PB creation

[Sumittra]

As i see much effort in "We need few elected PB leaders or guilds..." and "Whow did we good and what was final score of PB xx....",
i still miss some suggestions how we will get to a constant flow of PBs soon.


So far only a few Euro Guilds stepped forward and made the first 3 PBs on this map happen.

Whats with all those "great" US-primetime Guilds, beside starting unrest in all edges of the map, but never beeing able to get one about 5k (wont dream of 7k/10k yet)?

Maybe 1 or 2 people/guilds should be elected, which unite the non-EU players, and lead them to some nice flipped enemy ports......and ignoring the (maybe nats 2nd accounts?) pirates which start farming unrest in nations chat any time a pirate port maybe get slightly in red.


On the other hand, maybe if we follow that tactic of showing weakness in creating our own, the other nations might be so nice and step forward to create us daily ones on our own towns.

[Bach]

The field of experince has watered down alot with the amount of players that have dropped the game. The remaining crew don't have as much experience at the moment.

The terrain in POTBS is NOT equal. Meaning some ports are much harder to flip than others. TIME to flip is the biggest factor your working against. The more choice and easier targets to flip, by design, overlap some of our own pirate ports.

Port flipping facts...

Range for unrest to count towards a port = 100 miles
Closest "capturable" enemy port gets assigned the unrest.
Player kills count roughly double what NPC kills generate in unrest.
Player kills work both ways. Pirate losses count double against unrest build up.

Small red circle = >5000 unrest to create.......<4700 to remove
Large red circle = >7000 unrest to create.......<6700 to remove

Unrest build up ONLY comes from factions NPC's and players for NATIONALS ONLY
For PIRATE unrest ANY NPC pirate counts. Varyas, Hyjo's, Lost Ironsides, etc..... It's NOT just Bretheren NPC's. This gives the Nats and edge on counter grinding pirates at many ports.

UNREST BUNDLES turn ins only work till 5000 unrest.
Rebel agent patrol missions have been NERFED and only generate 1pt of unrest now.

TIME is your enemy in port flips. Its important to flip a port under 2 hours whenever possible. Time to depends on the number of pirates needed to flip a port and is proportional to the amount of available offensive and defensive NPCs.
--------------------------------
EXAMPLE 1: BRIDGETOWN (assume owned by Britain)

British NPC density = low
British NPC average level = 40
Pirate NPC density = high
Pirate NPC average level = 45

Generally to flip this port your going to need x3 as many pirates flipping (after 5k unrest) as there are british players counter grinding. Since the NPC pirates spawn OUTSIDE the small red circle we would have to keep up this ratio till 7k and then you can kill the brits. so if just x6 lowish level british players are counter grinding...then you need roughly 18 pirates offensively grinding.
-------------------------------
EXAMPLE 2: SPANISHTOWN (assume owned by Britain)

British NPC denisty = high
British NPC average level = 45
Pirate NPC density = Fair
Pirate NPC average level = 45

This port takes a low number of pirates to flip (can be done with 6-10). 1:1 numbers gives pirates the advantage in unrest grinding. On this port almost all the NPC spawns tend to occur inside the small red circle. This makes it much harder to defend after 5k unrest.
-------------------------------

Ports are not equal efforts to flip. That fact is part of the maps terrain.
When players call off, in national, to stop flipping a port like ORLEANS (EASY for 6-10 pirates).
And instead call to flip Turtling Bay (Hard for even 18 pirates).
They need to understand they are asking for something that may not be practical to accomplish unless they are willing to help and boost up the numbers of pirates on the grind.

[Thalasican]

Ahoy!

This is a kind of analysis that I have never seen before. Thank you.

Originally Posted by Bach

The field of experince has watered down alot with the amount of players that have dropped the game. The remaining crew don't have as much experience at the moment.

The terrain in POTBS is NOT equal. Meaning some ports are much harder to flip than others. TIME to flip is the biggest factor your working against. The more choice and easier targets to flip, by design, overlap some of our own pirate ports.

Port flipping facts...

