NPC Loot Feedback and suggestions

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Just a add on:

- allow to see the ship details, same as it happens with a player ship. That way a player can decide if he captures the AI or not.

- to balance this out, allow drop of module only if player sinks the ship

- add Hunt/S&D missions for capture also - capture 5x LGV . for example.

 

To reiterate my previous suggestion, I retract the "removal of dubloons" from warships so this sounds better:

- increase traders drop of treasure IF they are not carrying shipyard resources ( so more dubloons on trade goods AI but none on traders with crafting resources )

- decreased dubloons drop from warships BUT ( as posted before ); increase the missions payout

- increase dubloons drop from player kills.

and

- Transform the "Fleet Lost" event into a massive AI fleet - like the Spanish Silver Fleet - sailing from point A to point B - instead of just a shipwreck hunt.

[Jan van Santen]

Pls remove the useless loot...

Cannons in hold have already be mentioned.  

Adjust loot to server. 

Since AI doesn't shoot at sails, upgrades like stronger masts or sails are completely useless on pve

Several upgrades come in different flavors: old new, 2%, 3%...

reduce the variety pls .

Right now the only thing worth looting are golden chests. Because w 4 items inside chances are, one gets at least 1 usefull.

Spread the goodies a bit more evenly pls. Eg. mission chests: 1 item, bronze chest : 2 items, silver chest: 3 items, gold chest: 4 items. All should have a random item from the revised loottable. Thus if lucky, even a mission chest scould have a LO note.

As to loot mechanics: It was common practice to take possession of an enemy ship which had lowered its flag by sending a boat w a prize crew over and have them sail the ship to the next harbor. 

Since I consider capped ships as loot, too: Pls let us have a look on ship quality before we decide wether to sink or fleet it.

Idk if bottle wrecks count as NPC, but right now they are simply not worth it anymore. I do understand that devs had to act when the guide on afk fishing was posted, but pls not in a way that hits the guy who fishs while at the helm.

 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Jan van Santen

[Aster]

If you sail a trade ship the ai does shoot chain at sails.

[Jan van Santen]

I know, it even does if you have an ai trader in your fleet, still there is no use for the reinforced sails etc on pve. Might change in the future ofc.

But still: Maybe devs could do a search in the database which upgrades are actually used per server and weed out the exotics none uses ?

[Angus MacDuff]

I have to say I've been disappointed in the payout from a mission chest.  Mostly unimportant mods that I just sell in the nearest port for the default price.  Its a long wait for some of these mission chests (sink 12 5th rates, etc) and you kinda hope for something exciting.

[LeBoiteux]

17 hours ago, admin said:

Propose ideas on (...) new loot items. 

Loot items = pieces of a wreck map

The mechanism : out of say 10 loots, you get the four pieces of a wreck map (or each 2-3 loots, you get a piece or whatever...)

When you have the four pieces, you get, on a small pop-up window, a small part of the in-game map without indication of the cities but only the drawing of the nearby coast. Then you go search the wreck. No indication of the wreck on the in-game (big) map.

(= adaptation of the treasure hunt in Sid Meier's Pirates !)

Pro : give an incentive to loot, loot, loot...and sail on OW.

Con : hard to code ?

Edited December 6, 2018 by LeBoiteux

[Celtiberofrog]

15 hours ago, Rickard said:

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

New loot items ?

==> Prisoners: (tradable)

• Crews that can be either volunteers for instant recrutment or be sold in nearby ports as "goods" (if re-capture the prisoners can be re-recruit by new owner).
• VIP prisoners (aritocrats, diplo, etc...) as a note that are highly valuable to be sold (returned) in specific ports.

==> Wreck or treasure map: (tradable)

• Wrecks map, that can be fetch and open or sold out. (like bottles but higher value)
• Treasure map, same as above.

==> Secret missions: (not tradable)

• Diplomatic info, that gives a mission to sink a specific NPC in a specific area with specific loot . (mission durability is short)
• Special rewards note when participating in a designated Port (as winning attacker in PB)

==> Purchase order: (tradable)

• Note that gives to owner the possibility to get a ship from specific ports, not known class & fitting before opening the note in designated port.

