Merchant/Pirate discussion

[Padrevaters]

Look at it from my perspective.As a weaker player, I am no longer interested in attacking other fleets and only focusing on merchanting. And then pirates plundering happens, first randomly then repeatedly eating into the profitability of my merchants. In such a case, do you expect me to keep quiet and keep taking hits?? Today, I had this schmuck called xxpro repeatedly attack when it was not his call. I was only reacting to attacks from lockreed and this guy xxpro wants to wipe lockreeds ass too.

Lockreed was pirating
I was reacting
XXPRO was targetting

This is exactly what I don't like. Is Lockreed missing 2 hands to wipe his own shit?

Look, if people enjoy the merchanting tasks, they should be allowed to do so. Just because it is a pirates game with a full focus on banking, trading, plantations and other ancillary tasks, how does it become a pirates game?

[Lockreed]

Since you brought it to the public, I'll comment.
You cast 2 Assassins on me yesterday. I'm not sure why.
So today, you got some hostile natives. If that's pirating, you have a perspective I am not familiar with.

I also submit the above comment as a great example of precisely what Haron is talking about.

The game has a risk/reward skew that has been moving in a direction that is not favorable for PvP or pirating or whatever you wish to label it for some time now.

I was a big scale merchant for a long time. I took my licks from pirating as a cost of doing business. Why that can't continue be the mentality for trading is a wonder to me. Trading cannot be risk free or the game would get stale

[Padrevaters]

Exactly Lockreed, so you understand my frustrations as a merchant. If I have merchant fleets, and am repeatedly targeted, I react with voodoo. I want to send a strong point across since that is the only weapon in the merchant's arsenal. Just because a pirate's job is to plunder does not takeaway the right of a merchant to defend himself. That's all I am doing. And I will continue doing that since the game gives me only this leeway.

I know that you were a merchant. I even took a look at your ships and understand that.All my ships are merchanting ships. Do you expect me to keep quiet and passively get looted?

[Lockreed]

I was not agreeing with you...

When did casting 3xHN start resulting in off-topic forum drama? I've been away for a few years, but I can see that all of you really let pirating get out of control here while I was away /sarcasm

[Padrevaters]

Neither am I...

Just because you bend over, does not mean others should. Not everyone has the same mentality. Each person reacts differently when the same situation presents itself. Consider this response as another spoke in the wheel.

[Shadowood]

In the old days (real life), 1 merchant ship was an easy target for a pirate. Merchants and their benefactors had to get smarter to protect their cargo and trades. So they started hiring escorts or running more ships with each other.

The game is the same thing. If you wanna be lazy and just run a few hundred lvl 1 or 2 Large Merchants, you are going to be hit. Over and Over again.

I sound like a broken record, as many has stated this before... Beef up your trade fleets with Escort Ships. Put a Flag Galleon or 3 in your fleet. Run it with 1 SOTL. Force the pirate to raid you with more than just a Cutter, Sloop or SoW. All merchants need to invest in your fleet set up, that is your defense against constant raids. Because when you force the pirates to bring out their bigger ships, and run up danger on their bigger ships... Thats when you can really strike back and hurt them. Leviathans, Sabotages, Assassins, or learn how to steal those fleets with high danger.

I have played all aspects of this game. The people who seem to complain the most, do not understand all the game mechanics that are currently in place. They haven't played all aspects of the game. To be honest the game is pretty balanced as it is right now (except maybe plantations). The biggest balance that game has ever had was capping turns.

[Lockreed]

LOL - so this is all about my skirmish on your fleet? You just did the work for me to prove you are the aggressor here. I cast Voodoo on you after you cast Assassins on me.

Anyway, to bring this little post back on topic...

Ahoy all,

...
Lessons Learned
-Skirmish system works as intended and is successful. A skirmish attack is not agitating players because it has fair rules and a limit in its nature. Since the limit is relevant to fleet size, it is also considered balanced.

