Rethinking Nations, Clans and Pirates

[Percival Merewether]

Like many others, I feel that it may be time to re-think the balance between nations and clans to increase PvP and get a more realistic, yet fun take on pirates, piracy and privateering. The following suggestion is long, but I will try to maintain an easy overview, so you’ll be able to skip through most of it and get the general gist of the idea.

Similar suggestions have already been posted by Redii and Vazco – I recommend reading them too.

Nations (For the history-buffs):

We are many players who would like to keep nations in-game. I believe that the removal of nations will have a huge effect on the player numbers since the player-base is split 50/50 between gamers and history-buffs.

We have to return to the original nations and remove the new ones… Poland, Prussia and Russia have no place in the Caribbean in this timeframe.

Life for a non-clan national player will look like this:

Features:

• Safe from internal conflicts .
• Can PvP versus other nations and is NOT safe from foreign PvPers (Unless in safe-zone).
• Cannot initiate RvR.
• Can only join PBs against foreign nations (If allowed by attacking PvP-clan).
• Cannot own ports.

National Clans (For the gamers):

A player who decides to join or create a clan can choose between the following types of clans:

Features:

PvE-Clans (For Safe-zone players + crafters/traders needing a community):

• Safe from internal conflicts.
• Can PvP versus other nations and is NOT safe from foreign PvPers (Unless in safe-zone).
• Cannot initiate RvR.
• Can only join PBs against foreign nations (If allowed by attacking PvP-clan).
• Can change clan status to PvP-Clan.
• Cannot own ports.
• Merchant flag to distinguish them in battle

PvP-Clans (For RvRers):

• Can declare wars and fight internally against other PvP-Clans.
• Can initiate RvR against other PvP-Clans from all nations including their own.
• Cannot change clan status to PvE-Clan.
• Ability to own and manage ports like today.
• Pirate flag when attacking an enemy clan from same nation (Like smugglers flag).
• Officers can grant letters of Marque (See Pirates).
• No safe-zone protection.

Pirates (For the Solo-players):

Pirate players will have the same features as national players apart from the following:

Features:

• No safe-zones.
• Operates out of free-ports.
• Complete open PvP, pirate vs pirate is possible.. no mercy.
• Cannot own ports.
• Cannot initiate RvR.
• Letters of Marque to participate in PvP and RvR alongside Nations.
• Can form clans/communities with no special features

A special feature is the introduction of Letters of Marque – it will allow pirates to sail under a national flag and participate in RvR/PvP as mercenaries.

Letters of Marque will be granted to the pirate by a national PvP-clan officer and will last until server-maintenance. A holder of a Letter of Marque will be under the protection of the clan that granted it and thus functions as a clan-member until it expires (without tag and chat). This means that the pirate can still be attacked by clans hostile towards the clan that granted the letter but will be unable to attack national players from the nation protecting him.

A text displaying the words “Letter of Marque” will be visible where smugglers flag is today, the pirate will be allowed to dock at any national port but unable to use the shop.

 

Kind Regards,

Percival Merewether

EDIT: Updated with @Slim Jimmersons suggestions.

Edited February 16, 2018 by Percival Merewether

[Gregory Rainsborough]

I quite like that Letter of Marque idea.

[Slim McSauce]

This makes oodles of sense and is a definite +1  from me. The only game design issue I see is abuse from PVE clans but that its a minor one.

I really like the distinction between PVE/PVP clans. Too often does one get in the way of the other but this separates them in a fair way. I'd suggest a different type of flag for PVE clans (a merchant type flag) and remove the ability to call AI reinforcements from PVP clans.

The whole idea for pirates is just a solid one. The problem prior was that they were a nation+ who followed the rules of a nation, but also had their own pirate rules stapled on top which didn't make sense. This is a clear role for pirates that isn't blurred with the role of a national. Same with PVE/PVP clans. Good suggestion.

[Percival Merewether]

34 minutes ago, Slim Jimmerson said:

The only game design issue I see is abuse from PVE clans but that its a minor one.

How can we prevent it? I'll include your suggestions in the post - we need more ideas.

34 minutes ago, Slim Jimmerson said:

I'd suggest a different type of flag for PVE clans (a merchant type flag) and remove the ability to call AI reinforcements from PVP clans.

Added to the list.

Edited February 16, 2018 by Percival Merewether

[Slim McSauce]

Just now, Percival Merewether said:

How can we prevent it? I'll include your suggestions in the post - we need more ideas.

Added to the list.

I'm not sure, coding wise there is so many variables so we won't really know until we have it. But what is sure is that it won't be much more complicated than preventing smuggler flag abuse, which we seem to have done pretty well.