5 things that I think should change with Naval Action

[Tiedemann]

Port defense timers set in the middle of the night/morning is a bad part of the game for me at least. I don't know how many players we have on this server with that time sone, but I doubt it can be justified. The timers should be removed and a new mechanic implemented. 

 

When defending a port we now need to stay in that port, an not play the game for the entire defense timer period. If we get attacked it's kinda worth it, but when we don't get attacked its a game-killer. And this defense timer also favors the nations with the most players, since they will be able to defend the most ports. That is fair, but please consider setting a player number cap on nations.

 

Empty/undefended port battles are also a boring par of the game. You get the loot and stuff, but it's still boring.

 

Ships on fire should lose steering and when they go into fire shock they should loose all their sails rapidly, like they were on fire! This to stop blowing up tactics a bit at least, and that they loose their sails is logical.

 

Player who are online and playing the game should get crafting hours bonus. For example give a player labor hours for completing a mission and with a cap per hour, so it can't be abused. Maybe they need to complete missions according to the players rank also. In that way it will be more rewarding for the players who play the game, and not like it is now where all players are rewarded equal. Maybe give an option of labor hour or gold when capturing a ship and handing it over to the admiralty order. 

[Lefort]

the fire

 

Port defense timers set in the middle of the night/morning is a bad part of the game for me at least. I don't know how many players we have on this server with that time sone, but I doubt it can be justified. The timers should be removed and a new mechanic implemented. 

 

Empty/undefended port battles are also a boring par of the game. You get the loot and stuff, but it's still boring.

 

Ships on fire should lose steering and when they go into fire shock they should loose all their sails rapidly, like they were on fire! This to stop blowing up tactics a bit at least, and that they loose their sails is logical.

 

The ship taking penalties on handling when on fire would be excellent balance factor and just remove the fire shock to make it not overwhelming RNG on the fired individual.

As for undefended ports you can't really do much about that the map is excessively large and the player base is small so its hard to muster a defense the devs really weren't realistic with world size and player population and time, one has to wonder if they expected people to take this up as a part time job like I was/am doing and its just freaking unhealthy. Also alot of players are just far too squeemish about losses and that's just a reality in any game majority of people will always min max if rules aren't enforced and I hope the devs will buckle down and put many thing in place that encourage engagement and losses if the combat is truly enjoyable and filled with pretty flares people will likely find it acceptable, although I imagine time to find an engagement and losing is a turn off too.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Lefort

[ITFHunter]

Port defense timers set in the middle of the night/morning is a bad part of the game for me at least. I don't know how many players we have on this server with that time sone, but I doubt it can be justified. The timers should be removed and a new mechanic implemented.

The servers are for all countries. You won't find a time frame which is suitable for every player(nation/country/.... maybe an "unrest" system could be implemented (like in potbs). If enough "unrest" ist generated, sinking of AI fleets/players, near a port (e.g. spain port -> kill AI spains or kill spain players) can overrule the timer. But then again -> smaller nations will have a hugh disadvanteage

When defending a port we now need to stay in that port, an not play the game for the entire defense timer period. If we get attacked it's kinda worth it, but when we don't get attacked its a game-killer. And this defense timer also favors the nations with the most players, since they will be able to defend the most ports. That is fair, but please consider setting a player number cap on nations.

How should that be changable? Sure it sucks to lose time because you don't want to lose a port, but it's your decision to defend or going for hunting or do carebear stuff. So choose what you want to do

Empty/undefended port battles are also a boring par of the game. You get the loot and stuff, but it's still boring.

Yeah they are boring but part of the game. If you want to play with a friend and he tells u "no, I don't want to play with you" you are also alone and its boring or you have to look for another thing to do

Ships on fire should lose steering and when they go into fire shock they should loose all their sails rapidly, like they were on fire! This to stop blowing up tactics a bit at least, and that they loose their sails is logical.

I get your point, but I think it's a valid tactic to try to make as much damage on your enemy as possible, even if you are on fire. And if you are on fire and want to get away from the enemy, you won't have the chance to do that anymore.

Player who are online and playing the game should get crafting hours bonus. For example give a player labor hours for completing a mission and with a cap per hour, so it can't be abused. Maybe they need to complete missions according to the players rank also. In that way it will be more rewarding for the players who play the game, and not like it is now where all players are rewarded equal. Maybe give an option of labor hour or gold when capturing a ship and handing it over to the admiralty order.

no. Those players have already the advantage that they can do mission whoring, get many gold&xp and can buy labour hours of players which will do the gathering of ressources or crafting of materials.

[Slamz]

[stuff]

 

Port defense timers are definitely a failure. Their primary function is actually trolling the other team. We need a much better port flipping solution. I think it should be some sort of war of attrition that requires several days of slow activity to complete, not a "one and done" port battle.

 

I know why so many port battles go undefended and how to fix it.

 

Pretty sure fire shock ships already lose steering and all control? Been a while since I was fire shocked but I seem to recall not being able to do literally anything. I was going for the fire ship ram but ended up missing because I couldn't turn or adjust sails.

 

The only thing that might be interesting with labor hours is to make them purchasable with gold (the currency). Currently we have MASSIVE inflation because money is pouring into the system and there's not much to do with it. The ability to buy labor hours with currency could be worth a shot. 1000 labor hours for 200,000 gold? I bet people would pay that. Might start to clear out some of this inflation.

[GrapeShot]

I'll say what I always say on this topic; the large number of artificial and gamey rules and strategies around port battles -- timers, udercrewed SOLs for BR reasons, pubbie players being locked out of them, etc -- point to the obvious.

Port battles are a broken and damaging game mechanic.

Remove them. Take clan wars out of the OW and replace them with a robust economic model of explortion, resourse development, shipping to market, and port raids and you give players a reason for combat that is organic to the game rather than artificial.

Edited April 22, 2016 by GrapeShot

[CptEdwardKenway]

I was thinking to give the pirates the opportunity to raid ports and have uncapable ports themself. And a better port battle mechanic like said you need a few days of action around the port to slowly activate the port battle. And you also see the progress till the battle starts so you know where to defend and you would have a lot of action too.

Sure raiding for all without capturing sounds not bad but I don't know if it would be a solution. I also wanted to see this as unique gameplay for pirates.