The Skills of a Castaway - Rickety Raft Building

I love it. Fun idea. 😊

I vote for Sea Turtles!!

I would also make the chance of surviving the journey through a storm on such a flimsy raft very improbable. You'd have to wait for fair weather before launching.
I'd make the raft "the last act of a desperate pirate"

This could also be really useful on the Devils Roar.

@guybrush3pwood2 said in The Skills of a Castaway - Rickety Raft Building:

So you're deep in the caverns of Sailors Bounty and hear the distant noise of cannon fire. You race to the surface just in time to see your poor sloop disappear into the waves and your loot and resources being plundered.... Darn it!! you've found yourself without craft, but have a couple of skelly heads from an epic fight you've just won.

You could hide them, catch a mermaid and sail back there from wherever you spawn.... Or you could make a Rickety Raft. It would take a little time to construct and you'd have to harvest, bamboo, leaves and some sort of twine from the bark of trees.

Once all the items required to make the craft are bundled together on the shore you get a new, "Press "X" to construct the Rickety Raft" Essentially this is just a floating platform, with one small sail and a rudimentary rudder. Just safe enough to save you from sharks for your long journey back to an outpost with the few items you've got.

Horrifically fragile; one strike from a cannon, or bump against the rocks after it's launched into the sea will sink this unreliable boat.

aye another wonderful idea mate

@devariss lol... very good point.
They'd just be generic logs harvested from any tree. I think the items would have to be carried items rather than inventory ones.
I actually think this addition would be quite a lot of fun.

@nwo-azcrack said in The Skills of a Castaway - Rickety Raft Building:

Do you know if the mermaids follow you around while on a rowboat? I havnt really used one cause i dont need them. Just curious how this would work with the mermaids and all

They don't exaxtly 'follow' you... As long as your seated in the rowboat, no merspawn. Jump out, and it'll show up nearby very soon (atound 45 sec).

@guybrush3pwood2 said in The Skills of a Castaway - Rickety Raft Building:

So you're deep in the caverns of Sailors Bounty and hear the distant noise of cannon fire. You race to the surface just in time to see your poor sloop disappear into the waves and your loot and resources being plundered.... Darn it!! you've found yourself without craft, but have a couple of skelly heads from an epic fight you've just won.

You could hide them, catch a mermaid and sail back there from wherever you spawn.... Or you could make a Rickety Raft. It would take a little time to construct and you'd have to harvest, bamboo, leaves and some sort of twine from the bark of trees.

Once all the items required to make the craft are bundled together on the shore you get a new, "Press "X" to construct the Rickety Raft" Essentially this is just a floating platform, with one small sail and a rudimentary rudder. Just safe enough to save you from sharks for your long journey back to an outpost with the few items you've got.

Horrifically fragile; one strike from a cannon, or bump against the rocks after it's launched into the sea will sink this unreliable boat.

And add a volleyball, shall we call it err 'Wilson'

@guybrush3pwood2 I would like a few clarifications like how many people a raft can fit, speed/acceleration compared to a rowboat, and idk, how easily obtainable the resources are. I’m more skeptical on this idea than others, but perhaps with a few clarification my mind will be changed

@weststormborn Well, all these areas would be up for discussion, but my thoughts are

• max of 2 pirates on a raft and I guess you'd need a mechanic to capsize the raft if too many people were on it.
• Would be faster than a rowboat, but you can't attach it to your main ship.
• Resources wouldn't be too hard to gather, but you'd need say 8 logs, 10 lengths of twine and 4 large palm leaves.
• Because of the sails being made from palm leaves, perhaps the speed wouldn't be variable. (This isn't an attack ship although I am sure it would be used as one sometimes) It's also a rickety raft - so manoeuvrability / control is supposed to be limited.

But hey, my ideas can be improved upon... so if you've got any thoughts on your own points which would sway your thinking, then I'd love to hear them.

As much as this sounds like an interesting and fun idea, there is already a pirate-themed game out there which has this mechanic and hasn't fared too well in comparison to SoT.

I personally don't think we should have any crafting at all in this game.

By the time you've done everything you mention in the OP (collect resources, craft the raft, sail very slowly to the Outpost), you could have just sailed your ship back and turned in your loot. This seems like a lot of work and effort for both Rare to implement and the player to complete, for very little purpose. We already have rowboats which you can collect from islands during your journey in case of emergency.

@devariss i personally believe these items would be carried items like skulls or chests. So you wouldn't store them on your ship, they would be gathered from an island to aid your escape if your ship had been sunk whilst you were on land.
You could store them whereever you liked on board your boat but i wouldn't see this as being something you'd use like that... but hey, I'm open minded and perhaps you could store these bits?

Just make the plank barrel dual purpose. The food barrels already store food and bait, why not have the plank barrel also store the logs, vine, and fronds?

I’m literally wishing I could build a raft right now while stranded on an island. I’m near an objective surrounded by wood and damaged wrecks. We should be able to build a single sail wooden raft in times of need.

lol a raft would be cool but then they would have to limit rowboat spawns too, I'm not sure people would be fully ok with that one. Like it would still be amazing though and I personally wouldn't mind the less rowboats.