RVR (port battles and territory control) feedback

[Njord]

12 hours ago, admin said:

• Tie port hostility points to port tax income
• Reduce costs of ports trading posts and timers

Anything to promote economic warfare is good, I suppose.

12 hours ago, admin said:

Remove conversion of victory marks on War (RVR) Server as their current prices in doubloons is one of the things that makes RVR not worth the time. RVR rewards must only be accessible through RVR on the War server (but should be tradeable like right now). 

• Additionally RVR reward trading should be disabled as i doubt Nelson could trade his Baron of the Nile title to others. This will make it important to participate in RVR if you want RVR related ships or rewards.

 

Agreed, this would be good except for ships being limited and exclusive to the dominant RvR clans. This leads to imbalances and zerging. Underdog clans and nations need some kind of comeback mechanic and the reward for the dominant clans and nations should be rather prestige and cosmetic to prevent them from snowballing and zerging all over the server.

12 hours ago, admin said:

Add items or chests for victory marks to the admiralty with some conquest related exclusive items. (Including paints and rare ships)

This sounds like the best idea, that would promote RvR the most. If I had to choose one, it would be this.

12 hours ago, admin said:

Add feature allowing lockdown of ports by clans (giving access to port resources only to the clan who owns the port) + maybe adding docking fees. 

For clans to be able to lock down the resources in their ports, you have to distribute resources more even around the map. The more players NA will have the more problematic it will be to have only 1 cartagena port, 2 copper ports and few teak and WO ports exclusive to a few clans! They will snowball out of control with power and starve the underdog nations / clans to death and out of the game. Give every corner of the map 1 copper, 1 cartagena and 2-3 teak and WO ports and this could work.

Also I think you should consider letting clans upgrade their ports for example with forts and towers or additional trade routes ( would give more access to trading goods or higher value ones ) or roads on land to connect ports that your clan owns and make them thus cheaper in maintenance due to trade. This would give more depth to port management and more gold sinks.

Now docking fees should definitely be added but the fee should be determined by the clan just like the taxes. Allied clans should always dock for free.

[staun]

Deleted. Dont read and answer before the morning cofffe.

Edited December 11, 2018 by staun

[Njord]

11 hours ago, z4ys said:

What I personal would like is customization of ports. Ofc we already have some kind of it but thats just done in a few clicks.

I would want to see my clan port grow. I would like to improve it. I want to feel linked with it.

 

--------------------------------------------------------------

1.

• Every captured port starts with minimal fortification (minimal fortification depends on city status aka regional capital for example)
• Fortification can be improved by building it.
• location is determind by the game "NO PLACING"

Example:

• A = minimal fortification (after captured against AI)
• B = Clan can build additional fort and tower (just like a shipyard or workshop by delivering stone + iron + coal + wood)
• This could be set as "Trade mission" so anyone in the nation can contribute to the goal of building the tower. Ofc player that contribute get rewarded by tax % off or or or
• When an improved port gets attacked and forts/ towers get destroyed they have to be rebuild so it might be wise to not destroy them to reduce rebuild cost
• This feature could be hidden and fortification has to be scouted before attack.
• Time of building after resources are delievered depends on townsize /tax income etc

 

2.

• A clan can build/spawn 1 additional resource by building/exploring the port (to make ports more attractive)
• Destroying and rebuilding / or further exploring is possible and generates a new RNG round.
• Manufacture has upkeep

Example: Lets say a port produces hemp and stone (this port might never be attractive to any kind of player because that are some easy to get resources). A clan could now improve this port by exploring the surroundings ( cost doubloons or resources or both) this will add one random resource. Or they could build a manufacture which spawns a rng (trading good)

 

3.

Port map windows shows additional information when visited to make certain things more obvious and attractive for other players

Something like this is what I had in mind. Being able to actually choose the location of forts and towers would be pretty sick. Maybe even add special buildings that the clan can buy / build that produce resources automatically. Trading goods, repairs, rum, perm upgrade components and more could all be produced automatically in the port, if the special building for each is built.

[z4ys]

6 minutes ago, rediii said:

I still know the days of the s truggle of the 2 blocks about castries and bridgetown with around 100 players on each side in the area when a PB was on the horizon.

The pop back then was around 600-800. What happened since then?

Clan RvR? Other kind of customers? Around EA release date NA was populated by a different kind of people. Now we have a give give give crowed.

[King of Crowns]

1 hour ago, Coraline Vodka said:

how about if the mission br is high enough to flip a port in one go it puts an alert out in combat news once it starts

as long as the defenders are able to have a chance of responding. 

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 hour ago, z4ys said:

Clan RvR? Other kind of customers? Around EA release date NA was populated by a different kind of people. Give give give now.

What if we go back to region owners.  You only fight over the regional capital and if you win you get the whole region instead of fighting over each port. Raise the BR up a bit too. 

If they ever figure out raids they could be the low BR attacks on single ports that you hold for short time than revert back to owner. 

