Serius lost of new players

[Dalai Lama]

Not sure if you guys have even played recently. There is no one camping KPR as there is no one there to camp except a few bc and tbrigs. Haven't seen KPR in the combat news in ages. Missions instantly close, leveling with bc is outmost fun as theres nothing to loose. Biggest problem for me is new players rushing to the biggest boat without being able to support it economically. Join a clan and you'll be fine. Prussia usually gets a healthy influx of new players as they dont stick around shroud cay too long. Yes they get slaughtered there but they have nothing to loose. After they reached 'safe' waters we try to give them an environment where they can level up. Well they still get slaughtered every now and then but at least we tell them not to form unorganised revenge fleets just to get slaughtered again.

like the idea of cross server xp though... would help in getting a healthy server pop on both servers

Edited May 31, 2019 by Henry Durnin

[shunt]

11 hours ago, Mascarino said:

 Nevertheless you only attack the nation you not mentioned.

???? I mentioned all the important ones ...

 

sorry left out poland

 

 

Edited May 31, 2019 by shunt

[Sir Lancelot Holland]

The retention of new players is without doubt one of the most serious issues currently in game,  without them the game will stagnate or in the worst case die. So how can we, the most experienced veterans and testers of this game help them best?

Firstly and foremost our attitude and conduct has to change, we cannot afford to maintain our current attitude towards them, neither can we hunt them to extinction. The war server is an harsh environment for veterans, much more so for those who can barely hoist sail, without knowledge of wind, or, basic tactics that will give them a fighting chance to evade or defend themselves against an enemy.

The idea of learning the basics on the peace server then bringing their xp and rank over from there is a sound one, they will however still require support on the war server, there is still a vast difference between fighting AI and fighting people, especially where the odds are uneven, and, they often are.

I think everyone knows that in real life there were gentlemen s agreements  between navy's concerning the 'civilised conduct' of wars at sea, which, were set apart from the the Nation's Articles of War, and rules of engagement that governed life and war at sea.  Among those 'agreements was that unless a lower rated ship was part of an organised squadron or opened fire on on a higher rated ship the senior rated ship could not initiate an attack. 

If for example we were to say that Captains under the rank of Post Captain were immune from attack by higher ranked officers  (unless they are part of a fleet in battle, or, were foolish enough to open fire on superior ships, or, Captain's above Post Captain) but are permitted to engage equal or lower ranked Captains with similar experience to themselves their chances of survival to reach high ranks would be much improved, upon reaching Commodore they should at least have a working knowledge of how to sail and fight, and, hopefully we can retain them for a longer period of time.

There will of course of course be some Captains who may not adhere to such an agreement, and there is little we can do to prevent them, but, if the majority do there will still be benefit for new players, We could even, by common consent, say that Pirates, being 'outside of the Law' be exempted, at least that would give them something in common with the real Pirates of the day and provide a measure of higher risk for new players who will, at some point have to accept that challenge anyway, but, at least most new players should have a reasonable amount of experience to try to defend themselves, or, disengage from the battle. 

[bourdonnais]

21 hours ago, Cap Trujis said:

Today I went to the French area to do pvp, a Russian NN clan named Zulu tagged me. The minute a player called charlemagne joined the Russian side and he did not want to answer me if it was an alt, so I read here if it is. I have 2 questions is it legal to use alts in pvp? And the next is if for the players it is necessary to do this, he was in endimyion and I was in pandora.

Of course Charlemagne is a french alt of a russian player (Vitto corleone). That's why you sometimes see a french entering battles on russian side front of FR. Having alts account is a main problem. This can be used to spy, and grind faster than a solo account could. This is a problem that should'nt be solved by devs cause of no solution, it is also the gameplay of most toxic players..... This is a part of the announced fail of the game if nothing is done to protect newbies from those few players.

Unfortunately, Devs with dlc such "prolific forger" promotes hasardous behaviours...

DEVS: The nations absolutely need massive enlarged safety zones around their capital to avoid newbies ganking. Toxic players aren't enough to camp all around. They will have to find something else, and they will... Confimed players wanna (fair) play. They won't protect newbies for eternity and spent all their time for actions of such idiots gankers.

