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

[Lord Amplify of Key West]

9 minutes ago, admin said:

OW pms with enemies are disabled from the attack tab. as sending a private message and seeing his name in chat defeats the purpose of hiding the name.
You can still PM with enemies using search of course, or through global chat 

lol can't even talk to people now

 

[Cabral]

7 minutes ago, AmpTrash said:

lol can't even talk to people now

 

 You can talk to your people, or you prefer to talk with the enemy?

[Pablo Frias]

1 hour ago, Wojtek said:

This image summarizes my mood on this game.

[pepepotamo]

Biennn, applause, another great idea of these geniuses. Now the slappers applaud them to keep bringing out such magnificent ideas. Absurd one more time.
Keep it up and the game will be deserted in a short time, well, maybe that's what you want.

[Landsman]

3 hours ago, admin said:

ship names removed

But you can still see what ship it is at a certain range with spyglass, right? Like by looking at the ship?

[Red Dragon 13]

2 hours ago, victor said:

3 hours ago, admin said:

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

• 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.

1) This will increase fear of combat, so it will increase fleeing from any enemy rather than fighting them.

2) will you at least able to see the names of the players of your own faction?

3) this will make impossible any alliance among clans in different factions (is it work as intended?)

Edited 1 hour ago by victor

and most players, knowing that only daredevils are out, will stay in the safe zones forever

 

[Red Dragon 13]

2 hours ago, sveno said:

One issue i see coming: Clans taking ports in the weekend to drop them after monday. More VM without timer costs due to cooldown....

Rinse. Repeat.

[Landsman]

1 hour ago, Mirones said:

Santa Cecilla aka Bloody Hermione is a Premium

So SC is one of the 3 premium ships in the pack? Can't be the one exclusive since you can get SC from epic events, right?

[GrubbyZebra]

3 hours ago, admin said:

Conquest Changes: Conquest for everyone

• 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

This is just too expensive. For example, my clan (Dutch, US and Aussie-based with some new EU members), owns 3 ports. Total income from these ports just covers their current cost (timers included). With a 5x increase in cost, we won't be able to continue to own all 3. Even a 2x increase would be a stretch but we could make up the difference through contributions to the clan WH.
 

This problem won't just affect smaller clans, either. There are few ports in this game that make 500k a day in profit for their clans, so either clans leave unprofitable ports neutral (unlikely since ownership has strategic advantages in RvR and PvP, and also because ownership is tied to VM's), or players are forced to do more PvE grinding for gold to support these ports (which I would say is a non-starter for maybe a 1/3rd of the current players). 

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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.

Does this only affect Reinforcement Zones, or all of OW?

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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. 

If the intent is really to avoid solo battle groups, then make them require 2 players instead of 1. Again, smaller clans (or players who play outside their clan's main TZ) will be unable to use the benefits of the battle group functions because they won't meet such a high threshold (even during my clan's PT, our patrol groups are typically only 3-5).

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Other changes and improvements

• Unrated vessels without the chasers now have the control perk too

Just add it to all ships. Frustrating and highly immersion-breaking to have a ship 500m away suddenly disappear because you missed a shot. Also, wouldn't encourage people to sail around in lynxes as tagging ships.

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• 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.

In order to do this, some other form of IFF across nations needs to be added. Several clans/players have friends and allies across nations, and if we won't be able to identify them by clicking on their ship, then we need a means of adding them to a friends list with an IFF identifier in the on-screen pop-up, or the ability to add friendly clans from other nations with the clan name in the popup, or something similar. 

It doesn't work at a nation level ,because these relationships are more organic than the RvR mechanics and are forged on personal/clan levels. These partnerships are also very important to smaller/weaker clans.

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

All-in-all though, Very excited about this patch. So many of my personal wish-list items are being addressed, and I can't wait to test it out (I know this has nothing to do with it being released, but happy nevertheless).

[Quineloe]

3 hours ago, admin said:

Ships created through admiralty notes can occasionally receive crafting bonuses and extra slots.

Ships that were not actually crafted receive crafting bonuses :-)

[Quineloe]

3 hours ago, Intrepido said:

500k for a pb timer?

Thats five times the current cost, it is just impossible to afford!

