Patch 19: Mega Patch with new patrol missions, new hostility, victory marks for small clans, and other changes.

[admin]

Captains
Mega patch with multiple changes will be deployed tomorrow 8th March!

PVP/PVE Patrols

• PVP was made more affordable and rewarding with the introduction of Patrol missions
• More information can be found here 
• Tiered rewards will be added to patrols in the next couple of weeks after this event is tested
• New content will be added to admiralty in the next couple of weeks

Conquest Changes: Conquest for everyone

• Conquest no longer favors only leading nation
• Any player  can get access to victory marks, by just being a lord protector at least one port on monday maintenance
• Victory marks distribution has changed. Lord protectors will now receive victory marks every week based on their port ownership on conquest round end (weekly). Victory mark distribution is tiered and has diminishing returns. You will get 1 mark extra mark for every 3 ports you control but the max number of marks that can be received is limited by 5. 
• Example
  • 1-3 ports: 1 victory mark
  • 4-6 ports: 2 victory marks
  • 7-9 ports: 3 victory marks 
  • 10-12 ports: 4 victory marks
  • 13-15 ports: 5 victory marks
  • 16-18 ports: 5 victory marks
  • etc..
• To promote more activity across all time zones, Port battle timer now costs 500,000 per day; old 100k price was ridiculously low and cost of the capture timer will continue to evolve

Hostility missions improvements.

• NPC defence fleets in hostility missions now adapt to an attacker force. Responding with similar vessels both in rating and in numbers.
  • If one player will come to generate hostility on the enemy force he will encounter 1 defender.
  • If 10 players come to generate hostility they will encounter 10 npc defender ships.
• The problem of the inability for the port owner to provide an adequate defence force is solved by limitation of player ships in the hostility mission. Both defender and attacker can only bring 10 vessels into the hostility mission.
• Hostility missions now spawn 30% closer to the port 

Reinforcement zones rules of engagement change

• ability to pull the players to the battle using NPC attack - removed
• ability to pull the players into battle using player attack - removed
• if battle is created in the reinforcement zone only attacked player or battle group is pulled into battle all others will be able to join using positional reinforcement and can decline to do so. 
• This will remove the potential for grief and abuse in the reinforcement areas.
• Add. Positional entry rules mean battles are open until they end, which greatly help defenders to punish the hostiles

Battle groups reworked

• Battle group will act as a battle group only when there are 6 players or more in the group. The status of the battle group is shown in the group interface and will tell you if your group is a battle group. This is done to remove abuse of battle groups mechanics allowing creation of solo battle groups to avoid screening. 

Other changes and improvements

• Clicking on a ship in the open world will now show the circle around him, that can help understanding who will be pulled into the battle if he is attacked. This will be very helpful in station keeping when traveling in the open world.
• Unrated vessels without the chasers now have the control perk too
• PVP Upgrade Drop. Player ships will now drop one of the installed upgrades into its hold if boarded or killed. 
• You cannot enter or exit shallow water ports with deep water ships. Use tow ship function to move the deep water ships out of shallow water areas. 
• Player names and ship names removed from ENEMY players in the open world identification. You will only know that it is a player and an approximate rank of the vessel/vessels. You will only be able to find out the name of the captain once you engage. Names of your nation's captains are not affected.
• Checkbox to only show online clan members added to clan interface

• Tow to port now creates a PB entry timer. Timer is the same as the PB timer created after normal battles.
• Attack circle is reduced. You will be able (theoretically) to lay fire immediately after attack. This is done to reduce counter tagging.
• Minimal speed in the open world is now 4knots, to provide better experience in long journeys.
• Ship sinking time is increased by 30% for destroyed ships to make picking up loot easier.
• Side force no longer affects speed indication
• Epic events no longer spawn very close to shallow waters
• Brace command is reassigned to F10 - to remove accidental clicking (40% of new player bug reports were about brace)
• Wasa, L Hermione, Santa Cecilia received a slight armor buff
• Wasa, Hamburg, Ingermanland, L Hermione, Santa Cecilia received a turn rate buff
• Leeway force from square sails, and staysails/jibs slightly increased
• NPC ships HP buffed slightly to compensate lack of repairs
• Barricades now have the attack penalty and are a pure defensive upgrade
• Angle importance on penetration slightly increased (need more testing) to provide more options to control incoming damage into hull
• Edinorog accuracy reduced to somewhere between carronades and medium guns. Vertical sector greatly reduced as it would be impossible to use edinorog howitzer firing through ports of the ship.
• All other upgrades increasing vertical gun sector drastically nerfed
• Rigging specialist perk nerfed as its bonuses were too high.
• Acceleration/Deceleration formulas improved based on the wetted area calculations; which in general reduces tacking effectiveness for wider deeper vessels.
• Ships created through admiralty notes can occasionally receive crafting bonuses and extra slots.