Edited May 31, 2019 by bourdonnais

[VirtuallyIdiotic]

I have not noticed a major loss of new players. No one I would consider die-hards. Usual casuals that come and go.

Edited May 31, 2019 by Davos Seasworth

[van Veen]

There are 3 problems: 

1. Low player base leads to a concentration of players at hot spots, which are big capitals. 
2. Ganking yields most rewards. The issue is the multitude of currencies and that rewards are granted by looting. Ganking is the most efficient way to get most rewards at minimum risk.
3. Lack of game features. RVR is dumb and dead, trading is inefficient and dangerous, so there is nothing left to do in the game except for loot and shoot. 

These problems are inherently coded into the game and were discussed back and forth here in the forums with many good ideas proposed by the community, but never solved. Instead, recently implemented features enhanced the effects even more:

    more ranks -> more XP grind,
    combat medals -> emphasis on loot reward,
    permit wall -> need to pvp,
    introduction of missions -> trading obsolete,
    port upgrades -> no need to haul materials,
    port bonus for ships -> more winner-takes-it-all,
    open battles for BR low side -> more dangerous PVE,
    higher BR on ports -> more players required for RVR.

The game degraded into a big, empty shoot and loot arena without any purpose. Ganking is the logic consequence, because there is nothing else to do. I've seen that with another open world MMO game. When game content relies on players only and the player base is critically low, players get bored and all fun remaining is killing other players. Ganking gets more and more excessive and player numbers drop sharply in a downward spiral. 

Let's hope it regenerates a healthy player base after release. Only a large player base could make this game fun despite its flaws. 

[PaladinFX]

As far as helping new players stay, personally i think the capital zones should extend to one port either side of the capital. That would give the new players a larger sandbox to play in until they feel confident enough to move to other areas on the map. Reinforcement zones didn't work well, the reinforcements were rubbish so i don't think bringing them back is a good idea; just extend the capital zones as i said above.

[Roadkill]

4 hours ago, PaladinFX said:

As far as helping new players stay, personally i think the capital zones should extend to one port either side of the capital. That would give the new players a larger sandbox to play in until they feel confident enough to move to other areas on the map. Reinforcement zones didn't work well, the reinforcements were rubbish so i don't think bringing them back is a good idea; just extend the capital zones as i said above.

Agreed...one of the first things a new player will want to do is sail to another port to see what open world is like and also what differences there are at other ports.  At least give them the option of doing one trip in either direction in safety.

[Dragonfire]

1 hour ago, Roadkill said:

Agreed...one of the first things a new player will want to do is sail to another port to see what open world is like and also what differences there are at other ports.  At least give them the option of doing one trip in either direction in safety.

That is what the pve server is for. What player expects not to be attacked on a war server? Why would they play a Naval Action war game and expect not to be attacked regardless if they have just started to play of have been here for 5 years ? Go sail on the PVE server to go do that but expect action if you do it on the war server would be common assumption.

Too bad they couldn't get their feet wet on the PVE server to say a certain rank and then transfer over their rank and experience to the PVP server might solve a lot of the newbie getting ganked without basic knowledge problem.

 

Edited June 8, 2019 by Dragonfire
Additional thought

[Anne Wildcat]

Plus, any new player would be exploring in a basic cutter. If they lose that, it’s no loss, they are free. 

[Roadkill]

15 minutes ago, Dragonfire said:

That is what the pve server is for. What player expects not to be attacked on a war server? Why would they play a Naval Action war game and expect not to be attacked regardless if they have just started to play of have been here for 5 years ? Go sail on the PVE server to go do that but expect action if you do it on the war server would be common assumption.

Too bad they couldn't get their feet wet on the PVE server to say a certain rank and then transfer over their rank and experience to the PVP server might solve a lot of the newbie getting ganked without basic knowledge problem.

 

You contradict yourself in this statement.  They can't transfer their experience over to the PVP server can they?  You can have 100's of hours experience on PVE server and still get picked off by experienced players around capital areas.  It would be nice to have an area that encompasses at least the nearest ports.

Edited June 8, 2019 by Roadkill

[Vinnie]

One reply to unfair ganking closing ports and discouraging new players is for >everyone< to switch to the strongest side.  With 90% of the player base as Russian (or whatever) the Devs would have to address the issue or watch the game die.  And if they didn't the game would deserve such a death.