Travel Experience

[Njord]

I would suggest increasing the travel XP for new players and add a flat one time bonus for every new port that is visited the first time. Seems like a very easy to implement and good way to encourage new players to explore the OW. What is the point of the current travel xp anyways? It is so minuscule, you might aswell remove it. 

[Macjimm]

There should also be an option to reject the XP.   Accumulation of XP increases rank, and a player should have a choice to remain at a low rank.

I prefer the slow progression because, currently, there is no way to refuse promotion.

[Slim McSauce]

so this is how divided we've come on things.

[Njord]

2 hours ago, Macjimm said:

There should also be an option to reject the XP.   Accumulation of XP increases rank, and a player should have a choice to remain at a low rank.

I prefer the slow progression because, currently, there is no way to refuse promotion.

Only reason for this could be to deceive enemy PvP players about your actual experience or to dodge high doublon teleport cost? Also admin said a while back, that we might even get higher ranks added at some point. But whatever floats your boat ship man. 

[Macjimm]

5 hours ago, Sovereign said:

Only reason for this could be to deceive enemy PvP players about your actual experience or to dodge high doublon teleport cost? Also admin said a while back, that we might even get higher ranks added at some point. But whatever floats your boat ship man. 

I'm not trying to deceive anyone.  My PvP experience is much, much less that what is reflected in my rank.  I redeemed a bunch of XP boosting me a rank.   I sail only small ships (T Lynx, T Brig) and have no need to be an admiral, or sail larger ships.  I benefit from a low teleport cost, but it takes a lot longer longer to acquire Doubloons by just trading.  I'm not dodging teleport costs, it's appropriate that the cost is less.  

Accelerating the rank of players for just sailing about doesn't make sense to me. A viable alternative would be to have a travel XP.  And the travel XP would not affect rank.  But I think the current setting is calibrated okay, or even a little too high.  There is no need to complicate the XP.

It wouldn't hurt anyone to allow players with no experience fighting to reject XP.

XP that boosts combat rank should be based on the experience players gain from fighting .... Not from simply traveling in OW.

 

[Njord]

4 minutes ago, Macjimm said:

XP that boosts combat rank should be based on the experience players gain from fighting .... Not from simply traveling in OW.

That would only make sense, if you got rank XP exclusively from PvP.

PvE combat is rather worthless as actual battle experience that makes you a more capable captain deserving a higher rank. You could argue it is even the other way around... Why should repeated bashing of bots in the safe zone kill missions yield experience but travelling the OW not?

[Macjimm]

51 minutes ago, Sovereign said:

That would only make sense, if you got rank XP exclusively from PvP.

PvE combat is rather worthless as actual battle experience that makes you a more capable captain deserving a higher rank. You could argue it is even the other way around... Why should repeated bashing of bots in the safe zone kill missions yield experience but travelling the OW not?

I will defer the answer to those who know something about fighting.  Perhaps you are correct and NPC fighting should not not contribute to increasing rank.  I've made no arguments about bashing bots.  I don't think fighting NPCs, or crafting, or shipbuilding has any connection to the XP received for OW sailing, but I know next to nothing about fighting or crafting.

 I just don't think that my time OW sailing should increase my rank at a faster rate.  The XP received for OW sailing; accumulates fast enough, and is not related to combat.

[Miaowi]

+1 from me

I'm assuming travel xp is negligible at present to prevent afk travel xp grinding. I don't know if that statement is true but the amount does feel rather low.

I love the suggestion of a flat one time bonus for every port visited. This would encourage travelling.

To extrapolate this further what about:

one time bonus for every port

one time bonus for every regional capital or regional capital with associated ports visited

one time bonus for every "Region" i.e congrats you've explored the whole of Peurto Rico

Completionist award: You have been everywhere - have a shiny new sextant or something

[Angus MacDuff]

1 hour ago, Sovereign said:

That would only make sense, if you got rank XP exclusively from PvP.

PvE combat is rather worthless as actual battle experience that makes you a more capable captain deserving a higher rank. You could argue it is even the other way around... Why should repeated bashing of bots in the safe zone kill missions yield experience but travelling the OW not?

What do we care if a player gets to high rank without engaging in PVP?  He wants to run his 4 unarmed Indiamen and make millions (and some hunter will be happy to teach him that this is risky). I like the idea of travel giving xp for the simple reason that my traders never have any slots open.  Yes I know I could go out and grind the slots in a PVE fight, but that is no fun at all.  We already have to do that for warships.  Giving travel xp to traders (including bots) would increase their lethality for those who are able to use them effectively and make it a little less like seal clubbing when you catch unescorted traders in OW.   

