Forums » Suggestions

Privateering System

Jan 14, 2010 PaKettle link
Privateering / Letters of Mark for VO

Restricted to High Level Players - Combat 10
Restricted to Members in good standing - POS with issuing faction
Restricted to specific sectors such as local choke points.
Restricted to a single active letter per area.

Player receiving a Letter of Mark will be Authorised to collect "Taxes" for any non-faction ship entering sectors listed on letter.
Players with a Letter in operation will be marked in other players displays as a Tax Collector while in area.
Players having the letter will be immune from any penalties in thier assigned area.
Players will be allowed to retain 10 percent of Taxes Collected and any drops from ships.

Letter of mark will be lost If Player loses Standing or kills a paid Taxpayer.
Letter of mark will be lost if Player fails to collect a sufficient amount of Taxes.
Letters of mark will be limited in real time duration to prevent them from being held by inactive players. (30 days?)
Only 1 Letter of mark will be issued for an area by any 1 faction.
Letter of Mark will specify amount of tax to collect but ammount may change between letters.

Needs:
Official payment Demand function to ensure player actually is demanding payment.
Alteration of player display to indicate if player is acting in an official capacity.
Automatic removal of a percentage of payments received.

Additional possibilities:
Players equipped with a cargo scanner may "search" ships for "contraband" goods such as Serco goods in Itani Space or any other situation which may require constant policing.

Example: Uit issues a letter of mark for Dau L - 10 to collect 100k for each non-uit ship entering sector. Any ship failing to pay demanded sum maybe destroyed even when in NFZ with no faction loss. Privateer would lose letter if they attack a UIT ship or failed to collect enough "taxes" or after 30 realtime days or if they lose POS standing. UIT newbs would be exempt due to being UIT and would remain protected.

Corvus Faction Might issue a letter of mark for the odia Wormholes. Player holding the letter would keep a larger percentage then normal and receive special bonuses for repairs and purchases at Corvus stations.
Jan 14, 2010 peytros link
tl:dr

if you wanna be a pirate be a pirate no need to make this overly complicated system to get 10 percent rewards for people who have 13 gold bars.

oh also i now this is cleverly designed ploy for pos people to be able to kill others without taking a faction hit but srsly lrn2pirate
Jan 14, 2010 Snax_28 link
What the hell is with all the self righteous responses to suggestions these days? Seriously Pey, if tl:dr is your response to a (relatively) well formatted suggestion that consists of a series of single sentence bullet points... srsly lrn2spellnread n stuff.

I personally like this as a concept. Not sure about all the points though, POS for example. Privateering being what it is, I'm not sure the issuing nation, nor the character with POS standing, would sink low enough to ask of/offer that service. I might be mistaken, my knowledge of the history of privateering is a touch fuzzy.

If you were to remove Corvus from the mix, this is markedly different than pirates, simply due to the fact that there are national restrictions and benefits to the players actions. And as it should be. Pirates are beholden to none. Privateers, to their nation.

Anything that adds interesting layers of gameplay without sacrificing accessibility is good in my books. On that note, the idea might need some simplification to remain an mechanic that players of all levels and backgrounds can utilize.
Jan 14, 2010 PaKettle link
I know several rats which have a gold bar or two. Faction in this case would be any faction with a reason or grudge to collect from any other faction. Axia might give out a letter of mark to collect from any Valent ship within Arta or even any ship carrying Valent goods in UIT space.

A letter of mark might also be created for groups to search and detain various "criminals" or to collect heavy fines from other groups.

Once the basic mechanics are in place there is a very wide variety of targets to select from and add to the game.
Jan 14, 2010 Dr. Lecter link
First, restricting to POS is manifestly stupid. This is a combat oriented task, so making it dependent upon a massive trade acheivement is just silly. +990 or so? Sure.

Second, only issuing one LM per area at a time won't work, given the low player density.

Third, unless it's a LM for the subfaction's own station, I fail to see the need: I can kill all the Valent POS people in UIT monitored space that I want -- Valent doesn't care.

Fourth, this might be something the Serco would do, but it doesn't quite fit with either the UIT or the Itani's backstory.

Fifth, bring back Corvus pirate missions and we're pretty much done with your suggestion here, so far as Grey is concerned.
Jan 14, 2010 PaKettle link
Gee Lecter Dont you know POS can be acheived with only combat? All this time you been wasting in an xc....sad.

The point of the limits are to prevent abuse and keep the letters in competent hands. If you read the post the letters eliminate all penalties with in the limits of the LM. A very easy to abuse situation that needs to be started in a very restrictive manner so overly abusive letters never make it into the game in the first place. It is far easier to loosen the restrictions then to tighten them once they are in play.
Jan 14, 2010 Dr. Lecter link
I'm aware that it can be achieved by combat, and I'm also aware of how fucking rare that is.

Obviously the point of limits is to prevent abuse -- it's just that your particular limits won't work properly.
Jan 14, 2010 PaKettle link
And what will?
Jan 14, 2010 incarnate link
Interesting idea.

