No Names During Battle

[Iroquois Confederacy]

With all these new flags in game, and the confusion they could cause if players didn't have so much information, I would like to propose that player names are taken off from above ships.  Essentially, you would need to identify your enemy based on the flag it flies, and your own situational awareness.  This would increase the dynamism of larger battles, as the fog of war would become much more real.

I further recommend not knowing who your opponents are until after the match finishes, though this would increase coding requirements.  Ideally, those situations would simply list them as "Player 1, Player 2, Player 2's NPC" etc.; and reveal all once Battle is Over (so any reports needing to be made due to chat violations could be addressed).  This might be a further flung idea, however.

[z4ys]

18 minutes ago, Iroquois Confederacy said:

...

we had fog battles as well (not sure if still ingame) was actual nice but the mini map killed it

Edited December 10, 2018 by z4ys

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Wouldn't this increase incidents of intentional green on green damage with perpetrators claiming they didn't realize it was a friendly?

I like the removal of player names, but would still like an obvious green or red tag for anti-abuse purposes.

[Socialism]

Noooooooooooooooooooo

[William Death]

Nope.

Officer: "Hey, isn't that ship we're shooting at the same one we've been sailing with for the past 4 days, Captain?"

You: "Err....I dunno....hard to tell, just keep shooting till he sinks and ask questions later."

 

Fog of war can be nice, but I don't think it needs to be like this.

[z4ys]

 The fastest ship was HMS Superb under Captain Richard Goodwin Keats, which sailed through the Spanish rearguard as a moonless night fell. Superb fired on the rearmost ships, setting the 112-gun Real Carlos on fire and capturing the Saint Antoine. Unable to determine friend from foe in the darkness, Real Carlos inadvertently engaged the Spanish ship San Hermenegildo, spreading the fire to its compatriot. Both ships subsequently exploded with enormous loss of life.

 

Just saying....

Edited December 10, 2018 by z4ys

[z4ys]

Just now, Wraith said:

Just saying.

NA battles have day and night 🙂

[Beeekonda]

26 minutes ago, Henry d'Esterre Darby said:

Wouldn't this increase incidents of intentional green on green damage with perpetrators claiming they didn't realize it was a friendly?

I like the removal of player names, but would still like an obvious green or red tag for anti-abuse purposes.

This would also become a common thing

 

[greybuscat]

5 minutes ago, z4ys said:

 The fastest ship was HMS Superb under Captain Richard Goodwin Keats, which sailed through the Spanish rearguard as a moonless night fell. Superb fired on the rearmost ships, setting the 112-gun Real Carlos on fire and capturing the Saint Antoine. Unable to determine friend from foe in the darkness, Real Carlos inadvertently engaged the Spanish ship San Hermenegildo, spreading the fire to its compatriot. Both ships subsequently exploded with enormous loss of life.

 

Just saying....

There are lots of historical anecdotes that would either add nothing to the game or actively detract from the experience. What are you hoping to get out of this, to offset the people it would undoubtedly annoy or piss off?

[Sir Loorkon]

A bad idea. I have a lot of enemys I used to talk with and there are realy good mates amoung those „enemys“ I like very much and I used to talk to after a battle. Thats quality of sailing. I already suffer from the lag of OW communication. It was not a good idea to delete it. Now you suppose to take away ingame names (and consequently communication), too?! NO!

[z4ys]

8 minutes ago, Wraith said:

And yet do we actually have "night?"  Can I see all the flags, signal and otherwise, ships deck, and crew, including being able to identify cannon types during our pseudo-half-light-night, without even a proper moon?  The answer is yes. Therefore, I still could identify who the hell I'm pointing a broadside at and you know it. Don't be a pedant.

Even now soldiers die by ff. Gov might call it fake news. Should tell them to use their eyes.

[z4ys]

Just now, Wraith said:

What the hell is your point?  Is dying by friendly fire fun?  Are we playing a game that's supposed to be fun?  Maybe we should implement mechanics that skews towards fun instead of the deadly not fun? 🙄🤔

Fog of war can be fun. There is a reason why smoke covers names in NA. But I understand power gaming knows no fun.

[greybuscat]

20 minutes ago, z4ys said:

Fog of war can be fun. There is a reason why smoke covers names in NA. But I understand power gaming knows no fun.

This is starting to get silly. Smoke's main role in battle is to obscure shots and make aiming harder, not anything to do with the other players' names. We have a map for keeping track of the battlespace, anyway, or do you think we should get ride of that, too?

[z4ys]

2 minutes ago, greybuscat said:

This is starting to get silly. Smoke's main role in battle is to obscure shots and make aiming harder, not anything to do with the other players' names. We have a map for keeping track of the battlespace, anyway, or do you think we should get ride of that, too?

Look at my first post here.

[Vernon Merrill]

Are we at war or do we just sail around killing the unwashed masses who aren't part of your cool club?   Stop complaining about "lack of PvP" if you're only gonna engage 25% of the available enemies.

