Heres a Tech I thought up that I think would be a good one to add.

Name: Boarding Tactics
Effect- Each level raises the plunder ransom of a fleets tail ship by 5%
so a cutter or Howkers ransom would go from 1K, to 1050 for level 1, and 2000 for max level.
while a SoTL would go from 75K, to 78750 level 1, or 150K for max level.
Prerequisite techs: Piracy level 10, Skirmish tactics level 10.
Cost: ill just say same as piracy but this is up for debate.

This tech would make having a good tail even more essential, and will make plundering ships a bit easier.
it will also make upgrading piracy and skirmish tactics a bit more worthwhile.

Feel free to make any suggestions.

due to Haron suggesting it should be buffed a bit, I increased it from 1% to 5%.
so at max level this tech would double the plunder ransom.

+1

where does the extra gc come from? imo from the player since it's a %-ual increase of the baseprice.
i edited my contribution to Ship Specialization: Special Crew and First Mate to add a small counter to this tech.

it would come from the player. this tech is basically to make ship stealing a wee bit easier, and even if you don't intend on taking ships a small boost in gold is nice aswell. its secondary purpose is to make it a bit more worthwhile to research piracy and skirmish tactics, since they are a prerequisite.

+1

My only concern with this is that it makes the potential loss for merchants greater.

Don't worry, DezNutz. This has far too little impact to mean anything. Let's look at what it means:

Assume a trader with 1M gold. First, he's got a cutter as tail. After 20 attacks, he's got the following left (case A without this tech, case B with the tech maxed to level 20):

A) 381040
B) 377047

Not really any difference. But what if the tail is a Frigate? We get

A) 1678 (after 20 attacks)
B) 15337 (after 16 attacks)

Well, now we save 4 attacks before starting to steal ships. That's 2 ambushes saved. Or one could spend 4 booty masters to get the same result. How many times do you need to do a ship stealing raid and save 4 booty masters to make up for 20 level s of this tech, I wonder?

But what if the target has a SoL as his tail? Seemingly more interesting, we get:

A) 3555 (after 11 attacks)
B) 40924 (after 9 attacks)

This time we only saved 2 attacks, that is, 1 ambush card. True, if you attack a target with a LOT of gc on hand, this changes, and it may make a difference. Still, if you're willing to cast call levi on targets tail(s), to get a SoL as the tail ship, stealing the ships are usually not that hard. And then, there's the question of how often you do this. Not many players steal Big Ships at all, and even those who do, don't do it very often. It will be very hard to make such a technology worthwhile with so little effect.

If such a technology was to be implemented, I think the bonus per level - whether it be 1%, 1,5% or 2% - should apply to the entire plunder, not just the part due to the ship. Then, it MIGHT be worth considering for those players who do a lot of ship stealing.

I buffed it up to 5%. I think that is powerful enough without being OP. still up for debate, and I welcome any and all suggestions

Bump for chal