Patch 11.0: New ships, Unity 5, Improved clan based conquest, and many other changes.

[Sir Texas Sir]

5 hours ago, Slim Jimmerson said:

There are plenty of people who want to PVP but there is no way to find it with reasonable consistency. We're talking hour long sails to find PVP that may not even be there, not to mention the long sail back when your done. Even if you die you're forced to sail in a basic cutter just to get back to your waters, unlike EVE where you can choose to respawn your guy at your home station if you die far away in null sec space.

Did you not see the combat news the last two nights?  I'm going to be honest with you I kinda feel like us pirates are missing out on the fun.  For once US and GB are fighting on GLOBAL.  If you can't figure out the current hot spots and where the PvP is than that is your own problem.   I'll give you a hint:   Get an empty port slot and take your ships (or ships so you have spares) down to the southern tip of Florida, I wouldn't pick a US base in the Keys (yall are going to loose those).  There was a lot of fighting between Spain/GB and US.   Rumor has it even the Danes are moving over to get into the action.  I heard the pirates might be hitting some ares too, but you know them pirates can never trust a thing they say.   I mean it is your clan that ucked up and hit a small nation with only two ports (and about less than dozen players) over getting some traders ganked in OW PvP....you know on a PvP server.  Well guess what I'm going to bet that PvP ends up right on your capital waters door step soon.  Than again some of ya'll are known only for running and hiding.  We give it a week before that starts up.  Though there is no excuse for saying that you have to go a long distance when your own nation is the hotspot for active GLOBAL PvP right now.  If you want to tangle with the Pirates we will meet you in shallows right now.  As long as you stay in North Bahamas we will not take it to RvR, but if you want to hunt and have PvP come across that line.

2 hours ago, Skully said:

It would only take making the Pirates Clan based as opposed to Nation based.

Any Pirate Clan can pretend to be any nation. 

But then the combat engine needs to become multi-sided, so everyone can fight whoever they really want to fight.

Honestly Alliance was a very bad thing being nation vs nation when on PvP2 the two biggest nations had an alliance and never fought for over a year.  Not one port battle.  Having it more clan based is better.  I actually wouldn't mind seeing some nations being able to have clan alliances with another nation and can fight side by side, but the easiest way to do this is turn pirates into privateers and have them options to work for other nations or remain outlaws.  Though I don't think the devs every plan to do anything with Pirates,  they always seam to skirt this topic around the corners, but it would help fill port battles and such if folks can contract out (Letters or Marque's) pirates into Privateers to help fight for there side.  

The other thing is some less key ports that smaller clans can capture and keep could be limited to 12 vs 12 port battles instead of 25 vs 25 to give them a better chance to defend them against large nations zerge.  

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 hour ago, Malachy said:

It's a clan game, especially now. Adapt or be overcome. My clan was too small to thrive in the new system post wipe. We have become one of the more powerful clans on the Brit side now. We didn't do it by whining about how tough things were for the little guys. We did it by correctly adjusting our efforts and structure to thrive in the new system. Adapt or get left behind, if I can do it, anyone can.

I would say the second biggest/strongest clan in Pirates on GLOBAL is AIB a Brazilian clan.  Before this patch cause of their off times they kinda was left out of a lot of things. They had the first AI port battle out of any pirates. hey got so excited that first port battle they started a pirate FFA before it lol.  They been showing up for the guys that can stay on later for our port battles.  This patch has gotten a lot of small clans motivated that use to only just sit around saying, BLACK will take care of it.  Now they have a piece of there own of the nation and can feel part of every thing.  

I think this patch has let a lot of small clans step up to the plate and show they are important and can do things.  It's also let folks know just how weak/unorganized some of the large clans are too.

As I mention above we had prob the most OW PvP last night on our server and it wasn't even involving pirates for once.  It's been like that the last two nights as we are having our first none AI Port Battles.  IF it keeps up than that means something was done right with this patch.

Edited September 22, 2017 by Sir Texas Sir

[Malachy]

32 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

I would say the second biggest/strongest clan in Pirates on GLOBAL is AIB a Brazilian clan.  Before this patch cause of their off times they kinda was left out of a lot of things. They had the first AI port battle out of any pirates. hey got so excited that first port battle they started a pirate FFA before it lol.  They been showing up for the guys that can stay on later for our port battles.  This patch has gotten a lot of small clans motivated that use to only just sit around saying, BLACK will take care of it.  Now they have a piece of there own of the nation and can feel part of every thing.  

