Observations from leveling a new character

[Capitane Jean]

I've been leveling another character, and here are the things that I remember was causing me problems the first time, that I now re-discovered.


Better explanation of ammunition effects in their respective tooltip. What it's effective against and at what ranges in plain words. The gibberish makes no sense to most new players and many old too...


The starter ships (mainly otter) are absolutely horrible. The next ship that's usually avaidable (and more effective) is the Bermuda sloop at level 8. Until then it's a pain. I suggest making some other sloops lower leveled (but keep a significant improvement in ther guns), as just spacebar firing three 4lbrs for 8 levels is plain boring. Also, seed these ships in the starter ports AH as well as fitting (something like the seeded listings get removed if a real listing appears), to guarantee the availability of ships and fittings.

In the AH, level brackets should be included. Either a tick-box of "only usable" or a maximum and/or minimum level requirement. Finding the low level stuff by mousing over all listings in the AH takes time and is a fool's errand.

Further, some explanation on what different fitting statistics do, to help people fit. Second, some explanation of how ship deeds work (common question in Nation Chat), on how the AH works (with pickups, different ports etc.) and what each career's strengths and weaknesses are (including crew penalties).

Also, why does the econ tutorial secretly gives you a lesser version of a structure deed? It doesen't mention anywhere that the deed can't hold the full 3 days of labour (I think), and even so, is it too much to as for a free real deed?

[Capitane Jean]

Also, As you near the 30's level (and gets directed to the Antilles with the treacherous red), explain Ship insurance, and the fact that It's avaidable through buying BSNs with dubloons. This is because the loss of ships trying to get to san Marcos etc. can be pretty expensive when no insurance is granted, and the loss is hard to take for lowbies not yeat prepared for loss-PvP.

Pretty early, it should be explained that the Junk Merchant will buy loot items for a good price (I know he hints at this, but spell it out), and don't forget to remind players of this fact when you explain that ship insurance can be purchased via dubloons=>BSN (as the price is quite horrifying for new players). Fleeting is the prime way to generate cash in this game, and this needs to be explained as the income from leveling through quests disappears when you hit 50.

[Squailfish]

I remember when I first started the game, it took me forever to figure out the avcom trainers would buy all the avcom trash I was looting.

[Cobra01994]

Originally Posted by Squailfish I remember when I first started the game, it took me forever to figure out the avcom trainers would buy all the avcom trash I was looting.

I never figured that out until I was 50 and was just deleting everything

[Boon Splash]

Civi ships used to be very helpful in getting around and leveling.
even if you slipped in a sloop to the red port, with a empty slot you could get a bigger civi ship and run the mission

one important thing that I believe is nowhere in the training... "L" local map! how to use it?

[Capitane Jean]

Also NPCs running away is a huge PITA. Seems to always happen in the mission "in the dead of night", as well as many others.

[Josh_Brown]

Originally Posted by Squailfish I remember when I first started the game, it took me forever to figure out the avcom trainers would buy all the avcom trash I was looting.

Originally Posted by DarkCobra262 I never figured that out until I was 50 and was just deleting everything

I kept trying to sell both on the AH; think I lost money on listing fees.

[V1ncent J3rvis]

The missions are boring, ****, without narrative or voice acting, totally unengaging, short, repetitive and are a total grind.

EDIT: the missions are also difficult to find, when looking for missions appropriate to your level. It's all guess work!

They won't remove levelling because they need an incentive for people to buy the bonus XP book and bonus XP account type.

It does however need a serious overhaul, player retention is appalling because the PVE and low level content is appalling.

I think missions should take place on the OS and popup randomly... like if you can near a british cargo fleet and you're a french char, a mission should popup "intercept the traders" etc and then u click accept or not, rewards scale with your level and the enemy level.

We need to get people out of port and into the OS, which is much more vibrant and shows POTBSs active community off. the Newbie ports are dead and depressing.

THERE NEEDS TO BE ANOTHER WAY TO LEVEL?! Do you not agree?

[Grutte Pier]

Originally Posted by Saint L'Orient The missions are boring, ****, without narrative or voice acting, totally unengaging, short, repetitive and are a total grind.

wait untill you find the missions with voiceacting lol
reminds me of street fighter 2

[metlkelley]

Originally Posted by Capitane Jean I've been leveling another character, and here are the things that I remember was causing me problems the first time, that I now re-discovered. Better explanation of ammunition effects in their respective tooltip. What it's effective against and at what ranges in plain words. The gibberish makes no sense to most new players and many old too... The starter ships (mainly otter) are absolutely horrible. The next ship that's usually avaidable (and more effective) is the Bermuda sloop at level 8. Until then it's a pain. I suggest making some other sloops lower leveled (but keep a significant improvement in ther guns), as just spacebar firing three 4lbrs for 8 levels is plain boring. Also, seed these ships in the starter ports AH as well as fitting (something like the seeded listings get removed if a real listing appears), to guarantee the availability of ships and fittings. In the AH, level brackets should be included. Either a tick-box of "only usable" or a maximum and/or minimum level requirement. Finding the low level stuff by mousing over all listings in the AH takes time and is a fool's errand. Further, some explanation on what different fitting statistics do, to help people fit. Second, some explanation of how ship deeds work (common question in Nation Chat), on how the AH works (with pickups, different ports etc.) and what each career's strengths and weaknesses are (including crew penalties). Also, why does the econ tutorial secretly gives you a lesser version of a structure deed? It doesen't mention anywhere that the deed can't hold the full 3 days of labour (I think), and even so, is it too much to as for a free real deed?

Shot descriptions seem fine to me.

There is nothing wrong with the otter. It is a fine ship considering how fast the first 8 levels go by.

The AH improvement could help. A checkbox which would only show usable items would be a good addition.

The fittings seem fairly self explanatory to me, but maybe your using ones I don't normally use. Maybe I don't use them because I never understood them lol

I Deed tutorial thrown in somewhere might be a good idea.

I have always wondered about the crappy deed as well, but perhaps they are afraid of over-saturating the market with logs (as if it isn't already )