Last I checked, the static dynamic was all nations are at war.  

Sailing on eggshells because you might attack a "friends alt" is just stupid.

And @Wraith, you have it completely backwards...  removing names was done so that people would fight, not pick and choose.

 

Edited December 10, 2018 by Vernon Merrill

[Macjimm]

Removing the names makes sense to me considering that the names were removed from Open World.  All enemy ships in game should be simply "Enemy Player #"  No name, rank or clan.

Why do we have the information in the battle instance?  Players can run or flee after tagged.  This way players will not flee from players with high rank, or fearful reputations   ... or so the logic goes.  The logic that was used to remove names from OW.

The after battle screen can display the identity of the Enemy Players.

And comms should be opened by a hail inside the battle, as well as in OW.  Players who don't want chat shouldn't have to see comments from trolls.  Players who prefer to text should be able to text friendlies and enemies, both in battle and in OW.  If comms are opened, then the name, rank and clan is displayed.

 

[Macjimm]

2 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I'm very aware what the intention was, but it's worked exactly opposite. Yes, I understand that perhaps the Ram Dinark's and Capt. Reverse's of the world might get a few more battles out of the current system. But the rest of us don't, precisely because those new players, who I've talked to and have been trying to train up, are scared to engage in a halfway even fight because they don't know who they're getting involved with.  That's just basic player psychology.

And regardless of that, it's still a quality of life degradation that has been a detriment to international player community development.  No longer could I have a friendly chit chat with Pagan Pete as he sailed by, watching from the port because now he's just a nameless Pirate Player... It's a true shame.

Very well thought out.  If I'm afraid of PvP against scary players then I'm going to be frightened more often if I can never see who I'm fighting.  When in doubt ...flee.  The fear of the unknown is the greatest fear.

[greybuscat]

17 minutes ago, z4ys said:

Look at my first post here.

Saying that the map killed a thing we had before doesn't tell me you want to remove the map. The open world "killed" sea trials, which was a nice thing in its time, but I don't want the open world to go away.

I feel like you're being needlessly obtuse.

Edited December 10, 2018 by greybuscat

[Vernon Merrill]

17 minutes ago, Macjimm said:

Very well thought out.  If I'm afraid of PvP against scary players then I'm going to be frightened more often if I can never see who I'm fighting.  When in doubt ...flee.  The fear of the unknown is the greatest fear.

This attitude is a bigger problem than any development decision, honestly.  

[Thonys]

2 hours ago, Iroquois Confederacy said:

With all these new flags in game, and the confusion they could cause if players didn't have so much information, I would like to propose that player names are taken off from above ships.  Essentially, you would need to identify your enemy based on the flag it flies, and your own situational awareness.  This would increase the dynamism of larger battles, as the fog of war would become much more real.

I further recommend not knowing who your opponents are until after the match finishes, though this would increase coding requirements.  Ideally, those situations would simply list them as "Player 1, Player 2, Player 2's NPC" etc.; and reveal all once Battle is Over (so any reports needing to be made due to chat violations could be addressed).  This might be a further flung idea, however.

enemy identification based on the flag is fine, but...

but removing the name is just stupid....and not a good idea! 

i would gladly see the [ {clan)flag ] + [ name ] in the battle.

in ow i would gladly see [nation flag ] [ clan tag ] + [ rank ].

we should not remove stuff but add stuff...

many people are too destructive, just thinking to solve stuff ... to remove things...

Edited December 10, 2018 by Thonys

[Tomasso il Fortunato]

Nation flags on masts too and it will be great by hiding the names .

[Iroquois Confederacy]

50 minutes ago, Wraith said:

But the original post wasn't about Fog of War, it was just about removing names. Which is just one more quality of life feature that ROVERS and their lone hunter ilk are happy to strip from the game because it doesn't matter for their play style.

This is based on a bad assumption.  This idea came to mind after Sir John, in a 1st Rate, blasted me with a full broadside - "Wrong Endymion."  I think that should happen more often.

[Iroquois Confederacy]

?  I think you misread.  I'd want names taken off over the ships.  Names off of the tab screen would be good to, but is a distant second priority that many people seem distracted by.

[Iroquois Confederacy]

1 minute ago, Wraith said:

Not at all, why wouldn't he know that you were "green" from your flag? 

That's literally the point.  You would have to either mentally keep track, or look.  If a ship is coming at you bows on... is it an enemy or an ally?  In the heat of battle, it could easily be mistaken, as it was with me.

[Iroquois Confederacy]

1 minute ago, Wraith said:

Come on.. really? It literally is trivial to pop your free cam up and look at the flag.  And most of us are sailing and targeting by our maps anyway once we are beyond the absolute noobish stage, so this is all a moot point, unless you're proposing removing the in-game map too?

I thought that was implied.