Naval officer and moral

[denmj]

Escort can we get this skill changed to equal or larger size?

Currently if we are in a First or 2nd rate there is no larger size. Which not makes this skill not even close to what it use to be used for. Atleast with the change to equal or larger we can be in the same size ship as someone we want to escort.

I like alot of the changes in the skills but I do note something that kind of breaks the class down some.

There are only three items in the game (that I know of) that give +moral in a general slot. Can we get some more outfittings or at least get some +moral added in on some other outfittings?

Currently there is:
efficent galley +5 moral +20 crew and +20% crew.
extra head +15 moral ( might be more or less doing it from memory)
extra large galley +15 or +20 moral


I do like that to be effective as an NO you have to be able to manage your moral well. But by not having more items to add to the moral we give up alot to get only a small amount more.

Also could you change a skill or give the NO a skill that gives a faster regen on moral or more moral?

Buccaneers got a +moral regen and even with all they have I found I could give that up and had little effect. Most of the buccaneers skills are fire and forget very few toggles.

Other then the above points I have to say I am pretty happy with the New NO skills.

[Renard De Mer]

I agree. Escort is worthless.

[elessaria]

If Escort is worthless can Cutthroats please get the speed buff to Drink and the Devil back please?

5% is 5%. If you don't want it fine, that's your choice. If you don't use it even though it coes as part of Speed Increase then you're crazy.

And seriously, a 1st-rate Escorting? You can get the 4% buff from another player.

If you are arguing that the skill is useless when you are in a Colossal ship, I agree. Tack Upwind, Decimate, Foul Lines, Stealth, Bloodthirst and Agile Rigging are all useless in port battles as a Cutthroat. I'll take them and live with it...

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Now a morale regen I can understand. Makes sense for NOs and compliments the skillset.

[Renard De Mer]

Originally Posted by elessaria

If Escort is worthless can Cutthroats please get the speed buff to Drink and the Devil back please?

5% is 5%. If you don't want it fine, that's your choice. If you don't use it even though it coes as part of Speed Increase then you're crazy.

And seriously, a 1st-rate Escorting? You can get the 4% buff from another player.

If you are arguing that the skill is useless when you are in a Colossal ship, I agree. Tack Upwind, Decimate, Foul Lines, Stealth, Bloodthirst and Agile Rigging are all useless in port battles as a Cutthroat. I'll take them and live with it...

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Now a morale regen I can understand. Makes sense for NOs and compliments the skillset.

The skill is useless on the OS. Any Naval officer in a group that isn't a griefer group is always in a huge ship. Anythng else is suicide.

[elessaria]

Okay, I'm with you now; I always forget 4ths are Huge despite the fact I have two...

At 3 bundles and with the new skills what's your take on the Val in OS groups? Even if it's just 1 or 2...? It's on a par economically with a Pirate Herc IMO, but my NO is the char I play least.

[denmj]

Originally Posted by elessaria

If Escort is worthless can Cutthroats please get the speed buff to Drink and the Devil back please?

5% is 5%. If you don't want it fine, that's your choice. If you don't use it even though it coes as part of Speed Increase then you're crazy.

And seriously, a 1st-rate Escorting? You can get the 4% buff from another player.

If you are arguing that the skill is useless when you are in a Colossal ship, I agree. Tack Upwind, Decimate, Foul Lines, Stealth, Bloodthirst and Agile Rigging are all useless in port battles as a Cutthroat. I'll take them and live with it...

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Now a morale regen I can understand. Makes sense for NOs and compliments the skillset.

If a FT is in a traders sloop and I want to escort him I have to get in a tiny ship?

If they are in most of the end game traders ships I have to go to a large ship as they are huge which means I can't really protect crap.

And what good is 5% when you can't use it? Isn't that a wasted skill point which was the whole point of the skill revamp?

And there are times the many of the skills you list would be viable in a port battle they are just situational skills.

We went from an anytime skill to a you must be in this small of a ship to use this skill.

If the problem is using it in port battles to unbalance one side or the other then just make it so it doesn't work in lineships. But with the you must be close to use the skill I don't see it as really all that exploitable.

Unlike the past version of the skill you could use it halfway across the map that was a bit over the top. So I have no issue with the you must be close to use it. ( Note the skill doesn't say how close). So that pretty much kills the exploit.

[elessaria]

Bad example since I never saw an FT in a Trader's Sloop that needed escorting, but I take the point

In light of that I don't see it as a useless skill, but maybe not prudently placed in the skill tree, much like Stealth for Cutthroats. I have never used stealth, but now that it's required to get Before the Wind which; like Speed Increase; is a pretty-much essential skill, I will use it when I have the option. It's a problem all classes have since they all have key, defining skills. 1.4 got better, but it's a symptomatic problem of the skill trees themselves...

Maybe if they made a Colossal MC Mercy for 1 bundle...

[denmj]

Originally Posted by elessaria

Bad example since I never saw an FT in a Trader's Sloop that needed escorting, but I take the point

In light of that I don't see it as a useless skill, but maybe not prudently placed in the skill tree, much like Stealth for Cutthroats. I have never used stealth, but now that it's required to get Before the Wind which; like Speed Increase; is a pretty-much essential skill, I will use it when I have the option. It's a problem all classes have since they all have key, defining skills. 1.4 got better, but it's a symptomatic problem of the skill trees themselves...

Makes me think that maybe we should have skill lines split into two branches at certain points allowing folk to pick a diffrent branch based on thier play styles.

With the speed in smaller ships I can see where escort could be used. But it is useless for any other play style.

And with a minor change of equal or lower then the skill is useful for each play style.

Maybe make a suggestion to change stealth a bit add a +def on it so that you get something for it even if your not using stealth. I know there are various other pirate skills that are this way. I play a pirate to. But this is about NO skills.

I agree the skills are alot better overall but there is no reason to have skills that are to situtational or only help one playstyle. They fixed the economy skills for FT's to give them some kind of a combat bonus to each one beyond the economy bonus it gives. So the precedent is there.

Any skill that is to situtational forces a skill point expendeture regardless of where it comes in a skill tree unless it is the very last skill. But we can only have one last skill in each tree.

So I guess that means someone needs to go back over the skill trees for each class and ferret out these overly situational skills and make a few changes.

[elessaria]

Originally Posted by denmj

I agree the skills are alot better overall but there is no reason to have skills that are to situtational or only help one playstyle.

This is the only part I disagree with; there is very good reason to have these situational skills in the game; but they need to appear in the trees *after* the key, career-defining skills. A solo NO will have little issue spending 1 point on Pirate Hunter and using an MC Raa. A Pirate who wants Stealth would have no issue picking it up *after* BTW. An FT looking to build in foreign ports will have no issue picking up a tax evasion skill *after* Economy: Manufacturing. Of course you will always get moaners, but in essence you want to "capture" a class in tiers 1-3 and then improve and specialise in 4 & 5.

If it cost 1 skill point to do on top of useful skills, I could see quite a few NOs picking Escort to take a Mercy or such out with a group containing a hardcore player in a Valiant who could afford to lose it.

[denmj]

Originally Posted by elessaria

Of course you will always get moaners, but in essence you want to "capture" a class in tiers 1-3 and then improve and specialise in 4 & 5.

This I can agree with but this is still not the case in many skill lines.