Ship Activities

Was pondering ships today. Wonder what can you do on or with them?

I wonder how long will it take after sailing from port to encounter something?

I wonder how navigation will be handled?Can a ship be piloted solo or will it take some sort of player or NPC crew?

Lets see:
-We can have sea monsters attack it.
-We can have pirates attack it.
-Perhaps go diving.
-Perhaps go deep sea fishing.
-Maybe explore underwater caves if some sort diving is possible and have quest/loot/explorer experience there.
-Map/explore uncharted islands that will have activities of some sort.
-Maybe even an ancient temple on one of them. Or some strange pre-Sundering relic(s).
-Get attacked by some sort of flying creature while at sea.
-Can we store stuff on ships?
-Can we decorate the inside of a ship if we own one?
-Can we live on a boat as opposed to having an in game crib?
-Can we go into the hull and have seamless partitioned off rooms like bedroom/kitchen/bath/engine room etc; or would that be instanced.
-Can a ships armament be upgraded?
-Can the ship be damaged to the point where you’re stranded at sea and have to figure a way to get back?
-Can we make someone walk the plank?
-Can we throw stuff at smaller boats?

Ahhhh. Ship activities.
 
This has always been brought up in MMOs and I'm glad to see a couple about to launch which are specifically nautical based.

For HJ, will there be private ship ownership? Seems to me boats will be a trivial form of transportation.

I'd like to see a casino ship tho'. Play a few creative lil' games with other players while moving along.
 
Ships seem to me to be a very complex game mechanic - in effect, they're a combination of player housing and vehicles, two things that are very difficult on their own to add to an MMORPG. The coding and resource requirements are huge.

That said, I'd love to play a pirate in a fantasy setting......
 
I too, have been pondering the thought of the sea in-game. MMO's today don't even bother with that sort of thing. Most of the time, all you do nowadays is get on some little ferry boat, then a loading screen begins, and you magically appear on another continent.

But in HJ, I want the sea to be just as a big part of the game as land. Anybody remember LoZ: Wind Waker? Or watched that movie, Oddyseus?
I want Charybdis to pop out from under my boat and I want there to be exciting escapes from giant whirlpools and fights with pirates and all that felgercarb.
 
Luciro said:
Seems to me boats will be a trivial form of transportation.

Yeah you're right on that. Complete with load screens as Daax mentioned which is unfortunate. Maybe the technology, coding, or PC system requirements didn't allow anything more than that before? Or were developers just being lazy and keeping everyone on their treadmills? *shrug*
 
There's some legit story concerns as well in HJ that doesn't seem to make 'everyone has a boat' very practical as well. LoL So it doesn't bother me. Plus there is "PIRATES OF THE BURNING SEA" out there which had such a feature as it's central design so the option is out there. Maybe when HJ expands and there is room enough we could see it. I think it'd be cool as hell, but I can just pretend to have a boat just fine with my gambling privateer here. ;)
 
In all the MMO's I've played, FFXI had the closest example of sea battles to what I described. They still had a crappy loading screen when you docked and left the ship, but there was a 12-minute period at sea where people could fish, fight monsters, and sometimes pirates would attack the ship. When that happened the sky turned dark and they'd summon skeletons on board. And if you were really unlucky, a high lvl notorious monster flying octopus would fly around on deck wreaking havoc.
 
That's why whining shall be swiftly dealt with by proffessionals to give a swift punch in the throat to silience the whiners.
 
I hate the 'jump in the boat and zone' quick trip feature. In WoW, I always wanted to explore that vast ocean between the two continents.

Player owned ships would be amazing. DR finally implimented this feature, after many years (some info). So, if they get past some of the graphical hurdles for HJ, at least we know the Simu team has great underlying mechanics for how to handle everything.

Let the players whine. I would love to know that if I was a poor captain that my ship could be destroyed/sunk by Pirates or even by other player ships. It would be neat if you could have a crew of paid NPCs (running a ship is not cheap, buying it is only the beginning of expenses) to help you sail your ship, or, if you were so inclined, try to realisticly sail the ship yourself with other players. Jibe Ho!
 
Glad im not alone on this, because its just unrealistic if ships were prevented from being attacked or sunk by pirate ships and other enemies.
 
Don't forget UO as one of the pioneers with player owned boats. They had some problems early on with too many boats cluttering up everything. But I'm sure you could implement some game mechanics to alieviate those frustrations. I loved being on my boat and fishing or hunting sea serpents or water elementals. Sometimes you could just sail your boat and enjoy the ride while you practice your craft.
As a side note I would like to say that I have almost always enjoyed fishing when implemented in MMORPGs. It was great at first in WOW, until it became severely nerfed because of the fishing bots and farmers.
 
I would love to be able to dive in-game. It would add so much to the exploration... *straps an upside-down fish bowl on his head and sits in a plastic kiddy pool* Oh yeah, baby. Oh yeah.

Seriously, though, that'd be awesome. Plus, it'd add more monsters, and, well... It'd just rule. Plus, I love fishing in games! Maybe you could go spear fishing! *jitters* Ok, well, I know that's incredidbly unlikely, but a man can dream, can't he?

Anyway, yeah, I hope there's a lot of variety in boats. I want to get a little row-boat and sing a song while I paddle around the bay. It'd be sweet!
 
Kuzzle said:
Anyway, yeah, I hope there's a lot of variety in boats. I want to get a little row-boat and sing a song while I paddle around the bay. It'd be sweet!
Here's a song for you to sing Kuzz!

Row, row, row your boat
Gently round the bay.
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily,
Kuzzle's on his way!

Okay, I know its lame. Shoot me. :D
 
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