Flotillas and Taking Prizes

Flotilla Basics

The plan now is to add a pretty fun feature called Flotillas.  These will be AI ships owned by the player, which follow the player around.  Effectively these allow the player to lead their own mini fleet.  This can be a force multiplier for players who wish to play solo, as well as allow for much larger squadrons of players. 

The entire feature isn't planned out yet, but the idea now is that the number of flotilla ships a player can control will be based on their Command skill level.  Maxing out at around 3 AI ships. 

Taking Prizes

This feature will also be the key for capturing ships.  There has been a plan to add boarding enemy ships, but without a way to take control of the ship the only options from a successful boarding would be to take the cargo and release the ship or scuttle the ship.  I wasn't happy with this, because historically boarded ships were often taken as a prize. 

So the plan now will be that flotilla AI ships will need to be ships the player's character has sufficient skills to operate themselves.  Bonuses from the character's skills will not be applied to flotilla ships (so they will operate like all AI ships as if they have no skills).  A boarded ship taken as a prize will follow the same rules.  Once successfully boarded you will get several options:

• Take any/all cargo and fittings
• Release the ship
• Scuttle the ship
• Take as a prize

To take a ship as a prize requires the player's character to have skills to operate that ship.  All surviving crew will be pressed into your service.  I'm probably going to include an option to transfer crew at this point to/from the prize ship.  Any fittings which the player's character does not have skills for will be transferred to the ship's cargo.  For example, if you take a prize ship with guns you don't have skills for, they will be removed from the ship's fittings and end up in the cargo hold.  The prize ship then gets added to your flotilla.  You won't be able to take a prize ship if it would exceed your flotilla limit. 

More Flotilla Stuff

Flotillas will not allow the player to directly control the ships, but will allow some general orders, such as to follow you or attack enemies.  Otherwise the ships will generally run themselves like any other AI ship.  They will need to be fed with ammunition, and can be sunk, like any other ship.  When the player joins a squadron with other players, flotilla ships will also join the squadron. 

Flotillas can be used in a variety of ways.  Certain ship types are not recommended to sail solo.  The most obvious examples are Carracks which lack the firepower to defend themselves and often carry a large amount of valuable cargo, and Ships of the Line which are vulnerable to swarms of smaller vessels.  A flotilla makes these ships more practical for solo players. 

You can sail a Carrack full of cargo and have several Frigates or Corvettes in your flotilla as escort.  Or you sail one of the Frigates and let the AI play online trucker simulator with the Carrack.  Similarly you can sail your Ship of the Line with Frigate and Corvette escorts.  When capturing of cities is eventually added, I imagine flotillas full of Gunboats (such as Ironclads) will be popular for their defense. 

One additional benefit of a flotilla is when sailing solo and your ship is sunk, you get placed into a dinghy and must return to a city to grab a real ship.  Instead you will be transferred to another ship in your flotilla if available.  This helps you stay in the fight longer, and allows the possibility of scooping up your own loot. 

Well, I'm pretty excited about this feature, and expect to have it implemented within the next month or two after the nationality system.  I'm hoping this helps Broadside: Perilous Waters stand out against other similar games.