No Names During Battle

[EdWatchmaker]

Good evening Captains and Devs,

I personally want the "Enemy Player " names and ability to hail back, at the very least on the PVE server. I also like the idea for someone of lower level to be able to get some sort of reward for having the guts to battle a higher level player instead of running off. 

Happy Christmas, Hanukkah et. al. from Captain Ed and Seadog 3rd Class Wade. Fair sailing all. Let's Make this Game Great Again. Sorry, couldn't help it. 

[Iroquois Confederacy]

13 minutes ago, EdWatchmaker said:

Good evening Captains and Devs,

I personally want the "Enemy Player " names and ability to hail back, at the very least on the PVE server. I also like the idea for someone of lower level to be able to get some sort of reward for having the guts to battle a higher level player instead of running off. 

Happy Christmas, Hanukkah et. al. from Captain Ed and Seadog 3rd Class Wade. Fair sailing all. Let's Make this Game Great Again. Sorry, couldn't help it. 

If nothing else comes from this conversation, you make an excellent point.  There's no reason for names to not be visible on the PvE server.

[greybuscat]

3 hours ago, Iroquois Confederacy said:

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. 

I hate to pull the "this would be heavily abused by griefers and rage monsters" card, but do you really not see the potential for green on green abuse here? It's like a blank check to troll people or fire a broadside into their hull over some perceived slight.

Setting jerks aside for a moment, friendly fire and collisions already happen pretty regularly among experienced players with the best intentions, especially in 10v10 and larger battles. Without basic command&control tools, the game would be a frustrating mess, which is a novelty that I fear would fade very quickly.

Now, as special rules for a hypothetical clan-based PvP tournament, or something along those lines where one opts in and out of it freely, I could get behind this. As a general rule change, frankly, the idea scares me.

[William Death]

2 hours ago, Wraith said:

If I'm an unblooded noob and see the dread pirate hunter Willis sail by with a hypothetical ELO-like rating way above mine, then I should get some rewards for sailing out tagging, and getting sunk by him, hopefully learning something in the process, and having fun knowing that I'm still getting something out of the fight. Now should Willis get much in rewards?  No, but at least he gets a fight!

Shhh keep yer voice down, I've got most players convinced by now that I'm some carebear noob that can only sail fir boats and gank. I've got an image to keep up and I can't do that if you imply that I might be half decent on occasion!  LOL

 

Back in the old days, on another server, under another name, I had a little bit of a reputation built up. And yeah, sometimes my reputation would prevent players from engaging the scary pirate. But other times I'd find eager captains in purpose-built ships just to run me down and try their hand at sinking me. It balanced out.

Thats the thing about having a reputation in NA: half the players want to run away and the other half want to send you to the bottom.

 

Joking aside, I really, really disliked the removal of names in OW. I attempt to follow, as a general guideline, a "sustainable farming" technique. Basically if the guy is less than Master and Commander rank, he gets demasted and left adrift (or I don't even bother tagging if I know what rank he is in OW) unless he starts the smack talk, then all bets are off.

Now, with names and ranks removed from OW, I can't tell if the guy I'm tagging is someone who I can mercilessly sink and have a clear conscience about, or a new player who is just trying to figure the game out and deserves a break. Maybe that element of uncertainty counts as "immersion" for some, but for me (and many others) its a major annoyance.

 

I think removing names in battle would just make the game less enjoyable for most of us. Why complicate one of parts of NA combat model that works perfectly well?

Perhaps instead, have an option to turn names off if you like the more immersive gameplay? Just accept the tribunals when you green on green me because you can't tell whether I'm friend or foe. 

[Macjimm]

The whole point of an MMO is the gameplay between players.  It's a mistake to remove names and reduce communications.  Why not leave the choice up to us.  Allow us to hail an enemy player and if the hail is accepted we can chat with him.   We could be limited to one hail per day so we can't spam.

• Summary:   All enemy players look like they do now, just "Enemy Player".  If we get within range we can hail and wait for a response.  If the enemy player accept the hail then chat is opened between them as a PM and both players can see each other's name, rank and clan.

Or just simplify everything even more and;  keep chat open to all, with names visible between all nations.  Makes the game so much more interesting, and opens up so many more opportunities.  

Ignore is a good option that should also work inside a battle instance.  No-one should have to see a troll's text.

[Sir Lancelot Holland]

Communication even between enemies is, I think, beneficial, not so much the salty insults, but,  often in combat enemies do talk to each other in game, some offer advice, a few occasionally apologise, some maintain a cordial relationship during the fight, some throw in a little banter, although, the line between banter and insult can sometimes be paper thin. When we had communication between 'enemies' in OW we could exchange pleasantries, or not, then, go our own way if we chose, yes, it was abused by some, but, national, global chat and battle chat is also abused to a degree, we all have a choices, we can participate, or we can hit the ignore button, a far more practical solution than removal. 

Many of us have friends in the 'enemy' camp, people we have sailed with in clan or nation, and, know as well as can be expected online, who, we are unable to talk with unless we meet in battle. While it is true that in reality Captains knew their opponents, either by reputation or in person, knew what ships they commanded at any given time via the naval scuttlebutt system, such familiarity is not fully possible in game. 

