It's incredible how much friction has turned into destruction in the last 2 days. Fame, gold and ships are being plundered all over the place. The experience over the last few days has given me (and I think many others) a better understanding of the game and the impact of voodoo.

I think it's a somewhat fitting analogy to say voodoo is like nukes and guilds are similar to allied countries.

Infrequent plundering and casting Spy Network are like preliminary strikes that many times put the victim on edge and maybe make them want to seek revenge. There has definitely been a feeling of a Cold War as players build up their voodoo stores and combat fleets. Have you noticed how much talk there has been lately about who disregarded guild rules and who cast the voodoo on whom? The guild forums and public forums have tons of posts about it. Making a voodoo attack and repeatedly plundering is enough to make the daily news because of the the losses of fame and gold. Many times they want to get revenge so they launch their own nukes (voodoo such as "Fugitive from Justice") and Mutually Assured Destruction follows.

The only thing that is required to start the events that happened in the last few days is a spark in the form of a guild member attacking the wrong guilded player or a player with nothing to lose launching the first nuke. I think the second example is what happened to start the fight in the last few days. Acadien (AKA Arkoon) logged in after a month absence to cast multiple Fugitive from Justice on me and Black Sparrow for no reason other than to start a fight. He has nothing to lose by doing this because he seems to have given up playing and is doing this only to grief players.

This is my reason for posting: I think it's helpful to think of using voodoo in the game in this way (at least for right now). The Pirate theme in the game is absolutely enjoyable but I think it can be a little misleading considering how players react to plundering. Pirates want to plunder with little regard to the consequences because that's the awesome freedom of being a pirate! But the game has become increasingly political with the introduction of nukes and allied guilds. You, as a pirate, need to take into account who you are attacking and whether that player either has a current truce with your guild or if that player has a lot of voodoo that he might send your way because of your attack.

I find it very important to identify the players who have bought voodoo and are not afraid to use it. Since voodoo (nukes) can be bought in large quantities there is a certain situation of the "haves" and the "have-nots". A player that decides to not spend money on voodoo cards has a distinct disadvantage against a player who has bought more voodoo cards. Also buying a few packs of cards can give the player just the right weapons to hit an enemy hard. A strong trade fleet even as large as 400 ships is obviously no match for a 2 month old player who has 20+ ships and a pocket full of voodoo cards. Someone suggested in another post to name the game "Witch Doctors Glory"... I don't like that name but it does seem to point out how voodoo has become the central mechanic of the game whereas it used to be trade fleet size, strong SotL fleets, and avoiding danger rating.

I just want to say this has been a really interesting experience so far and I want to keep playing despite taking some hard hits from the voodoo system. I was excited to have an analogy that helps to explained the politics and consequences of the current game. It's up to the developers to either continue making the game a high-stakes/huge-losses fight or if they will make it more casual to plunder a player for their shiny, shiny gold.

I've gotten most of my complaining out of my system in guild and friend chat but I would really like to have some way to keep inactive players from logging in only to grief me while they have only 3 cheap ships and little gold for me to steal. I have no way to effectively recover or "persuade" them to not do that again. Also you have my vote for more ways to plunder a player's or fleet's gold without the huge destruction in fame rating and hurt feelings. There seem to be very strong hurt feelings (and desires for revenge) when months of a players work are plundered in less than 6 hours and they log in to find their fleets in ruins. I want the game to be fun and risky but not stressful.

Those are some of my thoughts. What do you think?

-Captain D

(+10 fame if you read this whole post )

Great analogy Capt. you have described the current situation very well

A simple short-term solution would be to raise the turn cost of most voodoo cards..
Also a more advanced plundering system would help (I made a post about that)

Captain dungeness wrote:(+10 fame if you read this whole post )

I'm a little more famous!

