Idea New player ships

[Kerry O'Malley]

While talking with the folks in one of my other threads I was inspired to ask about some things in the game.

I was thinking about trying a concept from IRL called "prize ships".

Normally used by official navies and privateer fleets, prize ships were captured enemy ships, used by the capturing force or sent back to their home ports under minimal crew, just enough to sail the ship. These included ships of all kinds from galleons loaded with treasure and on their way back home, to ships of the line and bigger!

I was thinking we could use this in the games. Any Navy or EITC ships we capture using grappling hooks, become ours for use. We still get the treasure, but we also get the ship we just captured as a prize ship.

Of course this goes for any ship, and would require the Crew to modify grapplers so that they can be used to board and capture all ships, not just flagships.
This can be insanely fun if a ship has a large crew.

It could also lead to some insane things like a crew of players capturing and then using the HMS Victory against its' escorts (which would be plenty embarrassing for the Royal Navy) or capturing an EITC Elite and then using it to sink the ship it's escorting.

 

[Eric Sailcutter]

I have mixed feelings about this:

1. I like the idea of boarding and taking control of a ship.
2. I'm against letting players keep such a ship indefinitely and think it should only be until it is either sunk or ported.
3. I'm against letting players have any of the larger npc type ships, Hunters, SOTL, Fleet ships, and the QAR.
4. I think that it makes most sense to try it with existing flag ships first as they already have the basic capturing mechanics in place.
5. I think it should stay as a Flag Ship only option, no modifying regular npc ships and the like to make it work.
6. If it seems workable and worth expanding then I'd consider adding more Flag Ships, maybe unique never seen before types such as treasure ships and pirate ships like the QAR, but not as powerful as the QAR.

 

[Kerry O'Malley]

Well, it's based on the historical idea.

So maybe have it be until it's sunk. Keeping it until you dock, when it's already full to the gunwales with treasure, is a bit wasteful.

I can definitely see it being used as a flag only option at first, but I still say it should eventually be allowed with the flagships of the Treasure Fleets as that's what it would have been used on historically.

 

[Eric Sailcutter]

Well, it's based on the historical idea.

So maybe have it be until it's sunk. Keeping it until you dock, when it's already full to the gunwales with treasure, is a bit wasteful.

I can definitely see it being used as a flag only option at first, but I still say it should eventually be allowed with the flagships of the Treasure Fleets as that's what it would have been used on historically.

You're certainly correct about the historic taking of treasure ships but I feel the Fleet ships are just too powerful to put in the hands of players. Of course I've not seen it in action so I could be wrong and the broadsides and deck cannons could potentially be adjusted to keep some balance in the game if I'm right, so, something to consider. To my knowledge, I did play on the test server a little but never with a SOTL, when the SOTL was accidentally released on the Disney Test server it turned out to not be ready for game play and I feel it is really inappropriate for game play in the first place, I will never accept its release into the game as it is/was, more hard work for the developers to make it work. Another thing about the Fleet ships, as powerful as they are, is that their performance in tlopo is far below that of potco and I wonder if the developers have recognized that and have any plans to put it right??? I definitely like the concept of taking a ship and then being able to sail it.

 

[Misha]

Another thing about the Fleet ships, as powerful as they are, is that their performance in tlopo is far below that of potco and I wonder if the developers have recognized that and have any plans to put it right???

Yes, it has been recognized as of the multiple addresses of this via this thread and others regarding Treasure Fleets, as well as from tests conducted within the team. While there is no real 'ETA' as to their adjustments to their original difficulty, know that we have acknowledged the matter and it will be viewed in time.

With that out of the way, I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoy this idea, and I think this could be a cool way of commandeering ships for additional gold/material profit to the crew that holds it. I do however feel like these ships should be very much limited in firepower as @Eric Sailcutter mentioned, and should be more of a trophy to port off to a shipwright for additional materials rather than being a temporary joyride of sorts.

Great idea, and I think it holds quite some merit due to the sheer multitude of ways that it could me implemented.

 

[Kerry O'Malley]

Yes, it has been recognized as of the multiple addresses of this via this thread and others regarding Treasure Fleets, as well as from tests conducted within the team. While there is no real 'ETA' as to their adjustments to their original difficulty, know that we have acknowledged the matter and it will be viewed in time.

With that out of the way, I would like to say that I thoroughly enjoy this idea, and I think this could be a cool way of commandeering ships for additional gold/material profit to the crew that holds it. I do however feel like these ships should be very much limited in firepower as @Eric Sailcutter mentioned, and should be more of a trophy to port off to a shipwright for additional materials rather than being a temporary joyride of sorts.

Great idea, and I think it holds quite some merit due to the sheer multitude of ways that it could me implemented.

Great, and thanks for taking it into consideration.

 

[Kerry O'Malley]

Just gonna bump this up as well as I think this should have more people looking at it.