Patch 9.7 - Land sighted

[akd]

NPCs sailing all ships now. Including large fleets of first rates. 

To avoid problems with imbalances caused by this capture is switched off. Its just a checkbox on the server. if its wrong its going to be changed. 

 

Don't let us question the open development . 

 

It is a good change, at least for the PvP servers.  Please resist the whine.  The idea that the forced arms race to go out and capture 3rd rates every night was fun for anyone is total BS.  I would much rather just buy a lower quality ship, but no one makes them because there is no market due to proliferation of captured AI ships.

When it comes to smaller ships, people need to look seriously at time vs. gold investment and realize you are not loosing anything by removal of AI captures, especially when it comes with increased and more lucrative PvE content.  That time spent capturing a small ship would just as easily earn you the gold sufficient pay for a durability point on a purchased ship.

 

A big issue remains, however: capturing ships from players is nearly impossible (and thus not fun or worth the time) because of game mechanics encouraging scorched earth tactics.  Why would I ever let the other team capture my ship when my loss will be the same regardless?  I will always burn or sink.  This in turn drives ganks (only efficient way to capture a player), unnatural tactics and / or excessively long battles.

[CptEdwardKenway]

you didnt get it....the only think is that friends cant help you now against gankers... and this is sad. In practise:

Gankers: oh see a Bellona(500BR) hmm 3 other ships are in range to help him, ahhh dosnt matter we have 3 renommees (330 BR) lets gank him and no one can help him (330*1,5 = 495 BR)....

to make it more clear - you can now gank and it dosnt matter how many enemys are there, and if there are non you can still bring 6 renommee against one bellona (even if 3 are enough). So how does it prevent ganking, its the opposit, because gankers plan their actions, victims not

I guess you are not getting it.

Well I don't mind 3 Renommees trying to gank my Bellona. But you can't gank one single ships with 5, 6 or even more. Jumping on someone with 2 Connies, 1 Trinco and 1 Reno? Not possible now.

 

The main impact of this leads into less ganking of single ships. Everyday there are ganking fleets hunting smaller ships. But of course those who always used to gank are now the one who are against this. No more ganking now. You have to fight now. Maybe you will sail more in the open sea instead of in front of capitals.

I don't need help vs 3 Renos. Believe me and you would only try this once.

[Svartschegg]

the only difference between those servers is ability to attack players and buy assault flags. no other difference. so changes affect all servers.

So then my initial comment applies. This patch will only remedy an abundance that exists on PVP1; other servers will suffer under the DEATH METAL difficulty level. With barely 10 players per nation online in PVP3 there's a very low chance of one of them being an adequate shipbuilder.

 

I think joining a clan or making friends should be an enhancement to the game experience, not a prerequisite. This isn't a social network. :-/

Independent players have 5 accounts and craft Santisimas on their own. They will be fine trust me. If those who don't have many accounts, can join my guild on pvp1 usa, pm Wind Element. lol

Oh wow, this sounds great! How do I create more accounts? I thought this game wasn't pay-to-win?

Not true, all nation have big clans will help you providing ships and all you need

On PVP1, sure. The big clans on PVP3 can just barely take care of themselves, and that sentiment is based on PRE-nerf.

NPCs sailing all ships now. Including large fleets of first rates. 

To avoid problems with imbalances caused by this capture is switched off. Its just a checkbox on the server. if its wrong its going to be changed. 

 

Don't let us question the open development .

I think it would have made more sense to add this new no-capture feature to 2nd and 1st-rates only. Nerfing an existing and fairly balanced (overall, given difference between servers) economy feels unnecessary.

Don't get me wrong - I love everything about the patch except for this one thing. I'll happily abide by the new rules but think it will just further the gap in player retention between the servers.

[Marcomies]

So ganking will turn from 5 people in Renommees and frigates.... to 5 Privateers/small ships Pulling in bigger ships.

