Just some kinda obvious ideas

[RydelSleak 6]

 

 I say "obvious" because these are all ideas based on mechanics from other games, so they really aren't anything special. However, I know when working on a project close up it can be hard to take a step back and think outside the box, so just thought I'd toss em out there to maybe help influence the direction of the game. At the moment my biggest gripe is that I can't build a pretty town but still be a pirate at the same time, I'd really like to see PvE and PvP brought together somehow, and with more than just the Company Warfare.

 

A PvE+PvP Server

 A server that offers both PvE and PvP, but not just Company Warfare, open world PvP. Using something like Zones from other games, have areas around Freeports as green zones, or safe areas. The areas in between the Freeports would be red zones, where open world PvP is available. It would be cool if you added something in like a "Royal Fleet" or something, that would travel around the map and make the red zones safe for a while.

 

Town Claims

 The current claiming system is kinda shitty, people just run around placing them all over the place. It would be cool if you had a "Town Claim" that you could craft that would establish a Town, which would be a little more difficult to take over. Maybe have a central spot they have to hold or something, like a "Mayor Table" or something. To place the Town Claim you could make it so that a Company had to already control a large enough area for the Town Claim to fit. With Towns, you could even give Mayors certain options for controlling their area. I know you have the tax thing in place right now, but I don't feel like that is really going to be much use in PvP servers since they just run everybody off all the time and kill on sight. A system like this might make interaction with others a little more likely.

 

 Factions

 Factions might be another possible way to incorporate PvP into the PvE servers, but making it completely optional. The thing that I like about the PvE servers is that I can build an aesthetically pleasing town and not have to worry that it isn't built for PvP, but on the other hand, I also never get the chance to be a pirate in a PvE server with how it's currently set up. If we had Factions then I could have the best of both.

 

Play Styles

 I've seen a few people complaining that they don't want to build ships or bases, they just want to be pirates. Well with the current setup of Freeports you can only get the raft and from there you are just another player that needs to build a base. This is supposed to be an MMO, according to your description of the game, so why not offer more styles of gameplay other than just "build all the stuff". Taking from the Towns idea above, players could sell ships, or you could earn "Faction Points" that would let you purchase "Faction Ships", or you could just offer other ways to acquire ships from Town. But it feels like you are going for a purely player based kind of economy, so players selling ships from towns seems like the obvious choice. Mostly this suggestions is about, Is this just another Ark game or are you really trying to build a new generation of MMO? Because if so, you need more than just "gather, build, protect, destroy".

 

 Freeports

 Do more with Freeports, if they are just meant to be starting zones then eventually they are going to be empty or low population, why continue to pay for 7+ servers to run if they have minimal use? You could place Factions Reps there, Quest givers, or even allow Companies to take them over and receive something for it. It seems like territory control is a major element of this game, but the juice has to be worth the squeeze, so make taking Freeports really difficult but worth an entire region rather than just one grid or something.