Pirate Mechanics suggestions collection thread

[RedOne]

Sorry my english. This is google translator. Below the original in Russian

 

 

The proposal on the pirates.

1) Make all over the map (next to each nation) Pirate City (the capital different pirate factions), in which the pirates would receive quests as PVP and PVE in the destruction \ capture the ships of certain nations. Make different rewards for completing quests chains for each of the pirate factions (officers skills, feats, ships, etc.) For the players fulfilled all the quests of all factions to make the bonuses in the form x2 (x3, x4, x5) mining (gold, resources , feats, etc.) for hunting certain nations depending on the number of pirates ascribing to any of piracy or whether cities. For example: A large number of pirates floating in the same city quests near the British. and the bonus will be given next to the French nation, because there is less of all pirates. (One of the options to do this: it would be necessary that the pirates were attributed to one or another faction of pirated or city (for this they will be able to put only one outpost for example).) It should be solved the problem of finding pirates center of the map.

2) With regard to the Port Battles pirates. At PB they can walk, but after the victory of the city does not go to them, and to become 2 (3,4,5 ...) of the day \ days Pirate. (Other nations may not be included, and all the production that are on this island Pirates can KRAF not damage the building. The development of buildings for example tobacco is x2 (x3, x4, x5) for a few days, after the expiry of this period, the city passed into the hands of the nation controlling it to capture. (economy on the island (production ests) will be made with the fines for example -2 (-3, -4, -5 ...) Resa \ ests by N unit kraft hours. and so on 2 (3 4.5 ...) the day \ days. it must be solved a problem that historically the pirates could not own the majority of cities in the Caribbean.

3) As for the Pirates of the economy. Resources to produce as a nation can not pirates. They will capture them using the victory at the PB and plunder of the island or by completing quests, as I wrote above, or in pvp pressing from the merchants. The remaining processing resources will be the same as that of nations. That would not be a shortage of resources, you can do quests, which would if successful would give the award to the player's choice. But profit from the looting of the city to do a lot more, so that was an incentive to rob and kill

 

 

Предложение по поводу пиратов.

1) Сделать по всей карте (рядом с каждой нацией) пиратские города (столицы разных пиратских  фракций), в которых бы пираты получали квесты как PVP так и PVE на  уничтожение\захват кораблей определённых наций. Сделать разные награды по завершению выполнения цепочки квестов  для каждой из пиратских фракций  (навыки офицеров, фиты, корабли и т.д.) Для игроков выполнивших все квесты всех фракций сделать бонусы в виде х2 (х3,х4,х5) добычи (золота, ресурсов, фитов и т.д.) охоты за определенными нациями в зависимости от количества пиратов приписаных к какому ни будь из пиратских городов. Например: Большое количество пиратов  плавает в одном и том же городе выполняя квесты возле англичан. а Бонус будет даваться рядом с французской нацией, потому что там меньше всего пиратов. (один из вариантов как это сделать:  надо что бы пираты приписывались к той или иной пиратской фракции или городу.( для этого у них будет возможность ставить только 1 аутпост например)) Так должна решиться проблема нахождения пиратов в центре карты.

2) По поводу Портовых Битв у пиратов. На ПБ они ходить могут, но после победы город не переходит им, а становиться на 2 (3,4,5...) дня\дней Пиратским. (другие нации не могут входить, а все производства которые стоят на этом острове пираты могу крафить не строя здания. Выработка зданий к примеру табака будет х2 (х3,х4,х5) на несколько дней, после истечения этого срока, город переходит в распоряжение нации контролирующей его до захвата. ( экономика на этом острове (производство ресов) будет производиться со штрафов к примеру -2 (-3, -4, -5...) реса\ресов на N единицу крафт часов. и так на 2 (3,4,5...) дня\дней. Так должна решиться проблема того, что  исторически пираты не могли владеть большинством городов в карибском бассейне.

3) По поводу экономики пиратов. Ресурсы добывать как нации пираты не смогут. Они будут их захватывать с помощью победы на ПБ и грабежа острова или за выполнение  квестов, как я писал выше или отжимать в пвп у торговцев. Остальная переработка ресурсов будет такая же как у наций. Что бы не было дефицита какого либо ресурса, можно сделать квесты, которые бы в случае успешного выполнения давали бы награду на выбор игрока. Но профит с грабежа города сделать намного больше, дабы был стимул грабить и убивать

[Sydd]

Great ideas. I would like to further add to this. 

