Hotfix 2 for testbed patch 9.99

[Bubba Smith]

22 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

only in battle or OW.

Thanks - I thought so. There should be a way to use them in port. Also my use slider keeps getting stuck, it won't move so I can't heal crew or use repair kits OW or in battle.

 

Edited April 22, 2017 by Buba Smith

[TheLoneWolf]

i know this post may not be the most popular and also that I risk getting banned. I am not looking to spam or do anything like that.  This is meant as an honest assessment of the current status of the game by me if some of the changes in this patch are implement.  First off, let me state that i really enjoy this game and this post is not meant as a critique but a wake up call to try to save the game.

First, let's look at the game from a perspective of a newbie.  You get a basic cutter, no gold or repairs.  You cannot get any of this as you have no money.  Also, you need to sink a ship to get money as capping one gives you no money.  If you are new to this game, you will experience quite a bit of frustration just to get started and many will give up before even getting their first kill.  This is not good for player population.  At a minimum, newbies should be given some money to get started. At least enough to get an outpost or two and a building.  The risk is that an alt can be used to farm money but this can be easily remedied by giving permits for the first few towns and 1-2 buildings instead of cash.

Second, let's now look at this from the perspective of your casual gamer.  Most of these want to make some quick money to buy a ship and play.  Good luck now.  There are no tp to freetowns and no deliveries.  To get the resources, you will need to sail, sail and sail.  Now who wants to waste their time doing this all evening specially if all you get is 1 hour or so after the wife and kids are in bed.  The hardcore will do it no doubt, but the hardcores already have this game and they are not the new players we are after.  Much debate has arisen as to why the server population became so low.  It is quite simple.  The easy money has been removed and the casual gamers do not want to invest considerable hours in this game.  If we look back at the trend and loss of population, 1st was limit on port purchases (compass wood was all the rage before). This was removed. Then there was tobacco this was removed.  Then came crew costs and crew loss.  Now trading has been rendered very difficult as anything of value has been removed and you can no longer move around your ships so you need to sail and sail and sail...  Also, the ports no longer produce mats and resources.  So, good luck making easy money as it now requires considerable time and effort and lets face it, not everyone has that.  Yes a player based economy would be great but we need players for this.  PVP was averaging about 100 players in the evenings on a good night.  The number would climb to 130-140 when there was a pb but it would drop right after.  If we remove alts, there were maybe 70-75 persons on pvp2 in the evening.  It was a challenge to find those players and I can only imagine what it will be after this patch is implemented.

Now let's look at this from the perspective of the hardcore gamer.  The removal of tp to freeport now requires that you set up an outpost in a port owned by your nation near the action or that you sail and sail and sail.  Now the hardcore gamer wants the pvp and will not do this for long.  With our current low population base, this may be done a few times but will quickly be abandoned as deemed an exercise in futility.  You quickly run out of youtube videos to watch.  So the last remaining bastion will slowly erode and with them the game.  Also, the game removed 1st rate crafting, everything is now based around grinding and pve points.  You can go from pve to pvp but not the other way around.  This beckons the question, why have a pve server when the pvp server is being converted into one.  Everyone will be so busy trying to get pve points that there will be no more pvp!  Furthermore, with the removal of tp's every clan will have a little zone and much sailing will be required to get to the periphery of that zone for pvp.  It was a challenge assembling enough players to have a good pb on pvp2.  This now risks being impossible to do.  

Lastly, we have the traders and crafters.  There will be little to no money so no one will buy their goods or ships.  So they will soon give that up.They will also grow tired of the endless sailing... well maybe.

So we will end up with a huge amount of resources and crafting hours as we now have only 21 ships so what is the use of crafting more and getting more resources and ship parts!  The argument that we will lose the ships will not hold since everyone will be in there little zone and there will be little to no pvp action.  

A few other points to consider:

Freetowns will be used by players with alts and will become an alt hub, that is all. There is no use for them other than that.  The argument that nations will trade between themselves is a moot point. It has not happened so far and will not happen in the future. Why would you want to help your enemy and if you need the resource, you get an alt in that nation to ensure a reliable supply.  Freeports have no use for a regular player.  Why get a freeport instead of a national port.  There is simply no logic for this.  Freeports used to be a gathering point to get some pvp.  This will no longer happen and that is a shame.

