Blue Flag Conundrum

HelloAll · October 2017

Somchai here.

So i've been reading all the posts and i would like the views of others on my idea.

Now i already know the traders and adventure players are gonna go made before the even think about what im about to say....so please give it a moment and think about it...not just how it affects you, but think about the role of a pirate and the good of the game.

So i propose that each day at the port official, as you pick up your 10 tow permits you may also pick up 1 blue flag.

This blue flag is non transferable and can only buy 1 per 24 hour (like tow permit) and can only carry one per toon (so can't stack or save them) Also that would mean they cannot be stored in vault,bank,quarters.

Once activated the flag lasts 24 hours but like any active boost/flag can be cancelled at any time.

So here is the crunch. In real life could traders or sailors actually sail past a pirate with a blue flag with a white speech bubble about the ship saying "haha" ?? NO!

So there therefore should be a penalty for using the blue flag that makes the user have to make the choice of take the penalty or run the risk of being pirated.

The penalty would be speed reduction by 50%.

And that would also cancel any speed boost used. but not cancel college speed skills and ship speed skills.

This way everyone everyday can choose not to be involved in pvp but there is a cost.

Now many will say WHY!? Why should i have to do that, when these pirates want pvp and i don't, its spoiling my game! (i can hear you all saying it now)

But guys....its an mmo.....based on naval activities! It comes with the game! It's part of the game.

We need to accept it or find a new game.

We can't come along and mould each game we play to our preferences, especially not an mmo.

Have a think about it anyway.

Somchai

Laviol · October 2017

Ok i have read your post, i am a non pirate but am pro pirate sp why not do this.

Blue flags have 2 options,

1 hr saftey no penalty or
24 hr safety and 50% speed reduction

Bought at port official like u said.

Thoughts?

t060t060 · October 2017

What OP said might actually work. Seems like a reasonable way to remove from pvp players who do not wish to battle. And the 50% speed makes it more or less unabusable.

crazyhunter2003 · October 2017

50% speed reduction??? screw that,2hour each way for 1 nanban run,I'll take my chances vs pirate tyvm

ZodRau · October 2017

So you want to add a new kind of blue flag? I'd be fine with a free one performing in this fashion, but the ones I pay real cash for won't have any speed reduction.

HelloAll · October 2017

The idea would be to remove the Astro blue flags and have only thI’d type available to all. Rich or poor.

And yes it would make nanban much slower so one would have to decide between guaranteed safety but slow ship, or take that

HelloAll · October 2017

It posted by mistake.

To continue...
Take that small risk of being caught.
Which is rare to be honest.

I have done nanban and been to ea

HelloAll · October 2017

This stupid thing on my phone keeps posting :(

Anyway nanban an ea with only being caught once anyway.

ZodRau · October 2017

"The idea would be to remove the Astro blue flags"

So the idea is to take money out of Papaya Play's pocket? I think that' a non-starter. Find some other way to penalize PvE players. :D

HelloAll · October 2017

But it would hopefully bring back more ex players and pirates too that would spend, so I would imagine in total papaya would gain financially.

PiesRats · October 2017

You increase the price of the blue flag from astro shop, leave it the way it is, but raise the price. Do not flood them with the bottle, Ok here's why blueflags have become so annoying. Before when was 1 toon limit, u'd only make 100-150m from a nanban run, and as cpc said would take u 2 hours for the whole trip. So it wasn't that smart to spend 100m for flag to go do a nanban. With multi's that now increases 3x so that's 300- 450m per nanban run. So u put ur alts in ships with IH, and u flag ur main. and now ur only spending 1/3 of nanban trip profit for flag vs 100% of ur profit for the flag. for me 5 trips = about 6 hours of gameplay 5x 450m = 2.25b in a day, for the cost of 100-300m depends on how many alts i flag. where as 5 trips before multis was 500m- 700m and cost of 100m. see the difference, ur making so much more money from nanban per day now u can easily afford to use blueflags, heck i have stacks of the 1 days ones saved up as well as almost 200 of those 1hr blue flags from PKC's.

