Port Control

[Captain Lust]

So despite all the complaining about the maintenance cost by many, it seems like people have come to realize that with the increased rewards it is no big deal at all to own many ports, since in fact gold is more than abundant now and soon we will see the map completely in colour again. Also nobody has any problems to get ships anymore, which is very nice ( even tho i would argue it wasn't that hard before either ) . Now that we abandoned the hardmode, i think we should take another look at the region refits / upgrades. Do you guys think it is ok, that they are still exclusive to a certain nation/clan? Given the fact that most are only available in 1-2 ports it is very easy now for a powerful clan to seize control over it. People barely sold the good ones before, good luck buying them now that everyone is pissing gold... I would suggest moving the components for the upgrades to Free Towns so everyone has the same chance to get them there, while potentially creating more PvP around the Port. Mabye someone has a better idea, so feel free to share your opinions / suggestions.

Obviously the Poll results will be biased since casual players don't visit the forum as much as hardcore players do but i thought it would still be interesting to see and since the poll is made public it is rather easy to spot biased votes. If you want to explain your vote, feel free to do so.

Edited September 17, 2017 by Captain Lust

[Norfolk nChance]

@Captain Lust

Love the penmanship here in this POST well done. Unfortunately, cannot vote because the YES/NO choice you have offered make a flawed observation look like a statement of fact which is incorrect. [SORRY]

I completely agree with all main body points, I don’t believe the game was too hardcore. It was the player community’s misinterpretation what felt like a never-ending GRIND. In fact, it was exhausting re-grind from a much-needed Server Game reset. How can it be never ending GRIND when the boxed Universe is less than 10 days old?

The phrase I would slightly disagree with “Now that we abandoned the hardmode…”, I would have added “for the time being…”. Make no mistake you are a Junkie and your Dealer is just softening the blow (pardon the pun) of what I believe is to come.  

Hostility Grind is too easy and mark my words will be nerf’d in the not too distant future. The rewards now Ludicrously over compensate you for that really hard AI Fleet mission you completed in under 20 minutes. Can’t you see your “Dealer” is stoking inflation and giving you some “feel good factor...” . Seeing them Plastic Care Bears using SoLs to mission grind in OW is the clue.

I don’t disagree with the Dealers current moves. We Junkies have got a serious hangover from last night’s Party Power RE-Grind and just need a little relaxation. I assume I’ll be snorting some grade-A nerfs when we start to see the glutinous after effects of cheap money and artificially stimulated inflation…

 

Norfolk

 

[Captain Lust]

1 minute ago, Norfolk nChance said:

Unfortunately, cannot vote because the YES/NO choice you have offered make a flawed observation look like a statement of fact which is incorrect.

I know it sounds biased - becase it is. Doesn't make it any less true however and if im wrong anyone can explain himself and prove this. The truth is, that the folks who voted yes thus far, are the same that play in the big clans that take advantage from this. I enabled the poll for exactly this reason - to show, that only those players like the system, because they benefit from it and and the same time lack the class to admit that it's wrong. The way i worded the poll answers was deliberately to provoke and show how little they actually care and that they can not even reason their opinion objectively in the comments.

[CaptVonGunn]

all this being said you should never be able to block Same Nation from Docking up unless your clans are at war over another port(or that one)

[Teutonic]

I prefer the Refit materials to be rare, but maybe be in "more" ports.

They are particularly valuable which makes a number of ports highly sought after and contested often. I mean imagine Cartagena having a port battle at every chance it can have one (which is what is happening on the EU server). I think it's great that it is happening and wouldn't mind seeing more of it because it's promoting conflict for a resource that people find valuable.

The key here is that not having that resource is not limiting you from building ships or cannons.

[Captain Lust]

1 hour ago, Teutonic said:

I prefer the Refit materials to be rare, but maybe be in "more" ports.

They are particularly valuable which makes a number of ports highly sought after and contested often. I mean imagine Cartagena having a port battle at every chance it can have one (which is what is happening on the EU server). I think it's great that it is happening and wouldn't mind seeing more of it because it's promoting conflict for a resource that people find valuable.

Good point. Yeah maybe Free Ports should have a chance to spawn any of the components randomly. I think this would be the best solution...

1 hour ago, Teutonic said:

The key here is that not having that resource is not limiting you from building ships or cannons.

I don't think ships and cannons ever were a problem ( sure some complained about how it was too hard before last patch ), it always was the upgrades...

48 minutes ago, Peter Goldman said:

The last mean of conquest. The last reason for smugglers to risk their lives. The last reason to defend something, other than your safe home waters with reinforcements.

 

True, fair point. Can't argue that RvR needs more things that make it actually matter, it's just hard to pull off without putting the majority ( non RvR players ) at a disadvantage...

48 minutes ago, Peter Goldman said:

You get alternatives to get these things via PvE / Trader attacking RnG which I hate, despite the fact that it's an alternstive. Nonetheless, there are lots of alternatives. Guacata, Almeria, Bridgetown Refit, Boven and Crooked, each nation has at least one rare resource in their hands.

That's easy to say when your clan holds some of the best refit component ports on the EU server... So i would argue it is fair to assume you're very biased on this topic. But yeah i agree the RnG is absolute cancer... maybe they could make the components available for marks aswell but very expensive or you can trade your nations refits against others in the NPC store? Like you mentioned before upgrades are very poorly balanced and i think permanent refits are no exception...

Edited September 18, 2017 by Captain Lust

[Teutonic]

4 minutes ago, Captain Lust said:

Good point. Yeah maybe Free Ports should have a chance to spawn any of the components randomly. I think this would be the best solution...

