Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

Forthcoming changes in the next content patch 9.97


Recommended Posts

Captains

We would like to share the features we are working on. Features are to be delivered in the next content patch.

During this early access we have found that some features that are realistic (and demanded by players for testing) are later found out to be less fun than the previous implementation. Early access is the only time to test all ideas and cut them if they are not fun. So hang on there - we will be fast and ruthless in cutting things that don't work. 

Feature list that will get in

Land in port battles.

  • This is an experimental feature and might make port battles better or might actually make it worse.
  • Port battles will be run in the harbor of the regional capital of that region.
  • Instead of tower and BR difference requirements, there will be 3 objectives.
  • Controlling objectives gives your side points. If you played conquest mode in Battlefiled 3 you will understand how it works.
  • 3 objectives will be at certain distance from each other sometimes forcing fleets to split up and coordinate. Faster, lighter ships importance will increase.
  • Potential griefing and kiting will be completely eliminated. You won't care if your opponent is kiting you - capture and control 2 objectives and you will eventually win.
  • The only drawback found in testing is this - land changes combat completely and in some cases will slow them down depending on the harbor. Some harbors will be very hard to capture due to their natural composition.
  • Port entry will change and both attackers and defenders will spawn based on their OW position. We don't know about the wind yet but maybe the wind should be taken from the OW forcing attackers to carefully choose the time for attack. 

Global events 

  • PVE challenge. New lobby event focused exclusively on killing NPC ships. Players will have limited time to sink as many opponents as they can (on a pre-selected ship). Event will run weeky (or for several days) depending on the testing results. Top 10 players will be rewarded by ship redeemables, upgrades, rare materials and paint customizations. Ship which can be used in events will change every event. 
  • PVP challenge. Open world map events focused exclusively on sinking players. A special area will be designated for PVP events and will run 3 times per day for Far East, EU and US prime times for several hours. Kills (victories) will be counted for players fighting in that zone. Players who gain leaderboard positions in their respective time zones will be rewarded by ship redeemables, upgrades, rare materials and /or paint customizations. Proposed initial locations for pvp challenge: shallow - Bahamas sand bank above Cuba (2 free towns north and south), deep water - hispaniola channel (3 free towns north south and west).

Crew damage changes

  • It is not logical that all crew can be killed by ball or grape (for some of the sailors are on the masts and yards). We have returned the old sea trials thresholds of 30 and 10%. After you kill 70% of enemy crew it will be harder and harder to inflict more casualties. After losses reach 90% crew damage becomes impossible. The cannonball damage is still under review.
  • Brace is added for testing. Brace allows you to give a take cover command to your crew that will act a s crew shock severely limiting crew casualties, but blocking some of the actions you could do while you are on brace. Brace will stop reload, affect firing ability, stop repairs and water pumping and rudder usage. You will still be able to use yards. 

Possible features (might not make it)

Admiralty store.

  • New currency will be added and will be granted for PvP victories and successful port attack or defense. In its basic implementation players will be able to use this currency to buy rare materials and upgrades. 

Other changes

  • We think that fine woods and ship crafting in general forced players to fight less and sail and craft more. The changes we implemented last patch were based on player proposals and we all thought that they will make the crafting more challenging and provide more options for conquest goals. Testing shown that might have just sucked out all time from PVP and increased the risk levels forcing some players to sail safer.
  • ROE changes. We believe that the final ROE should be a combination of the old roe and new 2 circles system. But with adjustments. 
  • Social perk will return for testing in another form - allowing entry to the weaker side until the battle is balanced.

NEW

Fires will finally damage sails 

ETA - End of November.

Discuss

  • Like 46
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Challenge said:

Look like you are just reverting to a tactical combat simulator and not a persistent word strategy. I thought this could have the depth of something like Eve. Guess not.

 

Even eve has events, anomalies, incursions and tournaments.

PS. NA initially was battles only with the goal to provide the best depiction of the age of sail combat. Open world was added based on player requests like all the other features after that. We never planned to do something like EVE. 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Challenge said:

Then why have open world at all?

because players want it :). We work on player suggestions just check the topic below. all features voted by players were done. Yet we still see a lot of unhappiness on the forum :)

I don't see any connection between adding ow and lobby events with losing persistence. 

 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

We think that fine woods and ship crafting in general forced players to fight less and sail and craft more. The changes we implemented last patch were based on player proposals and we all thought that they will make the crafting more challenging and provide more options for conquest goals. Testing shown that might have just sucked out all time from PVP and increased the risk levels forcing some players to sail safer.

It is listed underneath other changes, but i cant really find a change in these sentences about it. Have fine wood requirements been changed? has it been removed? Is it something up for change in the near future?

I freaking love the land in port battles section combined with the pve/pvp challenges.

Awesome job, and keep it going.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds good. Glad you are rethinking fine woods.  PVE challenges sound cool. PVP challenges, do not think they are needed. There is already an open world for PVP and the small/large battles for those seeking instant action.  Just have a feeling this will draw more away from the open world. 

  • Like 6
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Anne Wildcat said:

Sounds good. Glad you are rethinking fine woods.  PVE challenges sound cool. PVP challenges, do not think they are needed. There is already an open world for PVP and the small/large battles for those seeking instant action.  Just have a feeling this will draw more away from the open world. 

Didn't admin write that these are OW pvp challenges? How can that draw people away from OW?

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

While I love the thought of a completely open world - It always ends up coming down to game design to drive PvP. If special PvP instances have to be added in the open world then so be it.

