Port sitters and runners.

[Justme]

Is it just me or has the game devolved into neutral port babysitters who hop into port when they see you, then if you see someone in OW they turn tail and run as well.

Even at the pirate haven of port de paix, I'm having this. Past 3 days I've seen 15 players, only 1 was willing to engage in PVP. The rest ran. I was solo both going after inferior and superior ships.

What's happened to the PVP in The PVP 1 server?

[Powderhorn]

I find things fare better if you go a little bit out to sea.  Everyone by a port just assumes that you have overwhelming reinforcements ready to hop in at a moment's notice, so they won't engage.  Get a little further out, and they're a little more willing to fight.

[Ronald Speirs]

Is it just me

I see what u did there would have to agree with Powderhorn, people tend to head to other nation capitals for some pvp as that where most players are, their capital is the trade hubs of every nation plus those doing missions so there is a fair chance to to find some action.

[Ruthless4u]

I head out away from ports can't find anyone, was sailing around the rat capital the other day looking for anyone. Nothing, I ask where the PVP is and when I go to where it's at, either nothing or runners.

I was even desperate enough to try dueling, so far no one there either.

Just can't win.

But to be fair, I did have a real fun fight with a Spanish player in a 41 gun ship vs my snow. I lost but still the challenge was nice.

[Ratline]

Problem is people have got used to all the lame 'tactics' which the mechanics currently enable. See somebody near a free port? They probably have 10 mates waiting to undock or jump out of a closed battle once they bait you. Whether largely true or not this has become the perceived metagame of ow pvp which is rather sad. Hopefully the devs will realise that this crap is what kills fun ow pvp. This isn't EVE, these kind of tricks should simply not be possible.

 

Also, let's be honest, most pvp players are actually just group gankers. They don't have any real skill in combat and rely on numbers to get the job done. Nothing wrong with that as such, except for when they insist on smack talking. Catch a player even from a pvp clan solo and many will run.

Edited April 30, 2016 by Ratline

[Sir Robert Calder]

I am conflicted on putting restrictions on people who sail out of harbor to gank enemies near their ports. On one hand it's frustrating getting ganked, but on the other you sailed near the lion's den and got eaten.

 

Perhaps it is a lesson learned rather than a desire to change mechanics to make things more comfortable for those who don't like being on the bad end of a gank. As it stands there is a small battles system that actively puts evenly matched BR opponents together, so I highly recommend the aforementioned players to utilize this function.

[mikawa]

Playing on PVP1EU: Oh yes this is my observation too. Players run into ports and stay there instead of fighting. But why? And when? I remember a few weeks ago before patch "land in battles" 9.73. There were indeed PVP battles with a good player mix up between sols and frigates. You just had to sail out of Kingston and soon you did find an enemy fleet or a friendly fleet waiting for enemies to drop out of battle. This now completely vanished. But why? Is it the slightly changed battle mechanics or what exactly is the reason for this? If so, I plead for removing the land in battles and switch back to the former mechanics. At this moment PVP is no fun for me. There are only port battles and nothing else. Boring. Even the port battle I fought yesterday on Sale-Trou was a mess. Simply no enemy in sight. Just boring tower shooting and hoping that I might not hit any friendly ship.

Edited May 2, 2016 by mikawa

[Enraged Ewok]

From the pirate side of things on PVP1, the channel between Cuba/Haiti/Mortimer is typically a good place to find americans, british, and dutch. I've even seen Swedes of all things near St. Nicholas. Bring a friend if you go hunting them though, I tend to see more groups rather than loners.

[surfimp]

I had a guy run away from me in the Duel Room... I'd graped his Basic Cutter down to 8 crew and he just sailed off downwind, refusing to finish the fight or click Surrender.

Maybe he was a noob, maybe he was a jerk... All I know for sure was that he was a coward.

[Quineloe]

3 days ago, an Essex ran away from my Surprise at Port de Paix. Lack of cheap / free ships to PVP with results in exactly this.

