Asset wipe needed now.

[Jack Jones]

After playing the new patch now for a week I have the following suggestion to make.

 

I believe we need an across the board immediate asset wipe of all assets, gold, ports, buildings, ships, stock etc everything except rank and exp.

This will simulate the launch of the game.

 

Reasons:

 

1. The game could be a disaster upon release if it is found that after an asset wipe, it takes to long for the economy to stabilize and wealth to start growing again which allows players to enjoy good entertaining play.

NPC trade economy will not alleviate this.

I am talking about player interaction which is entertaining, not NPC interaction, which is generally dull. if the economy is found to be disfunctional then this will lead to player disatisfaction and boredom, ultimately leading to players old and new leaving.

 

2. The game could be a disaster if it is found that player progression from an asset wipe and (new players) is not what was expected and that it was too much of a grind to get anywhere with the new economy in place and ROE, crafting cost and items required to build things etc.

Again this will lead to player disatisfaction and boredom, ultimately leading to player loss old and new.

 

3. The hostility system and PB may be stagnant for a long time following an asset wipe/launch of the game and again and this could lead to stagnation  and player disatisfaction and boredom, ultimately leading to player old and new loss.

 

4. At present the game is full of very rich players and clans who are all going about business as usual with millions in gold and stores of yellow 1st, 2nd, 3rd rates and having lots of PBs and lots of port hostility almost immune to the new patch and its radical changes. After an assets wipe and launch of the game this will completely stop and the game will be very very different without this false propped up economy.

 

Conclusion:

 

If assets are to be wiped as we are told for the launch of the game and we are meant to be testing a game for the future, then playing like this is not testing it at all.

Its just adapting to a new patch with huge unrealistic resources already stored.  Some players and clans have 20 plus gold live oak ships in 'stock' and literally millions in gold stored up. (How can they be affected by any patch?? or indeed give any reasonable feedback).

 

I believe this will leave the future of any launch uncertain and could potentially kill the  game off very quickly once launched, if it is found that the

Rank grind/economy/combat and political systems were only being held together by already very rich clans and individuals who continued during testing as though nothing had changed. (as is the case now).

 

I know an asset wipe seems harsh but I believe it is the only way to really see if the game  with the new patch and future patches are indeed working or not.

If not better to find out in ALPHA than to lose a great game once launched, because once a game gets tagged as not working or crap....it sticks.

 

Thoughts?

 

 

 

 

[victor]

I tend to agree with the OP (even if I would loose a crapton of gold and assets).

 

Maybe you could delay this wipe after having settled some other things about the high level gameplay (port battles and diplomacy, high level crafting, new BP system).

 

But at least three months of clean test from scratch are advisable.

Edited October 27, 2016 by victor

[Jack Jones]

Get your greedy hands off my millions !

lol.

[admin]

It is usually a good idea to do wipes on every significant change, we did them often before. During early access it is harder to do wipes, due to community backlash. Majority plays EA games as normal games ignoring the ugly UI even. The nuclear blast would be extreme if we wiped everything. We will only do them if it becomes absolutely necessary. 

[Vaan De Vries]

Completely agree even by having a lot of gold quality ships in stock and a lot of silver and gold ready.

 

I will be interesting to see how nations without gold and silver resources available at the game start (Dutch, GB, don't know about others, but surely know France has silver and Spain has literally everything)) will manage after wipe. Currently GB was quicly able to capture both silver and gold ports from Spain. But will this be possible without gold Victories, Ingers and Connies in stock?

 

I reckon currently some nations are too imbalanced in terms of location and available resources and clean wipe will quickly unreveal this.

[Guest]

Would have to agree, it's extremely difficult to judge whether or not we have a good economic system when we have stockpiles of high-quality ships, materials and gold from the previous patches.

[Jack Jones]

It is usually a good idea to do wipes on every significant change, we did them often before. During early access it is harder to do wipes, due to community backlash. Majority plays EA games as normal games ignoring the ugly UI even. The nuclear blast would be extreme if we wiped everything. We will only do them if it becomes absolutely necessary. 

Thanks for the reply.

 

I understand your reasoning about the backlash but the patch and the fabric of the game is by default largely untested. (To many players protected by vast wealth and resources).

 

Example: 

I simply moved my base and opened new ports and mines / buildings etc spending about 1 million or so and within a couple of hours and was back on a kind of level. 

However making money now I find a bit harder BUT I already have buildings, 8 ports, ships and resources.

From scratch though....I am not sure it would  be a reasonable grind and i fear it will lose lots of new launch day players which could destroy the game.

This game needs to be launch day tested not just patched and feedback given by the established rich players and clans IMHO.

[Cmdr RideZ]

A new server.  If player is active on this server, he will get an extra reward at launch.

 

Don't ask from me what that reward could be.

Don't ask from me how to measure activity.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Cmdr RideZ

[Jack Jones]

Nah it is not. You can make 1 mln profit in one trade run atm.

Yeah,  but like I said your established already. 

[victor]

A new server.  If player is active on this server, he will get an extra reward at launch.

 

Don't ask from me what that reward could be.

Don't ask from me how to measure activity.

 

this is a great idea

[Rramsha]

Its always a fine line to walk. The more you wipe, the more realistic to launch the testing, and even ground to play on. The problem with constant wiping is that the player numbers usually recede quite dramatically because people want to play not test.

Edited October 27, 2016 by Rramsha

[Sea Archer]

...and you have to test how the game works with a more developed economy and players with bigger ships than cutters.

