Miaowi Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 Is a thing! I've lost 5 Tbrigs in as many trips/days. Our coastline currently has commerce raiders ranging up and down with impunity. It's like operation drumbeat all over again Its time to rethink strategies and come up with solutions to this problem......Time to consider convoys... perhaps Q ships are the answer.. we shall see.... It's this type of emergent content that keeps me hooked on this game 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus MacDuff Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 14 minutes ago, Miaowi said: Is a thing! I've lost 5 Tbrigs in as many trips/days. Our coastline currently has commerce raiders ranging up and down with impunity. It's like operation drumbeat all over again Its time to rethink strategies and come up with solutions to this problem......Time to consider convoys... perhaps Q ships are the answer.. we shall see.... It's this type of emergent content that keeps me hooked on this game I wouldn't say impunity. I've been chased by multiple ships on many occasions. I solo hunt a lot and often have to break off and run. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gregory Rainsborough Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 19 minutes ago, Miaowi said: Is a thing! I've lost 5 Tbrigs in as many trips/days. Our coastline currently has commerce raiders ranging up and down with impunity. It's like operation drumbeat all over again Its time to rethink strategies and come up with solutions to this problem......Time to consider convoys... perhaps Q ships are the answer.. we shall see.... It's this type of emergent content that keeps me hooked on this game Or maybe, stop afk sailing and escort your traders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meraun Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 (edited) I dont think he is complaining btw.. To topic: i always form a convoy if i go out of the Save area my Nation is controlling (Dutch and Prussian Raider have made them less save lately) usually its 2 Traderbrigs plus a Escort, a desposable ship like a Essex, La Belle Poule or a Frigate. (armed with Carros) If i get jump, the AI Controlled Tbrigs run and i engage with the Ship, no matter how many or how big. OFC it doesnt always work, but i mostly get away with the brigs. Edited July 4, 2019 by Meraun 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mad Dog Morgan Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 Time to make trading more profitable, nothing but endless T Brigs doing missions is boring to raid except for the reward of a gold chest and marks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vizzini Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 you won't be the only person making a hazardous trip, arrange with clan mates or friends to travel together, always with a ship in tow don't be greedy and think you can stuff extra cargo in for extra profit if you dont take a warship and use the sextant perk to stay out of the shipping lanes we all know 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miaowi Posted July 4, 2019 Author Share Posted July 4, 2019 Indeed not a complaint just noticed that commerce raiding is very much a thing which is v cool Coming up with solutions (like some of the ones proposed here) is also v cool. (thanks guys) I'm about to implement some things that I hope will turn the tide and will do another post detailing some of the results At the moment its 0-5 to the hunters.... to be continued Do you guys have any stories (hunter or hunted) that you'd like to share to give this facet of the game some more flavour? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vizzini Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 4 minutes ago, Miaowi said: Indeed not a complaint just noticed that commerce raiding is very much a thing which is v cool Coming up with solutions (like some of the ones proposed here) is also v cool. (thanks guys) I'm about to implement some things that I hope will turn the tide and will do another post detailing some of the results At the moment its 0-5 to the hunters.... to be continued Do you guys have any stories (hunter or hunted) that you'd like to share to give this facet of the game some more flavour? look at it like running a blockade, you get rum into a freeport before the combat zone opens up... you will pay for your ships a few times over time your deliveries / runs never go ungunned or without a few repairs and use the knowledge of how others attack you to your advantage when the boot is on the other foot 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus MacDuff Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 9 minutes ago, Miaowi said: Do you guys have any stories (hunter or hunted) that you'd like to share to give this facet of the game some more flavour? The most annoyed I ever got was when I tagged a Brit TBrig with 2 in fleet. I was in a Herc and assumed he was one of the usual dummies in 3 unescorted TBrigs (maybe even no guns). Easy kills. Turns out the 2 in fleet were a Cerb and a Essex...fully armed. Within a minute my sails were below 70% and I was popping a sail repair and wishing him a polite goodbye. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 1 minute ago, Angus MacDuff said: The most annoyed I ever got was when I tagged a Brit TBrig with 2 in fleet. I was in a Herc and assumed he was one of the usual dummies in 3 unescorted TBrigs (maybe even no guns). Easy kills. Turns out the 2 in fleet were a Cerb and a Essex...fully armed. Within a minute my sails were below 70% and I was popping a sail repair and wishing him a polite goodbye. Most people don't realize most trader hunters are in very fast, weak ships. If traders just escorted themselves it would be way harder to kill most traders. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meraun Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Flinch said: Most people don't realize most trader hunters are in very fast, weak ships. If traders just escorted themselves it would be way harder to kill most traders. most Raider probably use FIr/Fir builds?. (maybe a Raider can help us out here) Outrun waht they cant beat, and catch everything they can beat. a simple Oak/oak frigate woud change a lot. Edited July 4, 2019 by Meraun 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miaowi Posted July 4, 2019 Author Share Posted July 4, 2019 My commerce story so far: The fleets first ever Tbrig was hit in the gulf. A privateer. A tense but brief fight saw the Privateer retreat having sustained significant damage. It proved no match for the 18pound carronades wielded by the trader Then came a golden age of trading. Able to sail AFK. The fleet was expanded during this period as I decided to get an Alt. All told they ranged over the gulf without care (nor armaments) The trading fleet was expanded, more tbrigs joined the fleet. Around this time we started to get our first casualties. A single trader lost to a british Requin. The trader was unarmed... stood no chance Losses started to mount.. this Requin took more and more of the fleet. 