Open world hunting

[Jerome]

Are there any planned changes to the current system to encourage people to leave reinforcement zones?  And make pirates pirates again?

[jodgi]

Indeed... What would motivate people to play the victim?

At one point rats were rats, but new rats didn't like being killed by old rats.

[Njord]

12 minutes ago, Jerome said:

Are there any planned changes to the current system to encourage people to leave reinforcement zones?  And make pirates pirates again?

People have asked for both for a very long time... keep your expectations low™.

[Jerome]

It's too damn bad, this game was exciting when it came out with the promise of open world pvp.  Not so much anymore.  All the mechanics favor carebears.  

[IndianaGeoff]

23 minutes ago, Jerome said:

It's too damn bad, this game was exciting when it came out with the promise of open world pvp.  Not so much anymore.  All the mechanics favor carebears.  

You missed the whole period without safe zones when populations crashed.  The game has not recovered from that and will probably never see those players again.

[Njord]

27 minutes ago, IndianaGeoff said:

You missed the whole period without safe zones when populations crashed.  The game has not recovered from that and will probably never see those players again.

I call BS on that one, my friend. Server population has been low for a long time and spikes every time a major patch hits, only to drop down again. I actually remember the server pop being higher long before safe zones. The special little delicate flowers who give up on the game over losing their ship one time too many are the ones that aren't meant to be playing it anyways - the game just isn't for them. There have always been many quiet parts of the map, where nobody would bother a new player or carebear and if that isn't enough a whole server that is only PvE. Do you see the PvE server being crowded? I don't. 

If what you say had any truth to it then the server pop would be rising again, because the game still gets new players every day and they should be happy with the safe zones now, right? 

The real reason why server pop is so low is because the learning curve is rather steep and the game doesn't help you much with that ( other than the new tutorial, which hopefully will be expanded ), while there is also a severe lack of content. What the game has to offer besides the best visuals and combat mechanics ( except for that god-aweful boarding minigame ) on the market is simply not enough for many people to stick around and learn everything / improve. The UI is another turn-off for many and will hopefully be fixed next patch.

The reasons for the game almost being dead and below 30% rating on steam are abundant but lack of safe zones is certainly not the main cause for all the lost players. 

I still think only new players should have protection zones. Why should a max rank player get protection? It's a MMO game and PvP server... his nation's players should help him and if a nation gets raided too hard, there is plenty of room and other nations on the map to move to. Funny how it works out just fine for the new nations without safe zones?

[Jerome]

3 hours ago, IndianaGeoff said:

You missed the whole period without safe zones when populations crashed.  The game has not recovered from that and will probably never see those players again.

The big server drop from 1000 plus players came when battle ratings were introduced, resulting in split groups.  PvP restrictions are killing the game.

 

[Nelsons Barrel]

Dear Sovereign, 

Everytime I read somebody saying 'No protection for max level' I imagine this very person asking for the change with his 5 friends in protection zone and waiting for the next first rate to leave port. A gank is a gank, doesn't matter if your victim is max rank or not. PvE needs some kind of protection, always. Or we loose the rest of the playerbase left in the game. 

BTW. Patch 10 costed us half the playerbase within 2 weeks and you can still read the reviews given for it. 

[Slim McSauce]

1 hour ago, Nelsons Barrel said:

Dear Sovereign, 

Everytime I read somebody saying 'No protection for max level' I imagine this very person asking for the change with his 5 friends in protection zone and waiting for the next first rate to leave port. A gank is a gank, doesn't matter if your victim is max rank or not. PvE needs some kind of protection, always. Or we loose the rest of the playerbase left in the game. 

BTW. Patch 10 costed us half the playerbase within 2 weeks and you can still read the reviews given for it. 

You're saying people didn't like having their progress wiped coming back to a game that was MUCH harder that the game they're use to playing while reaping no benefit of being in a remotely finished and stable state? You don't say.

What killed the playerbase was jumping to patch 10, then slowly reverting the game back to pre-patch 10 status. Months wasted going backwards in a way that pleased neither party of casual or hardcore player.

[Archaos]

I still do not get the mentality of the so called hardcore PvP'ers, even the title of the thread "open world hunting" gives an indication of what they want. They feel they are hunters and want more prey. They are not looking for good fights, they are looking for easy human targets and that is why they want to get rid of safe zones and force everyone out into the open world so they can have a target rich environment so they can brag and wave their epeen around as to how good they are for beating up on players who are not as experienced or well equipped as them.

There is a constant stream of OW hunters hanging round the safe zone outside KPR all moaning that high rank players are doing missions in the safe zone, they complained so much that they changed the RoE so that battles against AI in the safe zone remain open. If half of these hunters hanging around KPR changed to the British nation and went out attacking the other half hanging around then they would have plenty of OW action, but no, they would rather moan and look for ways to gank people who who at the time are not looking for PvP and moan on the forums that OW hunting is dead.