I think this patch has let a lot of small clans step up to the plate and show they are important and can do things.  It's also let folks know just how weak/unorganized some of the large clans are too.

As I mention above we had prob the most OW PvP last night on our server and it wasn't even involving pirates for once.  It's been like that the last two nights as we are having our first none AI Port Battles.  IF it keeps up than that means something was done right with this patch.

We were 5 Pvpers from global who came to EU for more targets. We just broke down npc ships for components and built what we needed. When they rolled out the crafting improvements, in order to enjoy the same flexibility and types of ships we were used to sailing, we realized we needed to expand our internal economy. This led to a larger organization and massive expansion, so we are now more involved with rvr which we had no interest in before.

[Hodo]

2 minutes ago, Borch said:

Am I missing something or rum crew repair doesn't work in OW?

It replenishes crew in your total crew available but not on the ship.  You have to manually assign crew back to the ship using the slider.

[Quineloe]

6 hours ago, Vizzini said:

 

Portugese, Poles , Ukraine, Russia , Germany all the Scandies etc etc

Just a thought

What flag would this fictional "Germany" be flying?

[Vizzini]

34 minutes ago, Quineloe said:

What flag would this fictional "Germany" be flying?

gold white and brown I guess  for now ... could have the old Prussian one  I suppose if you want to be pedantic. Plenty of the countries I quickly listed weren't even countries back then, but who really cares ? Pedants maybe ?

[Sir Texas Sir]

5 hours ago, admin said:

European nations who missed the initial west indies expansions could consider sending some colonial navies into the region due to huge war raging in europe.

How about we fix Pirates and make them actually something interesting in game instead of adding more nations.  Let folks be outlaws if the want but change the pirates to a Privateer Faction that can work for other nations (under Letter of Marques).  This will help fill out other nations port battles and give them something special since they won't be a nation, but a faction. If a player wants to get into RvR they need to get a LoM for that nation (this should be a clan base thing).   If your not in a clan or don't want to do RvR than your treated as a pirate/outlaw.  Since Privateers/Pirates have FFA we can still police the naughty pirates and other nations.   All you have to do is higher a clan to be privateers and fight for your clan against another clan even if it's your same nation.

 

Now I bet something like that would bring more interest into the game and will make the nations actually feel like nations and pirates/privateers be something like they should be.  Cause what is a Pirate in all honesty?   A privateer without a job.

So yah before we talk about any other nations being added we have one nation that needs some love since you seem to constantly skirt around this topic if Pirates will ever be more than just some bastard child nation.

Though back on topic loving the new patch and changes.  Haven't seen so many fights on OW in a while and actually nations that use to not fight each other are actually fighting.

[Captain corn blower]

26 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

How about we fix Pirates and make them actually something interesting in game instead of adding more nations.  Let folks be outlaws if the want but change the pirates to a Privateer Faction that can work for other nations (under Letter of Marques).  This will help fill out other nations port battles and give them something special since they won't be a nation, but a faction. If a player wants to get into RvR they need to get a LoM for that nation (this should be a clan base thing).   If your not in a clan or don't want to do RvR than your treated as a pirate/outlaw.  Since Privateers/Pirates have FFA we can still police the naughty pirates and other nations.   All you have to do is higher a clan to be privateers and fight for your clan against another clan even if it's your same nation.

 

Now I bet something like that would bring more interest into the game and will make the nations actually feel like nations and pirates/privateers be something like they should be.  Cause what is a Pirate in all honesty?   A privateer without a job.

So yah before we talk about any other nations being added we have one nation that needs some love since you seem to constantly skirt around this topic if Pirates will ever be more than just some bastard child nation.

Though back on topic loving the new patch and changes.  Haven't seen so many fights on OW in a while and actually nations that use to not fight each other are actually fighting.

And which a nother fine point about us pirates we are not a nation as you pointed out witch we should be able to place contracts in any port of any nation I'd say😀

[Teutonic]

Best advice I can give for folks is to get all your friends and tell them to come back and try the game again - it really is a nice patch, sure we still want improvements, but people aren't complaining about the grind and that is a biggy. 

If population is an issue - we can fix it by putting reviews up, talking to players who are interested, and bringing folks back who you know would like the current iteration.

[Jef]

So is the game now resorted to pve only, and an occasional pvp fight, if you are lucky?

