A proposal for server merge/wipe with long term benifits

[cheatos503]

What I propose below solves for some of the current problems that many of us have when looking at the new merge. In addition to that, This mechanic proposal also opens up the possibility of not having a static map (im thinking something along the lines of POTBS seasons) so that way there is something that keeps that excitement of when the servers went up and everybody was pulling together to help expand their faction territory. Without the soul crushing reality that even with lvl and crafting exp, without any NPC resources it will be a soul crushing slog back to where you just worked up to...again, and possibly again and again.

 

My goal is to keep player retention and keep a positive review of the game thereby getting new players into the game.

 

MECHANIC OUTLINE AND FUNCTION:

 

lets say there is going to be a server merge, call the servers to be merged A and B

 

Target server is C

 

The players on both A and B have amassed all of their assets there. And the current mechanics allow for faction jumping at the time of server merge (which they do) so to preserve their assets, the current servers tally up all resources and cash (treated as a resource) and boats.

 

Tokens would be generated for each resource type :

 

an example of this would be: PLAYER X has coal in 4 ports totaling 7500, so that would generate a token for the resource which would be redeemable by the player when that player sets up on any faction at any spot on the new map on server C. Now in order to not abuse the system in any forseeable long term way Have the tokens be on a timer and not usable post say 2 weeks after the creation of server C. That way if there were to be seasons for the map where the map would be reset on a fairly consistent basis there couldn't be a carry over from the previous season.

 

Ships, because of the current restriction of ships capable of being in a port would use the same mechanic that was employed by the yacht and Niagara.

 

All of the "tokens" should be account specific so that way there is no chance of having a possible ownership exploit occur, this was handled pretty well with the redeemable ships before it just a matter of expanding that system's size and scope

 

As for the ports and such, I believe those should not come over to the new server so there is a few quality of life things you still would have to work for, or at least pay to have

 

 

 

Its one thing to keep your lvls and craft exp. But its quite another to be able to support either one of them. That is where the disconnect comes in with the progression of the game. because eventually we will all be max rank in both. Fighting for the map seems to be where the devs have decided where the actual game is to center around. And given that there will be no more NPC resources, the idea of starting from scratch with nothing but a cutter and zero money, no ability to buy resources from any port means we will be in those cutters alot longer then just jumping from PVP 2 to PVP1 where everybody is already established. Comparing the relative ease of the current situation to a full nuking of player assets across the board is not appealing to alot of players. And if that is the case then there is absolutely no reason at all to play the game if you have max rank in either crafting or lvl until the server merge/nuke/wipe happens.

 

My idea would keep people playing because everything they are working for would not be a futile gesture. This in turn keeps the tinfoil hat crowd from saying the game is dying and don't bother buying it. Because without a player base no MMO, in any stage of development can survive without players. Which if I were a dev, I would be trying to have not happen.

[Mrdoomed]

I say stop poaching pvp2 players europa sever guys and leave us alone.

[Robbert Dole]

I say stop poaching pvp2 players europa sever guys and leave us alone.

 +1

[Darkrum Pardal]

Moving to a higher population server (PvP1) made this game much more enjoyable. I can't tell you how boring PBs became when there's no opposing force or when everyone else is off playing Naval Hermit.

[Haratik]

Problem is a lot of USA players were on Europa to begin with and didn't feel like switching once other servers opened up.  That's not poaching, just how the dice rolled.  Whether players on pvp 1 Eu were actually poaching after that or not, the majority of the early access players are on pvp 1 to stay.

[Fizzer]

This attitude that game assets are somehow ours to keep is more dangerous to the success of the game than fears of wipe.

The devs have been very open about experimenting with features. Take this quote from admin about the land being added to battles: "This will change the gameplay completely and might ruin the game. Or will make it awesome"

I find that kind of attitude from a game developer extraordinarily refreshing. Taking risks and ignoring the fear of failure is how great things are created.

We as players should be as open to change and unafraid of things going wrong. If we instead take a possessive and entitled attitude toward our in-game assets then we are harming the progress of the game.

The open warning about wipes gives the developers the freedom to make drastic changes, to experiment, and ultimately make the game the best it can be.

If we dig in our heels and act like we deserve to keep certain pixels, it can only go two ways. The devs cave and maintain status quo, preventing the game from reaching it's full potential. Or, we build up our virtual possessions to such a level that we can only be disappointed when they get reset for game play testing reasons and player base shrinks due to this disappointment.

[Captain]

what i like best about the idea is how it wouldn't take hardly any work to code in

[cheatos503]

This attitude that game assets are somehow ours to keep is more dangerous to the success of the game than fears of wipe.

The devs have been very open about experimenting with features. Take this quote from admin about the land being added to battles: "This will change the gameplay completely and might ruin the game. Or will make it awesome"

I find that kind of attitude from a game developer extraordinarily refreshing. Taking risks and ignoring the fear of failure is how great things are created.

We as players should be as open to change and unafraid of things going wrong. If we instead take a possessive and entitled attitude toward our in-game assets then we are harming the progress of the game.

The open warning about wipes gives the developers the freedom to make drastic changes, to experiment, and ultimately make the game the best it can be.