[victor]

 

7 hours ago, Sovereign said:

I call BS on that one, my friend. Server population has been low for a long time and spikes every time a major patch hits, only to drop down again. I actually remember the server pop being higher long before safe zones. The special little delicate flowers who give up on the game over losing their ship one time too many are the ones that aren't meant to be playing it anyways - the game just isn't for them. There have always been many quiet parts of the map, where nobody would bother a new player or carebear and if that isn't enough a whole server that is only PvE. Do you see the PvE server being crowded? I don't. 

If what you say had any truth to it then the server pop would be rising again, because the game still gets new players every day and they should be happy with the safe zones now, right? 

The real reason why server pop is so low is because the learning curve is rather steep and the game doesn't help you much with that ( other than the new tutorial, which hopefully will be expanded ), while there is also a severe lack of content. What the game has to offer besides the best visuals and combat mechanics ( except for that god-aweful boarding minigame ) on the market is simply not enough for many people to stick around and learn everything / improve. The UI is another turn-off for many and will hopefully be fixed next patch.

The reasons for the game almost being dead and below 30% rating on steam are abundant but lack of safe zones is certainly not the main cause for all the lost players. 

I still think only new players should have protection zones. Why should a max rank player get protection? It's a MMO game and PvP server... his nation's players should help him and if a nation gets raided too hard, there is plenty of room and other nations on the map to move to. Funny how it works out just fine for the new nations without safe zones?

We saw it happening, you come here talking about your ideas and suppositions about the "real reasons" for things that you did not even see.

But that's ok, let's then talk in hipotesys.

Maybe you do not know that the creation of a safe zones in a PVP game finds a precedent in the most succesful PVP MMO game out there, called EVE online. That game was born in fact at the very beginning without safe zones (I play that game also since a long ago), but the ganker posse started with time to camp some "core" systems to a limit that economy was conditioned by those gankers and players started leaving the game. Well ... as a solution CCP created empire safe zones .... and of course the ganker posse cried a river, but the game succeeded.

As far as I know there is only one game that has a full PVP with no safe zones at all, and it's called Mortal online. This game has just a few active players: feel free to snoop around in the reviews of that game and draw your conclusions on the reasons of that.

So, getting back to your question "Why should max player rank get protection?"

READ CAREFULLY MATE: because safe zones create a safe economic space to build an economy for easy factions (Spain, USA and GB) and because safe zones let PVE oriented players to produce the resources that PVP (and RVR) players will consume.

So basically - by creating safe zones - Devs simply followed the example of EVE online and applied the basics of any MMO.

[Nelsons Barrel]

What we could discuss is why do some nations need 3 safezones?

[victor]

51 minutes ago, Archaos said:

I still do not get the mentality of the so called hardcore PvP'ers,

Simply they are not hardcore PVPers (we all know that the "real" hardcore PVPers of this game do not complain about safe zones), rathter they are just players liking easy kills.

They ask others to be brave, when they are not brave at all.

[Corona Lisa]

1 hour ago, Archaos said:

I still do not get the mentality of the so called hardcore PvP'ers, even the title of the thread "open world hunting" gives an indication of what they want. They feel they are hunters and want more prey. They are not looking for good fights, they are looking for easy human targets and that is why they want to get rid of safe zones and force everyone out into the open world so they can have a target rich environment so they can brag and wave their epeen around as to how good they are for beating up on players who are not as experienced or well equipped as them.

You certainly got a point there, ganking is cancer (5v1 etc) and frustrating for the one who got ganked espcially.

 

But then again in your view if you start fighting those guys you are the prey. Why dont you see it as a chance to get better and to learn? You see exactly what ships the enemy has (as long as you dont sail to far out which you dont have to most of the time) and can bring similar to get a nice fight. And if you dont want to fight at all why are you on the PvP server?

Edited April 5, 2018 by Jon Snow lets go

[victor]

1 minute ago, Nelsons Barrel said:

What we could discuss is why do some nations need 3 safezones?

Geez, some of you seem either do not read or do not understand: Spain, USA and GB are EASY faction, others are MEDIUM, others are DIFFICULT and others IMPOSSIBLE (it is written when you choose the faction),

If you choose to join a difficult faction and than complain because easy faction are easy then ... there must be something wrong

[admin]

13 minutes ago, Nelsons Barrel said:

What we could discuss is why do some nations need 3 safezones?

Multiple large safe zones are there as a legacy and might not survive until release (just like the little river port)
But all easy nations will have large safe zones. they are absolutely needed to give players some breathing room between pvp trips. 
 

