Fasti's Wishlist for short term somewhat easily coded fixes

[Fastidius]

So again since i have a list of things that need fixing i thought i would put up MY list of things that would quickly fix some of the core issues i see.

 

 

 

 

Remove Duros on military ships:

 

Military ships have very little turnover  which poses 2 issues.

1: Crafters don't have an avenue to make any money building low and mid grade ships after there is a few in the store.  Considering that everyone can craft but only need to buy a few ships it seems that turning over ships has to increase.

 

2: People only take perfect or near perfect builds:  The fact that you are stuck with a ship for 5 deaths which can be months if you play them well people will try to get the best option at all times.  2/4 buids generally rot in the shops and are significantly discounted.  Speed VS Stiffness makes a significant likelyhood of it sitting there for long periods also.

 

By reducing Duros on military ships you increase the turnover of ships in the shops as well as make the discision on better builds less of a factor.  Leave duros on the Traders & 7th rates for the newbies and traders so they can actually make profits since they cant get gold for damage in the same way.  Capturing alsobecome more of a focus than sinking in battle which is far more in line with history.  Permanent modules should also live with the ship so it should transfer with the ship when captured.

 

 

Add Duros to Modules that changes quality not life:

 

In light of removing duros for ships and also the saturation issue of temporary modules as gold modules live forever as no one uses them on the last duro they should be give an Duro type system that decreases their ability. that way if a ship dies all the modules still exist but in a rank weaker.  Gold drop to purple to blue to green to grey.  This way you have a constant turnover on gold modules and the lesser modules are sold to people who are "not quite as wealthy" via the shoppe.  You make buildings for each type of module and restric them to one ofa type per crafter which means you can have Marine/boardingparty builders,  Books crafters,  Sail Crafters,  Structure crafters.  This creates diversity between crafters.

 

Adjust TOWN/REGIONALS & Capitals shoppe/shipwrights:

 

In reality you have a very good mechanic in place that can be leveraged in a very intelligent way.  

 

For instance if you decide that bothregional capitals and Capitals create traders and then create trade routes from them subtowns and make it so that the ports consume items in realtionto that you can create a reason for people to trade their as well as solve your problem with making the ports captured serviced.    So you set towns to have consumption rates that escalate per trader active....each town has a trader count with a min and max. 

 

AI Traders :-

 

capital has 20 routes from it which got to the nearest 20 towns.   If you supply that town with X amount of items a trader is created and goes sailing in the open world Town1 and back, town 2 and back.  The first trader creations is very very profitable bymaking the resources it consumes very high in buy price.  next trader is a bit les etc etc....once you get to say 10 traders then the next most profitable way to trade

 

Regionals have 10 Routes in a similar fashion and similar system so that when a capital has say 10 traders in play the creating fo traders in regionals is actuall better profit and some traders will move there instead.

 

Towns only have 3 traders so only a small amount of traders are needed to be made but these are at a high value so anytime a port has a trader killed it is very profitable to replace them via supplying the consumption rates.

 

 

These traders are actually real world trader fleets which might be say 2 indamen and 4 escorts for Capitals,  2 LGV & 4 escorts for Regionals and 1 LGV 1 Escort for town fleets.

 

You have now created the AI trader based player driven content that makes people think capturing lotting and trading to the smaller towns is a good thing and also created a way to have AI fleets dynamic with where the population is.    If a town has zero traders it becomes neutral in 3 days as the content is not in use.

 

 

Added benefit here is that you have now created something that the pirates can influence without having to start wars......they can make ports neutral by killing all traders for 3 days in a area and forcing a town neutral.  This means military have to react to their port traders being attacked.

 

 

Gold for Damage VS gold for Capturing VS Capturing ships for test/PB:

 

Capturing gives you 2 x the gold that you get for sinking

Capturing a ship you dont already own gives you a 1 duro No upgrade version if it is off AI

Capturing an AI MILITARY Ship you already own gives you gold for the ship and no damage for the ship.

Capturing a ship of a PVPer gives you the ship and permanents & hold but no gold for damage on that ship

Tune damage for gold to make sense with how much a ship costs to build including hours at the normal rate /2 so that the earnings make sense with the economy.

 

This gives you incentive to capture ships,  Free ships for 1 port battle if you dont already own one (newbies) and the ability to capture a test ship if you want to.  All the mechanics are already there, just need to code the checks for ships owned re admiralty.

