Smoke bombs, as the name implies, produce smoke. My suggestion is that they can be used like Blunder Bombs and Firebombs, both shot from a cannon or thrown by hand.
The smoke would be dense and dark, reducing vision significantly when inside, similar to that of the smoke AOE from Ashen Lords. This could be potentially, partially countered by ship flares or lanterns.
Fired from a cannon - The smoke bomb would produce a tall, billowed, smoke screen curtain for around 20-30 meters from the cannon in the direction it is fired. It would linger above the water for an amount of time before dissipating, say 10 seconds. This smoke screen can be used to obscure your ship from view. Like fireworks, this cannon shot would use a long fuse timer.
Potential uses:
- When being persued so that you can make changes to your heading to try and give you an edge in escaping by changing direction when hidden by smoke,
- Obscuring obstacles such as shallow water, rocks and explosive barrels in the hope another ship will collide with them
- Using the smoke screen to drop a rowboat into the water with your loot to try and flee.
- Boarding an enemy vessel after covering them in smoke
- Using in a fight to make it harder to target your vessel
Thrown by hand - The smoke bomb creates a small, short lasting bloom of smoke which lingers for around 5 seconds. The smoke would act as an obstacle to ranged mobs, they would not fire into/through smoke.
Potential uses:
- Boarding a player boat, using smoke to confuse the enemy. You could also use this to quickly Tuck-In / Barrel somewhere to hide on the boat.
- Use against mobs to avoid getting shot by ranged enemies allowing you to escape or forcing them into melee
- Shadow skeletons would be immune to the effects of smoke and also prevent lanterns from stunning them
Smoke Barrel - An explosive barrel which similar to the cannon variant produces a very large cloud of smoke which lingers for around 10 seconds. This can be ignited like a normal barrel, detonated with a shot, or if crashed into by a boat will trigger immediately.
Potential uses:
- Obstacle in the flotsam spawns that you can potentially run into
- Throwing overboard to again obscure your movements from anyone following you
- Using against mobs
- A sellable item