==> Admiralty merits: (not tradable)

• Special reward note, that gives to owner the possibility to open it in its national capital and get a very important & valuable mission to fullfill.

==> Technology: (tradable)

• Note that gives to owner the possibility to open it in specific ports and get a delivery of special canons, special sails or special hull.

 

The tradable one's are worth for any players, when found in captured/looted player ship.

The not tradable are worthless for any other players, when found in captured/looted player ship. 

Edited December 6, 2018 by Celtiberofrog

[LeBoiteux]

6 minutes ago, Celtiberofrog said:

New loot items ?

==> Prisoners: (tradable)

• Crews that can be (...) be sold in nearby ports as "goods" (if re-capture the prisoners can be re-recruit by new owner).

Slaves ? No !

[Celtiberofrog]

Damn not !! you know how often war ships were carrying prisoners from looted/captured enemy ships.

They were valuable, like ostages rather.

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

6 minutes ago, Celtiberofrog said:

Damn not !! you know how often war ships were carrying prisoners from looted/captured enemy ships.

They were valuable, like ostages rather.

They liquefied into Rum.

[qw569😳]

Many years ago was such item as Ships report letter.

I sure it will interesting to read that someone was seen near somewhere.

Edited December 6, 2018 by qw569

[Celtiberofrog]

8 minutes ago, Hethwill the Red Duke said:

They liquefied into Rum.

Well, you can get Rum as loot for sure, but it would be much nicer to rescue prisoners from loots. much more realistic I guess.

So sad to leave ships wrecks with all those survivors floating around !

Meanwhile VIP's would be also realistic, as ostages with high values.

Edited December 6, 2018 by Celtiberofrog

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Just now, Celtiberofrog said:

So sad to leave ships wrecks with all those survivors floating around !

Hence why we can capture the ships along with the rum!

I like VIP idea 😮

[AeRoTR]

What amazes me is, there have been many great titles with plots of age of sail, pirates etc.

These games from original Pirates (1987), Pirates Gold, Sid Meir’s Pirates, Sea Dogs, Pirates of Carebbean, Age of Sail series, Port Royale, Corsairs and lots of more. These games all feature unique and great features. In year of 2018, developers should already inspected these games, adopted the great features already into their game. Asking what to do, trying to reinvent the wheel, change mechanics back and forth is what I can not understand.

 

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

That's what open development means A interaction between the Dev and the Early Access buyers.

Doesn't mean we design the game nor buy stock  , just simply brainstorm around what the devs propose the community.

No need to make it sound so reductive. I mean...

... if you don't wish to participate in the brainstorm don't It doesn't give more XP or Loot if you do.

[AeRoTR]

@Hethwill the Red Duke agreed ,but do not brainstrom on how to invent a wheel. I have many for you  , brainstorm on other required things.

[LeBoiteux]

1 hour ago, Celtiberofrog said:

Damn not !! you know how often war ships were carrying prisoners from looted/captured enemy ships.

They were valuable, like ostages rather.

A game is not meant to promote the trade of human beings...

And making this activity available to any NA captains, ie a normal activity, would be promotion.

But if you tell me 'kill this nasty AI pirate to stop him trade ppl (yes he did!) and you'll get 54 doublons', it's not promoting.

29 minutes ago, AeRoTR said:

In year of 2018, developers should already inspected these games, adopted the great features already into their game. Asking what to do, trying to reinvent the wheel, change mechanics back and forth is what I can not understand.

Believe me, NA devs certainly did and they certainly rejected (some of) those features because they weren't viable in a MMO game or too resources-consuming for an Indie team or whatever. 

IMO

Edited December 6, 2018 by LeBoiteux

[Hethwill, the Red Duke]

Absolutely

Our personal visions is what is brought to the table, not "i know of thousands" or "I of plenty of people that"....

 

[Angus MacDuff]

5 minutes ago, LeBoiteux said:

A game is not meant to promote the trade of human beings...