 

 

Missions & Fleets:  Basically the system you have at the moment is gameable so you need to remove them both but creat one that Scales with the attacking force.....Get rid of friendly AI in the fleets and just create mirrors of what is being sent in and only allow it for up to the 350 crew level as after that they should be in OW searching for content.....having it available to everyone allways turns PVP off for grinding. on the PVE servers leave it on all the way up.

 

Boarding:  Make it so that ships with more decksthat the other have an advantage in the batle as they are fighting downwards.  This will make people grape bigger ships to address the auto win gear checks. Pavels and Bucks 2 shotting santis is silly, adding a bonus to the santi because it is taller is better.....you already have the mechanic from port battles (ladders and ropes are a thing again)

 

 

CONCLUSION

I feel that these particular changes will create the content you need for pirates as well as traders & Crafters while having the affect of spreading people toward the front lines and active zones.   Creating the Traders gives you a real Player driven economy where there is content generated by activity.  All of these changes are very much in line with creating active content.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Fastidius

[admin]

So again since i have a list of things that need fixing i thought i would put up MY list of things that would quickly fix some of the core issues i see.

 

 

 

 

Remove Duros on military ships:

 

Military ships have very little turnover  which poses 2 issues.

1: Crafters don't have an avenue to make any money building low and mid grade ships after there is a few in the store.  Considering that everyone can craft but only need to buy a few ships it seems that turning over ships has to increase.

 

2: People only take perfect or near perfect builds:  The fact that you are stuck with a ship for 5 deaths which can be months if you play them well people will try to get the best option at all times.  2/4 buids generally rot in the shops and are significantly discounted.  Speed VS Stiffness makes a significant likelyhood of it sitting there for long periods also.

 

By reducing Duros on military ships you increase the turnover of ships in the shops as well as make the discision on better builds less of a factor.  Leave duros on the Traders & 7th rates for the newbies and traders so they can actually make profits since they cant get gold for damage in the same way.  Capturing alsobecome more of a focus than sinking in battle which is far more in line with history.  Permanent modules should also live with the ship so it should transfer with the ship when captured.

 

 

Add Duros to Modules that changes quality not life:

 

 

 

To remove durabilities you need to remove upgrades and make ships available everywhere. 

Removing durabilities is an option but before it can happen the whole crafting and quality levels must change. Modules must become parts of the ship but then even if 

 

basically upgrades are loot - and loot is good for games. 

propose what can replace it and we can continue this conversation

 

 

on the trader proposals i did not understand it.. please rephrase 

[Fastidius]

Trader proposal - 

 

 

Town consumption = AI Trader Spawned and sails to a port and back (ie like current trader path but players spawn them)  

 

If traders are killed Buy price from port increased to encourage someone to bring the stuff to it to make new traders.

 

If zero traders active from port timer starts till town goes neutral

 

Pirates get traders to kill both AI and player in maintaining the port activity. Solves your empty port issue

 

Small towns have few AI Traders, easy to flip neutral if left unchecked/ Regionals more and so forth

 

Traders get payed more for shipping to ports that require AI traders to fill their quota.

Edited August 3, 2016 by Fastidius

[Fastidius]

To remove durabilities you need to remove upgrades and make ships available everywhere. 

basic cutters are free and they have to sail to a regional or buy a grey if they are in port......you lost there has to be some punishment...its not like they take a gold hit.  You could make regional capitals and the Nation capital share the same ship sale list....that would be interesting. ATM you have a Capital huddle issue

 

Removing durabilities is an option but before it can happen the whole crafting and quality levels must change. Modules must become parts of the ship but then even if 

you should talk to us about the crafting/modules rework....many hardcore games around to talk about it....some not even playing the game anymore but still talk .

 

basically upgrades are loot - and loot is good for games.

Loot is good but if you want this to be a loot game then you need to fix loot tables everywhere...Port battles are stupid...cant even carry your loot in a military ship.  Gold mods come from wrecks every time and rarely from PB.  Loot should be where the gold comes from not damage. 

 

propose what can replace it and we can continue this conversation

Remove/reduce damage for gold.  Loot = crafting notes, Dubloons/Pieces of 8  & maps to buried treasure occasionally (sail to the beach as close as possible and just use wreck mechanics).  Make doubloons/pieces a resource you can sell to port and not buy which goes into your bank gold (not loseable) at a set rate everywhere so people can carry it but also lose it on the way home.  Damage for gold is basically gold not being moved in danger make it a light weight resource.  You can also make this go on those big fleets so you get treasure fleets.

