Anolytic

The patch today finally gave us the Battle Groups and moved tagging circle to defender. We’ll have to test how the battle groups work, but both of these changes should help negate some recent exploits and hopefully help make screening «griefing» less of an issue. Some glaring issues still remain however: 4th rate PBs First of all, 4th rate PBs. 4th rate PBs at the moment are pointless. Even with the new Battle Groups, entering 4th rate port battles is all but impossible as attacker unless you have a vast numerical superiority. SORRY proved this, and in this case I must commend them for even attempting. Their attempted workaround by teleporting to the regional capital at Puerto Plata almost worked. I warned of this possibility already when the wipe patch was announced yet I cannot fault SORRY for testing it and it was very conscious that this was never put in the tribunal by Danes. In this instance they rather deserve praise. We had considered doing a test of it ourselves, but found that for 1st rates they would be so slow to make it unviable. While the devs removal of teleport to regional capitals fixed this issue as well as hopefully the easy smuggling into enemy capitals which we have seen all over the place, 4th rate PBs still remain as useless if not more. A 4th rate fleet simply cannot get through if defenders use lineships in screening to tag them. However much other nations may feel like Sweden and Danmark are buddies on the EU server, war between the two of us has been constantly considered, on both sides, and the strategies of such a conflict considered. A part from our capitals being simply too close on the map, one of the dominant considerations that Danmark has had to make, is that Sweden has almost only 4th rate ports on their front line near Gustavia. With the amount of players one would face in screening anyway when fighting so close to capitals, this is simply guaranteed to make any offensive an exercise in futility. To make it simple, either lineships need to be removed from screening in 4th rate Port Battles, or 4th rate Port Battles need to be removed altogether. My suggestion and personal preference would be that port battles are made lineship ports only (+shallow PBs as exception), and that instead 4th rates and all other classes of ships - except 1st rates - are used for raids. My complete proposal is that conquest is changed slightly to a different system, and that the current PB mechanics are used for surprise raids with flags instead where screening is less of an issue. I wrote my proposal up here a while ago. Mainly it’s the second part, proposal B: The benefits of this system I believe would be a more fluid and dynamic RvR-game. where attacking and being aggressive is rewarded, whereas the system we have now rewards primarily the big nations that just sit back and protect what they have, with the advantage of numbers, screeners and OP towers in the PB, destroying the fleets of hard earned ships by those who are brave enough to leave their home regions and seek conquest and Port Battles far away. Defending is too easy This brings me to my second gripe. Which is that defending port battles is too easy. With the advantage of screening fleets, circles and towers and forts, and not having to sail through the open world to enter the battle, defenders have it too easy. The attackers take all the risk and have very low chances to receive reward, which isn’t even that great either. Defence is the thing that require little sailing and little effort. I’d rather have 60/40 win percentage in favour of attackers than 70/30 in favour of defenders which is probably what we have now if not less. Instead of making defence really easy, give those who loose a region a fair chance to take it back after a week. Retreating I’ll let Liquicity, Tommy Shelby and others say what needs to be said about revenge ganking in open world. I share their concerns and second their opinions even though I am not as badly affected. Hopefully invisibility and speed boost after battles will help with the issue. But the issue of revenge fleets is also present after port battles. The way that the SORRY Aga fleet was able to be destroyed after the PB at Puerto Plata, by danes and our hired help, is simply not good gameplay. The fleet that fails to take after a brave attempt at offensive conquest, should not be forced into OW afterwards to be picked apart and killed. This will happen even in 1st rate port battles soon enough, as a fleet that lost 5 ships in an easy target to tag and kill as it attempts to make its escape. Victory Marks It is too early to say something definitively about the new Victory Marks. Let’s test them for a couple of weeks. However, I will list some of my initial concerns here. Hopefully I have misunderstood some of how the map winning thing will work. The crucial quickfiretest of the Victory Mark system is asking this question: How will the USA nation on the European server, ever aquire Victory Marks (except by using British/Spanish alts), and how will they get L’Oceans or Ingermanlands or Niagaras? Or blueprints? If «map winning» is really about being the biggest nation, accounting for important regions, the system will A) encourage alts in the largest nation at any time, and B.) mean that every noob who logs in regularly in the biggest nation, be it Spain, GB, Danmark or Sweden, will be able to sail around in L’Oceans, while the hardest working most skillful and dedicated RvR-captains in USA or Dutch will never see a L’Ocean or an Ingermanland or a Niagara. Simple question, what road does USA have towards winning the map, even for 1 week? Is it achieveable even if they are successful in conquest one week? In Danmark we had a communal system with conquest marks, which meant that every player of every clan had a reasonable way of get access to whatever permits they wanted without needing to force their way into a PB in a subpar ship, or jump through hoops. We were also mere weeks away from being in a position to start putting ships, all the way up to 1st rates, on the open market, for the benefit of every Danish national player that couldn’t easily get permits on their own. With the Victory Marks introduction, this now seems like a lost ambition. Unless we decide to join the rush to rob Spain of some ports in the gulf, just for the heck of it even though they cannot put up a defence, even our RvR-players won’t see any more L’Ocean permits generated for a long long time. Let alone the beautiful Ingermanland or the OP shallow ships the Niagara and Heavy Rattlesnake. Btw, what is the point of Lord Protectors now? Even if your nation wins the map, as Lord Protector you get no more reward than a PvE-er or a Kadet in your nation never sailing more than 40 map units from the capital. Could Lord Protectors at the very least get a daily allowance of Combat Marks as reward for all the hard work?

