Stan Rogers wrote:Analysis of a complicated battle and readjusting parameters would be a large part of the game for me if available. Time spent reading a real detailed battle report and devising new tactics along with a few more wild cards thrown in such as wind strength and direction would really put the interest back in battles for me.
When I didn't know how specific ships would react, things were much more interesting in the battle dept.
Not so much now.
That's one reason why the old firebrands have give up the jolly roger for trading.. no longer interesting so might as well make gc the boring way as battle is now as boring and not as profitable
I have to comment on this. Particularly the last part. Piracy in the form of skirmishing or lighting up a trader with HNs every now and then, does not require much more effort or planning than trading. Quite simple both things, and will easily become "routine". Unlike, say, stealing ships. That requires much more planning and effort. Deliberately reducing that aspect of the game is therefore not a good idea, in my opinion. There are of course OTHER aspects of the game, too, but "easy" piracy and trading is mostly routine.
That said, I don't think adding more parameters to combat is the way to go. Almost any way you do this, it will just be a way to increase the "combat power" of a ship one way or the other. If it's faster shooting, more precision or more damage, it all boils down to more combat power. And that's really not gonna make combat more strategic. I therefore think that ship abilities should have different aspects. The "Levi protection" sure is such a different aspect, but in my opinion a very bad one (I'd prefer "combat boosters" which I see as having no real impact before this, which I see as having a negative impact). Other abilities have been mentioned. Crew killing is another ability which one should be careful with. But I think there are several interesting options left. For instance
> Increased chance of sinking (reducing by 1 level) target ship
> Reduced chance of sinking (reducing by 1 level) target ship
> Slightly Increased plunder
> Increased cargo capacity
> Slightly Increased selling price (see this as the goods being stored better on board, perhaps)
or several other options. But pure "combat boosters" are really not what we need, in my opinion (I suppose slightly increased combat power could be ONE of the options...). We need abilities that really makes a strategic difference. The different choices should really make the ships (or preferrably fleets) different, giving slight advantages in certain areas. It should matter which abilities one choose. And I disagree with the first part of Stan's post. I dislike "hidden" rules, and did NOT find combat to be more "exciting" before I figured out roughly what the rules for combat is. So introducing more "secrets" is not the way to go. There should not be "there is a best fleet composition, but you have to find it, because we make the rules secret", like there is for ship attribute distribution. What is the "best" composition should vary from use to use. And not only from pirate to merchant, but between various trading styles, and various pirate styles. THAT would add another strategic element to the game.
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