1. A bounty system: Similar to how the "voting" is suggested in the such is lord topic, a bounty system can be implemented on the pirates which is a fixed amount for a clan + bounty  on the pirate. Example, Pirate x is a notorious pirate that has a bounty of 100k on him, he joins a famous pirate clan. which has a bounty of 50k. Bounties are gained by participating in port raids and raiding other ships that belong to other nations.

2. Pirates should not have the ability to negotiate with other nations, this enables them to freely raid all shipping regardless of nation.

3. There should be a top 5 pirates bounty list that shows the last known location of those pirates (in their nations waters, if they were in close proximity to a port) example: Pirate x was last seen raiding port *insert port name here* 5 ingame days ago. This will be updated if a player of the nation saw the pirate. but only after a 2 ingame day period in order to give pirates some breathing room. 

4. Pirates can have the ability to simply blockade a port and demand ransom from the lord protector of that particular port. If requirements are met the pirates will not be able to raid that port for 30 in game days. (maybe more) 

5. Pirates level up based on their notoriety, (this can be just another way to say xp except its a little more punishing for them for "exploring" but they get say, 1.5% more notoriety for capping a ship. and maybe a small penalty for sinking one.) 

6. This is purely opinion based but it would be nice to have: After a pirate reaches max notoriety he gets a pve based mission where he has to cap a galleon (this will be a through and through brawl in the boarding minigame) after he caps it, he can get certain mats to upgrade it into the frigate, the Queen Anne's Revenge. This ship is unique, it cannot be captured by other nations, it must be sunk. A pirate cannot give the queen anne's revenge to any player, it will have a fixed amount of durability, after it runs out he is free to craft it again, but only once. (maybe make it so that it cannot be crafted again at all... idk, the entire point being that she's essentially the pride of the pirate. 

7. Make a few templates for the pirates which they can then use to customize their own flag, or a clan's flag. There will be certain conditions tied to it as we don't want pirates running around with pink flags. So requirements to make it so that their flags are more practical and therefore pass as realistic enough. 

8. Pirates can have "port battles" among themselves where they can fight against each other for control of a small pirate village. Or by a voting system based on notoriety again. 

9. Pirates are able to capture SoLs however they will not be able to sail it, they will be able to sell it for a massive boost of income however, or use it to upgrade their fortifications in their "village" 

[Sven Silberbart]

I like your ideas and would add sone thoughts..

 

The biggest problem i have with the pirate thing in this game is: How to limit the count of pirates in the carribean sea?

I fear, because of much books, films and characters like "Jack Sparrow" really much players wanna play as pirate.

But in history there were just some pirates and only a part of them were famous ones like "Black Beard" or "Stede Bonnet".

So i dont want so see an ocean full of pirates like the current state. So i ask myself how to limit that. The answer could be:

 

Players need to fight for their right to sail under pirate flag. There must be a rivalry between the pirates. So if there are some

pirates in the waters wich are really good in their job the "Wow"-Effect will come back: "Omg. Caaa Caaa Caaaaptain. Black Sails on horizzzzon and its the famous Captain B B Blackbeard!"

 

And if there are some really famouse pirates or small pirates clans the bounty system will automatically increase bigger bounties on their head.

That would result in an Pirate hunt by some Nation Players and at this point we need the trace like you said in point three.

 

That all will generate much PvP Action, i would like to see in Naval Action :-)

Edited August 1, 2016 by Sven Silberbart

[Idle Champion]

There are a lot of suggestions I like in here, and I'll probably repeat a few of them in my own collection of thoughts:

 

1. Mechanical differences between the pirate faction and nations should be concentrated at the national level, not the player level. The pirate player should have an equal footing, with no impediment to crafting, no unique mechanism for death or loss of durability, no exclusive perks, ships, or upgrades, and similarly no excluded perks or upgrades, or ships.

2. Extending from that, no restrictions on ships of the line, and the Pirate Frigate either removed or made generally available as a Heavy Frigate.

3. Pirates should not be able to take or hold ports, but should be able to build production buildings in free towns. There should be no black dots on the map.

4. Pirates should, however, be able to raid ports. They should be able to raid the heck out of them.

5. The in-development diplomacy and lordship patches should not apply to pirates, or rather should not apply the same mechanics to the pirates. There should not be a centrally-led pirate faction or a handful of pirate players who can direct or limit the piracy of others. Every pirate is an individual, every clan is a collection of individuals, and the pirate faction is a broad label for individuals with varying play style.

