Captain Underpants

All good stuff: can you repost it here please where we are collecting all these ideas for the Devs. http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14245-pirate-mechanics-suggestions-collection-thread/page-2#entry263591

By balance, I simply mean that the speed of pirate progression, as well as how much gold they earn doing so compared to nations (vs how much they keep for building ships etc) would need to be carefully worked out. We don't want to see pirates levelling much quicker/slower than the other factions. Nor do we want to see mega-rich pirates who can put-buy everyone else or mega-poor ones who can't keep up with ships etc. Like I said; it's a fab idea but would need careful implementation to make sure pirates didn't become too easy or hard.

Your ideas about pirates ranking through gold are interesting - as long as it was balanced well. Like your thoughts about pirates being ranked (maybe pirate clans too?) with gold (or similar?) to give that competitive edge.

Jager, With regard to point 4 on my initial post; I actually meant to allow them to build 4th rates! I was simply meaning that pirates should not be able to build SOLs. So we agree on this. Regarding point 6 (which I was unsure about myself), I think you are right and it was a bad idea (one I had only just thought of that moment!). Overall I think there are some great ideas coming here which I hope the Devs are seeing. I am especially loving the hideouts ideas and the player reputation ideas which I think would both be awesome and so much fun!

What would be your alternative ideas?

But if you have recognised that the Devs are working hard on the pirate mechanics. If the Devs themselves have stated that they are working on it as a priority. If the Devs and almost everybody recognise that pirates need changing as soon as possible... Then why are you trying to break the game to demonstrate something to the Devs which they already know and are working on as quickly as they can?

Now hopefully the Devs will also start giving feedback on our ideas. Keep them coming guys!

Like it all except not sure about the pirates entering into national conflicts. Could mean that they are still effectively capturing ports or unbalancing nations/causing the map to go all one colour...

1) Agreed although I think only up to 5th rates may be too much of a handicap. 2) Like this idea very much. 3) Again I like this alot. 4) Another good idea - or we could work on the lines of a 'letter of marque' system. 5) Think this would defeat the point of being pirates which should be all about capping ships. 6) Don't agree with raiding to repair your ship - makes it too difficult. Perhaps a cooldown on them raiding a particular port would be good - allows the port to rebuild. Penalties for the owning nation in that cooldown too. 7) Love it. 8) Do you mean a no-combat zone around their ports? If so it makes sense. 9) Interesting. 10) Not sure about this - getting too complicated now. 11) I think if we allow them to capture SOLs we cannot penalise them too much. Maybe make it harder but not impossible to get crew. 12) See above. 13) Disagree strongly. Should be able to start as pirate. 14) Totally agree. 15) Great idea. Thanks for contributing - lots of great ideas there I think. Love everything you have suggested - especially the hideout idea!

Thanks for your reply! As you saw, I was thinking along similar lines about nation-switching.

In response to the desire expressed here for a thread combining all the various Pirates Mechanics ideas we have had for the devs to (hopefully) respond to: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14245-pirate-mechanics-suggestions-collection-thread/ Please contribute your own thoughts and ideas there. There ya go mate - just for you: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14245-pirate-mechanics-suggestions-collection-thread/

My overall vision for the Pirates is that they should provide a completely unique game experience within Naval Action. They should have a special and different attraction that caters to a different kind of player. As such they should have a unique set of both advantages and disadvantages. Here goes!: -Pirates should not be able to conquer other nations ports. -Pirates should be able to raid other nations, gaining lots of goodies for themselves whilst causing material loss to those nations (enough that it would be a priority to defend a nation's ports). -Pirates should have a small number of their own, unconquerable ports spread equally throughout the map (not concentrated in one place). These should be hidden from national players (not showing on maps or in-game). -Pirates should not be able to build bigger ships than frigates. -Pirates should have unique bonuses to boarding and even their own, dedicated boarding ships to make capturing ships easier for them. -Pirates should be the only nation able to capture other player's SOLs (not sure about this idea myself) but not able to capture AI SOLs. -Pirates should not be the only nation you can switch to in-game. It should be possible to switch national allegiances without creating a new character. This should come with heavier penalties in all cases so that all gold, resources and ships are automatically lost (except the ship being sailed on) with no workaround for this. The idea is that you are fleeing from one faction to another with 'only the shirt on your back.'

