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Port Battle (Conquest)(Redirected from Port Battle)
Once players put a port into Contention, the opposing sides battle for control of the port—we call this battle a Port Battle. A Port Battle is a large (24 vs. 24) battle between the attacking and defending nations.
Scheduling Port Battles
We generally schedule Port Battles to take place approximately two days after the port enters the Contention state. More precisely, we schedule the Port Battle for 46 hours after the port enters into Contention. If a port enters Contention at 6:47pm on Monday, we will schedule the Port Battle for 5pm on Wednesday. That said, we schedule Port Battles only during certain hours, which vary by server. For example, if we only scheduled Port Battles from 7:00pm – 5:00am GMT, and a port enters Contention at 4:39pm Monday, then we would schedule the Port Battle at 7pm Wednesday. We schedule Port Battles this way so that they happen during at the best time for the players who put the port into Contention, and so that the Port Battle is at a reasonable time for the port's defenders. Scheduling Port Battles has two exceptions:
Once the Port Battle is scheduled, the Contention phase begins. During this phase, both sides can continue to accumulate Contention Points. These Contention Points trigger special benefits inside the Port Battle itself. The maximum bonus is 10,000 Contention Points—for both defenders and attackers. Getting Into Port BattlesIn many cases, more players want to participate in Port Battle than there are slots in the actual Port Battle. (Each side can have up to 24 players.) To account for this overflow, we use a lottery system to choose participants for the Port Battle. Fifteen minutes before a Port Battle starts, players are given one lottery ticket for each 10 points (rounded up) of Unrest (including Unrest converted to Contention during the Contention phase) that they generated at the port. Then, we draw lottery tickets until we fill 24 slots for each side, or we run out of players with lottery tickets.  Each player who has a winning lottery ticket receives an invitation to the Port Battle. Players who receive an invitation have two minutes to either join the Port Battle, or decline the invitation. If a player declines an invitation, then we continue drawing lottery tickets until we fill the slot. If the player neither declines nor accepts the invitation during that two-minute window, then the invitation is automatically declined. If a player is offline and receives an invitation, then the invitation is automatically declined. Players who do not get into the Port Battle (regardless of whether they declined an invitation, or simply did not have one of their tickets picked) have an increased chance of getting into the next Port Battle for which they acquire Unrest. In that situation, we turn half of the Contention Points the players earned for the previous battle into General Contention Points. The next time the players earn Contention for a Port Battle, we add their General Contention Points to the Unrest they accumulated. When we pick players for a Port Battle, their general Contention Point total is reduced to zero. If there are players with Contention Points that we do not pick, then those players keep their general Contention Points. We also add half of the Unrest those players earned at that port to their general Contention point total. This system ensures that every player will eventually have an opportunity to participate in a Port Battle. Players who earn more Unrest points will generally participate more, but if unpicked players keep at it they will eventually end up with enough Contention Points to virtually assure entrance to a Port Battle. Inside the Port BattleWhen players accept an invitation to a Port Battle, we transport the players to the Ready Room for that Port Battle. This room allows them to talk strategy with the other players from their nation who are participating in the battle. Players are restricted to the Ready Room until the Port Battle actually starts, at which point they can exit the Ready Room doors and enter the Port Battle proper. There are two ways to win a Port Battle: There are several different possible maps for the Port Battle; each Port Battle uses one randomly selected map. We recommend that when in the Ready Room, players should look over the Port Battle Map. To view the Map, players simply need to walk over to the Map Table and click on the Map. Each map has a Town (which represents the port), a Fortress, attacker entrances, and defender entrances. Town (Swashbuckling Option)  As mentioned earlier, attackers can win the Port Battle if they defeat the Garrison Commander in Swashbuckling Combat at the Town. One side may prefer Swashbuckling to Ship Combat if that side is outnumbered or has weaker ships. To win the Port Battle through Swashbuckling Combat, attackers must follow these steps:
FortressThe Fortress can do serious damage to any attacker that comes into its range. By gaining control of the Fortress, attackers will weaken the Garrison Commander and gain an advantage if they want to defeat the defenders through Swashbuckling (as described in the Town section). Fortresses can generally be defeated in only one way: attackers must land and defeat the garrison in Swashbuckling Combat. Just like the Town, to gain control of the Fortress, attackers must defeat its commander. Also like the town, attackers must destroy the Fortress Defense Gun before entering the Fortress. EntrancesBoth attackers and defenders have three possible ways of entering the Port Battle. The Port Battle Map indicates the location of these entrances through weapon icons (for the attackers) and shield icons (for the defenders). Contention BenefitsAs we mentioned earlier, before every battle defenders and attackers can unlock bonuses by accumulating Contention Points. Contention Points are the Unrest Points that players accumulate during the Contention phase. The more Contention Points a side accumulates before the battle, the more benefits that side receives (up to a maximum of 10,000 Contention). Beyond maximum amount, players can still accumulate Contention points, but the points will increase the number of lottery tickets for the Port Battle those players receive. Contention points accumulated after the maximum amount have no direct impact on the battle itself. Positional Benefit Positional Benefit is one of the most basic Contention Point benefits. Normally, each side enters the battle at a single point. However, this default entrance is not always the most advantageous position. By accumulating Contention Points, both sides can unlock two other starting positions and divide their forces between the positions how they like. The Port Battle Map indicates the location of all the entrances through weapon icons (for the attackers) and shield icons (for the defenders). Wind BenefitWind is always a factor in any ship combat, and by default, the wind is set in each final battle room to not particularly favor either side (though, just due to the size and complexity of the maps, there will always be certain areas where the wind favors one side, but overall, the wind favors neither). Another Contention advantage, available only to the attackers, is the ability to shift the wind to a more favorable position. Other BenefitsSome of the other benefits available include additional crew morale, additional personal initiative, increases and decreases to the effectiveness of the gun Emplacements and Fortress, and allies for the attackers in the swashbuckling portion of the Port Battle. No single advantage will win the battle for an out-matched nation, but taken together they provide a powerful extra punch for a side willing to spend the time to unlock them all. Related Pages |
