AI Contraband & Cargo

[Taranis]

It would be nice for AI ships to travel full.  At present, a typical AI Snow hauling cargo is less than 10% full of its true capacity. 

[Tief N Tote]

yea that is annoying but i guess no one would craft just cap merchants all day

[Hethwill]

With the present AI no. It is no effort to get them.

 

Give all AI traders a meaningful fleet, the ones than really make you think twice before engaging, and then we talk about their cargo.

[Taranis]

The question is not one of effort - its one of time suck.  This game is incredibly time consuming as it is.  As for crafting resources, some nations on PvP1 have all of the ports picked clean with contracts chocking any production.  Getting access to resources in meaningful quantity, without having to wait weeks of real life time to gather from outpost supply buildings, is an issue.

[Galileus]

The question is not one of effort - its one of time suck.  This game is incredibly time consuming as it is.  As for crafting resources, some nations on PvP1 have all of the ports picked clean with contracts chocking any production.  Getting access to resources in meaningful quantity, without having to wait weeks of real life time to gather from outpost supply buildings, is an issue.

 

You are not supposed to be able to easily get your hands on amazing amounts of materials.

 

Offer more gold and get your share of what is sold in ports or produce yourself. Easy as that.

[Taranis]

Surely you will understand that to offer more gold, you need to get more gold.  And a trading vessel is supposed to be trading, and therefore be reasonably full of content.  Again, one should not have to spend tens of hours to build up resources.  I can understand that players that have built up their resources and formed barriers to entry to new players would want to maintain the status quo...  that basic economic competitive behavior - but perhaps you should consider the huge turn-off it represents to people that try to join the game.  I did not experience this on pvp2 where i have a large amount of assets built up.  Recently moving to pvp1 one however, the mechanic is not welcoming.

[Ledinis]

Surely you will understand that to offer more gold, you need to get more gold.  And a trading vessel is supposed to be trading, and therefore be reasonably full of content.  Again, one should not have to spend tens of hours to build up resources.  I can understand that players that have built up their resources and formed barriers to entry to new players would want to maintain the status quo...  that basic economic competitive behavior - but perhaps you should consider the huge turn-off it represents to people that try to join the game.  I did not experience this on pvp2 where i have a large amount of assets built up.  Recently moving to pvp1 one however, the mechanic is not welcoming.

Look at it from both sides, it would be a turn off to just as many if not more people that play this game if an AI trader snow that literally takes 3 mins to catch would give you 1000 silver ore, resources would loose any value whatsoever and the game economy would be fucked.

[Taranis]

Surely there is a balance between the two extremes.  10% full versus 100% full.....  How about 50% full?

 

By the way, you might want to clock yourself at capturing an AI ship.  Having become quite good at it, i very much doubt you can do it in 3 min each time.  Remember that you have to find said trader first too and that alone can take a few minutes too.

[Hethwill]

The question is not one of effort - its one of time suck.  This game is incredibly time consuming as it is.  As for crafting resources, some nations on PvP1 have all of the ports picked clean with contracts chocking any production.  Getting access to resources in meaningful quantity, without having to wait weeks of real life time to gather from outpost supply buildings, is an issue.

 

Do you like the game ? I, personally, do not feel any time issue.

 

Plus the AI traders should never ever be a cheap alternative to port production. If anything I will always advocate that AI traders system should feed from and to the port pools.

 

I knew there was a second thought behind the suggestion and, sorry to say, it is not constructive towards the economic part of the game as a whole but the one player one individual economic welfare instead.

[Galileus]

Surely there is a balance between the two extremes.  10% full versus 100% full.....  How about 50% full?

 

By the way, you might want to clock yourself at capturing an AI ship.  Having become quite good at it, i very much doubt you can do it in 3 min each time.  Remember that you have to find said trader first too and that alone can take a few minutes too.

 

As is, that 10% is enough to cover daily production of some lvl 3 buildings. In few minutes. But you want more?

 

There is a certain tempo to everything - resource and ship production being in the center. By allowing more resources to be "pirated" instead of produced you throw stones into the whole mechanism - and all that because you cannot be bothered?

 

If there is not enough resources - produce some. If resource producing buildings give too little - propose a change to that balance. What you should not do is expect to be a producer, trader and a crafter all in one and do great all alone. Sorry - not this game.

[Taranis]

I liked the game very much on PvP2.  Now, joining PvP1 which is quite saturated, and having to start over, i find it less welcoming - and I could see why new players would be turned off.  I at least have the advantage of knowing how to play.

[Ledinis]

Surely there is a balance between the two extremes.  10% full versus 100% full.....  How about 50% full?

