Port Blockades (Large)

[Shadowood]

Correction : there IS a trade benefit to the port owner :

Every resource sold from the port market, returns 1% of the value to the nation that controls it.

The nation that holds the port, earns 0.75% on every Gold Bar crate sale. Duke bonuses of 2% is applied on sales.

And I can see further implications down the road when Plantations join GoldSmiths as a consumer of incoming wage stocks.

As I said, I see it being valuable as part of an overall strategy, but not a major income stream in itself.

I agree Danik. The "strategy" part of it will out weigh the income part of this. The first few will be fun to run and make some coin, but when Plantations come and Diplomacy is 100%, this will be a very fun feature.

I am more interested to see the battle system in play then the income I get. I really want to see some large ships going at it. It will be fun.

[Captain Jack]

Every player will be able to set the maximum TOLL FEE he wants to pay, either globally and/or specifically for every blockade (since Preparation state).

-There is a typo at definition on earnings. I fixed it. The initiator is included in the 75% damaged based earnings.

All earnings will be shared among all attackers in this way:
-Initiator gets to keep 25% of all income.
-The remaining 75% are distributed based on the damage their ships conducted.

So if 10M are the earnings and the initiator has conducted 10% of the damge, he will get:
0.25 * 10M + 0.1 *0.75 * 10M = 3.25M (or a total 32.5% at this case)

Metric Needed
The metric we need is a rough estimation on how much earnings one will make with the blockade. If we know the whereabouts of the earnings, we will be able to choose the various costs (like turns costs later) better.

The toll fee is not a problem. We will just put a hard limit which will be equal to the break-even trade profit. Just to prevent automatic outright robbery. If you want to rob traffic, then the loot cargo option (which will also pause the trade route) is the way to go.

The battle system and the diplomacy part will be great. Even if a large majority of the active traders (as inactive players for the day or these days won't be able to avoid it) change their routes, this is great. Perhaps not for the greedy blockader but he should have known better, at all cases.

Expected income will also propel big fights while some proud nations will simply won't want to ever allow such an action to their ports.
This also means that perhaps nations controlling the port, should also lose the influence points gained by their adversaries or a fixed amount. Something to decide a little later, so I will put this on the first post future reference part. Although a small effect could have immediate effect. Who is up for this?

I see no reason not to outright approve this. But we can still discuss and point out things till implementation.

[Crackedcubes]

Sounds like the final death nail in the coffin for traders.

[Shadowood]

Sounds like the final death nail in the coffin for traders.

No way! Statements like this really make me upset.

First, there is no telling how this will play out until its comes out. So please keep your comments constructive and add something to the discussion
Second, all traders will get notice of a Blockade in advance and it will also be displayed on map and in global events. Simple, change routes or pay the fee.
Third, this gives you a chance to fight back. Get your friends and DEFEND against it.

There is more I would like to post but I will hold my tongue.

[Haron]

The battle system and the diplomacy part will be great. Even if a large majority of the active traders (as inactive players for the day or these days won't be able to avoid it) change their routes, this is great. Perhaps not for the greedy blockader but he should have known better, at all cases.

Expected income will also propel big fights while some proud nations will simply won't want to ever allow such an action to their ports.
This also means that perhaps nations controlling the port, should also lose the influence points gained by their adversaries or a fixed amount. Something to decide a little later, so I will put this on the first post future reference part. Although a small effect could have immediate effect. Who is up for this?

The most important remaining question is, indeed, WHY? Why conduct a blockade? What's to gain? Since diverting fleets will be easy, the lost income for the nation marginal, and the duration of the blockade only three days, there is very little to gain. I foresee that with the current "gains", this will be attempted once or twice for the novelty of it, then abandoned because the costs will far outweight the benefits. I may be wrong, of course, but I believe that only a few millions can be gained by setting low fees and finding the "right port at the right time".

