Spotting From Land

[Slim McSauce]

We don't see any activity from the land in this game. Presumably there would be military men stationed at each port, at every tower. Every time an unknown man o' war passed within sight it was likely marked down and sent as a letter to warn the admiralty. This is my suggestion.

Ships within sight of a enemy port, forts, or towers, there's a % that they will be spotted within X time, percentage increasing with how many ships are spotted within that time.

So say if 1 ship passes within sight of the people at the tower, there's something like an 11% chance that that nation will be warned of a ship within 10 minutes or so (a delay to simulate the time it takes for a message to travel by horse or small boat)

If 20 ships pass within sight of a port, there's a 90% chance that the message will be broadcasted.

Basically unless you have players themselves posted at these ports dedicated to typing away on nation chat then people easily go unnoticed, no one finds them and no PVP takes place. The forts, towers and port towers are there for exactly this reason. Take the annoying step of players having to do these entities jobs and make it a feature. Then more PVP can take place and less searching. Just imagine as a player sitting in port getting a message that 25+ enemy ships are about to converge on x port. Yeah I would shite myself in excitement.

Pic related, the view from a tower where men are posted for this exact reason 

Edited November 5, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[Gregory Rainsborough]

This would work very well I think if it was in a new tab like CombatNews.

[StaleMemes]

Excellent suggestion, I think a "national news" tab would work well for this with sightings and port battle related info

[RedNeckMilkMan]

2 hours ago, Slim McSauce said:

We don't see any activity from the land in this game. Presumably there would be military men stationed at each port, at every tower. Every time an unknown man o' war passed within sight it was likely marked down and sent as a letter to warn the admiralty. This is my suggestion.

Ships within sight of a enemy port, forts, or towers, there's a % that they will be spotted within X time, percentage increasing with how many ships are spotted within that time.

So say if 1 ship passes within sight of the people at the tower, there's something like an 11% chance that that nation will be warned of a ship within 10 minutes or so (a delay to simulate the time it takes for a message to travel by horse or small boat)

If 20 ships pass within sight of a port, there's a 90% chance that the message will be broadcasted.

Basically unless you have players themselves posted at these ports dedicated to typing away on nation chat then people easily go unnoticed, no one finds them and no PVP takes place. The forts, towers and port towers are there for exactly this reason. Take the annoying step of players having to do these entities jobs and make it a feature. Then more PVP can take place and less searching. Just imagine as a player sitting in port getting a message that 25+ enemy ships are about to converge on x port. Yeah I would shite myself in excitement.

Pic related, the view from a tower where men are posted for this exact reason 

During the time period it would also take days for this information to spread seeing as how the internet didn't exist.

[StaleMemes]

11 hours ago, RedNeckMilkMan said:

During the time period it would also take days for this information to spread seeing as how the internet didn't exist.

True, but already have other means of instant communication in this game and it can't be avoided. People can use instant infinite distance communication to organize a massive attack fleet within 5 minutes, its only fair that instant comms give warning of such attacks as well. If GB planned a massive, 30 lineship + bomb ketch attack on say france, france would not first learn of this attack when the british started bombing their forts. Spies, merchant vessels, and message carrying fast ships would deliver news probably weeks or months before such an attack, and the slow buildup of forces would be noticed.

realism is not a valid counterargument here.

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by Capt Aerobane

[Sven Silberbart]

if i remember right: some time ago there were papers found at open sea. The information was similar to "Ship/Captain was spotted 3 hours ago at X". That info was useless, cause the info was absolutely outdated and you were mostly somewhere at OW at the moment you found the info paper and always too far away.

This suggestion is a good thing, when it is an nation wide information wich isn't too old. It would lays down a trace and would give the game more depth with an cat and mouse gameplay or placing traps.

I really like this suggestion and hope @admin will give it a look.

 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Sure Sven. But with teleports the information, despite being nice on the lore side, becomes useless in less than 15 minutes.

[HamBlower]

There are 378 ports an 12 nations in game. The average is more than 31 ports per nation, and we all know some nations have much more than 31 ports. A lot of ports are passed constantly by AI Ships. Will you set a filter on AI? Otherwise you get a lot of messages that noone can handle. If you filter on AI, than the messages are useless in PVE Server.

In the actual information modell of the game, messages includes only the rate of the ship and the nation. I don't see any sense in this information. I can't see a positive impact on PVP.

[Sven Silberbart]

Ofc AI ships are not part of this information.

What we see today in nation chat is similar und useful.: "3 prussiians near Marigot in 3rd rates". The suggestion is to bring that information into a seperate chat and generate the info by the game system itself. Cant see any negative effect. Who dont want to take a look at the spotting logs, mustn't do it. The guys who want to Find the enemy in own nations waters have a better chance to do so.

 

Edited March 28, 2018 by Sven Silberbart

[Tiedemann]

I like it. It should automatically post in nation chat with bold letters imo. 

[RedNeckMilkMan]

7 hours ago, Capt Aerobane said:

"realism" is not a valid counterargument here.

His entire argument was based on the realistic aspect of this potential mechanic. Regardless we don't need more reasons for people to remain docked.

Why would I hunt when instant communication from ports does it for me.

