"Winning" the game.

[Musuko42]

A very rough suggestion:

 

1 The map is wiped.

2 Each nation starts with a capital in a random place on the map.

3 Each nation is given a unique win condition (such as "capture and hold x number of ports" or "be in control of these specific ports"), with the difficulty of accomplishing that victory being based on the relative strength of the nation (number of active players, BR total of all ships owned by that nation, etc).

4 When one nation hits that win condition, the players in that nation are given trophies to commemorate their win (a symbol in their player tag, or a limited-edition ship like the Yacht, or cosmetic trophies like special ship paintjobs or flags).

5 The game starts over from step one.

 

Notes:

 

The mechanics would be balanced so that each "round" should last something on the order of three to four months.

Having randomised starting capitals would hopefully stop players being bored by sailing the same corner of the map all the time.

Having specific, and changing, goals would liven up the strategies and the competition experienced in the game.

Trophies would be a fun and harmless way for experienced players to show off.

The mechanics of this system could ensure that nations that consistently win are given greater challenges in the next round; keeping it interesting and challenging for them, whilst giving players in the other nations a chance of victory...because nobody likes being steamrollered over and over.

 

Caveats:

 

I haven't fully thought out how things like ships, buildings, and resources would be carried over from round to round, if at all. That kind of thing would have to be worked out if and when the idea gets fleshed out further.

[Lytse Pier]

I drew the mission-card: Destroy all pink navies, if you are pink yourself hold 24 ports of your choice! 

[Musuko42]

I drew the mission-card: Destroy all pink navies, if you are pink yourself hold 24 ports of your choice! 

 

That sounds really familiar, and I'm not sure if you're quoting anything specific or not...but yes, that's exactly the kind of win condition I'm talking about.

[UngerOverDunn]

Nice ideas that we can steal directly from games like Risk. I like the idea a lot. How about Capture the flag Sundays? Protect the massive ai trader fleet leaving from Kpr at X time on friday going to saint nic. If it makes it Brits get reward, if not the pirates get a reward.

I would prefer the focus be on stuff like this, rather than re-tweaking what was already great combat mechanics...

[Musuko42]

How about Capture the flag Sundays? Protect the massive ai trader fleet leaving from Kpr at X time on friday going to saint nic. If it makes it Brits get reward, if not the pirates get a reward.

 

 That sounds like a great idea! Having scheduled events like that would add some fun variety...and, behind the scenes, it could also be used by the developers to mix things up; say if nations got into a stalemate and it wasn't shifting, they could trigger some events that would have decisive outcomes one way or another to "unstick" the stalemate.