Attacking a nations influence in a port was one of the main reasons behind my own, old suggestion "wars and blockades". If you enter this into the equation somehow, then it may become more interesting. Using this as part of a way to fight for control over a port sounds intriguing. Exactly how to do this, I don't know, but there are many options.

I think the "combat mechanics" as suggested may work. I see many possible, interesting strategies both for defenders and attackers. I think this could be implemented as suggested. However, more important than these mechanics are the reasons for establishing a blockade. As it is, I fear very few will ever have a good reason for doing so. It is bound to be more expensive than the benefits, I believe.

[Haron]

One idea may be to increase the tax traders pay to the nation when visiting a port (in order to do this, the selling price must also be increased, so the traders earn the same as today). That would make controlling ports even more important than it already is. And when a port is subject to a blockade, this tax instead is paid to the Blockaders. That way, the traders will have no reason to move their fleets, the blockaders will have a monetary incentive, and the nation will have a good reason to want to prevent a blockade. Just a thought.

[Shadowood]

Metric Needed
The metric we need is a rough estimation on how much earnings one will make with the blockade. If we know the whereabouts of the earnings, we will be able to choose the various costs (like turns costs later) better.


I see no reason not to outright approve this. But we can still discuss and point out things till implementation.

I think you might have some better data then us regarding how many port actions occur in a day. We have some rough data that Feniks has been working on which I hesitate to share as Knowledge is Power, but I assume others might be working on which ports would be most lucrative should this be implemented in the near future.

Having said that, I think it no secret that Psaral and Akro are 2 of the most popular ports. A simple check of the Gossip Page and you will see this to be true. But tracking the Exact number of port interactions would be a long process to count.

Metric = (Port Interaction x Fee) + (Port Interaction x Cargo Plunder) = Blockade Purse

The ruthless PheonixKnight starts a Blockade in Psaral. He gives a free pass to all St Kitts Members, Selects a Fee of 2gc per Spain Members and Everyone else will be Cargo Plunder. This is where ADMIN would have the data to plug in the numbers.

<<<PURE GUESS HERE>>>
Psaral gets 10,000 arrivals in 1 day. 90% of the trade is Rum from Akro.

If one selects 100% Cargo Plunder at an avg of 500 Cargo Space per trader.
10,000 x 500 x 8gc base of Rum = $40,000,000. This is if all traders do not see a Blockade coming and switch or pause route. Which some will of course lowering this amount.

If one selects 100% Fee Based at 2gc per crate
10,000 x 500 x 2gc Fee = $10,000,000 Not as many will pause this as its not a 100% loss like Cargo Plunder and may not want to reassign their fleets

If one selects a combo the above will be between the numbers given...

These are just ROUGH GUESS numbers. But seem pretty fair as they stand as you then have to plug in the Split to who is involved in the Blockade and if they win.

[Crackedcubes]

I'm gonna +1 this even before I read it!

Excited for new game features. I will now read it and give some feedback.

Interesting....Do as I say not as I do. is that how it works Shadowood?

[Shadowood]

I'm gonna +1 this even before I read it!

Excited for new game features. I will now read it and give some feedback.

Interesting....Do as I say not as I do. is that how it works Shadowood?

Not quite sure your meaning on this, but if you would like to discuss something, please PM me or move this to a Union of Honor thread as to not derail this great topic.

Thanks

[Sir Thalius Hayle]

Sounds like the final death nail in the coffin for traders.

No way! Statements like this really make me upset.

First, there is no telling how this will play out until its comes out. So please keep your comments constructive and add something to the discussion
Second, all traders will get notice of a Blockade in advance and it will also be displayed on map and in global events. Simple, change routes or pay the fee.
Third, this gives you a chance to fight back. Get your friends and DEFEND against it.

There is more I would like to post but I will hold my tongue.

I certainly disagree with the notion that this is a death knell for merchants, but it certainly will change their game! Excited to see how this plays out, personally.

I could envision trade/merchant guilds forming around the port blockade dynamic: a cooperative among merchants to protect against blockades on certain routes. This could REALLY bring some new life into the game!