Sir Texas Sir

Just for the record even though some folks where going around saying I said other wise. We had no plans to touch any ports in South Bahamas other than Port Author on Octoflip day. Our two ports that day was going to be Little Harbor and Port Author (before they removed it being deep water we wanted to stage ships closer to the other side of Bahamas). Timer changes made us hit Marsh instead of little and bad wind made us pick La Des. Though the goal for that was never to take a port but to tie Brits up for the Russians and who ever else wanted to take a port from crappy time windows. I think it's funny you got the blame cause we for sure wasn't telling any of the Brits of our clans. Hell we even left a nation or two out of that weekend plans for a reason. It was fun and proved a point that you can set timers all you want but if you piss off enough nations and clans your going to get hit by mulit nations/clans. Yah Cabo and the rest of the ports over this weekend has been a hot mess for US and it's been a big learning curve too, we basically got to say, "Told you so," about things we been warning them for a while about timers and being easily attacked if they didn't get there act straight. Just to let ya'll know we don't plan to put timers on the none important shallow ports cause we want them to be flipped back and forth by nations to fight over and train. The best way these guys are going to learn on both sides is by actually getting out there and fighting. You got to sink a few times (well many many many times for some of these guys) before you learn to swim. We will give ya'll a fight until the cost is clear down florida for sure, but don't expect some awsome epic battles as these guys are still learning and many are catching on. That 10000BR port will be a monster of a battle though. I honestly don't mind having nations around. That is why my clan and I know VCO has no plans to flip Crown Haven, we want the Brits to keep a port in that region and I don't count Shroud as a port for it's every ones gank fest zone. We just don't want a bunch of deep water ports next to our capital is all. But these guys are no way ready to fight the Prussian and I don't even think they are ready for GB or France in deep water yet, but we will try. Basically they did what BLACK did over time on GLOBAL. Folks got bored cause no one was fighting (cause of stupid alliances) so they came over and joined BLACK since every one hated or fought them. But when folks stop fighting them and hid they got bored and complained than stopped logging in. I'll be honest BLACK was pretty much dead when the wipe happen. Only a few of us was left and Pirates didn't get any new players from EU when that happen. If VCO didn't come over pirates we where pretty much dead and living off the fear from the past and a lot of bluffing on my part. @Christendom can confirm that we pretty much was a dead skeleton crew of a clan. That was also why we started to avoid fights with WO and the alliance horde they brought over between GB/US/France, we just didn't have the numbers to fight them. We never had numbers even in BLACKS prime it was only 15-20 guys with maybe 25+ at prime numbers a year or so ago. We would roll around in nothing but SOL's cause of our small numbers and folks just don't want to fight a loosing battle every time. It didn't work for BLACK in the long run and it seems it's not working for the FRENCH late night crew. They prob need to log on an hour or two early and they might get more action, cause they aren't the night crew they are the late late night crew when they come out. Though with the new VM system and the fact we actually have ports that fresh new players have Lord Protectors on you will see more SOL's out in fights to come, but we got to get these guys to figure out how to sail them first lol

Even though I was surprised at the Marsh turn out, but KoC problem is he's not really night crew, they are LATE LATE NIGHT CREW. They mainly play after most of the US folks are heading off to bed cause they have to work in the morning. He also forgets to tell folks that when the merge happend he took the majority of the US, GB and France GLOBAL RvR/PvP players with them and made one group in one nation which is why they don't have many folks willing to fight them. While US has numbers we suffer from the same problem as GB on the quality of those players. Some of them are so set in there broken ways it's sad, but a few of them are willing to change and learn too. Other wise for the most part we just wait and do things on the weekends mainly in EU time also or early. It was also why we where hoping for more of a fight in the shallows as that is great training grounds. Didn't want to push deep water ports cause these guys wouldn't last in a deep water port battle. Specially when it's very much limited to small group engagements where a good team can easly run and hold a port. It's easier to make up for the lack of skills in the bigger fights by shear numbers but as we all seen even that doesn't work when folks just throw crappy ships at other teams and wonder why they keep getting sunk over and over or refuse to learn basic stuff like how to manual sail.

