New plunder type: Voodoo Card (Small)

[Hector Barbossa]

Can every player, both inactive and active, be targeted equally under the same formula? Yes they can, and it provides balance to the plundering of Avonmora.

Just my thoughts. Thanks for the input everyone.

With the original suggestion of stealing a card when the last ship is plundered I see it as equal. With your suggestion PFH, If i understand it correctly, any ship taken yields the opportunity for a card to be taken.

Looking at a player with 50 fleets vs a player with 10. If both get attacked by way of raid and begin to lose ships, the larger will have 50 opportunities to lose voodoo in the first attack, where the smaller player only has 10. Raids could make it to a second attack quite easily thus giving another 50 chances the larger loses voodoo and only 10 the smaller does.

I am finding it difficult to see this as equal chances for all.

[PFH]

Can every player, both inactive and active, be targeted equally under the same formula? Yes they can, and it provides balance to the plundering of Avonmora.

Just my thoughts. Thanks for the input everyone.

With the original suggestion of stealing a card when the last ship is plundered I see it as equal. With your suggestion PFH, If i understand it correctly, any ship taken yields the opportunity for a card to be taken.

Looking at a player with 50 fleets vs a player with 10. If both get attacked by way of raid and begin to lose ships, the larger will have 50 opportunities to lose voodoo in the first attack, where the smaller player only has 10. Raids could make it to a second attack quite easily thus giving another 50 chances the larger loses voodoo and only 10 the smaller does.

I am finding it difficult to see this as equal chances for all.

What are the defined chest sizes?

[Hector Barbossa]

Make them equal, each has 2,000. With your formula that is going to be a 10% chance they lose a card correct?

Larger player now has 50 opportunities of losing a card 10% of the time a ship is taken.

Smaller player now has 10 opportunities of losing a card 10% of the time a ship is taken.

Now add in the fact a larger players gold will drop significantly faster making ships easier to take, they become further handicapped.

[PFH]

If both have 1000-1999 cards, then both yield a 5% chance of a card being stolen.

Also, purses need to be defined. Yes, the player with 10 fleets has more opportunity against the other player, but the player with 50 fleets may have a higher purse, causing it to take more time with the attacker. Same goes to the 50 fleet player. That player has more chances and coverage of Avonmora (Theoretically) and can hit the fleets faster than the 10 fleet could.

Although the 50 fleet user has more coverage, he is opening himself to the others with smaller fleets. Means this player is easily trackable.

The player with 10 fleets has less coverage, but is closing himself out of the picture. Harder to track.

With more coverage, you can track the 10 fleet player easier, so that is an advantage to the 50 fleets.

With hiding, you can hide around with your 10 fleets and stay in one location and have 1 fleet per port.

If the 50 fleet tried to hide, he would have at least 2 fleets per port being revealed on the plunder-boards (if divided somewhat evenly.)

The 50 fleet player has more to sell, so they can sell their ships and keep their purse up. These players rely on bigger trading and probably have high stashes of gold in a bank or in a hole (exempting any debt and upkeep payments.)

10 fleeters usually rely on fishing, plundering, or small trading. They cannot replenish their purses as fast (theoretically) when selling their ships.

Here are the advantages basically for a 10 fleeter:
-hiding advantage
-less to lose
Here are the disadvantages:
-cannot sell the fleets enough to match what the 50 fleeter could do
-not complete coverage
-small income
-low purse from low income
-cannot get much pure profit compared to the 50 fleeter
Here are the advantage with the 50 fleeter:
-larger income
-complete coverage (allows better tracking.)
-can sell fleets for at least 5x what the 10 fleeter can
-can make more pure profit fishing
Here are the disadvantages:
-more to be lost
-more chances to be hit multiple times in 1 port
-larger purse, meaning more gold to the 10 fleeter
-can be tracked easier with the amount of trade fleets

We also need to figure in purses. Generally, large fleet holders have a larger purse. Small fleeters do not. If the 50 fleeter has complete coverage of the map, they can possibly clean the 10 fleeter faster because the 50 has the chance to hit every fleet of the 10 fleeter. That is the disadvantage that 10 fleeters have. The 10 fleeter would have to make the fleets travel. That takes time, time that the 50 can get more turns ready for the next light up. The 10 fleeter may have no choice but to spend voodoo or turns to instantly arrive. They may even spend credits to get more turns. 50's have this advantage because they don't have to move as far. This is because they are everywhere

[Hector Barbossa]

That is all theoretical speculation and a list of Pro's and Con's to different playing strategies. None of which is relevant to the discussion of equality based voodoo theft.

[PFH]

With these strategies, try to see how it would play out between the two players.

One of the players could always cast a bless or 2 and not have 1998 cards, making it a 5% chance instantly. It's how you play it that determines the situation.

It's just a formula idea for voodoo fighting. The formula can be a way to create more strategies in battling other players, which is another intention of the idea.

There are too many factors to be put in to decide how fairness would play out it in, including experience, flags, technology, and much more.

[Hector Barbossa]

I may have not explained my concern around inequality clearly. I am not debating the formula aspect at all. My hesitation here is the chance a player loses a card for every ship plundered. That is where it becomes unfair to those much larger. I like the idea of voodoo becoming a reward or part of the ransom system and the original concept of having the card rewarded after the last ship in a fleet has been taken is spot on.

[PFH]

I just think that voodoo should always have a chance at being stolen through fighting in ship battles. Sink chance also plays a roll on the traders side for a little while in a way. If a ship is sunk instead of stolen, there is no chance of voodoo steal.

I understand your point and input, Hector.

[Hawk]

I actually wouldn’t mind seeing a small chance of voodoo plunder from regular battle wins too. This could scale to the number of fleets a player has sailing as to not be worse for bigger players. Maybe higher chances if stealing a ship, and guaranteed rare if it’s the last in the fleet.

+1 Approved

[Shadowood]

+1