Testbed: Content patch - 9.98 deployed

[Sir Texas Sir]

6 minutes ago, TommyShelby said:

Yeah being able to choose the Armament you want is very nice. 
However my point was that i chose the Armament i wanted for the Essex but when i actually got into battle i was in a Snow with Carronades. (Frustrating :p) 

I'm going to bet you where doing the mission set up one one type of mission and while you where doing that it changed to another.  The count down is that the ships change out every so often through out the day so they aren't the same ships and there is more than one time in a day you can place each of the missions.  Though I thought there was a pause time between each one that you couldn't do the battle.  Like a cool down.  Will have to recheck later today when I do some playing. I'm going to beat one of those dang missions before the testbed is updated next patch lol

25 minutes ago, AngryPanCake said:

1- Good to know players can actually switch guns prior to the challenge. I was just going to ask the question.

2- I did get the Essex, beautiful ship. Great work on the ship model, I had never seen it before. I was wondering what the opponent was. The trincomalee was a tough nut to crack, I guess...cause it kicked my arse twice! Turns on a dime and her master gunner is top notch.

The changing of the ships is a great feature, so people don't get bored with fighting in the same one and/on the same opponent over and over again.

The problem is the Trinc (short nick for it) should not be turning on the dime.  The Essex has a turn rate of 3.11 and the Trinc has a turn rate of 2.56.  That is a big difference. The Trinc also has some pretty poor upwind speed compared to the Essex.  One of the problems is the AI in the game basically get all the mods on green level (I think) so they auto get mods that you don't have on the freebie ship and they do seem to do things they shouldn't be doing either.  

It seems they have tweeked the missions as the demast one I did the other day in a cutter was paired up agianst one ship of more equal BR so I'll have to go through and check each of the missions again.  They use to pair you up with two ships of higher BR which was way to hard and pretty much impossible to do.

[Sir Texas Sir]

44 minutes ago, AngryPanCake said:

2- Combat orders (which are not new): there are multiple levels from Midshipman to Admiral, any link to a post that explains what the different levels mean?

 

The first tab is self explanatory, it's the location of the missions.  You can't take missions around capital regions.  If it's a region your nation owns it brings down any agro in that area, if it's a region your nation doesn't own it creates agro.  The Difficulty level is by rank.  You will get ships of around those ranks.   They match up close to what you would be able to crew around that rank.  The box below turns it from a solo mission into a fleet mission.  Normally your all ways going to be out number in fleet missions so it's better to do a mission a level or two below you until you get good at them.  SO say your Second Lieutenant you prob only want to do Junior Lieutenant missions.   I noticed though lately some of the ships match up and BR are a little off.  Like I done midshipman missions and got ships that you couldn't crew until your Second Lieutenant.

[AngryPanCake]

2 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

The problem is the Trinc (short nick for it) should not be turning on the dime.  The Essex has a turn rate of 3.11 and the Trinc has a turn rate of 2.56.  (2) That is a big difference. The Trinc also has some pretty poor upwind speed compared to the Essex.  (1) One of the problems is the AI in the game basically get all the mods on green level (I think) so they auto get mods that you don't have on the freebie ship and they do seem to do things they shouldn't be doing either. 

I see,

1- Since fighting AI is in no way comparable to fighting another player. With all things being equal, I assume an 'average' player will probably beat the AI using the exact same ship with the exact same characteristics. A human player has the ability to adjust and adapt, current AI not so much. In order to give the AI some type of edge and not be a push over and/or making these missions "farming" missions, the AI needs some improved characteristics such as better gunnery, maneuverability, armor and whatnot. If the opponent is easily defeated mission after mission, the player loses interest rather quickly.

2- Now, if the balance is tilted too much towards the AI and missions become practically impossible to win, that will also make players lose interest.

In other words, it's all about balancing not too much not too little. This type of testing will allow us to provide feedback in order to find just the right edge for AI opponents.

[Remus]

2 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

 Like I done midshipman missions and got ships that you couldn't crew until your Second Lieutenant.

Without any AI on your side? Midshipman missions usually give you a helper, and the one I tried on Testbed did too.

