Hethwill, the Red Duke

32pdr leaks are nasty, take a lot of men to repair ( leak repair + pumpers = survival crew ) Also, as EliteDelta puts, speed reduction is essential. I don't think only depower would be enough in the case of 32pdr holes + fir leak reduction penalties. Battle sails at least.

8 leaks produced by what guns ? note: fir leak reduction value is very poor

Moved to correct board

During the initial 2 minutes of battle ANY ship can enter the battle. After that period the RoE mechanic will make the BR checks. In your situation, after the 2 minutes the battle would become closed for both sides.

Did the second Trinc entered during the initial 2 minutes ? #screenshot ?

Agreed. Privateer and Lynx, 30 BR and 20 BR respectively, when a Trader Brig is 45 BR. After 2 minutes the trader has no chance for support. ( and no it can't escape downwind unless empty and very very VERY fast, i know it )

No. Only damage done by player controlled ship yields any form of XP. If you let AI do the work, you will get at most an assist and XP/reward corresponding to your %% done.

Long ago, was deemed too hardcore, but taking the trader with its cargo was better than sinking it. If Trader models ( excluding the LGV and Indiaman ) gave no Combat Medals, it could ease out the carnage out there, because Trader Brigs and Trader Snow hunts fill PvP Hunt 6-7 missions really fast and provide zero risk.

Players need to sail out to be able to do that. And what the majority of players wants is an assurance of "victory" every time they sail out. They don't want to be HERO. They want to WIN every time. I know you guys can't solve that. Just venting a bit. I still stand by my "patch10" trade hunt. The reward for intercepting a trader should be the cargo value, not medals. Think about that.

It happened many times, just like shown above when the Opyt ( Empire of Russia ) was intercepted and taken by the HMS Salsette and was later put in service as the HMS Baltic. In game we have TOTAL freedom ( ruled by game design mechanics ). In reality each captain, each vessel, had a mission. In the case of frigates it was very clear. Sail out and intercept all enemy shipping. In the case of Ships-of-the-line it totally depends on the era, if War of Spanish Succession, Seven Years War, or later Coalition Wars versus Napoleon. Despite my disliking for RoE timers ( my all time favourite was the big circle immediate close ) the latest version feels more competent. We have been having escalating fights as much as one sided ones. So hard to quantify but you devs have all data. Suggestion: Change CLERK message to - (captain name) sunk (nation) (ship model) near (port) What I am intrigued is about the Patrol Zone. Do the maximum BR per side in the zone apply ? Say Nassau Patrol zone with 1000 BR or whatever it is, or did the limit got removed ?

Fair enough. Suffering by anticipation is your own choice, just make sure you are clear to all others that "you don't know" and "this is just me making assumptions" so it is not read as factual information. o7

Is not stated anywhere that ALL A.I. will be hostile.

I am a player first, moderator second. I will comment on the game same as any player. If you offend someone's daughter or mother, I will moderate. Have fun.

Any changes made to the game, in my personal view, that improve the combat simulator are welcome, as the MMO part is just a driving mechanic to lead into combat events. You have a personal agenda and you aren't even paying attention to what everyone else is discussing. God gave us two ears and just one mouth, so we hear twice as much as we talk. That's not a sim, is a arena game. And I can. Is a combat wargame.

