Anti - Pirate Tools

[Captain Jack]

So, let's say that big bad Tom Lowe or unpredicted dmanwuzhere decide to attack your nice, beautiful enterprise of trading fleets.
Well, what can you do to protect yourselves from such menace? Especially if they keep attacking you, week after week. Or, god forbid, day by day?

You are ruined! A great catastrophe! Well.. NO!

Here are some things that currently do NOT happen. At least at a known scale:

->Have you considered hiring someone to deal with your threat? Is it too expensive? How about teaming up with more... merchants for this?
->Rewards do not have to be gold specific, they can be positions in a nation. Like a Governor position?
->Have you considered -as a nation- using some of your HEFTY TAX INCOME FROM NPC towards this usage?

All the three above can be used/combined to maintain Pirate Hunter with real daily payment for his services.

More ways:
->Have you considered drying up the voodoo market from the cards pirates use? And make them so expensive that you actually make a profit from their assaults (since you sell them?)
->Have you considered fighting them in their own style?

Of course, there are the obvious tactics of:
-Just defend. Use a good active guild to maximize defense. Use expensive voodoo cards that you buy with your daily income to take defense to an even better level.
-Use Bounties. Pay a hefty price to ensure success.
-Use the tavern to mentally wreck them.

Surely, there are more.


Somehow, you believe one or more of the following:
-All you should do is make more profit. Obviously, a pirate attacking you defeats this belief and makes things miserable for you.
-Every day, is a profit day and that every month, you should have more stash than the previous.
-Game advancement in some way (gold,techs, officers,ships, hideout, etc), is guaranteed.
-Someone gave you a promise when you signed up that you will be safe.
-Pirates should not make more profit from you.
-Profit is the most important thing in the game.

Well, if you found yourself clicking with at least one of the above, then you need to see things in another way.

First, let's see how things used to be:
-Once upon a time, you could be crushed to near 0 in one day.
-There was no way to STORE your earnings to use them another day. Ok,except than storing resources to warehouses. You still had to move them there first.
-Of course, losing ships as a result was VERY easy. This is why after all, you could be crushed to 0 in one day.

Now, let's see how you can re-imagine things around you:
-The game gives you A LOT of tools to make things happen. Most importantly: teamwork. You can cooperate with other guilds. Do you do this now? You can form nation alliances for specific objectives at least. Do you do this now? With teamwork you can achieve more than alone. Some have been doing it, others are trying but all are still behind from full potential.

-Fighting a real war for more than a few hours, can be more rewarding than stocking 1 billion in your bank account.
-If you eventually lose, it plays little role as the accumulated experience can be reused to get a win later.
-Winning a war can be very rewarding experience and this is how you get places at the most prestigious awards we have here (Drafts).

Wars are treated here like the plague. Why? Because of the loss of PROFIT!

I cannot tell how this started for sure but Avonmora today is all a calculation of profits. And those who do not join the tide, become finger pointed. By whom? By those who calculate all profits.

However, the game is not about profit. It is about Glory. Think of it the next time a pirate attacks you.

[Meliva]

To be fair, I would say pirates play a small role in why there are not many steps taken against them-they like merchants tend to like profit as well-maybe not to the same extent but let's face it-profit is just a nice thing to have. It allows for growth and power after all. Now I do agree that it isn't the be all end all of things, but its a nice thing to have regardless.

Now for the most part many merchants won't mind the occasional raid. But if raided daily then they would start taking measures like the ones you have listed. Many of the pirates or at least some know this- and therefore try to avoid over raiding anyone. Since if a pirate does over raid someone and they fight back, then the pirate loses profit.

Although I do agree that profit isn't the most important thing, and that no one is safe from attacks and that everyone should commit to protecting themselves and to an extent their guildmates. It's why I and other merchants sometimes run escorts-this cuts into profit but it's an effective anti pirate tool in my opinion.

[Grimrock Litless]

I think you miss the point, why spend so much to fight?

Defence already exist, and we use that all the time. Mindbars, Purify, Serenity ... looking out for each other.
There are tools to stop pirates, but they are usually really expensive to use, plus, there is usually no incentives to fight more than we have to.

Defeats to the pirates last short, they build back up very fast.

All your tools that you said uses money, and using money for something with little to no return but actually lost is not what merchant is about.

[Most Lee Harmless]

Glory not profit?

Okay..then stop setting up fame as a measure of glory when it penalises those who do not seek to maximise profit.

If you run 200 ships you suffer small fame loss when attacked and defeated. If you run less than 50 then the percentage lost climbs to silly levels.

I like to take a cruise with a war fleet now and then. Its fun : its also profitable when timed right. But it wipes out my fame everytime even though I maintain a healthy win-loss ratio. One of the best in the game as the demo page has shown for the past few years. So.. where is my Glory? If its measured by fame I dont get any. I gather crumbs and lose crates of it every time I fight though I win far more often than I lose.

