Heavy Rattlesnake and Prince, not to share the exact same BR as the Xebec. Traders to be accommodated under their warlike counterparts. - that the deep water ships increase in BR equivalent to 1/3 of their present value. So a 200 BR ship becomes a 266BR ship. And so on, such as a 600BR ships becomes 798BR. - that no port PB BR to be touched. Any suggestions for the BRs up to 160 value more than welcome.

Several topics are questioning the applicable Battle Rates. Many parameters changed, being adjusted in patches, the apparition of new ships modified choices, etc. I’m trying here to give an hand for calculation of “new” Battle Rates, from these new parameters. Forgive me, but this message will be quite long and filed with a lot of formulas. Those who prefer to skip can directly go to conclusion. What is the Battle Rate? (in this proposal) The Battle Rate (BR) has several components: Attack Rate (AR), ability to make damages to the enemy Defensive Rate (DR), ability to sustain damages from the enemy Chasing Rate (CR), ability to tag using bow chasers without changing route Retreat Rate (RR), ability to fight in retreat using stern chasers without changing route Transport Rate (TR), ability to transport a lot of cargo, guns and repairs (with little impact on performances). These components don’t have the same importance, and coefficients will be applied to limit AR to 350, DR to 175, CR and RR to 100, TR to 50. And at the end BR= AR + DR + CR + RR + TR. Attack Rate (AR) Let’s consider that a ship is good for making damages if it has a good broadside, a good speed for coming on range, a good turn Rate. The broadside weight used here will be the canon broadside weight, considering this weapon as the most used by players. The Broadside Weight is squared because louder it is, shorter will be the fight, limiting the effect of enemy broadside. AttackRate= BroadsideWeight * BroadsideWeight * Speed * TurnRate / 143536 The coefficient 143536 comes to limit the biggest AR (Santisima) to 350. Undercrew factor for Trader Lynx, Trader Cutter, Trader Brig and Trader Snow reduce the rate of fire, reason why the AR for these ships is devided by 3 compared to others. Defense Rate (AR) Let’s consider that a ship is good for sustaining or avoiding damages if it has a good structure, a good armor, a good speed for coming off range and a good turn Rate to angle enemy shots. DefenseRate= SideStructure * SideArmor * Speed * TurnRate / 116492 The coefficient 116492 comes to limit the biggest DR (L’Ocean) to 175. Chasing Rate (CR) Let’s consider that a ship is good for tagging with bow chasers if it has a good bow chaser weight and a good speed for catching the enemy ship. ChasingRate= BowChaserWeight * Speed / 6.642 The coefficient 6.642 comes to limit the biggest CR (Wasa) to 100. Retreat Rate (RR) Let’s consider that a ship is good for retreating being protected by stern chasers if it has a good stern chaser weight and a good speed for escaping from the enemy ship. RetreatRate= SternChaserWeight * Speed / 4.957 The coefficient 4.957 comes to limit the biggest RR (Endymion) to 100. Transport Rate (TR) Let’s consider that a ship is good for transport if it has a good cargo capacity and a good speed. TranportRate= CargoCapacity * Speed / 928 The coefficient 928 comes to limit the biggest TR (Indiaman) to 50. Proposition for a new BR: This gives the same min/max rates than previously (BR 30 for Lynx, BR 650 for Santi), but this is I think more balanced: Lynx: BR 30 Cutter: BR 30 Privateer: BR 30 Pickle: BR 50 Brig: BR 80 Prince de Neufchatel: BR 110 Snow: BR 80 Navy Brig: BR 90 Rattlesnake Heavy: BR 90 Mercury: BR 70 Mortar Brig: BR 60 Niagara: BR 100 Cerberus: BR 120 Renommee: BR 130 Surprise: BR 170 Hermione: BR 150 Frigate: BR 140 Belle Poule: BR 120 Pirate Frigate: BR 160 Essex: BR 130 Trincomalee: BR 180 Endymion: BR 260 Indefatigable: BR 210 Constitution: BR 340 Agamemnon: BR 290 Ingermanland: BR 240 Wasa: BR 450 Wapen von Hamburg III: BR 290 3rd Rate: BR 240 Bellona: BR 380 St. Pavel: BR 410 Bucentaure: BR 460 Victory: BR 530 L'Ocean: BR 640 Santisima: BR 650 Rookie Snow: BR 10 Rookie Brig: BR 10 Rattlesnake: BR 70 Gun Boat: BR 60 Yacht: BR 30 Santa Cecilia: BR 170 Traders Lynx: BR 40 Traders Cutter: BR 30 Traders Brig: BR 100 Traders Snow: BR 80 Le Gros Ventre: BR 100 Indiaman: BR 170 Basic Cutter: BR 30 Remarks: Some results are unexpected. Among which, I propose an improvement of performance for the Belle Poule (confirmed here why it is so few used by players), Same for Essex. The 4th rate Wasa is better than the 3rd Rate Bellona. The Prince de Neufchatel seems to be over performing too. Something should be done for more differences between Trader Brig and Le Gros Ventre. Hope this will help and not hurt anybody’s favorite ships. This are just calculating figures which don’t take into account human factor. Artificial Intelligence is in development but not yet the Artificial Emotions! The Excel File is given in attachment, for those who want to make their own opinion. New BR.xlsm

