Limit number of Levi cards cast on a single ship

[Ghost]

With the addition of Shipwreck Hunt a new tactic has emerged that will affect the 60 point ships.

Any player can now simply cast 10 Levi's on a target ship and immediately hunt for the shipwreck. All you need is 5 level 1 Trade Galleons and 10 or 20 Levi cards. The risk to the attacking player is limited as the ship that they just captured can be put on the market immediately at a nice profit. They can actually play this game with 5 ships and a handful of Levi's and no more. It's just too easy.

Admin has clearly stated that they want more big ships sailing and many are 60 pointers, especially those juicy gold traders. Is this strategy not defeating the whole idea of more big ships? Would it not make sense to limit the number of Levi cards to 8 or 9 per single ship, fleet or player in a 24 hour period?

[William one eye]

Recovery of the ship you sink would not be as easy as you would think.
This is not a simple operation, it would take a lot of prep and definitely more than 1 recovery fleet.

However it is still possible.

A simple solution would be to make Sotl's unsinkable by leviathan.
so damage can be inflicted until the ship hits lvl 1 but leviathans will not sink them.

[Meliva]

A few things though, first, there is no guarantee you will get the target ship. If other ships are on the sea floor at that port, you might get that instead So just imagine wasting 10 levis only to get a howker, or sloop.. Second, it would still take a bit of planning to pull it off. you need your fleet at the right port and begin the hunt asap after you sink it. I am not sure if a hunt can find a ship that sank during the hunt, or if only ships already sunk when it started can be found. Also if all your TG are level 1, the player you hit could use a single levi, and stop you from claiming the prize.
I dislike the idea of restricting Levis, but I'm curious what pirates think of this suggestion.

[Haron]

I think the existing rules work just fine.

Remember that you only get a level 1 SoL from the hunt. And it cost you 10 Leviathans. I think this is OK.

[DezNutz]

+1 as long as it is restricted to 10.

[Ghost]

It's not just SOTL's that are affected so making only SOTL unsinkable is not the solution. Any 60 point ships regardless of whether its a BOW, Frigate or SOTL can be targeted. It's not the ship you're after it's the attribute points.

Any additional point over and above the standard upgrade is worth 20 credits each and those don't get destroyed when the ship is sunk.

Why is it not simple? Surely you'd know which port you sunk the ship in and most ports have no shipwrecks so the chances of get the ship you're after is pretty good.

[Most Lee Harmless]

I see your point Radish : but making ships unsinkable is the end of targeted ship stealing : it would make tails invulnerable : the raider would have no choice but to zero the target via plunders on cheap tails alone : I think the game would lose much if that were to happen.

[William one eye]

There are a lot of factors, strategy and planing that would affect the ability to recover.

If you managed to sink a 60 and managed to recover it the cost of the levi's and the cost to rebuild it from lvl1 would yield a profit.
But not a huge profit. This would be more an act of revenge and the recovery if you were capable, a cost offset.

If you sunk a 40, you are not going to recover your costs.

if I were the victim of such an attack, I would certainly try to disrupt the casters recovery effort.

[William one eye]

It's not just SOTL's that are affected so making only SOTL unsinkable is not the solution. Any 60 point ships regardless of whether its a BOW, Frigate or SOTL can be targeted. It's not the ship you're after it's the attribute points.

Any additional point over and above the standard upgrade is worth 20 credits each and those don't get destroyed when the ship is sunk.

Why is it not simple? Surely you'd know which port you sunk the ship in and most ports have no shipwrecks so the chances of get the ship you're after is pretty good.

no one is going to try and drop your 60 att BOW or Frigate with levis with the hopes of recovering it

[Ghost]

I see your point Radish : but making ships unsinkable is the end of targeted ship stealing : it would make tails invulnerable : the raider would have no choice but to zero the target via plunders on cheap tails alone : I think the game would lose much if that were to happen.

Not sure I like being compared to a vegetable

Agreed 100%. Making ships unsinkable is not the answer. Perhaps the answer would be to place the limit on certain types of ships. At least that would leave the door open for tail ships (cutters, hawker etc) to be taken out. The goal with that strategy was to get to the bigger ships to reduce a players gold much quicker.