Port cities and their imPORTance

ArchivedUser

Hello everyone, 

I did a search and no one seems interested in talking about port cities so i might as well bring it up. One of the first thing that popped into my head when they announced the naval aspect of the game were port cities and what that means for your freehold busines. Can a player own an entire docking facility? Do the ships require drydock repairs? How will smuggling work? How many ships can you have in your merchant fleet? Would a merchant fleet act like the caravan system? Whats the scale of ships available? Will there be an unfair advantage for pirates?   Theres so many questions i dont think i could list them all but for now this will do for i know the tides will bring in many more.

ArchivedUser

So port cities in our world are extremely important not only for trade but for a countries defense. This is one of the reasons i bring this up. What kind of port city gets created depends on the players im sure, like if players neglect a small port it would be slummy and have a terrible fishy odor, or a port city thats used by smugglers and pirates would draw in a shadier crowd. As people can probably tell from my name I'm going to captain a ship as fast as i can and I'd like a port to call home, not just leave my ship anchored off the coast or on a small island and hope no one notices it haha. 

ArchivedUser

I mostly came here to like your pun. I think a port city would be amazing but constantly targeted.... which could also be amazing. I wonder if shipbuilding is going to be a thing, and if so, would it have to be at a port city. They make it sound like everything available is going to be about location. I so totally love all these escapes into our imagination about what this game will be.

ArchivedUser

Soreal said:

I mostly came here to like your pun. I think a port city would be amazing but constantly targeted.... which could also be amazing. I wonder if shipbuilding is going to be a thing, and if so, would it have to be at a port city. They make it sound like everything available is going to be about location. I so totally love all these escapes into our imagination about what this game will be.

Thank you for terrible pun appreciation. Let me just say my imagination has run wild thinking about this. For example how would one begin the process to found a port town? Will it involve fishing first to bring in npcs or will it be a pirate cove that gets converted because of the amount of goods being braught in? How many of us want to disturb the deep darkness and have something wewease the kwaken.

ArchivedUser

How will coastal cartography work? Or will we magically just get a map? Exploration has been talked about quite a bit but maps are usually things players just assume come with the package but this is supposed to be a brand new " " world. So what ever maps from aeons ago would most likely be wrong.  I dont want to make the devs have to worry about scale creep because there'senough of that as is but these are things im curiouse about.

ArchivedUser

RiseFromTheSea said:

How will coastal cartography work? Or will we magically just get a map? Exploration has been talked about quite a bit but maps are usually things players just assume come with the package but this is supposed to be a brand new " " world. So what ever maps from aeons ago would most likely be wrong.  I dont want to make the devs have to worry about scale creep because there'senough of that as is but these are things im curiouse about.

These are the things that keep me awake at night! (2:30am here) I'd love to know more about how cartography will work. Personally I'd prefer hard mode where you have to explore and find fragments of lost maps to find hidden routes. I agree that the shifting landscape over time would be a big factor, but I'd actually enjoy the lack of accuracy. Seeing the map made and remade as you progress would be satisfying to me, but I'm kinda weird like that

ArchivedUser

I hope they dont give you a complete map.  I cant imagine they will.   

ArchivedUser

I also approve of this topic title. 



Please carry on.  

ArchivedUser

Lots of info people might be interested in talking about, but we have little to no info to discuss.
Players owning an entire docking facility seems unlikely? Seems more like something a government might opt to build.

Seems likely ships will require repairs. No clue about the mechanics.

Will smuggling even be a thing?? 

Seems like a seafaring caravan would be separate from a personal fleet.
I would expect there to not be a hard limit on how many ships a player can own.
And I'd expect ships to be like mounts - we can own many but can only use one at a time.

No clue on ship scale.

Pirates are really just seafaring bandits.
I don't see how pirates could have any more of an unfair advantage than landlocked bandits.
The amount of goods a ship can carry will likely be limited - similar to mounts.

ArchivedUser

Maybe a guild owning a shipyard ?

ArchivedUser

This is an excellent thread.  Lots of ideas to discuss here.  I love seaside towns.  Can't wait to "sea" how it all works out.

ArchivedUser

Ninja Shadow said:

Maybe a guild owning a shipyard ?

Expand on how the mechanics for that would work?
I'm not aware of anything similar on land.
Shipyard seems like a type of building a government could choose to build.

The closest thing to a guild "owning" a shipyard would be a castle??

ArchivedUser

I think even a river could have potential.

ArchivedUser

Possum said:

This is an excellent thread.  Lots of ideas to discuss here.  I love seaside towns.  Can't wait to "sea" how it all works out.

Indeed.  I love reading about all the ideas people have and this one is going down a new road!  It's going to be so interesting to see what Intrepid comes up with in the end.
Nice also is the fact that the flow here on the forums  remains positive!

ArchivedUser

port cities will have the same as in land cities can be attack from either side plus port cities might be attack by a world boss by sea.
unleash the kraken

ArchivedUser

Dygz said:

Lots of info people might be interested in talking about, but we have little to no info to discuss.
Players owning an entire docking facility seems unlikely? Seems more like something a government might opt to build.

