Corruption system in relation to auto-flagging in open sea

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Well, we know that. If unclear, I absolutely agree with you on that.

I just think, after seeing much more ArcheAge content, that this is explicitly the goal. I don't feel that Corruption was ever supposed to be a real risk or punishment, just 'a different gameplay style'. We already got people forming theoretical future 'perma-red guilds'.

But ArcheAge is technically 'supposed to feel like a high seas pirate game' sometimes. If you live in coastal nodes, expect Pirate attacks. Particularly because stealing someone's Materials and then escaping with your Pirate Crew by ship adds a massive amount to the escape chances, while creating a 'natural gameplay opportunity' for everyone.

You're not getting 'griefed' by Pirates probably, they're taking your stuff and then hauling off, probably through epic chases, etc. But ArcheAge's open sea content is explicitly for a different 'tier' of player, so using it to support "Pirates" is pretty useful.

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It depends on how one interprets Risk vs Reward as a concept, and you know how that goes.

"Encountering more powerful opponents is a risk, for which you may gain the reward of whatever you can gather if you outwit/outrun/outfight/don't encounter them."

You're aware of it probably even more than I was. If I'd known the precise mechanics of ArcheAge before, I wouldn't have assumed that 'Risk' and 'Reward' meant the same thing to Steven as they do to me, for example. I don't think it's outside of the scope. There's a consistent thread of 'not considering the effects of (or on) a single Actor to be relevant' in that game, and similarly if you read Steven's statements about the game through that lens, they all make more sense, a lot of 'contradictions' disappear.

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That's still less risk.

A red is already at risk with 'everyone' ready and willing to PvP and knowing they can get dropped loot on land. It's riskier on land because now the Greens will attack you too if they think they can beat you, but you get a greater penalty if they're wrong.

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That's what I meant about the 'tier of player'. But it's not really a bigger threat situation. That's an 'illusion' that is created by the very culture of the game. If the Open Sea isn't actually that good for exp gain, or isn't particularly lucrative outside of few events, there's not as much reason to be out there even for players who are willing to PvP.

Similarly, since the PvP itself could easily be mostly ship related, the sort of person who wants to have a proper GvG synergized fight isn't going to be out at sea.

I'm kind of saying the same thing you are, but... more like this:

"You're safer on land because the less confident players will be there, because they'll avoid the seas due to the confident players being out there."

It would theoretically shift the Risk vs Reward of the ocean, but that's only because people already react by stratifying themselves. Now that's a part I don't agree with, but that part has less to do with the 'No Corruption' and way more to do with the 'profits available at Sea', so there's no way to comment on it.

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Actually my bad, I think I have a better way to explain this.

At sea, you don't actually have a reason to assume that everyone is out there to PvP if the PvE content out there is good. They enter the sea, they get flagged. The thing you're saying here is:

"You assume that anyone at sea thinks they are ABLE to PvP well enough to go." Which leads directly to stratification. If you've lost like 6 ship battles and think you will keep losing, the response from many would be 'stop going'. It's a filter, but it moreso 'seems' like a risk reduction, it's a 'trick of the mind', your actual risk isn't different. If anything it's lower because the population out there is lower.

I see this as similar to Tournaments for competitive games, but not quite. Sure, if you go to a Tournament you expect to face more strong opponents, but that's because the 'weaker ones' think it's pointless to go. In certain circles though, this leads to 'canceling the tournament due to lack of participants'. The number of strong opponents didn't explicitly change, the number of weaker ones did.

Idk if this makes sense, but figured I'd say it anyway.

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I definitely feel like the real problem I have here is that the other half of this equation is missing, for me.

If the Open Seas are not really that rewarding generally, just 'gives naval combat, allows for a few very niche but not terribly important forms of gathering', I don't care what they do.

If the Open Seas are where the Kraken spawns and the Kraken drops among the best gear in the game, I have a big problem immediately.

Making Decision A that goes against your system and then making Decision B to bring A back in line with your system is a valuable tool if the lore needs it. But lore ruining gameplay (if it were to do so) quickly leads to ruining game.

I think I just want to hear the other half of it. I don't believe it's technical reasoning, and I don't believe that 'transporting goods at sea' needed it either, and I actually especially DO NOT like the fact that players can cross the ocean safely without boats using ferries and flying and teleportation and whatever. Red flag again.

It feels like poking holes in solid systems to support an unnecessary one, so I would like answers.

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Please clarify if you perceive it would therefore be acceptable for all open world boss monsters to be Corruption-Free zones.

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Maybe story time ?

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Meant to illustrate that the 'feeling' of it is a possible goal, but more importantly that at full distance, an approaching ship would not need to 'be able to tell if a potential target was Purple or Green'.

It increases risk for a ship sighted at long range because the attacker does not need to 'worry' about 'going all the way over there' and wasting resources only to find 'just a few explorers out on a lark/pleasure cruise'.

The gameplay style of pirates and various cutthroats can differ in terms of long-term strategic play when one can simply 'assume any ship or player one sights is at least combatant'.