New Trade Goods

[Prof. Anthrax]

I think it would be a wonderful added dimension to the game if we could have weed/opium plantations and covert trading of those products.

It would be a high risk/high reward venture and would add all kinds of tactics, strategy, and danger. Perhaps illegal cargo such as that could attract the attention of Naval fleets?

Plus, what if there were more governmental fleets out there? Random stops and checks to see if you are, indeed, legit. Fake paperwork would be needed, creating a new market and new profession. Forged papers for sale, with forgers being a craftsman you'd have to find, pay, and keep.

Just some thoughts.

[Grimrock Litless]

Silk would be nice.

[Sanji]

well it will be good for pirates as they don't trade much and only rely on plunder and raid

[Bmw]

Maybe make it so that there's also a bonus for when someone skirmishes the fleet that's carrying the illicit drugs.

[PFH]

This could be more risky than trading gold...I like it. It would add more to the game. problem is...most drugs were made out of multiple ingredients. You would need to somehow produce them or hire a druggie for the hideout or something of that nature. I can see it being done.

I just don't want this game to turn into the game called pot farm. That would change this game greatly. Plus, it could promote drug use to some...not-so-intellectual individuals. It shouldn't be a problem though I hope.

[Bmw]

Maybe make it as another way to kill population as you transport more and more of the drugs the population slowly gets addicted and a certain percentage of that addicted population die from overdoses or other things.

[PFH]

Then we could make more voodoo and this could make more npc war fleets produced, such as a Black-Market Caravan or something. they would be a little stronger than a military convoy, and would carry more gold than large merchant fleets. What do you think on that?

I can see it doing that. It could make an entirely new market alone

[Prof. Anthrax]

To me, this is almost historically accurate, as the opium wars in China made a lot of pirate merchants wealthy or dead.

What makes this interesting as an added dimension is how you would have merchants with solid ties to the governmental leadership vowing to avoid the drug trade, all the while participating in it secretly. It would add all kinds of elements of secrecy and you would never really know what the other person is up to.

There would be consequences to being a drug runner, merchant, or producer. And there would be rewards for not being in that trade. However, there would be great financial benefits to participating. And a person would have much to lose if they were found out to be involved.

It would add more power to the political class. Also, NPC fleets could added that were Royal Naval Law Enforcement (DEA) that would randomly stop and search fleets. If your fleet doesn't have drugs, you get some kind of credit or reputation. The more fleets you have that don't get caught with drugs, the higher your rank is with the government. The better your reputation, too. That would have potential benefits and profits as well. But if you got caught running drugs, you lose that.

I realize it's making things more complicated and I"m sure it could be simplified. But instead of the parasitic pirates feeding on the work of merchants they could instead go after the drug runners for more profit.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Not quite historically accurate : the British Government strongly supported the Opium Trade into China : indeed, thats what the Opium Wars were about, the British forcing the Chinese to open their ports to the trade. Chinese opposition was well-founded, as the massive outflows of silver which funded the importation of Opium effectively bankrupted the nation whilst massively enriching British traders and investors.
There was no great opposition to the trade in Britain until the late Victorian Era : indeed, the use of opiates was both common and considered beneficial to health. It is one of the less-lauded aspects of British trade domination of that era, but is a reason China distrusts the West so much and maintains harsh anti-drug laws.

What are today considered as 'drugs' were mostly legal everywhere until the early 1900's, so 'drug-runners' are a modern creation and not of that period.

[PFH]

Cannabis and other natural 'drugs' that are from mostly plants have been used to see spirits by the natives and other tribes for thousands of years. They wouldn't put it in a bowl no...they would grind it up and throw it into the fire. That is when the effects of the plant were felt because of the amount of the plant they would throw in the fire and how close they were around it. It was mostly spiritualists who used this as a practice to see the spirits or to be aware of there presence.

Even then, the lowlife pirates would not just enjoy themselves on rum...there used to be taxes on marijuana in different parts of the world back in the day. That's all I can think of for that topic. I'd have to do some personal research to find out what else there was out there back then.