Patch 10.4 Conquest changes, Battle Groups, Wapen von Hamburg (III)

[Captain Dug]

Thank you very much for the crafting update

[Sir Texas Sir]

28 minutes ago, admin said:

• Added ship names to escaped and captured ships in the Tab Interface
• Significant streamlining changes to crafting levels and ship crafting XP due to ship capture
  • ships are now unlock in groups (by ranks) to give you the chance to craft popular ships instead of forcing you to pass through ships no-one wants
  • overall xp level required to progress is lowered

Glad we finally can see the ships at end of battle and the crafting changes sounds good for new or lower level crafters.

 

[DesAnderes]

1 minute ago, admin said:

1st rates will unlock at 45

but the xp requirements are lowered too - so you will get there faster (no longer need to build 20 second rates to progress)

That's fair but the biggest ship i can craft right now is the Constitution. I unlocked it last Friday with lvl 35. But now it's lvl 25. Do the other ships unlock when i get to the next level?
 

[admin]

3 minutes ago, DesAnderes said:

That's fair but the biggest ship i can craft right now is the Constitution. I unlocked it last Friday with lvl 35. But now it's lvl 25. Do the other ships unlock when i get to the next level

did you buy the blueprints for those ships in the admiralty?

[Maloco]

  On 28/7/2017 at 0:43 AM, Maloco said:

  On 17/7/2017 at 11:35 AM, admin said:

NPCs no longer sail rattlesnakes, Niagaras and Ingermanlands

I play on the server of pve ... now I can not enjoy facing me in battle against these ships, because only the players can carry them and in the server pve only can attack the npc.

So I lose game content by choosing the pve system.

Why, both me and any player of the server pve, we have to suffer the loss of variety of ships that can enjoy the players of other servers?

And there are more ships that we can never face in battle, such as the LOcean, the bucentaure and all those ships that you can only build  and sail with them ... I do not think anything fair and I protest for it.

[Sir Texas Sir]

3 minutes ago, DesAnderes said:

That's fair but the biggest ship i can craft right now is the Constitution. I unlocked it last Friday with lvl 35. But now it's lvl 25. Do the other ships unlock when i get to the next level?
 

You will still need to get the BP's for the SOL's and other ships.  

[DesAnderes]

3 minutes ago, admin said:

did you buy the blueprints for those ships in the admiralty?

No i only got the Pirate Frigate Blueprint from a Deadmenschest all other BP i just got from crafting

Edited August 15, 2017 by DesAnderes

[DesAnderes]

2 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

You will still need to get the BP's for the SOL's and other ships.  

That's the question that i had. Are there any more ships I get from crafting above the Constitution or do I have to buy all coming BP now?

[Mongrell]

38 minutes ago, admin said:

overall xp level required to progress is lowered

This is nice lower the grind is always a good thing.

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 minute ago, DesAnderes said:

That's the question that i had. Are there any more ships I get from crafting above the Constitution or do I have to buy all coming BP now?

No that is the last ship you auto get from leveling up.  Anything above that will need you to purchase the BP from the Admiralty Store/Pirates Den.

[DesAnderes]

Just now, Sir Texas Sir said:

No that is the last ship you auto get from leveling up.  Anything above that will need you to purchase the BP from the Admiralty Store/Pirates Den.

Okay thanks. That is what i wanted to hear

[Maloco]

Now we not also find endymion, indefatigable ... less and less ships, what sense does that have on a server that can only attack the NPC?

Does anyone find it correct? Certainly not. Promised more content for pve and we see fleets with less diversity in boats

Edited August 15, 2017 by Maloco

[Sir Texas Sir]

@admin Have ya'll thought about separating perks according to Combat and Crafting.  Say we get 10 combat points to spend if your rank is high enough (use to be 1 point per rank and I prefer that, but what is it 10 by rank 5?)   Is there any way we can have crafting perks tied to our crafting levels.  You have crafting level 50 so that is 1 point ever 5 levels you gain.  Than you can put them towards your crafting perk as you rank it up and don't have to change them back and forth.   If some one never wants to rank up crafting than he doesn't have to, or you can have a player that only crafts and he has high crafting level and crafting perks but very few combat perks points.  Than you have guys like me that are maxed out in both that can do them both.  This will help the limit of need alts for designated crafters and traders and such and help the solo players out more.

[Fastidius]

1 hour ago, admin said:

for example
to get to level 1 you needed to craft lynx (wasting resources and money)
now all unrated ships are unlocked on rank 0 - so you can craft something players might need (privateers, pickles)
same system was applied to all ship ranks (from 7th to 1st)

 

1

sorry, i don't understand why you think this changed anything....

the grind wasn't the XP per level the grind was the shipyards iron fittings and all the traders required to get to there.

