Curious? what do the megas/smaller Companies think of the PTR

[Sneakydude 143]

Is this system going to work or not?

Will this system they have, minus all the garbage bugs and that do you feel its going to work?

Ive seen some of the reddit videos, seems pretty easy to raid at this time. With or without a war token.

Is that system even working? or are we getting the curtains pulled over our eyes.

Just curious, what others thoughts are in a company situations. I know you can not speak for your leaders at this time, or how it will all go down, but i want your honest opinion if you think this current system will work or not.

Edited April 8, 2019 by Sneakydude

[ragnar cook 8]

6x rate plus having every skill given to you once you log on makes it very easy to raid ppl in the first hour. 

 

The 50 cap isnt going to bother the megas. They will ally and basically have more "island points" because of this. Honestly wrong decision by devs there.

[Sneakydude 143]

3 hours ago, ragnar cook said:

6x rate plus having every skill given to you once you log on makes it very easy to raid ppl in the first hour. 

 

The 50 cap isnt going to bother the megas. They will ally and basically have more "island points" because of this. Honestly wrong decision by devs there.

Are you in a mega, or solo player? or in a small company.

[Sneakydude 143]

Guess we got partial answers, silence...

[Willard 245]

As Ragnar said, 6x rates, all skills and lack of people's knowledge of how system works makes raiding very easy now. 

Without rates and skills and after people start defending flag (and building around it to prevent contesting) it will be OK. I mean I see claimed Settlements with flags directly on the beach. Thats hard not to raid  But honestly they should increase declaiming time to at least 30 minutes.

Just my point of view ofc, we are 20 on the PTR now.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Willard

[Back Stabbath 150]

Ptr population is pretty much gonna be the population you get for live I think. Except for whatever returning mega players you have in addition to that.

Its become too well known in the gaming communities that the devs are pandering to certain guilds. Doesn't fly in a pvp centric game.

That coupled with bad descision making and the Ark direction they are heading in , foundation spam, bear cannon shit still the meta for pvp etc.

I predict youl have a couple thousand players for a few months . Depending on how much money the company is willing to invest. Maybe another wipe for a revamp.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Back Stabbath

[Sinappia 49]

I think the basic idea of having a version for small/midsize companies was a good idea. But unfortunately the end-result favors the big companies. Like ragnar said: the 50 cap limits for a company does not bother a single mega company. They ally up and get more Island points like that.

If the devs really are intrested in making this version for REAL small/middlesize companies they need to tweek the numbers hard!

- Limit company-member to 10 or so (not sure about the sweet spot there) and limit the alliances like originaly planed. Keep the big picture in mind: company 10 member + 4 allys w 10 = a total of 50 ppl. Which I allready consider more than just a middlesize companie!

- 9 hours of war-time is simply to long for REAL small/middlesize companies. We talk here about ppl that have 3 - 10 people in the company. People that have jobs and families but still enjoy PvP. It's completly unrealistic to expect this small amount of people to cover 9 hours of war-time every day. When exactly should people choose to have the war-time?

- Not sure the war-tooken should be a thing for small/midsize companies

btw: we are a small company allied with a top5 mega and owning our own Island

One addition to people that claim it won't affect the megas if you limit the tribe/alliance numbers - this is simply not true. People seem to forget about how much NPCs do in battles. Sure you can go and have huge fight and half of your mega companie is not allied - but that means they will be targeted by your NPCs as well and so on.

[SIEGEGUN 57]

38 minutes ago, Back Stabbath said:

Ptr population is pretty much gonna be the population you get for live I think. Except for whatever returning mega players you have in addition to that.

Its become too well known in the gaming communities that the devs are pandering to certain guilds. Doesn't fly in a pvp centric game.

That coupled with bad descision making and the Ark direction they are heading in , foundation spam, bear cannon shit still the meta for pvp etc.

I predict youl have a couple thousand players for a few months . Depending on how much money the company is willing to invest. Maybe another wipe for a revamp.

This is an assumption. My company has not tried the PTS nor will most of us, if any of us. We are all waiting for the actual 1.5 to drop, I am willing to bet we are not the only ones. My company is just tired of the delays, they do not care to test this out. We know where we are going roughly, we know what we are doing, just do not want to play until there is an actual semi static game to play. I might log in and play for a bit, but who knows.

How ever that being said, if Grapeshot does not get a move on SOON, my company might bail. They have not said as much, but I know them as gamers, and the time since wipe announcement till now (and it will not be ready in a week in my opinion) and who knows how long until a release version is getting LONG. And if my company moves on I will as well. 

[Willard 245]

From our pre-wipe only 3 of us play on PTR now. About 15 more are waiting for a wipe. 

[Back Stabbath 150]

Of course it's an assumption. It's just my personal prediction based on my conversations in different forums in different gaming communities.

I could be completely wrong.

I'll be trying it out with whoever I can convince to come along when it goes live.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Back Stabbath

[SIEGEGUN 57]

23 minutes ago, Willard said:

From our pre-wipe only 3 of us play on PTR now. About 15 more are waiting for a wipe. 

Yeah we are a company of 15. None of us are on the PTS. All waiting for wipe.

18 minutes ago, Back Stabbath said:

Of course it's an assumption. It's just my personal prediction based on my conversations in different forums in different gaming communities.

I could be completely wrong.

I'll be trying it out with whoever I can convince to come along when it goes live.

I could see how you might think that way, I know the reddit sub has lost a lot of subscribers. I just think there are far more waiting for the wipe than are not. The numbers will be much higher on "new launch" day whenever that is. Them keeping decent numbers is a different story. 

Maby I will have to join you lol. I know I have 2 others in my company that would still play if I keep playing. My company of 15 just might end up a company of 3. GG GS lol...