Any hints on those magical 25 ports that suppose to help you get even more back income wise or something? Would be nice if those ports actually offered the other crafting perks that we get from capturing AI ships. That would give folks a reason to fight over other ports than Tar and Copper ports. Which really no one fights over cause once they are owned by one or two mega/ELITE clans every one else gives up and just sends alts into the port to buy stuff. That are the port is so freaking far away no one bothers (the gulf copper port). WHich by the way if EDR open that port they would get way more business. Prussia kinda doing it a nice way that helps others get in there and have a chance, though wish more contracts was posted? Do ya'll fill contracts if some one puts them up for a decent price? Aksing mainly cause I haven't had a copper palting drop in ages and or actually lucked with it in AI ship? WOuld be nice to pop in and be able to buy them once in a while, but I figure folks buy them up and than toake them back to home reagions and sale them for a killing. That why I wish we can pick contracts we want to fill. Why would I fill an enemy contracts just cause it's the highest one? The upkeeps all ready made US loose a good number of ports this week cause of folks not setting them or not paying or worse dead clans dropping ports. Luckly if it wasn't for the Bahamas captures our moral would be at an all time low from loosing ports from bad mechanics. One was lost cause of an idiot clan, but there actions of forgetting to put clans on friendly list pissed a lot of folks off too not just Prussians...lol

Again look at all your timers and when you attack folks. It's very late for most folks. Last I remember some one said you live in Texas/CST but most of your play is very late. It's 3am in the morning right now for us. That is why you don't have many folks wanting to fight you. By time we do agro and get a port flipped it's 10-11 at night or later and most folks that have normal lives are heading off to bed are already in bed even on weekends. With Port Battles now a days half the fight is out side. Really haven't seen WO/BLANC run up to many ports other than here and there and always very late if it's open timers. Have ya'll tried an early port timer on the weekends or is all your clan members only very late night players? You stated in your post about 20 (normally see ya'll roll with 6-10 in those events) players....well maybe only send in a few of those players and the rest go find another fight. NO reason for all of the group to jump in and crush folks every time. That are join the lower number side. The new BR/ROE stuff is suppose to help with this, but i know a lot of our guys have stopped going to the events in the evenings cause there little groups of 1-3 players in 5th rates keep getting jumped by groups of 6-10 of your guys in mostly SOL's with a few SOL's and maybe one fast tagger. You want fights in those events tone down your numbers and split up your group. Last Tumbado event we went off and did some coast line hunting cause it was more fun than getting ganked by a very large number of SOL's. This is why the events should really be limted to 3rd rates and below and 2nd/1st should be for griding and PB's mainly not events. That are they could make each events have limits. Like Shallow water one is for shallow water ships as it all ready is. Tumbad is only for 4th rates and below. The Central one can be for anything goes.

They wanted to only give one copper port, which would of just solved the same problem I still think it should be more like 3-4. So more than one nation can hold them and fight over them in those parts of the map. Just like there should be another Cart type port too. If the clan got a little slice other than gold they would be more incline to capture that port than just letting others hold it and buy through contracts. I also think they should have some ports reserve for small clans/nations too, that way mega clans that others refuse to fight in fear of getting crushed can't hold all the key ports. Some of them can be limited to smaller clans/nations. We really do need some sort of clan management, not only the logs but a way to hand over a port to a friendly clan. What been killing the US over this weekend is we had three ports dropped by a clan that is pretty much dead. Wasn't able to be on with numbers right with server up time so another nation flipped one of them which was a key port. Another two where flipped cause of timers dropped (one was the dead clan the other a clan made a big mistake). It hurts the nations when they depend on dead clans to hold ports and no way to switch them over other than dropping them or getting another nation to flip them for you which is a pain cause most other nations have there own problems to deal with. When a lot of the port issues with US this week could of been easily handled if we had a port management tool that allows you to give a port over to another clan.