3 all told Other nations joined in with the fight, more losses Losses mounted steadily. Eventually I have to recognise that the current status quo is no longer sustainable and a solution needs to be found. To be continued... will the hunters win and throttle all trade or do we manage to break the blockade... its this type of stuff that NA is all about Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raekur Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 1 hour ago, Meraun said: most Raider probably use FIr/Fir builds?. (maybe a Raider can help us out here) Outrun waht they cant beat, and catch everything they can beat. a simple Oak/oak frigate woud change a lot. Metastatic used to love using Bermuda Cedar / Teak builds. Still get some decent speed and still be able to take a few hits. While some of the suggestions here are valid, some are not as realistic as you might think. Players play at different hours so an escort from a clan member is not always possible. As far as a nation escort, chances are you will find a couple sealed bottles before you find a single escort. Using a warship as your primary and having a trade ship in fleet is a good approach, once you have gotten enough rank to actually have the crew to man both ships. My 2 cents on it is this, If you do not have the crew, stick to a trader lynx and do passenger missions to build up cash. Once you have some money get a mercury and chase down some low level AI to get experience for your character and familiarity with combat for yourself. It will not take long to get to the 200 crew which will be enough to almost fully crew a mercury and a traders brig (fully crew the mercury and run 55 crew on the T-Brig). To do delivery missions and passengers just switch to the Trader as your main, process the missions (either accepting or delivering) and then be sure to switch back to the mercury and reallocate crew before leaving port. The game now is a massive grind with traders being forced to be in the open world (and thus prey for the main focus of the game - pvp) for extended periods of time and the hard core pvp players being the ones with the top ships (which will only make it easier for them to go after traders). The challenge of the game is what will keep players here, but there are several things that still need fixing / tweeking to stop players from getting frustrated and leaving. I have already been seeing a decline in numbers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
balticsailor Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 I myself do the couple of trading missions resource hauls in a Fir/Fir very fast LGV with some speed mods. It is fast enough to out run most enemies (i got away from heavily speed build raider group of 3 Trinc + 1 Endy the other day) and i can fight lighter raider if i need/want to. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StaleMemes Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 (edited) There are lots of things you can do to protect yourself from risk while trading. Some reduce earning rate, but thats how risk vs reward works. 1. Don't sail fully loaded if you expect an attack. I usually don't go over 50% in hostile territory so that I can make it to port before they get a good tag. The extra speed allows me to run to ports more easily and spoil enemy tags more effectively. 2. Sail fully armed and with repairs. 3. Avoid high traffic areas. In many cases sailing out into the open ocean and quickly ducking into the port you are delivering to only adds 5 or 10 minutes onto your trip, but can reduce the likelihood of being spotted and intercepted dramatically. 4. Pre emptively reduce risk to nothing. Don't buy a merchant ship, instead capture one from the enemy and deliver his cargo. If you are really lucky you can even intercept a shipment of valuable woods. Edited July 4, 2019 by StaleMemes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbancourt Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 (edited) 3 hours ago, Miaowi said: Do you guys have any stories (hunter or hunted) that you'd like to share to give this facet of the game some more flavour? No, because nothing is more boring than attacking trade ships LOL. My best story is that I've never lost a cargo, only empty ships with repairs. Fleet 3 ships, avoid risk, and make wise use of the server maintenance time. But trading is dead, so your time is better spent grinding XP anyway. Edited July 4, 2019 by Barbancourt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miaowi Posted July 4, 2019 Author Share Posted July 4, 2019 5 minutes ago, Barbancourt said: No, because nothing is more boring than attacking trade ships LOL. My best story is that I've never lost a cargo, only empty ships with repairs. Fleet 3 ships, avoid risk, and make wise use of the server maintenance time. But trading is dead, so your time is better spent grinding XP anyway. I respectfully disagree. I find this facet of the game fascinating and my xp is fine. Its been fun theory crafting the solution to my localised problem. You sound like you've found a good mechanism that is risk free for when you did do trading which is cool. I haven't as yet but there's some things I'm gonna try implement this evening Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus MacDuff Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 5 minutes ago, Miaowi said: I respectfully disagree. I find this facet of the game fascinating and my xp is fine. Its been fun theory crafting the solution to my localised problem. You sound like you've found a good mechanism that is risk free for when you did do trading which is cool. I haven't as yet but there's some things I'm gonna try implement this evening If you are making a run into a hunted port (capitol/Free Town), ensure that you have good wind before you are close. The longer you spend in a heavily hunted area (because of bad wind), the longer the wolves have to spot you. Pause well outside the danger area until you are sure you will have your best wind to make your dash. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atreides Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 (edited) My fleet was 2 trade brigs loaded with cargo, my main a trade snow armed with repairs and passengers. Tagged by a guy in a Prince. After 45 minutes I had the guy down to 1 bubble armour an both sides and 41 crew. Sadly he popped a sail repair and escaped after some good natured banter. We both GG and o7. After I docked up to deliver 2 sets of passengers and 2 sets of cargo for 320K reales and 2K dubloons, and went on my way... 30 minutes later I was tagged by a trinc, and 2 more jumped in, with each going after separate boat. Seriously 🤔 Edited July 4, 2019 by Atreides Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Papillon Posted July 4, 2019 Share Posted July 4, 2019 Sail outside the shipping lanes, and as said, make use of maintenance time. Don't trade at capitals without an escort. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sea Archer Posted July 14, 2019 Share Posted July 14, 2019 Well, I am hunting traders in cheap capped privateers and am quite successful with it. The unarmed traders are easy prey, armed tbrigs are much more fun. Traders with escorts would be more than I can chew. So, please sail without any support, makes life easier for me. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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