Captain Jack Shadow

19 minutes ago, Caveman said:

That being why i say "pretty much".

Usually there's more to the story that gets conveniently omitted when the griping about getting your comeuppins starts.

I wasn't there so i don't know either way. I'm just asking the logical first question.

You must be new.  For this to happen, all he had to do was park his ship beside an island.  That's literally all he had to do.  Keep in mind that reports of people placing pillars along the shores of islands, to rip the bottoms out of people's boats. Keep in mind that people in official PvE pillared the crap out of islands, so they wouldn't have to deal with the eye sore of somebody else's base.  PvE players can be some of the most toxic people you ever want to meet...on official...and sometimes the coolest, on unofficial.  The ones on official, often just don't like having neighbors...unofficial servers are often less populated, and thus it doesn't provoke people to be bungholes.  Usually more than enough islands to go around, and the big islands are big enough to accommodate more than one base, without rubbing elbows.

20 minutes ago, gadefence said:

Isn't there already an exploding cannon ball?

I believe so, but it has lower damage, and does not penetrate.  I don't think people have found a legitimate use for them.

I support the move to put heavy cannons in the gun ports, however, what this does is allow Galleons to have a ton of Heavies.  The good part, is that I suspect that 2 or three maneuvering sails on a Galleon will become the new Meta.  But seriously, the medium cannons now need some love.  They have on advantage, and that is the ability to swivel.  It needs more.  Maybe the same range, and more accuracy, compared to the heavy.  Maybe a higher velocity and flatter trajectory...easier to accomplish with smaller cannon balls.  Maybe faster reload...easier to carry and load smaller cannon balls, than heavy ones.  Maybe a new type of cannon ball for the medium cannons.  A cannon ball that penetrates and then explodes.  RIP to beds, storage and crafting stations inside the ship. Maybe allow a fire bomb for the medium cannons.  Maybe increase the range of the bar shot, to make it more useful.  Maybe add a grapeshot to the medium cannons.

Something needs to be tried, to make them more appealing to the community.

I tamed 4 bears after the patch.  No differences noticed.

42 minutes ago, kampfer91 said:

RIP creativity .

And large cannon at gun port is fking stupid , this give way more advantages that small cannon , i suggest we remove the large cannon from the game and only small cannon left .

Also , all gs should have large cannon range and spawn more so that no one sail the sea again cus these ship can outrange you .

To be honest, there is a problem with the cannons.  Everywhere ship I see is loaded with large cannons, and few if any small cannons.  That is a problem.  It needs balancing.  Games seem to have a problem with balance these days.  I remember one of my first space sims.  I remember how there were three types of ships...light, medium, and heavy.  The heavy ships were sluggish to fly, but they had big heavy guns that while slow firing, packed a very powerful punch.  The light ships had very fast firing guns, but they were pretty weak.  The medium ships were somewhere in between.  They were well balanced.  You could be successful in all three.  In the light ship, you had to avoid being hit, and seek to hit the other ships as much as possible.  The heavy ships, you couldn't really avoid being hit, but you instead worried about getting on target as fast as possible, and making your shots count, before your shields took too much damage.  The medium ships were similar to both, and how you flew them depended on which type of ship you were up against.  If against the light ships, you adopted the tactics of the heavy ship, and if against the heavy ship, you adopted the tactics of the light ship.

In this game, the advantages are all on the side of the heavy cannon, except for swiveling, but that seems not to be a deterrent at all.  The votes are in...the Heavy is the Meta.  Not surprising at all when the only advantage is the swiveling.   It has less damage, less range, and no apparent advantage in reload time.  The weight difference isn't enough to make up for the lack of damage.  Something has to change.  Had to change.

How about the devs do the fixing.   Or, we can have the public fix crime, instead of the police, and have the public teach kids, instead of teachers, and the public fix the plumbing instead of plumbers...yeah, what a weird concept of having the Devs fix problems with the game.

