League's Suggestions, #1: The Revised Sails

[League]

(This is currently one out of four of League's suggestions: check them out, and check out his hope-to-be-soon-to-be Guild.)

I have new ideas (partly original, partly stolen) for the sails and their function in the game. There should be three functions for the sails that I'll cover first: First, the sails should be something new, unique and enjoyable to the game. Second, the sails should allow for a new element to the games that are not fully situated on land: rightly so, as this is a pirate game. Lastly, there has to be a reason to plunder aside from it being enjoyable, and aside from it being piratey. Hence, the third reson is simply as an effective, yet not too rewarding or too unrewarding, way to get money.

The first two are already covered, as sailing is already a truely unique element to the game, and a staple of pirating. The third function that should be present, like stated, is an effective way to make money. How exactly do you do that?

First off, I think every ship should be a flag ship. Only ships boarded and looted would yield treasure. After reaching a certain point in damage, a ship should be unable to fire or maneuver. From there you get two options as a captain, both of which get displayed: do you want to board and loot (or attempt to do so), or do you want to sink the ship? This would be effective as you could choose whatever type of cargo you want to fill your cargo slots. You could also sink a ship without filling up your slots. If a new implement was implemented, in making so that tougher ships always provided higher kinds of cargo, you could always make stronger runs.

In addition, that would only carry over to what the crew as a whole gets. What use does a stowaway do that just takes up a spot? Only the stowaway benefits, as he gets free coins. Should the option lie to boot him off? I don't think so. I think that the crew's (the onboard crew, that is) total value should be increased per ship sunk for each person on board: this makes sense, as the more people you have, the more you can carry back onto your ship. Now what of the crew's total value? The crew's total value should be split amongst the crew, after two primary reductions: the captain of the ship should get an automatic 10%, and the captain of the crew, if he is onboard, should also get 10%. If they happen to be the same person, that person gets 20%. That leaves a further 80% to be split among the crew: the crew captain and the ship captain can get in on this 80% as well. This 80% should be split proportionately, according to what damage a crew member did to looted ships. Thus, a stowaway wouldn't actually hurt a crew or help himself, unless he/she participated in destroying ships that the captain actually decided to loot.

I think the entire ship interface needs to be changed.

NOTE: Everything contained in this thread IS NOT what is in the game now, but rather a proposal for POTCO to consider.



Ships speed ratings:

Light Sloop: 200 speed points.
Light Galleon: 100 speed points.
Light Frigate: 150 speed points.

Mid Size Sloop: 350 speed points.
Mid Size Galleon: 200 speed points.
Mid Size Frigate: 275 speed points.

War Sloop: 500 speed points.
War Galleon: 400 speed points.
War Frigate: 450 speed points.


Here are the maneuverable ratings for each ship:

Light Sloop: 100 maneuver points.
Light Galleon: 60 maneuver points.
Light Frigate: 50 maneuver points.

Mid Size Sloop: 125 maneuver points.
Mid Size Galleon: 75 maneuver points.
Mid Size Frigate: 60 maneuver points.

War Sloop: 200 maneuver points.
War Galleon: 150 maneuver points.
War Frigate: 145 maneuver points.


Here are the hit point ratings for each ship.

Light Sloop: 10 hit points.
Light Galleon: 25 hit points.
Light Frigate: 20 hit points.

Mid Size Sloop: 50 hit points.
Mid Size Galleon: 80 hit points.
Mid Size Frigate: 80 hit points.

War Sloop: 80 hit points.
War Galleon: 120 hit points.
War Frigate: 140 hit points.


Sails have the same amount of hit points as the hulls. If a ship has 4 sails (mast poles), the amount of hit points is divided among the sails.


Cannonball hit rates:

Round Shot:

Basic single-dot does 1 hit point of damage. Every 2 skill points added do an added 1 hit point of damage.

Chain Shot: Only effective against sails.

Does same amount of damage as round shot. Each skill point added does an extra hit point of damage.

Grape Shot: Same as what it is currently, only effective against crew or the Kraken.

Firebrand:

Does same amount of damage as round shot. Has same skill point : damage ratio as chain shot. Sets a ship on fire for 20 seconds, unless it sinks. Does 1 hit point of damage for every 10 seconds a ship is on fire.

Lightning Bolt:

Does 3 hit points of damage. Every added skill point adds 1 hit point of damage to the total damage hit points.

Explosive:

Automatically sinks a ship, no matter where on the ship it hits, and no matter how many hit points of damage a ship's hull has. If the explosive hits the sails, it automatically knocks down ALL sails of that ship.

Fury:

Does 2 hit points of damage. Every skill point added does 1 extra hit point of damage.


Ships:

Basic Access members should be able to purchase any light class ship.

Light Sloop: 100 gold. Light Galleon: 200 gold. Light Frigate: 300 gold.

Unlimited Access members:

Sailing Level 5 = Access to Mid Size ships. Sloop: 1,000 gold. Galleon: 2,000 gold. Frigate: 3,000 gold.

Sailing Level 10 = War ships. War Sloop: 10,000 gold. War Galleon: 20,000 gold. War Frigate: 30,000 gold.

Sailing Level 15 = Customizable ships. Customizable ships I will not go into, the POTCO staff can figure that out.

Sailing Level 20 = All ships 10% off price.

Sailing Level 25 = All ships 25% off price.




Hope you guys like this, and most of all, I hope the POTCO staff like it!

I'll address some of this stuff later, as this counts as the 'stolen' part.