Hazardous Shadow

The Issues: As things currently stand, land based PvP is little more than a terrible joke. The lag during combat prevents NPC puckles from being of any actual use, as they are rarely shooting, if at all, and are just objects we sink gold into for no reason. Grenades take down mortars and mortar towers with little difficulty, and the cooldown for new mortars before being able to be shot makes it practically impossible to use them as a defense even if spares are on hand, as they are just destroyed before the 30 minute count down is up. In fact, due to the lag, and the game apparently not counting in real time, even after over an hour in real time, the "30 minute" cool down is still not up and they still cannot be used. Structures, in general, fall too easily, when considering the lack of and heavy cooldown on defensive measures. If an enemy can completely level a base we spent over a week of farming, building, setting up defenses for, etc, in less than three hours with less than 10 people and some bear carts when its on our island, I see some major issues with that. The attackers should have a more difficult time, not the defenders. Honestly, I can't see many that want to sink so much time into building and attempting to defend something that can still be lost within just a few hours. It's not fun. Period. Improvements: Ultimately, since the lag is a whole other beast that can't be as easily fixed, I propose at least removing the cooldown for defensive structures when placed on your own island. That is, if your company holds claim on the island, you should be able to place and use objects like mortars and canons on bear carts immediately. As the combat current stands, that is about the only practical way that those defending their own islands can have a REAL fighting chance, instead of just barely surviving it, if surviving it at all. Additionally, though it is certainly far more ambitious, I'd even go so far as to suggest removing the cooldown for repairing recently damaged structures on your own claimed island. If an enemy is actively trying to destroy your base on your own island, it stands to reason that you should be able to actively repair it, IF you have the means to do so. That is, if you're willing to put in the work to farm up spare material to repair with and have it on hand for attacks, then you SHOULD be able to actively combat the destruction with repairs. (Keep in mind, I am suggesting this ONLY on claimed islands. And, ultimately, even if this suggestion is not taken, I strongly encourage the other.) Conclusion: When it comes down to it, losing practically everything you've spent hours upon hours to build up, and keep, since we pay gold to maintain the island, even, in a terribly unbalanced method of combat is only going to continue to destroy the current player base. I've already witnessed several players, almost entire companies, quit after losing almost everything, even after they were actively attempting to fight off the attack. Something needs to be actively done about it, even if only small measures, like removing those cooldowns on your own island claims, to try to ensure some balance to the game to help existing players. Without players playing, the game will just die off, but it's become quite difficult to actually be motivated to play when you're spending the majority of your time attempting to defend something that can hardly be defended by the means given to us in terrible lag for hours on end, and the rest of the time is spent rebuilding what was just destroyed. Instead of, you know, getting to actually enjoy the game. I enjoy many aspects of the game, and want to continue to do so (I am personally thrilled about cats coming out as new tames just because CATS and, obviously, as I am going through the effort of writing this, I really do enjoy and appreciate the game), but the current threat of losing literally all of your hours and hours worth of work within just a few hours is daunting and has made it quite difficult to even want to play.

If not limiting the amount in your inventory in some way, I do agree with the idea of making them unstable. Take some fall damage? Oh no, you shook them up too much, and they explode. Catch on fire? Oh no, they explode. Etc. Even giving them a small chance of just exploding because you're moving would be, in my opinion, reasonable. Since, come on, these are pirates. How stable can they really make these grenades? Lol. Optionally, having a long equip timer could be of some help, too.

These are all simple things, but things I would appreciate. Especially just having raw meat stack to 100. Just because I like cats, I am a bit excited for cats. Though, I do hope that enabling them to "hunt," isn't equal to them being set to wander. Even in an enclosed space, that's a bit of a nuisance. I would have appreciated pet rats, too, but it seems like they are just objects/ammo. Having the Tarot skill unlocked would be interesting, for sure. Definitely hoping for something undead related.