NPC Port Battles Explained. War server and Peace server information

[Oli Garchy]

2 minutes ago, rediii said:

NPC Port Battles

• Raiders will attack ports on all Servers.
  • On war server - for testing purposes - for a week, NPC Raiders will just probe ports and WILL NOT take control even if they win the port battle. This will give some time to practice and prepare for the real raids that will start in a week or two. This is a PRACTICE WEEK

 

 

All well and good but why do the ports BR go UP for the ai raids lol you would think lower BR would be beneficial for smaller groups to have a go

[van der Clam]

5 minutes ago, Oli Garchy said:

All well and good but why do the ports BR go UP for the ai raids lol you would think lower BR would be beneficial for smaller groups to have a go

Why would the BR lower for the top 3 populated nations? To my understanding, they are to be the only ones being attacked by NPC at their most developed ports..

[Oli Garchy]

3 minutes ago, van der Clam said:

Why would the BR lower for the top 3 populated nations? To my understanding, they are to be the only ones being attacked by NPC at their most developed ports..

Talking during this testing phase on all ports

[Siliexe]

"Liebe" Devs

Nachdem ich Heute die wundervolle Gelegenheit hatte, eines dieser NPC-PBs testen zum dürfen, komme ich zum Entschluss das ich weinen könnte...

Wie kann man ein Spiel das so viel Potenzial hätte einfach so bis zur Unspielbarkeit patchen. Ich teste gerne neuen Content, aber wenigstens ein Minimum an Logik und  Mechanik sollte da schon die Voraussetzung sein:

1. Die grundsätzliche Idee eines NPC-BPs ist schon mal sehr fragwürdig.

2. Was haben Trader in einem PB zu suchen?

3. Die NPSs können Kreisel instant einnehmen und ich mit meiner Wapen konnte nicht mal eine einnahme starten, unmöglich, nicht mal ein timer gibts, sobald die NPCs einen Kreisel betreten der leer ist... baaaaaam die Punkte gehen hoch. Apropos Punkte...

4. Die waren nach 2 Minuten bei 1000 oben, lol...LOL... was überlegt Ihr euch dabei?

 

zu den anderne Patchnotes kann ich nichts sagen, da nicht getestet.

 

zur Entwicklung des Spiel im allgemeinen:

kurz gesagt, jeder Patch macht es unspielbarer. Nein nicht unspielbarer sonder unfairer, stupider, un-dynamischer, schlicht weniger reitzvoll. 

statt mal das Balancing und die Spielmechaniken zu hinterfragen, "tüftelt" Ihr an neuen meist sinnlosen Funktionen herum. es waren so viele gute Ansätze da,

- es war mal ein guter Ansatz eines Handelssystem, da! raus gepatcht statt perfektioniert.

- es war mal ein guter Ansatz eines Allianzsystems, da! raus gepatcht statt perfektioniert.

- es war mal ein guter Ansatz eines Hostilitysystems da! schlechter gepatcht statt perfektioniert.

- es war mal ein guter Ansatz eines Schiffsbalancing, da! schlechter gepatcht statt perfektioniert. (SOL-Roulers of the Sea)

-etc, etc. könnte noch lange so weiter gehen.

 

Ich weiss nicht ob Ihr einfach immer auf die falschen Spieler höhrt oder einfach nicht erkenn um was es in einem Spiel geht.

Kleinen Nationen haben nur Nachteile gegenüber Grossen, Spielerzahl, Ressourcen, Upgrades (die übrigens in keine Verhältnis mehr stehen zu den Holzarten der Schiffe), etc..

 

es könnte praktisch endlos so weiter gehen und es ist einfach nur deprimierend und traurig anzusehen, als mann der ersten Stunde, ein Spiel so zugrunde gehen zu sehnen, es ist einfach nur schade um das endlose potenzial das das Spiel hätte...

 

Konzentriert euch doch bitte endlich auf das Wesentliche, Balancing in allen Bereichen des Spiels das allen gleichermaßen Möglichkeiten gibt daran teilzuhaben, etwas beworken zu können und uns wieder Freude am Segeln zu finden, ich flehe euch an... Devs.

Gruss Siliexe

 

 

 

 

(translated by Google translate, sorry if its not perfectly translated)

 

"Dear" Devs

After having the wonderful opportunity to test one of these NPC-PBs today, I come to the decision that I could cry ...

How can you patch a game that has so much potential to unplayability? I like to test new content, but at least a minimum of logic and mechanics should be there already the prerequisite:

1. The basic idea of an NPC-BP is already very questionable.

2. What do traders have to look for in a PB?

3. The NPSs can take gyros instant and I with my Wapen could not even take a start, impossible, not even a timer, as soon as the NPCs enter a gyro empty ... baaaaaam the points go up. Speaking of points ...

