Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS

  • Fog is an amazing and welcome addition to Sea of Thieves. The effect is incredible, eerie and exciting. But there's one major problem. Being immersed in a bank of fog should make navigation extremely challenging, if not impossible. Unfortunately, however, every pirate ship comes equipped with a handy, flawless, state-of-the-art GPS system.

    The GPS is fine during normal sailing. I always rationalize this little anachronism by assuming we (pirates) are knowledgeable enough about navigation that we usually know about where we are and where we're going. This is simulated by the magical "GPS" chart table. In the middle of a fog bank, however, with no visual navigational references whatsoever...navigation should not be so easy.

    To cut to the chase, I believe our "GPS systems" should also be obscured by fog when we're in the thick of a fog bank, making them ineffective as a means of navigation. As it stands, it's easy to navigate around the world in fog as long as someone's watching the map. Instead, the fog should obscure the map table, if not completely then mostly, covering everything but a tiny window that might show you the name of the island you're about to run aground on but not much else. This would greatly add to the danger and suspense of slogging through the dense fog.

    Please consider killing the GPS in fog banks. Thanks.

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  • I would be down for this. Storm kills the compass, fog kills the map.

  • @d3adst1ck Exactly!

  • @Genuine-Heather

    I totally agree! I like @D3ADST1CK idea. The entire map gets foggy. Cannot see your ship, Alliance ships, or those flying the Reaper’s Mark as long as your ship is in the fog. Have to sail on last known position, the compass and what you can see from the crow’s nest.

  • That is just flavour putting gameplay on the backseat, doesn't always work for the best providing frustrating situations. Fog already is a visual impairment it doesn't need much more complexity to it, especially because in a game of emergent threats you should try to keep the challenges fair.

  • @urihamrayne said in Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS:

    That is just flavour putting gameplay on the backseat, doesn't always work for the best providing frustrating situations. Fog already is a visual impairment it doesn't need much more complexity to it, especially because in a game of emergent threats you should try to keep the challenges fair.

    I don't see it that way. Obscuring the map in fog wouldn't really affect emergent threats at all. It's also not a case of putting flavor before gameplay. I think fog banks should be more challenging to navigate through than they currently are. The GPS makes navigation too easy, and breaks the immersion. I'm all for keeping challenges fair.

  • I'm not too sure about killing the map since a pirate should know the sea he's roaming in, but making the ship disappear of the map when in the fog would be interesting for sure.

  • @meurtrisseur said in Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS:

    I'm not too sure about killing the map since a pirate should know the sea he's roaming in, but making the ship disappear of the map when in the fog would be interesting for sure.

    I agree a pirate should know the sea, but even the saltiest old sea dog can't navigate if she can't see. :)

  • @genuine-heather a dit dans Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS :

    @meurtrisseur said in Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS:

    I'm not too sure about killing the map since a pirate should know the sea he's roaming in, but making the ship disappear of the map when in the fog would be interesting for sure.

    I agree a pirate should know the sea, but even the saltiest old sea dog can't navigate if she can't see. :)

    If the boat disappears from the map you'll have no point to refer to, thus you wouldn't know where you're heading to. During a storm the compass goes crazy but you still got the view to navigate by sight, even though it's difficult, in the fog you have no more view, so I think the map at least should stand.

    In addition I think speed should be halved in fog, for there can not be fog and strong winds in the same area. It would participate to the feeling of being unable to get out of fog.

  • @meurtrisseur said in Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS:

    @genuine-heather a dit dans Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS :

    @meurtrisseur said in Fog Should Be Foggier - Kill the GPS:

    I'm not too sure about killing the map since a pirate should know the sea he's roaming in, but making the ship disappear of the map when in the fog would be interesting for sure.

    I agree a pirate should know the sea, but even the saltiest old sea dog can't navigate if she can't see. :)

    If the boat disappears from the map you'll have no point to refer to, thus you wouldn't know where you're heading to. During a storm the compass goes crazy but you still got the view to navigate by sight, even though it's difficult, in the fog you have no more view, so I think the map at least should stand.

    In addition I think speed should be halved in fog, for there can not be fog and strong winds in the same area. It would participate to the feeling of being unable to get out of fog.

    Both good points! I think I misunderstood your previous reply, but now I understand that you want your ship icon to disappear from the map, but not the map, itself. I think that sounds like a good idea. :)

  • Bold and daring idea, I think I love it!
    Lets just try it, Rare can always role it back. Or at least the pionees could try it.

  • I also think it should appear more often and I never saw it in the middle of the map... It's always just on the edge where there's 2 islands, or maybe only 1. It's too bad, because I really love the feelings in the fog !

  • I have to agree that the fog should obscure the map. Then once you've sailed out of it, you'd have go down and get your bearings again.
    It would just add a tiny bit of mystery as to where you'll end up, though in most cases, you'd still probably have a decent idea of your location.

  • @genuine-heather I’m more worried about the smaller uncharted rocks than the islands. But it would serve to have more impact if the map were obscure! It’s a cool idea.

  • Interesting discussion. When you know well the map, you almost don't use it anymore, you know where to sail without looking at it.
    In the other hand, the fog makes the map more useful because you never know how close you are to rocks or islands so I don't really know what to think about that.

  • Great idea!
    Just make the fog cloud up the compass.

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