Diving is bad. Many people think it should be removed. But If we want new regions, a way to navigate quickly would be important, so replacing it with another more balanced system seems like a good idea.
Replace Diving with Ancient Caverns
Ancient Caverns deep under the sea are now accessible from entry points hidden around rock formations. You can carefully navigate your ship down these rapids into the caverns.
These caverns were used by the ancients and merfolk to navigate the sea quickly, and now you can too!
There are no maps of these caverns. Once you get to another cavern entry point, you activate an ancient device that inverts the water flow, pulling your ship out of the caverns. this all stays on the same server.
Running and Sinking
Ships take tons of damage if they hit the sides of the entry and exit caverns. If a ship is significantly damaged when it enters the caverns, the ship loses its structural integrity and is torn apart, the players being black-screened and moved to the ferry. The treasure of ships that sink in the transition into and out of the caverns becomes loot found washed ashore in the caverns.
By creating set entry and exit points, and making utilization risky. We have a balanced replacement to diving that maintains server stories, and introduces a new risk versus reward mechanic.
