Henry d'Esterre Darby

It's a known bug that hasn't been rectified just yet. Hang in there.

He was sailing a Santissima by himself, and did so in a way that all of those ships could get into the circle and attack. Pretty foolish move, and the screen has nothing to do with the mechanic discussed in this thread. Without context (how did this battle shape up, who was doing what and where), it's pretty worthless really. He could have been sitting AFK outside of a port allowing everyone to simply sail up and attack him en force. 1.5BR is to prevent a massive pile-on from everyone that is in the area, but not in formation. As stated multiple times, it is not intended to prevent a closely packed enemy from all getting into the battle.

That they haven't changed things overnight based on your feedback isn't surprising, and I don't think it's reasonable for you to expect changes that fast. Changes take time, and receiving enough data to make an intelligent change versus just slamming them in left and right every time there is a complaint is important.

There's no denial. The contents of these posts are being read, considered, and any actions that may be taken regarding the new features and tuning will be undertaken with people's feedback here in mind. The feedback in this thread has already generated discussion behind the scenes. Do not, however, expect a Developer to come in here, throw themselves prostrate, and beg forgiveness, though. My posts in this thread have been an attempt to guide the conversation. I'm sorry if you feel that my pointing out how things work is condescension, I'm simply disagreeing with a number of the assertions that have been made. I'm also attempting to stem the tide of people who like things to be easy and simply want an AI battle to be a guaranteed "I win" situation. I'm not entirely sure that's good for the game itself. We're allowed to disagree with each other without calling names or resorting to histrionics to do so.

The forum rules are also the in-game rules. Change terminology to fit as needed. Trolling, off topic, etc. all still applies in the game. As to the rest, you have asked, Admin has answered you. Please follow the rules.

To clarify, the "escalation chart" (1st is a warning, second is a 2 day premoderation, etc) is a guideline. It's what is generally followed in minor cases. At any time, based on the severity of the offense, a user may go straight from no warnings to a suspension or ban without passing any of those steps. Captains should not feel that they can get away with being nasty to others or breaking the rules a few times before it becomes "serious". If your behavior is severe enough, you can find yourself with a chat ban or forums suspension on your first violation. Please follow the rules and treat each other with respect.

PvE players have been howling for more diversity and something to do for months. They got their wish, I'd say it was time well spent personally. Either way, this has to be looked at holistically - macro not micro. "I can't beat the AI (I can't beat them when there are two of them, when they're in the same ship, etc) so it needs to be nerfed" isn't the correct way to approach the problem. "New players can't do their starter missions now." That's the correct way to look at this.

There are two schools of thought in game design (at least related to the issue you're raising): 1. Everyone is always a hero. 2. Skill is important and that means sometimes you lose. Up to now, AI has been more along the lines of #1. Simple, very very easy to defeat, even when the AI was in a ship that was way above your class. It's been moved far more towards #2 now. Yes, I'll agree that making a game challenging will certainly cause players to leave. The question is, what type of player? Is it the type of player that just wants to grind up to maximum, then gets bored and leaves anyways? Is it the type of player that doesn't want a challenge - just wants to win constantly and again, will get bored and leave anyways? Perhaps it's the type of player that is discouraged but could potentially grow to love the game despite the challenge. Possibly you're causing new players to uninstall and refund out of frustration. Some of these players will leave anyways. The game, regardless of the features, isn't suitable for them. Others are valuable and those players are good for the game. It's very possible AI will be scaled so that at low levels, they're the old, simple, stupid, inaccurate AI that we've seen so far (and by the way - look at the posts about AI around the time that EA launched - they were WAY TOO HARD, cheaters, and needed to be nerfed - those posts trailed off over time), but by the time you're in a 5th rate, they're the current challenging skill-requiring hardness that they are right now. This issue simply isn't "AI is too hard now, make them bad again please".

Please use one of the existing pirate threads. Thank you!