 

However I think the "PvP Challange zones" should be located randomly around the map every few week or more, to change things up, one dedicated zone that never moves will get old quickly.

Edited by Rramsha
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sounds good,

Could we get some more detail on the PVP events. Is it going to be where we enter as a group and fight it out or is it going to be more of a one on one fight. I like the idea of a true one on one fight, cause I for see a lot of ganging with a group looking to kill any easy kill they can find. Then having a leaderboard is fine, but I worry about the people that have to win no matter what and will use cheats or create cheats in order to be on top of the leader board. Now we are a small group and policing this would be easy for us to see those that use a cheat of some sort. That being said as the community grows, the more difficult it would be to see those that just have to use a cheat to be competitive. I would like the Dev's to keep this in mind, when testing these changes. It is also the community as a whole that needs to help the Dev's out in testing these changes so we all win with a game that we all could be proud of. If players have a lot of ships sitting around like myself have. Now is the time to put them to the test and use them up whether you win or lose them. No use in trying to hold onto them with a wipe in the future. (I would like the ability to challenge a Captain on the OW to a one on one fight if that is a possibility the Dev's could try out before the release of the game). Just an idea. Do not get me wrong cause I do like the group battles as well. They have been fun when you have to make adjustments to changing conditions in the battle.  I also just would like to say thanks for the Dev's hard work.

    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Admin and devs.

 

Something about the "final" implementation of new crafting?

 

Maybe you need change the heating of regions for more port battles. At least one at day. Some people can't to live without them. And make too PvP events for heat the regions too.

Edited by Siegfried
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, z4ys said:

Didn't admin write that these are OW pvp challenges? How can that draw people away from OW?

Bc with timed PVP events, I can see a vast majority of people, those that seem to be looking for a World of Sailing Ships MOBA, flock there at those times and not go out looking for battles anywhere else or any other time. 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, admin said:
  • We think that fine woods and ship crafting in general forced players to fight less and sail and craft more. The changes we implemented last patch were based on player proposals and we all thought that they will make the crafting more challenging and provide more options for conquest goals. Testing shown that might have just sucked out all time from PVP and increased the risk levels forcing some players to sail safer.

I think it's not the fine woods which reduced PvP. It does make crafting more challenging, but I think all you need is some fine tuning. Maybe use the fine woods for upgrades instead of ships? Or reduce the requirements little bit.

I think there are several reasons the PvP has decreased. 1) Capitals used to be hotspots, where lots of players sailed and fought. Now there are mostly new players around capitals. 2) New resource distribution forced players to spread out. It's more difficult to find other players when there are so many possible locations. 3) New hostility system is nice, but it does not force people to search other players. 

My suggestions:

1) Add something which makes capitals important for all players. Better prices? Daily auctions for special materials such as fine woods? Or freeport deliveries for capitals (remove ship building in capitals in that case), so that people can trade in the capitals.

2) I like the new resource system. Perhaps there should be some rough statistics about arrivals and departures of player ships in port or regions so that we all can see where other people are sailing. This would be realistic because there would be no difficulties in spying in the harbours.

3) Someone suggested that hostility could be raised by players sailing in the region. This would force other players to search and destroy enemy ships in the region.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, Anne Wildcat said:

Bc with timed PVP events, I can see a vast majority of people, those that seem to be looking for a World of Sailing Ships MOBA, flock there at those times and not go out looking for battles anywhere else or any other time. 

It's better that they flock there than not play the game at all. This sounds like something that could bring lobby players into the OS, if only occasionally to get to the challenge and to get the ships needed for the challenges.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, admin said:

The changes we implemented last patch [...]  we all thought that they will make the crafting more challenging and provide more options for conquest goals. Testing shown that might have just sucked out all time from PVP [...].

Indeed. I seriously hope you will take appropriate steps so we will see less grinding (and less need to do so forced by game machanics) and thus more PvP in the future.

Which is also the reason I can not endorse the Admirality shop concept. It will continue the trend that imo is tearing apart the player base in favour of the "hardcore gamers/grinders" and big clans while the casuals are left behind resulting in an overall dwindling number of players in total.

 

That said, looking forward to land battles and the challenges sound like a good idea.

Edited by Sir Isaac Redwood
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really look forward to the new patch! The change to fine woods is a good idea, and the inclusion of land in port battles will make things great!

Also, I very strongly support the "Battlefield III" strategy. Great work, as always. I look forward to testing this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can't wait for the Land in Port battles - I don't see a negative on this one, it will add much more depth to the strategy and tactics of PB and RvR. Some harbors should be much more defensible and some should be easier to take depending on the land, shallows and fortifications.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks great to me, I think the response addresses most of the feedback I hear people talking about, so good job.

Hostility Bombs not mentioned, hopefully they will be looked into seperately.

PvP events seems like fun, but I would really like to see port raiding to see how that might shape the game play too. (generating hostility, risk/reward).

My advice, remove "ETA - End of November" :P 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, JonSnowLetsGo said:

Make PvP great again <3

Also consider excluding NPC fleets from OW engagements.

Too many player fleets on PvP. I dont mind the OW fleets.

OW fleets being drawn from the 2nd zone of the circle, sure they should be filtered somehow. The tag zone is okay if they get dragged i.e. lone trader staying with a OW convoy.

If players fleets are to stay, make them 2 and 4 perk points respectively or similar.

 

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Guest
This topic is now closed to further replies.
×
×
  • Create New...