[Implemented] Skirmish

[Captain meow]

I just wanted to add here that this feature will combo with Treasure fleets, aka fleets carrying gold bars. Finding the Treasure fleets of a player will help you earn fat profits.

on second thought i likie

[Warrior]

When will this feature be implemented ?

[Captain Jack]

Update:

We believe that we should use the current cargo loot method for Skirmish as well.
The initial idea was to let the attacker grab the cargo directly. However this cannot work well for a series of reason.

This method, for those unaware, is the transformation of cargo to gold coins, with which the plunderer is paid.
For gold bars, since there is no base price, we will use the port price at the moment of the attack.

[Roberts]

Hey up testing something?...
Latest battles in the vinicity of St.Martins
Previous Port | Next Port
When... Attacker Defender
56 Mins 21 Secs Hellas Administrator (#1) England JessyA (#23009)???...

Admin i hope you have hired diplomats... do not want to get your hostility to high with england...

[Captain Jack]

We are almost ready to implement it. We might break a record in released features in one day, if we have not broke it yet.

Although, for stability reasons, we might better do it tomorrow or in Saturday. Some extra testing helps.

[Roberts]

We are almost ready to implement it. We might break a record in released features in one day, if we have not broke it yet.

Although, for stability reasons, we might better do it tomorrow or in Saturday. Some extra testing helps.

Do you want to test skirmish on one of my fleets? I have nothing to loose... Congrats btw...

[Captain Jack]

This feature will be delayed as we are still at large undecided on some details.

Specifically:


[GENERAL THOUGHTS - WRITE AS I THINK THEM - SKIP TO BOTTOM for MOST PLAYERS]


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Gold Bars loot
-First, we said that winner should receive the gold bars.
-Then we changed it and made them to transform to gold coins on win, based on loser's port gold bars price.
-Now, we think that this should be a way for attackers to get Gold Bars. Whether they will sell them or not, should be their decision.
-In order to create the best solution, is to keep the transform to gold coins procedure for all resources but Gold Bars. Gold Bars will not be tranformed to gold coins but will only be able to be looted. In this case, it is not a problem if the warship cargo is smaller as even 30 gold bars (what a cutter can carry) worths about 90k (at best).
-This will result in yet one more rule difference with plunder where Gold Bars are already transformed to gold coins (based on loser's port sale price).

Objectives we keep in mind are:
-The less differences in rules, the better.
-The fewer rules, the better.

Fleet Protection

-We spoke of a 48hour protection on the fleet that receives an attack.
-This after all, does not seem like a great ideas as it opens options for unrealistic exploitation.
-The reason we wanted to put protection on the fleet, was to ensure that a specific player cannot be targetted a lot by other players.

Objectives we keep in mind are:
-We want skirmish to help players to pull profit from other players without the usage of voodoo.
-We do not want skirmish to act as a feature that can help in a player's anihilation.

Objective number 2 will mostly be accomplished with Cargo loot. If a fleet cargo loot is empty, then the defending player has nothing more to lose. So, if a defender's fleet cargo is empty, the attackers receives 0 earnings.

Problems:
-Low profit for attacker. If you exclude gold bars, then the most expensive resource are tools, with base price by 20. That's about 12k on a 5LMM fleet.
This is why we added the gold loot as well.

Possible Solutions:
-We could make the gold loot relative to cargo loot instead of %. This way we will solve most of our problems. For example, we could give the equivelant of cargo loot.

This solution would combo with the gold bars remaining intact as the gold value would not factor in this calulation. Such rules are less of a problem as they are handled by the computer and the players are not necessarily on a disadvantage in the case they are unaware of how exactly loot is calculated.


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[SOLUTIONS OFFERED]

1.No special protection rules.
2.Gold Bars are looted as crates - all other resources as their gold coin equivelant (base price assumed)
3.Extra Gold Coin plunder, from the loser's gold coins at hand, equal to Gold Coin Cargo Value

-If the loser has no gold at hand, no extra gold coin plunder.
-Fame Plunder is equal to total Gold Coin plunder

-Solutions above have been updated in the topic's first post.
-These solution result in no limitations at all. The only real limit will be skirmish points.

Your feedback is not only welcome but in fact required. Read first post if you are confused already.

[Greythorn]

Just some rum-induced random thoughts:

1. Raise the number of skirmish attacks to 8 per day. A pirate could then hit 8 - 5LMM fleets (w/ tools) and generate $96,000 in daily income.
- Results will be more PvP action. Also, pirates will focus on ports with tools. Traders can then either trade in the lower profit ports or run the risk in the tools market (which they need for smelting & ship building).
2. Drop the gold bar extra compensation. If Gold Bars are in the cargo, the pirate has won the lottery (option to sell or keep should remain).
- Result is this will force the pirate to try and figure which fleets to hit and Traders will continue to switch gold fleets to confuse the pirates. Traders will try and sell gold bar in non-tool ports to avoid high pirate areas. Pirates will need to choose when to go after gold trading ships in non-tool ports.
3. If pirate attacks the fleet, wins and the cargo is empty - no pay day (as discussed)
4. If pirate attacks a fleet and loses, then they have to pay a bounty (amount open to discussion but maybe 5% of their Treasury) Given most pirates carry around $500,000 in their Treasury - it would be a $25,000 bounty. There should be some risk to attacking a fleet.
- Result is that players will look to upgrade both attack and trade fleets. Traders will add SOL to protect and increase demand for gold bars. Attack & defend voodoo will then become more necessary at the fleet level and help with specialization when that arrives.
5. No fleet protection, no danger to trade fleet and route should continue as discussed.
6. Reduce attacker danger penalty to +2. This way the attacker's fleet gets 1 free hit before they go on the plunder board. Pirates can then build multiple fleets to take advantage. Also, Traders who carry very high Treasury balances ($2M+) can have a pirate fleet without exposing their entire gold coin balance.

[Synyster]

4. If pirate attacks a fleet and loses, then they have to pay a bounty (amount open to discussion but maybe 5% of their Treasury) Given most pirates carry around $500,000 in their Treasury - it would be a $25,000 bounty. There should be some risk to attacking a fleet.
- Result is that players will look to upgrade both attack and trade fleets. Traders will add SOL to protect and increase demand for gold bars. Attack & defend voodoo will then become more necessary at the fleet level and help with specialization when that arrives.

Greythorn, your rum-induced thoughts appear pretty detailed, well thought-out.. i like the above point especially.. it could lead to several interesting developments.. like several different fleet set-up.. traders for example, might want to confuse raiders by transporting gold bars using frigates and brigs.. lots of possibilities..

[Loki]

+1 Greythorn, these are all nicely balanced Rum induced thoughts and would make the game a lot more intriguing to play as well