 

with the BR change it'll just force gankers into smaller ships or different setups.

 

Heck it'll be like 4 pirates in Privateers and 1 in a Frigate as the flagship.

 

Personally I think that the BR limit should only effect the attacker's side. This would reduce the possibilities of "exploits" in the system and there would still be safety in numbers (plus it would make defensive tagging less tempting).

[Ned Loe]

Not a good idea IMO

Let's say a player is new, they take out their cutter and try to get a bigger ship. They capture a brig from an NPC but they can't sail it?

A crafter wants to get a Mercury blueprint. Now they have to buy Mercuries and break them down to try to get the blueprint?

HE sells it to Admiralty and then buys it at the Shop with 5 duras. 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Personally I think that the BR limit should only effect the attacker's side. This would reduce the possibilities of "exploits" in the system and there would still be safety in numbers (plus it would make defensive tagging less tempting).

 

With this you mean a return to the bait system then. Easy to hide a flotilla 2 mins away.

[Ned Loe]

Pirates should still be able to capture NPC ships.

Many have complained 'pirates should not capture ports, pirates should not craft ships'. Removing the ability to capture ships is making pirate ports & crafters a necessity now.

I'm all for what others have posted, keep the ability to capture ships up to frigates.

You can capture player ships.

[CompassRose]

Soften the ganking.

• Ganking is considered a main problem by a large portion of the community and needs to be lessened a bit. We are bringing back an old feature FOR TESTING that was in game before the release. Initial attack does not have any limitations as before. But entering the battle cannot change the balance in battle for more than 1.5x BR difference. In this case if you got yourself into an even fight enemies close by will not be able to unbalance the battle. Of course if you see a large fleet on the horizon its still better to run.

 

The devs need to clarify this point to stem the tide of panic.  The way I'm reading this is if groups of friends are sailing in tight formation they will ALL get pulled into battle during the initial tag regardless of BR.

 

It's only after the initial tag that the 1.5x BR reinforcement rating comes into play for either side.

[Ned Loe]

Omg 1,5x  BR sounds good in first , but if you have a closer look you will be doomed with a big ship...

Scenario you and a friends are doingh missions in bigger ships, a fast frigate will tag you and no one is able to help you and you will be killed because a frigate will win every 1vs1 vs a SOL camping your stern.

I dont like this change. Its pretty nasty if a group of players gank you but how often does it happens?

 

Please change it at least for the defenders, if you want to help a friend you dont have to wait outside until he got sunk by a smaller much more agile vessel... Better remove it completly because it destroys also strategic battles abilitys

Then SOL is a nub and he should be on the bottom of the sea.    I want to see someone tries to beat me in 1vs1. My 3rd vs a frigate. lol

[Xhepnon]

admin please check this topic

 

I think the way you are on now is making game more grindy like disabling possessment after capture of ai ships. people will still create  fleets full of SOL but it will take more time. Problems the game is currently suffering are far more essential I think.  When you try to make a realistic game and when you take realism partially it creates problems. I think national hierarchy is a must so as differentiable ports.   

 

 

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/12924-nation-port-battle-mechanics/

 

-Nations which has less ports will lack ability to craft SOLs and they wont be able to compensate it by forming 3rd rate zergs(which is another problem).

-Players who are not playing game hardcore will never experience using a SOL. They wont be able to craft or even buying it because of high demand and hard crafting requiredments with limited labour hours.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Xhepnon

[Long Beard]

Maybe great historically, but really not good gameplay wise (when a LOT of players complain about sailing distances and the ability to send ship to a remote outpost was really a great help).

 

 

You can still cap traders then send your ship to remote outpost.

[Ledinis]

So then my initial comment applies. This patch will only remedy an abundance that exists on PVP1; other servers will suffer under the DEATH METAL difficulty level. With barely 10 players per nation online in PVP3 there's a very low chance of one of them being an adequate shipbuilder.

