An idea about ranks.

[Kharbydis]

I'm not a modder for this game, so I don't know if this would work at all or simply be too difficult, but here's the idea:

We now have military ranks for the navies of all the nations (not sure about pirate though). As our relations with a nation rise, we get a better naval rank and access to bigger ships (I think we get access to bigger ships, I haven't noticed any difference).
I was thinking ranks could come from two places, trading companies and navies. One could rise through the ranks of either but not both. A rise through the ranks of the navy would allow for better military ships, and higher pay for the "Ship Hunting" missions. A rise through the ranks of the trading companies would allow for better merchant or smuggling ships, and would give higher pay for smuggling or convoy escort missions.

So, for example I could choose to follow either the Dutch Navy, or the DWIC, the Royal Navy or the BEIC, and get their respective benefits.

Also concerning ranks: The USA ranks go from "Sarge" to "Corporate Leader"? Seriously?

 

[Black Bart]

sounds quite tricky to impliment, doubly so without any real coders working on things at the moment!!

Having said that, you never know, we might get some coders back and who knows what could be done then Having a real rank structure for military and trade(guilds?) would be quite cool.

 

[morgan terror]

merchants were usually not that organised by my knowledge. the only ones i can think of were some large corporations like the EIC, but most captains were private traders.

besides, from a gameplaying standpoint, you can currently access only half the ships at first, being the traders. implementing your idea with give the player access to none of the ships unless he would board them, or after a ton of work with either the merchants or military. besides that, making it impossible to join both really limits your options. most people prefer having both merchant and military ships for different purposes. i supose it adds to replay value, but it sounds like an obstruction to free play to me, which the prohibited purchase of navy ships already is to some extent.

additionally, there really needs to be some more serious benefits to joining a trading company. higher pay for trading and related missions sounds pretty weak compared to reputation bonuses, free ships, free officers, free rare swords and free land which gives you money day by day offered by the military. and how would your standing with the merchants be calculated?

 

[Kharbydis]

merchants were usually not that organised by my knowledge. the only ones i can think of were some large corporations like the EIC, but most captains were private traders.

besides, from a gameplaying standpoint, you can currently access only half the ships at first, being the traders. implementing your idea with give the player access to none of the ships unless he would board them, or after a ton of work with either the merchants or military. besides that, making it impossible to join both really limits your options. most people prefer having both merchant and military ships for different purposes. i supose it adds to replay value, but it sounds like an obstruction to free play to me, which the prohibited purchase of navy ships already is to some extent.

additionally, there really needs to be some more serious benefits to joining a trading company. higher pay for trading and related missions sounds pretty weak compared to reputation bonuses, free ships, free officers, free rare swords and free land which gives you money day by day offered by the military. and how would your standing with the merchants be calculated?

I understand the issues, and I see how captains in the game are really free traders. But then the military is much more privateerish. Despite naval ranks ship hunting is for the captains own benefit from taking the prize, and does not come from orders. I can see how it could become a dead end, as a player could go all the way up the ranks of a trade company, but be unable to get any decent fighting ships.

Does having a higher relations with a nation actually allow you to get larger ships? I have noticed no difference in what I can buy whether I am a midshipman or an admiral.

 

[morgan terror]

your idea is not strictly a bad one. but i think it needs a lot of thought before anyone could start working on it. one possible change i can think of is making trade runs and merchant escorts only available through such a merchant guild. though merchants may not have been offically organised, they did have social connections which allowed them to create some business. i wouldn't force the player to choose between military and merchant though, in any case. but i would imagine that your relation with the nation would make a rather big difference in wether or not they'd want to know you.

it should make a difference. it only counts for shipyards of the nation you belong to though, but if it's not working properly, that should be reported.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Why would a merchant want a naval vessel? They have huge crews and no cargo capacity. Bad deal.

I get LoM from all nations and only attack pirates so I get all of the reward ships and can go where the best prices are. A typical fleet of mine is two merchant ships and one escort ship. I typically get my ships by capturing them as the shipyards usually only have class 7 & 6 ships. A class 3 ship for sale is extremely rare.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Tricky indeed, but possible. NO idea who would get around to doing it though...

"Also concerning ranks: The USA ranks go from "Sarge" to "Corporate Leader"? Seriously?"
That's one of our coders joking around. :rtofl

If you have a higher rank with a nation, shipyards should be willing to sell you the bigger size vessels.
So you can't buy a class 1 ship from an English shipyard until you're an English admiral.