sean0304 on Apr 19, 2015 wrote:

The obvious answer is that this feature is bad. These bed rest times for higher level companions are unnecessarily long! Like 4 to 7 hours for one companion? For what? Just so that when the next battle comes they'll die again and you'll have to wait another 4 to 7 hours? I mean really these time are ridiculous. I mean even 1 hour is ridiculous, I mean who thought it was a good idea to make these times 7 hours! I say these times should be reduced to like 20 minutes without the ability to wake the companions up. That will make you have 1 or 2 battles without that companion. I mean the only reason I'm typing this response is because i'm waiting for Bonnie Anne to heal for 5 more hours. The game is great, really but these waiting times are CRAZY and the prices for miracle whats-his-face are through the roof! I really can't stand this feature at all. I know all the people that are going to reply are gonna be like 'They only do this to make you try more companions!" yeah, i know that, That's the whole point but i mean once my main guys die then i send in my next guys and then they die and then it's just a never ending cycle of my guys dying. I mean i pay membership and I even buy crowns to keep you guys in business but i won't anymore if you guys keep this up. I really just can't stand this.

Sincerely,

Honest Brandon Freeman level 59

Actually they're doing this so you get hacked-off and come onto the message boards to complain. They love hearing when a player is having trouble because they forgot to defend or heal an important companion in battle. They enjoy the fact that you are now forced to use 'second rate' companions that you've neglected to level and train.
Where do you get the 7 hour 'bed-rest', aren't you exaggerating? Oh, you must have ignored the 'Scrapper' talent because 'this won't help me in battle'.
"Miracles aren't cheap".

sean0304 on Apr 19, 2015 wrote:

The obvious answer is that this feature is bad. These bed rest times for higher level companions are unnecessarily long! Like 4 to 7 hours for one companion? For what? Just so that when the next battle comes they'll die again and you'll have to wait another 4 to 7 hours? I mean really these time are ridiculous. I mean even 1 hour is ridiculous, I mean who thought it was a good idea to make these times 7 hours! I say these times should be reduced to like 20 minutes without the ability to wake the companions up. That will make you have 1 or 2 battles without that companion. I mean the only reason I'm typing this response is because i'm waiting for Bonnie Anne to heal for 5 more hours. The game is great, really but these waiting times are CRAZY and the prices for miracle whats-his-face are through the roof! I really can't stand this feature at all. I know all the people that are going to reply are gonna be like 'They only do this to make you try more companions!" yeah, i know that, That's the whole point but i mean once my main guys die then i send in my next guys and then they die and then it's just a never ending cycle of my guys dying. I mean i pay membership and I even buy crowns to keep you guys in business but i won't anymore if you guys keep this up. I really just can't stand this.

Sincerely,

Honest Brandon Freeman level 59

Try actually taking care of your companions in battle. Heal them, shield them, whatever you need to do to keep them from dying. And level up your other companions too of course, it comes in handy! I like this feature, before this came out I would foolishly send my companions out and they would get destroyed, but I would easily just go to a life fountain and it would be fine. This gives a more depth to combat in a sense that you need to play more strategically.

Have good companions and they won't die! And have back-ups!
I have 3 solid companions for my : Chantal, Bonnie and Wild Bill Peacock
My backups are El Toro, Louie LeBisque, that from the Tribal Crew Pack, and Hawkules.
Sometimes I put Chantal in battle when she's wounded , because the AI does not target her. Really, It's not that bad . You can live with it!

anecorbie on Apr 20, 2015 wrote:

Actually they're doing this so you get hacked-off and come onto the message boards to complain. They love hearing when a player is having trouble because they forgot to defend or heal an important companion in battle. They enjoy the fact that you are now forced to use 'second rate' companions that you've neglected to level and train.
Where do you get the 7 hour 'bed-rest', aren't you exaggerating? Oh, you must have ignored the 'Scrapper' talent because 'this won't help me in battle'.
"Miracles aren't cheap".

And plus when you're in Aquila and there's no one in the dungeons to help you because nobody's on team up your companions die there's no question about it

I really liked the original, random companion system. I LOVED the fact that I never really knew who was going to show up for the battle, so if I got a second-pager it was pretty nail-biting as to whether I'd win or not. If I didn't then the Life Fountain was a quick heal for everybody who got their butts kicked. But, I get that not everybody was happy back then -- a lot of people were looking for more control over their crew. They wanted to be able to use the same-old, tried-and-true team over and over and over and over....

