Ideas for a challenge?

[loki59]

Let's hear your ideas for a challenge. My Idea.
Difficulty- Adventurer? I think swashbuckler and even rogue are to hard for those that are new to the game, where as apprentice and journeyman are much to easy . Starting Era- 1620? Only 32 towns so you have to do a little more sailing. Any special skill you want. Start with Spain? You start with Pinnace, 20 crew, 500 gold and 14 tons food. Obviously no trainers allowed and maybe install patch for the competition to even the field. Special name to be anounced prior to start of competition.
First objective- Attain rank of Major with all 4 nations. First to do so in "game time" receives XXX gold.
Second objective- Attain rank of Admiral with all 4 nations. first = XXX gold.
Third Objective- Rank of Count. XXX gold.
And fourth objective- Rank of Duke. XXX gold.
These first four could each be run over a two week? period. At the end of each leg submit screen shots and maybe highlights/lowlights of your exploits.
The final challenge will be the first to capture a Ship of the Line and equip it with all upgrades and specialists. First Place XXXX gold. Second Place XXX gold. Third place XX gold. I have approx. 3500 gold to donate for prize money to get started.

[Tom Pullings]

Loki: great idea for a topic. I hope there is a lot of interest. If we get some discussion going, I think we could design several great challenges. Here is another idea. I like your concept of engaging as many people on all levels as possible.

Pirate Pentathlon (pick your level and compete by level at retirement):

1. Retire by age 50 (45, 55?) as governor (or with all 126 points, but see below, maybe keep this part simple);

2. With all items;

3. A very happy crew;

4. Be marooned at least once (keeps it interesting, discourages elitism and finally gives some value to those stupid signaling mirrors and flares);

5. After that, the most dollars after retirement wins. This might even allow some competition across levels, I am not sure. Because of the way plunder is divided, there would be advantages at the higher levels to balance the disadvantages.

Pirate Decathlon (combine the list above with the following, perhaps by continuing the game as necessary from the last save before retirement above):

6. Collect 126 points (if not part of the list above; if 126 points is included in "pentathlon" above, perhaps substitute capture of the Treasure Fleet - it always disappoints me that this is not a bigger deal, the gold you get never justifies all the build up by the barmaids);

7. Capture a SOTL (for those keen on this, it could be a mini-event to capture a full fleet or the largest number - for bragging rights or a separate prize);

8. Escape from prison and sneak to the Governor's Mansion and the Tavern (each at least once - those who actually like this and want a mini-event for bragging rights or extra gold could do the entire romance quest by sneaking - this is do-able, though you must maintain a hostile but not two hostile city to make it work; when things are out of balance the governor greets you and says good-bye without introducing you to his daughter);

9. Eliminate a nation (or two, or three) by changing governors of all its/their cities (works in the land battle mini game);

10. Achieve first rank among listed pirates in all categories, including ships captured (requires going after Morgan asap or its hopeless).

Winner for decathlon could be by level, first to finish (youngest age in game time), and/or by most gold (plundered on first status screen or pirate screen, or after retirement as above).

There would have to be some agreement about reloads (perhaps none except to escape technical glitches) and patch/no patch, and what screen saves to require - ultimately there must be some honor among pirates.

If the rules are worked out, it might work best to try leaving the contest open for a month or two with the idea that people would post their results as they finished and be free to start another game and try to do better. Bragging and hint sharing as the games progress. Especially with the last five above, strategy would be important, but the idea is to allow choice of strategy and wide participation by beginners and old hands (get Rupert and Headrock, et al, to show us how its done)

Live the life.

[Howie]

Sounds like some good ideas.

I don't have any of my own right now, but If I can help out with making the challenge thread a sticky or the awarding of prizes then let me know.
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[brandyblue]

The only problem I see with Loki's suggestion is that it is too easy to score points with all four powers if you find a pirate base. Just go right in and suggest that the pirates attack somewhere, then come out again and sink or capture them. Makes all four nations happy. You can do the same thing with Indian villages. This means that the winner will almost certainly be the first to find an Indian village or pirate base. That means there is too much luck involved. Perhaps the patch Loki suggests could deal with that problem. The patch should also make sure that you can't just keep recapturing the same town every turn and give it to another nation.

[loki59]

Hi Brandy,
Ye make a couple o fine points thar. Perhaps we could limit attacks on Pirates to only the "Named Pirates" and leave the Indians alone. The Patch would solve the problem of continually attacking a single city to gain rank with their enemies. We need more suggestions such as these from the rest of the group if were to get something fun going that all can join in on.

