Patch 27 - Combat missions, events and challenges feedback.

[Kilo60]

19 hours ago, BuckleUpBones said:

Last session in the Hercules, lowest 5^th rate, on an 5^th rate kill mission, two stars (I think), I was pitted against an Indefatigable, highest 5^th rate, three stars two ships.

This was going to be an drawn-out battle with alot of repairs used, so just turn-tail and retreated, to go and try something else with my little time I have to game.

+1

 

By the time you factor the cost of repairing your ship, rehiring crew and buying all the replacement repairs and rum it's entirely possible to lose money on one star kill missions now!

The uber AI ships that turn on a dime and never miss cannon shots at extreme angles only make it worse now!

[Barbancourt]

8 hours ago, Kilo60 said:

By the time you factor the cost of repairing your ship, rehiring crew and buying all the replacement repairs and rum it's entirely possible to lose money on one star kill missions now!

The uber AI ships that turn on a dime and never miss cannon shots at extreme angles only make it worse now!

Don't use repairs in Kill missions if at all possible.  But you have to look at it as "purchasing XP and doubloons" if  you do.  Reals are easy to get. 

 

[MolonLabe13966]

The AI count needs to be brought back to Pre-batch numbers. Especially on the PVE server, there have been Patrol zones with hardly any AI in it. 

[Sir Texas Sir]

18 hours ago, Barbancourt said:

I took 8 Search and Destroy missions for various kinds of 5th Rate, and a Hunt mission for 5th Rates in general.  (leaving one mission slot open just in case)  I almost always battle 5th Rates, so these will slowly get completed.  It will probably take months to finish them from random OW battles, but eventually they'll get finished. 

 

You do know the kill count ones are for OW ships only.  I don’t thinks missions count towards it. Though I could be wrong or maybe it’s hostility missions.  I know it doesn’t work for one.  

[Angus MacDuff]

10 hours ago, MolonLabe13966 said:

The AI count needs to be brought back to Pre-batch numbers. Especially on the PVE server, there have been Patrol zones with hardly any AI in it. 

That's probably because the zones are swarming with players who only kill AI.  The poor AI have to re-spawn and sail back in.

[Draymoor]

On 11/15/2018 at 6:19 AM, Archaos said:

Why do people keep making out that sinking traders is easy doubloons? Yes you are correct that a short easy fight against a trader may net you a nice haul of doubloons, but traders with doubloons are not that common so you may spend hours sinking traders till you find one with doubloons. If you spent the same number of hours doing OW hunt missions you could make a lot more doubloons especially if you stack missions so each kill counts in multiple missions.

When a player can get up to 4000 or 5000 doubloons from 1 trader and you're offered around 1000 to sink 10 L'Oceans something seems out of balance to me. Sure if you can stack 5th rate missions you can complete them all while hunting 5th rate ai fleets, which seem quite common. But there are many missions that have silly amounts of doubloons as rewards. Sink 12 Wasa for 1200 doubloons? Where do you even find 12 Wasa? At least traders are common and everywhere. Some missions are really good like the 5th rate ones, some others not so good. Most kill missions have tiny rewards. 

[Kilo60]

5 hours ago, Draymoor said:

When a player can get up to 4000 or 5000 doubloons from 1 trader and you're offered around 1000 to sink 10 L'Oceans something seems out of balance to me. Sure if you can stack 5th rate missions you can complete them all while hunting 5th rate ai fleets, which seem quite common. But there are many missions that have silly amounts of doubloons as rewards. Sink 12 Wasa for 1200 doubloons? Where do you even find 12 Wasa? At least traders are common and everywhere. Some missions are really good like the 5th rate ones, some others not so good. Most kill missions have tiny rewards. 

I agree its ridiculous!

[Jean Ribault]

6 hours ago, Wraith said:

Perfect reason to give the PvP server a try.  

or to stay on the PVE server.

[Old Crusty]

7 hours ago, Angus MacDuff said:

That's probably because the zones are swarming with players who only kill AI.  The poor AI have to re-spawn and sail back in.

And what else are you supposed to kill on the PvE server????

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

Events - Weekly competitions light ships/ frigates/ lineships:

(1)

Calculate the score not just by sunk BR, but relate that to the BR of the ship having been used to achieve it. Smaller/weaker ship should produce higher score than a bigger/stronger ship in relation to the sunk opponent.

Example: player (Snow) sinks Renommee. That is 80 versus 177 BR according to wiki ship list. Compared to a Player (Frigate) sinking same Renommee. 155 versus 177 BR. Snow did a harder achievement than the Frigate. Proposed modifier has to be increasing with BR gap between killer and victim to reflect a pay off for using weaker ships. Like /177 - 80 = 97 BR in the first case and 177 -155 = 22 BR in the second case. Modifier is added to your score. Gives first player 177 + 97 = 264 BR for that battle. Second player receives 177 + 22 = 199 BR.

