Server Merge Proposal

[Archaos]

6 minutes ago, randommexi said:

try to accommodate everyone and all you'll do is piss off everyone.  its a no win situation.  why do you think EU is doing alright?  

If you read through various threads on the subject you would know why the EU server has a greater population than the Global server and I would hardly say it was doing alright. The way the server creation was done meant that the server with an already larger population became the EU server and many people who had not known about logging in to set up moving to another server decided to remain there rather than transfer and have to grind through again. Also the way the servers were listed without any explanation led many new players to just choose the first server and the one with more people on it. The Global server still has the problems of night/work flips so the original problem still remains.

People are trying to suggests solutions that are acceptable to everyone rather than going with a "F*** you jack I'm okay" attitude. If everyone was willing to give a bit a solution could be found that would make the game enjoyable by all and bring more people to the game.

[randommexi]

3 hours ago, Archaos said:

If you read through various threads on the subject you would know why the EU server has a greater population than the Global server and I would hardly say it was doing alright. The way the server creation was done meant that the server with an already larger population became the EU server and many people who had not known about logging in to set up moving to another server decided to remain there rather than transfer and have to grind through again. Also the way the servers were listed without any explanation led many new players to just choose the first server and the one with more people on it. The Global server still has the problems of night/work flips so the original problem still remains.

People are trying to suggests solutions that are acceptable to everyone rather than going with a "F*** you jack I'm okay" attitude. If everyone was willing to give a bit a solution could be found that would make the game enjoyable by all and bring more people to the game.

so... if you make one server people will play on it regardless of the port battle timers?  that's what i'm taking away from what you just said.  so again... why bother changing it from the current form?  if people will play on it anyway not caring about the PB timers.  I see no reason to change it.

my original solution does appease many of the players of naval action.  but not all.  and as seen, people want structured port battle timers.  personally, I could care less what the timers are as long as the window that which I need to defend my port for is no less then 4 hours and no greater then 6 hours.  but giving players total freedom to set their port timers to whatever they want will not work.  we tried that and i'm sure numerous players have spoken about this.

[Norfolk nChance]

@randommexi

 

I do like your idea of picking your own PB window for defense. A six-hour slot is a nice block in a 24-hour window. Exclude UTC 07:00, 08:00 and 09:00 for server maintenance. Am not sure if its possible across all clans but using the Town Management overlay am sure it’s doable.

On your first PORT capture the Town Management mechanic asks for your clan's time window. I would suggest the time slot then appears on the Towns Pop-Up in Map View.

Changing the time should be made difficult, not Gold wise but a locked time period perhaps. 

Norfolk

 

[Slim McSauce]

18 hours ago, randommexi said:

my original solution does appease many of the players of naval action.  but not all.  and as seen, people want structured port battle timers.  personally, I could care less what the timers are as long as the window that which I need to defend my port for is no less then 4 hours and no greater then 6 hours.  but giving players total freedom to set their port timers to whatever they want will not work.  we tried that and i'm sure numerous players have spoken about this.

If the time off attack within the window was up to attackers it would give back some of the advantage of the attack and (maybe?) give more incentive to participate in PBs/RVR, as more clans would be encouraged to work together to scout, potentially screen, and be ready to defend the port.

Although if it was a good group of 25, it may be easier to sweep ports from less experienced nations, but worth testing.

 

[Sea Nettle]

On ‎11‎/‎18‎/‎2017 at 6:08 AM, Custard said:

When you play a PB at your favorite time suitable just for you that is a nightflip to half the world it is the nature of an MMO, you need to man up and grasp this by wanting just to play in your zone only you will kill the games potential.

It is not the job of the game developers to make the RvR work in an MMO that is our job and we (that is all the testers/players) are failing it must be made to work for everyone not just you.

The real issue is that all the Europeans flock to one nation and all the Americans flock to another.

If each divided equally scheduling wouldn't be that big of an issue.

That said, RvR is for the most part a waste of dev resources as it is impossible to balance.

Edited December 19, 2017 by Sea Nettle

[Custard]

6 hours ago, Sea Nettle said:

The real issue is that all the Europeans flock to one nation and all the Americans flock to another.

If each divided equally scheduling wouldn't be that big of an issue.

