A long discussion with plenty of opinions and suggestions. Now, my two cents worth.
I like Proposal B as it is. It keeps the plunder percentage and maximum plunder at status quo for those who are against any change while, at the same time, providing options for advancement in both attack and defence for those willing to work for it. It also gives extra booty to the attacker through Advanced Piracy and ship level plunder. For the defender, it gives the same level of protection he is used to, except against an attacker with superior skills developed through the Academy.
I also like these ideas of Captain Jack's...
Captain Jack wrote:I can propose more things to appeal to everyone. We can change Ship Plunder rules for example. Give pirates the right to plunder a ship that heads for ship bottom (regardless if the opponent has enough gold). Or make this right a percentage bonus with technology. Or give defenders the right to choose a limit on when to hand out the ship or pay the gc bounty.
I can surely think of more mechanisms that do not hurt the ship owners more than they do now.
The ship plunder idea is great. I wish I had had that when I was plundering! Maybe a 2.5% chance per level of research to plunder a sinking ship would be good, or it could be higher. The ability to set a limit to choose your ship or your gold is an interesting idea too and could lead to various strategies. I'd love to know what other mechanisms Captain Jack has up his sleeve!
SHM had pretty good ideas as well. I think the turn cost for skirmishes can be halved. On the same note, I think NPC patrol cost could be halved as well, 1 turn to patrol and 1 turn to attack. The danger gained can be reduced as well, like SHM said. Imho, skirmishes are a 'lesser' form of plunder that lies between hitting NPCs, which does not affect another player, and regular plunder. A danger of 2 per skirmish would give the attacker 6 danger for the 3 daily skirmishes, but also provide an option for the patient plunderer to stay off the radar. This could induce players who would otherwise not use the skirmish feature to do so. I disagree with SHM's third point. 3 skirmishes an hour is 72 per day - way too high. If the purpose of the changes is to increase the number of battles without creating animosity, this is not it. The quota could be increased slightly though. And, as I said before, the bonus per level of Piracy research can be raised to 5k for both plunder and skirmish(but that is for another topic).
The objectives mentioned by Captain Jack in the other thread were(in my own words), to help players defend better, to prevent players from losing everything while they sleep, and to increase the number of meaningful battles in the seas of Avonmora. I don't know if Proposal B and changes in skirmishing will be enough to effect that but I believe it will nudge it towards the right direction.