(Rare) Call Leviathan

[Hawk]

Hawk, you missed my point.... I was trying to say that if your going to complain like a snot nosed kid that the newbie destroyed my sol, afterall I ONLY plundered him and took everything he owns??!! then .... well.... I dont quite know what to tell you. and I have a question for a couple of you here.... If one has a fleet of "60's" and is impossible for another to defeat, what could one do....... just automatically do everything the other says he has to do or.... even the playing field, or mabey someone has a better answer, honestly I would like to here it.

First off I have never lost a ship more expensive than a brig to Leviathans

Second I haven't demolished a novice player since my noob days and even I did I wouldn't care less if he casted a few levis on me. Only a paying player who has been around for awhile can acquire that many leviathans.

As for beating maxed out sotls, that is what the majority of the discussion has been about since I brought up the topic. I'm sure you'll understand if I disregard most of what you say from now on.

edit* Didn't mean to sound pompous or anything but I don't feel like arguing unless it has a point

[Hollywood]

UUUUGH.... sorry for bothering YOUR post.... il go back to my default position of ignoring you I guess.

[MAjesty]

Hollywood. The problem is not new players using Leviathan to take revenge on medium players and big players. That would obviously be whiny sour grapes. The problem is that that same little player cant hassle players bigger then them because there is an enormous chance that the bigger player has a mountain of Leviathan in their inventory, and can afford to one-boat virtually anyone noobish, and do critical damage to a medium player... this mutually assured destruction scenario doesn't encourage conflict at all, and that's stupid, cuz it's an online game.. about pirates. pirates by design were people who robbed the big guys and then fled from the consequences their whole life... if the European navies had had a magic button which could blow up any pirate boat they heard about attacking their ships, the golden age of pirates wouldn't have even happened.

as if that isnt bad enough, it gets even worse. the big players, and especially the ones putting money into the game end up massing up huge stockpiles during the extended periods of inactivity. and that restarts the cycle even further discouraging activity in the game.

there are lots of business simulators out there, -don't mention other games- has been pro at this for awhile... but this isnt a pirate game, this is a game with PIRATE in the title, it should be possible to BE a PIRATE in this game.

now lets ignore all the pirates-yay reasons why i resent this card. this card ENCOURAGES bullying. this game has a BUNCH of big kids walking around with big rocks in their hand doing as much damage as they want to small/mediums.. any attempt to protect yourself inside the rules renders the game incredibly boring or is outright suicide. there's no fun in that....

i think sparrow or someone up in the list was talking about masterly crafted ships... there are already battle improving and limiting voodoos, and direct damage cards that say do 600 dmg to target ship etc make sense, and have limits.... cards that each do multi millions in damage and stagnate the game however, do not....u can always use swarm of worms etc on ur targets to make them accessible during big kid vs big kid battles.

the middle and littles are being hurt and discouraged by the nuclear bombs held by the big kids... this card needs to be nerfed massively or better yet removed outright.

[Black sparrow]

If you are so highly discouraged by Call Leviathan, there are dozens of defence options you could take.

The best for you would be: DON'T BUILD SOLs.

[MAjesty]

Now since this last post was made about an hour after I made mine, i'm gonna assume it was directed to my post.

This attitude is what i meant by bullying. "if ur afraid of levi dont make sotl" philosophically that is the same statement as "if u dont want to get beat up dont come near the sandbox... "

this isnt kickboxing... there is no world championship here, so there shouldnt be purchasable super-ultra-death-strike cards which can neutralize anyone trying to make it to the big leagues.

no personal offense intended sparrow, but u and the rest of page 1 have the ability to murder me and the rest of the middles and littles, i see how this is good for you, but it is bad for the game.

every time i check the tavern a new player has joined, yet the total player count is constantly around the same basic number. im not talking to you here sparrow, im talking to admin... this game is taking player attrition because a new player is jumping into a sandbox surrounded by big kids with switchblades... and have to decide if they're going to spend 6 months slowly building up hawkers, or get murdered by the big kids the second they try something ambitious. considering the name of the game, which attracts the noobers is PIRATES GLORY it is a bad administrative decision to be handing the big kids switchblades.

personally, i havent seen you Sparrow as a Marauding Bully the way i have seen several other players, but your
"get out of the sand box if u dont want to get knifed" retort to an extended post on WHY Leviathan is bad for the metagame of PG in general is What i mean by bullying. u would retain ur power and influence in the game if levi got nerfd but u maintain much more power by it staying the way it is. that is BAD for growth of the game, im sure u love ur position in the game at this moment, but this isnt kikboxing dude, u arent trying to be the world champ... other people should be welcome to play in the sandbox without being expected to play a 15th century business simulator for 6 months before they can be part of ur mutually assured destruction stare-down scenario.

more importantly, im giving depth and extended reasoning behind my posts, if u have something to say, say it with some sort of respect for the effort ive put into explaining my position. im happy to respond to ur reasons, but u came back with "get out of my sandbox" considering that im talking about the health and well being of pirates glory itself, it would be nice and just decent if u put a little more thought into what u have to say to me in public

[MAjesty]

WAITWAIT, you said dozens by the way. open challenge. dozen means 12, dozen+s means plural so lets call that 2. i challenge u personally sparrow... 24 scenarios where ANY voodoo/behavior combination counters the threat of the leviathan.

