Patch 27 - Combat missions, events and challenges feedback.

[TheHaney]

1 minute ago, Schwabbel said:

Where are all the AI ships gone, long time passing ...

In the past I could log in sail 5 min out of my homeport and find a variety of enemy AI-ships with different levels of BR.

...

I want my Spanish LGVs and French Trader Snows back at Brangman's Bluff !

Nope, no significant enemy trade around friendly ports. You can do missions or you can set up an outpost at a free port near enemy territory if you want to do coffee-break patrols.

[Schwabbel]

9 minutes ago, TheHaney said:

Nope, no significant enemy trade around friendly ports. You can do missions or you can set up an outpost at a free port near enemy territory if you want to do coffee-break patrols.

For people who need outposts in secure waters for building ships and produce the needed resources the possibility of a wide spreaded net of outposts is reduced through the limited number of outposts.
And shipyards at the borders will lead to increased ship prices which seems to be the objective of the developers so they could sell more ship-DLCs

[Kejsaren]

I think recent changes good step in the right direction, ships being more expensive, more content in the open sea etc.

 

Before patch I would never attack an AI for any reason. Now I find myself doing missions and hitting trade ships. Spent over an hour fighting a constitution AI in my requin (that connie fought better then most players and those guns were shooting fireballs from hell), got sextant upgrade reward and something else. 

 

Definatly haven't stopped hunting players, but I enjoy some pve aswell, which I didn't before,  thumbs up!.

Edited November 11, 2018 by Ra Mhotep

[Guest]

46 minutes ago, Borch said:

Kill missions that award 15 ish dubloons...

Much worst if factor in a building or two to grind out…

Post Patch 27…

Workshop: 150,000, 500 oak, 100 fittings. Oak @ 125: 62,500, Iron+Coal, 150,000 (guesstimate), Total 362,500 (approximate).

By mission...

7^th rate mission reward 24,000, 15 missions

6^th rate mission, reward 34,000, 10 missions.

Raiding killing, x4 7^th rate fleet, 100k to 148k, 2-3 missions.

Patch 27…

Forge: 31,000 reals.

7^th rate kill mission reward 999r, 31 missions.

6^th rate kill mission, reward 999r, 31 missions.

Raiding killing, 1 T-Brig, 999r, 31 missions.

 

Figures are approximate, selling loot excluded, based on what a new player might do, via NPCs, who doesn't know trade or now to fight higher classed NPCs, even doesn’t know there’s a “melting pot” of T-Brig’s in a hot spot of loot in someplace call the Bahamas.

Don’t forget that the workshop did the job of both patch 27 workshop and forge, so you could ague that it’s 62 missions! to be equivalent.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Guest

[Kilo60]

17 hours ago, Borch said:

Well, yeah I was just trying to point out that the new content for which we have been waiting for so long is fake as no player will do it. Its there but not efficient at all so could be non existant as well and nobody would even notice. The payaout needs to be balanced better to make it worth the time/risk.

Couldn't agree more!!!

[Suppenkelle]

As I understand the weekly event in lightships will be predominantly done in Requin and Hercules. What about another weekly event exclusively for basic cutters? It would of course be predominantly PvE. The not existing risk might perhaps be compensated by lower rewards for the players. Might get noobs and poor people a chance to win some dubloons.

[Guest]

Withdrawn.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Guest

[Barbancourt]

4 hours ago, BuckleUpBones said:

 

Rewards, increasing on difficulty kill missions, is excellent, but needs to be known.

 

Isn't it obvious?  More difficulty level generally means more BR and more damage that needs to be done, which naturally means higher reward (when you're using the same ship). 

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

Does it matter if players take fleet into their weekly competition battle and let them help him? Actually ships sunk by help of AI fleet should not count, I suppose. Or people sailing alone would have a serious disadvantage opposite those who have 2 or even 3 assistants.

[Guest]

Previous post withdrawn because…

With PvE 5^th rate kill missions increase difficulty level by adding more ships, so...

If you don’t have the funds to take another ship, its two on one, lack of funding is likely for an emerging players. Two on one is too hard, unless they’ve past the final exam, most won’t know how to defeat two ships, also alot of players skip tutorials.

Basically, its take alot of practice to sail sailing ships, learn to fire canons with some accuracy, alot of time, alot of missions, alot of raiding.

The progression bar has been set too high, on kill missions the difficulty level increases to fast (even raiding afar to collect large and usable sums of doubloons). The reward ratio has been set to low, there too much effort (learning curve) verses reward, though this is intended for the melting pot syndrome, I believe its effected new players progression.  