Do you mean in the events? No one wants to go do the gank fest is why, it's the same with the old PvP zones. That and it's to far for most folks that don't want to set up (we have Tumb but mainly go early on not late). Hell heard ya'll had an interesting night Sat? Got to remember most of these US players in the US nation are still carebears, newbs and very inexperienced. That is why they get slaughtered fighting against any stronger force even if they out number them 4 to 1, while most of the guys your rolling with are seasoned PvPer's. It kinda what happens when you pick up most of the PvPers from three nations and merge them into one. Hell I know all about this from BLACK days over on GLOBAL. No one wanted to fight us when we rolled around in big groups of SOL's only. That is why I brought up toning it down to the BLANC guy, cause that event they had nothing but 4-1st rates when every one was taking out 5th rates. We are working with them, that is why we been doing mainly fights in the shallows, but seems like GB just gave up that area and didn't even try once we where showing up in the early morning times on weekends they set battles to. You pick your fights when your got a weaker team. Numbers are great but not when most of the guys still can't manual sale when they are Rear Admirals, or have a clue how to tag or will even engage a ship in a fight. They still snipping sails from a mile away. Give us some times we will be out there with a group soon or later even in the events, but for now we got to get these boys up and going. Would be nice to see more of the US prime time GB clans out and about. Was nice seeing some faces at Marsh Harbour (wasn't there had to sleep) that I haven't seen in ages since the merge. We actually thought CKA was dead.

Any port that has a rare good should drop into the clan warehouse a small percentage of those goods per day. That might get bump up if you pay for more production/trade goods. Other than getting the tax off the goods most of the folks I know don't get much off owning those ports other than a pain. You still have to out bid every one else and alts to get the goods out of the port. Why if I own a port do I have to do that? I mean I get the tax back, but it's a bit annoying. Clans should get a small share of the goods that are produce (cooper, Tar etc) from those ports that they can in exchange us for them selves or post for sale and make profit off of. That and I should be able to pick what contract I want to fill. If an enemy has a contract or known traitor in nation than I should be able to not pick to fill his contract up when I sale something to the port to fill contracts.

Maybe cause your group tends to hold very late US time. Your not even really West Cost prime time. I mean it's Sunday night and it's 1-2am for me right now and I'm CST. That is a bit late when most folks have to work the next day. Prime time for US players tend to be around 7-9pm CST not in the wee hours of the morning. You are actually falling more into the AUS/SEA player times being on that late as it's there afternoon. Than it doesn't help you pull a BLACK most the time and roll in heavy groups of mostly SOL's and wonder why folks don't want to come out and play with your guys. As I told one of the BLANC guys maybe tone down the fleet comp and you might get more fights in the events and such. And to be clear this isn't even my prime time, I'm normally at work having lunch right now Mon-Fri so I'm not online any more during any of the US prime times other than on weekends. Not sure what you do for real life KoC but like I stated above most folks are in bed after 10PM (it being 2am now) on a Sunday night for work in the morning. So yah it's not a prime time for any time zones. Just like in the morning there is a dead zone between the AUS/SEA players and the EU prime times when I get off work in the morning. One group has gone to bed and the others are just getting on. There isn't much of a dead zone on player numbers between the EU and US prime times as it covers a good number of players times crossing over across the globe. Sorry your just playing to late for most folks in your time zones. Maybe get on a bit early and do things instead of expecting us to stay up and play in your prime time.