Range for unrest to count towards a port = 100 miles
Closest "capturable" enemy port gets assigned the unrest.
Player kills count roughly double what NPC kills generate in unrest.
Player kills work both ways. Pirate losses count double against unrest build up.

Small red circle = >5000 unrest to create.......<4700 to remove
Large red circle = >7000 unrest to create.......<6700 to remove

Unrest build up ONLY comes from factions NPC's and players for NATIONALS ONLY
For PIRATE unrest ANY NPC pirate counts. Varyas, Hyjo's, Lost Ironsides, etc..... It's NOT just Bretheren NPC's. This gives the Nats and edge on counter grinding pirates at many ports.

UNREST BUNDLES turn ins only work till 5000 unrest.
Rebel agent patrol missions have been NERFED and only generate 1pt of unrest now.

TIME is your enemy in port flips. Its important to flip a port under 2 hours whenever possible. Time to depends on the number of pirates needed to flip a port and is proportional to the amount of available offensive and defensive NPCs.
--------------------------------
EXAMPLE 1: BRIDGETOWN (assume owned by Britain)

British NPC density = low
British NPC average level = 40
Pirate NPC density = high
Pirate NPC average level = 45

Generally to flip this port your going to need x3 as many pirates flipping (after 5k unrest) as there are british players counter grinding. Since the NPC pirates spawn OUTSIDE the small red circle we would have to keep up this ratio till 7k and then you can kill the brits. so if just x6 lowish level british players are counter grinding...then you need roughly 18 pirates offensively grinding.
-------------------------------
EXAMPLE 2: SPANISHTOWN (assume owned by Britain)

British NPC denisty = high
British NPC average level = 45
Pirate NPC density = Fair
Pirate NPC average level = 45

This port takes a low number of pirates to flip (can be done with 6-10). 1:1 numbers gives pirates the advantage in unrest grinding. On this port almost all the NPC spawns tend to occur inside the small red circle. This makes it much harder to defend after 5k unrest.
-------------------------------

Ports are not equal efforts to flip. That fact is part of the maps terrain.
When players call off, in national, to stop flipping a port like ORLEANS (EASY for 6-10 pirates).
And instead call to flip Turtling Bay (Hard for even 18 pirates).
They need to understand they are asking for something that may not be practical to accomplish unless they are willing to help and boost up the numbers of pirates on the grind.

[Sumittra]

Good info, really....but does only that leads us to more flipped ports?

I may have to make myself more clear:

How do we get over the actual unbalanced situation:

EU-primetime-Guilds: 3 ports flipped without much words
US-primetime-Guilds: 0 ports flipped with big talk but less action

- including the fact that some people said that PBs in US-primetime would have had a better end
- including that in nations some people were mentioning (crying?) that the first two PB times would be too early for them.

For me it feels like the people that talk big, are the same that are scared about the work that has to be done before they can show how good they are.


So is it possible to find a solution for this problem, which is in my view our greatest problem on the way to successfull PBs at moment.

[Bach]

Originally Posted by Sumittra

Good info, really....but does only that leads us to more flipped ports?

I may have to make myself more clear:

How do we get over the actual unbalanced situation:

EU-primetime-Guilds: 3 ports flipped without much words
US-primetime-Guilds: 0 ports flipped with big talk but less action

- including the fact that some people said that PBs in US-primetime would have had a better end
- including that in nations some people were mentioning (crying?) that the first two PB times would be too early for them.

For me it feels like the people that talk big, are the same that are scared about the work that has to be done before they can show how good they are.


So is it possible to find a solution for this problem, which is in my view our greatest problem on the way to successfull PBs at moment.

Sumittra, you are correct and I agree.

My point was to explain that many of the remaining western time zone pirates don't have as good of grasp on port flips as many of those that have left the game.

For western time zone pirates to begin flipping x1 or more ports a day they will have to start on the easier ports to flip and build up they're skills again. By easier ports, I'm talking about the following ports:

Irish Point, Jaqueme, Port de Plata, Spanishtown, Orleans, Roseau, Bassetera, St. John and Port de Paix. Possibly some others.

