Should we be able to capture NPC trade ships?

[rediii 9,494]

I'm against capturing pve ships. It destroys crafting. If you want to make it easier to build ships just lower the productioncosts a bit.

[Uilleam 36]

"Burn her, sink her, or take her a prize..." I don't care if the ship isn't that good, but that's how it was done back in the day, both pirates and navy vessel commanders yearned for capturing a big ship to make their careers.  You've killed a major component of hisotrical paly in mind. 

[Macjimm 1,314]

5 hours ago, Uilleam said:

"Burn her, sink her, or take her a prize..." I don't care if the ship isn't that good, but that's how it was done back in the day, both pirates and navy vessel commanders yearned for capturing a big ship to make their careers.  You've killed a major component of hisotrical paly in mind. 

"Killed a major component of historical play".  Well phrased.  

Seems like there are many restrictions in the game mostly designed to force players into PvP.  I don't understand these delicately balanced mechanics enough to offer solutions.  It unfortunate that the gameplay could not have been simple and encouraged players to develop and create.   From my simple view point I imaged an age of sail game with AI traders as targets for players seeking prizes.  Perhaps we should just remove the AI completely.

[surfimp 700]

You can cap all the AI traders you like on the PVE server. Warships, too. Knock yourself out.

I've capped hundreds (at least) of AI traders and have it down to a pretty good science at this point. I agree with the others who've noted that allowing captures of NPC traders would wreck the economy - which right now sees the production and sale of Trader Brigs and Trader Lynxes as one of the main economic engines.

Allowing NPC captures on the PVP server would gut that market - who would buy a crafted ship when you can have disposable ones for nearly free? We had it in the past and it killed the market for trade ships, and led to the rampant price inflation of other ships. I have no idea how they deal with that on the PVE server, but presumably it's a real problem and/or they just ignore the free NPC ships in favor of crafting their own.

[mikawa 524]

Yes, definitetly! We should be able to capture traders, send crew to them and sail with the precious cargo into the next harbour. Maybe a certain mechanic should prevent sailing out with a capped trader again, so we must break them or sell them but I guess this doesn't really matter. The fact is that warships *have* to be crafted or bought from admiralty but traders could be handled freely ... It doesn't really make sense to capture a fully loaded trader just to let half of the cargo go away because it doesn't fit in our warships.

[akd 2,770]

14 hours ago, Uilleam said:

"Burn her, sink her, or take her a prize..." I don't care if the ship isn't that good, but that's how it was done back in the day, both pirates and navy vessel commanders yearned for capturing a big ship to make their careers.  You've killed a major component of hisotrical paly in mind. 

Actually it has been made far more historical.  You can make enormous gains capturing a ship, if you overcome the challenge of capturing a player ship.  The restriction gives these captures the historical significance they deserve.

As others have noted, PvE server is available for anyone who thinks that capturing brain dead AI ships over and over again has any connection to the historical accomplishment of taking a rich prize.  You can roleplay there that you have actually accomplished something despite AI traders literally being handed to players (they don't even try to avoid you and have harshly gimped performance).

And regardless, even without sailing the ship, you still gain much of the historical benefits and even more.  You get gold (reasonably equivalent to a share in the disposal of a prize), recognition (marks) and even complete control of the cargo entirely for your own benefit (don't have to share with anyone).  And no matter how large this cargo is, you can return to port with it.

That said, some sort of temporary capture mechanic that would allow you to bring an AI trader to port but not own it (or remove cannons from it) would be good.

Edited July 11, 2017 by akd

[ajffighter86 497]

Some of the drops you get from AI traders are enough of a reward to buy someone's crafted trader brig. No need to kill the market with free ships.

[BallsOfSteel 334]

Theres an economy producing warships, traders maybe pretty small, all our crafters are doing warships.

Let them be captured

[ajffighter86 497]

46 minutes ago, Mrgoldstein said:

for the lvl 50 crafters there is, but for people who just started there is not, the only option they have to gain crafting xp,and to make some money is to craft traders ships,yes you could craft a pickle but who is gonna buy it?

Good point.

[Skully 1,031]

Thinking out loud:

1. Kill a couple of Traders Brigs (shouldn't take too long)
2. Optionally sell all loot
3. Go to crafter
4. Pay for Traders Brig (optionally with the loot)
5. Win win?

Disclaimer: Haven't looked at all at any calculations. 

[maturin 6,189]

We should be able to capture all NPC ships temporarily.

Just disable hull and crew repairs, plus mods and knowledge slots. They can be sold automatically when left in outposts.