Flagship Suggestion

Version 1.0 Details

Pirates are the architects!
-Any Pirate may upgrade any ship (except Ship of the Line and Man o War types) he owns to be his Flagship. (Requirements will be finalized during development)
-A pirate may conduct this action only once. (In future versions, we might add ways to revert this)
-The Flagship receives a name that cannot be changed later.
-The creator is always the owner. If it changes hands, the player who receives it becomes the controller but not the owner.
-Plundering a Flagship from the owner, earns you the Pirate Hunter achievement.

Owner-Flagship Traits

As long as the owner controls the flagship:

• Every day spent under the Jolly Rodger flag, awards construction points to the Flagship.
• Every battle won with the Flagship under the Jolly Rodger flag, awards construction points to the Flagship.
• Flagships' constructions points can be used to improve the ship.
Only the Flagship creator can earn construction points for the Flagship and only the creator can spend them.

• It cannot be sunk by Leviathans (down to level 1 is possible)
• It cannot be sold to the Ships Market
• Max starting price for Players Ship Market will be 1 credit (so a true auction will take place on placement)

Flagship Traits

These are always active, regardless of controller.

• It brings a special marking to signify that it is a Flagship. This is visible in the Plunder Board.
• It brings a special marking to signify the owner. This is visible to the controller and in Spy Reports/
• It cannot be combined another Flagship in the same fleet
• Immune to Commandeer
• Immune to Tidal Wave
• No Shipwright will ever buy it
• It cannot be docked into the Private Marina

Functionality on construction points will be added once something more concrete is at hand. I will be updating post #3 for it till then.

Point of View

First of all, thank you everyone for your input at the previous topic. I have read and taken in mind everything. Naturally, since we do not have anything concrete at hand, this is not ready for a full suggestion. However, there is no time left. We must press onwards! We will do heavy revisions if need be


Introduction
Every important sailor, pirate or not used (still do) to have a Flagship. The discussion for a flagship in PG, started from Skyhawk, a renowned Pirate of our days in Avonmora, who placed it in his Pirate Wishlist. A list assembled nearly 4 years ago, truth be told. Old but not forgotten, this list has been our primary players reference on how we can improve Pirates Gameplay. Before the 4 years are passed, this list must be concluded. We hope that in the future our implementation times will improve. Our apologies for the delay.

So, looking back at the suggestion, the first important thing to answer here as devs is whether or not this ship will be entirely available to Pirates or not.

The ship

Whatever we are talking about, we must always keep in mind that we are speaking about a ship. What is a ship in Pirates Glory though? For those familiar with DnD, a ship is a full character. For those unfamiliar, we are speaking about an entity that can be improved a lot, because the basis that has been used is good enough to support extensions of any kind.

We need to keep in parallel with existing rules as much as possible. Creating a new set of rules just for one ship is not withing our intentions. These rules must be self-explanatory at most cases.

Captain Jack Sparrow and the Black Pearl

Most of you might have watched the Pirate of the Caribbean movies. I am sure you all discerned Sparrow's passion for the Black Pearl. Not only Sparrow's though as there were more contenders like Barbossa. Barbossa though, once he got Blackbeard's flagship, he had no interest for the Black Pearl. Both ships however, no matter who captained them, kept their traits. Even the Queen Anne, blacbeard's flagship.

The movies were a great example to reason why the ship traits should not be affected by the characters traits. It is reasonable for ships to receive bonuses from the owner but when we are speaking about ship traits, these should not be activated only under a specific person.

Ship Traits

Historically, maneuverability, ship size, ship speed, guns number were the key elements of a ship. Due to their importance,these were commonly the places where pirates mostly looked to improve in order to fight against better numbers. Double and triple hammocks to fit more crew were common. They were doing everything possible to fit in more guns (usually their priority). Copper plating to improve maneuverability and so on. All these are already featured, to be sincere.

Therefore, we got to look for different improvements. To be fair to the forthcoming ship abilities though, we should not be looking at such when speaking about a Flagship.

Flagship versus any other ship

What really makes a flagship special? It is first and foremost any special traits this ship has, to be chosen as a flagship - usually they are the best ship the owner has.
The flagship as a result, usually is manned by the best and most experienced crewmen alongside with the best captain the owner has. All these together, are expected to make the Flagship not only formidable in battle but also inflict terror into the hearts of the enemies.