I can see doing this in Nations where you have a match making system. Wouldn't exactly tie to the clan stuff, unless you have the option to recruit only from your clan or friendly clans or make it a public fleet group. This way I can do a, "CT TRAINING FLEET." Put it open to every one, or limit to friendly clans or just my own clan members and than folks can see that I have a group started and they can join.

see we knew your a carebear...fishign while you be doing hunting shame on you, you know better than that. LOL I do fish on long runs and do the same or sale it once I hit port and ready up for fighting. For the OP the best solution is to just not be fishing. If you have that much fish/salt in your crago you can't escape some one your prob all ready to slow. As other said it's set like this cause folks would dump cargo at a hint of being tagged just to keep others from getting there loot. Though the funny thing is most of us don't care about the loot. We scuttle two indmans the other day with about 5 million cargo we caught. I prob could of used that money, but we where more after marks and just to denie the ships there safe run in that area.

This could be yet another way to find out if some one is board fit other than seeing them reload very slowly and well them having crew stacked....which I think is funny cause of the moral hit I beat a crew stack wasa with my Aggy that only had barricads. He started with a nice moral hit that allowed me to get the upper hand even though 100 more crew and marines. Crew builds aren't always good if you don't knwo what your doing in boarding too lol It's a trade off, you can go very close and protect your ship from broad sides or you can keep your distance and not loose crew. It's how balance systems work where there are pro and cons for things. Not to mention if it has a very limited rang say 50-100m It's not really that close when your in most battles unless your stuck to the stern like glue.

As Rediii said it can give you a few more out of your speed in a ship or allow you to carry more repairs and not be as effective by cargo. I got one char that runs it all the time cause he's in fast taggers. He can also side line as a cargo runnner when needed lol Yah I been debating dropping it on most set ups other than the guy that runs light ships all the time that need every bit of sail help as he can get.

I wish we could craft the dange LGV refit cause I could use a 5 slot one to make up for the 3 slot ship knowledge cause opening the note is to much RNG. Other than when they had the ops crafting bug I have yet to get any gold ships. I gotten a purple trader brig and two of the P Frigate redeemabels I open where purple 4/5 ships with perks. Than again RNG gods have always hated me so I don't expect anything when I craft a ship.

Like every game in the past that allowed it. They either have to be approved by admins/moderators or they get auto approved and if some one reports them they get inspected and or removed. We never had a problem with penis on flags on POTBS and you can send in for custom flags or sails. Many games have clan logo's/flags and it works just fine. Hell even let us do it on client side and not have to reinstall ever time. If all clan members can add a mod so they can see the flags of the nation as the clan flag instead that would be great. It would let you know who on your team/fight is clan mates without looking at the player names above the ships.

But was it ever tested on a more larger scale. I think I remember ya'll mentioning it in the past when this type of topic was brought up. I think it would be a good thing for all ships to have a little crew damage on all parties if they are within say 50m. Though have it dependent on crew size and cap that you can only kill a small percentage over time. If you loose `1-10 crew every minute you stay in that range with some one it will start to add up, but the easy way to solve that is to back off a bit so your no longer in musket range. Make the 1-10 crew bas off the ships size. Most ships carried 20% marines on them. So you base that off 50-1000 crew we are talking about 20-200 muskets. The low end of that only does 1 crew per a set time while the high end can do 10 crew. I would test it starting with every 30 seconds your in range than tweek it up or down from that. Every 15 secs might be to often but every min might be not enough. The point is it made getting close to another ship risky for your crew as that was normally only when you where getting ready to board a ship. Small ship wants to side scrap a big ship they risk loosing 1-10 crews every 30 secs. I turn off most my ambient in game sounds, so making extra sounds is just added stuff to the game. I want to be able to hear the voice comes and whistles being blown lol As I stated above and others are pointing out if it seem like to many where getting killed tone it down until we find that sweet spot. Crew defence mods like Barricades, wood types, ship knowledge and such should effect how much crew you loose too for close in musket range. all ships had marines on board back than, but this could give folks reason to have certian mods over than just for board fit. I personnely thing the baording cannons is useless mod from the few times i tested it I really didn't see any improvements, but it was also against AI with all the dang board green board mods.

I would just be happy with clan flags in battle/game right now.

