[Idea] Piracy Events, Promotions and Trade Missions

I have been playing around a bit with Privateers and I really like them early on but I feel the concept could be expanded quite a bit. Now keep in mind Im no modder and this is why I share this concept rather than doing it myself.

Also Im thinking about all those vacant Galleons, what about if you could send them on trade missions that gives a few gold and of course it can be hijacked and earn you gold

First off, Im thinking about promotions/abilities for the Privateers.

"Passive ability: If Privateer ends it turns next to a land containing forest or jungle, it will be invisible to all other Civs and fully able to heal."
This because that enemy ships can kill your Privateers even in your own ports currently. Also adds a flavour of "Pirate-zones".

Promotions:
(names are placeholders)

Available after Combat I:

* Manuevering: +25% Strength vs. Frigates.
* Sneaky Tactics: +25% vs. Ship of The Line.
* Ransacking: +25% vs. Galleons.
* Like Minds: +25% vs. Privateers.

These three promotions allow for some "Combined arms" amongst Privateers, rewarding a player for keeping them alive and making them actually stand a chance against other ships. Let's face it, even if you get a Privateer to Combat III it won't stand a chance against a Frigate.

* Looting: Small chance that you will earn gold from sinking enemy ships.

Random Events:

Your Privateer have encountered a Royal Treasure Transport, the Russian Galleon is full of gold!

*Contact Russia and say that you have captured a Privateer with Russian stamped gold. (+2 Reputation with Russia)

*Share the gold with your Privateer. (You recieve (0,5*x) gold and your Privateer recieves 10 experience)

*Expand your Privateer-fleet and invest in Piracy further. (Your Privateer recieves 4 experience all Privateers will now start with Combat I promotion)

*Thank you, we are rich! (You get x gold)


Watching the mighty Russian Frigate sink you captain decides it was his last prey and decides to settle on land for the rest of his life. Allthough still in your service he will provide new Privateer units with +2 experience build in his choice of city.

*Blackbeard settles in Bejing (Privateers built in city Bejing will recieve + 2 experience)

*Blackbeard settles in Shanghai(Privateers built in city Shanghai will recieve + 2 experience)

*Blackbeard settles in Nanjing(Privateers built in city Nanjing will recieve + 2 experience)

Your Privateer manages to take the enemy vessel by surprise and thus it remains unharmed and the expert cannoneers will be enslaved and the equipment and cargo will be "salvaged".

*Your Privateer now got new cannons, cannoneers, sails and a reinforced hull and stories will be written about this fearsome and magnificent boat. (Your Privateer gains +2 strength, +50% attack against Frigates and +2 movement points)



Now these are all just suggestions and ideas, none of these numbers needs to be exact, it it just to give you a general idea allthough I think it actually is a challenge to keep your Privateers alive so thus they should be rewarded for it.

Last of all I came to think of a National Wonder:

Free Trade Zone
*This city gains two addition al traderoutes and can have traderoutes with any Civ.
*All Privateer units can safely harbour here.
*This city gains +100% when constructing Privateers.

This is very good idea. Promotions against one specific Naval unit are, I think, too powerful, but I especially like the ideas of "Royal Treasure Transport" random event and "Free Trade Zone" national wonder.

Pikkis said:

This is very good idea. Promotions against one specific Naval unit are, I think, too powerful, but I especially like the ideas of "Royal Treasure Transport" random event and "Free Trade Zone" national wonder.

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Thanks.
The numbers does by no means need to be final, it needs to be balanced of course. About the promotions, I was just thinking that veteran Privateers should get some fancy stuff considering how hard it is to keep them alive. After all, this will not help much when fighting stacks of different boats.

I agree with this idea completely! The more ways you can be aggressive whilst still being "at peace" the better. It's the same as spies (until they're caught, that is).

Just too bad noone with modding capabilities seems interested.

Needs another promotion:

After Combat II, maybe?

Capture: When this unit destroys another unit in combat, it creates a copy of itself.

I feel instead of creating a copy of itself, the defeated ship converts to your civ, keeps its strength, movement and promotions, and now is considered a Privateer in your service.

Darque said:

I feel instead of creating a copy of itself, the defeated ship converts to your civ, keeps its strength, movement and promotions, and now is considered a Privateer in your service.

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Well if you can give it a "privateer" flag, then sure. That would be cooler.

hehe...Civ Pirates! =)

Seras said:

hehe...Civ Pirates! =)

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Yeah, we could call it Sid Meier's Pirates! ...oh wait.

Hehe, thanks for the thread necromancy. Seems to be no modders interested though
These are all just concepts I came up with during a MP game where I techraced and then controlled the sea with Privateers. Concepts yes, meaning you can freely modify these ideas to your likings. Im no modder myself so I don't have the knowledge to pull this off.

Interesting ideas. I was going to add something similar (events/promotions) to my mod.

How about quest where you'll have to locate hidden pirate treasure and there would be barbarian pirates with privateers defending it?

Zappara, feel free to take and modify the ideas to your likings. The treasure event sounds like fun. Hehe, maybe you can add a legendary pirate ship in that quest with boosted stats, giving you the treasure if you manage to sink it.

Darque said:

I feel instead of creating a copy of itself, the defeated ship converts to your civ, keeps its strength, movement and promotions, and now is considered a Privateer in your service.

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Sounds like a good idea... I have modding experience, but not for this game.

Good ideas indeed.

Out of interest, do you actually get Privateers that are genuinely Barbarian? I know these wouldn't technically be privateers, more pirates, but I'm referring to the Unit itself.

I've seen Barbarian galleys and caravels...

Uberfrog said:

Good ideas indeed.

Out of interest, do you actually get Privateers that are genuinely Barbarian? I know these wouldn't technically be privateers, more pirates, but I'm referring to the Unit itself.

I've seen Barbarian galleys and caravels...

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I once saw a barbarian privateer, but I think that is the way privateers are seen ("flaged") to the civs (other than the owner, of course).

Uberfrog said:

Out of interest, do you actually get Privateers that are genuinely Barbarian? I know these wouldn't technically be privateers, more pirates, but I'm referring to the Unit itself.

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I believe you have to mod that in, in fact I think it's one of the first things I did for my 'personal mod'. Otherwise every 'barbarian' privateer you see is just another civ's unit with the hiden nationality effect

well in fall from heaven 2 they have a hidden nationality promotion couldn't u make it so all privateers get that? and capture could make the privateer add the promotion to the ship it took? would this be too hard it's already coded in fall from heaven so couldn't u just take it from that mod?

Farmer Bobathan said:

well in fall from heaven 2 they have a hidden nationality promotion couldn't u make it so all privateers get that? and capture could make the privateer add the promotion to the ship it took? would this be too hard it's already coded in fall from heaven so couldn't u just take it from that mod?

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To reverse engineer someones mod is not very polite (I mean without the mod's team giving aproval to it), I have done that but never released something with reverse engineered features (well, once, but the source code was "open").

I'm looking forward to start modding Civ, but have no time.

Kael said that people are allowed and encouraged to use his mod to make modmods but not sure if this includes reverse engineering...
Someone get him here to tell if it's allowed