NPC Loot Feedback and suggestions

[admin]

Captains.

Please provide feedback on the loot you get when sinking NPCs (Traders and Combat ships)
Propose ideas on improvements and new loot items. 

We have fixed the bug that limited the drop of doubloons on traders this weekend. We have also increased the amounts of doubloons that can be found in shipwrecks. In the next patch we will need to improve the drops from combat ships (and improve spoils usefulness).

The overall goal is to make every ship matter and provide the chance to get something exciting. The goal will be fulfilled when you will not let suitable NPC targets sail by because maybe they carry something that can set you for life weeks of gameplay. 
 

[z4ys]

does it also include player Npcs?

Edited December 5, 2018 by z4ys

[La bouche]

Kiritimati masts and naval clocks!

in fact, the last week I thought you had nerfed very bad the loot...got nothing that worth since like a week ago.

Edited December 5, 2018 by La bouche

[Suppenkelle]

The usual loot from traders was 4 danish salted porks, 3 danish pickled herrings and 5 Dutch peanut butter. It was a nice meal for my men but nothing more. So, you say this has improved on average?

[William Death]

This was my loot right after you did the UI update and introduced doubloons. This felt like good rewards for the fleet I sank:

However, I think you adjusted the values not long after this? Because maybe 3-4 days ago I sank an AI and it was empty .

But last night I went and did one of the kill missions vs 2 frigates. I got like 60 hull repairs, which I thought was pretty good considering it was only two ships I sank.

 

Basically, as long as I'm getting repairs or some reasonably good upgrades/books, that seems fair. But for a while it seemed like all I'd ever get was 3 long 12pd cannons or a basic light rudder or something, and that feels not worth it.

Loot like what I got in the above screenshot? Now thats worth it.

[admin]

1 minute ago, William Death said:

This was my loot right after you did the UI update and introduced doubloons. This felt like good rewards for the fleet I sank:

However, I think you adjusted the values not long after this? Because maybe 3-4 days ago I sank an AI and it was empty .

 

Combat NPC loot is the same was not touched (But we plan to increase the pay they carry from time to time)

[Anolytic]

Could we discuss not just what loot you can get, but also the looting mechanic itself?

Looting is now one of the most important and prominent features in the game, and yet it remains the most frustrating, game-breaking, time-wasting mechanic imaginable I'm sorry to say. Every time I have to sail upwind for five minutes to loot, with nothing else to do except to wait while my ship fights the wind, and everytime I just can't loot because the wind just started turning right in my face, I get the brief impulse to uninstall.

[Hennessy]

Paint could be a rare droop in Ai npc.

[Slim McSauce]

AI indiamans supported by small fleets of medium ships, perhaps elite AI that would require people to team up to hit.

Edited December 5, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[OjK]

Traders dropping either guaranteed cargo or doubloons.
The bigger the ship, the better loot (small rewards from TSnow, big rewards from LGV)

Military ships should drop the guaranteed books or upgrades.
The bigger the AI fleet BR, the better loot it has (Fleets with 10+ SOL's should drop at least one top-quality mode like Elite Rig, Cartagena, Etc. Superfleets should drop one of the best ones, like Sextants etc)

Also, would be smart, to finally put some escort to LGV's in OW. Why are they keep sailing alone?

Edited December 5, 2018 by OjK

[z4ys]

I would stop and kill AI if they would, always at certain BR disadvantage for me or my grp, drop:

• chests
• paints
• flags
• paints
• rar questline missions that lead to some nice loot aka chests

Doubloons and reals are not good loot

Edited December 5, 2018 by z4ys

[OjK]

1 minute ago, z4ys said:

Doubloons and reals are not good loot

Neither are Basic Hull Refits, Coles-Bentin Pumps, Iron Knees, Swivel Guns, Diagonal Riders and all other useless trash that I stopped even picking up, when they price was dropped to double digit in an AI shop.

Ok, scrap the Basic Hull Refits. They're cool on throwaway ships.

