TESTBED - MISSIONS FEEDBACK

[Angus MacDuff]

45 minutes ago, admin said:

Filler system was undersigned and does not provide incentives to move to enemy waters. British ports should mostly have british shipping around them. Nelson did not search for french/spanish fleet near london. He sailed to Spanish Cadiz.

That could be very interesting.  One of the things that new players are told about constantly is "Do not tag AI in your Reinforcement Zone".  If enemy AI are not there, Where do new players go?  This will create a completely new dynamic and seal clubbing will have to move.  Easier?

[z4ys]

19 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

It is going to be a pain to do those hunt mission then. Everyone will have to sail a lot more and more casual players will give up. 

Also traders should be an exception to this rule, just to make new players life a bit easier.

In any game players have to leave town/starting point etc to slay monster or what ever and to progress. NA is the only game I know that don't require players to move.

Moving players are vital for content creating. 

[Hethwill]

We don't have all the details. Reckon the "frontlines" thingy is well related to this AI spread. 

[admin]

59 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

I assume that is the limits?  What is the actual AI numbers in game now?  

There are 1538 bots in the open world right now. Once killed the NPC ship/fleet spawns on the assigned route again (somewhere in the assigned port area)

[Thonys]

12 minutes ago, admin said:

There are 1538 bots in the open world right now. Once killed the NPC ship/fleet spawns on the assigned route again (somewhere in the assigned port area)

perhaps a test when a AI is killed only 50% of them spawns back.

that will reduce AI in ow during the day.

so captains have to go further away hunting AI... when times passes towards maintenance, after maintenance a full set of AI is available again

or a timer of 6 hours for every Ai

Edited October 17, 2018 by Thonys

[Angus MacDuff]

3 minutes ago, Thonys said:

perhaps a test when a AI is killed only 50% of them spawns back.

that will reduce AI in ow during the day.

so captains have to go further away hunting AI... when times passes towards maintenance, after maintenance a full set of AI is available again

Really?  I'm thinking the opposite.  The more AI, the better for hunting other players.  @admin commented that there will be less enemy AI in national waters, which means a lot the PVP will move to wherever the AI spawn...out of the Green Zone.

[admin]

59 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

It is going to be a pain to do those hunt mission then. Everyone will have to sail a lot more and more casual players will give up. 

 

Seems like you want everyone to sail just a little bit. Not too much, just a little bit. But why stop there. Maybe all battles should be done from port then? And maybe long battles should be avoided too to save time? Add a button to port - claim rewards and get done with it. The faster you click the more rewards you get - like Clicker Heroes. Finally casuals will be satisfied?

 

PS If Hispaniola has a very large concentrations of lineships it will actually reduce the time to find a target if you want to hunt for ships of the line. You just move to hispaniola and hunt there. 
 

[Thonys]

16 minutes ago, Banished Privateer said:

@Thonys oI would kill all AI if I could (so they disappear even just for a single day so, uffff)

well not a whole day

but a timer( 3-6 hours AI spawning) would  probably do the trick 

or class dependent  AI spawning  (at least it reduces overcrowded ai enemy spawns close to the port or own waters )

Edited October 17, 2018 by Thonys

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 hour ago, admin said:

Seems like you want everyone to sail just a little bit. Not too much, just a little bit. But why stop there. Maybe all battles should be done from port then? And maybe long battles should be avoided too to save time? Add a button to port - claim rewards and get done with it. The faster you click the more rewards you get - like Clicker Heroes. Finally casuals will be satisfied?

 

PS If Hispaniola has a very large concentrations of lineships it will actually reduce the time to find a target if you want to hunt for ships of the line. You just move to hispaniola and hunt there. 
 

Your still not getting it and that is why I keep saying, "DO YOU PLAY YOUR GAME?"  You might do certain things like PvP or RvR but do you play all parts of it?  I'm going to take a bet since this is part of your job you don't.  You don't interact with clan members every day and new players like some of us do.  Being in US Nation it's something I do a lot of or others in my clan has.  Since I actually took all last week off to play another game and didn't once log into this one which I haven't done in 2 years pretty much, not even logged in for econ.  With that let me tell you my average day on line in game.

