Forums » Suggestions
new skill class
Pirating!
you would get pirating experience for killing npc traders, and possibly players in grey space. Rewards for higher levels might be better variants of ships, weapons. exp might be given out as +5 for a kill (NPC only) in nation space, +10 for a kill (NPC, or Player, non duel) in grey space, and +20 for a NPC kill in the same sector as a Corvus station. The rewards for this skill set would all require high Corvus standing.
you would get pirating experience for killing npc traders, and possibly players in grey space. Rewards for higher levels might be better variants of ships, weapons. exp might be given out as +5 for a kill (NPC only) in nation space, +10 for a kill (NPC, or Player, non duel) in grey space, and +20 for a NPC kill in the same sector as a Corvus station. The rewards for this skill set would all require high Corvus standing.
A Pirating skill class could be cool, but I'd rather have it based off something other than kills. A truly successful pirate is one that makes a lot of money; not (necessarily) one that has a lot of kills.
But, kills would probably be easiest to track for means of XP gain.
A possible alternate way to gain XP could be based off of trade widgets sold that the player hadn't purchased or mined (widgets that they had gotten through piracy). But, that could easily be exploitable, and wouldn't reward out most common method of piracy (asking for cash, not trade widgets).
But, kills would probably be easiest to track for means of XP gain.
A possible alternate way to gain XP could be based off of trade widgets sold that the player hadn't purchased or mined (widgets that they had gotten through piracy). But, that could easily be exploitable, and wouldn't reward out most common method of piracy (asking for cash, not trade widgets).
It should be alot more then 10 per player kill, like 300..players are hard to kill...
That could also be easily exploited though.
That could also be easily exploited though.
Well, imho, a good pirate impedes the flow of trade in grey space. And killing anything that moves is a good way to do this.
But we could do it for pirated goods too.
But we could do it for pirated goods too.
We could also make it similar to Combat XP, where the main source of XP is missions. Piracy missions like terjekv describes here: http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/9883#113114
Even as a rabidly-committed trader/miner, I like the idea of Privateer status/class, as pirates make my game exciting, but there are lots of things to consider.
From the historical point of view, pirates often began their 'careers' as Privateers (legal pirates) employed by nations to effectively 'grief' the trade of enemy nations. These nations would issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal, authorizing the Privateer's actions on behalf of the nation. The benefits they received for this work were a share in the profits of seized cargo. Privateers often became illegal pirates at the end of a war when Letters expired, but their taste for excitement and easy money made difficult the transition back to the humdrum and less lucrative business of honest commercial trade.
Within VO, the representation of piracy from this perspective presents (imo) some interesting challenges.
First of all, it seems pretty obvious (imo) that the Serco and Itani nations would be the only nations that would recruit Privateers, and only against each other. The CtC activty addresses this somewhat, but in a rather limited way, as there is much more trade going on than that. IMO the UIT, as a nation, would not be interested in recruiting Privateers, nor would UIT, as a nation, be a Privateering target of either the Serco or Itani nations.
Should the status of Privateer be something one gets much like the way one becomes a Bounty Hunter? If so, then under what conditions would a nation offer a Letter of Mark and Reprisal? Perhaps only to a nation member, or any pilot, with some level of favorable standing? Should there be minimum Combat/Weapon licenses requirements? Should a pilot be allowed Privateering status on both sides of the conflict? Would attaining Privateer status automatically make one a Bounty Hunter target of the enemy? If a minimum level of favorable standing is lost, should the Privateer status be revoked?
What would the conditions of the Letter be? One simple answer could be to destroy ships of the enemy nation, and perhaps the ships of any pilot that assists the enemy nation in CtC. This (imo) leads to some other issues, though. Consider the case of the Serco pilot who has attained good standing with Itan, has not engaged in CtC, and, while engaged in an Itan Trade Guild Mission, is subsequently destroyed by an Itani Privateer. What should the benefits/consequences be for the Itani Privateer? How would the Itani Privateer know in advance that he would be interrupting an essentially Itani mission, or destroying the ship of a favorable pilot? Consider the same case, but instead with a Serco Privateer. Should the Serco Privateer be allowed to interrupt an Itani mission even if the target is another Serco pilot of possibly favorable Serco standing? Here we creep into the discussions of Friendly Fire and Ship/Pilot Scanning.
