Brethren of the Brick Seas (BoBS) Introduction and Starting Thread

[Mike S]

Seeing the amount of work, unknown areas and obstacles that you encounter, I think you deserve a salary paid by all the factions, for acting as an universal civil servant notary.

I would agree to this...

[Captain Dee]

There are lots of questions right now, which is understandable considering the scenarios in question, but Ska being the general mastermind, I think we should wait for his input.

I was recognized as one of Corrington's leaders; however this is currently a supporting role but I'll help where I can.

@Faladrin - I believe the rule about plantations matching the settlement level was put aside at least for now. Your tax idea makes sense, but remember, this is not actually paid by the builder in most scenarios, but is simply earned by the faction. For the idea to work there would have to be an actual payable tax or a fee of some type.

I've been approving third+ freebuilds pretty freely through this first month - but if I suspect people are building the easiest and simplest things possible (expressed as lots of plantations) just to earn quick DBs I don't think I'll grant my approval on applicable builds (obviously you get your first two). A real effort needs to be obvious.

We'll get the answers to all these captured ship/cargo questions soon enough I think!

I'll finish with a friendly reminder - I'm tallying approvals on your third+ monthly freebuilds, and you must ID them as such (not necessarily in the title, but at least in the text) and get them posted in the registration thread, plus fill out the webform.

You could help us out by posting all your FBs in one post per month, by editing in any additional material. It's a lot easier to go through it that way vs having a new post for every freebuild.

[Garmadon]

I'll just add to what Captain Dee said about the taxes, that any additional taxes which will actually come out of the players pockets are determined faction by faction by the leader(/s) of that nation. So if Corrington is having a problem with too many plantations which the other nations are not having, Ska and the rest of Corrington's leadership could decide to impose a, for example, 10% extra tax on plantations (which will not be automatic - the players will be actually transferring the DBs themselves) without at all affecting the other nations... except, of course, that that would drive off all their farmers to Eslandola - but now we're getting into economics...

[Bart]

I like Garmadon his idea, about the taxes and system.

[Garmadon]

I like Garmadon his idea, about the taxes and system.

I think it was actually Ska's idea (give credit where credit is due!), but I'm glad you like it since it is part of the rules!

[Tezclatipoca]

Ah yes it is a case by case tax. Yes it is great idea !

I forgot it thank you for reminding me this rule.

And of course the approvals of such overload of buildings could low drastically... I agree with you Captain Dee.

[Bart]

I think it was actually Ska's idea (give credit where credit is due!), but I'm glad you like it since it is part of the rules!

lol, how horrible out of character for a Sea Rat to like a rule :D

I just don't see the Pirate King levying taxes anytime soon :P

[Maxim I]

About the licencing, Bregir is right,

This is what Ska said about the 3 captured warships:

King of Mardier and Paradiso were both 4A vessels.

I think the way we will handle it is that the faction warships captured them, so it is up to the faction what they want to do with the license. They could put them in drydock until somebody can MOC them and they would not have to pay the maintenance and upkeep. And after seeing how this round went, nations and individuals are going to want to consider adding ships to there naval rolls I think.

I misunderstood this as: "you still have to licence it and MOC it".

Now I re-read his opinion, it says indeed the ships are licenced after being captured. If the king of a faction keeps the vessel and add it to the royal fleet, someone has to MOC it because a royal fleet can only have 3 unmocced vessels.

[MKJoshA]

lol, how horrible out of character for a Sea Rat to like a rule :D

I just don't see the Pirate King levying taxes anytime soon :P

Not if he wants to stay the Pirate King!

[SkaForHire]

Wow... too much to quote, the board blew up while I slept. I think that is a good thing, a lot of excitement here.

The ruling would be this -- the ships are licensed, and need to be MOCed to be used unless they are within the 5 "no-moc" limit for the faction owned ships. In this case, unless the faction sells captured vessels to players, they don't have to be MOCed. IF they were unlicensed then they would be of no value, because we are not even gaining pictures of a MOC here -- This is the case for warships, as they have no cargo. However, a merchant that had made part of its run would also give cargo (depending on the chart) as part of the prize.

A rule that is going to have to go in place is the buying or capturing a vessel that puts your fleet at over 3,6, or 9 because these are the steps that lead to the increased license fee. In the case that the free ship or a ship you are buying from somebody other than the game, there is going to have to be an administration cost. I have not worked those costs out yet but will by the end of the month. This will close the loophole where buying your 4th ship from a fast ship MOCer could potentially be a work around to the additional licensing fees once you move up a tier from owning 3 to 4 vessels.