Seems likely ships will require repairs. No clue about the mechanics.

Will smuggling even be a thing?? 

Seems like a seafaring caravan would be separate from a personal fleet.
I would expect there to not be a hard limit on how many ships a player can own.
And I'd expect ships to be like mounts - we can own many but can only use one at a time.

No clue on ship scale.

Pirates are really just seafaring bandits.
I don't see how pirates could have any more of an unfair advantage than landlocked bandits.
The amount of goods a ship can carry will likely be limited - similar to mounts.

these are good points and like you said its speculation till we know more.

Smuggling is always a thing. Just imagine the ruler of a religious city banning imports on scientific goods just as a possible example.


For the pirates i suppose you're right i just think the ease of escape would be higher as compared to fleeing on land. 

With the docks themselves sure the government would have the right of any taxable goods but i could see guilds owning a stretch of a warf. " Welcome to Drowned docks home of the Drunken boatswain where we have the cummliest wenches amd the ale only slightly tastes like piss."

ArchivedUser

OneWingedAngel said:

port cities will have the same as in land cities can be attack from either side plus port cities might be attack by a world boss by sea.
unleash the kraken

That horrible moment a dragon and a seabeast show up to wreck the town...

ArchivedUser

Dygz said:

Ninja Shadow said:

Maybe a guild owning a shipyard ?

Expand on how the mechanics for that would work?
I'm not aware of anything similar on land.
Shipyard seems like a type of building a government could choose to build.

The closest thing to a guild "owning" a shipyard would be a castle??

Well in a sense guild halls would be similar in mechanics. A place for guilds to birth their ships for reduced cost or to get repairs or even sell goods. Heck it could be a guild hall for a port town. Not sure if that would fit the mechanics as im no programmer just thinking of a way to make it fit honesty lol.

ArchivedUser

You can take me on diving trips any time @RiseFromTheSea

Really looking forward to this actually. I've always been a bit thalassophobic.

Thalassophobia is an intense and persistent fear of the sea or of sea travel. For those who don't know. For me the trigger typically ends up being the deep dark zones full of giant abominations... So I played another game called Subnautica to get over it as much as possible lol.

I'm rambling though in any case feel free to help me conquer my foolish fears. =3

ArchivedUser

Smuggling will be a thing, but the question is, will it count towards the rep of the city? For instance, I get on my sea turtle and rob a guy in a row boat, then I sell his goods in town. That's smuggling. But will it corrupt the city so that it becomes stinky and dirty?

Actually, we can't fight while mounted so maybe sea turtles are the safest way to go. 

ArchivedUser

yep they're important

ArchivedUser

     I am patiently waiting for more details to be released. Ever since we got the expanded naval content backer goal Ive been dying to hear more. If its what I dream of, it would be its own level of PVP/Caravans. I imagine that some people would be able to just make the naval aspect a game of its own, and run sea-empires.

     This kind of carries on into what my hope for the whole game is. A game so massive, with so many paths to choose, that there is no "Uber-Player" that can do everything. The game and the community becomes more real because you rely on people for their expertise, and they rely on you for yours.

ArchivedUser

sunfrog said:

Smuggling will be a thing, but the question is, will it count towards the rep of the city? For instance, I get on my sea turtle and rob a guy in a row boat, then I sell his goods in town. That's smuggling. But will it corrupt the city so that it becomes stinky and dirty?

Actually, we can't fight while mounted so maybe sea turtles are the safest way to go. 

That's piracy not smuggling.

Don't be giving smugglers a bad name

ArchivedUser

i would love a coast city with a port. Even small ones can be really valuable. Like maybe you can only repair a ship in a node thats at least level 3. 

ArchivedUser

If there were naval trade routes (caravans) then port cities would become highly disputed territories I think, which is good in my opinion.

ArchivedUser

lexmax said:

If there were naval trade routes (caravans) then port cities would become highly disputed territories I think, which is good in my opinion.

Just think of all that trade that goes from land to sea to land again...   Coastal cities would make for an ideal Economic metropolis. 

ArchivedUser

Not only can you park your ships but you can park something else in my brothel...lol
Importance level over 1000

ArchivedUser

makinoji said:

Not only can you park your ships but you can park something else in my brothel...lol
Importance level over 1000

Madam Makinoji's Brothel is the finest establishment this side of sea. No finer courtisans no finer drinks ;p just remeber loose lips sink ships

ArchivedUser

lexmax said:

If there were naval trade routes (caravans) then port cities would become highly disputed territories I think, which is good in my opinion.

The battles over dual metropolise zones.... you're major land locked metro connected to a port metro... fierce doesnt even begin to describe the combat that would ensue

ArchivedUser

RiseFromTheSea said:

lexmax said:

If there were naval trade routes (caravans) then port cities would become highly disputed territories I think, which is good in my opinion.

The battles over dual metropolise zones.... you're major land locked metro connected to a port metro... fierce doesnt even begin to describe the combat that would ensue

Omg thinking about the naval blockade plus army seige that would be needed to wipe a port city....

ArchivedUser

This is the awesomeness right here ^^^^