Simple Ocean Currents and Shaping Naval Trade
Cathartidae
Member
The recent early preview of a Verran ship got me thinking about ocean content and trading– and I think simple large currents could do a lot of work in adding an extra layer of spatialization to the ocean.
A gyre is a very large circular ocean current. Coupled with the various wind currents traveling the same direction, they shape passage across the ocean (particularly in the age of sail.) Trade routes make use of these circular currents to travel as swiftly as possible across the open expanse of ocean. A historic example of the North Atlantic Gyre being instrumental in this way was the triangular trade that went on throughout the colonial period.
This is useful, because instead of viewing the ocean as an undifferentiated plane through which you must travel to reach the other side, it starts to take on a shape of its own. These currents might have similar effects as mountains and canyons on land – shaping the routes travelers tend to stick to.
You can imagine some very broad possibilities - cities along the current have easier access to trade and are more valuable than cities caught in the doldrums, an alliance of oceanic nodes might pool money to fund a defensive force policing the major shipping lanes, pirates know the sweet spots along the route and can target enemies, a bold but patient merchant can brave the doldrums and crawl across the ocean for a degree of safety, or a cartel of traders set up a multilegged trade route, taking goods produced in one region to another, forming a profitable loop all across the continents.
From the rough early map of Verra you could see two major loops encircling the two major continents. I imagine these currents to be static – parts of the world the be charted, understood, and capitalized upon but you could also speculate about cataclysmic world events causing them to shift or even reverse direction, dramatically shaking up the shape of naval life.
I also know it has already been mentioned that there are no plans for ocean currents. But I don’t think Ashes needs complex water/wind mechanics like dedicated sailing games, that would indeed consume so much development attention. Something as simple as a +50% speed boost while traveling in the right direction on the route could radically alter how players utilize the seas. The goal is not to have to master complex sail mechanics, just to give the oceans as much spatial richness as the land and reward players who take the time to study and understand their environment.
So what do you think? How do you imagine trade routes might travel into and across the seas? Do you know of any other MMOs with similar systems? Would having the ocean posses this extra dimension be something you'd want to play with, or annoyed at having to deal with?
A gyre is a very large circular ocean current. Coupled with the various wind currents traveling the same direction, they shape passage across the ocean (particularly in the age of sail.) Trade routes make use of these circular currents to travel as swiftly as possible across the open expanse of ocean. A historic example of the North Atlantic Gyre being instrumental in this way was the triangular trade that went on throughout the colonial period.
This is useful, because instead of viewing the ocean as an undifferentiated plane through which you must travel to reach the other side, it starts to take on a shape of its own. These currents might have similar effects as mountains and canyons on land – shaping the routes travelers tend to stick to.
You can imagine some very broad possibilities - cities along the current have easier access to trade and are more valuable than cities caught in the doldrums, an alliance of oceanic nodes might pool money to fund a defensive force policing the major shipping lanes, pirates know the sweet spots along the route and can target enemies, a bold but patient merchant can brave the doldrums and crawl across the ocean for a degree of safety, or a cartel of traders set up a multilegged trade route, taking goods produced in one region to another, forming a profitable loop all across the continents.
From the rough early map of Verra you could see two major loops encircling the two major continents. I imagine these currents to be static – parts of the world the be charted, understood, and capitalized upon but you could also speculate about cataclysmic world events causing them to shift or even reverse direction, dramatically shaking up the shape of naval life.
I also know it has already been mentioned that there are no plans for ocean currents. But I don’t think Ashes needs complex water/wind mechanics like dedicated sailing games, that would indeed consume so much development attention. Something as simple as a +50% speed boost while traveling in the right direction on the route could radically alter how players utilize the seas. The goal is not to have to master complex sail mechanics, just to give the oceans as much spatial richness as the land and reward players who take the time to study and understand their environment.
So what do you think? How do you imagine trade routes might travel into and across the seas? Do you know of any other MMOs with similar systems? Would having the ocean posses this extra dimension be something you'd want to play with, or annoyed at having to deal with?
3
Comments
I would love to see a full implementation of currents and prevailing winds, but that is a bit much to ask.
I agree with you, and actually Archeage did a pretty good job of the high sea's I wouldn't mind seeing something like it.
If I had more time, I would write a shorter post.
Yeah, 50% is too high.
10% is about right.
I hadn't heard about that feature in Archeage, I'll have to take a look. Someone in another conversation mentioned you might be able to use a similar bit of technology to the dynamic roads, and just apply the speed boost for traveling in the right direction. I think there's potential!
50% is indeed a ballpark number that can easily be adjusted over the course of testing - the reason I estimated it so high is because it has to be more efficient than a straight line path across the ocean between two major cities. The speed boost (while limited to a relatively small area within the current) needs to be somewhat large to account for the fact you're going a much less linearly efficient route.
The lack of current (the empty ocean between) is meant to serve a similar role to mountains or dense jungle - passable if you really want to go that way, but much slower than sticking to the (meandering) road.