Witch Doctors gameplay - manageable risk for everyone

[William one eye]

would like to see a provision for merchants that do not wish to arm their ships. like myself

make it a function of

cargo moved and
cannons on the water

and make a exception provision for players just starting out.
One of the first missions is to cast npc voodoo.

[Charles Vane]

To address witch doctor play as it continually comes up without any progress..

Will has a good idea on casting turns, but what if we made it much more simple by increasing their risk in order to cast.

I think the amount of curses a player can cast in any 24 hour period should be based on the "Cannon Count" they hold. The formula can be discussed but my views are something like so...

0-20 Cannons - Divider = 5
21-80 Cannons - Diver = 8
81-200 = 15
.
.
.
2,000 = 50
ect...


Cannon Count / (Divider Value) = Allowable Casts within 24 hour span. (Rounded up to the nearest "one")


If a player has 2,000 cannons..

2,000 / 50 = 40 Cards can be cast in any 24 hour period.


If a player has a single cutter with 8 guns...

8 / 5 = 1.6 (Rounded up to nearest one) = 2 Cards can be cast.


If you want to fleet one single ship only and use a Ship of the Line (something of value increasing witch doctor risk)

60 Guns / 8 = 7.5 rounded up = 8 cards in 24 hours.





This will force players to fleet and use proper ships of value and risk in order to really benefit from casting curses in large quantities.

If you have 500 howkers fleeted and have guns on them your looking at no high value ships but the risk of so many fleets and have 2,000 guns puts you able to cast 40 cards in 24 hours. Add some Large Frigs and Sotls and you drastically increase your capabilities.

Not a bad idea at all Mr. Vane.

I would just add that it needs to be "Fleeted" cannons. 500 howkers with cannons, out of fleet is still crazy. No one will waste Ravage to hit 1 howker.

I agree, Fleeted is best.

would like to see a provision for merchants that do not wish to arm their ships. like myself

make it a function of

cargo moved and
cannons on the water

and make a exception provision for players just starting out.
One of the first missions is to cast npc voodoo.

Perhaps make it where cannons owned is not the requirement but cannon slots available is. This keep it straight across the board, allowing those not wishing to buy cannons the same perks as those who do. Keeping the metric simple and involving one dynamic, ie. cannons, and not adding other dependencies would be ideal in my mind. If they are not required to be purchased but simply available slots based on the ships fleeted then it remains equal to all and still requires carrying proper risk in order to cast voodoo at any devastating level.

[Shadowood]

That works

[Kangaroo]

To address witch doctor play as it continually comes up without any progress..

Will has a good idea on casting turns, but what if we made it much more simple by increasing their risk in order to cast.

I think the amount of curses a player can cast in any 24 hour period should be based on the "Cannon Count" they hold. The formula can be discussed but my views are something like so...

0-20 Cannons - Divider = 5
21-80 Cannons - Diver = 8
81-200 = 15
.
.
.
2,000 = 50
ect...


Cannon Count / (Divider Value) = Allowable Casts within 24 hour span. (Rounded up to the nearest "one")


If a player has 2,000 cannons..

2,000 / 50 = 40 Cards can be cast in any 24 hour period.


If a player has a single cutter with 8 guns...

8 / 5 = 1.6 (Rounded up to nearest one) = 2 Cards can be cast.


If you want to fleet one single ship only and use a Ship of the Line (something of value increasing witch doctor risk)

60 Guns / 8 = 7.5 rounded up = 8 cards in 24 hours.





This will force players to fleet and use proper ships of value and risk in order to really benefit from casting curses in large quantities.

If you have 500 howkers fleeted and have guns on them your looking at no high value ships but the risk of so many fleets and have 2,000 guns puts you able to cast 40 cards in 24 hours. Add some Large Frigs and Sotls and you drastically increase your capabilities.

Not a bad idea at all Mr. Vane.

I would just add that it needs to be "Fleeted" cannons. 500 howkers with cannons, out of fleet is still crazy. No one will waste Ravage to hit 1 howker.

I agree, Fleeted is best.

would like to see a provision for merchants that do not wish to arm their ships. like myself

make it a function of

cargo moved and
cannons on the water

and make a exception provision for players just starting out.
One of the first missions is to cast npc voodoo.

Perhaps make it where cannons owned is not the requirement but cannon slots available is. This keep it straight across the board, allowing those not wishing to buy cannons the same perks as those who do. Keeping the metric simple and involving one dynamic, ie. cannons, and not adding other dependencies would be ideal in my mind. If they are not required to be purchased but simply available slots based on the ships fleeted then it remains equal to all and still requires carrying proper risk in order to cast voodoo at any devastating level.

