Preferences/ideas/suggestions For Naval combat

Veeshan

I hope we get free aimed cannon that have a trajectory like darkfall had, you could do realy long cannon shots but it took alot more skill to land them at that distance especially when moving.
it also feels better firing than archeages cannon that had a ground target

Ace1234

@Strevi
"I would like a way to create a local cyclone.
The rotation direction of the vortex could be random or with more skill, the direction could be influenced."

Thats a cool idea, i think they could get pretty creative with potion affects- such as creating mini whirlpools, attracted sea-monsters to your enemies ship, shrinking/enlargement affects, etc.

There are tons of cool unique ideas for potion types that could crewte a strategic element to what you bring into battle with you and use in different situations.

Arya_Yeshe

Strevi wrote: »

I would like to have ways to cloak small ships and stay invisible as long as enemies are not very close.

Strong "no" on this, the naval gameplay should be just like Sea of Thieves

I am in for obscuring all information about small ships far away, if the big ship wants to know more it should travel to the small ship

It is stupid chasing a small ship if you have a frigate, because the small ship is probably just bait or a scout for the ship which actually has goods to be stolen

Being seen as a small ship is fantastic, because you can bait pirates away while your important ship pass by

Arya_Yeshe

Flares: I want flares, flares with different colors, at least: white, red, yellow, green

Flares that can be held or shot like fireworks, if shot against the water it should float while burning and shouldn't be extinguished just because it touched water... it should last for 45-60 seconds

I wanna be able to hold a flare while lit and to shoot it when I want in any direction using the mouse, so I could shoot over my own ship or over other people's ships

Or I could wave goodbye and jump around with my flare while lit before I shoot it



Where are the FLARES in the wiki?
There is none yet!

Arya_Yeshe

Water Pumps: Hand-operated Pumps that allow crew to drain water from the lower decks of the ship, saves the ship from floodings

So people could install pumps on the deck, the pumped water is shot in any direction, coulld be used to shoot water back to the sea or to extinguish fires, but at least to shoot water back to sea

Image from the game Abandon Ship

Arya_Yeshe

Winch: for pulling players and objects far away in the water, could be manual or automatic when something is attached

Should be able to shoot the winch and tow crates or people to the ship

Arya_Yeshe

Seine nets: for fishing, should create drag and reduce ship's speed. The oldest known net, dating back to 8300 BC, we have modern nets today but the principle remained the same

Arya_Yeshe

Killmarks: having the killmarks on the hull would be amazing, could be small and discreet

Should diferentiate small, medium and large ships

Arya_Yeshe

Stinkpots: These were stuffed with intoxicating substances like sulphur. When exploded, the chemicals produced a noxious cloud that was intended to cause panic and confusion. Daniel Defoe described a ‘stink-pot’ in his 1720 novel Captain Singleton:

“One of our gunners made a stink-pot, as we called it, being a composition which only smokes, but does not flame or burn; but withal the smoke of it is so thick, and the smell of it so intolerably nauseous, that it is not to be suffered.”

Arya_Yeshe

Lanterns: lanterns around the ships that could be toggled on and off (for stealth at night)

How dark will be the night at sea?

Should the ships have some lanterns around it so they can see rocks, creatures in the water, people trying to swim and board the ship, see the coast etc?

Arya_Yeshe

Attract the sharks: dipose a bucket of meat, blood, entrails, anything like that in the water for attracking sharks

Would be cool attracting sharks as bioweapons, they would be around the ship attacking anything big that moves, they would mostly be looking for something big and ignore small baits from fishermen

This would offer help in defending your ship from people doing a swim and board thing Sea of Thieves style

Arya_Yeshe

Greek fire: set the water on fire using a greek fire flamethrower, great for setting fire behind your ship and leave a trail of flames behind you while you flee and great for attacking ships

Arya_Yeshe

Balloon crow nest: the crow nest can be upgraded to a balloon crow nest

The sailor goes up there in the crow nest and there's the balloon upgrade installed then he will have the option to fill the balloon and lift it in the air while attached to the ship, the balloon has a little bit of freedom within range from the ship, but if the ship sails away it will drag the balloon

• advantage: more awareness of his surroundings
• disadvantage: being seen more easily

Let the guy in the balloon crow nest shoot his flares and fireworks

Arya_Yeshe

Crew space: hire NPC mercenaries to guard the galleon, great when the players are doing something else somewhere else

Click the image to enlarge #50:

Arya_Yeshe

Rogue waves: a random rogue wave appears and if it hits the ship by the side then it throwns overboard all players on deck, so the captain has to seet the ship and turn the bow towards the wave

