Development plans for the H2 2018

[admin]

Just now, Wraith said:

So you'll be charging higher rank players more money to fast travel?  How does this make any sense at all and how does this not benefit the low rank econ alt owners more than those one character casuals?!

We suggest that you wait for the patch and see things in action.
You should only try to make sense of the main posts we make; comments do not give all facts or details, and thus might not make sense for those who dont have all the information. We do not plan to stop casually conversing with the community. Thus its better to take only our main posts seriously, and take our comments casually.

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Wraith said:

You clearly don't play much.  RvR for meaningless and dropped/neutral ports, fought against AI or plain empty battles for traded/bought ports is alive and well.  When was the last time anyone attacked Cartagena, Navasse, Georgetown, or any of the other "important" ports?  How many ports are set to just before or after server reset so they are effectively hidden from RvR?  How often do we have discussions about purposely limping in hostility missions so we don't end up owning the port so we don't have to pay timers?  LOL

Were you not online last weekend? Sunday was full of action, We in Prussia had 4 successful PB defenses, it was action all day long ^.^

[admin]

17 minutes ago, Wraith said:

So you'll be charging higher rank players more money to fast travel? 

Also rear admirals were always assigned servants, boys and adjutants. Traveling with the posse will cost more money for the rear admiral as more cabins are needed even if they travel 2 per hammock cabin.

[admin]

1 minute ago, EliteDelta said:

Were you not online last weekend? Sunday was full of action, We in Prussia had 4 successful PB defenses, it was action all day long ^.^

It's a known fact that disproportional amount of happy players do not read the forums . People come to the forums with problems. 

[William Death]

@admin I don't like the idea of paid Teleport between Outposts.

Remember back when it was on a cooldown (4-5 hours, IIRC)?  Back then, I was a newly-minted US Commodore without a lot of gold, no alts to help me, and in a smallish clan--I was the typical US noob, standard variety. Here was the typical evening of playtime:      *log into Teamspeak and talk to the clan while I run a mission or two*         "Pirates pulled a flag for Nassau, TP to Shroud Cay GO GO GO!"          *TP to Shroud and sail to PB*       *Flag planted but it was a fake group, only 2 players*        *real flag pulled for a port in the gulf*     

No time to sail over there, can't teleport for 3 more hours, players with outposts there can defend it, but theres nothing I can do. Just like that, I'm excluded from contributing to the RvR content in a meaningful way that night. I'm not a target to be sunk in a PB, nor am I a ship sailing in OW to a PB. I'm a disgruntled captain, either sitting in port waiting for something interesting to happen near me, or using a basic cutter (or cheap shop ship) to speed me back to someplace I can PvE out of.

 

Here it is in the current setting of the game if you implement costly TPs: Tumbado Patrol is up. Player logs into Naval Action for an evening of ship combat. He wants to go to the patrol zone, but he doesn't want to pay the high cost (expensive by his standards) of a 2 way towing trip to Tumbado to go PvP and then go back to where he was before. Instead, he either has to sail to the zone (could be 20 minutes or a 2hr+ sail away) or else he forfeits that PvP opportunity for the day. Fewer players accessing the zones = less PvP in the zones.     (hopefully you fix the ROE for them soon so that people will want to use them?)

Therein is the issue: if you make the TP cost enough so that its not a meaningless click (very very cheap cost), then that will probably be a high enough value that the more casual/average player will say "screw it, I'm not spending gold to TP to _______ to _______ (RvR, PvP, PvE, etc.)."

So instead, that player is forced to sail somewhere in a basic cutter or similar (he won't sail a good ship if he already has ships in the OP he wants to go to). Great, you've put more players in OW! More targets! Unfortunately they're in ships that are worthless to sink (or nearly worthless in the case of lynx, privateer, etc.).

 

I think making the TP cost gold will ultimately be a very bad thing. PvP will suffer, RvR will suffer, and more will quit. The only players that won't be affected are those of us who have the millions and millions of gold, or enough alts that we can pop up wherever we want, set whatever contracts we want, or hunt almost any corner of the map with the press of a button.

