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Development plans update - Second Half of 2019


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1 hour ago, Vernon Merrill said:

Could it be something coded like shallows?  Where if you sail over a certain area, you get a different wind strength?  Of course, it would be great if you couldn't actually SEE it like the shallows, but you get a small warning icon like when you near shallow areas?

Anyways, curious to see how its implemented.  I do hope they are not static, however.

 

 

They will change daily
And you will have to click (do an action) so afk sailers will not be able to use it. 
 

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Is there any word on how the AI-agression will work other than the raids? Will huge fleets of 1st rates chase my small frigate, will a lone cutter attack my indy etc.? Would be nice to hear a little about how it's supposed to work so one can prepare for it. :)

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3 hours ago, admin said:

We had a lot of thoughts about it.
The problem is that static passive NPCs turn the world into static wax figure museum. Yes they interfere with some plans, but also they liven up the world, creating danger zones or changing the balance of forces on the OW. Even most casual games force the pvp player to carefully chose the routes to attack or require them to clear up zones before camping them. 

This is why I always say the game servers are Peace (PvE with no chance of PvP) and War (PvE with chance of PvP and RvR).   They are both PvE servers first, the PvP is second as we have to kill AI to grind up and find loot.  So those that think War is a PvP only server have been wrong.  Most of the players don't even care about the RvR part of the game that is why it gets so bland.  Cause most players only have a few hours a day or week to play.   Yes we have a good number of EILTE players that do nothing but play this game on there off time from RL, but they aren't the majority of the players that log in and play.  I like the concept of having aggressive AI.  Take a look at Star Citizen, there is a reason they are making AI and Players look the same and they plan to have a 20/80 or 30/70 split of players vs AI numbers.  Cause it's no fun to get sunk all the time by other players when you never get any kills, AI and Players should be treated the same on the OW.  You really shouldn't know if it's a player or an AI is there mind set.  Yes AI tend to be stupid and predictable, but I'll tell you I fought many a players that are worse than AI.   

The main thing is don't set AI skill level to fight Elite players, set them to fight the average player.  Yes we can have ELITE AI that are harder and give more challenge for those Elite players, but make the majority of the AI challenge for you average Joe.  One of the biggest complaints I heard since release about AI isn't that they are stupid and predictable (what you hear for the Elite Vets) it's that they can be to hard with powerful boarding and seeming to turn on a dime and have higher DPS than players cause they never miss.  This is what I hear from the average joe player.   

Just about every MMO I been on you had to fight AI and only fought players in special zones.  That is a thought, maybe it would be good to do such, make PvP only in special zones or give special rewards in hot spots (like a hostility bubble around a port increases rewards to do PvP).  Right now PvP rewards suck cause you have to share your rewards and well if your the luckly you die more than you win and it ends up being very costly in the long run.   While you have the ones that win all the time getting stronger and stronger.   Game has terrible balance to keep new players around cause ya'll let the Vets/Elites farm the crap out of new players for easy rewards.

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2 hours ago, admin said:

Wind patch is a zone with stronger wind allowing the captain to gain a speed boost sailing nearby. Of course because of nature of the OW he will have to sail closer and click something to use this wind - but its a good compromise to bring some variability into sailing in the OW + reduce travel times for captains who pay attention.

Open world superspeed has been requested by many.  This should please some lads who are bored by sailing. 

Thanks for not forcing this on all of us.  Sounds like the casual captain will still be able to use the current system.  The speedboat velocity can be fast enough if we are navigating (plotting, tracking, calculating.).   

I don't suppose there will be an option to turn the superspeed warning off. It would  be nice though.   

And I am wondering if this OW superspeed will be an added buff for hunters approaching traders who choose normal OW speed.

Perhaps agressive NPC's will also be chasing casual traders at superspeed.

interesting.  This may be a huge change.

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1 hour ago, admin said:

They will change daily
And you will have to click (do an action) so afk sailers will not be able to use it. 
 

Are you talking like a draft wind from NASCAR? Ideally, imo, we would see different ripples on the waves and could sail toward them, then once we get over the ripples we'd "catch the wind" and a streamer on a mast would blow harder, or the sails would be more full. If ppl need an indicator, you could have a "draft gauge" under your ship icon like they do in NASCAR.

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4 hours ago, admin said:

We had a lot of thoughts about it.
The problem is that static passive NPCs turn the world into static wax figure museum. Yes they interfere with some plans, but also they liven up the world, creating danger zones or changing the balance of forces on the OW. Even most casual games force the pvp player to carefully chose the routes to attack or require them to clear up zones before camping them. 

