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Feature Request Treasure Fleet Sidequest

Pieter Boelen

Pieter Boelen

Navigation Officer
Administrator
Storm Modder
Hearts of Oak Donator
We do have Spanish Treasure Fleets in the game, but their appearance is completely random.
It might be a fun idea for a future Build version to have them generated at specific points so you can actually plan to attack them.
Right now, you just have to be lucky to encounter them.
 
sound good. I still want to do something like this indeed. But it would have to wait untill I reworked the sea encounters and map encounters.
 
Remember Sid Meier's "Pirates"? There were the treasure fleet and the silver train. You could find them if you were lucky enough to be in town at the same time as one of them, but the best way was to be on good terms with a governor's daughter, then she'd overhear where they were going and tell you next time you asked her for information.

We've got the governors' daughters. We've got the ability to ask them if anything has been happening. At the moment all they report is that nothing is happening. The hook is already there, let's put something on it...
 
Grey Roger said:
Remember Sid Meier's "Pirates"? There were the treasure fleet and the silver train. You could find them if you were lucky enough to be in town at the same time as one of them, but the best way was to be on good terms with a governor's daughter, then she'd overhear where they were going and tell you next time you asked her for information.

We've got the governors' daughters. We've got the ability to ask them if anything has been happening. At the moment all they report is that nothing is happening. The hook is already there, let's put something on it...
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure a lot of our current LoM/governors' daughters/divide the plunder/morale systems were inspired by Sid Meier's "Pirates!" as well.
And indeed talking to your wife serves truly very little purpose at the moment. Would definitely be fun to build on that so it becomes a worthwhile part of the game too!
Right now all it gives you is more fame points, which makes you more well-known (with.... uhm.... the expected reverse effects on false flag recognizing; which WILL be better soon, I promise!).
 
Yes, this is a good idea but it should be historically correct in the routes used (the convoy could not be met everywhere in the map) and the months of arrival and departure from the Spanish ports. (https://www.q-files.com/history/pirates-galleons/spanish-treasure-fleet/)

So not only at sea, we could meet the treasure fleet but also in the following ports: Puerto Rico, Cartagena and Havana. When moored, there could be some special activity in the port with some specific characters (more soldiers with specific dialogues) + more boxes in the jetty + some workers....
 
Bartolomeu o Portugues said:
Yes, this is a good idea but it should be historically correct in the routes used (the convoy could not be met everywhere in the map) and the months of arrival and departure from the Spanish ports. (https://www.q-files.com/history/pirates-galleons/spanish-treasure-fleet/)
Click to expand...
Very true. If we do it as a quest rather than a random encounter, we can place the fleet as quest ships at one of the appropriate towns in an appropriate month.
I doubt @Levis can control the paths of ships on the worldmap, but he did control in the past where they're generated, so perhaps some use of that too.

Bartolomeu o Portugues said:
So not only at sea, we could meet the treasure fleet but also in the following ports: Puerto Rico, Cartagena and Havana. When moored, there could be some special activity in the port with some specific characters (more soldiers with specific dialogues) + more boxes in the jetty + some workers....
Click to expand...
Infiltrating the more dangerous enemy towns (another Build 15 wish of mine) and then stealing the treasure fleet from port?
Could be fun too!
 
Pieter Boelen said:
Very true. If we do it as a quest rather than a random encounter, we can place the fleet as quest ships at one of the appropriate towns in an appropriate month.
I doubt @Levis can control the paths of ships on the worldmap, but he did control in the past where they're generated, so perhaps some use of that too.
Click to expand...

Everything in the messages to the server sugest it should be possible to control where the ships go. I just try to find out how this is working. I think I need to look at the stoc potc code because someone broke it a long time ago ...
 
Levis said:
Everything in the messages to the server sugest it should be possible to control where the ships go. I just try to find out how this is working. I think I need to look at the stoc potc code because someone broke it a long time ago ...
Click to expand...
@NathanKell once tried to make a "fleets" mod which would control the tracks of ships on the worldmap.
But since he couldn't control the 3D ships, that mod involved invisible fleets following actual tracks.
We decided we didn't want that and the mod was dropped, but some remnants of it can still be found in the code.
 
Bartolomeu o Portugues said:
Yes, this is a good idea but it should be historically correct in the routes used (the convoy could not be met everywhere in the map) and the months of arrival and departure from the Spanish ports. (https://www.q-files.com/history/pirates-galleons/spanish-treasure-fleet/)

So not only at sea, we could meet the treasure fleet but also in the following ports: Puerto Rico, Cartagena and Havana. When moored, there could be some special activity in the port with some specific characters (more soldiers with specific dialogues) + more boxes in the jetty + some workers....
Click to expand...
If you want historical accuracy, Puerto Rico is out - look again at the map on that page. ;) Raiding Cartagena is going to be a challenge - there's a reason Governor Montavez is so proud of that fort... But perhaps some more use could be made of the Vera Cruz trick used in the "Assassin" and "Bartolomeu" stories? Otherwise that leaves Havana. So either your wife or one of your girlfriends tells you the fleet has recently left Cartagena, or some drunk Spaniard in any other Spanish port wishes he were on the treasure fleet heading home and not stuck here, or invent some other way to provide the rumour. Then you need to get to Havana within a certain time period.

