Fleshed out Letter and Passenger Delivery System

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

New delivery missions for letters and passengers are great. I sense there is even more potential to flesh them out and insert random effects and player decisions which will add much to both use of this type of missions and entertainment. And yes, some uncertainties and danger belongs into the picture, too.

(A) First of all, there could be a bonus for earlier-than-expected delivery, which raises your income. Say, every delivery under 1/4 of the max time period is eligible for triggering a bonus. The bonus itself would have to be random, depending on the situation and moods of your customers. Could be more doubloons, could be reals, or a random skill book some other time. Or nothing at all. You will have to wait and see.

(B) I notice aggressive NPC has been cancelled as planned feature for the future, but once it comes, there could be specialized NPC in fast boats such as Privateers, Lynxes and Pickles patrolling around ports which are destinations of letters or passengers, trying to lay ambush to incoming deliveries. You gotta fight to get through. Also can be imagined as a blockaderunner activity.

(C) For the two types of missions, letters and passengers, we would know only the price we'd expect to be paid when delivering, as now. However, while about 60 % of missions happen without any special incident, 40 % may contain any of the following versions of a storyline, side effect, event. The decision which one will be applied once again is random. No predictability, not even with certain names of passengers.

(C.1) Letter delivery complications:

(1) letter proves to be compromising for the bearer: player is arrested upon arrival and check of his papers, for alleged support of a local uprising. The content of the letter proves him guilty. Nobody believes him he did not know what's inside the papers. Was it a trap?

Random decision between:

- player needs to pay a fine to get free

- player looses ship as it is being confiscated

- player is banned from entry into this port for x (random number) days

(2) Letter proves to be so important to a local group, they decide to give him additional rewards.

Random decision:

- player gets free outpost here

- player receives some free merchandise of the better sort

- player enjoys discount for x days for any goods bought from that port

(3) Letter helps in discovering a foreign agent being present, blowing his cover. Government is grateful to player and hands him a letter of marque. He will get now some reals for any ship belonging to another nation than the one this port belongs to he sinks, for a duration of x days.

(4) Player gets an offer to change nation to that of the port owner, independingly of having prolific forger DLC. He choses to accept or decline.

(5) Player receives upon delivery immediately an urgent letter to be send to another port, for an unusually high gratification. He can accept or decline. If he declines, there is a small chance local administration will ban him to enter this port again for x days.

(6) The papers in the hands of player find much attention among locals. A band of thugs attack him to bring themselves into possession of that letter before he can deliver it. Random event will determine if they are lucky or player can defend himself and the letter. If he fails, he will not only not be paid for delivery, he will also lose one random perk because of injuries he suffered.

(7) Player is offered a letter to his capital in return. Random event may bring him trouble when he arrives home, depending on how his local administration will think about this service done to another place. If they don't like it, one merchandise out of his warehouse is being confiscated for treason.

(8) Player delivers letter but finds himself in an obligatory battle instance while setting sail from that port: some people (as NPC ships) have sworn to take revenge on him as the letter brought them disadvantages. They are using similar ships like his. He can fight or simply run away. Maybe they have special loot in case he defeats them, similar to gold chests etc.

(9) Player befriends a person in this port while delivering the letter and all related affairs, who in the future will forward valuable information to him about what is going on in this place, like spawning of rare material or expensive merchandise (via mail system).

 

(C.2) Passenger transport complications:

(1) Passenger could intervene and prevent a crime because of early arrival, thanks to player's ship, in his gratitude he gives player some doubloons/reals (random variation) extra.

(2) Passenger fails to counter a conspiracy or coup upon arrival, has to ask half or all of the fee he owes us back.

Player decision:

- agrees. Random event triggers (an hour) later a message that he gets reimbursed, with a little extra payment on top. Or nothing.

- disagrees. Random event triggers trouble with friends and relatives of the passenger who come in a drunk and infuriated mood and mess up his ship, causing it urgent repairs. If there is something in the hold, they may dump it into the water. Or nothing happens at all, no mob, including no payment for player.

(3) Passenger came to visit a secret lover in town and since he plans to do this on a regular basis, he is asking player to do this trip a number of times with related secure income.

(4) When player lands his passenger in port, authorities show up and arrest the passenger for he is a wanted revolutionary who came her to create trouble. Player as his suspected helper also gets arrested. Player is now forced to stay five game-days in jail until a diplomat/advocate shows up negotiating his release. If he pays x (random determined) reals as bribe, the prison term is halved.

(5) Player helps a wife to betray her husband by transporting her to her lover or him to her.

Random events:

- Raging husband arrives and puts player's ship on fire, which means it is lost and he needs to buy one to get out of here.

- Wife escapes with her lover from marriage hell and they express their thanks to player by giving him a golden class ship of same type he is using for this mission.

(6) Player helps with his transport to expose the criminal activities of a rogue governor in this colony, as the passengers are prosecutors of this nation's law enforcement with documentation of his deeds.

Random events:

- Governor acts fast and strikes at the new arrivals before they can do their work, player loses his ships in the course of the violence and half his reals from captain's chest are confiscated.

- Governor is removed and the government of the nation owning this port expresses gratitude to player by granting him a free outpost in each port they control.

(7) Player brings a competent famous physician to a disease-stricken colony, contributing to the salvation of the population. He earns himself a free shipyard here, connected with a local labor hours boost.

(8) During the trip, a gifted passenger trains and instructs the captain (player) in some skills he is expert in, so until the end of the journey, player has gained a free 2 perk points to be spent with next perk reset (one time).

(9) Passenger steals from captain's cabin and his chest when not being watched. This means, player will be informed, a few minutes after landing the passenger, that his doubloons or combat medals have been reduced, up to half the chest's content of that sort.

--

For players this can be done just with text windows and a drawn scene matching the scenario, with choice buttons when a decision has to be done. Important is, you don't know what story will be generated behind missions in port when you chose them. Their character, and the depending events/decisions are only revealed as early as when you arrive at destination.

 

Edited March 9, 2019 by Cetric de Cornusiac

[LeBoiteux]

Just now, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

 I notice aggressive NPC has been cancelled as planned feature for the future

Really ?

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

Two more: a letter and a passenger which opens up to you knowledge about one of those random 'wandering' rare wood forests...

[van Veen]

+1 

Some very good ideas. Would be fantastic to have more random events overall to spice up the game. 

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

On 3/9/2019 at 9:41 PM, LeBoiteux said:

Really ?

On 11/29/2018 at 10:11 AM, admin said:

Additional PVE combat improvements

• AI improvements for NPCs 
• Elite NPCs
• Bot routes in the open world will improve
• NPC chasing abilities improvements + NPC aggression in the open world (when AI is confident it can catch and the target and give it some action). Captains will have to plan the movement around clusters of enemy ships (players or non players).
• National NPCs will also try to support weaker side in uneven battles if they are around. 

 

See what has been crossed out.

[LeBoiteux]

16 minutes ago, Cetric de Cornusiac said:

See what has been crossed out.

Oh f... ! 😞

C'est nul.

However thx for the info.