Dev Team - Flagships

[sXs]

I am not now or ever will be a pirate. I proposed what I did understanding I wouldn’t get a flagship. The balance to this comes in the form of pirate hunters, bounty hunters and letters of marque. All of those things are designed to give players options. All of those things were designed specifically to increase PvP battles. They also engage nations and privateers.

The intent was to strip flagships down to a simple workable mechanic and yet be something that could engage others in a way that doesn’t rewrite major parts of the game.

[Shadowood]

To increase PvP with our player base is going to be tough. Personally I feel a revamped PvE system would be the best route in the interim. Give us a dynamic, fun PvE experience that ties in with Flagships.

Just my opinion. I know this is kind of taking things in another direction but for the sake of engagement I feel this the best route. There is only so many times you can hit CDV before it’s gets boring. I want to take on a Kraken!!

[DezNutz]

Yes, piracy shouldn't be easy. But it also shouldn't be too hard. At the moment, in my opinion the scales are too heavy on the merchant side. So making piracy a bit easier and with some additional benefits should be done to help tip the scales a bit in their favor.

Earlier you mentioned how it's mostly non-pirates who are arguing for them. That's because there are hardly any proper pirates in the game at this time. Without pirates, this game quickly becomes just a mindless routine. Log in- check fleets, buy some stuff, log out. Hardly any thinking required. No planning on how to strike back against enemies, or protect yourself from pirates, as none exist to do so.

How is a flagship going to change that?

I played as a pirate for a year. I saved more money as a pirate then I did as a trader and I made roughly 60M in plunder as a pirate without casting a single voodoo card. I don't want to hear about life is so hard as a pirate.


@Dejanira, I'm aware of the pirates need traders factor. I chose not to use it because it will just bring more complaining about calling it trader's glory. It is a valid point though and is why enticing players to be a pirate shouldn't be a focus, it should be enticing players in general to get involved in PvP.

I never said it would solve everything on it's own. It would just be a good start. Make flagships a feature that can benefit pirates and make it enjoyable to use while pirating and that can help lure some into giving it a go. The ratio of pirate to merchant does need to be kept in balance. But right now it's too skewed towards merchants.

And your figure is not impressive at all. 60M in one year as a pirate sounds impressive. However a decent sized trader should be able to make 2M a day. Or bare minimum 1M. That means 2 months they equal your profit in a year. And without stepping on a single toe doing so.

I wasn't plundering all the time and I didn't say it was a lot. I said that it isn't difficult to be a pirate. I made sufficient funds to maintain my ships and build new ones. On top of accruing danger being plundered in return and losing some of my profits. So my intake was sufficient to be successful. I could have made significantly more if I skirmished and plundered every day.

The ratio of pirates to merchants is low because players think for them to make money as a pirate they need to use and cast voodoo, conduct raids, etc. You don't. You can still make decent money. Will it be as much as a trader, no and it shouldn't be. But I've seen pirates who use voodoo bring in a lot more than a trader does in a day by quite a lot. You don't see calls to buff traders. To be a pirate and make the big money you have to work for it. If you don't want to work for it, become a trader. You shouldn't get an easy button because a trader doesn't have to do much to make large amounts of gold coin.

[Noffin]

To increase PvP with our player base is going to be tough. Personally I feel a revamped PvE system would be the best route in the interim. Give us a dynamic, fun PvE experience that ties in with Flagships.

Just my opinion. I know this is kind of taking things in another direction but for the sake of engagement I feel this the best route. There is only so many times you can hit CDV before it’s gets boring. I want to take on a Kraken!!

Bring forth the Kraken

[Most Lee Harmless]

I want to take on a Kraken!!

No... no you dont. They have custard on their side. Just walk away from that thought.

[Shadowood]

I went back and re-read all the posts on flagships I could find. This is a conglomeration of the most popular ideas. I added a few things to help merge competing ideas while trying to stay true to the original intent.

Now from my point of view we need a proposal that will actually be used. I do not want to see Flagships relegated to fate of Man-O-Wars. So, Flagships can only be docked once every 30 days and for no more than 7 days. Allows for those that take a break from the game. Also, I would suggest some sort of vacation mode that would allow this to be extended but would require a credit investment. Say 100 credit for every additional 7-day period.

Now here are a few key points

#1 Flagships originally were to be pirate only, but like every card, every tactic, and gameplay style, there needs to be a counter. Flagships themselves can not dictate victory in battle. Because of this, the point value based on experience seems to be the fairest way to go.
EXP for Battles won by Flagship’s Fleet: (This is the same as Hawks post.)
• Flagship v. Flagship win 30XP Loss 5XP(Pirate v. Pirate)
• Flagship v. Player fleet win 10XP loss 1XP
• Flagship v. NPC win 1XP loss 0
Experience point system(in process) will be very similar to the on laid out by Hawk.

Here is where the differences start.

#2 Flagship of Pirates

• Flagship v. Flagship win: danger accrued is 0 to the attacker (dead men tell no tales) Winner gets normal plunder plus GC equal to the value of the lowest ship in the fleet.
• Flagship v. Flagship loss: danger accrued is 24 pts by the attacker. (GB loss see below)
• Flagship v. Trade fleet(no escort) win: accrues normal danger (Letter of Marque point- more on this later)(Bounty Hunter point)Win gets normal plunder
• Flagship v. Trade fleet(no escort) Loss: Normal danger (bounty hunter points X1.5)(GB loss see below)
• Flagship v. War fleet or escorted trade fleet win: normal danger (Bounty Hunter pointX2) Normal plunder + 1/v value of lowest ranked ship.