Now what happens when player uses stronger ship than the sunk adversary? No bonus at all. Idea is to promote underdog confrontations with weaker ships for more heroism.

(2)

To avoid 'pay-to-win' reproaches, exclude DLC ships completely from scoring in the weekly competitions. As in PvP, players don't care about losses when using them, while caution in using a ship you paid ingame for or crafted plays a role in combat behavior. As they are not closely so expendable. DLC ship users have an advantage.

(3)

Modify calculation in that way that multiple kills in the same battle weight higher than kills of handpicked single combattants. Because obviously it is harder to achieve the kill(s) in combat against several adversaries in same instance.

Examples:

- player was in 1 vs 1 battle (duel situation): no modifier

- player was in battle against 3 AI. Killed one and escaped: medium modifier because supposedly 2 AI helped the killed one. Like, add factor ten percent achieved BR for every opponent having helped the sunk one. Here factor x 0,2 (two times 0,1) would be added, makes for a sunk Renommee 177 BR x 1,2 = 212 BR counting.

- player was in battle against 3 AI and killed all of them: heavy modifier because player had to struggle the most, against whole group. Like, add factor fifteen percent for every member of that fleet being sunk. Here factor x 0,3 (two times 0,15) would be added, makes for three sunk Renommees 177 BR x 3 x 1,3 = 690 BR instead of regular 531 BR.

(4)

Reduce player score if he had fleet ships helping him. Every ship also scoring damage on the target reduces BR score by twenty percent. Or deny that score completely to promote single ship entries in the competition.

[Holm Hansen]

Where are all the 5th rate S & D and Hunt missions gone?

Since some days I can not find them any more, even in harbors where I had found them before. Now only from 4th to 1st rate and in Bahamas region 6th and 7th. And no, I'm not only  looking for them in capital cities in freetowns or regional capitals.

[Cmdr RideZ]

I did not test this too well yet. Everything scales more players you have? Missions have big kill counts so in big fleets easier to complete? If so, the new missions system is pretty bad?

Rewards are once again taking this to grind. If I am not doing in big fleet, it takes much longer to get XP. You can make people to sail without making it even more grindy than before.

Doubloons are enough for teleporting. Everything else seems to be expensive. One option is to increase doubloons from missions, another is to make things cheaper, or do both.

A mission with a friend, I get mission reward and he gets nothing. I liked it like it was before, everyone will get mission rewards.

 

edit.

In case you don't want to think 5th rates as a nub ships then you could make another group of missions.

5th rate missions that you can get from capital up to BR 200.

Edited November 18, 2018 by Cmdr RideZ

[Cmdr RideZ]

If a port has missions for 1st rates, it should also have missions for 5 rates. More missions should be provided by port. Regional capital can provide missions for all rates and have more of those.

There should much be more 1vs1 kill missions for 5th rates. Once again helping new players here.

1vs3 kill missions are ok. More of these. Increased rewards. These are the only missions where bots actually cause enough damage.

[Kilo60]

RE: Kill Missions

Doubloon rewards need to be at least doubled!

When the average DB payout for a 5th-7th rate Kill mission can only pay for 1 teleport or less there's absolutely no incentive to take Kill Missions anymore. 

I know we can hunt for the elusive TB with a magic honey pot of DB or do daily PvP events but for players who only want to play for an hour or two Kill Missions are really the only option available.

Edited November 20, 2018 by Kilo60

[Suppenkelle]

Thanks for restricting the light ship event to 7th rates. Really appreciate that!

Cheers

[James T Kirk]

First there are problems with the kill missions.  First being they don't regenerate when you use them up.  Try to unbox a first rate but get only 3 or 4 1st rate kill missions a week.  Add to that all the sailing AI 1st are all in three locations which are no where near the US.  I'm tried of logging in with nothing to be able to do that isn't a 40 minute sail away.

Add to that the distance that has to be traveled to find AI fleets of any type because they are not in home waters and the grind to unbox is even more unbearable then before. Plus new players and causal players don't have time to sail 40 minutes to find an AI fleet, take damage after a couple battles and run out of repairs, and then sail 40 min home to repair. 

Overall we need to be able to pick our kill missions including which type ship we can take and the rate/number of the enemy.  That way we can give ourselves something to do close to home and customize the challenge to our skill ability. We also need the enemy AI fleets back in national waters.

Also, if doubloons where meant to replace both PVP and PVE rewards, then they completely fail on the PVE side.  I've attacked like 40 AI over the past few weeks and have found a whole dozen doubloons.  I'm sure in a month or two i'll actually complete a few search/destroy that reward well but until then every 1-4th i lose trying is unreplaceable. 

Oh, and let us take more then 10 missions.

 

On the plus side the weeklies are a cool idea.

[Kilo60]

I agree the Kill Missions suck, don't reload after taken, are difficult and time consuming for the pittance of payout and are unknown until you sail all over checking each port for them!

