Aus Robert Maynard

Just because the gaming community has been hi-jacked by manufacturers forcing the whole "DLC" scenario upon us, doesn't mean we have to agree with it. DLC is a scam created by manufacturers to extract as much money as possible out of it's consumers. To accept DLC as an integral part of the game is ludicrous & has resulted in the current farcical game mechanics of today. If you buy a game - you buy the game - not pay for it for the rest of it's playing life. I understand the fanboys can't live without DLC because it is the only way they can stand out from the crowd & it can be entertaining but the current game market is a result of people accepting the new era of DLC instead of rejecting it for "completed" games. Fortunately this game does not hold a high level of DLC so a few niche items may be interesting but not at a high price. If you want to throw money down the drain then go right ahead, fortunately I & many others are not that stupid.

Agreed. Yes I think you are right in saying that the devs are trying to prevent the game becoming a soloist event which I would support wholeheartedly. This is not a COD style spray & pray game, it is in essence a Sim of sailing in the day. Pirates can & should still have solo efforts as this was the common effect of piracy in the day. We co-operate with any faction clan in events but is more organized by individuals than clans so your reference to collaboration would be a valuable asset. Unfortunately not everybody has the same ideals in this or any game so it can be difficult sometimes to get co-operation. Some sort of mechanic could be created to adapt faction co-operation into the mainstream of the game - War Room - for clans to discuss strategy for PB's etc with some form of reward/rep for participation in faction events? Trade Room - for clans to interact over the factions crafting requirements with some form of reward/rep for interaction. I believe this game is about teamwork & strategy to a common end - naturally some factions behave in different manners but a common goal should be established to keep it a team game.

What he said ...... We also enjoy teaching newcomers the highs & lows of Naval Action - some like to explore & learn themselves, others enjoy the assistance offered. Whatever your style, look for us in the open world & say g'day.

Appreciated mate. Yes by that calculation we do indeed have 50 slots but some items require multiple slots to accommodate the volume crafting needs - coal, iron ore, hemp etc. To facilitate the needs some of us have the same mines so we can fulfill the crafting needs. Some items may not be as necessary as others but to supply 10 clansmen with ships, medkits & upgrades, I think some additional spaces should be provided. We have a committee of sorts that identifies what each of us needs to bring to the table so we can be effective in our crafting needs. With our current supply/demand we still run low at times. The game started with 5 spaces & although crafting has increased the spaces haven't which leads me to SUGGEST it may be warranted. We all have our own style of play & no-one should belittle that - what works for some doesn't work for others - which is why we are provided with a forum for discussions of interest.

I think it is you that doesn't listen - it was not a whine or complaint. It was simply a suggestion as to accommodate the extra crafting requirements - no-one has whined about it except you. Please try to be objective when replying to posts or you simply look unintelligent & childish. Appreciate that you play solo as pirates to keep with tradition - that is honorable.

What a typical response - why have a clan at all if you all play solo? This is more intended for the community player not soloists.

Do you people not get it? As a clan we have interaction with other players constantly, we have many buildings to supply our needs but now with the added crafting there is not enough resources available to accommodate. As with many clans they already had crafting regimes organised but now it all has to be re-planned due to the added crafting requirements. 5 slots only seems a restriction on clan trade & should be lifted - not ridiculously but to accommodate the extra crafting that has been added. Just because someone makes a post doesn't mean it is a selfish request as most of you quickly label it, it is an identified problem that a player or players have & want clarification. The devs add new content that relies on established mechanics but no extra functions are added to that mechanic to accommodate. When crew was introduced, a new crafting mechanic was introduced to replenish men, so extra function in the mechanic but no addition to support it. It is a game - please try & distance it from Your Real Life.

I think with the addition of 3 more resource units it should be time to re-think the level of building ownership. Adding crew medkit crafting has added new requirements to the resource list but it is difficult to output what is needed. With only 5 buildings currently allowable it is very hard to be able to support all the current requirements, would we be interested in this - 1/ Each outpost owned has a max of 2/3 buildings per with a max outpost holding of 6 ? 2/ Lift the current buildings limit to 7 in total to allow for the extra crew crafting mechanics. Either way we need extra access to resources to compliment the need created by recent additions. Thoughts ?

I was on my usual afternoon resource run back to Kingston, unloaded & sailed off to my holding port for this ship at Pedro Cay. It was a beautiful day so I thought I'd take the scenic route out to the east of Pedro - had picked up a bottle in that area before so thought i might as well go round - you never know. You never know was right, out of the shining sun to the east comes a French Rattlesnake who must have noticed my trader's snow at about the same time I saw him. Zoom, he turns toward me & away we go - knowing that I would not get away & that my hold was empty, I decided to play with him for awhile, twisting & turning & just making his play so much harder. Naturally informed nation chat & by the time he had me, we had 3 ships awaiting his exit. I too jumped into Pedro & grabbed my rattle & sailed out to search for him. We did manage to find him but were unable to re-engage him .... The ode to the frenchman comes from the fact that while searching for him I picked up 3 bottles, lost no resources & only lost a traders snow that i had taken from a Frenchman a week earlier. Cheers Bloke ...

I think this thread has run it's course, lost it's direction & turned into a trolling contest - maybe it's time to close this before it gets out of hand.

