Without player concentrater this game is dead/dying

[angriff]

Seems I paid money for an Alpha that wont go Beta or Launch.  The game online is all but dead  less than 100 players on a map as large as this one is almost a sure sign of boring boring play.

 

The game needs squares lit up to tell you were players are concentrated.  It does not need to be completly accurate.   1 to 10 players yellow square over several cities is fine.   10 or more player a red square lights up for several 10s of square kilometers.  This way you dont sail around for hours with nothing to find.

[Galileus]

PvP1 is alive and doing great.

[Porpoise]

PVP 2 will be merged with PVP 1 IMO, that will be great for both groups. 

[angriff]

I think even in PVP it suffers from long distances without knowing where players are.   If you knew where the commerce was you could go raid it.  If you knew where the fleets where moving you would go oppose it.  It takes so long to travel to a battle in this game it will soon become not worth it to all but a couple of players per 1000

Edited April 2, 2016 by angriff

[maturin]

 

If you knew where the fleets where moving you would go oppose it.

You're just uninformed.

 

Every faction has a certain area of the map where huge battles take place every day.

 

Florida for USA and Pirates.

Yucatan for Britain, Spain and France

I see the Danes and Swedes scrapping all the time too, but I'm not familiar with the exact regions.

[Mrdoomed]

The furthest ive ever sailed to find pvp was about 15 minutes and thats on pvp2. I think you may be doing it wrong.

[Pigafetta]

Wrong assumption based on wrong data or no data at all. Right now many players moved to PVP1... but plenty of action in PVP2 where I play.

[Roche Brasiliano]

The game needs just more things to ppl do like fishing, exploring, xp for trading, uncharted islands, open pacific cost, undiscovered ports...this will bring more players. The way it is going, you partially right, unless the dedicated players put tons of Money to keep it alive. It is a damn nice game, but with that huge map to only focus on PVP and port battles it is really boring and will be dead eventually. Devs must assume that not all ppl bought it are focused the battle things. Battle is essential, but only with more stuff new players will come, or the existing ones will keep playing. And players must respect the right of other ones to go for another roles and gameplay.

[Mrdoomed]

The game needs just more things to ppl do like fishing, exploring, xp for trading, uncharted islands, open pacific cost, undiscovered ports...this will bring more players. The way it is going, you partially right, unless the dedicated players put tons of Money to keep it alive. It is a damn nice game, but with that huge map to only focus on PVP and port battles it is really boring and will be dead eventually. Devs must assume that not all ppl bought it are focused the battle things. Battle is essential, but only with more stuff new players will come, or the existing ones will keep playing. And players must respect the right of other ones to go for another roles and gameplay.

Ive mentioned probably a dozen times that the players should be able to run the ports as governor. This will add a entire new dimension and more things to do.

You could have a governor who could appoint , captains of the gaurds who run defense or land manager who could run plantations, mines quarry etc.

If they add land and even basic land battles with stick figures you could have players who specialize in ground combat etc. Just off the top of my head i can think of dozens.

Only trouble is there has been zero response so it seems players dont want to or devs cant do it or both so im not sure what can even be added.

[SirLeggit]

pvp1 has well over 1000 players prime time. rarely drops below 500.

[Richard Dryfus]

pvp1 has well over 1000 players prime time. rarely drops below 500.

 

its been readily full at 2500 every day of the week at peak times. And even at Midnight Eastern USA time zone, there are ~700 people online.

[Dius]

The game needs squares lit up to tell you were players are concentrated.  It does not need to be completly accurate.   1 to 10 players yellow square over several cities is fine.   10 or more player a red square lights up for several 10s of square kilometers.  This way you dont sail around for hours with nothing to find.

 

After reading this statement I conclude you are indeed playing the wrong game.

[Bert Beard]

Ive mentioned probably a dozen times that the players should be able to run the ports as governor. This will add a entire new dimension and more things to do.

You could have a governor who could appoint , captains of the gaurds who run defense or land manager who could run plantations, mines quarry etc.

If they add land and even basic land battles with stick figures you could have players who specialize in ground combat etc. Just off the top of my head i can think of dozens.

Only trouble is there has been zero response so it seems players dont want to or devs cant do it or both so im not sure what can even be added.

 

Your not alone Mrdoomed.

I've been talking about this too........I was a port governor many times in PotBS.

[Ruthless4u]

I really don't think land battles fit into this game.

[Mrdoomed]

I really don't think land battles fit into this game.

Land battles could easily be in this game and add a entire new aspect. The devs have the ability for sure if they choose to. Imagine if you landed a squad or brigade on cuba and players led them in land battles while the navy bombarded.

Heck potbs had stupid avitar combat in land so im sure these guys could. It isnt like it would be armies it would be a few dozen or couple hundred men......its a pipe dream maybe but it would add more which is what everyone keeps asking for.

[Mrdoomed]

Your not alone Mrdoomed.

I've been talking about this too........I was a port governor many times in PotBS.

Yeah me too. I ran a huge trade guild and we governed several ports. Was a great addition to things to do and you could really affect the game if you did a good or poor job on your port.

[Ruthless4u]

Land battles could easily be in this game and add a entire new aspect. The devs have the ability for sure if they choose to. Imagine if you landed a squad or brigade on cuba and players led them in land battles while the navy bombarded.

