Beat to quarters: Port battles return to War Server

[Nixolai]

Long live the new meta

[Swedish Berserker]

11 hours ago, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

Community will be fine with latest changes, which are a direct result of behavior found in *troublesome* parts of the community and reason for endless tribunal cases and complaints.

Cmon my dude we had that discussion before you might be happy in your unicorn happy place of a PVE server but on the PVP server the game is broken we actually loose ships and thickness HP and Speed actually means something over here so does the new Karma system and also Player numbers etc etc on PvE server everything is different you don't loose ships u can trade without any risk so wood costs and everything doesn't mean a thing but over here things are diffrent!! The game is dead no Content what so ever Maybe a Portbattle here and there but sooner ore later ppl will completely stop playing........ 

[Botq]

3 hours ago, Aquillas said:

Maybe, I have read that thousand times in 4 years.

Yes, years during alpha. Game got big spike at release, which is normal. Game cannot be released twice tho.Compare the numbers at release and now + especially current trend in last few months. There was usually a slight spike when some new update got released, but now not even that.

[Archaos]

1 hour ago, Koveras said:

Tbh a MMO with less than a 1k players online is dead in any meaningfull sense of the word.

The issue with this in relation to NA is that at maximum the servers can have (if I remember correct) is around 2.5k, so at 1k online you are at 40%. So if you had thousands of players you would run into the issue of over crowded servers and login queues. There would then be calls for more servers and you would have issues with some servers being more active than others and people gravitating to servers that suit their play style.

NA will always be a niche genre and will never hope to have as many players like EVE or WOW. You may be correct regarding some of the issues but trying to compare it to other MMO's is not fair. The numbers online may be on the low side and needs increasing, but I think if you had 2.5k online all the time then the seas might be a bit too crowded. Personally I think a regular population of around 1~1.5k is probably a good figure.

I suppose the issue with the game becomes the fact that with such a small population even if server is full, is that majority of the main players get to know each other and you end up facing the same people again and again and people eventually get bored or people start taking the enmity too seriously.

[Black Panther89]

7 hours ago, Aquillas said:

Forse l'ho letto mille volte in 4 anni.

I too have heard it said many times in these years, but it has never been possible to have a map with a superpower and other nations that are almost insignificant or without almost.  This means that many players from pvp switch to pve or that many stop playing.  I personally will grit my teeth and right now I will continue playing because for me this game is like a drug, but you really have to do something because a game like this cannot have a nation that has dominion over the entire map and can wipe out the others  nations at any time.  I am not saying that this is the fault of the @Admin, I am fully aware that it is not their fault if the players change the country to play easy

[van stiermarken]

2 hours ago, Archaos said:

The issue with this in relation to NA is that at maximum the servers can have (if I remember correct) is around 2.5k,

If the engine is still the unity engine then it depends on the numbers of servers (single up to cluster).
A single server can handle up to 2k players depending on the type of action.

[Black Panther89]

2 ore fa, Archaos ha detto:

Il problema con questo in relazione a NA è che al massimo i server che possono avere (se ricordo bene) sono circa 2,5k, quindi un 1k online sei al 40%. Quindi, se hai migliaia di giocatori, ti imbatterai nel problema del server affollato e codice di accesso. Ci sono quindi chiamate per più server e avresti problemi con alcuni server più attivi di altri e con le persone che gravitavano su server adatti al loro stile di gioco.

NA sarà sempre un genere di nicchia e non spereremo mai di avere tanti giocatori come EVE o WOW. Potresti avere ragione riguardo ad alcuni dei problemi, ma cerca di confrontarti con altri MMO non è giusto. I numeri online possono essere bassi e devono essere aumentati, ma penso che se avessi 2.5k online tutto il tempo, i mari potrebbero essere un po 'troppo affollati. Personalmente penso che una popolazione regolare di circa 1 ~ 1,5k sia probabilmente una buona figura.

