Preferences/ideas/suggestions For Naval combat

Alright, let's discuss what people predict and what people would like to see for Naval Combat. Use plenty of other game references and don't be afraid to voice what you like!

Personally I love sea of thieves and see it as the standard for Naval combat. Everything is skill shots and there are different types of ammo that bring all sorts of dynamics to the fights.

Basics that I want include

-skill shot/action based attacks with the few exceptions of some AOE, buff, or debuff abilities.

-sailing mechanics similar to sea of thieves requiring a crew to be on point with sail control, steering, directions, etc.

-several ammunition types for specific effects

-different ship classes with advantages and disadvantages, perhaps even a sort of rock, paper, scissors ship class system so everyone isn't always using the same ship that us a meta

-boarding options for on-ship fighting and some balancing around that.

-making it difficult but not impossible to board enemy ships from the water.

-points of importance on a ship where if someone tampers with them it can have a negative affect or even disable a ship.

Those are just a few. Looking forward to hear everyone's ideas and what sort of games with Naval Content they enjoyed!

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Comments

Xenotor

Strevi wrote: »

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

Another thing I would like is to have underwater vehicles too which would not be crafted but biological and adjusted somehow to fit the role of underwater movement. I would see them like floating things, alive, but not animals. With a little bit of magic, players could use them to navigate below water too.

The Effectiveness of the cloak should increase or decrease depending on the weather.
For example fog = better stealth while rain could "disrupt" the spells cloaking the ship making it normal visible.
As visible it can be in rain.

Another thing is cargo.
Ships that are insensible cant have cargo onboard.
Otherwise the meta would be to transport high value goods not with a fleet of warships but with a single small vessel sneaking by.

Strevi

Xenotor wrote: »

Strevi wrote: »

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

Another thing I would like is to have underwater vehicles too which would not be crafted but biological and adjusted somehow to fit the role of underwater movement. I would see them like floating things, alive, but not animals. With a little bit of magic, players could use them to navigate below water too.

The Effectiveness of the cloak should increase or decrease depending on the weather.
For example fog = better stealth while rain could "disrupt" the spells cloaking the ship making it normal visible.
As visible it can be in rain.

Another thing is cargo.
Ships that are invisible cant have cargo onboard.
Otherwise the meta would be to transport high value goods not with a fleet of warships but with a single small vessel sneaking by.

Sound good to prevent cloak from cargo ships.
It is better than giving some cargo detection spell because ships can act as if they have cargo when they don't, distracting pirates, to help the real cargo ship pass safely.

TheWolfofGar

Naval Combat, I'd like to see a variety of ship "classes" within the various tiers. focusing on naval combat I think their should be choices ship builders need to make between Speed / Carrying Capacity / Combat ability were raising one decreases the other 2. within combat ability I think you should be able to build into stealth features, Ramming durability or potion launchers/ballista. as far as crew goes I think you ought to be able to outfit a ship with a basic npc crew -> advanced sailors -> buccaneers who can control some of these however I think there should be a penalty to accuracy for npcs and having players man your weapons always be more efficient, (I'm not sure if you should be able to hire npc boarding crews)

I'd like to see naval combat to work in a variety of phases,

Ph 1 Spotting and the chase
- being spotted should be intense, as you are uncertain if friend or foe (perhaps there could be a literal flag ships can fly to signal i'm friendly) eg fly a green flag if you don't want to pvp or even better be able to design custom pirate flags to quickly swap your green ones with when you get in close. but there should be a chase element between being spotted and engaging in combat

Ph 2 ranged negotiations, combat and mutiny, I'd like to see perhaps a form of proximity VC where you can tell people on opposing sides to surrender etc. or lob some volleys of potions to soften them up, ships should have a number of things that van be impacted eg you sails should be flammable and as a captain you need to decide whether to cut the sails loose or risk the fire spreading. Ships should need to provision defenses like sand, water and potions to put out these fires, I'd like to see specific classes having different utility in naval warfare. (mutiny if you hire non guild members they should be able to try to mutiny and become hostile to there crew if given enough incentive by the opposing faction, eg you get a button called incentivize mutiny (bard skill?) where you can offer x% of the ships value or currency to encourage people to join your side if they do they join your party and become hostile to their old crew but in ph 4 if still alive they automatically get guaranteed that reward.

Ph 3 boarding / ramming and melee combat, once a ship has become immobilized, you can choose to ram them or go for a clean boarding depending on your vessel type. I think ships should have an infirmary which can act as a temp respawn point with a long cd so that if you die early on you can keep the battle going / spectate for a bit to keep things interesting and fun. (mutineers do not respawn onboard)

Ph 4 looting / scuttling or stealing the boat. Once captured you should be able to loot the ship and then you have a choice you can tow the ship which will allow you to take everything being transported at a severe speed cost or take what resources you can hold and scuttle/sink the old ship or if they surrendered perhaps you take a % and leave the ship to sail onward.

with respect to boarding I think there should also be the possibility for some water mounts to act as raiding parties eg you and a few friends sail out with your ship hop in the water and mount up and try to close the distance while negotiations are taking place and your ship has the opponents attention, depending on the speed of your target I think some water mounts should be able to match or overtake heavily laden traders for example

Ace1234

"I'd want long, medium, and short range directed, ballistic (e.g. arcing) attacks - that are action not target based. So between ship movement and wave action hitting your target effectively will take skill & timing, plus give those ships that don't want to be messed with a chance to escape as best they can.