But, I digress. With the new system, I can still have my random crew (Yay!) and others can have their favorites show up time and time again. However, there's no such thing as a free lunch, ya know! We lost the healing at the Life Fountain and we gained Miracle Mitch. I think it was overall a very good compromise to make MOST players happy.

I've been here since the beginning, so I know both the old way and the new way. In the old system I used every companion I gained. I trained all of my companions because I loved how my crew showed up randomly, except for my favorite first mate.

In the new system, I set my companions to all random and continue to train them all. I don't like the scrapper talent because I'd rather spend the point for it for something else; shields, accuracy, dodge, and power.

So in both versions, I played the game how they want you to. Use your whole crew, and keep them leveled. Only now when they die because they were gained up on, killed as they retreated, broken through the shields, no heals, etc I have to wait hours for them to come back again. I don't worry about it on my main character because she's maxed but on my lower characters it's not fun when half the crew goes down or more. When that happens, I just log off for the day.

Do I enjoy this? Heck no! I have a limited amount of time to play the game and I would love to be able to play with no crew bed rest restrictions. Also, yes I do have a character made for each class in various spots. I could just switch over to them but there are times where I just want to play the stronger character. I understand why they made bed rest, to have people use their crew. I always used my whole crew, so bed rest is more in the way than a help. However, this feature will probably never be changed so we just have to learn to live with it.

sean0304 on Apr 19, 2015 wrote:

The obvious answer is that this feature is bad. These bed rest times for higher level companions are unnecessarily long! Like 4 to 7 hours for one companion? For what? Just so that when the next battle comes they'll die again and you'll have to wait another 4 to 7 hours? I mean really these time are ridiculous. I mean even 1 hour is ridiculous, I mean who thought it was a good idea to make these times 7 hours! I say these times should be reduced to like 20 minutes without the ability to wake the companions up. That will make you have 1 or 2 battles without that companion. I mean the only reason I'm typing this response is because i'm waiting for Bonnie Anne to heal for 5 more hours. The game is great, really but these waiting times are CRAZY and the prices for miracle whats-his-face are through the roof! I really can't stand this feature at all. I know all the people that are going to reply are gonna be like 'They only do this to make you try more companions!" yeah, i know that, That's the whole point but i mean once my main guys die then i send in my next guys and then they die and then it's just a never ending cycle of my guys dying. I mean i pay membership and I even buy crowns to keep you guys in business but i won't anymore if you guys keep this up. I really just can't stand this.

Sincerely,

Honest Brandon Freeman level 59

More 'complex' systems yield better strategies & crew management. To fully implement all of the goodies that Advanced Companions 'has the potential to offer' (not all are going to take full advantage), it seems fitting that there is some form of 'penalty' that must accompany the goodness.

When Bed Rest wriggled it's way into my crew's life, I already had a pretty decent understanding of 'how not to lose crew members in PvE battle'. So, during normal- storyline play & advancement, Bed Rest had no affect on my pirate or crew. Taking care of them, proper training & learning the system = no, or very few, in-battle crew member losses. For this reason, as Captain Rosethorn noted, the Scrapper Talent also was of no use to me. But, I don't get much time for multiple runs at The Tower or The Arena-- so I don't have to worry about potentially wiping out 1/2 of my crew in a single day. With limited time, if I get a chance to run those dungeons I just wait until before my own bed rest & let my lost comrades heal up over night. So, again Scrapper is of no use to me & I'd rather use that point for another, more valuable talent. But I can see it being somewhat valuable to those w/ more time to play & potentially lose more companions. So it is there if you need it.

My opinion is that Advanced Companions was implemented to give us more options to make us think, make being a Captain a more hands-on approach & provide us a more complete gaming experience. When KI added Bed Rest, they also gave us the means to help overcome it. As Esperanza noted, the new system brought increased gold flow from tasks, selling of items from tasks & from The Tower itself. With pets bringing in pet gear to sell, I can easily 'revive' 2-3 max level companions in 1 day, with almost no effort & time involvement. At max, hitting 30-50k from chest farming can only take about 10 mins. (w/ friends on, or 2 accounts). So, you lose a hard hitter, take 10 mins., get the gold & be blessed by A Miracle.

(cont.....)

