there is the idea of the merchant code, point your cannons towards the sky to show your friendly.
But I feel we should also have a visual aid. The ability to fly certain flags from the mast. You can pick the 3 guilds (and guilds of any added later) or a unique one made with simple options like from viva pinata.
The "identity" flags would fly from forward and rear mast on the galleon (unsure where on the sloop) but the main center mast, would show the aggression flag. You can choose to have it a preset color for how you want to be viewed/your attitude to/from others.
White would be truce, Red would be aggressive, and maybe other colors like green for helpful, blue for escort, ect ect.
keep in mind that if you attack a ship with no provocation, your flag might turn to red, and there would be no way to change it, unless going to port and paying a large sum of money, or scuttling the ship. These aggression flags would also be different shapes, have the banner like triangle for peaceful attitudes, and square flags for the more aggressive.
Flag of Truce
@kahann Not too well known, but if a ship recently sinks another, the top white flag goes black. Not that I would know anything about that... wink-wink. After Awhile it does go white again.
I like the idea in general, but not the automated changing of colors. Atleast not without a bounty system in the game.
There is no reason for automated changing of colors, it'll rather lead to issues. What if I'm a merchant and suddenly get attacked. I shoot back, sink the ship and now I'm sailing the seas as a merchant with a red flag, and everyone who is looking for PvP starts targeting me. Even if the red flag disappears after a few minutes, depending on where you are this might lead to you being chased with your cargo...
@neminati but that's the thing, that is based solely on sinking. not if its been sunk defensively or if they opened fired first
@thetimmaeh if you get attacked first, then it wont tag you as aggressive.
think of it like this, shooting your cannons near another ship puts a marker on your ship, if that cannon ball hits another ship, that marker changes to aggressive.if that cannon ball hits another ship with a marker on it, it stays as its previous state. the marker on your ship last x amount of time.
@kahann Don't get me wrong, I do like your idea. IMO, once you get black flags you should stay black until sunk.
@neminati but as you said, yours was a defensive sink, you shouldnt have a target placed on your sails because you were trying to survive
