Claimable islands

@galactic-geek, relentless defender of the status quo! ;)

Allow me to explain why your assumptions are incorrect.

If a crew encounters a terramorphed island, they have three options. They can a) tear down the flag and return the island to its normal state b) tear down the flag and plant their own flag c) leave the flag and deal with the island as is.

Now, if the original crew who planted the flag is hanging about, tearing down their flag will be difficult (and fun!). But the more flags a crew plants, the harder it will be to defend them. In fact, keeping 4 or more islands claimed would be very difficult, and probably warrant a commendation.

@galactic-geek

This defeats the purpose of free-form exploring.

This is a sandbox game: if some players feel like building their own fiefdom in the corner of the map... awesome!

It adds an unnecessary burden upon players.

I mean, in the same way raising an emissary flag or doing a world event is an "unnecessary burden." Adding more play styles keeps this game fresh.

And for what exactly?

Maybe it's a commendation for claiming and keeping 4 islands? Maybe the GMU gives you gold for holding their islands and expanding their reach? Maybe once you have your pirate stronghold built, you can load your loot inside and, after 5 minutes of guarding it, it cashes in?

I can think of dozens of rewards players could achieve through this style of play.

Great questions, keep 'em coming!

Ugh. Just a way for people to make safe haven with extra steps.
Sorry, my vote is Nah.

@galactic-geek said in [Claimable islands]

Also, feifdoms? In a pirate game? I don't 't about that. 🤔

Did I say fiefdoms? I meant pirate territories ladened with traps, skulls, and treasure.

What about static elements, like with journals, Tall Tales, etc.?

What about them?

@galactic-geek Gotcha. Yeah, all the static elements (journals, tall tales, etc) would remain through different island forms so core game elements could still be completed.

This sounds like more MMO drivel.

In a game that features players in wooden ships during the age of sail, OP would have us claiming real estate?
I'm as free as the wind and the OP expects me to be a landowner?

For a freaking clubhouse or gangster hideout on an island that morphs?
Of course there has to be a snow island.

Truly weaksauce gameplay.

@galactic-geek honestly dont think it would be an issue. also dont see the point of claiming an island other than to bait people to you. if you claimed multiple, it wouldn't really affect anyone any different cause the force would be spread across each island. ain't no different to if people were to actually just chill at an island killing anyone who went there only maybe cause they claimed it and flagged it, it warns peeps that they are there. but yea if you claimed an island you just fight and kill them and clear it. if they have multiple islands they probs arent protecting 90 percent of them.

I don't think it fits this game, maybe if the game had permeance to the game, but that isn't that game. By permeance, I mean you can log off and return to it at a later time. I join a server and claim a few islands, only for it to all disappear, seems like a waste of time for me.

You talk about flags building natural defenses, so would that imply that players will fight over it? I don't think that works for this game due to its size and population. Quite frankly, most players won't be bothered to fight over islands, due to the sheer availability of other islands. At most, you might get a ship or two out of the entire server that will fight, the rest will just do their own thing. I don't think this works in practice. It won't be remotely as engaging as you think.

It is one thing to personally defend an island, its another to call in an AI armada to defend it as well. Way back, my crew and I made an Athena Steal. We tracked this ship, counted islands to calculate voyage completion, and launched an attack to determine the final dig spot. We succeeded in getting that information by reading their circled map table. Now we staked out this island, imagine if we could do as you describe. We have ultimately check mated this crew by making it excruciatingly difficult to get that chest. Not only do they need to go through us, who have already bested them, but our island defenses. Hypothetically, even if we leave, the island naturally slows the crew down to by us time to return.

Its just a nay from me man.

@jetwolf31321908 said in Claimable islands:

That would be cool, but it should be you can only get a flag by either buying it with doubloons or inside a vault.

Totally. I think something like this would be a great gold / doubloon sink. Or something you had to quest for. I don't think it should be given out easily.

@arctroopachedda and @nabberwar and all the other-people who disagree with this idea (OP edit)-who just want to explore, you are still free to do as you please! But there's a bonus in it for you: more of the unexpected. You'll never know which version of Mermaid's Lagoon or Kraken's Fall you'll encounter. Will it be under the GMU's control? A skeleton wasteland? Another pirate's lair? This will increase the adventure and make the seas much more emergent.

@prescafatty

@arctroopachedda and @nabberwar and all the other haters who just want to explore

When your disagree'ers are referred to as haters, all it does is demonstrate your inability to handle criticism. There is very little hate in this thread, just people pointing out flaws that you may be blinded to. Every person who posts an idea here can have a bias for their idea. Myself included, but at least I and others try to not see criticism as untargeted hate.

@nabberwar Edited my last post. Removed that term to keep focus on the debate. Let's not get sidetracked here.

@jetwolf31321908 Whoa, level up! You're taking this to a very interesting place.

