Naval Service Medal grind is too much for casual players

[Dauntless 7]

The Naval Service Medal grind only works for players who are able and willing to devote dozens if not hundreds of hours a week to the game.

A casual player who has very limited time to play will find it next to impossible to acquire enough kills, complete enough missions, to earn even one Naval Service Medal (NSM).

Personally, after attempting it for 2 season now, I have been unable to ear even one, before the 15 days time limit ends. Attempting the third but thus far not looking like I will make it.

If you want the developers want to make the game appealing to more player they must adjust the grind so that it works for all players and not just those that have nothing better or more important to do than play Naval Action all day.

The fix may be to drop the seasons, so meet the requirements to earn the rewards, or to make the requirements to earn them much less. If that means it then become too easy for the all day players to get NSMs then a limit on how many you can acquire in a a day, or week may have to be imposed.

[0strum]

I agree with your observation that the grind for the NSMs is too much for casual gameplay. As for your hopes of this being adjusted... yeah you'll probably save yourself a bit of frustration by adjusting your expectations instead.

The thresholds are set that high intentionally, with the aim being that casual players get frustrated with the grind and hand over their money to buy DLCs instead of crafting their own ships.

The developer of this game has zero regard for what actually constitutes enjoyable gameplay and he has less than zero regard for the wishes of us players...

[FerrusPugnum]

You are correct and the grind was increased this season so that many 3 star missions are now 1 or 2 or don't exist now.

To have a chance for medals doing missions if you have the too large amount of time required ignore all missions including pvp that require you to kill many ships of one class or one type. The reward is pitiful and it would be difficult to complete.

search your outposts for single ship missions ie 5th rank to kill 1 4th( a mission that seemed to vanish the last day or two).. for 2 or 3 pts.

Also if you have 3 people to do a Group Kill mission some give everyone 3 pts and are reasonable. Do NOT take a group into a standard Kill mission as only the one taking the mission get pts.

The grind is far too high. I've heard pz rewards are very high so getting medals are easier but I personally never go there.

As for ship building I've spend huge sums of cash and materials to build first rates to achieve medals. The cost is far too high for the rewards.

Spending most of my time grinding to get medals to replace investments we already had would have been unnecessary if we had all been compensated with Naval Medals when they were wiped. Even if the dev gave us half naval medals and half cash it would have been a good foundation and few would have griped.

I have been testing the changes and most of my clan will not waste valuable time to grind for medals. They have almost all decided to leave the game.

They like hundreds of others would have helped teach and train new players to grow the game but now most feel there is nothing worth teaching with the state of the game as it is.

Driving out all the established players may be your goal but you have also driven away those who loved your historic semi realistic age of sail combat sim that you set out to create and would have been happy to teach those new players.

[JJWolf]

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

You are correct and the grind was increased this season so that many 3 star missions are now 1 or 2 or don't exist now.

To have a chance for medals doing missions if you have the too large amount of time required ignore all missions including pvp that require you to kill many ships of one class or one type. The reward is pitiful and it would be difficult to complete.

search your outposts for single ship missions ie 5th rank to kill 1 4th( a mission that seemed to vanish the last day or two).. for 2 or 3 pts.

Also if you have 3 people to do a Group Kill mission some give everyone 3 pts and are reasonable. Do NOT take a group into a standard Kill mission as only the one taking the mission get pts.

The grind is far too high. I've heard pz rewards are very high so getting medals are easier but I personally never go there.

As for ship building I've spend huge sums of cash and materials to build first rates to achieve medals. The cost is far too high for the rewards.

Spending most of my time grinding to get medals to replace investments we already had would have been unnecessary if we had all been compensated with Naval Medals when they were wiped. Even if the dev gave us half naval medals and half cash it would have been a good foundation and few would have griped.

I have been testing the changes and most of my clan will not waste valuable time to grind for medals. They have almost all decided to leave the game.

They like hundreds of others would have helped teach and train new players to grow the game but now most feel there is nothing worth teaching with the state of the game as it is.

Driving out all the established players may be your goal but you have also driven away those who loved your historic semi realistic age of sail combat sim that you set out to create and would have been happy to teach those new players.

