Was a PVE server ever promised/guaranteed at game launch?

[Justme]

There seems to be a lot of confusion on here and the steam forums regarding a PVE only server was promised by the devs at game launch or shortly after.

To be clear I'm not asking if there will be one, but whether one was promised.

 

thanks

 

[Ned Loe]

They scraped the idea because it costs too much to maintain 2 servers. 

Edited March 21, 2017 by Ned Loe

[ironhammer500]

18 minutes ago, Ned Loe said:

They scraped the idea because it costs too much to maintain 2 servers. 

If pve content was worked on as much as PVP content sure the PVE server would have had much more players but right now PvE is a side project tbh they should make the npcs more interactive with players to make the world feel a bit more populated. 

[admin]

PS First announcement of the potential for pve server caused huge outrage in the community (Ramjb can confirm) and was considered a mistake by the community.

Official statements were always very careful and never explicitly promised anything.

1. http://store.steampowered.com/app/311310/ - current promises
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20130624074658/http://www.navalaction.com/ - historical promises from 2013

Current webpage mentions pve servers as a peaceful zone where you can play without being attacked (because they were in game then). The promise of the safe zone will be fulfilled. Keep in mind that the webpage lists 10 ships in game and says that Santisima Trinidad is still in development. Thus Captains should consider Steam page as the most current promise to players. 

[Justme]

Thanks for the clarification admin, it's appreciated.

[Challenge]

If I remember correctly, the outrage was mostly from PvPers who would lose juicy targets if they moved.

[Ned Loe]

 The promise of the safe zone will be fulfilled. 

That's what I mean, instead of servicing 2 servers why not build safe zones into pvp world. Smart move imho. Peaceful&Hostile waters on 1 server. 
 

I would do this:

Split world into zones. If any player enters Hostile waters (PvP zone) warning message let's him know what will happen if he keeps sailing in. Also, make sure PvE people take risk when doing Econ. There should not be safe passage through Hostile Zones. Hauling goods must always maintain the risk. 

Edited March 21, 2017 by Ned Loe

[Challenge]

If I decide to PvE:

I can't be the nation of my choice -- only one of three. An annoyance, but I guess being  Brit could be tolerable. ;-0

I was thinking more like a PvE range centered on the capitol of each nation. That probably would be unacceptable to the barracuda schools, but would be more historic since Colonial Capitols tended to be the home port for the local fleet.

Don't know how hard that would be to code in, however.

Edited March 21, 2017 by Challenge

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Not entirely correct. Political capitals and Naval Bases & Shipyards were often in different Islands, especially on the East islands.

In game however, it can be anywhere, there's no limitations.

[Remus]

20 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

Not entirely correct. Political capitals and Naval Bases & Shipyards were often in different Islands, especially on the East islands.

In game however, it can be anywhere, there's no limitations.

Just as well, really. I wouldn't want the main British base to be in Bermuda,

Edited March 21, 2017 by Remus
/sp

[Sir Cloudsley-Shovell]

No PVE then thats it for me,no more NA!

[Ned Loe]

8 minutes ago, Sir Cloudsley-Shovell said:

No PVE then thats it for me,no more NA!

There will be PvE zones inside PvP server. Chill. 

Edited March 21, 2017 by Ned Loe

[VonBarb]

4 hours ago, admin said:

PS First announcement of the potential for pve server caused huge outrage in the community (Ramjb can confirm) and was considered a mistake by the community.

Official statements were always very careful and never explicitly promised anything.

1. http://store.steampowered.com/app/311310/ - current promises
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20130624074658/http://www.navalaction.com/ - historical promises from 2013

Current webpage mentions pve servers as a peaceful zone where you can play without being attacked (because they were in game then). The promise of the safe zone will be fulfilled. Keep in mind that the webpage lists 10 ships in game and says that Santisima Trinidad is still in development. Thus Captains should consider Steam page as the most current promise to players. 

Was it a paying community back then ? Because we are now...

The worst part of the PvE servers being 'scrapped' is that it means no further PvE content will get developped, and even if, not before a long time. With PvE being (and I loosely quote the official announcement here) limited to "attacking smugglers", that's pretty much the death of it. As more PvE players leave, there won't be a need for a resurgence of the PvE server or for more content, and it will wither to oblivion.

As I see it the promise of PvE gameplay is NOT being fulfilled by being reduced to almost nothing.

[Ruthless4u]

32 minutes ago, VonBarb said:

Was it a paying community back then ? Because we are now...

The worst part of the PvE servers being 'scrapped' is that it means no further PvE content will get developped, and even if, not before a long time. With PvE being (and I loosely quote the official announcement here) limited to "attacking smugglers", that's pretty much the death of it. As more PvE players leave, there won't be a need for a resurgence of the PvE server or for more content, and it will wither to oblivion.

As I see it the promise of PvE gameplay is NOT being fulfilled by being reduced to almost nothing.

PVE content is there as promised. Is its own server, no but it was not intended to be before some veterans requested it be tried.