For emergence and casuals, “Combat Mission” worked very well, repeat and rinse across 7^th, 6^th and 5^th rate mission equal "practice", also subsidized these players.

 

Tough isn’t it...

Localize NPCs into one zone to create conflict, which voids emergence (patch 27).

Or

Localize NPCs into national zones to create emergence, which voids conflict (Post Patch 27).

 

I think with pop the later will have the desired conflict.

 

Edited November 14, 2018 by Guest

[Draymoor]

The difficulty of some missions is way too high and the reward far too low. I have 1 star difficulty missions for 5th rates asking me to take on other 5th rates for around 50 doubloons. That's isn't worth doing at all. You get incredibly superior rewards from sinking one 6th rate trader and that's about the easiest thing to do. Some serious balancing on difficulty and rewards is needed on kill missions. 
On a little side note> they shouldn't be called 'kill' missions. But perhaps something like 'order to sink or take xxxx ship as a prize by xxxx (British Admiralty and such). 

[Guest]

17 minutes ago, Draymoor said:

The difficulty of some missions is way too high and the reward far too low. I have 1 star difficulty missions for 5th rates asking me to take on other 5th rates for around 50 doubloons. That's isn't worth doing at all. You get incredibly superior rewards from sinking one 6th rate trader and that's about the easiest thing to do. Some serious balancing on difficulty and rewards is needed on kill missions. 

Last session in the Hercules, lowest 5^th rate, on an 5^th rate kill mission, two stars (I think), I was pitted against an Indefatigable, highest 5^th rate, three stars two ships.

This was going to be an drawn-out battle with alot of repairs used, so just turn-tail and retreated, to go and try something else with my little time I have to game.

[Angus MacDuff]

8 minutes ago, BuckleUpBones said:

Last session in the Hercules, lowest 5^th rate, on an 5^th rate kill mission, two stars (I think), I was pitted against an Indefatigable, highest 5^th rate, three stars two ships.

This was going to be an drawn-out battle with alot of repairs used, so just turn-tail and retreated, to go and try something else with my little time I have to game.

Yeah, I think that if im going to do 5th rate missions, I will kit out a very tanky Indef with long guns in the main battery.  Carros on the upper and turn them off at any distance.  The AI is too accurate for the Herc

[Draymoor]

57 minutes ago, BuckleUpBones said:

Last session in the Hercules, lowest 5^th rate, on an 5^th rate kill mission, two stars (I think), I was pitted against an Indefatigable, highest 5^th rate, three stars two ships.

This was going to be an drawn-out battle with alot of repairs used, so just turn-tail and retreated, to go and try something else with my little time I have to game.

The difficulty of the missions is one thing but the rewards you get for completion should match the challenge and time it takes to do it. If the reward for such missions were a mission chest and/or silver/gold chest + 1000 doubloons then it could be worth doing. Rewards along those lines would make it interesting to take those missions on. It wouldn't even be crazy, it's still a 'small' reward when you consider that sinking one trader brig can net you between 400 and 4000 doubloons on some occasions. 3 minutes cake walk of a battle vs a trader and a mission that is a drawn out, maybe 1 hour long hard battle for dear life and the rewards for them seem to be reversed. 🙄

[Barbancourt]

2 hours ago, Angus MacDuff said:

Yeah, I think that if im going to do 5th rate missions, I will kit out a very tanky Indef with long guns in the main battery.  Carros on the upper and turn them off at any distance.  The AI is too accurate for the Herc

But if you want to progress on your knowledge slots in Hercules, Cerberus, Renommee, etc it's what you gotta do.  It would be nice if the 5th Rate missions were split between the upper and lower ends of 5th Rate, because there is such a huge range within "5th Rate".

Edited November 14, 2018 by Barbancourt

[admin]

12 hours ago, Barbancourt said:

But if you want to progress on your knowledge slots in Hercules, Cerberus, Renommee, etc it's what you gotta do.  It would be nice if the 5th Rate missions were split between the upper and lower ends of 5th Rate, because there is such a huge range within "5th Rate".

Missions are not the only way to level and are no longer optimal way to level slots. Cerberus can kill any NPC 5th rate if you fit it properly and like in many other games players can find out the proper fit out by playing and experimenting. But I agree that ship rating (5th rates) has wider variety of ships than other ratings

In terms of how to level. 

