Planned Feature Hire escort with merchant playstyle

[Levis]

If you got the merchant papers I think you should be able to hire an escort for a set time.
This could be hired by the gouvernor or the EITC office (or both maybe with different effects? and maybe you could even ask the pirates?).
These escorts would be heavy warships filled to the brim with stuff to protect you. This way you could really play as a merchant because you don't need to wory about protection.

We have code in place already for a escort from a merchant so I think it shouldn't be that hard to change that code a bit to make it a warship instead.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Indeed doesn't sound impossible and I certainly have no objections to the idea.

Big question would be if anyone would make use of such a feature.
I think @Hylie Pistof might be the most likely to, so I'd be interested to hear what he thinks.

 

[Levis]

I would know I would use it depending on how much it costs.
Often I start playing as a merchant to gain fortune and crew before I go start smuggling and become a pirate.

It would only work if the seas are dangerous enough. But my idea is that when you are playing as a merchant you will have a larger chance of encountering pirates on sea which sounds logical right .

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It would only work if the seas are dangerous enough. But my idea is that when you are playing as a merchant you will have a larger chance of encountering pirates on sea which sounds logical right .

I don't think you need to edit the encounter chances for that, because what is at sea is a given and shouldn't be player-related.
However, pirate ships should be more inclined to give chase to merchant ships than to non-merchant ones, so that is an AI thing.
I think something like that is already in place.

 

[Hylie Pistof]

Would I hire a ship to protect me? I used to start with a small fast ship that sailed into the wind well to avoid pirates until I saved up enough money to buy a ship with 9 pound guns.

The light fluyt and light pinnace with their 6 pounders are useless against pirates who just sit out of range and pound them to toothpicks. Hiring an escort sounds good in that scenario but methinks I would just save me money and buy a better ship.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Hiring an escort should probably be substantially cheaper than buying one of your own; otherwise it wouldn't be worthwhile.

 

[Grey Roger]

How much are you paid for being an escort? That's probably the sort of price you should pay for hiring an escort. It should indeed be less than the price of a new ship.

If you hire an escort, can it then double-cross you the same way you can double-cross a client if you're the escort? Especially if you're silly enough to hire the escort from Tortuga or Nevis Pirate Settlement.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

How much are you paid for being an escort? That's probably the sort of price you should pay for hiring an escort. It should indeed be less than the price of a new ship.

That might become tricky because the price is based on the distance of the journey.
But the player is free to go wherever. So should you tell your destination to the captain escorting you? That would become a long set of options!
Perhaps have it based on the duration of the contract instead?

There ARE already hireable quest characters to join your fleet. Perhaps some inspiration can be taken from them too?
Example is the "Pieter at Douwesen_dialog.c" file.

If you hire an escort, can it then double-cross you the same way you can double-cross a client if you're the escort? Especially if you're silly enough to hire the escort from Tortuga or Nevis Pirate Settlement.

Uhm... probably yes. Perhaps depending on the reputation of the captain?
But you can SEE that for all characters in your fleet, so you would know to be on your toes. But only after hiring.

I do wonder how much effort shoudl be spent on this feature. It would certainly be a nice one, but probably limited to the early game and perhaps merchants only.
In other words: This may not see very much use, which would be a shame if a lot of effort is spent on it and that goes to waste.