One of the issues right now is too many ports and too many useless ports.

[Slim McSauce]

RVR doesn't lend to itself. It's players going out of their way to make content which is why it doesn't draw interest. Best thing that can be done is to revamp it to multiple spread out battles with a grand finale battle on some sort of point system to grant the winner. That way everyone has a role and obligation to join and not have it left to a small percentage of players who can put up with organizing PBs.

RVR should really play itself seemlessly into OW action whether that be from shifting of borders to surrounding territories.
A lattice system to connect captured ports to capitals with a supply chain effect would allow this.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[staun]

1 minute ago, Slim McSauce said:

RVR doesn't lend to itself. It's players going out of their way to make content which is why it doesn't draw interest. Best thing that can be done is to revamp it to multiple spread out battles with a grand finale battle on some sort of point system to grant the winner. That way everyone has a role and obligation to join and not have it left to a small percentage of players who can put up with organizing PBs.

Obligation? So it should not be up to the single player to chose there own gameplay

[Slim McSauce]

Just now, staun said:

Obligation? So it should not be up to the single player to chose there own gameplay

Participating in defending/attacking for your nation should be a pleasure, not a chore. Especially not a chore left to a handful of clans as RVR really shouldn't be a niche thing, every player should be RvRing and enjoying it all the time.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[staun]

5 minutes ago, Slim McSauce said:

Participating in defending/attacking for your nation should be a pleasure, not a chore. Especially not a chore left to a handful of clans as RVR really shouldn't be a niche thing, every player should be RvRing and enjoying it all the time.

That is your point of view. What if they just dont think it is fun, what then. Should they be forced ore stop playing.

Edited December 11, 2018 by staun

[Slim McSauce]

Just now, staun said:

That is your point of view. What if they just think it is fun, what then. Should they be forced ore stop playing.

Well that is my point you see. If they think it's fun that's great, that's the goal. But the bigger goal is to spread that fun across as many players as possible. If there's one thing this game should milk is it's RvR.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[Ellias]

Let's try to involve every aspect of the game in RvR.

I assume ports become important and can be fully controlled by owner.

On contrary we need to prolong PB initiation process.

1. Remove hostility missions.
2. Bring back flags. Flags can be bought only from National capitals. They will initiate port patrol zone event if successfully reached their target port. Game 1: we will have our flag catch and protect game. Flags can be made very expensive without any cooldown. PB timers still applies.
3. Once flag reached we will have patrol zone, min 3 days long. Nations, clans will try to accumulate as many pints they can. If defender gets more points, PB won't be initiated and will enter to 1 week long cooldown, no one can attack it after. If attackers win over points PB will be initiated at 4th day. AI ships with special loots, or much better loot will spawn for both sides. AI kills will count towards the score, only during set PB times. Game 2: we will have a long patrol zone event, which matters much more than few doubloons. 
4. Logistic matters during war. Both sides can bring expensive, capturable and very profitable resources to the port to help in accumulation of patrol zone points (Doubloons may be?). Game 3: we will have economic war.
5. Game 4: Port battle. Lobby style. No screening, guaranteed battle. (If it is hard to code it, we can live with screening and sailing there). Port battle BR's can can be arranged according to total actions points accumulated during patrol zone stage, reflecting its importance from action amount.

 

[Sir Texas Sir]

This is a sandbox no lobbies.  While it was great system in POTBS it leaves out a lot of elements of fleets actually showing up. I would prefer a flag system and once planted PB 24 hours.  Until than the zone around port is hot red PvP zone where all rewards are boosted.  This encouraging more fights until the PB.  Port stays a red hot zone until port is off cool down.  

[staun]

3 minutes ago, Slim McSauce said:

Well that is my point you see. If they think it's fun that's great, that's the goal. But the bigger goal is to spread that fun across as many players as possible. If there's one thing this game should milk is it's RvR.

Yeah but somehow it isen’t apealing to ppl anymore. I have  for a long time spend lots of time on RvR, trading to pay ports getting ressources, so ppl can have the best ships. But I am fed up with the grinding to equal the field. Patch 27 with expensive ships and a trading system, I dont like,  killed the rest motivation for RvR. Now the talk on limited the ressources to the clan holding ports. Well forget me feeling any duty.

 

[Dibbler (Retired)]

 My feeling is that the changes are often extreme when they come, of course game mechanics need to be tweaked but the last few months have felt as though there is no clear direction. So month by month game totally changes sometimes for worse and others for better,  which does more damage to playerbase with no hard base in game mechanics.

 I would have thought by now with time has been in alpha that core of game mechanics should be done and set with only small tweaks needed. For myself i have stopped playing until devs decide what they actually want game to be, at which time i will try again and see if the end result is something i want to spend more time playing.

 RvR mechanics seemed ok,  but for myself the amount of time needed in both triggering a port battle and the whole forming up and sailing to them (quite often to find enemy hasn't showed up)  made me kinda avoid them like the plague.  I have had fun in port battles but time invested/fun wasn't something i wanted to continue doing.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Dibbler

[staun]

5 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

Sorry dude.