Who won't be stressed when someone has a piece of paper that can squash you like a bug... ... aimed at you

We could play with ship numbers and limit voodoo usage according to it. Since ship numbers play a big role already, what's best than to bind the voodoo usage to it ? We are open to specific suggestions based on this. If you got something else in mind, feel free to share; We are always open to ideas that will make the game better.

The turn cost is already high, especially for all the enchantments that will make your life hard. However we must take in mind that in the yesterday incident, it was not a 1 vs 1 case and no matter the limits or regulations we can create, the best cooperating parties will always prevail; it is a matter of teamwork. All such previous incidents have been a result of teamwork.

Ultimately, grieves are to be expected and this is why you need to play fair with the rest of the players. This however, will not always be enough.
For this problem we need to be realistic; We, the developers, cannot possibly come and save you from anything and creating regulations and limits for all such cases does not sound like the right way. In contrary, the players themselves can save you. This is how it also works in real world; the people define the rules, not the world creator. Our society is defined by rules that have been created by humans.

Perhaps as time passes and with the implementation of countries system, these matters will be self-resolved by the community itself. I can already see actions towards it. So let me add some more possibilities by the real words standards:
-Set "police" forces. Back in the 1600 there were Privateers, Pirate Ships, Merchants and... army ships. Each country would pay a rather big amount in keeping armed ships in areas with piracy issues. The big treasure ships or the transport of important persons were always escorted by such ships.
-Merchant guilds can now ask for protection from individual players or warfare guilds. Or you can wait for countries later. A good idea would be to use the "present" feature to sign deals with such persons.

For example, let's suppose I am John Rackham and I want to keep my guild free of attacks. I find the proper individuals and/or guilds that can guarantee this and I ask for protection. In return, I offer all daily presents from my guild towards the person in charge.

We can additionally add a mechanism which will allow you to transfer voodoo cards and gold (through ships always -something like headquarters will be needed - no instant for such shipments and they will have danger by default - escort feature will also be required).

Bottom line, before I end up writing a whole essay (again) is that if you like the game so far, we can work out the details you do not like. I am sure that most of them are general so we can always change something that the majority thinks as wrong; this will make the game better for you and for all newcomers too so we will all be happy.

The important part is to let our creativity work every time; limits always are the first to come in mind and they are almost always the worse choice. This is why we say we dislike limits; we prefer to create,not to limit.

Ok that settles it.. I'm going through with my pirate hunters idea
Thanks Jack

Great topic.

Most of these ideas seem to be aimed at the established players. There has to be responsibility for having so much and being so powerful!

To me: The bread and butter of this game (and any other) is the NOOB. This is the area where the developers/investors will be rewarded. If the new user can be hooked and satisfied they will stay and realize you must spend some real $ to get turns & voodoo that can lead to further excitement and satisfaction.

Many come for many reasons, most stay because it is easy, informative yet increasingly challenging.

To think I used to get paid thousands of real dollars for these suggestions. You're welcome!

Hawk wrote:Ok that settles it.. I'm going through with my pirate hunters idea
Thanks Jack

I have already made it clear in several locations and specifically, to one guild, that it is my intention and that of my allies to use our considerable resources, strength of mind and fleets, and all that the game allows to enforce the Rules of Engagement (ROE) of the various guilds. As such we will most likely merge efforts with you as you have shown considerable talent and and courage.

Well well well, what a mess you silly pirates!
Here's a funny thing...I'm in a pirate game with no ships, but my fame goes up daily, as does my voodoo stash due to my romances (voodoo/nukes being built up for later)
I also don't have to worry about losing anything, so times are good right now. I just nip in, woo the ladies, collect presents and read how Witch Doctors Glory is evolving. At least the forum's got more interesting

Chaos everywhere. I love it.

So let me get this straght becuz other players can't afford voodoo cards we should make it harder for them to use them lol hahahahaha ok maybe I should write the game and tell that me and a couple of my friends that can easily spend a $1000.00 on vooodoo a week if not more which has been done doesst think it's fair why should you limit what I can do because you can't afford to do it ...