Sure, but people on the peace server (PvE) are not PvP players by definition, so presumably they will not be subjected to this?  It would completely change the nature of the PvE server if they were.

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9 minutes ago, Gregory Rainsborough said:

PVE players complaining about PVE!

As a PvE only player, I am VERY excited for these updates. I think most PvE players feel like I do too. I know some worry because of rumors of what will happen when in reality nobody knows until we test. I do agree with you it is funny some are worried about PvE in PvE. Kid's these day's

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5 hours ago, admin said:

And you will have to click (do an action) so afk sailers will not be able to use it

What is the problem with afk sailing ?

Game is offering something so we do not afk sail for hours, am I missing something ?

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2 hours ago, Gregory Rainsborough said:

PVE players complaining about PVE!

Peace server players complaining of lack of peace. 😉

2 hours ago, McPoyle said:

As a PvE only player, I am VERY excited for these updates. I think most PvE players feel like I do too. I know some worry because of rumors of what will happen when in reality nobody knows until we test. I do agree with you it is funny some are worried about PvE in PvE. Kid's these day's

I'll remind you of that when you need to logout but you can't because you were just tagged by the AI.  Or you want to do that trade run, but you can't because the AI will sink you.  Or you've just bought a new ship and need to take it to the port with your Forge to fit decent guns, but were sunk by the AI on the way.  Or you were out hunting in your Wasa looking for a nice 3rd rate to fight and were ganked by a Bellona + 10.

Honestly, the number of scenarios in which this is a potential disaster are countless.  At the moment, we have PvE, but at a time of *our* choosing to fit in with real life schedules etc..  If this comes to the PvE server, the only difference is that now the AI will choose when and what you fight, and that choice is taken away from the player.  I'm amazed at the number of people who seem to think that reducing player choice is a good thing.

If you want to fight, great.  Go and do it now.  You don't need to wait for the AI to attack you.

Edited by Karvala
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3 hours ago, Karvala said:

Sure, but people on the peace server (PvE) are not PvP players by definition, so presumably they will not be subjected to this?  It would completely change the nature of the PvE server if they were.

What does killing AI have to do with PvP?  This game is a majoriity PvE element game so why shouldn't the AI be more agressive to those in the wrong waters and fight back?  The reason they seem so dumb down to most is cause they don't act like players.  Just about every MMO I been on the AI will attack you unless your far to high level than they are.  They would have an agro zone that you can avoid if you don't want to be attacked.  Maybe the devs will do something like that to let folks avoid them, but I think it's more going to effect the AFK saliers and I'm sure PvE has tons of them since it's a safe place, well guess what, it's not going to be any more in certain waters so no more AFK randomly sailing all over.

1 hour ago, McPoyle said:

As a PvE only player, I am VERY excited for these updates. I think most PvE players feel like I do too. I know some worry because of rumors of what will happen when in reality nobody knows until we test. I do agree with you it is funny some are worried about PvE in PvE. Kid's these day's

I think it's just a few of the grumpy old time PvE vets that don't like change.  I love hearing this and kinda wish I had more time to set things up more on that server cause I don't always want to deal with players and RvR/PvP.  glad to hear folks are excited about these changes.  

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3 hours ago, AeRoTR said:

What is the problem with afk sailing ?

Game is offering something so we do not afk sail for hours, am I missing something ?

There seems to be a predudice against playing AFK.  I dont understand it. 

When the game was initially launched on steam, and the population was high for a very brief time, a time limit was imposed to discourage players from loitering when the servers were full.  Now extra quiet players really don't affect others.  Its not as if they are occupying a spot that could be used by someone who is more active.

There is a misconception that if a player is prevented from floating, or sailing, about AFK then he will be more likely to engage in PvP.    I think that if you don't allow an AFK option many players will just log off.

Some players seem frustratated if players are successful while playing AFK.  Traveling or fishing.  Collecting provisions and bottles, or just earning XP for distance sailed.  These frustrated players could be mistakenly assuming that if players are not allowed to be AFK they will fight.  But given the choice between hours of AFK, or forced into PvP, they may just not play NA at all.

Removing, or alienating, AFK players will likely result in less players.

 

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I use AFK sailing to complete tedious task (trading, ressources and cargo hauling) while I can't really play in front of the PC for a decent period of time for various reasons. All these things being done while AFK means I can fully focus on PVP when I'm actually free to play the game.