When we are speaking about a Pirate Flagship, the terror should be greater.

Construction Points Functionality

CP = Construction Point(s)

Earning Construction points

Per day, based on Fame

• 10M or more - 30 CP
• 5M or more - 15 CP
• 1M or more - 5 CP
• 500k or more - 1 CP

During Battles won by Flagship's fleet

• Versus Original Flagship fleets - 30CP (Max 300CP per day)
Where Original Flagship fleet is a fleet that is led by a Flagship controlled by it owner.

• Versus Flagship fleets - 20CP (Max 200CP per day)
• Versus any Player fleet - 10CP
• Versus any NPC fleet - 1 CP

CP spending

You will spend CP earned to Flagship skills. For skill level will cost more CP than the previous. Here is the proposed scaling:

• Level 1: 300 CP
• Level 2: 450 CP
• Level 3: 675 CP
• Level 4: 1012 CP
• Level 5: 1518 CP
• Level 6: 2277 CP
• Level 7: 3415 CP
• Level 8: 5123 CP
• Level 9: 7684 CP
• Level 10: 11527 CP
• Level 11: 17290 CP
• Level 12: 25935 CP
.etc
.
.

Skills

Each Flagship will have a special set of skills, only available to them.
Skills will be upgrade able with CP. There will be no limit to the level of a skill.
Skills are usable by anyone controlling the ship.
Skills only apply to the ship or the fleet the ship is in.

Proposed Skillset

1.Survivor
Pirates have seen so many attempts from the Witch Doctors to harm their precious ship that they have found ways to improve it in a way to avoid them

Every level increases chances to avoid any damaging voodoo curse by 10% (Hard limit 99%, only when they target the ship - can act as a good shield for Fire ship for the other ships in the fleet as selection is random).

2.Legacy
Beating such a ship in battle is enough - no one looks for gold at such wins, they mostly look to pray for their fortune to survive and cheer for their unexpected win.

Every level decreases total plunder bounty that would otherwise be paid on loss by 6% (this means that's the last modifier so the hard limit will kick in before it). (hard limit 78%, cannot go lower than 1k)

3.Gunner
Who wouldn't like more GUNS on board? Pirates have found the most amazing ways to increase their guns size!

Adds 2 extra cannon slots per level. (4 was deemed too powerful - more cannons = more hp as well, hard limit of 100 guns).


At least 3 more skills should be added before this is added. Most probably we will wait for ship abilities first.

What about adding an increased crew skill. Typically (as you said) pirates modified their ships to hold and sleep more crewman. This could act as a maneuver / speed modifier.

I do not think it should be based on Fame, for a pirate has little ships and looses some fame after every hit.

Perhaps battles per day? ( Wins )

John Avery wrote:I do not think it should be based on Fame, for a pirate has little ships and looses some fame after every hit.

Perhaps battles per day? ( Wins )

Ship count has minimal effect with the fame update. All pirates are assumed to have 200 ships.. and fame should be a goal as it has few noteworthy uses.

Then I must be doing it wrong...

Can the ship be sunk in battle, as per the plunder rules? Or is it completely unsinkable?

Charles Vane wrote:What about adding an increased crew skill. Typically (as you said) pirates modified their ships to hold and sleep more crewman. This could act as a maneuver / speed modifier.

Yarrr... bloody traders whine a lot mateyyy!

Jessy's Dream wrote:

Charles Vane wrote:What about adding an increased crew skill. Typically (as you said) pirates modified their ships to hold and sleep more crewman. This could act as a maneuver / speed modifier.

Yarrr... bloody traders whine a lot mateyyy!

The problem is with Skirmish. Having a too powerful ship would mean that Skirmishing will become easier. It would be good to give traders some sort of defense within the current system and not necessarily with a new system as it seems to be the only real solution in the long run.

We deliberately kept away from bonuses affected by current attributes. We also kept away from the plunder earnings (not losses though) at least until we get some changes there. Although the Pirate counterpart here would not want to hear any of this saying "why would I need to upgrade to get what is rightfully mine?".