Pre release garbage clearance.

[admin]

Ahoy Captains 

Many times developers make a mistake and add features that suck. Best developers are not afraid to cut things that don't work. 

 

Here is a great example from the game many of you (and us) liked

 

TLDR Counter strike original content did not survive and CS devs were not afraid to throw away users hated.

 

 

Please share your constructive opinion on what should be dropped from NA before the release to be reworked or forgotten completely?

[PIerrick de Badas]

The honor kil system is a system that force player to farm in a specific ship.

I know it's usefull to collect data but it begin a probem when you play in team.

We are not so much playing so far and it's becoming to be worth.

Atm we have to "kill" ships to get a point on HR but you can't share it. It means a group of 5 players can'at afford to play and farm together as they can't split the kill.

This system should be balanced because it's decrease the play together things that is essential into a sandbox.

 

In teh same way the xp/sunked ship is too large encouraging people to not share farming to get kills and much xp.

It's so far what i would cut ig, honnor kill and xp/sunked ship.

[OlavDeng2]

The honor kil system is a system that force player to farm in a specific ship.

I know it's usefull to collect data but it begin a probem when you play in team.

We are not so much playing so far and it's becoming to be worth.

Atm we have to "kill" ships to get a point on HR but you can't share it. It means a group of 5 players can'at afford to play and farm together as they can't split the kill.

This system should be balanced because it's decrease the play together things that is essential into a sandbox.

 

In teh same way the xp/sunked ship is too large encouraging people to not share farming to get kills and much xp.

It's so far what i would cut ig, honnor kill and xp/sunked ship.

To expand on this, i like the idea of a honour kill system, but currently it is to rough on people who play in groups, easy fix for release would be 2 things.

 

1. a kill assist, which counts as 1/4 or 1/2 of a kill

 

2. Allow us to use a ship of a certain rate, eg 5th rates instead of frigate/belle poule etc(dont know the rates of these two frigates, just a rough example)

 

The ship sunked issue giving way too much experiance to just one person i believe will get fixed by a kill assist system as well.

[Sir Cloudsley-Shovell]

The Honour system should be based on XP gained in certain vessels,not for being restricted to having to sink set ships.We need bigger Traders vessels and the Material amounts at ports needs to be addressed.Personally i would like to see the crafting of Crafting Notes removed and get them just by drops when crafting.Gold has become the same issue as was Iron.Being able to craft Crafting Notes will make the game become VERY onesided as soon as one Guild "Corners" the Gold market the will just mass craft the Notes.

Edited November 22, 2015 by Sir Cloudsley-Shovell

[Arvenski]

I don't know about anyone else, but I thought it was nice for a while there when repair kits were no longer a feature. 

[Kaos]

Mixing AI bots into pvp fights is a false sense of security or hope for the victim which helps gankers more than the supposed victims.

So one more time I try to explain why npc reinforcement/personal petslave AI fleet mechanic should be reviewed critically because I find it hard to believe it is a feature working as intended and promotes even more ganking.

Consider it from new player perspective and what impression it might leave to them...
Scenario 1) New player A is a solo player and escaping from player B who is in a bigger ship, get's tagged and calls in reinforcement bot only to find out he inflated his own BR which now unlocks more slots for player B side so he can call in his ganking buddies to gank the victim even faster because less time tax for gankers. So victim calling AI reinforcements actually makes it possible for attacker to call in his own ganking reinforcements who were perhaps previously locked out of this fight and we know that AI is not advanced enough to equalize a player on the enemy team.

Scenario 2) Player B is sitting in a reinforcement zone in a Constitution and get's attacked by a player A who has some friends with him. First Player B calls in AI reinforcements because he has frigate and the attackers have SOLs and THEN calls in his friends who are camping in the nearest port waiting for someone to take the bait by attacking the Constitution. Here gankers use reinforcement system to summon extra firepower from AI reinforcements before fully commiting into their counter-gank which otherwise could have been a fun pvp fight.

Scenario 3) New player A has hired 2 AI Snows to his fleet. Not only does it slow him down on OS, it also means that player B looking for solo targets will now call in his friend(s) to not waste his time getting chainkited by player A and his 2 Snows. And he can do it 4v1 instead of 3v1 now because the AI Snows inflate the victim's BR again.

Scenario 4) Battle outside port between equal number of enemies between team A and team B. Team B has still more reserve players left inside the port and tells everyone in reserve to buy 2 AI Snows before joining the fight and swarming team A with Snows, forcing them to buy AI fleet too next time to compete.

