Collection of suggested improvements/mechanics/fixes for making NA more friendly to rookies

[Montagnes]

For quite some time NA have had the same issue, a very low retention of new players. This is a major problem as the playerbase doesn't get renewed which could lead to the slowly death of the game. 

 

Steam reviews are full of new players complaining about the tough beginings and the step learning curve. Time to fix that. 

 

So, here is this new topic.

The rules are simple: write 1 proposal/improvement/fix with each post and the community will use the "like" or "sad" emoticons to judge them.

 

PS: There is a new player mission on the works but it doesn't mean it will soften all the stuff that makes new players leave the game.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Montagnes

[Liq]

Have a pop-up message for when taking a Delivery / Passenger mission - "Warning - you will need to be in a trader vessel in order to enter an enemy port!"

[Montagnes]

Problem:

Rookies being killed at home ports by veterans sailing vessels with less than 100BR.

Solution:

Home defense fleets that attacks every enemy ship, no matter the BR.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Montagnes

[Montagnes]

Problem:

Tutorial teaches how to sail a square rig ship while the starter ship, the basic cutter, is not square rigged.

Rookies gets very annoyed fighting with a ship no one really knows how to manual sail it.

Solution:

Rookie Brig instead of Basic Cutter.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Montagnes

[Montagnes]

Problem

Rookies leaving the game prematurely, without having leveled up his character.

Lack of motivation to keep playing.

 

Solution

Introduce admiralty rewards after suceeding at ranking up. Reals, doubloons, ship notes, whatever.

Edited March 10, 2020 by Montagnes

[Montagnes]

Problem

Lack of information and guiding.

Rookies completely lost at the begining, without any clue what to do next.

Tutorial only gives insight about battle instance but zero about the rest.

 

Solution

Links to the forum, NA map and Aquilla's guide.

 

Edited March 10, 2020 by Montagnes

[Celtiberofrog]

Too much time-consuming sailing is what kills enthousiasm and slow economy.

Material deliveries should be available like old days.

Or it could be implementing by at least supplying your traders as cargo, your selected ships will be towed to destination. 

Kind of organizing a commercial operation that could include some risks from weather or pirateries to loose partialy or entirely its ship/fleet/material (rarely!).

It had a cooldown utilization, just adapt a cooldown that would make sense to Dev's.

I guess this feature was very helpfull for new players in past.

"DLC players" might appreciate it too.

[Montagnes]

15 hours ago, Liq said:

Have a pop-up message for when taking a Delivery / Passenger mission - "Warning - you will need to be in a trader vessel in order to enter an enemy port!"

New players might also be grateful if they began also with a trader ship in their docks. 

It could be a reward for completing something, like the tutorial or after level up the first rank.

 

[Angus MacDuff]

They should have to start on the PVE server and complete basic tasks there.  Let them keep rank when they switch over to PVP (up to M&C).

[Vizzini]

15 hours ago, Montagnes said:

Problem:

Rookies being killed at home ports by veterans sailing vessels with less than 100BR.

Solution:

Home defense fleets that attacks every enemy ship, no matter the BR.

what about enemy traders ? ... I was going to say, think before you type, but that would be petty and rude....

 

so perhaps just change it to enemy war ships and we'd be good

[Montagnes]

3 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

what about enemy traders ? ... I was going to say, think before you type, but that would be petty and rude....

 

so perhaps just change it to enemy war ships and we'd be good

I can sink players in 6th and 7th rates with a trader snow.

That is the reason behind my proposal.

 

Cargo and passenger missions must avoid giving destinations close to the enemy home capital ports.

[erelkivtuadrater]

tips and tricks as loading screens instead of the texts saying "Filling up rum in bottles" etc. Not unlike the ones they have on World of Tanks/Warships etc

[Liq]

1 minute ago, Montagnes said:

I can sink players in 6th and 7th rates with a trader snow.

That is the reason behind my proposal.

 

Cargo and passenger missions must avoid giving destinations close to the enemy home capital ports.

tbh I think better solution would be to have a zone around the capital where you cannot attack players of that nation owning the zone - that way the privateer fleets can get removed and you can actually trade around enemy capitals aswell, while still being open for attack yourself to other nations players

[Angus MacDuff]

Just now, Liq said:

tbh I think better solution would be to have a zone around the capital where you cannot attack players of that nation owning the zone - that way the privateer fleets can get removed and you can actually trade around enemy capitals aswell, while still being open for attack yourself to other nations players

There already is one, but it's small.  It has been suggested in the past that the size be increased. 

[Vizzini]

4 minutes ago, Montagnes said:

I can sink players in 6th and 7th rates with a trader snow.

That is the reason behind my proposal.

 

Cargo and passenger missions must avoid giving destinations close to the enemy home capital ports.

new players have a hard time protecting themselves, just because you can sink players in a t snow, doesn't mean a new player can.

New players are farmed because the vets are rewarded for doing so. I'd much rather the rewards for battering "true" new players / alts was less of an issue

 

what we don't want to go back to, is a huge area outside a capital where vets hoover up currency / trade with zero risk.

 

[Montagnes]

31 minutes ago, erelkivtuadrater said:

tips and tricks as loading screens instead of the texts saying "Filling up rum in bottles" etc. Not unlike the ones they have on World of Tanks/Warships etc

Yeah, that would help too.

But still that information should be more accesible than just some random tips in a loading screen.

[erelkivtuadrater]

2 minutes ago, Montagnes said:

Yeah, that would help too.

