So here is a senerio:
Player 1 can be new or Vet, has 1 fleet
Player 2 can be newish or Vet has 100 fleets
Player one is bored and looking for something to do, casts 4 or 5 cards on player 2, costs player 2 many millions of dollars and decimates their 100 fleets if player two isn't watching closely. We have all seen it, some have experienced it. Its a risk of game play. Also accounts for the advice "play in stealth, dont speak up, you dont want to get cast on leading to another issue discussed in other treads.
Now player 2 is left to spend millions more replacing ships again and upgrading the ones that took damage. And player 1 made millions and is bored yet again, rinse and repeat.
Player 1 has nothing at all to loose and doesn't give a f...iissh. Player two who has everything to lose and becomes another casualty of unbalanced power in a pirate ship game and may decide to rebuild but smaller, play like player one which reduces available normal targets for pirates, or leaves.
There is no incentive for people to have ships in a pirate game. What if voodoo casts were tied to fleets in/or trading from that port. You have no fleets in that port, you cant stir up the natives in that port. You have 3 Fleets in or traveling to/from that port, you can cast three natives in that port. (just using natives as an example). This would make people have to invest in fleets and protect them, loose your fleets in that port, loose your cast till you get new ones there. This would also remove the fear that every new person and trader has that a person with one fleet can cause the destruction of 100's of fleets.
To go further, what if total fleets were tied to turns. Case for this, everyone gets 50 turns fleet free (can allow for noobs to build some fleets), then every fleet you run gets 2 more turns to the pool up to the current max of 200 turns, unless you use the cr options.
Everyone wants to talk about more navel battles and port battles and blockades, but as soon as voodoo comes to topic, with some, it quickly switches it to "no voodoo is fine, nothing to see here, its the great equalizer". Sure, it allows a person with one fleet to wipe another with 200 fleets in every port all over the world at once, just like in the days of yore. I believe that is part of the reason it came to be, to "equalize" but not when you have people with thousands of cards, me included.
The second reason for voodoo is credits and $$. Of coarse, thats how this game stays free for the masses. So we cater a bit to those with "plastic" ships, me included. I feel like some may not spend real money due to how quickly it can be gone due to that person with one fleet. I personally would rather see 1,000 players spending $10 bucks a piece than 5 players spending $1000. But thats just because i did the whole business school thing, its stupid, im stupid.
Am i way off base here? Any thoughts?