12 minutes ago, trqfreak350 said:

i'm not a game developer, i won't pretend to know how to fix it or how easy a fix it is, pre-plan your build, i'm sure you knew you were going to put a bookshelf of all things in there for the maps you're sailing around collecting, and digging up.

How about no.  How about games actually get fixed.  What a novel concept, right?

44 minutes ago, trqfreak350 said:

because it's really not gamebreaking, at all, it's a bookshelf... honestly of all the bugs and hitches in this game, that's the one i've never even given a second thought to, we're 5 months into Early Access on this, patience is key. besides if previous titles show what's coming you're going to be starting all kinds of ranty threads.

Yeah, it's not a big deal, until you realize that you need to put a book shelf into your ship, and the only place that makes sense, is right under a deck, and so it won't snap in...or under a ceiling, and there are things above that ceiling that you don't want to demolish.

Here's the thing...this is an easy fix.  Reduce the vertical value for the collision box.   It's the same old story...unpolished EA games where these little problems never get fixed, because there are always bigger fish to fry.  And they never get around to them because they are too busy making new content.  Here's a thought...take some time to polish the game.  Fix these little issues.  Each one by itself may not be huge, but they add up.

By the time nobody is interested in the game, it's still not polished...same old story.

2 hours ago, Remcott said:

I agree with most of this.  Where I disagree is removing the "useless" blueprints.  I will agree that no one uses them, but in a game like this you want longevity and having a RNG loot system like they do makes you appreciate it when it drops that much more.  Plus then wanting the right combination of boosts for armor, sails, etc.  Its Diablo. 

 

That being said I think that there should be bigger differences between the different level blueprints.  Higher stats, different skins (mythical stone gate should look epic), and crafting them should feel like an accomplishment.   Plus the skin differences would make pve players grind out different blueprints or sell them to each other also.

On the other hand, who stops for yellow flotsam?  Nobody I know.  Then again, we sail right past anything not 7 or above, and then when you stop for a 12.8 flotsam, and get a masterwork thatch wall, it's enough to make you want to rage quit, and just start ignoring flotsam altogether.  Better to have a bookshelf full of quality BPs, than one full of BPs you know you will never use.  This idea that good stuff needs to be rare is complete BS.  Good stuff is so rare that I don't even look at the BP anymore.  I look at the gold.  The BPs seem irrelevant most of the time.  Makes the game boring.  I used to get irritated when I would spot a 6.2 flotsam, but the guy driving wouldn't stop for it.  Now, I am pretty much in agreement.  Time is more important than useless BPs.

1 hour ago, Vorxius said:

Think I'd be a bit irritated if we send a couple of boats to fight something, and one gets destroyed, and we can't immediately recover losses with a salvage mission.  If I have to sit there whilst someone else comes a long, and laughs in our faces about looting 50,000 gold we couldn't touch due to 'game mechanics' I think I'd rage quit.

I play PvE, so we wouldn't be able to do anything about it if we couldn't access our own safety deposit boxes.  

Having said that, awesome idea for the cargo crates    Huge QOL item for many!

 

PvE is a different story.  But, at the same time, it is a problem that people Popcorn stuff, just so others can't get it.  This game is somewhat of a pirate game, and thus loot needs to be a huge part of it.  A mechanic needs to be made, that prevents players from denying the loot to the enemy.

23 minutes ago, trqfreak350 said:

clearly we all know that the long term fix is to fix the collision on it, a workaround is a workaround, why make everything into such a big deal, i've ripped apart ships to place things, i've torn bases apart because of bad collision, and placement issues, it is what it is. use the workaround

It is a big deal.  Not sure why you think that game mechanics not working properly is not a big deal.  This is an easily fixed problem.

50 minutes ago, trqfreak350 said:

use it in a one story area, take the ceiling out where you want to put it, then replace the ceiling.

This is the work around, at the moment, but it really sucks if you have something on the ceiling above, that is valuable.  You shouldn't have to demolish a ceiling to place a bookshelf.  The long term fix is to correct the collision box of the bookshelf so that it can be properly placed, just like a large storage box.  I mean, how hard can that be?  I would have assumed that they would have just used the collision box from the large storage box, since they are similar in size.