Spending more time retuning this mechanic or completely drop it, I don't know. Do new players really need this artificial handholding mechanic that can in current state be easilly turned against them instead of learning and adapting to avoid getting outnumbered?

After all, isn't overcoming challenges part of the experience in this game?

[z4ys]

Mixing AI bots into pvp fights is a false sense of security or hope for the victim which helps gankers more than the supposed victims.

....

 

Neutral Ai reinforcements should only help against pirates.

Reinforcements corrupt the sense of OW! With an alt its easy to avoid openworld sailing and looking for enemys by attacking this alt and generating a reinforcement fleet.

[OlavDeng2]

Ok, i just thought id add what i wrote in the trafalgar thread yesterday as well, as this really kills the events:

 

Ok here comes the suggestions from this trafalgar:

 

1. Stop with the nation match making, just do what we had in sea trials, dont care about specific match making for keeping nations in one team, it messes up the match making massively and is not balanced nor fun, and i dont want people to be left out

 

2. second option, allow us to vote one person to be the match maker, if this person has the majority vote he can choose who goes on what team to get a good battles

 

3. higher the battle rating of 1st rate by about 100(or more) or something, it is way too low and messes up battle rating the same goes for the third rate, bellona and pavel except not as much..

 

4. again, a larger circle with it decreasing massively in the last moment.

 

5. short the players by ship they are sailing again, from big to small(santi at top, yacht at bottom)

 

 

 

This Match Maker is not fair, not at all this is shitty match making and should never happen

 

Battlerating for Enemy: 4850

 

Battlerating for us: 4520

 

However, even though we had a smaller battlerating, our quality of ships is lower

 

Their ships of line : 4280

 

Our ships of line: 2650

 

 

Ships of line are not comparable to frigates, they destroy frigates, and further on that topic, first rates destroy the bellonas and pavels, this does not seem balanced what so ever, sure the battle rating is similar, the ship quality is vastly different.

 

edit: this is all gotten together with the help of people on the teamspeak, but do note that these are my opinions.

 

Also, thank you konali for the picture o/

[Mirones]

second and thrid kill assist will cound for HK in future

[maturin]

Crafting notes, reinforcements and honor kills aren't very good features, but they would leave big holes if removed. And they aren't bad features; they just feel like they're in proof of concept stage.

 

It's hard to take a ruthless Valve-like cut-the-fat approach with NA because everything is focused around the core gameplay.

[Magnum]

The fog!

 

It either needs to be gone gone gone - or at least cut back to the level that storms are: here and there and now and then.

 

The Haze!

 

Less an issue - but - the beauty of open world is obscured in the distance. it need turned down A LOT!

[Captiva]

Reworking the HK system so that 2nd and 3rd kill assist get credit in the form of XP.

 

I agree with the comment above, that sinking alone, should not be the only way a player advances.

 

And please introduce, for all ship classes, to have particular, mandatory duties, so that every player has to sail every class of ship throughout the life of the game because there is a need and reason to do so.

[Laik]

1. Reinforcements - for the reasons Kaos stated above as well as potential for exploitation.

2. AI fleets - even those little snows. More and more people start to use them, because having 2 snows is better than not having 2 snows most of the time (so in the end people might be forced to use AI fleets just to be able to compete). Scrap completely or limit AI fleets only to merchant ships.

3. Modules. A ship with modules is vastly superior to the one without them. I think the discrepancy between ships in the same class should be rather slight, not 30% in some regards (like reload). Future officers will only magnify the problem and will require even more rebalancing. Scrap modules completely or reduce their effects greatly (no more than 5% gain for everything, ditch speed completely - make it dependant on wood type only). My preferred solution would be to reduce ALL the mods to grey quality levels and make them availabe in all the shops, cannons-style. Alternatively, if there needs to be some sort of 'gear-grind' make ALL the modules permanent and still there when the ship gets captured - makes one-dura ships actually useful.

Edited November 22, 2015 by Laik

[verseaux]

Honor Kill system need to be reworked, as the others said it before in this post. Assist kill for the second or third could be an option to encourage players to play and grind  together  again, but assist kill need to count as a real kill. IMO you should only make an amount of xp for each ship. (100xp in cutter / 500xp in brig / 5000xp in frigate etc)

 

As Captiva said, introduce more differences beetween ships to make them usefull in OW and in battle. 1st rates are tanks, frigates are hunters, privateers for pirates to board quickly trades ships then run away, snow for recon etc...

