Brainstorming: Combine War Supplies with Conquest Flags

[Wesreidau]

Help me figure this out. I feel like I've got a spark in my head that just isn't lighting a flame.

I think that somehow combining flags with war supplies could make all the best features of both cancel out the flaws of the other.

I'm thinking someone has to buy and place a conquest flag in the region's capital in order to open it for a limited window, say an hour or two, during which war supplies are dropped directly from the open world. This removes alt-and-outpost shenanigans.

You can't drop war supplies until your 20 second "no attack" timer is expired, letting people intercept you, and dropping it takes 25 seconds, so people can tag you.

Players attempting to undock from an enemy-held port can't do so if they're carrying war supplies.

You don't need a smuggler flag to drop war supplies.

This removes the "stealth" from hostility bombing, instead starting a one or two hour blockade of the harbor. This amounts to screening battles to stop the merchant ships from running their cargoes in.. Everyone loves screening battles. They're huge brawls. Who wouldn't.

Of course an organized team might have all their Indiamen right after the conquest flag. Fair enough. False flags might be opened too, and various flag schenanigans might return. But it beats stealth hostility bombing. Furthermore, the requirement of actual war supplies being shipped from enemy ports to the regional capital makes false flags easier to spot.

Keep thinking about this. I think we've got a fix here.

[Wesreidau]

Or... what if war supplies could be dropped off in-battle. If getting tagged in the harbor but pulling up to a 'control zone' just outside the docks let you drop your war supplies even if you got tagged. People would be less annoyed over tagging mechanics keeping them from dropping their supplies, and the fight to drop war supplies would move to the actual battle simulation and not the open-world screen.

Hell, what if the conquest flag opened a rolling pick-up "port battle" instance where every ship trying to drop supplies had to join the combat, sail in from a wide join circle's edge, dodge the blockade and dump their cargo into an unloading circle.

Wouldn't that be something.

[Diodo]

I'm not sure how war supplies work, but i think you already have to deliver them to the enemy port.

However i see that the point you're making about the flag mechanic is that you have to travel to the actual port battle location and not spawn there.

A good solution could be to have some mechanic (user or automatic) that picks a national port where to assemble the fleet, which will contain the only ships able to enter and start the port battle. This fleet could be limited to like 30 ships, allowing the defenders to actively intercept and stop the attack.

After some time from the start has passed reinforcements can then join the battle too considering that the defenders had their fair chance.

[Wesreidau]

No need for assembling a fleet. We just need to know when a war supply delivery is being made, so it can be intercepted. Guarding every port at every moment is impossible. Hence, conquest flags opening war supply delivery windows, which draws defenders and attackers alike to have an open-world engagement.

[Salty Dog.]

Along the OP lines, maybe this.

To drop a war supply it would work like a ship wreck, but everyone sees the destination.  So, it turns into a race/intercept event with two sides trying to screen the war supplies and the other side trying to intercept the carrier.  

[Wesreidau]

Its definitely a solution.

[Wesreidau]

Bumping this out of desperation.