ATM all this game has is a good Ship combat system

[Ronald Speirs]

Wow, the more the game is allowed to run the way it is atm the more this game does damage to itself.

 

So far from what I've seen since 2014 is that they have worked their ship combat down to a nice and enjoyable experience, but that's where it ends, I'm not sure how the rest feel from other crafting and RvR games but atm its needs a complete rebuild and reset to rectify as the current systems are destroying the game.

 

Right now with the change of hands of ports within roughly 2 to 3 hours doesn't help anything, seriously buy a flag to attack ports, this game is getting more and more unhistorical as we speak, you want to bring the simulation and experience to the game and you create a flawed system straight out, it should take hours and days of teamwork to blockade and bleeding ports down to get to a stage where they need to fight to survive, it would stop the constant changing of hands, it would allow defenses to actively defend ports over time rather then they picked the perfect time when 200 people were online to attack 5 ports right next to each other, by having it made that blockades and attacking the nations fleets close the the port to develop the unrest in town makes farming more teamwork orientated and time consuming with tactics involved rather then just buy a flag and sail for under an hour to maybe get some kinda battle, you look back through history and its hard to find many port battle wins and changing of hands so by making them harder to get makes its a more challenging system.

 

As for crafting i  shouldn't even be in shop hands, the ports should have investment opportunities where you invest in ports making production buildings to increase supplies then selling them in port to entice more to want to do crafting, atm 50% i see, actually gather and craft while the rest don't waste their time on the system.

 

Crafting and RvR are by far the worst 2 systems I've seen from any game implemented so far and they need serious work if they hope to get this game survive cause the ship combat will only last so long just like the grind from the pre-wiped has demotivated quite a few of the old guard that are sick of the same stuff with no real improvements.

 

Pirates for one need a serious overhaul, they are the biggest joke of the whole game and from multiple threads it doesn't seem like anything will happen, they shouldn't even be a starting nation, they shouldn't be able to buy bigger then a mercury, the shouldn't be able to win and capture towns, they should have to raid and capture ships to develop their fleets, atm how i see it is that national players player till they get crafting high enough in clans and move to free towns before they can just attack their own kind and become pirate, or nationals feel like there no other way then becoming pirate as its easy to do, lets fix this before it becomes a bigger issue later on!!!!

 

By changing the RvR to a slower system it might keep players around in nations rather then joining the black and giving up and surrendering, we have seen this from poor France and Sweden surrendering to a combined Dane, Pirate and Dutch offensive in the their terms of trying to make the game fun for all by raping those who are weaker then them, crafting where every man and his dog who want to try crafting are fighting all the rich traders all ready to buy goods, then pirates who continue to grow with their flawed mechanics, so to the devs how about you focus on the real issues at hand and fix this game for the broken and rushed systems you have already implemented to give this game the best opportunity of survival, my timezone has seen massive drops in players already and i don't want to see that as i enjoy the ship combat just the rest of the game needs serious work, one thing i do find funny is having 8 nations and dividing the game into 4 servers so the small community as we have already is split, so you put it down to having roughly 2500 on PvP1 as a rough example divide this by 8 nations is only 312 players per nation which it isn't that split, that isn't a great number of players and considering quite a few might be new and grinding it doesn't give a heap to do much action around the area considering the world being as big as it is, rather then rolling all servers into 1 and making 1 mass server and taking maybe 10000 and dividing by 8 makes for roughly 1250 players per nation meaning alot more players around getting involved in PvP and RvR, this would make for more interesting playing experience and hopefully more players staying as there is more action available.

[Aetrion]

I agree that right now the game is basically wasting it's potential by randomly making all the really fun stuff obnoxiously difficult to get into. The combat system in this game is IMO better than what you get in World of Warships, yet here you can't get into good fights and earn good ships unless you jump through a bunch of hoops first and play with a clan. The open world element is nice and all, but unless it's developed to a degree where open world means more than just a giant gank-arena it simply isn't more fun this way than having a decent matchmaker.

 

The RvR stuff needs to be more developed and have more going on than just trading ports back and forth, that's for sure. Generally the game just lacks meaningful content for a variety of playstyles. All it has right now is grind for ships and then burn them up in port battles.

