[Deprecated] Another big feature: Ship abilities

[Captain Jack]

It is nice to have intense feedback from the playerbase; it shapes the game in a better way.

[Achillies]

Percentages are guessed although I did do some research

Sloop - Increased avoidance 25%
Fluyt - If you have less than 10 trading routes sells goods for +1 gold
Sloop of War - Increased critical hit rate
Galleon - Chance to find ships adrift at sea while traveling (like tidal wave)
Large Fluyt - Continues trade route when attacked
Merchantman - 3% chance for fleet on a trade route to escape when pirated (stackable)
Brigantine - Explodes in defeat and deals damage to attacking ship (must be level 10)
Brig - Free crew/cannon upkeep
Brig of War - Quick Repair
War Galleon - If Guarding/Escorting +25% damage
Frigate - Increased avoidance 10%
Flag Galleon - Increases armor, and accuracy of all other ships in fleet by 10% (non-stackable)
Ship of the Line - Avoidance -50%

I think most ships should have two abilities to choose from when built offering greater variety. I'll post more ideas later
Last edited by Hawk on Wed Feb 13, 2013 9:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
"Think about it.. then if you still don't agree go back and think about it some more"


Hawk dont want you to think i just posted only negative stuff.. but so you know this is much better than what you did have. just want know what is 50% avoidance???? would like that clarified for me please some times i tend to take things the wrong way and just want to insure i know what this means..
Pandah did not mean to imply that you had large numbers of SOTLs. just large quantity of trading vessels and im sure you only have what is needed to defend yourself so i apologize if i offended you by any suggestion that you had large numbers of SOTLs. We all know you are just a friendly trader with no intent on attacking any one

[Hawk]

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through to the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would maneuver to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear. Since these engagements were almost invariably won by the heaviest ships carrying the most powerful guns, the natural progression was to build sailing vessels that were the largest and most powerful of their time.

Since this ship takes the role of a tank I think the most logical Nerf would be avoidance

[Random pandah]

but...my trading fleet is teeny weeny, the size of say a player with a quarter of my time here xD




y gice them the only negative ability? y not give them an ability thats just slightly weaker then those given the rest? like speed or something? ur other suggestions make me want to diversify my fleets already xD

[Hawk]

Well avoidance boosts/decreases should really be part of ship stats rather then abilities. But since that update might be awhile off, the easiest way to incorporate that would be abilities. How about this one though:

Ship of the Line - When guarding a port that is controlled by your nation +5% Damage boost

I also tweaked my previous numbers to more realistic stats

[Captain Jack]

Additional ideas:

General Scheme:
-Every ship type will get a set of possible abilities. Players will choose which ones to upgrade.
-Every ability will be upgradable with attribute points. The more attribute points you put on it, the better this ship abilities will perform. Initial max will be 10.

New ability idea:
-Protection against Call Leviathan. Each level adds 5% protection.

[Captain dungeness]

Ooooh, I like the Leviathan Resistance ability. As long as I can choose between the leviathan resistance and another ship ability. I would probably only have a few ships with that protection and most others I would want something to help with trading or combat.
-Captain D

[John rackham]

I like the Leviathan Resistance ability

That sounds like a really good idea. And as Capt Dungeness says, I would be wary of loading ships up with Leviathan Resistance points if the same points could be better spent on other things. Makes for some very interesting decision-making!

[MAjesty]

So long as it's a real decision and not obviously slanted one way or another.... but then u wouldn't be able to see this until afterwards...

i reiterate my suggestion about an anti-voodoo net for a fleet in general, itself a voodoo curse like bless/drums

[Captain dungeness]

The ship abilities should be situationally advantageous: Instead of simply 'quick repair' or 'increased avoidance' kind of abilities the ship ability should improve the ship's performance in some situations and not others. FOR EXAMPLE: you can build your Sloop of War to take advantage of it's speed with an ability like "superior maneuvering" and it would have better performance against slow ships like the War Galleon, Flag Galleon etc. Or you could build your Sloop of War for hit-and-run with an ability like "quick getaway" which gives the fleet a % chance to escape if it gets plundered by a fleet that doesn't have a fast ship in it.

Here's my brainstorming list: I'm assuming each ship will have a maximum of 10 ability points that can be applied to either of the 2 abilities. For example you could level Ability#1=10 points and Ability#2=0 points OR you could do Ability#1=6 and Ability#2=4 etc.

