Jump to content
Game-Labs Forum

Development Roadmap for the next 3-5 months


Recommended Posts

12 hours ago, Slamz said:

What? Why the heck not? What's stopping you?

... and assuming you had the conquest marks ...

You answered yourself. Assuming this just means that you did not fully understand where the problem really is.

Conquest mark system creates a loop: the ones that started having some CM at the beginning will build on it an advantage that allows them to be the only ones that will be able to have more and more. While the others are simply cut out of the deal (unless they want to buy CM, but this is not possibile at decent prices in a so underpopulated game).

And, just to be clear, I'm not accusing people: it's the way the system works in an underpopulated game that creates this situation.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Remove unnecessary/unreasonable mechanics:

  • Why speedcap instead of reasonable ship/wood/upgrade/skill balancing? 
  • What is the current hostility system doin positive?
  • Why marks instead of reasonable cost-income-balancing, or a reputation system (similar to marks, but reputation cant be traded)?

2. Improve ROE and escape mechanics:

  • Why are ships still spawning and escaping right next to each other?
  • Why is defensive tagging possible? 
  • Why are revenge ganks possible again?
  • Why do we need BR limits to keep ships from starting unwinnable battles?

3. We dont need reduced ship cost yet, but a functional economy. Ship value/cost is affected by:

  • Not existent material market. Why are people able to self supply everything?
  • Rare upgrades. Why arent upgrades player crafted consumption goods using availiable/craftable resources?
  • People cant buy their own permits. Why force shipbuilders to buy the permit for ships they are going to sell?
  • Ships crafted with goods from the market include ~20% fee. Why are auctionhouselike fees punishing us for using the open market?
  • Rare/expensive and imbalanced wood for frames and planks. Why are only 1-3 out of 9 wood types competetive for combat ships, why are those woods limited by NPC production?
  • No trade with player related goods. Why is trading seperated from player economy via npc trade goods, instead of e.g. having different production rates and costs for different regions?

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 hours ago, victor said:

While the others are simply cut out of the deal (unless they want to buy CM, but this is not possibile at decent prices in a so underpopulated game).

How are you cut out of the deal?

It takes 0 Conquest Marks to attend any port battle. You can even feel good about the 4th rate port battles where you can bring a Connie (which only costs Combat Marks).

You can also join any line ship battle in a Cerberus. As long as your team still wins, you get the Marks, and from what I've seen, it's a rare port battle that 1 person (or even 10 people) in 5th rates would make any difference at all. So many port battles are empty -- arranged, screened or just nobody cares. That's just a mark farm.

Yeah some big headed douchebags will yell at you. I've got some suggestions on how you might reply to them.

I am pretty curious how a player aware of how RvR works has managed to end up with 0 marks, though. Like are you Spanish in PvP-Global or something? Literally everyone else in every team should be getting marks. Even a stagnant team (like the Dutch) has the opportunity to do 4th rate port battles for marks if they want.

 

I do agree it's a dumb system but part of what's dumb about it is how many marks are being generated now. There must be Brits clans sitting on literally thousands of them by now. I have over 100 and I don't even care about this stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Slamz said:

 

It takes 0 Conquest Marks to attend any port battle. You can even feel good about the 4th rate port battles where you can bring a Connie (which only costs Combat Marks).

 

Not true if the opponent is able to bring in 25 agammemnons. Connie is a wonderful ship of course, but - in a PB - a team with some aga and some connies just cannot stand the fight with a live oak/white oak full aga team.

Edited by victor
Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 minutes ago, victor said:

Not true if the opponent is able to bring in 25 agammemnons. Connie is a wonderful ship of course, but - in a PB - a team with some aga and some connies just cannot stand the fight with a live oak/white oak full aga team.

I would argue that a mix is better. What you say would have been true in the old system where it was really just a 25v25 line fight but now with the 3 circles, I think a mix of tanks and something a bit more maneuverable has a lot of merit. Live Oak/White Oak aggies are a sack of bricks and have a hard time responding to the movements of Connies. (Connies can abandon one circle, drive to the other two and the aggies at the first circle will take a long time to catch up.) I think the meta has yet to catch up with the reality of the new system but I guess we'll see.

But again, I'd be surprised if your team is only getting 25v25 port battles. I'm sure some are just gimmies that you could walk in and take some free marks from, or where a player showing up in a 4th rate to a lineship battle won't matter enough to cause a loss. (e.g., it was 25 vs 14 or the enemy just sucks)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Slamz said:

I would argue that a mix is better. What you say would have been true in the old system where it was really just a 25v25 line fight but now with the 3 circles, I think a mix of tanks and something a bit more maneuverable has a lot of merit. Live Oak/White Oak aggies are a sack of bricks and have a hard time responding to the movements of Connies. (Connies can abandon one circle, drive to the other two and the aggies at the first circle will take a long time to catch up.) I think the meta has yet to catch up with the reality of the new system but I guess we'll see.