A 21 ship limit.  Why is this and what is the point?  Where players complaining of having too many ships?  The fun was to craft different ships and try them out.  With 21 ships this will be difficult to do.  Also, what happens when you reach 21 it gets quite boring and no use crafting.

The new grinding system to open slots of ships.  This is forcing veteran players to sail and grind ships that they already ground and is very boring and frustrating.  Alt farming will be used that is for sure resulting in an imbalance.  Players with ships that do not have the slots open will be regarded as 2nd rate players and will be excluded from port battles.   Let the player grind the ships he wants but do not force him to grind other ships.  Grinding ships will result in players doing pve instead of pvp and will remove these from the game.  They will not want to sail and sail and sail and maybe get pvp.  Instead they will hit nearby fleets to ensure they get xp as well as the precious pve marks.

Making 1st rates hard if not impossible to get. 350 pve points for a note Santi, Vic or Ocean. What if it is a fir one!  That requires an excessive amount of time investment.  These ships will not be used and will be kept dearly so what is the point here.  A normal mission will give between 4 and 9 pve points on a 4th rate or below and you need 350 for a 1st rate note (not a blueprint).  You can do the math and time required for this and guess the result. 

It is evident that the direction that this game is taking is a pve game that requires an excessive amount of effort to make money and get ships.  Like with the fine woods, players will be focused on this and there will be no pvp.  I have played numerous hours and loved the game.  I liked the pvp and hunting.  With the new system this will not work.  I hate to say this but I will not spend countless hours doing pve and I would guess that many other veterans and hardcore players see it like me.  I made many friends in this game and they feel as I do.  I am writing this in the hope that things will revert and the game direction will change before it is too late.  Hoepfully the developers will take notice and listen.  This is a fabulous game but it needs players to make it so.  If we frustrate the players and they leave then the game will die and I do not wish that.  Thanks for putting up with the long read.

The new system will force many casual players to be in a clan as they will have no choice if they want to craft.  Something they may not want and they may leave the game as a result of this.  At least allow an exchange of pve points for resources or mats or have ports produce a small amount of ressources.  

Now a few suggestions:

Make it easy for new players to get started by giving them a little bit of help.  It is frustrating have to start with nothing but a basic cutter and no gold.  Yes that is how it was and is in many games but we need players.

Make it easy to make money for the casual player.  Money was never a problem.  Yes we had inflation but in the end the valuable commodity was crafting hours and should remain so.  This will encourage the casual players to play more often.

Allow a player to change nations (on per 30 days or so) but do not force him to restart at zero if he does.  Many small nations on pvp2 have little to no players and players leave the game because of this.  By allowing mobility between nations, the server will be more balanced and everyone will benefit.

Bring back the tp to freeports and the crafting of 1st rates.  Maybe have a few special ships that require marks or upgrades that require them but do not prevent players from crafting these.  This new system will alienate the casual player as he will not have time available to gather all the marks to get a 1-3 rate sol and will be relegated to the back bench by others.

Add a feature to the trader tool to give an indication of where traders and ships are going.  Not in real time but this will remove lots of frustration from endless sailing.

Allow a two direction exchange between pve and pvp marks.  This way if someone likes pvp they are not penalized.  It is a pvp server after all.

I hope this helps.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 22, 2017 by TheLoneWolf

[William Death]

I am 100% against the removal of TP between freeports. I remember when there was a 4 hour cooldown on it, and I did not like that. After that restriction was removed, my number of PvP battles increased exponentially. I remember the pirate clans BLACK and ZILCH used to hang around the same places I did when I was a US player, and I would get battles with them all the time. Now that I am a pirate, I often go hunting near the capitals and snap up prizes when I can find them, I really enjoy it, and I think others enjoy the PvP that occurs too.

If you remove this TP to Free-Port outposts, what will be the point in having a FP outpost other than having an Alt storage locker (several have brought this point up)? People won't use them any more...there is no reason to! Free ports are the PvP lifeline of the game. Without unrestricted access to free ports, OW PvP will drop. When OW PvP drops, player population drops. Watch and see. 