I don't particularly like missions so I haven't done a great deal of them (and only up to M&C level as that's myu current Live rank), but Testbed and Live seem set about the same to me in terms of ships. Midshipman missions are pretty much impossible for anyone actually ranked midshipmen to do anything with except hide behind the AI friendly.

[AngryPanCake]

7 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

The first tab is self explanatory, it's the location of the missions.  You can't take missions around capital regions.  If it's a region your nation owns it brings down any agro in that area, if it's a region your nation doesn't own it creates agro.  The Difficulty level is by rank.  You will get ships of around those ranks.   They match up close to what you would be able to crew around that rank.  The box below turns it from a solo mission into a fleet mission.  Normally your all ways going to be out number in fleet missions so it's better to do a mission a level or two below you until you get good at them.  SO say your Second Lieutenant you prob only want to do Junior Lieutenant missions.   I noticed though lately some of the ships match up and BR are a little off.  Like I done midshipman missions and got ships that you couldn't crew until your Second Lieutenant.

So, it's linked to a rank not the ship you bring into the mission? If I am let's say a Captain able to crew a Frigate and chose a Captain level mission, but show up in a Cutter, I will probably meet a Frigate?

[AngryPanCake]

2 minutes ago, Remus said:

Without any AI on your side? Midshipman missions usually give you a helper, and the one I tried on Testbed did too.

I don't particularly like missions so I haven't done a great deal of them (and only up to M&C level as that's myu current Live rank), but Testbed and Live seem set about the same to me in terms of ships. Midshipman missions are pretty much impossible for anyone actually ranked midshipmen to do anything with except hide behind the AI friendly.

If you don't mind me asking, what is it that you don't like about them?

As a beginner in PvE, I thought they were great. They provided Gold and XP, made me sail to a specific location, thus improving my OW sailing ability etc.

[Sir Texas Sir]

4 minutes ago, AngryPanCake said:

I see,

1- Since fighting AI is in no way comparable to fighting another player. With all things being equal, I assume an 'average' player will probably beat the AI using the exact same ship with the exact same characteristics. A human player has the ability to adjust and adapt, current AI not so much. In order to give the AI some type of edge and not be a push over and/or making these missions "farming" missions, the AI needs some improved characteristics such as better gunnery, maneuverability, armor and whatnot. If the opponent is easily defeated mission after mission, the player loses interest rather quickly.

2- Now, if the balance is tilted too much towards the AI and missions become practically impossible to win, that will also make players lose interest.

In other words, it's all about balancing not too much not too little. This type of testing will allow us to provide feedback in order to find just the right edge for AI opponents.

Yah there needs to be a balance in there and that was why I had F11 the crap out of those missions when I tried them last month, but seems they tweeked them some and I need to go play them some.  I'm not the best player, above average but the average player should be able to finish those missions even if they don't get the best time the majority of the time.  The winners will be the guys with the best scores of course.  Try them out and give your feed back.

2 minutes ago, Remus said:

Without any AI on your side? Midshipman missions usually give you a helper, and the one I tried on Testbed did too.

I don't particularly like missions so I haven't done a great deal of them (and only up to M&C level as that's myu current Live rank), but Testbed and Live seem set about the same to me in terms of ships. Midshipman missions are pretty much impossible for anyone actually ranked midshipmen to do anything with except hide behind the AI friendly.

I seen this on live servers and on test, but I think they are getting better.  Still two cutters against a Rattler, N. Brig or Mercury is going to be hard press when those ships can crew/reload shock you with ever broadside of their guns.  

I haven't been testing the missions in a week or so, but was planing to get on today after lunch and do so and spend most of today and tomorrow on testbed.  We need more folks to log in and give feed back too so that some issues like this can be ironed out before it goes to live later in the month.  Crossing my fingers and hoping we get an update in testbed this week for more time to test the new content.

[Sir Texas Sir]

8 minutes ago, AngryPanCake said:

So, it's linked to a rank not the ship you bring into the mission? If I am let's say a Captain able to crew a Frigate and chose a Captain level mission, but show up in a Cutter, I will probably meet a Frigate?

Yes and no...   