The leaderboard on the map screen says that top 15 captains get rewards.

@Ink said on Euro server that chat would be turned off from the Combat News channel.

When I tried this, it worked, but my game crashed immediately after.

What about national capitals? This would finally get rid of easy smuggling operations into enemy capitals. What will we use the Victory Marks for? Do they replace Conquest marks. It's not completely clear to me, but from what I understand here: the victory condition is based on expansion, not static size. So the largest nations will have the most ports to loose and potentially a harder time winning the map. Hmm. This sounds a bit ominous. But seeing as you can flip a port in 40 minutes or less I guess it won't really create that large of an unbalance.

Thank you!

Outlaw battles stay open for the entire 1 hour 30 minutes. Your screeners can enter the battle and fight them or keep them tagged so they cannot leave to enter the port battle. Though I can see how the outlaw mechanic can be problematic in combination with port battles, I'm not sure this should be characterised as and exploit rather than a mechanics issue.

While we cannot take credit for such a dysfunctional group ripping itself apart, this still feels like an apt description: "Damn! I think we knocked the sorry shit out of Pirates."

New issue of The St. Croix Royal Gazette is out. Get it here:

ISSUE#2: July 15th So. I have finally endeavoured to complete a second issue of The St. Croix Royal Gazette. In this issue you can read about the capture of Cap-Français, about the comings and goings in the port of Christiansted, about valuable goods for sale, notes about some recent Port Battles, and a few words on the current political situation of the server. #RefugeesWelcome2DanmarkNorge (click the pictures and select fullscreen to enlarge) It's hard to make even a semi-regular schedule for publication. With all the time I spend in game I don't have that much time to compose it. But if people appreciate my efforts I will keep making new issues whenever I can. The referenced Prints of a Love Letter by Yann du Finistière can be read here:

Most people have found this funny at some point. But it's always been like this that you can get damaged rudder from the front, and I think it is intentional. However weird it might seem, it is not completely implausible. For one thing, cannon balls travel inside the ship, and even a shot from the front may end up far to the back of the ship. Remember as well that the rudder is more than just the wooden flap at the back of the keel going left or right to steer the ship. The rudder is also the system of tiller ropes that connect the helm to the rudder, so that when when your captain turns the wheel, the rudder reacts correspondingly. A cannonball may hit and sever the tiller ropes, or damage the tiller system, or even destroy the helm. All of which will impair the ability to get the rudder to turn. Also what Konali said. Ninja.

Yeah. Bummer for ~140 insomniacs.

If/when we get raids on the PvP-servers, one could hope that those could be implemented on the PvE-server too, but with NPC-defenders only, and not player-defenders. However, adding RvR on the PvE-server would be very counterintuitive and probably not go over well with anyone. Let alone be very complicated for a plethora of reasons. RvR would affect people's PvE play-style and choices in a negative way. And don't forget that devs were planning to merge PvE and PvP by making PvE-zones on the map on the PvP-server. The idea was shut down by an outcry from the PvE-server population. I don't think you've taken time to consider the ramifications of adding RvR to the PvE-server. It would no longer be a PvE-server. But there would be no screening for instance. You do know that you can play PvP (or PvE even) on the PvP-server while you wait for your labour hours to recharge? You can earn gold and XP that way. No need to go to the PvE-server if you find it dull there.

