First, hi 
Age of Pirates 2 is a dern fine game but plagued by numerous problems so common to smaller developers, but ultimately rewarding to play because it's so very very different from anything you'll find from the major western developers and publishers. GoF mod puts new life into the game, and in great heaping spoonfulls at that. Thank you very, very much. My inner commander hasn't been this tickled since Pirates!.
That said, there is one thing I'd love to see implemented in a pirate game and this one is perfect for it. I'd like to be able to stock a ship with bare provisions, an officer, and enough crew to bring her into port without me having to sail all the way in myself. Since the squadron size is limited to five ships, catching a merchant convoy is a right pain in the bum. I can bag two or three then have to turn around and make port to unload them. Instead of spending months on the water, I'm lucky to spend more than a few days.
What I propose a 'dumb sell' system that will take a ship to the nearest port of the player's nationality and auto-sell it, possibly for a reduced value. I envision this in one of two ways:
1- Leverage the existing ship storage system in the GoF mod so that the vessel goes into storage to be handled at the player's convenience. While I lack enough knowledge of code to say this is 'easy' or not, I suspect it would be the easier of the two options.
2- Create or modify an existing character (say the money-lender) as a prize agent, who handles the brokerage of ships claimed by that player and increases their fame/reputation as necessary for and against nations as necessary. (i.e. sailing for the British you capture a Spanish galleon, send it to the nearest English port, and the code then handles + rep with the English and -rep for Spanish). This is surely the more complicated but ultimately more satisfying route, I think.
In my mind it works like this.
Player engages enemy, captures ship per boarding (or, hopefully one day, per it striking colors, but that's neither here nor there)
When the Ships screen comes up, crew transfer, cargo transfer, and 'swap ship' function normally.
In the 'Assign Officer' dialogue box, there is a small check that says something the the effect of 'Sail to Prize Agent'
If the box is unchecked capture continues as it does now (becomes part of the squad, etc)
If the box is checked, a captain is picked from your crew like normal, but after closing the officer box, a list box pops up that lists friendly ports in the area (including perhaps pirate towns, if you must humor such dishonorable sea-wretch
)
The player picks a town and that box closes, and the ship either a) automagically goes to the prize agent to be sold (probably easier) at a discounted rate (20% less than shipyard? perhaps depending on faction relations? or b)automatically goes into 'sail away' mode, choosing not to engage further ships, but winning or losing based on the current rule sets for such. The player can no longer influence the ship, and it is not part of their squadron. The ship can disapear and be resolved by the code (selling, faction) once the map view is accessed again
To the matter of the crew and officer, I'm thinking it'd be simplest to have them as a menu option at the Tavern, perhaps with a small gold fee associated with them. The crew component can work just like hiring a team now (you pick which ship to assign them back to) and the character who was captain can just pop into your character menu with a notification message.
This does reduce player profit, a tad, but I think it results in a more enjoyable experience not having to always stop and sell or waste countless thousands to the deep just because it's less hassle. It also makes provisions and morale much more important, as you can't just instantly pop in and pick up a thousand barrels of rum. The idea popped into my head as I was reading Master and Commander, with the talk of sending the ships on to Mahon to the prize agent. Thought it's a hundred years removed from the time of the game, it seemed just too perfect to not be in this fine mod.
Thanks for all the effort and dedication folks!
Age of Pirates 2 is a dern fine game but plagued by numerous problems so common to smaller developers, but ultimately rewarding to play because it's so very very different from anything you'll find from the major western developers and publishers. GoF mod puts new life into the game, and in great heaping spoonfulls at that. Thank you very, very much. My inner commander hasn't been this tickled since Pirates!.That said, there is one thing I'd love to see implemented in a pirate game and this one is perfect for it. I'd like to be able to stock a ship with bare provisions, an officer, and enough crew to bring her into port without me having to sail all the way in myself. Since the squadron size is limited to five ships, catching a merchant convoy is a right pain in the bum. I can bag two or three then have to turn around and make port to unload them. Instead of spending months on the water, I'm lucky to spend more than a few days.
What I propose a 'dumb sell' system that will take a ship to the nearest port of the player's nationality and auto-sell it, possibly for a reduced value. I envision this in one of two ways:
1- Leverage the existing ship storage system in the GoF mod so that the vessel goes into storage to be handled at the player's convenience. While I lack enough knowledge of code to say this is 'easy' or not, I suspect it would be the easier of the two options.
2- Create or modify an existing character (say the money-lender) as a prize agent, who handles the brokerage of ships claimed by that player and increases their fame/reputation as necessary for and against nations as necessary. (i.e. sailing for the British you capture a Spanish galleon, send it to the nearest English port, and the code then handles + rep with the English and -rep for Spanish). This is surely the more complicated but ultimately more satisfying route, I think.
In my mind it works like this.
Player engages enemy, captures ship per boarding (or, hopefully one day, per it striking colors, but that's neither here nor there)
When the Ships screen comes up, crew transfer, cargo transfer, and 'swap ship' function normally.
In the 'Assign Officer' dialogue box, there is a small check that says something the the effect of 'Sail to Prize Agent'
If the box is unchecked capture continues as it does now (becomes part of the squad, etc)
If the box is checked, a captain is picked from your crew like normal, but after closing the officer box, a list box pops up that lists friendly ports in the area (including perhaps pirate towns, if you must humor such dishonorable sea-wretch
)The player picks a town and that box closes, and the ship either a) automagically goes to the prize agent to be sold (probably easier) at a discounted rate (20% less than shipyard? perhaps depending on faction relations? or b)automatically goes into 'sail away' mode, choosing not to engage further ships, but winning or losing based on the current rule sets for such. The player can no longer influence the ship, and it is not part of their squadron. The ship can disapear and be resolved by the code (selling, faction) once the map view is accessed again
To the matter of the crew and officer, I'm thinking it'd be simplest to have them as a menu option at the Tavern, perhaps with a small gold fee associated with them. The crew component can work just like hiring a team now (you pick which ship to assign them back to) and the character who was captain can just pop into your character menu with a notification message.
This does reduce player profit, a tad, but I think it results in a more enjoyable experience not having to always stop and sell or waste countless thousands to the deep just because it's less hassle. It also makes provisions and morale much more important, as you can't just instantly pop in and pick up a thousand barrels of rum. The idea popped into my head as I was reading Master and Commander, with the talk of sending the ships on to Mahon to the prize agent. Thought it's a hundred years removed from the time of the game, it seemed just too perfect to not be in this fine mod.
Thanks for all the effort and dedication folks!
