An option to play without a ship

@jetorchidee97
i think that this would be a nice option for those who want and would enjoy it but i cant see this making it in to the game :/

@frodj they would try to be recruited on other players's boat, animate the outposts, etc. For sure I think it would be a small percentage of players that would play like that.

it's just that some times it would work great but sometimes it could also result in players being stuck on islands without a boat for too long

@allottednine998 True there's a risk that the player is willing to take when choosing to play like that.

@jetorchidee97 so if they make it an option that you can choose to ignore then it would be a nice detail to the game and a fun mode that's for the more hardcore pirates

@jetorchidee97 That might/would/will work when/if SoT get's the in-game crew management where any player can join an existing or create a crew on-the-fly :)

Disclaimer: the above is just my personal wishful thinking. Nothing of the above was promised or implied by RARE (unless I missed it).

@azz91uk said in An option to play without a ship:

Maybe give them a slower, smaller boat with no cannons that don't add to the max ship count.

..and has to be rowed. So a rowboat. Onto adventure!

@metachront except then theres one less boat actually traveling around and those take up more on the server than each player does. If they let you spawn without a ship more people could be in each game which would make gameplay way more interesting.

I did this already in the Alpha. I just botched my boat and tried to get in friendly contact with other pirates and offered my service for their crew. It was a lot of fun, than they shot me in the back.

Maybe they could tie this into a faction system or to merchanting. Like any player without a boat is not to be killed but if you do you get a debuff that makes it so you cant turn in items for an hour or something, the players who choose not to have a boat could pick the island they spawn on and then do activities/minigames to create and enhance items or fish and cook special consumables, etc, and then either sell to or make deals with other players that do have boats to ferry them to the outposts to sell what they have made/collected. Such as animals resources materials and consumables. This type of gameplay would be available to the players on boats but they would be considered "pirates" where the non boated players would be "merchants" maybe even with the possibility to crew boats that dont have cannons too.

if u wanted to go boat less just sink ur ship of a island and wait u will need a boat regardless at somepoint

@ajm123 I know, that's what I said in my post (if you read it) ;)

@logansdadtoo Hello matey :)
Lots of good points. Yes I think no mermaids until the player is crewed up, recruited by an other player.
True, I think it could be abused too! Boatless players could also appear on random islands and have the ability to make a fire producing smoke that would be visible from far.
For sure, it rises a lot of issues! Keep the ideas coming!

@logansdadtoo said in An option to play without a ship:

In my experience, sitting at an outpost isn't always a guarantee to see other crews, so being able to travel elsewhere (all be it very slowly!) is a necessity.

That's also true, players who would play like that should know that there is no guarantee to make it.
For the rowboats, I'm totally in, I would love it!

I like this idea UPVOTE :)

Ideally all players would spawn in without a boat, and there would just be boat rebuild timers and a seperate cap for player and boat population. Sometimes players would have to wait until a ship was sunk or left the server to even buy another, but this could always be avoided if they have a server list that tells you the populations before choosing for the most part, and if you wanted to play as a shipless player or join someone else's ship, you would want to fill out servers most likely so you could have access to trades with and use of others ships. And if they made the boat rebuild timer appropriate then players would at some times be stranded and have to guard their salvaged treasure until they can get a new one, or try to bargain for their lives or for a ride from another ship. Sure all this gameplay is hypothetical and would likely be ignored by some kill oriented players. I feel like its still better to make the game this way and have the possibility for gameplay. I hate to say it but what allows things like this to happen is for the group with pvp control so to speak to allow it happen on some level atleast, which a lot of players wont do. But i think with the right incentives this type of gameplay could become more likely in a game that is set up like this. Your actions being more a part of the games "narrative" than their being a written quest or storyline narrative that drives gameplay.

@maeode said in An option to play without a ship:

So you will join a different crew when their boat comes by. You might be waiting a long time, potentially hours. And when they show up, there's no guarantee they want you to join. You just waited for hours to have a hostile crew show up and kill you.

Exactly it's part of the experience. As I said, it would be an option so players using it would know what they're getting into.

@maeode said in An option to play without a ship:

Playing the game without a ship makes no sense. You can't swim between islands because of sharks. Even if this wasn't the case, it would take far too long, my guess is about an hour even to swim to a close island. And if that doesn't bother you, without a ship you can only carry a single treasure, and go even slower while carrying treasure than you do without it.

So you will join a different crew when their boat comes by. You might be waiting a long time, potentially hours. And when they show up, there's no guarantee they want you to join. You just waited for hours to have a hostile crew show up and kill you.

There are friendly crews, however, if your idea hinges on joining player crews, then why do this at all? Just use matchmaking and join a crew.

Adding 'extra' crew to a ship I disagree with as well. The game is balanced around the number of crew on a ship. Suppose the server allows 10 shipless players, and they all join 1 party galleon. That galleon now has 14 players vs the other galleons with 4. Completely unacceptable.

I doubt people would want 10 players that are susceptible to friendly fire aboard their ship that would give them a debuff for being killed if they are going for pvp.. the whole idea was based around the only players having this option being merchant players or some other sort of faction and way of playing. They could do with a naval faction to similar effect such as not being able to use some weapons or tactics and never being able fire
First or they get a penalty and lose their standing with that naval faction. Etc.

Supplementing crews with extra players based on chance of encounter sounds awesome to me.