Infamy System
3 Factions:
- Pirates (Highest bonus, Highest Risk)
- Neutrals (No Bonus, Risk only from lower level infamous Pirates)
- Pirate Hunters (2nd Highest Bonus, Can only kill pirates, Higher risk of being killed by pirates)
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Pirates
This faction would be the most sought after faction as the bonuses of being a top ranking pirate comes with great bonuses. Kill or be killed. You are the lowest of the low and the most dangerous of them all. You will receive great rewards, but you also stand to lose it all.
Bonuses:
- Bonuses to loots captured and turned in from other players. (any)
- Access to an exclusive infamous outpost/missions.
- Rare Pirate Gear
- Rare Pirate Liveries for Ships and Players (Different ship looks, different clothing, etc)
- Rare Pirate Titles
How it would work:
However, with great rewards comes great risk. You will have bounties placed on your head, and the pirate hunters will be looking to kill you. And should you die, you will lose the most out of the 3 factions. The bounty will be a percentage of your gold accrued. And you will lose more based on how infamous you are. This can also be tied to the person that managed to kill the pirate. If he was killed by a neutral, the penalty will not be as severe, but if the Pirate is killed by a Pirate Hunter. Their loss will be linked to the renown of the pirate hunter. This is something that will obviously need some tweaking to be fair, but we want this faction to be risky to play!
How do you get infamous?
Well that’s easy. You kill everyone. Neutrals, Pirate Hunters, other Pirates. You want to be the number one? You gotta earn your way there. The most amount of Infamy will be gained by killing Pirate Hunters and other Pirates. Killing Neutrals will only give you diminishing returns until such a point where it will actually harm your infamy from killing them. What would the great and famous pirate be doing killing the lowly peasant? It would be looked down upon even by other pirates… but every pirate has to start somewhere.
Neutrals
These are you run of the mill players. Only looking to score the next chest or explore the next island. They aren’t really interested in Naval combat and they just kind of want to play the game in their own little bubble. But hey, this is a pirating game. So you are not without danger! Killing you may make someone infamous one day.
Bonuses:
- Bonuses of finding chests on islands and turning them in.
- Bonuses to exploration
- Commoners Clothing
- Commoners Titles
- Commoners Liveries.
How it would work:
Everyone starts off as being neutral. As part of the neutral faction, you get no bonuses killing anyone and stealing their booty at first. If you do it too much, you risk becoming infamous and risking your fortunes as listed above becoming a pirate. Killing a pirate hunter makes you instantly become infamous. Killing other neutrals will increase your infamy. And killing a pirate will start your journey on becoming a pirate hunter.
There would be certain ranks of infamous pirates that could still kill you to get more infamous, but once they reach a certain level, it would actually be damaging to kill you.
If a pirate hunter kills you, they take a huge hit to their reputation and risk becoming infamous.
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Pirate Hunters
You are the protectors of the sea, the neutrals and your own kind. Keeping the sea a safe place of adventure and to kill yourself some pirates and claim their stolen prizes as your own. It is your duty to keep the pirates in line.
Bonuses:
- Bonus to chests retrieved from pirates
- Bonus to chests found on islands.
- Bonus to exploration
- Pirate Hunter Clothing
- Pirate Hunter Liveries
- Pirate Hunter Titles
How it would work:
Kill pirates. Take back their stolen loot and return it to port for a reward. You need to protect the neutrals, and make sure they do not come to harm. Should you kill a neutral, you will take a huge hit to your reputation and risk becoming infamous, (Unless they attacked you first of course). The more infamous the pirate you manage to take down, the more famous and higher the bonuses you will receive. However, if you get killed by an infamous pirate or a neutral, you will lose some of your reputation as well. Not as much as being infamous, but it should still be a slight risk vs reward here as well.
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In each of these cases, in PVP, the amount of famous/infamy you get should be determined by the reputation of the person you killed.
For example.
A neutral player kills another neutral player, he comes slightly infamous. He kills another, he gets more infamous.
If a neutral player kills an infamous pirate, he gains some fame.
If a neutral player kills a pirate hunter, he gains a lot of infamy.
If a pirate kills a neutral, he gains some infamy with diminishing returns based on his infamy level making it pointless to keep killing them.
If a pirate kills another pirate, he gains a moderate amount of infamy based on his enemies infamy.
If a pirate kills a pirate hunter, he gains a large amount of infamy based on the pirate hunters fame.
If a pirate hunter kills a neutral player, he loses a large amount of fame.
If a pirate hunter kills another pirate hunter, he loses a large amount of fame based on the other pirate hunters fame.
If a pirate hunter kills another pirate, he gains a large amount of fame based on the pirates infamy.
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These are all my preliminary thoughts on this system, I’m sure there are huge flaws, but I think it would be an interested system to build on.
