A big problem for players right now is the lack of island space to make a claim and begin going through the arduous process of getting a bigger ship. For solo and small groups of people, this problem has effectively halted their progress as they sail on their raft for hours trying to find anywhere that a claim flag could be placed. Finding one or taking an existing claim still leaves them vulnerable to someone coming by when they are on the other side of the map or offline and claiming their stuff. Yes, you can log off in your base and your sleeping body blocks people from claiming it but my problem with that is it ruins your ability to go explore the world cause you constantly have to fast travel back. Fast traveling back and logging off puts your ship at risk as someone could sail by and drop a claim flag on it and take it. The only way to avoid that is to not go to far from your base so you can always sail back to your base to keep both your ship and base safe. But again, that ruins your ability to explore the world.
In EVE, the high security sections have NPC ran stations that allow you to store your ships and items safely, build and outfit your ships, as well as various other things such as a market and quest givers. Nobody can touch your stuff and everyone has equal access to their own personal storage. Anyone who has played EVE knows that nowhere in space, not even the high security sections, are safe from griefers but if you can get into the station, the stuff in your cargo hold is safe. You can go into the low security and null sectors to build your own station if you want but then you run the risk of people coming by and blowing it up.
Since we must have a land claim in order to create a shipyard to progress, the Freeports should have instanced sections, accessed by activating a door like Skyrim or something similar, that puts you in a room with enough space for all the types of drydocks at the bare minimum. The room could also be big enough to allow additional stuff to be built such as smithy's, looms, or cargo containers. It could go so far as becoming your own static base so you always have somewhere you can go to store items, build new ships and progress in the game. It will obviously take forever but solo and small group players would know this going in I would think. The room would also be specific to that grid so you can't access your room without going back to the port you put your stuff in just like claiming a specific island. You could have multiple rooms across multiple Freeports if you wanted.
Since the Freeport sections are capped to 150, I think it would be best to cut the Freeport grids into 3 sections so that there is only 1 island per section. I know the Freeport grid I was in had 2 identical islands so I'd assume there was a third. Splitting the grid into 3 separate instances triples the amount of people able to access the port they call home.
I'm not sure how the grouping would work though. I suppose we could have a room specific to you and if you belong to a company then you could have access to a company specific room. The only downside to a company specific room that I see is that mega companies would be able to use the room and break the current land claim system because why bother fighting for islands if you can get the same result without the fight. However the massive inconvenience of needing to go back to the Freeport instead of your own island could be a good enough incentive to go fight for land.
The current land claiming concept would remain for now. I don't have a solution to it for either PvP or PvE. But this at least allows players to have a base. Even if its just a spot for a drydock in the room and no smithy or storage, we can put those things on the raft so, while tedious, we would still be able to just walk all the ship building supplies and parts of the ship to the room.
I love the concept of the game and see amazing potential but as of right now, I can't do anything but sail and die of malnutrition for hours on end just trying to find somewhere I can stick a flag so I can get a bigger ship. I spent 4 hours last night just trying to escape the Freeport and the Lawless zone I sailed into on accident only to find the 3 islands in the buildable zones completely claimed by very few people. I don't even see a reason to keep playing right now as I can't progress without joining a company nearby with a land claim and none of them want anything to do with me.
A big problem for players right now is the lack of island space to make a claim and begin going through the arduous process of getting a bigger ship. For solo and small groups of people, this problem has effectively halted their progress as they sail on their raft for hours trying to find anywhere that a claim flag could be placed. Finding one or taking an existing claim still leaves them vulnerable to someone coming by when they are on the other side of the map or offline and claiming their stuff. Yes, you can log off in your base and your sleeping body blocks people from claiming it but my problem with that is it ruins your ability to go explore the world cause you constantly have to fast travel back. Fast traveling back and logging off puts your ship at risk as someone could sail by and drop a claim flag on it and take it. The only way to avoid that is to not go to far from your base so you can always sail back to your base to keep both your ship and base safe. But again, that ruins your ability to explore the world. In EVE, the high security sections have NPC ran stations that allow you to store your ships and items safely, build and outfit your ships, as well as various other things such as a market and quest givers. Nobody can touch your stuff and everyone has equal access to their own personal storage. Anyone who has played EVE knows that nowhere in space, not even the high security sections, are safe from griefers but if you can get into the station, the stuff in your cargo hold is safe. You can go into the low security and null sectors to build your own station if you want but then you run the risk of people coming by and blowing it up. Since we must have a land claim in order to create a shipyard to progress, the Freeports should have instanced sections, accessed by activating a door like Skyrim or something similar, that puts you in a room with enough space for all the types of drydocks at the bare minimum. The room could also be big enough to allow additional stuff to be built such as smithy's, looms, or cargo containers. It could go so far as becoming your own static base so you always have somewhere you can go to store items, build new ships and progress in the game. It will obviously take forever but solo and small group players would know this going in I would think. The room would also be specific to that grid so you can't access your room without going back to the port you put your stuff in just like claiming a specific island. You could have multiple rooms across multiple Freeports if you wanted. Since the Freeport sections are capped to 150, I think it would be best to cut the Freeport grids into 3 sections so that there is only 1 island per section. I know the Freeport grid I was in had 2 identical islands so I'd assume there was a third. Splitting the grid into 3 separate instances triples the amount of people able to access the port they call home. I'm not sure how the grouping would work though. I suppose we could have a room specific to you and if you belong to a company then you could have access to a company specific room. The only downside to a company specific room that I see is that mega companies would be able to use the room and break the current land claim system because why bother fighting for islands if you can get the same result without the fight. However the massive inconvenience of needing to go back to the Freeport instead of your own island could be a good enough incentive to go fight for land. The current land claiming concept would remain for now. I don't have a solution to it for either PvP or PvE. But this at least allows players to have a base. Even if its just a spot for a drydock in the room and no smithy or storage, we can put those things on the raft so, while tedious, we would still be able to just walk all the ship building supplies and parts of the ship to the room. I love the concept of the game and see amazing potential but as of right now, I can't do anything but sail and die of malnutrition for hours on end just trying to find somewhere I can stick a flag so I can get a bigger ship. I spent 4 hours last night just trying to escape the Freeport and the Lawless zone I sailed into on accident only to find the 3 islands in the buildable zones completely claimed by very few people. I don't even see a reason to keep playing right now as I can't progress without joining a company nearby with a land claim and none of them want anything to do with me.