So here's how the safe's would work.  There would be two types.  One for the base, and one for the ship's.  You don't really want to keep tons of gold on the ship, so you would want to take it to the island with the base safe on it, to offload some of the gold to the base safe.  This would be done similar to putting a bear or NPC onto a ship.  When i range of the base safe, you would go to the ship's safe, press and hold E, and select, move gold to base safe.  At this point, it would allow you to select any amount currently in the safe.  You would likely want to keep a couple day's worth of gold in the ship's safe, to pay the NPCs on the ship.  The rest you want to move to the base safe.

When you are going to a freeport to purchase things, you don't carry the gold on you...it remains in the ship's safe, and when you purchase something, the gold is withdrawn from that safe, to make the purchase.

If a ship is sunk, the safe, in the form of a treasure chest, would drop to the ocean floor.  A map to this location could possibly become some form of loot.  Or, the flotsam at the surface just gives a clue to its location.

The idea here is to stop the player base from exploiting the ability to popcorn things, to deny the enemy a chance at loot.

1 hour ago, Forb Hidden said:

We're pirates. So why should I fight another ship, if there's no gold to steal?

If this would be a Disney game - OK. Then we could sing and dance together. But it's not.

Also on PvE. If there's a sunken playership -> loot it and hope for some good benefits.

And what the heck is popcorning? 

You misunderstand what I wrote.  A ship would have gold for you to steal...inside the ship's safe.  This safe would prevent the members of the ship's company from popcorning the gold so that you can't get it.

I posted the idea for the cargo containers a long time ago.  Thank you VERY much for listening.   Now, one thing I think you need to do with the flotsam that they create.  Do not allow the company who lost them, to access them and popcorn the stuff in them to simply deny others the chance at some loot.  I have seen too much of this popcorning of resources and gold, and maps, and blueprints, simply to deny anyone the ability to have that loot.  We came across a schooner where this had been done, when we completed the Monster Whale quest.  When we found it, it was half dead.  We complete that, and immediately came across the ship that had done the damage to it.  It had been sunk, and the two crew's bodies were in the water, and their NPCs for the sales were still among the flotsam.  I dove on the ship and found that they had popcorned everything of value.  This is not good for the game.

So let me make some suggestions regarding other loot.

Gold...does not need to be carried on your person.  Have a safe in the base, and a safe on each ship.  These cannot be withdrawn from by players of the owning company...only by those who are not in the company.  Anyone who recently left the company, should not be allowed to access it.  Allies should not be able to access it.  When you do a AotD map, the gold goes to the nearest safe in that grid...thus the ship you traveled on.  Weight should not be an issue for the ship.  When the ship is within range of a base safe, you can transfer any amount you wish, from the ship's safe, to the base safe, using the radial wheel.  When the ship is sunk, this prevents the owning players from popcorning the gold to prevent it from being discovered by other players.

Maps and BPs.  This is more complicated.  I believe this is the solution.  When you find them, you have a very limited amount of time to get them into a bookshelf, be it on the ship, or a base.  Once there, it cannot be withdrawn.  The Smithy would see any BP within range.  You can transfer them to a base bookshelf that is within range, just as with the gold.  With maps, once added to a bookshelf, it also cannot be withdrawn, but a copy can, but the copy has a limited timer on it.  If that is stolen off a person's body, it removes the map from the base, or ship bookshelf.  As with the gold, and cargo flotsam, it cannot be removed and thus popcorned by the owners.  However, others can withdraw these items.

Popcorning items...please find a way to stop this.  I would solve this by limiting the amount of items that an enemy can remove from a container.  They should not be able to drop items from a container.  If they cannot drop items from the container, and can only withdraw a limited number of items from the container, they would be more judicious in what they take...in other words, valuable loot.  Pirates only took what they wanted.  They didn't throw the rest off of the ship and then leave.

