Lawless and Safe waters manipulations
Before I start, yes I am well aware I can just blue flag or don't travel into those zones.
Over the past months many have become aware of manipulations of the seas, turning them red or blue, lawless or safe waters. Just like ESF was manipulated so are the colours of the waters by a few. When I say a few, I mean like up to 10 people. I'm not on about the times when they do turn red or blue on their own, that is part of the game. BUT when one or 2 people use alts to attack their other alt to turn waters lawless or safe, that is manipulating the game for in my view their own benifit.
I appriciate waters turn lawless or safe by the players natrually playing the game, thats fair enough, part of the game, but when it manipulated for whatever reasons, thats just not right or fair to others who try to enjoy the game as a game.
I would like to see some kind of action taken against these few people that manipulate the game just like Papaya did for the ESF vote rig scandle that happend a few months back aswell.
Comments
An easy way to stop this would be to limit the number of attacks on same accounts and/or ip's. This would reduce the amount of alt farming that happens. You can see this also on the wanted/bounty list in the maritime guild when you see the same person making kills every 2min 20+ times in a row. Maybe there should be a 'cool down' period between attacks or something like that on the same ip's. Mind you this won't help people who are multiboxing 5 ship fleets from the same ip (which papaya is suppose to be banning).
I've sent in a support ticket about this about 2 years ago, papaya gave me a generic response and just basically means they don't give a fuck. Best would be to go through a CA nowadays for ANY problems. Since support ticket is garbage.
Just make all seas safe already lol
Hmmmm. WSP is swearing in chat so let me take a moment and make a note on the list... Ms. Purple as much as I do not like mulitboxer five character fleets, not all of them are multiboxers. The Bear Brigade for example was just a family at multiple homes using bear names but kept getting reported. They even had to make a forum post to stop others from constantly accusing them of being a multiboxer. We all know exactly which players are farming their alt.
I never said 'every' 5ship fleet is a mulitboxer! But you can't argue that there are people out there that do exploit this loophole. It's pretty easy to tell when you see / main char followed by alt1, alt2, alt3, alt4 names all wearing the exact same setup using clone ships lol. In the case of a 'family' playing together, there's NO way you can tell me that they would all exactly gear out themselves (if any at all since many alts don't wear any gear). People in families are all individuals with their own likes and dislikes so there would be variations to their setups even if they play all together. That's just common sense...
Whilst multi boxing is around, this is not what the main topic is about directly.
It's about people that use alts to attack to turn the waters lawless or safe.
Yes fields but the problem extends past that. Fact is, this game is very old now and as good as it might be there's so many newer games out to compete with that are more modern. Unlike when it first started years ago it faces 2 major issues now...
1) brutally long times to grind many of the skills.
2) serious limitations on storage space.
People today need 'instant gratification' and will get discouraged when they have to commit long periods of time to accomplish something. Many new players quit because this is a time commitment game. Alts solve these issues which is why they are allowed but it's a 'double edged sword' and have a down side to them as well.
Most players actually focus on one main character and only use alts to complement their skills and/or for storage (the way they are meant to be used) but there will always be that dumb scrub that has to ruin it for everyone to justify their own insignificant life. It's sad but thats the cost now to help put people on a level playing field.
Like what I said in the thread about the ESF, we have to be prepared now for the unexpected and adapt around it. It is what it is unfortunately but it's not the end of the world. People can counter this by doing the same back and turn the waters safe by farming pirate alts. If pirates don't like then they can either stop doing it or go after those individuals that are doing this.
If they want an alt war then wr can give it to them and continually keep EVERY sea zone safe! Bottom line, don't abuse the game or there will be no game left for anyone to play.
Appropriate steps = fail
@purplepirate IIRC the game has internalized logic so that you cant make all the seas lawless or safe at the same time and a cool down as well. Sort of kind of piracy circuit breaker if you will. They'll do the alt farming but eventually they wont be able to influence a particular sea permanently. So as annoying as it is they wil have to move on at some point.
Alt farming was BIG back in the day on NetMarble and OGP and there wasn't too much outrage at the alt farming for this reason. Now I'm an old old school player and I have notoriously bad memory :( so this may be inaccurate with that said my sweety @wsp414 I think you asked the GM the wrong question...instead of asking can they punish an alt farming cuck ask them does the game have internalized logic to prevent an alt farmer from turning all seas a certain color or turning a certain sea a color back to back. I think that info will make everyone happy and end the dispute.
Happy Memorial Day if I dont see everyone
@CPC hmmm, maybe not 'all' sea zones but there have been times where I've seen on my charts a ridiculous number of red areas on multiple charts. Really all they need is to turn all the main zones where major ports are red (open sea zones don't matter as much). Pirates don't bother me but i sympathize with non maritimers that have to put up with such manipulation.
