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One Server, Two maps, PVP and PVEish.


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the discussion has gone on for a couple years now. The balance of pve and pvp. The options for pvp and pve for players.

If its possible here is my proposed solution

Keeping the current Caribbean map and its ports. No more regions, all ports solo , each one needing to be captured. The map becomes lawless, all out pvp between players. Ports no longer belong to the NPC countries, they are taken over by players, controlled by players, governed by players, joined into player empires BY PLAYERS. Wars fought over them by players. Taxes and shipping tarifs decided by players governing the ports. I think you get the idea, that the current map would be one big player sandbox. Player clans with their own colors taking the ports, NPC nations are gone from this map.

The second map would be a brand new map of europe. The ports of this new map would be owned and always controlled by NPC nations. That means players do not change their ownership there are no wars over those ports they are always NPC ports, stable and without player wars. yes there could be piracy but that would be limited because NPC nations would have defensive ships that protect traders and attack pirates. This european map would be the new high security NOT PVE, just high security map. Its not a PVE map because there is still a small chance for pvp but its greatly limited. this map will not only be a historic breath of fresh air, something new to sail around, trade, gain marginal profits etc. It will be the map where carebears and PVE players can enjoy relative safety to just play the game , trade, craft and not worry so much about losing ports or their stuff. This would also be the map where players who lose at pvp can fall back and rebuild, regroup and replan a pvp strategy then sail their new fleets to try and start a new empire in the Caribbean.

These two maps would be joined via Trade Wind spots . Lets say there are four trade wind spots on the edge of each map marking the entry to the atlantic ocean. Players go to these spots then are teleported to the new map.

These trade wind spots will likely have player pirates lurking looking for easy prey, they may also be a place for players to camp and invite all kinds of pvp battles, like a pvp gathering hole. Players just wishing to cross the Atlantic may need to scout ahead, they may need to form large escort fleets to reach the Caribbean. To balance things i would say the trade wind spots on the europe side would be patrolled by NPC ships that way that side is at least "safer" to allow players to at least scout and have a fighting chance to get back to europe safely. The Caribbean side would be anything goes pvp. Also to allow those players who have lost everything in the Caribbean a way to get back to europe you could allow for trade ship passage so you can just teleport from Caribbean with just you, no ships, to a europe port so you can just start over. Yes on the europe map you could serve under npc nations and MOST IMPORTANTLY there are no wars between NPC that way there is no forced pvp between players on the european map.

 

For a ship based sandbox MMO to survive it needs to give players options for play style. The current one map, everyone forced into npc nations total war is failing because the winners cascade steam roll, the losers have almost no options to regroup and carebear players are stuck in the middle and everyone is frustrated in the long run. The devs are pulling their hair out trying to balance it all and they will never balance it out in the current format.

Try my ideas above it may help this game long term?

Edited by Rebel Witch
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The other idea for the Caribbean pvp map is that there would be 'fog of war' so the map is unknown until you or your clan sail to discover the ports. This leads to exploration and discovery. it could also lead to added exploration rewards, treasure finding rewards etc. The europe map would not have this fog of war because we want the safer high security europe map to be low profit place for carebears, pve players and rebuilders to just do their thing. All the ports are already known on the europe map.

The greatest rewards would be on the hard map, the caribbean map where players put the time and effort to pvp, conquer, explore, discover and they get big rewards for it. However every other player is doing the same thing on that map and many want to take your stuff. So its a place of risk but high reward.

 

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here is just a rough idea of the europe map that would become the new carebear, pve, low reward, rebuilding, etc map.

So each NPC country such as Denmark, spain, britain, france, sweden, even austria hungary, ottoman empire, italian states, Russia! You could USE THEIR PORTS. You are not becoming a part of any NPC country you are just you, your trade company, your shipping clan whatever but the key is that you the player do not sail for an NPC country. That way we eliminate the crazy balance from hell that is the current problem in naval action.

Each npc country would cater to different players such as britain perhaps crafters would get the british refit bonus but higher taxes. russia ports would be lower taxes and a russian refit bonus. the point is players would use the different ports in relative safety to just play the game and enjoy it without all the worry of pvp or losing all your stuff.

thats the europe map, pve'ish

Britain Ports= High Taxes and Tariffs , good british refit bonus for building ships.

Russia ports= Low tax low trade tariffs, low russian refit bonus

Prussian ports= medium tax levels, good german refit bonus

etc etc each country would have certain pros and cons to their ports for crafters and traders.

 

Europe Map for Naval Action.gif

Edited by Rebel Witch
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9 minutes ago, C R E W said:

YES YES YES.....I VOTE YOU FOR DEVELOPER SIR

If they sell the game to me for the right price i would take this game over in a heartbeat and make all my ideas happen. But at the end of the day, its their game so i can only propose and hope the game succeeds one way or the other because its so damn beautiful.

If i owned this game, i would also make maps for the rest of the world that would have thousands of ports that would need to be explored and conquered by player and their clans. that way there would be endless places for players to start their own empires, fight over them etc but there would always be that carebear map of europe to be a trade hub and place for crafting or rebuilding.