Short opinion:
The only things that belong to you are your ship, everything on it, the coins in your pockets, and the reputation you hold.
It should stay this way. What is the point of a hideout? What is the point of hiding stuff in it? So you can get it back if you sink?
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of sinking other people if all their loot is just stashed somewhere else?
Wouldn't this just make play sessions 10 hours as opposed to 2, so now it's harder for people with busy lives to stay ahead of the curve?
Likely all this would cause is people scared to go on the open seas, roleplay islands, and people just doing small voyages and turning in small hauls for 10 hours and not taking big risks.

@jetwolf31321908

What if while you play and claim islands, they generate gold based on how many hits the island lands on an approaching opponent, and after ever 30minuyes it adds it to your total gold, and if your defended island sinks an opponent or skeleton ship, it automatically puts it inside the vault on your island that you can open with easy but opponents have to figure out the custom code you put in.

I think one of the biggest problems in the current state of the game is there is too much gold already. One of the last things we need is another way to generate gold.

The biggest flaw I see with these ideas is it requires an almost global participation. You will be lucky to land on a server with at least one crew willing to attack a claimed island. What will likely happen, is a person will stake a claim and then....nothing. Everyone else on the server will be too preoccupied with FOTD, Emissaries, Ashen lords, normal forts, and Flameheart's fleet of ghost-ships. There is already plenty of distractions in this game, that no one will bother with a claimed island.

For ideas of this nature to work it requires a few things. First, server permanence, it feels wasteful to do all this work for it to all just disappear. Second, it requires the server as a whole to join in. This is like the game-mode 'Control Point' if you have ever played control point with small populations like only one other competing person, its rather boring. It requires large populations that are just unavailable in this game.

@prescafatty maybe a better idea would be maybe not claim an island thats already on the map but have an area in the shroud eventually unlocked that u can customize or maybe customizable captains quarters in the galleons or a room in the pirate legend hideout u can customize. Gives us more things to spend gold and dubloons on, doesnt hamper normal gameplay, and lets the creative people u mentioned be creative

@joe-krakatoa maybe throw some creative criticism in there man. Replies like this just put the person down. U can not like an idea thats fine. And u are free to voice that. But u shouldnt belittle another persons opinion just because u dont like it

@poisnclawttv said in Claimable islands:

@joe-krakatoa maybe throw some creative criticism in there man. Replies like this just put the person down. U can not like an idea thats fine. And u are free to voice that. But u shouldnt belittle another persons opinion just because u dont like it

SoT is a shared world and this forum about SiT is a public forum. What I should, or should not do here is irrelevant.

What the OP suggest would present gameplay that comes into direct contradiction to the developers core concept.

It is easy to daydream and think SoT has persistence like an MMO.

It does not.

I like to call out MMO drivel when I see it suggested.

Not sorry, but you are right.

@nabberwar

The biggest flaw I see with these ideas is it requires an almost global participation. You will be lucky to land on a server with at least one crew willing to attack a claimed island.

Fair enough, and I agree there's a good chance you put up your pirate hideout and sit around waiting while nobody comes to fight you. But I'm also trying to solve a) how to make the seas more dynamic by giving islands variable personalities and b) giving players greater impact on the world. I think planting a flag on an island still accomplishes these pretty well.

@poisnclawttv

maybe a better idea would be maybe not claim an island thats already on the map but have an area in the shroud eventually unlocked that u can customize or maybe customizable captains quarters in the galleons or a room in the pirate legend hideout u can customize.

I think these are great ideas, especially a customizable captain's quarters. No reason you couldn't have these AND claimable islands.

I definitely think the idea of a personal hideout is a cool idea.

I don't think that it should have any tactical advantages, though. Purely cosmetic.

My two ideas for personal hideouts for our pirates.

Idea 1.) This one is personally my favorite. Who doesn't like a secret hideout/base? Player hideout vaults are the answer.

It would use a similar system to how gold hoarder vaults work. The player would purchase a key from the gold hoarders for an absorbent amount of gold, and the player would then take that key to a vault of their choosing, and place it on the pedestal to claim an instanced version of that vault (would not effect normal vaults). Once your hideout is opened up, the room inside is noticeably larger than normal vaults, and there would be space to place furniture, decorations, etc from your adventures. Commendations could be tied to decorations as well, so for instance if you're a legendary sea dog, you could get a golden wall plaque that shows your arena stats. A feature I thought that would be kind of cool is if there was a separate room inside the hideout where your accumulated riches would sit, and could change in real time as you get more gold. This could be shown by piles of gold, chests, trinkets, skulls, etc. Obviously these are purely decorative, and just act as a visual representation of your earnings. There could even be an informational tablet or something that tells you how much gold you've earned overall.

Idea 2.) The upstairs portion of the taverns have finally been finished, and players can rent their own rooms. Similarly to player vaults, these would be instanced, purely cosmetic places that show meaningful achievements through decorations, etc.

The point of these is for players to have visual representation (other than equippable cosmetics) of their adventures on the seas. These wouldn't be meant to escape from pvp, because there would be no point to do so, but rather simply a place that the player could call their own.