Pirate Bounties, The Jolly Rodger & Reputation.

[Brass Monkey]

Why do Pirates fly the "Jolly Rodger"? The answer is simple, to inspire fear and make capturing a prize more easy. Pirate players don't have a lot of access to the same services that other factions do so the ability to cause fear is really their "Ace in the hole".

 

So a pliable game mechanic to help and separate pirate players from the rest should be the accusation of Different levels of "Fearsome reputation" that equal a very real bonus when boarding. 

The Ranks could be anything; for example.

 

"Laughable"

"Unheard off."

"Fearsome"

"Terrifying"

"Tyrant of the sea"

"The Devil Himself"

 

Each level could be allotted it's own flag and boarding bonus. In PvP the players would recognise the different flags and feel different levels of anxiety, or amusement, accordingly.

How much bonus Is given in boarding and how it is expressed I leave for the developers and discussion as this is such a powerful tactic already and any changes should be implemented wisely. That being said a fearful reputation is something every pirate should feel is well worth acquiring.

 

So on to bounties, Players should be able to place there own gold as bounties on pirates, The bounties are cumulative, so multiple players can add to the bounty total. If a pirate player is captured via boarding (or sunk- I'll leave that up to discussion) the pirate is "captured and hung". Their reputation is reset to the lowest level and the player or players involved collect the bounty. Needles to say putting a bounty on a low rep pirate is not going to be much of a payback if you suffer at his hands but it may add up to something in the future as he racks up more victims. On the other hand, as a pirate player, having a very fearsome rep will be a useful thing and a source of pride but you are more likely to acquire a price on your head from your irate victims and the bounty hunters to go with it.

 

Problems with this may be pirate players, once they have a decent price on their head, getting together with their friends to arrange a staged fight and collect the gold. To counter this I suggest gaining reputation as really hard work taking a lot of time and effort. This will also balance out that boarding is already a powerful tactic and any bonuses gained outside normal upgrades should be hard won. This way hanging onto his rep will always be worth more than the money to the pirate as it is his bread and butter.

 

Yarrrrr! What be ye thinkin on this?

[Subutai]

I like where you're going but I think the boarding bonus should be restricted to mainly merchant vessels and/or neutral vessels. Very high reputation levels should have a chance to make merchantmen surrender without a fight, but the last thing a pirate wants to see is a warship from a national navy. A warship's "boarding bonus" is its contingent of marines, professional soldiers who would likely make short work of even the most notorious pirate crews in a boarding action. If anything the pirates would be afraid in that situation, then and now.

[Pagan Pete]

I am Pagan Pete, and I approve this suggestion

 

Come at me!!! If ye think yer good enough...

[Brass Monkey]

Yes A good idea would be the pirate receives the bonus only if he is the attacking party in a boarding action sure.

Probably an accurate representation of the effects of pirate reputation should be an adjustment made to the moral of the crew being boarded for the first round of combat. The adjustment would only be small and probably insignificant until the pirate player has levelled up in reputation. This I think would make boarding actions against lightly crewed merchants over faster and give the pirates a good but not certain chance against bigger ships than theirs with more crew, but until they gain the top levels of reputation against a fully crewed man of war with marines it would not really affect the outcome.

Remember if a pirate is getting too big for his boots in an area using his reputation as an advantage you can place a bounty on his head or get some friends together to go hunt him down and strip him of it.

[jezdk]

i dont think pirats shout be able to get the bounties, and they shout not be able to clear a bountie on another pirat  

[Booyaah]

Only players who have been sunk by a player pirate should be allowed to place a bounty on a pirate.

 

A bounty hunter should have to get a letter of marque from one of those players who posted the bounty.  So you would post a kill contract at any port, and players can choose to take up those missions.  I think the player placing the bounty contract should only be allowed to give out maybe 3 letters of marque at max and get the choice to let anyone attempt the contract or have to manually accept a request if he wants to only allow certain preferred players to take up the contract.  i.e.  Player bountyhunter123 is requesting your permission to take up the bounty collection on player imapirate456.  Do you accept?'  

 

I dunno, something tells me pirates are going to have to wait the longest for their gameplay mechanics.

[Flavalicious]

I like this suggestion, and imo its a great way of encouraging pirates to stick to lower tier ships as a CHOICE not by game limitations.  A infamous pirate will likely stick to a fast frigate/ronomee style ship if hes got a large bounty and folks are hunting him, instead of a huge and easy to gang up on Victory class ship. 

[Brass Monkey]

Any traction on this?

[droptuned]

Reputation could work for everyone, at any time. I brought this up in the progression thread- if done right, reputation could be what players rank up for.

 

http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/7577-feedback-on-the-current-progession-system-patch-8/?p=143702

[Naughty Nancy O'Malley]

How about "drunk bastard"

 

[Loukhaashj]

Yes A good idea would be the pirate receives the bonus only if he is the attacking party in a boarding action sure.

Probably an accurate representation of the effects of pirate reputation should be an adjustment made to the moral of the crew being boarded for the first round of combat. The adjustment would only be small and probably insignificant until the pirate player has levelled up in reputation. This I think would make boarding actions against lightly crewed merchants over faster and give the pirates a good but not certain chance against bigger ships than theirs with more crew, but until they gain the top levels of reputation against a fully crewed man of war with marines it would not really affect the outcome.

Remember if a pirate is getting too big for his boots in an area using his reputation as an advantage you can place a bounty on his head or get some friends together to go hunt him down and strip him of it.

I think as the game should be realistic as possible... that this isnt so bad, merchant crew did surrender in the old days so quick when boaded, donT forget that they wanted to keep their lives more than their goods

[Hugh Latham]

Pretty rare that a pirate would willingly engage a ship of war, especially one of a higher rating. Pirates were generally risk averse, preferring soft targets with loot worth fighting for. I think it is a problem that pirates in this game can sail anything larger than Frigate.

Edited November 19, 2015 by Hugo Leopard