Edited March 7, 2016 by Aetrion

[mouse of war]

I'm hoping the devs will address these issues - I still say it's a great game but there are worrying aspects. I particularly think because the Russians have so many players they should have their own nation - and existing players should be allowed a free transfer from the Danish and Pirate fleets. 

[Ned Loe]

Are you reading forums? Big patch will be here thu-fri. Many things are going to change. 

 

I agree that with conquest issue. Port attack windows need to be longer to let more people participate. 

[Lord Roberts]

The development priorities and development of the gaming is going really really slow, they need a bigger team, one dev gets sick and things get pushed back, that's how small the dev team currently is.

[Slamz]

Port attack windows need to be longer to let more people participate. 

 

The entire concept of how ports change hands needs to be changed.

 

Simply opening the hours up will actually cause more problems. The map is too unstable as it is, with things changing hands too rapidly, and the main way of capturing ports right now is to prevent defenders from showing up (through various tricks).

 

 

Port battles don't need a tweak. They need a total re-invention.

[Azzak]

I agree.
 

 

Port battles should occur with multiple phases to allow a lot of different players to get involved. 

 

I also agree that the grind make it unbearable for new players or players with limited time. Sure for me in two months I got the a level I can enjoy quite high level ships. But steam said I have more than 320 hours on the game... who is capable to spend 320 hours on a game just to get a capable ship in PVP ?

[Bloody 9]

IMO, the game has great potential.  My question is what kind of population are they looking for?  What will be the sever limitations?  The pvp we have seen.  But what are the strategy goals of the game?  Will it be a constant battle over ports and resources?  Or will it be a 30 day battle with a faction declared the winner?  Will there be escort missions for transporting of resources to beleaguered ports?  Will ports build their own forts that are manned by players during port battles?  Will we have certain ports like jita in eve?  So many ways to go..  Just wondering??  

[BramtheDutch]

+1

[Ned Loe]

The entire concept of how ports change hands needs to be changed.

 

Simply opening the hours up will actually cause more problems. The map is too unstable as it is, with things changing hands too rapidly, and the main way of capturing ports right now is to prevent defenders from showing up (through various tricks).

 

 

Port battles don't need a tweak. They need a total re-invention.

Yes, but if Sea Base will let us produce flag once every 3 days or so, making attack window longer is crucial. Instead 2 hours I want 6-8 hours. 

 

I don't see any harm with Sea bases in place. 

[Hugo van Grojt]

Have you looked at Star Cititzen development?

 

150+ Millons of dollars, 10 Studios - and they DO NOT have the combat systems worked out yet to make it enjoyable. I am glad that we know what the core mechanic of Naval Action is and that the combat is fleshed out decent enough. The rest will come, but the core ist stronk like a live oak tree.

 

Hugo

[Hethwill]

ATM all this game has is a good Ship combat system

 

 

 

... all I have to say is...

 

- finally a development team that had the common sense of doing the basics first, after all the most activity players will be doing is combat !!! - and bloody well done just missing a touch here and there.

 

Now let's build everything else, a grand open world and build it gradually and with the high quality you have delivered with the combat.

 

Good job team

[The Spud]

I think the devs have a hard nut to crack to make this whole game a bit balanced and keep it fun at the same time. Some points I find to be somewhat unbalancing the game:

 

Port Battles

Like said in this post, the amount of Port Battles and the way they are is just off. What would be more logical is to only have the frontline ports marked as capable. So you would only have ports capable that are right next to an enemy port. As to me it would seem prety inacurate that a danish fleet would just cap a port right smack in the middle of brit territory, they would probably never have done that during the age of sail. This way you would have a limited amount of ports that are capable, and might make defending and attacking it a bit more tactical, as people, both friends and enemies will probably hang around that port because they know something will go down sooner or later. Alternatively, one might make a port battle this way that non regional capital Port Battles can have a variable BR entry. For example a PB that only allows for Surprises, Rennomee's, BP, Frigs and pirate frigs. To give PB a bit of variety.