Edited by Rebel Witch
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Piracy the new radical idea with this two map one server idea.

There will no longer be players joining NPC nations, you as a player are like a business man/woman or you join a player clan and that is your trade or warship company YOU DO NOT JOIN NPC NATIONS you simply can trade things to npc's or take combat orders for them etc. You simply sail into NPC controlled ports on the europe map. This way, we get rid of the absolute balancing nightmare that is the current naval action.

So then what happens to pirates you ask? There will not be an option to start as a pirate  like there is now, there are no more pirate ports there are simply players who attack other players or NPC nation shipping. Those players are flagged pirates then.

Lets say you want to be a pirate. You start out on the european map like everyone. You start out neutral like everyone else. You grab a boat, some crew and set off in the north sea and spot an NPC british trade brig. you attack it and steal all of its goods and the boat. Now you are considered a pirate by the BRITISH NPC . that means british npc ships will flee from you or attack you. While russian, spanish etc npc ships will treat you as neutral until you start pirating their ships.

Lets say you attack players in the europe map , Now you are a pirate flagged by all NPC nations and players will see a pirate flag over you warning them you are a pirate. So you can play a pirate on the europe map and get only so far, you may loot something sweet but you will be hunted and completely flogged for messing around in Europe shipping, pirates dont live long in europe. Thats why pirates went to the Caribbean!

So players can be a pirate, its an option but there are risks to it on the European map.

On the Caribbean map players who attack NPC ships they will be flagged pirates by those NPC nations. so you could attack british npc ships all you want and still be able to access spanish npc ports no problem back at the europe map. Also, on the caribbean map since it is a lawless waters player vs player does not flag you as a pirate thats important because that way not all NPC countries in europe map will flag you as a pirate.

 

 

So then you may ask how does a player who is flagged as a pirate to all NPC nations and players even get back to the Europe map? The answer is at great cost in gold to pay for access to one of the NPC countries to allow you there. You made your choice to be a pirate, NPC countries are not obligated to cater to you unless you PAY THEM. you can pay for temporary access to a NPC country but players will still see you as a pvp pirate flag warning them that you can be dangerous.

to stop players from just paying off NPC countries to keep attacking players in the european map, the cost for pirates to gain neutral status again will be ridiculously high.

 

What if i spent a year pirating in the Caribbean causing havoc on NPC shipping and now i lost everything and want to return to Europe but i am completely broke i spent all my gold?  Ask other mates for a loan to pay off an NPC nation in europe to start over or delete your character and start over. You made your choices now you pay for them. Or just stay in the Caribbean map and build up more gold. Everyone can still get a free basic cutter.

Edited by Rebel Witch
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I like the idea of having to build up in europe to be able to advance to the caribbean and all but they don't even add good and simple to implement suggestions... you think they would come up with a complete map of europe? I doubt it... Also, wouldn't this be just like the system they recently proposed with uncapturable semi safe ports protected by NPC with green zones at the edge of the map and pvp battles to take control over the regions  in the middle.... just on a much larger scale, when we already lack player numbers to fill one map? This could still be a good idea to link the pve server to pvp but the pvp server has plenty of carebears / actual pve players that try to avoid pvp at all cost already so i don't see much use here either.

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Update... More ideas for the proposed europe map . This is my attempt to suggest how to create OPTIONS for players for different play styles at given times.

The Europe map would have 2 distinct zones. The ultra carebear, pve waters of Baltic Sea, North Sea, North Atlantic, Bay of Biscay. In these waters NPC nation warship patrols completely destroy any piracy so players are free to trade, travel, fish with little fear of being ganked. Its also where new players start out. HOWEVER it is more vanilla so the rewards are much less and higher taxes in the NPC ports also.

The PVEish, piracy on hard mode area would be the Mediterranean sea and Black Sea. Here taxes are reduced, there are more items of trade , more chances for profit for traders, carebears and pirates alike. here pirate players can more easily get around because NPC warship patrols are closer to the ports. so player pirates can have much easier time finding prey and the pirate ports would be from north africa. those will be the only NPC pirate friendly ports in the game. (the Caribbean map would be no NPC ports all player owned ports)

 

The Europe map would be no fog of war so you can easily see the entire map and sail around it at will.

The Caribbean map would have entire fog of war until you explore it to remove fog of war OR i think there should be the option to BUY maps at great cost for those who want to just skip having to explore. That way PLAYERS HAVE OPTIONS but there are always costs.

The Caribbean map is one giant player playground for fighting over ports but the main part of it also will be players will only be able to get exploration and treasure goods from the Caribbean map that way it makes it more desirable to play on. If we make the Europe map safe and give all the goodies on that map, fewer people will have incentive to go risk the Caribbean map.

Also, to make going back and forth between the maps desirable. Loot or Goods players discover and find in treasure in the Caribbean map will reap great rewards if they sail those goods to Europe map and sell them. Such as more exotic commodities found only in Caribbean, that NPC nations in europe will buy at high profit. This way PVP players who participate in the high risk Caribbean map can also have a far greater chance for profit than players who just stay on the Europe map. Players who stay on the Europe map get the reward of great safety but with low rewards, low profits.

