Pirate ability: Spies

[Slamz]

Half-Baked Ideas presents:
Pirates get spies. (I believe this idea will be very easy to implement -- it's really just a log and a new UI element to read it.)

A pirate captain can sail into an enemy port and, for a certain fee, create a spy there.

As long as he has a spy there, the pirate can mouse over the port and it will tell him the last player ship to have left that port and how long ago they left. Maybe even include a little nugget about cargo.

"Le Gros Ventre left Pedro Cay 12 minutes ago carrying 3500 cargo."

Basically I'm thinking of some way pirates might know where to go, rather than sail around aimlessly. With the map being so huge there's always a danger of "safe zone trading" going on and it would be nice if Pirates could:

1. Teleport between Free Port outposts (body only, not a ship or cargo)
2. Somehow get some free intel telling them where some juicy trading may be going on

I don't want them to have TOO much info. That LGV could be solo or could have 5 escorts. Could have gone north or south. And the pirate still has to have some idea of sweet spots so he can go there and place his spies (he may be limited to a certain number or the cost may go up exponentially). But we make it hard to have "safe areas" in this game. The pirates have ways of finding out what you're up to.

 

If we want something a bit more true to life, maybe rather than a spy (who apparently has a cell phone), the pirate can go to any port and obtain a more complete log of the last 24 hours: who arrived, what they bought, what they sold, what they left with. "Lorewise" the pirate is just bribing some local who keeps this information (because he knows pirates want it), then he can come around and look at it whenever he wants. This would not give a pirate good immediate intel but he could scope out areas over time and look for active spots so he knows where to start hunting. Like he drops by 10 ports in a row and each one shows little or no activity but the 11th port, in the middle of nowhere, has a long log of ships coming and going. This is where they are doing their trade runs from. Now he knows where to keep an eye out.

 

[xAzDKr]

I only support this if Pirates lose the ability to be a nation like they are now. If they are true pirates, then I support this.

[Slamz]

2 hours ago, xAzDKr said:

I only support this if Pirates lose the ability to be a nation like they are now. If they are true pirates, then I support this.

Yeah I don't like the idea of pirates as a regular nation.

I've been thinking that a lot of the game's recent changes will drive nations to collide along their borders. When we could teleport between free ports, deep raiding was a daily activity. We'd park ships in free ports near British and U.S. areas and just teleport over to raid them whenever we felt like it. Without that teleport, though, deep raiding will be too much of a commitment. If you go to a free port deep in enemy territory, you're going there to LIVE for a while and that's probably not realistic (especially with 1 durability ships!).

So deep raiding as nationals is probably out. And I think that's a good thing, really. It will actually help concentrate the fights: along borders.

But if NOBODY can deep raid then there will be huge areas of "safe trading" that just generates loads of free cash.

So.... let Pirates operate out of free ports. They can teleport between outposts there and they become the deep raiding team.

Maybe take this idea even further and say that pirates can never take over ports but instead they are always "smuggler" flagged and can always enter any port and buy/sell there and maybe produce as well -- but at a markup. Like maybe pirates basically have a 30% tax ("bribe") for all their financial transactions but the tradeoff is they can treat every port in the game as if it was a pirate port. (This is partially to discourage people from making pirate alts just to have easier worldwide crafting.)

I dunno, I guess I shouldn't necessarily turn this into the "general pirate idea thread Mark 32" but I'm pretty sure it all begins with letting pirates spread out more freely and gather intel more easily.

Edited April 21, 2017 by Slamz

[AlteSocken]

This could also be a overlay-feature on the map-view: trade turnover by color; to identify hunting-regions. Maybe could be generated during daily maintenance.

[Hethwill]

If Pirates have no territory and start in free ports and can only Raid, I don't see why they couldn't.

It is the oldest discussion in the book and we should keep renewing and refreshing the ideas for a more unique Pirate gameplay indeed.

[Celtiberofrog]

Pirates are extremely interesting in NA (in gameplay as well as commercialy).

It gives the possibility to break (boring) stability and makes success in economy harder.

Now I guess it would the right time for Dev's to discuss about the best way to finalize the Pirates habilities in NA.

Veteran player like Lord Vicious may have lots of good suggestions to offer.  

[Sir Texas Sir]

4 hours ago, The Red Duke said:

If Pirates have no territory and start in free ports and can only Raid, I don't see why they couldn't.

It is the oldest discussion in the book and we should keep renewing and refreshing the ideas for a more unique Pirate gameplay indeed.

But we need  a proper raid system.  Basically instead of conquest we raid a port.  Make it 12 vs 12 man raids we get to capture that port (not the region) for say 3-5 days and do our crafting.  All production has stopped during that time and the ones part of the raid get the resources that should of been produced or just simply we can craft for those few days there in that port.  Once the raid is over it reverts back to the owner.  Raided zones could cause agro spikes in that region too making it unstable and more easy for another nation to attack.  Things like that so we are more a thorn in the side instead of total conquest crap.

Give us Kidds as a capital and home region.  We get free towns to work out of and turn Mort into a neutral region for every one to use no matter nation (so no one will ever truely be one ported) and it will turn into the center of trade hub.  Though dangerous spot too as folks will prob be raiding traders and ships in that area.

People want to restrict Pirates on the ships they can use.  Ok we can craft any ship up to 4th rate, but we are the only ones that can craft Pirate Refits (and prob need to bring in one or two more refits that are pirate only of lower rank).   The only way for a Nat to get one is to capture one.  SOL can only be crafted by national, but Pirates are the only ones that can capture and keep them.  If a National captures one it gets sent to the admiralty and gets a prize for it (like how SOL's NPC ships are paid for if you capture them right now).  Want to make pirates even more special make this a pirate only ability to capture ships and all Nations capture ships are sent back like NPC SOL's and paid a prize.  To many guys want to restrict the pirates, but they don't wan any of the restrictions on nationals.  There needs to be a trade off.

Pirates all ready have a bunch of restrictions and no perks in game.    If you keep adding restrictions than no one will want to play them, so you need to give and take.  If your going to restrict them than make restrictions to Nationals on the side and give a perk for that restriction back.

Also allow pirates to join any fight on any side.   Maybe even include port battles.  They can fill in slots.  They can fight for one side or the other, or they can kill every one or every one can kill all them.  Make pirates where they are more clan based or solo not an actual nation.  

[Lord Vicious]

On 21/4/2017 at 3:19 PM, Celtiberofrog said:

Pirates are extremely interesting in NA (in gameplay as well as commercialy).

It gives the possibility to break (boring) stability and makes success in economy harder.

Now I guess it would the right time for Dev's to discuss about the best way to finalize the Pirates habilities in NA.

Veteran player like Lord Vicious may have lots of good suggestions to offer.  

my first and only one is to not play this game

[Rebel Witch]

Maaaaybe in a few years after the Dev's get the game polished up and we dont have to worry about ship and asset wipes again, then i can see game mechanics similar to this. I just think they have far bigger fish to fry to get the game actually ready for release before adding fluff like official spy mechanics. Honestly I am not sure this is needed since I assume spying is easy in this game anyways, not that i would know, just saying.