Hunting vessels in travel routes

AtrusV

I was wondering if there exists a way to engage a ship that is travelling via time-compression map and sink it to loot its cargo.

 

PS: I am not talking about that kind of teleport that it's used to travel quickly between ports where you have ships (and you can't bring your cargo with your character)

PS2: If you are a beta-tester, you can answer with "yes" or "no"

Silax

I think you are confusing what goes on.

When you go sailing from one port to another, you are in the World map, which is time compressed.  That way, it doesn't take you two weeks to travel from the Bahamas to Tortuga (maybe 20 minutes instead).  You initiate combat by being within a certain distance of your intended target (not sure on this, but it is supposedly reasonable).  You then get sent to a combat area with the other player and this is the area that is instanced (meaning it occurs in real time).  You keep your position and direction when you enter the instance. 

Other people may  join your battle for a minute.  After that time, your instance is no longer within the same time frame of the World Map, and therefore, you won't get anybody and everybody showing up.

At least, that's the way I understand it.  Correct me if I am wrong.

AtrusV

It seems reasonable, but i wonder if you are in a group, does all your teammates go into the action at the same time when you are close to the target [and if your teammates are close too]?

Also it would be interesting if there is a need to form convoys to protect merchants owned by players (not just by npcs)

 

Silax

Yes, if you are grouped with a person, and that person engages in naval combat, you can enter as a team.  I am not sure if there is a distance requirement, but I assume there would be.

According to what the devs have been saying about the game, freetraders regularly team with naval officers and privateers in order to ensure safe travel.  Naval officers actually get "team" bonuses for speed in convoys (again, the magnitude is one of the things I suppose would change based on the type of ships and the skill level of the officers).  On the flip side, freetraders have skill buffs for repairing other players.  In this sense, there is a mutual benefit similar to that of regular mmo's (ie. priests and paladins in the fantasy sense).

Going it alone is definitely risky, as it should be in all mmo's.  A naval officer will likely not have much more of an advantage as compared to a freetrader if he gets into a fight with 2 or more pirates.  All it takes is for them to out maneuver you.

Also, we are talking about PVP here.  You need to remember you can get jumped by mobs just as well as other players.  Depending on where you go in the world map, it could be just as dangerous as simply traveling in an active PVP zone.  There won't be many lone pirates for the same reason.