1. PVP is best for leveling as it gives 2.5x XP
2. Second is open world hunting (you pick your targets yourself so you never face an opponent you do not like), combined with doubloon rewards for hunts and S&D missions and missions chests they could give from good to amazing rewards.
3. Kill Missions are the third way to level but because most common towns give 5thrate missions you can get unlimited supply of them by just traveling. 

[Barbancourt]

PVP doesn't give much XP if you aren't on the winning side.  Open world ships not in large fleets are hard to find.  I don't like the "Kill" mission format myself, but people with limited time are going to go to that to bang out some XP

[LeBoiteux]

29 minutes ago, admin said:

Missions are not the only way to level and are no longer optimal way to level slots. Cerberus can kill any NPC 5th rate if you fit it properly and like in many other games players can find out the proper fit out by playing and experimenting. 

In terms of how to level. 

1. PVP is best for leveling as it gives 2.5x XP
2. Second is open world hunting (you pick your targets yourself so you never face an opponent you do not like), combined with doubloon rewards for hunts and S&D missions and missions chests they could give from good to amazing rewards.
3. Kill Missions are the third way to level but because most common towns give 5thrate missions you can get unlimited supply of them by just traveling. 

IMHO, casual players will apply for 5th Rate kill missions as they'll be able to get at the max, say, a Surprise. They won't have time/desire to 'find out the proper fit out by playing and experimenting' to have their Cerberus > a AI Trinco.  Thus, splitting 5th Rate kill missions between the upper and lower ends of 5th Rate may be a good idea.

Kill missions with player able to chose his and AI enemies' ships while NA calculates the reward and the distance from port would be even funnier.

Edited November 15, 2018 by LeBoiteux

[SnovaZdorowa]

28 minutes ago, admin said:

1. PVP is best for leveling as it gives 2.5x XP

For killing? For damage? Both?
Can you explain how to gain x2.5

[Cmdr RideZ]

Mission rewards are not high enough. Add more Doubloons for sure.

Hunt 10x Bellona from OW. This can take days for me to finish and I get only 1000 Doubloons. Why would I ever take missions like this?

[Archaos]

15 hours ago, Draymoor said:

The difficulty of the missions is one thing but the rewards you get for completion should match the challenge and time it takes to do it. If the reward for such missions were a mission chest and/or silver/gold chest + 1000 doubloons then it could be worth doing. Rewards along those lines would make it interesting to take those missions on. It wouldn't even be crazy, it's still a 'small' reward when you consider that sinking one trader brig can net you between 400 and 4000 doubloons on some occasions. 3 minutes cake walk of a battle vs a trader and a mission that is a drawn out, maybe 1 hour long hard battle for dear life and the rewards for them seem to be reversed. 🙄

Why do people keep making out that sinking traders is easy doubloons? Yes you are correct that a short easy fight against a trader may net you a nice haul of doubloons, but traders with doubloons are not that common so you may spend hours sinking traders till you find one with doubloons. If you spent the same number of hours doing OW hunt missions you could make a lot more doubloons especially if you stack missions so each kill counts in multiple missions.

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Intercepting players returning to port full of loot is more certain, that is correct Archaos.

 

[Barbancourt]

46 minutes ago, Cmdr RideZ said:

 

Hunt 10x Bellona from OW. This can take days for me to finish and I get only 1000 Doubloons. Why would I ever take missions like this?

I took 8 Search and Destroy missions for various kinds of 5th Rate, and a Hunt mission for 5th Rates in general.  (leaving one mission slot open just in case)  I almost always battle 5th Rates, so these will slowly get completed.  It will probably take months to finish them from random OW battles, but eventually they'll get finished. 

 

[Cmdr RideZ]

Just now, Barbancourt said:

I took 8 Search and Destroy missions for various kinds of 5th Rate, and a Hunt mission for 5th Rates in general.  (leaving one mission slot open just in case)  I almost always battle 5th Rates, so these will slowly get completed.  It will probably take months to finish them from random OW battles, but eventually they'll get finished. 

Most definitely will get eventually completed. I just don't think the reward is high enough. The reward feels really low.

[Angus MacDuff]

For me, I don't take kill missions much as the reward is very low.  I always have some 5th and 6th rate hunt missions on the go as I know I will be killing traders so it's just a matter of double payment.  I also carry some search and destroy missions for specific ships that I expect to see, for instance, niagras and snows in the Nassau patrol zone.  Rule of thumb for me is to find missions that reward a Chest as well as Doubloons.