[Deprecated] Another big feature: Ship abilities

[Captain Jack]

Ship Abilities.

In short, we will create a shortlist of possible ship abilities. Here are some examples:
-Chain Shot (Destroys ship upgrades during battle - attribute points are not lost though)
-Grape Shot (Kills ship crew during battle)
-Runaway (Ship has a chance to avoid attack - fleet-only: in case of multiple ships in a fleet, all ships will need this ability to roll a runaway chance)
-Sneak (No danger for port arrival - fleet-only: see above for explanation)

Other ideas (names)
Boarding
Raiding
Scouting

Other ideas (effects)
auto repair
merchant bonuses
scouting
specific ship attack


There could also be negative abilities like:
Weakness - (-20% armor class against ship it has weakness).
So for example, Trade Galleons could have weakness to Sloops.

The ship abilities will be specific to ships and will be listed in the shipwright. In this way we will make ship building more strategic than it is now.

For example, pirates used to prefer Brigs and Brig of Wars. We could think of certain ship abilities that would fit on these ships to make them a true choice for players who want to be pirates.

I would like to hear your feedback and your ideas on this idea.

[Phill]

Very much like the basic idea of it! Would ship abilities only be inherent of certain types of ship or would it be possible later on to pay and upgrade certain ships either through missions, money and voodoo? There is a lot of potential for expansion once the basic idea is implemented methinks, depending on what way it wants to be taken.

Maybe the smaller ships can have a decent bonus at being harder to hit, so they can't be obliterated by a SotL straight away. Or maybe they could have an ability to escape from an attack if the attacking fleet is significantly stronger. Not guaranteed, but a chance at the cost of a loss less fame than usual, and no gold. It'd certainly make things more interesting in making battles have not so obvious an outcome, giving a plucky few ships a chance at least to fend off the indestructable fleets that are around.

(Edit: Just noted the runaway idea you yourself said. I'm not trying to steal it, honest!)

[Captain Jack]

Well put.

Regarding the further growth of a ship, once you built and upgraded it, we can always add experience.

It will be mentioned as "Crew Experience". Here are some ideas on how it could be earned.
-Number of ports visited (only for merchant ships - such diversity already exists and it is easy to discern it)
-Damage dealt + ships sunk during PvE / PvP fights (PvP will earn more)
-Voodoo cards perhaps (Rare only, like master craftmanship - equal xp to 1 successful battle perhaps)
-Missions & Quests (as Phill suggested)

Crew Experience will then give you ability points. Then you will be able to spend the ability points on the available abilities for this ship.

In case we choose this way, then we can definitely think of more ways to make it even better. We just need clean objectives on what we are trying to do here and these are:
-More interesting battles
-More strategy in ship building
-Ships will play an even more important role

Edit: It is worth mentioning, that battles can also be enriched with Fleet formations which will boost specific abilities or actions, like runaway (we will play with chances). This can be added anytime, now or later.

[John rackham]

I think a lot of the differentiation between ship types will grow out of the projected developments to the game. For instance if strongholds and troops to attack them are introduced, the smaller ships might carry raiding parties, the larger ships marines and regulars. I'm dreaming of fortifications, blockades, bomb ketches, fireships. If banks are introduced and have a specific location, I might need to shift gold as cargo to and from banks, treasure hoards and so on.

- The carrying capacity of ships could be adjusted. At the moment there is no trade route on the map where Trade Galleons are more profitable than Large Merchantmen. In fact LMs at the moment seem to be far and away the best trading ships. If cargo holds were adjusted so that ships were moving roughly the same amount of cargo per hour, and the ships were priced according to carry capacity per hour, there would be more reason to buy a variety of ships.

- Such an adjustment could allow for other strengths and weaknesses: if out-of-the-box galleons were given a higher basic defensive strength, their base cargo capacity would be reduced to create a trade-off for different ship types.

- The "War" types could be treated the same way, a better fighting ability but lower cargo capacity then their 'civilian' equivalents. If I am defensive-minded I might want to work with fleets of 4 Trade Galleons + 1 War or Flag Galleon as an escort : slow but durable and quite tough to attack. If I am the evasive type, 4 Brigs and a War Brig and so on. Pure warships might have little or no cargo space.

- Increase cargo capacity as ships are levelled up, so I have a choice between building a few heavy lifters or more lower capacity ships, with the strategic development questions that go with it.

- As well as crew experience, allow officers to be identified as individuals and trained (for gold/turns) for specific skills and duties. The escalating cost of buying each new officer could be replaced by a hefty cost to train officers and increase their efficiency. Captains and Admirals might get particular military skills, Merchants the skills to bargain for greater profits per trade.

- Introduce trading contracts. Each port, as well as buying and selling goods generally, issues trade contracts during the day which carry a premium in gold (maybe also voodoo cards, officers, training). The contracts would have to be filled within a time limit and for a given amount of goods. For some contracts I might need a fast fleet, for others a fleet with enough cargo space to carry the required amount. There would be a gold penalty for taking and then failing to meet a contract, maybe gold could be deposited when taking the contract and returned only on success. I would want a mixture of ship types available to go for these contracts.

