PVP2: Continuing Tales of France

[Slamz]

After taking Puerto Rico and moving up Hispaniola, France went off to find some action. We have identified the following fun places, so far:

 

La Tortue -- often there are British and Pirate ships running around, solo or in groups. Good fights can often be had. Only problem is it's more of a port flipping hub so some days there's no activity and some days it's just clumps of 20 ships. *Usually* there's good wolfpack action to be found but not consistently.

 

Jamaica -- basing out of either Cayman Brac or Ile-de-vache, a tour of Jamaica can always locate British shipping. Sometimes we roll shallow ships, which are good for catching traders and running from the local militia, and sometimes we roll heavier ships, to fight the militia. So far it's been consistent good action and the British mission runners usually come out to play (usually right after we show up and gank a couple of them).

 

 

Meanwhile, the British main guilds continue to attack empty ports a hundred miles away from anyone and setting timers to 14-16, when neither us nor them are online -- a clear signal that they do not actually want to fight anyone and have probably soiled themselves. This is probably why half their team quit and moved to PVP1 but apparently the remaining Brits have learned nothing. What we really wanted to do was move a flag up to Haiti and start a 3 or 4 way war (Pirate/British/French/US?) but apparently the Brits still think map strategy is more important than not boring your own team to death.

 

Personally, I don't care about flags except to the extent they help cause PvP fights, and now that we can simply sail around Jamaica and have good wolfpack style fights whenever we want, I don't care so much about the flags. It's a shame there won't be any good British vs French port fights but honestly neither of us is going to camp out around La Mona hoping for an attack (the time for that was last week, when we were actually there) so if you don't want to fight port battles in Haiti then I guess we'll just stick to wolfpack PvP and stealing all your iron haulers instead.

 

[Arsilon]

14-16 timers *lesigh*

[HMCS Warrior]

"Meanwhile, the British main guilds continue to attack empty ports a hundred miles away from anyone and setting timers to 14-16, when neither us nor them are online -- a clear signal that they do not actually want to fight anyone and have probably soiled themselves. This is probably why half their team quit and moved to PVP1 but apparently the remaining Brits have learned nothing. What we really wanted to do was move a flag up to Haiti and start a 3 or 4 way war (Pirate/British/French/US?) but apparently the Brits still think map strategy is more important than not boring your own team to death." - Slamz

 

Wow you sure think highly of yourself. Check out Britain vs. France the friendly war on the national forum. It was an amazing weekend with 8-12 defended port battles each day. Lots of open world sea battles. The Spanish and the Danes were screening for France. The French and British were respectful and exchanged a lot of friendly banter. It was by far the most fun I have had since purchased on Steam. 

[Slamz]

I look forward to the day when the current batch of PVP2 British go to join you. Which, if history proves, will be in about 2 weeks. Maybe less. They're still learning that "haha we set our port timers to 12-14 so the French can't fight us lololol" actually just hurts their own team, by boring them to death.

 

France spent the whole weekend in open sea PvP, so it's not really our problem. The Brits will all quit and we'll fight Pirates and U.S. It's just a shame to see more British players quit the server due to their own leadership's stupidity, when they could be joining in on the fun right here, right now.

 

I tried to warn the Antilles pirates and the Puerto Rico Brits about playing like this too. They didn't listen either.

Edited March 28, 2016 by Slamz

[HMCS Warrior]

It has nothing to do with leadership. It has EVERYTHING to do with a North American primetime population 400 players online. 

[Arsilon]

It has nothing to do with leadership. It has EVERYTHING to do with a North American primetime population 400 players online. 

 

It has everything to do with leadership when they decide to put timers for times when the population is at 100 vs. when its at 400.

[Mrdoomed]

I look forward to the day when the current batch of PVP2 British go to join you. Which, if history proves, will be in about 2 weeks. Maybe less. They're still learning that "haha we set our port timers to 12-14 so the French can't fight us lololol" actually just hurts their own team, by boring them to death.

France spent the whole weekend in open sea PvP, so it's not really our problem. The Brits will all quit and we'll fight Pirates and U.S. It's just a shame to see more British players quit the server due to their own leadership's stupidity, when they could be joining in on the fun right here, right now.

I tried to warn the Antilles pirates and the Puerto Rico Brits about playing like this too. They didn't listen either.