I'm not trying to get in a fight with anybody. I really like this new system but just make the times faster and miracle Mitch cost less. The thing is that I really am not bad at the game but the game is just hard when you're soloing everything in Aquila or when you wait for someone to join team up and when someone finally joins and they quit. This causes a lack of distrust in people and causes you to not join team up again. This causes someone like myself try to solo something causing almost all of my campanions to die. The only thing I'm asking is for KI to shorten the times to 1-60 minutes depending on where you are in the game.

To be honest it depend what talanet your companions have,as someone point out the scrapper talent will shorten the time amount of bed rest of our companions.However there is a disadvantage, your companion have to exchange a stat level for this talent.Bed rest is good, due to shorter amount of time required to heal.

The other way is the more traditional way, give your companion some great epics and train them well, close to your main character level. As well as some back up compainons with similar levels, it's longer but a lot more effective,in my opinon. Bed rest is bad takes longer to heal,unless gold is plenty to pay Mitch a service or have a tremendous( very high tolerance ) amount of patience to utilize the other companions.

In other words train long and hard or use the scrapper method but pay the penalty for faster healing.Like most factions pirates have to make a decision to see what is best. Bed rest in other words can go either way.

sean0304 on Apr 19, 2015 wrote:

The obvious answer is that this feature is bad. These bed rest times for higher level companions are unnecessarily long! Like 4 to 7 hours for one companion? For what? Just so that when the next battle comes they'll die again and you'll have to wait another 4 to 7 hours? I mean really these time are ridiculous. I mean even 1 hour is ridiculous, I mean who thought it was a good idea to make these times 7 hours! I say these times should be reduced to like 20 minutes without the ability to wake the companions up. That will make you have 1 or 2 battles without that companion. I mean the only reason I'm typing this response is because i'm waiting for Bonnie Anne to heal for 5 more hours. The game is great, really but these waiting times are CRAZY and the prices for miracle whats-his-face are through the roof! I really can't stand this feature at all. I know all the people that are going to reply are gonna be like 'They only do this to make you try more companions!" yeah, i know that, That's the whole point but i mean once my main guys die then i send in my next guys and then they die and then it's just a never ending cycle of my guys dying. I mean i pay membership and I even buy crowns to keep you guys in business but i won't anymore if you guys keep this up. I really just can't stand this.

Sincerely,

Honest Brandon Freeman level 59

I know you don't want to hear the same things from me that everybody else has, so I'll try to find different points to make.

To me, I see the waiting times as a "guillotine" of sorts. It provides incentive not to play so aggressively with my companions, who will eventually die because of it. I personally loved the old system. There was little punishment to sacrificing companions to win the fight. Now, you have to wait a long time for them to be healed.

HOWEVER, as a result of the new system, I've become better at PvP. While that may not seem like a big deal since it's just a small part of the game, it's pretty much one of the only things to do now. I have nobody to do Smuggler's Arena with most of the time, I've farmed Moo Manchu for any of the drops I want, and I have a maxed wallet. With that money, I've purchased the Smuggler's Cove(mainly for wishing well, but it looks amazing!) I'm happy with where my companions stand. So now, one of the few things I can do is PvP. I know there's pet sparring, but I prefer having control of the action. In PvP, if you sacrifice a companion, you pay for it. It's not like the AI that has little sense of strategy. Another human being is playing the other team, and now has one up on you. When you lose a companion, it gives them the option to double team(or even triple team) one of your other companions, or you.

My point is, you learn to value companions like your life. I've used Valor's Shield more on my Nausica and as a result, she lives more. Even if a small heal means El Toro lives with 200 Health, he'll be fully healed for the next match ahead, and you don't have to pay arm + leg to revive your him from Mitch.

I honestly don't have Scrapper, and as Anecorbie has said on another board in the past, it'll likely pay off when there's a new world. But if you play right, you don't have to worry too much about fallen companions. You'll lose a few, but that's just life.

Fearless Dolan Grant lvl65

FireMorgan13 on Apr 22, 2015 wrote:

I know you don't want to hear the same things from me that everybody else has, so I'll try to find different points to make.

To me, I see the waiting times as a "guillotine" of sorts. It provides incentive not to play so aggressively with my companions, who will eventually die because of it. I personally loved the old system. There was little punishment to sacrificing companions to win the fight. Now, you have to wait a long time for them to be healed.

