Anolytic

UPDATE: The official map has been published by the devs with a few changes from the data I had. Go here to find out how the map will look after the wipe: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/16468-important-final-map-player-action-required-for-both-pve-and-pvp-servers/ And to find the ownership of each individual port, go here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/16468-important-final-map-player-action-required-for-both-pve-and-pvp-servers/?p=312498 Salut Captains, The September Patch is looking to bring significant changes to this game. It should be a huge patch, and contains many different updates, mostly relating to the map we use. In that regard the teasers and bits of information we’ve been given so far may leave some feeling it is a bit lacking. The patch isn’t ready yet, and devs might not have decided all that is going to be implemented. However we have already been given quite a lot of information. Still I read a lot of questions and hear a lot of rumours about what is coming that could be dispelled simply by people reading all the information. But the information is spread across multiple topics and multiple pages of those topics. Devs will obviously provide us more information as well as patch notes around when the patch will be clear, but in the meantime I thought that I will post the information that I have already sorted myself from the answers they have provided. My main interest is the general layout and implications of the new Conquest system and map wipe. The noob-zone in the Bahamas interests me less. The official information that I am basing myself on, can be found here: September Port Changes Plans for conquest mechanics Free Towns Rookie regions Again, devs will continue giving us more information as things get closer, but if you’re very worried about your outposts already, or you didn’t quite understand the maps they have shared, then this topic can hopefully aid you. The Map You can find the current iteration of the map the devs use here: Older public versions you can see [url=http://imgur.com/a/ryp86'>here, here and here. I made a map legend to go with the maps: Map symbols: Orange lines: Region outlines Red circle: Capital Orange star: Regional Capital (1st rate port battle) Yellow pixel: Port location Yellow line: Port entrance with direction of inlet Blue circle: Shallow water port White line(on blue circle): inlet to shallow water port White circle: Freetown Green line underneath name: New Ports Striketrough text: Pacific ports not open until release Map letters: (Indicates historical ownership only) N: Neutral P: Pirate D: Danish S: Spanish W: Swedish UP: Dutch B: British F: French US: United States I: Indian/Native USC: US Capital SC: Spanish Capital DC: Danish Capital WC: Swedish Capital UPC: Dutch Capital FC: French Capital BC: British Capital B - PC: Pirate Capital, historically British B - NC: Neutral Capital, historically British UPRC: Dutch Regional Capital SRC: Spanish Regional Capital FRC: French Regional Capital BRC: British Regional Capital (N)-W: Historically Neutral, Swedish noobs’ capital (N)-UP: Historically Neutral, Dutch noobs’ capital ( -D: Historically British, Danish noobs’ capital ( -B: Historically British, British noobs’ capital (N)-F: Historically Neutral, French noobs’ capital (N)-S: Historically Neutral, Spanish noobs’ capital ( -US: Historically British, US noobs’ capital ( -P: Historically British, Pirates noobs’ capital I also added a map legend onto the map most recently shared by the devs: All the new ports are marked there with a green line underneath their name, and because a lot of people have made the mistake, Free Town is written next to every Free Town on the map. Some background information about the map: About the port wipe The information that we have so far, is that the September patch will introduce a new system of dividing the map into regions. Ownership of ports will also be reset, and whatever ports you own now will not matter to the map after the reset. In essence the map will be reset to how it was after last wipe, so if you look at the PvE server you will get an idea of how ports will be distributed. However, as the regions system means only one nation can own a region, it’s not as clear cut as that. The division into regions will mean that some ports that were historically belonging to one nation will now belong to another or be neutral. The map is based on the territories of nations approximately between 1780 and 1800. According to the developers