You may have heard of 'flotsam and jetsam' from the movies, but do you know the meaning of the words? While the phrase 'flotsam and jetsam' is often used to describe 'odds and ends,' each word has a specific meaning under maritime law.

Flotsam and jetsam are terms that describe two types of marine debris associated with vessels. Flotsam is defined as debris in the water that was not deliberately thrown overboard, often as a result from a shipwreck or accident. Jetsam describes debris that was deliberately thrown overboard by a crew of a ship in distress, most often to lighten the ship's load. The word flotsam derives from the French word floter, to float. Jetsam is a shortened word for jettison.

I'm always trying to think of new ideas for the game and thought of this.

New Game Features:

Flotsam:
- anytime a ship loses a level 25% of its cargo is now floating in the sea. If ship is sunk 100% of cargo is now floating.
- If no cargo on board, upon losing a level 25 crates of wood will be added to the sea, if the ship is sunk 75% of the wood cost to build ship will be added as crates of wood to sea. {LMM costs 500 wood to build, if sunk, 375 crates of wood are now floating]
- Just like on the opening page where it displays how many Shipwrecks there are, it will display how many crates of "resources" are Flotsam

** New Common Voodoo Card **
"Scavenger"
8 Turns
3 Turns
You find 25 250 crates of a random resource that has washed ashore

Jetsam: - This is a toggle switch like "Halt on Danger". All fleets will have this. You can elect to Jettison 50% of your cargo overboard when receiving an attack/skirmish in exchange for increased Evasion for skirmish or 10% added speed during an attack.

Both Flotsam and Jetsam work on all resources including gold bars. Yes, the new voodoo card Scavenger could receive gold crates back.
As always, would love your feedback if this is a decent idea or not.

Flotsam : I love the idea but question the turn cost : given that Iron Golem can give several hundred crates per cast at just 3 turns, getting 25 crates for 8 turns seems steep. Even though there is a chance of GB's in the haul, 25 crates would barely fund the celebration party, no?

Jetsam : definite plus one for this aspect of the proposal : chucking unwanted crew members and other extraneous weight overboard was always popular when confronted with a superior force.

Danik wrote:I love the idea but question the turn cost : given that Iron Golem can give several hundred crates per cast at just 3 turns, getting 25 crates for 8 turns seems steep. Even though there is a chance of GB's in the haul, 25 crates would barely fund the celebration party, no?

Very good observation... I need my second cup of coffee it would seem.

Would you (both) increase the crates and lower the turns then? What would you suggest?

Not sure : I'd lean to a format not unlike TW crossed with wreck-finding : something like :

You cast the card upon a specific fleet : that fleet is now 'busy' for 2 hours scavenging the local waters : The fleet must be in port and any route paused : On return it gains the usual port entry danger and waits to be unloaded : the fleet can scavenge a random amount of random goods, but cannot exceed its total cargo capacity.'

Or, we could combine it with ship-wreck hunting : your fleet is already out there looking, recovering valuable cargo floating about would be normal work for it : So, on return, your fleet could report either a wreck find, or flotsam/jetsam finds.

The second would not need a new card and might keep the ship-wreck hunt feature 'alive' once wrecks become scarcer

Varied amounts of crates recovered, maybe.

its nice idea but as Danik said voodoo seems a bit useless if we compare to iron golem. I know iron golem can only bring ship building materials but bringing gold bar also not an easy task.(8 turn probably will give you more than 25 gold bars value and also there will be card prize too )

How about making this voodoo an enchantment and during your travel give a maybe %10 chance to your ships to claim that goods which sunk in your routes port, also a cap may be applied?

I would like to give more feedbacks but my english is honestly not good enough to understand your suggestion 100%.

Edit: And adding this as a feature for shipwreck hunt like danik said seems nice idea too. maybe 2 hour travel time with empty cargo,you will search for goods in specific ports. this will bring more possibilities and a fresh blood for shipwreck hunt.

I like the idea of adding something else to Shipwreck hunting. If your ships are out there for 12 hours they are bound to find something floating around in the sea... But the sea bed is almost empty and I see it as almost a waste of 12 hours now.

Because it is drying up I like the voodoo card route more. But it is very similar to Iron Golem, except, you have a chance at all resource including gold bars.

Maybe it could be both. It could be automatically included in wreck hunting. And it can be cast. When I envision Flotsam, I picture a man on the sea shore rummaging through items that have washed ashore.

3 Turns, returns 250 crates of a random resource

Will gold be floating too? They seem heavy.

Grimrock Litless wrote:Will gold be floating too? They seem heavy.

For argument sake, yes. Just think of them individually wrapped in Bubble Paper. Lots of Bubble Paper.

Jetsam, could be part of Ship Specialization too.. perhaps