WANTED: Signal Lamps for communicating intentions to other ships

  • I really feel there would be benefit in having a basic, standardized way of communicating your intentions with other ships.

    As of right now, the only way to speak to another crew is to careen your ship up to theirs within distance of screaming "FRIENDLY" and by that point, their crew is rattled enough by your approaching ship that they might have just decided to open fire. Either that or you try and shoot a crewmate to their ship which again can be interpreted as an aggressive action and you're met with swords and bullets when you get there.

    I can understand the need to limit ship communication. I'm not asking to be able to text chat directly to a ship. My suggestion is to have Signal Lamps atop a ship's crow's nest - something that real ships use - that you can point towards the direction of another ship and be able to flash a very basic signal to to it. I figure it could be something like a mirror with a bright lantern in front of it, using the mirror to reflect the light at the other ship.

    You would be able to choose from a list of pre-programmed messages to send. This would be visible from a long distance, and from the point of view of the other ship they would simply see a pin of light flashing in a certain short pattern coming from your ship.
    The messages would be ultra-basic and be such things like:

    "FRIENDLY"
    "ALLIANCE"
    "PASSING BY"
    "KEEP YOUR DISTANCE"
    "HAVE A REQUEST"
    "YOU MAY APPROACH"

    Every ship would have a legend of what each pattern means. There would only need to be less than ten or so different messages so people would be able to pretty quickly memorize what each pattern meant without even needing the legend.

    I feel like this would benefit the player base by helping to avoid misunderstandings and frustrations. Imagine sailing up to an island where another crew is parked and being able to sit at a safe distance while negotiating your interaction. However it wouldn't completely remove all risks as there would be nothing stopping someone from using a peaceful signal falsely and then attacking you anyway. They could also just choose to not use the signals at all. All risks are still present. The point is, I feel like this would be more desirable to some than the current method of driving by and screaming.

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  • Our crew likes to flash the two front ship lanterns off and on, that usually grabs someone's attention. Most ships either raise sails and see what we want or they pay us no mind.

  • I raise a Flag, raise my cannons to point upward.

  • Learn Morse Code. I find it very useful.

  • Firing my cannons always seems to be a great way of signaling my intentions to other ships :)

  • it wouldn't really work though you would get people faking intentions so they can attack easier.

    better to just see everyone as a potential enemy and be on guard.

  • @sweetsandman sagte in WANTED: Signal Lamps for communicating intentions to other ships:

    Firing my cannons always seems to be a great way of signaling my intentions to other ships :)

    I'm mostly a friendly pirate and besides some exceptions, I don't fire first...if someone shoots just slightly in my direction this is a declaration of war...so if that's your intention, go on 😉

  • @daksmacka as been said, use your ship lanterns...they get seen from very far away

  • this wouldnt do anything because people will just lie about what their intentions are, it will do as little as saying "we're friendly"

  • @schwammlgott said in WANTED: Signal Lamps for communicating intentions to other ships:

    @daksmacka as been said, use your ship lanterns...they get seen from very far away

    I'm suggesting a universal, standard communication method that is understood by all players. You can say "blink your lantern" or "point your cannons up" but that's only as good as another crew comprehending what you're getting at. If there's an actual feature in place in the game then it would be more workable.

    @doomscorp said in WANTED: Signal Lamps for communicating intentions to other ships:

    this wouldnt do anything because people will just lie about what their intentions are, it will do as little as saying "we're friendly"

    I flat out said in my post that people could use them to lie. I never suggested taking away anyone's ability to lie. It would still "do something" because there's a difference between communicating within 40 feet and 1000 feet. My point is that it would be a way to attempt to facilitate an interaction while outside bullet range, which the game currently doesn't have.

  • @daksmacka

    Good idea

  • @daksmacka
    I like it. I feel like the option To make friends should be easier particularly for those that don’t want to pvp. They aren’t going to get their own sea of freinds servers so make it easier to communicate freindly intentions. I’ll still betray and sink them though.

  • I would do this, and only to backstab them.

  • @daksmacka said:

    I'm suggesting a universal, standard communication method that is understood by all players.

    We don't even have that IRL.

  • If I remember right, Rare put flags in the game so we could signal to other crews. They just didn’t force the meaning of the flags on us (“tools not rules”). Anyone is welcome to promote a standard.

  • @daksmacka people will just lie to you

  • @qu1etone right? What makes this any different than the shouts using the speaking trumpet?

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