Suggestion- perhaps there should be a list of the notorious nations that would be recommended for a new player to join whenever they are creating their account. This would help with player retention (imo) and help them get stipends, etc.

USA - Prime example of why notoriety, owning ports, or having an active nation player base does not equate to people staying. If it did, the USA wouldn't be constantly racking in inactive players every month.

I meant this moreso for people who are from, say, Argentina and when they join they choose that as their nationality and they're alone in their nation. I know I wouldn't have stuck around if I didn't have all of my Spaniard buddies when I was in Ayes.

I agree, i entered and put my real nationality (from switzerland). and i was alone.
Maybe not a list of the most powerful and best nationalities, or everyone will join them often or always. Maybe jsut adding a message if you are trying to set swiss nationality that "at the moment, people holding X nationality are 0" or "at the moment, people holding X nationality are Y" and maybe adding that "if you want to set your X nationality, be aware that your risk to play alone and you will lose many advantages, maybe try to find another nationality or risk with you X nationality"

so if i try to set swiss nationality i will receive an hint not to proceed further, because it's risky. But at the end i don't know which one joining, i can try another one totally randomly or one community which speaks a language i speak (even though they aren't my compatriot).

DezNutz wrote:USA - Prime example of why notoriety, owning ports, or having an active nation player base does not equate to people staying. If it did, the USA wouldn't be constantly racking in inactive players every month.

you friggin narrow minded mofo.. yes the usa has a alot of inactive players, they also by far have the most new players join the game.. most people in the world wont like this game therefore you will always have a high number of inactives "those who joined and decided this is not the game for them .. which happens to be mostly in the nation united states of america.. now if you dont understand the mechanics there of how that works you are dumb as hell

I think you miss the point being made. Just joining a active nation, even a notorious one with ports and all the bells and trimmings doesnt mean that a new player will stay active. I agree its an unwelcome piece of reality but what binds folk to this game isnt necessarily being on a winning side. There are 21 ports but hundreds of nations. It aint gonna happen that every nation gets a bite of that cherry. The game needs to offer other challenges and paths to glory other than ports and nations. Not saying they aint a path in themselves but the math is simple enough. In my years in the game cant recall ever seeing much more than six or seven different flags on the map at any one time and many of them have faded and never returned.

I'm still convinced that the best course is for new players to always start as a pirate. Once they have a feel for the game, want to stay and maybe have a clearer idea of the politics and realities of nations in Avonmora then they can choose their path with a degree more knowledge than looking at a pretty flag.

@Danik yeah this would be even a nice idea, to start as a pirate. The only problem i see is that a community of pirates would be too "dispersive". i mean, i entered in the game and understood not much of it, let's say that the wiki isn't perfect and finding information isn't the easiest thing to do. So the best idea has been to join an active guild and getting hints and help from them.
If you start as a pirate, you risk that veterans belong to a nation and don't help people nor with funds nor with hints because those newcomers/pirates aren't with them, so i think you risk to lose many newborns cause they are lost in the vastity of the game.

And honestly, being a pirate newcomer here is really really complicate, overall when you see only fleets with 5 ships of the line lvl 10, how can you compete ? what would be the purpose of a newcomer pirate if he has no chances to win ?

I think that another solution would be of bringing invented flags. If you put a flag called "United States of America", americans or even people from commonwealth or just english speakers (and being THE international language, helps) will join this flag. I am swiss and my choices where between switzerland or USA, but i would have NEVER chosen China or Bangladesh or whatever, cause i don't speak their languages ! But you can easily see that "naturally" i will be pushed toward a simple choice. My nation or a nation where they speak a language i can understand ... english in general.
It will be complicate or mostly impossible that a newborn will choose Germany or Liechtenstein or Luxembourg or Andorra or Vatican State !
So if you invent a flag with nice pirate names, people would join a game with invented flags and have no clue which one to join. So it will be quite "random" the choice and every flag will have more or less the same chance to be chosen. While at the moment, people always chose almost the same flag.

That has been suggested in a slightly different way. One idea was to reduce nations down to maybe 20 or 30. This was thought to be useful as it would at least give most of the 20/30 nations a chance at building up some active numbers and wealth to challenge for ports.

I agree with your point about newcomers maybe feeling lost in the game. I certainly was and was about to quit when a hand of friendship was offered me, and I stayed and kinda never left. I think guilds need to be more active. Pirate guilds certainly. But its a problem for guilds too. Too many newbs and they become hard to defend, especially when under attack by experienced enemies. Its a lot of work for the 'mentors' too. To the point it can seriously limit their own playing time on their own account. Training guilds require great dedication to do the job. So I would favor more guilds each taking a handful of newbs through to a skilled level.

Mack wrote:

DezNutz wrote:USA - Prime example of why notoriety, owning ports, or having an active nation player base does not equate to people staying. If it did, the USA wouldn't be constantly racking in inactive players every month.

you friggin narrow minded mofo.. yes the usa has a alot of inactive players, they also by far have the most new players join the game.. most people in the world wont like this game therefore you will always have a high number of inactives "those who joined and decided this is not the game for them .. which happens to be mostly in the nation united states of america.. now if you dont understand the mechanics there of how that works you are dumb as hell

Did you even read what I wrote? Do you comprehend English? Take off your "I dont' like Dez" blinders.

I quite literally said that notoriety, port ownership, etc has nothing to do with players staying. IE. "those who joined and decided this is not the game for them" and just left.

And you call me narrow minded.

I think it sounds good but the problem is if the game recommends a nation with a high tax to keep people out then all of a sudden a lot of new players instantly cant pay taxes and become pirates. imagine if USA changed the tax law to max for low ranks it would discourage nearly all kill most new players