[HachiRoku]

2 minutes ago, admin said:

It's a known fact that disproportional amount of happy players do not read the forums . People come to the forums with problems. 

I would say that the people that care come to the forums. 

[Farrago]

@admin is the idea of removing the magic wallet still being considered? This would put the items with the most value on the water, especially if steps are taken to reduce tows and teleports.

[Preechur Blackheart]

My playstyle (an hour or two at the most but every day) would suffer if the number of outposts were reduced. On the other hand, if any player could teleport to any OPEN port, that would lessen the pain of losing outposts. Currently, I struggle to do everything I want to in a time-efficient way.  I could really use a couple more outposts, not fewer. I would  get into more battles, too, if I had more outposts to which I (as a player, not a ship) could teleport. 

 

I get it that long sailing times are realistic. They just limit the players who, in real life, cannot play your game for hours per day. 

Just my thought, for what they are worth. Still a great game!!!

[admin]

Just now, HachiRoku said:

I would say that the people that care come to the forums. 

Of course 

But a lot bigger percentage registers on forum to post something they want to be improved or changed (or negatively react to something). Almost zero posts first posts just saying thank you or great game or such... This is universal across game companies.

[admin]

4 minutes ago, Farrago said:

@admin is the idea of removing the magic wallet still being considered? This would put the items with the most value on the water, especially if steps are taken to reduce tows and teleports.

no information on this besides previously stated.

[Dibbler (Retired)]

 I was in game 2 weeks before i found you could actually teleport between outposts... oh my the hours wasted lol.

 

 I can't see an issue with paying to teleport to another port, as long as the cost isn't crazy high.

 

 

Edited August 21, 2018 by Dibbler

[Salty Dog]

On 8/17/2018 at 3:29 PM, admin said:

8 outposts is too much and is a mistake. We need to address it somehow before release, without removing them.

why don't you charge the player for each outpost the way clans are charged for each port?  I guess if players have tons of cash to burn and keep those eight ports they could, just make it prohibitively expensive. 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, admin said:

• 1 - No. its not a burden on new players as prices will scale, and data shows that casual players do not fast travel much. But even if it is a burden. Do you remember the price of upgrading fast flying travel in casual WOW? 5000 gold base price 4000 with exalted reputation? (basic flying was very expensive too during and depended on level) around 250 gold to unlock. You just dont like the cost for fast travel, and it is YOUR respected opinion.

hard to compare these games though as wow had 1500 +/- playerbase depending on the server, I would assume it was the same in the beta for vanilla as well, maybe abit less.

Yes I agree HIGH END items should be for the ones that spend time to get to it, hence why epic flying were 5k gold in bc, but from what you're telling TP would be like a flight path in WoWwhere there only would be some silvers to fly to places instead of running there. In Naval Action it would be equivalent to maybe 10k for 1 teleport.

Btw do you know the reason why casuals dont use fast travel that much?

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 hour ago, admin said:

• 1 - No. its not a burden on new players as prices will scale, and data shows that casual players do not fast travel much. But even if it is a burden. Do you remember the price of upgrading fast flying travel in casual WOW? 5000 gold base price 4000 with exalted reputation? (basic flying was very expensive too during and depended on level) around 250 gold to unlock. You just dont like the cost for fast travel, and it is YOUR respected opinion.
• 2 - Contracts fix will take a long time and will detract from development of key priorities. You don't understand this maybe but its ok. The main reason for this different view is that you think contracts are more important because you are ok with user interface.
  • Prices and/or cooldowns for travel are already in the game for quite a while. Cooldowns were even on public on release. They dont require work.
• 3 - same priority issue here. Customer reps are not needed at this stage because everyone knows what needs to be done first. Everyone knows user interface and localization is N1 priority for getting new players and enabling marketing. Their (CR) work will be wasted until localization is deployed. After that we will start inviting them. 

Anyways
We have seen such reactions before with crew costs. Nothing new. You hire crew after every battle. Some time ago you did not.