 

We can understand that you want we sail other ships to get more datas for testing, but encourage us to play ships because they have a real specific gameplay, don't force us to play some ships if they don't worth it, its your job to make them attractive for a specific reason

 

Remove repairs, everybody loved fights without it. And BR need to be changed too, put the timer on 3 minutes to battle acces then remove it. What's the point to stay away from the fight just because battle rating is too low.

 

If i can't attack a prey with my friends, again it force us to play alone, wasting time to find an another target and bringing frustration to those who stayed out the battle.

Edited November 22, 2015 by verseaux

[Charles Caldwell]

I'll be brief as many other members have given and expanded on specifics.

 

Graphically:

• Occasional fog is good but persistent fog or haze is proving a problem and turning our paradise of the Caribbean into the stormy waters of the North Sea. Give us more cobalt blue skies, glorious orange sunsets and sparkling crystal seas.

Gameplay

 

• Reinforcements other than port reinforcements should be removed.
• Ai fleets or troublesome 'minions' as we like to call them often do more harm than good.
• Consider making more modules permanents that stick with the ship all the way down to daveys locker!

Finally and most importantly 

 

The Honour system has single handedly demotivated and driven away many a good Captain. Never has the word 'grind' been so aptly called... kill this feature, make it die!

 

If you want us to sail in specific ships, give us a reason, a mission and purpose.

[SteelSandwich]

''From last trafalgar, the following BR can be extracted:

 

6 Santi 1980 / 2 Santi 660

3 Vic 900 / 3 Vic 900

0 Pavel 0 / 3 Pavel 810

2 Bell 560 / 1 Bell 280

3 3rd-rate 840 / 0 3rd-rate 0

0 Connie 0 / 5 Connie 1250

3 BP 150 / 1 BP 150

0 Frig 0 / 3 Frig 450

1 Surp 100 / 0 Surp 0

1 Priv 20 / 1 Yacht 20

 

Total BR is 4820 V 4520, which is fine.

YET!

When you count the BR of the SOL's:

4280 V 2650.

 

It is simply outrages that connies have such a high BR that they are counted as an equivalent to a SOL. EDIT: Or SOL's such low BR!

Connie = 250

Pavel = 270

Bellona = 280

 

Does anyone seriously think in a large line battle like the trafalgar of tonight, that a connie is nearly exactly equal to a Pavel? Or a Bellona?''

 

As from my post in the Trafalgar thread. The BR of SOL's needs to be increased, as well as MM improvement for events.

It seems numerical balance is preferred over BR balance.

[Guest raat]

Needs Reworked

 

1) The boarding mini-game (boarding should stay, but the mini-game should be reworked at the very least).  Offers no interesting gameplay in its current form and isn't fun when compared to an actual cannon fight.  If boarding is powerful, the game as a whole loses a lot of value.

 

2) OW is visually dark and hazy.  Doesn't remind you of the Caribbean.

 

3) Modules.  Too much emphasis on stat boosting detracts from the overall experience.  Puts the emphasis on grinding to be competitive instead of fun and even hinders customization.  If one type of playstyle is too powerful (speed, boarding, etc., etc.), then you really can't customize your modules any other way.

 

4) Ship Balance and BR.  Adding BR was a terrible idea in my opinion.  You opened up a can of worms that you can't close now because everyone will forever cry imbalance.  But if you insist on BR matchmaking then BRs need to be adjusted AND you need to make ships stats more historical and stop trying to "fit" them into "tiers".  Otherwise, you're in for a world of hurt when this game is released to a less forgiving public.

 

5) Incentives to Surrender/Crew Importance.  Right now, crews are useless and instantly repawn with no repercussion.  Which they were arguably the most important wartime resource of the era.  There needs to be some reason to surrender in battle to save resources and the obvious reason is if your crew mattered to you as a captain.  Surrendering would also save time in battles making the overall gaming experience more enjoyable.

 

Needs Removed

 

5) AI Escort Fleets.  They're a crutch for poor players and a nuisance to everyone.  Make the player get better and smarter.  Don't just add a bunch of AI that gets in the way of PvP.

 

6) Repairs.  Battles with repairs take far too long.  Our testing done without repairs was enjoyable for nearly everyone as far as I could tell.

Edited November 22, 2015 by Raatha

[Albert]

Same gripe as SteelSandwich. Make the BR gaps wider and make 3rd to 1st rates far higher than Frigates, even the Super Frigate because they should be represented in battle with a rating that is suited to their firepower and defensive capabilities. The BT idea suggested by Ragnar HT and E Vernon was perfect.

 

Constitution does not need more firepower or armor, maybe a bit more turn rate and speed but it's a big Frigate not a SoL. Its Live Oak hull is not unique in this game as any ship can be crafted with that wood. Even if it was it's not SoL equivalent.