Also, coming this MRCA -- damages to captured ships. Bregir had a really good idea here, and we will implement that. After-all taking in a class 5 ship worth hundreds of DBs is a huge (although difficult at this stage) haul. Since all of the ships are in possession of the factions, this isn't a problem this month.

[Bregir]

Wow... too much to quote, the board blew up while I slept. I think that is a good thing, a lot of excitement here.

The ruling would be this -- the ships are licensed, and need to be MOCed to be used unless they are within the 5 "no-moc" limit for the faction owned ships. In this case, unless the faction sells captured vessels to players, they don't have to be MOCed. IF they were unlicensed then they would be of no value, because we are not even gaining pictures of a MOC here -- This is the case for warships, as they have no cargo. However, a merchant that had made part of its run would also give cargo (depending on the chart) as part of the prize.

A rule that is going to have to go in place is the buying or capturing a vessel that puts your fleet at over 3,6, or 9 because these are the steps that lead to the increased license fee. In the case that the free ship or a ship you are buying from somebody other than the game, there is going to have to be an administration cost. I have not worked those costs out yet but will by the end of the month. This will close the loophole where buying your 4th ship from a fast ship MOCer could potentially be a work around to the additional licensing fees once you move up a tier from owning 3 to 4 vessels.

Also, coming this MRCA -- damages to captured ships. Bregir had a really good idea here, and we will implement that. After-all taking in a class 5 ship worth hundreds of DBs is a huge (although difficult at this stage) haul. Since all of the ships are in possession of the factions, this isn't a problem this month.

I suggest that capturing or purchasing already licensed ships, that will bring you over the 3, 6, or 9 limit should simply require the remaining fee to be paid. (Eg. 50 % of 300).

And what happens if a player capture a NPC ship that hasn't been moc'ed? I suppose you would have to moc it before it can be used?

Edited February 3, 2016 by Bregir

[SkaForHire]

I suggest that capturing or purchasing already licensed ships, that will bring you over the 3, 6, or 9 limit should simply require the remaining fee to be paid. (Eg. 50 % of 300)

O

That was along the lines I was thinking.

[Bregir]

And what happens if a player capture a NPC ship that hasn't been moc'ed? I suppose you would have to moc it before it can be used?

I think you missed my edited in question...

A captured ship equals a captured license (with a possible additional repair and 3+ license fee to pay), but if it isn't moc'ed (as it was a npc-trader, for instance) it cannot be considered ready to be used for MRCA.

At least, that is my suggestion!

Then, if you don't want to moc the ship, you can sell the captured ship to someone else, who can then moc it and use it for MRCA. (Probably at a reduced price compared to an already moc'ed ship.)

[SkaForHire]

I think you missed my edited in question...

A captured ship equals a captured license (with a possible additional repair and 3+ license fee to pay), but if it isn't moc'ed (as it was a npc-trader, for instance) it cannot be considered ready to be used for MRCA.

At least, that is my suggestion!

Then, if you don't want to moc the ship, you can sell the captured ship to someone else, who can then moc it and use it for MRCA. (Probably at a reduced price compared to an already moc'ed ship.)

That is actually exactly how it will work this month. You must MOC a captured ship (if you are a player and not a faction) to use it.

[Bregir]

That is actually exactly how it will work this month. You must MOC a captured ship (if you are a player and not a faction) to use it.

Also if it is already moc'ed? Say for instance someone captured my Sphinx - it does make much sense to require them to recreate it

[Maxim I]

Also if it is already moc'ed? Say for instance someone captured my Sphinx - it does make much sense to require them to recreate it

Or just MOC how you appoint a new captain for the captured (and MOC'ed in the past) vessel :)

[SkaForHire]

Also if it is already moc'ed? Say for instance someone captured my Sphinx - it does make much sense to require them to recreate it

I would love to make it this way (that would allow someone to reinterpret your build!), unfortunately, because of differing collection, we just need a ship. Perhaps the previous owner of the ship may be willing to allow those MOC pics to stay with the new incarnation of the ship. But that would not be required either.

[cb4]

Right now there are anywhere from 1-3 NPC pirates / privateers in every zone, the fail rate was quite high this month.

Wow, that number is shocking to me. That means there were anywhere from 11 to 33 NPC pirates/privateers out there this month, for 22 PC ships. With those odds, it is completely insane to go anywhere without Royal escort, as the Sea Rats found out. Based on the results, if the other ships hadn't been escorted, I would say that the Saucy Jack, the Bright Owl, the Aurei Lacerta, and the Flying Colt would also have been lost.

