Auto-travel from port to port

[CeltiberoCaesar]

I think we all agree that going from port to port travelling with the materials is very VERY boring. The devs have removed the teleport to the capital to introduce some PvP and chances to attack those vessels.

Well... I think the solution is pretty obvious. Allow the player to auto-send the ship from 1 port to another at a certain hour.

-the player load the ship with the materials he wanted

-they chose the destiny

-they chose the time or devs set a "auto-travel window"

-the fleet/ship navigate IN THE OW like AI does

-if they are not attacked they player will find the ship and material in the destiny port when they arrive in OW

This way, the players can save that boring time, the pirates have the chance to attack them and the players can go for some other more grateful activities.

[mikawa]

Hmm, I think if the ship doesn't arrive at the destination, you'll be quite disappointed. Especially when sending a fully loaded Gros Ventre. At least you should have the opportunity to look up who has captured your vessel (or even better get a notice at the time the ship is captured) and if the opponent is underway to sail the loot to his home port, you'll have the slightest chance of getting revenge.

[CeltiberoCaesar]

Of course you will be disapointed, as much as if you sail it by yourself.

You would have to chose between do the journey by yourself and spend that time or use the auto and take the risk. Its up to the player.

Another option if give the option to take the control once the battle has started. But its really hard to implement.

[mikawa]

 

Another option if give the option to take the control once the battle has started. But its really hard to implement.

Maybe a split window would have the same effect as auto sail. You can sail your trader ship in the right window, while collecting resources in a port in the left window. But this is probably hard to implement for the devs and hard to handle for the players too.

 

On the other hand:

Autosailing has the known risk of capturing, but (see latest crew thoughts) when it costs no additional crew, this might be rather ok. Probably a good solution to already hard time management. And it frees time resources for doing PVP. Agree on OP.

[Eishen]

...You would have to chose between do the journey by yourself and spend that time or use the auto and take the risk. Its up to the player.

...

 

good point, seems extremely dangerous but it is a voluntary decission... and you can allways  escort your own delivery with your own ship

[Konali89]

It would create more physicall traders filled with goodies who does not want such a thing:)

 

But in all honestly i am mixed, i understand it can be repetitive and thefore boring. But every time you leave port and set sail to your destination , you are on an adventure;)

[Eishen]

... But every time you leave port and set sail to your destination , you are on an adventure;)

 

  agree...    imo is the best part of the proposal is  being optional and not giving any real advantage ....but allowing to play as you like...and giving targets  (so creating play oportunities)  to other players .

[LeBoiteux]

Admin's reply to a similar proposal of auto-travel by AI in OW :

 

It's impossible due to the number of players - because they will never arrive then.
Bots sail slower, under crewed bots will be easy targets. No point to even do this because it will be a fake feature. 

[Mrdoomed]

Lol.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Mrdoomed

[mouse of war]

Great idea - all sorts of possibilities

[CeltiberoCaesar]

Admin's reply to a similar proposal of auto-travel by AI in OW :

Well... I dont agree what he said but I can understand his point of view. I personally dont consider it as a broken feature.

What would be really great is have a response from the devs to all this propossals. We feel ingored otherwise.

Edited June 10, 2016 by CeltiberoCaesar

[Lytse Pier]

I would limit the number of AI fleets you can create and the number of ships (or even shiptypes) you can add to them to prevent Santisima defented trader cutters. If you can set times like you suggested, what is there to stop a clan to protect their own AI shipping with their frigates against that pirate scum that haunt our trading lanes? 

 

An in advance scheduled event for the clan is great to organize other activities around and prepare your gaming moments in advance, instead of logging on and hoping something will be going on.

 

It has a big thumbs up from me CeltiberoCaesar!

[Skully]

Admin's reply to a similar proposal of auto-travel by AI in OW :

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14416-crew-management-update-discussion/?p=267147

 

It's all a matter of risk calculation. You don't need to send over fully loaded LGVs, but rather small portions in more dura 1 LGVs.

It might be a fake feature because the risk become too high once everybody starts ganking everything that moves, but than we should see emergence of player sailed escort fleets in high risk waters.

 

As for notifications, you can simply get a mail when the ship arrives or get mail with whoever captured or killed the ship a couple of hours after the event. That would be close to how it was in the old days. (Or at least close enough to make it fun. )

 

Now for the flipside and lets say we do this and we take a look at how we can do our logistics setup:

 

The supply line might look something like this:

1. Nation Capital
2. Sub-crafter Freetown
3. Ship-crafter Freetown
4. Regional Capital
5. Staging Port
6. Front line

Depending how far the front line is some functions might be merged, or for example there might be more sub-crafter ports in between.

 

Farmers supply the sub-crafter port, sub-crafter the ship-crafters and PvPers get their ships there. Depending on how often you PvP you dock in Freetown, Regional or Port.

 

Note that anything crafted will always be in a Freetown, you can't afford to lose access to thousands hours of crafted materials.

 

It basically means that everyone should be centered around the front line and only large nations will feel the pain if they extend too far away from the front line.

 

I'm beginning to think it might even work.

Edited June 10, 2016 by Skully

[Macjimm]

 It's impossible due to the number of players - because they will never arrive then.

Bots sail slower, under crewed bots will be easy targets. No point to even do this because it will be a fake feature.

 

 

I can't speak for the Devs but it seems pretty obvious that NA is about fighting and battles,  There is some other content that is directly related to fighting.

 

My interpretation is that the time spent (to code an option to send NPCs in OW) is considered better spent fixing other parts of the game.  But if anyone can come up with a compelling rational argument  how using AI to sail in OW could significantly improve and increase PvP opportunities ... that might make it worth thinking about.

