09/18/2008    |    Devlog    |    Rusty    |    Discuss

In 1.7 we rolled out a series of changes designed to enhance ad hoc combats in the Open Sea. We’ve been monitoring them since to see how players have adapted to them, and we now feel that we’ve accumulated enough data and feedback to further tweak the system. First of all, supporting reinforcements after the start of battle appears to be working well. This has led to more PvP opportunities, as well as making ganking more difficult. Also the new spawn placers are working correctly so that battles unfold as you’d expect, and reinforcements have to sail in to join the fight.

There are two things, though, that we’re going to change about the system. The first is that we’re removing the ability for a wildly outnumbered group to reinforce up to 9. This was intended as additional incentive for a group to avoid ambushing a sole player. However, there were some issues with it that could lead to a well intentioned group being tricked into triggering the extra reinforcements. Plus, we’re already improving the situation that it was designed to address (the ambush) with the extended reinforcement timer, so it’s less important now.

The other change is with the reinforcement timer. We’re changing it from 10 minutes to 5 minutes so that we still get the benefit of outnumbered groups getting help from passing friendlies, but we reduce the ability of larger population nations to converge reinforcements to the battle over the longer time period.

We’re planning on making these changes this coming Tuesday, and welcome your feedback before then. When we introduced the ad hoc join rules and reinforcements, it was entirely new, so it was hard to get meaningful input. Now that you’ve had a chance to play it, we’re really interested to hear what you think about these changes!

EDIT! I’m pretty sure that I’ve never edited a live dev log before, but who can deny Fraxl? She reminded me that the best way to make your voice heard is to fill out the game surveys (check your launcher for the link to the current milestone survey). We put a great deal of value by these surveys, and they play an important part in setting our priorities. Check ‘em out!

09/18/2008    |    Devlog    |    Rusty    |    Discuss