 

Then it gets a little weird:

6. Pirates should not be 'universal pirates' - a pirate who has not attacked or joined forces against a particular nation and has in essence committed no act of piracy against that nation should appear as a Neutral and have access to that nation's ports without the smuggler flag. Players should be able to choose just how cutthroat they want to be.

7. Similarly, a pirate should be able to purchase or earn a pardon, restoring their Neutral status with that nation. A Neutral or smuggler pirate should also be able to earn or purchase a Letter of Marque from a nation's ports, enabling them to function as a Privateer for that nation. Privateers should be able to join battles, including port battles of any scale if accepted in a port battle lobby, and while flying their Privateer flag count as a friendly to players of that nation. Players who currently enjoy port battles and piracy together should have some recourse to PBs, and pirate clans that play as privateers and muscle along with nationals should still have that option, even if the pirate faction becomes less 'nation-like' as a whole.

8. Players who become pirates by crimes against their own nation, rather than going to sea as pirates, should have a similar loss of assets and blueprints as national players defecting to another nation.

 

Suggestions not bundled with the above:

9. Aggressive NPC pirates should be added to the open world. The lack of a hostile element or any sort of 'dangerous waters' has a stifling effect on PvE, and this can carry over to some areas and some times in the PvP servers.

10. A pirate ship, such as Black Sam Bellamy's Whydah, should make its way into the game as a commerce raider with a greater cargo capacity than an equivalent warship and more offensive potential than an equivalent trader.

[Mrdoomed]

Why not just make a button to click like the smuggler flag only make it called pirate flag. The devs can put the same restrictions on it and instead of being able to click on and off make it a one time thing.

Once you turn pirate you can only build in freports, all assets in national ports are locked or lost just like smugglers who leave goods, BUT like smuggler you can use any port you just cant build or stay.

You wouldnt be able to capture ports amd would be kill on sight to all players.

No more need for pirate ports or capitals or anything. Basically they are just smugglers only called pirates and no game mechanics have to be changed.

Plus this way no pirate starts as a pirate and would click the button to turn pirate probably after he's learned a bit and this way pirates would be spread across the map nt all together.

Just need a way for pirates to communicate though.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Mrdoomed

[Hethwill]

I like all of this except capturing of AI SoL.  If a Pirate wants to sail around in a slow SoL then by all means.   But they will be a target.  A good pirate would want a ship fast, and powerful not a SoL.   I would imagine most would look to get a Romnee or a Cerb.

 

Too many crew IF the money has to be shared equally by all crewmen ( upon returning to port ), which is indeed the proper thing to do.

 

But, on the sense of being a highly successful captain, crew allowance will increase greatly thus giving a chance to crew biggers ships, hence having to make more money to share , equally, amongst the crew...

 

... which might not be enough and thus crew allowance decreasing.

 

Rinse and repeat. Pirate life for me

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

So my ideas for pirates in game, some may have been already mentioned:

 

 

1- You can select pirate as nation from the start. You can turn pirate anytime (like now)

 

2- Being a pirate allow you to change the country flag you display above your name and ship (and nickname displayed) in OW anytime. Other pirates always can see you as a pirate and real name but can see you are camouflaging yourself.

 

3- When sailing any country flag, any other player sailing very close to you (at voice distance) have a % chance to discover you are a smuggler (maybe auto, i don't know). If a player from the nation you use the flag think you are a pirate (and you don't have letter of marque) he can target you and attack you even if you are not a smuggler (for exemple if he tracked you or know the nickname you use is not someone from his nation/ or it's the nickname from a friend of him who don't use the ship you are sailing in..) He don't risk switch pirate for tagging a friendly ship, black flag is revealed.

 

4- When you choose to attack someone (any nation, even pirates), you automaticaly switch back to your pirate status displayed. And then you keep this status a certain time after leaving the battle result screen (cooldown).

 

5-You can enter any port allied to the nation flag you wear but not ports from the nation itself,for ex: if you sail with a spanish flag, you can't enter spanish ports because they would know you are not registered and that you are a fraud. But if spain is allied to France, French ports could accept your cargo. (At least i can imagine that after the diplomacy patch)

 

6-You can enter any neutral port or freetown as long as you don't have the black flag.