Were there a similar number of juicy NPC traders for enterprising raiders? If not, it seems like the MCRA has only sane strategy. Sail in groups, using Royal ships for escort, since they are free. Use up your free licenses on cheap cargo ships. Until player characters are able to build and license much more powerful ships, it is not sensible to do anything else.

If your convoy does not include a powerful warship or two, just don't sail.

[SkaForHire]

There were d3 traders as well in each zone +1 for every PC predator.

\

The Sea Rat convoy was escorted (although not correctly written as so in most of the webforms). It really was catastrophic rolls for the Sea Rats that unfortunately doomed the convoy. And on the other end, the fleet of raiders missed their prey in speed rolls and lucky rolls to avoid intercept. It just wasn't a good month for the Sea Rats.

On another note, the dice fell in favor of the royal warships this time, it could have went either way, there were actually two more large pirates that fought the royal warships, one was even boarded, but they ended up in a break off action each time. I didn't report all action in the newspaper thread. There was a lot of "outran a pirate" as a result, especially in the Corrington convoy that stretched 7 zones.

The seas are difficult, but they are somewhat high return, even for a small ship willing to make a long run. This is one of the reasons that property is a good investment. It is much harder to lose value.

[cb4]

There were d3 traders as well in each zone +1 for every PC predator.

Ah, ok, I wondered!

The Sea Rat convoy was escorted (although not correctly written as so in most of the webforms).

That is very interesting. What ship was escorting them, and what was its fate? None of the Sea Rats Royal fleet even have names from what I can tell…

On another note, the dice fell in favor of the royal warships this time, it could have went either way, there were actually two more large pirates that fought the royal warships, one was even boarded, but they ended up in a break off action each time.

This only makes it sound even more dangerous.

You know the game mechanics, and we don’t. Without revealing them you will never convince me that sailing unescorted in these waters isn’t suicidal for anything less than a class 5 ship.

If convoying confers any protection - and I assume it does - it would be crazy not to convoy your ships based on what you're telling me. The concentration of NPC raiders is too high to make any other strategy viable. Yes, it is possible to make a lot of money sailing alone - but it doesn’t sound like you’ll survive most of the time. We don’t know the odds, and all evidence suggests we should hedge on the side of safety.

I don not believe there is any room for independent operations by small ships, and I think that’s unfortunate. In my mind one of the purposes of the MCRA is to generate story lines (why else would we have the option of MOCing the results?), and I think that the type of gameplay that is going to be forced by the current environment is going to limit the kinds of storylines you see.

Maybe things change once player characters have powerful ships that aren’t at the mercy of the NPC vessels. All the action (other than being sunk or captured) in the MCRA was by NPC ships that aren’t even MOCs.

[SkaForHire]

The viper and white skull were the escorts, they were listed in the article, it may not have been clear that they were the actual escorts though.

To your final points, again, this was more determined by the luck of the rolls. The ship that took the entire Sea Rats flotilla was the same level as the escorts. None of the larger NPC pirates were able to capture anything. Its luck mostly that made this turn out this way.

An example of a single ship making a successful run, the Little Hermes made it through without an escort. (Although it stated it had one, the route for its escort was never set)

On the current "normal setting" chart, there is only a 30% chance that a ship is intercepted. Then there is a "to catch" roll-off between to two ships, where speed comes in. Both of these rolls have to come up in favor of the predator before they even get to shoot. Once they shoot, there is a chance that nothing happens and they break off, a chance one side overwhelmingly wins, and a chance that there is a boarding action. If the latter, then the crews face off, and only after another successful roll, is the ship taken.

I understand that the MRCA is a story driver, and I think people can make a go at it in many different ways. It is dangerous, but so was the Golden Age of Piracy. Escorted ships had a better chance to survive.

[dr_spock]

Question. What happens to the captain and crew of the captured ships? Is their fate determined by a roll? The newspaper article seem to hint at some sort of prison escape plan.

[Tomsche]

[dr_spock]

At the Google Hangouts?

Day 083 of 365: Pirates Warning Buoy by dr_spock_888, on Flickr

[cb4]

I suppose my concern then would be that you have way too many raiders. If you have as many raiders as traders, then to balance it raiders must have a poor chance of making a capture - or traders must have a high chance of being captured. Even during the Golden Age of Piracy, there were far more merchant ships than pirates. Pirates had a reasonable chance of a prize on a voyage - but a merchant ship had a low chance of ever meeting a pirate. This meant both roles were profitable consistently.

Edited February 4, 2016 by cb4