Conference of Monarchs:Cobalt (October 2006)

The Cobalt Ocean Conference of Monarchs took place at 11am PST on Monday, October 16, 2006. These are the notes summarizing the discussion.

Participants

 * Hypnos - Chairperson

Attendees:


 * Dianarama of Raiders of the Lost Arch
 * Foilistc of Imperial Margerine
 * Guppygurl of Polaris
 * Mousht of What the Falchion
 * Pyralis of Smuggler's Guild
 * Sebastienne of Dark Asylum
 * Tamitee of The Black Sheep

Issues Discussed

 * The problem that the 'end game' of blockading/island ownership is achievable only by a few and that blockades reward a few people for the efforts of hundreds.
 * Introduction of new blockade puzzles as a variation on regular duty puzzles could help with 'blockade boredom'.
 * Suggestion that a maximum fame to blockade islands could be implemented to prevent the larger flags from hoarding outposts.
 * Possibility that Brigand King flags would blockade the islands of flags who lose the required fame level for the island they hold.
 * Suggestion that there should me more opportunities for flag based activities within the game, apart from blockades. (See Armada Pillages)


 * The role of the new Titans and Brigand King flags in the game.
 * Are they simply there for blockading, or will they be out at sea too?
 * Suggestion that 'armada' pillaging may fit in well with this theme.
 * Question of how involved in the ocean outside of blockading would the flags be?
 * May change the dynamic of blockades, with the ocean uniting against a titan attack.


 * Discussion of current Brigand King system.
 * Some find it very frustrating that it is so hard to find BKs at the moment.
 * The future changes to the way Duty Nav works should make it easier to find BKs if that's what you're looking for, and if you have a good DNavver.


 * The complaint system lacks any kind of response, unable to confirm if your complaint has even been read.
 * Difficulty in /complaining someone who commits the deeds over a period of time, small, consistent griefing is hard to prove in 5 minutes of chatlog.
 * Some kind of "Your /complain against ***** has been resolved" message was suggested.


 * Following on from the previous point, there was a discussion on OM interventions.
 * The general feeling was that the OMs should never have to intervene in a situation where someone is acting within the game mechanics. "If it shouldn't be done, design code to stop it occurring".
 * The example given was Fort dusting, which is against the 'rules' and leads to an OM stepping in to prevent the dusting. It was suggested that they should simply prevent players from having the ability to do this.
 * This point also leads in to a discussion of OM consistency.
 * The OMs need to make a decision as to how involved they are going to be in day-to-day issues, and stick to it.
 * They also should be consistent in execution of policy, at the moment people are hand picking which OM to take their request to, as some are known to be more lenient than others.


 * Clarification of Greeter system, how they're recruited, whether the system still works etc.
 * There is a new Greeter system in testing, it will allow any player who has played the game for X amount of time and has a clean record to toggle greeter status on/off.


 * Racks in other stalls apart from Tailors.
 * OOO are working on auction houses to replace banks, in which any pirate can put an item up for sale. Stall racks on top of this may be a waste of developing time.


 * More OM - Player base interaction
 * Suggestion of regular OM social events, i.e. OM pillage where a few OMs get together and take a GF out.
 * More directly OM run events


 * Modification of 'The List' to include some kind of priority ranking, and better access to this information from the game screens.
 * Don't want to give away too many OOO sekrit projects, but some idea of what is and isn't being worked on, and announcements on when new projects are undertaken or old ones sidelined.


 * Discussion of the current Familiar system.
 * Seems to be placing more familiars in the hands of the same few people.
 * Suggestions of Untradeable familiars.
 * The aim of the tan familiar tournaments to introduce familiars to a wider number of players isn't being achieved.
 * Restrictions were suggested, to be placed on those winning a certain number of familiars. Even only being allowed to own 1 familiar at a time.


 * Server Lag issues
 * The issue lies with the national/international routing companies, and not with OOO servers, very little that can be done, although the Ringers are working on improving the reconnect system.


 * The future update will remove the need for crow's nest/ship targeting possibly. It will also increase the importance of duty nav, although it will still not be a necessity for a successful pillage.


 * Suggestion that future meetings of this nature could easily take place in a text-based chat environment, enabling easier logging, better clarity of who said what etc.