 

7-You can create outpost in neutral, freetown, or pirate towns.

 

8-Instead of admiralty orders, pirates can accept a letter of marque from any random nation in their outposts. Two type of letter of marque: pvp oriented: a nation admiralty order you to hunt a foreign captain and gives you his last know position or outpost (like in the old reports we knew)  if you sunk him or capture him, you receive xp+gold. Another type of letter is the name of a port where you are ordered to increase the hostility level by hunting any ship of the targeted nation in the area, npc or players. When the level is reached, you receive xp+gold.

 When you accept a letter of marque, if you attack the targeted player or in the targeted area, the commanding nation flag is displayed, not the black.

 

 Other nation players can craft "manhunt" letter of marque, but Councils or Lords only can create port oriented letter of marque.  They can directly be given via chat window.

 

9-As long as you have a letter of marque, you can't attack the nation you have a contract with and they can't attack you without being considered pirates themselves (they receive an alert before tag), and you can enter their ports (you can resign/abort the letter anytime) The players from the nation you work for can see you are a privateer (like smuggler text) 

 

10-If one day, marines become a ressource (like a more expansive type of crew, slowering reload and maneuvers but giving bonus in boarding) I can imagine pirate captains having to recruit pirate crew (small bonus in boarding but with no sailing or reload penalties) instead of normal crew and marines. 

 

11-If hostility levels are calculated in the future (i think i've read something about it about future of port battles to replace conquest flags), each hostile action you do around a port increase the level of hostility between this port and pirates. This can help nations players to know where they should patrol to hunt pirates + after a certain level of hostility, pirates can try to capture the port. If you raise hostility under the command of a letter of marque, you raise the hostility between the port nation and the letter's nation.

 

12-Pirates can launch raids against ports, they have to buy raid flag (same as the actual conquest flags). Mechanic need to be defined but maybe it could just be a capzone in the middle of the harbor they have to hold a certain time and then escape. Captains gain loot, but port don't switch nation.

 

13-Shipyard or blueprint restriction so no pirate can craft more than 5th rate but pirate can capture and sail any kind of ships even sotl (to be discussed).

 

 

 

 

 I think this would give the pirate playerbase the feel of real piracy gameplay without restraining them from the core gameplay of naval action (juste some restriction about craft).

 No nation can forge alliance with pirate nation but they can emit lots of letters of marque (cost a lot) to hire some captains for missions.

 Pirate's captains can play as lone wolves, as a nation, but also as privateers, making it more clear regarding alliances but introducing suspicion and fear in OW. 

Edited August 1, 2016 by Baptiste Gallouédec

[Mrdoomed]

So my ideas for pirates in game, some may have been already mentioned:

1- You can select pirate as nation from the start. You can turn pirate anytime (like now)

2- Being a pirate allow you to change the country flag you display above your name and ship (and nickname displayed) in OW anytime. Other pirates always can see you as a pirate and real name but can see you are camouflaging yourself.

3- When sailing any country flag, any other player sailing very close to you (at voice distance) have a % chance to discover you are a smuggler (maybe auto, i don't know). If a player from the nation you use the flag think you are a pirate (and you don't have letter of marque) he can target you and attack you even if you are not a smuggler (for exemple if he tracked you or know the nickname you use is not someone from his nation/ or it's the nickname from a friend of him who don't use the ship you are sailing in..) He don't risk switch pirate for tagging a friendly ship, black flag is revealed.

4- When you choose to attack someone (any nation, even pirates), you automaticaly switch back to your pirate status displayed. And then you keep this status a certain time after leaving the battle result screen (cooldown).

5-You can enter any port allied to the nation flag you wear but not ports from the nation itself,for ex: if you sail with a spanish flag, you can't enter spanish ports because they would know you are not registered and that you are a fraud. But if spain is allied to France, French ports could accept your cargo. (At least i can imagine that after the diplomacy patch)

6-You can enter any neutral port or freetown as long as you don't have the black flag.

7-You can create outpost in neutral, freetown, or pirate towns.

8-Instead of admiralty orders, pirates can accept a letter of marque from any random nation in their outposts. Two type of letter of marque: pvp oriented: a nation admiralty order you to hunt a foreign captain and gives you his last know position or outpost (like in the old reports we knew) if you sunk him or capture him, you receive xp+gold. Another type of letter is the name of a port where you are ordered to increase the hostility level by hunting any ship of the targeted nation in the area, npc or players. When the level is reached, you receive xp+gold.