[victor]

Just now, Jon Snow lets go said:

You certainly got a point there, ganking is cancer (5v1 etc) and frustrating for the one who got ganked espcially.

 

But then again in your view if you start fighting those guys you are the prey. Why dont you see it as a chance to get better and to learn? You see exactly what ships the enemy has (as long as you dont sail to far out which you dont have to most of the time) and can bring similar to get a nice fight. And if you dont want to fight at all why are you on the PvP server?

First a trader cannot fight back and even cannot flee (back in the days you could effectively countertag, but now with small circles and traders speed nerfed to nothing when loaded it's impossible)

Secondly: not all players like this kind of gameplay. And you cannot compel people to play as they do not want. They quit the game!

This game is not WOW: if a lot of people quit the game, the game just dies!

[victor]

8 minutes ago, rediii said:

why cant a trader fight tho?

depends on the enemy in my oppinion. I think many pvp players did actually kill guys while on a tradingship.

Depends what enemy ship you face etc ofc

c'mon redii, c'mon. This is an answer that I can expect from someone else.

Take 100 fights involving a trader and maybe in one you can fight back. Gankers choose their preys.

 

Edited April 5, 2018 by victor

[Kloothommel]

12 minutes ago, Banished Privateer said:

"some breathing room" as most players spend most of their time in the safe zones. They craft all ships, attack NPCs, trade, do missions there, 80% of server content is inside the safe zone. The other 20% rare and end-game stuff they just need to pay with gold in the safe zone.

And there should be a place for that gameplay as well.

[victor]

7 minutes ago, Banished Privateer said:

"some breathing room" as most players spend most of their time in the safe zones. They craft all ships, attack NPCs, trade, do missions there, 80% of server content is inside the safe zone. The other 20% rare and end-game stuff they just need to pay with gold in the safe zone.

Now tell me, how many marks did you gain this week?

And then think if you had or not enough chance to engage in OS PVP

Edited April 5, 2018 by victor

[victor]

8 minutes ago, rediii said:

not true (as banished already showed)

of course of course, man ... traders can effectively fight back on gankers.

Go on like that redii (and also the multi banned privateer), you just give more and more arguments to your detractors showing that you just do not have enough of your PVP skills: no you want to get even more (easy) kills, also by changing game mechanics in your favor.

You gain problably 70-100 PVP marks a day but  - no - it's not enough! Just spoil the day of other players to get some more!

Edited April 5, 2018 by victor

[Abram Svensson]

Fleetship had no cannons.

i agree that traders can fight back. I sail my traders full boarding equipped, demast my enemy and board him.

They just never really try to fight back, but a LGV and an Indiaman have good opportunities to fight back.

[Tac]

5 minutes ago, victor said:

of course of course, man ... traders can effectively fight back on gankers.

Go on like that redii (and also the multi banned privateer), you just give more and more arguments to your detractors showing that you just do not have enough of your PVP skills: no you want to get even more (easy) kills, also by changing game mechanics in your favor.

You gain problably 70-100 PVP marks a day but  - no - it's not enough! Just spoil the day of other players to get some more!

Did you just suggest redii lacks Pvp skills and looks for easy kills?

Btw I was click baited by the heading of this thread “ open world hunting” because there literally isn’t any unless I sail to the circle of damnation which isn’t hunting, banished is right on that one.

 

 

[z4ys]

1 hour ago, victor said:

First a trader cannot fight back...

That's a way how trader could play. But most people prefer to play the victim like @Banished Privateer already said and then start to complain.

Edited April 5, 2018 by z4ys

[Njord]

6 hours ago, Nelsons Barrel said:

Dear Sovereign, 

Everytime I read somebody saying 'No protection for max level' I imagine this very person asking for the change with his 5 friends in protection zone and waiting for the next first rate to leave port. A gank is a gank, doesn't matter if your victim is max rank or not. PvE needs some kind of protection, always. Or we loose the rest of the playerbase left in the game. 

Ganking is part of every sandbox / OW MMO as well as human nature. People seek advantage wherever they can. I accept being ganked as part of the game and gank myself aswell ( but no new players ). You could almost say I play the game as intended - PvP. I take any fight that I can get with a chance of winning. I think it is absurd how max rank players get the same level of protection as new players. Max rank players should get AI reinforcements that are actually defeatable by skilled players.

However what's really wrong is that there are no reasons to leave the zones for the average player. I think the idea of having this safe space to fall back to is nice but the goal for everyone should be to be out in the OW. Taxes up to 15-20% ( except for repairs, rum and 5-7 rates ) and no rare book drops at all or much lower chance inside the zones would be a start.

I think it is pretty silly how the devs gave us this huge map, only to have everyone play in a few patrol and safe zones...