Forthcoming patch information: Elite NPC, Economy update, Building prices

[Barbancourt]

6 hours ago, Teutonic said:

I could buy and sell goods from Gustavia to Pampatar (about 1-1.5 hour sailing both ways) and make an abyssmal 60-70k reals round trip. 1 cargo Delivery mission gives me 160k-170k for the same distance.

I made 162k Reals and 1000 Doubloons yesterday from a single cargo mission that never even left national waters, with only a 4500 Real investment in a trader snow that I'll just sell off when I run out of consecutive cargo missions.  Weee. 

 

[Kejsaren]

13 hours ago, no one said:

-This NPCs fleets , what are the size? 10 ships ? Maybe 3? If they are too big that makes impossible for a solo player to have a chance.

Elite npc fleets, - solo player?. I doubt it Captain. This game is directed towards being in a Clan. (Which is fine, if it's what the devs want).

(Some players tend to argue that this is an MMO, to their understanding it means the game is played together with friends in a clan, and not alone, which is false. It means you are playing online with other players, with or against.)

 

Edited May 4, 2019 by Huang Po Tsai (Retired)

[Thonys]

what i can see now is that the big clans get the best ports

the small to medium clans get the useless leftovers...(45 points for the big ones ... or 15 [15 is shit and nothing]

there is no balance... but huge ridiculous prices (like 50 victory masks for one building on the port [for all building types with different characteristics but the same price is just lame thoughts)

this game becomes into too many negatives for players to keep them in the game ...

can you please make a game where the game helps players to proceed to the next goal or level...at this moment you scare them away...

for beginners, it feels.... if you nuke them...(example 3.000.000 reaals and 50.000 dubloons for level 3 shipyard  [that will keep you for decades in the game only for that item,....it is a no go area)

 

Edited May 4, 2019 by Thonys

[Hullabaloo]

19 hours ago, admin said:

Port points updates - top ports will have to specialize - the maximum number of maxed bonuses (lvl4 bonuses) will be reduced

• already made investments will remain until the next map wipe.

 

How about Port bonuses applying to SOLs only? This maintains the RvR aspect but prevents the side effect of undeserving players gaining an unfair advantage in OW PvP

[Michiel the Ruyter]

19 hours ago, admin said:

• Elite NPCs fleets that players will be able to find and hunt in the open world that will not only give interesting challenges in combat but also will give options for active PVE players to get (not often) ships with bonuses similar to clan based RVR bonuses

To keep your game historically accurate, please create/make Elite NPC of the nations you decide to remove. In this way, these nations keep some form of 'presence'. 

Suggestion: create good/popular woodtypes for Elite NPCs fleets. Remove crew space as planking for those ships. No Fir OR Oak as frames/planking. For example: make those ships with White Oak, Caguairan and Live Oak as frames and Sabicu/White Oak planking. Also fast woodoptions like Bermuda Cedar, Bermuda Cedar should be available. 

Add 4th Rates, of at least those Elite NPCs fleets, to be capturable. 

• Income rebalance (where combat will return to be main money making activity)

Great! Missions and patrol should be additional ways to get combat medals (secondary). Primary MUST be sinking players. 

• Port points updates - top ports will have to specialize - the maximum number of maxed bonuses (lvl4 bonuses) will be reduced
  • already made investments will remain until the next map wipe.

Very good! Suggestion: increase investment points needed for forts from one (1) to three (3). Reasoning: a fort is more powerful than a tower, and even compared to two (2) towers. In my point of view, NO port should be able to get all ship building bonuses, or ONLY at the cost of having no ability to have defence (fortifications). Suggestion: if you started a 5th ship building bonuses line. If you build one of the fortifications, the 5th ship building bonuses line will be greyed out (unavailable).

 

Edited May 4, 2019 by NOJODU
Forgot something

[Barbarosa]

You can't imagine how many players will quit/give break after their hard invested port was captured by somebody.

Giving so much emphasis on RvR is wrong.

We keep swinging from one extreme to another. From completely useless ports to indispensable crafting hubs.

[John Sheppard]

I have to disagree with the idea of the combat becoming the main source of income again . We tried it before and it didn't work that was the reason for the whole economy mega-patch. The reason why economy failed i IMO is coz it wasn't profitable enough and the introduction of this delivery missions which are much faster way to make money for most people. I'll explain my views

PVP IS DEAD

Despite us now having more people online there is a lot less PvP. Remember few months ago how much fun we had hunting people in OW all along the profitable trade routes ? dozens of people were dying everyday in each of the trade-hotspots . We were going there almost everyday and rarely disappointed. Now there is no reason to trade anymore as the gain is pathetic for the effort time and risk you put in it unless you do it in huge convoys so most people stopped . The guys you run into in OW is usually guys who actively looking for a fight and there's not a lot of them.  

