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Included in Build Merchant Gameplay

I'm going to add a WIC and EITC character who sell a merchant letter today or tomorrow.
That'll then suffice as a first version and at least allows us to finally get rid of the UNLIMITED_LOOT toggle which is my main intention.
More functionality can be added later, of course. At least we'll have some sort of system in place for each play style then.
 
Especially @Hylie Pistof: Have you tried the new "trading license" yet?
I'd welcome any comments you might have so we can get at least this part of the "merchant gameplay" right.

Any more advanced ideas, such as:
- A merchant office for EVERY nation (instead of only England and Holland)
- Officially joining the merchants and gaining ranks/rewards and/or getting missions

can wait until Build 15 as far as I'm concerned.
 
You're going to have to remember when your crew gets grumpy from all that money on board. :wp
 
Somethin which came to mind which shouldn't be that hard.
I saw there is a inside location for a warehouse already (there should be one in santiago). Would it be an idea to add a warehouse to each town(large enough) which allows you to store a cargo there untill you need it again. It might not serve that much use atm but it might look nice, and we could expand on it a bit more later. I was thinking about using that for "trading with europe" if you got EITC papers. You could leave a cargo there which would go aboard a ship and if you are lucky they will bring something back for you. or something like that.
 
I don't have any immediate objections, but I wouldn't consider it a high priority thing.
Build 15 idea perhaps?
 
The "Merchant Letters" have been in the game now for well over one month, maybe 2.
Does anyone have any comments yet at all? :rolleyes:
 
I don't know if I can post this here or not; If it doesn't, please move it where it is correct.

When you try to create a new game by default with the standard storyline, Nathaniel Hawk has predefined the "merchant" type. With merchant, you can't sunk or board other ships, otherwise, you lose your EITC passport. This is a problem, because as we all know, the story has some quests in where it has to sunk some ships (Like the Oiseau... although you can pay Amiel some money in order to do him the job though). I think that putting Merchant as predefined is not a good idea. If this thing can be changed easily, then I will do it; I just need to know where I can find the file in which I have to make the changes.
 
HellSailor said:
When you try to create a new game by default with the standard storyline, Nathaniel Hawk has predefined the "merchant" type. With merchant, you can't sunk or board other ships, otherwise, you lose your EITC passport. This is a problem, because as we all know, the story has some quests in where it has to sunk some ships (Like the Oiseau... although you can pay Amiel some money in order to do him the job though). I think that putting Merchant as predefined is not a good idea. If this thing can be changed easily, then I will do it; I just need to know where I can find the file in which I have to make the changes.
Click to expand...
Congratulations! You're the first person to comment on that change! :bow

You lose any "Merchant Letter" when you commit an act of piracy (text copied from the in-game Nations Relations explanation book):
An act of piracy may occur if you capture or sink any non-pirate ships. The following are considered as such by the civilized nations of the world and are listed in order of severity:
- You had no Letter of Marque or navy commission and therefore no legal reason for the attack
- You were flying a pirate flag
- You attacked a nation you were neutral or friendly with
- You were flying a flag friendly to the ship you attacked

Depending on the severity of your actions, you may be recognized as a traitor in non-pirate towns. For small acts of piracy, this may take a while. But for the larger acts of piracy, this can be immediate and cause nations to turn hostile to you.

It is always possible to hoist another flag in battle, which could mean the difference between your actions being considered legal or a major act of piracy. It serves to be careful especially when being recognized for flying a false flag.
Click to expand...
Other things playing a role here:
- You don't NEED that EITC Passport for the storyline. And if you lose it, you can buy a new one. Though that admittedly IS very expensive.
At some point during the storyline, you'll lose it anyway as part of the story.
- You already gave an example for NOT having to sink/capture the story ship
- As mentioned in the quote above, if you get a LoM from England, any further actions against France will not be an act of piracy and you'll keep your EITC Passport

Even if you don't have an EITC Passport, the actions that led you to lose it will still count as minor acts of piracy.
If you do that enough, eventually you'll become Friendly to the Pirates and may be recognized as a traitor in non-pirate towns.
So careful there! :wp

