[Deprecated] Another big feature: Ship abilities

[Warrior]

what if you had to keep crew happy? like if crews where more likely to mutiny if you wanted to go through a bad pirate area, or if you are a pirate an area with lots of patrols, because of fear? or something like that. patrols to keep waters safe would be cool, make tradibg more profitable, and profits for pirates with extortion, pay fees to be safe. dunno if these have been mentioned, probably have.

I don't think that would be good t' tah game, cuz tradin' guild as a nation could control t' area between two ports, then pirates could never go thar.. I think it works somethin' like influence and area control... And again in here t' traders who have lots o' gold take more control. And already its a hard game for pirates, now do ye wanna make it more harder ? If it goes on like this, then all pirates would become traders. My 2 cents... and -1 for this.

But someone had already suggested bout that making the crew happy, i don't remember who... It was something like ye give them rum n' make them happy.. n' happy crew fights well.

[Barnabas Sackett]

rum rations?

but what if pirates all hit at once,a fast plannwd raid, the patrols would not be able to get everyone. ooooo what about shipping insurance for when you get raided? then there would be pirates, merchants, and insurance agents in the age of gun powder!

but what did you think about extortion fees? there could be areas where pirates influence is so strong that patrols wouldn't be able to make it, but with real high profits, the risk of shipping through there would be worth it.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Lloyds of London, who insure shipping, was founded in 1688... so yep, insurance agents in the age of gunpowder is not an anachronism....

[Barnabas Sackett]

merchants could even work with the pirates to create insurance fraud.

but protection money would be pretty cool, pirates would have to work out a system for it, have turf wars for it, take care of pirates that dont follow the rules, have a pirate godfather, the whole 9 yrds.

[Barnabas Sackett]

think about it though, what if you had daniks of regis? you could even be part of the pirate mafia and only attack those that dont pay, and insurance fees would be the same thing as protection money! or you could control premiums by shaking things up on a certain route raise prices and then no more attacks when everyone its passing the new"insurance" premium.

[Stan Rogers]

Just as a matter of interest, in the original game, ship crew would mutiny if they grew unhappy with the ship command. Either from spending too long at sea on patrol or lack of profitable plunder or discomfort with living conditions. Increasing Hammock attributes mitigated this problem considerably.

[Shadowood]

Reading over some older notes on Ship Abilities with an update promised in the near future.

Some interesting ideas in this thread. Even a "Leviathan" resistance buff for ships offered up by Capt Jack. Very interesting, but I know some pirates who would pitch a fit if this was implemented.

What about simplifying Capt Dung's suggestion from this thread.. And not have it a specific ship based but a selection when you build a ship, any ship. The Shipwright who is building a ship would be able to select from a list of abilities to add to that specific ship. That way he could tailor a ship to his liking or if he is building it for a client to their liking.

Options could be:
The Hold - Increased Storage Capacity
Rudder - Increased Turning reducing probability to avoid a hit
Crow's nest / Spyglass - Increase time displayed for skirmishes or see boats with 2 or even 1 danger
Rigging - Increased Speed
Ballast - Increased reduction in danger when receiving a hit
Parlay - Reduce the ransom paid when getting attacked

You tailor a ship how you like... Maybe you don't go with the obvious and add storage to a LMM/Trade Galleon or maybe you do. Maybe someone would put it on Flag Galleons and make them a superior trading vessel (more so then they are already).

CJ made some cool suggestions to in the original post..
"-Chain Shot (Destroys ship upgrades during battle - attribute points are not lost though)
-Grape Shot (Kills ship crew during battle)
-Runaway (Ship has a chance to avoid attack - fleet-only: in case of multiple ships in a fleet, all ships will need this ability to roll a runaway chance)
-Sneak (No danger for port arrival - fleet-only: see above for explanation)"

I just think a simple list to chose from when building the ship would be the way to go. You get 1 selection and you run with it. If the ship is ever stolen or sunk/recovered and simple cast of Remodel Voodoo and the new owner can change the ability selection.

[Shadowood]

...

[William one eye]

Harpoons

Special ability for Sotls and Mow

harpoons - perhaps this costs extra att points, so instead of your standard 60 att range - SOTLS and MOW now have 70 ATT spots to select from - The extra 10 att assignment is for harpoons. for each Harpoon att increase the chance the onboard harpoonists are able to kill levianthans. I feel this will make sailing these ships more desirable.

sample for a 42 att ship
setup may look like this

Ship Upgrades Ship Resources
Round Shot: 8
Bronze Cannon: 6
Harpoons: 4
Copper Plating: 3
Iron Scantling: 7
Double Hammocks:6
Cotton Sails: 8

to fully optimize this one would need extra master craftsman

sample for a 70 att ship

Ship Upgrades Ship Resources
Round Shot: 10
Bronze Cannon: 10
Harpoons: 10
Copper Plating: 10
Iron Scantling: 10
Double Hammocks:10
Cotton Sails: 10


SOTL - 7.5 % increase per att in defense up to 75% protection and
MOW - 8.0 % increase per att in defense getting you up to 80% protection.

I would also suggest that hammocks affect this by improving probability of
a hit, I don't know the exact mechanics of this function so it is hard for me to
determine if it could interact or not.
Ideally I think fully attributed hammocks should be needed to bring this ability up to the full
7.5% and 8.5% levels.


This will benefit the highest att ships the most, and players will need to choose if
this att is worth selecting harpoons for their particular ship.

For these ships as they are expensive ships - a remodel card and master craftsman ship should be sufficient for players to adjust existing ships.

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a few considerations that would be nice but I do not feel are necessary


new ships of this type start with 7 atts instead of 6

existing owners could be gifted 1 master craftsman per ship owned

existing owner could be gifted 1 remodel per ship owned
or all could be reset. - a reset might be bad for those that don't pay much attention or
are not very active.
Edit** said master craftsman meant remodel.


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[Shadowood]

+1 for Harpoons on SoLT and MoW