Ship purpose: (I just made these up- tell me if these seem correct-ish)
Howker ----------- Cheapest and safest trade ship
Fluyt -------------- to be more profitable than the Howker so new players want to upgrade
Galleon ------------ Transport treasure
Large Fluyt -------- The cheapest TOUGH trade ship
Merchantman ----- FASTEST trade ship: currently same speed as the Lg Merch. but it should be faster with abilities
Trade Galleon ----- slowest and biggest hold
Large Merchantman - the TOUGHEST trade ship

Cutter ------------ Scout/explorer to search plunder screens and buy warehouses
Sloop ------------- Patrolling NPCs to get an early start as a pirate and not a trader
Sloop of War ----- For plundering slow ships or escaping battles
Brigantine --------- Cheapest strong combat ship, for plundering fast ships
Brig ----------------- Resilient combat ship for battling often
Brig of War -------- Inexpensive combat ship used to plunder trade fleets
War Galleon ------- Can be used by rich players as very strong trade ships if desired.
Frigate ------------- Fast ship: used for plundering slow ships
Flag Galleon ------- Slow moving Escort: used for plundering fast ships
Large Frigate ------ Less expensive than the SotL but strong enough to defeat a damaged SotL
Ship of the Line ---- Strongest buildable ship, Fast
Man of War --------- Strongest ship ever

Possible Ship ability choices:
Howker
.....1) 3% chance per level to not gain danger when reaching a port
.....2) +2 maximum cargo capacity per level
Fluyt
.....1) If you have less than 10 trading routes sells goods for +1 gold (Achillies' idea)
.....2) 3% chance per level to not gain danger when reaching a port
Galleon
.....1) Can carry +2 cargo per level if all cargo aboard is gold bars
.....2) sells gold bars to ports at +1 gold for each level
Large Fluyt
.....1) 'slow' and 'very slow' speed ships are -2% chance to hit per ability level
.....2) +2 maximum cargo capacity per level
Merchantman
.....1) +1% travel speed per level (like another cotton sails)
.....2) +2% travel speed per level BUT also reduces cargo capacity by 1 per level
Trade Galleon
.....1) +1 maximum cargo capacity per level BUT also reduces cannons by 1 for each level
.....2) +1 maximum cargo capacity per level BUT also reduces travel speed by 0.5% each level
Large Merchantman
.....1) 'medium' and 'fast' speed ships are -5% to hit per ability level
.....2) 'slow' and 'very slow' speed ships are -5% to hit per ability level

Cutter
.....1) -2 danger instead of -1 danger per hour! (requires all ships in this fleet to have this ability at 10 points)
.....2) Only +4 danger when plundering players instead of +6 danger (all ships in fleet must have this ability at 10 points)
Sloop
.....1) +2 damage (per cannon volley) per level while fighting NPCs
.....2) -23 danger each time it is plundered by a player instead of -18 danger (all ships must have this ability at 10 points)
Sloop of War
.....1) +2 damage (per cannon volley) per level while fighting slow or very slow ships
.....2) 4% chance per level to escape if it gets plundered by a fleet that doesn't have a fast ship in it.
Brigantine
.....1) +2 damage (per cannon volley) per level while fighting fast or very fast ships
.....2) +1 cannon per level BUT also reduces cargo capacity by 2 each level
Brig
.....1) 1% per level Automatic Repair each hour for free!
.....2) -2 danger instead of -1 danger per hour! (requires all ships in this fleet to have this ability at 10 points)
Brig of War
.....1) Increases Ransom paid by the losing player by 500 gold per level
.....2) +5% chance to hit against slow and very slow ships
War Galleon
.....1) Reduces Ransom paid to the plundering player by 1k gold per level
.....2) +2 maximum cargo capacity per level
Frigate
.....1) +3 damage (per cannon volley) per level while fighting slow and very slow ships
.....2) 5% chance per level to resist Leviathan attacks
Flag Galleon
.....1) +3 damage (per cannon volley) per level when fighting fast or very fast speed ships
.....2) 5% chance per level to resist Leviathan attacks
Large Frigate
.....1) +1 Ship Upgrade attribute point per level (similar to 10 Master Craftsmanship cards)
.....2) 5% chance per level to resist Leviathan attacks
Ship of the Line
.....1) +1% additional Hit Points per level
.....2) 5% chance per level to resist Leviathan attacks
Man of War
.....1) +3 maximum cargo capacity per level
.....2) 5% chance per level to resist Leviathan attacks

With this setup if you want to plunder a slow fleet you would choose to use a fleet of either Brigantines or Brigs of War or Frigates depending on the other fleet's strength. If you want to plunder a fast fleet you might choose Sloops of War or Flag Galleons.

Ship abilities for the howker, sloop and cutter can make them better suited for new players to do what they want to do.

That post got long fast. Oh well.

-Captain D