 

I think joining a clan or making friends should be an enhancement to the game experience, not a prerequisite. This isn't a social network. :-/

Oh wow, this sounds great! How do I create more accounts? I thought this game wasn't pay-to-win?

On PVP1, sure. The big clans on PVP3 can just barely take care of themselves, and that sentiment is based on PRE-nerf.

I think it would have made more sense to add this new no-capture feature to 2nd and 1st-rates only. Nerfing an existing and fairly balanced (overall, given difference between servers) economy feels unnecessary.

Don't get me wrong - I love everything about the patch except for this one thing. I'll happily abide by the new rules but think it will just further the gap in player retention between the servers.

Or instead of balancing the game around a dead server that has 10 people per nation, they could just merge the servers.

[Ned Loe]

Staff recommendation is for pirates to build ships instead of capture them. You just completely destroyed the pirate faction if they have to build their own ships. What do you think a pirate does? Oh they are heavy ship builders, who knew.

Your removal of capturing ships is solely because you refuse to let people capture first rate npc ships and use them. So lets actually think about this since you guys apparently don't

1. you force people to build ships because you to limit how many people have first rates

2. clans focus heavily on building ships

3. pvp dies in all but the free cutter or vender frigates

4. an over abundance of ship builders begin to produce a lot of first rate ships

5. everyone is in a first rate ship.

Your blanket removal of npc ship captures is just to limit first rates when this limit is only a temporary situational event until you have a ton of ship builders and a ton of people in first rates anyway. So in the end, what you have done is absolutely pointless. Your going to have a ton of people in first rates anyway, it is only a matter of time.

The real question is what is your problem with people being in first rates? Why do you constantly want to force people to NOT have things that you know they will get anyway?

You are on pvp server, wake up! Go ahead and cap as many player ships as you wish. You are a pirate or a PvE player? No one forces you to craft ships. Don't want to pvp, go fleet, save money and go buy a ship. 

Edited April 12, 2016 by Henry d'Esterre Darby
Edited Forum Pvp.

[Sin Khan]

I'm looking forward to this patch as well. I refused to play the last one. They did a lot in this one that is really good and they deserve praise for it. But man, why the heck is it that every major patch now also has to have a major nurf?

 

2 minuet battle window?

No captured ships?

other things as well....

 

For every bad thing they make 10 good ones, we all know it. Just our nature to focus on the bad ones because they are big changes, just as they say *important. I will play this update to see how it goes.

[DrunkenSloth]

I got to say I had mixed feelings about these notes a few minutes ago, but some of these changes make Privateering very profitable and maybe even needed now, as not being able to capture NPC's means you'll need to either outproduce  your enemies to win PB's, or capture and sink their 3rd, 2nd and 1st rates. This in a way makes open world PvP almost needed now, and could make it very costly for enemies to have pirates or privateers in their waters. The "ganking" changes will be interesting, just hope it doesn't compensate for lack of awareness.

[Marcomies]

With this you mean a return to the bait system then. Easy to hide a flotilla 2 mins away.

In close proximity of ports it should be expected and the whole invisibility and post-battle window waiting system is broken anyway and should be replaced. I think that the partial return of baiting would still be preferable to easily exploitable small-ships ganking which will become the main form of open sea PVP after the patch.

Edited April 12, 2016 by Marcomies

[thp]

"Important: Combat NPC ships are now transferred to the admiralty after capture – admiralty immediately provides the compensation for the captured ship durability. But you cannot capture NPC ships any more."

 

This only favours the rich players or old players that level up high enought like me, My crafting level is high enought too and I can craft any ship I want or my clan can do it also, but this wont help any new players. I m just thinking about the new players that need to buy all the ships from crafters that make us even more rich.

[OTMatt]

The devs need to clarify this point to stem the tide of panic.  The way I'm reading this is if groups of friends are sailing in tight formation they will ALL get pulled into battle during the initial tag regardless of BR.