Suppongo che il problema con il gioco diventi il fatto che con una popolazione così piccola anche se il server è pieno, è che la maggior parte dei giocatori principali si conosce e finisci per affrontare le persone persone ancora e ancora e le persone alla fine si annoiano o le persone hanno partecipato a prendere l'amicizia troppo sul serio.

È vero, sul fatto che si tratta di un gioco di nicchia, ma deve essere un po 'più equilibrato, in questo momento andremo su una mappa dove vedremo due paesi, Russia e Svezia ... Personalmente lo troverei deprimente una mappa così diviso, quindi ripeto, continuerò a giocare perché sono dipendente da questo gioco, non ho mai visto ogni patch come una patch distruttiva, soprattutto anche prima che fosse rilasciato, a differenza di molti giocatori che passano immediatamente l'attacco non appena il dettagli della patch I hope the new karma system, which I share, will be released soon because in my opinion it could stabilize the game

Edited July 27, 2020 by NoWhy

[qw569😳]

On 7/24/2020 at 1:32 PM, Malcolm3 said:

Summarizing - at least 25 flags were used out of 93 (slightly more than 25%) - but still the question remains opened: How many of this 93 flags were Russian-owned, as Russia now don't do RVR actively (except against AI), but quite actively farming Wooden chests for upgrading VC and NO?

Conquest flags from June, 25 - July, 26

Nation	Number of Flags
Pirates	15
España	9
France	13
Great Britain	36
Verenigde Provinciën	4
Danmark-Norge	21
Sverige	55
United States	17
Russian Empire	97
Kingdom of Prussia	2
Commonwealth of Poland	1
China	0
Total	270

Distribution of flags by date

 

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by qw569😳

[Malcolm3]

10 minutes ago, qw569😳 said:

Conquest flags from June, 25 - July, 26

Distribution flags by date

 

Can you give us statictics of how many of these flags were expended?
Both successfully with PB created and unsuccessully when flag carrier was sunk. And how many of them were planted against neutral AI port?

Cause, e.g., my clan farmed 5 flags and all of them were expended for planting (though only 1 PB was created)

[Ars DeSadd]

5 hours ago, qw569😳 said:

Conquest flags from June, 25 - July, 26

Nation	Number of Flags
Pirates	15
España	9
France	13
Great Britain	36
Verenigde Provinciën	4
Danmark-Norge	21
Sverige	55
United States	17
Russian Empire	97
Kingdom of Prussia	2
Commonwealth of Poland	1
China	0
Total	270

Distribution of flags by date

  Reveal hidden contents

 

И что мы должны понять и этой таблицы? Про 97 флагов у РИ разработчик сказал ещё несколько ней назад. Тогда уж где инфа по добыче флагов ДО рейдеров и ПОСЛЕ? Я вот не помню когда ввели Рейдеров, потому и спросил у разработчика. Если Вы добыли эту инфу - поделитесь с жаждущими.

Далее - вокруг этого крутился весь разговор - это раз, и два - уже было сказано, что нет смысла захватывать города - потому что нет цели захватить всю карту, и какой смысл захватывать города, если потом их дефать по КД у Рейдеров? Вы, уважаемый, вникаете в суть высказываний оппонента или Вы только сами себя читаете?

Вся соль вопроса и сводилась к тому, что после введения Рейдерофф фарм флагов практически прекратился. В частности у клана БФ, который Вы так активно приводите в пример.

 

Edited July 27, 2020 by Ars DeSadd

[Never]

Honestly the latest changes to ship costs aren't as bad some players make it out to be. I think it was necessary to balance the cost of normal wood with seasoned wood, and this latest patch did that well. 

But this change needs to be complemented with some economy adjustments, at least in my opinion. Like giving PvP a unique type of reward like we used to have with Combat Marks. Doubloons and Combat Medals are more easily obtainable through PvE; so because of that they don't make good rewards for PvP.
PvE/trading should be low risk, low rewards. And PvP should be high risk, high rewards. PvP needs a unique reward that you can only get from PvP, so PvP players can keep up in income with PvE players and so that there is strong motivation to seek PvP. PvP income is decent but loses have to be considered too, there's much higher risk of loss in PvP. In order for players to get kills in PvP others have to lose ships. The PvP economy has to be made for the average PvP players in mind, not the top PvP players. Gear it towards the players that get sunk as often as they sink someone else. Not for the guys that get 20 kills per death. 

