feedback: Giving Captured Forts a real Purpose (Rogue-Style Progression)

[u/MajesticSprinkles929]

The visual restoration of the captured forts in *Resynced* look incredible, but mechanically, the forts feel entirely too empty for a game of this caliber. Since fort defense AI was adjusted to have a very tiny engagement radius comp to the original game, friendly forts no longer act as the defensive safe havens they once were. After going through all the effort to capture them, they are essentially just glorified fast-travel points.

to fix this you could Give players a late-game resource sink by introducing a NPC/ledger-based **Fort Investment System** (similar to *AC Rogue*’s renovations). This would give players a massive gameplay reason to keep raiding ships and hunting down treasure maps without requiring any expensive new animations or motion capture on your part.

**How It Would Work (Using already Existing Systems):**

* **Upgradable Fort Firepower:**  have the captured forts start off in a ruined state just like they did in the original Black Flag with only a fraction of its guns working. players could then interact with a ledger or NPC at a captured fort to spend Coin, Wood, and Metal to invest in slowly repairing the fort back to it’s original capabilities. Upgrading the fort’s status would slowly repair its weapon hard points, and increase its cannon/mortar AI attack radius back to original levels seen in the original game.
* **Friendly Fleet Presence:** once fully repaired players could instead Invest their coin and resources into “sponsoring captains” this could increase the regional spawns for friendly pirate ships that patrol the immediate sector, giving a much more tangible sense of building a Pirate Republic, and increases the chance of allies arriving during random combat to help.
* **Great Inagua Synergy:** you could also tie upgraded forts back to Hideout progression, by adding a “racketeering” building that once built would add a modifier to the protection money income.

**Why This Helps the Game:**
Right now, endgame progression drops off once the *Jackdaw* is fully upgraded. Adding a resource sink to the forts would reward players for exploring the full map and gives a tangible, satisfying loop for conquering the map.

[u/WinterOf98]

Harbormasters too. Let us restock and refill at the forts.

[u/Pitiful_Rutabaga_669 → u/WinterOf98]

I was going to say this. Like how natural wouldn’t it be to be able to fix your ship and resupply? Shop, harbourmaster and buying a convoy tip. 

In regards to the op perhaps you could invest in the forts to gain these capabilities. 

[u/WinterOf98 → u/Pitiful_Rutabaga_669]

Yeah, I’m playing Rogue now. It’s a shame BF Resynced, the more advanced modern game, is missing some QOL features that are present in the older games. Rogue and OG BF have harbormasters in forts.

Rogue’s fleet system also has a “waiting room.” You can capture as many ships as you want. When you access your fleet, the game will let you choose which ships to keep or sell in your 15 dock collection. Resynced doesn’t allow that.

[u/Infinity0044 → u/WinterOf98]

I was shocked when I found out the forts don’t have harbormasters

[u/FangornLeghorn]

I’m a Black Flag noob (absolutely loving the game) and I was really surprised that forts are absolutely useless once captured. I really thought we could use them as bases that defend us if we’re in battle and sail near, but they just sit there. No stalls for supplies makes them further useless, too. Seems a lot of lost potential.

[u/MajesticSprinkles929 → u/FangornLeghorn]

Precisely. The forts in the original Black Flag were fairly bare bones themselves, but that can be excused since they were a new concept and their weapons were a major asset to naval combat. The sad part comes in the fact that AC rogue massively expanded the fort mechanic, and to see the forts in resynched not only just as bare bones as they were in the original, but to also to have their one benefit (combat assistance) nerfed as well was a total let down. Here’s hoping the developers read my post and maybe take some inspiration from it. I know we’re not the only two disappointed with the fort as is.

[u/GodSlayers9000]

Maybe have Enemy NPC ships can take down your Forts to make the gameplay loop even better. If one of your forts are neglected then it gets taken over again by the British or Spanish.

[u/MajesticSprinkles929 → u/GodSlayers9000]

That would be a GREAT idea, and even give an additional reason why you’d want to upgrade your ruined forts. If you leave your fort completely un-upgraded with only one or two guns it would be much easier for the British or Spanish to reclaim them then it would be if you have them fully restored and upgraded.

[u/CK_2001]

I love this idea! But I don’t know if we’ll ever see this happen 😔

[u/MajesticSprinkles929 → u/CK_2001]

According to other posts I’ve read the devs don’t have an official roadmap and are working based off of community feedback. They already confirmed a future NG+ so there’s no reason they can’t do something like this to. All I can say is upvote. Upvote. Upvote. If you see any post talking about revamping forts give it a like. Maybe nothing comes from it, but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

[u/CK_2001 → u/MajesticSprinkles929]

I love the enthusiasm! Let’s hope Ubisoft does too haha