 * Various Game Design Issues.
 * Ability to control who receives jobber applications.
 * Allow Bnavver/lazers to see Duty Report.
 * Introduction of customizable chat channels. i.e. invitation only channels.
 * Introduction of automated poker tourneys, even if restricted to just "fixed buy in, no rebuy"
 * Ability to choose weapon for tournament setting without owning that weapon.
 * More trinkets available to buy, ones suitable for event prizes, i.e coloured ribbons etc.
 * Trinkets moved to stall types, rings from IM etc. much like charts are bought from shipyards.
 * Wedding cake trinkets, i.e 50,000 for a 30 person wedding cake, when cut, each guest receives an identical, inscribed 'cake slice' trinket.
 * Ability to tell pirate gender from crewlist/stats page.
 * Ability to name tournaments, maybe some how limited in who has this privilege, but important for events.
 * PLEASE fix the carp bug! (Apparently Arcturus is on it)
 * PLEASE change the jobber whistle or the fact that the chat screen moves to the Ahoy screen for all officers as soon as someone applies.
 * The might calculations are off for pillaging as to greenies do not attribute to the might rating, therefore the booty collected can be very low, that needs to be worked on. It creates an elitism where if you want to make PoE pillaging, you cannot really take people from the docks, i.e. getting 2K-5K payouts in a War Brig on a green route after winning several battles in a row.
 * The might calculations for Barbarians is still not right, too strong for the pirates on board. (again, Arcturus is on it)
 * Rumbling Skellies (Zombies?)
 * Separate your ships from the crew's ships in the dock screen somehow (Tabs?)
 * DND for crews/flags. i.e. "Were not accepting alliance invites".
 * Ability to 'place' trinkets in the scene rather than in a case. i.e. handkerchief on a table or flowers in a vase.

Some stuff from that OM guy

Game Design

 * Titans ++
 * Make fame requirements also prohibit flags with too high a fame rating from blockading smaller islands, such as eminent flags being blocked from blockading outposts
 * More incentive for jobbers
 * For the more casual/part time gamers, what are some incentives we could add for sinkings; trophies for those on board, not just for the navigators?
 * Brigand King suggestion - if a flag drops in fame, the BKs blockade the island
 * More group battle scenarios with the BKs than just blockade boards
 * Make the BKs more accessible- better spawn rate and not so ridiculously hard
 * Put more trinkets in palace shoppe for in-flag and in-crew events
 * Wedding cakes and other trinkets that could be displayed in a setting over than the trinket case
 * Wandering hordes of zombies for rumblers
 * Tourney options of mug, sword, etc. types, you shouldn't have t have one of the item in your inventory.
 * Poker tournament idea: automated 1 time buy-in, last man standing wins, there is no re-buy
 * Pit boss in the table- everybody can vote to boot a player
 * Ability to name a tournament, make it a money sink so that greenies and random folk don't abuse it
 * Player created chat channel, like jabber
 * DnD for crews/flags so they don't get invite/ally spam
 * Ability to reject an alliance proposal instead of waiting for him to take it down
 * One cannot tell if a pirate is male or female in the crew roster
 * Have a tab for one's own ships separated from the rest of the crew's
 * When you are delivering a ship, have it tell you the name so you can look for it in your possibly gargantuan private fleet
 * A way to tell the ship's owner
 * A list of what we are currently working on, which could be modified as priorities change, and items bumped up or bumped down
 * Jobber whistle goes to all officers, have it toggled on or off
 * Have ability to lock vessel then assign officer privileges to another player
 * Add new notices in the Ahoy! tab at the BOTTOM instead of the top
 * Greenies need work-why are there lower payouts for greens on board ships? (probably due to the fact that greens do not count toward ship might; this was put in blockades so people would not fill ships with trial account pirates)
 * We have foils for beginners, and bots that wield foils; why are there no empty-handed barbarians on barb ships?
 * Battle navver should see duty report
 * Ability to call up last duty report? (events, blockade prizes/bonuses, etc.)
 * Fort/palace dusting- if we're not going to allow it, make it so that it doesn't dust in the game

Game Balance

 * The blockades currently rely too much on players to drive them
 * Concern that the event blockades will create an ocean united against a common event for, and will stop the conflict and competition between players
 * Blockades are too much of a money sink if one wants islands to change hands frequently for all but the largest flags
 * Familiars are won by the same people, and they are still too prohibitively rare. Are they scaling? Many winners of multiple familiars suspected of cheats.

Support Issues

 * A way to get a response to your complaint, to know that it's being looked at
 * A way for pirates to know they've been complained about
 * More involved OMs? Maybe OMs could be ocean specific for social events; Clio's housewarming as a massive social event to meet other pirates as well as OMs was mentioned
 * Concern with inconsistency of policy
 * Inconsistent support on events
 * Events take too long to hear back from; if we are relying on players to rely events, should we hire event focused OMs?
 * Monthly socializing event with multiple OMs hanging out at once

Suggestions for next conference

 * Post to specific parley forums with the meeting times and info next time
 * Venue- could hold it in game
 * Have a wiki list or place for people to post Y!PP issues that they want to raise