I quit until you fix the ganking situation:

[Yar Matey]

I just got ganked for the 5th time and I have had enough.  I love this game, but the ganking is just too much.

 

I try to sail into a port and 5-6 ships pop out and pull me into combat just before I can get close enough to enter port.

 

I exit a port battle, and I get pulled into combat before I can go anywhere by 5-6 ships.

 

I am sailing by and suddenly there are 5 ships on top of me out of know where.  

 

To add insult to injury, my buddies can never help me.  The battle was not even going on for 10 minutes, and they tell me the battle is closed.  So its me vs 5 or 6 ships.  

 

Ganking would not be nearly as bad if you made it so my team mates could join and help.  This closed battle crap is the worst.  

 

Until this is fixed, I do not want to play your game.

[Skully]

Really people need to be taught to play this game well. Sometimes I gank, sometimes I get ganked. Get some more tactical awareness is the most important bit I would say.

 

But http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14536-to-gank-or-be-ganked-that-is-the-question/?p=270804... oh well.

[Skully]

PS. Can we get this moved to "General discussions"? Thanks.

[Yar Matey]

There is no amount of skill or tactics that can avoid it. They are hidden from you and always have the advantage. They are hiding in a battle screen with 1 of them watching from a distance, they are waiting for you to pop out of the port battle and have every escape route covered. If I saw them in open world and I get pulled into combat, that is different. You can see it comming and can avoid the situation or choose to enguage.

[Skully]

It's called the bait ship tactic, and here is admin's response: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14485-hiding-in-battle-screens-solved/page-3#entry269459

[Skully]

On the topic of coming out of port battles: never come out alone. The same goes for OW battles as well.

[Yar Matey]

Want a sugestion? 4 min invisibility timer comming out of any battle or port. You can't see any ships and no ships can see you.

[EricKilla]

I just got ganked for the 5th time and I have had enough.  I love this game, but the ganking is just too much.

 

I try to sail into a port and 5-6 ships pop out and pull me into combat just before I can get close enough to enter port.

 

I exit a port battle, and I get pulled into combat before I can go anywhere by 5-6 ships.

 

I am sailing by and suddenly there are 5 ships on top of me out of know where.  

 

To add insult to injury, my buddies can never help me.  The battle was not even going on for 10 minutes, and they tell me the battle is closed.  So its me vs 5 or 6 ships.  

 

Ganking would not be nearly as bad if you made it so my team mates could join and help.  This closed battle crap is the worst.  

 

Until this is fixed, I do not want to play your game.

All I see here is a failure to keep up with the mechanics of the game.

 

1, 2, and 3: You have 30 seconds before they can tag you. Plan accordingly. If you are entering a port, run for the port. If you just exited the port, and get tagged, run into the port. If you're in a PB, if you cap the port successfully, you will be able to join the port and you will be right next to it. Also, you will have all the other people from the PB. If you lose the PB... well you're screwed either way, and that's completely fair if you ask me. Best option in that case is just stay in the PB and do as much damage as you can before leaving.

 

4: You must keep aware of your surroundings at all times. A ship does not magically appear like that, with the one notable exception of someone who has logged off in OW. But even then,  you have 30 seconds where they cannot attack you.

 

5: Battles close after 2 minutes. If this is a problem you encounter constantly, then you should coordinate your efforts with your friends. Wait in port and leave as a group. Gankers have a hard time ganking an equal force.

 

The battles close for two reasons: To help people who have set up an equal battle, so  that the battle may not become ridiculously stacked in one direction after a short period of time. It would not be fair to gankers if all of a sudden ten minutes into the battle, poof here comes a massive fleet. Likewise it would not be fair to defenders who have evened out the battle and are fighting back, to have a new gank fleet pop in all of a sudden.

 

This also prevents Port-Ganking. Port-Ganking is where one ship sits outside port and either tries to goad someone to attack him, or attacks someone  themselves. Then their friends all pop out of the port and wreck your day.

 

 

 

Want a sugestion? 4 min invisibility timer comming out of any battle or port. You can't see any ships and no ships can see you.

 

God no. I get it, it sucks that you get picked off and killed, but something like this would completely kill PvP. We do have a PvE server where you cannot be attacked by other players. If you're having such a problem with PvP, you may want to consider switching to that server.

Edited June 11, 2016 by EricKilla

[Yar Matey]

All I see here is a failure to keep up with the mechanics of the game.

1, 2, and 3: You have 30 seconds before they can tag you. Plan accordingly. If you are entering a port, run for the port. If you just exited the port, and get tagged, run into the port. If you're in a PB, if you cap the port successfully, you will be able to join the port and you will be right next to it. Also, you will have all the other people from the PB. If you lose the PB... well you're screwed either way, and that's completely fair if you ask me. Best option in that case is just stay in the PB and do as much damage as you can before leaving.

4: You must keep aware of your surroundings at all times. A ship does not magically appear like that, with the one notable exception of someone who has logged off in OW. But even then, you have 30 seconds where they cannot attack you.

5: Battles close after 2 minutes. If this is a problem you encounter constantly, then you should coordinate your efforts with your friends. Wait in port and leave as a group. Gankers have a hard time ganking an equal force.