Game is multiplayer and clan based, in essence. Not different from other multiplayer, team based games. While it has the MMO sugar coat it is undeniable that is a quasi.simulation wargame. The arena is just VAST, and resources mechanics different. As in many multiplayer simulation wargames you will have to play with others, sail, fly, march with them towards your immediate, and your long term objectives. There are no specific scenarios other than the ones you and others setup. Be it in the War or the Peace servers. On the War server, PvP will be when you want it and when others want it, no matter if you want it or if they want it. It is based on two things - OW chance encounters and provoked fleet actions; OW area blockades and Conquest mechanics. Now, if you want to be part of it all you must accept multiplayer clan based wargame. If you simply want to embrace the joy of OW chance encounters solo is okay, just don't expect all the others that are here for the multiplayer clan based gameplay to be merciful. And as a sidenote, what do you think a "newcomer" in a air combat sim feels when he is shot out of the blue without even noticing the bandit on his 6 ? POOF gone. What about your beautiful multicrew bomber being "ganked" by a squadron of bandits ? Is it a gank ? No. It is a interception and destruction of a enemy before it hits your own base or whatever. So...Try again. And again. And again... and learn. And when that said "newcomer" starts to understand why the veteran did this and that and snatches his first kill, a new world opens. NA is not so different from it. Do not dismiss the willingness of any player in any game to learn, if the player really like the game, for its setting, for its mechanics, for its deliver of personal fun ( it is a hobby after all ). And plenty of NA players have learned and pass knowledge everyday to others. Now... if they are willing to learn or simply want to rush somewhere is another subject entirely. There's no safety in a pvp multiplayer combat environment. The only safety is to sail with your buddies and kill the other guys before they kill you.

Shorter but high intensity. And more thunder clapping and lightning. It is still here - great to see the forks in the distance when approaching it; at least was. Been quite a while since i saw one of those. So... much shorter but very intense storms. Fog banks without rain could be a weather condition as well

Very rare exception. The same example of use of hot shot could be given when the french navy tried... with devastating results for the ship in the test Other than that Fires in game are not "dangerous" in the way they barely affect normal functions of the ship.

Realism tells that cost of construction + cost of operation is the deciding factor of numbers of ships in any given nation. ( alas now is clan vs clan... ) We have cost of construction in game. It is on a acceptable form, by general consensus. We do not have to refit and equip for operations at all ( for more information refer to operation costs of ships of the line and cruise frigates during the age of sail ). Say, what would be costly: to equip a cruise frigate to go hunt a enemy frigate, say HMS Phoebe to go and hunt the Essex or to pay the cost of a HMS Minotaur to do the same job ? That would be too draconian as some put it but is the most deciding factor IRL.

Also there's way more better things than ever before ( every time i see 2016 i go... hmmm... ). - land in battles - crew sounds - leeway - broadside weight ... just to name a couple.

That's a interesting approach, as a genesis. All in all we can go through the ship for the task design but odds will never be kind. A small group can take their 10 Cerberus, a bigger will take 30. We see that now. A big group can hostility and deploy hostility mission screens. Small group can do jack... There's zero asymmetry opportunities, say like there was in ol'patch 10. Eco was different and somehow linked correctly to world events - smaller nations could paralyse a bigger one production line - but also wasn't clan versus clan as it is today. Any limitations, as the game rules stand now as today, will only reduce smaller groups capabilities while not affecting the bigger ones at all. It is a mathematical certainty. But then, and i know i sound terribly romantic when i talk about patch 10, when a convoy of ship building parts was raided and some folk lost two weeks worth of resources and labour hours the outcry was so big that game rules had to be changed to less hardcore options which favours a "blue versus reds" type of game setup. I don't mind the road to that scenario. It is how we, the players, adjust to certain game rules and accommodate ourselves to the bigger game. But I like your way of thinking. Worth working it more for a game base scenario where there is no odds and every player can bring whatever they want to the table.

no teleports

Gotcha. Then, in regards to OP subject, it will still be smaller gain of experience. I'm just focusing that specific issue and the truth is, XP is scaled with challenge. So no fast experience with easy or even more easier challenges.

You take as granted that all players do want it easy while many actually do want challenge, but fair point. I ask again, what will happen when your 55 point region is taken by enemy ? Will you change again ?

The 500xp ones instead of the 2000XP ones are slower and easier. Those are the examples posted by the OP, the second by Koltes. There's also even slower and easier for total newcomers with 7th rate missions from capitals. But OP suggests it is too slow if it is easy.

You mean put all eggs in one basket ( so many points in one port ) ? What happens if said port is taken and all your eggs are smashed ? What is the difference to now ? Actually a region ( capital + satellite ports ) can have a lot of points, permitting to spread that region industry. But I'd like to read more of you reasoning, it seems you may be on to something, just not explaining it too well.