I sailed from Rosseau all the way to la mona, had to dodge enormous protected zones basically half of the sail across the 2 capital zones, 3 hour sail for 1 empty LGV just at the edge of the protected Danish area. 

Saw an indef West of Fort Baai, but even there it was still under the protected zone of Gustavia  and I got the magic reinforcements jump in...

Please tell me there is a change coming for the protected zones to tone them down, or at least give a clear indication where it starts...

Currently, I cannot sail to Dutch waters, mostly protected, Danish waters... protected, Swedish waters also protected, same for most of the American ports.
There is currently no more thrill in roaming coast lines for traders or other players. The thrill is gone...
 

Edited September 24, 2017 by Jef

[Demsity]

3 hours ago, Jef said:

So is the game now resorted to pve only, and an occasional pvp fight, if you are lucky?

I sailed from Rosseau all the way to la mona, had to dodge enormous protected zones basically half of the sail across the 2 capital zones, 3 hour sail for 1 empty LGV just at the edge of the protected Danish area. 

Saw an indef West of Fort Baai, but even there it was still under the protected zone of Gustavia  and I got the magic reinforcements jump in...

Please tell me there is a change coming for the protected zones to tone them down, or at least give a clear indication where it starts...

Currently, I cannot sail to Dutch waters, mostly protected, Danish waters... protected, Swedish waters also protected, same for most of the American ports.
There is currently no more thrill in roaming coast lines for traders or other players. The thrill is gone...
 

I agree, I´m bored out of my mind in Naval Action at the moment. Its impossible to find PVP because there is no incentive for anyone to leave the safe zone.

But Player count is up again, and appearing to be stable.

A compromise needs to be made here, and soon.

[Custard]

Not buying the safe zone argument it's bogus only one British clan is missioning in the safe zone at KPR on the Global Server the others aren't even at KPR.

Personally I think it's simply lack of players causing the angst of those looking for PvP.

[Demsity]

35 minutes ago, Custard said:

Not buying the safe zone argument it's bogus only one British clan is missioning in the safe zone at KPR on the Global Server the others aren't even at KPR.

Personally I think it's simply lack of players causing the angst of those looking for PvP.

Well the British have a safe zone around Belize (If I´m not mistaken) as well.

And its a bigger problem for nations that are more cramped, Swedes, Danes, French and Dutch (on EU at least).

[Archaos]

People complain about the safe zones, but in actual fact the safe zones are not the issue, maybe they could be a bit smaller and I have not experienced the areas around Danish and Swedish waters, but the main issue that needs to be resolved quickly is to give people incentive to leave the safe zone. I recently started grinding up slots on the Wasa and there is no reason for me to risk taking my ship into missions outside of the safe zone, so why should I take the risk.

The safe zone is a good system but it should only be for new and lower leveled players any higher level missions should not give gold, xp or loot and should only be available so people can practice. That way they would not need to increase rewards for missions outside safe zones to give people incentive to leave the safe zone. The rewards for PvE missions are already high enough that they have become too easy to make money as compared to trading.

This patch although it has been a step in the right direction for the game has enhanced returns from PvE battles and nerfed trading. People may say that trading is PvE but at least you put your ship at risk when you do a trade run outside of the safe zone and create content for other players. Trade runs completely inside the safe zone should provide no profit.

[Demsity]

1 minute ago, Archaos said:

People complain about the safe zones, but in actual fact the safe zones are not the issue, maybe they could be a bit smaller and I have not experienced the areas around Danish and Swedish waters, but the main issue that needs to be resolved quickly is to give people incentive to leave the safe zone. I recently started grinding up slots on the Wasa and there is no reason for me to risk taking my ship into missions outside of the safe zone, so why should I take the risk.

The safe zone is a good system but it should only be for new and lower leveled players any higher level missions should not give gold, xp or loot and should only be available so people can practice. That way they would not need to increase rewards for missions outside safe zones to give people incentive to leave the safe zone. The rewards for PvE missions are already high enough that they have become too easy to make money as compared to trading.

This patch although it has been a step in the right direction for the game has enhanced returns from PvE battles and nerfed trading. People may say that trading is PvE but at least you put your ship at risk when you do a trade run outside of the safe zone and create content for other players. Trade runs completely inside the safe zone should provide no profit.

The Swedish and the Danish zones almost overlap.

And I agree, a incentive to leave the zones is desperately needed ASAP.

