Hotfix 7 for testbed patch 9.99

[katerholzig]

is it only me or testbed status still update?

[Serk]

9 minutes ago, admin said:

if raising hostility is slow then defenders will not show up NOW. they will come in the morning and grind it down. 

Wouldn't a slower hostility generation rate help in solving the dreaded nightflips? We got to seriously think about what is the lesser evil here

Giving higher rewards as conquest or PVP marks for PVP battles in a region opened to hostility might encourage players to look for PVP. If RVR players would seriously avoid PVP, then we have a whole different problem, and it might not be the game

I'd personally get rid of PB's to force defender to show up on the OW, instead of relying exclusively on a single battle to keep a region.

Région flips by OW PVP could be made to simulate a land campaign supported by fleet action (blockade, ferrying supplies and troops, etc). 

[Christoph]

1 minute ago, katerholzig said:

is it only me or testbed status still update?

der hotfix wird gerade hochgeladen

[katerholzig]

Just now, Christoph said:

der hotfix wird gerade hochgeladen

kk thx

[Nelson Hornblower]

1 hour ago, admin said:

1. pve. every county capital has 6 fleets assigned to them sailing to 4 nearest ports. 

Will there be single NPC ships sailing around too? While I understand the need for fleets, those of us who like to sail by ourselves on occasion, do enjoy the single ship combat of taking on an NPC Connie/Frigate/Surprise, etc type engagement.

[Anolytic]

23 minutes ago, Serk said:

Wouldn't a slower hostility generation rate help in solving the dreaded nightflips? We got to seriously think about what is the lesser evil here

No. To the contrary, slower hostility means that the nations that can grind in shifts around the clock can raise hostility at their own convenience, while the nations without such coverage, can only grind in their prime-time and be the defender can just wait till the aggressors have finished for the night and grind it all the way down again every time.

[Ned Low]

1 hour ago, PIerrick de Badas said:

I'm happy with that if you supplie the server with enough npc to make it works but i think the server would collapse if you put many npc in. Plus, we are on pvp server, hostility should be raised up by others mecanism that killing npc like blockading a port (like potbs). Players blocakde port by sitting in front of it. Each time they past in fornt of regional cpiatal they gain x% hostiliy. Of noone come the port is flip, is someone come to fight and succes to kill them, hostility decrease.

You play potbs ou know how it works and it was far more pvp in conquest in potbs than on NA...

Tbh, far more pvp in potbs that have large pve area than on na tbh...

I agree if they go 100% player vs player then even the slightest move in population will kill this game.

Your suggestion will require:

-detailed map

-visual hostility zones (red zone)

-Group managing tool

-Special Flag system that will generate hostility (must be activated in enemy waters), sit still and generate points. 

To code all this it will take our Devs long time that we do not have. So, let's simply say it's impossible and forget it. 

Edited May 8, 2017 by Ned Low

[admin]

11 minutes ago, Nelson Hornblower said:

Will there be single NPC ships sailing around too? While I understand the need for fleets, those of us who like to sail by ourselves on occasion, do enjoy the single ship combat of taking on an NPC Connie/Frigate/Surprise, etc type engagement.

total number of bots 1536
number of regions (73 less capitals) * 6 = county bots for hostility
the rest of bots are for normal PVE and trader hunting. 

[Bart Smith]

Just now, admin said:

total number of bots 1536
73 (less capitals) * 6 = county bots for hostility
the rest of bots are for normal PVE and trader hunting. 

Are this is limited by server somehow ? or just random number?

[admin]

Just now, Bart Smith said:

Are this is limited by server somehow ? or just random number?

yep max number of bots server can support. (because of bot engine calculations)

[Ned Low]

20 hours ago, admin said:

total number of bots 1536
73 (less capitals) * 6 = county bots for hostility
the rest of bots are for normal PVE and trader hunting. 