[Fenris]

33 minutes ago, Willis PVP2 said:

I am 100% against the removal of TP between freeports. I remember when there was a 4 hour cooldown on it, and I did not like that. After that restriction was removed, my number of PvP battles increased exponentially. I remember the pirate clans BLACK and ZILCH used to hang around the same places I did when I was a US player, and I would get battles with them all the time. Now that I am a pirate, I often go hunting near the capitals and snap up prizes when I can find them, I really enjoy it, and I think others enjoy the PvP that occurs too.

If you remove this TP to Free-Port outposts, what will be the point in having a FP outpost other than having an Alt storage locker (several have brought this point up)? People won't use them any more...there is no reason to! Free ports are the PvP lifeline of the game. Without unrestricted access to free ports, OW PvP will drop. When OW PvP drops, player population drops. Watch and see. 

When the raids come up, there is no need to use FP as operational base.The problem is being a pirate nowadays.

They simply do not know what are they supposed to be.

[Raekur]

Actually not having teleporting will increase time in OW and thus increase the PVP. Freeport teleporting only benefits pirates who want to have a place to launch ganks from in rear areas of nation occupied areas. If nations have to push the front line into enemy territory why should pirates not have to do the same? Nations goal is to capture ports and expand occupied territory. Pirates goal is to harass and destroy national fleets. Having teleporting between FP's only aids one side of the two. To say that not having teleporting between FP's will reduce PVP makes no sense. More so when you take into consideration that it was already stated by a pirate before that the addition of teleporting reduced PVP. So having teleporting reduced PVP and now removal of teleporting reduces PVP????? Make up your mind. As I have stated before, just remove teleporting all together and let it play out. People (pirates) wanted removal of the teleport to friendly port after battle, so if that is gone why retain other forms of teleporting??? Provide an answer that equally benefits both nation and pirate if possible, otherwise there is no reason to retain teleporting at all. Balance or nothing.

[Remus]

2 hours ago, Buba Smith said:

Thanks - I thought so. There should be a way to use them in port. Also my use slider keeps getting stuck, it won't move so I can't heal crew or use repair kits OW or in battle.

 

I think the idea is that repair kits (when we have to make them) will be more expensive than port repairs, so you wouldn't want to use them anyway.

Medkits never were meant as a recuiting tool nor to restore the dead, only to revive the living.

Having said that, I haven't really tested medkits on Testbed. If you really do want to use them in port, it's a simple mater to pop out into the harbour and use them there.

[Lokyi]

10 hours ago, Sven Silberbart said:

First sailing trip with new hotfix (basic cutter):

1) Start a battle with traders brig

2) shoot crew to 10 men and then sucessfully boarded the brig

3) Change ship because i have no fleet slots

4) Exit Battle to BS

5) Tried to exit to port -> "You need to deal with vessels" -> I have no vessels in BS coz I have changed to Traders Brig -> STUCK IN BATTLE SCREEN

6) F11

7) Alt + F4

You need to sink the ship you don't want.

[z4ys]

Really like the changes. Only 90 people online at the testserver and on my 1:30h sailing trip I saw so many players using the OW. When I compare that to the live server With 90 people you will never see one because they all sit in port.

Can't wait to get it on live servers.

[William Death]

3 minutes ago, Raekur said:

Actually not having teleporting will increase time in OW and thus increase the PVP. Freeport teleporting only benefits pirates who want to have a place to launch ganks from in rear areas of nation occupied areas. If nations have to push the front line into enemy territory why should pirates not have to do the same? Nations goal is to capture ports and expand occupied territory. Pirates goal is to harass and destroy national fleets. Having teleporting between FP's only aids one side of the two. To say that not having teleporting between FP's will reduce PVP makes no sense. More so when you take into consideration that it was already stated by a pirate before that the addition of teleporting reduced PVP. So having teleporting reduced PVP and now removal of teleporting reduces PVP????? Make up your mind. As I have stated before, just remove teleporting all together and let it play out. People (pirates) wanted removal of the teleport to friendly port after battle, so if that is gone why retain other forms of teleporting??? Provide an answer that equally benefits both nation and pirate if possible, otherwise there is no reason to retain teleporting at all. Balance or nothing.