The player still has an advantage, they can think ahead and plan. The NPC can only react. The player can maneuver and present a smaller angle when they know the NPC is about at the end of their reload, etc. There are all manner of interesting things one can do to an opponent that doesn't plan ahead. With regards to taking on two slightly lower enemies, it should be extremely risky and challenging. One can rake while the other plies your broadside. Further, look at weight of throw: 1 Surprise - You 2 Cerberus - Them. Surprise - 12 9lb on the gun deck, 7 6lb on the weather deck - total broadside weight: 160lbs Cerberus - 13 9lb - total broadside weight: 117lbs. Times two ships - 234lbs. You're outclassed - all the moreso since half of those guns can bear on you in any direction. While you can still win by stringing them out a bit (the AI still doesn't chase very well, if you can keep one engaged and running with you, the other will try to rake you and fall far enough behind to no longer be a factor), it should be touch and go. It should be extremely challenging and require a lot of skill.

To fully clarify - it's not that all chance of bounce was removed, it's that the maximum chance to penetrate at close range was erroneously set at 90%. So at a range where a ball should always penetrate, there was still only a 90% chance that it would. At correct ranges, balls should still bounce. With regards to your specific situation, please repeat the test with your friend. F11 when you think the 6lb balls should be bouncing. That bug report is how any investigation can be done on the Developers side.

Part of the discussion is making the low rank AI easier, yes. It is very possible this change has made Mishipman missions impossible for new players, and that's obviously not a good thing. I killed an AI Snow and Niagara in an Oak Surprise, but it took every bit of my skill. This may actually be historical - their weight of throw was pretty serious, and with one being able to put me under raking fire, it was dangerous as it would have been in real life, but it may not be "fun". Personally, I found this to be refreshing, challenging, and fun. I'm only one player though.

Don't misunderstand me. For sure, you definitely ARE taking more damage than you were prior to the patch. You are also dealing more damage than you were before the patch. AI's cannon were NOT buffed in a way that your cannon weren't. AI's accuracy was NOT buffed in a way that your cannon weren't. What happened was: AI was made more accurate by removing a bug that caused them to: a. Shoot into the water/over your hull, behind your hull very frequently, and b. Shoot at you at angles that had a high chance of bouncing - effectively wasting their shot. In addition: A bug that caused 10% of shots to ALWAYS fail to penetrate was fixed. A 42lb ball had a 10% chance of not penetrating a cutter. Ridiculous. This has made AI stronger than they were before. I agree with that, Admin agrees with that, and I'm sure every last jack in this thread agrees with that. Now, when we hear people talk about "Cheating AI", and crap like that, our ears turn off, because we know for a fact that the AI has the same abilities that you as a player do. Some of them carry some nice modules - yes. However, those modules are no better or worse balanced than they are in the hands of a skilled player. So, how about instead of saying that AI cheats, that they have abilities that we as players do not, that they're "unfair", let's do some testing and figure out: 1. Is AI really too strong? From a game playability standpoint, should players have a no challenge opponent that they can beat one handed while eating a sandwich and drinking a beer while watching Netflix on the other screen? Is the game more fun giving a decent challenge when you attempt a fight with an AI in the same ship as you, or is it more fun being able to smash ships that are two "tiers" above you with zero effort? 2. Are the changes to leaks and the resulting damage "increase" from the fixed penetration bug creating an unfun situation? If so, should damage be scaled down a little to "adjust" for the increased number of penetrating balls? 3. Are leaks too "firehose" right now? Are they causing you to sink too fast? Should the amount of flooding be scaled down, should maybe they not sink you as fast but require more crew to pump to provide a similar level of negative performance, or some other idea? This forum isn't for ranting and complaining and threatening to leave. This forum is to provide feedback on features and changes to the game. Feedback isn't "The AI cheats, I'm leaving if you don't fix it." That's a crap post and doesn't do anyone any good. Captains need to listen to what the Developers are telling you about what the changes actually did. If you have hard, concrete evidence that a change isn't acting the way we are stating it should, then please provide the evidence. Provide feedback on the change, which means suggesting solutions that are designed to better the game as a whole, not the game as you want to play it. Let's be constructive and work towards a better game. Running from thread to thread ranting and raving isn't the way this is going to work.

