Witch Doctors gameplay - manageable risk for everyone

[Dmanwuzhere]

There are designs in game to limit witch doctors casting or anyone else for that matter regardless of amount of voodoo or ships.
That is regulated in a way that affects everyone equally.
What you propose does not affect everyone equally.
I have been cast on with hundreds of voodoo in a day and while I found the experience unpleasant and seemingly overwhelming it was part of my play that day.
The idea that someone would not have that ability based on my dislike of it is not really a stance I would take.
I have the ability or the opportunity to retaliate in that manner given the chance.
But lets say I have the cannons needed and I attack someone who cant respond in the same manner thats where I have my problem.
When you set a standard it normally means it has the same effect across the board yet in this proposal it doesnt.
All of that said I am done with it as I am a fan of majority rules and coping with the environment as needed this isnt any different I just wanted to point out what I thought and move on lol.

[Sir Henry Morgan]

It will be difficult to find a means to control the witch doctor strategy without affecting more general strategies of raider or trader. We have talked rituals, launching from ships, ratio to turns, etc. Honestly, I really don't have an answer. I have seen many variations of the witch doctor strategy (I've used it myself to at least reduce losses in war). Now,some have taken it to its limits. It has been shown that the witch doctor play can be an enterprise of its own, be it for mercenary work, or getting paid to put beneficial curses on the purchaser. It is a viable strategy, both good and bad. The strategy is also very simple and easy to maintain. No worries of losing things when you are off line, etc.

The issue has been to address the risk (or lack of) that involves working with no ships to which a retaliation is possible.when a witch doctor with no ships becomes an aggressor.

Perhaps we have thought about this from the wrong direction. If one decides to play a naval based game without ships, it should have a bit more challenge. Perhaps there is a way to restrict someone without ships to make the strategy doable, but a bit more of a challenge to maintain over a long period of time, or in the heat of battle.

Could it be possible, if one has no ships, that access to various features we use could be displayed? No ships, well, then, you have restricted yourself of transportation, the ability to trade ports, and the ability to plunder/skirmish ships. What could be the consequences of this? I would think first, you cannot see what is happening any any ports, except the one you are in. If you switch ports, you have to pay passage on another ship. Say the only screens you can access are your guild pages and say the market pages - or perhaps you only have access to your home port/hideout pages.

This is negated easily by the ability to get one ship and go on.

So... what if you have no ships, and say someone throws a curse on you - as long as you are cursed, you cannot build, buy or receive a ship, whether the curse is hostile or not. As long as you are cursed, the ship builders aren't going to work for you or sell you a ship.

Banking, well, you are stuck in one port, so you might have to do business with a bank that flies the same flag as the home/hideout port.

As I have said, I do not have the answer. I am simply trying to move the discussion into another perspective.

I sense that there may not be "one patch" to fix it, but many small ones that make it a bit bothersome, while doable, to use the witch doctor strategy.

[D00T]

Well, I feel like the curses should use up crew members, as sacrifices, it doesn’t affect traders and raiders, and certainly forces witch doctors to own ships.

[Yekin]

No one runs 5 SOTL's in a fleet and most pirates do not want to run that high value of a ship to begin with. I think limiting Voodoo to the rich in that way would harm the game. Voodoo gives those newer players the ability to at least touch the big fish early on in the game (A good thing which incentivizes new players to stick with the game). Building ships (and the officers that go with it) enough to work through this cannon idea is a massive undertaking for new players and is a direct assault on the pirate game style used by guilds like PIRAT.

Also cannons effecting voodoo does not make sense from a lore standpoint.

It was simply a point that one could run few ships and cast effectively, run 2 fleets of 3 frigs and 2 sloops that's 240 guns and you can still raid. I know the pirate side of the game better than most, this does not hurt them at all.

They might be able to run the pirate side of the game but that isn't the only thing a player does. What if they need to support their nation or guild? If there is a war that small amount of voodoo casts (as explained in the cannon system) would not be enough.

[Charles Vane]

Everyone wants something for nothing..

If that's the case for supporting your nation, then be damn sure you've built a navy or merchant enterprise to do so is how I see it.

[Yekin]

There are designs in game to limit witch doctors casting or anyone else for that matter regardless of amount of voodoo or ships.
That is regulated in a way that affects everyone equally.
What you propose does not affect everyone equally.
I have been cast on with hundreds of voodoo in a day and while I found the experience unpleasant and seemingly overwhelming it was part of my play that day.
The idea that someone would not have that ability based on my dislike of it is not really a stance I would take.
I have the ability or the opportunity to retaliate in that manner given the chance.
But lets say I have the cannons needed and I attack someone who cant respond in the same manner thats where I have my problem.
When you set a standard it normally means it has the same effect across the board yet in this proposal it doesnt.
All of that said I am done with it as I am a fan of majority rules and coping with the environment as needed this isnt any different I just wanted to point out what I thought and move on lol.

What about just a flat amount of ships needed to cast voodoo like I suggested a little bit ago? You need to run like 4 or 5 fleets in order to cast voodoo at all. This allows one to easily combat witchdoctors and should have no impact on privateers and pirates as they already typically run this number of ships.

[Charles Vane]

I ran 2 fleets or less pirating so it does hurt them, plus new players have to cast to complete missions, and again the risk for witch doctors is not there. They can build 5 cutters level one in each fleet worth 50k..

[Yekin]

I ran 2 fleets or less pirating so it does hurt them, plus new players have to cast to complete missions, and again the risk for witch doctors is not there. They can build 5 cutters level one in each fleet worth 50k..

How easy is it to sink a level one cutter? Sink one of those level one cutters and they lose the ability to cast any voodoo until they refleet them. If they build a stockpile of ships unfleeted you have ravage to combat this.

[Charles Vane]

Very easy but costs a levi, then how much easier is it for them to build another level 1 cutter.. they don't even need to trade just have iron golems.

[Yekin]

Very easy but costs a levi, then how much easier is it for them to build another level 1 cutter.. they don't even need to trade just have iron golems.

It costs a levi if you are desperate. Otherwise at most it cost an ambush, or at minimum 3 fugis and you get to sink a bunch.

Plus thats turns burned and gold lost. It offers a way to combat the witchdoctors and makes it much more difficult to be one. The fact that your enemy has some counterplay is a good thing!