- Allow cargoes to be captured by the victor of a battle. This would be especially fun if gold were a portable commodity. it would encourage mixed warfleets of warships (if they have little cargo capacity) to fight and merchants to carry the spoils.

- Prize taking. If victors were allowed to take ships directly off the vanquished it could get rather painful on the wallet. If I win and sink an enemy ship, or reduce it a level, I would have the choice of getting the equivalently-levelled ship in the port I am based at. My ships would lose crew to form a prize crew, so I would want some larger ships with big crews in my fleet to allow this. Not sure this would work as I could immediately buy crew at the port anyway, but it may have possibilities. It would encourage battles as a way to expand.

- Eliminate voodoo cards which directly damage enemy ships or affect battle outcomes (begone, dread Leviathan!). I can make my enemy's life difficult and expose his fleets to plunder with voodoo but the only attack capability I have is in my shipping. Maybe replace Call Leviathan with something like Eyes Everywhere which adds enough DR to a selected enemy fleet to put it on the Plunder list.

- I like the idea of giving some ships abilities vs others elephant-beats-lion-beats-mouse-beats-elephant-wise. A sloop that can nip in, pinch a little bit of cargo and gold from a galleon fleet, and be away before the victims have woken up, would be fun. Especially for new players after piracy careers who could make a living without being more than a low-level nuisance for the mighty.

[Captain dungeness]

Wow,
That's a ton of good ideas John Rackham. I really like what you said about attributes that would increase or decrease cargo capacity. It would be exciting to outfit a fleet of low level trade galleons to carry almost zero cargo and tons of guns! That way a pirate will get a nasty surprise every now and then when he tries to plunder my trade fleets. I imagine each ship type having 1 additional attribute category which is unique to its ship type. You can choose to level that ability or any of the other 6 (maybe take 1 out so the total is 6 instead of 7). Then for trade galleons the ability could be more cargo space and Large Merchantmen could be run away... Cutters could be more cargo as well (that way a new player who chose a cutter for his/her first ship could decide to trade more instead of plunder). That way I would be encouraged to level up my trade ships at least to 3 or 5. By level 3 I would get the special ability maxed to 10 and by level 5 I would also have more sails. Right now it's not cost effective to level trade ships much.

I would also like to chime in and say I would really like to have more diverse ships in my fleets. Right now the Large Merchantman is by far the best at trading and I only have 3 other ship types I want to build: SotL of course, Brigs of War (because they are cheap and easily replaced), and sloops to scout and be placed at the end of fleets so they lose a level instead of an expensive ship.

I also agree with the rock-paper-scissors of fleet combat. It would be great to need to choose between your different fleet types when deciding to attack another fleet. eg. if you want to plunder a Large Merchantmen fleet you know you need some fast ships because they could possibly outrun your War Galleons. So you send in your Sloops of War. If the fleet had been Trade Galleons you would prefer to send in your heavier/slower ships in case they outfitted a few extra cannons that your Sloops wouldn't want to face. It would be the same case with Patrolling NPC fleets. Then a new player could have a chance at patrolling (at the moment you can barely make any gold by patrolling as a new player).

Moral of the story: Choose the right battles and choose the right weapons.

-Captain D

[Captain dungeness]

Oh, also I'm a little worried about adding experience to ships/fleets. That would make it harder for new players to match the power of older players with the same type of fleets. I would rather win because of my knowledge of what attributes are best to upgrade rather than a game mechanic that makes the ship better. I'm already learning, the ship doesn't need to....

Also it would be very easy to get lots of "experience" by plundering a ton of new players or 1 big inactive player even though the battles provided no real challenge. When I first made my Ship of the Line fleet I spend many turns losing to Pirate Hunters in order to understand what the best upgrades are for Ships of the Line. Those were challenging battles and I got experience with the game by doing it.

-Captain D

[Blackk]

Hello ,my first post here. I got some idea about danger and ships ablities.
Small ship should have small danger rise after attack. Big ships like SOL much more danger + after attack.
Amout of danger should rise more if we have a full fleet or one ship in it.
Maybe a some ships should have a "sneak" hide in mist" ability or something smillar. But that must have a some disatvantage.

[Hawk]

Hello ,my first post here. I got some idea about danger and ships ablities.
Small ship should have small danger rise after attack. Big ships like SOL much more danger + after attack.
Amout of danger should rise more if we have a full fleet or one ship in it.
Maybe a some ships should have a "sneak" hide in mist" ability or something smillar. But that must have a some disatvantage.

I think this is a great idea.. a ship of the line blasting into port would draw much more attention than a sloop doing the same

[Captain Jack]

Hello ,my first post here. I got some idea about danger and ships ablities.
Small ship should have small danger rise after attack. Big ships like SOL much more danger + after attack.
Amout of danger should rise more if we have a full fleet or one ship in it.
Maybe a some ships should have a "sneak" hide in mist" ability or something smillar. But that must have a some disatvantage.

This is probably the best idea I have heard on danger manipulation for a while.

For the rest I am reserving my replies for now as I have not the time to fully respond as needed right now.

[Captain Jack]

Just to record here a new idea for future reference;
-A ship ability or game mechanism that involves ship repair restrictions after an attack, like a time limit and/or restricted/more expensive repair cost during an initial set/adjustable timeframe.