Why should clubbing to death a helpless traders brig in my 4th rate, as boring and unchallenging as it is, be so much more rewarding DB wise than taking hundreds of Kill Missions?

 

 

The only decent way to earn Doubloons now is by completing the Daily Patrols and damaging ships...

Problem is you are guaranteed to lose your ship due to high enemy activity in the area and this degenerates a great Age of Sail game with realism and excellent physics into a damn ARCADE, "Battle Royal" PUBG/Fortnight, free for all!  With shrinking battle zones etc...  If I want to play a frag fest... BR game I'd rather fire up Fortnight or PUBG on my PS4! 

 

 

This is not how I want to be forced to play a game in this genre!

[Draymoor]

On 11/20/2018 at 3:24 PM, Kilo60 said:

RE: Kill Missions

Doubloon rewards need to be at least doubled!

I'd say multiplied by x5 times. 

[Hethwill]

8 minutes ago, Kilo60 said:

Kill Missions suck, don't reload after taken, are difficult and time consuming for the pittance of payout

 

pitiful ? the chest have most excellent equipment, worth their weight in dubloons ( silver and gold chest are pretty epic stuff )

Yes, they are challenging and not impossible.

Totally game changing, thanks for the upgrade to NA.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Hethwill the Red Duke said:

they are challenging and not impossible

6^th rate vs 4^th rate…

In the stats,

How many players have completed this task?

What the ratio to completing this task to players played/playing? overall/daily.

How many players under (newbies) or equal to the rank of M&C, have completed this task?

 

Just hop-on and checked PvP server, primetime Europe, 340 players, dropping weekly, post patch 27, 550-650.

Casuals and solo’s are having there say, by not being there.  If Dev’s go to release as status-quo (and they will) then damage would be eternal, irreparable.

Signed: Casual-not-wanted.

 

Edited November 23, 2018 by Guest

[Farrago]

9 minutes ago, BuckleUpBones said:

6^th rate vs 4^th rate…

In the stats,

How many players have completed this task?

What the ratio to completing this task to players played/playing? overall/daily.

How many players under (newbies) or equal to the rank of M&C, have completed this task?

 

Just hop-on and checked PvP server, primetime Europe, 340 players, dropping weekly, post patch 27, 550-650.

Casuals and solo’s are having there say, by not being there.  If Dev’s go to release as status-quo (and they will) then damage would be eternal, irreparable.

Signed: Casual-not-wanted.

 

I would assume the Devs either have the answers to your questions or can get them. Hopefully they will continue balancing based on what their numbers are showing. Our perceptions may not be accurate but it does seem like the paths to success for various play styles are difficult to find for those who play more casually or less often.

But in the end, speaking for myself, I do want a game that is complicated and rewards dedicated and creative gameplay. 

[Draymoor]

3 hours ago, Hethwill the Red Duke said:

 

pitiful ? the chest have most excellent equipment, worth their weight in dubloons ( silver and gold chest are pretty epic stuff )

Yes, they are challenging and not impossible.

Totally game changing, thanks for the upgrade to NA.

Most kill missions don't give those rewards. Search and Destroy are decent, but the new routes and limited rates of AI fleets to certain regions, which on top of that depend on which nation holds which ports, all make it way too risky to take on search and destroy missions of that sort. You will sail out your 3rd rates to hunt 3rd rates with a couple friends, risking... 8k doubloons each? One player spots your group and and their entire nation comes down to gank you. Too much risk for too little reward. 

Edited November 23, 2018 by Draymoor

[Hethwill]

I see it this way... have to kill 10 ships.... each one of those has a chance of a good reward, by the end of 10 reward collected i will have the overall reward. Sum it all up and it is a nice cake.

That Kill mission greade is really challenging but worth it.

In the end the final reward is just a piece, you have to count ALL the possible rewards along the way.

Plus for hunt and destroye missions you can do them in PvP kills anyway, so even better.

Plus, it is server agnostic. You find these in both War and Peace servers. Let's stop treating Peace relaxed gameplay as a secondary option. It is actually full of people playing and enjoying.

 

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Farrago said:

But in the end, speaking for myself, I do want a game that is complicated and rewards dedicated and creative gameplay. 

It would seem 350 players agree with you.

However, us, the missing 3500, don’t.

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Hethwill the Red Duke said:

Plus, it is server agnostic

I have only one other question quip.

Is there a bias against the British, for as everywhere I sail there is and mostly are British NPCs at large (7th, 6th, 5th rates).

Sail through Spanish region, full of British NPCs, when there should be only Spanish.

Sail through Pirate domain, full of British NPCs, when there should be only Pirates.

Sail through French region, full of British NPCs, when there should be only French.

Sail through Bahamas, full of British NPCs, when there should be only Pirates, Spanish and Americans (bordering nations).

Sail through British region, ALL British NPCs, and never another flag!!!

 

Edited November 24, 2018 by Guest