" so you can craft something players might need (privateers, pickles)"  no one pays for those...ever....they are free at best

 

if you wanted to do something to help crafters get strated it would be allow the first 10 levels of xp in parts building....then they learn what bits people want build and what mats they should be getting etc....and are useful and learning about buying and selling hours...

Edited August 15, 2017 by Fastidius

[admin]

50 minutes ago, Fastidius said:

sorry, i don't understand why you think this changed anything....

the grind wasn't the XP per level the grind was the shipyards iron fittings and all the traders required to get to there.

" so you can craft something players might need (privateers, pickles)"  no one pays for those...ever....they are free at best

 

if you wanted to do something to help crafters get strated it would be allow the first 10 levels of xp in parts building....then they learn what bits people want build and what mats they should be getting etc....and are useful and learning about buying and selling hours...

we removed the need to craft unwanted ships for the sake of xp and getting to wanted ships.

[Hodo]

Why not put back XP gain from crafting ANYTHING.   Right now only crafting ships hurts those people who dont have the resources to craft ships.  What about XP for crafting cannons?  

 

 

[RyebreadMike]

10 hours ago, Fastidius said:

sorry, i don't understand why you think this changed anything....

the grind wasn't the XP per level the grind was the shipyards iron fittings and all the traders required to get to there.

" so you can craft something players might need (privateers, pickles)"  no one pays for those...ever....they are free at best

 

if you wanted to do something to help crafters get strated it would be allow the first 10 levels of xp in parts building....then they learn what bits people want build and what mats they should be getting etc....and are useful and learning about buying and selling hours...

I really don't agree with this.  Earning crafting XP has NOTHING to do with getting paid for your ships.  Only with crafting the ships.  When I maxed out  my crafting a LONG time before the wipe, I determined which ship gave me the most (xp / required mats) .. and then I obtained enough to build 10 at a time until I maxed out.  The ships I created that others didn't want got recycled for parts and were considered part of the cost of leveling up.  The new building requirements ARE expensive and they should be. 

Too many people want things to come easily; all that does is diminish the act of actually getting what you have been striving for.

[Fastidius]

18 minutes ago, RyebreadMike said:

I really don't agree with this.  Earning crafting XP has NOTHING to do with getting paid for your ships.  Only with crafting the ships.  When I maxed out  my crafting a LONG time before the wipe, I determined which ship gave me the most (xp / required mats) .. and then I obtained enough to build 10 at a time until I maxed out.  The ships I created that others didn't want got recycled for parts and were considered part of the cost of leveling up.  The new building requirements ARE expensive and they should be. 

Too many people want things to come easily; all that does is diminish the act of actually getting what you have been striving for.

Well you could look at it and say they spend their first 10 levels prepping for the next 10 rather than being disenchanted with the inability to sell ships people don't want. They also have the opportunity to earn their money for their first shipyard.    It also builds interaction with a community and brings people into contact with other players which helps them to get reputation with a clan.  There has been a lot of people who sold crafting hours as noobs who became parts of clans they interacted with.

There is a huge outlay to jumping straight into ship building and some would say it is a grind on top of a grind on top of a grind.

You are right on the ship pricing but the value something like this brings is actually not about ship XP as much as player empowerment.

Considering the concerns about spys and new players struggling to get support I would say its a better move personally.

Edited August 15, 2017 by Fastidius

[Sir Texas Sir]

11 hours ago, Hodo said:

Why not put back XP gain from crafting ANYTHING.   Right now only crafting ships hurts those people who dont have the resources to craft ships.  What about XP for crafting cannons?  

This along with xp for damage in fights will help the casual players and solo guys that struggle in game and loose interest cause the grind is so much.  Even if it's very little xp it's still better than no xp. I would love to see the return of xp for ships you craft too for the low level guys. It doesn't mean crap for me since my two mains are maxed out, but my third guy which is pure crafter is still 2 ranks from maxing out. He's gotten almost all his xp from travel pretty much and a few port battles I brought it in as special teams member (he was my Dane pre-patch).  I did grand out the last level before patch to get it to 650 crew to run dual LVG's or an escort and Indanman and not be under crewed.   Though I still think splitting your crafting levels perks from combat perks will help too.  Give less reason for folks to have to buy an alt to do there crafting since it ties up there combat perks so they can do one or the other, but not both.

3 hours ago, Wraith said:

It's the same reason we can't have players get XP/gold from doing damage in battle, or even the primary damage dealer if they cap the enemy:

 "HARDC0RE!!!11!"  Or alternatively, "OH NOES, ALTS!!111!"

It's laughable that this was the "solution" to XP and gold inflation.

