Just an idea

[Marquês do Bonfim]

Remove completely the names on top of enemy/NPCs ship and also your friends in battle. Leave only the names and type of ship in the TAB window, it makes the battle a little bit more dynamic because you won't know straight away who is the guy you are battleing. I still think there shouldn't suppose to have a tab window or even a way to know mid-battle who you're battleing with. Those informations should be shown afterwards, when the battle is over and you're ready to leave the instance.

I don't know, tell me what you guys think about that.

No name above the enemy player/enemy npc or your friends in battle. Be able to tell who that was just after battle is over, like a popup window that closes after a few seconds, idk.

[William Death]

No. 

Leave it as is, and re-add names in OW. There is absolutely no good reason to hide this information. All it does is reduce the willingness to tag.

People now sometimes don't tag enemy because they're not sure if its an elite player or a noob. Imagine how many people would run away (more often then they already do) when tagged by an enemy. "I won't fight because I don't know if you're a good player or not, and I don't wanna get sunk."

[vazco]

48 minutes ago, Coraline Vodka said:

not to mention if you find someone, we can no longer ask "hey wanna scap?" have to tag them and then talk in battle is a waste of time. OW coms need to com back even if its without names.

 

Comms are good as they are now, same with names.

No names in battle would make it unmanageable. Comms in OW would reduce number of battles.

[William Death]

5 minutes ago, vazco said:

Comms in OW would reduce number of battles.

My experience has been the opposite.

 

I won't tag certain ships in OW if I think they're a better player than I am. If I suspect that ship on the horizon is a good player (like Ram Dinark or Liquicity or Reverse) in a sturdy ship; I won't tag them because I'm confident they're sailing a ship that is more-suited to dueling/actually fighting than I am (I usually sail very light speedbuilds). Not to mention, they may still beat me even if we were both in proper fighting ships. Why risk my ship to find out? For 62 doubloons? No thanks. As a result, I miss some fights against players who might be only average in skill. No battle happens. 

Similarly, when I go hunting I see that other players have the same mentality. They won't tag me, even if they have unlimited join timers in their R zone and/or a superior ship to boot. They're so used to seeing an enemy player and subsequently getting wrecked that they automatically assume its a good player and choose not to engage. A battle doesn't happen.

 

Furthermore, on the other side of the coin, names in open world means you have a bit of protection for low ranks because some players won't bother with low ranked captains who are still learning.

I used to have a guideline I tried to follow: no sinking anyone under lieutenant commander rank (200crew/frigate rank). I'll farm established noobs all day, but I don't want to sink the guys who are still trying to figure out how to manual sail their brigs and make their guns reliably hit the target. Other players I have sailed with had a similar rule.
But now we have no way to know if the ship we're tagging is sailed by a max-rank player or a new player. The only way is to waste your time tagging the poor skipper and find out.

More instances =/= more battles or better content. It is frustrating. Sometimes that leads to "well we've already tagged him anyways lets sink him no mercy." That new player then quits because the game didn't tell him where not to sail and he just lost everything he had (because the game didn't explain that he shouldn't put all his eggs in one basket) and never creates another battle. 

 

But go ahead, stick to "red=dead because this is the hardcore full-loot PvP Server" mentality.

If, say 15%, of new players quit because they get sunk right out the gate (the game does a horrible job of explaining how to use reinforcement zones and where a new player should be) it won't really be noticeable because NA has such a low population anyways...

All these "hardcore" changes do is annoy veteran players, frustrate/turn away new players, and satisfy a small group of role-playing sailors who want something that places playability behind realism.

But "Yarr, I'm a Pirate and you're the enemy! I shall endeavor to sink you! No I do not care that you just bought the game 2 hours ago, you chose PvP server you knew the risk."

[Macjimm]

Allow names and open communication in both OW and Battle.  But by option, we should also be able to toggle names off, clientside.

Ignore should work in battle as well as open world.

Trade should be open between all players in OW and Battle.

Creating way too many rules and restrictions won't promote gameplay, providing choice will.

[Slim McSauce]

Hey remember when we asked for a way to hail to another ship and get his info if he agreed and hailed back? Yeh

[Suricato Rojo]

15 hours ago, William Death said:

No. 

Leave it as is, and re-add names in OW. There is absolutely no good reason to hide this information. All it does is reduce the willingness to tag.

People now sometimes don't tag enemy because they're not sure if its an elite player or a noob. Imagine how many people would run away (more often then they already do) when tagged by an enemy. "I won't fight because I don't know if you're a good player or not, and I don't wanna get sunk."

And bring OW chat back.
With the diplo layer removed this is supposedly a clan based game. You can be friend of an Russian clan but enemy of others. Right now its imposible to create inter-nation cooperation because you never know if that russian is friend of you you or not.

I would accept the following solution. Names and clan are hidden until you are in tag distance in which case it will appear and last fo 5 mins in OW. 
But OW chat button always active, please.

[John Cavanaugh]

Keep names hidden and add a Hail feature. Player A spots player B. A clicks Hail option, B gets a pop up with A’s name, clan, and rank. B has option in pop up to respond or decline. Problem solved.

[vazco]

17 hours ago, William Death said:

I won't tag certain ships in OW if I think they're a better player than I am.(...) Similarly, when I go hunting I see that other players have the same mentality.

If everyone has the same mentality, this means that one of  the players will always run and no battle will happen.

My experience is number of battles increased quite significantly after names were removed.

[Marquês do Bonfim]

"its a waste of time tagging someone you don't know in OW" 

Really? I thought PvP was suppose to be like that, other than tagging just players that you know can fight and well know they can fight. This is ridiculous.

OW should have a hail system, I agree with that, but battle shouldn't because you would know who that was in OW in the first place.

I don't know why people even bother of knowing who they're battleing with, that's just an excuse to fight someone you either have a beef with IRL or someone that you much dislike or know their story/skills, it kills all the mystery behind going in Open Sea looking for a good and fair fight.

Disabling names in battle should be something that keeps PvP interesting, knowing who you're battleing with is just boring. You gotta analyze the enemy's tactics, ship and how he'll approach you to broadside, things like that would give a far more "challenging" time than tagging people that you usually know that sucks or knows how to battle, I've been reading excuses so far, no actual meaning behind all of that.

Its just sad.

 

Atleast this should be an option for players that actually wants that kinda of challenge throughout their gameplays. I don't like to engage someone, pressing tab just to see who that is and what rank he is, it just kills my immersion.

 

And yeah, you're right, there are players that usually likes to role play since it's a game pretty much based on a interesting era with interesting things to do. I know there is a lot of unfair systems in the game right now and usually adding these hardcore solutions wouldn't help at all the currently new population that is trying to get the hang of this game. Like I said, this should atleast be an option for players that want that type of immersion in their own gameplays, shouldn't be something to complicate an already complicated game, to be honest, but wouldn't hurt to add the option either.