The way nations perceive your actions upon firing on a ship/capturing a ship/sinking a ship should probably be completely rewritten so that:
- Characters with .professionalnavy AND/OR a LoM gain points as before, but only with their ServedNation AND all other nations that they have a LoM from
- Any other character does NOT gain positive relation points at all as they aren't licensed to commit acts of war, but DO gain negative points with the nation you fought with
- Pirate characters: Again no need to distinguish here. If you haven't officially joined them (e.g. no fake "LoM"), you gain no points with them but DO gain negative points with the other nations.
IDEA: DO improve your standings with the pirates, but not exceeding the limit where they stop being hostile, so that you can become friendly with them by acting like a pirate.
Once you're friendly, you can officially join them.
Extra things to figure out for Build 15:
- Prevent all merchant ships from firing on their enemies, unless they are actively being attacked.
For AI attackers, this information should be available. For player attackers, this should be based on who fires the first shot.
Needs to be figured out how to make this work in the game; probably wouldn't be that simple.
- Figure out how enemy navy ships should deal with enemy nation players who do not have a LoM and aren't a pirate (e.g. honest merchant folk).
This should probably be OK, but how to establish nation relations? Would the player gain negative relation points for defending him/herself?
- Characters with .professionalnavy AND/OR a LoM gain points as before, but only with their ServedNation AND all other nations that they have a LoM from
- Any other character does NOT gain positive relation points at all as they aren't licensed to commit acts of war, but DO gain negative points with the nation you fought with
- Pirate characters: Again no need to distinguish here. If you haven't officially joined them (e.g. no fake "LoM"), you gain no points with them but DO gain negative points with the other nations.
IDEA: DO improve your standings with the pirates, but not exceeding the limit where they stop being hostile, so that you can become friendly with them by acting like a pirate.
Once you're friendly, you can officially join them.
Maybe reduce the points scored if you have multiple LoM's? A single LoM is a way of patriotically serving your nation without submitting to the full rigour of navy discipline. Multiple LoM's are just a legal cover for piracy. The governor is still happy for you to attack ships belonging to his enemy but isn't as friendly to you as if you were dedicated to serving his nation.
Maybe try something like points * (1 - LoMs/10), only applied if LoMs > 1, so that:
2 -> points * 0.8; 3 -> points * 0.7; 4 -> points * 0.6; 5 -> points * 0.5; 6 -> points * 0.4
By the time you have 5 LoM's or more, about the only thing you can attack is pirates, which won't earn you many points anyway as they're only small ships. 4 LoM's is probably only viable in "Revolutions" - get them from France, Spain, Holland and America, then attack British ships. 3 LoM's is good in "Golden Age" or "Colonial Powers" - get them from Britain, Holland and Portugal, then both France and Spain are targets.
Also, lose your LoM and be branded a traitor if you attack a ship belonging to the nation which issued the LoM or any of its allies. That makes alliance distinctive from neutrality and also means anyone with multiple LoM's had better keep an eye on international relations, especially if they're variable. You're working for both Britain and Holland, Britain is at war with both Spain and France, Holland is at war with Spain but neutral to France, so you're OK to attack Spanish ships (gets you points from Britain and Holland) and French ships (only gets you points from Britain, Holland doesn't care). Holland allies with France - now if you sink or capture a French ship, Britain is happy but Holland strips you of your LoM. Problem: with multiple LoM's, your relations aren't tied to a nation's, so France still hates you and its warships will attack you. You're OK if you fire back and either knock down the French ship's mast so you can run away, or it surrenders and you leave it alone. You're only penalised for sinking or boarding it.
If a ship from an enemy navy attacks you, you should be allowed to defend yourself. Merchants just aren't allowed to initiate combat.
And someone somewhere is going to have to explain the details of international law to novice players! Governors can probably tell you what you can and can't do when you buy your LoM, the merchants' guild can explain it to you when you buy your merchant's licence, naval officers will probably need a briefing from the officer who greets them at the start of the game.
Extra things to figure out for Build 15:
- Prevent all merchant ships from firing on their enemies, unless they are actively being attacked.
For AI attackers, this information should be available. For player attackers, this should be based on who fires the first shot.
Needs to be figured out how to make this work in the game; probably wouldn't be that simple.
- Figure out how enemy navy ships should deal with enemy nation players who do not have a LoM and aren't a pirate (e.g. honest merchant folk).
This should probably be OK, but how to establish nation relations? Would the player gain negative relation points for defending him/herself?