There's an existing, very old plan for 'letters of marque', which will not arrive until after we have dynamic warfare for minor factions. My intention was to use them more along the lines of their historical usage. I've mentioned it in some older newsposts, and occasional thread responses.
Jan 14, 2010 blood.thirsty link
And i suppose that if the "non uit victim" shoots back in nfz he would get pwnd by SF, or if the victim kills the "tax collector" he would suffer a major faction hit even if he's admired or POS himself with uit:

License to kill with no consequences for the perpretator congratz!

Griefers dreamed of it PaKettle did it!

Bleed well : )

EDITED:
In monitored or guarded space:
tax collector dies: he suffers a standing loss with his employer (go back to hauling stuff ye ninny! clause)
tax collector kills the victim he suffers a light standing loss with victim's faction (there are spies everywhere that can access monitored sector logs: word spread he's a baddie clause)
And killing is restricted to faction mentionned on the letter of mark, should teach em to read : p
Jan 14, 2010 PaKettle link
Never dealt with IRS huh? Talk about yer license to kill LOL

Its an Official Tax Blood.... Fighting back and not paying are both punishable offenses...sanctioned by the goverment.

The collector would be REQUIRED to Honor a payment and only get 10 percent.

Greifers usually do not have POS standings and the letters would be very limited in supply - only one in play for a given letter.

Incarnate - kewl beans - Might want to do a few test letters in the near future and see what kind of abuse/response they generate but no rush.
Jan 15, 2010 pirren link
good idea, but

Example: Uit issues a letter of mark for Dau L - 10 to collect 100k for each non-uit ship entering sector.... UIT newbs would be exempt due to being UIT and would remain protected.

Restrict marques to Serco or Itani. At least that's not rp wise to give UIT marques in yellow space and for yellow players. Dau is major trading hub in the known 'verse, don't forget it please. Nobody will trade with UIT if there'll be Dau privateers. But experimenting with Serco/Itani privateer marques sounds very interesting and promising ;)
Jan 15, 2010 blood.thirsty link
lol all ye want is to shoot other players with no standing loss risk in nation monitored space!

: )

bleed well

PS a letter of marque is certainly not a tax recovery, it is an act of war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privateer) against a foe that certainly does not recognize the right for ye to collect that money, plain and simple.
I maintain that if ye are uit and ye kill a serco/itani ye MUST have a faction hit with serco/itani in monitored space, cos if they kill you they will suffer the huge standing loss with uit.

(In fact ye shouldn't be allowed to engage a player that has at least respect standing with the faction ye are privateering for. And if you do so ye should get yer standing tanked cos yer letter of marque would be revoked)

If ye just want to implement customs taxes, don't call it privateering, cos it ain't : )
Jan 15, 2010 PaKettle link
Whatever we call it you want the right to shoot people in Dau for yourself.....

And yes it is a minor act of war.
Jan 15, 2010 MythOpus link
I think this would have the effect of encouraging players to stay within their own faction space or grey space which I think is a problem. I spend the majority of my time in Itani space (I'm UIT, with Itani POS). I mine for the majority of my time while online and my ore eventually finds its way sold to Itani stations. I don't think I should unrightfully taxed on top on top of that, since I won't be seeing a dime of that tax back.

I can see the need to keep "contraband" out of certain areas, but I think, especially the way the 'Verse is right now, stations are a decent distance away from eachother. I mean, Deneb is a few wormholes from the Capitol, and I'm sure Deneb Stations need certain supplies that are "easier" to obtain from Serco via traders. Keeping such supplies out of faction space completely might result in the metaphorical drying up of Itani stations on the outskirts of faction space, which would ultimately end in less control of a given factions borders. That is if we're looking at how it might have an effect on things if Vendetta Online were "real."

Given that it is just a game, I think my point still stands that it will eventually ruin gameplay if something like this was implemented.

Note: And given Itani and Serco are at war anyways, I don't think "letters of mark" would really be needed to kill members of the opposing side. If you just want money for killing enemies who are encroaching onto your territory, just implement a simple system of "You killed X amount of Enemy Players in space under or near our Control. Here is your payment."
Jan 16, 2010 blood.thirsty link
well PaKettle, i certainly kill any people i want in nation space, and i always pay the price for it, why don't ya?

: )
Jan 16, 2010 PaKettle link
The use of herbicides is not prohibited in Dau :P
Jan 16, 2010 blood.thirsty link
LMBO! For that ye would have to stop running away and fight hun : )
Jan 16, 2010 Alloh link
Note:

Letters of Marque is not full war state, as Itan-Serco. Read historical references, privateering is NOT pirating. Indeed, many privateers later became pirates, some got hang by their own nation for treason...

Indeed, it fits better on cold war state, as Axia-Valent. You get your vendetta without dirtying your hands... like ineubis disrupting Tunguska operations from the shadows...

I am prototyping something...
Jan 16, 2010 Dr. Lecter link
Letters of Marque is not full war state, as Itan-Serco. Read historical references, privateering is NOT pirating.

I am prototyping something...