My three major criticisms of this game

[Aetrion]

1. True to an extent, but it only can be fully solved if we eliminate damage XP and start awarding XP only for sinking enemies (kill and assist XP). In this case people will have to work together to get the victory or kill/assist. This on the other hand creates a huge problem for unexperienced players - who will never be able to level up and will stay in light ships forever until they learn to play or leave the game. But we are listening and if this becomes a bigger problem we will fix it.

 

In addition to that eventually people realize the money are not a problem in this game and will stop trying to steal the target because it is just not worth it. You will see this if you join a organized group or just experience battles on the higher levels.

 

2. As i said before - we don't consider it grind. You gain rank for your accomplishments in battle. You have to earn ships and replace them if you sink. If there is no sense of loss - the feeling of victory will also feel smaller.

 

3. We tried to replicate the battles from the Age of Sail. Battles that deteriorate into smaller engagements - melee according to the best examples from the 18 and 19th century. In most cases they re-create what happened and what was possible at that time. What you say is true to an extent. If you are demasted it is basically a way to go down. But before that battles can be turned around in PvP. If you are good at raking you can severely diminish enemy capabilities. But with NPCs it is impossible to make it harder without adding bots extra special abilities. Many people still say bots are too hard. 

 

1. I think the XP system needs to be a combination of XP awarded for personal accomplishments and accomplishments of the group.

 

The biggest problem right now is ship captures. It's simply not a good system right now, because only one person gets the entire reward while everyone else gets shafted. That reward should really be split between them. I mean, in MMOs it's been a well known issue for a long time that awarding individual rewards for group activities makes playing with random people extremely frustrating and unrewarding, even if it's just loot rolls you compete in. That's why they have almost all gone to a token system for raids rather than dropping individual pieces of gear. 

 

Maybe the rules could be different by nation, where if you play pirate then yea, whoever gets the ship just keeps it, because pirates are cutthroat and competitive, but if you work for one of the large empires you don't simply get to keep a ship that you captured, it goes to the crown, and everyone who helped is awarded letters of recognition for their service.

 

There could also be XP bonuses for more group oriented play, like a "Line Bonus" where if you fire at an enemy ship it creates a tag on that ship for line bonus, and if another player who's sailing in roughly the same direction as you also lands some hits on it within the next 20 seconds or so you both get awarded extra experience. That way if my cutter was driving in formation with a Santisima we'd actually both earn more experience, so I have an incentive to let the more experienced players take the lead, and they have an incentive to make sure I'm alive and able to help out.

 

 

2. I don't think there should be no losses, but for example, what if your ship repaired a point of durability every so often depending on ship size? Like, a smaller ship might restore a point every day, while a ship of the line might take 3-4 days to repair a point. That way there is still a significant risk, because if you want to make use of those repairs the ship might be out of commission for a week, but the damage is mitigated for people with limited time. If it takes you a year to work up to a big ship then having to replace it is simply not the same, despite the fact that technically match for match you're earning the same as someone who goes through the same cycle in a month. 

 

 

3. The bots are hard. They shoot well and they maneuver intelligently, which is exactly why you end up getting into drawn out battles with them. where you pick a strategy that you know will sink them before they sink you and stick with it until it pays off.  

 

I think overall the game does a fantastic job of making the naval battles realistic, maybe the biggest thing that makes it too predictable is the fact that you have a foolproof damage readout on your opponents ship. If you simply didn't know how much crew they have left, or how damaged their hull really is, or if you could send your guys under deck to trick the enemy into thinking you have no crew left and then surprise them when they try to board it might be a lot more exciting. I mean, if you only have a very rough idea of how close your opponent is to going down you might get cold feet and run away while the other ship is actually in much worse shape than yours, but likewise you might get overconfident and commit to a fight while you're way behind.

Edited February 1, 2016 by Aetrion

[Slamz]

OK

 

1. Upgrade guns/ships as soon as possible.

1r. Didn't because stuff is lost for good. Will buy a ship tonight.

2.  Capture Enemy Traders

2r. Never seen a trader, I'm not a pirate, is this the only way to make money in game? Or maybe the only way to make enough to replace lost ships?

3. Find a group

3r. I'm trying to get into this game, but I'm not going to even attempt to group if the base game is all grind. I want to have some fun high seas fighting, not have to play in the starter ship forever.