That is why all you see while pirating is now blueflags. So to fix that, REMOVE MULTI's or triple the astro price of blueflag. and don't flood bottle!!!!

crazyhunter2003 · October 2017

blue flags do not protect fleet

WendyWindblows · October 2017

better solution. If you do not want to be attacked by pirates in hostile waters, stay in safe waters. There is a PVP element in this game , even though i do not PVP, i defend their right to plunder players in hostile waters. There are many ways to avoid pirates, blue flags being 1 of them , and the sale of blue flags helps keep the server free to play for those who do not wish or are unable to buy astro's, or whatever the new money will be called

FrozenRuby · October 2017

why are players constantly complaining about the pvp element of the game u have safe, hostile and lawless waters , EU is always safe, moment u venture into hostile waters u accept the fact u can be engaged in pvp combat with either another white going pirate or by a player who is already a pirate, if ur looking for a pure pve type game u picked the wrong game to get into. now as for the blue flags i'd say changing the price isn't going to change the already surplus of them in players inventories i personally have close to 400 of the 1 day ones enough to be untouchable for about a year, what they need to do is remove them from the game entirely if a player doesn't want to be engaged by a player pirate in hostile waters bring tributes, anyone can make them. we don't need a real cash shop item to avoid pirates out on the open seas

Oberrill · October 2017

PiesRats,
You are forgetting players such as myself. I do nanban runs sailing a big trading clipper followed by an aide in a big trading carrack. I do not use speed boosts as I think they are ridiculous. I do now use NPCs as a way to support the game. I just pretend they are bribes to certain officials to let me trade for more goods. I do not use the nanban trade preference ship skill as I think that is also ridiculous. I make about 60 to 75 mil per run and it takes me about 2.5 hours round trip. Blue flags already cost more in ducats than I make on a trip, but you want to raise it more.
To heck with blue flags. Give the pirates back their pirating abilities and give all non-pirates a toggle that they can use if they want to. Then the pirates can pirate the non-pirates that do not care, bounty hunters, and other pirates. There are also some NPC fleets that could be a challenge provided one stops using fake skills such as the various shot defenses, direct hit prevention, command post etc..

ZodRau · October 2017

If you pirates are looking for a pure PvP game, you picked the wrong one to get into. :D

HelloAll · October 2017

I’ll be honest. I’m pro pirate.

If I had my choice blue flags wouldn’t exist.

Being caught by a pirate is super rare but for some reason people think that is all too much.

And to the one that’s says this is the wrong game?

HelloAll · October 2017

This game was designed with pirates and pvp in mind. So this is without doubt the correct game :)

HeavyWater · October 2017

I don't think blue flags are a big enough issue to bother making changes to.

Katanauwo · October 2017

The OP's suggestion would make some multi abuser thrive.

50% speed reduction? no problems. Instead of running 5 toons, now running 10 toons by two fleets

24 hour protection right? so AFK sail become possible.

Then we have mules in blue flags constantly passing Jakarta while all that pirates could do is to stare at them but cannot bite.

The free nerfed blue flags must have one trait - NO TRADE GOODS!!!

crazyhunter2003 · October 2017

no trade goods totally defeats purpose of blue flag

Laviol · October 2017

Not really.. you sail there with safety.. then when sailing back you drop the flag.. or just take up adventuring..

xxiohar · October 2017

so basically what you say is : if you want to use blue flag you can't Naban or spice run because
with all the boosters Naban takes about 2-2.5 hours for me if you take 50% of my speed it means it will take 5 hours which is unreasonable and if i can't Naban or spice run i don't need blue flag

shizenhakai · October 2017

Not a hug fan of posting in a forum but this topic catches my interest ^^

I generally like your idea, but I think 50% is a bit too harsh.
A lower percentage would still be huge but more manageable.