By the way, in "Pirates", if I remember correctly governors were sometimes replaced and took their daughters with them, which meant you lost your contact in that port. If you married one then she stayed even if her father was replaced. On the other hand, if you didn't marry one then you could have a girlfriend in every port, at least until a new governor arrived. PoTC doesn't do much replacing of governors and even when Silehard gets the chop, his daughter stays there. (Not Arabella. If you rise in fame and rank before Silehard turns nasty, he introduces you to a random daughter or niece the same as any other governor. So, in due time, does Brin which means you can end up with two girlfriends in Port Royale residence. :D)
 
Grey Roger said:
If you want historical accuracy, Puerto Rico is out - look again at the map on that page. ;) Raiding Cartagena is going to be a challenge - there's a reason Governor Montavez is so proud of that fort... But perhaps some more use could be made of the Vera Cruz trick used in the "Assassin" and "Bartolomeu" stories? Otherwise that leaves Havana. So either your wife or one of your girlfriends tells you the fleet has recently left Cartagena, or some drunk Spaniard in any other Spanish port wishes he were on the treasure fleet heading home and not stuck here, or invent some other way to provide the rumour. Then you need to get to Havana within a certain time period.
Click to expand...
About Puerto Rico, I've seen a map the town could be used like port of call from Spain. Of course, the ships were not loaded by gold or silver. But they could have some interesting things to steal :rolleyes:

I agree about an infiltrating scene in the Spanish ports as Pieter said. It would be the only possibility for the player to steal at least a part of the load and this possibility would not be systematic. It would require some conditions we need to define (or maybe for simplicity sake this could be randomized)
 
Grey Roger said:
If you want historical accuracy, Puerto Rico is out - look again at the map on that page. ;) Raiding Cartagena is going to be a challenge - there's a reason Governor Montavez is so proud of that fort... But perhaps some more use could be made of the Vera Cruz trick used in the "Assassin" and "Bartolomeu" stories? Otherwise that leaves Havana. So either your wife or one of your girlfriends tells you the fleet has recently left Cartagena, or some drunk Spaniard in any other Spanish port wishes he were on the treasure fleet heading home and not stuck here, or invent some other way to provide the rumour. Then you need to get to Havana within a certain time period.
Click to expand...
I like the idea of using Cartagena. Perhaps have the fleet first prepare for a while there, then have them appear in Havana a week later and after that they'll sail past Puerto Rico.
If you haven't caught them by then, try again some other year. :wp

Grey Roger said:
By the way, in "Pirates", if I remember correctly governors were sometimes replaced and took their daughters with them, which meant you lost your contact in that port. If you married one then she stayed even if her father was replaced. On the other hand, if you didn't marry one then you could have a girlfriend in every port, at least until a new governor arrived. PoTC doesn't do much replacing of governors and even when Silehard gets the chop, his daughter stays there. (Not Arabella. If you rise in fame and rank before Silehard turns nasty, he introduces you to a random daughter or niece the same as any other governor. So, in due time, does Brin which means you can end up with two girlfriends in Port Royale residence. :D)
Click to expand...
LOL! :rofl
Once we've got our Build 14 stuff operational, we could think about bringing in some more SMP features.
 
Pieter Boelen said:
If you haven't caught them by then, try again some other year. :wp
Click to expand...
Right :yes . And about obtaining the dates the fleet is in the port maybe trying to corrupt an officer in the fort could be a solution. Of course, there will be the possibility the officer refuses the money and you are attacked by the garrisonxD
 
My Idea was to find a travel schedule for the treasure fleet. This will have the port they will visit listed before they set sail "home".
This schedule can be found in several ways and if you found it you can chase the fleet. It might still be there even if you haven't found it so you could bump into it by accident :p. When encountering it on sea you can fight it. When it's in port we need to see. I like the idea of being able to board it while it's anchored or something like that.
 
Bartolomeu o Portugues said:
About Puerto Rico, I've seen a map the town could be used like port of call from Spain. Of course, the ships were not loaded by gold or silver. But they could have some interesting things to steal :rolleyes:
Click to expand...
By the time the fleet had made it across the Atlantic, using the trade winds, Puerto Rico would be a significant diversion from the course to Cartagena and would serve no purpose, which is probably why the map doesn't show the fleet going anywhere near Puerto Rico.

The Tierra Firme Flota first stopped at Cartagena, proceeded to Puerto Bello to collect the treasure which had been brought overland from South America, then returned to Cartagena for the winter. After that it headed for Havana where it met up with the Nueva Espana Flota, whose job had been to collect the treasure from Vera Cruz, then the whole lot headed back to Spain. So Havana would potentially have the biggest prize but also the heaviest guard, as both fleets would be present. Otherwise Cartagena in winter would have possibilities. (There's no point hitting Havana in winter because the Nueva Espana Flota would be in Vera Cruz.)

Of course, if we're not interested in making this historically accurate then the fleet could visit Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo and Santiago. Although the map shows the routes of the main fleets, Spain didn't found those colonies just for amusement, there was probably something worthwhile being collected. So some portion of the fleet could have visited those places to collect it before meeting up back at Cartagena. It's also the only way a travel schedule is worth finding.

Otherwise you've got the whole of winter to have some fun in Cartagena. Beyond that, the only useful information would be when the fleet is due to be at Havana prior to its return to Spain.
 
Indeed for gameplay purposes, it would probably be more fun if the fleet is at each town only for a few days each and visits several towns in a row, so you have more chances to catch them.
I think what can be done and what not hinges on what is possible with the worldmap. But I fear a lot of that will prove beyond our control.
 
Yes, let's add all the Spanish towns. :yes

Havana is the last stop and as you said would potentially have the biggest prize but also the heaviest guard.

I think the fleet is at Havana in Spring and only in November it reaches Spain.
 
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