Hello all,

We have said many things about this topic before. A forum search in the archived older forums will find a plethora of FLS responses.

I'll give you an example from Aether:

I'll repeat this once again for the benefit of some of our newer community members: While the storyline for Pirates of the Burning Sea takes place in the Age of Sail, our version of history will differ in many ways. Slavery and sexism will never be features in our game for very obvious reasons, and frankly, it is beyond bizarre that people would expect such things in our modern times.

I invite anyone with further questions to do a forum search on the subject in order to find the myriad of official responses to any argument you may have to the contrary.

Best,
Aether

Whilst one may agree or disagree with the historical accuracy of history, our game forum isn't the place to discuss it.

ArtCo has selected which sails on which ships should receive decals.

Embarrassingly enough I'm not that proficient in CS2/3; I do most of my work in PaintShop Pro, so I can be of limited help on the aliasing issue here. If you know how to set up an alpha channel in CS2, that is the way to go for avoiding white lines and jaggies in tattered areas. It helps if you add a background layer filled with a neutral background color (pick one from your flag) before exporting to PNG format.

Unfortunately, I have to point out that the ship you're using isn't period. Try to find a ship design that existed between 1660-1740.

Pure white is acceptable for colouriseable decals, whatever the transparency, so long as no other colours are used (making it not tintable) and provided the coverage isn't too much (i.e. less than 50% of the sail area).

Pure, 100% opaque black does not work well. In a tintable decal it's best to use a grey with a lightness somewhere between 10-20% (e.g. RGB 25, 25, 25), or make the black somewhat transparent (around 50-70% opacity). A somewhat transparent pure black will tend to come out looking darker than an appropriate hue of grey at 100% opacity.

If you're unsure of your work and how well it will represent your design, post a preview -- the 2DSC and the community can help you refine it before submission. That is what this forum is for, after all.

Ok, I'm reading two contradictory things in this thread:

* Marks aren't available for sale, so PvE players feel like they have to PvP to get them.
* PvP doesn't give adequate cash rewards.

Players in group A, meet players in group B. We estimate the value of a mark based on the minimum possible cost of a point of durability on a ship that can generate a mark. Right now, we believe that's roughly 2k doubloons. That means that a level 50 kill is generating roughly 10k doubloons, assuming that the price doesn't rise due to demand.

Sell your marks.

I am perfectly willing to believe that we do not currently reward PvP enough; this is why we're adding more and more varied rewards to the mark exchange. Ultimately, though, we're going to be driving any increase to the value of PvP encounters through the mark system. Useful feedback thus includes: what else would you like to see exchanged for marks? What would be valuable enough that you'd be willing to purchase marks? How high would the value of a mark have to rise to get you to sell your marks?

For instance, it sounds like you believe that the amount of faction granted for marks is not enough to justify the expenditure of a mark. That's reasonable, and I'll talk over the amount of the reward with the rest of the design team and see how committed we are to that particular value (although I can promise you it's not going to rise to 1000 points ).

It also sounds like refits aren't worthwhile at an estimated value of 2k/mark. Taelorn and I will look at the designed effectiveness of those ships and see if they're out of line at that value.

The goal is to make marks more useful and desirable than they currently are. Suggestions focused on that goal will get immediate and serious consideration.

I'm not sure exactly what a SOJ is, so I might be a bit off with this... My Diablo 2 experience was limited to one play-through on Normal.

MoVs are not THAT rare. You get them predictably when you win in PvP. They also aren't permanent since using them in the exchange shop. That makes them pretty much DIRECTLY an alternate form of currency. They are desirable (for lineship bundles, faction, explosive shot, etc.) and the PvPers are the only ones who can produce them. I don't think that the parallels with SOJs are all that strong.


Joe

A few notes:

Lineship structure bundles will cost 200 marks.

I was originally intending to give Eurotrader faction for marks, but was asked not to by the content team, because they're using that faction to gate mission access.

The current buyable faction amount is likely to be tuned, but is in the ballpark for how much you'll ultimately be able to get. If it is currently cheaper for you to get faction through junk item turnins, by all means, do that instead.

Marks should not have a fixed value. That they did was yet another unintended consequence of the economic unrest missions. We're entirely replacing those with a new, more robust system in 1.4. The price of marks should float with the demand for marks, and now that's actually possible.

The drop rate of marks is going to increase slightly in 1.4; also note that any effect that gives you a chance of bonus loot will also give you a chance of bonus marks (as marks are generated from a loot table, and the bonus loot effect applies to any roll on a loot table).

You must mean the box right abaft the mizzen topmast backstays. That's just a placeholder for a portlid. The port in question is merely a cabin light, as no gun could be fit there -- the port abuts the cabin bulkhead.

They're a little over 1m and 1.2m clear of the waterline (3.4' and 4'), actually. That's about as low as shipwrights of the period, whatever their creed or credentials, would fit ports.

Well is was, but we're pulling Marks of Victory off unrest bundle turn-ins in 1.3, so it won't be anymore. As of 1.3 the only way to get a Mark of Victory will be from PvP, from a handful of non-repeatable career missions, or from another player. If you're a non-PvPer who was getting them from unrest bundles, you'll need to get them from players instead.


Joe

It's possible that I misspoke. What I meant was that a win-lose ratio of 1:1 should make you close to break-even in PvP. If you lose (roughly) half or fewer of your fights you won't need to grind to keep up PvPing.

I wrote my devlog yesterday before Isildur's was finished. Turns out that he didn't go into it as much as I expected. I'll get more information on PvP rewards out for you (in a devlog or post) next week.


Joe