4. Those were up at 1000 after 2 minutes, lol ... LOL ... what are you thinking about?

 

I can not say anything about the other patch notes because they have not been tested.

 

 

for the development of the game in general:

In short, every patch makes it unplayable. No not unplayable, but more unfair, stupid, un-dynamic, simply less enjoyable. instead of questioning the balancing and the game mechanics, you are "fiddling around" new, mostly meaningless functions. there were so many good approaches,

- It used to be a good approach to a trading system, there! patched out instead of perfected.

- It used to be a good approach to an alliance system, there! patched out instead of perfected.

- it used to be a good approach of a hostility system! poorly patched instead of perfected.

- It used to be a good approach to ship balancing, there! patched poorly instead of perfected. (SOL Roulers of the Sea)

-etc, etc. could go on like this for a long time.

 

I do not know if you just listen to the wrong players or just do not realize what a game is about.

Small nations only have disadvantages in terms of size, number of players, resources, upgrades (which, by the way, are disproportionate to the species of wood of the ships), etc.

 

it could go on and on and on, and it's just depressing and sad to see you go down in the first hour of a game, it's just too bad the endless potential that the game would have ...

 

Please focus on the essentials, balancing in all areas of the game, which gives everybody equally opportunities to participate, to be able to feed something and to enjoy sailing again, I implore you ... Devs.

 

Greeting Siliexe

 

 

Edited October 28, 2019 by Siliexe

[Archaos]

Why are there currently so many NPC port raids? Are many of these even being contested or are people just ignoring them?

I have attended 3 battles but quite frankly it is impossible to even attempt to attend most of them due to limited outposts and teleports to move ships around and lack of repairs even if you can teleport your ship.

I am really worried that when these go live and ports can be lost to the NPC then it will really mess up the game and lead to a mass exodus. People are not interested in taking part in them at the moment because there is no risk of losing the port, but when it goes live they will not have learned the strategies to defeat these raids and they will rage quit when they lose ports. Okay you may say it is their own fault for not using this time to test strategies, but at the end of the day it makes no difference whose fault it is when you have an empty server.

[admin]

54 minutes ago, Archaos said:

Why are there currently so many NPC port raids? Are many of these even being contested or are people just ignoring them?

I have attended 3 battles but quite frankly it is impossible to even attempt to attend most of them due to limited outposts and teleports to move ships around and lack of repairs even if you can teleport your ship.

The number of port raids is for giving you time to practice. The final feature will have NPCs attack only rich ports for top 3 nations.

We really suggest you practice.  You can use wind gusts to get ships transported and practice. This feature stays. 
The safety switch will be switched off on Monday. Countries will start losing ports if they do not figure out how to defend.

[Archaos]

5 minutes ago, Wraith said:

We haven't even bothered to contest them since they're broken and meaningless.  Punishing active RvR and PvP players with meaningless PvE is silly.  The fact that Admin thinks this is a way that smaller nations will be able to somehow irritate large nations is laughable... as if they can't scrape together 25 guys in first rates plus enough people to actively screen them in?  

It's content.. but it's pretty meh content that will do nothing to retain and attract players.  I'd have much rather seen development time go towards an expanded economy, trading, "collecting" via trade convoys, new mission types, etc. 

I agree with you, but according to Admin, these are here to stay, so what happens when we start losing ports to the AI, do people just recapture them and then spend time grinding to reinvest or do they just give up and quit the game.

The Devs should be able to see the lack of interest in these events and act accordingly.

[admin]

On 10/28/2019 at 6:02 PM, Siliexe said:

 

4. Those were up at 1000 after 2 minutes, lol ... LOL ... what are you thinking about?

 

 

The raid is a raid, that is in the game. 

There are certain limitations and certain conditions which if you figured them out make any raid easy even if you do not have enough people
Of course knowledge that trading ships give 300 points when reaching the circle is important. The number of those ships and their behaviour greatly influence your tactics. 
Knowing that ships sail straight to capture zones and ignore the defenders should affect your tactics. Those are not normal npcs they have a goal. 

Good fleet commanders will sail 2-3 lines and keep a reserve of 1-2 spike damage ships 1km away from the capture zones.
Good fleet commanders will practice focus fire and should be able to sink all indiamans before they reach the lines
After indiamans are dead it becomes a NPC slaughter and turns very easy as combat ships only make 10 points on entry and 2 points per tick (every 2 seconds). Which even with 20 combat ships gives you almost 20 mins to sink them all (40 broadsides per each first rate without reload mods)

PS. every feature must be passed by the devs too - we learnt to finish the raid with ease. Practice will make it even easier. 