 

It's only after the initial tag that the 1.5x BR reinforcement rating comes into play for either side.

 

So...if the gank squad has a BR of 500 and the gankee has 100 then the max br can be 750?

[surfimp]

I'm looking forward to this patch as well. I refused to play the last one. They did a lot in this one that is really good and they deserve praise for it. But man, why the heck is it that every major patch now also has to have a major nurf?

 

2 minuet battle window?

No captured ships?

other things as well....

 

For every bad thing they make 10 good ones, we all know it. Just our nature to focus on the bad ones because they are big changes, just as they say *important. I will play this update to see how it goes.

 

It's a bit too soon to say if the "no captured NPC warships" change is bad or not. It's arguably a huge buff to crafting and trade - absolutely huge, to be honest.

 

And for that matter, I don't personally feel the 2min timers were a bad change at all, nor the removal of reinforcements.

 

Time will tell.

[surfimp]

Duel room added

• If you enter the duel room the combat will automatically start with another player waiting in the lobby if he has the same ship as you. In the future the threshold might be increased. Please provide feedback on the battle timers and exit timers in duels

 

Question: is the duel room going to be no-loss, no-reward? Or... ?

[Lytse Pier]

No you can't. The hours required vs the xp given per note isn't worth it if you do any sort of crafting. It's basic math. 250 != 1.

 

You don't craft notes for XP, you either craft them for gold or to further your own crafting on e.g. exceptional ships.

 

I think with the capturing of the men-of-war and the money compensation the admirality gives will be a balancing thing like all money faucets and -sinks in the game.

[Vaan De Vries]

You can still do that with trader ships, which is exactly what everybody did before.

These patch note threads are always an excellent test of reading comprehension skills.

Try catch a trader in a Victory. Much better assault some brig/frigate/3rd rate who wouldn't be trying to get away from you.

 

Such comments is always an excellent test of what ships people are sailing and how much they play RVR in SOLs.

[Slackline]

So we now completely lost the ability to:

1. cap NPC ship and sent her to remote outpost for later use
2. cap NPC ship and sent current ship to remote outpost for later use

Maybe great historically, but really not good gameplay wise (when a LOT of players complain about sailing distances and the ability to send ship to a remote outpost was really a great help).

 

At the same time when far less people complained about "ganking" you are artificially tweaking historical accuracy for gameplay adjustments. Also risking a lot of hostile fleets sailing in foreign waters without risking much (because no reinforcements above 1.5BR can come to help even when you attacked someone in direct view of their capital).

 

VERY arguable changes.

You can still capture trade ships and transfer your current ship per the post only Combat NPC ships can not be captured.

[Vaan De Vries]

"Important: Combat NPC ships are now transferred to the admiralty after capture – admiralty immediately provides the compensation for the captured ship durability. But you cannot capture NPC ships any more."

 

This only favours the rich players or old players that level up high enought like me, My crafting level is high enought too and I can craft any ship I want or my clan can do it also, but this wont help any new players. I m just thinking about the new players that need to buy all the ships from crafters that make us even more rich.

giving how easy is to level crafter and actually how easy is to craft ships currently this is just absurd whining. Two people can team up and have all needed buildings for ships craft. 

 

Also SOLs (and heavy Frigates will be availble in store) really needs to be crafted. Insane amount of capped throw-away 3rd rates had to go away.

 

Just give us other convinient way to transfer ships between outposts. Capping trader is harders in SOLs and also it's harder to find trader than to attack any brig/frig..

[Merikarhu]

Is there any information about the soft wipe? Will the ports reset on this patch or in the future? Something should be done for freetowns as well. Free towns enable annoying gank mechanic when people can just camp in port and when they see enemy they gank him. If no one is nearby we can't help, after battle is over they sail to the town invunerable and do the same again when they can.

 

Any info on the penetration changes?

 

Keep up the good work!