Timber Feedback Thread - PINNED

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

3 minutes ago, Holm Hansen said:

port camping

We'd need a new kind of alt for that. The "port camper".

And an alarm clock ringing every ten minutes for a shop check. Still waiting for third party software which automatizes port screening + buying activities.

[Raf Van Boom]

https://www.autoitscript.com/site/

If not this then other software is definitely used - when it says xxx online, I'm sure a large percentage are bots who do just that. This is why making NPC trader ships drop this stuff on occasion is probably the best way to go, that you can't script.

[Holm Hansen]

18 minutes ago, Raf Van Boom said:

...
This is why making NPC trader ships drop this stuff on occasion is probably the best way to go, that you can't script.

well. it would be better than it is now, that's for sure

but it would mean that you would have to attack NPC-traders all the time. why not let them drop as normal loot even on warships and player ships (like the additional dubloons). or part of the gold chests, or exchangeable for combat medals?

[mikawa]

On 7/4/2020 at 3:36 PM, Holm Hansen said:

but it would mean that you would have to attack NPC-traders all the time. why not let them drop as normal loot even on warships and player ships (like the additional dubloons). or part of the gold chests, or exchangeable for combat medals?

I would not like to mix it all up like this. NPC traders which sometimes drop them would be a good solution.

[Hethwill]

5 minutes ago, mikawa said:

I would not like to mix it all up like this. NPC traders which sometimes drop them would be a good solution.

Yes but only LGVs or Indiaman(i). And they should have an escort that matches the value of possible cargo.

[Jan van Santen]

On 7/4/2020 at 3:14 PM, Raf Van Boom said:

https://www.autoitscript.com/site/

If not this then other software is definitely used - when it says xxx online, I'm sure a large percentage are bots who do just that. This is why making NPC trader ships drop this stuff on occasion is probably the best way to go, that you can't script.

Watching the malabar tk situation and also that on certain trade goods, I am pretty sure smthg like this is already in use.

And I am afraid, useage will increase once we get the discount version of NA, since that would decrease the risk getting caught.

Random drops in ports could also be scripted.

The old contract system (not the new one which creates moon prices) would be fairer. Most fair wood be:  loot in traders, materal generated on breaking ai ships, loot in wrecks, chests.....

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

On 7/4/2020 at 3:36 PM, Holm Hansen said:

well. it would be better than it is now, that's for sure

but it would mean that you would have to attack NPC-traders all the time. why not let them drop as normal loot even on warships and player ships (like the additional dubloons). or part of the gold chests, or exchangeable for combat medals?

The problem is, to find an equilibrum.

On one side: exotic rare woods need to stay rare (or everything else is even less worth than it already is). Ships made of exotic woods are super-expensive and the exception.

On the other side: the needs of the players (to have a reasonable chance to get access to exotic woods) need to be met, somehow. So nobody ragequits or writes bad steam reviews.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Cetric de Cornusiac

[mikawa]

9 minutes ago, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

Ships made of exotic woods are super-expensive and the exception.

Wrong way of thinking. They should neither be super-rare nor super-expensive. If they are, shipbuilding gets out of balance.

[Holm Hansen]

27 minutes ago, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

The problem is, to find an equilibrum.

One one side: exotic rare woods need to stay rare (or everything else is even less worth than it already is). Ships made of exotic woods are super-expensive and the exception.

On the other side: the needs of the players (to have a reasonable chance to get access to exotic woods) need to be met, somehow. So nobody ragequits or writes bad steam reviews.

it's just a matter of numbers
how often and in what quantities it drops, how many are in chests, or what is the exchange rate, when buying with combat medals.

in any case you should not be excluded from these woods just because you do what the game expects you do in this game, ... port camping shouldn´t be that.

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

1 hour ago, mikawa said:

Wrong way of thinking. They should neither be super-rare nor super-expensive. If they are, shipbuilding gets out of balance.

What else? You want them to become a common thing for everybody, in masses?

Then why keep bermuda cedar, mahogany, teak, sabicu, locust, whiteoak, liveoak? Or even their seasoned versions?

Wrong thinking by your part. They need to stay rare. All I am asking is a more democratic way of distribution, better spreading by wandering places, steady micro-ressource by breaking up admiralty ships (if you have no other source - slow but consistent if you invest lots of time searching for ships). Rarity itself needs to be maintained.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Cetric de Cornusiac

[Raf Van Boom]

They can stay rare, the distribution system is bad and promotes macro usage, just like the contract system is bad (also promotes macro usage).

Trader ships is the simplest to implement and I'm sure there are more interesting ways to do this also that will require the player to actually play the game rather than buy an alt and write a macro/other hack.

[mikawa]

54 minutes ago, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

What else? You want them to become a common thing for everybody, in masses?

No I want them to become regional so english / spanish / french ships and so on get a regional diversity. And I am not a friend of super woods. They should all have light advantages / disadvantages. Standard woods should be standard for crafting. Everything else comes in handy when you have the supplies but they should not be overpowered. Besides this would be unrealistic.

