If you wanted to grab a hostage the captain of your crew would have to sneak up behind the Target and toggle a hostage option which would then put the hostage in the enemy Brig. However as a hostage they can lock pick their way out and into enemy supplies. the lock would reapply itself after 20 seconds of non use.
Benefits of having the hostage is removing competition from enemy crew
downside with hostage is you better be careful who you capture you never know how skilled they might be and if they already escaped
System would only work on a captain ship.
Buying locks from the shipwright and lock picks from the Smugglers. Lock picks will be consumable and finite.
Captain ships have the ability to lock their supply crates to enemy Crews but are able to freely access their own. Any crew can lock pick but only captains can have hostages. This also would not work in hourglass for the sake of it being abused and because who's going to be stupid enough to have an enemy on their ship that could easily kill them
Hostage and lockpicking system
@acnologia1403
This just turns into forced downtime and griefing. Getting brigged as a “hostage” isn’t gameplay, it’s being sidelined while the other crew plays. Sneak up + button press to remove someone from a fight is busted and has basically zero counterplay. Add in locks, lockpicks, captain-only rules, and it’s way too much system bloat for something that’ll be abused nonstop. Cool idea on paper, unfun in realityThis is one of those mechanics that hurt you as well though. If I kidnap someone, their crew is a member down. Since this person has a chance to escape, then I lose a member of my crew that's now watching them. I'm also "pretty sure" the kidnapped person won't be saying certain words or blasting things into their mic, right?
If I'm able to be on the same island they're at without them knowing it, I'm already sinking their ship and collecting whatever they have, without the risk of someone being on my ship or annoying us.
In general, a big rule of game design is to limit effects like stun, sleep, binds etc. Players do not like to lose control of their character and will leave to join a new server quickly if they have to do so for an extended period of time. In larger ships, a bilge will very likely be the one to monitor this captured player and once there's a sign of them lock picking they will easily be dispatched (dead) or intervened by blunder bombs. The risk trade off is nearly non-existent.
@rare-jumbie said in Hostage and lockpicking system:
In general, a big rule of game design is to limit effects like stun, sleep, binds etc. Players do not like to lose control of their character and will leave to join a new server quickly if they have to do so for an extended period of time.
This only works in Roleplay environments, it is absolutely disgusting to experience outside of that. In my opinion it is also very easy to implement, so it is a mark of lazy development practices. In SoT's case, it would just be a GamePlayEffect..