 

It is absolutely a dramatic change that will have many negatives for encouraging rvr. Please make it 200-250k instead of 500k.

The clear goal is to make 95% of all port battles to not include any PVP whatsoever.

[Jorge]

1 hour ago, Wojtek said:

[victor]

13 minutes ago, Trashed Privateer said:

Everyone that says players will be scared to sail out because they can't see names, just think twice. If someone is so scared, he will never sail out. No matter if he sees names or not... 

they are not scared to sail out, they will simply flee from anyone they see.

[Tac]

1 minute ago, victor said:

they are not scared to sail out, they will simply flee from anyone they see.

I disagree, so I guess we will sail and see.

[Slim McSauce]

awwww shit

[qw569😳]

4 hours 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

According to today's API data, the scientists of Inagua Statistics Institute compiled a daily report with port timers for 500,000.

So you can compare  100k vs 500k.

2 hours ago, sveno said:

One issue i see coming: Clans taking ports in the weekend to drop them after monday. More VM without timer costs due to cooldown....

@sveno said the absolute truth

Cooldown after capture port 72 hours. So more activity will be in the weekend and PB against neutral.

Most profitable ports
Port	Revenue (100k)	Revenue (500k)
Esteros	2553941	2153941
Cartagena de Indias	2051894	1651894
Basse-Terre	1042380	642380
Nassau	1016367	616367
La Navasse	802691	402691
Saint-Louis	736143	336143
Flatts	657696	257696
Saint John's	625183	225183
Samaná	600462	200462
Little Harbour	565687	165687

 

Edited March 7, 2018 by qw569

[jodgi]

6 minutes ago, Intrepido said:

You forgot step 5: leave the game, because no one bothers to do meaningless RVR anymore.

Hmm... So the 400k diff from current to new timer cost is where the line between meaningful and meaningless RvR lies?

Just know I never cared about RvR. I don't need a reason to fight, fighting is my reason. I just want to shoot at ships.

Maybe PvP missions, anonymous enemies and possibly some escape from eco/crafting with premium ships (!?) will make people want to go out fighting more than now?

So what if you sink? You can get ten marks out of it at least

[Guest]

22 minutes ago, qw569 said:

According to today's API data, the scientists of Inagua Statistics Institute compiled a daily report with port timers for 500,000.

So you can compare  100k vs 500k.

Enjoy the PvE grind boys, gotta afford that protection money. It's funny to see replays of old mistakes.

[jodgi]

7 minutes ago, Louis Garneray said:

will force us to farm money

How is anyone forcing you?

[NethrosDefectus]

• PVP Upgrade Drop. Player ships will now drop one of the installed upgrades into its hold if boarded or killed. 

Do you not see how that is open to abuse? You must know your player base by now. 

Player A loads his ship with the top 3 mods, player B boards the ship and gets a nice upgrade as a result. Both players go outside and Player B lets Player A board him in the same ship who also gets a nice upgrade. And repeat

[Retrin]

'With names we are sure, removal of names will create more tension and will make pvp more exciting. '

this effects more than pvp .. clan relationships, trade agreements, meeting up with friends or enemies etc

you need to add something to identify others.. naval codes .. flares.. personal flags ... something 

it is backwards thinking .. without an alternative

 

 

 

[Fenris]

Changes are good in my opinion. Not sure if such high fee for ports will bring more meaningful RVR.

Making ports, many of them, more valuable, worth fighting for, would probably bring more motivation.

It is time for developers, to create a meaningful economy in game, after finishing the UI and Tutorial.

 

[jodgi]

27 minutes ago, NethrosDefectus said:

• PVP Upgrade Drop. Player ships will now drop one of the installed upgrades into its hold if boarded or killed. 

Do you not see how that is open to abuse? You must know your player base by now. 

Player A loads his ship with the top 3 mods, player B boards the ship and gets a nice upgrade as a result. Both players go outside and Player B lets Player A board him in the same ship who also gets a nice upgrade. And repeat

But they won't multiply. 

[Slim McSauce]

Lets test it before we go spouting nonsense shall we?

[NethrosDefectus]

26 minutes ago, jodgi said:

But they won't multiply. 

What do you mean?