-Fugitive of Justice and Hostile Natives are considered too powerful and the source of most problems. Most of the players consider this type as a serious offense and they react accordingly.
...

Perhaps this lesson has not been so learned by all. I don't know.

I do want to submit a big thumbs down for only having Hostile Natives and Fugitive of Justice cards only make the target attackable by the caster or the caster's guild.

I also wonder, if the Player vs Player aspect of this game has evolved into a form where a pirate must remove all, or all but 1 or 2 of his own fleets just to be able to do it effectively - is that really a sign that it is overpowered? Or perhaps it is a sign that it is SO incredibly underpowered that the only way to justify the possible reward is to virtually eliminate the risk of counterattack by having... nothing at all.

[Meliva]

Agree with shadow. If you make yourself an easy target, then you are setting yourself up to be some pirate, or pirates cow. They will just keep coming back for easy profit. If you make yourself harder to profit off of, then one of 2 things will happen. The pirate(s) will look for a fatter, juicer cow that isn't hard to milk(which is ideal for the merchant) or they will put in more effort and work to hit you-which gives you a good chance to give them a nasty kick to shoo them away.

Like shadow said-use escorts. I can personally vouch for 4 flags with a tail. Cheap enough that most folks won't wanna try to steal them, but strong enough to keep most fleets at bay. Unless they be willing to use a big ship.

On the topic of HN's and FoJ. I don't really think either is over powered. If proper care is given to fleet setup, and gold at hand carried, then the most those cards will do is cost you a day's trade, and some gold plundered. With a good guild, even less damage.

[Padrevaters]

Where is this unwritten rule that a merchant cannot react back when targeted by pirates or other fleets? What are the weapons in the merchant's arsenal. It would mostly be voodoo and that is what he will use as the game allows it. So if you expect to get attacked and do nothing about it, you are wrong. A merchant will use anything in his capacity to vent out. That's all I am doing.

And here lies the problem. When I use any other ship in conjunction with merchanting fleets, they slow it down. Merchant fleets with LMMs are the fastest with higher capacity. Trade Galleons are comparatively slower. In a 24 hour cycle, I run 1.2 - 1.5 times the trips compared to a trade galleon. With a level 10 sails and hammocks, they are surely the fastest in the game. No, I prefer to use this as the game design allows it.

Now if a pirate wants to plunder my ships or any ships, then he must expect risks. For a pirate, raiding merchant ships are the easiest with a bunch of galleons. That might be his call and the game design allows a pirate to skirmish. Since the merchant ships are susceptible, what are the other weapons in my list? My ships cannot hold out against galleons. So the only recall of a merchant is the voodoo. The game design allows it. Why are we justifying a pirate's skirmish as legal when in the real world, he would be thrashed to death. Nope, I will stick to it.

Now if you are questioning my decision of sticking to merchant ships, then you should question Nelson's repeated thieving of my SOLS. And it took me quite some time to build them to 60 plus pointers.

[Meliva]

Mate, never said you can't hit back. But you need to understand that hitting back can and often will escalate things. Let me give you an example.

Let's say I suddenly turned pirate, and raided you. You then used voodoo against me, so now I feel like raiding you more. Especially if you don't have good escorts.

Also, that is a valid thing to do. Run nothing but merchant ships. it does give you more profit. But again, it makes you a cow. A pirate could milk you with a cutter fleet. And what, are you gonna levi a cutter? Assassinate some officers he doesn't use?

I run lots of flags. They aren't too fast, and not very good for trading. They put up a good fight though. Enough of one that if one wanted to raid most of my fleets, they would need large frigates or ship of the line. That gives me a good juicy target to levi if I wanted. Flags also are not like SotL, especially 60 pointers. Most folks will not commit to stealing them.

You may make a lot more then me in profit pad, but you have set yourself up to be a cow. Voodoo retal is normally not a good way to deter pirates. You need to be a porcupine. Unappealing to them.

But ultimately that is up to you. Time will show you that voodoo retal is not a good strategy, and you will either adapt and overcome, or give up. I hope for the former mate.