Hostile Natives is overbalanced

[Lil Lola]

Yeah, there will always be the suspect players. And it is frustrating. But sometimes we forget that some dump money for revenge play. Some I think come back just for that purpose and we will never truly know who they are because they may have been chased off the game by a Vet forever ago.

And people quit for all kinds of reasons but it does help when you have good guild mates and fellow players who back you and keep you from quoting but let's be honest, everything does take a while and a lot of effort. Even raiding takes finesse and stellar timing a and a bit of luck. but honestly the ones who stay are the ones who are addicted for whatever reason. Lol You put a lot of yourself and your heart in the game and want to see the outcome.

[Dmanwuzhere]

lol its funny really ... talk about people spending so the game is free to you then try and make up rules so that they benefit you for free
sounds like some gen z stuff

as for your respect mack.... what currency is that.... is it like frequent flyer miles.... pick free items from the catalog or get a discount

alone you might reap what you sow but in a guild you reap what anyone in your guild sows

I mean ... how many people in my guild have you and other members lit up in a day.... with these evil hns lol... to upset me
it never works and they still put up with me
the same way those in your guild have to put up with consequences brought on by other members

my takeaway from all this .... feel blessed.... especially today .... that some of your most discussed game issues and things you view as problems are here .... because some people in the world do not have that luxury.... HAPPY THANKSGIVING

[Henry Avery]

honestly I've lost count of how many times I've been cleaned out, how many maxed sotls I've lost. I stick around because i love this slowly dying dumpster fire of a game. Y'all are funny, too, which helps.

[Zephore]

Most people also hide the yummy ships in the marinas too. Oh yes ah don't forget the MOWs that never see the light of day. Hmmm. I think lots of people are stuck in a rut. Go after easy targets because the hard ones are expensive lol

Mines out


I think the issue is said "mega traders " tho. The traditional pirate fleet is dead, almost everyone fields sotls. Pirates need to use firepower or play with the smaller targets.

[Lil Lola]

Of course it is lol. Forever the exhibitionist lol. Show off lol.

[not a pirate]

My suggestion was to increase the rarity of Hostile Natives, in order to make their use more costly.
But there may be other solutions to the problem, for example the number of Hostile Natives cast on the same player per month could be limited.
And so on and so forth ...
Bottom line is there are many ways to make this game more balanced and therefore more enjoyable.

The game has already shifted extremely into taking the "balance" and "enjoyment" away from the quintessential pirate playstyle. Now you have to run ships that people wouldn't run years ago in order to even be slightly competitive, unless you just want to live off of scraps.. There are ways to counter Hostile Natives that either completely negate the effects of the card or severely dampen the negative effect that you suffer while it is actively cast on you. They are pretty simple and easy to do as well. Stagger your fleets? Pause your fleets? Clear the voodoo? The game has always been "rewarding" in the sense that the player who is online to monitor their account and defend themselves if necessary will typically make more profit and experience greater success than the player who lets people run rampant when they are stocking their warehouses to get on for the week and cast a Potato Party, with all the trade route mechanics and overall losses taken into account. If you can't, or won't, manage your account like the former player then you should suffer the consequences. You could also grow more within your means or utilize stronger escort ships to deter potential attackers anyways.

Making Hostile Natives a rare curse or limiting the number of casts per month makes absolutely no sense as then the card would need to be reworked entirely to make it more fitting of a rare curse, in my opinion. Should we limit the number of times Party Cards can be cast per player per month in order to make the game more balanced? Or the number of Mindbars and Countercurses someone can use per month? No, they all serve their purpose and are limited by both the amount you have and the intentions of the attacking party. If someone wants to get your Countercurses wiped out, they will. If someone wants to clear your MB, they will. By extension, if someone wants to light you up for being lazy in one way or another with Hostile Natives, they should be able to as well.

And for the record, whoever mentioned it would require more coordination and teamwork, that's the point of FoJ. Hostile Natives punishes those who do not take necessary precautions to limit the amount of losses they may incur under its effects. FoJ occurs at the hour regardless of if the ship just arrived at a port or not, making it easier to coordinate raids with due to the predictability of when and where certain fleets will be lit up.

This is all to say: "-1"

Edit: I'd put money on it that the type of player that made this suggestion would then suggest another "Exchange Credit for X" option where you could increase the number of voodoo you can cast on a person monthly for 100 credits...

[Lil Lola]

Why do they always suggest stifling others' gameplay instead of learning/teaching how to be a better player?

[Schwarzbart]

I completely agree that you'd have to run very strong ships, order to even be slightly competitive. And i see that as a problem, because anyone who is new to the game can't afford these and won't find any targets they could go up against. But i think part of the problem is that there are too many sharks in the tank and anyone who dares to run a trading fleet of humble Howkers, or anything like that, gets eaten alive.

[Zephore]

I'm by no means an old player, after 5 years in the game. However, when I joined, people seldom sailed SOTL's, it was a prize to steal. MoW's even less, but we see some people sailing them now, aside "special operations" - Not like when BS would field a 5 MoW fleet to whoop another player.

The game has shifted a lot. Traders didn't use to rip half your spine out for a raid (I'm looking at you, Jim Hawkins) nor did pirates need to field a fleet that made them a target.
Today, you cannot get by with the same setup, if you want to make the same kind of money. On that note, there's also way less people being lit up.

[Dmanwuzhere]

Captain Mac Snow (#59405) has casted Confuse on you!
2022-11-25 20:30:35
2
Captain Mac Snow (#59405) tried to cast Confuse on you but his curse has been blocked by your Mindbar !
2022-11-25 20:30:32
3
Captain Mac Snow (#59405) tried to cast Confuse on you but his curse has been blocked by your Mindbar !
2022-11-25 20:30:28
4
Captain Mac Snow (#59405) has casted Mindbar on you!


lol its the voodos fault of course

now imma have to worry about getting kicked cause people used voodoo