Sightings during cruises

[Severous]

In another thread Bill & Andy two of the game developers/programmers have given us loads of info on the ship encounters

http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?board=18;action=display;threadid=8496

The first detail formula was about Sightings of other ships whilst cruising:

-----------------------------------
in making sightings:
each day each fleet checks for a new sighting from
each nationality.  We make a roll between 1 and a data-defined number
(which seems to have shipped as 350).  If that number
is less than the chance number we generate, a sighting's made.  The chance
number is determined as:
        ((s + f) * (t + r)) * ((k + m) / m)
where:
        s = fleet's seamanship value (the seamanship belonging to the
captain tying for HIGHEST LEADERSHIP)
        f = fleet size (# of boats)
        t = nation's merchant traffic in sea zone (0-9)        r = nation's known trade route traffic in sea zone (same range)
        m = max knowledge level of a sea zone (0-255)
        k = current knowledge level of sea zone (0 to max)
---------------------------------


My observations... just about the chance of success of sighting another ship:
- Whilst checks are made against each nationality there is never more than one encounter per day
- Encounters are always a single ship - never a fleet
- Order the nationality sighting checks made is not shown. I thought there might be a bias toward the first nationality checked (cos only one encounter)..but I cant see any bias from my cruise records.
- Adding ships to your fleet increases your chance of a sighting
- Increasing your Captains seamanship increases your chance of a sighting
- Adding one to a captains seamanship score is the same as adding another ship to your fleet
- two ships in a single area will not have as many sightings as splitting your fleet into one ship in each of two areas (assume all other things being the same)
- knowledge of a sea zone is shown here on a different scale (0-255) to that shown in the game (0-8 'back of the hand' range)
- A major power trade route, if discovered, appears to double the chance of success.

So spread the net wide to sight plenty of other ships.  Sounds reasonable..if more dangerous.

[Sea Scourge]

What we need is for someone to put together in one place a collection of the wisdom of Charlemagne on cruising and combat. I wonder who that someone might be

[Severous]

AAR bit:

Plunder had dropped of from Southern Jamaican coast over the last 3 years. Spanish ships had never been seen and even the friendly English ships had stopped appearing last year.  Just the odd Frenchman.  Pouring over charts and markings still led Anne to believe that the French were out there in a force of say 4 out of 8 which hadn’t budged in months but which just didn’t seem to be born out in the encounter rates.  

This high skill mission will sort this out once and for all.

Anne Bonny gathered four of her captains around her. “I’ve had a message from god…working together with great seamanship is going to really increase our cruise results”.  Along with the others Rock nodded eagerly although wondered if he should stand a bit further away from the cannons in future…his ears…it sounded as though Anne had said Frog not God.
Rosanne asked with a wry smile “Is that why we have been waiting for Morgan and Rock head to finish their knot tying lessons?”  Scowls from Morgan.  Anne “That’s right and I want you to go out together.  You’re the best-trained Captains money can buy and I want you to earn your keep.  Calico - your Snow 'Oaken Jewell' doesn’t have the same punch as the others but you will add just as many miles to the search zone as Rosanne’s Sloop ‘Huge Nose’.  If there’s plunder offshore I want it found”

Next day the fleet action got underway.  Calico yet again was first off. His snow had the smallest crew and left with all aboard. Rosanne set off later in the day two short handed and Rock and Morgan early the next morning both one short in their respective schooners ‘Wooden Eye’ and ‘Strapping Sapling’.

On station on the 18th Calico’s first sighting was on the 19th and it was the three other ships of Anne’s fleet. The faster schooners had made up the day on the lumbering Sloop so arrived together.  The search zones were agreed and the fleet spread out confident that the thoroughly explored area would soon been known like the back of their hands.  Encounter every 5 days predicted.

Theory was not the same as practice. It was only after 9 days of fruitless searching did the fleet pounce on a feeble French merchant. $900 plus one wealthy captive were going to be the only thing to show for this cruise which in Rosanne’s case would continue until 7th September…a total time of 20 days on station.

Anne couldn’t believe it. All that skill and 4 ships in an area that was indeed known like the back of their hands.  Anne decided to disbelieve many of the maps markings about great power presence and instead rely on the success of her captains to correctly show where the action was going to be…or not.

Anne barked her orders…the fleet set off for pastures new two days later

Breaking out of story mode:
Sightings have four components:
-   Your captain seamanship skill + ships
-   The enemy presence
-   Your knowledge of the area
-   Time on station

In this case:
-   Best leaders seamanship skill was 5 + Number of ships 4 = 9 this was very high. Not many cruises will have such a high rating
-   Enemy presence per map was 1/4/1 for English/French/Spanish. But this is not a reliable guide.  Considerable cruising here and in earlier cruises has resulted in a more realistic merchant presence as 0/2/0 respectively. Very low
-   Area knowledge is not that important. Results will always be in the range 1 to 2 for this multiplier. 1 for unexplored and 2 for back of hand values. In this case it started at 1.75 and rose to 2 as knowledge improved
-   Time of station. Obvious.  Longer you are there the more chances you have. That’s why brigs/frigs and galleons can have good results.  


In summary:
The enemy has to be present in an area.  Then it’s the pirate skill and number of ships that’s important.  Not so much the knowledge of the area.  A good captain will make the best of almost any situation…provided the enemy is there to be found.

Anyone else care to contribute an AAR style cruise account?

[Sea Scourge]

Anyone else care to contribute an AAR style cruise account?

This isn't an AAR but I'm convinced from my testing that traffic in an area varies over time so it might be worthwhile to revisit the area when things get too hot elsewhere.

[Coconut Kid]

In another thread Bill & Andy two of the game developers/programmers have given us loads of info on the ship encounters

http://dynamic3.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?board=18;action=display;threadid=8496

...

The link updated:
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=8496.msg177901#msg177901