 

I know you don't like the word grind, but after 10 hours of gameplay I would say more than 90%  straight grind. Punishment endured to get a non-starter ship. Sorry if I seem frustrated, I'm about to give up on this game after seeing how difficult it is to move past start. Doubly frustrated since most of the ships except the cutter I was pretty interested in. Like I said, I'll buy a ship and give it a shot, but if I end up back at basic cutter I think I'm done with this one.

 

* Upgrades are well worth the fact that you lose stuff. You can't be "loss averse" in this game. You will lose ships. And cargo. And then you'll buy (or make) more. It's the circle of life!

 

* You don't need to be a pirate to hunt traders. You can hit traders from any enemy nation (the nation name will be red) or from your own nation if they say "Contraband" when you click on them. Chain down the sails, grape the crew, board them and capture them intact and you can get a lot of loot. That's where the big money is.

 

Another thing you might try is going to the Mission screen and joining the "Small Battle". They cycle regularly and my experience has been that I get into good PvP fights worth pretty good XP and money. You might enjoy that more. Even if you lose the XP is good as long as you did good damage.

[Kurshuk]

Recap from last night

 

Went to buy the brig, but couldn't crew it because levels.

Bought 2 fleet ships and ran missions instead

Worked on missions all night, got a privateer that I lost from a mag explosion

Managed to cap a pickle before logoff

 

15 hours

36k in the bank

Level 3

2 fleet ships

 

It's been 15 hours so I'm going to go ahead and review it on steam. After this much time I'd expect to not have to be in a starter ship all the time. Really couldn't recommend this to anyone but a serious age of sail fan that really likes driving a glorified dingy and telling other people it's not a grind because they like driving small ships.

 

Pretty disappointed in the purchase. Like I said I was really excited to try some of the midlevel ships, but the grind is just so long to get there. To me, this game really does feel like a F2P game where you lose the stuff you grind for. I understand this is incorrect, as everyone points out. This is really just new player feedback saying that as a new player this game is a serious turn off if you want to do anything but drive a cutter.

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

Ramming or bumping friendly ships to interrupt their boarding (without them requesting it) is not permitted.  A Captain of the age doing this would have been hung from the yard arm for treason.

 

Discussions are currently underway to figure out how to handle the issue of someone "stealing" your prize by interrupting your boarding.  For now, consider ramming a friendly to interrupt boarding to be green on green damage and please screenshot it happening and report it via Tribunal.

 

Thank you.

[Mrdoomed]

I dont see these problems exept the loot sharing.

[Kurshuk]

Ramming or bumping friendly ships to interrupt their boarding (without them requesting it) is not permitted.  A Captain of the age doing this would have been hung from the yard arm for treason.

 

Discussions are currently underway to figure out how to handle the issue of someone "stealing" your prize by interrupting your boarding.  For now, consider ramming a friendly to interrupt boarding to be green on green damage and please screenshot it happening and report it via Tribunal.

 

Thank you.

 

What if the instance is created by player A, player A damages the crew/sails to a capturable level then player B spawns in and starts capping the ship player A spent the time softening for capture. It seems like it would be reasonable for player A to wedge between to reclaim the prize, but runs a very high risk of actually ramming the friendly and ending up doing green on green damage.

 

This is a discouraging issue, but it doesn't happen every encounter and the majority of the players who spawn into the missions I've taken have helped chain the ship down and grape the decks so it's certainly not something that I would say happens more than maybe 5-10% of the time.

 

I suppose this goes without saying, but the player is also not responsible for green on green damage caused by overzealous fleet craft are they?

[VonVolks]

Fleet AI is notoriously ram happy, which is one reason why fleets are banned at higher ranks....

 

Boarding practice is essential, as its the best way to get free ships to use / try out.

Edited February 2, 2016 by VonVolks

[Henry d'Esterre Darby]

What if the instance is created by player A, player A damages the crew/sails to a capturable level then player B spawns in and starts capping the ship player A spent the time softening for capture. It seems like it would be reasonable for player A to wedge between to reclaim the prize, but runs a very high risk of actually ramming the friendly and ending up doing green on green damage.

 

This is a discouraging issue, but it doesn't happen every encounter and the majority of the players who spawn into the missions I've taken have helped chain the ship down and grape the decks so it's certainly not something that I would say happens more than maybe 5-10% of the time.

 

I suppose this goes without saying, but the player is also not responsible for green on green damage caused by overzealous fleet craft are they?

 

Unfortunately, people are able to stealth/ninja capture right now, and you're best off not trying to ram or bump to break their boarding.  It's being looked at and discussed internally, but a good solution hasn't been found just yet.