HOWEVER, as a result of the new system, I've become better at PvP. While that may not seem like a big deal since it's just a small part of the game, it's pretty much one of the only things to do now. I have nobody to do Smuggler's Arena with most of the time, I've farmed Moo Manchu for any of the drops I want, and I have a maxed wallet. With that money, I've purchased the Smuggler's Cove(mainly for wishing well, but it looks amazing!) I'm happy with where my companions stand. So now, one of the few things I can do is PvP. I know there's pet sparring, but I prefer having control of the action. In PvP, if you sacrifice a companion, you pay for it. It's not like the AI that has little sense of strategy. Another human being is playing the other team, and now has one up on you. When you lose a companion, it gives them the option to double team(or even triple team) one of your other companions, or you.

My point is, you learn to value companions like your life. I've used Valor's Shield more on my Nausica and as a result, she lives more. Even if a small heal means El Toro lives with 200 Health, he'll be fully healed for the next match ahead, and you don't have to pay arm + leg to revive your him from Mitch.

I honestly don't have Scrapper, and as Anecorbie has said on another board in the past, it'll likely pay off when there's a new world. But if you play right, you don't have to worry too much about fallen companions. You'll lose a few, but that's just life.

Fearless Dolan Grant lvl65

I thought there was no penalty in pvp for defeated companions, have they changed this?

Captain Rosethorn on Apr 21, 2015 wrote:

Actually, to be honest, I don't like anything about the advanced system except that I have the ability to have my crew be pure random. Even making it so my favorite first mate is no longer in every single battle.

Training? Meh, I keep my crew 5 levels under mine. Then 1 tome = 3 levels right away. That's cheaper than buying 3 tomes for the same effect and faster than brawler.

Gold? What do I need to buy? Gear? Get that from drops. Weapons? Bizarre or drops. Ships? Not really. Houses? With how much I hoard my gold that's easy.

Ship exp? I don't care to sink the ships nor do I care about scrip. Why should I bother with this then? If I'm boarded, fine. If I sink the ship also fine. Shipping fighting is hard for me because I'm colorblind and seeing the target range is difficult as is the ship's hp level. Chrissy the Blesser, helped me so much by showing me screenshots of the target range and I followed that but it's still not easy. So I'm just not bothered by it anymore.

Pet wrangling? I have never gotten a pet egg from that. The snacks are only nice when you're high leveled to get high leveled snacks. Gear is pointless as I've gotten way too many from drops, training, and from that. Do I like training pets? Loads more than I do in Wizard. I enjoy this feature but I don't go out of my way to use it. I don't morph my pets to get the perfect one. I just take what I get and move on.

So overall, I only send my crew out on tasks when I'm done for the day and when I remember to even do this. Loads of times I just log out without having my crew do anything while I'm gone. So when I get back I just jump back into the game again. Oh yeah, and I never benched my crew on the old system. I didn't like doing that to them as I wanted each and every one to show up in battle.

I do like how we can add our crew to our homes. I've done that to two to make it feel more life like and I have more than enough to not feel their loss. I do miss them in battle at times.

Your post brings out, whether intending to or not, the greatest argument/debate for supporting Advanced Companions. Simply put-- it gives us the option to enjoy the game as we choose. I love pizza & college football, so I need as many options as possible (sorry, bad attempt at humor).

But you bring up the point that you can play the game, in regards to the AC system, the way you wish to...without using any of the options of the system. Meanwhile Johnny Pirate & his band of buccaneers can use a couple of options/benefits that they deem advantageous. And over here we have Gertrude Pirate & her swarm of swashbucklers that can choose to take full advantage of every aspect/option of the AC system. Johnny & Gertie are happy & you get to play the game in a way that best accommodates your wants. That's the great thing about options...they are optional! And can be left alone or used in-full or just picked through by each individual to enhance their own gaming experience.

Now Bed Rest, well yes that is not optional at all...or is it? Well, kind of sort of & to a degree. The better a player learns to adapt & learn strategy & take care of crew, the less opportunities for his/her crew to take a nap. Take on the Tower & Arena with a full group & lessen your chance of higher numbers of crew on Bed Rest. So, there are ways to use 'options' to help with that.

All in all, you provided a great message to players, even without meaning to-- Advanced Companions is a pretty decent system. Assign crew tasks..or don't. Scrap, Scavenge, Plunder, Wrangle..or choose not to. Gain extra Companion & Naut. XP & tomes..or don't. Set crew to whichever battle order you choose. The system gives us the opportunity to do none of these, all of these or a plethora of choices in the middle.

Bed Rest is the only aspect of the new system that really raises questions, concerns & even praises. And it's great for KI to see what players feel & think.

Well good luck Captain Rosethorn...and Johnny & Gertrude!