[Back Stabbath 150]

My playstyle is very dif than most. All these changes dont affect me.

As long as there is a population I can have fun.

I'm pure pirate.

Edited April 9, 2019 by Back Stabbath

[Talono 434]

I did just test some basic mechanics and i am too lazy to play a lot right now as everything will become wiped on thursday anyway.

 

[Sneakydude 143]

2 hours ago, Talono said:

I did just test some basic mechanics and i am too lazy to play a lot right now as everything will become wiped on thursday anyway.

 

I think that is the way many of us feel, very lazy to care.. Some will test the mechanics and spread the faster info to the rest while some look for the fast exploits like normal. Errr i mean game mechanics that will win.

[Lifedragn 18]

13 hours ago, Sneakydude said:

Guess we got partial answers, silence...

mid-size company with small PTR presence.Was busy playing and then sleeping, and then working. So from my angle, Silence is a good sign.

 

To be honest, my play times align with our Combat Window as it is, so I cannot say I've seen much difference defensively during my time online. Had a couple unfinished ships taken down at anchor during combat phase window, but that was our fault for leaving them unguarded so everyone could do a treasure map.

I will say we were caught off guard by the gold requirements. When they said taxation would gather resources to pay upkeep we thought upkeep would be actual resources gathered from the island like fiber, thatch, wood, metal, etc. But apparently "resources" meant only gold.

I do like the full island capture. This is more in line with what I had first envisioned for territory claims when I read about companies claiming islands and setting tax rates on them. Much better than the old circle claims.

[DocOlds 20]

The island claiming is far to cheap and fast, especially with the new shipwrecks giving so much gold.  This cheapness will lead a lot of weak groups to claim islands they cannot hold simply because they were online when the update happened.  As soon as the first wave of raid windows open, it is going to be a bloodbath.  Nobody is going to buy war tokens because the 9 hour raid window is plenty to take an island.  I suspect the 2nd land rush will be where things really shake out and we see how many players remain.

[Lifedragn 18]

I think there was a big opportunity missed for adding several of the super-small islands throughout other zones. There are 5 point mini-spaces in the polar zones which would be great for small groups if they were anywhere but polar.

I really think the system is better than the old claim flag system, but I still think we're going to see tons of abuse from the the large groups exploiting the meta to hold more than they should.

[Smash 25]

In a mega but doing my own thing in PTR. 

My only real feedback is "spawn everywhere" is aids and shouldn't get anywhere near the final product.

Edited April 10, 2019 by Smash

[MikeDitka 3]

16 hours ago, SIEGEGUN said:

 My company has not tried the PTS nor will most of us, if any of us. We are all waiting for the actual 1.5 to drop, I am willing to bet we are not the only ones.

Same here. 45-man company here but only 9 downloaded ptr and played. Officials or nothing most of us feel.

[Mektashari 3]

Liking it so far, we are a small company.

 

 

[gnihar 111]

Needs better and more granular control of who builds what when you are claim owner.

Needs nerfing of bear cannon meta. Needs nerfing of bear. Needs buffing on foot combat.

Other than that, it is not bad. My hope is the admins would curb zerg companies by enforcing the limits etc. but we shall see.

 

Edited April 10, 2019 by gnihar

[Talono 434]

As solo player i answer the following to your question (PTR PVP, Colonies system) :

- tested severals starting islands, in each single case have been LOLstomped by chinese megatribes who did split up into smaller detachments (ChengA, ChengB,ChengC)

- as a solo player i was not able to hold even a small island

- as slave to a landlord it was difficult to build up under 50% tax, while through the 6x rate it was possible. After some hours the landlord came, clicked away my walls and took my stuff

- positive : They ability to respawn everywhere thus being a pain in the butt for my landlord, thats great Grapeshot !

So, summed up, the test did strengthen my decision to go Empire server.

Edited April 11, 2019 by Talono

[Willard 245]

2 hours ago, Talono said:

As solo player i answer the following to your question (PTR PVP, Colonies system) :

- tested severals starting islands, in each single case have been LOLstomped by chinese megatribes who did split up into smaller detachments (ChengA, ChengB,ChengC)

- as a solo player i was not able to hold even a small island

- as slave to a landlord it was difficult to build up under 50% tax, while through the 6x rate it was possible. After some hours the landlord came, clicked away my walls and took my stuff

- positive : They ability to respawn everywhere thus being a pain in the butt for my landlord, thats great Grapeshot !

So, summed up, the test did strengthen my decision to go Empire server.

You should not be able to hold even a small Island as a solo player on PvP

[Sneakydude 143]

Solo player should be able to hold a small part of the cove maybe. Your best to join up on a small crew, and ally with a larger body. This way you guys can play the game without being grieved all the time.

I dont recommend playing as a solo player unless your just hanging out for a short time. You can lose all your techs pretty quickly.

[DocHolliday 366]

Why do I get the feeling that everyone will want to despawn things he builds and nobody would want him as a tenant on their island?

Our island message was pretty simple.  Announce yourself and talk to us before you land on our island.  Tell us your intentions and we'll see what we can do.  If you just showed up and built without talking to us we wiped you.  If you wandered around our shipyards and trespassed on ships we killed you.  If you asked and gave us basic info like company size, intentions there, etc we let you build a base up and live there.

Island upkeep was easy.  We let people do maps on our island.  We emptied out extra gold all the time to pay for NPC's.  We also built a nice walled in harbor and let smaller companies use the outside parts to build up bases.  We worked together on island defense and it worked quite well.  When people actually communicate and act mature these things happen. 

Edited April 11, 2019 by DocHolliday