[Xepshunall]

Booty Master, Time Spiral, Swarm of Worms are negative cards but they arent nearly as destructive as leviathan. Leviathan has always been the baddest sea monster but now its time to get even with the caster. There should be a 20% chance of attacking one of the castor's ships. This would balance the card more and encourage players to plunder with one another. This 20% chance could not be blocked by mindbar or countercourse.

We can't just plunder each other without first casing voodoo to make worthwhile targets visible. There has to be a small window of opportunity when any two players can cross paths and fight regardless of danger rating. I feel strongly that danger rating should only be the deciding factor within a certain distance from port and that when two players are a certain distance (or less) from each other at sea, they may attack if they want to. Piracy isn't a port activity. It's deep sea dealing. This is one of the many lacks of perspective of the devs that should, but probably never will, be dealt with.

[Xepshunall]

If you are so highly discouraged by Call Leviathan, there are dozens of defence options you could take.

The best for you would be: DON'T BUILD SOLs.

With all due respect, you are letting your initials do the talking. I hear nothing but your initials here. You have to get past your respect for, and defense of, the decisions and creativity of the devs and look (REALY LOOK) at what's best for the game as a whole and not just for your own ability to protect your investments.

WAITWAIT, you said dozens by the way. open challenge. dozen means 12, dozen+s means plural so lets call that 2. i challenge u personally sparrow... 24 scenarios where ANY voodoo/behavior combination counters the threat of the leviathan.

Good catch!
I can name two solutions.

1) Spend money. Lots of it to make sure you can always have a Mindbar and about twenty Countercurse active at all times because Purify and and Serenity are uncommon while Mindbar is rare so the chances of getting a few Serenities in a voodoo pack to a single Mindbar are pretty high.

2) Play solely as a merchant and never have any real fun. The only players I know of who really get anything out of this game, besides the social interaction, are Skyhawk and zombie jesus.

Anyone who can say that either of these solutions are acceptable should have to go back in time and try to make one of those scenarios work for them in the type of environment that this game is trying to emulate or simulate whichever the case may be. I would love to hear the report from those who learned the truth of the matter. There would come a lot of stammering, stuttering and back-pedaling.

I hope that doesn't take up all of the at least 24 ways to defend against those of us who can wipe out a player on a whim. I have made too many efforts to counter this problem and have come up against too much opposition from the devs who use this chance for imbalance of power to promote purchase of credits and voodoo packs and those who have bought the voodoo packs in order to control the Pirates Glory environment. None of those people care about the actual quality of game-play here. Devs will keep it this way for their reasons and bullies will stand on the side of the devs for theirs. It doesn't involve an iota of honesty. Just greed and more greed.

And before you start with the whole "It takes money to pay for development" (Black Sparrow's initials), it doesn't take the ruining of a game that was once a good concept and was once a lot of fun. The problem isn't that the voodoo exists now. It's that so much of it can be held by a single player and some that never should exist do.

[Sir Henry Morgan]

I agree - there is voodoo that exists that shouldn't, but the fact remains, it exists. I assume that nothing will change with these curses; the ramifications are unpredictable as to what would happen if they were changed or removed. So I assume all will remain unbalanced due to voodoo. To counter the voodoo, opportunity for a player to pirate needs increased.

The issue is that a player who pirates places his entire enterprise on the line when he practices his trade. He risks it all, and his options are highly limited. He must cast a curse to bring down defenses, cast curses to expose fleets to attack, attack fleets with battle ships in order to gain profit and fame. His ships are then exposed to plunder and recourse. And for every action, his name and number are attached. His victim knows exactly who he is and what he has done.

That is why there are so few playing as pirates in Pirates Glory. High cost, high risk, questionable reward. The pirate has to create his own opportunity. Merchants do not, build a ship, set a trade route, you're done. Low risk, low cost, low reward. Therefore, we have fewer pirates in the game. In fact, Skyhawk and Zombie jesus are the only two currently active as pirates out of all the active members playing.

If there were ample (not just more) opportunities for someone to ply the practice of pirating, such as PVP, with no name exposure, etc. (i.e., lowering the risk), there would be more pirates playing. With more pirates in the game, the merchants will be "at risk." They will have to defend themselves. They will have to build battle ships, they will have to cast curses in defense, in retaliation, etc. It would certainly start to affect the voodoo inventories in a differently as a whole. (More voodoo should be undercover, period. It will reduce risk overall, but that's another topic for another post.)

On a final note, the feature I think it would be interesting to add to the Call Leviathan would to make it a risky curse to unleash. First of all, let's say it only has a %50 chance of hitting its intended target - it would also have a 49% chance of hitting one of the caster's vessels (based upon the cost of the vessel - highest cost). It also has a %1 chance of totally sinking one of the caster's vessels. (The beastie can't be too bright if it choses to dine on wooden vessels over more palatable menu items. )

[Black sparrow]

I don't get how call leviathan gets to be the center of attention when you can cause a lot more damage -to a trader for example- with a single favorable winds card.

Except if you r generally discussing in this thread.