Note how the two maps are connected via trade wind spots so players can go back and forth as they please depending on what they want to do.

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Updated Map showing the NPC ports. Note in the Europe map players cannot take ports they do that on the Caribbean map. Various NPC nation ports would have different taxes and different bonuses for crafters etc.

Note the trade wind spots on the edge of the map , these are teleport zones to allow for travel between the maps. The new Caribbean map would have similar spots on the edge of its map where you start from.

Note also Gibraltar that is a spot that will have heavy NPC warship traffic so it is very likely going to stop the pirates from the Mediterranean from getting to the safe areas of the north. If you do piracy it is just the price you must pay.

 

 

 

Europe Map for Naval Action.gif

Edited by Rebel Witch
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3 hours ago, Rebel Witch said:

Hmm, if it is a cost issue, maybe they can just extend the current map east a bit and just plop europe right on the same map. that way you wouldnt need trade wind zones and could sail the distance between the areas.

The cost is that there is no modeled Europe to plop anywhere. :)

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That map, while beautiful, does not constitute a modeled map. It would need to be fully 3D in format that engine understands.

Plopping in a texture is "relatively easy".

(It hasn't been done in game yet. Hopefully Unity 5 will remove that barrier.)

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Some great ideas in this thread!

Lets face it the Global Server is now dead; they need to merge it into the EU server ASAP and give Global players redeemables on transfer to the EU server.

Then, set about sorting out the other issues that make this game a second job to play when all the player base is on one server, but that's discussion for a differently titled thread!

The separate Global server experiment hasn't worked, time for one server is my vote!

 

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How about solving the nightflip issue before letting the globals ruin another server?

And if we remove nations - why then keep the current map? the proposal has little to no historical accuracy and the map of the carribean leaves about 1/2 the map (aka the atlantic) untouched. from a gameplay perspective you would have a hard time finding another spot in the world less suited for a MMO sandbox..

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/13/2017 at 4:49 AM, Rebel Witch said:

the discussion has gone on for a couple years now. The balance of pve and pvp. The options for pvp and pve for players.

If its possible here is my proposed solution

Keeping the current Caribbean map and its ports. No more regions, all ports solo , each one needing to be captured. The map becomes lawless, all out pvp between players. Ports no longer belong to the NPC countries, they are taken over by players, controlled by players, governed by players, joined into player empires BY PLAYERS. Wars fought over them by players. Taxes and shipping tarifs decided by players governing the ports. I think you get the idea, that the current map would be one big player sandbox. Player clans with their own colors taking the ports, NPC nations are gone from this map.

The second map would be a brand new map of europe. The ports of this new map would be owned and always controlled by NPC nations. That means players do not change their ownership there are no wars over those ports they are always NPC ports, stable and without player wars. yes there could be piracy but that would be limited because NPC nations would have defensive ships that protect traders and attack pirates. This european map would be the new high security NOT PVE, just high security map. Its not a PVE map because there is still a small chance for pvp but its greatly limited. this map will not only be a historic breath of fresh air, something new to sail around, trade, gain marginal profits etc. It will be the map where carebears and PVE players can enjoy relative safety to just play the game , trade, craft and not worry so much about losing ports or their stuff. This would also be the map where players who lose at pvp can fall back and rebuild, regroup and replan a pvp strategy then sail their new fleets to try and start a new empire in the Caribbean.

These two maps would be joined via Trade Wind spots . Lets say there are four trade wind spots on the edge of each map marking the entry to the atlantic ocean. Players go to these spots then are teleported to the new map.

These trade wind spots will likely have player pirates lurking looking for easy prey, they may also be a place for players to camp and invite all kinds of pvp battles, like a pvp gathering hole. Players just wishing to cross the Atlantic may need to scout ahead, they may need to form large escort fleets to reach the Caribbean. To balance things i would say the trade wind spots on the europe side would be patrolled by NPC ships that way that side is at least "safer" to allow players to at least scout and have a fighting chance to get back to europe safely. The Caribbean side would be anything goes pvp. Also to allow those players who have lost everything in the Caribbean a way to get back to europe you could allow for trade ship passage so you can just teleport from Caribbean with just you, no ships, to a europe port so you can just start over. Yes on the europe map you could serve under npc nations and MOST IMPORTANTLY there are no wars between NPC that way there is no forced pvp between players on the european map.

 

For a ship based sandbox MMO to survive it needs to give players options for play style. The current one map, everyone forced into npc nations total war is failing because the winners cascade steam roll, the losers have almost no options to regroup and carebear players are stuck in the middle and everyone is frustrated in the long run. The devs are pulling their hair out trying to balance it all and they will never balance it out in the current format.

Try my ideas above it may help this game long term?

this is UWO uncharted waters online if ur looking for that kind of sandbox style game its on steam its free to play there is no need to make a replica of that mess

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