Heck potbs had stupid avitar combat in land so im sure these guys could. It isnt like it would be armies it would be a few dozen or couple hundred men......its a pipe dream maybe but it would add more which is what everyone keeps asking for.

IIRC the devs said they want to keep the game focused on ships. Don't have a link to the post of course. But I belive there are several if you look hard enough.

Myself, I don't see them as being neccasary, but your opinion may vary.

[Ted Nougat]

Seems I paid money for an Alpha that wont go Beta or Launch.  The game online is all but dead  less than 100 players on a map as large as this one is almost a sure sign of boring boring play.

 

The game needs squares lit up to tell you were players are concentrated.  It does not need to be completly accurate.   1 to 10 players yellow square over several cities is fine.   10 or more player a red square lights up for several 10s of square kilometers.  This way you dont sail around for hours with nothing to find.

 

Could be you need to find something else to do with your time. We find pvp every day, multiple times a day. No map indicators are needed or required.

[Atreides]

Go to Ile la Vache or Mortimer or Charleston or Kingston or whatever enemy is yours. Wait 5 minutes and see if there is not a welcoming party to give you fun times.

[Captain Boneboys]

Shiver me timbers, if you can't find where the commerce routes are I doubt that you have even sailed out of harbour, as for where the fleets are heading, do you even lift chat ?

Just study the map and how the ports are changing hands, I had to close down two outposts because the political situation became unstable, the area concerned has now swung back to a favorable situation and I have moved back.

If you just want PvP there is an application for that...

 

Lit up square indeed, whatever next !

[Long Beard]

Guessing you're on PVP2. Reason population is 100 is because there has been a mass exodus from PVP2 to PVP1 over the past month or two.  PVP1 feels very much alive.

 

Showing where players are on the map would turn this game into a giant gank v gank fest.  Not what I want to see at all.  

I agree it would suck if you're on a server with 100 players peak time, but to say this game is dead/dying is a mistruth of epic proportions.

 

[Mrdoomed]

Guessing you're on PVP2. Reason population is 100 is because there has been a mass exodus from PVP2 to PVP1 over the past month or two. PVP1 feels very much alive.

Showing where players are on the map would turn this game into a giant gank v gank fest. Not what I want to see at all.

I agree it would suck if you're on a server with 100 players peak time, but to say this game is dead/dying is a mistruth of epic proportions.

Hey now ha ha ha we had 300 last night and our pvp is now the best ive seen it.

The players are now more consintrated yes , but we are all next to each other and fight all the time.

[angriff]

Guessing you're on PVP2. Reason population is 100 is because there has been a mass exodus from PVP2 to PVP1 over the past month or two.  PVP1 feels very much alive.

 

Showing where players are on the map would turn this game into a giant gank v gank fest.  Not what I want to see at all.  

I agree it would suck if you're on a server with 100 players peak time, but to say this game is dead/dying is a mistruth of epic proportions.

 

 

So if the game will not work for 100 to 200 players then the off hours players will suffer.  The game has to work continously.  Players need to find other players to interact or interdict whichever you wish.   We had 30 player attack a town and only one player came to oppose.  Come on there were 350 online at the time.   It is just too huge a map for players to interact without knowing where to lay in wait.

[Long Beard]

So if the game will not work for 100 to 200 players then the off hours players will suffer.  The game has to work continously.  Players need to find other players to interact or interdict whichever you wish.   We had 30 player attack a town and only one player came to oppose.  Come on there were 350 online at the time.   It is just too huge a map for players to interact without knowing where to lay in wait.

Well I dunno where the 100-200 player number is being referenced from, but when I play at peak time there's usually 1800 (give or take) playing on PVP1. This is usually around 20:00 GMT. If I stay up late, this number can drop to around 300-400 but I'm talking 3am here.  

 

I don't need to see where they are to get PVP, I just need to rear my ugly head in USA or Brit waters for them to come out and play.  Last night for example, 4 of us were causing trouble up on the USA east coast and we had plenty folks come out and fight.  There are some key hot spot locations most people know about that has pretty much consistent pvp.

 

Keep in mind also this game is in alpha, and I read the admin say they don't advertise at all, so I would expect to see numbers increase dramatically on release, then fall off to something decent.

 

If you could open your map and see shaded areas where players were, instead of people sailing around getting into small skirmishes, everyone wanting PVP would flock there and it would probably be laggy and just big massive battles. Granted some people might like that, but it's not really what an open world should be.  Besides, those wanting big fleet battles need just to put together a fleet and sail to an enemy hot spot. If the enemy nation is worth their salt, they'll rally something together to attack.  I know we often get player fleets pitch up at Mortimer and we usually get enough people together to have a scrap with them.

But yeah, if you're on a server with 100-200 people on at peak time then you maybe need to think about making a switch to a higher pop one.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Long Beard

[jnovotny6]

Have some faith in the devs. They are aware of all this. To them this is a labor of love and they will not let the game die. This is a work in progress, one of the main issues they have to tackle is the OW speed. I personally love it, I sail in real life, have no problem with it. One idea could be to give players the choice, have 2 settings for OW sailing. Leave as is for the hardcore and have the choice to speed it up for others. There are many ways to tackle this. Keep in mind this is a niche game, it will never be as popular as lets say World of Warcraft.