[Slim McSauce]

1 hour ago, RedNeckMilkMan said:

His entire argument was based on the realistic aspect of this potential mechanic. Regardless we don't need more reasons for people to remain docked.

Why would I hunt when instant communication from ports does it for me.

It's not instant nor is it 100% accurate all the time (not every single player ship has 100% chance to be spotted), even if they pass in sight. If you don't want to get spotted you can sail out of visual range and dive on targets when ready to take the chance

If you get a message that 10 ships are near x port, that message is already many crucial minutes behind (it's not real time) and they've likely moved since then. You still have to sail out and track them down yourself like you normally would.

All this acts as is a early warning system for PVP so players themselves don't have to sit at every port and spot targets in nation 24/7, which shouldn't really be the job of the player to do when we have these high elevation towers perfect for such a task.

 

Also another idea for this, Port upgrades that extent sight range, and improve chances of a message getting through, and improve the accuracy of the spotter (certain upgrades the count of ships becomes more accurate, the nation of the enemy is revealed, and type of ship (not accurate, but something like unrated, frigate and SOL categories) but all these are just extra that I could live without

Edited March 28, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[StaleMemes]

3 hours ago, RedNeckMilkMan said:

His entire argument was based on the realistic aspect of this potential mechanic. Regardless we don't need more reasons for people to remain docked.

Why would I hunt when instant communication from ports does it for me.

his argument is honestly more based on common sense, ports have people in them people have eyes so they can see ships. He's adapting realistic ports to the unavoidable instant communication of the game and coming to a compromise.

[vazco]

It's a great suggestion! It would benefit this game greatly.

As for realism - beacons were known since antiquity. We can assume they were used, which would allow to pass a simple information hundreds of miles within hours.

[vazco]

Knowing where to find enemies for PvP would make this game much more action oriented. Since it's in the game's name, I guess it matters.

Probably smugglers on traders should be excluded from such a system though.

For less certainty it could be informing only about a region, eg:

• Frigate in Baseterre region
• Group of 5 ships in Baseterre region, 1000+ BR

Edited March 28, 2018 by vazco

[Landsman]

14 hours ago, Slim McSauce said:

20 ships... 90% chance...

20 ships sailing by a fort without anyone noticing? Somebody will hang for that... 

[Fenris]

15 hours ago, Slim McSauce said:

We don't see any activity from the land in this game. Presumably there would be military men stationed at each port, at every tower. Every time an unknown man o' war passed within sight it was likely marked down and sent as a letter to warn the admiralty. This is my suggestion.

Ships within sight of a enemy port, forts, or towers, there's a % that they will be spotted within X time, percentage increasing with how many ships are spotted within that time.

So say if 1 ship passes within sight of the people at the tower, there's something like an 11% chance that that nation will be warned of a ship within 10 minutes or so (a delay to simulate the time it takes for a message to travel by horse or small boat)

If 20 ships pass within sight of a port, there's a 90% chance that the message will be broadcasted.

Basically unless you have players themselves posted at these ports dedicated to typing away on nation chat then people easily go unnoticed, no one finds them and no PVP takes place. The forts, towers and port towers are there for exactly this reason. Take the annoying step of players having to do these entities jobs and make it a feature. Then more PVP can take place and less searching. Just imagine as a player sitting in port getting a message that 25+ enemy ships are about to converge on x port. Yeah I would shite myself in excitement.

Pic related, the view from a tower where men are posted for this exact reason 

Appreciating this only if clans which own ports are able to make/craft such lookout bases..

Otherwise we can have GPS in the game.

[vazco]

41 minutes ago, Fenris said:

Otherwise we can have GPS in the game.

We already have GPS...

[Slim McSauce]

1 hour ago, vazco said:

Knowing where to find enemies for PvP would make this game much more action oriented. Since it's in the game's name, I guess it matters.

Probably smugglers on traders should be excluded from such a system though.

For less certainty it could be informing only about a region, eg:

• Frigate in Baseterre region
• Group of 5 ships in Baseterre region, 1000+ BR

that could be where the line is drawn for pure hunting. Or just a small % for randomness sake. Maybe a future update will add some kind of resource that gives traders and smugglers making them justified military targets. Until then it's probably best to exclude them, being sneaky is one of the few things a traders has going for him.

[Guest]

Some ports could become very strategic as intel ports where you can get notified of passing vessels and mobilize to engage. I dont see how this doesnt increase OW pvp. 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

As long as any captain can go on a "Cochrane" rampage type of thing and attack the outposts along the coast ( initiate a instance versus land structures ), sure. Bring it.

Mechanics must be blind and work both ways. Equal opportunities.

[Tomasso il Fortunato]

+1

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

2 hours ago, Coraline Vodka said:

Oh you mean like raids and town bombardment?

Like taking a fort ? 

[Slim McSauce]

7 hours ago, Hethwill said:

As long as any captain can go on a "Cochrane" rampage type of thing and attack the outposts along the coast ( initiate a instance versus land structures ), sure. Bring it.

Mechanics must be blind and work both ways. Equal opportunities.

You could but you'd probably get spotted doing it 

But I like it, a huge codding step from the suggestion but I like it.

Raids when? 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

24 minutes ago, Slim McSauce said:

You could but you'd probably get spotted doing it 

Of course !

As I said, a mechanic must work both ways, equal opportunities for all playing parties.