I fought along side several fench players last night sinking brits till i was eventually driven off.

So much fun. The life of a pir errr privateer is great.

[HMCS Warrior]

It has everything to do with leadership when they decide to put timers for times when the population is at 100 vs. when its at 400.

 

The issue I have is much deeper than port timers.

[Arsilon]

The issue I have is much deeper than port timers.

 

I would probably agree with the majority of your other issues.  However that being said, Slamz' point is valid in that by continuing to set port timers at the lowest population time of day, regardless of whether that population is 500 or 5000 at prime time has no other possible outcome than purposely avoiding any chance of meaningful port battle confrontation between nations.

[HMCS Warrior]

Agreed I always wanted port timers to be set when we took that port. Theoretically we would be on to attempt to defend it if we were still close enough.

[Vllad]

If you are setting any timer at any time other than between 8 PM EST to Midnight EST then the only reason to do it is because you don't want a fight. Their are no fights on PVP2 that isn't within this time frame.

 

This is bad for the players and it is boring. Do the Brits just want to put everyone to sleep? What could possibly motivate someone to want to have a boring time while playing a game?

Edited March 28, 2016 by Vllad

[Arsilon]

Given lower population on PVP2, even setting your timers during primetime won't guarantee a fight.  Last night is a perfect example where we had a group of folks patrolling the south side of Jamaica about 40 minute sail from their closest outpost in Cayman Brac when the conquest flags in Hispaniola were launched from right next door to those ports.  Even if they had their teleports ready, there was no way for that entire group to get to a place they could teleport and sail to make it in time.  This is unfortunately a fair criticism with respect to the impact that lower population has on PVP2, ie not enough population to have people in both places.  

 

Given all the above, setting timers to any time OTHER than primetime you definitely won't get a fight.

[Slamz]

It has nothing to do with leadership. It has EVERYTHING to do with a North American primetime population 400 players online. 

 

Except this has been true since the start of the server, even when it was over 1000 players online. (Most of those Hispaniola off-hour times have been that way for over a month.)

 

 

The point is not that the Brits have created a new problem, but that they have still not learned anything, even after losing 80% of their players -- half to moving servers or changing teams and half to just plain quitting the game.

[Sir Robert Calder]

There are some Australian clans that play for the British on PvP2 (I'm not sure if they're still active) and given that Oceanic players ping much better to US this could be the case.

[HMCS Warrior]

Yes, a lot of the timers were set to Australian primetime.

[Bach]

Given lower population on PVP2, even setting your timers during primetime won't guarantee a fight.  Last night is a perfect example where we had a group of folks patrolling the south side of Jamaica about 40 minute sail from their closest outpost in Cayman Brac when the conquest flags in Hispaniola were launched from right next door to those ports.  Even if they had their teleports ready, there was no way for that entire group to get to a place they could teleport and sail to make it in time.  This is unfortunately a fair criticism with respect to the impact that lower population has on PVP2, ie not enough population to have people in both places.  

 

Given all the above, setting timers to any time OTHER than primetime you definitely won't get a fight.

Granted this was the case. However to be fair, the attackers don't necessarily know we can't get anyone into that area. Besides we are the team that set the timers to a time when we were not there either. Now the pvp2 Brits may be guilty of purposely setting timers, after the battle, to odd hours. However, I think the game mechanics need some tweaking as there will always be more territory than can be practically defended with 4hr teleport timers. Though to be honest I am not sure what that would be. Even with a 1 hour advanced warning we wouldn't have been able to sail to the ports under attack and even so what fun would that have been?

[Bach]

There are some Australian clans that play for the British on PvP2 (I'm not sure if they're still active) and given that Oceanic players ping much better to US this could be the case.

If it was then they never showed up when we took the ports the first time.

[Arsilon]

Yes, Australian primetime, when there are currently 100 people total online across all nations.

 

Yes, Australian primetime, during which we took back all of the Northern Antilles and Puerto Rico from the Brits and saw a total of 1 Brit in a Basic Cutter.  There were more Danish out and about than there were Brits during those hours.

 

I of course wouldn't want to deprive people of having fun in their primetime hours.  Not everyone can be on at the same time.   Apparently the Brits have been trying to accommodate them forever since that is the same story we've heard forever now both with ports they were 'defending' against the US and other nations as well.  Even now, 24 of the 72 ports currently owned by Britain are set to extended 'Aussie Primetime' hours  of 10-16.