All of the above apply equally to PvP plunder battles and skirmishes when Flagship fleet is used.

Bounty Hunter points

This is to counter some concerns of a Pirate Flagship being the most powerful ship on the seas. Any “Bounty Hunter” scenario listed above automatically places a bounty on the flagship fleet of the Pirate. Bounty = 10,000gc per point (paid by game) earned by the pirate fleet. It will be a plunder win bounty (maxed at 1 million per win) for the Flagship fleet only. This is designed to bring the “Pirate hunter” aspect into the game.

Letter of Marque

When a pirate Flagship fleet attacks a trade fleet of any player flying a National flag. He acquires “Letter of Marque” points with the nation of the fleet he attacks. This is separate from the bounty point system. If a pirate that acquires more than 50 LoM points with a single nation, the nation itself may issue a Letter of Marque is similar to the bounty board. This will require a vote by the nation. 24hr voting period with standard voting rules.
Types of Letter of Marque

1. Flagship plunder LoM-Prize for collection part of the voting process. Max of 10 mill per LoM
2. Normal Plunder LoM- max of 1 mill per plunder win of any fleet owned by target. Total max of 25 million per LoM
3. Voodoo LoM- Same mechanic as bounty voodoo. Unlimited in scope

Pirate Flagship attributes. These apply only to those flying a Black Flag. If they change the flag, they lose the benefits. None of these are part of the experience-based system

1. Flagship fleet may only have 3 ships.
2. Flagship any ship except MoW or Sotl. This important for several reasons.
a. Flagships can not be invincible. Max flagship with max experience upgrade should be equal too, or only slightly stronger than a max MoW.
The difference should be strategy and boosts below.
b. These 2 points will help to bring out more bigger ships. MoW and Sotl will be needed, and should be needed to beat a flagship, along with
strategy.
c. A 3 ship Flagship fleet will be tough to beat but should be possible with a heavy war fleet. Flagship fleets have options to escape. (see #5)
3. Flagship fleet +20% speed based on the slowest ship in the fleet.
4. Ironside. Pirate Flagship receives 10% less damage during battle. Similar to hull protection attribute.
5. Hide-and-seek 1 flying dutchman opportunity per 48 hour. Requires no card but instantly travels to any port chosen on the map. Use costs 20
Gold Bars. Bars must be carried by Flagship.(separate from normal cargo hold space.) If flagship fleet loses a battle, Gold Bars are plundered by
the victor.

Experience point bonuses (from Hawks OP)

1. Battle Tactics - Plus X% defense bonus for flagship
2. Rum - Rum on board is consumed at 1 crate per hour. While there is rum stocked on your flagship, your flagship fleet travels X% faster when
sailing to any port.
3. Voodoo Specialist - X% Chance to block voodoo. (That target the flagship only.)
4. Survivor - After losing a battle, X% chance to escape without paying ransom.

** Pirates will be more powerful, but this would also make them more hunted and more of a target. **
This would serve both sides. Pirates get a more powerful ship based on experience earned. It also brings in a Letter of Marque system that has been proposed several times. And finally brings in a balanced risk reward system for pirates while keeping similar to JessiacaA original proposal.

If this is adopted in part or all, I have “pirate hunter” ideas started.

+1

[sXs]

The letter of Marque system would be fairly easy to add and code. It is simply another nation payout. Instead of going to a single person, the payout would go to a bounty board. Simply need to add a new category.

The bounty point system and LoM and exp. point systems would not be overly difficult either. A win loss counter system is already coded. Would only need to add a conditional addition.

The flagship itself would probably be the most difficult part for developers to get coded.

Adding in plantations tie ins, fame calculations and such is difficult because you are trying to merge two completely different mechanics.

[Dmanwuzhere]

despite the counter presentation of a flagship that is workable and has a solid cornerstone to work from the dev team is suddenly silent
this silence confirms the dev team is not about the compromise they so strongly supported in some of the discussion throughout this topic
nor are they about representing the wants of the player base instead it is proof that the dev team is only willing to discuss things as they ( with personal interests and feelings) feel it should be and failing to receive support will abandon the discussion.

with that being said i question the need of a dev team if it is going to be ran in this manner then whats the point?
cj is perfectly capable of enforcing his ideals as the owner of the game there is no need to use the player base to form a tyrannical
team.

feniks version of the flag aids the pirates introduces a new class and strengthens nation play and if you run that beside the
plantation boosting trade flagship there is no real debate as to which would be better for the game and yet it receives silence and suddenly
the flagship is abandoned ..... thank you for being so transparent and revealing the true nature of the decline in the player base.

you can blame hits and voodoo all day long but in the end the lopsided direction the game is going is represented in examples such as these where
a few players are represented in every update and new feature introduced.

go ahead table the flagship put it on the shelf its just one more nail in the coffin.

[sXs]

Actually waiting for more people to chime in. I talked to dez and hawk. Dev team is waiting on more input which is not a bad idea.

It would be nice to see some of the ole sea dogs chime in as well as some of the newer players.

[Magnus the red]

+1 I like Feniks' suggestions they are well thought out and fair and I like Banger's point about why do Merchants need flagships anyway