It will look at how many folks you have in your group and add more ships for the fleet version.  With the other side always having 1-2 more ship than your side.  I have noticed that if I bring a bigger ship it seems to put in more bigger ships of that tier/rank of the mission. So I'm guessing that it does look at your BR and maybe weighs the mission a bit.  That or just my bad luck with the RNG always throwing the harder odds at me.  RNG really does hate me in games some time. Though in your example yes if you show up in a cutter you will be fighting a frigate.  If you show up in a 1st rate you should still be fighting a frigate or ships of that BR range for the mission.

[Remus]

Just now, AngryPanCake said:

If you don't mind me asking, what is it that you don't like about them?

As a beginner in PvE, I thought they were great. They provided Gold and XP, made me sail to a specific location, thus improving my OW sailing ability etc.

Oh, just that I prefer looking for my own enemies on OW rather than getting them handed to me on a plate. Also I have spent a lot of time crafting and looking through the economy stuff. Setting up outposts and buildings crippled me in the early days so attacking traders was my bread and butter (and in the first few levels gave a lot more gold and about the same xp as missions). Now I'm in frigates and have plenty of money missions are rather more attractive, but if I play this game like I played PotBS I'll be dividing my time pretty equally between crafting, studying combat mechanics and solo PvP hunting, with the odd PB thrown in for fun. Now, I wonder where I put that headset ...

In answer to your other question, the mission rank is the rank at which you should be able to take them, if you bring a ship that's also of that rank. So a midshipman in a cutter shoud be able to complete a midshipman mission and an M&C in a Surprise should be able to complete a Master & Commander mission. Sometimes you can, but I'd generally recommend picking the level below the ship you want to take with you. But anyone can take any level, and xp and gold are rewarded on mission level not player level

[AngryPanCake]

21 hours ago, Remus said:

Oh, just that I prefer looking for my own enemies on OW rather than getting them handed to me on a plate. Also I have spent a lot of time crafting and looking through the economy stuff. Setting up outposts and buildings crippled me in the early days so attacking traders was my bread and butter (and in the first few levels gave a lot more gold and about the same xp as missions). Now I'm in frigates and have plenty of money missions are rather more attractive, but if I play this game like I played PotBS I'll be dividing my time pretty equally between crafting, studying combat mechanics and solo PvP hunting, with the odd PB thrown in for fun. Now, I wonder where I put that headset ...

In answer to your other question, the mission rank is the rank at which you should be able to take them, if you bring a ship that's also of that rank. So a midshipman in a cutter shoud be able to complete a midshipman mission and an M&C in a Surprise should be able to complete a Master & Commander mission. Sometimes you can, but I'd generally recommend picking the level below the ship you want to take with you. But anyone can take any level, and xp and gold are rewarded on mission level not player level

Thanks for sharing and more thanks for the tip.

 

 

EDIT:

I have forgotten to mention that during my 2 PvE Kill missions, the Essex caught fire during each battle. Is the Essex prone to fires? I fought other battles on the live PvE server and so far none of my ships had caught fire (obviously the Basic Cutter, the Privateer, a Snow).

EDIT 2:

Played another PvE challenge involving an Essex class frigate, it caught fire at the first enemy broadside.

Edited April 2, 2017 by AngryPanCake
forgotten feedback info. Additional info.

[Sir Texas Sir]

Ok did some missions this morning.

Demast - Snow vs Rattlesnake: I took the Carros, but no mods I couldn't hit crap and seems the Rattlesnake was more nimble to me and i got shredded.  Will try later with longs and keep my distance. Tried again with longs and I almost had the mast down but just too much damage.  Again prob do better with a player built ship and taking my time. I don't realy have a complaint on this BR wise cause I liked the challenge, but it just seem the AI is way to accurate at a distance I was keeping mine and trying to dart in to get mast hits with sail shots and than move in for actually ball shots on the mast and just seems he would hit ever shot no matter the distance I was from him.  He seems to turn way to quick to so I couldn't stern camp him.  This seems to be a problem with most of the light ships that can turn on a dim and through wind and not loose hardly any speed (for the AI not a player).  

