Low Priority The Curse of Davy Jones

[Pieter Boelen]

Kind of tired, might have missed it in my skim, but has the idea been floated (heh heh) to play as Pre-curse Davy Jones? Like, the lead up as a mortal to him taking over as the big bad monster of myth? I think that would be a pretty sweet option. You wouldn't start with the Dutchman in this case, of course (although it would probably be pretty quickly if I remember his history right), but at least it would be able to have a storyline to it. And Calypso. Calypso kicks ass. Rallying the pirate brotherhood. Gathering the necessary magic widgets to trap her in her human form. Lots of good stuff there for possible use.

We haven't discussed that yet, because that would require some actual storyline content to be written which is definitely more time-consuming to do.
Would certainly add to the game though and if somebody would be willing to do it, I'd be happy to support that wherever necessary.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Simple "Curse of Davy Jones" is now added to this update: http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/build-14-beta-3-5-internal-wip-for-testing.24817

This needs testing and further development based on player feedback.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Has anyone gotten around to trying this yet? What changes still need to be made to make this fun and interesting?

 

[Levis]

Did someone test this already?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

This has been in the game now for well over a month. Has anyone tried playing as Davy Jones?
Does that seem like a potentially fun challenge or is it too evil/boring? If so, what ideas do you have to make it more reasonable and interesting?

 

[Pieter Boelen]

There has been absolutely zero feedback on this. If nobody cares to comment, we'll just include this as-is for the Beta 4 release.
Maybe some players "out there" will care to comment once they get to play like this.

 

[Grey Roger]

I thought perhaps Davy Jones' loophole of being allowed ashore once had been implemented. (Technically he's allowed ashore once every ten years - good luck playing long enough for that to matter. )

 

[Pieter Boelen]

I thought perhaps Davy Jones' loophole of being allowed ashore once had been implemented.

Nothing has been changed, no. Never really got all that much feedback on it from players plus no time to change it either.

Technically he's allowed ashore once every ten years - good luck playing long enough for that to matter.

And that is indeed the main reason why I'm not convinced that is worth bothering with.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

It is quite problematic to hold your crew together. If some die, it is quite difficult to get new ones. So maybe its possible to reduce the surrender-trigger for Davy Jones a bit, or give him a special abillity for instant boarding. Since Jones can do that in the movies too.

Capturing crew from enemy ships isn't enough then, is it?

I wonder if something can be done with Reputation and Fame affecting the surrender chances.
We've got some ideas in that direction, but aren't anywhere close to implementing them yet.

And.. shouldn't my crew be cursed? They are normal pirates at boardings.

The only curse for crew is currently the "Curse of Cortez" which is triggered by cursed coins.
For Davy Jones, really a different curse would be needed.

Maybe he could at least be set to visibly get those custom seaweedy skeleton models.

And my Davy Jones died after 1 hit.. thats a bit dumb for the Lord of the Seas.. I dont know if it would be too much effort for this, but it would be quite cool if you had the item "Heart of Davy Jones" at the beginning and as soon as you put it in any container you get immortal.

Maybe Davy should start the game with a higher starting level.
If players want to be immortal, they can use the cheatmode, of course; not sure if that should be included as part of regular play.

You do get the "Chest of Davy Jones" item, of course. But that is just a "flag" for the game to curse you.

Even better would then be if NPCs could be smart enough to actually looking for the heart

DIFFICUUUULT!

 

[Levis]

lol I now imagine a chest being spawned in every level by using the build set (which are actually characters) and this chest has hitpoints, as soon as the chest is killed you are killed also. Else you are just immortal.
It should be possible XD, but I'm not going to make it anytime soon I think.

 

[KillPhil]

Well 1) it is not that easy to capture a ship before I "accidentally" destroy it (I love those cannons).
2) If I board it, the crew fights and then there are only few men left.. here is the thing.. I mean.. you wouldn't fight Davy Jones in a boarding unless you are an indoctrinated navy soldier, would you?

Yes those greeny Skeletons would be enough - thats just an optical thing and it doesnt matter if your crew is actually cursed or not.

Can we add extra starting HP to specific characters? That would be enough I guess.

Yes, I know^^ but maybe it is possible to trigger it after some years that occasionally enemy captains have found it and then try to duel you.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

lol I now imagine a chest being spawned in every level by using the build set (which are actually characters) and this chest has hitpoints, as soon as the chest is killed you are killed also. Else you are just immortal.
It should be possible XD, but I'm not going to make it anytime soon I think.

But YOU would need to be ashore for anyone to attack the chest. And you can't get ashore.

1) it is not that easy to capture a ship before I "accidentally" destroy it (I love those cannons).

Fair point!

2) If I board it, the crew fights and then there are only few men left.. here is the thing.. I mean.. you wouldn't fight Davy Jones in a boarding unless you are an indoctrinated navy soldier, would you?

True. But if they all instantly surrender, what gameplay would there be?

Yes those greeny Skeletons would be enough - thats just an optical thing and it doesnt matter if your crew is actually cursed or not.

I think that's doable.

Can we add extra starting HP to specific characters? That would be enough I guess.

That should be relatively easy too.

 

[KillPhil]

any non navy-ship should at least have a huge morale drop if the Dutchman emerges right next to them

I think the kraken attack might really help here. After a kraken attack you get loaded to a shipdeck and one of your crewmember says "Capt'n - we have x survivors, the rest went into the beyond" and then you can choose if you take them all or take just some or kill all.
Dont know if it is possible this way

 

[Pieter Boelen]

any non navy-ship should at least have a huge morale drop if the Dutchman emerges right next to them

I think the reputation/fame thing should take care of that.
Hopefully. Eventually....

I think the kraken attack might really help here. After a kraken attack you get loaded to a shipdeck and one of your crewmember says "Capt'n - we have x survivors, the rest went into the beyond" and then you can choose if you take them all or take just some or kill all.
Dont know if it is possible this way

Theoretically possible. Somebody would need to find the time to do it though.

 

[KillPhil]

Well as long as this storyline gets no high priority - leave it. It would be a cool feature but even I dont play the Dutchman that much, and I think most of the others even less or not at all.
Only the surrendering should get a buff for Davy Jones tho, and it will be fine

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Well as long as this storyline gets no high priority - leave it.

It is just low priority because near as I know, virtually nobody plays it and there is quite a bit to be done on other things.

But since you ARE actually trying it now, I very much appreciate the feedback!
No guarantees on when something might happen, but when I do get round to doing something, it'll be good to know what changes would help to make it better.

Only the surrendering should get a buff for Davy Jones tho, and it will be fine

With a bit of luck, that will indeed happen the soonest as it can integrate well with a larger change that I've been wanting to make for a while.

 

[Levis]

with my new buff system its just matter of adding some simple lines to the startcase for davy jones. You can give him extra HP and even boost his skills if you want.
Adding some crew after the kraken attack should be simpel. having you pick from them would be harder ...

 

[Pieter Boelen]

with my new buff system its just matter of adding some simple lines to the startcase for davy jones. You can give him extra HP and even boost his skills if you want.

Why not just a simple HPbonus?

 

[Levis]

Why not just a simple HPbonus?

gives the same effect . the function would just call the HP bonus function eventually.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

gives the same effect . the function would just call the HP bonus function eventually.

What's the advantage of using the buff system instead?