 

You are not responsible for the grasscombing lubberly scrubs in your AI Fleet ramming other ships.  Anyone operating in close proximity to those scrub AI should sail with extreme caution.

[SyberSmoke]

Unfortunately, people are able to stealth/ninja capture right now, and you're best off not trying to ram or bump to break their boarding.  It's being looked at and discussed internally, but a good solution hasn't been found just yet.

 

You are not responsible for the grasscombing lubberly scrubs in your AI Fleet ramming other ships.  Anyone operating in close proximity to those scrub AI should sail with extreme caution.

 

Be nice if we could just attack the trader and lock the instance.  Heh, have the crossed swords with a big padlock on it.  No I do not want your help, I am learning...go away.  :-)

[Kurshuk]

Unfortunately, people are able to stealth/ninja capture right now, and you're best off not trying to ram or bump to break their boarding.  It's being looked at and discussed internally, but a good solution hasn't been found just yet.

 

You are not responsible for the grasscombing lubberly scrubs in your AI Fleet ramming other ships.  Anyone operating in close proximity to those scrub AI should sail with extreme caution.

 

There's probably an obfuscated way to determine via combined stats.

 

((crew damage+sail damage+damage to vessel)*time in instance) would be nifty to see as a claim on salvage. Then no matter who performs the boarding action the loot is still randomized among the players and weighted by whatever num value goes in the equation.

 

It'd be nice to see some kind of guaranteed loot if someone ninja's a ship, but that seems really abusable. Get a buddy on line, they ninja the ships and profit, you get guaranteed loot and profit. Hard balance there.

 

How serious is friendly fire taken? I know I've been in battles where I've been lit up by a broadside, or hit by shot flying low over an enemy deck and impacting a ship or my ship further downrange, or even rammed by someone trying to aim a shot. I didn't really take it personal since I've done accidental damage and naval combat can be a little hectic at times and there's a lot of stuff/ships moving around. And by stuff I mean cannon fire.

[Aetrion]

Ramming or bumping friendly ships to interrupt their boarding (without them requesting it) is not permitted.  A Captain of the age doing this would have been hung from the yard arm for treason.

 

Discussions are currently underway to figure out how to handle the issue of someone "stealing" your prize by interrupting your boarding.  For now, consider ramming a friendly to interrupt boarding to be green on green damage and please screenshot it happening and report it via Tribunal.

 

Thank you.

 

 

But what makes an enemy ship anyone's prize? The first person that starts capturing gets it? That just means the person with the biggest crew always gets the loot. 

[Ghroznak]

I agree with the first point.

 

Granted, when playing in a group it doesn't matter who captures the ship. The ship and any cargo is sold and split evenly once we get to port. I would never group with someone who fails to divide the profits evenly in the first place. Sometimes if we capture a useful ship, e.g. we captured a Snow while having a new player in the group who still had Basic Cutter, then we simply agree to give him the Snow so he can use it later.

 

That's part of what grouping is about. Teamwork and helping eachother out.

 

However, the whole boarding system as well as damage / crew kills for xp is out of whack.

 

Just after I started playing I engaged in a battle which another player had initiated. I sailed up and managed to board the enemy ship, a Trader Cutter if I remember correctly, and managed to capture it. The guy was pissed off at me, and I didn't understand why... until post-battle loot thing where I seized the ship and the cargo despite him having done the hard work. I felt like a total troll, and honestly, he was in his right to be pissed off. (I don't remember his name, but if you are out there somewhere then Sorry!)

 

Point is, as the OP is saying, the system encourages being selfish. Get in first to board, or squeeze your way between friendly ships and the enemy in order to get as much damage in as you can or as many crew kills you can to ensure your own gold/xp profits. It leads to unnecessary risks being taken out of pure selfishness.

 

Then again, considering how slow it is to rank up, especially if you are playing in a group where you have to do round-robin when doing missions due to lack of actual group-oriented missions, then you almost feel forced to elbow your way inbetween friendly ships just to blast the enemy with your cannons.

 

XP/Gold should be distributed evenly among players in a group. If I play an MMO and we kill a mob, then everyone in the group gets a slice of the XP. If someone in your group are just sitting there AFK, i.e. trying to exploit the system then simply add a requirement where you have to do a minimum amount of damage to a ship in order to be eligible for your cut of the XP. That way they have to participate at least some in order to get XP.

 

Currently the game caters way to much to selfish behaviour and actively encourages you to NOT group for missions and such.