[AngryPanCake]

As far as Doubloons are concerned, right after the patch, I heard people talk about looting 100's, some of them saying 1000's of D's per ship. However, out of a dozen traders I looted (Snows, Brigs) I did not find any D's at all.

[SnovaZdorowa]

Фармлю иногда нпц, исключительно с целью получения сундука, количество реалов с нпц смехотворно.
Лут это боль, необходимость этот лут как-то потом разделить -  боль втройне.
Заядлые пвпшеры легко делят в уме четырехзначные числа, помнят в каком бою какому составу что удалось собрать по дублонам. Скилл, что тут скажешь.

Воспоминания о броске костей в potbs вызывают скупую мужскую слезу, как и трактор в ив.
Невольно приходят мысли о матросах на лодках, об абордажных крючьях, о том, почему бы не обозначить визуально как-то дистанцию для лутинга хотя бы. Но я стоически гоню их прочь.

Считаю, что по настоящему хорошая игра не должна приносить слишком много удовольствия. Она должна быть максимально недружелюбной к игроку и мега хардкорной. Вот тогда народ подтянется. Поэтому я предлагаю лут порезать, скорость лутинга уменьшить до 2х узлов.

Еще добавлю, что рассказы о поднятых со случайных нпц торгашей тысячах дублонов вызывают у воюющих игроков легкое недопонимание.

Edited December 6, 2018 by SnovaZdorowa

[JDAM]

I have some good drops on doubloons 2000-6000 on traders with the higher end being on a sealed bottle.  Most of the time capping traders you'll either get very very lucky or very very not lucky.  So think along the lines of seeing 6-10 traders with nothing good on one sail and then maybe the next sail you hit a huge amount followed by more empty traders.  A good mix of loaded, empty, and lightly loaded would be awesome. 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Chance of hitting a "pay ship" is nice. Not a guarantee but it is possible. They are out there.

I also like that many trader AI is really worth capturing and bringing back home just for the goods to sell. This will be more evident when everyone has no cash again.

Third and last has to do with the warhip AI, they should drop mostly repairs and possibly guns and less dubloons.

- but -

The missions rewards should be better. Sending a brave captain to engage enemy ships - many times above their pay grade - should be rewarded with nice gifts from the Admiralty.

Traders should have the main trade and resources. The variety i've been finding is quite nice and the ones that have crafting resources have good mix, say coal, iron and hemp, and sometimes a coffer with dubloons. 

Warships to be the main targets of missions. the harder the mission the better the loot, like improved compared to what we have now. Every Hunt/S&D mission should have a requirement and difficulty reward associated.

Example, kill 5x Renomees with a 6th rate should be a 4 star mission. With Mission Chest, Silver Chest, Dubloons and a Renomee Note, for example. 1 reward per star.

 

Added further suggestion and clarification, thanks to @OjK to make me wonder again about the subject, in

 

[OjK]

2 minutes ago, Hethwill the Red Duke said:

Third and last has to do with the warship AI, they should drop mostly repairs and possibly guns and less dubloons

You can't be serious...

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

25 minutes ago, OjK said:

You can't be serious...

That's like... my opinion. And I am.

Hitting traders always gave the best loot in the age of sail.

Hitting warships gave you glory ! [chests, notes, whatever, and admiralty pay - dubloons ]

 

( player kills should drop more inside the hold, but this is about AI )

[Tomasso il Fortunato]

Can you increase the doubloons in npc's ? Not in all , maybe one of them . Today I killed 5 Santissima and I found only rum and some books and 245 doubloons.

[greybuscat]

These are my thoughts off the top of my head. I may update this later tonight when I've had more time to think about it:

I'd like to see a better variety of loot, per ship. I wouldn't mind only seeing a few dozen doubloons in a combat ship's hold if it always came with all three types of repairs, and a mod/book. Maybe even two mods if I'm unlucky enough to get a basic one on a 5th rate or above. The either/or-ness of it all is annoying.

