PB Screening Suggestion

[Angus McGregor]

I've only been on the fringes of 2 port battles, so I'm no authority. But from what I've seen and read in the forums, the PB's really seem overly stacked in favor of defenders. Assuming the PB port camping logoff exploit issue gets resolved, this will make the attacker's job even harder. One defensive advantage is that the RoE mechanism lets a few (or one) screening defenders pull an entire attack force into a battle instance for a minimum of 2 minutes. 

I suggest implementing the Bahama RoE rules within the PB port's green protection zone (or a wider area if necessary) for 10 minutes before, and while the PB is open. Each screening defender may only tag one attacker (and vice versa).  No restrictions on differences in BR.

IMO this will increase the strategic options, with screening tag choices becoming more meaningful, both offensively and defensively.

Would this adjustment be too extreme?

[vazco]

In my opinion yes, they would be extreme. Dutch nation never did port log-off (excluding one by one of the clans) and only one time we didn't get into the battle due to screening (out of maybe 10 times when screening was used). Maybe it's just my experience, however I don't see an issue here.

[Anolytic]

4 hours ago, Angus McGregor said:

I suggest implementing the Bahama RoE rules within the PB port's green protection zone (or a wider area if necessary) for 10 minutes before, and while the PB is open. Each screening defender may only tag one attacker (and vice versa).  No restrictions on differences in BR.

IMO this will increase the strategic options, with screening tag choices becoming more meaningful, both offensively and defensively.

That's a ridiculous solution. It would remove any strategy and make numbers the only thing that matter, which would again mean nations with more numbers could always get into port battles, and nations with low numbers of players could never get into port battles.

 

3 hours ago, vazco said:

In my opinion yes, they would be extreme. Dutch nation never did port log-off (excluding one by one of the clans) and only one time we didn't get into the battle due to screening (out of maybe 10 times when screening was used). Maybe it's just my experience, however I don't see an issue here.

In Cartagena at least I saw the Dutch/Brit PB fleet logging in inside the bay only a minute's sail from the port. And our alliance has never, at least as long Danes have been nearby, employed the screening tactic of undocking in waves. We always instruct our screening fleet to let the port battle fleet pass through, preferably after a short delay, and we've never employed a screening fleet with maximum numbers. You may not see the issue, but that doesn't mean it's not there. It just means we prefer to fight port battles than to avoid them.

[vazco]

4 hours ago, Anolytic said:

In Cartagena at least I saw the Dutch/Brit PB fleet logging in inside the bay only a minute's sail from the port.

In Cartagena that was not the case, maybe you saw us group up. Or maybe I skipped some battle I didn't know about.

This is not the point of this topic though

[Dumu]

Bring back the old flag system, introduce port battle fleets (you can buy flag for premade group so that those in the group always get the priority of getting in the battle) make flag not expire while in battle instance(1 hour flag timer expires only in ports and ow map and battle ending screen), and intercepting the port battle fleet needs half of the br. Also i really would love to see somekind of group making tool ingame to help ppl find each other (small pve/pvp lobbys for nation wíth small comment for position and purpose, and groups made with the tool shows up for everyone so ppl can ask to join).

edit: realized that there will be problems if the flag fleet needs to be 4th rates and you can intercept it with 1st rates o.O

Edited December 7, 2016 by Dumu
re-think

[vazco]

14 hours ago, Dumu said:

Bring back the old flag system

I love how people remember only good things about the past and advocate for bringing old stuff back. Flag system had huge issues, main one being fake flags and a huge loss of time for everyone involved. A flag system on a current playerbase would most likely kill the game instantly.

[Dumu]

Flaws like fake flags and timers could be easily fixed with little effort. If you implement port battle fleets you would need to have group to by the flag, cost could be adjusted accordingly and you could also use the current mechanics to make only certain ports available for assault at times. For timers i think there should have been option to request attack timer, instead of only allowing the defenders to choose the time.

[vazco]

Fake flags won't be blocked just by groups, even though it's a neat idea. Fake flags would still happen, as people can group up only to pull fake flag (which I remember we did in an old system - we had 25 people online, yet we were launching fake flag without attacking any port).

This is only one issue though. Others were eg. lack of option of changing timers, limiting RvR to only certain hours, setting flag timers to deliberately block enemies, an option to take 10 ports in a single day, larger nations gaining advantage over smaller nations, lack of influence of port battles on economy or anything in the game. It wasn't a neat system.

In my opinion a good hostility system can be better than flags. The problem is we don't have a good hostility system yet, as it doesn't generate PvP to generate hostility, and it can be easily gamed in a current form.