Game mechanic for helping smaller nations

[Tiedemann]

Hello!

 

Problem:

Right now there is no team balancing feature in this game and the population on the server are starting to get low. Maybe having some sort of balancing feature in game would help. Denying new players to choose a crowded nation should not be a option, but there should be some drawbacks to join a large populated nation. Unbalanced nations put a strain on the smaller nations, while the big nations have it to easy at the moment. There should be more serous drawbacks for choosing the easy/safest option and more reward for choosing a smaller nation.

 

Idea:

So why could we not have a xp and gold advantage for players fighting for small nations, and a disadvantage for those who are fighting for the biggest nation? Then the new players that join a small struggling nation would rank up faster and players that actually choose to stay and fight in the low populated nations would get a reward for their effort. At the same time it would give the biggest nations a disadvantage. Information about the nations state should be visible when creating a new character and choosing you new nation. 

I have to add that this idea came from a discussion I had with The_Scipio. We both play for Danmark-Norge and the way we see it Damark-Norge should be considered a medium nation, and should therefor not benefit from this proposal. 

 

Proposal for implementation:

We could have a ingame mechainc that count active players who logged on the last days/week and sort it by nation. If there is a big difference between the biggest and the smallest player base, then the biggest nation could get a 0.5x implemented on all their gained gold and xp, while the smalest nation could get a 2.0x on their gold and xp. If there is a big difference in the other nations as well, then those should also get a multiplier according to their active players count to balance it out. This mechanic should not be activated at all times, but only when the differens between two nations become to big, 50-100% differens. This is just ment as a practical example of how the idea could work, and the numbers might be a bit high/low.  

 

Thank you for reading and have a good night/morning/day.

Edited September 3, 2016 by Tiedemann

[Skully]

How would you deal with alts? They can effectively funnel gold from any Nation to another.

[Kloothommel]

How would you deal with alts? They can effectively funnel gold from any Nation to another.

I would say that is the 2nd step. Reducing resource gain because of large population sounds kinda logical.

[Tiedemann]

How would you deal with alts? They can effectively funnel gold from any Nation to another.

 

If for example: a British player has Swedish 2. account and is willing to play as a Swedish player for several hours to grind money doing PvE and PvP, side by side with the rest of the Swedish nation. Then wo-ho! He would be sailing around in Swedish waters with a swedish flag and getting ganked by pirates and British, just as any other swedish player. I don't see a problem with that. Yes the money he makes will get send back to his main and he would probably not participate in PvP to help the swedish nation, but he would be just like any other PvE player. 

For all we know the sneaky British exploiter in this example could fall in love with the hard working, caring and friendly Swedish nation. Then maybe he would open his eyes and se that in this small nation he could make a difference. That he alone could be enough to give the Swedish a fighting chance. So then he turns on his old country and use his main British account as a double agent, with the intent to destroy the evil British empire from the inside. Mohaha!

 

Seriously I don't see alts as a big problem in this case, it takes to much time and effort. When they are used to drag enemy attack fleets into battle or take enemy slots in port battles, that is a obvious problem. This on the other hand might be the beginning of a new player-nation love story.. You never know!    

[The_Scipio]

How would you deal with alts? They can effectively funnel gold from any Nation to another.

You cannot avoid exploitation of such an approach. But somehow putting a largely populated nation at some disadvantage and similarly adding some advantages to the small nation, could maybe generate more players towards the smaller nation, so in the end nations are somewhat equalized.

In the end it's our belief it would improve the gameplay simply by having more equal nations fighting each other, thereby countering the "zerg" we have been seeing too much until now and have sent the game into a death spiral.

 

It's pretty easy, when you create your account, first of all you are given the choice, do you want to play easy, medium, hard, or very hard, based on your choice, you are then presented with certain nations, for instance do you want to play easy, Brits and Dutch show up, medium, equals France, hard, equals Denmark-Norway, Sweden or Spain, Very hard equals pirates....

Off course this will be dynamic, as if you see a big increase in the nations player base, the nation will go from hard to medium and so on, and the other way too.

 

Just to elaborate the problem as it is today, a theoretical example; we could all just create alt. accounts and join the Brits for instance. Imagine every player now only playing he's alt. account in the Brit nation....not many (zero) to fight ehh? maybe such a drastic behavior would open the eyes of the developers seeing the problematic issue we have with a too unbalanced game, as of today?

 

Either way, something has to be done about it, or this game will eventually end up as a beautiful failure with a player base so low that the game isn't sustainable in the end.