 

Actually I really like the Idea of having Free Ports spawn rare resources randomly. Hey, maybe even Neutral towns as well.

It would add to the game allowing adventurous traders to be able to find the "jackpot" every once in a while.

This could have Traders go to find "random spawns" and also players who are searching to raid or just look for PvP also maybe get lucky by finding the same trader. Could add some interesting dynamics.

[Captain Lust]

3 hours ago, Peter Goldman said:

My clan holds one of the best refits so my opinion is biased, right?

I would say so, yes... Cartagena refit and Guacata superior gunpowder alone are probably  most viable in SOL PBs...

3 hours ago, Peter Goldman said:

It's been a couple of days and port income was what? 300-600k gold daily? That's something that takes one player about 1h of PvE to earn.

Did i say anthing about that? We all know gold is worthless / meaningless now, so does it really matter? I'm still of the opinion ports should cost gold instead of generate it to balance inflation and power of nations / clans... but in the current state of the game with gold being completely redundant it doesn't matter at all...

3 hours ago, Peter Goldman said:

Also how do we hold this? Whole nation has access to it, including all enemy alts.

Yeah, but in case they wipe all gold and fix the system so it matters again... the upgrade parts will be really expensive and your clan will get serious taxes even if you don't buy the upgrade parts all for your clan. Yes, your nation but not other nations - that's kind of the point... your nation also helps you defend the port so it is a win-win either way... I wouldn't really bring alts into this... i don't think the game should be balanced around them as casuals don't have them...

3 hours ago, Peter Goldman said:

oday 25 captains risk their ships and lives to defend it. Our clan lost a 1st rate with cannons and modules probably worth 5-6m altogether if not more. That means... so far the port didn't pay for its loses and costs.

Fair enough but how many ships did the enemy lose? Did they all have cartagena refit?

 

You know ultimately it might be alright with the other nations having alts and all... otherwise they would comment here stating otherwise, i remember @rediii asking for a cartagena nerf for example and he raised the valid question of why it has no speed debuff for the additional armor for example. Ultimately i think the devs want some upgrades and refits to be OP and exclusive to the hardcore crowd only, so they fight over certain ports and it is mainly the casuals that suffer, because they have neither the game knowledge / skill nor the exclusive gear to compete...

Edited September 18, 2017 by Captain Lust

[Captain Lust]

3 hours ago, Teutonic said:

Actually I really like the Idea of having Free Ports spawn rare resources randomly. Hey, maybe even Neutral towns as well.

It would add to the game allowing adventurous traders to be able to find the "jackpot" every once in a while.

This could have Traders go to find "random spawns" and also players who are searching to raid or just look for PvP also maybe get lucky by finding the same trader. Could add some interesting dynamics.

I like how all those voting "yes" are the RvR players in big clans, not coming up with suggestions like this and just not giving a hello kitty... i sometimes really think the NA veteran community is like a rotting limb that needs to be cut off, to prevent it from killing the entire body... same with vets that used to hunt noobs around capitals... 

Edited September 18, 2017 by Captain Lust

[Vizzini]

Atm we have an amount of  rare refit / module resources spawn at certain ports each day / time . I'd look at spawning half the amount in said known ports and perhaps scatter the rest at freeports around the map in much smaller quantities. The dots have to be worth fighting over or the risk is we will have less pvp if we can all sit back and wait for the loot to drop into our laps. I do believe though, we should be fighting over resources in a pvp game. Having them spawn in un-attackable ports is probelmatic

 

 

[Captain Lust]

3 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

The dots have to be worth fighting over or the risk is we will have less pvp if we can all sit back and wait for the loot to drop into our laps.

Well RvR is not the only PvP but i get where you are coming from... This raises one question for me tho: Why aren't more ports spawning those rare resources then, instead of only 1-2 for each? Maybe split droprate across all of them ( even better it should be adjusted to server pop )... ? 

 

6 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

Having them spawn in un-attackable ports is probelmatic

Agreed.

[Vizzini]

2 minutes ago, Captain Lust said:

Well RvR is not the only PvP but i get where you are coming from...

 

 

No, the dots are required to stop a clan or nation having to sail a sad amount of time to find an enemy. If a dot is valuable then more will fight over it. If a 3rd clan knows there will be some PVP in an area between 2 enemies they are more likely to turn up also.

 

Fighting over dots on a map doesn't have to mean RVR .. it's just pvp too. Any war between players is just that... pvp.

The dot gobblers are going to come unstuck this season anyway but don't start thinking taking dots = rvr as it's more subtle than that. Being able to port into an area to find enemies is invaluable, stopping it is also tactically beneficial.

If some items are too powerful then they should not be in an area which cannot be attacked and we don't want to all have alts to park in enemy ports to keep putting contracts higher once a day, gets boring fast

[BallsOfSteel]

When you own a port you should be able to cancel contracts and start afresh. even when allowing all nations access.

[Captain Lust]

1 hour ago, Peter Goldman said:

The Danish ships that we captured a few times had Cartahena Caulkit Refit. I can't tell how they got it, but they did somehow

*cough* *cough*

[Captain Lust]

7 hours ago, Peter Goldman said:

Ummm, you try to insist that we sold it to them? I can ensure you on behalf of my clan that it's not the case

No, thats what you said  ... i was hinting at dupegate... wouldn't make sense to sell it to your enemy when it gives them a chance to take the port and gold being worthless...

Edited September 18, 2017 by Captain Lust