Captain dungeness wrote:Xep, You have some big talk. That's fitting for a pirate game but take it easy on insulting other player's decisions.
I agree with Monkeyluffy, Voodoo is incredibly powerful and can take people from the top to the bottom in just a few hours. When you buy many voodoo packs you are so much more powerful than if you try to fight with only the free cards. Even with one of the largest, if not THE largest trading fleets I am no match for someone with many voodoo cards. If a fight starts I can retaliate once or twice but an opponent with many cards can easily overwhelm.
I have played other free-to-play games and most of the time by paying money you get something instantly which you can also earn by playing for a long time. In this game the same is true except for HOW LONG it takes to earn the same amount of cards without paying. For $19.99 a player can get the same amount of cards as if they played for 4 months getting 4 cards/day. Since voodoo hasn't been out for 4 months it's impossible to compete at this point (of course this will change the longer voodoo is around so it might not be a problem).
The game won't be fun to play if it seems like the only way to stay on top is to out-pay everyone else because non-paid rewards aren't strong enough. I want this game to do really well and I want everyone to support the developers but right now the reward for paying DWARFS the reward for playing the game for a long time.
If you can support the hopes of the PK who want to change things after what they did to eliminate your rule then I can come up with SOME flexibility on the issue. However, no individual player should ever be able to be so devastated by the combined efforts of a guild that it has the same effect as a single player with many of each card. As it stands, I have nothing to fear from a guild that they don't also have to fear from me. I have, of course, not abused my power in any way that would violate a pirate's code or that of a merchant who only wants to preserve his gold and future prospects. I do not voodoo innocent players. In fact I contact them and advise that they join CTC to get tutored on how to be safe and profitable. I've never used destructive, diminishing or disruptive voodoo on anyone who didn't attack my fleets, my prospects or my character. So I am hardly a villain. Cold wars are fought without unnecessary violence. I fight a cold war. If things change that make me an easy target, I may have to change my tactics and that would not be good for any player who attacks my fleets, my prospects or my character. I enjoy being able to enforce my right to trade and grow. If you limit the number of active curses placed on a given player by a given player, then you have to limit total undesirable curses that can affect a given player regardless of caster. This will place players in a long line of would-be curse casters who have cause to go after a particularly unscrupulous pirate. It will not, however protect the would-be victims of that pirate. So then there would have to be limits to the total undesirable curses cast by a given player. This would be unfair to a player who's hopes and dreams are being endangered by the group efforts of a guild. This is why there are stack limits on certain cards and why others are un-stackable.
The answer is obvious and given the eloquence with which some of you make your arguments, I am surprised that it hasn't been suggested rather than the suggestion made in this topic. There must be limits placed on the total number of any given card that can be held by a given player. If that player is part of a guild then the limit is divided by the number of members in the guild of that player. So, as a player is added to or leaves a guild, the limit on each card that a player can hold is recalculated and, if applicable, reduced or increased. There are no allowances made for cards lost by the approval of an applicant who is found to be a liability and is therefore expelled. Any card that is eliminated, upon inclusion of a new member to a guild, is simply lost to the sea (so to speak) and is not returned to the player who lost it if the member is subsequently banished. This would place more responsibility on Guild Masters to choose their members wisely and to organize group attacks with precision. This would also necessitate a limit of member number for each guild which would result in the expulsion of non-participating members, thereby improving gameplay. That is how this game can be balanced. If you disagree, please explain in detail.