Log on game with my chars (some times main only some times all 5).  I check TS and see what is up with clan/nation. I get told some one needs something so I have to hope over to Wilimgton where our clan warehouse is.  I get what they need and if I remember I do my econ in that port.  Than I hope over to Marsh (clan owned port) and do econ there and if need be have my crafter on to craft stuff.  I go to each port I have econ in and do that if it's almost maxed out.  I keep about 3-4 econ ports while the other half are important PvP/RvR ports.  So that is 4 jumps and if i have to go back that would be more than 4 if I have to go to clan warehouse any time.  Than I might go out and do some missions or PvP.  I port over to what ports might have action.  Which aren't always the same port and some times no where close to home ports.  If some one calls out on the coast they are in trouble I'll jump back over to the coast line.  Some times this might mean I have to jump between CT and Wilmington depending where the trouble is.   (That 3-4 more ports jumped too).   If at any time I have to go back to the clan warehouse that is more.  So say lets add two more.....oh now we have a port battle.  Jump in port and teleport to where my ship is ready.  Get done with PB and than go back to PvP......two more......what am at now 10-12 jumps between ports at 10 Doubloons each that is 100-120 Doubloons a day.  What if i got no PvP kills or did no Missions (or got the missions completed)....start adding that up over the week, I'll say that is 2 days and the other 5 days we will cut it in half as I work odd hours.  So now I'm at 450-500 doubloons a week to just actively play this game. 

Now you can say I can save money by saling to these ports.....again a reason I believe you don't play your game.  Have you ever Sailed from say Charleston to Marsh Habrour?  Or Burmuda to KPR, or Kidds to Mort?    Tell me how long it takes?  I bet you can't cause you don't do that regullar.  Your looking at sales that take up over an hour if not two hours if you don't use the tow to port to shorten the trip.  So some one that has those or any long distance ports has to spend Doubloons every day to do there econ if they have them there or sail that trip.  No one is going to want to do that.

 

The only folks this won't effect are players like @Hethwill the Harmless that do play out of one or two ports, don't do econ and hunt pretty much with one ship.  I love that is his play style, but that is not every ones.  Hell I done it a few times when I wanted to get away from Global I had a Pirate on EU (every one wonder who had the original ROVER clan tag?) on sunday mornings to just have fun, but I love all parts of this game so I craft, trade, RvR, PvP, help noobs out.   

42 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

I want the game to succeed and cater all types of players. Why? Because I want to play NA XV when Im 120 years old (I plan to live forever).

I have 7000 hours in the game over 2 years but not everyone can do the same as me.

Yah I can be a bit of a pain but I love this game and I want to see it work, but for it to work we need to figure out why we aren't retaining players and we need the casuals to stick around and not be run off or we will have what we have now.  A very dead game with a bunch of pricks farming the crap out of capitals cause they won't fight any one else other than easy targets.

As I player with over 9K hours (about 1K is falling asleep at the keyboard late nights) I want to see the game make it.  Hell lets not even add in the other 2-4K hours I have on each of my alts as I actually have level them up and fight with them or do other things like trade or craft as they all have there own names and storys/backgrounds in game as if they are each there own chars.  Well Except Lil Texas, I just abuse the crap out of that account for crafting.

Edited October 17, 2018 by Sir Texas Sir

[Hethwill]

What did i do ? Again this talk.... I give up. "My dude", i played all types of styles along the thousands of hours across a lot of nations, from being a noob, to sailing big ships and doing a decent amount of conquest, to operating nice ow defense frigate guard to being a raider. I do not need to present you my CV since i started testing NA. You think you know but you have little idea.

But let me tell you this:

- 1 account

- no handouts

- i wipe my account every single major update

Now, please leave me out of your personal concerns.

[Angus MacDuff]

12 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

Than I might go out and do some missions or PvP.  I port over to what ports might have action.  Which aren't always the same port and some times no where close to home ports.  If some one calls out on the coast they are in trouble I'll jump back over to the coast line.  Some times this might mean I have to jump between CT and Wilmington depending where the trouble is.

I agree with most of what you say here, although I think that it might be for the "TP Feedback" thread.  I have a small issue with what I've quoted above.  Why should you be able to jump instantly from halfway across the Caribbean when someone calls for help?  Shouldn't a TP like that have a time penalty?  As I've stated elsewhere, I'd like to see us able to do econ without massive TP penalties.

[Sir Texas Sir]

8 minutes ago, Hethwill the Harmless said:

What did i do ? Again this talk.... I give up. "My dude", i played all types of styles along the thousands of hours across a lot of nations, from being a noob, to sailing big ships and doing a decent amount of conquest, to operating nice ow defense frigate guard to being a raider. I do not need to present you my CV since i started testing NA. You think you know but you have little idea.

But let me tell you this:

- 1 account

- no handouts

- i wipe my account every single major update

Now, please leave me out of your personal concerns.

It was actually a compliment, but the point is your not the average player either so while that life style is great for you it's not for casual players and others that don't do that.

[Sir Texas Sir]

2 minutes ago, Angus MacDuff said:

I agree with most of what you say here, although I think that it might be for the "TP Feedback" thread.  I have a small issue with what I've quoted above.  Why should you be able to jump instantly from halfway across the Caribbean when someone calls for help?  Shouldn't a TP like that have a time penalty?  As I've stated elsewhere, I'd like to see us able to do econ without massive TP penalties.

I actually kinda agree with the instant jump, but that is why we have timers put on locking fights.  You can't jump across the map and just join a battle, revenge fleet out side yes, but not join a battle.   