[Fargo]

3 minutes ago, Archaos said:

People complain about the safe zones, but in actual fact the safe zones are not the issue, maybe they could be a bit smaller and I have not experienced the areas around Danish and Swedish waters, but the main issue that needs to be resolved quickly is to give people incentive to leave the safe zone. I recently started grinding up slots on the Wasa and there is no reason for me to risk taking my ship into missions outside of the safe zone, so why should I take the risk.

The safe zone is a good system but it should only be for new and lower leveled players any higher level missions should not give gold, xp or loot and should only be available so people can practice. That way they would not need to increase rewards for missions outside safe zones to give people incentive to leave the safe zone. The rewards for PvE missions are already high enough that they have become too easy to make money as compared to trading.

What is the intention of safe zones? The only way to get people out of is is to reward them, reward PvP. When grinding in the safe zone isnt economically anymore, people would leave it, but for what reason do we need safe zones if not to enable risk free PvE grinds? If it was about protecting new players, there are far better solutions than a simple large safe zone effecting everyone.

 

[Archaos]

13 minutes ago, Fargo said:

What is the intention of safe zones? The only way to get people out of is is to reward them, reward PvP. When grinding in the safe zone isnt economically anymore, people would leave it, but for what reason do we need safe zones if not to enable risk free PvE grinds? If it was about protecting new players, there are far better solutions than a simple large safe zone effecting everyone.

 

I think the intention of safe zones is to give new players a chance to get to grips with the game without being seal clubbed. It also allows people to test out new ships and different setups without fear of being jumped. There is nothing worse than getting a brand new Victory or some other ship you have aspired to for the first time and losing it in the first mission you do because you got jumped by another player. And sometimes after you have taken a few losses at PvP you just like to beat up on something to get yourself feeling good again.

If you take away the rewards for higher level missions and ranks in the safe zone you still allow people do these missions for fun and to help train inexperienced players. Forcing people to PvP all the time or risk being involved in PvP everytime they sail from port only drives those people out of the game. 

People always seem to complain that the cannot find PvP, but if there are that many interested in PvP then why do they not broadcast on global channel that they will be in a certain area looking for PvP. If there were enough people doing that you would have plenty of PvP. But no, people would rather spend their time hunting people who were not looking for PvP just so they have easy targets. It is a huge map in NA the safe zones are only a small fraction of that map and so should not prove an issue for people who seriously want PvP against other like minded players.

You will have better retention rate of players if you allow them play in safe zones and encourage them to venture out to experience PvP, rather than the hardcore throw them out to the wolves from day one.

[Fargo]

26 minutes ago, Archaos said:

I think the intention of safe zones is to give new players a chance to get to grips with the game without being seal clubbed. It also allows people to test out new ships and different setups without fear of being jumped. There is nothing worse than getting a brand new Victory or some other ship you have aspired to for the first time and losing it in the first mission you do because you got jumped by another player. And sometimes after you have taken a few losses at PvP you just like to beat up on something to get yourself feeling good again.

If you take away the rewards for higher level missions and ranks in the safe zone you still allow people do these missions for fun and to help train inexperienced players. Forcing people to PvP all the time or risk being involved in PvP everytime they sail from port only drives those people out of the game. 

People always seem to complain that the cannot find PvP, but if there are that many interested in PvP then why do they not broadcast on global channel that they will be in a certain area looking for PvP. If there were enough people doing that you would have plenty of PvP. But no, people would rather spend their time hunting people who were not looking for PvP just so they have easy targets. It is a huge map in NA the safe zones are only a small fraction of that map and so should not prove an issue for people who seriously want PvP against other like minded players.

You will have better retention rate of players if you allow them play in safe zones and encourage them to venture out to experience PvP, rather than the hardcore throw them out to the wolves from day one.

The whole point is that you could simply restrict mission jumping instead, reduce join timer to 1 min (you get what you see) for example. 3 min timer and ships spawning ontop of you makes absolutely no sense. New players could for example be untargetable within a certain area if they choose to be, if protection is really necessary. Suddenly safe zones lost all purpose. 

Safe zones are bad for several reasons, mainly cause its another artificial restriction taking away reliability and freedom of this sandbox. So having them just to enable ship testing for fun is very questionable. Strict restrictions are deadly for a sandbox game. There is a big difference between promoting people to protect their home waters, or to simply deny PvP in certain areas. The result might be similar, but simply denying PvP wont fix the cause of actual problems, the actual gank meta or that people are not promoted to PvP. If it was possible to catch or intercept a repair stacked fir surprise with laser guided stern chasers for example, people could actually defend their waters, would patrol more and increase safety naturally.