I have never, ever, ever, ever, supported removal of TP to free towns, many people I have spoken too agree. A few do support it, but I certainly do not. I also do not support TP to friendly port at end of battle. So lets not confuse other's opinions with mine or anyone else's.

TP to Free Ports: It benefits all nations. When I was a US player, I had 3 US ports (crafting & resource ports) and ALL the rest were free ports. As a pirate, I have a similar setup. It pays to have the majority be Free Ports for the delivery system. But now that is gone too....

Any nation can make full use of Free Port teleports:

As a US player and officer of a large clan, I hunted out of free ports (what you call ganks), I helped organize hostility fleets from free ports, and I led and sailed some of our PB fleets out of free ports (taking the fight to the front lines...or behind the front lines if we wanted to). See how that works? As a US player, I did everything a pirate could do from a free port.

These ports are easier for everyone to get PvP. They allow you to position a fleet in enemy territory and force your enemy to do something about it if they don't like it. Before the population dropped to almost nothing on PvP2, I would sail a speed-fit Bellona to Charleston every night and announce my actions on global chat with screenshots & time logs in chat so people would know I was actually there. I would carry whatever 2 AI ships I could buy at Little River and kill anything that moved. I assumed if someone got tired of my little fleet being there they would come sink me but that did not happen for some reason...but that is beside the point.

Claiming these free ports only benefit pirates is simply not true. Nationals can use Free Ports in the same manner as pirates (as I described above). I used to go camp Mortimer Town as a US player: me and a buddy would load up in fast hunting ships and go harass the pirates until they sent out a fleet to kill us. How is that only benefiting pirates? Currently, on PvP2, Pirates are pretty much the only nation that operates this way (utilizing free ports to hunt), but the reason for that is not because nationals CANNOT do it, it is because they CHOOSE NOT to do it. Big difference in having the ability, but choosing not to, and not having the ability at all.

Setting separate goals for pirates and nations will never work until there are clear mechanics that separate the goals. Currently the Pirate nation can capture ports like any other, so saying that all Pirates are supposed to do is harass the enemy on open sea is incorrect. There are plenty of other threads discussing pirate mechanics.

Once again, remember that TP to Free Ports is available to all players in all nations and works the same for everyone. In no way does it benefit a pirate more than any other national. If you don't like a pirate fleet (or a Dane fleet, or an American fleet) popping out of a free town and sailing in your waters, stop talking about it, stop complaining about it, and JUST GO SINK THE THING!  That is what this game is about! Fighting warships in the age of sail. Having unrestricted TPs increases the ability to get PvP going and increased the amount of PvP fights I got compared to the old system when there was a 4 hour cooldown.

[Cmdr RideZ]

11 hours ago, Intrepido said:

Le gros ventre is essential for trading, please add it too.

LGV is probably the best trader in the game.  Probably Indiaman would make more sense than LGV.

 

10 hours ago, admin said:

well. we cant. there are multiple ship state problem that are impossible to solve. For example he exited. bought another ship and does not a slot any more and you went for a smoke and decided to give him a ship back. We have nowhere to send it.

If we were able to communicate with our enemy, say that you can keep the ship, I am just here for the cargo.  Then your pray understands to wait in BRScreen to get the ship back.

If we do not have global chat, we could raise some signaling flags.  Signaling flags could be ok idea alone as well.  Some way to communicate with your enemy.  This actually could be a very interesting feature.

 

9 hours ago, OneEyedSnake said:

so far not much of a fan of this teleport deduction. Smaller segregated nations, such as the Verenigde Provincien (Nederlande), will stay small because who really wants to sail for 2 hours between ports to get to action. You got the Naval part down. but the Action part is very lacking when it takes so much longer to get anywhere. 

They have to just fight with nations close to them.  So if Spanish are removed from the area, they have still France and GB.  Would they dare to fight with their extremely long term ally?

 

1 hour ago, Raekur said:

Actually not having teleporting will increase time in OW and thus increase the PVP. Freeport teleporting only benefits pirates who want to have a place to launch ganks from in rear areas of nation occupied areas.

Which would be an important feature to stop safe "home front" farming.

Traders, escorts, pirates, pirate hunters.  This has so much to give for this game.

[Sven Silberbart]

50 minutes ago, Lokyi said:

You need to sink the ship you don't want.