Can someone explain to me how these mechanics work? To my understanding it simply means that no one can join a battle after the initial tag that would imbalance the BR by a factor of more than 1.5x. And yet, a few minutes ago I was tagged by a belle poule in my surprise, and after the battle started (30 seconds in), a frigate joined the belle's side. If my understanding of the mechanics applied, this should have been impossible, because: Surprise - 140 BR Belle Poule - 180 BR Frigate - 170 BR 140 BR x 1.5 = 210 180+170=350 350>210 Therefore the frigate should be incapable of reinforcing the belle. But he was capable of reinforcing the belle. Why? http://imgur.com/yL2wkC4

So today I was sailing my privateer around and got tagged/ganked by a group of 5: 2 connies, 1 trinc, 1 surprise, and 1 frigate I believe. I really don't mind bc I'm learning pvp & running but with that br they should not be able to tag such a small ship as the privateer. I'm curious as to how tagging actually works. Is there even a br percentage cap (i.e. In order to tag, the tag group br cannot be more than 120% greater) or such? If not, there should be to reduce ganking. If there is such a mechanic, it needs fixing.

This is a suggestion against ganking and to increase low risk/gain ratio in uneven PvP situations to create more incentive to fight instead of running away in different ad-hoc OS fight scenarios. If a battle rating system to enter instances, like the group strength in PotBS, might be added or not, is irrelevant for this concept. Here the battle ratings are being used to dynamicly adjust the XP and gold gain in various OS PvP fights. Dynamic PvP Reward System: After the battle is closed, the battle ratings for both sides are being used to calculate an extra PvP loot factor according to the BR ratio (Battle Rating) both for XP and gold. Lets say you are in a 3v1 battle and battle ratings are 200 for the attacker and 100 for the defender (one ship). The lonely ship might have a slight chance to sink enemy ship(s), but usualy this risk won't be taken by the majority of players. However, according to the extra loot factor introduced here, whatever damage he does, he could get double XP and gold for his efforts due to the fighting in an outnumbered and outgunned situation. On the otherside of the coin, each player of the ganking side would recieve half of the XP and gold compared to if they would sink the same ship in an even fight. To sum up, in a 200/100 ratio battle, this concept means double XP and gold for the defender and 0,5x less XP and for both attackers. PvP Loot Factor = BR of your team / BR of opposing team Final XP/Gold = Current Loot Gain / PvP Loot Factor Different scenarios can be seen from the table/graph. This could be enough incentive to demote the ganking, however, if the ganking still occurs, this would also give the ganked side a reason to fight back despite the fact being outnumbered and outgunned. An example for the realization of similar concept, the Microsoft Gaming Zone used to have similar rating system for many years, for instance in the legendary Age of Empires series matchmaking. The proposed loot balancing/stabilizing concept according to battle ratings would be a nice feature for the good of the game. Poll removed by mod team for being non-essential to the discussion.

As I understand it, the BR check before attacking is an anti-griefing mechanic to prevent a smaller player from bogging down a larger player (or multiple larger players) in one sided, but time consuming fights. However, you can't grief NPCs, so against NPCs this is irrelevant. The problem is that NPC Traders still have Battle Ratings. Yesterday, I came across a NPC Trader's Brig while in a Basic Cutter, and I attacked it thinking it would be an easy buck. But our Battle rating difference made it impossible. Just thoughts, ya know?