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Reputation & Privateering

v_Grimmelshausen

Landlubber
I don´t know whether this topic has been adressed by build 12 or is judged to be worth adressing at all by you, but personally I´ve got a big problem with the reputation system as it currently is.

The main thing is, if you´ve got a letter of marque of one country being at war with another, and you attack the enemies´ ships, you lose reputation with ALL nations. Now this doesn´t make much sense to me, because that´s why I want to buy a letter of marque in the first place, to have my actions sanctioned as an official act of war. It is all right that the attacked nation´s attitude towards me declines, I´d expect nothing else, and even that their merchants won´t deal with me, but not the merchants of nations whose goals I support (sinking their enemies´ ships).
If I attack ships neutral or allied to the nations from which I have a letter of marque, that´s different, of course, because that´s piracy <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />

The build readme says hoisting the Jolly Roger prevents the loss of reputation, but it doesn´t, at least not in build 11 (or rather, with me, maybe I do something wrong).

I´d just like to read your opinion on this.
 
I don't find that... my relation only lowers with whomever I attack. But maybe you've got the error we all encountered in B11, a basically random and severe plummet of your general reputation, with we suspected related to the moneylender but this was never proven nor corrected.

If you get B12, it's not a problem I've yet encountered there. Plus you can actually increase your reputation now by rescuing survivors floating around a wrecked ship.
 
<!--QuoteBegin-alan_smithee+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(alan_smithee)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->I don't find that... my relation only lowers with whomever I attack.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

And so it should. But I have more than once experienced a fall in <u>reputation</u> when I hoisted the Jolly Roger, and the Spanish or French weren´t quite that hostile to me that they´d be enemies at once (the ships were gray, not red).
 
I think tweaking the reputation system has been a `work-in`-progress ongoing project. There are just too many to be able to track down all of the bugs... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/urgh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":urgh" border="0" alt="urgh.gif" />
 
Funny thing, I even attacked pirates, who were neutral to me, attacking the Douwesen fort, and my reputation FELL. And I do have a dutch Letter of Marque <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/oops3.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eek:ops2" border="0" alt="oops3.gif" />

OK, I´ll admit it, I didn´t attack them just because they were attacking my employers, they also had a nice corvette as well. AND they were already weakened...
 
I think the loanshark is the main culprit. I wound up in dire straights a while ago and had to borrow heavily... and I lost 20 rep points continually after a month had passed. I stayed a horror of the high seas for the first several hours of my game.

And then things get weird fighting in `first-person` mode sometimes... guards attacking you when you're not after them, or when you accidently knick one while fighting someone else. OR the entire town attacks you if all you've done is "slit someone's froat " for stealing your purse.

I may just counterbalance it with some easier ways to raise your rep. The churches don't do it for me; I gave this one parson billions of pirate dollars and got nothing for it. It literally tried to raise my rep by "0 x 2."
 
There is something wrong with paying the church that much money and not getting a rep boost. I gave up on that a while ago, seems to me that it was changed in B11, and after that it was impossible to get a rep boost from the church. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />

If you are in a harbor and fire upon an enemy ship, you have to be EXTREMELY CAREFUL not to hit the land with any stray balls, or your rep will take a STEEP DIVE. Also, stray balls can hit friendly ships in the area, which could be a problem. If you have a high accuracy and cannoneering skill, that should help, but I always try to avoid shooting at an enemy in any harbor... Third person aiming isn't all that accurate unless you have that skill... FIRST person is better, but keep your shots low and DO NOT aim unless you know stray balls will not hit anyone or any land. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/no.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":no" border="0" alt="no.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Has anyone ever gotten "fireship" or "landing party" abilities to work? I've only gotten them a few times but they never did anything.
 
Yes, landing party works - try it when you have a couple of ships and take on a fort - you select Landing Party and it will ask you for which ship - designate one, and that ship's men will also land with you - very handy! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />

<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" /> Never tried Fireship - but I have heard you can do it. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":yes" border="0" alt="yes.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Another thing that came to my mind: Does it only seem to me that the relations between the nations never change or is that a fact? If the latter, there´d be an opportunity for using the rumors: Talk to a person to get the rumors and he/she says that he heared that nation X is at war/allied to nation Y.
 
I haven't really been looking... but CCC is working on a mod to randomly make one nation invade another's fort and take over its island. That'd be bound to change things.

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I'd a thought about your skills so I may as well add it here. Why should your cannon loading time or aiming skill stay the same no matter who mans your ship? Seems to me (and this'd probably need a whole redo of the skill system so maybe it's a moot point) most of your abilities should depend on your crew -- you get a brand new crew and they take some time working their skills up; you keep a crew for a while (and here'd be a great incentive to try and keep a full crew happy and hold onto them) and they get better; or you pull in a few off a captured ship and there's a period of uncertainty, they take some getting used to things. Just a thought.
 
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