Hethwill, the Red Duke

At the moment the downside of being a pirate = open to be attacked by anyone at all times aka. no Alliance political status, we have only war or enemy. If no one takes advantage of that fact can't be blamed on mechanics.

Sure. RoE and combat

Trade raiding will be even more of a game thing in the future. Ask for escorts. - Trader has no rank - One raider jumping a trader is not a gank, its a pyracy. Nailed a trader full of materials for ship building on the canal running the coast from Kingston to Port Morant right at the eastern edge of old port royal island. There were 2 Surprises, 2 Renomes and 2 Mercuries standing at view range inside the bay. Those I could see, no idea if there were more beyond view range. Someone won't have their ship built in time this week. Do you think they came to save their trader ? Wrong. I even told in Global that we thanked the Royal Navy to be sitting in capital circle waiting to "gank" the enemy squadrons while leaving their traders open to predators. Three situations arised. One 17 vs 3 on behalf of enemy, with no one else joining to help the 3 poor souls and just watching the battle close from a stone throw away. Next battle they jumped, finally having the guts to do it, 20 vs 6. In the meanwhile the trade raiders were running carefree due to the present RN captains being a bunch of whiny babies about 2 minute timers and Socialize being unavailable.

We can ask ONCE to be reset, rank and all. I'm keeping that one chance for release.

All of this effectively changes the scope of the game from we acting "the captain" to us acting "the navy board" / "le armateur". It is all fine ideas, just find them kind of dettached from the idea of acting commander of a ship and thus becoming more of a Admiralty on our own rights.

I shall nerf Sweden !!!!!

My bad indeed. I meant to say that if variable wind is to be introduced we should stick with Devs proposal. It "tasted" like honey IMO.

Number 1 is a fallacy. Very gamey and with no credibility. Devs proposed variable winds a while ago based on realistic effects, from light ships up to ships of the line behaviour in different wind strengths, instead of "speed bonus" gamey thing. Light ships risk serious rigging damage and even mast breaks in very strong winds while a Ship of the line might actually behave better in that type of wind, just as an example. No idea if they dropped it or if they are still working on it. In all cases it would add a very important layer to the game.

And any ideas about the "BR invulnerable bubble" ?

Damn you... would think no one would spot it.

smurfs

Being a commander in a computer game: - "Giving ideas where we are all going to die next." Easy as that. Eventually the buddies actually might win the engagement

That is normal Ultravis. They weren't close to the engagement when it started. They might be out of visual range or sailing up wind. In both cases, taking time scale, by the time they would arrive the battle would be long decided. Let's put a "always open" battle scenario. Take for example...Cayman Brac to Litte Cayman diameter for a battle instance. That's about 3 minutes with good wind at 75x time compression. Battle instance is 1x. A buddy is attacked outsider of Little Cayman on his trader, you read his SOS and jump out of port at Cayman Brac ( giving a freebie here, your ship should be deployed at sea ), you enter the battle instance. You will navigate for roughly 225 minutes until you hit the engagement point. Fair and square for both parties. Battle is always open ( until time runs out ) and time compression is not abused.

Trader models ( including LGV and Indiaman and any future types ) should be open for tag by any ship. NPC fleets should not add BR therefore not creating a "invulnerability" bubble.

Thanks for the insight Ragor. I am sure it will serve a purpose. If not, hell who cares !!!

I'd say you miss a lot in that equation, despite all the latest developments. I fondly remember running corsair mode during french-dutch war of aeons ago and it was great to fight alongside Pellasgos and the others from a small group all the way from Macareo and around the area there. Also had some excellent bouts with the Swedes alongside him all over the Dutch territory and even up in Plymouth and although I still held to my corsair ships and he jumped up to 74 guns and above routinely. No idea what happened after that. I went off my own way and suddenly he is the evil twin of Palpatine.

Absolutely !!!! There's no point in leaving anyone in the dark or badly impressed simply because we can't be arsed. Plan our cruises and take one of the new captains with us showing a mix of long sailing, and helping out with opening a free port outpost, attacking some AI and working wind a bit. etc etc etc As opposite to "missions...xp....rank....big ship....". I launched this as a wake up call after having some nice chats with newcomers of several nations. Most of them had a very rudimentar idea of what to do and immediately went to the "money making" path, IMO wrong wrong wrong advice from nation chats for sure.

( maybe because, it could be that, reward for dmg dealt is for testing purposes only ?... )

Wish everyone did

I disagree on the fact that wooden walls aren't. And iron men are. Not enough Morale in play during the broadsides exchange.

I think I might be giving voice to many sailors and crews when I ask the following... Did you in your exploration voyages spot any Mermaids ?!

First impressions are lasting and everything helps. There are a lot of clans. There are a lot of players that do not want to join clans. I've seen a lot of them sailing alone ( which is exactly what shouldn't be happening but paired up with a veteran fellow ) and felt really good to simply anchor for a bit in the OW and chat with them, talking about ships, the controls and answering specific questions or directing them to someone who will surely know more about a subject - for example I have no idea about trading of in depth crafting so I divert them to the players I know that are more into it and hope the newcomers get their answers. Help channel works great and should be default chat.

The coming update and the Bahamas area will be excellent for this.

I've came across, in the open world, a fair quantity of newcomers to the game. Had good chats with them and welcomed them to the game, answered a couple questions and bid them farewell. Would be nice for every newcomer to pair up with a veteran and learn some of the cool things about the game, experience the sailing, the different playstyles - not talking about how to powergame.

Yes. Ganking is no fun. Nothing is learned from it. Ganking and revenge fleets are the devil. What does this have to do with timers ?