Privateers, good idea, poor execution

[Wexu]

I think privateers should "steal" couple of gold coins from enemy's treasury every time they sink a enemy ship.

[Wulfram]

The problem with Privateers is that they should be there for preying on commercial shipping and Commercial shipping isn't represented in the game. The Privateer should enable you to steal Luxuries going between cities by sea perhaps?

[Nodens]

Has anyone seen an AI opponent crank out a privateer? I was thinking about cranking up the strength of the unit with CivEdit myself, but then thought it wouldn't be "fair" to do so if the AI never produced them.

And a capture option would be great for privateers! Or how about allowing them to effecively "disband" a defeated enemy ship and send the resulting shileds to your nearest city?

[MrBlud]

I love how trade is set up in Civ3, unfortunatly this totally destroyed what the Privateers needed to actually be functional. The only way I could see them being useful would be if you have them in front of an enemy harbor they would siphon off like 2 gold per turn or something.

[Zurai001]

Personally I made Privateers a 3/1/4, and gave Subs the privateer ability. After all, they don't exactly fly a flag, and the primary use for them in WW2 was to destroy shipping. I also boosted the sub's attack way up to give it a decent chance to sink anything if it attacked first - which is realistic. They still have their cruddy defense though.

[The Eliminator]

Privateers should be based on the Colonization model, just like Venger mentioned, you should capture cargo, and have the option to take the ship or burn it. Just like good 'ol Sir Francis Drake and the Brits did. If there is workers or settlers, you get them, if there is units, they are 'executed' or taken as slaves. I really liked MrBlud's idea about the gold. Get some gold if you burn the ship, or the ship if you choose not to destroy it.

Drake's forces ware a major reason why the Portugese, and especially the Spanish couldn't cut the mustard in the mid Atlantic. The ships should have a decent attack, and a good defence - they were fast, highly manoeuverable, and heavily armed smaller ships, who more often than not traveled in loose wolf packs.

As Venger said, "a KICK A$$ concept. Just done as poorly as possible."

[The Eliminator]

Cool idea about the subs Zurai001, but it lacks in realism. If there were subs out preying on shipping nowadays, everyone would know that it was either the British or the Yanks! No one else has subs; well, Canada has one, and the Russians...well......glub-glub.

[Wolfshanze]

Fascist Patch fixes Privateers

Okay folks... I addressed the naval issue in the Fascist Patch.

The problem with just bumping up the Privateer to a "2" attack strength is that it becomes as powerful as a Frigate, which isn't right at all... futhermore, most of the "Age of Sail" units are a little funny anyways, so a total revamp of the naval units needed to be done.

I kept everything in perspective, so you won't find odd things (like a Galley sinking a Frigate), everything works the way it should... a Privateer, can sink most transport/early type ships with ease, such as Galleys and Caravels, but will have a hard time against Galleons, and especially Frigates.

Check out version 1.2 of the Fascist Patch in the files section... oh, and of course the government type of Fascism becomes available too!

[Zurai001]

Actually, most countries that have a modern navy have subs. Mostly though I gave them the hidden nationality flag not for historically accurate reasons but to close some upgrade chains. Basically I went through and made it so that, resources aside, it's impossible to have ancient units in the modern era. Longbowmen upgrade to riflemen, swordsmen upgrade to knights, cavalry to tanks. The ships follow a logical upgrade path, in power terms. And the privateer upgrades to the attack sub.

For those interested, I modified the ships' stats to make them more useful...

Frigates are 3(2)/3/4
Ironclads are 5(4)/5/4
Submarines I classified as attack subs... 16/4/4
Yes, a modern sub can easily take out any surface ship, if it's the attacker.
Nuke subs are 10/4/3, and can carry 4 missiles
Privateers are 3/2/3
Man-O-Wars are 4(3)/3/4

I also changed Cruise Missiles into air units with the Tactical Missile flag, so they can be carried on subs. They have a range of 4 and can only bombard, after which they blow up. I havn't managed to get to the modern era to test that out, so it's still subject to change.

[Venger]

Aye, we be scuttled...

Originally posted by Wexu
I think privateers should "steal" couple of gold coins from enemy's treasury every time they sink a enemy ship.

Oohh!! Good idea! Maybe only 1 or 2 - gold is hard to come by in the early game - but that makes the war against piracy very real, kinda like it really was!

Good idea!

Venger