Tutorial

• Tutorial button is temporarily removed for the final integration of rewards and final exams.
  • Leveling and rank progression and crew assignment for ranks will change in the next couple of weeks. 

Plans for March/Early April

• Integration of the open world UI into the game
• Finalization of tutorial
• Premium ship pack containing 3 ships (2 of which could be acquired in game by other means)

 

Hotfix March 8th

• Ship crafting bug fixed
• PVP Patrol button is temporarily removed to fix the Battle circle of doom sometimes spawning with an offset killing everyone in the instance
• Database is being reverted to today's maintenance state due to too many ships lost in events and crafted.

 

Hotfix March 9th

• Fixed bug caused the Battle circle of doom to spawn incorrectly.
• PVP Patrol missions are back.

 

Hotfix March 13th

• Fixed bug that prevented pvp patrol rules of engagement in Nassau order.

[Kloothommel]

57 minutes ago, admin said:

 

• To promote more activity across all time zones, Port battle timer now costs 500,000 per day; old 100k price was ridiculously low and cost of the capture timer will continue to evolve

 

Nightflips will be back with a vengeance for poor clans/nations.

[/spolier]

Ps: premium ship pack! Yay!

[Corona Lisa]

8 minutes ago, admin said:

• Premium ship pack containing 3 ships (2 of which could be acquired in game by other means)

Great patch once again except the quoted part.

Premium ships are something for Free2Play games and not for a game for which I payed 40 euros already.

Why not add ship paints and other cosmetic stuff as premium?

[Knobby]

18 minutes ago, admin said:

Edinorog accuracy reduced to somewhere between carronades and medium guns. Vertical sector greatly reduced as it would be impossible to use edinorog howitzer firing through ports of the ship.

then why even allow them to be put anywhere but top decks?

[NethrosDefectus]

@admin Can you explain why you want players to be able to pull others into combat without warning by attacking nearby NPCs? In what way is that good for the game?

And pay2win ship DLC?

Edited March 7, 2018 by NethrosDefectus

[Roronoa]

500k for PB timer is much, but at least you'll get Victory Marks if you own a port. Let's just see how this will go.

[z4ys]

3 minutes ago, trashiiii said:

500k is insane. But I guess it will produce the desired effect - less timers on ports.

I kinda doubt its good for RvR but lets see

its more like less big clans own half the map while national effort with even small clans own a piece of the cake gets rewarded

[Arvenski]

Thanks for the update. 

However, I'm not sure I like this part: 

24 minutes ago, admin said:

Player names and ship names removed from players in the open world identification. You will only know that it is a player and an approximate rank of the vessel/vessels.

I can understand why you don't want players to be able to identify their enemies (it adds to the realism and uncertainty), but suppose you run into someone you know who plays for another nation? Now you won't be able to recognize your friends, either.

[admin]

3 minutes ago, NethrosDefectus said:

@admin Can you explain why you want players to be able to pull others into combat without warning by attacking nearby NPCs? In what way is that good for the game?

 

?? i dont get your comment
ability to pull the player using NPC was removed in reinforcement zones. What are you talking about?

[Wojtek]

@admin

U said something about chests for VM or pvp marks.

WHEN

Answer me please, it would resolve many problems.

[Trino]

@admin

Can you explain how the premium ships work? Only buyers can craft them? Only buyers can sail them? You pay for every single ship? Can they get captured? Can this ships be sold?

[NethrosDefectus]

4 minutes ago, admin said:

?? i dont get your comment
ability to pull the player using NPC was removed in reinforcement zones. What are you talking about?

Yes in the safezones yes, what about the rest of the map? The only defence against that was forming a battlegroup. Not everyone sails around in a group of six.

I get that if you are in the open world you should expect to be attacked etc, but it's nice to get some warning before hand.

Edited March 7, 2018 by NethrosDefectus

[Darayavahus]

34 minutes ago, admin said:

Reinforcement zones rules of engagement change

• ability to pull the players to the battle using NPC attack - removed
• ability to pull the players into battle using player attack - removed
• if battle is created in the reinforcement zone only attacked player or battle group is pulled into battle all others will be able to join using positional reinforcement and can decline to do so. 
• This will remove the potential for grief and abuse in the reinforcement areas.