The PVE is not being reduced to almost nothing, the only difference is the space available to the PVE players, which also reducing the PVP area as well. Otherwise it's the same content.

[VonBarb]

Quoted directly from the official announcement :

Quote

• The only way to fight in the PVE zones will be to attack smugglers - which will from the patch create outlaw battle (FFA) - the mechanic that you can test on the testbed.

That is not the same content. That is reducing it to 'hopefully run into some civilian traffic'. No missions, no roaming men of war... Or are the devs yet again failing at communication ? 

[Guest]

7 hours ago, Justme said:

There seems to be a lot of confusion on here and the steam forums regarding a PVE only server was promised by the devs at game launch or shortly after.

To be clear I'm not asking if there will be one, but whether one was promised.

 

thanks

 

The game hasn't launched yet so all that was promised was a game in development. I've been part of the game since it's EA release on steam and I can't recall reading a thread where the devs promised a PvE server - only threads where they've spoken about the desire to have one and the difficulty of providing content for it. The difficulty I can understand as this is a sandbox game where players create most of the ingame content amongst themselves and that's difficult to achieve in a server that's entirely devoid of player interactions (contentwise that is - all the community supports are there as well).

[Justme]

20 minutes ago, Bearwall said:

The game hasn't launched yet so all that was promised was a game in development. I've been part of the game since it's EA release on steam and I can't recall reading a thread where the devs promised a PvE server - only threads where they've spoken about the desire to have one and the difficulty of providing content for it. The difficulty I can understand as this is a sandbox game where players create most of the ingame content amongst themselves and that's difficult to achieve in a server that's entirely devoid of player interactions (contentwise that is - all the community supports are there as well).

I understood this, but without a clear answer from the devs a lot of   PVE only players have come to believe that a PVE only server was promised.

I even seen a player threaten another player over it, with everything from getting him banned to kicking his teeth in.

 

[Sir Texas Sir]

1 hour ago, VonBarb said:

Quoted directly from the official announcement :

That is not the same content. That is reducing it to 'hopefully run into some civilian traffic'. No missions, no roaming men of war... Or are the devs yet again failing at communication ? 

Your mis reading that.  The devs are talking about the only way for "YOU" the player to be attacked in the PvE zone is for you to have the smuggler flag turned on.  It's been used on other games for folks that don't want the PvE safe zone so they flag them selves as PvP ok while in it.   It basically means when I'm in the PvE zone and if  "YOU" have the balls enough to attack me you can.   There will still be AI in the open world for you to kill just like you have now.

In fact with them merging the servers you have more chance of more PvE content cause now they can work on it for the game as a whole instead of for just one group.  They all ready plan to make smarter AI and give us more content in the future when they get to that part of the development.  Which you do remember this is an EA of a game that is still in Alpha Stage of Development.

[Sir Texas Sir]

2 minutes ago, Justme said:

I understood this, but without a clear answer from the devs a lot of   PVE only players have come to believe that a PVE only server was promised.

I even seen a player threaten another player over it, with everything from getting him banned to kicking his teeth in.

 

and you stated it right there....come to believe.  Show me where they promised you anything?   Seems they have this grand image of what they think the game should be, but in reality it's all ways been up to the Devs image of what they want for the game.   They are still giving you PvE content and you safe place while keeping a place for you to play.  They could just as easy completely shut down PvE and gave ya'll nothing and still be keeping withing the EA part of this game until release.  When they could open a PvE server. 

[jnovotny6]

Im over 50 and enjoy the serenity of Pve. Nothing lasts for ever. 50 some players will not make a lot of difference to the devs , financial concerns will over ride hanging on to that number. I will give the new world a shot, played some on EU pvp today. The element of danger is exciting. I redeemed an Endy and promptly got ganked by 7 angry Dane teenagers. Pointed Endy at the fastest point of sail and outsailed them, they gave up after 10 minutes. As I play alone most of the time to me the important thing will be to get the fastest ship possible and be able to go anywhere. Change is good, stop crying and adjust. If an old fart like me can do it........well you know...

[Corona Lisa]

5 hours ago, VonBarb said:

As I see it the promise of PvE gameplay is NOT being fulfilled by being reduced to almost nothing.

What is it that you cannot do in the big PvE zone compared to the PvE server?

Apart from risky exploring and a new (forced) area to play in I dont see that much difference tbh.

 

What about the bright side? You will meet much more different people in the new PvE zone. Most people are not only into PvP, they enjoy some time doing PvE stuff too you know.

Edited March 22, 2017 by JonSnowLetsGo

[Genma Saotome]

I remain baffled the DEV's are not simply adding a tag to the data files to signify this block of data is for PvE and that block of data is for PvP.  It should be easy enough to do that in the .json files and having done plenty of coding myself I do not think it would be that big a deal to modify the code to display like tag values for whatever each player is sailing.  Everybody gets to sail across the entire map and they see only identically tagged ships, ports, etc.

That would solver the problem of too many servers and PvE players concerns about being forced into some subset of the map -- a rather boring subset from the looks of it.