I do not understand why you have total number of bots sailing the seas? Have the minimum amount required , so players feel comfortable. Use data charts to plant and populate busy networks (people always sail) and the rest of oceans use spawn only when zones are triggered by players. Use hostility movement to spawn packs when action is at it's highest. If one region under attack why we need 500 useless NPCs sailing around somewhere else? Spawn them where they needed. This could save performance as well. 

Forgive my English, but think of Hostility zones as Sh*T, if there is Sh*T there are flies. If there is no Sh*T, there are still flies, but not so many. In this case Flies are Fleets and Sh*T is hostility amount that will trigger them. 

Spawning all bots at once is the same as running optimized Naval Action on 1080Ti. You still get 30 FPS with AA enabled. 

In the end, I would suggest you to use player triggered spawns everywhere on OS, and use Hostility triggered spawns when action is happening. 

Player triggered NPC spawns are simple and work like this - let's take Charlestown region, if there is not a single player sailing through it NPC won't trigger(spawn). If 1 player enters the region you spawn 1:1 ration first. If 10 players enter the region spawn 3 fleets per every 10 and 9 per every 20. Each region should have maximum bots that can spawn there based on region size. These fleets will sail down to the next region and dock (vanish). After that Process will start all over again. 

This will work beautiful and active regions will feel populated + you will still have tons of bots saved in a bank to use for anything you want. 

 

Edited May 9, 2017 by Ned Low

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

23 minutes ago, admin said:

number of regions (73 less capitals) * 6 = county bots for hostility
the rest of bots are for normal PVE and trader hunting. 

That is not enough for hostilities. Especially for large/wide regions and from factions that the population is spread or non-existent such as Espana is on PVP2 in South America. The number of "county bots for hostility" needs to increase while the number for PvE needs to decrease. Last two days of attempting to grind Caracas a few of us Dutch were only able to increase hostilities to 7.1%. The highest we ever got it was 13.4% and that was when there were bugs or when attacking any factions ship would increase hostilities.  

 

EDIT: I do want to clarify to you Devs as well that I am not asking for a quick hostility build up system to be in place. I am just asking for one that is reasonable. Testbed is too slow and the LIVE servers are too fast. A balance is needed. 

Edited May 8, 2017 by Davos Seasworth

[qw569😳]

Every patch i lose money. From patch 6 to patch 7 i lost 850k.

Every patch clear ship store and my ships disappear.

I don't want if current system of deployment patch to be used on live servers.

 

Edited May 8, 2017 by qw569

[Bart Smith]

Again old idea from PotBS (a bit modify) Ships can make very slowly hostility points only by sailing/anchor in certain area/zone - may be solution for not enough numbers of fleets to attack.

[Kiithnaras]

2 minutes ago, Davos Seasworth said:

The number of "county bots for hostility" needs to increase while the number for PvE needs to decrease.

I disagree, but only because I feel that raids should be used to contest individual non-capitals in order to take control of counties. I will consent that, with current mechanics, doin' hostility in counties with large areas of coastline/territory is really a challenge without resorting to missions.

[Kiithnaras]

1 minute ago, Bart Smith said:

Again old idea from PotBS (a bit modify) Ships can make very slowly hostility points only by sailing/anchor in certain area/zone - may be solution for not enough numbers of fleets to attack.

That was another option I had thought of - anchoring your fleet within a few KM of the capital port would slooowly raise hostility based on the BR of the ships involved, to a maximum of like 1% per minute with an anchored fleet of 25 L'oceans and Santis.

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

Just now, Kiithnaras said:

I disagree, but only because I feel that raids should be used to contest individual non-capitals in order to take control of counties. I will consent that, with current mechanics, doin' hostility in counties with large areas of coastline/territory is really a challenge without resorting to missions.

I agree with that as well. I am only stating based on the information laid before me with my factions testing on the testbed. 

[Jarlath Morrow]

6 minutes ago, Bart Smith said:

Again old idea from PotBS (a bit modify) Ships can make very slowly hostility points only by sailing/anchor in certain area/zone - may be solution for not enough numbers of fleets to attack.

I like this idea, "blockading" for hostility points.

In the current system, it would be a great supplement since you could blockade the region for hostility gains while waiting for these pesky fleets to show up.

