New Entry: Pirates Glory

[jannesiera]

-danger drops a lot when you get attacked, but not to zero.

-when you buy a new ship, it has 0 cannons. A merchantman can take up to 16 cannons but when you built it, it had 0. You had to buy cannons for it.

As for the plunder, here is a copy paste:

*Loser has 10% of his fame removed. - Winner takes the half of this fame added on.
*The loser has to pay a ransom equal to the 10% value of the ship price that lost the battle. If he has that ammount of gold coins, the winner takes it and the plunder ends.

Now, there are some sub situations that take place if the loser does not have enough gold to pay the ransom:

1.If cargo value of the loser, based on standard prices for each resource, is equal or greater than the ransom, the winner takes the gold equivelant (Note: This can be higher than the actual ransom). Loser in this situation loses all the cargo ship carried.
2.If the cargo value is not enough, then the loser will either lose the ship alongside with whatever it was carrying (only if loser has more than 1 ships) or will lose any gold he is currently carrying alongside with any cargo the ship had (This can also mean 0).

No, my large merchantman could have cannons up to 20, I bought 16 !!!  Thats 16 X 200 = 3200 gold.)

[Chris]

I have nothing left. Just one "howker" and 17 gold :S.

I always knew that being a merchant sux

You plundered 72 gold coins!

Your fame increased by 3!

At last!!! The ShipInPort on the map is a scam, never show anything. The plunder page shows it properly only.

Why only 2 of my cannons shot while I have 4 of them? Seems like there is used "Bronze Cannon" attribute for this instead.

The plunder gold was less than the repair costs, seems that piracy is an expensive hobby instead of a profitable business I will trade for a while so I can save for an attack

[Murzim]

*Ships in port shows only your ships.
*The maximum cannons you can fire is cannons you carry/2 (one side)
*Repair costs are very cheap, you had much damage it seems

I will now create the help file for each upgrade so you understand some things. In general ship level is very important as it decides the roll for each cannon (1d(3+ship_level))

Three upgrades are related to attack roll (round shot,bronze cannon and double hammocks) and three more to armro class(iron scantling, copper plating and cotton sails). Of course crew number and ship speed plays a role in these rolls.

[Murzim]

-I have tweaked the attack limitation to 75%-200% of your own power.
-I have created help files for ship upgrades and some insight in how battle works.

In general, the idea is that people will fight each other a lot more often and mostly for fame, rather than gold.

[Chris]

In general, the idea is that people will fight each other a lot more often and mostly for fame, rather than gold.

This doesn't make any sense. Merchants will not fight because they won't invest in cannons (obvious strategy). Pirates won't fight, because there is no gold to gain (no profit).

There are three forces involved: merchants who are peaceful and trade, pirates who are aggressive and hunt for merchants in order to gain gold, government who hunt for pirates to assure safety of merchants. You can not assume that everyone will be "a bit of everything" since that strategy almost never works, in any game. If you buy a merchant ship with big storage you can not buy a fast ship with lot of cannons. This choice is (almost) mutually exclusive.

The moment you introduced trade, you split player base in half, now everyone needs to make a choice. Merchants want peace, pirates want war.

- make the range bigger (200% is nothing, more like 1000%), also close some ports in order to let pirates find targets easier
- merchants should never lose ships (otherwise, you will see only 1 ship fleets in the game, since it is the only valid merchant strategy under current rules, bear in mind that equal rank merchant will always lose to equal pirate)
- pirates should get 10 times more gold that merchant lose (so, x9 of loot is generated, lets say the government paid the ransom )

[Murzim]

There are many strategies involved. So far you need to do both to advance.

As for pirates getting loot, feast your eyes in some examples that happened:


You plundered 900 gold coins!

Your fame increased by 7!

+

You plundered 1200 gold coins!

Your fame increased by 7!

+

You plundered the ship of your opponent: A Howker is yours!

Your fame increased by 24!

And some examples of the rest players:

You lost 1560 gold coins!<br /><br />Your fame decreased by 95!
You lost your ship Kamatayan (Brig_of_War)!<br /><br />Your fame decreased by 73!
You lost your ship Big Shark (Large_Merchantman)!<br /><br />Your fame decreased by 58!
You lost 2400 gold coins!<br /><br />Your fame decreased by 65!

----

I believe that the biggest drawback right now is the lack of many competitive players.

[jannesiera]

I believe that the biggest drawback right now is the lack of many competitive players.

Well, I was playing but I stopped... 

[Chris]

There are many strategies involved. So far you need to do both to advance.

But you can not do both. You just can not Sloop or Hawker? This choice determines everything, everything. How I'm supposed to trade with halved cargo space? I might be a genius trader, but this just isn't a valid strategy option for me, if I choosen sloop I'm bound to be a pirate. If I choosen hawker, I can not win against sloop, I'm to be a trader then.

As for plunder income, 900 gold is nothing impressive. Every 4 turns merchantman brings around 250 gold. And no risk involved, no need to track target, no repair cost, no investmens in cannons...

I believe that the biggest drawback right now is the lack of many competitive players.

I think it is  combat system which is bad for both pirates and merchants. It benefits only the few very top players who can afford a merchant fleet equipped strong enough to fight off even the most powerful pirates.

[jannesiera]

There are many strategies involved. So far you need to do both to advance.

But you can not do both. You just can not Sloop or Hawker? This choice determines everything, everything. How I'm supposed to trade with halved cargo space? I might be a genius trader, but this just isn't a valid strategy option for me, if I choosen sloop I'm bound to be a pirate. If I choosen hawker, I can not win against sloop, I'm to be a trader then.

As for plunder income, 900 gold is nothing impressive. Every 4 turns merchantman brings around 250 gold. And no risk involved, no need to track target, no repair cost, no investmens in cannons...

I believe that the biggest drawback right now is the lack of many competitive players.

I think it is  combat system which is bad for both pirates and merchants. It benefits only the few very top players who can afford a merchant fleet equipped strong enough to fight off even the most powerful pirates.

I had a large merchantman with 16 cannons bought, still I've lost everything. So one thing is they are destroyed way to fast. The second is that pirate acctually appears to be the better job, I won't have to tell again I lost everything by being a very succesfull merchant... There's just a lot of balancing to do.

[Murzim]

Chris claims that pirate is worse
Jannesiera claims that pirate is best.

I personally have a sloop right now which is high level and 2 howkers lvl 1. And I will build a trade galleon as well.
I always keep enough gold to pay the ransom so there is no risk to lose a ship right now. I always keep an eye in danger too.

Jannesiera, you lost the merchantman because it probably had too much danger and you had no gold to pay the ransom. There are choices to make. You made some choices that other players took advantage. And this is what I am trying to create here; you lose by the players not the game. There is no balancing involved here, you all play by the same rules.

someone else got your pretty merchantman and is now making the profit you would make. This is what separates the players in the end.

The thing that needs tweaking right now is one; the attack limitation.

[jannesiera]

Jannesiera, you lost the merchantman because it probably had too much danger and you had no gold to pay the ransom. There are choices to make. You made some choices that other players took advantage. And this is what I am trying to create here; you lose by the players not the game. There is no balancing involved here, you all play by the same rules.

Well, that's what you say. But what I see is that you're asking for more players, but players like me quit because of your so well balanced game ( apparantly ? ). But if it's going like you want it, that's your choice offcourse  .

[Murzim]

Hello again,

I have been really busy lately but today I worked again after 10 days and I created a really nice feature:

-Automatic trade routes.

No more pointless clicking around to buy and sell goods. The trade routes will do it for you.

You can still instant travel them and the such. A series of more features coming soon