I been in a sitution in real life where the hired security team filled a small fast boat with holes killing it's engine so it can't get beside and board the ship to slow it down for it's buddies in the bigger slow fishing boat. It's not a pratice that is new. Marines been doing it for years stopping small boarding/raiding parties with simple musket fire. There is nothing wrong with having a zerg of small ships, the problem is when they side scrap you and you can't do anything about it. POTBS stopped this by having a zone around all ships that if you enter you took crew damage from the other ship simulating musket fire. We could have something like that. This would effect all ships big or small. On POTBS we use to use Van Horn Snows all the time to zerg big ships, most the time we lost almost half our numbers but they where fun fights and we just make another and jump right back out there. Oh and new hotfix/patch notes?

@Wraith but we seen small clans try that only to get screened out by some third party buddy that wiped the fleet out on the way. I also think there should be designated small clan ports. That you can't own those ports if you have 10 or more ports all ready. That leaves ports for the small clans and nations to fight over and not worry about some big nation or mega clan wiping them out. Cause I thought the whole reason for the lower BR was to give those small clans and nations a chances, which they still don't get in OW. I don't want lobby rooms, but by doing some ports (and we are talking about none important ports) set a side for small clans. That are make the port owner cap 25 so one clan can't own half the server. They have to pick which ports are important to them after all. I think the port maintenance is helping more with this as they have to keep some ports open, but other than for VM's why would I want a useless port?

But that is you, some folks might think that is the funnest thing in the world. We had a guy back a long time ago that would go pick up bottles for us and go get them. This was back when they spawned all over the map when you open them. He loved just watching his ship sail in the OW while he did other things. Folks enjoy many things of the game. I like crafting, kinda think trading is boring myself, but I also like a good brawl too. @Slim Jimmerson your poll is missing another options. I would say Pirates get the least love, they need there own mechanics.

This is flawed though cause that same fleet can be screened out of the PB every time by a much larger fleet over and over so the limit doesn't really help them it actually can hurt them. Before folks say they should get friends and screeners, if they had those numbers they wouldn't be hitting small BR ports in the first place. Though I don't want it to go to lobbies either so stick to what we got. Though would be nice ot have a few more deep water big BR ports. Seems a lot of the ports are in the mid rang. Than again when was the last time most of us gather 25+ players of a port batte. I think only a few nations can do so.

Right click on name "report" is what your suppose to do when folks do stuff in chat, but in your case i would use the "Ignore" option if this bothers you that much.

Thanks first screen of the PB I seen as I was at work. Ya'll for sure went heavy with both groups I hear. Our problem among many is no one wanted to bring 1st rates other than our guys. We called for 2 1st rates for that group and no one wanted to bring them. JD was suppose to be in a 5th rate for circle control. We got a long road a head of us with these guys so will prob be seing a lot more battles with other nations in the future even if they end up in lost they become great means for these guys to learn. It was a really great show out number wise on the US side, just way to much lack of experience though.

ops yah forgot about the 10 min thing. I think the 30 min timer is more there in case a fleet is late or gets tag but makes it out. Cause lets be honest if a real fleet gets held up by a screening fleet and than destroys it, they are going to continue to a port and take it, not give up cause they are 30 mins late to the show. Though what I wouldn't mind see is if the attackers mess up or can't show up cause of numbers they can push a button and give up the battle by no show up front so the other team doesn't have to show up and wait for them. We have flipped a port in a bad time before just off PvP and had no interest to show up for the PB, but the defenders still had to make sure we didn't lie to them and pop in late. Wasted a bunch of time for the other players when we could of just said we aren't showing the port will go back into cool down for next flip/port battle.

We can't even get a clan log so don't hold your breath. That is way more important than being able to craft from clan warehouse.

That was the mistake of the attacking clan not knowing how to do port battles. They didn't add the right clans so most of them where all locked out from being able to join the port battle. That why we keep telling them to do some shallows. I think they learned a leason which would of been even bigger if they had made it into the port. If you cap all circles it only takes 20 mins to cap out an uncontested port battle.