[Macjimm]

21 hours ago, Coraline Vodka said:

You know you don't have to use all the crew just limit yourself to whatever crew u want

Yeah, of course.  

A player could also restart with a new character, reset the XP and be at the lowest rank.

Just seems that travel XP gain is calibrated okay.   

Having a choice seems better.   Fight - to rank up more quickly.  Don't fight - to rank up slowly.

But if I understand Angus MacDuff correctly, there is a decent reason to rank up more quickly from traveling without ever fighting.  It is when a player is using an alt just for trade runs.  With an increased rate of travel XP the ships could be fully crewed and provide more robust PvP resistance.   The Alt could be used for trading only and still progress in rank.  The current rate is too slow without fighting. Although  I wouldn't imagine that would be less of a grind to visit ports than to fight.   It could account for players that are skilled at fighting, from using other characters, but also have an Alt exclusively for trade.

I don't have an alt so it had not occurred to me to want a character at maximum rank to be used only for trading.

For players who have no alts, and never fight, the XP provided for travel will result in a rank that more accurately represents their combat skill.

Sovereign claims that fighting NPC's is worthless as battle experience.  I'm just guessing but PvE fighting may provide more battle experience than OW sailing.  But as I said, I'll leave the opinions about combat to the Warriors.  But if Sovereign is  correct then perhaps we should reduce XP gain rate from PvE.  Given what MacDuff has presented, reducing the PvE XP gain rate might be frustrating when trying to quickly rank up, an Alt. It may be better to allow a decent amount of XP for grinding up bot juice.

My concern with increasing XP  for simple OW sailing is that there is no option to refuse promotion.  We are not all the same and it is okay to enjoy the game with a low rank, sailing only 6th and 7th rates.  Modest goals and a slow pace can be satisfying for some players with limited time to game.    I can enjoy the game as a trader sailing only T Brigs a few hours per week.  It would be fristrating to try and fight with 1st rates if I only play for 7-8 hours a month.

My rank exceeds my battle experience. I have no reason to be promoted.

 

[Njord]

On 12/18/2018 at 4:22 PM, Miaowi said:

I'm assuming travel xp is negligible at present to prevent afk travel xp grinding

Yeah, most likely. But then again... just why? If someone feels the need to grind rank xp with afk sailing, by all means, just let them go for it. Who would be hurt?  You can still attack players sailing afk, they are viable targets in the OW. Travelling to distant and enemy ports should yield most XP and travelling within the safe zones should yield no XP at all.

 

On 12/18/2018 at 4:22 PM, Miaowi said:

Completionist award: You have been everywhere - have a shiny new sextant or something

Yeah, I have suggested this before aswell and think it should definitely be a thing. Visiting every port on the map is not something you could do in a day, it takes a lot of time and should be rewarded accordingly. If the reward is good enough, this could be a nice long term side goal, that will promote OW travelling a lot.

[Angus MacDuff]

22 minutes ago, Macjimm said:

But if I understand Angus MacDuff correctly, there is a decent reason to rank up more quickly from traveling without ever fighting.  It is when a player is using an alt just for trade runs.  With an increased rate of travel XP the ships could be fully crewed and provide more robust PvP resistance

Nope...got me wrong.  XP does more than grant rank..it grants opened knowledge slots on ships.  With XP granted for travel, traders would open their slots, making them more dangerous to attackers.  This applies to those who sail traders as their main ship.  Me, I wouldn't go anywhere with a trader up front.  I have a warship as lead. 

[Macjimm]

1 hour ago, Angus MacDuff said:

Nope...got me wrong.  XP does more than grant rank..it grants opened knowledge slots

Kool.  I didn't know that.  Non-combative traders may benefit from adding speed knowledge,  as they will be faster.  More speed means greater likelihood to escape by fleeing.  I like that.  Thanks for the response.

The forum can be helpful.  I carry cannons after z4ys convinced me that the speed reduction was offset by the ability to fight back.  I saw that fighting back could be used to target a hunters sails while I escaped.

I sail a trader as a main ship so that I can enter any port.  I could see increasing my speed to flee, but would not use any slots to make me more dangerous in combat.  My T Brig really isn't much of a warship.  I would not likely win a slugging match against an experienced hunter with a well modded ship.  Any benefit from using slots for combat would be wasted on a player with almost no experience at combat.  I may be able to target the hunters sails and run away.   My efforts are best focused on evasion,  not on conquest.