Trading should be very profitable . More profitable that it has ever been in the past 2 years. And i mean long distance trading so that people finally GET OUT FROM THE PORTS (i mean mainly Jamaica and fort royal :P). If you make AI to be the main source of income then we will have the same situation as last year where people sit just outside the port or under the forts and attack ai in tanky 1st rates. If on the other hand trading becomes profitable people will start sailing all over providing us with a lot of targets and PvP opportunity. Also if it's profitable enough the traders will be able to afford to pay other captains (who don't like trade) to escort them providing both the escort and the hunter with nice PvP

Don't forget the pirates didn't come to the Caribbean thinking "oh we would really like to hunt RN sloops and light frigates all over the place to kill them and upset the royal navy" . No they were after the big money that the traders were making

Trade was driving everything in the Caribbean , that's why nations fortified important forts and spent money on maintaining the navy to protect them 

So please think about it

Edited May 4, 2019 by John Sheppard

[Lancelot Teggin]

Both ways must be lucrative..if you like eco do that it can be lucrative for you..on my case im a fighter i just want log in and fight something and get some money for support my loses without bother with long sailing for trading im supporting that patch for real ty admin i love you! 😁

[Dionix]

It's good news. But what about ship balance? What about Essex?

[DevsGoFluckYourselves]

Kindly Delete This Account

Edited July 31, 2020 by KindlyDeleteThisAccount

[Zlatkowar]

23 hours ago, admin said:

• Elite NPCs fleets that players will be able to find and hunt in the open world that will not only give interesting challenges in combat but also will give options for active PVE players to get (not often) ships with bonuses similar to clan based RVR bonuses

If you're about to bring in Elite NPC's then please make normal ones just normal. No higher pen, no insane firing angles, no insane pen angles, no half time reload times.

I spend my time trying to convince my friends to stay ingame telling them that they have the skills to handle it, but truth is, it's just frustrating to not have the same chances. And please don't use the "the AI can't repair" excuse.

23 hours ago, admin said:

• XP calculations update

I have seen a lot of complaints from returning players on the fact that the only way to get XP is by sinking ships (or doing the insanely hard exams). I hope this will be included in your xp calculations. Make the game engaging, please. Not frustrating. Grind is not content. Grind is not fun.

Some XP from missions... Be it combat missions or trading ones.

23 hours ago, admin said:

• Income rebalance (where combat will return to be main money making activity)

I have said that a few times already, and I will repeat : Make all play styles find their place in your game. Don't make combat the main money making activity. Make it one of the main money making activities, alongside trading and crafting for example. Why does it always have to be all or nothing?

I am curious as to how these changes will be implemented.

[Angus MacDuff]

Has someone mentioned the weight of tools yet?  Each one weighs 100 tones and we need thousands.  Gotta get fixed

[fleyers]

Exacly one simple step to fix lots of money making problems, change BASIC WEIGHT OF GOODS FROM 100 TO FOR BEGINNING 20,  it will make trading more lucrative as well more expensive to fill out Indiaman

[Dostojetski]

On 5/4/2019 at 1:35 PM, Thonys said:

there is no balance... but huge ridiculous prices (like 50 victory masks for one building on the port [for all building types with different characteristics but the same price is just lame thoughts)

The price of the buildings is either lazy design or a precursor for micro transactions..

Build materials for resource investments should cost resources AND money instead of just a stupid amount of money.

[Aquillas]

On 5/4/2019 at 8:55 PM, Angus MacDuff said:

Has someone mentioned the weight of tools yet?  Each one weighs 100 tones and we need thousands.  Gotta get fixed

More generally,  having all the weights at 100 is way less immersive than the varied weights before the eco patch. (In fact, I still do not understand the reason of this patch in terms of fun and gameplay. All patches following the eco patch could have been made without this one). Since the eco patch, trading result is so little that I never went back to an enemy capital in a trader. The benefit would not worth the risk.

Edited May 6, 2019 by Aquillas

[Psycho3630]

I like the idea of a rebalancing, but my concern are those with current investments remaining. Currently, to my knowledge, the only nation with a port with maximized investments is Russia. 

***

***I recognize this ship is an extreme example, I am using it to only show Port Bonus existence and no other reason. 

If other ports and nations are limited and forced to specialize, Russia will be the only nation with this advantage and no other nation will be able to compete. This would only serve to  discourage combat against this nation for fear of going against a drastically superior ship with no chance at an even fight. Further, it gives this nation a massive RvR advantage as no fleet, based on strictly on numbers, will be able to engage them in a fight. 

