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Commandeering ships

AuthorMessage
Gunner's Mate
Dec 26, 2013
214
There is a space exploration/combat/trading game called X:Beyond the Frontier and in this game there is ship-on-ship combat. Nothing like Pirate of course because it's spacecraft but there is one aspect of it that would translate to Pirate fairly well I think...
During combat you can see the health meter of the enemy ship similar to what we see in P101. In every combat there is a very narrow window of time, just before the enemy craft is destroyed, when the enemy pilot abandons ship. During this split second of time there is a chance you can gain control of the abandoned enemy ship. Of course it's damaged nearly to the point of being totally destroyed but if you can nurse it back to a port it can be repaired and added to your "fleet".
I've often thought it would be great if we could get our hands on some of the normally unavailable ships we see in our travels and this would be a way to do that. With P101 companions it would be easy enough to assign one of them to "Ferryin' " the ship to the nearest port. This could be like a normal companion assignment that would then render them unavailable for a period of time. Once they get the ship to port, a companion could be assigned to "Shipwrightin' " to make the ship seaworthy. Once the repairs are complete the ship would be bottled and added to your inventory and the companion would then be available for other duties. The ship would be in fully restored condition but would have no upgrades installed... no sails, no wheel, no rudder etc... these would have been destroyed in the combat and would need to be replaced. Other than that it would be ready for use or sale.

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
TucsonWizard on May 18, 2016 wrote:
There is a space exploration/combat/trading game called X:Beyond the Frontier and in this game there is ship-on-ship combat. Nothing like Pirate of course because it's spacecraft but there is one aspect of it that would translate to Pirate fairly well I think...
During combat you can see the health meter of the enemy ship similar to what we see in P101. In every combat there is a very narrow window of time, just before the enemy craft is destroyed, when the enemy pilot abandons ship. During this split second of time there is a chance you can gain control of the abandoned enemy ship. Of course it's damaged nearly to the point of being totally destroyed but if you can nurse it back to a port it can be repaired and added to your "fleet".
I've often thought it would be great if we could get our hands on some of the normally unavailable ships we see in our travels and this would be a way to do that. With P101 companions it would be easy enough to assign one of them to "Ferryin' " the ship to the nearest port. This could be like a normal companion assignment that would then render them unavailable for a period of time. Once they get the ship to port, a companion could be assigned to "Shipwrightin' " to make the ship seaworthy. Once the repairs are complete the ship would be bottled and added to your inventory and the companion would then be available for other duties. The ship would be in fully restored condition but would have no upgrades installed... no sails, no wheel, no rudder etc... these would have been destroyed in the combat and would need to be replaced. Other than that it would be ready for use or sale.
This is an interesting idea, and historically what pirates did when they defeated the defenders of a ship - took it over and if it was a better ship, it became theirs.
I wonder how it could be implemented ( you know, coding and stuff like that....)

Bosun
Apr 28, 2014
398
I like the idea, but then they need to make ship graveyard in houses much bigger, as they can only hold 5 ships if I remember right...

Pirate Overlord
Mar 10, 2009
6204
I love this idea and sure hope it can be implemented some day..................After storyline advancement of course.

Gunner's Mate
May 17, 2015
209
I like the idea but it could easily be abused

The vendors selling ships would be useless when you can just go steal one

Gunner's Mate
Dec 26, 2013
214
anecorbie on May 19, 2016 wrote:
This is an interesting idea, and historically what pirates did when they defeated the defenders of a ship - took it over and if it was a better ship, it became theirs.
I wonder how it could be implemented ( you know, coding and stuff like that....)
Yeah, the coding is the key... it's only a pipe dream and I doubt we'd ever see anything as intricate as that system is. This game isn't designed for it so it would have to be a very basic version of the mechanic for it to be feasible. X:BTF has a very heavy trade infrastructure that doesn't exist in this game. Autopilot, trade route waypoints, trade orders, automatic defensive settings and other more "space-like" functions are available that we don't have and obviously trade is not an activity we deal with in P101. Farming, Plunderin' and Scavengin' serve the same purpose as trading in P101 and it works fine. The commandeering of enemy ships is what I was going for.
I must say though, the idea of a P101 "type" game with an expanded playable trading system is something I find intriguing. I think a more serious pirate-based game designed to target an adult demographic could be a hot item what with pirates being right up there with zombies when it comes to current trends. I know it's been tried in the past but I don't know of anything recent that has taken advantage of the latest advances in graphic technologies and capabilities. A high end pirate game without all of the magic, animals and teleporting -
Red Dead Redemption at sea - that's what I want!

Pirate Overlord
Mar 16, 2012
10631
SpellBinder Darius on May 20, 2016 wrote:
I like the idea but it could easily be abused

The vendors selling ships would be useless when you can just go steal one
But, as TucsonWizard said, the ship is damaged and needs repairs - companions could be assigned "shipwrightin'", this could take a long time as with "keelhaulin'" which takes 24 hours.
I don't feel that "ferryin'" is necessary when we could just bottle the ship after commandeering it.
This would then leave it up to players - commandeer a wounded ship, taking time to do repairs ( 24 + hrs. ) or simply buy a new ship.
With so many impatient players, who do you think will actually take the time to commandeer?
Plus, you'll be sacrificing any scrip that may have dropped from the ship, if you had merely sunk it.
Also, another point in TucsonWizard's favor, these are ships that are not being sold by venders; for example under his suggestion, you could get a Red Sash or Bandittoad's vessel, instead of buying a Bison ship.

Gunner's Mate
Dec 26, 2013
214
SpellBinder Darius on May 20, 2016 wrote:
I like the idea but it could easily be abused

The vendors selling ships would be useless when you can just go steal one
It wouldn't be quite as easy as you make it sound. The chances were very, very slim and your timing had to be perfect. The most critical period was getting the ship to port without getting attacked again. At the point you gained control of it the ship was barely pilotable and had no remaining defensive capabilities... the slightest bit of damage was enough to destroy it completely. But, if you could manage to get it to port and get the repairs completed then you stood to make a tidy sum.
As far as ship vendors, there could be limitations set regarding which enemy ships were could be targeted for takeover. It could be limited to only the ships we can't normally obtain with either gold or Crowns... like the riverboats and barges in Cool Ranch and pontoon skiffs the Moles use or the Armada ships in the Mooshu-Marleybone stormgate.

Ensign
Mar 24, 2012
29
I agree. I'd love to get my hands on a Red Sash ship. Just think of it. If any of you producers are out there, please do this.