The Price of Piracy

Watchkeeper · October 2017

There are a lot of pirates on here who love the idea of PvP and feel that the historical context of the game means that it should be included. Many are also keen to bad mouth people who don't like the idea.

Were this a purely PvP game then that would be fine, it would be a one dimensional game where the aim was to become as powerful as possible and kill other players. However the game is much wider than that and choosing to be a pirate merely reflects one possible style of game play. One that has no real answers other than pay me or play my way.

I think some pirating in the game is a good thing however pirates need to accept some consequence to their life choices. Here are some suggestions.

If your ship is sunk while you are red, it loses 10% of it's dura permanently.
Privateers, home ports and pirate ports only - anywhere else would hunt you down and hang you.
Pirates, pirate ports only, again you would be hunted down and hung.

You do of course have the opportunity to bribe to get into most towns (not capital cities) the cost would be 10% of wealth and two random items from your hold (from the plunder list.)

Remember that your life choices in the historical context did not make you into the dashing heroes. Rather you were, by and large, scum in low grade ships with low grade crew who did not sail the ocean blue.

I will be interested to see which of the pirates, who are so vocal about the need to inject some "realism" into the game feel that it ought to include a downside for choosing to be a pirate or if in fact they just want an easy ride in spoiling other peoples day. If the up sides of piracy came back would you be willing to accept some down side?

HelloAll · October 2017

So you’ve never been a pirate on this game then.

A pirate gets killed 10 time and his ship is gone. *Facepalm*

It’s funny some of these things I hear on hear of how to solve the piracy problem that isn’t even a problem at all.

Its just money hoarders sweating and panicking that they may lose a ducat here and there.

Let the plunder begin :D

Watchkeeper · October 2017

So, no downside to you spoiling someones day. Piracy as a risk free operation?

A brave and reckless pirate indeed.

patersmith66 · October 2017

How about.. pirates have a 50/50 chance of being attacked by national fleets of any other nation in any waters. % of being attacked Goes up and down with notoriety.

This will allow players to sail (pretend to be in a convoy) when a national fleet leaves a port.

HeavyWater · October 2017

@Watchkeeper

What you and some others clearly don't realise is, pirates are already punished. Upon reaching a certain amount of notoriety a lot of quests become unavailable to them. They can never go private. They can be tracked quite easily with the wanted papers. And with the re implementation of item plunder, they too can lose items upon being sunk. You all need to get off your high horses and deal with it. If you don't want to get pirated, bring tribs. If EA waters are lawless, don't nanban, simple.

HelloAll · October 2017

Risk free? There is BH hunting and they can farm pirates.

Also actually finding someone is not easy.

But again you have never been a pirate as a stated so have no freedom of speach because you can only see one side.

My main was a trader.

HelloAll · October 2017

How about just buy green flags, tributes or take a different route and stop being lazy.

It’s like some of you can’t retain information for more than 5 minutes.

Do you complain this much about NCP pirates?

Do you quit the game because of them.

I’ve had enough of these arguments, I’ve carried on for too long and the other pirates have been wiser and just left it.

There is no winning these arguments because the same things come up again and again.

To be fair I like most of you on here so far, and let’s have a good week ahead with the relaunch tomoz.

In game my alt will be the pirate so you wi never know it was me that attacked you :p

See you server side :)

HelloAll · October 2017

Blue flags* i’ll give you a green one for a small price :)

HeavyWater · October 2017

@HelloAll

I've never been a pirate and I can see the other side, in fact I'm supporting that other side, does that mean I don't get to speak?

Attack the argument, not the person.

aceman39 · October 2017

See I have not argued about it . I have said some thoughts and I also said if you are worried about being hit by a pirate change your routes when you sail to make it harder to be attacked

HelloAll · October 2017

@HeavyWater
Then yes.
It wasn’t an attack, was said with no anger or malice.
Just a statement

Watchkeeper · October 2017

No attack assumed.

But the the arguments are still PvP with little risk and if you don't like it pay me or play like me.

There needs to be some balance and I don't see any real desire for it coming from the potential pirate community.

I guess the question is, what are you willing to give up when DB and plunder comes back. Or is this just a one way street.

Remember it was removed last time because it didn't work for the game.

InfamousKilla · October 2017

New worst post ever..