If another nation has this level of investment in a port, there does remain a chance at some balance, but still, most of the server would be left with mid-range investments at most. 

I agree a rebalance towards specialized port investment is necessary, I just disagree with allowing current investments to remain. I am not opposed to compensating the clans that have invested. It is in all fairness to do so. I am also not against the ships they have build remaining, but to allow continued production at a level other nations are prohibited from reaching is a large imbalance. 

Edited May 6, 2019 by Psycho3630

[Njord]

17 minutes ago, Psycho3630 said:

***

What a hello kittying abomination.

[Teutonic]

37 minutes ago, Sovereign said:

What a hello kittying abomination.

It shows that port upgrades, perm mods, and books can make every negative you'd normally have into a positive. Oh and you could theoretically hit every single bonus hard cap. 

And now port points are changing...but people keep the investments? Christ man - nice to know that the last 1 to 2 months before release are going to be a disaster :P.

[Suppenkelle]

2 hours ago, Teutonic said:

? Christ man - nice to know that the last 1 to 2 months before release are going to be a disaster :P.

2 months until release? Dream on....

[Barbancourt]

It's time for a complete wipe, and then perhaps we will eventually approach the testing phase with this game.

[Tac]

41 minutes ago, Barbancourt said:

It's time for a complete wipe, and then perhaps we will eventually approach the testing phase with this game.

Lol i think we can agree that this latest patch is now Kaput. On to the wait for the next.

 

[Barbarosa]

5 hours ago, Psycho3630 said:

I like the idea of a rebalancing, but my concern are those with current investments remaining. Currently, to my knowledge, the only nation with a port with maximized investments is Russia. 

There is no need to be concerned about this.

When nations hardly can fill 10k PB's, nostalgia of 25 1st rates suddenly hit the game.

When everybody is complaining about bonus stacking and superb ships, more bonuses emerged to serve the owners of important ports.

When accessibility of competent ships was questioned by many, more requirements/barriers of hard investment introduced to serve the resource owners.

It was pure luck that all above served to 1 nation.

Lets make a basic calculation. Nation A with 50 active players, nation B with 100 +all needed strategic resources.

• You can finish port upgrades in half time as Nation B.
• You can craft double amount of "stupid" ships way before Nation A can do so. Nation A will burn themselves out way faster because of grind required.
• Nation B can rush to kill other nations before they have a chance to build up.
• You can never guarantee that nation A can have 25 players available to meet Nation B.
• Even though nation A manages to bring 25, Nation B will always have bigger player pool to choose more skilled players.
• Once nation B wins, there is almost no way to recover because the same conditions above, worsened 4x

I am not revolutionizing rocket science here. All above is very simple, basic logic.

Gameover. Develepors won this round. 

Looking to future.

[Licinio Chiavari]

7 minutes ago, Barbarosa said:

There is no need to be concerned about this.

When nations hardly can fill 10k PB's, nostalgia of 25 1st rates suddenly hit the game.

When everybody is complaining about bonus stacking and superb ships, more bonuses emerged to serve the owners of important ports.

When accessibility of competent ships was questioned by many, more requirements/barriers of hard investment introduced to serve the resource owners.

It was pure luck that all above served to 1 nation.

Lets make a basic calculation. Nation A with 50 active players, nation B with 100 +all needed strategic resources.

• You can finish port upgrades in half time as Nation B.
• You can craft double amount of "stupid" ships way before Nation A can do so. Nation A will burn themselves out way faster because of grind required.
• Nation B can rush to kill other nations before they have a chance to build up.
• You can never guarantee that nation A can have 25 players available to meet Nation B.
• Even though nation A manages to bring 25, Nation B will always have bigger player pool to choose more skilled players.
• Once nation B wins, there is almost no way to recover because the same conditions above, worsened 4x

I am not revolutionizing rocket science here. All above is very simple, basic logic.

Gameover. Develepors won this round. 

Looking to future.

Perfect.

The most weird part is developers, who should want a living and striving server, are not recognizing these simple issues my 11 year old (but quite nerdy) son is able to analyse and criticize (and it's not a joke; dark reality: he sometimes sails on my behalf).

[Barbancourt]

7 minutes ago, Mascarino said:

 The russian PB today was uncontested, and probably will the first of many. No one want to face their OP ships.

and...it's monday...

[Licinio Chiavari]

20 minutes ago, Mascarino said:

 The russian PB today was uncontested, and probably will the first of many. No one want to face their OP ships.

Let them flag russian the whole server and do not feed them: stop playing.

May be they'll get bored and something will be done to rebalance the game. 😎
Usually only HARSH facts are understood.