Pirates

[Nalaris]

The combat system needs to be faster. Locks and crobars shouldn't define combat, skill, equipment and numbers should. This would solve a huge portion of the pirate problem at the same time.

[swymir]

I think if you just made it so that if a boat is moving you can still dock to it that everything would be fine. As long as pirates keep moving they can never be caught, unless you are very skilled at timing your boat ahead of where they are going.

[Hellzon]

The combat system needs to be faster. Locks and crobars shouldn't define combat, skill, equipment and numbers should. This would solve a huge portion of the pirate problem at the same time.

Please elaborate. Allowing people to attack the same person more than once a day would go against the line on www.cantr.net saying "Cantr II is a slow-paced game."
On the other hand, piracy IS disproportionally easy. I approve of the suggestions that ships should take time to undock. Or in some other way not be able to dock, attack and disappear within RL minutes.
Perhaps if you could wade out to any ship within a certain distance from town? (Yeah, yeah, not the brightest of suggestions.)

/Hellzon - coast guard

[Marian]

Dinghy's aren't that hard to build...

[Chris Johnson]

ProgD have been thinking about docking and the way it's handled for quite a while.

The undocking taking time suggestion does have it's merits and would fix other issues we've been discussing internally , but it also creates problems as well , It will probably halt the ability for ships to give chase and board fleeing ships. - Well they will be able to give chase but as most ships can only board faster vessels , the pursued will be out of range whilst the pursuer is undocking .

The whole area of docking is one where what seems like a simple and reasonable solution has a lot of other game play implications - not always positive ...

[Nalaris]

Cantr II could be a slowpaced game if one of your stats dictated how many times you could hit. Constitution or something. I, having been asked, will elaborate.

Constitution, which I believe is a stat, and if it's not, it should be, affects how fast you lose tiredness, correct?

Let hitting something with X weapon tire someone out. Make them get really tired really fast, so that someone can hit you maybe four or five times at maximum constituion/dueling/whatever. Boom. Faster paced combat. That, coupled with the undocking thing, would make a huge difference. If a pirate can be killed by one person vastly better equipped (as most people:pirate equipment ratios are, I'd imagine) the problem would be that much closer to solved. Plus, it means an attacker has to choose between focusing on one target or hitting them all. Further, it makes you tired and makes it difficult to perform projects, i.e. undock. Better keep a few crewmen on board if you intend to undock within an hour, eh?

Or, better yet, counterattacks. Anyone with skilled or higher rank in fighting automatically retaliates against an attacker using their most powerful available weapon. It doesn't do as much damage as a normal attack, but can severely wound someone if the equipment ratio is right. If pirates swarm into a city, and each one hits everyone in town, boom: several dead pirates, all the others fleeing to their ship and trying to undock as fast as they possibly can.

What, did you expect me to try and make Cantr into a MUD?

[Sho]

I've never heard of any such thing as constitution. But we do have tiredness, which does limit a character to maybe 5 effective attacks per day without resting equipment.

Making it possible for a character to instantly kill another is a dangerous thing, even if it can only happen under a major equipment imbalance. I feel that it would give alert players even more of an advantage, which is definitely not anyone's goal here..

Newspawn boat thieves excepted, pirates are generally just as well equipped as their victims, if not more so. The difference is generally one of numbers (with some well-known exceptions, pirates usually work alone or in small groups) and of alertness.

I'm not sure about counterattacks. They could definitely add some balance, but they could have some unintended consequences, as I believe has been pointed out elsewhere - there are definitely situations where you wouldn't want to hit back.

[Ahoyhoy]

This talk is just a tangeant to the real problem presented here and that is the unfairness of pirate attacks. A vehicle pirate attack is one thing, but a boat with pirates in it is damn near impossible to attack. Perhaps cannons with sea walls need to be introduced to sink boats and prevent them from docking unless it's to a coaster harbor?

[Mafia Salad]

ProgD have been thinking about docking and the way it's handled for quite a while.

The undocking taking time suggestion does have it's merits and would fix other issues we've been discussing internally , but it also creates problems as well , It will probably halt the ability for ships to give chase and board fleeing ships. - Well they will be able to give chase but as most ships can only board faster vessels , the pursued will be out of range whilst the pursuer is undocking .

The whole area of docking is one where what seems like a simple and reasonable solution has a lot of other game play implications - not always positive ...

This may be a little far fetched and I don't know if it would be programmable, but if you could create the situation where the when a boat undocks it goes through an undocking phase where it is still talkable/attackable from town, (say 1-2 Cantr hours) but the undocking doesn't effect it's ability to dock to another ship or change course. I think it would fit into Cantr considering the distances you can attack on a path compared to how long it would take you to walk until your next to that person. And it make piracy not so easy but still a possible career choice.

Just throwing out an idea.

[Octavio]

Just an idea...
How about a really fast personnal water vehicle? Something like a jet sky. This vehicle would transport a single person, would have a very low weight capacity, would move faster than any water vehicle currently availlable and could dock to almost every kind of boat.

The point is you could make a quick chase to any boat if you have some of these in town. And they wouldn't be much usefull for other purposes like piracy or trade because of their low capacity. Maybe used as personnal fast transport, but only for people who always travel light weighted.

This is not really a suggestion, it's only an idea!

[Sho]

It sounds like the ultimate fast raider boat for large pirate ships to carry around.

[Amlin]

I like idea about retaliating.
My suggestion is maybe subject for another thread, but anyway:
My idea: make some sort of activity "stay on alert" or "revenge mood"
So that person sitting in jail or going guard duty in city can spend their time on this project and if they are hitted by someone while "on guard" they immediately hit back best weapon full force. For sure one hit per day restriction still applies. I.e.: 1) i hit someone 2) go to guard mode 3) i got hit by that person earlier like 24 RL hours then i dont hit him back.
This may solve a lot of problems... Like punching to death in locked buildings, guarding from pirates, etc. And if such standing on guard will be implemented then a whole new occupation will rebirth: town guards
This idea must be discussed and thinked about, but this is briliand idea, isnt?

Amlin

[Seeker]

Well, I like this guard mode but I think it should use up the "Tiredness" and "hunger" bar faster then usual, otherwise every single person would be on guard all the time. It also gives guards a almost realistic job, they could take shifts. For around two days one shift stands guard in the city and then they swap over with the next shift while they get some rest.

[Peanut]

Why not make it so that when a boat docks it has to wait two game hours before it can undock again?

Ie turning the ship the other way.

[Seeker]

Why not make it so that when a boat docks it has to wait two game hours before it can undock again?

Ie turning the ship the other way.

I'm not too sure about these time limits, if this is in place there would be no pirates at all and that would just make the game too easy. You need to have outlaws in this game, I'd go with maybe disadvantaging them but I wouldn't like to get rid of them completely.