A new technology should be added in the Hideout research. Each level will make a trade fleet invincible, these invincible trade fleet's danger will not get affected by the Voodoo's (HN's, FFJ's etc. usual port danger is still applicable ). Research should be done for maximum of 20 levels, so only 20 fleets can be protected this way.

After each level of research is completed, system should let the user to pick a fleet to make it Invincible. The invincible fleet can have only the following ships (listed below), if the user selected a fleet which has any other ships not listed below, then a error message should be thrown saying 'Ship type requirement did not match '
Howker,
Cutter,
Sloop,
Fluyt,
Galleon,
Large Fluyt,
Merchantman,
Trade Galleon,
Large Merchantman

-1

Too soon for April fools

People don't like it when things are unbeatable.

Every fleet should be vulnerable. There are far too many safe things in the game as it is.

Also, traders already make plenty of gold with little risk. I know you are in a special situation right now, but making any fleets safe from voodoo is a bad idea.

Pirates are never very fond of sheep with teeth, or armor : risking serious harm or loss is not their way : its only natural they should baulk at the idea of their easy pickings being restricted. After all, stealing is a sacrament, a trader is a moving feast and the very notion of a trader practicing any form of defence is blasphemy.

Not all the fleets will become invincible, maximum of only 20 trade fleets (1 fleet for each level) can be protected through this new proposed research, for the new players this will give some degree of protection and it keep them on game from quitting. If an experienced player with lots of voodoo wants to mess with a certain new player, he can easily force the new player to quit with continues voodoo attack for days.

Through this research every person has the same advantage, but new vulnerable players get more benefits out of it as they can have some safety net.

Darkknight wrote:Not all the fleets will become invincible, maximum of only 20 trade fleets (1 fleet for each level) can be protected through this new proposed research, for the new players this will give some degree of protection and it keep them on game from quitting. If an experienced player with lots of voodoo wants to mess with a certain new player, he can easily force the new player to quit with continues voodoo attack for days.

Through this research every person has the same advantage, but new vulnerable players get more benefits out of it as they can have some safety net.

You promote this as a tech to benefit new players the most, however hideouts and techs are some of the most expensive things in the game. Level 20 of any other tech ranges from 150-200m gc on average + materials and millions in bars. Is a new player to afford this all to protect 20 fleets generating 38-70k each per day?

That aside, all fleets need to be susceptible to attacks. Defend them with escorts if you like, there are several merchants doing this successfully.

-1

-1

More needs to be done to encourage naval combat as this is a pirate/seafaring game. Even fleets of five 60 point MoW can be defeated by a cutter fleet utilizing voodoo and turns, albeit difficult and costly, it is possible.

New players have a 1000 turn protection. After that, they begin to experience the game for what it is....

I can see how this can easily be abused. I recall the 25 fame rule where anyone with 25 or less fame could not be attacked as their fleets disappeared from plunder screens. This rule was changed as it became abused as it were by several big traders.

We have been down a similar road before.