First, I think PvP damage should be rewarded anywhere, regardless of the outcome of the battle. Make people want to get into fights, and reward them for being brave and fighting and risking their ships. Otherwise running is always more appealing when you aren't certain of winning. Running is realistic but boring gameplay. 
Second, maybe consider adding a unique reward from PvP only. In admiralty in the tab titled 'PvP rewards', everything there can be obtained from doing PvE. Maybe make 2 separate types of combat medals. One for PvP, one for PvE. Or make combat medals only obtainable from PvP as it used to be. 
There needs to rewards obtainable only through PvP on the PvP server. And they need to be something every player wants. 
 

[Koveras]

On 7/27/2020 at 4:19 AM, Archaos said:

The issue with this in relation to NA is that at maximum the servers can have (if I remember correct) is around 2.5k, so at 1k online you are at 40%. So if you had thousands of players you would run into the issue of over crowded servers and login queues. There would then be calls for more servers and you would have issues with some servers being more active than others and people gravitating to servers that suit their play style.

NA will always be a niche genre and will never hope to have as many players like EVE or WOW. You may be correct regarding some of the issues but trying to compare it to other MMO's is not fair. The numbers online may be on the low side and needs increasing, but I think if you had 2.5k online all the time then the seas might be a bit too crowded. Personally I think a regular population of around 1~1.5k is probably a good figure.

I suppose the issue with the game becomes the fact that with such a small population even if server is full, is that majority of the main players get to know each other and you end up facing the same people again and again and people eventually get bored or people start taking the enmity too seriously.

1k players is between two servers. I haven't been online in a long while but I'd wager the EU server reaches approx 600 on a normal day, and 750 on a day where there's an important PB.

To me that's a failure.

Back in the day we had multiple servers and one issue with the game atm is: Contend. If you don't like PBs, if you have an evening where you're basically just got a few hours to play and want to go hunting by yourself, what chances do u have? Your ship is shite since you're not a member of a ruling clan, your woodtype is uncompetitive, you may not have access to decent modules and this was supposed to be a skill-based game. In NA as in most PvP games - speed is life, but I can get a SoL to run faster than a frig without port bonus'.. It's a failed set-up and it has been for years.

[Serk]

Considering how few NPC port battles are defended by the player base, I'm starting to wonder if targeted clans are not simply waiting to reconquer neutral ports as an easy way to farm wooden and admiralty chest with the ''plant conquest flag'' mission.

Numbers of NPC PB'S are probably too low to be significant but still.

Edited August 2, 2020 by Serk

[Wraith]

On 8/1/2020 at 11:06 PM, Serk said:

Considering how few NPC port battles are defended by the player base, I'm starting to wonder if targeted clans are not simply waiting to reconquer neutral ports as an easy way to farm wooden and admiralty chest with the ''plant conquest flag'' mission.

Numbers of NPC PB'S are probably too low to be significant but still.

Working as intended?

[Rektified]

On 7/28/2020 at 1:34 AM, Never said:

Like giving PvP a unique type of reward like we used to have with Combat Marks.

Which is going to result in expert PvP players having an even bigger advantage against average, inexperienced, and new players, as they will have these rewards sooner and more often.

[You]

On 8/2/2020 at 5:06 AM, Serk said:

Considering how few NPC port battles are defended by the player base, I'm starting to wonder if targeted clans are not simply waiting to reconquer neutral ports as an easy way to farm wooden and admiralty chest with the ''plant conquest flag'' mission.

Numbers of NPC PB'S are probably too low to be significant but still.

its quite obvious thats the case, the players arent stupid

[TPS Report]

I saw less than 10 players capture a neutral port yesterday.  Working as intended?