A lot of game changes where done cause of alt abuse that hurt the solo players. I'll be honest as a person that has more than one char I have no reason to abuse them cause I level them up the normal way.  What they should of did instead of got more strict on those  caught abusing the rules instead of making every rule to try to avoid the abuse.   XP for Damage needs to return for the lower level guys and casual players so no matter if they loose they still get something from fights.  Right now with the share rewards thing you don't do enough damage to get an assist you get nothing....NOTHING at all and that has been my biggest complaint since testbed.  Keep the gold and CM reward upon Assist and Kills, but bring back the XP for damage so you get something no matter what happens in a fight as long as your doing damage.  Also Missions and travel xp needs to go towards ship knowledge xp too.  That right there will help a lot with the grind folks complain about so much.

Edited August 16, 2017 by Sir Texas Sir

[Jacob van Heemskerck]

Thank you for the hotfix! In can finally craft with a bit more satisfaction now. 

[M. Ballantrae]

On 8/15/2017 at 4:03 PM, RyebreadMike said:

I really don't agree with this.  Earning crafting XP has NOTHING to do with getting paid for your ships.  Only with crafting the ships.  When I maxed out  my crafting a LONG time before the wipe, I determined which ship gave me the most (xp / required mats) .. and then I obtained enough to build 10 at a time until I maxed out.  The ships I created that others didn't want got recycled for parts and were considered part of the cost of leveling up.  The new building requirements ARE expensive and they should be. 

Too many people want things to come easily; all that does is diminish the act of actually getting what you have been striving for.

I agree.  Crafting ships is a lot of fun.  But also a lot of time and money and effort.  As it should be.  It's not easy.  But it feels like an accomplishment when you reach a goal.  It's an integral part of my enjoyment of the game.

[Farrago]

I'm going to place this here...

And it ended up in the wrong place. 

Edited August 30, 2017 by Farrago
Deleted and moved to thread about future changes in Developer News

[George Washington]

9 minutes ago, Farrago said:

I'm going to place this here because I believe @admin wants to make the experience better for new players with this patch.

I took the opportunity of this low population period to play a new character for several different nations on the Euro PVP server. Pop was usually over 300 during these sessions. I've been playing this game for about 9 months. I don't have a lot of PVP experience but I do know how to craft, make money, and kill AI: a benefit brand new players don't have. Here's my experience...

1. I tried Spain, GB, France, Dutch, and Pirates. Only with Pirates and French was a brand new player acknowledged sailing in and out of their capitol. French were friendly and worked to recruit me. One Pirate gave me a ship. Other nations acted like I wasn't there. Experienced players have got to reach out to new players. Some noobs may ask for help but others may be reticent to type "I need help" or "Sail with me and teach me" in Nation chat.

2. I knew that I needed to start with midshipman mission in the Basic Cutter. I already knew that I could get unlimited repairs and how to time and use them. I knew the double charge perk would be a good first choice to give the 4lb-ers a boost. I knew how to loot a ship. Since I knew all that, I quickly advanced a rank and could afford or capture 6lb and some repairs although rather frustratingly I got far more sail repairs than hull which would be preferred for doing missions. Anyway, the lowest mission was easy for me, the next level missions for 7th rates were harder but since I knew repairs and was in a free ship, they usually worked out. I could have relatively quickly afforded a store 7th rate but chose to skip them because I knew I'd be vulnerable to having spent my meager pile of gold and get sunk back to nothing.

3. I knew that at any time I could instead have chosen the Fleet Perk (or by this time had unlocked another perk) and then capped a trader brig and start grinding trade goods. BUT I knew this boring option exists. A new player would not.

4. You see the recurring theme: I knew how to be a new player since I've played the game for 9 months. A noob would just keep sinking in his basic cutter and give up or lose his little savings the first time he sinks in a bought ship.

5. There was a couple of times I joined an existing battle and tried to help others. I died once doing this and a nice pirate I helped replaced my ship. But during none of these battles was I able to do enough damage to get an Assist or Kill = No Battle Reward.

6. Eventually I bought a Snow and tried to do some 6th rate missions. Lower 6th were doable but in higher 6th rate missions I was facing 3 rookie Snows. Now since I had repairs and knew how to use them I was able to survive but rarely complete them because I just couldn't get enough repairs without going backwards and grinding more unfortunate robot Lynx and Pickles.

7. Idea: what about repair kits for 6-7 rates that could be less expensive and produced by AI. Low level missions pay very poorly.

8. I suspect I was just lucky, but I was never ganked or attacked by another player. The only enemy players I saw were either sailing such power that I ran in OW or one time I chased but was not able to catch a trader lynx. Devs seem to be creating safer zones for noobs in the upcoming patch.

I didn't have as much problem being safe as I had problems being productive and having fun.

So the lesson: starting from zero and with no prior knowledge is so frustrating now that I totally understand why noobs don't stay. It takes FAR longer to advance than the fun lasts. If this game is to succeed, each level needs to be enjoyable. I'm not even sure how much it needs to be made easier for a new player but I do know it needs to be explained and taught to a new player.

This game should not encourage new players to beg for help or resources. New players should be able to understand everything in a short mission and operate independently right after they complete it. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by George Washington