Fame is broken : it was clunky but workable until it was 'improved' but now all it really measures is how many ships you have because thats the major mechanic which controls its acquisition and loss.

But I still make profits regardless of that illusory fame. And if I seek Glory over profit as you suggest why..I'll have even more profit and even less Glory..if fame is its measure.

Okay, I do have a level of reputation... but fame doesnt measure that so really.. who is to know?

[Admiral Nelson]

Glory not profit?

Okay..then stop setting up fame as a measure of glory when it penalises those who do not seek to maximise profit.

If you run 200 ships you suffer small fame loss when attacked and defeated. If you run less than 50 then the percentage lost climbs to silly levels.

I like to take a cruise with a war fleet now and then. Its fun : its also profitable when timed right. But it wipes out my fame everytime even though I maintain a healthy win-loss ratio. One of the best in the game as the demo page has shown for the past few years. So.. where is my Glory? If its measured by fame I dont get any. I gather crumbs and lose crates of it every time I fight though I win far more often than I lose.

Fame is broken : it was clunky but workable until it was 'improved' but now all it really measures is how many ships you have because thats the major mechanic which controls its acquisition and loss.

But I still make profits regardless of that illusory fame. And if I seek Glory over profit as you suggest why..I'll have even more profit and even less Glory..if fame is its measure.

Okay, I do have a level of reputation... but fame doesnt measure that so really.. who is to know?

+1 to your comment, Danik.

[Most Lee Harmless]

To put my point into figures.

I have just fought 6 battles and won them all : that gained me just over 200k fame. I now face 2 defences to drain the accumulated danger. If I lose one thats over 250k fame lost in one go. Lose both and its 500k fame lost. The only way my round of battles can increase my fame is to win them all. Thats a 100% win ratio every time to increase my fame because a 83% win ratio means I lose fame... mmm...

[Shadowood]

I guess I would be considered a "seasoned" sailor or "vet" now. Although I don't have quite the amount of time that some of the old sea dogs have like Sparrow, CDV, SHM, etc..

I have tried to play the game to its fullest. I have switched up my style so many times I have lost track. But in doing so I have been able to stay engaged in a game that I love.

The topic is "Anti Pirate Tools", but there is a big focus on Wealth/Power in the discussion and Danik brings up a good point too, FAME.

In my experience people play games to WIN or be the BEST. People gravitate to LEADERBOARDS. "Who's on top?" "How can I beat them?" "How do I become the best and make a name for myself?" These may be some questions that players have when playing/competing in a game such as this. I agree with Danik that Fame, being one gauge of success in this game, is broken. I only now have over 2 million Fame only due to me becoming a trader once more. However, I think I would be considered one of the top players in the game (basing this off the draft, since CJ brought this up).

I agree with CJ's assessment that people are too concerned about PROFIT. I am mostly guilty of this. But should I be? As a pirate, I would calculate the cost of Voodoo, turns, retaliation, when considering stealing a fleet. You would be crazy not too. Why would I spend 300 credits worth of goods to get 2 SOTL that I can sell for 75 credits each. No one wants to go in the hole. I would only go in the hole if there was a Man of War involved. CJ, in day to day game play, traders and pirates alike are doing these calculations. We have to, to advance. To buy voodoo or more captains, more ships, expand our hideouts, grow our banks. The only time that PROFIT should take a back seat is during WAR imo.

Now expanding a bit more on what Danik brought up, I do think FAME needs to be calculated differently or add in a 3rd metric that measures a players over all POWER in the game. This topic has been suggested before (ill try to find it). But this "Power" metric should take into count several items. (Influence, Fame, Ships, Battles won, Levels of Hideout built, Levels of Research completed, Bank strength, Voodoo chest, etc.) This would give us a great gauge as to whom is really the top players in the game.

But back on Topic... Yes there are many great tools at a traders disposal to combat a pesky pirate nipping at your heels.

[Most Lee Harmless]

I do like the idea of an overall 'power' rating. Quite how we could balance the various inputs would be complex business : trade , battle, influence, fame and gold would need to be further enhanced by achievements : hide-out development, techs and why not further bonus inputs derived from the draft, community activity and such-like?

[Admiral Nelson]

I personally think, another metric of fame is what you use to plunder. So the fame metric would still be 'ship based' however, it would be more on PvP partially what Shadowood suggested.

A person that uses a howker to plunder, should not be as "known" as the guy that uses 4 Man of War to plunder folk; obviously you would gain more with the Man of War and lose less.

[DezNutz]

I personally think, another metric of fame is what you use to plunder. So the fame metric would still be 'ship based' however, it would be more on PvP partially what Shadowood suggested.

A person that uses a howker to plunder, should not be as "known" as the guy that uses 4 Man of War to plunder folk; obviously you would gain more with the Man of War and lose less.

I agree with part of that.

If you plunder with a SOTL or MoW the fame you plunder should be higher, but it should be counteracted by what you plunder. If you are plundering a fleet of howkers, the fame you plunder should not be as much as plundering a fleet of LMMs.