IDEA: Ship Passengers

  • Captain Arcanic
    Master
    Insider

    What if there were a select number of characters you could find in port and on islands, that you could "invite" onto your ship for certain benefits?

    Inviting them aboard would be a menu choice, and they would appear at a random spot on your ship until you reached their destination/they were killed/or the ship was sunk. Each passenger eats one banana per day from your stores. There is no limit to the amount of passengers you can have, but you can only have one of each type.

    Sea Traveler The most common passenger type.
    Just a random miss or mister you find at an outpost or on an island.
    Wants to get somewhere else and is willing to pay to get there. Payment upon delivery and amount dependent on distance traveled and rarity of the passenger (nobles pay more).

    Soul Seer
    The dark and brooding, tattooed Order initiate.
    Offers to travel with you and provide you with OoS missions equivalent to bottle and scroll voyages. Adds 15% to the value of all OoS values.

    Gold Explorer
    The rugged looking adventurer with shovel and scroll case at hand.
    Offers to travel with you and provide you with GH missions equivalent to bottle and scroll voyages. Adds 15% to the value of all GH values.

    Merchant Mariner
    The consummate businessman type with ledger and quill and ink.
    Offers to travel with you and provide you with MA missions equivalent to bottle and scroll voyages. Adds 15% to the value of all MA values.

    Swabby
    A competent looking sailor with a bucket.
    Automatically removes 1 bucket of water every ten seconds.

    Shipwright
    No-nonsense type with a tool belt and muscled forearms.
    Increases the speed of repairing your ship by 25%.

    Cannoneer
    Rough looking chap with powder stained fingers and smudged face.
    Increases the speed of reloading your cannons by 25%.

    Sea Witch
    Enchanting looking mistress with hair ever blowing in unseen winds.
    Increases the speed of raising/lowering/turning sails on your ship by 25%.

    Cabin Boy
    Shabby looking young fellow.
    Feeds the pigs and protects cargo from some damage.

    Musician
    Brightly clothed minstrel. Constantly plays music (which could be bad in a stealth situation). Very slowly heals your crew while they're on the ship. Also keeps the snakes from biting.

    Since passengers don't persist between games, there's no progression to worry about. A ship that somehow managed to get ALL of these would be pretty sweet, but far from unbeatable.

    Thoughts?

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  • Captain Arcanic
    Master
    Insider

    If the passenger wasn't outright killed in a battle, they might be savable by the attacking crew, as they floated in the water near a sunken ship.
    Or they could be stolen while the entire crew is on the Ferry.

  • Sargent Sully
    Captain
    Insider

    I certainly like this idea and it would make ships feel more lively.

  • DrFauli
    Captain
    Insider

    sweet idea, love it!
    I would really like to see that implemented in some way. =)

  • Bosun Rotrr
    Master

    Love the concept overall. Some of the passengers you've listed might be problematic in terms of AI programming, and potential glitches; i.e. getting stuck on the ship, and in the way when emergencies arise. But the basic idea of having paid passengers on board, I'm totally on board with - as long as they don't get in the way.

  • Admiral RRRSole

    @captain-arcanic
    Quite some time ago I thought of ferrying NPCs around in "uber sloops" but just 1 to 4 travelers and nothing compared to this scale. lol

    I'd be too concerned about the shipwright stealing all of the grog. She looks like she would out drink many of us under the table. :o)

  • Captain Arcanic
    Master
    Insider

    @starship42 said in IDEA: Ship Passengers:

    Love the concept overall. Some of the passengers you've listed might be problematic in terms of AI programming, and potential glitches; i.e. getting stuck on the ship, and in the way when emergencies arise. But the basic idea of having paid passengers on board, I'm totally on board with - as long as they don't get in the way.

    My idea would be for them to remain fixtures on the ship (no movement) with idea that static animations would be easier to code. Also walk-through non-blocking like crew.

  • WestStormborn
    Captain
    Insider

    @captain-arcanic you got a bit of greed for gold I see

  • SupriseAutopsy
    Ship Mate

    @captain-arcanic I like the idea of ferrying passengers around, I don't think buffs would be a good idea, because it might lead to the passengers becoming almost required for PvP. Imagine a 2 person sloop going to attack a solo sloop. As it stands the 2 person has the numbers advantage, but with the right amount of skill the solo player can sink the other ship. Now if the 2 person sloop stocked up on bananas and got all of your buffs described above, the solo sloop wouldn't stand a chance, even playing their best. Unless, of course they had all buffs active as well. I wouldn't be opposed to buffs if only one could be active at a time. I would like to see a "take a passenger here" quest for money. It would also be fun to have a classic "walk the plank" feature for other crews attacking a boat carrying passengers. I imagine it could work similar to patching holes in the boat, a player has to force the passenger to walk the plank over a certain amount of time, with the possibility of being interrupted by respawning crew.

  • guichiodi2
    Captain
    Founder

    I love the idea of have passengers in our ship! it would make the game far more alive!
    Just a npc with some animation in our ship already makes the difference

  • Captain Arcanic
    Master
    Insider

    I hear what is being said about pvp advantage, but I don't think all of the passenger abilities combined are as powerful as a crew armed with a dozen cursed cannonballs.
    It could be that a ship is limited to a set number of passengers.
    And remember, enemy cannons and weapons can kill your passengers.
    All in all I just don't see the balance problem.

  • Poslio
    Commander
    Insider

    This idea made me lol...

    ....because I love it!

  • Aurash8863
    Lord
    Insider

    @captain-arcanic It's a nice idea but having the AI run around and physically feed animals and etc would have a lot of issues. If you've ever boarded a skeleton ship you can see how wrong and glitchy most of the skeletons are and act when walking around on the ship. Missing animations, glitching out of the ship etc. It's a nice idea but I feel if it was implemented it would look really awkward and just ruin the immersion.

  • Captain Arcanic
    Master
    Insider

    @manta1805 said in IDEA: Ship Passengers:

    @captain-arcanic It's a nice idea but having the AI run around and physically feed animals and etc would have a lot of issues. If you've ever boarded a skeleton ship you can see how wrong and glitchy most of the skeletons are and act when walking around on the ship. Missing animations, glitching out of the ship etc. It's a nice idea but I feel if it was implemented it would look really awkward and just ruin the immersion.

    Not at all recommending they move about the ship. Stationary and pass-thru. Cannoneer stands by the cannonballs, swabby stands by the banana barrel, passengers by the map table, etc. Just like the island characters, except aboard ship.

  • Rainfoxer
    Master
    Insider

    Yes please I want a man on my ship playing music

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