 

on the trader proposals i did not understand it.. please rephrase 

[Sire Trinkof]

To remove durabilities you need to remove upgrades and make ships available everywhere.

Removing durabilities is an option but before it can happen the whole crafting and quality levels must change. Modules must become parts of the ship but then even if

basically upgrades are loot - and loot is good for games.

propose what can replace it and we can continue this conversation

on the trader proposals i did not understand it.. please rephrase

Well I would love upgrade to be in only one quality (the best) , the hard part not being to have (loot) one, but to choose in a large panel which one to use.

Upgrades could be seen as switchable perks, which is what they are now due to the overflow of gold upgrade (good thing in my opinion)

I guess perm upgrade should be in built with the ship, chosen from the start,

Every time a ship is captured it loose 1 perm upgrade and the slot linked until there is only one left, then if the ship is captured again it looses 1 regular upgrade slot until it has only 1

-ships quality decrease over her life.

Perm upgrades are captured with the ship (1 is permanently destroyed like explained above)

This tuning will also boost crafting as old ships will be less valuable.

... A little off topic, but right now everyone has a gold ship + speed, and I do not see how this could change after release.

Why not make only two degrees of quality for crafted ship : standard, (actual Grey) , exceptional 3-5 upgrade slots, and fusion the random speed bonus with the cover plating which will have to be crafted directly with the ship?

Edited August 3, 2016 by Sire Trinkof

[Fastidius]

valid arguments however i think Duros on ships is bad design and i think admin has grown to agree over time....losing quality over time could be accrued with time a ship is at sea, however it does also take away fro the fact that someone might have a favourite ship....and he doesnt want it to go away.....if we name them etc

 

 

im all for it but i think thats the stage after duros as ships go from owner to owner they degrade....and say every year at sea?

[Fargo]

So again since i have a list of things that need fixing i thought i would put up MY list of things that would quickly fix some of the core issues i see.

 

 

 

 

Remove Duros on military ships:

 

Military ships have very little turnover  which poses 2 issues.

1: Crafters don't have an avenue to make any money building low and mid grade ships after there is a few in the store.  Considering that everyone can craft but only need to buy a few ships it seems that turning over ships has to increase.

 

2: People only take perfect or near perfect builds:  The fact that you are stuck with a ship for 5 deaths which can be months if you play them well people will try to get the best option at all times.  2/4 buids generally rot in the shops and are significantly discounted.  Speed VS Stiffness makes a significant likelyhood of it sitting there for long periods also.

 

By reducing Duros on military ships you increase the turnover of ships in the shops as well as make the discision on better builds less of a factor.  Leave duros on the Traders & 7th rates for the newbies and traders so they can actually make profits since they cant get gold for damage in the same way.  Capturing alsobecome more of a focus than sinking in battle which is far more in line with history.  Permanent modules should also live with the ship so it should transfer with the ship when captured.

 

I dont think 1 dura in general would be a bad thing, but forcing people to buy golden "trash" ships wouldnt fix the cause of the problem. 

 

The "perfect builds" could be removed with minor changes to the crafting system and wood types (already suggested this here: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15142-crafting-suggestion-less-rng-more-diversity/).

 

The issues are that speed as an essential trim will always cause ships to rot as long as it depends on rng, rigging quality and crew space cant keep up with the value of strenght or planking, and liveaok providing so much value of stats that teak/oak without speed cant compete with it. Compare oak vs liveoak for example:

 

Oak + stiffness   vs   liveoak + speed   =   lesser heel   vs   +1.1% speed, +7cm armour, +5% hp

Oak + speed   vs   liveoak + speed   =   +2.5% speed   vs   +7cm armour, +5% hp 

 

One additional perm slot for copper plating would compensate the disadvantage for liveoak, no chance for oak to compensate armour and hp.The only reason for teak/oak is to stack up speed with additional upgrades, speed is requiered.

 

 

In addition people are forced to craft golden ships for blueprints, instead of beeing able to focus on actual demand.

Giving the possibility to grind bps with lesser quality ships would give other crafters the possibility to sell golden ships depending on demand and for good value. 

Edited August 4, 2016 by Fargo

[Fastidius]

yep fair enough too.  This reworking of blueprints and crafting stuff would all help  each other