Yes. Yesterday evening i didn't realized the little grafic error in the bottom wasnt an error. Instead it was the ship dialog in the box to "deal with the ships" and sink it.

[TBD]

With new changes to TP, what is the role of Pirates in game? Just another nation with green on green?

[FieryCross]

Nations, Clans are going to have to get organised, cost of resources is high, with no reward, battles or trading will be the only way to finance "harvesting", it probably isn't going to make much sense somebody having 4 or 5 resources as it would cripple them financially in game, added to the time to gather sail and deliver to required outpost. So as I say greater planing is going to be required.

It is also going to require trust in the ship crafter, with at present PVE Marks required for BPs, to kit a clan mark donations are going to be required, but obviously it is the crafter that has the blueprint not the Clan. How much of an issue will I suppose be the final value put on the BPs.

Strangely enough the changes don't seem a bad thing, yes it is no longer quick and easy, but has an appeal. Used a Freeport once, then couldn't be bothered. Do miss the ability to go round an outposts, so the game is going to change for me that way, will be pick a region and be predominantly there, as if you spend an hour to 2 hrs just gathering resources and delivering them, will cut other activities down.

As previously mentioned a "starter pack" wouldn't be a bad idea, gold for an outpost and a couple of buildings. Basic Cutter crew and repairs are free, been fun charging around in a bit with one. Maybe also 1 fleet ship pops up in solo combat while midshipman, but keep fleet missions to a group event.

Though and it's only cause I have played with bigger ships, had to jump in a Surprise.

So it is what it is, change of gameplay that may well change again, certainly get tweaked, so I'll keep open minded about it and play away, report bugs and batter pixels.

[admin]

1 hour ago, Comrade I Stalin said:

With new changes to TP, what is the role of Pirates in game? Just another nation with green on green?

what do you mean? 

I hope you did not mean - "Hey, as a pirate i want to jump from FT to FT like a grasshopper attacking poor traders in instantly closing battles with a teleport to safety from the BRS?"

 

1 hour ago, FieryCross said:

 

As previously mentioned a "starter pack" wouldn't be a bad idea, gold for an outpost and a couple of buildings. Basic Cutter crew and repairs are free, been fun charging around in a bit with one. Maybe also 1 fleet ship pops up in solo combat while midshipman, but keep fleet missions to a group event.

 

Starter pack did not work.
Players sold the starter pack and traded cash, deleted the account, created new, sold the pack, traded cash, deleted the account. 
One particular player have created 200 characters this way until we closed the loophole the next day. 

 

now we have a free cutter with free cannons and free repairs. 

[Nielsnnk]

The problem without free towns is that we need ot sail so far to attack. the only thing to solve this is to change the ports back to 1 port.

what i mean is you need to attack every port otherwise you get the same portbattle every 2 days, just like Bridgetown, Remidios, Caracas

if you want to use tactics we need to attack every singel port so no regional ports.

 

greets

[Cmdr RideZ]

19 minutes ago, admin said:

what do you mean? 

I hope you did not mean - "Hey, as a pirate i want to jump from FT to FT like a grasshopper attacking poor traders in instantly closing battles with a teleport to safety from the BRS?"

He means are pirates like every other nation, with an exception that they can go pirate vs pirate.

Grasshopper sounds so negative.  There could be a lot to offer in grasshopping, I recommend to think about it.

[shaeberle84]

10 hours ago, Jon Snow lets go said:

Will the crafting costs be lowered? Frigates for example still need the same amount of materials as if they were 5 dura ships...

 

On a sidenote: These changes are so massive, please take your time to do all this. At this point it doesnt really matter if it takes a week longer, but if there are massive exploits/bugs post wipe it will be really bad.

Very good points!

[Hethwill]

Regarding permanent presence within the enemy territory, whereas before was done by establishing Free Ports as naval bases, now it requires conquest. Carve a enclave and operate from there. After all, teleports to nation ports with outpost are in game.

The other raider option, obviously, is operating from the frontier areas into the enemy waters.

Free Port still a options if a captains plains a weekend of raiding of course. Sail there, during the week. Logoff. Return on weekend and raid. Given limitation to one ship survival mode is on.