I see this more and more. The grind for NSMs is put there purely to encourage anyone who isn't willing to spend huge amounts of time playing to spend huge amounts of money on NSMs. (Dev has admitted this will be the only other way to get NSMs on Discord)
Not only this but they are going to be locking most of the more advanced buildings behind 'land titles' which can only be won in PBs which requires being part of a clan and participating in a more advanced/late era part of the game.

[rustysub]

One word to all the BS, Ahoy

[FerrusPugnum]

Originally posted by JJWolf:

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

You are correct and the grind was increased this season so that many 3 star missions are now 1 or 2 or don't exist now.

To have a chance for medals doing missions if you have the too large amount of time required ignore all missions including pvp that require you to kill many ships of one class or one type. The reward is pitiful and it would be difficult to complete.

search your outposts for single ship missions ie 5th rank to kill 1 4th( a mission that seemed to vanish the last day or two).. for 2 or 3 pts.

Also if you have 3 people to do a Group Kill mission some give everyone 3 pts and are reasonable. Do NOT take a group into a standard Kill mission as only the one taking the mission get pts.

The grind is far too high. I've heard pz rewards are very high so getting medals are easier but I personally never go there.

As for ship building I've spend huge sums of cash and materials to build first rates to achieve medals. The cost is far too high for the rewards.

Spending most of my time grinding to get medals to replace investments we already had would have been unnecessary if we had all been compensated with Naval Medals when they were wiped. Even if the dev gave us half naval medals and half cash it would have been a good foundation and few would have griped.

I have been testing the changes and most of my clan will not waste valuable time to grind for medals. They have almost all decided to leave the game.

They like hundreds of others would have helped teach and train new players to grow the game but now most feel there is nothing worth teaching with the state of the game as it is.

Driving out all the established players may be your goal but you have also driven away those who loved your historic semi realistic age of sail combat sim that you set out to create and would have been happy to teach those new players.

I see this more and more. The grind for NSMs is put there purely to encourage anyone who isn't willing to spend huge amounts of time playing to spend huge amounts of money on NSMs. (Dev has admitted this will be the only other way to get NSMs on Discord)
Not only this but they are going to be locking most of the more advanced buildings behind 'land titles' which can only be won in PBs which requires being part of a clan and participating in a more advanced/late era part of the game.

I have spent 11k hours grinding through several complete wipes and restarting from nothing during the pre-release years. not all on the water of course as these games go.

To now say to all of those that sailed with and against me for all of those years today that you must do even more grind than ever before to get back what you had already earned after the game was released as complete ( as many have stated repeatedly) is nuts.

The total lack of respect for the thousands of players who supported Game labs over the years is astounding.

As one of my clan mates passed on to me today.. Ahoy is on the verge of being released... and if the devs continue as they are they will succeed is wiping this game from history faster than any of us expected..

[JJWolf]

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

I have spent 11k hours grinding through several complete wipes and restarting from nothing during the pre-release years. not all on the water of course as these games go.

To now say to all of those that sailed with and against me for all of those years today that you must do even more grind than ever before to get back what you had already earned after the game was released as complete ( as many have stated repeatedly) is nuts.

The total lack of respect for the thousands of players who supported Game labs over the years is astounding.

As one of my clan mates passed on to me today.. Ahoy is on the verge of being released... and if the devs continue as they are they will succeed is wiping this game from history faster than any of us expected..

I don't totally agree due to the mechanics of Ahoy meaning not everyone can be the captain so not everyone will come across but nevertheless it will steal most of the player base, particularly the focused player base of PvP.

NA is a mess of ideas with nothing to make it stand out. Anyone can get their kicks of what they actually enjoy most from PotC, Blood and Gold: Caribbean, Sid Mier's Pirates, Port Royale 1/2/3, and AC: Black Flag. NA desperately needs to fix the player bleed before it turns into what happened to PotBS.

[FerrusPugnum]

I have no details on detailed game play with Ahoy it was suggested by a clan mate. When its out and we see how it is we can make that choice.

