Henry d'Esterre Darby

Right now, I don't think we have any idea how it will turn out.

The problem are the people who think it's funny to mash it down the entire match. This, again, is why we can't have nice things.

It accepts spaces just fine.

The idea I had was to "age" the maps. Over time, their points shifted and became more and more inaccurate. You'd have to go resurvey to refresh them. Is this possible on a large scale? I'm not really sure. It would certainly take a nightly process.

Ugh. Is there a way to copy existing user names to the display name field for those that don't have them prior to the merge and then use the display name? I'm not a fan of losing my current name. Edit - I handle SQL Databases for a living, I'd be happy to work up a query if you wanted me to.

It's too much right now because it's complete. I like your idea of a map we can draw on, etc, but I think it should be filled in by you, and only if you spend some time at it. I've posted in the past about a cartography setup tied to Exploration that would create an ongoing need for people to plot and chart areas of the coastline (requiring you to spend time at a very slow pace in an area to get accurate readings), with drift over time to ensure that after a while, you needed to either make or purchase new maps to stay up to date.

Personally, I think that the map we have is too much. I'm not a fan of knowing the nationality, goods bought/sold, etc before I get there. The entire point of this age was that you could leave port and arrive only to find that your destination's nationality or goods available have changed since you left. You didn't have a way to call ahead and find all of these things out (though you might be lucky enough to get some news off of another ship you encountered on the way). I'd like to leave a sense of mystery where possible just to reflect the time this game is set in.

The current war footing is likely for testing. I expect (no guarantee) that after release that you will see varying states of war between nations, giving you an ever shifting tapestry of ports with which to trade. I'll agree, once the Neutral Ports are all captured and held, being from a smaller nation will be more of a challenge than choosing Britain or Spain.

Fair statement, however, you certainly didn't go to the local magistrate and try to buy a license to sell goods to the enemy.

The point is that you are at war with that Nation. Selling supplies (or buying them) from an enemy port is treason.

What if they're running cargo into a red port? What stops them from doing that? You'd need some sort of "Mark as Contraband" flag they'd have to engage prior to leaving port to enable them to drop off cargo at a red port.

Interesting. What is different about today?

If there is a complaint about the reinforcement system, please make it over in the Combat forum so that the developers as a whole can see it. Please be clear about what is wrong, and provide any ideas you have for how to make it better. Thank you.

The current intent is to require that ships other than the basic ships currently for sale will be solely crafted by players. That market will adjust and level out as adjustments to the program is made as testing data comes in. So for now, you should not expect to see the NPC stores offer ships other than the basic ones currently for sale. The finished game will have premium ships and perhaps other paid cosmetic items in it. This is necessary to keep the Developers paid as they create new content and to keep the servers and monthly bandwidth paid for. The only option available in an online game is a monthly subscription, or some sort of ongoing transaction system that will keep revenue flowing in. The Developers do not like a subscription model, but they have settled on a pay once, play forever model, with premium ships and paid cosmetic or other items supplying an ongoing revenue stream to keep the game alive.

I don't believe I made a "fool" out of you - I simply disagreed with you and gave my logic for doing so. This is a discussion forum and we are certainly allowed to constructively discuss a topic or idea. My statement regarding other Captains wanting what I'm proposing comes from discussions in many threads over the last year and a half - this is a new thread and others haven't had a chance to reply yet. Some will simply agree with my post, like it, and not post themselves. Others will disagree with my assertions and they will post their reasons why they believe I'm wrong or misguided. Let's stick to the issue here - being able to teleport clear across the map with a hold full of goods is, in my opinion, not good gameplay and will cause damage to the overall playability and fun of the game for a large number of people.

Bear in mind that while Game Labs is striving for a game that is playable by those of us (myself included) that don't have a lot of nightly playing time, one must realize at the same time that dumbing everything down to the degree necessary to make all features fully accessible to players with 3, or 2, or even 1 hour a night to play will mean a shallow game that will not be very fun or have a lot of longevity. Nothing is stopping you from crafting if you only have a few hours at a time to play, but the amount and frequency that you can build a ship will drop compared to a player that has 8 hours a day to play. You'll also have to accept that you may have to make a decision between crafting and combat that night with so few hours. That's the nature of online gaming. Many in this thread are advocating for the ability to ship goods from place to place in a slower, more automated manner to prevent having to sail those goods around manually. I think having such a system, where maybe a longer trip means that your goods show up the next real world day is a far better compromise than allowing the existence of a system that allows a port to remain fully operational despite a full-time blockade from an enemy nation that is running outside of it. We need the meta-game of resource management/denial and economic warfare for a viable game - this meta is what will keep players interested and coming back for more. If you don't have the time to run goods around, then once all of the economic features are in place you'll need to contract with other players to move those goods for you (giving them something to do and a mission to fulfill) and/or cooperate with them to run a shipyard at the volume you desire. That's good gameplay and an easy way to give lots of players in game a constructive purpose (and therefore interesting things to do). The very nature of an online game/sandbox is creating the need to work as a team with others - both to create, and to destroy/capture. That teamwork is what creates self sustaining "missions" and activities that will ensure a game is interesting and has staying power for years instead of weeks. Edited to add that this also applies to travel times. Having to plan ahead as to your area of operations means that you can use secrecy and quiet fleet movements to surprise attack an enemy. Being able to jump around willy-nilly with your ship and everything you own with a fast cool down timer makes the map so small that you may as well not worry about intelligence and resource management at all. If I can jump across the entire map with a ship and a hold full of cargo three or four times a day, then why have a large map at all? You could restrict it to a single island and be done with it.

It's perfectly realistic, or at least as realistic as many other portions of the game. Captains at the time had to take passage aboard other ships to reach their command if it wasn't already near to where they were. Yes, we're doing it on a faster scale, but limiting the frequency (Eve's 24 hours is pretty good in my opinion) will allow the fun gameplay we're looking for, while preventing exploitative movement of crafting and other tactically sensitive supplies and war materiale.

Teleport should move the Captain only. The ship and all its contents should stay in the port from which the Captain teleports. This should be more of a feature to move quickly to somewhere you need to be, and less a feature to move assets. I entirely agree with your sentiment.

No worries, I'm really glad you got it sorted out!

There is another problem here. That he was able to sit still with sails down and remain an effective firing platform. A number of us have been advocating for massive penalties to accuracy for ships that are carrying no sail. You should be encouraged to be at least at battle sails at all times, and use your yards if you want to try to hold an approximate position. Past that, I'd agree that usage of the boarding mechanic is quite flawed.

Reinstall is pretty quick, but yes, that would be a good next step. Sorry to hear you're still having issues. Keep posting what you're trying and we'll keep making suggestions.

Please do not crosspost in other threads. The developers do monitor this board.

The current estimate is late this NEXT year, but that may change based on development needs. As this is a duplicate question, I'm going to lock this thread. Please feel free to use the search feature on the forums to learn more about the game and the current testing efforts. Thank you.

No, Steam is the only way to log in, and there are no other alternative login schemes that have been announced.

Snoopy, it's less hate and more a wish that ships other than Bellona and up remain useful and sailed. If the SoL is easy to get, easy to maintain, and easy to sail/keep, then all you'll see are SoLs, unless it's a new player trying to start playing the game, in which case they're going to have a really unfun time trying to dodge all of the superior ships. In order to avoid having to "balance" ships (and I very certainly don't want that), we're going to have to find a way to limit SoLs. You should be competitive in a Surprise, and the enemy should have to pony up some serious resources to field an SoL against you.