And no guns. Never, ever, ever give me guns. Why are they even carrying guns in the hold? I never carry guns in my hold, and I definitely wouldn't be sailing around the open ocean with guns in my hold. Basically, I want to be leaving things behind because I simply don't have room for it, not because it's useless crap. Half the time, the sell price for a given gun is 1 real, and I'm sure as hell not setting up a sell contract for 13 18-lb carronades.

Trader drops just need more doubloons on average. The top end jackpots are great, sure, but if I wanted the rush you get from gambling, I would be doing PvP or even playing a different game. If I'm hitting an AI trader, it's because I have a specific goal in mind that I'm trying to reach, so consistency is preferable to me. Excitement is the last thing on my mind under those conditions. Not sure what the current values are, and won't know till I can play, but experience tells me they're probably still too low.

Thank you for calling for feedback on this, by the way.

[Tomasso il Fortunato]

Yeah , by cap the enemy ship you could be able to take cannons in battle.

[William Death]

3 hours ago, Captan Thomas Fremantle said:

Yeah , by cap the enemy ship you could be able to take cannons in battle.

Oooooh. I like this.

I like this a lot. New players can capture an NPC, take the guns to use on future ships, but still sink the NPC ship afterward for the XP reward. 

What if you could do this with players too? If you capture a player who has Edinorog cannons on his ship, you can take them off and put them in your hold. I mean...why would my crew sink some super-high quality cannons if they could instead transfer them to my hold? Ships could easily rig a yard with block and tackle to sway the guns over to my ship.

 

One other question for @admin, regarding looting NPCs. Is there a way we could see what build an AI ship is without having to put it in our fleet? Sometimes I capture an AI and wonder if its a good build maybe I should keep it, but usually end up sinking it because I get more XP and reals that way.

[Slim McSauce]

3 hours ago, Intrepido said:

It would be nice if there was a rare indiaman fleet that you positive know that is worth the effort. 

You see it in the OW and it is like you just have a lucky day.

IF you can manage to bring it down which should be no small test, what if they worked as rolling missions in that the fleet that is guarding the indiaman(s) matches that of the force which attacks it which would be covered by an "unknown" marking under the ship menu.

The range would be somewhere between 1.0-1.75 for max BR of the fleet you get. So anywhere from an even battle to nearly twice the enemies. We already have solo traders we do almost every day, something a group can do is a nice change of pace.

Also to make it interesting the number of indiamans is also determined by the group who attacks it, so if you want to go 15+ on this you'll get roughly the same reward as if you did it with 3 friends.

Edited December 6, 2018 by Slim McSauce

[Tomasso il Fortunato]

3 hours ago, William Death said:

Oooooh. I like this.

I like this a lot. New players can capture an NPC, take the guns to use on future ships, but still sink the NPC ship afterward for the XP reward. 

What if you could do this with players too? If you capture a player who has Edinorog cannons on his ship, you can take them off and put them in your hold. I mean...why would my crew sink some super-high quality cannons if they could instead transfer them to my hold? Ships could easily rig a yard with block and tackle to sway the guns over to my ship.

 

One other question for @admin, regarding looting NPCs. Is there a way we could see what build an AI ship is without having to put it in our fleet? Sometimes I capture an AI and wonder if its a good build maybe I should keep it, but usually end up sinking it because I get more XP and reals that way.

But let's not make it easy , once you captured the enemy ship and if you want to take cannons you have to wait 5-10 min for processing . With  little bit of animations?

Edited December 6, 2018 by Captan Thomas Fremantle

[William Death]

34 minutes ago, Captan Thomas Fremantle said:

But let's not make it easy , once you captured the enemy ship and if you want to take cannons you have to wait 5-10 min for processing . With  little bit of animations?

I could understand a timer. But 5-10 might be a little too much. Maybe 1-3 minutes. 10-12 seconds per cannon?

Enough time so you risk being shot at/boarded before you can get all cannons unloaded, but not so long that you're "forced" to waste your time at the end of every battle.