Hethwill, the Red Duke

The major crew meat grinder is the Boarding system. It is not correctly implemented. It only needs, at this stage, to be tweaked to use the crew numbered focused on boarding and make it work from there. This will translate into effective historical setups. A frigate will have about 90 ( standard would be 48 marines plus officers and other crew ) or so men fighting for decks control instead of 350 which makes no sense at all and eats away the crew. Plus Firepower is rarely used by the players ( for the reason I explain ahead )but it eats away Morale faster than it does to enemy crew numbers ... but it will bounce on the 1 morale and stays there for eternity which is really annoying sometimes. So while I like the whole wind and position combat, and yes one has to pay for mistakes, the Boarding is where most crew is lost and needs revision really urgent. I support keeping the costs as they are at the moment for the player ship and crew. NPC Fleet crews should pay double (!) if they are here to stay.

My wrong then. Did overlook that part and did not link it to the AI, was thinking only players. S!

Basically I can program a cargo teleport, roger that. * pass me the hammer Otis...oh and a nail please *

Yes, a classic

AI with cargo, ok. How will you solve this: - Player in warship and NPC cargo hauler get attacked. Player warship is sunk or captured and is teleported to the nearest friendly or free ports but the NPC trader manages to escape. Given the Teleport with cargo is a no go where does the cargo go ? Where does the NPC go ?

That is correct. But given we do not have misfire mechanics we don't need the screwing at all.

Interesting that most suggestions for hardcore pirate mode comes from pirate themselves. The members that get into the closed board can attest to this. But then brains are expected to be used and not just a drooling eyes wide open - nerf crush hardcore !!! - stance.

For the sake of making a point a pirate raider fleet consisting of two brigs and one 32 guns cruiser engaged a enemy West Indiaman with a NPC fleet of one brig and one 2nd rate ship of the line. Was just a proof of concept. And it was fun because of the massive explosion of the Indiaman in the end. So instead of having 1 trader being raided by 1 pirate we had a trader with AI escort being raided by 3 pirates. We wanted to prove that instead of providing a more disperse concentration of trade raid efforts this new Fleet academy thing pushes the boundary of the "honest" piracy and privateering and somewhat localized "ganking" to a whole new level. What did change ? A lot. And more swoops of ganks will happen. It is simple maths. What will happen is that raiders will disappear and mere hooligan flotillas will show up. You bring fleets ? They will to. Will become a PvE fest that will bore down the interest in the long run.

The differences you present with bronze and iron guns have no substance. First of all it was a matter of resources availability, some nation had more tin and copper while other had more iron. Lifetime in use was defined by its own characteristics. Where one became brittle and could blow the other would get deformed and blow. I would introduce it flat with two ways of crafting, by iron and by tin and copper. The bored out ones carve me out as another unnecessary thing given we cannot load independente decks or guns in the same broadside. What could be introduced would be swivel guns as an upgrade if anything.

Interesting. Given the shallow water in battle do they fight normally ?

I hate to say this but, bluntly put crew is working like an insurance of sorts. Don't fly what you can't afford. Always have cash in reserve.

Social aspect has nothing to do with clans. Many of the pirates and privateers have no clan nor do they wish to but they are social enough.... in a multiplayer game. By the way what other sounds have you guys noticed apart from the seaguls, crew commands and water swoosh and splashes in the OW mainly ?

lol And maybe some bottles should be fakes and lead you to a trap ? xD

Yes, because SOLs and even frigates can actually catch up with traders right !?... *sigh* Does AI fleets even work as a measure versus "gankers" ?? Or is it only versus the lone ship ? What is the big benefit of fleets ? Still on the Sounds subject, there's a lot of voice commands tied to boarding preparation it kicks in when it reaches 50, full rudder and yard turns.

*yawn* Play privateer using a proper historical privateer ship and then come back and read again what you wrote. *sips coffee*

That's why there will be news and annoucements in game UI and call for votes and yes/no system etc IIRC.

This is correct in my POV. At the office we do the same thing to leave people uncomfortable and force them to discuss and come up with ideas There are a lot of positives in the patch. One I like the most is the Captain responsability for the crew. You are a bloodthirsty maniac with no concern for the lives of your men ? You weigh earnings versus your valuable crew and know when to retreat or surrender ? We might be on the more credible path to age of sail historical outcomes. First PvP battle after patch yesterday, 2 privateers versus a frigate, perfect wind onshore. Was a prolonged fight but in the end the enemy captain weighed his options and decided to strike the colours. It was the most smart move he could make. Saved his crew, saved his Officer. Lost one Dura. Still think fleets are obnoxiously intrusive to the PvP multiplayer social environment. They add absolutely nothing we cannot do ourselves. A trader escorted by a friend. A corsair squadron of 3 buddies. Best little gems of the patch, the sounds. I had noticed the seaguls and battle sounds. Yesterday in battle noticed friendly crews from other ships with now shouts when they were leaked. It sounded so great My only request, review penetration/damage slightly once more. Make the choice between longs/mediums valid again.

Crews, from officers to able sailors in navy were due: - pay, regular - prizes, irregular It is hard to establish a ratio but i'd say it would 1 to 50, taking on the low and the highest ( highest is about 1 to 400 ). This pay plus prizes would amount to 4 times more than the cost of the ship during the lifetime of the ship. Without reducing this what can be done ? - lifetime pay on hire and prize money pay on reaching port ? Now the question... what if I don't have enough treasure ? Do my crew pool drops ? This could be an idea.

Given we have only South Carolina coast... yeah... It is only a small iteration of a new economic thing. Remember the game is about naval combat backed up by trade. Economy evolves as much as it can support war and combat. That's it. It is not the purpose of the game.

And this is no nerf, nothing happened as everyone has access to everything. It is simply adding AI to a PvP battle. Regarding fleets and trade raid... Nationals do that as well. But hey, I am sure they are more benevolent, right, and will tap your should and kiss your cheek and let you go ! What about the correct pirate play and nation privateer play concerning using corvettes, brigs and sloops ? That's lynx up to the Cerberus. I'll drag it a bit more to the Suprise and Renomee for good measure. Stop thinking 4th rates, heavy frigates and ships of the line only... please.

I am trying to fish a mermaid since first time I fired up this game. Maybe now it becomes a real possibility !? Yeah prize catches could be nice

Fishermen are indeed innocent. Traders are the most guilty.

OW, click to expand to ship info, click Manage Crew, use slider I guess.

Frigates, Sloops and Brigs, definitely.

bahahaha... nope. But NOT rewarding failure would be interesting ( had a paper written long ago about the rewards in games whatever media. Then we saw all computer persistent games rewarding everything just to keep pop up... now we see a reversal with all survival ironman titles... who knows, maybe mmo titles pick up on something like that. I still like the tabletop stuff where you only win if you win )