Kills - Essex vs Frigate:  Got one killed but was torn up pretty bad so I ran for it when the second popped since I would be the only one on the score board one kill was plenty.  Yah could prob do better knowing the build of the ship for sure.   I used the 32's and just out DPS the Frigates cannons.  I would defiantly want a better build than what ever default was.  Something agile hull or turn spec as that was most of the fight was us just turning and trying to get the better wind of each other. I had plenty of time to kill the second if I wasn't so damage from the first.  So like I said it would be way higher score if I had a player built ship I'm sure.

Time - Cutter vs 2 Snows:   started it just to see the match up and than surrender. I'm not a big fan of this one on the live server and tend to just skip it on the PvP2 server when did the mission.   Yah as soons as I saw it was snows I just gave up as those machine guns are going to cut me to shreds.  Never said I was very good at these things.  That BR is to much a difference so some one else can try that one.

 

Over all I think the BR's are a lot better matched up than say a month ago.   Defiantly would have a better chance with your own ship built just for the missions.  For the ships I used in the Demast and Kills felt better matched than before.  I'll try again later when the ships are changed out to something else.  I'll edit the rewards once that drops.

Ignore my crappy score for the PvE Kills missions above.  Though wanted to point out cause a log of folks keep asking about the smuggler flag. Out of habit as a pirate I never have a reason to take it off.  Every one can attack pirates after all, but the Devs mention in a few topics that you can still attack folks with the flag (PvE Zone topic) if they have it set and it makes a Pirate FFA battle.  Sounds like to me the Smuggler flag is the old school one we had back when there was Pirate vs Pirate which we are getting back this patch too.  So there is a way to get into other nations ports, but you take the risk of being attacked by any one.  Even your own nation.

Edited April 2, 2017 by Sir Texas Sir

[Sir Texas Sir]

20 hours ago, AngryPanCake said:

Thanks for sharing and more thanks for the tip.

EDIT:

I have forgotten to mention that during my 2 PvE Kill missions, the Essex caught fire during each battle. Is the Essex prone to fires? I fought other battles on the live PvE server and so far none of my ships had caught fire (obviously the Basic Cutter, the Privateer, a Snow).

I didn't have a problem with my ships catching fire, but I did light the frigate I was fighting on fire.  Than I put it into reload shock with a good broad side of the 32's.  After that it went down pretty fast as it couldn't reload with the crew fighting the fire and than in shock.  I think a built Essex would do well in this mission and get the norm of 2 kills easly.   I know they are making these harder cause some of the scores on PvP1 are pretty good with the current missions on live servers.  I can score on PvP2 but I'm not good enough in this style of fighting to score on PvP1 in the top 10, which is fin as not every one should be able to.

Though when I was doing the log in and one mission thing on my third account (yes I have three) I tagged got a rattler against my cutter and buddy in the midshipman mission.  It light on fire and I did a crew shock and just keep it down on crew and on fire.  I basically stroked that fire until it looked close to the mag and I get the hell out of it.  I never actually sat back and watched one blow.  I been in many a port battles and such in the heat of battle and even been fireships myself, but to truly sat back and watch a ship blow was kinda cool.   I have noticed a high rate of fires lately.

[Teutonic]

If it hasn't been said before.

Just had a group to fool around in our redeem victories in 200xp missions - seems Stern raking is NOT damaging the center structure HPs like it probably should? we still were able to rip their crew to shreds and also a couple demasts from stern raking, but the hit point bar for the "structure integrity" did not get damaged from stern rakes. We believe it to be a bug and did some bug reporting. Overall we liked the structural integrity, but felt that the Armor of the ships was being "erased" at an alarming rate and basically finishing battles around 30% faster than on the live server. Some of us believe that Battles will be ending too quickly, but it remains to be seen without some further testing.

[Remus]

2 hours ago, Teutonic said:

If it hasn't been said before.

Just had a group to fool around in our redeem victories in 200xp missions - seems Stern raking is NOT damaging the center structure HPs like it probably should? we still were able to rip their crew to shreds and also a couple demasts from stern raking, but the hit point bar for the "structure integrity" did not get damaged from stern rakes. We believe it to be a bug and did some bug reporting.

To me that sounds exactly right.

Stern raking was for killing crew, not (as I understand) for sinking ships.