[Babble]

This is why there needs to be a mix of ships.  Some with chasers some with not.

 

Get yourself a tagging ship.

 

Sit further from port in shipping lanes.

 

 

Tag with your fail fit fast boat.  Pile in with your actual war ships.

 

Profit.

[Enraged Ewok]

3 days ago, an Essex ran away from my Surprise at Port de Paix. Lack of cheap / free ships to PVP with results in exactly this.

 

My experience was that people still ran from even or advantageous fights even with freely available AI capture ships. Nothing's changed in this regard other than more people having worked their way into Trincomalees, Constitutions, and Ingermanlands.

 

 

This is why there needs to be a mix of ships.  Some with chasers some with not.

 

Get yourself a tagging ship.

 

Sit further from port in shipping lanes.

 

 

Tag with your fail fit fast boat.  Pile in with your actual war ships.

 

Profit.

 

At this point, there's really no reason not to take anything other than Trincomalees and Constitutions. The Trincomalee is only outrun by the Renomee, and unlike the Renomee it does not have to turn to present its broadside to keep people in battle. It's more than fast enough to keep anything other than a Renomee or a fore and aft rigged ship tagged, and anything it can't deal with on its own the Constitutions (or Ingermanlands if the group has them) are fast enough to catch and take it.

[Zisme]

I think like some posters have said, the PVP can be ripe..but many take advantage of the game mechanics and wait in the end results of a battle screen to have thier got ya moment....this really needs to be changed. 

[Babble]

 

 

 

 

At this point, there's really no reason not to take anything other than Trincomalees and Constitutions. The Trincomalee is only outrun by the Renomee, and unlike the Renomee it does not have to turn to present its broadside to keep people in battle. It's more than fast enough to keep anything other than a Renomee or a fore and aft rigged ship tagged, and anything it can't deal with on its own the Constitutions (or Ingermanlands if the group has them) are fast enough to catch and take it.

Fun?  Ship diversity?  Was in a 2 group makeups last night:  group 1: (surprise, 2 frigs last night) took out a 3rd along with some smaller prey like solo snows and traders and such   Group 2: (snow,niagra, frigate)  took out another 3rd as well as beat a don group consisting of a surprise, a conni, a LGV, and a cutter.

 

The snow out runs both the conni and trinc at both 90 and 180.   I know the vast majority of boats people are using on the OS are renns, connies, and trincs but i think thats because they are leaning on the gun weight far more then skill.   Plenty of boats are more then viable in pvp if used correctly.

 

Good luck trying to catch the fail fit snow i was running in for tags last night in anything. ( snow also beats the renn at 180)

 

 

Snow out runs both the conni and trinc at both 90 and 180 just as an example.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some other boats to consider on the smaller side of things

 

Snow: faster then conni and trinc at 90 and 180.  faster then renn at 180

 

lynx, priv, cutter, etc.  Honestly sail up wind all day long

 

Brig, navy brig: faster then conni and trin at 45.

 

Merc:  faster then conni, trinc , and renn at 90

 

Niagra : faster then conni and trin from 100 to 140

 

Surprise: faster then renn at 60-80 and blows away the conni and trinc from 60-120

Edited May 2, 2016 by Babble

[Enraged Ewok]

Fun?  Ship diversity?  Was in a 2 group makeups last night:  group 1: (surprise, 2 frigs last night) took out a 3rd along with some smaller prey like solo snows and traders and such   Group 2: (snow,niagra, frigate)  took out another 3rd as well as beat a don group consisting of a surprise, a conni, a LGV, and a cutter.

 

The snow out runs both the conni and trinc at both 90 and 180.   I know the vast majority of boats people are using on the OS are renns, connies, and trincs but i think thats because they are leaning on the gun weight far more then skill.   Plenty of boats are more then viable in pvp if used correctly.