 

Alternative to Port Battles, make a port battle a bit tournament style to involve more ships. Start with three normal seabattles with 25vs25 (or divide the available number to make BR more or less even). A sunk, surrendered, capped or escaped ship is out of the league. When one sides BR dropes below a set number, that side loses. You then have a port battle with the 25 ships that have the highest BR vs the other 25 best. This will need some tinkering with time etc, but it would be a nicer over all gameplay. And it would make the whole defending a bit obsolete. Instead of carrying a flag to a port, just start the PB right away. Anybody can enter for a set amount of time, and as the timer goes to 0 the port tournament starts.

 

Free towns

Although I like this addition and the security it gives, it does seem kinda strange that effectively a whole enemy fleet can hide in a single free port behind enemy lines. You cap a ship, send it to your outpost at that free town, teleport with a bunch of friends and just create complete mayhem out of nowhere. Prety historicaly incorrect. Or we should be able to see a list of players per nation in that port, who they are and what they are sailing. As if a real "free port" would have existed, you would probably be in a "peace" zone, but still be able to see who is there and what they are sailing. This makes it far more predictable for what you might expect. Because lets be honest, if the danes wouldn't have had "Ile a Vache" I would realy doubt they would be having as much ports as they have now. Maybe make outposts in a free port only hold 1 ship instead of 5. Dunno, it just seems strange you can have the whole area surrounded by friendly ports, and still get ganked out of nowhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Grundal]

Patience is a virtue.  I have the utmost faith in the development team to work out the issues during this Alpha phase.  Keep up the good work!  A truly beautiful game.

 

Thank you

[Prater]

I think the crafting system is fine how it is, and they are continually tweaking it and making it better.  Once they have better UI, it will be really nice. 

 

Conquest system and the 3 pvp servers issue, I agree with, but hopefully those will be changed.  I've also advocated for changes to piracy so they don't become the #1 population center and we aren't all pirates in 3 months, which would effectively kill the game (I think this happening is quite likely).

 

However, the rest I disagree with.  Yesterday, all I did was have good fights.  Yes, you have to play smart so you aren't ganked, but I just sailed around in a privateer, 60 crew requirement is all (rank 2), and had good fights.  I have had a ton of good fights in my navy brigs(130 crew).  I have had a ton of good fights in my Renomee (240) and Niagara (155) as well: low and medium ranked ships.  I've also had several good fights in a basic cutter: rank 1.

 

Yes, if you want to stay competitive in RvR you need to grind up to 3rd rate, but otherwise having a large ship isn't a requirement to having good fights.

[Puchu]

I personally totally aggee with the initial post. 

 

The combat system is just plain genious and is getting ever better. 

 

But the mechanics around it are not helping it shine. The mechanics around it are actually preventing it from shining as bright as it should be. In a game where every fight is basically just about who has more players, there is no way for a player to experience the awesome game mechanics because every fight consists of 90% running/chasing and 10% actual fighting. The current way to best experience the combat is through arranged duels and arranged engagements.

 

A game that is just about numbers will become boring very shortly once you see through it. But thankfully many people are already very very bored, and like that even i start getting even fights once in a while. e.g. my frigate vs a british 3rdrate player, which started by him saying: Oh my god im so tired of farming. 

 

If the core of the gameplay is the combat mechanics, then the 2nd most important thing are the rules of engagement. The ways people get into and out of fights. That's what is most important to the game. 

 

After that there come crafting and rvr and then other stuff like exploration and so on.

 

We have a long way to go.

[Stix]

+1

[Ruthless4u]

I've also advocated for changes to piracy so they don't become the #1 population center and we aren't all pirates in 3 months, which would effectively kill the game (I think this happening is quite likely).

 

I don't think it will be as soon as 3 months, but possibly by years end there will be a signifigant population shift to that effect. We could be wrong and I hope we are. Summer could be potentialally be a problem in that regard with kids being out of school, but this is such a niche game it may not have an impact.

The issue is the longer the fix takes the bigger said population gets and you risk pissing more people off and they quit. Some people refuse to see the potential issue and are content with the status qou, then when the reality hits them they will quit in frustration as well.

[Capt Jubal Early]

Wow, the more the game is allowed to run the way it is atm the more this game does damage to itself.