That is all related to my recent changes to Nations Relations, of course, and is based mainly on @Grey Roger's suggestions over the past few months.
I'm open for feedback on that though. And if certain aspects of this new functionality are a bit too complicated and restrictive, we can simplify this behaviour for Arcade Game Mode.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Other things playing a role here:
- You don't NEED that EITC Passport for the storyline. And if you lose it, you can buy a new one. Though that admittedly IS very expensive.
At some point during the storyline, you'll lose it anyway as part of the story.
- You already gave an example for NOT having to sink/capture the story ship
- As mentioned in the quote above, if you get a LoM from England, any further actions against France will not be an act of piracy and you'll keep your EITC Passport
Click to expand...
The black one, you say you can have both an EITC passport AND a LoM? I didn't know that was possible! :shock
Anyway, anything here is needed to test?
 
HellSailor said:
The black one, you say you can have both an EITC passport AND a LoM? I didn't know that was possible! :shock
Click to expand...
Absolutely! Nobody is stopping you from doing just that. ;)
It is actually intentional that you can join up the two as @Grey Roger mentioned that the actual EITC used to provide their captains with a LoM too.
So you can simulate that behaviour.

HellSailor said:
Anyway, anything here is needed to test?
Click to expand...
For now, the ONLY thing that the "Trade Passports" do is to prevent ship mutiny because you have too much money on board.
If you don't have one already, you can freely buy them at Aruba and Jamaica.
I'd welcome feedback on the following:

- Are you carrying a HUGE amount of money without the crew getting grumpy? That would confirm this works.
Though I'm pretty sure it does, confirmation is never a bad thing.

- Do the prices for these passports when you buy them seem about right?
They're really quite expensive: 1,000,000 for the Dutch one and 2,000,000 for the English one because that one also allows you the services of the Antigua Naval Base.

- Do you like the dialog that you get when you buy these items? I went a bit nuts with those.... :rolleyes:
 
I will look at them whenever I can. The only problem... is that I STILL didn't find the EITC offices on Jamaica! :modding Neither the one on Aruba too. I haven't bought one of those yet. xD :p
  1. I have now one EITC pasport on my current storyline, so I will check that.
  2. Prices... Hmm... Maybe the English one you could put better at 1,5 million gold... 2 million it's a bit too expensive IMO. Do you think that's reasonable?
  3. If something feels weird with those dialogues, I will inform you ;)
Where are those EITC offices on Aruba and Jamaica?
 
HellSailor said:
Prices... Hmm... Maybe the English one you could put better at 1,5 million gold... 2 million it's a bit too expensive IMO. Do you think that's reasonable?
Click to expand...
Easy enough. :cheeky

HellSailor said:
Where are those EITC offices on Aruba and Jamaica?
Click to expand...
Jamaica: When passing through the port gates into town, take the street on the right. The EITC Office is one of the first buildings you pass in that same section of town.
So this on the way to the section of town with the Church, but not actually IN that section.
If you ever played the Jack Sparrow storyline, it is in the same spot as it is there.

Curacao (sorry, it is NOT Aruba!): The big building right in front of you as you land in the port area is the West India Company office.
It is a BuildingSet model, so you can walk through it (SHH!! Don't tell anyone...! (o) ), but you can also reload through the door like normal.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Absolutely! Nobody is stopping you from doing just that. ;)
It is actually intentional that you can join up the two as @Grey Roger mentioned that the actual EITC used to provide their captains with a LoM too.
So you can simulate that behaviour.
Click to expand...
To be more precise, the East Indiaman ships got LoM's so they could legally take prizes. They practically were warships and sometimes behaved accordingly - the Royal Charlotte, Triton and Warley assisted the capture of Pondichery in 1793 by blockading it, then on the way back they found a French frigate with a number of prizes, attacked it, and recaptured some of the prize ships, which without a LoM would probably have been an act of piracy. If the Merchant career is ever expanded the same way Naval career is now, a higher ranking captain might be given a LoM by the EITC.

- Do the prices for these passports when you buy them seem about right?
They're really quite expensive: 1,000,000 for the Dutch one and 2,000,000 for the English one because that one also allows you the services of the Antigua Naval Base.
Click to expand...
I'm not sure that a merchant, even one in EITC, should be allowed to use a naval base. Anyway, that's a price difference of 1,000,000. A LoM costs a lot less than that and will get you service in Antigua. So I'd make them both 1,000,000 and lose the link between the EITC licence and Antigua.
 