But still that information should be more accesible than just some random tips in a loading screen.

its available on the recently updated NA wiki driven by players  

[Montagnes]

19 minutes ago, Vizzini said:

new players have a hard time protecting themselves, just because you can sink players in a t snow, doesn't mean a new player can.

New players are farmed because the vets are rewarded for doing so. I'd much rather the rewards for battering "true" new players / alts was less of an issue

 

what we don't want to go back to, is a huge area outside a capital where vets hoover up currency / trade with zero risk.

 

The entire subject is aimed to protect new players from the veterans.

If home defense fleets don't tag my trader snow I could go farming new players with ease. I can even dock at the enemy ports to repair.

[Montagnes]

1 minute ago, erelkivtuadrater said:

its available on the recently updated NA wiki driven by players  

The info or the links to updated sites should be in the game or new players will have to rely on others to know about them.

[Licinio Chiavari]

17 hours ago, Montagnes said:

Problem:

Rookies being killed at home ports by veterans sailing vessels with less than 100BR.

Solution:

Home defense fleets that attacks every enemy ship, no matter the BR.

I understand. And I'm surely on the guilty side (still definately not the only one, and ganking wise, one of the least guilty...).
I have still to understand why attacking mid ranked captains in a ship 2-3 rates above yours is TOXIC. And 5+ bigger ships ganking team is "real" PvP...
Just to know: who risks more?

On one part: we need definition of rookies. Because I see top ranked captains badly sunk without any hope. On the other why should a raider/PvPer (who lives up ONLY PvPing - like me, no trading, no PvE almost ever) hunt dangerous preys aside for challenge time to time?

Not to say that any average even top ranked captain not used to PvP will sink every time vs an experienced PVPer.
Just as a note, doing some Lokis will give a nice idea of the real medium skill level. That, from PVP veterans' perspective, could be defined "embarassing".

The real point is son of PvP Reward:

Killing a Redoutable with almost no PBs, crappy woods (why? it happens), no mods handled by a <100 hrs player with a 5/5 v.fast Christian with gazillions of reals in mods is worth MORE than sinking Liquicity or RamDinark on super modded Surprise with a Niagara (who ever?).
As ganking 10v1 will still give full reward to one killer (plus assists to mates).
It's normal, for farming purposes, to prefer the soft target to the hard one.
The challenging part comes time to time as what it is: a challenge. But you cant upkeep yourself with challenges: it's not economically viable.

Still I remember healthy population EVEN without safezones, defensive fleets and even forts and towers. And still captains sailed and fought and skilled up. Like me and many with similar hour-count.

So, IMO, the point is different.

 

[Licinio Chiavari]

2 hours ago, Vizzini said:

what about enemy traders ? ... I was going to say, think before you type, but that would be petty and rude....

 

so perhaps just change it to enemy war ships and we'd be good

LGVR new farming meta.

Not to say that both @huliotkdand me used battle ready Indiamans as raiding ships (and support ship for raiding squadron: selling trade good captured in front of the battle right finished, and buying repairs in enemy ports to keep raiding the same enemy shipping is priceless).

Sinking even 2nd rates 1v1.

Edited March 11, 2020 by Licinio Chiavari

[Licinio Chiavari]

2 hours ago, Montagnes said:

I can sink players in 6th and 7th rates with a trader snow.

That is the reason behind my proposal.

 

Cargo and passenger missions must avoid giving destinations close to the enemy home capital ports.

PS: you should know that this would kill economically traders of small nations.

Try again.

[Licinio Chiavari]

2 hours ago, Vizzini said:

new players have a hard time protecting themselves, just because you can sink players in a t snow, doesn't mean a new player can.

New players are farmed because the vets are rewarded for doing so. I'd much rather the rewards for battering "true" new players / alts was less of an issue

 

what we don't want to go back to, is a huge area outside a capital where vets hoover up currency / trade with zero risk.

 

Sunk a Pavel with an half hammered T.Snow Loki. And he was not exactly a "new player" granted the Pavel was fully crewed, name known and v.admiral.
Just to say.

[Angus MacDuff]

18 hours ago, Montagnes said:

Rookies being killed at home ports by veterans sailing vessels with less than 100BR.

Why should they be protected?  If you tell them to sail somewhere else, they will just get killed there.  If they stay in a protected zone, they will eventually leave and get killed just as easily (just with a higher rank).  There will always be less skilled players getting killed by more skilled players.  Name one highly skilled player who wasn't ganked as a newb.  As far as the Capitol zones are concerned, that is content.  If you make a huge protected bubble around the capitol...you get less content and the hunters can still hang outside (we've seen that).  When Licinio (sorry to use you mate, lol) sails through your capitol zone, he is adding content to dozens of other players.  What you do with it is your business.  So kill him!  He's a nice guy and won't hold it against you.

[Licinio Chiavari]

1 minute ago, Angus MacDuff said:

When Licinio (sorry to use you mate, lol) sails through your capitol zone, he is adding content to dozens of other players.  What you do with it is your business.  So kill him!  He's a nice guy and won't hold it against you.

@huliotkdand me indeed gave a lot of action in Jamaica waters 2 years ago

That said: no offence taken. I have still to understand why I'm the paradigm of sealclubber, when I see bulk of captains doing... exactly the same everywhere everytime.

PS: technically a Dinark (to give a plain example) is "sealclubbing" when engaging more or less 97-98% of server population: should he stay in port?