CJ,

I have long seen this mechanic, but just thought perhaps it may be a bug. If it is not, I would like to advocate for a change.

Currently, if you raid a player and get his/her treasury to zero, ships will start to be plundered. However, if the sink chance is high enough the ships will simply sink to the ocean floor and not go to the attacker. This is where I feel the mechanic is bugged. If the attackers has his victim at zero gold, all ships should be plundered IMO.

Was it intended to have sink chance still engaged if victim is at zero gold? If so, I vote to change the sink chance formula to [if player has greater then 0 gold sink chance is engaged] [if player gold = 0 then 0% sink chance]

Thank you

This always worked like this. Ship sink, naturally, happens before plundering can take place. It's just the natural order of the combat.

It could be changed, so I moved it to suggestions.

At one hand it sounds good for the attacker but this could open issues I am cannot think of right now. Your turn.

Its a frustrating event but at the same time I like the element of uncertainty : maybe the crew can be deemed to have scuttled it in protest at their sudden unemployment.

I would love to hear others opinion on this matter.

Again, I only want Sink Chance to go to 0% when treasury on hand is at ZERO gold.

My reason is simple. The attacker has done his homework, cast the appropriate voodoo and his ultimate goal is stealing ships. If he executes it properly this should be his reward. Not a sunk ship.

The victim hopefully has a good guild watching their back to cast Geno or Buried Treasure.

This also brings up Inactive players. If this person is cast out of a guild, perhaps owes someone money.... The ships should be allowed to be plundered directly once treasury on hand equals ZERO.

Just my opinion. What say others?

I am on the fence on this one. Although it frustrated me like million times I still believe it should stay like this because although attacker did do homework it shouldn't be easy swoop it should have small risk involved. But like I said I am on the fence

I will also use someone like CDV as an example for this.

CDV as everyone knows has 54,678,484 ships in his marinas around the globe. Its crazy how rich this guy is....

When CDV gets raided, if by chance his gold drops to zero, all his ships sink to the bottom of the ocean and are not plundered by his attacker(s). This then gives him or a vulture a chance to easily fish up his boats and he really hasn't lost much (this is how he got all those ships to begin with).

The attackers are out Voodoo and turns and really haven't gained much as now they have a ton of danger and will lose the little money they plundered from CDV when attacking him.

If Sink Chance got set to 0% when he reached ZERO in his treasury, the attackers will now have a few prizes that can off set the cost of the raid.

Also, you can throw in the fact that now we have a special trait of LOYAL CREW. This is an added benefit to someone like CDV as well.

I say let the attackers claim their prize!

While we are on it, let's also try to picture further ways on plundering ships. This is a long term primary objective.

So in this particular discussion, it could be something on the danger/strategy option scheme. You give something more, like extra danger to get something more, like reduced chance of a ship joining the sea bottom, when you can plunder it.

Does it use the sink chance based on fleet size?

Spoiler: show

Sink Chances
According to the number of ships the loser has, there is a probability that the last ship of his fleet will lose a level:

1 to 10 Ships: 0% Sink Chance (Ships never lose a level)
11 to 50 Ships: 5% Sink chance
51 to 100 Ships: 10% Sink Chance
101 to 200 Ships: 25% Sink Chance
201 to 300 Ships: 50% Sink Chance
301 to 400 Ships: 75% Sink Chance
401 to 500 Ships: 90% Sink Chance
501 or more Ships: 100% Sink Chance (Ships always lose a level)
Notes:
Level 1 Ships are dragged into the sea bottom instead.
Whenever a ship loses a level, the winner wins (paid by the game) the worth of the level (base value) that has been lost back at a percentage of 35% to 55% (random)
Piracy Technology improves this randomness by 1% per level

That would imply that you can't capture a ship from someone with a fleet of more than 500 ships because the ship will always sink (until a bunch of ships have been sunk so that the fleet is less than 500 - assuming the ship count is updated after each ship is sunk). The winner can only get fame and cargo plunder (and a captain if <200)? Seems like it might make sense to cap that percentage if the gold on hand is too low to pay the ransom. While you might want some uncertainty, it seems this may encourage pirates to attack smaller fleets rather than the largest fleets.

Actually, what you mention about CDV is a reason why not to implement this. As this proves that someone can combo the loyal crew trait with something really meaningful.

It is also true that CDV has been hunted before with specific features. This has not proven fruitful. We saw better success for everyone when we started embracing his tactics.

Bomont wrote:That would imply that you can't capture a ship from someone with a fleet of more than 500 ships because the ship will always sink

This is only true if the vessel is level 1. If it is level 2, you get it at level 1.

So this is yet another side affect we have not thought before. Except if we speak specifically on the level loss that sends the game to sea bottom. So anything new we nay decide, should only affect level 1 ships. Not sure if it really is worth the shot.