Skirmish Suggestions

[Captain meow]

i think it should be if your danger rating is over 1 or you can be spotted

[Sir Colchian Niveus]

nice one doh. then hire/fire crew would be usefull also.

[Roberts]

i think it should be if your danger rating is over 1 or you can be spotted

So it appears , another topic has come about for Skirmishes posted by a player - That has probably been attacked what a few times with skirmish with a max of 20k per loss? Whilst Merchants Such as Jim Hawkins have been hit 24 times...
24 x 20 = 480k

If you was a mass trader i could understand about you wanting to change the rules of Skirmishes , but the fact is you are not i have seen how many fleets you have time in and out , much like most Merchants that i know of... The fact is , this would not stop you from getting attacked from " Selfish cutthroats " like me as Ben Scarlett has had posted... People like me are constantly checking port gossip in most of the ports - In fact i have warned players about how to avoid getting skirmished within since it came out...

Another thing i do not like about this topic is the fact the title sounds like it would be made by the Devs/Administrators for a upcoming release of the next version of skirmish or how i call it squeelish as many traders complain about it day in day out... I think the appropriate title would be " Skirmish Suggestions " and make this a whole thread for people to put their Skirmish options...

[Stan Rogers]

To not waste a good topic I will add a little input. A question to CJ if I may?
In regard to skirmish, has the Devs ever considered the chance to avoid a skirmish dependent on fleet composition.
Currently, as it stands, a fleet has a chance to avoid a skirmish attack via a roll of the dice. Chance of avoidance being 20% -25% (can't remember the correct number off hand but for intents and purposes, not important).

I initially thought the chance for avoidance would be dependent on the ships within the fleet rather than a roll of the dice. It seems a little bit off kilter that a huge fleet of lumbering galleons at lvl 1 stands the same chance of avoidance as a swift cutter fleet with max copper bottoms and sails installed.

For ease of implementation, I understand a flat rate of skirmish avoidance was used across the board but has the idea ever been discussed to make the avoidance feature a function of fleet composition (both attacking and defending) rather than flat rate ?

[Diplomatist]

I initially thought the chance for avoidance would be dependent on the ships within the fleet rather than a roll of the dice. It seems a little bit off kilter that a huge fleet of lumbering galleons at lvl 1 stands the same chance of avoidance as a swift cutter fleet with max copper bottoms and sails installed.

+1

Well put.

And of course, the composition of the attacking fleet should count as well. Preparation and good planning should always have their rewards, whether for merchants or pirates.

[Roberts]

I initially thought the chance for avoidance would be dependent on the ships within the fleet rather than a roll of the dice. It seems a little bit off kilter that a huge fleet of lumbering galleons at lvl 1 stands the same chance of avoidance as a swift cutter fleet with max copper bottoms and sails installed.

How many people actually use Galleons as trade ships though?... Hardly anyone that i know off , so in that case again this feature was mainly designed for PIRATES as a feature due to Pirates not having a feature whilst Merchants have lots of features , if this gets implemented it means less fleet hitting for pirates - Whilst not even worth the actual Skirmish itself being implemented...

Again , i bet some of these Merchants such as Captain Doh and Diplomatist have only been hit a few times , Stan i do not recall him getting hit once : But again i do not know , i am now a hawk... What is a max loss of 100,000 gold coins to you guys?

Meanwhilst...
Total Skirmish Attacks 24 24 battles by Sir Roberts (#46850)
Total Skirmish Defends 1 29 battles by Jim Hawkins (#14972)
Skirmishes Won 24 24 wins by Sir Roberts (#46850)
Skirmishes Lost 1 29 losses by Jim Hawkins (#14972)
Win Ratio 96 % 100% win ratio by Lana (#50727)

The Skirmishes lost was due to ghent hitting a cutter fleet and got nothing from it...

[Most Lee Harmless]

Actually, quite a few do use trade galleons on certain routes where the low speed doesn't matter, likewise Fluyts too. Stan's point is a fair one and reflects the basic principle behind all naval warfare in the sail period (and yacht racing today) : whoever has the wind advantage controls the engagement : if you stay in front with a big enough gap, the biggest guns in the world on the biggest ship cant touch you : if you can turn faster and get back on course again faster, you can bring your guns to bear on them, open fire and be back out of harms way before they can bring their guns onto you : relative fleet speed is already part of the 'standard' battle calculation, as in who opens fire first : seems right enough it should be reflected in skirmishing and the evasion chance : slow prey rarely manage to run away from a fast predator lying in ambush : equally, its unlikely a fast cutter would worry too much about a lumbering man-o-war a mile behind and still losing ground.

Added : The 'unfair to pirates' refrain is nonsense, as per usual, as most of the current batch of such raiders are using sloops and cutters so adding relative ship speeds to the evasion calculation will be working in their favor, not against it ; but until the day when they get 20% of every players gold just for logging in, I guess they will never be happy, even then, they will probably moan it should be 25%....

[Captain meow]

Actually, quite a few do use trade galleons on certain routes where the low speed doesn't matter, likewise Fluyts too. Stan's point is a fair one and reflects the basic principle behind all naval warfare in the sail period (and yacht racing today) : whoever has the wind advantage controls the engagement : if you stay in front with a big enough gap, the biggest guns in the world on the biggest ship cant touch you : if you can turn faster and get back on course again faster, you can bring your guns to bear on them, open fire and be back out of harms way before they can bring their guns onto you : relative fleet speed is already part of the 'standard' battle calculation, as in who opens fire first : seems right enough it should be reflected in skirmishing and the evasion chance : slow prey rarely manage to run away from a fast predator lying in ambush : equally, its unlikely a fast cutter would worry too much about a lumbering man-o-war a mile behind and still losing ground.

Added : The 'unfair to pirates' refrain is nonsense, as per usual, as most of the current batch of such raiders are using sloops and cutters so adding relative ship speeds to the evasion calculation will be working in their favor, not against it ; but until the day when they get 20% of every players gold just for logging in, I guess they will never be happy, even then, they will probably moan it should be 25%....

a level 10 mow an beat almost anything thank you very much

[Most Lee Harmless]

A level 10 Mow will not beat almost anything : that depends on its attribute score, how they are allocated, its crew numbers and its condition; then there is the quality of the ship it is fighting : I've seen enough Mow10's beaten by a good SotL to know its not as certain as you suggest.

(edited for clarity and grammatical error)

[Captain Jack]

Escape probability is a work in progress. Specialization (forthcoming) and fleet speed will play the major role. For the beta phase, which we are having now, with 3 skirmish points a day (its low) and a good protection limit (5 per player) we deemed it too time consuming to integrate now.

We do want to add it futurely though and we are open to suggestions on how it should work.