Scientists thought these monster waves were myth. Now they’re racing to understand them
Rogue waves: Why giant waves strike out of nowhere and how sailors survive them
https://www.smh.com.au/national/scientists-thought-these-monster-waves-were-myth-now-they-re-racing-to-understand-them-20220609-p5asla.html



I don't know if AoC will have a waves system, this would be asking too much
I don't except it to have a waves system at all

Arya_Yeshe

Hammocks: medium and large ships should offer rested experience if it has the hammocks upgrade

Arya_Yeshe

Crafting and Processing stations in ships: ships could have a bit of space for crafting and processing stations, the space should allow small stations

A medium ship should have at one spot and a large ship should have at two spots, it's up to the players to decide what they want in the ship:

• Alchemy
• Cooking
• Scribing

Arya_Yeshe

Flotilla list: the same way there is a party for players, it also should have a flotilla list

But the flotilla list should be automatic and should show:

• ship name and captain's name
• ships that belong to party members
• ships that belong to disconnected party members
• if the captain leaves the party, then the ship is removed from the flotilla list

Arya_Yeshe

Lost at sea during sea storms: the sea storms should stop updating the information about where the players are located

Rules and conditions:

• sea storm event
• players will be considered "lost" and will have a lost status
• turn off location update in the map and minimap
• other party members can't see lost players in the map or minimap
• should have no landlmarks around
• should have no land around
• should have no boss around
• there is only water around
• after being inside a storm even if you leave the storm you will still be lost, since your references are gone
• landmarks of any kind will clear the lost status and turn on location update again
• disembarking and going back to land doesn't reactivate the map and minimap location update, you still have to see a landmark
• if anyone in the party and within range sees a landmark then the location update is turned on for everybody in the party if they are within range of each other (the lost guy who swam away will be still lost)
• players in the party who are outside the storm won't be lost, but they have to walk to the lost players to clear their lost status
• talking to any NPC clears the lost status
• if a player who is not lost opens a player to player trade window then it will clear the lost status, this other guy has to be willing to clear your lost status
• clear night sky clears the lost status, this could be tied to having a skilled seaman in the party

When the players go back near landmarks then the location in the maps and minimaps should be updated, having just land is not enough (just look at Christopher Columbus)

Landmarks of any kind will turn on location update, you coud still be in the storm but if you sail around landmaks you will be fine

After leaving the storm you still have no idea where you are, you have to sail until you see a landmark so you can reactivate the map and minimap update

General idea is that if you are lost you can clear the status:

• if you see landmarks
• see the night sky
• get in contact with people who aren't lost

Specific thread about this idea:
https://forums.ashesofcreation.com/discussion/54615/lost-at-sea-during-sea-storms-turns-off-map-location/p1?new=1

Arya_Yeshe

Ship's ravens: ship could have a cage for ravens, if a raven is released it will fly high in circles around the ship for a couple minutes and come back

If the raven sees land then it will fly straight towards land and never return

If the raven sees another ship then it will go to that ship, fly in circles around it for a couple minutes and then come back to your ship. Enemy ships should try to kill your raven just to confuse you, you will think the raven found land, a boss or NPC pirates. Bosses and NPC pirates should kill the raven too

How ravem view distance could be:

• finding land: 60km
• finding another ship: 30km

This is based on real accounts from the viking era, if they sent ravens out and they flew away and never return it was because they found land, if the ravens found nothing they would come back to the ship

Arya_Yeshe

Heavy fog event: nobody should be able to see other people, ships or NPCs in the minimap

Effect ends when you leave the area or if the event ends

Arya_Yeshe

Ship's bell: upgrade which adds a bell to the ship, helps telling others that you are near, your location in the minimap will be pinged to everybody around you

Also pings your location in people's minimaps:

1. during lost at sea
2. during heavy fog
3. to all the party regardless distance

Arya_Yeshe

Ghost crew: a boss who collects souls will collect dead player souls, when he has 100 souls he will spawn somewhere and the crew will be composed by NPCs with the same name, appeareance and class from those 100 players

Boss event should have a cooldown and should have at least 100 souls

Czeris

I love the design space that the magic based aspect of AoC naval combat opens up. I love the idea of casting Wind/Cyclones (speed buffs or directional control of enemies, especially as group channeled spells), Whirlpools (roots), sea creature summonings (DoT effects, roots, speed buffs), Magic Eye or bird summonings (birds eye view of the battlefield), or Fog spells (this is really the only stealth that should be available: summoning an area of fog around your ship that prevents visibility outside the fog, and to a certain distance inside - opens up a lot of gameplay space trying to find ships inside the fog). Sonar/Echolocation spells that would help find ships inside Fog (think Eve's scanning for anoms - a minigame in itself)

Non-magic based (or as an alternate, craftable), there should definitely be mines available, ship based catapults and ballistas, grappling hooks/harpoons, flares to signal locations over a great distance (like "we found the caravan ship inside the fog at this location, or we need help at this location), depth charges if submarine warfare is ever a thing, etc.