Later on it would also make it trivially easy to group PvP players into virtual worlds according to their experience levels: noobs in one virtual world, hugely experienced fighters in theirs, with perhaps one or two intermediate levels..  As noobs get more experienced they (along with their ships and warehouses)  could "graduate" into higher skill level virtual worlds.

[Sir Texas Sir]

3 hours ago, jnovotny6 said:

Im over 50 and enjoy the serenity of Pve. Nothing lasts for ever. 50 some players will not make a lot of difference to the devs , financial concerns will over ride hanging on to that number. I will give the new world a shot, played some on EU pvp today. The element of danger is exciting. I redeemed an Endy and promptly got ganked by 7 angry Dane teenagers. Pointed Endy at the fastest point of sail and outsailed them, they gave up after 10 minutes. As I play alone most of the time to me the important thing will be to get the fastest ship possible and be able to go anywhere. Change is good, stop crying and adjust. If an old fart like me can do it........well you know...

How much you want to bet most of those danes are closer to your age than some teenagers.  I'm 40 and most of my clan is around my age (we do have a 19 year old but he's mature).   We all love PvP and some of the guys came from PvE first.  May I ask what are you where in?   Cause 7 ships prob means you where some where close to a hot zone and what nation where you?  Prob one they are at war with.  While I didn't start out on PvE I did start out on PvP1 and was ganked a lot when I was in the wrong places.  I learned pretty fast that I should avoid those places.  Not sure your location real life, but the PvP2 server is a bit more smaller pop so could get a more relaxing exploration.  Though even there some areas will be more dangerous than others.  Though I thank you for taking the leap to try it out and hay we might see you out in the OW in the hotzone later on.  Good luck and happy sails.

3 hours ago, JonSnowLetsGo said:

What is it that you cannot do in the big PvE zone compared to the PvE server?

Apart from risky exploring and a new (forced) area to play in I dont see that much difference tbh.

What about the bright side? You will meet much more different people in the new PvE zone. Most people are not only into PvP, they enjoy some time doing PvE stuff too you know.

But they won't have all the empty server to explore. I bet you most of those complaining haven't even seen half the ports. I been to every port on the map and I have over 4K hours though.  At least they are going to have an area.  The Devs don't even have to give them that. To be exact PvPers are loosing 1/3 of our map and you don't see us complaining.

Oh and I plan to keep the flag on while in the PvE area any time I go into in cause one of them gets frisky and want to try PvP.

2 hours ago, Genma Saotome said:

I remain baffled the DEV's are not simply adding a tag to the data files to signify this block of data is for PvE and that block of data is for PvP.  It should be easy enough to do that in the .json files and having done plenty of coding myself I do not think it would be that big a deal to modify the code to display like tag values for whatever each player is sailing.  Everybody gets to sail across the entire map and they see only identically tagged ships, ports, etc.

That would solver the problem of too many servers and PvE players concerns about being forced into some subset of the map -- a rather boring subset from the looks of it.

Later on it would also make it trivially easy to group PvP players into virtual worlds according to their experience levels: noobs in one virtual world, hugely experienced fighters in theirs, with perhaps one or two intermediate levels..  As noobs get more experienced they (along with their ships and warehouses)  could "graduate" into higher skill level virtual worlds.

a PvE safe flag won't work.....cause it will be abused to avoid PvP and to move goods.  It will kill trader hunter for those that do that.  So any solo privateer or pirate will pretty much loose any game play with that cause now one would move there goods without the flag on.  If this is the type of system your talking it's been used on other games with very bad results that is why they haven't tried it here.

As for doing multi server levels there is not enough players and we should not be splitting this game by skill level.  If I don't take that rookie under my wing he will never learn and get better.  So he needs to sail at my side and learn.  His limits is his crew size for what ships he can use not his skill level.  What is the formula that tells if some one is a rookie or a vet.  We still see folks come over from PvE that can't freaking even Manual sail and they are rear admirals.  It's cause they never learned as you really don't need to fighting AI that are pretty stupid.

[jnovotny6]

thank you Texas, while I am from Buffalo NY I was out of KPR as a Brit and I guess Danes were about to attack the port. Was warned but having the fastest ship in the game I figured I could outsail anyone as long as i kept off of lee shore. I did manage to get the head pursuing Conny down to 96% sail with my stern cannon before they gave up. Cheers 

[admin]

12 hours ago, VonBarb said:

Was it a paying community back then ? Because we are now...

 

Steam page has no mention of PVE server NOR has any promise on the server composition. We always manage expectations downward and always asked players to keep expectations low and expect the worst.

You paid for the game the way it is described on the Steam Page. This description greatly exceeds the promised content on Steam green light - https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=259130636

All other promises don't exist and never existed. We were always very particular about what we say on the public facing pages. But we understand that players can sometimes read non-binding forum conversations differently. Sometimes we stated that there are two servers or were two servers in game (pve and pvp) but they never were a promise.

The only way to solve the pve server dilemma is to charge subscriptions. But we never said subs before and thought it would be a lot worse to start charging subs for pve server than to remove a non promised thing.