When you accept a letter of marque, if you attack the targeted player or in the targeted area, the commanding nation flag is displayed, not the black.

Other nation players can craft "manhunt" letter of marque, but Councils or Lords only can create port oriented letter of marque. They can directly be given via chat window.

9-As long as you have a letter of marque, you can't attack the nation you have a contract with and they can't attack you without being considered pirates themselves (they receive an alert before tag), and you can enter their ports (you can resign/abort the letter anytime) The players from the nation you work for can see you are a privateer (like smuggler text)

10-If one day, marines become a ressource (like a more expansive type of crew, slowering reload and maneuvers but giving bonus in boarding) I can imagine pirate captains having to recruit pirate crew (small bonus in boarding but with no sailing or reload penalties) instead of normal crew and marines.

11-If hostility levels are calculated in the future (i think i've read something about it about future of port battles to replace conquest flags), each hostile action you do around a port increase the level of hostility between this port and pirates. This can help nations players to know where they should patrol to hunt pirates + after a certain level of hostility, pirates can try to capture the port. If you raise hostility under the command of a letter of marque, you raise the hostility between the port nation and the letter's nation.

12-Pirates can launch raids against ports, they have to buy raid flag (same as the actual conquest flags). Mechanic need to be defined but maybe it could just be a capzone in the middle of the harbor they have to hold a certain time and then escape. Captains gain loot, but port don't switch nation.

13-Shipyard or blueprint restriction so no pirate can craft more than 5th rate but pirate can capture and sail any kind of ships even sotl (to be discussed).

I think this would give the pirate playerbase the feel of real piracy gameplay without restraining them from the core gameplay of naval action (juste some restriction about craft).

No nation can forge alliance with pirate nation but they can emit lots of letters of marque (cost a lot) to hire some captains for missions.

Pirate's captains can play as lone wolves, as a nation, but also as privateers, making it more clear regarding alliances but introducing suspicion and fear in OW.

Nothing should ever stop pirates from building any kind of ship. As much as i dont like that pirates have them its a necessary evil in this game.

There are zero limitations on how many line ships national players can have and there is nothing to limit teleports so once pirates are reduced to freeports and maybe a capital all the pirates haters ( which seem to be most people) will just camp every freeport they know pirated are at and they will use 1st rates, effectively removing pirates from play. Think they wont just read all the posts of national players camping battle instance for 4 hours just to kill a pirate.

Some people are just unhinged when it comes to pirates and even on my small server all the ports i play from are camped by SoLSLs to keep me from playing at times when i make the wrong clan mad and ive been forced to make line ships JUST to play.

Untill rules are made for national player limites you cant limit pirates and call this sandbox or fun for all.

Edited August 1, 2016 by Mrdoomed

[Baptiste Gallouédec]

Craft limitation can be discussed, it's the least significant of my suggestions imo. 

[Hethwill]

2 - 6 are to be left alone. IIRC fairly complex to code in and to be implemented for little real gameplay gain.

 

Given most pirate population wouldn't use them I can see those not being a necessity.

 

I like the idea of it but can live without them.

 

But looking forward,

 

Pirates were not landowners, farmers, factory masters nor naval architects. They were very good seamen. They had to be. But they were not better overall than the best of a Navy.

 

Navy officers ( the player ) could be plantation owners, own land, invest into business, etc. But they wouldn't be given any ship they wanted by the Admiralty. They wouldn't be leading a squadron before Post Captain. They go to station with a ship ordered by the admiralty and sometimes, regarding their performance, they would even be dropped from squadron lead 74's back to cruisers or worse, a brig.

 

So, compromises between both playstyles is needed without slaying freedom.

[mikawa]

Pirates are for me the classic faction that occupies free towns (and only free towns) to operate from there, and to disturb the economy of the nations who have outposts and deliveries there. They cannot occupy nation towns, but they can raid them (without havnig to buy a flag), meaning that a successful attack lets them choose freely from the availiable resources. My dream would be a huge pirate warship fleet attacking a nation's town, followed by a huge pirate trader fleet, robbing the resources, which can be counterattacked by the nations revenge fleet, trying to save some of the resources. That would give resource handling a way better meaning.... (leaving open of course, how pirates can craft ships though) ....