Please limit the Reinforcement zone to apply only to ranks below 10. This is silly for old-experienced players to hide in safe zones while there are still forts arround.

[Christendom]

Night King is back baby

[Roronoa]

38 minutes ago, admin said:

Lord protectors will now receive victory marks every week based on their port ownership on conquest round end (weekly).

@admin

Who count as Lord protectors? My clan has 2 ports, how many members will get the victory marks? Or as the creator of the clan, will just i receive the victory marks?

[NethrosDefectus]

@admin 

• Player names and ship names removed from players in the open world identification. You will only know that it is a player and an approximate rank of the vessel/vessels.

I regularly sail alone so it is important for me to know who I am attacking. For example there are certain clans/players in every nation that are known for having other players nearby. Being able to identify a player/clan is very important for risk assesment. No one is going to attack a player alone if he has a reputation for having reinforcements out of view or even logged off nearby waiting to log in and join the battle. This change would two things, encourage more people to use this tactic and discourage open world pvp because people wont want to take the risk.

And how are we supposed to communicate with other players in open world? Interaction (even with the enemy) is a big part of the game.

Edited March 7, 2018 by NethrosDefectus

[Corona Lisa]

Just now, Trashonoa said:

@admin

Who count as Lord protectors? My clan has 2 ports, how many members will get the victory marks? Or as the creator of the clan, will just i receive the victory marks?

You can see how many protectors you have in port in the conquest tab on the bottom right side.

Everyone who participated successful in a PB gets lord protector status for that port. When the port gets attacked again and you successfully defend all people who defended get the protector. People who captured the ports but didnt defend at the last attack wont have the status anymore.

I hope thats understandable^^

[Darayavahus]

"Player names and ship names removed from players in the open world identification. You will only know that it is a player and an approximate rank of the vessel/vessels."

What the hello kitty? Whats the point of this change?

[NethrosDefectus]

@admin 

• Ship sinking time is increased by 30%

Does this mean time for the ship to fill with water and be "killed" or does it basically just increase the amount of time to loot the ship?

[Christendom]

I like the idea of ports costing more, but to offset this more ports need to be more valuable.  there are FAR too many ports in the game that are essentially useless for generating cash.  All this patch does is ensure more ports go neutral.  We need a reason to visit them. 

More copper ports.  Create a mod that is similar and place it somewhere on the map making that port worthwhile.  Increase the amount of teak/lo/wo ports.  

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

I'm ok with all of this except crafting bonuses & extra slots via ship notes. That was supposed to be for crafters, it's already gamebreaking enought you have access to every rare woods via notes.

Make all ships craftables  and exclude teak / liveoak / whiteoak / bermuda & bonus from ship notes.

[Retrin]

51 minutes ago, admin said:

Player names and ship names removed from players in the open world identification. You will only know that it is a player and an approximate rank of the vessel/vessels.

If this is something you want in the game .. (I don't actually like it but I can see the arguments for and against) you would be much much better off making this a craft-able 'Disguise' upgrade .. or 'ruse de guerre' upgrade ... or even 'captured code book'.. something .. 

what you are doing now is going to limit some players desire to go out and pvp,  with a name and the leader boards you had a bit of information on the ability of the captain beyond ship br ...

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 7, 2018 by Retrin

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

59 minutes ago, admin said:

Wasa, L Hermione, Santa Cecilia received a slight armor buff

Wasa, Hamburg, Ingermanland, L Hermione, Santa Cecilia received a turn rate buff

Stop it! Wasa was fine till you started to do rollbacks on the nerfs. 

Everything else looks great.

Edited March 7, 2018 by Davos Trashworth

[Darayavahus]

9 minutes ago, Trashed Privateer said:

Players have too high prejudgement. They see HachiRoku, they won't attack. They see Banished Privateer, they will sail away and say "sorry, I'm not experienced in PvP". Other players start to chase someone for hours just because they hate the person, as soon as they see him in OW. Great change. 

But why the ship type?

[Christendom]

4 minutes ago, Trashed Privateer said:

It will not fix incomes. First of all:

Majority of gold flows inside safe zone = money sink

Another huge money sink is tax in free towns. 

Even if you make more copper ports, income will more or less split equally between them. It's about number of players and players using ports that "eat" tax.

Even better, Only purple and gold ships with random attributes can be crafted in non safe zone ports.