Not slaves but prisoners of war.  If you're a Brit and you capture the daughter of a French Nobleman, You receive a suitable ransom/reward.  If you rescue one of your own nation's VIPs, you are gifted a 100 Guinea sword and a coin purse.  Slavery = Bad, ransom/kidnapping = Good

Edited December 6, 2018 by Angus MacDuff

[huliotkd]

- set a limited number of AI ships around the world.

- an AI tbrig killed cannot simply respawn but must be built in its nation capital but not immediatly. it consumes resources and woods in the port market of that nation and if too many AI  traders got killed by players, it will become an economic stagnation for that nation until players try to sold their resources to ports to start again production of bots, or simply start to escort also AI traders protecting them from enemy player raids.    New gameplay then

- PVE'rs now has a useful role in an economic war while PVP'rs will go for RVR and escorting AI Traders or PVE'rs to their action area. many resources are provided from europe for example so player have to understand what is the route from atlantic ocean from where an AI traders can arrive and intercept it before it reachs the port of destination unloading in market all its gold, for example. Or maybe, there will be more probabilities to find Live Oak from traders arriving from Florida than from Aves, but also from ''Aves-side'' can move a Live Oak trader...but rarely.

- mix the bot fleet, so every fleet can have inside 1 or 2 trader escorted by warship or a simple fleet of 2-3 traders alone.

- putting a Cartagena contract in Charleston will automatically start an Ai Trader from Cartaghena after buying the Cartagena Tar in the port, amid the amount of player's contracts. so everyone will be interested in attacking AI to find something valuable (rare resources, small amount...10-25 cartagena tar max)

 

i think it's not necessary a lot of coding for this

[JDAM]

RNG on traders seems to be greatly improved, thank you @admin....

[Tiedemann]

I used to want a more steady drop of the consumables like sail repair, hull repair,  rum, and even cannons.

Permanent upgrades  that drop need a more even spread!  I get that the good stuff should be rare, but  please fins some middle ground because getting shit over and over again is very boring. Some times you get a good one, but in the mean time you stacked 10+ of those useless upgrades in your warehouse and it is just not fun. There are so many permanent upgrades, but the shit is just to common. We need a better spread or give the bad upgrades a buffs so they are actually worth installing on a ships.. I do like the like the basic hull, but most of the other stuff like the pumps, aiming angle, etc. I stopped taking long time ago..

Same for story for skill books, the normal ones drops to often so we get 10+ stacks of those as well. Would be nice if the books that drop very often could be crafted into Elite permanent upgrades some how. Then getting a skill book is always good, even if you learned it already. I like getting books i can make elite upgrades out of so please give me more of that!

For Epic events, increase drop chance for epic chest!! I WANT A EPIC CHEST SO BAD 🤣

[Jan van Santen]

Alternative to my suggestion (weeding out unwanted upgrades/books) further up:

Install a new minigame similar to the "cube" in Diablo. 

Player hands the scientists of his academy 4 upgrades/books plus 50 doublons and they make a random upgrade from it.

If this sounds to much "magic": we can already turn an old flag officer into a gunnery sergeant.

[van der Clam]

@admin 
Why is it they every NPC ship you cap that has chasers never have chasers to sell when you get back to port?

Why does every NPC seem to have every perk, and skill book loaded, and every ship upgrade? Their rate of fire, angle of fire, pen, ability to stop on a dime without changing their yards or sails or rudder, and everything else is a bit too much, but at least they're more accurate and they fire chain every so often.

Why don't at least some NPC traders have 1 or 2 warship escort(s)?

Why do some trader NPC turn around in open waters like their on patrol, rather than continue to the port they were intended?

Why are trader NPC hulls only half full or less?

Why do all NPC stop and turn around on spot in OW without lowering their sails like players would have to?

Better "special" loots are needed: flags/banners, paints, Admiralty papers?, major trader fleet locations, trade secret documents (especially if you're getting rid of the Trader Tool).

And lastly, why do all NPC get to sail through land and I can't?

Edited December 9, 2018 by van der Decken

[z4ys]

Not really worth hunting wrecks anymore. Doubloons are at any corner and trading goods dont help improving the char in the first place.