Europe (And Africa perhaps)

[Hassie]

So along with the smaller idea i put forth in my other post, this is something that will be made for larger groups of people, and more late game oriented, as opposed to early and mid game focused. So Europe, in my humble opinion, is tantalizingly close, and yet it is so hopelessly far out of reach of the player base. The whole goal of creating the ports, mines and farms in the new world, was to bring back all that which was produced there, for the rich and elite people of Europe mostly. I don't want to go into semantics about what did, and didn't find it's way back to Europe regularly, as that can be handled in game. Many items show up on ships or in ports, that have no place magically showing up there. They need to arrive from Europe, and they should do it by ship, and not just any ship, by by large treasure fleets, or national Armadas.

 

 What I am getting at is to make every nation, and yes even the pirates, as Northern Africa was an ally of the Ottoman Empire, and were basically run by pirates, have 1 hub port, that European goods are flowing in and out of. The capitals are the obvious choice, as they cannot be captured. So my idea is to create a tab for selling items up in Europe, by placing goods there, and after the fleet sails to Europe, and back, you are given your share of the money that was agreed upon before. Now how is this any different than just selling the items to the ports in the Caribbean as we are doing right now, I hear you typing already. That is a completely valid point, and adding more steps to a streamlined system, for the sake of more steps only, doesn't make a lick of sense. Well this is where the late game mmo raid style game play, comes into things. . .

 

 So the fleet would need to be tangible, not a magical transport system like what is currently in the game. Items magically appear in ports, and disappear from ports during the server economy reset every night, but my plan is to not alter that in the slightest, or maybe eventually incorporate my idea into that later. So the fleet being tangible, and holding every item that needs to go back to the old world, would therefor need to leave the capital port, at a designate time, and sail to an agreed upon location that would represent further travel to Europe. Probably somewhere on the eastern most spot visible on the map. Each country could have their own spot, that would make for somewhat equal travel distance for each country, from their capital. Obviously some capitals are MUCH further away from the eastern-most visible spot on the map, but some compromises would have to be made. 

 

 So while this fleet is underway, and traveling, at a decent speed, but not altogether too fast, they would need protection. I would recommend they be given a small but not insignificant defense force, that would deter any single person, or small group, from being able to easily attack and capture the cargo from the fleet. This battle should be Port Battle sized combat, but in the open sea, and with either high value goods bound for Europe as their reward, OR if the fleet is on it's way back, cold hard cash as their reward. Now the idea would be that you would need to organize your own defense of this fleet while it travels in unsafe waters. It would be similar in scope to a Port Battle, in that with proper planning, you can get a sizable reward for the people involved.

 

Some countries are small though, I hear you typing, and therefor could not mount a strong enough defense force to protect their fleet. This is also a valid point, but because this fleet will be 100% player driven, if a country has too few players to defend their treasure fleet, they probably have too few people to load goods onto the fleet, or at least too few to need a large fleet for their goods, and making the speed of the fleet inversely tied to the size of the fleet and amount of goods going back to Europe, would help alleviate this problem, as you could make it fast enough that only ships of qualifying speeds would pose any danger, and they could adjust their defense accordingly, to run interference and get their fleet out sight and to safety before danger befalls it.

 

This could also work for goods coming from Africa, as the same tab could have a spot to add gold to buy ivory, or other such items that would come from Africa, and the fleets would act in reverse, with the outbound fleet having the large amount of cold hard cash on it, and the returning fleet having the large amount of items to be stolen.

 

 Now the prices would need to be handled in a way that it makes sense to use this feature, and it should be used perhaps once or twice a week, where your ships leave on a Monday, and return on a Friday perhaps. The times could either be hard coded, or make them variable depending on the devs idea of how this should function within the confines of the game as a whole. This is something that I have wanted for awhile, and I think it is a VERY smart way to add more late game content to an MMO, in what I would term as a "Late Game Multi-Group Raid." 

 

Please, this is a conversation, and I would be happy to hear your thoughts or concerns regarding this idea. No constructive criticism is bad, and I am open to anything. Thank you for reading all this, and have a great day.

 

 

Hassie

(I know that this has been suggested before, in varying different ways, though I think I added some of my own thoughts, that it is not a carbon copy of any previous idea put forward.)

Edited June 6, 2017 by Hassie