The biggest irony is when pirates resort to such tactics then turn around and complain that the seas are dead lol. It's a shame the GM's aren't more active and/or give the CA's more liberties to deal with issues like that when they happen.
One solution might be for a 'marker' to show on search where that pirate is if they get x number of kills in certain amount of time. So if a pirate gets like 10 kills (or something like that) in less than 30 min his location will be shown on everyone's search in that zone. This would also balance the game so BH's could narrow in and counter the pirate activities. Right now its dumb that a pirate can go to a far remote corner of a zone and continually alt farm to manipulate the game.
My game does not to much go on what seas are red/blue, I just avoid red zones simple as, unless blue flagged ofcourse. Others just carry on. So for me personally it does not affect my game play to much, it's just annoying that I have to avoid that zone or pop a blue flag which is paid by UWC to go into the red areas on the times I do blue flag (Not very often) that is manipulated by a few. The issue is it costs people money either UWC or ingame money if they buy from others which is paid for by someone with UWC/real money.
Well, even in red zones you don't have to 'avoid' them. All you have to do is put your char on private mode before you enter. Just because a zone is red doesn't mean there's any pirates even there, so the first thing you do when you enter the zone (on private mode) is do a search to see who's in the zone. If it's empty then fine but if there's a pirate then it's still not the end of the world. Check the pirates' lvl first, if low lvl then it's probably a noob player and nothing to worry about. If they have some skill and/or it's a well known pirate then you can make the choice to stay or leave. When ever you travel to distant places you should always check the maritime guild for pirate activity so you know ahead if there will be anything to watch out for on your journey.
As for blue flages, yes they do cost money so that being said there's a right way to use them and a wrong way. The wrong way is just to use them and sail around (unless you don't mind spending the money to have continual protection). The right way is to save them and only use in emergencies. You have to understand that because sea zones are so vast and sight range is so limited, odd's are even if there's a pirate in the same zone you'll probably never see him (or them you). This being said don't waste your flags when you'll probably not even encounter them. Pirates are easy to avoid in any seas so here's some tips to use...
1) always check the maritime guild for pirate activity in the area you're traveling to and/or route you plan to take. When viewing the list take note of how long ago and how many attacks there are. This way you can plan ahead.
2) take 'unconventional' routes. Many pirates tend to stick to regular traveled areas and popular ports. So for example if a group of islands is a well traveled area and known for pirate attacks then sail around them (even to neighboring sea zone) instead of directly though them. NW passage and the Pacific are safer routes than taking Java/India seas when traveling to and from EA.
3) travel in private mode. This is the best way to avoid pirate attention. Pirates are constantly using search to check for sailor activity in the zone they are in and if they spot you on search then they will be much more alert to you sailing near them and prepare. If a zone is empty then they will tend to stay at port waiting for someone to show instead of wasting time/noto/money just sailing aimlessly around. So if you are in private mode then they won't be ready for you which will give you the advantage to get away before they can react. Now if you want to monitor trade chat then you keep all your fleet in private except one char (to be on chat). Once you enter a new sea zone, you do your search of the zone. If there's a pirate then you just flip that char over to private right away until you pass though the zone.
4) If you are spotted by a pirate, don't panic. First try to out run them (use the wind advantage if you can since most pirate ships are row ships and have high V sails but low H sails). If you can get out of their sight then change directions as well as this can often throw off the pirate who will continue on same course you were going to eventually catch up. If you can't shake them then head for the nearest port/land area and just dock and wait for abit. They will get bored and leave since 'time is money' and there's other ships out there to get. Staying in private mode here also helps as they won't know if you are just in port or have logged out so they'll give up. In private mode you can send a char out to sea every now and then to check (search) that they are gone.
5) if all else fails and you can't loose the pirate, THEN use a blue flag to protect yourself. If you can try and save up the no war 'fragments' you get in game from various sources. They are less time (30min/1hour) but that should be all you need and don't cost you anything. Once the pirate see's the flag he won't know what type it is and just leave you alone after that. You can set them in your quick slots to use quickly if needed.
6) If you do want or need to use a blue flag, try to use them if you plan on spending alot of time in pirate active waters. I see many people sailing around in safe waters with them on and it seems like such a waste to me (although they do ward off npc attacks as well).
Personally, i've never used blue flags i'd rather use a trib if i can (unless lawless). I get why people will use them but I also understand that they can be quite expensive so try and be smart when you play to prevent wasting resources. Ofc another option is to have an experienced maritimer like a BH travel with you to fight off pirate attacks while you are on your journey since they don't have to sink the pirate just hold him off while you leave the battle ring then you'll get a free 'green flag' which will give you temporary protection in any waters. I like this options since it promotes co-operative play in the game which has been lacking since so many play solo with a fleet of alts now.
If PP does not want to address this issue, then bring in 30-day blue flags to go along with the 30-day speed, skill, and XP boosts. They do exist on another server so just introduce them to Maris for the same 30-day price as the other boosts.