Spain still has the most port possessions on the map of all nations. More ports than their numbers justify. Surely some nations are going to covet some of that. While most nations should know and understand to be careful not to diminish Spain too much in Cuba, there are many ports up for grabs in the Gulf if someone wants to populate them. While a consensus that Spain should not be wiped out and one-ported while they are rebuilding is good, it's not necessary to grant them to remain as he most expansive faction on the map. But for now everyone should want them to get ships in their fleet so they can give anyone coming for them a fight.

Aves is Danish core territory. I would never erase Aves.

@rediii

There are a few player treasure fleets that go regularly every day between the same cities at set times. If you just know where to look and where to get your information. Why would you want to attack NPC fleets when there are player fleets about that serve the same purpose?

I know. Mine was not

No I didn't. Where else would they get the coal and conquest marks to build us new ships to sink? Huh?

No no no no. Not at all! No worries!

The skill slot grind could be rebalanced or eased a little, possibly, but in general it's a good idea. And it's not much of a problem now they removed the slot unlock ship tree requirements. The RNG-drops of skill books and refits however, are a problem.

You got one-ported by HRE... Congrats on taking Macao with a surprise attack while we were on vacation though. Great job. You were great, a year ago. Danes one-ported Sweden twice at least, and yet they one-ported you... We didn't call anybody. We notified Sweden as we had a written agreement requiring us to do so. The other nations just showed up because they thought you'd be there to fight. And yet when it came to it you ran away to hide, when you could have just waited in port to figth 25vs25 no matter how many other nations or ships were outside. Even the danish pubbie-fleet scared you away. Not against danes. And all you used to do was talk about how PBs was all that mattered. Now suddenly PBs matter zero, but ganks are what it's about. Maybe you should notify people that you are not an RvR-clan anymore? No assistance needed inside the PB... There are only 2 nations in the battle. If we can loose in absentia, why can't we win in absentia as well? Lol. We lost more 1st rates to NPC than to SORRY... I bet Pit Pinsel killed more Danish 1st rates than SORRY did. RUBLI has killed many times more Danish 1st rates than SORRY ever has. You haven't even answered me about my suggestion we let you through the screening so you can have a rematch in Cap Francais. Don't be so worried. You can probably manage to beat us when we have a bad day. Would give you something other than ganks to talk about. Do we need to come to you again somewhere so you can have the forts to help protect you?

I hope to see SLRN rise again to the heights of former glory. It feels weird saying it as they are our longest standing and most "hated" enemy, but they are still a great clan and a great bunch of players. Always a pleasure and challenge fighting them. I read in your forum back a little while ago Charles Caldwell, @Retired from the game!, talking about maybe coming back to Naval Action soon. Any news about that? Love him or hate him, but it was always a blast having him around. Along with @Kutai of KOTO he was one of the most notorious figures from my early days playing Naval Action.

So far only one of those nations, Danes, have actually attacked your ports. And you were the ones who dragged Brits into this by attacking their ports. Considering you're now openly planning on attacking your current allies Spain and US, you can't really blame other nations for you declaring war on them.

RDNN is not solely an RvR clan. Some of our players have limited or no interest in PBs. Some prefer screening. Others prefer solo OW PvP. And we don't claim sole credit for anything in RvR. Everything we do is in cooperation with other clans. I don't know why you want to compare apples and oranges. RDNN does not claim to be in any way like SORRY, and we don't try to be or want to be. How can we be credited only 20 percent on our nation's victories, but 100% on our nation's ship losses? And numbers can be used to paint widely different stories, like all statistics. In the Cap Francais PB 3 our of 4 kills by danes were credited RDNN members. If maths don't lie, doesn't that mean those 5 RDNN-players have 75% of the credit for the win and the kills? 6 RDNN/RUS-players. Thanks for proving my point. I guess you attacked at just the right time. Also, not a full SORRY fleet, so does it even count?