Hello Captains.
Land in port battles was deployed today.
This is an experimental feature and will require a lot of testing and tuning.
Key concepts.
What is removed
- Removed - battle circle of death. It will be no longer necessary as we found the way to completely eliminate the need for kiting, running and griefing in port battles.
- Removed - BR difference requirements. It is no longer necessary due to objectives in the port battles. Control objectives and you win the battle.
- Removed - Tower requirements. If you controlled key points in real world port battle towers and forts would eventually surrender. Towers and forts are no longer a requirement for victory. But they are still going to be present and sometimes make things easier for the defenders. Tower and fort placement will be based on their current open world positions.
What is new
- Port battles will be conducted in the harbors of regional capitals
- Tower and fort placement will still be somewhat random but their number will depend on the city size. If new port battles will be fun some forts could be placed near objectives.
- Entry to port battles. Entry to port battles will be purely positional from the open world. There will be two large circles around the port. Defenders can enter anywhere within the smaller circle. Attackers can enter anywhere in the large circle sometimes attacking from several different directions.
- Initial wind will be determined from the open world on first entry to the port battle. That wind will stay static for a certain time and then will change based on the old proven formula sometimes providing equal opportunity for both sides. This means that timing the port battle start and entry matters and attackers have to carefully decide when to enter the port battle.
- Capture zones (a-la BF3 conquest mode). 3 1.5km circles are placed in the harbor. Controlling those zones gives points.
- Sinking enemy ships gives points to your side
- Losing ships subtracts points from your side
- Destroying towers and forts gives additional points (approximate time to destroy a large fort for a perked mortar brig = 12 mins)
- The side which gains 1000 points first - wins
- Alternatively you can get an immediate victory if you sank all opponents (or they all escaped exiting the battle).
To test the port battles properly we suggest the following
- To reduce the cool downs between failed port battles and won port battles to the minimum
- Provide ship chest reward for successful attacks or defensive action to all participants.
Concerns
Some port battles will be immensely fun due to harbor geography. Some battles will be very weird (especially in narrow passages). Some harbors will favor attackers, some harbors will favor defenders.
Example of entry circles and capture points:
http://i.imgur.com/MirSGfn.png
attackers will be able to enter anywhere from the outside circle, defenders will be able to enter anywhere in the inner circle.
Approximate time at good wind to sail through all capture points is 25 mins on the good speed frigate. Against the wind it will take up to an hour. Thus attackers will have to control wind carefully.
Points distribution
Kills/Sinkings
Sinking enemy ships or losing your ships grants points according the following scheme.
- Lineships 40 pts
- All other ships 25 points.
Because entry to battles is limited by battle ratings we believe that all ships are important to victory. The system with different points for ships is also supported. This also provides somewhat equal time for both battles (because if cutters are worth less - battles in light ships could last a lot longer).
Forts and towers.
- Towers 50 points
- Forts 150 points
Capture zones
- Captured zone ticks 2 points every 5 seconds. If attacker controls 1 zone and if defender controls another (with third being not captured) no points will tick for both sides. For points to tick your side has to control more zones than the enemy.
- 1 ship will capture the zone in 120 seconds
- 3 ships will capture the zones in 30 seconds.
- Zone can be captured if you have more ships in the capture zones than the enemy. It does not matter which size of vessels is in the zone - to promote diversity. So 2 frigates will capture the zone even if there is 1 enemy victory is present in the capture zone (of course 1 victory will not sail alone and will try to be in the main line with escorts easily sinking those frigates.
All numbers are initial and will require testing and tuning.
For testing purposes cool downs on port battles were reduced.
- Failed PB can now be repeated in 1 day (instead of 3)
- Captured regions now can be recaptured in 3 days (instead of 10)
- Paints and Ship chests from events are added as victory rewards to port battles (both attacking and defensive victories)
To improve the ability to enter the port battle from distance if the port is behind land you can now click on buildings to bring the entry screen up. (you can still click on swords to enter the port battle).
Battle result screen camping fixes
Battle result screen camping options were reduced. For the discussions on this topic please visit this thread:
http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/17803-battle-screen-camping-log-off-camping-final-proposal/
When the battle is over you will now have 2 options:
- Exit to open world within 5 mins
- Exit to the nearest friendly port
If you don't exit to the open world in 5 mins then you will only be able to exit to the nearest friendly port.
This feature solves 2 important problem - sitting in BR screen to deny battles, wasting time for you and those chasing you. And camping in BR screen to attack unsuspected players from the safety of the BR screen.
Other changes
- Some upgrades, perks, regional bonuses increasing ship speed were reduced.
- Speed adjusted for 2nd rates, 3rd rates and HMS Trincomalee
- Mast HP was modestly increased (30% on average)
- Speed penalty for reinforced masts was slightly reduced
- Determined defender perk was removed. If you have DD it is a useless perk now.
- Bot routes were changed to reduce dense NPC distribution in certain areas
- Bot composition were changed to reduce numbers of line ships
- Number of forts and martello towers now can depend on the city size (1 fort + 1 tower for smallest cities 3-4 forts + towers for largest cities) - this feature will be tuned further going forward.
- Free camera (with some limitations) returned to the open world.
- Fixed bug where towers were shooting at captured ships on your side
- Several other minor bugs fixed