Dolyem

Lots of cool suggestions to consider @Arya_Yeshe. But out of those, which 3 to 5 things do you think would be the best implementations if you had to pick? To put in all of these things may make the naval part of the game a bit convoluted, but that's my opinion. Either way though here's my opinion of each so far.

Flares- this is a great idea, even having them as simple as a marker in the air to alert others or even potentially for marking enemy ships on a groups map.

Water pumps- im.indifferent to this one, it could be an upgrade choice perhaps as a defense option? Not really a high priority for mechanics imo.

Winch- I don't really see this as necessary at all.

Seine Nets- would be an awesome feature for master fishermen. Would need to be balanced as to not make any resources too easy to aquire or overabundant. Maybe one of those multiplayer gathering tools.

Killmarks- not necessary but could be a fun option. It'd be just a cool to have a ship log that players could access to see your stats.

Stinkpots- definitely a solid projectile option

Lanterns- I definitely prefer the toggle option for these. Would hate to have them only while being sneaky at night.

Sharks- I mean I think they would be an interesting fishing option. Having a frenzy of sharks around your boat in a fight for whatever reason just seems silly. I'd be more convince by some trained aquatic creatures equipped as a feature.

Greek Fire- another solid close range projectile choice.

Balloon Crow Nest- interesting but unnecessary feature. Not against it nor am I for it.

Crew Space- I am undecided about this. On one hand I believe it is important to require the players to be responsible for their situational awareness and surroundings while having designated players protect the ship. But on the other hand, it would be a nice convenience to include everyone on board in whatever content is being explored underwater, and allowing the NPC crew to guard the ship from.basic dangers.

Rogue Waves- not really a necessary feature. Could be a cool node event though!

Hammocks- I feel like rest should only be acquired in player housing and taverns. Keeping those things much more relevant.

Crafting Stations- the only thing they should have is a basic cooking station. Keep the crafting relevant on shore. Makes resupplying important in harbors.

Flotilla list- great idea. Just make it where the ship itself is added to a party and the crew is it's own party signed up with said ship.

Lost at sea- fun and interesting concept, but not necessary. I'd say for developers to only do this if they have spare time and resources.

Ship Ravens- could be an interesting equipped feature.

Heavy fog- I could see this being implemented with the weather system. Definitely would.be cool to have some monsters that only appear with the mists.

Ships bell- if those other features are implemented sure but otherwise unnecessary

Ghost Crew- this definitely sounds like a fun event at sea. Basically a mini boss that constantly reappears. But it'd have to tie into the worlds lore.

Arya_Yeshe

@Dolyem I didn't meant or imagined that all those ideas could or would be implemented, this was just a brainstorm for bringing many options to the table, if Intrepid pick 1 I would be happy already, I played all possible maritime games I could through my life, even games people never heard of

Out of 20 ideas I posted, only 2 are necessary, Intrepid can't dodge these two since they are the bare minimal for naval gameplay:

• Flotilla list
• Flares

These would bring a ton of player driven content and they are fun:

• Lost at sea during sea storm event: truly amazing, there will be news about this!
• Heavy fog event: weather system is already there, just have to make people disapear from minimaps
• Balloon crow nest: fun and useful, has AoC vibes since AoC style is mixing stuff for creating new stuff
• Ship's ravens: this is important for PvP, so you can run away and also hunt people, would be cool being able to bait and capture other people's ravens too since ravens here are ammo for explorers

So, I would pick 6 out of the 20 ideas list

It worries me a lot that the seas in AoC are dry of content, I worry that it will be a boring grind... the medicine for boring grinds are systems like these 4 ideas that bring player driven content

Everything else it's just cherry toppings

Arya_Yeshe

@Dolyem attracting sharks would be mostly for PvP, that's for creating a natural defense layer around the ship, sharks in such condition would look for big targets and any fishing attempt would mostly fail... otherwise people will just go the sea and keep baiting sharks non stop

Atracting sharks would help a lot in dealing with players who have extremely fast maritime mounts, if they try to get close to you with their fast mounts then they would get a lot of damage from sharks or maybe even die