Your guys are the minority.

RvR has moved lots of people always, no matter if they were screening or inside the port battle.

The dozens of nationmates in the same channel of the TS are enough to prove me that.

Do actually think he is not. Just try ask @admin to get stats from every nation, then count who many actually participate. Last I remember they showed unik log in. Gb had like 1300, even if 1/2 is alts. Pretty sure that Gb couldn’t field more than abouth 30 RvR players.

[z4ys]

23 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

Sorry dude.

Your guys are the minority.

RvR has moved lots of people always, no matter if they were screening or inside the port battle.

The dozens of nationmates in the same channel of the TS are enough to prove me that.

So everything was always fine? Why RvR got changed then?

[GhastlyGhost]

15 hours ago, admin said:

Add feature allowing lockdown of ports by clans (giving access to port resources only to the clan who owns the port) + maybe adding docking fees. 

What about Friendly Clans that helped in Port Battle and Hostility ? I think that port should drop some amount of resource to clan werehouse.  Otherwise, it will lead to a monopoly.

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by GhastlyGhost

[Ouwe Knar]

How about giving the lower ranked captains a way to steam up the ranks easier,

with higher set stakes and more dublouns and regales .

Lets say in short:

The higher the rank, the more difficult it gets to urn your dublouns and your way up.

Oh and ofcourse there will be a wipe first.

And i mean a total wipe,ranks dublouns regales ports and all.

so everybody starts at same ranks and also ports are reset.

[staun]

3 minutes ago, Ouwe Knar said:

How about giving the lower ranked captains a way to steam up the ranks easier,

with higher set stakes and more dublouns and regales .

Lets say in short:

The higher the rank, the more difficult it gets to urn your dublouns and your way up.

Oh and ofcourse there will be a wipe first.

And i mean a total wipe,ranks dublouns regales ports and all.

so everybody starts at same ranks and also ports are reset.

And that would benefit RvR how?

[Sir Loorkon]

There should be more options in RvR. There should be 5 conditions/states of ports:

1. Uncapturable

2. neutral 

3. open for all (every player of every nation can enter, make an outpost and set contracts)

4. open for nation(every player of the nation and alts😒 can enter with warships, set contracts, make an outpost and so on)

5. open for special clans (only players of the nation can enter with warships and make an outpost, only players from the clans that participated in the portbattle winning the port can set contracts)

The owner of the port should be free to choose between 2-5 (and loose the port when choosing 2). Setting conditions 3-5 should have different consequences. 

Setting 3 (open for all) should mean that there is a multicultural approach. People love you but you have only limited control. As a negative consequenz you can only set a maximum of 5% tax (reals). As a possitive consequenz it will take 4 hostility missions to start a portbattle. And you receive a docking tax. There will be a timer for portbattles with a range of 6 hours at low cost. If you loose the battle, everyone can abandon the port as it is atm.

Setting 4 (open for nation). You can tax up to 10%. It needs 2 hostility missions to start a portbattle. There will be a timer with a range of 4  hours and medium cost. No docking tax. If you loose a portbattle, you can abandon your ships but all the assets in the outposts in the port are lost (looted by the winner)

Setting 5 (open for clans). You can not tax. You recieve no docking tax. It needs only 1 hostility mission to set a portbattle. The timer for the portbattle has a range of 1 hour and is very expensive. If you loose the port every ship docked there and every asset is lost (looted by the winner).

Participating in a portbattle should be rewarding. Every member of the winning party gets a goldchest. The guy(s) with the most assits an the guy(s) with the most kills an the epic chest. Let all players (enemy and friends) vote for the best player of the battle and give him a firstrate as one time redeemable.

Make a bar and star reward system for victorious actions in RvR and PvP. Nothing to buy, nothing to loot but something to earn! You participated in a victorious portbattle? So you earned a bronce bar which is mounted on your main flag. One bronce bar is added after each victoty. 5bronce bars convert into one silver bar. Fife silver bars convert into one golden bar (would like to see havelocks or rediiis flags full of golden bars😉). For each defeat one broncebar gets lost. Make the same in PvP. One bronce star on a special topmast flag for each victory. 5xbronce= silver star. 5xsilver = golden star. Remove 1 bronce  star for a defeat.

 

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by Sir Loorkon

[Ouwe Knar]

5 minutes ago, staun said:

And that would benefit RvR how?

Fresh air..in all matters.

Open a window and get the wind back in the sails..

[staun]

Just now, Ouwe Knar said:

Fresh air..in all matters.

Open a window and get the wind back in the sails..

So reset every thing how often?

[Ouwe Knar]

Just now, staun said:

So reset every thing how often?

can be voted upon.

by the community.

[staun]

1 minute ago, Ouwe Knar said:

can be voted upon.

by the community.

As there always will be new players, so rather often I guess. But do woundre how ppl will feel about start as midshipman, maybe every 2 month.