But again, I'd be surprised if your team is only getting 25v25 port battles. I'm sure some are just gimmies that you could walk in and take some free marks from, or where a player showing up in a 4th rate to a lineship battle won't matter enough to cause a loss. (e.g., it was 25 vs 14 or the enemy just sucks)

Unitil we are fighting brits on PVP EU a full team of PB fitted 25 aga is what we have to face.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Reduce the number of hours work necessary to generate money/resources, the game has now become a permanent obligation and secondary job, without being so rewarding as it used to be. Suggestions: Reduce the price of extracting resources. Make resources more spread, abundant and easier to get. Increase the amount of money received as rewards for PVP and PVE. Allow for ship tows and shipping goods.

2. Remove factors that are shutting players out of parts of the game: Especially conquest marks have created a first class / third class citizens. In Spain this has even created a civil war within the faction. With the current number of perks/books/mods it's impossible to know what you are fighting, and player ability is not as important as the modding of the ships. Ships should be more standardized to increase certainty and reward the skills (sailing, arming your ship, aiming your cannons, etc). Remove country specific perks.

3. Return to the flag system for conquering ports, limiting the number of daily battles by nation, and forbidding two simultaneous battles against the same nation. The system should be predictable giving time to a nation to mobilize and prepare.  Introduce the port raid option, a quick attack that is announced nationwide but with a limited window of time to join the port battle, not conquering but  plundering all resources and warehouses on the port.

4. Limit or remove the repair option (if necessary reduce the overall damage done by cannons, so battles are longer and more fun), but infinite repairs are giving way to long, boring, frustrating chases, where players just keep repairing sails or crew until everyone is fed up. Again, not rewarding ability, but the amount of resources and modding of the ships in question. In general, the game should be aimed to who is a better player, not who has the most sophisticated ship or more rum on the cargo hold.

5. Introduce a balancing system for nations. For example, increase the cost of flags launched against other nations, depending on the number of ports they hold, the more ports, the cheaper, the less ports the more expensive, until it increases exponentially and it is no longer viable to zerg a nation.

6. Introduce a system of nationwide rewards that promote cooperation between clans, based on number of combats and wins carried out by each nation, something like a salary, depending on rank. The more PVP and sinks of a nation, the better the salary for everyone. 

General principles:

  • Player skills should prime over ship quality/perks/mods/repairs.
  • Player should be encouraged to fight other players, vs grinding/trading/crafting and other administrative and menial tasks.
  • Nations should have a certain degree of stability and a minimum operational threshold that could not be lost vs current possibility of reducing a nation to one port (the game loses players).
  • Players should not be scared of losing their ships in combat, The number of hours of work and gaming per ship should be reduced from current levels.
  • Being a decent Naval Action player should not require hours of study and lab testing of every little perk and wood type. Again, reward good sailing skills, manoeuvre and aiming. The learning curve is too steep even for veteran players.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Making money is super easy and almost passive. I make rig repairs and 2 weeks into this game I have 1.7mil. My clan mate produces iron and sells it to the highest Npc buyer every few days and hes up to 2 mil in 2 weeks. 

Experience is what's hard. I can afford 4th rates but Im dozens of hours of missions away from crewing them. 

Edited by Guest
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. Give crafting XP for all crafting and SOME game XP and gold for losses. These steps are vital for developing new players.

2. Do something about the speed meta. Make it a percentage cap rather than a 15 knot cap.

3. Have a developer fun day where you all take a day off and take your families for a barbecue on the Dnepr. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

14 minutes ago, Farrago said:

1. Give crafting XP for all crafting and SOME game XP and gold for losses. These steps are vital for developing new players.

2. Do something about the speed meta. Make it a percentage cap rather than a 15 knot cap.

3. Have a developer fun day where you all take a day off and take your families for a barbecue on the Dnepr. 

As quite as it has been I am willing to say he is doing number 3.  

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

20 minutes ago, Hodo said:

As quite as it has been I am willing to say he is doing number 3.  

 

I've spent a lovely summer in Kiev. That decision would be quite understandable.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1. create logfiles stating ins and outs in clan warehouses, provide files to creators of clans

2. link knowledge slots in traders to xp gained by sailing in OW

3. take hostage the owner of the company hosting server PVP EU and abduct him to Siberia.

The points listed above are not ranked by urgency.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My contribution to fine tunings in order of importance:

1. Remove the conquest marks from the game, merge with combat marks and rename it to "renown". Fine tuning: battle rating ratio (when entering battle) should have an impact on renown earned.

