Suggestion for end game goals players can choose to participate in

[Bach]

As others have pointed out the player base could use more reasons to fight and conquest for their nation. The actual history of the Carribean is full of potential for loyal national captains and officers.

GB, Spain, Denmark, Sweden are all controlled by Monarchy. USA and France at this time are democratic republics. The pirates are, well, pirates. The leadership of the nations would have, at the time, set the goals for its military and peoples. Achieving such goals would result in reward or favor. No reason NA can't do the same. Some examples:

September Goals by nation-

Spain has found itself on the verge of rebellion they believe has been inspired by the French Republic factions and wants to bolster the national treasury. The King sets the following goals.

Conquest - conquer and control the Panama region

Military - sink 400 French Frigates or rate ships

Economic - sell 100,000 silver and gold and gold coins to La Habana

At the end of the cycle if the conquest goal is reached participants receive a battle front medal. Redeemable at La Habana for gold. If the military goal is reached the player receives the title Hero of Spain. If the economic goal is reached by an Econ player he receives a blue print of choice.

Anyway, you get the idea. It could be any variant of this. Use the nations to set cyclic goals that don't require map resets and offer a little something for end game player to achieve.

[Hethwill]

Good inception. Let's start simple and discuss it as a complementary mechanic, for both PvE and full PvP without the E mixed in.

[Skully]

The trick is finding ways to do this without needing devs to intervene. Picture the state of this game a year (or two) from now with Game-Labs working on their next hit.

The "Tournament for The Worst Performance" is an excellent example.

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15734-tournament-for-the-worst-performance-in-na/

The "3v3 Tournament" is another good one to have, however because the sandbox does not allow us to dictate RoE it needs some dev love.

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15814-anouncement-and-final-rules-of-the-first-naval-action-3v3-tournament/

Hence I was also thinking of http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/14752-look-at-my-pretty/

Although I missed the final execution. http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15911-new-epic-event-investigation/?p=300447

So what do we need to check certain conditions without introducing complexities?

[Bach]

Some goals could be chosen by the system randomly from a list.

I.e. - conquest goals for a region of the map would be a list the computer monarch chooses. Econ goals for mass produced goods could also be chosen from a list by computer. Cargo hauling "Colonization goals" where the goal is to move x amount of goods from the capital to y frontier town could be computer chosen. Might make it interesting as the other nations may find you the cargo path to hunt.

Others may be semi-player controlled.

Say a pirate captain applies for a pardon from France. He spends a cycle trying to sink 100 player frigate level enemy of France and zero French ships. If he succeeds at the end of the cycle he can become a French player. A military goal of sinking enemy ships would always be player controlled as they pick the enemy nations from the alliance system.