Patch 31 - Port investments and shipbuilding bonuses feedback

[van der Clam]

55 minutes ago, CanorJax said:

Sorry, but is Vera Cruz Russian ?

No! 

Stop crying and come for the port 

ps we want some content 

I suggest everyone do to the russians exactly what we did to sorry clan and just deny them any action at all. Always avoid them. Always surrender within seconds if caught. Give them nothing but AI to fight. It's what they deserve for destroying a fun game for the rest of us. They'll eventually stop the exploits...or leave the game. And then the rest of us can get back to actually testing how Frontlines is supposed to work.

[angriff]

I don't know what happened to this game?  The trading patch made it seem worthwhile to move goods over distances then they put in the PVP doubloons and passenger missions which obsoleted the trading patch.  So people stop trading product and reduce tax income to 1/10th of what it was originally. 

Then the investment patch looked interesting but it takes 112000 labor hours (56 player game days worth) to build the forts back in stone alone to where they were before the investment patch not including sailing time to bring the stone.  Well this is interesting to trading players but then the RVR players found an exploit to quickly flip forts and prove that the forts and efforts of hundreds of players build forts that are utterly incapable of providing any difference in port battles.  So now investments in forts and their existence to protect traders upon arrival are worthless and people have stopped building them after 6 days of playing them.  So maybe DLC forts are next since players did not want to go get wood to build their ships so they buy dlc ships, it makes sense to switch them to some sort of ez mode too.

I guess the port investments in building might be worthwhile but since on team can own them all and have all the fastest, most powerful and most hardened ships who knows what the other teams will find important.  I think it will revert back to just a map that stops moving and the free ships, never sail ports for all your supplies to build ships and the rotating Patrol Zones and also the mission mining for special ship power cards that provide not realistic depth for middle of the road players. 

The inability to enter a battle in support of your buddy that was tagged just inches from you is something that is also incredible.  I can understand the high computer power needed to run the battles has forced these instances but instead of making the battles seem like a fluid Open World type battle where ships arrive they have become little hidden rooms that you can yank people into or hide in to avoid conflict while others walk down the Open World corridor.  For me all battles should be like port battles and are a subset of OW.  Any arrivals can enter as would be the case in real.  If you get enter into an area of a battle circle you move into the battle and create a subset of the OW not a set of secret 2 or 4 player rooms all next to one another but I know this paragraph is off topic so I will end it.

What the port mechanics appears to attempt to create an Oligarchy style gameplay with rich elites dominate new or poorer non-elites.  It is not a lucky shot or an over-abundance of learned skills that wins the battle but a huge amount of special knowledge wizard cards to play on your ship.   The port investments, sans the forts, might provide some elite powers to a new player lucky enough to get into clan that can utilize them without special book knowledge. Will such mechanics attract new players for this type or warfare game if having fun takes too much work or finding hidden secret powers?  You cant start into the game as a new player and just play it with any success.  You have to invest huge amounts of time which no working or studying gameplayer can do in a non-developer real world.

For now my advice to a new player is keep everything you own and every ship you build in a Freeport so you dont have to move it over and over again.  These seems to exist to cause confusion to players and pirate style havens that counter the so called frontline theories being discussed and can launch armadas in your rear areas.  For me these places should starve and not support ships if not supplied by reams of players bringing food and supplies.  If a team has to spend hours providing supplies of stone , tools and guns to build a port then a Free port should have to have the same type of effort to support a fleet of 50 ships of the line or the ships go back to their capital ports.  If the defender/expansion player has to build his front line then a Freeport has to have the same effort to stay open.  Maybe a fort has to be build before you can put Ships in it?

Edited May 1, 2019 by angriff