It has been suggested in general conversations but I cannot find where it has been brought to the forefront as a topic-

Experience points (definition)- The ability for a ship to have its status/attributes/Hull points/sail points be affected by PvP battles or a completely new modifier is introduced to make small improvements to existing parameters.

Essentially, a ships performance is directly tied to the number of battles it has won/lost throughout its history.
Every battle win or lose should provide some experience modifier.
Should winning provide more or less experience points than losing a PvP battle or should they be equal ?

The performance parameters could be kept secret by the devs and the only thing a ship owner needs to know is the more his ship fights, the better it will be in some aspect of battle.

If the ship loses its crew, experience points are downgraded proportionately. Experienced crew are the key to more abilities.

Battles affect different ship types in different ways for instance, battle experience with a Brig allows it to sail faster by a small amount than a green one just off the rack or a Large Merchantman may carry more capable shot if it is plundered or this may be random as well to what qualities are bestowed to each recipient.

It takes a large number of experience points to make any real difference in a ships performance but sometimes a small number is enough to tip the scales.

Reserved

Reserved

+1 to the idea.

Ships gaining experience would prevent players to currently build a ship- attack with her- sell her/scrap her to avoid any vengeance.
Also using the MoW might worth the risk if she would gain experience this way.

But a con would be that, as time goes by, an old veteran fleet would become unbeatable against a newer player (and not for the newer player ability but just for the fact that the older fleet would have gained lot of experience).

Should be ships or fleets gaining experience? Or both?
Should both plunder and skirmish affect eperience?
And shouldn't PvE battles affect experience too (maybe less than PvP, even significantly less but still not zero)?
Should there be a way to actually lose experience, other than gain it (could be by losing battles)? This way an older ship, even if lots of battles partecipation, could have a nearly zero experience as well.
Should a not-fighting ship have some form of experience too? (like: a fishing ship is not meant to fight but she could gain some form of experience after some time).

+1 to the idea

It may work out better for fleets to gain experience though.. like if the same 5 ships battle, they get experience. Once the fleet loses a ship, or a ship gets swapped out, the experience goes back to zero.

This way one veteran ship can't be dominate, and it gives you an incentive to keep your fleet together.

closest thing to what you are suggesting is "Flagship". The more you fight with it, win with it.. the more abilities you can upgrade.

I have stated a few times that I think all classes of players deserve a Flagship, not just Pirates. Spanish Traders back in the day had Flagships, English
Noblemen had Flagships.. And of course Pirates had their Flagships.

The Pirate Flagship's metrics are all but done. I know they wanted a few other ideas, but I think Vane has covered them.

We would just need to come up with buffs for Merchant and Noble Flagships.

As my original post was about experience, perhaps consideration should be placed more on a ships crew and not the ship itself. After all, it's really the crew who develops experience and not the ship.

This would logically dictate that battles win or lose would contribute to a crew's experience points.

Experience points would be some modifier admin would place on a ship to make it a little 'better' and would be a hidden buff that the player would have to figure out.

It would mean the possible suggested 'perks' would be tied to a SHIP and not a fleet. If a ship lost it's crew for some reason, away would go the advantages as well.
Although admin has always been against anything that causes crew depletion for unknown reasons (although valid I'm sure), I would go on to suggest that dry-docking an experienced ship in the Marina would cause a percentage of experienced crew to not return to duty when called upon forcing some new hires and depleting experience.

There could also be a casualty rate from battles lost that must be replenished via a port visit for new hires. Maybe anthrax laden cannonballs of manure acting on crew causing crew sickness like a swarm of worms does on a ship (said partially tongue in cheek).

The amount of available recruits in a port I think is way too generous currently so look at cutting back crew replenishment.

Just some thoughts in giving more flexibility to sea battles which is essentially my wish list

If we want way to kill small percentage of the crew we can always insert grape shots( if I remember right the name of ammunition) so in battle it kills like 1% of crew if you are winner and 5% if you lose

I would think the act of capturing a ship should lead to some crew being lost to 'prize crew' duties : this would also act to discourage the frankly silly cases where a small crew ship ' captures' a full sotl fleet and sails it away....

Danik wrote:I would think the act of capturing a ship should lead to some crew being lost to 'prize crew' duties : this would also act to discourage the frankly silly cases where a small crew ship ' captures' a full sotl fleet and sails it away....

It would stand to reason that any captured ship would suffer casualties. I would even suggest anywhere from 40-60% casualties rate. Some die from battle and some just outright refuse to follow a new captain.

If the successfully invading captain had a lower fame rating, for arguments sake, lets put the rate close to the 60% casualties and a player/Captain with high fame would attract a greater number of the defeated crew to join their new captain closer to the 40% causality rate. Maybe even a larger window like 75-35 % to choose from. This would give fame a further need for maintaining it.
Working with crew could open up a host of new possibilities of conflicts in game play but if the no manipulation of crew rules are to be maintained, I'll dream no longer along this vein of thought.