It was removed last time because of whiners who were too dumb or lazy to escape, fight back, buy a blue flag, or do anything proactive at all besides complaining on message boards..

AdelinaKaz · October 2017

I, as a trader or traveler, have been attacked many times by various pirates, and this has never been considered a problem, I took it for granted that it should be so. Nobody can say that I complained, I joked vice versa. When hunting pirates while being BH, it was very interesting to catch them, and they perceived it exactly as I did. I got caught - I'm to blame. But without pirates it will be very boring, so boring that the game will get bored very quickly. Pirate attacks are needed, even it would be great to introduce the plunder of cities.

There are some reflections, ideas. 1. To allow pirates to attack only alone, if they are in the navy, then they can not attack and not bypass this rule, forbid them to call for help if they themselves attacked. If they attack the pirates themselves, then the restrictions should not be. 2. Deck battle - to think thoroughly, then, that the previous system was not happy with very many. 3. Robbery - things from the store for real money, as well as things that can be obtained only once per player, things from the Memory Album should not be robbed.

Maybe I can not fully understand my thoughts, but what I want to say is: Piracy in the game is necessary, but it must be regulated thoroughly, as this greatly affects the desire of many players to play further. This is possible by simply listening to the opinions of all the players and finding the compromises between them.

Watchkeeper · October 2017

I agree it is necessary.

Funny though how much of a whiner some people are when there is a suggestion that they should not have things all their own way.

Given some of the posts on the forum I guess I should be quite touched to have posted the worst one ever.

CrzyPsycoChick · October 2017

Pirates already have it pretty rough in Game and many will be returning now I don't think it needs even more deterrents to it...I do think they should fix pirate loopsholes and exploits to make it fair now that Plunder will be revamped.

Pirates loopholes that need fixing:

1. Login screen pirates: They log out and use a spotter alt then when you near they login and attack this negates piracy risk. Papaya needs to patch that you must be logged in server 5 to 10 mins before you can initiate an attack on anyone they however can be attacked during that time.

2. Kamikaze Bounty Hunter/Pirate exploit: Basically a pirate attacks a white name in a super weak ship. They plow into the trader ship and gets sunk this turns the trader into a bounty hunter or pirate thus enabling farming of their ship. Papaya NEEDS to patch this by making any fight you didn't initiate but "win" doesn't cause you to turn red or blue.

3. Spotter alts: I don't have an issue with spotter alts you do what you want to do with your alts but only if they fix login screen piracy as stated in # 1.

4. Trojan Horse Piracy : This stops pirates like (you know who) who used to trick newbies or good samaritans by fleeting them with a white alt then as soon as they leave port together he attacks his pirate alt. This exploit allows plunder in safe waters or use of the kamikaze pirate exploit to turn you red and make you farmable. Papaya NEEDS to add a Disband fleet on attack option basically enable a toggle on/off setting that if any member of your fleet INTIATES an attack it auto kicks you from the fleet before the attack starts this stops all forms of the exploit.

AdelinaKaz · October 2017

CPC shows that you are interested in the game and understand it. I was never a pirate and did not know about the loopholes. I know that the second character of the pirate is waiting at the exit from the port, and as soon as you walk a little from the port the pirate comes into play and attacks. It was annoying, but we are already used to it. All your remarks and fixations are very correct and necessary, I completely with all the points.

lefox271 · October 2017

The game benefits from pirates and piracy. It makes high seas voyages more interesting and risky.

The game needs pirates because without them the player base will suffer and there will be no game.

On the other side:

Pirates need traders and adventurers. Without them there is no point in being a pirate.

If too many traders are put off by the level of piracy - there will be no game.

Each side is dependent on the other. Traders have got to learn to accept some piracy otherwise none of us will have a game to play.

But pirates also need to recognise that when they rob property off another player, that player sometimes feels like he's actually been robbed. That's not a nice feeling - and it's why many players are so anti-piracy.

@InfamousKilla I know elsewhere on the forum you have said you would give stuff back to the victim - so you're obviously aware of the delicate balance of your fun against other peoples' feelings. And that's great - it's the right attitude. But mate, honestly, some of your posts don't reflect that balance, and they just encourage other people - the ones who don't get that delicate balance - to take even more extreme views.

I think what you pirates need is a 'code of piracy'. Something which meets both your hunter-killer instincts and the desire of the rest of the community to get on with their own game.

