I Am The Lorax!

[John Cavanaugh]

I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees! (also, for the players who want this game to be sustainable)
 

I enjoy the current way that the game is playing, and I think that many others do as well. Specifically, the conquest, the hyper militarization of the various nations and clans, and the emphasis on fleet combat in the form of PBs, screens etc. However, everyone on PVP 1 EU has seen new players come and leave, followed by many of the longer term players who are simply tired of having to stand at their post guarding over a handful of ports. In regards to the current port battle system, it often boarders more on work than on play. We have also seen many nations be reduced to a single port, or only a small handful of ports, effectively becoming client states unable to acquire resources to build their ships, unable to sail out into the wide beautiful world that has been presented in this game. The Danish have done it with the eastern nations, the British are doing it with Spain. More and more we see the way the map will look when everything is over; 1 or two colors, all other factions pushed to obscurity and their players left or turned traitor. What is the developers' solution to this when the game reaches its final release? Quite frankly, a diplomacy system, no matter how elaborate, cannot resolve this issue in a PvP and conquest focused game. To that solution, I wish to put out a suggestion heavily influenced by the discussions here.

At the time of the next map wipe, we need to have 3 server types, rather than 2, and a small change to port battle timers.

1) PvE, as the current iteration.

2) PvP. The new general PvP maps should have static faction controlled ports, and flexibly controlled boarder ports, allowing each faction to grow and shrink based on the changing diplomacy and conquest, while guaranteeing that each faction will have a reasonably large hub. We should never see factions like the Spanish or Swedish being purged down to a single port on a map that needs to last.

3) Conquest. We all, or at least most of us, enjoy the idea of a war between all the factions, with victor states conquering the whole of the Caribbean. The problem is that once that conquest reaches its conclusion, or nears its conclusion, actual PvP falls off, the players of conquered factions drop out, and the community as a whole begins to fall out. In short it simply cannot last in the long term. On the other hand, if treated as a short term competition much like a game of Risk, it allows that same enjoyment, but with a definite end date, a definite solution to the question of "what do we do from here," and the aforementioned general PvP server for defeated nations to fall back on and play on once they are defeated. Having a server which automatically wipes ever 1-3 months for this purpose, judges a winning state by number of ports controlled, and perhaps gave out rewards in the form of unique ships and modules to the victors (such as those which are stated to be in the game store once it is launched) would allow that conquest, and that victory, to be repeatable.

 

4) Port battle timers must, and I do mean Must, be changed. As mentioned many times on these forums, in teamspeaks, and in game chats, being forced to defend ports that may or may not be attacked leads to this game being less and less enjoyable with each PB. The solution is one which has been mentioned several times before. Simply require flags to be declared 24 hours in advance. It will nullify the zerg rush that has characterized port battles up to this point, it will allow for an actual organized, considered defense, and it will allow for players, who hail from many time zones, who have jobs, children, and schedules of their own to keep, to organize and show up. How much more enjoyable would a port battle be if everyone knew in advance to show up at 5:00pm and prepare the defense? If the attackers could rally help from the members of their nation not directly affiliated with their clan, rather than maintain absolute secrecy in order to maintain the element of surprise, and thus bring a navy three times as large to do battle outside of the port while the PB takes place?

 

If the game continues on in its current direction, each server will be blotted out by one nation or another, PvP will stagnate and die as boarders and opposition are swallowed up by the local empire, and the game will hemorrhage its own player base as people simply grow tired of being constantly on call for defense and attack. We need a main server with semi-static boarders to promote actual open sea combat, and we need short term conquest servers so that the chaos of total war in this game isn't smothered beneath itself.

[Capt. Rice]

I like the main static hub for each nation but still have those ports that can be captured...only thing is that if a nation has no need to grow because it has all its basic necessities in its static hub, how do you encourage the growth of ones nation.

[John Cavanaugh]

Why are the Pirates and Danes crushing Jamaica as we speak? Because it's fun. Production facilities in their current iteration obviate any need for conquest so long as three or 4 ports are held, but that doesn't stop people who enjoy the game from playing it

 

If production was changed such that different ports produced more through buildings, and the baseline production was lowered in static national ports, there would likely remain the need for expansion that we would like to see