Thats not how PvP is supposed to work in this game. OW is simulating war, not a matchmaking system. People hunting, and people hunting the hunters, thats how it should be. That a PvP fight very often is only happening when both sides agree to fight is probably the biggest problem current PvP has, caused not only by safe zones but several bad mechanics and balancings. 

[Archaos]

11 minutes ago, Fargo said:

The whole point is that you could simply restrict mission jumping instead, reduce join timer to 1 min (you get what you see) for example. 3 min timer and ships spawning ontop of you makes absolutely no sense. New players could for example be untargetable within a certain area if they choose to be, if protection is really necessary. Suddenly safe zones lost all purpose. 

Safe zones are bad for several reasons, mainly cause its another artificial restriction taking away reliability and freedom of this sandbox. So having them just to enable ship testing for fun is very questionable. Strict restrictions are deadly for a sandbox game. There is a big difference between promoting people to protect their home waters, or to simply deny PvP in certain areas. The result might be similar, but simply denying PvP wont fix the cause of actual problems, the actual gank meta or that people are not promoted to PvP. If it was possible to catch or intercept a repair stacked fir surprise with laser guided stern chasers for example, people could actually defend their waters, would patrol more and increase safety naturally.

Thats not how PvP is supposed to work in this game. OW is simulating war, not a matchmaking system. People hunting, and people hunting the hunters, thats how it should be. That a PvP fight very often is only happening when both sides agree to fight is probably the biggest problem current PvP has, caused not only by safe zones but several bad mechanics and balancings. 

The problem is that due to the lack of player numbers it is difficult to find PvP, that is why people resorted to camping capital regions, and although I may agree that this did create some PvP when people came out to defend the newbies getting ganked, the perpetrators of this found ways around it by having fast ships that were uncatachable, which led to less and less PvP unless you count seal clubbing as PvP.

If I want to practice in my ship to get familiar with it, I dont want someone jumping in on my mission even if it is only open for 1 minute and I dont want to be intercepted on my way to the mission. Without the safe zone this is a distinct possibility and the upshot of it was that although it created some PvP it was PvP that was not wanted by one side and hence that person after it has happened a few times or they have lost a ship they spent ages working towards ends up quitting the game.

You say artificial restrictions take away reliability and freedom of a sandbox, but what of the freedoms of people who dont want to PvP all the time? Would you rather they brought it a system where you could flag whether you wanted PvP or not and those flagged as non-PvP'ers could not be attacked (that system would be so broken). As it is people who dont want to PvP are restricted to probably less than 10% of the map. You can still attack them there but you run the gauntlet of facing reinforcements. I am sure someone will come up with a way of being able quickly hit and run in the safe zone and get away with it similar to what can happen in Eve. The system is similar to Eve and there I dont see much complaining about the safe zones and I would call Eve a sandbox game.

I have seen the same in many PvP games where people feel that the only way to get PvP is to force people to do it, but if PvP was that popular you should not need to force people into it. Encourage PvP more by improving rewards for it. Discourage remaining in safe zone by reducing or eliminating rewards after a certain rank, make people want to go out of the safe zones rather than forcing them to leave. The same applies the other way round as well, people should not be forced to PvE to progress in the game, they should be able to do it by PvP if they wish. These are the things that need to be solved to retain people and create a great game. 

[Jean Ribault]

2 hours ago, Archaos said:

I think the intention of safe zones is to give new players a chance to get to grips with the game without being seal clubbed. It also allows people to test out new ships and different setups without fear of being jumped. There is nothing worse than getting a brand new Victory or some other ship you have aspired to for the first time and losing it in the first mission you do because you got jumped by another player. And sometimes after you have taken a few losses at PvP you just like to beat up on something to get yourself feeling good again.

If you take away the rewards for higher level missions and ranks in the safe zone you still allow people do these missions for fun and to help train inexperienced players. Forcing people to PvP all the time or risk being involved in PvP everytime they sail from port only drives those people out of the game. 

People always seem to complain that the cannot find PvP, but if there are that many interested in PvP then why do they not broadcast on global channel that they will be in a certain area looking for PvP. If there were enough people doing that you would have plenty of PvP. But no, people would rather spend their time hunting people who were not looking for PvP just so they have easy targets. It is a huge map in NA the safe zones are only a small fraction of that map and so should not prove an issue for people who seriously want PvP against other like minded players.