Grey Roger said:
To be more precise, the East Indiaman ships got LoM's so they could legally take prizes. They practically were warships and sometimes behaved accordingly - the Royal Charlotte, Triton and Warley assisted the capture of Pondichery in 1793 by blockading it, then on the way back they found a French frigate with a number of prizes, attacked it, and recaptured some of the prize ships, which without a LoM would probably have been an act of piracy. If the Merchant career is ever expanded the same way Naval career is now, a higher ranking captain might be given a LoM by the EITC.
Click to expand...
I like that idea. :onya

Grey Roger said:
I'm not sure that a merchant, even one in EITC, should be allowed to use a naval base. Anyway, that's a price difference of 1,000,000. A LoM costs a lot less than that and will get you service in Antigua. So I'd make them both 1,000,000 and lose the link between the EITC licence and Antigua.
Click to expand...
There was an original "EITC Passport" item that has been in the game for a few years for the purpose of the Jack Sparrow storyline.
It specifically DOES grant you use of the Antigua Naval Base as long as you have it because that was needed for quest purposes.
I hyjacked that item so that it also prevents mutinies due to too much money and you can buy it now. But it is still the same item.

So for quest purposes, that functionality needs to be kept. If you reckon that doesn't make so much sense outside the quest, I'll just make the "EITC Passport" a quest-only item again.
And then the generic EITC Officer on Jamaica can sell the "WIC Passport" instead for the fixed price of 1,000,000 gold.
 
It's probably easiest just to leave the EITC licence as it is, then. Internal consistency is, to me at least, more important than historical accuracy. The game is never going to be all that historically accurate anyway but it's nice if the game agrees with itself. So if the EITC licence gets you into Antigua in "Hoist the Colours", it may as well do so everywhere else. It will, of course, not get you into Antigua in "Early Explorers". :D Historically the licences shouldn't exist in "Early Explorers" as none of the companies which could issue them existed at that time, but if they're the only way to avoid having to switch to dividing plunder then they'll have to be available in all possible games.
 
Grey Roger said:
It's probably easiest just to leave the EITC licence as it is, then. Internal consistency is, to me at least, more important than historical accuracy. The game is never going to be all that historically accurate anyway but it's nice if the game agrees with itself. So if the EITC licence gets you into Antigua in "Hoist the Colours", it may as well do so everywhere else.
Click to expand...
That's why my suggestion would be to have the EITC Office in Jamaica actually issue the same "WIC Passport" item that the Curacao office does. That'd be simple enough.

Grey Roger said:
So if the EITC licence gets you into Antigua in "Hoist the Colours", it may as well do so everywhere else. It will, of course, not get you into Antigua in "Early Explorers". :D Historically the licences shouldn't exist in "Early Explorers" as none of the companies which could issue them existed at that time, but if they're the only way to avoid having to switch to dividing plunder then they'll have to be available in all possible games.
Click to expand...
Indeed Antigua in Early Explorers is a case that isn't currently taken care of for the EITC Passport.
Making it a quest-only item would solve that though since then you CAN'T get the EITC Passport in Early Explorers as Hoist the Colours is set in Colonial Powers.

Then the only lapse of logic is that the EITC and WIC technically wouldn't exist in Early Explorers.
The WIC really WOULDN'T exist because Curacao is disabled. And the EITC Office would be in a Spanish town.
But surely the Spanish might have had some sort of trading post in the Caribbean that can sell paperwork? :cheeky
 
Is the document called "EITC Passport" or "WIC" Passport" in the game? If so, you'll need to change it. EITC aren't going to sell a passport for a rival company, and Early Explorers Spain isn't going to sell a document for a hostile nation's company which won't exist until the next century. xD

Possibly have a generic merchant licence which costs less, doesn't grant any special access, but does show you to be an honest merchant and prevents the crew from demanding division of plunder. Maybe have this sold by storekeepers or governors. It should be cheaper than a LoM and should be revoked if you get a LoM; you're no longer a peaceful merchant, you're a privateer, and the crew will want a share of the proceeds. The EITC office in "Early Explorers" can then either be disabled, locked, or have the owner say something like "We're closed at the moment, come back in 100 years". :D It would also means merchants from other nations could at least get some of the benefit of the licence without having to work for Britain or Holland.
 
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