Greetings,

After long time research and discussion I present you the complete suggestion for the Academy Version 1.0

It was very difficult to clarify every detail of this feature, so we will reserve most of the ideas for future versions. For example, academy level will affect more things in the future (like how many technologies you will be able to research).

What Academy will provide?

• Academy will be available as a new building in player's hideouts.
• Players will be able to research technologies in there, which will grant them certain bonuses.
• Researching a technology will cost gold coins, gold bars and it will require research time.

Academy Levels

• Every Academy Level reduces research speed by 2%.
• Maximum level of an Academy is 20, so research speed reduction can be up to 40% (ie, 6 days instead of 10)
• Academy cost can be found here, feel free to give us feedback
• Hastening research with turns will be possible.

Offered Technologies

Ideas like trees and technology categories/groups will be used in future Academy versions (Click to see Cpt Dungeness suggestion here). There will be extra bonuses for researching particular chains/categories. For now, we will go for a simple setup.

Version 1.0 Technologies
Feel free to propose total cost for 20 levels (in Gold Coins and time)for every technology that interests you.

• 1.Officer Contracts
Each level decreases Officer hiring costs by 2%
Example suggested costs for all 20 levels: 400M Gold Coins and 60 days of research time. (Not case studied values, merely giving an example here. I will come with proposed values on all suggested technologies in the near future)

• 2.Storage Contracts
Each level decreases Warehouse Upgrade Level costs by 2%

• 3.Loan shark (Details: viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1839 )
• 4.Shipwright Management
Ship building (gold coins) cost 1% less per level
Ship upgrades cost 0.5% less per level
Bonus stacks with Marquess bonus (At level 20, you get a total of 30% cheaper building costs and 20% upgrade costs)

• 5.Warehouse Tycoon
Manual resource purchases at Port Markets directly to Warehouse cost 1% less (0,125% less for Gold Bars) per level
Bonus is applied after West India Company bonus

• 6.Political Science
Each level increases Influence gained through Build Up port by 2%

• 7.Skirmish Tactics
Each level gives an extra Skirmish point per day

• 8.Piracy
Each level gives +3.5k bonus income from any successful plunder or skirmish ATTACK (not successful defence). The extra funds are paid by the game (not the player who lost).

• 9.Metallurgy
+2.5% per level bonus on Iron Scantling (Armor Class) (PvP only)
(ie, a level 20 Metallurgy will be like having 15 points at Iron Scantling)

• 10.Gunpowder
+2.5% per level bonus bonus on Round Shot (Attack Damage) (PvP only)
(ie, a level 20 Gunpowder will be like having 15 points at Round Shot)

• 11.Education
Decreases research time by 2% per level
Decrease is applied right after Academy decrease (ie 100 days become 60 after a level 20 academy reduction. Then the 40% Education reduction is not applied at starting value, but academy's produced value which in our example is 60.)

• 12.Spanish Galleons
Increases all Galleons type ships speed by 1.5% per level (Bonus applies normally during PvP battles)
Increases all Galleons type ships Hull Points by 2.5% per level (they become tougher in PvP battles/more hp/can take more hits)

Notes to take in mind:
-Education bonus will become higher if Academy levels start to play a different role.
-Research times will be very high and you will only be able to research one technology at a time.
-This means that Education technology and Academy levels extra cost worth will be relative to each player's assets and strategy.

a small question : will techs like Metallurgy and Gunpowder be 'transferable ; as in, if I build a ship, will the bonus stay with it for a new owner, or will it only apply while I own it? Also then, if I buy/steal a ship, do my bonuses then apply, or only to ships I have built whilst having the tech?

Bonus will apply while you own it. Bonus is not applied to ship - it will be a player bonus. So any ship under your control will enjoy it, whether you bought it or stole it.

Captain Jack wrote:Bonus will apply while you own it. Bonus is not applied to ship - it will be a player bonus. So any ship under your control will enjoy it, whether you bought it or stole it.

Thankee for clearing that up

are there any plans for a fishing academy - academy levels could increase your catch rate - this would help to make fishing relevant again

If we want to be fair, fishing is already used more than we expected. There are already various strategies where fishing fits.

Regarding affects of technology, check this out: viewtopic.php?t=1616&p=21532#p21532

With the introduction of the Academy, I would assume you'll be increasing the maximum level of the mansion to allow for more building spaces correct?

Mr. Rothschild wrote:With the introduction of the Academy, I would assume you'll be increasing the maximum level of the mansion to allow for more building spaces correct?

I raised this a while ago in an earlier discussion of hide-out buildings : we were told the number of plots per mansion level would be increased to allow for each new building type : so creating the extra spaces reqd. Thus, if your mansion is level 10 now, when the academy is introduced, you will gain 10 plots and then 6 per new level after that.

I certify this.

Initial suggestion for academy costs:
http://s2.piratesglory.com/hideout_cost ... ar=academy

Key design:
-About 460M the total cost (at about 2500 gc per gold bar avg price)
-Mediocre demand on other resources supplies
-Mediocre demand on gold bars
-Increased construction time demand