2. XP should be granted also for damage and crew kills again, not just for sinking/capturing.

3. Remove the max ship speed cap, limit effectiveness of upgrades/books so that bonuses from >1 upgrade/book do not sum up to ridiculously high values

4. Bring back the alliance/war system

5. Bring back map coordinates, introduce means for navigation:

    perk "Sextant noon latitude" gives last noon (in-game 12:00) latitude with precision +/- 0.5arcmin or so (wide stripe on map).

    perk "Celestial navigation" gives latitude and longitude 4 times a day (rectangle or circle on map)

6. Remove costs for outpost slots, but add new port buildings: outpost (to allow jumping to this port, also allowable in free towns), ship dock lvl 1/2/3 (must have to leave a ship safely in harbor or risk to lose it), warehouse lvl 1/2/3, trading office (to place contracts), shipyard lvl 1/2/3, workshop lvl 1,2,4, plantations, mines etc. Labor hours should be generated by buildings (e.g. workshop, shipyard, plantation, mine). The buildings should be visible in the UI!

 

Some new features I would like to see:

7. Dead crew cannot be reanimated by rum. Only wounded crew members should be recovered. Recovery should take time and some wounded will not survive the recovery time.

8. Crew members and staff on shore (player buildings need staff) should be paid. Upkeep of buildings and ships should cost money. If money is not available, crew will desert and player needs to hire new ones. When staff members desert, the building will not function anymore. Likewise, dismissing staff/crew allows to save money. Only player's online time should be accounted for. 

9. Every harbor should have a tavern to recruit new crew members and exchange gossip (chat) and a notice board for announcements. Automatically generated "national news" on the announcement board: war/peace status change, port battle outcomes. "Local news" about enemy activities in local waters, town expansion (new player buildings). Player announcements on the board optional, should be possible, but very costly to disencourage spamming.

10. Port raids should be a source of income and should also affect other player's wealth. Looting other player's warehouse is a real incentive to do PvP on both sides.

11. In the port UI it should be possible to see which player/clan/guild has which buildings in port.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 3.7.2017 at 0:03 PM, admin said:
    • Localization into first batch of languages - once 2-3-4 is done
      • spanish
      • french
      • russian
      • german
      • simplified Chinese
 

Do you plan on hiring translators? I am pretty sure there would be enough people here on the forum who would do it for free.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

 

1. Close PvE missions. PvE missions should only allow those in my group to join. It's PvE not PvP. When a player joins another players mission it changes from PvE to PvP.

2. Open PvP. Why close a PvP battle. If you want to PvP why would you want the protection that other players are unable to join. When I PvP it would be more fun if other players could come to there nations rescue instead of as sure thing after 3 minutes. After leaving port to help a fellow player you are locked out of joining battle for 2 minutes. You really only have a 1 minute window.

3. The conquest mark. I understand the idea of limiting the amount of SoL's. Unfortunatly if you can not get ships you can not participate in port battles if your nation is nocked back to one set of ports. And wheres the fun in being a Rear Admiral and not have a SoL to sail around in.

$. Crafting XP. Needs to be for any crafting. Not every one wants build ships.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It appears that many players are asking for some crafting rewards. As far as I understood it, there used to be some earned craft XP when players produced crafted items.

Since crafting involves gold, Labor Hours, purchased goods, harvested resources, even other crafted materials, it would make sense that one should earn craft XP. I do not know the reason it was changed in the new patch and I am sure there must be some rationale for it, but it seems that leveling up in craft has been quite tedious.

Maybe some craft XP can be rewarded for crafting certain mats, but not all of them. For instance:

1- no (or very minimal) craft XP for crafting mats from a single resource: Oak Logs to Oak Planks.

2- small craft XP amount for crafting non complex mats requiring a single resource and 1-2 other mats:  Carronade = Charcoal + Iron ore

3- higher craft XP amount for crafting more complex mats requiring 2 or more other mats: Barrels = Iron Ingots + Tar + Oak Planks

Or something like that.

I know the big XP reward for crafting is making ships, but awarding small amounts along the way will help level up and produce the ships people want/like and continue enjoying this great game.

Thank you.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/13/2017 at 8:28 AM, Farrago said:

2. Do something about the speed meta. Make it a percentage cap rather than a 15 knot cap.

I missed something here.  I can sail at 21 knots.in OW.  Or at least I think I can.  That's what the magic speedometer says in game. But in a battle instance I am limited to 13.5kn.

I checked the patch notes and there is no mention of the 15 knot cap.  Can someone post a link for the Devs that explains this feature.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, Macjimm said:

I checked the patch notes and there is no mention of the 15 knot cap.  Can someone post a link for the Devs that explains this feature.

I haven't been able to find where (or if) the Devs explained it, but basically it means that no matter what your build, mods, and knowlwdge of a ship, your top speed in battle will not be over 15 knots. However, by using speed modifiers you can get to that speed at more points of sail. In effect, it makes more and more ships into speed ships.

@Koltes does a good job explaining it in this thread: 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Another shout here for pirate specific mechanics. They should not be a faux-nation, but should be individuals making opportunist attacks on shipping and raiding ports when in groups, as a more hardcore experience in NA. There are plenty of ideas that float around here. lots to provide inspiration, so it would be nice for us to know whether they're going to be sorted out or just left as is.

Also another cry for reducing bonuses quite heavily for mods and books. They should provide a small boost, just a small one, and not make such a massive difference.

 

Edited by Rikard Frederiksen
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...