 

Good luck trying to catch the fail fit snow i was running in for tags last night in anything. ( snow also beats the renn at 180)

 

Not arguing there. Personally, my favorite ships are the Belle Poule and Essex, and when I have a teammate with chasers they can do well in PVP. I've also used the Mercury for PVP, though it tended to only be useful when my opponent thought he could win and didn't run (fight against a Frigate, and he eventually did run after I had him at 20% hull) or when I pinned my opponent against the land (fight with a Brig). The issue is that somebody has to have a fast ship with chasers for ships without chasers to be useful outside of very select circumstances, and from a pure efficiency and risk/reward perspective the more chasers the better, the more HP the better, and the more guns the better. I dislike this line of thinking, but this is how a majority of gank squads and solo PVPers operate because those ships are best suited to handle anything else they come across.

 

 

Snow out runs both the conni and trinc at both 90 and 180 just as an example.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Some other boats to consider on the smaller side of things

 

Snow: faster then conni and trinc at 90 and 180.  faster then renn at 180

 

lynx, priv, cutter, etc.  Honestly sail up wind all day long

 

Brig, navy brig: faster then conni and trin at 45.

 

Merc:  faster then conni, trinc , and renn at 90

 

Niagra : faster then conni and trin from 100 to 140

 

Surprise: faster then renn at 60-80 and blows away the conni and trinc from 60-120

 

Yes, they are able to escape. The issue is keeping things tagged, which only two of those can  do without losing distance to turn and shoot. At the end of the day, ship usefulness in PVP comes down to those tag mechanics. Even foolhardy captains that think they have the advantage due to a larger ship can still get away from the ships you've listed depending on nearby land and wind direction. If your opponent does not dance to your tune in these ships, you will not catch him and will not sink him.

 

EDIT: Removed bad quote

Edited May 2, 2016 by Enraged Ewok

[Powderhorn]

I love my Trinc, but I love solo PvP. What I find is that a Trinc as lone tagger works well, and then any other vessel sailing in company drastically increases your combat options.

Trincs on their own are one-trick ponies.

[Bach]

This isn't really a game issue as much as a gamer attitude issue. Players, on average, don't take risks even if you make it free or rewarding to do so. It's just their nature. Maybe it's because we saturate our kids with a safety first oriented culture? I don't know but it is what it is. If they don't need to be away from the port to hunt NPCs or attack players they won't risk the open sea.

What you can do to get around it is put things into the game for players to do that require them to be away from the port and are both accessible and visible to potential pvp opponents. Not sure what but I know the problem is that the game is too centered on ports and nothing else. If you actually had things like whaling, careening, anchorages off beaches to explore lands and native villages or similar things players wouldn't be all safe and snug inside ports all the time.

Edited May 2, 2016 by Bach

[Vernon Merrill]

Build yourself a nice privateer...  then go surprise the hell out of a all the Mercs, Cerbs and even Surprises that think they are getting an easy meal...  That never gets old for me.  

[Slamz]

When you say runners....you mean you can't catch them on the open sea or you can't catch them in the battle?

 

Runners in battle is a problem you should be able to fix by picking a ship with forward chasers and built and outfitted for speed. If I have 3 permanent slots I like copper hulls, speed trim and reinforced masts (to offset the speed trim). Don't build out of live oak or use anything that deducts from speed. Fir vs teak/oak is debatable but certainly if you need to catch people, try fir.

 

 

The problem I see is "PvPers" buy gray ships with gray speed and no upgrades and then go "why does everyone run?!" Because they can! As an open seas killer, you must realize that catching people is the first task and you need a ship that fits that description.

 

 

Now, catching people on the open sea is another problem, but can sometimes be solved by clever placement and camera use... popping out from behind an island and getting in range before they have a chance to do anything about it. Or getting some friends and coming at them from different angles.

 

But if you can get someone tagged, you should be able to keep them in combat with the proper ship (and proper gameplan).

 

 

(Case in point, last night I outran a PvPer using my gray, storebought Constitution. I mean really. You can hardly even call yourself a PvPer if someone can outrun you in a gray ship. Get a real ship if you want results!)