The battles close for two reasons: To help people who have set up an equal battle, so that the battle may not become ridiculously stacked in one direction after a short period of time. It would not be fair to gankers if all of a sudden ten minutes into the battle, poof here comes a massive fleet. Likewise it would not be fair to defenders who have evened out the battle and are fighting back, to have a new gank fleet pop in all of a sudden.

This also prevents Port-Ganking. Port-Ganking is where one ship sits outside port and either tries to goad someone to attack him, or attacks someone themselves. Then their friends all pop out of the port and wreck your day.

God no. I get it, it sucks that you get picked off and killed, but something like this would completely kill PvP. We do have a PvE server where you cannot be attacked by other players. If you're having such a problem with PvP, you may want to consider switching to that server.

Nothing you say here will ever give you even the slightest chance of escaping. And yes, I have seen ships pop out of nowhere and pull me into combat and they are doing It by waiting in battle log screen.

A 3-4 min invisibility timer stops all the port battle ganking, all of the hiding in port ganking. If you want to find a fight, finding eachother in open world is fun. Constantly being pulled into combat every 20 seconds is not fun. This is a slow paced game. It takes me a full 10-15 seconds to turn a big ship around in open world let alone get into a good position to enter combat.

[Paint]

Nothing you say here will ever give you even the slightest chance of escaping. And yes, I have seen ships pop out of nowhere and pull me into combat and they are doing It by waiting in battle log screen.

A 3-4 min invisibility timer stops all the port battle ganking, all of the hiding in port ganking. If you want to find a fight, finding eachother in open world is fun. Constantly being pulled into combat every 20 seconds is not fun. This is a slow paced game. It takes me a full 10-15 seconds to turn a big ship around in open world let alone get into a good position to enter combat.

Maybe you should switch to PVE. A 4 Min invinsibility timer wont fix nothing. if you run for a port you dont need to turn around, and unless you overexagerate you do in the rest of your posts you can enter the port most of the times before the 20 sec attack timer is on 0.

 

And @Knox. Yeah sure. thats why there are 2 Points in the middle, and not one in between and on the end. He´s just a d..k.

[Shrez]

The main problem is the insta teleportation, gankers & zergers have to sail to enemy to do this!

Insta port is ridiculous.

[Lytse Pier]

This game is currently ruled by the people with a statistics and number fetish. Timer here, timer there, a bit more so, a bit less such, a few seconds added, some hitpoints tweaked, etc.

 

This game needs more romantics creating lovely content that make it less worth to even consider a lonely gank, because there are much more fun things to do in the game, like getting your heavily guarded fleet of silver trying to be captured by pirates and when the do considerably hurting your economics and trading income. 

[Hethwill]

3 quarters of the time spent in the game I operate on my own in hostile waters. It is not a thing that can be taught but has to be experienced and a very own personal style of hit and run and escape ganks.

 

I completely conccur with the OP regarding the situation, too many sweep flotillas with little to gain even for them.

 

It is hard for me to sympathize with gank groups unless it is hitting dumb 1st rates on their own milking AI.

[Haratik]

War is war no matter how you look at it.  They tried fixing gank groups on PotBS.  Didn't work too well.  Leave it be.  Maybe a form of communication from spies or what not to players of hostile activity in the area, similar to the coastwatchers in the Pacific during WW2, would be beneficial.

[Powderhorn]

The official response from admin, as pointed out by Skully, can be read here:

 

not sure you are correct

• 120sec does not allow to enter anything (battle close in 118 or so)
• 30 sec invul is longer than attack timer (20 sec)

So if they exit in front of you they still cannot attack during 30 sec (and cannot be attacked)

so you have time to take evasive action at least get a good wind

 

the only case when this hidden gank can happen is this

• bait ship stands outside - bait ship
• other ships hide inside battle results screen (hiding ships)
• bait ship sees you and you are in his zone of attack
• hiding ships exit the battle result screen (and are in the circle) - you actually see them
• bait ship waits for 30 seconds and attacks (to pull those under 120 sec timer)
• to be pulled into battle hiding ships must - be outside for 30 seconds at least AND also be in the pulling zone
• its all happening right in front of your eyes because of abovementioned point - to be able to be pulled hiding ships must be outside for 31 seconds

 

• In all other cases it is impossible

mainly because during the window of attack (20 sec) hiding ships must get into the pulling circle (not so big) and if you are moving it makes it harder for them and they must exit 30!!! seconds BEFORE attack happens so you actually see them anyway

 

TLDR executing such maneuver takes a lot of coordination and you can avoid it. 

 

avoiding is simple

• attack first if you want to attack the bait ship - because if you attack first they wont get in (attack timer 20sec their first invul is 30)
• sail outside of attack pull circle (then reinforcing ships wont enter) if you don't want that fight

 

 

 

to all 

 

or maybe there are bugs we don't know about and you have not reported yet

my suspicion, based on what you all describe, is that there is a bug with a 30sec full invul. 

 

Systems we added don't allow entering battles out of battle results screen (or after login) and you can be pulled into battles under second timer (not initiate them yourself)

 

If this is not working as intended, please, bug report it.  Again, this is an alpha.  Things change as time progresses.  However, attempting to hold the staff hostage with your presence in an alpha by saying that you will quit until something is fixed is not appropriate.