 

Personally I really like the idea.  Controlling NPCs. Giving them orders.  Taking manual control.  Swapping control with other players.  But my priority is not on competitive combat.

[CaptVonGunn]

Or just do what many of us are doing now.. collect stuff at Free Ports.. use the Delivery system to send to the one you use as a base and craft there:)

[Skully]

I can't speak for the Devs but it seems pretty obvious that NA is about fighting and battles,  There is some other content that is directly related to fighting.

 

My interpretation is that the time spent (to code an option to send NPCs in OW) is considered better spent fixing other parts of the game.  But if anyone can come up with a compelling rational argument  how using AI to sail in OW could significantly improve and increase PvP opportunities ... that might make it worth thinking about.

 

Personally I really like the idea.  Controlling NPCs. Giving them orders.  Taking manual control.  Swapping control with other players.  But my priority is not on competitive combat.

Simple, time not spent on sailing through friendly waters is time spent sailing through enemy waters.

[LeBoiteux]

I guess part of devs' reasoning is rather simple : 

1) AI transferring players' ships in OW from point A to point B gives priority to OW PvE

2) Players personally transferring their ships in OW gives priority to OW PvP

[CeltiberoCaesar]

I guess part of devs' reasoning is rather simple :

1) AI transferring players' ships in OW from point A to point B gives priority to OW PvE

2) Players personally transferring their ships in OW gives priority to OW PvP

I think thats not correct. If they let us send ships using the proposed system the player will be able to go for what really like, PvP, port battles, Romerias, missions... and those that want to do the prirate will be able to do so. And I'm convince that thr auto-travelling would be only used in "friendly" seas, so the area close to the frontiers will be full of players both fighting and/or moving materials.

So... it will make both PvE and PvP grown. The amount of players is half of what it used to be, so the server overload shouldnt be an issue.

[Lytse Pier]

I can't speak for the Devs but it seems pretty obvious that NA is about fighting and battles,  There is some other content that is directly related to fighting.

 

My interpretation is that the time spent (to code an option to send NPCs in OW) is considered better spent fixing other parts of the game.  But if anyone can come up with a compelling rational argument  how using AI to sail in OW could significantly improve and increase PvP opportunities ... that might make it worth thinking about.

 

Personally I really like the idea.  Controlling NPCs. Giving them orders.  Taking manual control.  Swapping control with other players.  But my priority is not on competitive combat.

 

"Trade in Asia must be maintained under the protection of our own weapons; and they have to be paid for from the profits of trade. We can't trade without war, nor make war without trade."

--- Jan Pieterszoon Coen

 

One does not go without the other. The game's essentials of warfare, but also the essentials of economy and trading should be developed. Moving goods is an essential aspect to proper gameplay for Nations and pirates alike. You cannot rely on players alone to move large volumes of goods, nor expect pirates to keep having joy in capping AI traders without hurting a nations commercial effort.

 

I have a post here to outline some of those commerce aspects here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/13491-trading-banking-and-the-european-markets-an-18th-century-look-at-it/?p=247268

Edited June 11, 2016 by Lytse Pier

[CeltiberoCaesar]

Devs, can we get answers to our suggestions. At least a "no, because XXXX"

[Skully]

There are now two things happening which makes me think to bring it top-level a-new:

1. To me it appears everybody is sitting in ports waiting for some trigger to come out and then (gank/) fight away. Be it a conquest flag or a player trader spotted. Yes, you can sail into enemy waters, but then nobody comes out.
   The key part here is: a player trader is spotted.
2. With everybody cowering in ports only players with alts are seeing some action. Farming away with multiple ships is the best "AFK sailing" activity. Occasionally "interrupted" by the odd intercept. (Effectively a pay2win / pay2play. )

So actually the argument admin put forth in http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14416-crew-management-update-discussion/?p=267147can also be applied in reverse. To mitigate the risk you don't want AI to sail given trade routes, but rather way-points. Plus you need the ability to teleport into a ship under attack (but that could be added later).

 

If done right I believe that there will be more PvP because of increased traffic bringing valuable ships back home.

[ObiQuiet]

For those not completely opposed to RNG factors... the players send the ships between ports, but not in the visible OW.

Travel will take the same time as sailing the ship yourself.

But, the game computes a risk based on the route, as a function of the enemy ports passed or perhaps the new war activity factors.

Some trips would have neglible risk, even zero. Others would be very high risk, say 50/50 of arriving. Shorter hops along friendly coasts and long trips across open water would be generally safe enough to rely on, just like IRL.

The ship sent this way may or may not arrive, and you may have news of their loss.

[whynotfr]

 

 

But in all honestly i am mixed, i understand it can be repetitive and thefore boring. But every time you leave port and set sail to your destination , you are on an adventure;)

 

 

You will have the choice... personnaly this adventure, i don't want to be forced to have one. PVP and RVR is so much passionating activity. 

[TheAmerican]

I think we all agree that going from port to port travelling with the materials is very VERY boring. The devs have removed the teleport to the capital to introduce some PvP and chances to attack those vessels.

Well... I think the solution is pretty obvious. Allow the player to auto-send the ship from 1 port to another at a certain hour.

-the player load the ship with the materials he wanted

-they chose the destiny

-they chose the time or devs set a "auto-travel window"

-the fleet/ship navigate IN THE OW like AI does

-if they are not attacked they player will find the ship and material in the destiny port when they arrive in OW

This way, the players can save that boring time, the pirates have the chance to attack them and the players can go for some other more grateful activities.

I love this idea. It puts some meaning in "raiding trade routes". Nations would actually be able to seriously hurt the economies of their enemies, and it would let people put their fast frigates to good use! It would force nations to patrol their waters, and protect trade!