 

[admin]

14 minutes ago, Archaos said:

I agree with you, but according to Admin, these are here to stay, so what happens when we start losing ports to the AI, do people just recapture them and then spend time grinding to reinvest or do they just give up and quit the game.

The Devs should be able to see the lack of interest in these events and act accordingly.

You are honest Let me be honest too. We gave a lot of time to prepare.
We ordered NPCs to attack everyone now, so everyone can practice and figure out how they can help mess up big nations. 
If you do not want to set up defense to at least practice or use wind gusts to move ships and just want to sit on a pier and complain- it will be your fault that you lost the port. 

If you play for a top nation you will have to do it. If you play for poland you will never get attacked. Switch and you dont have to bother with NPC raids.

[van der Clam]

10 minutes ago, admin said:

The raid is a raid, that is in the game. 

There are certain limitations and certain conditions which if you figured them out make any raid easy even if you do not have enough people
Of course knowledge that trading ships give 300 points when reaching the circle is important. The number of those ships and their behaviour greatly influence your tactics. 
Knowing that ships sail straight to capture zones and ignore the defenders should affect your tactics. Those are not normal npcs they have a goal. 

Good fleet commanders will sail 2-3 lines and keep a reserve of 1-2 spike damage ships 1km away from the capture zones.
Good fleet commanders will practice focus fire and should be able to sink all indiamans before they reach the lines
After indiamans are dead it becomes a NPC slaughter and turns very easy as combat ships only make 10 points on entry and 2 points per tick (every 2 seconds). Which even with 20 combat ships gives you almost 20 mins to sink them all (40 broadsides per each first rate without reload mods)

PS. every feature must be passed by the devs too - we learnt to finish the raid with ease. Practice will make it even easier. 


 

Our biggest struggle with doing Player Raids with only a few ppl is that we have to kill all the AI warships. Why do NPC Raids not also have to kill all our ships? Granted, it is very easy to defend just by sailing straight to the trader ships and sinking them, ignoring the NPC warships. But on Player Raids, it makes no sense that we can't just sneak in and capture the Indiaman and sneak out without wasting time on the NPC warships.

[Archaos]

10 minutes ago, admin said:

You are honest Let me be honest too. We gave a lot of time to prepare.
We ordered NPCs to attack everyone now, so everyone can practice and figure out how they can help mess up big nations. 
If you do not want to set up defense to at least practice or use wind gusts to move ships and just want to sit on a pier and complain- it will be your fault that you lost the port. 

If you play for a top nation you will have to do it. If you play for poland you will never get attacked. Switch and you dont have to bother with NPC raids.

I have attempted to do some battles, but in each case there have been insufficient players to be able to defeat the AI. I have also raised queries to get some of the mechanics clarified and not received any response to the questions raised. I even opened a new thread with a question but there has been no response from the Devs or from any player which shows the lack of interest.

I want to be able to defeat these AI attacks but the general lack of interest makes it impossible.

[Archaos]

2 minutes ago, van der Clam said:

Granted, it is very easy to defend just by sailing straight to the trader ships and sinking them, ignoring the NPC warships.

You will not defend a port by just sinking the Indiamen as the warships will rack up the points very quickly if they get to the circles.

[admin]

28 minutes ago, admin said:

The safety switch will be switched off on Monday. Countries will start losing ports if they do not figure out how to defend.

My mistake
As port BRs will change next week based on player feedback and posts (for pvp and pve). NPC composition of raiders will also change (number of ships)
Testing stage (all ports attacked) will be prolongued for another week. And safety will be switched off next monday on 11th Novermber

[admin]

3 minutes ago, Archaos said:

You will not defend a port by just sinking the Indiamen as the warships will rack up the points very quickly if they get to the circles.

This not happening anymore

Warships give 10 points

Even if 25 warships reach the circles it will just give 250 points. Assuming you picked the right tactics they will be heavily damage and you will finish them off in no time.

[Archaos]

1 minute ago, admin said:

My mistake
As port BRs will change next week based on player feedback and posts (for pvp and pve). NPC composition of raiders will also change (number of ships)
Testing stage (all ports attacked) will be prolongued for another week. And safety will be switched off next monday on 11th Novermber

Can we just have attacks on ports that are likely to meet the criteria for being attacked then, because at the moment there are multiple attacks on ports that are never likely to meet the criteria for being attacked so people are not bothering to try and defend them.

[Gregory Rainsborough]

3 minutes ago, admin said:

This not happening anymore

Warships give 10 points
and normal 2 points per tick there after. 

Even if 25 warships reach the circles it will just give 250 points. Assuming you picked the right tactics they will be heavily damage and you will finish them off in no time.

Will the amount of NPCs in the PB change depending on the BR of the port?