 

So far from what I've seen since 2014 is that they have worked their ship combat down to a nice and enjoyable experience, but that's where it ends, I'm not sure how the rest feel from other crafting and RvR games but atm its needs a complete rebuild and reset to rectify as the current systems are destroying the game........................

 

Sorry bro disagree. Would continue to explain my reasoning's but i fear my patience for a forum argument has grown thin. I for one just want the moderators and admins to be aware that not all people agree with the forum warriors on here.

Dont like pirates, Do something about it. We organised and gave you a beating. Whats to stop you doing the same?

[Hugo van Grojt]

I think people located in towns should be visible - like local chat in EVE Online - easy mechanic to spot those 20 hostiles hiding in a free port close to your nation.

 

Free towns

Although I like this addition and the security it gives, it does seem kinda strange that effectively a whole enemy fleet can hide in a single free port behind enemy lines. You cap a ship, send it to your outpost at that free town, teleport with a bunch of friends and just create complete mayhem out of nowhere. Prety historicaly incorrect. Or we should be able to see a list of players per nation in that port, who they are and what they are sailing. As if a real "free port" would have existed, you would probably be in a "peace" zone, but still be able to see who is there and what they are sailing. This makes it far more predictable for what you might expect. Because lets be honest, if the danes wouldn't have had "Ile a Vache" I would realy doubt they would be having as much ports as they have now. Maybe make outposts in a free port only hold 1 ship instead of 5. Dunno, it just seems strange you can have the whole area surrounded by friendly ports, and still get ganked out of nowhere.

[Pigafetta]

I am among the lucky ones who started playing this game early on.

I knew from the beginning this was a great game and I knew also it was the only game (in my knowledge and experience at least) were developers were taking into consideration the input from the base, the players, us.

I knew from the beginning the developer team was small, and that it will take time to have a well balanced game.

I knew from the beginning that each development in the game was going to be slow. It was a challenge, and it still is. One clan mate told me that the Game Lab received offers from big multinational companies and they said "no thank you" and for this I am grateful. I am not in a rush to see a complete game here. I am here for the journey. 

I knew from the beginning that if I wanted a complex and fully developed game, I had thousands of choices, where I would have been a customer, nothing else.

I knew from the beginning, seeing the efforts from devs and mods to keep our community a positive and welcoming one (no cheaters or serial verbal assaulter), that they were serious about enforcing the rules (see for instance how they discovered and demoted several cheaters abusing game's mechanics).

I knew from the beginning... ok the list could go on and on and I wills stop here. Just one word in the end.

Keep up with the good job.

Edited March 8, 2016 by Antonio_Pigafetta

[Vernon Merrill]

Sorry bro disagree. Would continue to explain my reasoning's but i fear my patience for a forum argument has grown thin. I for one just want the moderators and admins to be aware that not all people agree with the forum warriors on here.

Dont like pirates, Do something about it. We organised and gave you a beating. Whats to stop you doing the same?

Here's what YOU are not understanding, Jubal.... It's NOT about winning and losing at this point... You're playing the game as if it's a finished product. It is not. If you don't see that one faction becoming a dominant nation as a symptom of something that needs to be tweaked, then you're Early Accessing wrong. The problem in a nutshell is that some people are trying to WIN, whereas some people are trying to improve the game. You can do both, but you should always focus on the latter. At least until the devs declare the game finished.

P.s.-- do you have a family relation to Gen. Early? My U.S. civil war nerdiness is piqued.

[Capt Jubal Early]

Here's what YOU are not understanding, Jubal.... It's NOT about winning and losing at this point... You're playing the game as if it's a finished product. It is not. If you don't see that one faction becoming a dominant nation as a symptom of something that needs to be tweaked, then you're Early Accessing wrong. The problem in a nutshell is that some people are trying to WIN, whereas some people are trying to improve the game. You can do both, but you should always focus on the latter. At least until the devs declare the game finished.

P.s.-- do you have a family relation to Gen. Early? My U.S. civil war nerdiness is piqued.