[freddykrueger66]

Instead of experience use damage done as in sea trials, that way you still get progress even when you are outnumbered and get sunk. And even more frustrating when you almost sank someone and he manages to leave the fight so you get left behind with almost no exp and no HK. Make it a rather large number and pvp damage should give 2x rewards to promote it a bit.

[ragnar hairy trousers]

i think its that the 1st rates have far to much HP.... its the HP that needs lowering not the BR.....as is a 74 cannot stand more than a few seconds against a 1st rate!!!!

 

please re-balance the ships HP to be more realistic...first rates are OP at the moment ...actually the BR is Right its the HP thats wrong

Edited November 22, 2015 by ragnar hairy trousers

[Legioneod]

I'm confused, you have to kill certain ships to rank up? Ive been killing random ships and have been ranking up from fine. But I agree it does need some work, you shouldn't be forced to sail a certain ship instead they should let you pick a class of ship then use that ship to rank up.

hp is good for most ships but some ships need a buff. Speed mods should be removed. You should only be able to boost speed by realistic ways like copper plating or reducing weight or adding sails. Also the extra sails should be added to the game, they could give some extra speed or act like a speed mod while still being realistic.

No double shot for carronade, carronades are to short to fire double imo.

Realistic ship armament, you shouldn't be able to have oversized guns on ships that couldn't carry them realistically.

Edited November 22, 2015 by Legioneod

[SteelSandwich]

i think its that the 1st rates have far to much HP.... its the HP that needs lowering not the BR.....as is a 74 cannot stand more than a few seconds against a 1st rate!!!!

 

please re-balance the ships HP to be more realistic...first rates are OP at the moment ...actually the BR is Right its the HP thats wrong

Although you raise a very valid point, i am not sure if i would agree that a 90-gun Pavel (with 32lbs) with 270 BR should be close to a 50-gun Connie(with 24lbs) with 250 BR....

Especially with a 44-gun Trinc (with 18lbs) at 180 BR....

 

It seems off....

[Captain Comery]

I feel that the honour kill system needs to go PRONTO!

It has put me off the game and that is not very easy to do.

I feel that how we level up needs to be improved. I sugest two ranks per player, the one we have now and a trader rank. Perhaps the current levelling system would be useful for this. For example,if you trade 200 oak wood or something you rank up on your trader level.

I suggest that the higher this trader level the cheaper you can buy and the more money you can sell for. Basically each level would give a lower buying price and a higher selling price.

I think that the repair system needs work as well. Perhaps survival mode slightly repairs your ship when out of cannon range or something.

[maturin]

''From last trafalgar, the following BR can be extracted:

 

6 Santi 1980 / 2 Santi 660

3 Vic 900 / 3 Vic 900

0 Pavel 0 / 3 Pavel 810

2 Bell 560 / 1 Bell 280

3 3rd-rate 840 / 0 3rd-rate 0

0 Connie 0 / 5 Connie 1250

3 BP 150 / 1 BP 150

0 Frig 0 / 3 Frig 450

1 Surp 100 / 0 Surp 0

1 Priv 20 / 1 Yacht 20

 

Total BR is 4820 V 4520, which is fine.

YET!

When you count the BR of the SOL's:

4280 V 2650.

 

It is simply outrages that connies have such a high BR that they are counted as an equivalent to a SOL. EDIT: Or SOL's such low BR!

Connie = 250

Pavel = 270

Bellona = 280

 

Does anyone seriously think in a large line battle like the trafalgar of tonight, that a connie is nearly exactly equal to a Pavel? Or a Bellona?''

 

As from my post in the Trafalgar thread. The BR of SOL's needs to be increased, as well as MM improvement for events.

It seems numerical balance is preferred over BR balance.

I totally agree.

 

Matchmaker should pay no attention to smaller ships until the SoLs are as even as possible. THEN add in the frigates.

 

Maybe even give SoLs a BR boost for matchmaking purposes only.

 

 

 

 

But wait guys, this has nothing to do with removing bad features. This the thread where we cut broken things, not improve them.

[Haratik]

Finally and most importantly 

 

The Honour system has single handedly demotivated and driven away many a good Captain. Never has the word 'grind' been so aptly called... kill this feature, make it die!

 

If you want us to sail in specific ships, give us a reason, a mission and purpose.

I think all are in favor of getting rid of the Honour system as it is.  That being said, I would not mind seeing it implemented in the future as part of a requirement for a Naval Officer to rank up, should classes ever be implemented into the game.