These cases (imo) also open up the discussion on how nations, as a general rule, fundamentally view/treat pilots of enemy nations. Would a nation involved in recruiting Privateers allow enemy nation pilots to conduct business in their space, or even allow enemy nation pilots into their space? Perhaps, if the enemy nation pilot is only allowed to perform Missions until
earning some level of favorable standing. Would there be some limit to the level of favorable standing available to an enemy nation pilot? Also to consider is how a nation should view any pilot who has attained some level of favorable standing with an enemy nation. Lots of possible answers to this, some of which may induce UIT pilots to choose sides. We'd have to assume here each nation somehow knows a pilot's current standing with other nations....
Finally, how is the Privateer rewarded/punished for his actions? Of course, the immediate benefit is any cargo captured. Should there also be faction increases/decreases with the warring nations? If so, when are they awarded? An immediate faction change seems (imo) to potentially contradict the notion of un-monitored space (with respect to the Letter issuing nation), but alternately would require the Privateer to be in, or subsequently enter, the monitored space of the Letter issuing nation to receive his faction bonus. This would imply that any faction loss as a result of target destruction would not occur unless the Privateering action occurred in enemy monitored space.
To The Stars!
;)
From the historical point of view, pirates often began their 'careers' as Privateers (legal pirates) employed by nations to effectively 'grief' the trade of enemy nations. These nations would issue Letters of Marque and Reprisal, authorizing the Privateer's actions on behalf of the nation. The benefits they received for this work were a share in the profits of seized cargo. Privateers often became illegal pirates at the end of a war when Letters expired, but their taste for excitement and easy money made difficult the transition back to the humdrum and less lucrative business of honest commercial trade.
Within VO, the representation of piracy from this perspective presents (imo) some interesting challenges.
First of all, it seems pretty obvious (imo) that the Serco and Itani nations would be the only nations that would recruit Privateers, and only against each other. The CtC activty addresses this somewhat, but in a rather limited way, as there is much more trade going on than that. IMO the UIT, as a nation, would not be interested in recruiting Privateers, nor would UIT, as a nation, be a Privateering target of either the Serco or Itani nations.
Should the status of Privateer be something one gets much like the way one becomes a Bounty Hunter? If so, then under what conditions would a nation offer a Letter of Mark and Reprisal? Perhaps only to a nation member, or any pilot, with some level of favorable standing? Should there be minimum Combat/Weapon licenses requirements? Should a pilot be allowed Privateering status on both sides of the conflict? Would attaining Privateer status automatically make one a Bounty Hunter target of the enemy? If a minimum level of favorable standing is lost, should the Privateer status be revoked?
What would the conditions of the Letter be? One simple answer could be to destroy ships of the enemy nation, and perhaps the ships of any pilot that assists the enemy nation in CtC. This (imo) leads to some other issues, though. Consider the case of the Serco pilot who has attained good standing with Itan, has not engaged in CtC, and, while engaged in an Itan Trade Guild Mission, is subsequently destroyed by an Itani Privateer. What should the benefits/consequences be for the Itani Privateer? How would the Itani Privateer know in advance that he would be interrupting an essentially Itani mission, or destroying the ship of a favorable pilot? Consider the same case, but instead with a Serco Privateer. Should the Serco Privateer be allowed to interrupt an Itani mission even if the target is another Serco pilot of possibly favorable Serco standing? Here we creep into the discussions of Friendly Fire and Ship/Pilot Scanning.
These cases (imo) also open up the discussion on how nations, as a general rule, fundamentally view/treat pilots of enemy nations. Would a nation involved in recruiting Privateers allow enemy nation pilots to conduct business in their space, or even allow enemy nation pilots into their space? Perhaps, if the enemy nation pilot is only allowed to perform Missions until
earning some level of favorable standing. Would there be some limit to the level of favorable standing available to an enemy nation pilot? Also to consider is how a nation should view any pilot who has attained some level of favorable standing with an enemy nation. Lots of possible answers to this, some of which may induce UIT pilots to choose sides. We'd have to assume here each nation somehow knows a pilot's current standing with other nations....
Finally, how is the Privateer rewarded/punished for his actions? Of course, the immediate benefit is any cargo captured. Should there also be faction increases/decreases with the warring nations? If so, when are they awarded? An immediate faction change seems (imo) to potentially contradict the notion of un-monitored space (with respect to the Letter issuing nation), but alternately would require the Privateer to be in, or subsequently enter, the monitored space of the Letter issuing nation to receive his faction bonus. This would imply that any faction loss as a result of target destruction would not occur unless the Privateering action occurred in enemy monitored space.
To The Stars!
;)