The combination of these two sets of thoughts, running off William's idea makes a lot of sense to me.

[Dmanwuzhere]

I dont know how many cannons I have and my trade is nil to none but I do not see the point in some one trying to regulate my casting or anyone elses who are not witch doctors.
If I buy voodoo ships or services i expect that I control them. I might think otherwise if my voodoo ship costs and services are paid for by those players wishing to control or regulate said items.
In attempt to control drunk driving you would not impose a penalty for those not drinking or driving but if you did it would fail.
The methods brought up so far are creative but controlling others game play who are not witch doctors.
There has got to be a better way.

[Yekin]

Why not simply put a hard limit? Say you need a certain amount of ships in order to cast voodoo at all. It could simply be like 15 or 20 ships*. This doesn't hurt new players as they should get this within a simple week of playing and while 4 fleets of cutters is not a great amount of risk it is at least something right?

EDIT
This would also allow you to hurt the Witch doctors who attempt to run the minimum ships. You could sink a few ships and boom they can no longer cast on you.

*Also ships would have to be in a fleet.

[Charles Vane]

you cant just target witch doctors, they are playing within the workings of the game. In order to curb the toxic play we need to change those workings and everyone must be affected in the same way. This is not control, but a new method for being able to use your ammunition.

Cant fire a cannonball without the cannon, voodoo needs to have some restrictions as well. As i said in my suggestion, anyone without trade and a single fleet can cast a bunch if they have enough cannon slots available. Run 2 fleets of sotls that 600 guns with a formula you can easily cast enough cards to raid.

Have 2 fleets of useless cutters, well your voodoo casting is limited. Perfect fix for those wanting to cast and have no risk.

[Yekin]

No one runs 5 SOTL's in a fleet and most pirates do not want to run that high value of a ship to begin with. I think limiting Voodoo to the rich in that way would harm the game. Voodoo gives those newer players the ability to at least touch the big fish early on in the game (A good thing which incentivizes new players to stick with the game). Building ships (and the officers that go with it) enough to work through this cannon idea is a massive undertaking for new players and is a direct assault on the pirate game style used by guilds like PIRAT.

Also cannons effecting voodoo does not make sense from a lore standpoint.

[William one eye]

Casting points - suggestion -- viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4130
posted here for counterpoint

This is slightly different in the fact that anyone with any setup can earn the right to cast voodoo.
you just have to put some effort in for it, or wait for points to accumulate.


In order to gain full voodoo casting access, players would have to put assets at risk by performing naval movement tasks.

The current turn system will function exactly as it does now.
To cast most types of voodoo, casting points as well as turns will be required

for example to cast a Fugitive from Justice
it would require 8 turns and 8 casting points to cast.

turn investment cards, in order to not make these cards to expensive
I suggest. they only require the casting points to use the card
and not for the investment.

for example to cast a call the kraken
it would require 3 turns and points.
then you would only need to invest turns.


Casting points-

New players earn 2 casting points per hour, until they have used 1000 casting points.

after that

Earned 1 per hour - up to 200

can buy double storage earns 1 per hour up to 400

can store maximum of 600 casting points

Note - at this point I am still suggesting players earn casting points over time.
alternately - if we were given more turns to work with, I would eliminate this.
Non Merchant players will need to use a fair amount of turns to earn casting points.
This is pretty restrictive for raiders.


Earning additional casting points



By battle -

earn 5 casting points per plunder win
earn 5 casting points per skirmish win
earn 15 casting points per ship capture

by trade

earn 1 casting points per every 2,500 crates delivered
earn 1 casting points per every 100s gold bar delivered

time spirals only affect turns


voodoo that does not require points to cast.
these would only require turns as they do now.

npc voodoo

pacifisim
coastal patrol
coastal piracy

aid voodoo

buried treasure
generosity

[Charles Vane]

No one runs 5 SOTL's in a fleet and most pirates do not want to run that high value of a ship to begin with. I think limiting Voodoo to the rich in that way would harm the game. Voodoo gives those newer players the ability to at least touch the big fish early on in the game (A good thing which incentivizes new players to stick with the game). Building ships (and the officers that go with it) enough to work through this cannon idea is a massive undertaking for new players and is a direct assault on the pirate game style used by guilds like PIRAT.

Also cannons effecting voodoo does not make sense from a lore standpoint.

It was simply a point that one could run few ships and cast effectively, run 2 fleets of 3 frigs and 2 sloops that's 240 guns and you can still raid. I know the pirate side of the game better than most, this does not hurt them at all.