Re the seasons and medals. I am basically testing to see how long it will take and reporting my findings. The grind is longer in the second season and higher value missions were removed or down graded. compared to the first. i will be broke if i tried to keep up the pace in another season so I would end up on the longer estimate of medal gathering.

Probably a test to see how much will be put up with before spending cash on a medals dlc as i have predicted as have others.

Based on the second season and not doing Pz activity it will take 3 to 4 weeks on average and probably 6 to 7 weeks at least for players with much less time to fully realise one ship building bonus fully. so imagine the average casual player who wants to build ships. needing to take 20 to 35 weeks to invest in all of the bonuses to get the best ships. More if they want to invest in resources to help them build those ships.

I understand that some using alts and having no other life than this game can do it faster but most cannot.

I am retired so have a bit more time to play but all i can say is this is the end of the road once this season is over... insanity must be the norm atm in the offices of the devs who came up with these crackpot changes.

[Tranquillity]

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

As one of my clan mates passed on to me today.. Ahoy is on the verge of being released... and if the devs continue as they are they will succeed is wiping this game from history faster than any of us expected..

Just wanna correct you here and anyone else who is curious.

Ahoy is in pre-production and Is NOT on the verge of release.

I spend a fair bit of time on the discord server for the past week speaking to the devs directly. (Nice guys btw).
And can say for sure the game is not nearing full release.

Game looks great though I encourage you guys to check out some of the screenshots from the discord. The devs are very talented. Fingers crossed we get a great game in the end.

[Bullet399]

Originally posted by Tranquillity:

Originally posted by FerrusPugnum:

As one of my clan mates passed on to me today.. Ahoy is on the verge of being released... and if the devs continue as they are they will succeed is wiping this game from history faster than any of us expected..

Just wanna correct you here and anyone else who is curious.

Ahoy is in pre-production and Is NOT on the verge of release.

I spend a fair bit of time on the discord server for the past week speaking to the devs directly. (Nice guys btw).
And can say for sure the game is not nearing full release.

Game looks great though I encourage you guys to check out some of the screenshots from the discord. The devs are very talented. Fingers crossed we get a great game in the end.

so be patient and save your money until then
no more dlc for na buy

[angriff]

Add Trading Missions with Stars

[CAT_life2]

They can not give any respect to people who want to trade.....that would be too much like new content, or letting people to play there way...all money and glory comes from ignoring the ocean and fighting in a silly circle...and you have to do suicide if you leave the circle that the rule....? why? It is like the dismasting why is it on a time limit.
They could make Navy Service metals a trade item? The way I see it the lucky players with time or assets on the top of the list will to get the metals and then reach a point where they do not need them anymore but will keep getting them regardless (because they can or own the ports) so in the long run....We have a item the Rich will need to destroy at some point to keep space in the inventory. Where most of the players will be starving for metals... it is like the digital equivalent to lighting there smokes with $100s in the grate depression.

[JJWolf]

Originally posted by CAT_life2:

They can not give any respect to people who want to trade.....that would be too much like new content, or letting people to play there way...all money and glory comes from ignoring the ocean and fighting in a silly circle...and you have to do suicide if you leave the circle that the rule....? why? It is like the dismasting why is it on a time limit.
They could make Navy Service metals a trade item? The way I see it the lucky players with time or assets on the top of the list will to get the metals and then reach a point where they do not need them anymore but will keep getting them regardless (because they can or own the ports) so in the long run....We have a item the Rich will need to destroy at some point to keep space in the inventory. Where most of the players will be starving for metals... it is like the digital equivalent to lighting there smokes with $100s in the grate depression.

Because trading, shipbuilding, and the like are not PvP, the game has been dragged into the PvP gutter and kicked repeatedly to kill off anything that isn't PUBG style battle royale PvP.

[Chief]

The season event quest master needs further changes of 50-100 points. Before that, there are 15 point steps. 15,30,45, then comes 100. We still need 60, 75, 100. The hundred should then give +1 bonus. In the end you would have 7 NSM at 100 points. At the moment you can reach 5 at 100 points. This is the same number of NSM's as before the hotfix for quest masters :( It is only easier up to 45 points and see no advantage in the end (50-100 points or more).