Fighting along the borders with enemy nation is always more "safe". You have nation ports close by and opportunity to keep a squadron of ships in your outpost.

[furyGer]

I am not a pirat friend, but perhaps they need 2 or 3 bases over the map to teleport. Or we will see them only around mortimer town. But who will decide where this bases will be.... Hehe. And if they are save like free towns, its not fair vs the nations. So not sure if it will be a good idea. 

The hostility system don't work well with only npc ships and fleets. The are all over the map, but not in their region. We need missions or something else. 

[shaeberle84]

17 hours ago, admin said:

Hello Captains

Here are the patch notes for the forthcoming patch for testbed.

• All Testbed characters will be wiped - EXCEPT FOR craft xp, money, xp and ship knowledge unlocks. This will happen in the future as well. Additional redeems for xp and money were provided 
• Fixed bugs – players who were stuck without crew in the  Battle result screen - BRS screen; you can now exit the BRS. Just accept all warnings and exit to the nearest friendly port.
• Guns are now sold in units (not in decks). Blueprints for gun forging and drilling will be added next week.  Medium guns will be available from NPCs by capture, long and carronades will be only player crafted.
  • Warning – basic guns are not sold in ports (not yet). To get basic guns (if you started or have a new rookie character) just sell your basic cutter and buy a new one – it will be provided with a set of guns.
• Rookie zones removed. Rookie capitasl are added back to respective regions (details here). Players who were stationed in the rookie zones – sorry for the inconvinience. 
• Assign crew functionality in instances updated and somewhat improved.
• Resource transport between free towns removed
• Ship transport between outposts removed
• Teleport to freetown removed.
• Outpost to outpost transport is now only available between national towns.
• Tow to capital replaced by tow to port - which sends you to the nearest deep water port - this is done to allow players living in distant areas from the capital to have unstuck that does not send them across the map (forcing them to sail back).
• Certain changes are done for trading resources production limits. Expensive trading resources are no longer produced up to 25000 items providing infinite money making opportunities (e.g. textile machinery)
• Shipyard is back and is required for ship crafting
  • Lineships blueprints are now available in the admiralty. Prices are not final.
  • Most other ships are available for all players and unlock based on level (incl Endymion and Indefatigable)
  • Gifted perk removed
  • Ship blueprints no longer drop when crafting
• Certain changes to knowledge slots unlocks are done
• Minimal crew thresholds for all vessels are now 70% of max ship crew (only checked in port) - you still can use under crewed ships in battles though. 
• Fixed bug that did not allow to access hold for NPC ships in missions and events
• Fixed another set of bugs keeping players in the BRS screen
• Fixed bug that allowed to receive marks for basic cutter
• Fixed bug that allowed your sank vessel to magically appear in the BRS screen
• Fixed a memory leak with open combat information window.

Expect bugs - several new features are introduced and may cause problems for testbed gameplay.

Thanks for the patience and support.

You change too much at the same time, making it hard to test. Why introduce 1 duras, in fight repairs, buyable guns all at the same time? We had weeks of no update activity and now it is all at the same time.

Why also do you change things that work?

[Bart Smith]

9 minutes ago, shaeberle84 said:

You change too much at the same time, making it hard to test. Why introduce 1 duras, in fight repairs, buyable guns all at the same time? We had weeks of no update activity and now it is all at the same time.

Why also do you change things that work?

Hey make your mind: when devs are not active people moaning same time when they release patch suddenly is too much changes? Let them work as they want 

[shaeberle84]

4 minutes ago, Bart Smith said:

Hey make your mind: when devs are not active people moaning same time when they release patch suddenly is too much changes? Let them work as they want 

How can we effectively test 10 different changes at the same time? Let's schedule one change every week for ten weeks, each week one feature to test. Much better testing, much better distribution of changes over time. No long waiting times with no updates at all.

[Bart Smith]

How? just spend more time on it. Not defending here developers but i like when they bring as many changes as game need at current stage. And all know a lot of changes/fixes are needed currently.

[fremen]

Better a lot of changes suddenly than no changes in two months....

[Bart Smith]

2 minutes ago, fremen said:

Better a lot of changes suddenly than no changes in two months....

Indeed. Game still need lot work to be a good game and let them do their job.