Witch Doctors gameplay - manageable risk for everyone

[Mack]

I dont like the plunder voodoo cards idea

[Vane]

All the merchants out there, answer these questions for Avonmora...

How much do you lose in a raid?

How much do you make daily from trade?

How often are you raided?


Unless your pissing a particular pirate off, i'd say you all earn well even under current mechanics. In fact on average merchants still earn better than pirates.

[Shadowood]

All the merchants out there, answer these questions for Avonmora...

How much do you lose in a raid?

How much do you make daily from trade?

How often are you raided?


Unless your pissing a particular pirate off, i'd say you all earn well even under current mechanics. In fact on average merchants still earn better than pirates.

I was making just over 10 million a day on my trade routes. And I was not as large as some, but larger then others.
I rarely got hit, but when I did 1 round would take about 1.5 million from me I believe. And due to sink chance there was another maybe 1.5 million to level back up. I didn't run tail ships, all Galleons
Again, I wasn't raided often. I don't know why?

If I had been, I would say I would net 7 million a day after the plundering took place.

Having said that, like most I also make money else where. If you are only doing 1 thing in this game to make money, you should learn to do more. I have traded gold bars, made money on credit exchange, selling voodoo cards, selling ships... And of course I have made my largest fortune by raiding, plundering and devastating Fat Merchants.

Merchants do make more then straight up pirates. I am not a straight up pirate

[Vane]

And there you have it, most encounter the same. Even in the unlikely event you lost equal to daily profit from trade, you are not likely to be raided again every single day.

Now, this is about "Witch Doctors" not pirates, or merchants. So back to the issue at hand.

Witch doctors cast purely to harm, not profit and with nothing at all to lose. This is the problem that needs to be rectified. The fix can not be tied to the number of ships one owns as this affects every other play style merchants and pirates alike.

[Sir Henry Morgan]

The primary issue with the witch doctor is the ability to harm with no risk. I agree with Vane - tying the risk to ships will hurt the current play styles - perhaps setting a risk or a cost directly to the role of a Witch Doctor? I can think of several ways it might be addressed:

What if there were consequences for casting voodoo as a witch doctor?

I don't know if these would work, they are just ideas or suggestions....

If no ships, no under cover attributes work. Population and influence related curses don't work. Voodoo cast by witch doctors can trigger side affects -
If casting say a confuse curse, xx% chance it will also affect caster. Cast a fugitive from justice, xx% chance it also hits another player as well.

Another thought -

Or - a witch doctor would lose their flag? Neither nation nor pirate be - a mission would be required to regain a flag. Perhaps in order to regain either a nation or pirate flag, a waiting period before one could begin missions would be started. They could also be locked out of banks until a flag was gained....


Another thought - totally different:

What if there were costs required to cast voodoo while you had no ships?

Perhaps tie it to gold bars - if a player has no ships at sea, each curse cast cost one gold bar - about 2000 - 2300 per cast. Maybe a gold bar for every turn required to cast a curse. (Personally I like this concept). Use 400 turns, plus your shaman is paid 400 gold bars. Just about 800k gold coin via gold bars.

Just thinking outside the box - I figure enough mud thrown at the wall perhaps something will stick.

[Ziggfried]

The primary issue with the witch doctor is the ability to harm with no risk. I agree with Vane - tying the risk to ships will hurt the current play styles - perhaps setting a risk or a cost directly to the role of a Witch Doctor? I can think of several ways it might be addressed:

What if there were consequences for casting voodoo as a witch doctor?

I don't know if these would work, they are just ideas or suggestions....

If no ships, no under cover attributes work. Population and influence related curses don't work. Voodoo cast by witch doctors can trigger side affects -
If casting say a confuse curse, xx% chance it will also affect caster. Cast a fugitive from justice, xx% chance it also hits another player as well.

Another thought -

Or - a witch doctor would lose their flag? Neither nation nor pirate be - a mission would be required to regain a flag. Perhaps in order to regain either a nation or pirate flag, a waiting period before one could begin missions would be started. They could also be locked out of banks until a flag was gained....


Another thought - totally different:

What if there were costs required to cast voodoo while you had no ships?

Perhaps tie it to gold bars - if a player has no ships at sea, each curse cast cost one gold bar - about 2000 - 2300 per cast. Maybe a gold bar for every turn required to cast a curse. (Personally I like this concept). Use 400 turns, plus your shaman is paid 400 gold bars. Just about 800k gold coin via gold bars.

Just thinking outside the box - I figure enough mud thrown at the wall perhaps something will stick.

A gold bar for every turn cast sounds good to me along with some of your other ideas, and none of them harm other play styles. +1

[Admiral Nelson]

All the merchants out there, answer these questions for Avonmora...

How much do you lose in a raid?

How much do you make daily from trade?

How often are you raided?

When I was a Merchant, I made 5M+ a day. Anywhere between 5 to 7 Million.

Roughly due to me knowing how much I needed, I lost 2.5 Million per attack (Counting the ships)

I was raided every month or so - Probably less then some other merchants, but think my past helped me a little bit.

Regarding Witch Doctors have nothing to lose; I still disagree. They have influence, fame, turns, voodoo etc. Same as a pirate would.

[Ziggfried]

All the merchants out there, answer these questions for Avonmora...

How much do you lose in a raid?

How much do you make daily from trade?

How often are you raided?

When I was a Merchant, I made 5M+ a day. Anywhere between 5 to 7 Million.

Roughly due to me knowing how much I needed, I lost 2.5 Million per attack (Counting the ships)

I was raided every month or so - Probably less then some other merchants, but think my past helped me a little bit.

Regarding Witch Doctors have nothing to lose; I still disagree. They have influence, fame, turns, voodoo etc. Same as a pirate would.

I'm not hurt about that I'm just tired of seeing ppl post stuff that would degrade the game play for different styles of play. Iv also been on the witch doctor side as well. And also pirates can make just as much if not more then merchants at a lot less of the cost. A merchant such as shadowood with 600+ ships cost hundreds of millions for captains. You can max research piracy tech for under 200m and with 1 bad assszzz fleet skirmishing and plundering easily make 5m to 15m a day and pay off the debt a lot faster then a merchant can

[Admiral Nelson]

People have many names for Shadowood, a Merchant is not one.

[Ziggfried]

I'm just at a point where most of the game mechanics here are just not worth playing other the merchant credits and ships and voodoo on the auction pays more then playing the game with no losses. And fame lol fame is easy gotten and best used with voodoo sold off for gold. Sold my 30m fame for 15m gold last week