Starting a week or so after the 1.4 patch went live we posted a survey in the launcher. It asked what you thought of the new changes that came in with the patch. Quite a few of you filled out the survey over the past few weeks, so thank you very much for the responses. Now that we have had a chance to look at the results I wanted to write about what we are doing with the feedback.

We asked a pair of questions about what you prefer to spend most of your time doing in the game and what you actually do spend most of your time doing. It is hardly surprising that the responses from the survey closely track what we hear from players we’ve talked to on the subject in the forums and elsewhere. Of the 55% of people who prefer to spend most of their time in PvP, 58% of them say they spend most of their time on missions or economic activities. Our logs show players are repeating a handful of high level missions over and over. Other feedback indicates they are doing it to afford ships out outfitting for PvP.

There are quite a few things we are doing to address this. The biggest of them is insurance. Starting with 1.5 you will receive 90% of the minimum production cost of your ship and permanent outfitting when you sink. The other major cause drawing people away from PvP is how much it helps to have permanent green outfitting to be competitive in PvP. Starting in 1.5 all permanent outfitting is player-craftable, including the green stuff. Adding recipes for green items also provides economic players with more high level items to produce. Together these two changes should allow a much larger groups to focus on PvP if that’s what they want to do.

On the other side of things, we are also working on some repeatable missions for players who prever to PvE. Fortaleza da Luz, our first level 50 epic mission, comes out with 1.5. Starting in 1.6 we will be releasing a few new repeatable missions with each patch. If you want to play against NPCs you will be able to have missions that are more varied and appropriate instead of endless repeating the same mission. (Incidently, we are running a playtest for Fortaleza on Sunday if you want to check it out.)

By far the biggest change in 1.4 was the new Buccaneer career. Just over half of the people who are now playing Buccaneers were playing Pirates (aka Cutthroats) before the patch. Response to the career skills and missions was fairly positive and 85% of the people who are playing Buccaneers say they will continue to play them. That’s great news!

Another major change in 1.4 was the new Unrest Supply system. Among the people who have used the system this was not a popular change. 55% of people who used the system consider it unfair. We have been talking to people in the community on this issue and are making several changes to the system in 1.5 to address it.

First, the amount of unrest earned per 6 hour period is being increased to four times the amount it was in 1.4. We are also changing it so both attackers and defenders can start putting supplies into the system at zero unrest (where previously defenders could only put supplies in after the red circle appeared.) Finally, we are reducing the amount of unrest required to create a red circle to shorten the amount of time required to get one up and running. These changes should address the most common criticisms of this new system, but your answers in the 1.5 survey will tell us for sure.

User Content 2.0 was another major change that came out about the same time as 1.4, so we included some questions to see how many people enjoy this part of our game. While only 15% of people have submitted a flag or sail design in the past month, a whopping 73% of players have used a flag or sail that another player created. We are hoping to streamline this process going forward with new UC shop improvements. This is a part of the game that we will be focusing more attention on once the 1.6 patch is finished.

The patch survey process is a new one for us, but so far I’m very happy with the results. This kind of feedback is a great complement to the information we get through the forums, support tickets, live metrics, and talking to players. I encourage you all to keep your eyes on the launcher once 1.5 is live. Your answers on the next patch survey will make this process even better!