You will have better retention rate of players if you allow them play in safe zones and encourage them to venture out to experience PvP, rather than the hardcore throw them out to the wolves from day one.

+1

[Jef]

1 hour ago, Archaos said:

The problem is that due to the lack of player numbers it is difficult to find PvP, that is why people resorted to camping capital regions, and although I may agree that this did create some PvP when people came out to defend the newbies getting ganked, the perpetrators of this found ways around it by having fast ships that were uncatachable, which led to less and less PvP unless you count seal clubbing as PvP.

If I want to practice in my ship to get familiar with it, I dont want someone jumping in on my mission even if it is only open for 1 minute and I dont want to be intercepted on my way to the mission. Without the safe zone this is a distinct possibility and the upshot of it was that although it created some PvP it was PvP that was not wanted by one side and hence that person after it has happened a few times or they have lost a ship they spent ages working towards ends up quitting the game.

You say artificial restrictions take away reliability and freedom of a sandbox, but what of the freedoms of people who dont want to PvP all the time? Would you rather they brought it a system where you could flag whether you wanted PvP or not and those flagged as non-PvP'ers could not be attacked (that system would be so broken). As it is people who dont want to PvP are restricted to probably less than 10% of the map. You can still attack them there but you run the gauntlet of facing reinforcements. I am sure someone will come up with a way of being able quickly hit and run in the safe zone and get away with it similar to what can happen in Eve. The system is similar to Eve and there I dont see much complaining about the safe zones and I would call Eve a sandbox game.

I have seen the same in many PvP games where people feel that the only way to get PvP is to force people to do it, but if PvP was that popular you should not need to force people into it. Encourage PvP more by improving rewards for it. Discourage remaining in safe zone by reducing or eliminating rewards after a certain rank, make people want to go out of the safe zones rather than forcing them to leave. The same applies the other way round as well, people should not be forced to PvE to progress in the game, they should be able to do it by PvP if they wish. These are the things that need to be solved to retain people and create a great game. 

I have no issue at all with what you said here, but do the zones need to block such huge chunks out of the map?
I would have no issues with each nation having a testing ground for new ships, where you can level them up, get used to it etc...

But what I do have a problem with is the fact that a safe zone blankets 5 and more ports...  it is just overkill. I would have a safe zone per nation, for one port, where people do their testing, leveling get their feet in the water. But I see fleets of indiamen, and lgv's just sailing around without a care in the world in a pvp server, just because they don't need to worry and sail all around Jamaica without ever the risk of being attacked, that seems wrong to me. I can only imagine what it must be now for pirates..

[Archaos]

11 minutes ago, Jef said:

I have no issue at all with what you said here, but do the zones need to block such huge chunks out of the map?
I would have no issues with each nation having a testing ground for new ships, where you can level them up, get used to it etc...

But what I do have a problem with is the fact that a safe zone blankets 5 and more ports...  it is just overkill. I would have a safe zone per nation, for one port, where people do their testing, leveling get their feet in the water. But I see fleets of indiamen, and lgv's just sailing around without a care in the world in a pvp server, just because they don't need to worry and sail all around Jamaica without ever the risk of being attacked, that seems wrong to me. I can only imagine what it must be now for pirates..

They have said they are going to look at reducing the size of the safe area, but I do think it needs some size to give new players the experience of sailing between ports and navigating. I also think they should remove opportunities for safe trading in these areas. You should not be able to make profit trading completely in a safe zone, you should have to trade into or out of the zone to make profit. Again it comes down to making it unattractive to remain in the safe zone rather than getting rid of the safe zone.

At present there are still some good profit opportunities trading out of the safe zone (you just have to watch out for the tax). Pirates and raiders just need to work out where the profitable routes are and camp them outside the safe zone. Traders have to look round now to find profitable routes so the raiders should have to do some work too to find the traders rather than just camping outside the main ports. 

[Quineloe]

So what's the deal with traders now? do we need to unlock the SK slots on them again?

[Quineloe]

number of players has already dropped by 150 again. We had over 700 online last weekend.

[Vizzini]

When it comes to noob friendly zones , they could be smaller by all means but they are needed. New players starting are more important than the seal clubbing gankers. Not that I am saying that is all you are but anybody who doesn't think new players need help when they first start is a no good whiner imho.

I could get on board with 1 noob zone being protected only and leaving the other base with 0 defence, just try looking at it from a new players perspective. We need new players more than we needed jaded whinge bags