I'd also like to see a host of boarding techniques, the ability to destroy masts / sails, destroy hull integrity below the water line, and eliminate a ship's crew in order to steal a ship.

Edit: OHHH - and knock players off the deck into the waiting jaws of hungry sharks."

^This- and too add, i think different area and damage based affects on the ships structure would be a nice feature- such as if you hit a weak point of a ship, or if the weak point takes enough damage then it can leak and cause the ship to start sinking, or if you hit a strong point maybe it can deflect the shot back to the target to a certain degree.

Xcorpyon

Dont know if this counts as an opinion or if this is what you're looking for as suggestions on this particular discussion, but I think that Sea of Thieves is an awesome game to take inspiration from on this particular topic, beein' the handling of the ships, the crew actually having to participate and even combat.
I dont believe it should be possible to board from water unless the ship is completely still.
I dont believe having submersion vehicles like submarines would be good for the game (only my opinion).
Having said that I would like to be mounts that traverse underwater yes but not so on open sea where pvp is permitted or if possible they shouldnt be able to damage ships.

Another thing maybe unrelated is that I would LOVE to see guilds focusing on trade across continents by sea and making contracts with other guilds solely for protection on open sea combat. Sure this can be done just talking but I think it should exist a party system on the open sea aswell like a raid party or some sort so you could purchase protection

Ace1234

@Xcorpyon
Yea I love the idea of more types of contract in general, to enforce that verbalized agreement that can be made in so many different ways throughout the different game systems.

Xcorpyon

Ace1234 wrote: »

@Xcorpyon
Yea I love the idea of more types of contract in general, to enforce that verbalized agreement that can be made in so many different ways throughout the different game systems.

Yeah I think it would be awesome and bring people together cause the same can be said about raiders like forming a big raiding party to attack ships hauling goods you know? I hope that there's the possibility to have like 10 ships full of goods making the trip belonging to several players inside a guild and like having like 5 more ships for protection and seeing that players that want to attack and steal be forced to make pacts aswell with other likeminded individuals in-order to be able to steal from such organized parties with alot of protection.

Now regarding payment on such deals for protection it could either be an ammount agreed upon with the party that provided protection and be paid from "player to player" using a trade mechanic or it could like be sort of a "quest" where X% of the profit would go to the party that provided security

I dunno if any of this is actually possible but it would be awesome because we all know that people/players not always uphold their word but that kinda makes part of the world and human race so .. xD

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.

To be proper, real skill related, I see it as trying to influence air pressure on the battle field.
No need to be realistic but let's say is magic related pressure or something.

The potion launcher has to target some areas visible on a special mini-map to create a pattern which would eventually create the cyclone.
What will be important:
- precision to hit certain points
- the ammo type to change the state in a certain way
- understanding the dynamic of what that mini-map shows. Waiting the right moment or acting fast enough could be important.
- moving on the battlefield to attract the enemy ship into a certain spot or predicting where the ships will be when the effect is finally triggered
- both ships might observe and try to influence the outcome, if both have the proper equipment and ammunition.

What the vortex of the cyclone would do is up to be discussed.

Maybe other effects can happen too, not only cyclones.

Asraiel

first thing comming in mind is the game Battleships, maybe with mutated seaturtles.

or parcourt thru a field with explosive magic seamines
boat races orderd by npc
sea monster like kraken, or sea water whirlpools sucking the ship into the undersea traveling to the exit while batteling several amphibic mobs and bosses and behind the last boss is a watergeysir that brings you back to the normal sea.

or a dungeon entrance where the ship getting wraped into a bubble in order to travel underwater but where the players need to be carefull so that the bubble doesnt burst. (one piece style)

Dolyem

I want pre ocean raid boss events where maelstroms appear and players caught in them when they open up have to maneuver the ship properly to make their escape out of it or get sunk and killed. Could have it where it hard to steer properly and you have to dodge debris caught in the maelstrom or everytime you hit some it sends you further back while simultaneously causing damage to the ship over the time youre in the maelstrom.
Would be akin to WoW pre-expansion events. Massive storms, maelstroms, aggressive sea monsters. Would make for awesome precursors to Raid events in areas at sea.

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

mooring-winches-mooring-windlass-deck-ship-mooring-winches-mooring-windlass-white-rope-drum-deck-ship-moored-214317963.jpg

mooring-winches-mooring-windlass-deck-ship-mooring-winches-mooring-windlass-white-rope-drum-deck-ship-moored-214317963.jpg

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

rs5081_purse-seine-copy-body.png?sfvrsn=f2edd296_6

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?

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