[PIerrick de Badas]

1 minute ago, Jarlath Morrow said:

I like this idea, "blockading" for hostility points.

In the current system, it would be a great supplement since you could blockade the region for hostility gains while waiting for these pesky fleets to show up.

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[Remus]

2 hours ago, admin said:

it would be better to reduce time to gain hostility but increase degradation to 100%
this will force attackers to finish hostility set up during one evening. AND also force defenders to come protect the port NOW because if they don't come PB is guaranteed to happen and they won't be able to grind it down later.

Won't 100% degradation upset one of the purposes of the Global server - to spread port battles round the clock? If you always degrade at maintenance then the period immediately before becomes a hot time zone and the few hours afterwards will be dead.

[admin]

39 minutes ago, Davos Seasworth said:

That is not enough for hostilities. Especially for large/wide regions and from factions that the population is spread or non-existent such as Espana is on PVP2 in South America. The number of "county bots for hostility" needs to increase while the number for PvE needs to decrease. Last two days of attempting to grind Caracas a few of us Dutch were only able to increase hostilities to 7.1%. The highest we ever got it was 13.4% and that was when there were bugs or when attacking any factions ship would increase hostilities.  

 

There is more than enough. You probably did not notice, but those county bots don't despawn once you attack them. They are unlimited. 

[admin]

6 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

I think I dont fully understand one thing. Do we have to kill those 6 fleets to raise hostility to 100%? Are they enough for flipping a region? Which are their spawn points to not get crazy looking for them in a big region?.

 

You will have to kill them over and over yes. Bring war supplies and top up with PVE. If enemies are there - just sink them in pvp and raise it by pvp. If they are not there they will come or not we don't know thus pve is the way to go. All instant PB set ups (flags, and such) are exploitable and not going to work. 

 

[OneEyedSnake]

2 hours ago, admin said:

1. pve. every county capital has 6 fleets assigned to them sailing to 4 nearest ports. 
2. war supplies as well - but it can be exploited by alts (war supplies still work up to 50% of hostility)
3. raids (in the future)
    

Yea, so far in the testbed us Dutch can only raise hostility a couple percent because the fleets are too strong especially with the AI buffs, and the sailing is so far from our capital sailing in circles looking for fleets very far away. Give Dutch more ports so we have access to supplies or ditch this because hello kitty that.

[admin]

1 hour ago, Ned Low said:

 

Player triggered NPC spawns are simple and work like this - let's take Charlestown region, if there is not a single player sailing through it NPC won't trigger(spawn). If 1 player enters the region you spawn 1:1 ration first. If 10 players enter the region spawn 3 fleets per every 10 and 9 per every 20. Each region should have maximum bots that can spawn there based on region size. These fleets will sail down to the next region and dock (vanish). After that Process will start all over again. 

This will work beautiful and active regions will feel populated + you will still have tons of bots saved in a bank to use for anything you want. 

You are welcome. 

Captains who have not programmed at least one MMO NPC system should avoid giving programming advice to us. Because of 2 reasons

They don't know what they are talking about. Because they have not programmed something like that on scale they have no idea how it works
By doing so (talking about things they know nothing about) - their other statements where they KNOW what they are talking about (e.g. gameplay) might get devalued. 

TLDR. Dynamic spawn systems don't work in persistent MMOs, When you are limited by a number of agents. If you are limited by a number of agents you cant spawn despawn bots live because you might destroy persistence in some locations. Thats why in wow, those murlocs are always there. waiting for you. If our bot is on the route carrying iron somewhere we cant despawn him. He has to get to the destination.

 

[admin]

4 minutes ago, OneEyedSnake said:

Yea, so far in the testbed us Dutch can only raise hostility a couple percent because the fleets are too strong especially with the AI buffs, and the sailing is so far from our capital sailing in circles looking for fleets very far away. Give Dutch more ports so we have access to supplies or ditch this because hello kitty that.

what ai buffs? You can sink an NPC lgv in a basic cutter. Ask DAS to help you.