PvP combat locks

[SweatyPenguin]

I'd like to propose a change of combat mechanics to disable players from running away from open world PvP combat indefinitely, thus making the open world a much more dangerous and exciting place. I see multiple ways of doing this:

 

1) The simplest solution and my personal favourite, introducing a sort of "mandatory combat and staging period" of 10-15 minutes during which no players can leave and other players may join. This would do away with players leaving 3 minutes into the battle before their pursuers barely had a chance to get wind, reach top speed, and perhaps fire one broadside after them.

 

2) A limit on how many times a player can leave a battle. Let's say you can only dodge a fight once in every 3 minutes. Giving the enemy a short window to lock you into an unavoidable battle after your immunity ends. This would allow players to still keep running through clever use invisibility, whilst at the same time rewarding pursuers who did not get fooled.

 

3) Proximity based lock. This version would put less emphasis on the timers and base the whole thing on distance. So let's say you are only alllowed to leave the battle when no hostile ship has been within a 100-150m radius of yours for a short period of time. Fairly straightforward, but perhaps too harsh and unpolished.

Edited February 1, 2016 by SweatyPenguin

[Prater]

None of these ideas are good.

[eriks]

Seriously. If you don't want them to run away then position yourself in open world so that they can't.

 

I ran away from a fleet of 11 pirates trying to gank me yesterday probably 5 or 6 times (I was alone in a brig). Every time I got in range they immediately hit the attack button. We got into battle, I was probably 800 yards away, so I just sailed away. Their broadsides landed 300 yards short. 

 

All they had to do was position themselves better in OW and they would have had me. They never did.

[SweatyPenguin]

Seriously. If you don't want them to run away then position yourself in open world so that they can't.

 

I ran away from a fleet of 11 pirates trying to gank me yesterday probably 5 or 6 times (I was alone in a brig). Every time I got in range they immediately hit the attack button. We got into battle, I was probably 800 yards away, so I just sailed away. Their broadsides landed 300 yards short. 

 

All they had to do was position themselves better in OW and they would have had me. They never did.

 

The ship speeds in OW are nearly exactly the same, you can work with it in a group of players, but hunting someone down in a simple 1v1 is excessively time consuming and damn near impossible. People aren't stupid, they'll start bee lining it to the nearest port the moment they see you coming, most of the time you get one or two attempts to get them and that's it. And since it's nearly impossible to get close even in a faster ship thanks to the near equality of open world speeds, you'll usuallly start the battle relatively far away, upon which the chased simply gets ideal wind and goes afk. Sure you creep closer and fire some chain after chain after him, but he immediately repairs it so there's no effect whatsoever, apart from the fact that firing those shots means you have to slow down and lose the wind, and you'll never catch him again. And while you're sweating your ass all the enemy is to do is watch the stopwatch and mash escape. Hardly seems balanced.

 

 

If anything your example only proves that it's far too easy to get away, try hunting some players yourself, then tell me what you think.

None of these ideas are good.

 

Could you elaborate?