Reading even national flags can be difficult at long range, or, if edge on, (is that Red/White striped flag an American, or, a British East Indiaman?) and, with lots of smoke around in large melee battles the first indication it's an enemy, could be the shot tearing your ship apart! So some compromise has to be made, hence name tags. 

Reputation can be a fearsome thing, did Villeneuve think "sacre bleu, it's Nelson" maybe he did, maybe not, but he went in there and did what was expected of him. Had the day gone differently he may have been dining with Nelson aboard L'Redoutable before Nelson's incarceration somewhere in Spain or France. When one has a reputation your opponent knows what to expect, not so with someone of lesser repute, people tend to fear the unknown far more than a known quantity, in open waters there is no way of knowing, often, by the time you find out,(especially with inexperienced players) you may already be sunk, but, then again, even the most skilled and highly reputed Captains have bad days once in a while      

[Sea Archer]

For me NA was a kind of community, where communication is an essential part of. Just fighting anonymous players is not much better than fighting some well coded NPC.

Taking away the player names from OW was a mistake and removing them from battle would make it even worse. After all this is a game where people shall have fun and talk to another.

 

[Hethwill]

7 hours ago, Macjimm said:

Summary:   All enemy players look like they do now, just "Enemy Player".  If we get within range we can hail and wait for a response.  If the enemy player accept the hail then chat is opened between them as a PM and both players can see each other's name, rank and clan.

Reasonable approach. 

[EdWatchmaker]

Ahoy Captains and Devs, 

Some of the best, most enjoyable and instructive conversations I've had in Naval action have been with enemy captains, some of which have just sunk me. One time I was talking to a player I had escaped from and was out in the Atlantic, obviously not paying attention to my situational awareness, when I was tagged and sunk by 3 Spanish. I laughed so hard at my surprise at being snuck up on that I about fell out of my chair. Scolded my poor departed Seadog Max for not keeping a proper lookout. Look folks, if someone gets nasty on chat just ignore them or report them if it's bad enough. If they're mean and nasty they're living in their own little version of hell and we should pity them, not let them ruin our day or game.

My experience? 98% awesome people in this game in 2+ years. Great folks + great game = FUN.

Fair sailing all and Happy Holidays from Capt. Ed and Seadog 3rd Class Wade. 

[Marquis de la Fayette]

Bonsoir capitaines,

Il existe une alternative :

1) les noms des alliés toujours en blancs,

2) pas le nom de l'ennemi, seulement lorsqu'il est coulé. Et bien sûr, toujours de couleur bleu.

ainsi, on ne connaît pas le nom du joueur qui nous attaque ou que l on attaque, mais seulement sa nationalité.

cordialement,  La Fayette

[Capn Rocko]

32 minutes ago, EdWatchmaker said:

Ahoy Captains and Devs, 

Some of the best, most enjoyable and instructive conversations I've had in Naval action have been with enemy captains, some of which have just sunk me. One time I was talking to a player I had escaped from and was out in the Atlantic, obviously not paying attention to my situational awareness, when I was tagged and sunk by 3 Spanish. I laughed so hard at my surprise at being snuck up on that I about fell out of my chair. Scolded my poor departed Seadog Max for not keeping a proper lookout. Look folks, if someone gets nasty on chat just ignore them or report them if it's bad enough. If they're mean and nasty they're living in their own little version of hell and we should pity them, not let them ruin our day or game.

My experience? 98% awesome people in this game in 2+ years. Great folks + great game = FUN.

Fair sailing all and Happy Holidays from Capt. Ed and Seadog 3rd Class Wade. 

+1

It would be cool if there was an option to request chat with enemy captains in OW. If both parties agree, then names are revealed and private chat would be available. 

[Macjimm]

4 hours ago, Capn Rocko said:

+1

It would be cool if there was an option to request chat with enemy captains in OW. If both parties agree, then names are revealed and private chat would be available. 

Can't figure out what is so scary, or game destroying, about this concept.

[traitorous mctraitoro]

Have you gone completely mad?!

[Farrago]

No. My ships are crewed by a staff of professional officers and sailors. There’s always someone keeping track of friend and foe. But then, they all seem to be quitting. I used to have an officer who could spot a ship in the distance and tell me it looks like the Surprise captained by the dread Iroquois Confederacy. Then that officer quit. I can’t seem to find a manager who can make any sort of decision unless I personally go to his port and tell him what to do. And NOW my navigator is threatening to quit unless I pay him more.

But seriously, I don’t see any reason incorporating this sort of “realism” would improve the game or gameplay. I could understand if the target tags faded during darkness but since time is so compressed, that doesn’t seem to be worth the coding effort. 

[FRAN]

On 12/10/2018 at 10:33 PM, 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.

 

I participate little in PVP, due to the continuous crashes or falls I had since the beginning of the game. Of the last penultimate that I participated, I observed a bug with the player's label. Depending on the angle and the number of players, it showed that it was a green player, but on the flag it was the enemy, seconds later it changed again to labeling in red. I do not know if they have already solved it or not.

It is a way to solve this problem, but I do not like the idea, I prefer that they fix the bugs. I do not have the Flags DLC, but surely there are historical and very accurate flags. Just look at the past, history, the battles of vintage sail, and consequently, the use of flags.