 

This is the reality! therefore please stop arguing with the usual arguments "We have more PVE'er than you etc." it's about active players regardless of them being mostly into PVE or PVP, even PVE'ers will join PVP when they greatly outnumber the opposing side.

Edited September 4, 2016 by The_Scipio

[Lucas Corso]

 

 

It's pretty easy, when you create your account, first of all you are given the choice, do you want to play easy, medium, hard, or very hard, based on your choice, you are then presented with certain nations, for instance do you want to play easy, Brits and Dutch show up, medium, equals France, hard, equals Denmark-Norway, Sweden or Spain, Very hard equals pirates....

Off course this will be dynamic, as if you see a big increase in the nations player base, the nation will go from hard to medium and so on, and the other way too.

 

 

This! Won't totally fix problem but will help a lot, also it's a very easy change to make.

Edited September 4, 2016 by Lucien Delmonte

[Skully]

Just to elaborate the problem as it is today, a theoretical example; we could all just create alt. accounts and join the Brits for instance. Imagine every player now only playing he's alt. account in the Brit nation....not many (zero) to fight ehh? maybe such a drastic behavior would open the eyes of the developers seeing the problematic issue we have with a too unbalanced game, as of today?

We have already been there.

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/11653-caribbean-painted-black/

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14230-paint-it-black/

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14165-the-betrayal-of-the-ausez-to-the-british-empire/?p=264990

So far each time it ran up to a mechanic barrier, like Spain is not running up to it as well, PB Timers.

Leading to a mass exodus of players. Nobody wants to fight a mechanic in a MMO, we all want to fight players.

The Honduras Campaign almost brought over the AUS/KIN players, but apparently they do not value their sleep as much as we do.

Plus it made no sense for them to come over. We are one-another adversaries in the 10-12 slot.

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14676-pvp1-june-the-british-honduras-campaign-pirate-perspective/

And once again the PB timers barrier was hit.

Now Region Conquest is coming and hopefully with it the strategic abuse of PB timers.

It is a known exploit to set ports to anything other than no-timer. Since all of you here are of good sportsmanship, I expect it won't happen again.

Then we can let stories run their course to the end (literally).

 

Embrace the Black Plague to the full and let the play2win players be its cure. Thus define a new endgame that promotes play2win players to "own" nations.

• A capitol can be capped (via prevailing PB means) once that nation is down to its last port (e.g. the capital).
• All players belonging to the losing nation will be switched over to the winning nation at no cost.
• At any time Lord Protectors can put in a vote for a new capital for either a (Pirate/)sub-nation or (if available) a full nation.
  • The Lord Protector of the new capital dictates the nature of the nation, full or Pirate. And if Pirate, a name.
  • For full nation (if available), you need a vote containing 20 ports (some Lord Protectors have more ports than 1).
  • For a Pirate nation, you need a vote of 10 ports.
  • All ports belonging to the Lord Protectors passing a vote will change to the new nation. Likewise will the Lord Protectors themselves. All at no cost of assets.
• A Pirate nation does not have an Admiralty, so no gold for captures, nor PvE missions. This to ensure that Lords are very willing to go full nation.

I'm very curious to see if we'll see an Aussie nation.

The destiny of our universe should lie in the hands of all players.

Do we want to ruffle stump a small Nation? Yes, then so be it. But they can come back.

Do we want to ruffle stump the universe? Yes, then so be it and everything will be lost as Exterminates will rage through Season's End.

How many players actually want to lose everything they have build up?

Edited September 4, 2016 by Skully

[Mrdoomed]

If for example: a British player has Swedish 2. account and is willing to play as a Swedish player for several hours to grind money doing PvE and PvP, side by side with the rest of the Swedish nation. Then wo-ho! He would be sailing around in Swedish waters with a swedish flag and getting ganked by pirates and British, just as any other swedish player. I don't see a problem with that. Yes the money he makes will get send back to his main and he would probably not participate in PvP to help the swedish nation, but he would be just like any other PvE player.

For all we know the sneaky British exploiter in this example could fall in love with the hard working, caring and friendly Swedish nation. Then maybe he would open his eyes and se that in this small nation he could make a difference. That he alone could be enough to give the Swedish a fighting chance. So then he turns on his old country and use his main British account as a double agent, with the intent to destroy the evil British empire from the inside. Mohaha!

Seriously I don't see alts as a big problem in this case, it takes to much time and effort. When they are used to drag enemy attack fleets into battle or take enemy slots in port battles, that is a obvious problem. This on the other hand might be the beginning of a new player-nation love story.. You never know!

So in other words award people for gaming the system and allow them to buy wins and advantage.

This is the worst part of NA as it is basically being pay to win and you want to make it worse? No thanks