Knowledge Prerequisites

[PongoNW]

So stupid of me to actually try to play the game you developed. 

I should have been grinding in my Indef and whining about it with the others. 

Thank you devs for being irresolute and irrational.

[Atreides]

Come on, the idea behind the progressive XP was a good one.  AOS captains started out in smaller ships and graduated.  Read the Aubrey Maturin books, Jack started in a small sloop and commanded several ships.  He didn't start his career commanding the HMS Surprise.  The knowledge you gain once you hit square sailed vessels for a new player helps you master the larger ships faster.

But the players hated it, and voiced this loudly and often.  It is a constant balance of historical accuracy and fun.  Too much accuracy and grindy grind detracts from the fun a little too much at times, and is dialed back.  This game is still in open development:  cracking voice, pimples and awkward.  We are testing, giving feedback, saying what we love and hate.  THE GAME is not finished for prime time.

 

And for disclosure, I ground all 5 slots in a B cutter, all 5 slots in a pickle, and 4 slots on a brig when before yesterday.  I predicted this would happen.  And in spite of the time I spent grinding tiny ships, I am glad they changed it, as the fun factor was missing for me along with many others.

[Hodo]

2 minutes ago, Atreides said:

Come on, the idea behind the progressive XP was a good one.  AOS captains started out in smaller ships and graduated.  Read the Aubrey Maturin books, Jack started in a small sloop and commanded several ships.  He didn't start his career commanding the HMS Surprise.  The knowledge you gain once you hit square sailed vessels for a new player helps you master the larger ships faster.

But the players hated it, and voiced this loudly and often.  It is a constant balance of historical accuracy and fun.  Too much accuracy and grindy grind detracts from the fun a little too much at times, and is dialed back.  This game is still in open development:  cracking voice, pimples and awkward.  We are testing, giving feedback, saying what we love and hate.  THE GAME is not finished for prime time.

 

And for disclosure, I ground all 5 slots in a B cutter, all 5 slots in a pickle, and 4 slots on a brig when before yesterday.  I predicted this would happen.  And in spite of the time I spent grinding tiny ships, I am glad they changed it, as the fun factor was missing for me along with many others.

But in no way did spending time on smaller fore-and-aft rigged ships teach him to be a better captain for a large square rigged vessel like the Surprise.  

It would be like saying that shooting a .22LR pistol is just like shooting a M2HB .50cal HMG.  

 

[kitsunelegend]

The thing is, there already IS a natural ship progression in the game. Its called captain ranks. I mean sure, you can PROBABLY sail a Connie as a simple captain, but you ain't gonna do too well because you're highly undercrewing your ship. Not to mention, the cost of ships as they get bigger. A new player isn't going to be able to afford much else than a brig after a days worth of gaming, MAYBE if he's lucky.

 

Take myself for example. When I first started playing this game, I went from Bcutter, to Lynx, to Brig, to Snow, to Cerb, to Surprise, to Essex. All from natural progression of how much money I was able to make, and then finding the ship for sale in a port.

The prerequisites system was an arbitrary, annoying, frustrating, and all around unneeded progression system that had no business being in an open world sandbox MMO such as this game. I don't mind needing to grind the slots with XP, in fact, I LIKE that, as it allows for me to improve the ship I'm on. The old system just forced you down a set path through ships that the player might completely hate and despise. 

 

Let the ship progression flow naturally by letting the player choose which ship he wants next. As it is right now, I feel the system is perfect. Its the right amount of grind, but still allows for a lot of fun, and allows players to make their own goals, and their own lines of progression.

 

After all, this is a game, its supposed to be fun. Its not supposed to be a second job.

[PongoNW]

ya stupid me, ground out the 4th on the Frigate, am on 3 on the aggy and actually made a 3rd for grinding. 

Guess I should sit on the russian forums so I can tell what is going to happen.

Again, devs need to grow a pair. Its not a terrible idea but it is very anoying to actually try it as designed and have it sabotaged by whiners who never even tried.

I would like all that time wasted on the crap missions a Frigate gets back please. And the conquest wasted on that 3rd.

[CaptVonGunn]

It was a terrible idea. A good idea would have been open all 5 Boxes in 1(One) ship in each rate to move on... That would have at least made some sense. But in the cars if the one tree you had to do Brig and Snow the Cerb to get to Frigate to then get to a bigger Frigate. That was silly. Just be happy they didn't significantly increase the xp need on all the boxes

[Rhodry Heidenrich]

I'm glad I didn't do any of the ship-tree grinding. 

I'm equally glad that I won't have to do it outside of the ships I like.

 

 

 

 

 

[Captain Lust]

11 hours ago, PongoNW said:

I should have been grinding in my Indef and whining about it with the others.

Well, at least you can get the whining in now, right? 

[PongoNW]

21 hours ago, CaptVonGunn said:

It was a terrible idea. A good idea would have been open all 5 Boxes in 1(One) ship in each rate to move on... That would have at least made some sense. But in the cars if the one tree you had to do Brig and Snow the Cerb to get to Frigate to then get to a bigger Frigate. That was silly. Just be happy they didn't significantly increase the xp need on all the boxes

I do like that suggestion better, but they wanted to force people to play the unpopular ships, So your idea is counter to their intention as much as we like it.

But they only forced me it seems. Everyone else just whined.

the only terrible idea was punishing the people that actually tried it. And rewarding the tards that whined about it.

But that is our devs.

Edited June 22, 2017 by PongoNW

[William Bonney]

Nah.  I grinded out B.Cutter 5, Pickle 3, Brig 5, Snow 3, Cerb4, and just got a Frigate to start working on but decided to start working on other route so Privateer 3, Mercury 4, Renom 5, and was in progress with the Surprise.

So no, you aren't only one, but I don't feel like my time was wasted really.  I got to play the game as it was.  It's not like that anymore.  No big deal really.  Now easier to master the ships I like and ignore the ships I don't.  I didn't mind the grind, but I certainly don't mind less grinding either.

[Blackjack Morgan]

I'm not going to criticize them when they make a step in the right direction. Not a fan of the ship experience grind at all and would prefer for it to be done away with altogether but this is at least an improvement.

[PongoNW]

So everyone that got the first two skills on the Indeatable and then whined to get their 3rd skill opened up were smart.

The people that ground the 4 skills on the frigate and would have had superior Indef skill soon because that 3rd was unlocked were dumb.

The people that played the game the devs delivered were stupid. Not for the first or last time.