Make containers much much more durable.  Make the initial damage unlock them.  Then make it take a huge amount of damage after that, to demolish it.  Drastically increase the durability of stone structures, except gates and doors.  Require every room to have a door into it to prevent a meta of rooms with no doors.  Maybe even require every wall to have a door.  By wall, I mean that if you have a wall, and you wish to intersect that wall with another wall, it would require you to first install a doorway.  If you demolish that doorway, the code would not allow it to be replaced by a wall.  What this does is encourage raiding, but not wiping.  I do not believe that wiping is healthy for a game like this, where it takes so much effort to get built up.  I see people quit when wipes happen.

Present Loot....I, and others I have talked to, are tired of so much of the loot NOT being loot. So many useless BPs, and maps...especially the BPs.  I would get rid of the thatch BPs, and stone tool BPs.  Take a look at how often people just throw these away.  Also, there are just way too many other items that are over represented in the BPs.  Gates, Fence Foundations, and Platforms come immediately to mind.  Sure it is nice to get some, but let's be honest, most people don't use the platforms, and only use a small amount of the gates, and rarely use the fence foundations.  What people want most are the wood roof BPs, wood ceiling BPs, and wood wall BPs, for our ships.  Yet, these seem to be the most rare.  Let loot actually be loot...meaning people actually want the items.  It does not help the game when so often, you are just thoroughly disappointed by the loot you get from Flotsam, AotD, and SotD.  One thing to consider is to allow for people to get not just BPs, but items as well.  Good LOOT makes people happy, even if it never gets used.


BPs, and Mythical items.  Maybe consider reducing the offensive and defensive power of items, and instead increasing the durability, such that they need repaired much less often, and with this increasing more and more with higher quality BPs.  Make repairs no more costly, or not much more costly, than vanilla items.  As it stands, my company sees little value in mythical items due to the intense Mythios requirements for repair.  This also has the effect of keeping the game friendlier to new companies.  As it stands, a new company need not apply, as they will be using vanilla items, vs companies with much higher quality stuff.

Allow for higher quality crafting stations, such that they reduce the cost of the creation and repair of items.

On 5/5/2019 at 1:10 AM, gadefence said:

The fact you say weight sails are fine means you're either A: Trolling B: Joking C :  Never used a speed sail.

Did two brigs, one 3 weight one 3 speed - 3 weight, empty - 10 knots, 90% full - 3 knots. 3 speed, 75% full, 15 knots, same wind. Not worth 3k pounds more.

Yes, speed sails are OP, and thus why almost everyone uses 3 speed sails on their Brigs.

Yeah, I just think that a 4x higher decay timer would feel better to people.

I think most people would appreciate it if the troughs at least increased the decay timer by 4x just the same as the food larder does.  No reason for it not to.  In ARK, we cooked the meat, which increased the decay timer, and increased the size of the stack from 20 to 30, but the animals in Atlas don't seem to eat cooked meat, which doesn't seem right.  Just leave everything as it is and increase the trough decay timer by 4x like the Food Larder, and all should be good.

Also, the title is 100% accurate of the current situation.  It IS nonsense that we cannot make walls go all the way to the ground, to both close off access under our bases, and to make the building look at least somewhat realistic.

On 5/6/2019 at 3:57 PM, DocHolliday said:

If you want to be taken seriously drop the childish attention grabbing headlines and approach the issue like a professional.  Take your emotion out of it and show nothing but facts.  Threats of quitting the game and passive aggressive attacks tend to be ignored.  Its a self fulfilling prophecy. 

 

Having said that I do agree with you that these issues need to be looked at.  When?  Soon would be nice, but I do not know their scheduling.  Need to have the time and resources to dedicate to this issue.  I've been told some ARK mods seem to handle building better so maybe they can tap some of that experience.

Unfortunately, you have to do something to get attention.  This is not a new problem.  It has been around for years.  It is an ARK relic, and has not been fixed there...after many "professional" posts asking for a fix.  It's the main reason anyone wanting to build cool looking structures, HAD TO go to unofficial to do it.