[admin]

• Victory marks removed from all investment requirements
• Victory mark grants removed for port ownership
• Port battle transport added at test price of 25000 doubloons per item

[Archaos]

6 minutes ago, admin said:

• Victory marks removed from all investment requirements
• Victory mark grants removed for port ownership
• Port battle transport added at test price of 25000 doubloons per item

So what do we do with our Victory marks now?

 

[DDZ_Vasduten]

4 minutes ago, admin said:

• Victory marks removed from all investment requirements
• Victory mark grants removed for port ownership
• Port battle transport added at test price of 25000 doubloons per item

Hmm... the first two are good changes but maybe some clarification is needed on the third.
Each SHIP transported costs 25,000 doubloons?

It's 50,000 to upgrade a shipyard to level 3... but who is going to dump 25,000 dubs to be in a port battle after spending 40kk on a port battle ship with good wood and upgrades???

[You]

3 minutes ago, admin said:

• Victory marks removed from all investment requirements
• Victory mark grants removed for port ownership
• Port battle transport added at test price of 25000 doubloons per item

NICE  

Quick question

When is the promised BR rebalance that was promised some months ago with the reimplementation of BR to RvR? logically a port battle should consist of mostly 3rd rates, not so much of the Christian/Bucentaure spam, i feel like these ships should be closer to the Victory around 700 BR mark and redoutable/ implacable following straight after  

[DDZ_Vasduten]

1 minute ago, Archaos said:

So what do we do with our Victory marks now?

 

We eat them, of course.

[Vibrio Cholerae]

8 minutes ago, admin said:

25000 doubloons per item

it's a bit cheap

[DDZ_Vasduten]

2 minutes ago, You said:

NICE  

Quick question

When is the promised BR rebalance that was promised some months ago with the reimplementation of BR to RvR? logically a port battle should consist of mostly 3rd rates, not so much of the Christian/Bucentaure spam, i feel like these ships should be closer to the Victory around 700 BR mark and redoutable/ implacable following straight after  

BR and "how many ships of what sort" that fit into a port battle's total BR is not really all that bad right now. 
If someone wants to make a port battle fleet entirely of Redoubtables, fine. Just know that you'll probably come against a fleet of slightly less ships but they're all Bucentaurs, and you'll probably not win. 



 

Edited August 12, 2020 by DDZ_Vasduten

[Aquillas]

5 minutes ago, DDZ_Vasduten said:

Each SHIP transported costs 25,000 doubloons?
 

Please refer to this detailed explanation

On 6/25/2020 at 3:27 PM, Aquillas said:

New Chapter 9.5.2

9.5.2        Transport to Port Battle.

If a port battle is planned to start in the 5 next minutes, Player can use the item to transport a group of captains directly to the port battle. The steps to do it are the following:

• Acquire the item, in Admiralty (the price is very expensive).
• Create a group.
•  Request the group to enter in the same port and click “Ready”.
• Use the item.
• Select the port to transport the ships to.
• Admiralty will transport the battle group of players to one of the locations that is used by NPC Raiders.

Once sent to the port battle the PB Fleet ships will have 300 second of invulnerability, to spawn at the chosen place in the PB. PB Fleet players won’t be able to attack during these 300 seconds, only join battle.

The following requirements must be fulfilled.

• All captains must be in the same port
• Only group leader who is a member of the clan alliance or clan can use the item
• Holds of ships can only contain repairs (no trading goods)
• Ships must not be overloaded
• Ships must be combat ships (not trading ships)
• Every group member must click “Ready” button of the battle group list and stay in port (green highlight on the battle group list)
• Transport to port battle stops working 30 mins after port battle starts

Two battle groups can be teleported to a particular port battle.

So, I understand that each transport item will be purchased at 25000 doubloons each. You can use two transport items maximum to transport your PB fleet (if some captains want to  start from one port and some from another port), but you can use a single one if all captains start from the same port.

The crafting cost of the PB fleet is independent. You are not obliged to use any transport item (you can sail to PB location), you are not obliged to use the utmost wood/upgrades for all PB ships. But both choices have operational impact (risk of screening, risk of fighting better ships than yours).