Port Battles against pirates... a guaranteed loss for Nations.

[LorienDeshard]

Disclaimer: I just turned 50 as a Privateer, and have never been in a PB. But I still have a brain... and ears... and listened to a PB discussion on Ventrillo...

As soon as the PB started and it looked tough.... several people dropped out of battle to save their expensive ships and statements were made that anyone who must leave to save their ships should leave now. How the heck can we win a PB if built in to the tactics of battle is people... and quite a few people... bailing out to save their ships?

This is not really a flame on the people who left. It's more a flame of the system that allows Pirates to not have to worry about money for ships... and Nations have to pay a fortune.

This particular PB was a highly important one for our nation on our server. There were at least 120 people on the wait list as invitations were sent out. The battle was well represented... Before the battle our nations leaders believed that we were so highly represented we had an almost guaranteed win. But then it was implied early on as the battle started that we had almost no chance to win it against the pirates. How will this bode for less important battles in future?

People will not bring good ships... or they will not show up... or they will get into the habit of leaving as soon as the battle is not a guaranteed win...

Pirates have little to loose by staying in and risking their ships.

And we can only win if we risk ours... since I have been in game since beta and only this weekend got my first Herc heavy..... will I be willing to risk it against pirates in the future?

One of the difficulties we have is the huge infusion of new pirates to our server with the server closures.

Another is the disillusionment of many old players who have run out of patience with game. Bugs and what more, knee jerk changes every few weeks andwhat to do at 50...?

But for those of us still here... still trying to fight the old battles... pirate speed and cheap ships are an issue that will damage PB play.

[kazamx]

My god, things really have done a full 180.

It was only a few weeks ago that Pirates were on here screaming that because they didn't have access to 1st rate SOLs that they were doomed to never be able to compete in PB. Now everyone is so scared of them, they refuse to fight em.

Pirates are doing well on Roberts too. TBH I don't think whats happening now is really important. in a few weeks 1.4 comes out all the ships are changed, all the skills improved so its anyones guess what will happen then.

[Khayr_Ad_Din]

Antigua French fights Pirates in PB's with fully equipped groups as far as I know.

[Jarvel]

Was this on Test server with the new skills and ship tuning or is this observation still from the outdated build on a world server?

[Kivek]

on the aussie server my soc brang 4 PH to a PB, no brits showed at all and at this time on the server the brits dont have any sols just a few HH. they dont even want to waste 20k per dura ships for the chance to sink some PH. im pretty sure as far as pirate societies ours has balls with PH taken regualry out solo pvping and mine doesnt leave the pvp zone, but no1 wants to go up against pirates because they see it as a waste even though a PH costs us about a 800000 DB probably equviliant to a nats 3-4 million with our low DB drops

[logicstrike]

Originally Posted by Kivek

on the aussie server my soc brang 4 PH to a PB, no brits showed at all and at this time on the server the brits dont have any sols just a few HH. they dont even want to waste 20k per dura ships for the chance to sink some PH. im pretty sure as far as pirate societies ours has balls with PH taken regualry out solo pvping and mine doesnt leave the pvp zone, but no1 wants to go up against pirates because they see it as a waste even though a PH costs us about a 800000 DB probably equviliant to a nats 3-4 million with our low DB drops

balls? PH can do 36 knots.. more likely no balls at all , try pvp as NO with top speed 24 knots everyday, no matter what ship

[SeraphicRadiance]

That's because nationals bring bad ships and a worse attitude to PBs against pirates, and complain how badly they get poked in the rear when the Pirates bring some of their best.

[Vixentrox]

The same thing happened on Bonny before the mergers started. Pirates attacked ports, nationals refused to show becuase it wasn't cost effective to risk thier ships. Now when and if pirates can loot/destroy the port they capture there will an actual reason to defend it from 'rats. As it stands now only real reason for nationals to show is becuase they want a fight, not for any game winning reasons that I can see.

[Pir a te]

LOL on the aussie server when they dont fight us we have decided to flip iimportant port at awkard times until they start turning up. Pirates flipped 3 frog ports during the day (this is) low pop server in retaliation to some disrespect given, after that BT will be flipped as retaliation of Brits not turning up, we already tried twice and failed coz of lack of brit npc and ridiculous number of pirate npcs....but we got a plan around it.

[Elena Navarro]

Hi,

I think it is really poor spartsmanship, to join a port battle - while already having the emergency plan to drop out of battle if the pirates bring tough ships, when at the same time there was a huge queue of people who would have loved to fight.

Why did those people who bailed not bring a toss-away ship in the first place, and/or why did they not refuse the invitation and give other people the spots in the battle?

Maybe the people left outside should try a ticket claiming the new harrassment rule, "Impede or block access to an NPC, doorway, or any other area of the game world that a player would normally be able to access." - As those bailers blocked access to the port battle for players who wanted to fight.

Greetz,
Elena