I think people should simply understand that this game is NOT Pirates of the Caribbean...as in an actual SIM of the real Pirates of the Caribbean.  The SotD was our first in game clue.  The Pirate Steam Punk description is more correct.  I'm fine with that, so long as things are balanced.  If this game is to remain a health one, we will always need new blood.  I suspect the game, at launch, will need a separate server for new companies and players.  One that allows them to build up to a certain level, and allows them to bring what they have earned, to the main server.  If not, new companies will be created, and after being wiped a few times, they will leave the game.  The only other way to avoid this is the move to factions.  The game is basically operating this way now, but we don't always know who our friends are, and who are not.  Official factions that your company enlists in, will save the game by making it more friendly to new companies.  More established companies will be incentivized to help them out.  At the same time, companies will still have some autonomy, which is good.  WWIIOL had a similar system...clans grouping up in official factions, Axis and Allies...and it almost died when they took that away...removing the autonomy of the clans was not a good move.  The game never fully recovered from that.  At the same time, it allowed new clans to be formed, and see success when they teamed up with more established clans.

The ballista to the eye should be reinstated.  Hitting that small eye with a ballista is not exactly automatic.  It wasn't broken, so it should not have been fixed.  "the big problem" I see, once again, is that there does need to be servers for small companies, and servers for large companies, and megas should not ruin that by invading the small company servers.  When the Megas made it clear that they were going to Colonies, for the rules, the Devs should have altered what Empires would have for rules, to suit them.  Then, the Devs should have made the mechanics such that you could not play on both.  Players should not ruin games, with their selfishness.  With servers for small companies, and servers for large companies, these things can be properly balanced.  In a large company server, things can be made more difficult, and doing so adds challenges for the larger companies.  A game without challenges...reasonable challenges...is a boring game.  At the same time, a game that is properly balanced for large companies, will be too difficult for small companies.

Patently false.  I will make a video next time.  I suspect the game is not the same for everyone.  Just as I rode a bear of ruin steps every day, and then another company person did it, and fell through the mesh, getting the bear trapped, and thus lost to us, since Grapeshot won't help us get it out.
 

I and others in our company would walk in, and feed, and stand in the same place, and feed a few times, and then, out of nowhere, the elephant lashes out, and continues to lash out as you try to approach again.

Other times, you move in, and nothing happens...you feed, and press the S key to back out a little bit...then the W key when informed that the timer is about ready for feeding, and as you approach, the elephant lashes out.  If you are lucky, you are close enough to feed, thus interrupting the attack...but this is not always the case.

I am glad they are fixing it, because this was simply absurd.

There needs to be almost no tax at all.  Maybe none at all.  The game mechanics make it too much effort as it is.  Any tax just removes any incentive.  I'm not saying that because I just don't want a tax on it.  I am saying that because of the actual costs in time, to run those things.  I would like to see the economy make a big impact, but hard to do in a survival game.

You have to understand that there has to be a benefit on both sides, for this to work.  In real life, we can't do everything ourselves, so we have to rely on other people to make things we need, and provide resources we need.  In this game, you or your company mates, can do everything.  You can sail to islands and get what you need.  So...if you are to buy something from a shop, there has to be a benefit in doing so.

I have only seen these shops at a freeport.  This means to sell at them, or buy from them, you have to sail to them.  So that reduces the "no sailing" advantage of buying what you need.  You don't even know what shops are there, what is availabe, or how much it costs.  In most instances, it will likely be more productive to just get the stuff yourselves.

Somebody above highlighted what may be at the heart of the problem with the maneuvering sails.  They were designed before allowing 15% speed into the wind.  So, I am assuming that to correct the problem, they need to add 15% to the maneuvering sails, when sailing into the wind, where the other two sails cannot.  This would restore its advantage when sailing into the wind.  I noticed a huge difference between a Schooner with 2 speed sails, large and small, and one with the small speed sail, when sailing with good wind.  The handling sail was much slower, even though it is just a small handling sail.  So, it should be a huge difference when sailing into the wind.  It should be much faster than the 2 speed sail Meta.