PvP mechanics - a use for frigates

[Steelfury]

As we all know pvp is sometimes very hard to come by, unless you're doing port battles or you have a deathwish there's few ways to encourage people to engage in pvp with you. So here's my suggestion: similar to what people have suggested as a 'Pirate raiding mechanic' you should be able to form a raiding party, however these parties would be capped at 6 players i.e. one group, and consist of ships totaling a maximum of 1000 BR. You then buy a raiding license from a friendly port for another enemy port and this is then listed in a separate tab on the map menu, unlike port battles it isn't globally announced, but specifically to players who have buildings in this port (and listed in the aforementioned menu). The raiding party sails to the port, engages in a battle versus a group of traders sailing across the map, the defense (assuming there is one) consists of anything up to a total of 1000 BR - up to 6 players. If successful, any ships capped by the raiders are attached as fleet to the players and needs to be returned to a friendly port. The result is that if the raid is successful, production buildings are damaged in the port, and need to be repaired to continue production, and production is halted for two hours by the port, the traders containing goods that are in demand & produced at that port are captured or defended. At the moment this is just a rough sketch of the mechanics and the details would need to be ironed out, but atm there's a (relatively small) carrot for pvp, but no stick, and limited use for frigates in terms of RvR and I believe something like this could go a fair way to solving those issues. Additionally I think the window for this should be 2 additional hours either side of the PB window.

Edited March 17, 2016 by Steelfury

[Slamz]

Need to think of how to do things like this without the arbitrary cap of 6 players.

 

What happens when I have 7 people online?

 

One of the great things about this game (so far) is that there is rarely a case where someone has to get totally left out. (Everyone has their own theory for what killed POTBS, but my theory is that it was largely the 6-man group limit, which meant any guild without exact multiples of 6 online had some people twiddling their thumbs.)

[Steelfury]

Ok, so maybe you don't set a hard cap to 6 players, just a cap of 1000 BR (I think it's necessary, as otherwise it becomes just another 'we have a fleet of 25 3rd rates, therefore we win'). The problem is when you start making the groups larger it becomes a case of 'only the clans can do this' what I'd like to see is more content aimed at non-aligned players, as well as clan players - specifically content aimed at creating fun, competitive pvp, and as we've seen the double xp + gold isn't enough - spending 3 hours trying to find a fight or spend 3 hours killing non-threatening AI, the rewards are way better with the AI, most of the time (purely in terms of game gold & xp at least).

Edited March 18, 2016 by Steelfury

[Marten van de Voerde]

I would stick with either player limit (maybe a bit higher) or a ship type limitation along with max BR. I simply fear this could be changed into basic cutter troll fest otherwise +1 for the general idea.

[Wilson09]

Basic cutters should simply be not available beyond a certain level anyway.

Same for small battles...they are just annoying and only used for that purpose...

 

Nice idea STEELFURY.

 

My POLL

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/12224-ship-crafting-restricted-for-every-nation/

heads into this direction, trying to give more incentives for real PvP without the PB-mechanics...