Coming across enemy fleets at sea (Medium)

[Sir Henry Morgan]

It has been a while since this suggestion was approved - I see it adding a complexity to the game in a fairly
simple manner. It will definitely change the way a trader builds his fleets, which seriously needs to happen.


I believe there is some potential here as well, to add another tool to this feature: The Letter of Marque.

A Letter of Marque could be issued by the Dukes/Duchesses, Governors and the King/Queens of a nationality.
They can be sold or awarded to anyone - pirate or privateer.

The holder of the Letter can then target a nationality. With a little research (through the port gossip) a holder
of the Letter can "target" a nation's traders' fleets by setting auto-trade between ports where the "targets" are
known to trade.

When setting one's auto trades, there are two choices -

1.) Engage in battle with enemy fleets, or;
2.)Engage in battle with the nations on one's Letter of Marque.

A Letter of Marque can be revoked at any time by royalty for any reason, but has to be done manually.
All of those who can issue a Letter can also revoke a letter issued by their nation.

A privateer can hold several Letters of Marque from several countries.

This will put more into player's hands on hostility ratings against nations. Hostility not only goes against
the holder of the Letter of Marque, but also against the nation issuing the Letter.

There's many ways to make this idea work - perhaps using a Letter of Marque to engage in battle will put
you on the plunder screen, as you are on the offensive - thus allowing at least 1 to 3 hours for the attacked
to retaliate. Maybe you can gain 3 DR points if you lose the battle, and 6 DR points if you win the battle.

Most likely, as you are in search of certain nationalities, I would imagine that your identity may be revealed,
as well as your country - perhaps if you are the loser of the battle, your identity has a 50/50 chance of being revealed.

If a nation issues a Letter of Marque to a Pirate, there would be certain privileges provided to the Pirate.
For one, he or she could trade freely in their ports. In fact, a pirate could have all the benefits in port that would
normally be received if the port were controlled by pirates - free recruiting, maintenance free, etc.

Just an idea to explore - The Letter of Marque puts a tool into the hand of the pirates, and while a pirate may
not dominate Avonmora, he or she can certainly tip the balance.

[Xanadu]

I should think that the issuance of these hunting licenses would come with some price tag attached. Lets say a percentage of the plunder or a specified amount of gold up front to the issuing nations treasury perhaps. I guess this would need to be worked out by the issuing nations government, but these are only suggestions.

[Xepshunall]

Still no solution based on proximity. This should at least play a role.

[Ghent]

That's a good point - perhaps it could be based upon a timer - say encounters occur within 5 or 10 minutes arriving or departing from port. The sea lanes closer to port would most likely become more congested the closer to port one would be.

As our current situation puts you on plunder screens at two ports, even though you are not in two ports at once, this might be a workable solution.

[Xepshunall]

I work in the pharmaceuticals expediting business. When we get loaded, we're required to travel 200 miles before stopping for food, fuel or whatever in order to reduce the risk of being hijacked. I'm sure there's a period of time, in Pirates Glory, that represents a similar period. Unlike my business, Pirates Glory would obviously include hijacking risks at both ends of the trips.
There's still no clarification on how and where we'll encounter each other at sea. I don't agree with the notion of random PvP encounters. I could understand an NPC pirate fleet or a monster but not two sentient, peaceful traders fighting one another just out of the blue. In my opinion, a player should have to opt in. In this case, they should be allowed to patrol trade routes but not have freight of their own purchase on-board. They should he allowed to steal what they can hold. The freight would be sold at the intended port by the new owner. They should be allowed to set up a ratio of trips to attacks so the damage taken can be limited. They should place a limit on the size of cargo hold of their potential target, or something to that effect, so the target can be identified. For instance, if I wanted to target pirates, I'd limit my desired target's cargo hold to 60. This may not be the ideal solution and I've gotten disinterested in making any improvement suggestions easy on anyone but it does seem like this would have merit and be rather easily implemented from within the current trade route menu.

[Captain Jack]

This feature is now a part of Nation Control feature. It will be implemented alongside with it.

Here are the added up ideas:
-Nations will decide a list of nations that should not be attacked. This list will be automatically updated with any current pacts (ie, if your nation is allied with another, the nap for this feature will be de-facto selected and impossible to modify as long as the treaty lasts).
-Players will be able to choose whether they want to respect their nation's decision or not. In case they don't, they will be penalized with hostility points.
-Same will happen with guilds who will be able to add other guilds in the nap list. When Guild diplomacy is implemented, this will work as explained above for nations.
-Players will have the option to add nations or guilds or players to their own nap list which will be the official one. The player will be able to overrule nation list but not the guild list. For example, if your guild has decided that you cannot attack any of the SHIELD members, then you won't be able to attack them (Although a player will still be able to leave the guild and continue hitting whom he likes).

Now, according to the lists, random events will occur, based on all the details discussed before.

One further modifiers will be included:
-Ownership of the port will play a role. Trading fleets that have the same nationality as the port, will be less likely to have an event generated in the vicinity of said port.

Once implemented, we will review alterations on the Guard-Escort feature to possibly make it work based on this feature.

At all cases, this still needs time before implementation as other features have a higher priority.

[Xep-shun-all]

Hi, everyone! It's been a while and I hope some of my old allies and adversaries are still involved and having a good time. Sorry about the name change. I couldn't locate my old login info. It's good to see the changes that have come about in my absence. I thought I'd give it another run and see if there's any fun in it with the tensions of guilds and affiliations. Sea ya' at see.

[Sir Henry Morgan]

Welcome back, mate!

[PFH]

Warm greetings, ancient sailor

[Cdv]

Welcome back, sir!