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5 hours ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

What does killing AI have to do with PvP?  This game is a majoriity PvE element game so why shouldn't the AI be more agressive to those in the wrong waters and fight back?  The reason they seem so dumb down to most is cause they don't act like players.  Just about every MMO I been on the AI will attack you unless your far to high level than they are.  They would have an agro zone that you can avoid if you don't want to be attacked.  Maybe the devs will do something like that to let folks avoid them, but I think it's more going to effect the AFK saliers and I'm sure PvE has tons of them since it's a safe place, well guess what, it's not going to be any more in certain waters so no more AFK randomly sailing all over.

You obviously didn't bother to read the quote from the dev, who mentioned PvP as a reason for the changes and whose point I was directly addressing.  If you think PvP is irrelevant here, I suggest you go and tell them, since they raised it, not me.

Why shouldn't the AI be more aggressive?  You also obviously didn't bother to read the four or five reasons I gave above either then.  Maybe you should spend a bit more time reading and thinking about the substantive arguments and a bit less time just attacking people for daring to voice an opinion different to yours.

How is it going to affect only AFK sailors?  They sail in the same water as everyone else and I'm quite sure the AI will make no such distinction.  More to the point, while I've never done any AFK sailing myself, if other people want to do that and it doesn't harm anyone, why shouldn't they?  What is that offends you so much about people playing the game differently to you that you want to celebrate any attempt to stop them?  The player base is low enough as it is, I'd have thought we should be trying to cater for as many different types of players as possible at this time, not deciding that it's now time to purge AFKers and reduce the numbers even more.

5 hours ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

I think it's just a few of the grumpy old time PvE vets that don't like change.  I love hearing this and kinda wish I had more time to set things up more on that server cause I don't always want to deal with players and RvR/PvP.  glad to hear folks are excited about these changes.  

Yes, definitely attack the individuals rather than address their actual points, that will really convince people.

Edited by Karvala
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2 hours ago, Serk said:

I use AFK sailing to complete tedious task (trading, ressources and cargo hauling) while I can't really play in front of the PC for a decent period of time for various reasons. All these things being done while AFK means I can fully focus on PVP when I'm actually free to play the game.

You'll be rewarded for the time you spend not afk, speeding up travel times and hopefully making certain tasks less tedious and time consuming.
You will still be able to afk sail, but you won't get any extra reward for doing so, it'll just be regular travel.

Edited by Slim McSauce
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17 hours ago, admin said:

Wind patch is a zone with stronger wind allowing the captain to gain a speed boost sailing nearby. Of course because of nature of the OW he will have to sail closer and click something to use this wind - but its a good compromise to bring some variability into sailing in the OW + reduce travel times for captains who pay attention.

I think that the same mechanic can be used to design various random OW encounters.

For example: random wreck that contains absolutley anything from empty hold to rare items and even Deadman chest, or some other quest thing. Imagine when you are hunting in a light ship and suddenly find such precious treasure

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Let me try to explain why, in my opinion, aggressive AI is step in wrong direction. Like Redii have said in other games time to disengage is measured in seconds while in NA if you get tagged you will need at least 5 minutes. By that time wind will change direction and make your journey miserable affair. Not to mention if AI damages you, and he will thank to super accuracy that AI enjoys, you will need to use repair which are expensive and limited, unlike other games where health automatically restores outside of battle. The closest example I can think of is Elite Dangerous, where, unlike shields, hull doesn't repair automatically and you need to go back to port for repairs. But even there it takes far less time to go to port, dock and repair, thanks to FTL speeds and all that, and you don't need to concern yourself with changing wind. Compere that to NA where you need tens of minutes to go back to closest port. Add to that complete lack of enjoyment in fighting AI that cheats and we have huge time sink in already sinking game. That doesn't sound like a good strategy to revitalize NA.

Edited by Zoky
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49 minutes ago, Baptiste Gallouédec said:

You mean they won't have enough hold to bring it back ? And the wreck will be empty when they will come back in a trader ;)

Exactly. If someone find it and take the loot

Just put such locations on the map (not marked on the map, but visible in the OW and their positions should change daily) and many AFK sailers will scan the horizon for them

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13 minutes ago, Malcolm3 said:

Exactly. If someone find it and take the loot

Just put such locations on the map (not marked on the map, but visible in the OW and their positions should change daily) and many AFK sailers will scan the horizon for them

No afk player will scan anything. He will just sail by as he is not there to see anything.

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