You keep saying it's not a burden, again do you play any of the nations I mention before?  US mainly the one that gets most of those new players and casuals?   I play with them daily and hear the complaints in Nation chat and TS of things that are burdens to them in game.  Like I said do an in game poll if you need to cause most of them do not post on the forums.  

And glad to hear the contract thing is being looked at and I get that it's not one the top of the list, but stop trying to say other things will improve alts and other use.  I have 5 chars I know exactly what will stop me from putting contracts up, it won't be port telport cost.

Yes and remember when you introduced crew cost it cost almost as much as the ships to be crafted to stock crew on it and you got an extremely bad backlash until you got the cost down to a half decent amount.  Test bed and letting us give you feed back would go a long way, but hay guess it wasn't useful enough since you stop using the testbed.

1 hour ago, Wraith said:

So you'll be charging higher rank players more money to fast travel?  How does this make any sense at all and how does this not benefit the low rank econ alt owners more than those one character casuals?!

And can you share this data because I would be stupefied if the "casual" player, let's say they are mid rank, teleports less than anyone else between doing some econ, checking ports for goods, and doing some light PvP out of the favorite port near the PvP zone, etc.?  Do you actually collect that kind of telemetry on an individual's teleports?

The reason most casuals don't telport as much at the vets is they stay around starting ports and they also don't want to pay 9 million for that last port. I know a lot of guys in US still have that last one or two outpost not unlocked cause they don't want to pay that much.  There are a lot of guys that think they are rich if they make 1 million.   

55 minutes ago, admin said:

We suggest that you wait for the patch and see things in action.
You should only try to make sense of the main posts we make; comments do not give all facts or details, and thus might not make sense for those who dont have all the information. We do not plan to stop casually conversing with the community. Thus its better to take only our main posts seriously, and take our comments casually.

The problem is we been waiting with little feed back of why it's taking longer and longer, but thanks for the update last week. I been asking for that for over a month and half every Monday morning so that we know why we are waiting.  Notice I stopped doing my Monday #SOON post?

33 minutes ago, admin said:

no information on this besides previously stated.

and that is why folks are lost, we have no clue what these econ changes are going to be cause you give out very little detail. I honestly think it's cause you don't have a clue when you first mention them and change them half a dozen time.  This patch is suppose to been out when the OW UI came out but it got pushed back to come with the in port UI, rightfully so you don't have to do double work, but if you don't know what the ECON changes are going to be right now to give us a half decent heads up of changes than you don't respect your player base enough for them to accept and prepare for those changes.  Last econ update was like what back in May with a June update of what to do, it's almost the end of August now. You would think you would have more info on what to expect by now.

 

[Barbancourt]

2 hours ago, admin said:

Low population numbers at sea are accentuated by a number of outposts and teleports.

The ability of players to reach places on the map where Naval Action is happening is accentuated by the number of outposts and teleports.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, admin said:

Low population numbers at sea are accentuated by a number of outposts and teleports. So called happier times of 2016 with lots of players at sea were when there was a long cooldown on fast travel.

History is true enough…

Curious, what does your stats show with “general population” that “are accentuated by a number of outposts and teleports”.

Many players have interest in these figures and so do post like-wise.

Thanks for outlining the hardcore theme, as a recent new player I didn’t know the game direction.

PvE Feedback…

Though with 8 outposts the game is “fun”. 😊 

Edited August 22, 2018 by Guest

[Scrouch]

2 hours ago, admin said:

Of course 

But a lot bigger percentage registers on forum to post something they want to be improved or changed (or negatively react to something). Almost zero posts first posts just saying thank you or great game or such... This is universal across game companies.

Probably cause buying an Early Access game is already a way to say "thank you" or to encourage devs.

You know about it, EARLY ACCESS, that thing deserving updates and new content. 

Edited August 21, 2018 by Scrouch

[AeRoTR]

I would say "the devs" @admin kind of decided. So let's not slow them down, let them concetrate on their work. You can do anything, but do it, and please do not do it like the red sail, it was hard to swallow. (it is a trouble for all of us including you)

Do that ui, polish it, focus what has to be done, you can make the final touches later, wish you guys best luck.