[brandyblue]

I had a couple more thoughts about Loki's competition while I was at work, and should have been thinking about something else.

I think that a promotion based competition is a great idea, but you should leave out the final challenge -the pimped ship of the line. Firstly, there is too much luck about finding ships of the line. Maybe if you gava a bonus to the first to get one it would be okay. But the main part of a stage of a contest should not be so dependent on luck. Anyway, the goal of this contest is to make nice so everyone will like and promote you. But ships of the line are easiest to find if you make someone really really hate you. I think maybe you could have another competition in which the goal is to get the highest price on your head within a time limit , with bonus points if you catch a ship of the line.

[loki59]

Tsk Tsk brandyblue, keep your mind on your work Have you got your game running yet? When you do, I think you'll find that the only luck that plays a part in getting a Ship of the Line is bieng in the right place at the right time. Like you said, all you have to do is get someone (other than Spain) mad enough at you and they'll send out SotL quite often. I've captured as many as 27 in a 20 year time span in one game. Though admittedly this doesn't happen early in the game. The reason I suggested it as part of the challenge is because of the number of posts I've read from people who have never captured or even seen one, and chances are better for getting them latter in the game.

[brandyblue]

Ok Loki. I have only seen one ship of the line. Sounds like I need to brush up on my hunting skills. I bow to your superior SotL knowledge.

Since you are kind enough to ask, my pirates are still grounded. I dare not use a downloadable directx fix because I don't know how safe they are. I do not want to have to reinstall the OS and lose everything. I share the computer with three other people, and there would definitely be a mutiny. I don't want to end my life marooned like Gilligan. Maybe some day I can get my hands on one of those memory stick things and back up all the data. Then I might take the risk.

[loki59]

Ahhhh! To live the life of "Gilligan" eatin coconut cream pies made by " MaryAnne" all day. Anyway is there no other computer you can try the install on available to you? I mean just to try out. Since you've already had it going on that computer, has the disk gotten scratched since then? Have you tried cleaning it? Just stinks you can't get it going.

[brandyblue]

I don't have access to anything that would do the job except at work. Well ... somehow not a good idea. Luckily, I do have access to a laptop that has Medieval Total War, so I'm not exactly deprived. Plus I just can't keep up with all the reading I want to do. Losing the pirate experience would be a lot more important if I had the time to play anyway! We have a 14 month old baby, so that's where all the time goes. I'm plundering diapers, not galleons.

[Tom Pullings]

I like the highest price on your head idea.

[golden_abyss]

errrrm


must be pure pirate
only allowed to dock at pirate havens
no special items allowed
special skill must be wit and charm why? no advantage
rogue-pirates sunset
must atack all nations
never attack any pirates including famous pirates
no attacking indians
always attack peace treaty ships
never attack transporting guvnor ships
never attack ships carrying war treaty
no goin on land for digging trasure up
no finding family

this is pure gold the person with the most gold in the shortest time wins
id say 10 years is enough yes

edit: no repairing your ship this means no upgrades because its not forever so each time ship to damaged ye gona have to geta new one in battle
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the ship slowly sank to that dark abyss an when it hits the bottom it a lightens with the gold of a thousand years of piracy the dark abyss shines ever so brightley yet so out of reach.

* "The Beauty of the Golden Abyss" *

[Roland]

I like golden_abyss's pure pirate proposal, for the most part. But I think the prohibition against repairing your ship is going too far. There's nothing especially piratey about it, and repairs will already be very expensive since you can't get promoted and order the shipwright in a friendly port to repair it for free. Moreover, I don't see any way to enforce it, since repairs don't appear on your captain's log.

Likewise, I don't see a way to enforce the requirement to "always attack peace treaty ships." Even if you tried to attack them all, those Mail Runners would outrun most pirate ships.

On the other hand, I don't see the point of never attacking ships transporting governors. Attacking a governor would be a very piratey thing to do!

Otherwise, I like the pure pirate proposal and would probably give it a try.

[loki59]

I like the pure pirate idea as well. I think we would need a minimum of 6 contestants, more would be better. If we could get a few more replies and come to an agreement on the rules we could get it going. I don't have a problem with Rogue, but as I stated earlier it may discourage new comers to the game. Also, and I may be wrong about this, but I don't recall ever running into a ship delivering a peace treaty or ultimatum unless I was asked to escort the ship by a Governor and either accepted or declined. If so, and we only go to Pirate havens it shouldn't happen. You're right about the repairs, once your sails or hull are to damaged or you run out of cannons, you'd be out of it.

[loki59]

Hey Mr Pullings,
I'm kinda partial to that idea to.