I think that low and mid-level players benefit from this the most and they have slower ships in general.

Also, there is one thing I always wanted to have: NPC fleets that attack pirates.
Let's say tehre is a pirate camping in front of Calicut. Why wouldn't the city sent some ships to deal with him? Have some sort of timer and then the city dispatches a fleet to attack the pirate (or force him to stay away from the citys for some time). No fleet in lawless waters ofc.

Raulbarlad · October 2017

I am a trader and i can't get why is this big vortex about Piracy activity.

I mean Pirates can complain about how they were limited, but if they ask for more options it must not be not just for pirates but for Maritimers in general so it would be Merchant/Pirate/Bounty Hunter play.
Merchants like me can always use blue flags and tributes. Pirates can do what they like, but every privilege they ask for must me balanced with equivalent one for Bounty Hunters.

DanielFreedomHunters · October 2017

If the blue flagged did not exist but, and the benefits to the player pirates of the tributes was increased significantly. This could be a beneficial compromise.

Players can make Fine Goods Tributes (by ship class) and sell them. If Papaya wanted to replace the Blue flags with Fine Good Tributes for astros that could work also, as long as a set of 5 was around 79 Astros.

Currently, if you hand one Fine Goods Tribute over, you lose only 1/2 your ducats and can move ups. But the Fine Good Tributes are not cheap to make. So make it worth everyone's while.

If the Fine Good Tributes = Protection of 20% ducats and cargo that you are carrying, If you had $5M ducats and 1000 Katanas on you and you get attacked. Instead of handing one over, and losing 2.5M today, you could hand over 5 Fine Good Tributes and lose nothing and get a Green Flag for 20 minutes.

Now what would be in it for the pirate... I don't know what a pirate gets for turning in Fine Good Tributes today. Maybe someone can tell us. I know they can trade them in at Pirate cities. So lets say, x number of Fine Good Tributes could be traded for items, on the same premise as Gold Nuggets Exchange. Different groups of items on the Exchange each month. Or The pirate can convert the Fine Goods Tributes (Large) back to their production materials... 80 Pepper, 80 Sapphire, 80 Lumber or 100 Gold, 100 Diamond, 80 Lumber or 120 Jewelry, 120 Antique Art and 80 Lumber.

5 Fine Goods Tributes (Large) would = 500 Gold, 500 Diamonds and 400 Lumber... That is a pretty fair trade to protect a player's and his/her aide's ship hold's worth of Nanban or Spices and better than what the pirates are getting now. Or the Pirate could resell them in a bazaar for even more ducats.

Raulbarlad · October 2017

I tried to comment before but i don't know why it went or why it wasn't delivered.

I am a Merchant, and i still can not get the whole noise about piracy. Pirates are nasty for a Merchant since he mostly will get a loss somehow, always endangered, and he can not have 100% safe procedures against them unless he gets blue flag all the time.

BUT we still have tools against them like tributes.

Also, If Pirates to be granted privileges to make game more interesting on the account of merchants- which is understandable since the game is built on that- these privileges must goes not only for Pirates but the whole maritimers and of course Bounty Hunters. Paper/Rock/Scissors game -nevertheless that merchants are no threat to BHs-
I am pro that pirates get something more than it was recently in the game, But rather than prohibiting it physically make BHs a challenge and a profit/loss equation for Pirates like Pirates are for the merchants.
That's my opinion if i am not mistaking or ignoring some other factors.

BustyLaRue · October 2017

Reduced speed...stupid idea for me personally.

I only buy flags when Im adventuring, priority for me is not to be bothered by anybody or anything and SPEED!

I may have to sail from London to EA just for one quest, if it takes me 2 hours I would just not bother and quit.

Also Papaya will need to make money if we all want to continue playing, blue flags are a source of income. Offering them free???

ollebroc · October 2017

Pirates need wine for their kids. Think of the children!

Blue flags were already easy to get, I'm OK with some type of sailing penalty.

Blue Flag Conundrum

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