Pirates

[glitterdown]

As cool as the idea of pirates are, they're annoying because you're helpless against them. If they can dock instantly, rush into town, hack everyone up, and undock, what can anyone do to stop them? Especially when they drag an ally onto their boat and kill him seconds from shore while you sit there and fume about it, helpless!

At least when there were terrorists who operated out of locked buildings, crowbars were introduced, so you're no longer completely at their mercy.

I think it would be great if peraps it took an hour (or two) to dock/undock. or else if your boat was in a position offshore where it could dock instantaneously, missile-weapon fire could be exchanged between land and the boat, since it would at least give harbor-towns a way to fight back, and might decrease the wanton piracy that's currently occuring.

Or else, boats needed help docking, such that someone on shore would have to aid a Pirate to land each time he wanted to come ashore (not very realistic for small craft i know, but it's impossible to dock medium and large ships IRL without assistance).

[Sparkle]

Or else, boats needed help docking, such that someone on shore would have to aid a Pirate to land each time he wanted to come ashore (not very realistic for small craft i know, but it's impossible to dock medium and large ships IRL without assistance).

I agree with this. I was in the Navy and I know it is impossibe to dock certain sized boats without help.

[Pirate Lass]

There is some counter.....but you have to have a ship of your own.

[Lone Wolf]

Not to mention, you can undock instantly (Which I'd like to see changed) But it takes time to dock. You can see a boat getting closer to land.

I think there should be objects that we can build in the water to prevent boats from docking straight onto the land, This way they would have to use the harbour. Plus a way to lock a harbour up, so you can't undock from inside unless it's unlocked. It would help, but you'd have to work to build these things.

[Anthony Roberts]

Not to mention, you can undock instantly (Which I'd like to see changed) But it takes time to dock. You can see a boat getting closer to land.

I think there should be objects that we can build in the water to prevent boats from docking straight onto the land, This way they would have to use the harbour. Plus a way to lock a harbour up, so you can't undock from inside unless it's unlocked. It would help, but you'd have to work to build these things.

I doubt this will ever happen. The boats are hard coded to land on specific places only. I don't know if it would be possible to have another object alter a boats code so that it can't dock there. That would need some constructive thinking on Programming's behalf.

[Lone Wolf]

Well it was an idea, and perhaps one day they will find a way to do it. It would be nice though

[Pirog]

Making it easier to pursue other ships and board them would be welcome...but then again, attacks from the sea where very hard to stop IRL too.

The vikings for example looted villages in Britain and other places and were very seldom caught.

It's really the battle system that makes it so hard to catch them...if battles are turned in to a project and people can defend themselves more easily pirates will become less effective.

[Tyrrano]

I agree fully with the combat project. Stab attacks (fast attacks) should do much less damage or have much less chance of connecting or piercing shields. Normal, full attacks should be a one hour project in which a person is open to attacks from all other citizens of a town. This would effectively kill piracy for the pirates would have to engage their prey with swift, reckless attacks and realize that they are just not going to do much damage. The vikings and other pirates relied on speed and intimidation more than on actuall killings. Pirates usually softened a town up from sea with cannons, then closed for a proper raid, they would kill only the resistance, those that fled survived, as did many that hid. Harbor towns were just vulnerable with out cannon emplacements, which is another thing I'd like to suggest. Allow for harbor towns to see nearby ships and build cannons to repel them...

[The Industriallist]

Vikings didn't use cannons. They used axes, mostly. They also earned all the fear and intimidation benefits they recieved by using extreme force on anyone who opposed them.

There are improvements to the combat system that wouldn't be atrocities, and would weaken the 'kill them all, and sort out the booty' style of piracy prevalent today. After all, it isn't realy reasonable for the amount of damage an attacker can do to be a linear function of the umber of defenders/targets. Not with cantr-tech weapons anyway.

Any kind of coast defense weapon doesn't really have a place in cantr without much more boat-related technology, such as some way of communicating between ship and shore. Cannons don't have any place at all. Gunpowder without major advances in the game capabilities for destruction just doesn't work...and with them I bet you'd like it even less. "Pirates come in and collapse all our buildings with bombs..."

[Agar]

I just love how the vikings are lumped together with pirates and anyone else that comes from the water and attacks the land. Slipping in and out of history hundreds of years at a time really makes your point convincing. Especally your make going through a door take an hour thing, that's great. Let make the slow paced game even slower. Meals in real life don't just flash by one instance a day either. How about your character has to take an hour to eat. And eat three meals a day too. And cooking isn't gonna be instantaneous either. It should take you at least an hour to cook. So, you've go 2 hours to gather food for your three meals. Enjoy that.

Just for anyone who doesn't get it, the above is poisonous sarcasam.

[Solfius]

Antony: constructive thinking on Programming's behalf

=> If [docking prevention thing] = true
error: You cannot dock
Else
begin to dock

[Pirog]

Regarding the vikings the probably biggest factor for their success was that the government didn't have enough guards to keep them posted in every little town around the country.
That is where "piracy" differs from the Cantrian one. In Cantr you have a benifit by attacking larger towns, since you get more targets to kill and more buildings to run in and out of to steal things...while IRL they would target smaller towns where they would meet little resistance and would probably have quite some time to loot the place and make their escape before the guards had gotten notice and arrived.

I liked the idea about it taking an "hour" to undock with a ship. It is still a very small amount of time for the defenders to get organized, but it would make it dangerous for a single pirate to step ashore in a larger and well protected town.

[ephiroll]

Boats need to be able to dock more easily with other boats, ie faster with slower, and projectile weapons (bows) need to be able to be used for ranged combat. Like I said before, any other solution will destroy the playablility of the game.

[Ahoyhoy]

Something really needs to be done to fix these pirate attacks and I think making a boat undock after 1 turn is the way to do it. You can say oh that kills the game because it makes it less real but come on in real life if a person's getting attacked they're not just going to be asleep and let themselves get attacked. Especially if they have the weapons to fight back against the pirates.

[T-shirt]

Yeah!

Undocking should be a project that takes time. Maybe longer for larger ships and shorter for smaller, but it should really be changed into a project where a sailor will not have left until the undocking is finished.