I agree with @HelloAll - every pirating thread just re-hashes the same things and deepens the bad feeling. It gets us no where.

So start a thread on a 'Code of Piracy' which will meet your needs as pirates and then let's see how the traders and adventurers feel about it. It's something we can do as a community without sitting back and whining for Papaya to do it for us.

HeavyWater · October 2017

@lefox271

Sounds good in theory, the question is, how do we get pirates to follow this code?

lefox271 · October 2017

In my experience most people do the right thing most of the time. That's probably good enough.

The real problem's getting people to agree in the first place LOL

HeavyWater · October 2017

That's kind've what I meant.

pieratthe · October 2017

I honestly don't think about 80% of ya'll, don't even understand the mechanics in place against piracy. Not refering to the ways to protect urself, i'm refering to the risks that a player takes by going red/yellow.

Let me explain some things. Maybe then peeps will be like, oh damn, it's not all glory being a pirate.

Your a trader/adv and a pirate sees u sailing. If that pirate catchs u, he has a small chance of plunder 1 item from ur inventory, ur on-hand ducats, as well as some trade goods. Once ur attacked u have a green flag for like 5 minutes that allows u to get to safety. And that pirate can't attack u again for 24 hours unless ur relog in that toon.

As a pirate, I'm forced to sail in battle gear at all times. I can never go anywhere where i can't be attacked. Once i'm attacked, i can be repeatly attacked OVER and OVER and OVER no matter if i lose or win the fight, it won't stop a hunter from attacking me as many times as he can. I also can lose 1 item from my inventory, my on-hand ducats, as well as trade goods if i'm doing trade. Also everytime i lose, i pay ducats to the hunter based on the amount of noto i have called a bounty. They used to be really high, but got nerfed down, so they mite go back up. i'm talking 20-30m it not more for losing. Also if i don't have enuff cash on hand to pay the "bounty" it will pay the "bounty" from my bank. If i don't have enuff cash in the bank to cover the bounty, the game will cashin my checks to the bank so i can pay the bounty, if i got no money, no checks, and i lose. You get a random item from my "BANK VAULT" So u see, at no point is a pirate safe at any time, unless in a town. Where-as white names/hunters can store valuable stuff in bank and protect it. A pirate CAN'T.

As a white name i've never been scared to go anywhere in game at any time. Only so much damage can be done. But as a pirate. It's scary seeing a whole fleet of hunters in the middle of the sea. Cause if they can catch me i will be forced to log off and not play for a while. Whereas a white name can lose 1 item and continue.

Point is, don't knock piracy, until u've learned everything about being a pirate or hunter. Not speaking up when dont understand what's going on would be smart.

aceman39 · October 2017

I don't knock being a pirate,. What I think is like someone said a middle ground between pirates and others could be beneficial to all of us and the ones who complain need to come up with suggestions and learn what to look for and figure out how to make a pirate finding them hard. We are all a part of a circle and we need all the parts to make the game go around

HeavyWater · October 2017

The people who complain are likely just those people who want to nanban 24/7 while sailing in a straight line for 90% of the trip.

aceman39 · October 2017

I nanban but there is a way like what was said to protect ones self. Like a lot of times I am at India grinding sewing more then nanban though and even going there you need to look out for pirates

pieratthe · October 2017

@heavywater 100%, they want to be able to amass ingame wealth with no barrier so they can sleep at nite thinking they've accomplished something.

Heres a middle ground. Apply piracy rules to all players. All players can be farmed w/o restriction (just like when ur a pirate), all players must pay a ransom will killed by pirate (just as pirates pay bounty) based on levels, if u do not have the cash to pay that ransom, game needs to cashin ur checks to pay that ransom. If u have no checks, no cash, pirates get a random item from ur bank vault. Remove tributes from the game (since pirates can't use them) Force all player who don't want attacked to use a blueflag (only protection a pirate has) Turn all waters hostile, so everyone can be attacked everywhere (same as a pirate)

Theres ur middle ground, apply piracy rules to all players. Do that for couple months, then change it back to netmarble era like they are doing. And i promise peeps will be happy having tribs and safe waters again. Oh and a bank vault thats secure. (must be nice)

Watchkeeper · October 2017

I’ll hold my hand up pieratthe and say I didn’t realise the constant hitting of pirates was feature at the death of OGP or the reverse plundering.

