Love the new movement range of the Pirate Vessel
Captain Black Henry Scarlett appears in several locations and can not be loaded onto existing ships (not a problem) if a particular ship is needed like the Flagship
IMOP the coast battery type (defensive unit) should be able to load/unload on some kind of ship but have no movement points because they would be a fixed asset How would you place them in the fortress adjacent to your city?
The Reef idea is good but I think more shipping lanes and have them intersect here and there. This so the Europeans/Pirates can evade pursuers and also have a path that might not have others traveling.
On Plagues it says max occurrence is 3, does that mean only 3 can happen or only 3 can happen to each player?
I still think Porto Bella should be moved to X:44,Y86. This allowing access to the West coast. Currently there are 6 Spanish cities having no reason to produce ships or others to feel they are worth sacking via land. Its anyones guess how any game will be played, options are always good option.
Portuguese
Questions:
The Tech; Naval Tactics, claims ocean squares can now be traversed? We now have shipping lanes. Is this line outdated?
English Frigate & Corvettes can traverse ocean squares
Coastal Batteries are seperate and unique units apart from aretillery. These are heavy guns designed for fortresses. They are auto produced by the coastal fortress within the city, and are only available to europeans. Coastal batteries are upgradable. Pirates have pirate batteries (artillery) these are lighter guns and are buildable. They will require a seperate tech in order to be built. (not in the game yet). They can be moved, loaded and unloaded, but are not upgradable. Europeans also have cannons that are buildable and mortors., also not upgradable. I believe I explained the reasoning behind this in an earlier post.
Ah yes the captain, this is another unit that will be auto-produced using the captains quarters. I need to do some research or should I say go back and recheck my research. I have to compile a list of pirate captain names and insert them in the editor under each pirate civ under the leader names. Captains will be upgradable to pirate captains. Anyone want to suggest some names? we'll need about 15 - 20 for each pirate civ.
Trade routes. There are three routes. The important thing to remember is that trading vessels can not END their turn in an ocean tile, that does NOT mean they can't TRAVERSE ocean tiles. SO, yes the travers ocean in Naval tactics will be removed. All war ships do NOT sink in ocean tiles. IMPORTANT FACTOR: The AI has a great advantage over the human player. THE AI KNOWS WHERE EVERY UNIT ON THE MAP IS, BOTH FRIENDLY AND ENEMY UNITS. EVEN INVISIBLE UNITS, STEALTH AND HIDDEN NATIONALITY MEAN NOTHING TO THE AI. This gives the AI a distinct advantage. There is NO surprise attack against the AI. This game is designed as a multi player game and with all human players, no one will have that advantage. SO, hidden nationality, stealth and invisible units give a distinct advantage.
Plagues: they are set at three occurrances meaning three total. This can be easily changes if desired.
Regarding Porto Bella: Or more importantly Santa Cruz, San Salvador and the other pacific colonies. These are treasure producing coloniesw and far from being unimportant, they are very important. Not only do they produce treasure, they must transport their treasure to colonies on the eastern shores for transport to the old world. This does three things. 1. these land transported treasure caravans are more vulnerable and must be escorted by troops or risk being lost. 2. troops that do escort duty are not defending the colonies making them more vulnerable and the europeans will have to produce more land forces and balance their building of units more carefully. 3. gulf coast colonies become more important and must be protected with heavy defenses or lost. This is especially important to spain and will become more important to the other europeans when they begin to expand their colonies.
For now Porta Bella remains where it is until I see how these strategic principals work in actual game play. I am keeping notes on all these ideas, opinions and recommendations so keep them coming, and especially keep me posted on actual game play. Give me screen shots of your progess so I can evaluate what is happening. You are all doing a fine job and providing me with excellent intel. I applaud all your efforts and look forward to making this an excellent scenario. I have put almost everything on the back burner until this is completed.
I need to fix that. Coastal batteries are auto produced. I'll make a seperate coastal fortress for pirates. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