[z4ys]

3 hours ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

I honestly think it's cause you don't have a clue when you first mention them and change them half a dozen time. 

I think it's because we would take countermeasures if we know exactly how the eco stuff would look like. Forcing them to wipe everything so it could be tested proper. And you know how much this community likes the word wipe so better let us stay stupid till we get this patch.

[z4ys]

3 hours ago, Barbancourt (rownd) said:

The ability of players to reach places on the map where Naval Action is happening is accentuated by the number of outposts and teleports.

All you need is 1 outpost at navasse or LT to gank Brits at kpr. Even works fine for pirates. Redeem a ship and go. 

Carezones RoE is kind of same RoE as patrol zone but with the feature to escape. Only a 5-20min sail guaranteed players what could be better and easier to get pvp.

Right easy option to tp to bensalem and start to harass at Belize when things got hot at kpr. We need more tps and outposts. Makes it harder to face the consequences for me

Edited August 22, 2018 by z4ys

[Macjimm]

6 hours ago, admin said:

Almost zero posts first posts just saying thank you or great game or such... This is universal across game companies

I had no idea that gamers were that negative to all game companies.  Looking at reviews on steam there are many companies where the opinions are overwhelmingly positive.  Some games with more than 95% of the players recommending the game.  

I think NA is still a great game, thanks for continuing to keep the server's open.

😀

[Destraex]

Excellent stuff. Very glad that we are getting closer to release... I am hoping to spend a lot of time on this game when that release happens and wipes are off the table
It's all looking very good from what I see. I login after each patch to check out what is going on. I own the two DLC ships ... Looking forward to trying them.

[Cmdr RideZ]

17 hours ago, admin said:

TP was set as free only for testing purposes. Passenger transport (imaginary fast travel using liners or balloons) will cost coins in the future.
 

Teleport taxes. International trade will suffer, especially important for smaller nations. Maybe 2-3 free or very cheap TPs per day?

 

14 hours ago, admin said:

New players will consider the cost for transport a normal just like they accepted the cost of crew (there were a LOT OF negativity from some veterans when ports started to charge for crew)

Crew prices were really high at some point. There were many, not new - not veteran, who could not handle it and quit the game. To me it seemed like that only after wipe veterans noticed that crew price is a very high economic burden and started to cry about it, as it was now their issues as well. Then you changed it?

New players don't know if it was better before so they test the game as it is, not that easy to complain.

Edited August 22, 2018 by Cmdr RideZ

[Lovec1990]

18 minutes ago, Cmdr RideZ said:

Teleport taxes. International trade will suffer, especially important for smaller nations. Maybe 2-3 free or very cheap TPs per day?

 

Crew prices were really high at some point. There were many, not new - not veteran, who could not handle it and quit the game. To me it seemed like that only after wipe veterans noticed that crew price is a very high economic burden and started to cry about it, as it was now their issues as well. Then you changed it?

New players don't know if it was better before so they test the game as it is, not that easy to complain.

Teleport: well normal and casual players will not be too much effected while people with alts and alot of outposts will suffer i like this people cry DLC ships are the issue i say alts are far worse let them suffer if it was me i would limit to 1-2 free teleports per day then you pay for it

Crew prices are quite managable 100 gold for 1 crew member is not that expensive plus looting AI tbrig,tsnow gives you on average enough gold too buy 500crew.

[Cmdr RideZ]

10 minutes ago, Lovec1990 said:

Teleport: well normal and casual players will not be too much effected while people with alts and alot of outposts will suffer i like this people cry DLC ships are the issue i say alts are far worse let them suffer if it was me i would limit to 1-2 free teleports per day then you pay for it

Crew prices are quite managable 100 gold for 1 crew member is not that expensive plus looting AI tbrig,tsnow gives you on average enough gold too buy 500crew.

I don't know if you do it but I have understood that many do trade in Free Ports.  They teleport to check ships or upgrades or whatever.  Smaller the nation, harder to find from "local" market.

Notice that I said - "Crew prices WERE really high at some point"