proposed improvement to PB lottery

[Dalwin]

Even though lately there have been some battles with less than 24 on a side, some of that may be due to attacks at awkward hours.

However, most of us are probably familiar with the frustration of grinding up a bunch of points, standing on the dock in your PB boat, and then not getting invited. I know they intend to fix the backward queue but I think we need more than that.

One simple change that I think would help involves the general contention points. Currently, if you are available and do not get invited, your points for that port get converted to half that many general contention points. Those then act like wildcard points where you have those points plus the port specific ones when looking at invites for the next PB.

My proposed change is this. Why halve the points when converting to general contention? Why not convert at 1:1 or even double the points? This way if you were ready and got left out of a PB you have a significant edge the next time you are waiting for an invite instead of just a token advantage.

Pierre la Fleure

[Xylander]

This is done to prevent people from getting into important PBs with no effort on a regular basis. For example, if France owned Port of Spain...we brits could attack it...farm the living heck out of it for 3 days and just not show up for the battle. Then flip Cayo or Grenville and not farm at all and just load that PB. Rinse and repeat.

[Dalwin]

Originally Posted by Xylander

This is done to prevent people from getting into important PBs with no effort on a regular basis. For example, if France owned Port of Spain...we brits could attack it...farm the living heck out of it for 3 days and just not show up for the battle. Then flip Cayo or Grenville and not farm at all and just load that PB. Rinse and repeat.

Actually the general points dont work that way. If you have general points but zero regular points you still can't get invited. I tested this when I first moved to Antigua.

I am not sure but I think they had the forsight so that the number of general points that counts toward a given invite as capped as being equal to your normal points, i.e. general can't more than double your chances. If they haven't done this, they should.

Pierre la Fleure

[Akua]

I don't like the invite system in its current form at all. I've seen too many situations where there were people who were willing to fight, and had a ship ready to go, but, for whatever reason, they ended up cooling their heels on the docks, while their team went in with less than 24 people. That just shouldn't be happening.

I have, at various times, seen all of these scenarios happen, before or during an understaffed port battle:

1.) <Player> logs in 5 minutes too late for invites, and never gets an invite.

2.) <Player> crashes just before invites, and then logs back in right after invites, and never gets an invite.

3.) <Player> is third on the waiting list, but never gets an invite.

4.) <Player> accepts invite, but then crashes, and is never re-invited.

5.) It's a weird off-hour port battle, when very few people are logged in, and <Player> is willing to go defend her nation's port, but never managed to get personal contention points in time.

I would argue that the system should try a little more aggressively to fill in the remaining slots, if a given side doesn't have a full team of 24. It might even make sense to mark a couple of "alternates," who can go to the Ready Room, but can only enter the port battle if there are empty slots after everyone loads in (in case people crash out while they're loading in). I also agree with a poster on the Recommendations board who suggested that there should be a "Defer" button on the invite panel that lets you indicate that you'd like to defer to another player, if there is someone else who wants to go, but that you'll take the slot, if there aren't enough people. Right now, it's hard to know if you're going to be blocking someone or not, without lots of yammering on Nation or Vent.

[kiawe]

I often have contention points because I drop bundles with my FT to bump port contention up, but I am not high enough level to want to go to a port battle. Why not let me give my contention points to someone who does want to go and make the points transferable? You can make your own decision about who gets the points, or if you don't want to make the call and possibly offend someone, give them to someone else to pass on. Of course, this presupposes that the mechanism for deciding who goes to port battles gets a lot less broken...

[BlarghAld]

Originally Posted by kiawe

I often have contention points because I drop bundles with my FT to bump port contention up, but I am not high enough level to want to go to a port battle. Why not let me give my contention points to someone who does want to go and make the points transferable? You can make your own decision about who gets the points, or if you don't want to make the call and possibly offend someone, give them to someone else to pass on. Of course, this presupposes that the mechanism for deciding who goes to port battles gets a lot less broken...

Drop bundles on your FT, transfer the points to your NO, and get into the PB.

err... thanks but no thanks

[Akua]

Originally Posted by kiawe

I often have contention points because I drop bundles with my FT to bump port contention up, but I am not high enough level to want to go to a port battle. Why not let me give my contention points to someone who does want to go and make the points transferable?

The bundles are transferable. You could just hand the bundles off to someone who can use them. Obviously, you want to hand them to someone you trust, since otherwise, the person in question might just run off and sell them, instead of dropping them where you want.