The issue holding alot of us back on the western time zones is a reluctance by pirates to put certain pirate ports into red that occurs along with these flips. Many don't understand why we don't target ports away from the pirate ports. That is because, by game design, those ports are harder to flip and require more pirates to grind. I had hoped to explain this difference in the above post.

To progess further western pirates will either have to rise up to the organization level of the eastern time zone pirates to hit hard flip ports(18-24 men). *OR* They will have to let go of some of the dependence on pirate merchant ports and flip some of the easier neaby national ports (6-12 men).

My solution would be baptism by fire. Simply put ALL the pirate merchant ports into the red and keep them red. Once we learn to live this way, and we will, no one will be able to hurt or stop us. Right now, the mere threat of a pirate port going red is enough to stop us and thats keeping us from most all the easier port flips.

[Shady McGrady]

Originally Posted by Sumittra

How do we get over the actual unbalanced situation:

EU-primetime-Guilds: 3 ports flipped without much words
US-primetime-Guilds: 0 ports flipped with big talk but less action

As Bach mentioned there is a lot of arguing in /nation when people start talking port flips. There are a loud group of pirates that think none of our ports should be in the red ever, which is A) ridiculous and B) nearly impossible. So by the arguing and not being able to pick one target nothing gets done. When a flip is called for no one shows, and on many occassions I have seen 2 ports trying to be flipped at the same time because of disagreements and both being incredibly under-manned.

The only solution I see if for the pirates that want to flip something to all agree on a target and get to it. This has yet to happen, but some of us enjoy the red and are trying to fix this.

Originally Posted by Bach

The issue holding alot of us back on the western time zones is a reluctance by pirates to put certain pirate ports into red that occurs along with these flips. Many don't understand why we don't target ports away from the pirate ports. That is because, by game design, those ports are harder to flip and require more pirates to grind. I had hoped to explain this difference in the above post.

Also most ports that are away from Pirate ports are noob areas (which is why they are harder to flip), and while I sometimes do it out of boredom or sticking with the group so I don't get ganked, I do not enjoy or condone preying on noobs. Plus you get more MOVs for bigger ships.

Originally Posted by Bach

My solution would be baptism by fire. Simply put ALL the pirate merchant ports into the red and keep them red. Once we learn to live this way, and we will, no one will be able to hurt or stop us. Right now, the mere threat of a pirate port going red is enough to stop us and thats keeping us from most all the easier port flips.

Oh god I love this idea. This is exactly what got me over the 'fear of red' hump. Sometime somewhere OMG went crazy and flipped all the ports I had production in. It was a sink or swim situation. Now I'm another shark in the water, and having the best time ever. OMG I thank you.

[Sumittra]

Yes, lets put the area around IP/MT/Santiago in red as often as possible, so pirates can take care of the big cargo traffic there, and lets use the islands from Orleans to Vieux Fort to get practice in PBs.

And i still would suggest that french ports are primary targets, as long the other nations cant break there PB dominance a but also stay primary at french ports.

But priority one has to be, that we plan/schedule them outside the nations chat, so those special pirates first get aware of it by the server message.

[Leprekan]

Assuming we have more than 2 people online tonight .. there will be a port flipped.

[Shady McGrady]

Originally Posted by Sumittra

Yes, lets put the area around IP/MT/Santiago in red as often as possible, so pirates can take care of the big cargo traffic there

This should be priority #1, especially IP. I know the Brits were supposed to do this over the weekend which is why we stayed away. They failed miserably. We need to help them out. If all 3 nations spanish/brit/pirate tried to flip it at the same time there is nothing they could do to stop it.

The main areas that should be red are the 2 major trade bottle necks. The IP/Santiago area and the Cayo area.

I don't think we need to worry about MT the French say they will take care of that for us.

Originally Posted by Sumittra

And i still would suggest that french ports are primary targets, as long the other nations cant break there PB dominance a but also stay primary at french ports.

Agreed

Originally Posted by Sumittra

But priority one has to be, that we plan/schedule them outside the nations chat, so those special pirates first get aware of it by the server message.

Agreed

[facetious]

oh snap! american pirates calllled out!