I am fully aware of all of this kind sir. And i do tend to agree with you in some regard. I just see it fruitless to be constantly bringing up the issue of "pirates" when the devs are fully aware and have already commented on the continued ranting about pirates. 

Now to counter argue your point about playing to win. It would be more beneficial for a developer to see the game in full swing rather than hand holding each other in a manor that gives false outcomes and results. If as everyone has mentioned there is a actual problem with pirates (i dont see it) then surely the increased growth of the black territories will only allow the devs to see your point with ease and actually implement your changes. + who honestly plays a game to be nice to the enemy. I would expect nothing but brutality from you guys in the battlefield followed by a polite good game sir.

Secondary point. The balance within the pirates only holds through the efforts of the few that communicate and translate through the multinational clans to resolve problems between us and work as a team. If other nations followed suit the game would be a different place. 

[Ronald Speirs]

I am fully aware of all of this kind sir. And i do tend to agree with you in some regard. I just see it fruitless to be constantly bringing up the issue of "pirates" when the devs are fully aware and have already commented on the continued ranting about pirates. 

Now to counter argue your point about playing to win. It would be more beneficial for a developer to see the game in full swing rather than hand holding each other in a manor that gives false outcomes and results. If as everyone has mentioned there is a actual problem with pirates (i dont see it) then surely the increased growth of the black territories will only allow the devs to see your point with ease and actually implement your changes. + who honestly plays a game to be nice to the enemy. I would expect nothing but brutality from you guys in the battlefield followed by a polite good game sir.

Secondary point. The balance within the pirates only holds through the efforts of the few that communicate and translate through the multinational clans to resolve problems between us and work as a team. If other nations followed suit the game would be a different place.

Ok let me ask this Jubal, does the pirate faction feel any different from the other nations, from what i can see there the exact same though they can attack each other and any man and his dog can join them at any point in the game unlike other nations without restarting.

So by this statement players can go develop in other nations and get to first rates then just move to free towns and turn pirate by attacking their own nation, i'm not sure on how many players have or are doing this but this is the mechanic with no real consequences, turning pirate should have big consequences as it was a big thing back then, you lost all reputation and had to fight your way through and capture and plunder to maintain the crew morale, the more notoriety you gained the more fear you commanded and the more that wanted to join you, this is what i deem a pirate to be, tough, feared and down right despicable.

By changing their mechanics to be more accurate and realistic would make pirates more unique and hardcore, pirates are in no way shape and form what pirates should be atm and its a damn shame, they shouldn't even be called pirate right now, personally i would like the pirate game to be more historical and realistic only having their ship which as their home, capturing more ships to develop and keep their ship strong, fine tuned and making it manageable, is there anything you would like to see make pirates more unique and hardcore for players?

[Capt Jubal Early]

Ok let me ask this Jubal, does the pirate faction feel any different from the other nations, from what i can see there the exact same though they can attack each other and any man and his dog can join them at any point in the game unlike other nations without restarting.....

First off in the middle of moving house so bare with any slow or poorly constructed responses. 

I think the pirate nation does feel different in the regard that most of the players are solely interested in their own en-devours. The majority of the players avoid interaction with clans, attack other pirates at will, scam and run their mouths like jack sparrow himself was possessing them. 

In regards to the pirates being another "nation" i honestly understand what your saying but as the devs have said many times its a sandbox game and if the players who have turned pirate want to work together and take over the map its entirely their choice to do so, and to be honest i agree with the devs to a certain degree. Not to mention the vote for pirate mechanics in the what to develop next thread is high up the list IE in the medium term so i look forward to what the devs will develop from a well rounded and neutral position. I fear clouding the developers minds with our nay-saying and whinging isn't going to help.

We must endevour to play the game as is now reporting bugs and issues as we go not filling the forum with the pirates are OP because they got organised bollocks. If as many have said and there is issue with the pirate mechanics IE to many people joining, jacksparrow stole my motorboat etc etc etc then let the devs discover this from data gathering through playing the game. They can see the outcome of this they have the numbers, the territory information, the players list etc etc. I tire of threads moaning about pirates when we all voted for our game dev priorities. (No not all but the vote was around before release)

Is their anything i'd like to see for pirates. Customization of pirate flags.