 

The Brits probably need to find new Aussie players since the ones they have now aren't very active.

[Lennyo]

I've never been a fan of the port capture times. A month ago I would see "what's the best time to set the timers?" in Brit chat. The answer would always be "when your clan is most active", but instead they would get set to some obscure time even though the port was taken in prime time.

Had some great fights in sunbury lately. I find 1v1 and 1v2 to be more fun than big fleets or ganks. It's also fun to cruise outside charleston in a cutter to see big ships go into port only to come out again in a cutter for some fun. I suppose I should go by LaT and see what sort of action is going on there.

Lack of pvp isn't the only reason people are leaving. The Brit economy feels like it's dying as well. The number of ships for sale in PR is a fraction of what it once was. I don't bother selling a ship or selling items on contract anymore, just not enough players to support the economy. I'm sure it's been worse for other countries but many of the Brit players played for something other than pvp and they've all left. I made friends with some crafters early on but haven't seen them online in weeks.

Edited March 29, 2016 by Lennyo

[Vllad]

There are some Australian clans that play for the British on PvP2 (I'm not sure if they're still active) and given that Oceanic players ping much better to US this could be the case.

 

 

I could see if Aussies are capturing ports than setting them to their time. No one has any issues with that however that is not the case here. These ports are captured during US prime time then re-set to Aussie time. When we re-take them no one is around to defend them.

 

So either the Aussies play 24/7 and don't like port defenses or American Brits are capturing the ports and setting the ports to off times.

 

The question is, why would players do this? Why would the Brit players want to bore everyone to death?

[Bach]

The question is, why would players do this? Why would the Brit players want to bore everyone to death?

To WIN!

Seriously though, I doubt it's a British player thing. No one thinks in terms of what makes the game fun for everyone. They are only thinking in terms of how they can keep that port without having to camp out way way over there by it when they don't want too. It's just one of those human nature things you can't beat.

My suggestion, all ports should revert back to the original owners following three days of inactivity by the conquerors. Then the only front worth guarding are the active fronts. Players would lose the "take all the ports I can" mentality and shift to "take only the ports I need to use and use them to get somewhere". What ever, but when player take more ports than they are planning to use we also end up with ports they never intend to defend. So they move the timers to hours they hope the enemy won't be able to attack them in as th only defense.

[RURickJames]

If you are setting any timer at any time other than between 8 PM EST to Midnight EST then the only reason to do it is because you don't want a fight. Their are no fights on PVP2 that isn't within this time frame.

 

This is bad for the players and it is boring. Do the Brits just want to put everyone to sleep? What could possibly motivate someone to want to have a boring time while playing a game?

 

Please do not be so narrow minded and parochial.

 

People from all around the world play this game.  I for one am in Japan and most of the clan I am with are scattered across the Western Pacific.

 

As noted by a few Australians already, your "...only reason to do it..." time frame is right in the middle of our workday

Edited March 29, 2016 by RURickJames

[Vllad]

Please do not be so narrow minded and parochial.

 

People from all around the world play this game.  I for one am in Japan and most of the clan I am with are scattered across the Western Pacific.

 

As noted by a few Australians already, your "...only reason to do it..." time frame is right in the middle of our workday

 

 

You still didn't address anything in my post.  

 

Are you there participating on the capture of these ports during US primetime?

Where are you when we take these ports back?

 

If you are going to set the timers to Japan primetime then at least show up and defend them.

[RURickJames]

You still didn't address anything in my post.  

 

Are you there participating on the capture of these ports during US primetime?

Where are you when we take these ports back?

 

If you are going to set the timers to Japan primetime then at least show up and defend them.

 

Sir, the use of the pronoun "you" in your original post implied a sweeping indictment regarding port windows across the server.

 

If your original post was meant to be pointed specifically at the British of PVP2, then I apologize and will withdraw from the conversation as I cannot speak to their actions/intent.

Edited March 30, 2016 by RURickJames

[Vllad]

Sir, the use of the pronoun "you" in your original post implied a sweeping indictment regarding port windows across the server.

 

If your original post was meant to be pointed specifically at the British of PVP2, then I apologize and will withdraw from the conversation as I cannot speak to their actions/intent.

 

My comments are directed specifically to the Brits on PVP2.