There has been much talk elsewhere on these forums about the state of Pirate mechanics and a desire expressed for somewhere to collect all existing ideas in one place for everyone (including the devs) to see. Given that for many the current state seems to be game-breaking, I have decided to set up this thread to do this. To the developers I ask you to be as active as possible here, especially in giving feedback over what ideas are viable or not and where you feel we may be heading on to the right track. To the players I say that this is NOT a thread for discussion of national politics, vendettas, gloating, insults, toxicity etc. This IS a place for presenting constructive ideas and polite, constructive criticism of those ideas. Keep it positive! I suppose I better kick off with some thoughts of my own...please discuss!

You are quite clearly far too sensible, logical an reasonable to have a place in these forums. Stop writing posts that make complete sense and are clearly right. Instead start writing posts that are insulting, offensive etc and then you might be taken seriously.

I think he means aircraft carriers!

Love it love it love it Hethwill...that have me quite a giggle!

Utter nonsense. As a BWTC member I can confirm that SLRN do not dominate British politics and not do they treat the rest of us with arrogance. The British clans get on very well overall and we all enjoy hanging out with each other. As for your daft notion of us being criminal: You are trying, by your own admission, to trying to destroy the playerbase of another nation due to some silly personal vendetta. On the other hand, we freely gave some of our ports to the Swedes recently, to allow them somewhere to play safely although they had not been our allies previously. Finally, we have been on our own under consistent, coordinated attack from four separate nations, across multiple fronts for many months now and are still in a strong position. Should you try to do to us what you are doing to the US, I suspect you will find success no easier to come by than anyone else has so far. As usual, everything you say is complete nonsense (though very amusing albeit and a bit pathetic):- I know it, you know it and everybody else knows it. But at least we can all have a good giggle at your insecurities and how obviously desperate you guys are for attention.

Ultimately I suspect that Britain will be able to defend it's borders pretty effectively provided that those borders are somewhat smaller than at present. We have been consistently under coordinated attack on various fronts from the Danish, Pirates, Spanish and French with no real allies to help us. This has been the case for months now and looking at the map and how we have done during that time, I would say we have acquitted ourselves exceedingly well indeed. Any attempt to completely destroy Britain would, therefore, be exceedingly difficult to achieve, provided we do not overextend ourselves.

Thank you to the Ausez guys for presenting your point of view here in a calm, respectful and reasonable manner. Without knowing the rights and wrongs of what happened it is good to see that you are not 'throwing your toys out of the pram' and screaming for revenge due to your grievances as others would do. Good luck, t'was fun fighting alongside you so many times and I hope to see you back and relationships mended/misunderstandings cleared in due course. Captain Underpants BWTC

You do make me laugh... btw welcome to Earth - which planet are you from?

My understanding of this scenario is that Sid Vicious either attacked or was attacked whilst sat right next to land causing the reinforcement zone to be inaccessible to his nearby reinforcements. Surely Mr Lord Sir President-for-Life Baron Von Vicious would have been sensible to stay further away from the coast with combat forthcoming to be safe from this happening.

And now his Santi has been capped!

So apparently Vicious just got captured in his Ingermanland... Didn't take it too well poor chap!

I think you are mistaken in claiming that Sorry are bad sports; not that they would care if they were.The simple fact is that many of them are trolls who just want to stir up argument, problems etc and upset people whilst trying to spoil everyone else's game experience. They do not care whether they damage the future of the game, cause players to quit or force the Devs to close National News once more - they thrive by causing a toxic, negative and destructive atmosphere unlike most other players who are honourable and fun to play with. They are better ignored rather than dignifying with the attention they so desperately crave. I make these observations not through any in-game interaction with Sorry, but purely from what I see written here ad nauseum on the forums by some of their members.