(Uncommon) Blue Collar Connections

[DezNutz]

Insufficient number of turns to cast.

You have a 1 in 2 chance to obtain a ship that costs considerably more turns to buy from the shipwright than the 18 turns to cast.

So? Tidal wave only costs 3 turns, and the least a ship costs to buy from the shipwright is 8. So I don't see your point.

Most people don't leave expensive ships out of fleet.

[Soliel]

Insufficient number of turns to cast.

You have a 1 in 2 chance to obtain a ship that costs considerably more turns to buy from the shipwright than the 18 turns to cast.

I hadn't thought of that, I was too busy paying attention to the 50% chance to get a ship that cost less turns than the cast. My mistake.
Like I said though, all the values are more or less arbitrary- turns cost, payout rates, etc.- so I'm more than open to suggestions. Maybe 30 turns? That would reduce the chance for a turn "profit" to <20% with the current values.

[Haron]

WHY?
We can build ships, and we can buy ships. Why have a voodoo card that gives you a ship?

What does this add to gameplay? How does this improve the game? Every suggestion should answer these questions, in my opinion.

[Leo the Conqueror]

WHY?
We can build ships, and we can buy ships. Why have a voodoo card that gives you a ship?

What does this add to gameplay? How does this improve the game? Every suggestion should answer these questions, in my opinion.

Well for one if the system created a new ship to give to you, then that would put more ships in circulation, and in the case of MoWs that's a good thing.

[Haron]

For every ship except MoWs that doesn't make sense. You get more ships in circulation every time a ship is built.

As for MoWs, I think getting those from a voodoo card is a bad idea.

[Soliel]

What does this add to gameplay?

To gameplay, I'd say about the same as Gris Gris or Duplicate. Some voodoo doesn't affect the actual gameplay as much as, say, Mindbar or Purify, but still improve the overall game.

How does this improve the game?

It's another method to get more ships out on the water, whether they're new or recycled from shipwright sales. I'd have thought you of all people would be for that
It also adds an aspect of chance for those who would pursue it. There's a chance you could make a nice profit getting a SotL, yeah?
Furthermore, it's a rough way to convert turns to gold. Spend the turns on the cast, and no matter what you get something from it. Whether it's worth less than the credits you could sell it for or four times as much, you're effectively turning those turns to cash. This somewhat meshes into the last one as well, since it's only a chance you make a significant amount. Some would rather spend the same turns on a ship they know they can sell for a smaller profit, but this would still be an option.

TL;DR: Adds more ships for you to steal, a low-stakes gamble, and a way to make money

[Haron]

Turns to cash. You get that from treasure hunting. Or ship building. Or skirmish. Or plunder. Or, in fact, other voodoo cards. We certainly do NOT need a new card for this.

New cards should let us do NEW things. Not things we already can achieve by other means. This is just a new way of building ships.

New cards. New effects. Also, I agree that gris gris is an unnecessary card (whereas Duplicate actually does have some strategic use, although its usually used just to get more mindbar cards).

A card that doesn't do anything new, dilutes the deck. Or worse, in my opinion - it pollutes the deck.

[Meliva]

tidal wave can also only get ships from shipwrecks or ships in no fleets. You typically just get howkers or other cheap tails. Maybe if lucky a good trade ship like a LMM or Trade Galleon. You will however most likely NEVER get anything better then a frigate unless you really luck out. This card being able to potentially get MoW is a bit broken. SoTL and smaller is fine. Could work with some polish, but as it is -1.

[Soliel]

Updated with some more reasonable numbers.

Blue Collar Connections (25)

Acquire a random ship in the current port.

"Common" Ship (Howker-Galleon) 50%
~16.67% chance for each ship
"Uncommon" Ship (L Fluyt - Brigantine) 30%
25% chance for each ship
"Rare" Ship (LMM - War Galleon) 10%
25% chance for each ship
"Very Rare" Ship (Frigate - SotL) 5%
25% chance for each ship

To clarify the aside in the main topic, no MoW's from this card.
These ships would come from ships sold to the shipwright, or created if no ships of the type drawn are available from the shipwright.

20 casts would cost 500 turns and would theoretically result in the following draws:
-10 Commons
-6 Uncommons
-2 Rares
-1 Very Rare

The turns value of these ships could vary from 300 to 645, with an average payout of ships costing ~450.67 turns, or an average of 22.53 turns per cast.

The gold value (assuming 2200 GC for GB) could vary from 614,400 (399,280 to shipwright) to 2,060,000 (1,288,000), with an average payout being worth 1,168,275 (756,192) in construction costs, or an average of 58,413 (40,889) per cast.

Thoughts on these numbers?