[Sir Texas Sir]

I think the problem on the armor loosing for me looks like the AI is hitting every shot like they have 100% accuracy with every shot even at a distance again.  I had some shots I would range the first ball or two to make range and he hits perfectly before I can fire my broadside back.  I tried using the longs on the essex this morning and was shreaded with the frigates had my armor down and I only got a notch or tow off him.  He just hit perfectly with every round and that was annoying.  I think the make of the ships are random to.  I might of been in a harder woood one time and than that last one soft wood.  

I never got my reward yesterday from the PvE missions I did. So I did another one this morning and will check to see if I missed something.

As for the stern racks I think it's the hit box locations. I notice if I hit the stern kinda high I kill crew but not get any hull hits or damage.  If I aim kinda lower than that I get hull damage but no hardly any crew kills.

[snakemac]

Hi all,

Just a small issue with cargo in fleet ships. At the moment, (unless I am missing something) If you cap a merchantman and take to fleet you have to transfer the cargo to your warship. if the cargo is too big then you have to take command of the merchantman and put the warship in fleet. This breaks the immersion factor a bit imho. Logically,  if you cap a merchant ship you should be able to just send a prize crew to her. Like I said not a big issue , but would be nice to fix it if it is not to difficult.

cheers Snakemac

[snakemac]

Hi Vodka,

I agree it is not a big issue. I is just an observation. When you swap from one ship to the other in the battle screen (ie take command)... the cargo goes back to the 'unclaimed cargo' area mid screen. So you can't just load up the trader and send it to fleet in the battle screen because the cargo con only be assigned to your currant ship ... that is my point.

cheers

[Sir Texas Sir]

They said in the future they will have a way to change cargo around in the battle screen but for now this is just one step of the new system.   

[Remus]

I think I read a post about being able to use fleet ships' cargo holds, but its not in game yet, nor on Testbed. While I am undecided whether this is a good idea when leaving port, I definitely think you should be able to use the cargo hold of fleet ships when exiting battle. Possibly restrict it to ships you've just captured, but I see no problem filling up fleet ships you brought along with you as well or instead of the captured trader.

It looks like resources will be rather hard come by after the wipe, and raiding traders (NPC and players) may become an important part of gameplay, for the economy as well as to satisfy the urges of the seal clubbers we have among us. But you have to be able to seize the cargo to make this work, and ideally you should then be attackable yourself. But if you are attackable you also need to be able to defend yourself, which is rather tricky if you are in the trader and the warship is in your fleet.

[snakemac]

Hi Remus,

The ability to use fleet ships for cargo is already on the testbed. In port you can load them as vodka describes or simply via the fleet screen. however this is not the case in the battle screen as described above. i will be interesting to see the impact of fleet cargo. It already has proved useful when I shifted outposts. However, it may have a detrimental effect on the economy due to over supply. For example, with a 3rd level fleet perk, a LGV with 3 other LGVs in fleet can carry 12,400 units at a time.

cheers snakemac

[Sir Texas Sir]

@admin Ok are missions rewards turned off?  That is two days in a row I didn't get any mission pay out and I placed in the top 10 in one mission.   Would be nice to know this.  Wanted to see if they changed anything about the chest rewards.

Edited April 5, 2017 by Sir Texas Sir

[Havelock]

On 4.4.2017 at 10:20 AM, Sir Texas Sir said:

@admin Ok are missions rewards turned off?  That is two days in a row I didn't get any mission pay out and I placed in the top 10 in one mission.   Would be nice to know this.  Wanted to see if they changed anything about the chest rewards.

 

Afaik mission rewards as well as scheduling PBs doesnt workt because theres no maintenance on testbed.

[Hethwill]

PBs do work.

I did see two open some days ago and one was actually won.

[Sir Texas Sir]

Well with the current patch info update and the patch not coming until maybe next week I pretty much have no reason to be on test now until than.  Only been on there most of the last few days cause PvP2 has been so dead.  It's going to be even more dead for the rest of the month.  Guess I'll see most of ya'll end of next week when the testbed gets updated.

[Remus]

10 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

PBs do work.

I did see two open some days ago and one was actually won.

I was disappointed to miss yesterday's window. There was definitely a PB on Friday for the winner - the only combatant - told me about it as he was sailing around in his Cerberus . What's the plan - do you just open a window when one of you wants a play?