You may find the reason so many people are AFK fishing is the cost of crew replacements. Noticed last night there were nearly 600 people on PVP1 but only 75 battles being waged. Previously i would see 300 people & 200 battles. I believe some of the fishing fleets are just fed up with the ridiculous crew cost mechanic & are opting for the easier chance of a bottle. Last night I went into 2 x 169 mission battles - lost 100 crew in each against an AI that only lost 30 crew. Until this mechanic is fixed, I think you will find a lot less battles than should be expected. Nerf the crew replacement costs so people can actually play the game before the devs kill it.

Hungry? Did 2 fishing trips yesterday around 5 OW days each - lots of fish, 1 shark , no bloody bottles. Now they drop the frequency - I think I'm contracting Cenosillicaphobia - the fear of an empty glass

But they run away when confronted .... hmmmmn .... not very brave young laddies to say the least.

Game was on Steam sale over the weekend which has brought a lot of new players in, hopefully they will stick around long enough to enjoy it.

I ran an Ingermanland with fireship fitting into a mission battle. Very soon after starting i was set ablaze by the enemy, starboard bow. I used urgent repairs & ship repairs but nothing could put the fire out. I did not however explode - maybe due to repair efforts - but rather the fire burnt off one side of my ship which eventually sunk because of this. I still had full control of ship & even laid it against a few enemy ships hoping to set them ablaze. I had full cannon function & kept fighting until i sank. The fact the ship never exploded meant by catching fire I was just going to suffer a slow & annoying death that couldn't be avoided. The only casualty of that particular fireship was it's crew ..... destroyed the fitting as soon as i got back to port.

A fireship is a floating bomb - there should be no escape from it as in it's design it is to blow apart taking anything nearby with it. I don't understand it's inclusion in the game as it is a one way event & i'm not aware of any players that want to die in the hope of taking a few souls with them. I could understand it becoming part of a fire damaged ships endgame but sailing into battle with the intent of self destruction doesn't sound like a voluntary action.

I think the new leak mechanic preventing a ship leaving a battle is the wrong direction to go. In a fleet battle , if a ship is stricken it will immediately move to the rear of the fleet for protection & repair. In the current mechanic if you are leaking you can no longer leave the battle giving the aggressor the ability to simply turn away & let you sink knowing you can't leave. This is a broken mechanic for the reason stated above as it is not the way it would really happen. The devs want to claim it is a real world sailing sim but they keep adding these stupid mechanics that simply turn it into an arcade game. If you want to produce a real world sim then do it & stop playing stupid games with the development. The old mechanic worked very well - why change it? for the pirates ? for your own amusement? for the death of the game? Come on people how about some sensible tweaks to the mechanics that actually need them like wind or invisible sand bars that obviously should highlight with a lighter water color due to the shallow depth not be the same color as deep water - simple obvious things like that not nerfing the nations for the pirates.

Longbeard is simply trying to protect his unnaturally easy pirate perks, nothing he has said so far is productive, simply putting down any suggestion & the players that bring them up. In what universe did pirates hold the majority of carribean ports? To defend the current broken mechanic simply states that you are inconsiderate of other players & possibly should refrain from posting unless you can add something useful to the argument. As stated above, this thread is a working discussion on how to fix the gameplay so EVERYONE can enjoy it not to simply NERF the pirate faction as you so poorly put it. I've noticed since the big factions moved to piracey there are very few players on the server - either fix this sensibly or risk losing the game before it even goes public. Slow & no response send no message at all. WAKE UP devs game is slipping ........

Although this may sound a bit far fetched, it is a possible solution to the current pirate mechanic drama. Pirates should not be able to attack ports on mainland & large islands as these depots would be highly manned & easily re-enforced. Pirates should be free to attack any ship or small island as this was a common practice of piracy. When a pirate is captured or sunk, his account is sunk with it in a similar fashion to changing factions. XP & crafting levels would remain the same but ships & booty would be lost or possibly by using a clan warehouse could protect some assets but would still have to create a new account. A pirate's mandate is to get as much as you can any way you can with the penalty of death or imprisonment so this in effect would give a death penalty to a pirate commensurate with the law of the day. This would make the pirate mechanic a more skill based game as the threat of " death " would be a constant. I believe this would lessen the appeal of piracy while maintaining the hardcore pirates existence. Just a thought - cannons at ease ....

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14344-solution-for-pirate-mechanic/ - I put my 2 cents worth in & thread gets closed so no-one can see it - thanks very much. You cpould have moved it here instead ..............................

Although this may sound a bit far fetched, it is a possible solution to the current pirate mechanic drama. Pirates should not be able to attack ports on mainland & large islands as these depots would be highly manned & easily re-enforced. Pirates should be free to attack any ship or small island as this was a common practice of piracy. When a pirate is captured or sunk, his account is sunk with it in a similar fashion to changing factions. XP & crafting levels would remain the same but ships & booty would be lost or possibly by using a clan warehouse could protect some assets but would still have to create a new account. A pirate's mandate is to get as much as you can any way you can with the penalty of death or imprisonment so this in effect would give a death penalty to a pirate commensurate with the law of the day. This would make the pirate mechanic a more skill based game as the threat of " death " would be a constant. I believe this would lessen the appeal of piracy while maintaining the hardcore pirates existence. Just a thought - cannons at ease ....