Pirate suggestions from veteran players

[Moses]

Hello mods/devs,

 

I belong to a Pirate clan that has been very active since launch.  We have had a lot of fun playing your game and have a few suggestions:

 

Premise: Why are pirates being forced to play as a nation?  We support changing the dynamics of the Pirate faction to encourage the behavior typical of Pirates while also adding unique diplomatic options to the nations who historically employed (or feared) them.

 

1) It should be much more difficult for Pirates to capture and maintain ports.  This could be done simply through drastically increasing the gold cost off purchasing conquest flags and/or making the port battle more difficult.  In exchange for this, we should be able to purchase these flags from neutral/free ports to help us become the random force of nature we should/want to be.

 

2) (In addition to or instead of 1) Instead of capturing and holding ports as Pirates, the reward for a successful port battle should be the plunder of said port.  The leader in charge of the assault should be given the contents of the port (or some other such reward deemed appropriate) to be distributed among the battle group... or stolen in typical pirate fashion.

 

3) There should be less warning of a pirate attack as a counterweight to the increased difficulty/cost.  

 

4) Pirate clans should be the "owners" of captured ports as opposed to the faction as a whole.  This would encourage natural competition between pirates and reduce pressure on the nation factions.  Even if this were only represented on the map and otherwise was meaningless, it would have an impact.

 

5) Add a morale dynamic to ports.  Morale must be kept up through gold, trade routes and/or regular use etc.  Hitting very low morale causes a port to become free or neutral and a safe haven from which pirates can launch fleets.

 

6) Add bounty/mercenary system through clans that will allow the nations to hire Pirate clans to attack/defend or simply refrain from attacking ports/ships.  This could go so far as allowing Pirate clans to fly the flag of a nation faction which is their patron for a set amount of time.

 

7) Pirates should be able to group PvP other pirates through clan and/or group allegiance.  The current system makes pirate group battles cumbersome if not impossible.

 

We believe these changes will prevent Pirates from becoming an enormous "lowest common denominator" faction while enhancing the fun for people who prefer national warfare.  Instead, we will become a smaller more unique and historically accurate "faction" while also providing another layer of content/diplomacy for the larger national factions to enjoy.  As the game progresses we believe these changes will address impending population imbalances.

[Francis Tabernac]

I like the idea of a cheaper 'raid' on enemy ports for pirates that would reward only plunder, but the other side of that should be that they don't actually retain full control of the port as a normal national faction would. I'd suggest something like temporary control for a 24hr period where access is blocked to all but pirates but the ownership is returned at the end of that time. To offset pirates not actually retaining 'permanent' control of ports, maybe they can otherwise dock at any nationally-controlled port as a player of that faction would. They can use the shop, repair, etc but would run the risk of being attacked by players of that nation when they're noticed.

[Sea Nettle]

Or you could just kill the pirate nation, allow the current pirates to choose a normal nation once and all future pirates must become so through natural means. Now here is the kicker. Once you become a pirate, you are a pirate. You exist by avoiding national navies and living in free ports. You have the basic cutter and whatever you capture for resources, just like a real pirate. No gimmicks, just your balls and wit. It will become a real challenge unlike POTBS where the nation was a op blend of gimmicks and zero risk. The true elite pirates will be legendary and the cowardly and opportunistic, Jack Sparrow, ganking, fanboys will avoid the challenge. There will be so few that those who are will be memorable. Like Roberts, Rackham, Blackbeard and the rest. You could even add a top ten pirates list for wealth. A star status list. And only for the pirates to keep it special and exclusive.

 

Discuss.

Edited February 20, 2016 by Sea Nettle

[Ojibwa_Wind]

Bad idea all around, Lets just make it more difficult for Pirates and have one ruling pirate clan. This is what I read all through this. If you cant beat them then have the devs do it for you! BAD IDEA and quite DUMB!!!!

[Captain Marell]

I love the idea of raiding ports as opposed to capturing them.  Here are some ideas that I have to add.

 

 

Raids: The idea I have is that someone buys a raid flag at a Pirate haven (See below) or a pirate owned port and a sign up begins for the raid.  Pirate Bands/Clans can set who can join by making it public or private.  Once the leader of the raid is ready he will trigger the raid, and just like a port battle they will all set out to attack a port.  Now instead of taking the port, the pirates get booty and resources from raiding ports which will be divided depending on the way the raid was set up.

 

Treasure Ships: Think sort of like boss battles, this can be attacked by enemy nations as well but are prime targets for pirates.  The way they work is by using those useless sighting things we get from missions.  They are hard to find and rare ships carrying Gold bullion in a very strong ship with different types of escorts. I'm thinking that similar to starting a raid, and hunting for the treasure ships.

 

Booty Sharing: Basically before a port is raided the leader of the pirate band/clan/fleet has a set % of where any phat loot is divided.  Depending on the leader things might be divided up differently.  For example the leader might get a larger percentage because he's dishing out the price of the flag, and likewise Joe Mc Ship builder might get some because he builds a lot of ships for the pirates.

 

Pirate Havens: The idea I have here is that since we only have X amount of main ports, clans and groups of pirates can build hidden ports in certain areas that are similar to ports but are not on the map and offer some other stuff for pirates only.  They could be destroyed and moved when they were suspected of being discovered and would be staging places for hitting shipping routes and planning raids.

 

 

Just a few ideas I had off the top of my head.

[Black Bart]

its a fine idea, i like more if ports who got attacked by pirates turned into Free ports and not faction... and flags for conquest as a pirate would be cheaper due to the port would be free port..

 

and perhaps make all pirates "red" to each other... there are no point in a pirate wanna jump another pirate, and if hes friends come, they will be on deffenders side.. and get banned to shoot friendly ship.   

 

shps who joins should get yellow "3rd part" and could shoot on who they want

['Sharpe]

All good ideas. I wish admin would listen to the repeated, repeated, repeated pleas of his community to do something beneficial for gameplay with Pirate faction mechanics.

[Eldberg]

This post lightly touches on the raiding subject: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/8329-pirate-mechanics-vote/

It also offers a vote on what ships should be available, along with some very good suggestions about how pirates obtain ships (capture + re-fitting through crafting = a pirate styled vessel).

[Pagan Pete]

Bad idea all around, Lets just make it more difficult for Pirates and have one ruling pirate clan. This is what I read all through this. If you cant beat them then have the devs do it for you! BAD IDEA and quite DUMB!!!!

 

Pyrates are free men! They do not want a ruling clan. 

it goes against everything we ever stood for.

 

Also, -3 on the suggestion. too many problems would arise by so complex a change.

[Francis Tabernac]

Bad idea all around, Lets just make it more difficult for Pirates and have one ruling pirate clan. This is what I read all through this. If you cant beat them then have the devs do it for you! BAD IDEA and quite DUMB!!!!

 

It's not about making things harder for the pirates, per se, it's about changing the mechanic of the pirate "nation" so that it's not just another country. Add some flavour and make it relevant and different, so that "going pirate" doesn't just mean "changing nations", as it currently does. The idea of the pirates existing as a faction that operates identically to proper nations, and actually captures ports and controls them like a proper nation, is just silly.

 

I like the idea of having ports taken by pirates become free ports, or at least neutral ports to differentiate the two types.