Firth

The French player Comte Leonhart kept tagging me in his snow today vs my Connie. He kept tagging me to make sure I was in combat, sometimes for up to 30mins before clicking out. The first time I didn't mind, I thought he might have some super tactic and surprise me but now it is apparent he is no more than a time waster.

I'm so glad you pointed that out...

Haha! It's always worth a shot though, especially if you say the last part as though your asking a question.

I wasn't aware they were doing anything wrong; I never saw any rules until they were brought to my attention today. Therefore due to my ignorance I am completely innocent.

When will said captains lose their rank? Also is it not slightly harsh to reset their XP completely? Maybe use their game time and the average daily exp to calculate what rank they would be at having used the grinding methods considered to be fair? They have still paid for the game and put time into it which they cannot get back.

Exactly, I've witnessed first hand people not wanting to buy/play the game when they realise how long and boring the level grinding is.

Also, like it has already been said, it will all even itself out soon anyway. It takes a long time for to level and some people with no jobs or no life can sit there all day playing on it and grind up to max rank the way the devs planned but other people its not practical. I don't want to miss out on higher level game play because I don't have time to level, for example not being able to participate in port battles because I don't have the appropriate rank and therefore ship.

I can see this system they're going to implement being severely bugged and will probably affect a lot of 'innocent' players as well.

How would know if you were getting abnormal XP in certain cases? For example, if I joined a mission and got 10,000 XP then yes, I would know it was an abnormal amount because I have previous experience about rewards from missions. However, if I'm fighting a pvp enemy in a large ship and for sake of argument he isn't moving and I sink him and get 10,000 XP and 50,000 gold, then how would I know that was abnormal? Yes it would seem like a lot, but I would assume that it was normal because it was a result of the game mechanics. If you don't want people to do it, then I would argue that the problem lies with the way you gain XP in the game. Just to clarify, I know I'm being the devils advocate here, but its only fair to consider both perspectives.

Ah ok, my apologies I had not seen that information, tucked away there.

Dear Captains, Just to add a different perspective... XP farmers aren't necessarily trying to 'ruin' the game for others and to suggest such a thing displays naivety. Everyone that has posted is so quick to want to punish them, yet haven't thought that they may just have their nation's best interests at heart, after all they are trying to get ahead in order to benefit their nation as well as themselves. Others probably just saw how good the top level ships are and naturally wanted to sail as soon as possible, not to get an unfair advantage over the opposition. The whole point of having an XP system is to make people play the game longer, because they have to play in order to receive rewards; its a carrot on a stick. However, some players found a way of getting the carrot sooner and should they be punished for it? I think not. I do agree that now the developers have highlighted it is unacceptable, that players should stop doing it, but I do not think its fair to take the XP away from them because it was the developers not thinking the system through properly that allowed for it to possible in the first place. Therefore the blame cannot be placed solely on the players partaking in such activities. It isn't fair to give someone a goal and not give them any rules about how they are or aren't meant to achieve it, yet when they get there, say 'Oh the way you have done it isn't right because you've done it too fast, and therefore it's not fair on the others who were also trying to achieve it'. I think a lot more people would have been doing it, had they been able to work it out for themselves. I would propose that from this point, players should be punished now it has become apparent that it is such an issue but I wouldn't strip a players XP away for past offences due to the fact they won't have realised they were offending. I would add for those saying that now some nations might be too powerful due to the so called 'exploit' that they will easily crush others, that I would imagine the players who have used such methods to get ahead are pretty much evenly spread around the game with the exception of pirates. It isn't like everyone is sailing round at max rank and in First Rates; the game hasn't been out long enough for people to get that far ahead. I for one haven't seen any obscenely high ranks anywhere. Finally, if you take away the XP of the poor grinders, are you going to compensate them for the hours of their lives they have slaved away in order to better their characters? The XP came with a price...their souls. Regards, The Diplomat.