If we dig in our heels and act like we deserve to keep certain pixels, it can only go two ways. The devs cave and maintain status quo, preventing the game from reaching it's full potential. Or, we build up our virtual possessions to such a level that we can only be disappointed when they get reset for game play testing reasons and player base shrinks due to this disappointment.

this inst pure playtesting - its pay testing, and while your points may have some validity, in order to properly test anything you need a player base to do it with. Not to mention an income stream to pay for the development and continued running of this game. What I'm offering as a solution is to the more immediate problem of players going away. which IS happening if you want to admit it or not. The desire to continually start over...and over....and over again wears on people's desire to play this game. So, unless you want your "play testing" to be in an empty server then maybe you could come up with a solution other than mine, because until the server merge/implode/nuke there is zero incentive to play if you are already a max lvl player

[cheatos503]

what i like best about the idea is how it wouldn't take hardly any work to code in

The devs already have something in place that just needs modification. not that it would be an easy feat mind you. But saving the devs from going nuts could prove useful

[Mrdoomed]

Problem is a lot of USA players were on Europa to begin with and didn't feel like switching once other servers opened up. That's not poaching, just how the dice rolled. Whether players on pvp 1 Eu were actually poaching after that or not, the majority of the early access players are on pvp 1 to stay.

Im obviously not referring to players who rolled on pvp1 im referring to the dozens of posts in the forums telling clans and players to come to pvp1 and join thier faction and get free ships gold etc. Every single day someone makes a statement that they will give players all they want to swap and that is what i called poaching.

[Mrdoomed]

Buddy, I switched because PvP2 was a boring server. Nobody lured me to PvP1.

I was also not referring to every single person that has ever switched servers.

Do i seriously have to spell out every single syllable and letter or can people use comprhension skills to figure it out.

And hey i still find fun all the time but i obviously wasnt talking about everyone being lured but im sure you have seen all the post over and over telling people to swap and theh will hook them up.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Mrdoomed

[Mrdoomed]

You're a jerk.

Lmao do what ?

[Bert Beard]

The dev's need to get their server issues figured out because it's costing them lots of players........hundreds have quit playing for at least a little while because of several server issues.......mostly to do with PVP 2.

- server migration that's being encouraged from PVP 2 to PVP 1.

  ( most don't migrate.....they quit )

- unexpected & long server crashes ........like the 8 hour crash yesterday on PVP 2

  ( this alone cut PVP 2's population by nearly half from the day before.......how many of them quit ? )

- waiting cues to log into PVP 1.

- confusion on what's going to happen with the servers.

 

This Naval Action mmo needs to get it's act together if it wants to live up to even a fraction of it's potential.

 

To be honest, I think merging the two pvp servers is basically admitting failure on the dev's part.

Get the problems sorted out, do what needs to be done to reverse the population drops and get this game rolling.

 

And give the players a reason to choose between either PVP 2 or PVP 1

[Bert Beard]

I just logged into PVP 2.

 

PVP 2 is nearly empty, has 128 players online

 

PVP 1 is full with a waiting queue.

 

 

What a mess.

Edited April 4, 2016 by Bert Beard

[Ted Nougat]

I just logged into PVP 2.

 

PVP 2 is nearly empty, has 128 players online

 

PVP 1 is full with a waiting queue.

 

That sounds about right. It won't break 200 players until US prime time, being a US server.

[cheatos503]

And nobody has any thoughts on the reason for my post?

[Robbert Dole]

That sounds about right. It won't break 200 players until US prime time, being a US server.

 

Brings up another topic that needs redressed, it is rather clear of the US playerbase being ignored already. Moving the daily downtime (which is an actual downtime not 5-15 min start restart) to midnight pacific time instead of the 4-6am times of literally every other mmo... seems a bit absurd to me but who knows, maybe the alienating (intentional or otherwise) of a large playgroup will turn out to be a valid business strategy, who knows.

[Bert Beard]

Brings up another topic that needs redressed, it is rather clear of the US playerbase being ignored already. Moving the daily downtime (which is an actual downtime not 5-15 min start restart) to midnight pacific time instead of the 4-6am times of literally every other mmo... seems a bit absurd to me but who knows, maybe the alienating (intentional or otherwise) of a large playgroup will turn out to be a valid business strategy, who knows.

 

Yes, that's another thing that pissed me off.

I'm on Pacific time and it seems every night after 11pm the server goes into maintenance .......... really, the dev's can't figure out a better time to do maintenance on the N/A server. 

[Ruthless4u]

Yes, that's another thing that pissed me off.

I'm on Pacific time and it seems every night after 11pm the server goes into maintenance .......... really, the dev's can't figure out a better time to do maintenance on the N/A server.

Try playing on Eastren time, nothing interesting happens for the Eastren time guys who have to wake up at 4:30 am lol.

[Captain]

 

The dev's need to get their server issues figured out because it's costing them lots of players........hundreds have quit playing for at least a little while because of several server issues.......mostly to do with PVP 2.

- server migration that's being encouraged from PVP 2 to PVP 1.

  ( most don't migrate.....they quit )

- unexpected & long server crashes ........like the 8 hour crash yesterday on PVP 2

  ( this alone cut PVP 2's population by nearly half from the day before.......how many of them quit ? )

- waiting cues to log into PVP 1.

- confusion on what's going to happen with the servers.

 

This Naval Action mmo needs to get it's act together if it wants to live up to even a fraction of it's potential.

 

To be honest, I think merging the two pvp servers is basically admitting failure on the dev's part.

Get the problems sorted out, do what needs to be done to reverse the population drops and get this game rolling.

 

And give the players a reason to choose between either PVP 2 or PVP 1

 

 

 

please keep reddit stuff to reddit and not post it here thanks

[Bert Beard]

please keep reddit stuff to reddit and not post it here thanks

 

You again.........I don't even know what reddit is, never used it and what does it have to do with this topic ?

 

My post was critical of these server problems because it's the most important problem that's bleeding players right now and it needs to be dealt with if this game is to be successful.

Trolling does not help.

Edited April 6, 2016 by Bert Beard