[Sir Texas Sir]

To be honest I was more expecting one around the time we go from Alpha to Beta  and than maybe a soft one when we go live.  

[The Spud]

At the moment it kinda feels like you're doing a ton of effort, and the only time it'll ever pay off is when you can craft a top notch 4th or 1st rate with the best regional bonus in the best wood types, all the other stuff you'll craft will be worse then the stuff you allready have.

[The Spud]

To be honest I was more expecting one around the time we go from Alpha to Beta  and than maybe a soft one when we go live.  

 

If the devs stick to plan, the release might be possible starting from march 2017. I don't think we'll ever see a wipe before release.

[Wesreidau]

Martin Luther called. He needs his hammer back.

 

As unpopular as it is, its true. We have a whole year's worth of assets heaped up in warehouses and no idea how the economy will behave at launch, or if ships will even be properly craftable by some factions. I think players will have their hands on captured ships by the end of the first day.

 

Everyone knows a wipe is coming at launch. I'd say wipe a month early; ports, gold, assets, then tune what needs to be tuned and wipe at launch.

 

You might consider letting us "heirloom" our favorite pre-wipe ship into a redeemable that unlocks a month after launch. That might water down the salt.

[Angus McGregor]

If the devs stick to plan, the release might be possible starting from march 2017. I don't think we'll ever see a wipe before release.

 

Wow... I can't express how wrong I hope you are, for all the excellent reasons given by OP.

 

Whether it happens in a week or a month to allow more large action testing... IMHO a wipe definitely needs to happen that is whatever the devs are planning for the release. And yeah - it needs to happen at least 3 months before the release. If that reveals major issues, adjust - rinse and repeat as necessary.

 

I'm not doubting that the backlash will be nuclear. But this is EA and GameLabs' goal must be to be ready for release, not pander to players who feel entitled to keep their goodies right up to release day. Chances are they will simply leave then anyway saying it isn't worth the grind to start over, and there's this new MMO that has caught their eye...

 

If that's their attitude, jettison the baggage now and get your project ready for release. I've been looking for a viable MMO successor to Seadogs for ages and I think Naval Action is showing real promise.

[Taranis]

Well some of us tend to share our wealth with new players that we get into our community.  I for instance just gave away 3 gold ships last night to a player cutting over from pvp2 and another player starting the game having just re-rolled from a different nation.  Not judging, just saying.... 

[van der Clam]

I believe it would be much harder to test new features if a full wipe happened. Altho, I do agree it should happen before release, maybe even a month before, so that the econ can be tested well enough, and then a release wipe.

[Jack Jones]

Wow... I can't express how wrong I hope you are, for all the excellent reasons given by OP.

 

Whether it happens in a week or a month to allow more large action testing... IMHO a wipe definitely needs to happen that is whatever the devs are planning for the release. And yeah - it needs to happen at least 3 months before the release. If that reveals major issues, adjust - rinse and repeat as necessary.

 

I'm not doubting that the backlash will be nuclear. But this is EA and GameLabs' goal must be to be ready for release, not pander to players who feel entitled to keep their goodies right up to release day. Chances are they will simply leave then anyway saying it isn't worth the grind to start over, and there's this new MMO that has caught their eye...

 

If that's their attitude, jettison the baggage now and get your project ready for release. I've been looking for a viable MMO successor to Seadogs for ages and I think Naval Action is showing real promise.

This is exactly my point the MMO is a fluid market and if at launch this game is beset with balance problems people won't test through it like the alphers they will just leave. Could I face the rank grind again.....I don't know.

[Yar Matey]

I was thinking about making a post on this, but was afraid of receiving backlash.  I agree 100% that we need an asset wipe.  Thank you for making this thread so we can discuss it, and this is coming from someone who has 2 first rates, 2 second rates, 2-3 4th rates, on PvP2 with tuns of modulus to choose from, and 1 first rate, and several 4th rates on PvP1 also with tuns of resources to build the ships I want with access to lots of exceptional modules, including uncraftable ones like powder monkeys.  

 

The reason why an asset wipe is needed is because everyone who crafts ships and modules has become complacent with easy access to exceptional ships.  The developers want to scale access to exceptional ships back, but the game world is filled with tuns of exceptional ships right now and now that it is harder to craft these ships, no one wants to risk their ships that were built prior to the patch.  If you truly want to test the new economic and crafting changes, we really do need an asset wipe, as unfortunate as that may be.

 

You have my vote, for an asset wipe.  Also, there is always going to be backlash from people who do not want to lose their stuff, but after this latest patch, drastic changes were made to the economy and to crafting so much so, that I believe the game right now is broken due to how things were before the patch.

 

Devs, please do not let the fear of backlash from the community stop you from doing an asset wipe, people should have known what they were getting into when they bought this game in early access.   

[KrakkenSmacken]

It is usually a good idea to do wipes on every significant change, we did them often before. During early access it is harder to do wipes, due to community backlash. Majority plays EA games as normal games ignoring the ugly UI even. The nuclear blast would be extreme if we wiped everything. We will only do them if it becomes absolutely necessary. 

 

You could recruit/request a bunch of volunteer players to undergo a personal wipe to test the new Econn, without taking everyone else for the ride.

[BoomBox]

i am also for a asset wipe , to see how the change work out when starting with nothing

[Anne Wildcat]

I also believe to truly test Econ, an asset wipe is needed. Maybe I'll try to play on PvP2 & see how it goes.

[Taranis]

If folks want to wipe assets, they can delete their character and start anew.

 

Let the rest of us that have fewer spare hours on our hands, retain the progress we have attained.