6-ships fleets (Warship Escorts)

[Shadowood]

Could you just tie this into an existing tech? Say at lvl 10 or 15 or 20 of Spanish Galleons it unlocks the feature to carry 6 ships in a fleet with the rules suggested. Seems the easiest way.

[Crackedcubes]

It's simple guys and gals:

5 credits for an extra slot in a particular fleet. Lose that fleet and lose your 6th slot... or make it more. Pay to play guys continue to finance the game and the rest of us can slow row an extra slot in a few of our fleets!

[Black sparrow]

I like it.

[Captain Jack]

It's simple guys and gals:

5 credits for an extra slot in a particular fleet. Lose that fleet and lose your 6th slot... or make it more. Pay to play guys continue to finance the game and the rest of us can slow row an extra slot in a few of our fleets!

Not a good idea. Better then to leave it as an open option for all.

[Haron]

I think I prefer all fleets to be five ships only. If someone wants to use escorts, he or she should use that within the existing 5-fleet ships, with the pros and cons that come with such a setup.

Even today, some of the biggest traders use an SoL escort in their fleets. I think fleets with two escorts are very strong, and will be more common with this suggestion. Even fleets with one escort are hard to defeat.

[Most Lee Harmless]

How about : 6 ships per fleet : no restrictions, no limitations, no cost : let the player decide if they want more cargo space per fleet or more cannon to guard it.

[Big Brother]

If your a bad pirate you dont know how to defeat an escort, if your a good merchant, you play your hand to do just that...

How to defeat a warship escort 101: Use multiple ships for 1 escort...

[Ghost]

This may sound way off track but your proposal could work if you reduce the strength of the Levi card or do away with it entirely.

A simple pirate cannot do basic HN raids with SOTL's or Large Frigates ( they'll have to if this goes through), as long as the risk exists that the trader will retaliate with a single Levi. One of these cards can wipe out any profits from such a raid.

A while back your aim was to increase the number of battles. This proposal could reverse any progress you made.

[Maha]

2.
6 ships fleets, by default, use Warships as escort
This means that you will not be able to use a Warship at position 3-4-5-6 at fleet order (no warship as tail).

To picture the proposal, every fleet will be now in this format:
Slot 1: Any Ship
Slot 2: Any Ship
Slot 3: Any Ship
Slot 4: Any Ship
Slot 5: Any Ship
Slot 6: Warship only, if at least 4 slots are taken by Merchant Ships.

I am a bit confused... (I am a little slow in RL so please let me know if I am missing something).

First you say you CANNOT USE a warship as a tail.
Then you say Slot 6 (which in fleet line up is the TAIL SHIP) is WARSHIP ONLY.

Which is it?

Also, what do you classify a Flag Galleon as, as it has 100 Cargo space, but can be used as either a trader or warship?

Thank you.

The reason we put the condition to use warships as escorts (at top slots) limitation is that Sloops are also warships. So, putting a sloop last would mess with the reason we want this implementation. You want 6 ships in a fleet? At least 1 (and maximum 2) ship must be a warship positioned in the top. Or else, stay with 5 ships and no special rules.

it's still not clear to me (i think)
i am not sure which ships qualify to be used for the extra slot. sloops don't qualify but does a brig or war galleon qualify? i would like to see a simple list of ships that can unlock the 6th slot.

the order of the ships in the fleet. does it matter where the sixth ship (the special warship) is located in the fleet?

how much the 6th slot should cost is not easy to decide on.
some considerations are that less fleets are needed for the same amount of ships (300 ships 60x 5ships or 50 x 6 ships) thus 20%? less admirals are needed AND less fleets will be lit up by HN's or FFJ's which is also a financial benefit.

there has been talk of adding more 'officers' to the game. i propose that an extra officer (at the fifth of the cost of an admiral) is needed to unlock the 6th slot . i see 3 possible roles:

gunner mate: extra benefit groups of 20 cargo can be traded in for 2 guns each (1 at each side of the ship)
Cargo master: extra benefit sets of 10 guns can be traded for 10 cargo spaces
marines: extra benefit sets of 2 gun slots can be filled with 1 marine sharpshooter; these sharpshooters have 0.025 x round shot level x number of officers in the opposing fleet % chance per round to take out an officer. (e.g. an SOL with round shot at 10 has filled 30 gunslots with marines it attacks on a 6 ship merchant fleet. the admiral is always on the first ship and a cargomaster on third ship. the chance that the first ship loses an officer is 15 (marines) x 0.025 x 10 (round shot level) x 2 (officers) = 7.5% the second ship has 1 officer and a chance of 3.25 to lose her captain, the third ship has 7.5% chance again the last 2 ships have 3.25% each. which officer is hit is random, but by losing a captain will the ship operate at 50% effectiveness, losing an admiral will put the fleet at an 20% loss of speed and in battle a random order of battle (no coordination) on reaching a port, the officer has to be replaced before the fleet can sail again.

pirates cannot have the 6th slot, but will enjoy the extra benefits these officers give.

[Shadowood]

This may sound way off track but your proposal could work if you reduce the strength of the Levi card or do away with it entirely.

A simple pirate cannot do basic HN raids with SOTL's or Large Frigates ( they'll have to if this goes through), as long as the risk exists that the trader will retaliate with a single Levi. One of these cards can wipe out any profits from such a raid.

A while back your aim was to increase the number of battles. This proposal could reverse any progress you made.

I agree with this. As Haron also pointed out, some merchants carry a SOLT as an escort already and are tough to beat. If they have 2 Escorts this will force (and I believe this is your intent) pirate and privateers to carry bigger ships. These ships must have some sort of protection or as Ghost stated raids will be not worth the effort.

So, while I think a 6 Ship Fleet is a cool idea and use it myself, Ship Abilities need to be implemented before this is and Serious consideration of Capt Dungess' suggestion given.
Ship of the Line
.....1) +1% additional Hit Points per Ability Point
.....2) 5% chance per Ability Point to resist Leviathan attacks
Man of War
.....1) +3 maximum cargo capacity per Ability Point
.....2) 5% chance per Ability Point to resist Leviathan attacks