[Holm Hansen]

1 hour ago, mikawa said:

No I want them to become regional so english / spanish / french ships and so on get a regional diversity. And I am not a friend of super woods. They should all have light advantages / disadvantages. Standard woods should be standard for crafting. Everything else comes in handy when you have the supplies but they should not be overpowered. Besides this would be unrealistic.

They already have these advantages and disadvantages, so in my opinion a super wood is not one of them. There are some really useless ones and some which are slightly better than the standard woods. But also them have disadvantages.

If you now look at the effort for these slightly better ones and consider that you have less attempts for a good RNG-roll when crafting, they already seem quite balanced to me.

.... only there must be another way to get them.

Edited July 6, 2020 by Holm Hansen

[admin]

56 minutes ago, Holm Hansen said:

 There are some really useless ones 

which ones?

[Vitasalato]

14 minutes ago, admin said:

which ones?

Sabicu for frame, Italian Larch, and all of the new Fir woods. Or peraphs it's just me and don't see the advantages of each.

[Jan van Santen]

An other way: integrate them as loot into events. I am sure there are easy ways to create new events on top of the AdR one.

I still remember the way Guild Wars did it: a small event every weekend, (PvE and PvP events taking turn) those eg had dbl drop rate for smthg, dbl points.....

And a big one 4 or 5 times a year.

[Holm Hansen]

2 hours ago, admin said:

which ones?

 

1 hour ago, Vitasalato said:

Sabicu for frame, Italian Larch, and all of the new Fir woods. .....

thats my impression too, yes

Edited July 6, 2020 by Holm Hansen

[ChineseBatman]

When is this tragic and uninformed string of wood balancing patches going to finally be completed. Jesus ******* *****! 

[Karvala]

 

7 hours ago, ChineseBatman said:

When is this tragic and uninformed string of wood balancing patches going to finally be completed. Jesus ******* *****! 

indeed.  But brace yourself, it's canon "rebalancing" (aka meddling) next.  Who knows, maybe Obusiers will take over from Blomes as the guns of choice.

I wonder if the devs have ever consider how many tens of thousands of player hours (real hours, from real lives of real people, time they could have spent doing other things) players invested to obtain certain woods only to have the rug pulled out from under them afterwards.  It's like waking up and finding that the currency has been devalued and those savings you worked hard for are no longer worth anything.

I really hope they eventually learn that continuing to develop a game means adding new things (e.g. ships), refining things like visuals, making improvements to playability or the interface.  It does not mean changing core mechanics or even worse core assets that players already own; that's an abusive development practice.

The really sad thing is there are SO MANY things that do need fixing or that could be improved, which would have universal support.  But there is so much feedback already and most of it is ignored or dismissed even when most of the community feel the same way that there's almost no point in saying it anymore.

[Karvala]

Oh good, I see in the latest update that rare woods have now trebled in price.  Thanks goodness for this subtle and nuanced change; I was getting worried that there wasn't enough grind in the game.🙄

EDIT: Oh and I see they can all now be contracted as well.  Excellent, because definitely we should be providing more help to the uber-rich players who are really having a tough time in comparison to all the new players with no money.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Karvala

[admin]

5 hours ago, Karvala said:

 Excellent, because definitely we should be providing more help to the uber-rich players

We don't hide this fact.
New woods are a great way to extract reals from rich players. Wood supply is SO limited that they wont have any real influence on the overall pvp. Based on your comments you are on PVE so not sure how you are affected by the these woods. Remember you can trade in safety.

[Karvala]

41 minutes ago, admin said:

We don't hide this fact.
New woods are a great way to extract reals from rich players. Wood supply is SO limited that they wont have any real influence on the overall pvp. Based on your comments you are on PVE so not sure how you are affected by the these woods. Remember you can trade in safety.

If you want to extract reals from rich players - and I'm almost afraid to even suggest this in jest - you could tax them, i.e. each day at maintenance X% of your reals would be removed.  Can''t promise it would be popular(!) but it would achieve the desired aim.

I get that you want to take reals off rich players and that's fine, but with the seasoned woods it's in exchange for offering the best to only those players.  Newer or even long-standing but poorer players aspire to sail the best ships too - it shouldn't be easy but neither should it require literally months of grinding to be able to obtain even one.

It's not so much about the practical effect - although it clearly does help a bit - it's always that players aspire to the best ships and you're putting them out of reach for most.

Imagine, for example, if you removed Santi permits from all loot and put them on the admiralty for 500,000 dubs each.  That's the equivalent of what's happening here with woods.

Edited July 9, 2020 by Karvala

[Cathal Brugha]

4 hours ago, admin said:

New woods are a great way to extract reals from rich players.

Your economics are so laughably wrong.

[Nixolai]

5 hours ago, admin said:

New woods are a great way to extract reals from rich players. 

lol... new woods are a great way to get even richer 

[Conte D. Catellani]

Never see a new wood yet. To be honest I don't understand the reason, when I started to play a year ago I had to choose which forest make and trade with other people.. Seasoned where more or less acceptable but now woods that you can only find in some port just will push some people to make alts. 

Simple things work better.