I will try not to feel quite so agreaved next time you hit one of my toons.

Still, if you and yours are getting more power, should there be more penalties? That was the point of the question in the first place.

aceman39 · October 2017

Well if that is a middle ground I might as well become a pirate. @ pierathe I am not saying a pirates life is that easy just that we all need to work together to make UWO great again and arguing between us as a community is nit helping. When I said a medium ground I meant that UWO should be is what we want to make it a great game again and fighting over somethings is not helping

WesDoobner · October 2017

If you don't like pirates, work on maritime and cruise around in a battleship, or get blue flags, or tow your alt who is driving a battleship. Piracy is part of the game. Actually this isn't one game, it's 3 games - the adventure game, the trading game and the pirate game. Some people like to just play certain parts, but not all three. I like to try to balance my game between the three areas. The issue is that people who want to do trading or adventure can do it on their own without bothering anyone, but for the pirate portion of the game you have to interact with other players and usually you sink them and take their stuff. That's what pirates do and it's part of the game. Some people might like to do without it, but it's part of what makes UWO such a rich experience.

pieratthe · October 2017

@Wes 100% Stop sailing in 30 crew clippers all the time cause they are fast. This is what makes this game so much fun. Yes u can sail a 30 crew clipper, be very fast, get what u need done and get back. But also ur in a 30 crew ship, with 20 or less armor, and 800 or less dura usually. And then u get mad a pirate can beat u. LOLOL There are many hybrids out there that have speed/cargo/and can defend themselves, especially if the pirate is in a low armor/low dura/fast pirate ship. Funniest thing i seen in a long time, i was pirating in my llm. Seen this trade ship, and of course i attacked. Little did i know i was able to catch him quite easy cause the trader had on plates and cannons. Will u believe he sunk me before i could get close enuff to melee him. Even thou he was doing a trade run, he was in a battle job, with ship parts and gears. my lil less than 800 dura llm, and 32 armor was sent to be with the fishes. I laughed so hard, it made my day. Me and that dude laughed and talked about that for an hour, while he continued on with his trade, and i contined on (after losing the skull) pierating. Another time, some of ya'll have heard this. I was attacking a trader around korea, grabed melee, went to deck. Little did i pay attention to that it was darkheart in full landbattle gear. So that day the trader plundered the pirate. me and him would laugh about that all the time. was so much fun. So jus think about ur main and ur 2 alts all in LB gear (yea will cost some in dura repairs), but here comes this pirate, and attacks u, trys to melee wipe u, u hit that DB button, You take him to deckbattle, and now its a 3v1 situtation. Just keep spamming the (spacebar for attack) on ur alts. Works real nice if they have a ranged weapon. And now u've not only completed ur trade run for monies. u've now plundered apirate on ur trip as well. No need to look at the downside (i mite lose something) look at the positive side ( i mite gain something)

Or like some if u don't pvp, and u get plundered by that pirate. I'm sure there's plenty of hunters who for 50m or so, would kill that pirate, take the SS for u, and post it so they can get paid.

lefox271 · October 2017

I'm doing my best to understand you guys (pirates) so I can see a balance. But I don't see you trying to understand people who don't want to PvP.

We traders/ adventurers play the game in all kinds of ways. Our motivations are all different. You can't assume we're all in the same place doing the same thing, 'cos we're not. You can't assume that we want to develop battle skills, and that we're lazy, negligent or stupid if we don't.

Sure I protect myself - with a valuable cargo I would sail with Storage R19. I don't spam Nanban trade just for cash. My bank account after 14 months play was only 240 mil. I'm not really interested in making billions, in the same way I'm not interested in grinding battle skills.

I've got limited time to play UWO. I'm not going to waste my time grinding battle skills when I want to use it on trading/ crafting skills. I don't even bother buying battle skills because I've got limited skill slots and I want to use those for adventuring, trading and crafting skills.

I've said in several posts I'm not against pirating. It has it's place.

But because you like PvP you expect me to like it too. It's your lack of empathy I find irritating. I'm trying to understand you but you refuse to understand how I want to play the game.

If you're gonna pirate, you've got to accept some of your targets will be people who've got no choice but to accept you beating-up on them.

So just do it with some care and respect for our feelings.

The Price of Piracy

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