 

By the way, you might want to clock yourself at capturing an AI ship.  Having become quite good at it, i very much doubt you can do it in 3 min each time.  Remember that you have to find said trader first too and that alone can take a few minutes too.

The 3 min marker was the time it takes to cap them from the start of battle, but go to any enemy territory and you will find highways of traders. Even now traders take no time, no risk and you can get up to 50k gold worth of resources from one. I wouldnt mind if they introduced bigger, armed traders that you would actually have to work for to board, or traders with normal fleet escorts, then yes they should carry equivalently more. But as easy as it is now, traders reward more than enough. 

[Taranis]

As is, that 10% is enough to cover daily production of some lvl 3 buildings. In few minutes. But you want more?

 

There is a certain tempo to everything - resource and ship production being in the center. By allowing more resources to be "pirated" instead of produced you throw stones into the whole mechanism - and all that because you cannot be bothered?

 

If there is not enough resources - produce some. If resource producing buildings give too little - propose a change to that balance. What you should not do is expect to be a producer, trader and a crafter all in one and do great all alone. Sorry - not this game.

 

It won't be a problem anymore when the server resets.

[Galileus]

It won't be a problem anymore when the server resets.

 

How so? This makes no sense.

 

Even after server reset there will still be certain tempo, certain max production per player, that would be thrown out of the window if traders carried more resources. Even as it is, they carry a lot.

[Taranis]

How so? This makes no sense.

 

Even after server reset there will still be certain tempo, certain max production per player, that would be thrown out of the window if traders carried more resources. Even as it is, they carry a lot.

 

And again: on PvP1 certain nations ports are saturated. 

[312_JS]

Slightly off topic, but:

Imagine AI Traders having to physically distribute resources between ports.

That would mean that players would have to guard their Nations Traders if they want to keep producing stuff.
I'd love that.

Edited April 7, 2016 by 312_Jura

[Galileus]

Imagine that and AI (and Player) Traders having to physically distribute resources between ports.

That would mean that players would have to guard their Nations Traders if they want to keep producing stuff.

I'd love that.

 

I would not. Guarding AI is dumb and painful. They would go ass-first into danger, sink and kill off your resources. They would also need to buy and sell according to player contracts, which just seems odd.

 

Protecting players - fine. Escort missions for AI - thx, no thx.

[Taranis]

Slightly off topic, but:

Imagine AI Traders having to physically distribute resources between ports.

That would mean that players would have to guard their Nations Traders if they want to keep producing stuff.

I'd love that.

 

I would like that.  It would make the AI more relevant and would encourage more PvP around them.

 

Also, imagine (1) resources that are less homogeneously distributed, (2) being able to place import orders that the AI responds to...  Cargo should be more important - not the safety of port facilities that players just teleport in/out of.

[Xander Tyrann]

If traders were going to be fully loaded they would be rarer and harder targets (protected by fleets) then we could have people spotting them and reporting them to nation/clan and gathering a fleet to take them like a small event.

I would be ok with that for myself but I think it would affect players starting out and solo players pretty negatively. For this reason my vote is against it.

[Michael CorvinusSnr]

• I don't understand why you have to empty a cargo ships hold when you capture it. If you don't when it gets to your outpost, the cargo is gone. Do the prize crew just chuck it overboard?

Sometimes the loot is too much for my ship.

It does not make sense to cross deck cargo in the middle of the sea and then lose what's left in a port

[Galileus]

• I don't understand why you have to empty a cargo ships hold when you capture it. If you don't when it gets to your outpost, the cargo is gone. Do the prize crew just chuck it overboard?
• Sometimes the loot is too much for my ship.
• It does not make sense to cross deck cargo in the middle of the sea and then lose what's left in a port

 

• It's to stop you from being able to simply teleport cargo
• You can take command of the captured ship and use it's cargo holds
• It's a game, no-one is actually moving cargo, these are pixels. Game rules rules.

[Nordtman]

It would be nice for AI ships to travel full.  At present, a typical AI Snow hauling cargo is less than 10% full of its true capacity. 

 

Of course its not very nice to capture a ship that has only 10% of its capicity. But then again the crew could just have dumped the rest of the cargo into the ocean, preventing u from looting it.

 

I am sure we all would do that, if there was an option in the game to do it   (same as sinking a ship, preventing it from being captured, if there was this option).

 

AI traders should be protected by the comming diplomatic system. U should nt be able to cap a AI trader or attack a AI fleet that belongs to a country that u r in Peace with.

Doing so should make u a pirate as well.

Or get a "Flagg" that would trigger AI fleets, from that nation, to attack u if u go in their range. Even get a Bounty on ur head, put by the govenor of that nation.