Historical nations did not care about artificial regions invented today, and several nations may have owned ports in the same region on the map. If that is the case, according to the devs, the region will be all neutral ports in the beginning. There is however some ambiguity here. With Pitt’s Town as an example, that is the current Neutral faction Capital (made redundant by the removal of playable neutral faction). Pitt’s Town is said to become of another nation after the wipe. But according to the map, apart from British ports, there were also neutral and pirate ports in the region now named Crooked. By the strictest interpretation of the devs, Pitt’s Town will remain neutral, just not a capital. But as it has been stated to switch nationality the best guess is that it will become British. The question then becomes if Pitt’s Town is an exception, or if only «nations» mixed historical ownership counts. So if Denmark and Sweden shared a region, it will become Neutral, but if Dutch and Neutral shared a region, then that does not count as mixed and the region becomes Dutch. But what of Pirates? Do they count as a nation in this regard or not? And what if a nation is dominantly owned by one nation, but a single port was owned by another, like the Bovendwinds Region which is dominated by Dutch ports, but has a single French port. Does it become Dutch, or Neutral? I have not yet found an answer to this, but I have used the information available to make some calls about regions that are definitively going to fall to one nation, regions that will presumably fall to one nation, and those that are highly unsure. I will share my data below: The green background indicates the rookie regions. The first column lists the number of ports each region has. The second lists the name of the region. Three is the historical ownership(s) according to the devs’ maps. Four the ownership by the strictest interpretation of «mixed ownership». Five lists the current freetowns and their regions. Column six lists the new freetowns and their regions. The Region Capitals column lists the regional capital of each region. The "Maj. Owner» column lists the faction that historically was dominant owner in a region on the dev map by owning most ports and/or the regional capital. Under «New Ports» all the new ports that have been currently added to the map is listed. By the most liberal interpretation of «mixed ownership» the nation listed as «major owner» should spawn as possessor of a region. Where the nation is listed in cursive there is mixed ownership between two «nations». C means it is a capital region, and an asterix means the region is a capital with mixed ownership and thus mixed ownership will have to be ignored. Some more statistics: Number of ports: 378 Number of regions: 75 Number of Freetowns: 31 (formerly 33) New Ports: 14 By the most liberal interpretation, this will be the division of regions between nations: US: 3 Pirate: 4 Neutral: 4 French: 8 British: 18 Sweden: 1 Danmark: 1 Dutch: 2 Spain: 34 By the strictest interpretation of «mixed ownership», these are the regions per nation: Brit: 7 Spain: 13 US: 3 Dutch: 1 Sweden: 1 Danmark: 1 France: 6 Pirates: 1 I have also made a more visual representation of region ownership, to help decide where your ships might be safe and how nations will be positions when the new conquest system kicks off. The regions that are more or less guaranteed have been coloured according to their nation on this map: On the next map I have coloured almost all the regions according to what nation has the most claim to it on the historical map. The map is coloured based on the principle that what made Crooked a national region is a rule and not an exception. Sharing ports with pirates, Neutrals or indians does not make them mixed ownership and thus neutral. Rookie Zone The devs are going to establish a rookie zone in the Bahamas. You will be able to get most information available so far by reading the official OP here: Rookie regions - new player experience What happens in October Obviously we do not know that much yet. However: In the October patch we should expect a reset of the resources distribution which will affect production buildings. NOTE: I started writing up this and making the maps before today's announcements from devs. Some mistakes may be lingering from when I tried to adapt the text to account for the information changes. I will try to add more information to this topic as I discover it and as it is shared by developers. EDIT:UPDATED according to:

You can still do that. Everywhere you have outposts in freetowns, you had to sail there once to put up the outpost. With the new alliance system and basically just two blocks, your territorry combined with your allies' territory will be give you access to pretty much the entire map and safe harbours to dock up.

Freeports in their current version make borders and territory mean nothing. It would be a good idea I think to remove all but a couple of historic Freetowns so that players are forced to do their raiding and PvP out of border regions. And can't jump far behind enemy lines. This would also help ensure safer homewaters and reduce the need for a noob-zone in the Bahamas.

I'm not sure that's reassuring.

My prediction: Nations that cannot win at the normal RVR, will decide to focus their efforts on winning the noob-zone RvR. And Veterans will have to put aside an outpost and ships in the Bahamas to help their nation's noobs up there. It's going to be just another area to complain about us being far off and not patrolling.

If you look at the map, that freeport is still marked as a freeport and is currently not scheduled to change status.

I must admit that I'm not too fond of this idea. Admittedly I've never fought in the Bahamas yet, but it's kind of in the middle of the map and having a carebear zone there is likely to drag people away from the rest of the map and the RvR. And if this is a noob-only zone it would cut the veterans off from a lot of excellently strategic and fun tactical shallow water port conquest. Also, having 2 capitals just makes me very confused. But I'll await and see how this is implemented and if it'll work better than I imagine.

If new players select "teleport to capital". Will they teleport to the Bahamas Capital or the "ordinary" capital?

Yeah. I just did.

Will these regions count among the 10 map hotzones? Will these rare resources be found only in the Bahamas and nowhere else on the map? Will veteran players have the opportunity to operate in that area as well, but under the same ROEs?

This isn't going to happen until October, so the devs probably don't yet have plans for how to deal with that. Let's concentrate on this September patch first. But as a sidenote, this is a game in alpha, you should expect some losses. My expectation is that our buildings and production will not be compensated. If they compensate, that could be as a flat redeemable sum of gold given equally to all players regardless of how many shipyards or buildings each player has invested in.

The freetown Hat Island is similarly put right next to the econ zones of both Sweden and Denmark. But trade routes might change in October when the resource distribution is reset.

No. Not if regions can't have mixed ownership. The Margarita Region, which La Orchila is part of, will become either Spanish or Neutral. EDIT: And La Orchila is still marked as a freetown on the map, so it won't be affected.

I totally agree. EDIT: You're not really helping this topic by talking about something completely different from the proposal at hand. And the 5 minute timer without some sort of expanding join circle to modify join distance would introduce lots of new issues that we finally got rid of. The combat system does need some tweaking, but your post is rather unspecific.

What does "Green Cay (N)-W", "Bimini (-D" and "Mimbres (N)-UP" (and more) mean on the new map? Does that mean those ports were historically owned by Sweden, Denmark and United Provinces respectably? And does this have any impact on region ownerships after the wipe?

Currently everything I've seen indicates that capitals are safe. I assume that we would get a warning in due time if not. Pitt's Town (Neutral Capital) is the only capital that has been said is going to change. All other capitals should be safe, as the capital regions will reset to belong to their nation. I made a map of the more safe bets for region distribution:

I added a map legend directly onto the new map image, and marked all the new towns so they are more easily found:

Swedish Capital (The S was already taken for Spain). Edit: Going to repost the map legend I made: Orange lines: Region outlines Red circle: Capital Orange star: Regional Capital (1st rate port battle) Yellow pixel: Port location Yellow line: Port entrance with direction of inlet Blue circle: Shallow water port White line(on blue circle): inlet to shallow water port White circle: Freetown Striketrough text: Pacific ports not open until release Map letters: (Indicates historical ownership) N: Neutral P: Pirate D: Danish S: Spanish W: Swedish UP: Dutch B: British F: French US: United States I: Indian/Native USC: US Capital SC: Spanish Capital DC: Danish Capital WC: Swedish Capital UPC: Dutch Capital FC: French Capital BC: British Capital B - PC: Pirate Capital, historically British B - NC: Neutral Capital, historically British UPRC: Dutch Regional Capital SRC: Spanish Regional Capital FRC: French Regional Capital BRC: British Regional Capital

Thanks! I hope that by the time of release the number of Free Towns will be considerably reduced, making borders and front lines more significant for PvP and free town based ganking less significant. Without as many freetowns, home waters would be naturally more secure, and players might become more inclined to participate in RvR when that would actually help secure their mission running grounds and trade routes. Another mechanic should possibly be found to allow (only) pirates to move about nearly as freely as with current freetowns.