New Seachart/Maps

Is the 1 map safe for little boats yet? I mean come on , you get shot at by these npcs and can't rep or do scrolls.! There is enough problems being a small boat but 1 map should of stayed safe! !

 

Hello,

So I've been busy levelling, doing the 1-20 quests, unlocking trophies etc. I've had over a week now doing this and thought that it is a good enough amount of time to leave my impressions on it all.

Map Layout

Well, I am honestly not a big fan of the map layout. I understand that because its split into regions, levels will be next to another which normally wouldn't be, like 5 and 18. The problem comes though that this has been left so late in the game that now it is a huge change and going to take some real getting used too. Change is good, but too much change at once is bad, people have to learn new maps, new NPCs, new quest giver locations, its a lot to remember at once. I think you should have changed the map layout prior to the rest of this update and given people chance to get used to it.

Trophies

I have unlocked a few Trophies now, the requirements to unlock them I feel are fair, they take a reasonable amount of time but if one was to really try could be done within a week (with the exception of 5000 chests, I doubt I will ever collect that many ). I am also happy that the bonuses provided by them are mainly PvE based, with the exception of the cannons. This means that those who don't like to shoot monsters, NPCs, quests etc will not have to unlock and level up trophies to remain competitive.

The Commonwealth Haul daily quests, the first two are alright they take about 5 minutes each. However, the third, that one needs to be changed. ID: 1159 QuestName: Riding High, searching for and sinking 25 Dominator of the Hoard is a terrible requirement and this needs to be lowered to 5 or less. When it takes a player 3 hours to complete this quest, while most of the server still haven't unlocked that quest, that shows red flags. People complained about the HRMS Surprise spawn rate, this will be a lot worse.
2018-03-08 22:03:55 The quest has begun. Smooth sailing, Pirate!
2018-03-09 01:10:56 Congratulations! Quest completed.

I do think Trophies are a good addition to the game however, it gives something for players to work towards while there is no event on. I notice there is a lot of room for other Trophies to be added, I hope enough time is left between each before you add more.

Fenghuang

Firstly, the test to get from 30 - 31, although it appeared hard to begin with, the lowering of the damage required and giving the Tyrannous the ability to repair really helped a lot of players. Although I was the first player to 31, before these changes, I think this is a good change. It prevents a bottleneck and its good for the future when less of these Tyrannous are being spawned.

The maps in 31 and 32 I am a bit unimpressed with, to be honest. I find myself, and a lot of others too, just go into the maps to do our daily quests then leave. The rewards from the NPCs up there are all the same, 3-5 Yulong coins and a little bit of EXP. On the beta I tested these up until 35, they still pay out the same reward, no new content, even at level 35. As players level, I am a strong believer in the content getting better and better, thus giving players the incentive and rewarding those that do level. Again, on the beta, at level 35 I did not see any extra content than available at level 31.

The two admirals, firstly need to be announced when they spawn, as far as I am aware they do not currently get announced. The rewards from these, are again a bit underwhelming, 20 or so Yulong Coins and 10k elemental ammo.

The level 34 daily quest is extremely hard for a daily quest, 5,000,000 damage on the Unchained Marauder (Admiral), that is not a daily quest.. most players will struggle to do this a couple times a week let alone each day. Needing to sink 500 small ships to spawn that admiral, which again isn't announced, with the number of players who will be shooting it for their own daily quest/test/reward, most will not even see it.

The trades from Fang Weisheng in 31/1 are okay, I personally would like to be able to trade in larger amounts. 4,000 elemental ammo a time is gone in a couple of shots, it should be at least 10x that imo. The crowns seem pointless to trade. As mentioned before, each NPC will probably give you in total including boarding 6-8 Yulong coins, meaning you need to sink 2 of them for 10 Yulong coins. You can then trade 10 Yulong coins for 20 Crowns (or if you have over 10,000 Reputation with all factions in Fenghuang, 90 Crowns). You are better off shooting a Renown or even a Surprise.

Yulong Coins, I understand you probably have a big plan for them in a future, but at the current moment, they seem pointless. Give us something to do with them, or something to work towards, then you might find players stay in that map gaining Yulong coins instead of just leaving when the quests are done. Again, this is where more content is required I think. We didn't have this problem in the last two level increases, but I feel that because this one has been included with all the other changes, the level content has lacked abit and will probably come later.

1-21 Quests and Tests

Not much to say here, I think they are great. Giving players 60s Level 3 and then 100 Voodoo Cannons for completing their tests is a good thing imo. I haven't counted the number of Crystals they get but I can see that's a lot too to help with their starting skills.

The tutorial quests I am interested in seeing, I like that one of the requirements is to equip a sail, cannon and beam, this teaches new players how to do stuff, however in the quest description or actually highlighted in game I hope it is shown how to do this. Telling someone to equip X is okay, showing them how to do it as well is even better.

One change I do think would be good would be the Akkorospawn and Karkinos quests/tests, there seems to be too many of them, and these NPCs are way too strong for these little boats. If you are going to move them from 28 and 29 to 1, 8 and 9, then you need to weaken them to give the players a change. Titansmashers need to have a limit set on the total spawnable amount, damage reduced in the lower maps, reward introduced so they get shot.

1-21 NPCs

I actually am a big fan of the new NPCs. Most of these are not too hard for lower level players, giving good rewards for the ammo required and time. I really like that you have given players a Level 1 Commander so they can start boarding ships and getting some rewards from them asap.

It will take some getting used to learning all their new locations, spawn requirements, what they look like and names, but overall, I think a lot better than what was previously in the game.


-Arky