Penetration didn't go up. A bug causing all shots to have a 10% chance to fail to penetrate was removed. Combined with two bugs that caused the AI to shoot like a scrub were also fixed. These two items combined has resulted in players feeling like they're suddenly taking far more damage.

No need. The log isn't supported and isn't accurate. Filing bugs on it is a waste of time.

Chat violations need to be reported by right clicking the name of the person on an offensive statement and then clicking the "Report" button. Tribunal can not be used for reporting chat violations. Thanks!

People used to complain about the AI being laser accurate. In reality, they were very often shooting into the water or over the deck. The latest patch brought their accuracy far more into line with the players, which means it "seems" like they can do more damage than you, but in reality, they can now do nearly the same damage as you. Those 18lb balls should indeed do more damage - if you're hitting with all of them reliably. In fact, hitting that Pickle with all 18's below the normal waterline and putting him on the opposite tack means you'll likely be done worrying about that pickle in short order. I'll also note that everything pens everything at close range. If you've closed yardarm to yardarm, those 6's are going to go right through you. All things being equal, a Mercury should defeat a Snow (especially if you're sitting there trading broadsides with it) - it has nearly twice the planking to lose. If you're going to attack a Mercury or a Navy Brig in a Snow, you'd be advised to understand your advantages versus those vessels and use them to their greatest degree if you're going to hope to beat them. If you expect to be able to sit broadside on and trade iron, you're going to sink for sure. The AI has the exact same guns you do. Exactly, the, same. They may aim them better than you do, but that's something that you need to work on.

There is already an internal testing environment, you can easily establish that one exists from screenshots that are shown during the development process from time to time. You assume that leaks, as implemented, are the result of a bug. They are not. In fact, the current penetration and leaks are the result of fixing a bug. This game is in Early Access - says so right on the front page of Steam. It says to expect bugs, wipes, and other problems as the game is being tested. I've seen a number of trade ships in a short sail in the area in which I operate. In fact, I attacked a French AI convoy consisting of a Traders Brig, Niagara, and Snow yesterday within 6 minutes of logging in. 1.5BR is working as intended, as developed and designed. We are giving it a good workout and are here to suggest changes based on our experience. You make a lot of assumptions about what is and is not a bug, and what is and is not intended. In fact, this thread reads very much like a continued attempt to denigrate the developers, which you were cautioned not to do yesterday. Either stay, provide constructive feedback, and understand that many features and parameters will come and go, be increased and decreased, so that the right balance can be found, or take a break and come back when the game is farther along. Early Access is about testing the game. If you don't want to test, please wait until a later stage of development and then come back.

Before, you always started at a good distance from the enemy. After patch, you can start within a biscuit toss of the enemy. I believe the loading of guns gives everyone a moment to get sails up and start maneuvers. You gained at least one rank. They lowered the XP requirements for each rank so your existing rank increased.

There is only one person who can do that, but likely not until tomorrow. Please put your in-game name here so that a developer can look at the logs and determine the reason you were banned. Please follow the rules on the forums and in the game. Further violations will result in a warning.

The link to the rules is provided on the Store Page for the game, right under System Requirements. Regardless, you will follow the rules or lose your chat privileges permanently. This matter is closed.

They are linked on the home page of steam, and are also provided when you purchase the game. The rules are here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/2346-forum-and-sea-trials-rules/

I won't argue semantics. You agreed to the rules when you chose to play the game. Please treat others with respect and you won't lose your chat privileges.

Please continue this discussion in the Patch thread: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/13106-patch-97-land-sighted/?view=getnewpost

Tons of them. Look around a bit.