[Tom Farseer]

Just now, admin said:

This not happening anymore

Warships give 10 points
and normal 2 points per tick there after. 

Even if 25 warships reach the circles it will just give 250 points. Assuming you picked the right tactics they will be heavily damage and you will finish them off in no time.

This is great news. The few times I heard of people actually trying to defend they couldn't manage at all. Sadly all our NPC PBs were at times where I had no chance to test it but, oh well looks like we got another shot at it.

Also thank you for considering BR changes. I know a lot of players here get quite toxic when they see changes they don't deem positive, but this hopefully can breathe some fresh air into ship variety in RvR. (I know screening fleets will still be mostly 1st rates but so be it.) Just make sure not to overdo it and swing completely into the other direction. Moderation is key 🙃

[Malcolm3]

1 hour ago, Wraith said:

The fact that Admin thinks this is a way that smaller nations will be able to somehow irritate large nations is laughable...

The best way os mall nations to irritate large ones is guerre de course, or commerce raiding, but here we need special mechanic to make that workable

33 minutes ago, admin said:

As port BRs will change next week based on player feedback and posts (for pvp and pve).

What will be the new method of calculating BR for port then?

[Snoopy]

39 minutes ago, admin said:

My mistake
As port BRs will change next week based on player feedback and posts (for pvp and pve). NPC composition of raiders will also change (number of ships)
Testing stage (all ports attacked) will be prolongued for another week. And safety will be switched off next monday on 11th Novermber

Thank you!  Awesome news 

[Proka]

@admin i would like to know why polish nation dont get npc port battle for practice?

[Raekur]

Will the NPC raiders still have a higher BR than the port permits? This screenshot is from Misteriosa today, a 10,000 point port.

[R3volv3R]

the wonderful and boring port battles against AI  
-when you attack :
you do hostility missions which I find the most reasonable of this whole system because it's balanced 10 1st enter 10 s 10 thy come out this perfect
-once in battle:
this bores a lot come out 6 boats of 4th class or 1st class boring without more (could be like in hostility or that always completes the CB of the port that as a minimum)
-when defending:
here is upside down they can't defend themselves or being twice as many people as the enlightened AI some of the Indianmen score x4 so no one defends it perfect
-conclusion
attacking it bores it to the point where you can eat pipes and defend it is complicated to the point of not going to defend it knowing that you're not going to do anything ... these are the battles right now

 

las maravillosas y aburridas batallas de puerto contra la IA  
-cuando atacas :
haces misiones de hostilidad las cuales me parecen lo mas razonable de todo este sistema porque es equilibrado 10 1º  entran 10 1º salen  esta perfecto
-una vez en la batalla:
esto aburre mucho salen 6 barcos de 4º clase o 1º clase aburridisimo sin mas (podria ser como en la hostilidad o que complete siempre el CB del puerto eso como minimo)
-cuando defiendes:
aqui es al reves no se pueden defender ni siendo el doble de gente que la IA algun iluminado puso que los Indiamanes puntuaran x4 asi no lo defiende nadie perfecto
-conclusion
atacarlo aburre hasta el punto de poder comer pipas y defenderlo es complicado hasta el punto de ni ir a defenderlo sabiendo que no vas hacer nada ... esto son las batallas ahora mismo

[Holm Hansen]

On 11/1/2019 at 5:46 PM, admin said:

My mistake
As port BRs will change next week based on player feedback and posts (for pvp and pve). NPC composition of raiders will also change (number of ships)
Testing stage (all ports attacked) will be prolongued for another week. And safety will be switched off next monday on 11th Novermber

Any chance for the players on peace server to practice before?

The raids AI vs AI we cannot join, and i think its better to see some of this battles before, when we risk our investments. At least to be able to place our ships suitable on battlestart.

[admin]

22 minutes ago, Holm Hansen said:

Any chance for the players on peace server to practice before?

The raids AI vs AI we cannot join, and i think its better to see some of this battles before, when we risk our investments. At least to be able to place our ships suitable on battlestart.

We will post a guide on monday on the strategy.
 

[Holm Hansen]

11 hours ago, admin said:

We will post a guide on monday on the strategy.
 

Thanks.

maybe it will help, but im afraid it will not much. On the OW we can only guess where the path is, that the raiders use. Same with the zones. And I think, at the same speed of raiders and interceptors, the placement will be very important. Nothing will be more frustrating than, after a single mistake, to see the effort of months disappear, because you can only just drive behind the raiders. Especially if you can not mobilize much players for defense.

... and additionally, why for a battle AI vs players is the time of day when it happen, not to choose for the players? It starts at fixed times, which also can be player-unfriendly in some cases, but I do not see a reason for that.

Edited November 10, 2019 by Holm Hansen