Honestly unless some one is jumping missions in front of the "SAFE GANK ZONES" I rarely jump over to help some one quickly.  It's mainly the protection of clan owned ports that I do it.  Even than most the time I'm in the area any way as to why we set windows to certain ports.

 

Well testbed is going down for maintenance so I'll get off my soap box and go play something else.

[Hethwill]

2 hours ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

It was actually a compliment, but the point is your not the average player either so while that life style is great for you it's not for casual players and others that don't do that.

Not a negative, just leave me out. There's plenty of casuals that did build many of the nations in the past, when there were no teleports, when there were no buildings and only contracts and you had to sail to pick up what you needed. When crafters were worth gold and "revered" and people were happy giving them, GIVING them the hours! Casuals are not brainless.

[Sir Texas Sir]

Ol one of my biggest complaints about the missions is you can only take 5.  With the kill multi targets you might run into something that falls under anouther mission.  The list should be capped at 10.

[Jan van Santen]

Overall I like the new mission system. I am still playing testbed after reaching max rank and max crafting I like the chests, the added hunt for the best missions and the larger variety in ship types. 

I even found a mission rewarding epic + deadmans chest.

I think I could adapt to teleport cost. 

4  questions :

1.) What is going to happen to Patrol Missions on PvE ? With a reward of 20 dubloons and teleport costs of 2x 10 remote Patrol missions don't make sense anymore.

2) Crafting. Wll the current costs in dubloons for crafting 4th or higher rate ships remain ? At current cost there is kind of a break: crafting anything up to 5th is easier, but 4th and up a lot more difficult. Only with the weekly rewards I was able to craft 2 4th+ ships. So crafting is going to depend on the weekly leaderboards ?

I got several ship notes from chests, amongst them even 1 turning into a 5/5 L'Req. however, I'd prefer to craft my own ships.

3) Chest loot seems repetetive, some loot still seems ship loot only. Couldn't you simply put all loot in chests and remove the ship loot ? That would solve the "can't get to ship" issue, too.

4.) Euro Traders don't seem to work on testbed. At least not at the 4x production cost formula. Any comments on that pls ?

 

Edited October 21, 2018 by Jan van Santen

[AngryPanCake]

Most recent experience with Missions:

So these are the missions I chose> I thought I'd go with a selection of targets so I increase my chances of finding something. I loaded up my Surprise with guns, Rig/Hull repairs and Rum and went out.

My plan was to sail from Islamorada to Bimini, then from there to Cton.

Left Islamorada at 8:45 AM and reached Bimini at 8:55 AM, no sails spotted. After I headed North from Bimini, I spotted a Traders Brig about 5 min into the second leg of the cruise. As soon as I engaged the T-Brig, I got the warning for "maintenance in 15 min". Even though I'm not the greatest battle captain, I thought I could sink the Brig within 15 min. Didn't work...I guess I'm really bad at sinking ships! I got disconnected for maintenance.

Got back into the game at 12:35 PM and picked up where I left off. Sailing North to Cton from Bimini. I reached Cton at 1:45 PM, but from 1:10 to 1:45 it was foul weather and stormy, so visibility was very poor. I may have sailed by any of the above targets but would not see them. During the cruise from Bimini to Cton, I spotted: 2 Snows, 1 Mercury, 1 Cutter, 1 Agamemnon and 1 Third rate (with 3 fleet ships). The fleet was near Cton.

In a total of about one hour and a half, I may have sunk a Brig had I not been disconnected (actually a T-Brig, so not sure if it counts against the Brigs listed in missions). As far as I am concerned, I'd say this has not been very rewarding. I am sure there are areas that are more crowded with ships. One may assume since these are missions to destroy 6-7 rate shallow draft ships, one has to go to the shallow areas, such as the Bahamas or something.

I really can not generalize from a single attempt at missions, but this seems to require a significant commitment in time to earn any significant amounts of Doubloons. If one finds the honey hole where Brigs are abundant and sinks 1-2 of them per hour, this is a 5 to 10 hour commitment. Finding a Lynx per hour would require a 5 hour commitment to complete the third mission. Earning 50 Doubloons will at least allow me to TP to each of my OP's to gather resources from buildings and back to my capital.

This is a great way to entice players to go out into the OW in order to create more PvP. For crafters and especially on PvE, this is a significant commitment many casuals just can't afford.

The variety of missions is quite good, I don't know yet what's in the chests as I haven't completed any. The reward vs time commitment may need some adjustment. The more time you spend in the OW looking for targets the higher the reward, just like the bigger the targets the higher the rewards...etc. Maybe for crafters/PvE'rs/casuals the missions with the designated locations are the best choice, one sails to the swords, sinks the ship and goes back to port.

 

[Jan van Santen]

testbed status: off