Kill 2 Birds with 1 Stone. A Player Fleet Suggestion

[SmallKiwi]

2 problems

1) Low & decreasing demand for lower level ships as the game matures

2) Fleet system non existent after level 3.

 

Solution

Players can purchase ships, and use their crew allotment (based on player rank) to man those additional ships with AI lieutenants & crewmen. A level 2 player might only have access to enough crew to man a Cutter with a cutter escort, but a level 4 player could crew both a Snow & a cutter.

 

Obviously this might require a small rework of the crew allotment available at each level, and could change the balance of some missions, but it would increase market demand for smaller ships, increase the total number of ships present in battles (always a good thing!) and could make for more interesting trading. Traders could hire multiple trade ships, or warship escorts if necessary, and increase shipping capacity without necessarily needing to add larger and larger cargo ships.

[buccaneer]

And everyone will simply hire army of AI to fight with enemy AI, whyle standing behind. PLZ NO

Right now AI is a simple boost for low rank player, so they can grow up faster. This is MMO, not a single player game

Edited February 10, 2016 by buccaneer

[Tremor]

If someone wants to hide behind AI : let him hide.

 

(I would even allow them in pvp but I understand people not wanting them in pvp)

 

So meeting in the middle would be : allow fleeds , but not in pvp. (auto flee?)

 

The Idee with the crew would even give more benefits.

You could add more ranks.

So you have a target to level more after getting the highest ship.

[SmallKiwi]

And everyone will simply hire army of AI to fight with enemy AI, whyle standing behind. PLZ NO

Right now AI is a simple boost for low rank player, so they can grow up faster. This is MMO, not a single player game

 I don't think this would give anyone an "army of ai". Maybe 1 or 2 extra ships.  And it certainly wouldn't be better than simply piloting a single larger ship. Simple fix to one possible issue: no lieutenant ship could be bigger than the flagship (that's you).  If people want to play the game like a slow RTS and avoid combat themselves, I'd say that's fine.  What you suggest is not going to be an efficient way to make gold and xp.  Remember, a feature like this will create a market for smaller ships.  Smaller ships would therefore increase in market value.  Your fleet ships would not simply be cheap fodder to be wasted for easy gold and xp, they'd be real investments.

[SmallKiwi]

And everyone will simply hire army of AI to fight with enemy AI, whyle standing behind. PLZ NO

Right now AI is a simple boost for low rank player, so they can grow up faster. This is MMO, not a single player game

 

This is not the problem that you think it is.  The changes I propose would make players' fleet ships a valuable resource, of similar value to the ship that the player themselves pilot.  Forcing players to purchase fleet ships from the market will increase demand for those (smaller) ships and drive the prices up.  If players want to inefficiently tackle missions with just their AI lieutenants, they'll risk losing those ships and the investments they represent. By opening fleets up to everyone the game PVP battles will not be negatively affected.  If anything, low level players are disproportionately useful in most circumstances so long as they have a fleet of ships at their command.  The proposed solution would fix that.

[JJWolf]

I have no qualms about having AI fleets in anything except a player's initiated PvP battle. Starting a battle against a player or joining a battle against a player should prevent the agressors AI ships from spawning in the battle instance, but if a player is attacked or attacks an NPC then fleets should be allowed. I have even proposed a new avenue for managing fleet captains (link in sig block) and how to implement managing their progression so people can't just hire the best all the time.

 

This might not be a single player game, but as an MMO you still can get hirelings.

 

EDIT: Spelling

Edited February 11, 2016 by JJWolf

[Hethwill]

First of all not everyone wants a bigger ship. For a start that is a wrong perception on your part sir.

 

Second, the fleet system exists after rank 3. What changes is that you cannot hire more, so you have to live with what you got ( 5 durability each fleet ship can turn into a 15 ships reserve at your side forever, literally ).

 

Second, and this is my stance for PvP servers, fleets should never ever be enabled on a Port Battle by default, being disabled automatically.

[Vonrich DPR]

This could be balanced.  My model would look something like this...please hear it out because it will seem unbalanced at first.

 

Player may hire various ships of various sizes and various skills for various prices.  Players may also build a ship and hire crew, captains, and officers of various skills.  The size of ship that may be staffed would be set by some command points, which would increase as player rank increases, based on BR and at a set base amount.  Example Ranks and base command points:

 

 1 - 20 (lynx)

 2 - 30 (cutter or privateer)

 3 - 40 (pickle or 2x lynx)

 4 - 50 (brig or snow or lynx and cutter...)

 5 - 65 (brig or..)

 6 - 80 (navy brig or...)

 7 - 100 (niagara or cerebus...)

 8 - 120 (renommee...)

 9 - 140 (surprise...)

10 - 170 (frigate...)

 

By using ships in battle, where that player wins the battle and where the NPC allies do not sink and where NPC allies stay until battle conclusion, the player *may* earn additional command points (perhaps 1-2, but with low frequency...maybe a formula like BR Destroyed / 50 = % chance per point up to maximum points of BR Destroyed / 25...so if you sank a cerebus you would have 4x 2% chances to earn 1 command point ) allowing them to command larger or more numerous vessels.

 

Ok, so now it sounds like players may have massive fleets!  How do we balance it?

 

First, crew must be hired.  Player will pay a set amount to convince a captain to join.  The *notoriety* (new mechanic) of the player influences the notoriety of the captains that he may hire.  The notoriety of the captain influences the notoriety of the officers.  The collective notoriety of the captain and officers affects the morale of the crew.  Notoriety is gained by fighting in battles, providing it on a sliding scale based on enemy BR compared to your BR...fill up wish ships and sink small fleets you get a reputation for cowardice (trade ships excluded)...solo large ships and others will hear of your skill and bravery. 

 

In addition to the hiring of the crew, the captain will take a percentage of all loot, as will the officers and crew, based on notoriety and based on number of crew.  Each will have a % determined by the player, the higher % the more they get paid and the more effective they are.  For example, a captain may refuse to work for less than 10%, an officer for less than 2%, crew will always work, but may mutiny if not paid enough - see morale (crew and officers are not individually compensated, rather x% to captain, y% to officers, z% to crew, divided equally among standings).

 

Finally, the NPC ships will take experience points for their damage done in battle, increasing their effectiveness but slowing the player's leveling progress.

 

In this way, it is both in a players interest to build or buy good ships, hire good captains and crew, pay their sailors fairly...but then where does the player's money come from to hire these if once hired they are taking a good share of the profits?  Competing priorities balance the mechanic.  A huge fleet makes a player go broke and not level.  No fleet causes the player to lose out on gaining for command points (not necessary, but nice to have).

 

If you allow your vessel to get to 0 durability, it sinks with your captain, officers and crew, severely impacting notoriety (others will hear of your miscalculations).

 

Ok, that's my whole idea for fleets.  Thanks for reading if you made it this far.