I tried to think of some of the arguments that would arise before I wrote these down, but I doubt I can come up with all answers,1st, from the sign up page, when choosing a ship, I think it would be helpful to include what the stats are and to explain those stats before choosing a ship (cargo space, cannon, crew, etc etc), I know the merchant has "recommended for new players" on it, but that doesn't exactly tell me much. I ended up picking the ex naval officer, not knowing anything besides that it sounded cool. Now I understand the fact that I might have wanted to merchant for the Howker (at least, that's what I assume the merchant gets) to make more money through trade, but it might have been helpful to describe or show how exactly it makes better for making money (I realize it says the merchant is better at trading, but I didn't realize HOW important it was because it wasn't fully explained)
-also from the sign up page, I think it could help one pick a home port if 1. they knew what country controlled what port and 2. knew what their main item was to trade
2nd I am finding it difficult to make any decent amount of money. I realize this of course, is the complaint made by any noob of any game, but I find it hard to raise any sort of money to buy ships. Of course, some will say to shut up and enjoy the game, but I would ask that there be some other way to make money, because as a new guy with one ship, I find it hard to plunder with a sloop any great amount and trading doesn't quite make alot. I thought that maybe missions with monetary and resource rewards might help. It could help new players make more money at the beginning and the rewards could fluctuate based on the number of ships someone has so as to be somewhat useful to older players as well. The missions could include attacking certain NPC ships at certain ports, too taking "X" amount of resources some where (which could require more than one trip) or something similar to that, maybe even transporting a letter or something. The reward doesn't necessarily have to be huge, but a decent amount wouldn't be to bad and as I said, could help a new player along to buying their first ship.
3rd, this may be a bit of a stretch, but I thought it would be cool if you could buy more than just "cannon". Even in real life, there were several different cannons that were more powerful than the standard. Such a thing could add a new factor to the game, making smaller ships more of a match to bigger ships if the smaller ship is better equipped, or if 2 ships of the same type went against it each other it could be a deciding factor. Even if its just 3 or 4 different types of cannon, it could change the style of gameplay and make it a little more interesting. If some find it unfair, you could possible add in a speed penalty because a bigger cannon would weigh more, and thus slow down a ship or make ti that only a limited number certain cannon can be added or something along the lines of that.
-Also as a side note with cannons, I think (and this is even a farther stretch) that they should be able to be destroyed in attacks. Not many, nor would it happens always, but it could be a random outcome of a battle, and could happen to either the winner or the loser. Please note I feel that this possibly might add in to many factors, but I just wanted to throw out the idea and see what people thought of it.
4th, boarding, I don't know if this has been suggested before, but the ability to board and steal ships through the use of the crew, I think, would be interesting as well. I have no idea if it has been discussed, and I realize that it could mean that bigger players with huge ships could simply dominate and take out smaller players, but I don't know if anyone has an idea for equalizer of sorts to make that work out. (maybe just be able to board an "X" number of ships, or only NPC's or a combo)
5th, bountys. What if there were NPC pirates that you could collect a reward on form certain nations. Some would be small, for newer players, and the reward wouldn't be worth the effort for bigger players to find them, but have bigger ones to for the older and wealthier players. Another factor could be that the pirates could attack players at times (but might have to factor in an equalizer of sorts so the big pirates didn't attack small players) another factor could be that you could collect the bounty from any port that offered it, but some ports, depending on nationality, might offer more or less based on what the pirate attacked
My last thought is that ports, and one that I feel could add some spice to the game depending on how you want to develop it. I read the post about ports and how someone thought there should be bonuses involved, and that might be beneficial, and could go along with my idea. I think that players should be able to attack ports though. Building up ports would still include money for influence, but could add more to it by buying cannons and fortifications. (Also, if boarding doesn't work for pvp, maybe something with raiding the port for less turns than attacking it, but less rewards). A way to equalize this so that once again, bigger players wouldn't be the only ones to attack it, is by either raiding, as I have said before, or having different sections of a port, the less defended it is, the less reward but the easier to attack.When attacking a port, you wouldn't necessarily have to destroy all the fortifications to get money, but only a certain amount. One could lose ships through a raid, but one can also gain resources and money as well. I realize that some might argue that this would provoke many to not build up ports because who would raid their own fort?
That brings up many variations and arguments, and could possibly be the downfall of the entire idea, some of the ideas to argue this come in mind
- going along with the suggestion of bonuses (mentioned in another thread), I would suggest that if you are in a port that is controlled by your nation, you could have an automated option for a fleet to offer assistance or not, if it does then it could have a small defense bonus and you receive a reward for helping defend your country's port.
-To encourage people to want to control ports through their nations, you could give better trading deals through buying and/or selling resources
-Also, if a port is controlled, then you could receive a small (meaning minimal, yet enough to be worth the trouble of controlling a port) decrease in buying a ship
-Last idea that I have that would encourage a build of a port would be that if/when missions like the ones I suggested earlier would included, then you would receive a small bonus if you complete it from either a port of your nation or your home port for those that are of countries that have no port controlled
I know that the bonuses for the nations could possibly encourage people just to change nationality's so that there would only be one or two nations left that could control a port, and I really don't have any good ideas to counter that besides having some sort of restriction or penalty for them, any suggestions would be welcome for that
That's all I have, I hope at least 1 idea or part of an idea sounds remotely good to somebody. Here are ideas I thought would be cool, though I will admit I'm still new, I think it would make gameplay a little more interesting and keep new players because it would give them better opportunities to have a good start.
Feel free to hate, comment, suggest, and discuss!
With regards,
Plubius
Post note/ last thought, can the base health of ships be listed when buying them? All one can see is the amount of cannon's it can hold, I think the base health would be helpful in deciding on ships.
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