That said, RvR is for the most part a waste of dev resources as it is impossible to balance.

Let's hope this get's addressed by the players during the merge, some of the recruitment posts by clan leaders of different factions have at least been more positive than I can ever remember.

[IndianaGeoff]

6 hours ago, Sea Nettle said:

The real issue is that all the Europeans flock to one nation and all the Americans flock to another.

If each divided equally scheduling wouldn't be that big of an issue.

That said, RvR is for the most part a waste of dev resources as it is impossible to balance.

I don't see any indication that Americans will flock to one nation from Global.

[Custard]

1 minute ago, IndianaGeoff said:

I don't see any indication that Americans will flock to one nation from Global.

Neither do I but historically the accusation on the EU server is that English speakers predominantly choose US or British factions

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

20 minutes ago, Custard said:

English speakers predominantly choose US or British factions

I am pretty sure that is not the truth. If certain nations wouldn't be so adamant on RL affiliations to a game nation those same nations would get great popularity as well.

If you are referring to native English language countries, well, yes. Many do chose USA and GB due to RL reasons.... whatever that means in a game.

[Custard]

3 minutes ago, Hethwill said:

I am pretty sure that is not the truth. If certain nations wouldn't be so adamant on RL affiliations to a game nation those same nations would get great popularity as well.

If you are referring to native English language countries, well, yes. Many do chose USA and GB due to RL reasons.... whatever that means in a game.

I never claimed it was the truth but it has always been an accusation from the nightflip brigade

[Fletch]

The real issue is people being negative before we have even tried it out. 

[Capn Rocko]

11 hours ago, Fletch67 said:

The real issue is people being negative before we have even tried it out. 

They are just scared of PvP

[Sea Nettle]

On ‎12‎/‎19‎/‎2017 at 9:22 AM, Custard said:

Neither do I but historically the accusation on the EU server is that English speakers predominantly choose US or British factions

I would think the fact that Great Britain, The US and Pirates being quite large in comparison to the others would show that, if only anecdotally. I haven't played in a long time but it was like that when I played. Sweden had a miniscule population, the Danes a bit more as many Russians played them.

I don't speak in absolute terms but a great issue with scheduling is that nations have players at certain times. If those nations were more blended they would have players, theoretically, to cover all timezones.

That said, I still find RvR an absolute waste of dev resources. POTBS attempted this and never made it work and there isn't that much difference between the systems. Even with perfect distribution, unlike real life, players aren't obligated to care about and commit to a losing side and when they lose they will stop playing or switch sides. Starting over not only likely leads them to quit, it also harms and likely causes the same effect for those that want to persevere but inevitably throw their hands up in disgust at the futility of their circumstance.

Ergo, spending years developing patches and systems that are ultimately going to end up unused, abused or broken is time that could be used creating a world where those complications are done away with and individuals strive to become the best at X in a world inhabited by other players. Similar to Sid Meiers would be perfect where the leaderboards are populated by retired characters. Though I understand that may be too much for this particular game, for characters to have a finite timespan to accomplish things, which is where updating leaderboards daily, weekly and monthly would suffice.

Trying to create a balanced RvR system is nigh impossible. Instead, create systems that target the competitive side of the individual in this setting and you won't have problems attracting new and returning players.

This is coming from someone that still plays Sid Meiers Pirates, Pirates of the Carribean with the Pirates Ahoy mods, a beta POTBS player and one who intentionally chose the smallest and weakest nation for Naval Action when he started.

There are quite a few very alluring pirates games on the horizon, Sea of Thieves, Skull and Bones and one more whose name eludes me at the moment. Choices need to be considered carefully before the chance of recovering fans of the game are nil. The combat in this game is fun without a doubt but it isn't in itself enough to carry it.

I would assert that the majority of people attracted to this game are of the types that want to stand out. They don't want to be Bill on a ship that is a part of a large fleet doing things that many have done to secure a port. They want to be Nelson or Blackbeard and to have themselves stand out in the game. RvR doesn't really lend itself to that. It also monopolizes the open sea pvp as it becomes the pvp focus. Players expend all of their game time keeping up with that portion of the game that they don't waste time doing the smaller scale engagements.

 

Edited December 22, 2017 by Sea Nettle