Idea Time #4: Upgrades

@targasbr Exactly what I was going for. And yeah, maybe you'd have one in-game day before the coins expire.

@jimzir None of these upgrades are really op, and anyone can get them easily. You are trading materials. Just your stock spawn materials could buy you a fully reinforced ship, not to mention the supplies on the island. It doesnt ruin horizontal progression because any player can achieve it.

Its no worse than saying a player is destroying horizontal progression because he played for an hour longer.

Over time, you will gather supplies, and these supplies will either be used, or go to waste. If you do not spend said upgrade coins, you lose them. And upon logging off, upgrades are lost.

@jimzir And i also mentioned that the upgrades would raise the difficulty for you, making bosses more common and possibly making the skellies tougher.

@klutchxking518 said in Idea Time #4: Upgrades:

I have another idea, and this one i got from @TargasBR , however I wanted to bring it more in depth:

One-Session-Use Ship Upgrades.

This introduces a new Currency, and a Ship Upgrade system. These new features are limited to each session, and do not persist outside of each server.

You can now trade in supplies for Upgrade Coins. The amount of Upgrade Coins you recieve will change depending on the value of the supplies you trade.

Supply Values:

-Cannonballs: 2
-Special Cannonballs/Throwables: 3
-Cursed Cannonballs: 5
-Planks: 3
-Bait: 1
-Bananas: 1
-Coconuts: 2
-Pomegranates: 3
-Mangoes: 4
-Pineapples: 5
-Raw Meat and Fish: 1
-Cooked Meat and Fish: 2
-Raw Trophy Meat and Fish: 3
-Cooked Trophy Meat and Fish: 4

Upgrade Coins can be spent at any Shipwright to buy upgrades for your ship.

These Upgrades will improve certain parts of the ship, but if the ship goes down, they go with it. Heavily upgraded ships also have a higher chance of being attacked by Megs, Krakens, and Skeleton Ships.

Upgrades

(Low Price) Reinforcement:

A metal plating that can be applied to undamaged spots or applied over patched spots. The plating will reduce the damage to that spot, but will break depending on where it is used. You can apply planks over the plating.

For Hulls:
The Reinforcement will soak up damage 3 times, and will break afterwards

-Small Holes reduce to a Dent that doesnt flood.
-Medium Holes reduce to a Small Hole.
-Large Holes reduce to a Medium Hole.
-Explosions can still create a Large Hole.

For Masts, Capstans, and Helms:
A single Reinforcement can be used on each of these, and will soak up one hit, leaving the part underneath undamaged, but breaking in the process.

(Medium Price) Rams:

Allow you to Ram into ships dealing more damage to them and less to you.

These have a small chance to break off every time they are used, as well as when they are hit with a cannonball.

(High Price) Improved Rudder:

These allow the ship to turn a bit tighter, and are more resistant to spinning in the storm.

(Medium Price) Improved Compass:

This compass is able to go deeper into the storm without losing control, as well as having a secondary needle that points toward the nearest map marker.

(High Price) Improved Rigging:

Each one you buy is applied to a single sail, from back to front.

These make Raising, Lowering, and Angling sails go slightly faster.

(Low Price) Enchanted Bell:

When rung, this bell will glow yellow, and highlight flocks of birds in yellow for 1 second, making barrels and wrecks more noticeable on the sea.

(Medium Price) Improved Lantern:

When lit, these new lanterns will push the fog clouds away from the ship in a small radius around the lantern, allowing the crew to see a bit further while in a fogbank.

Their radius of light is also improved, meaning less dark spots on the ship.

(Low Price) Hatches and Doors:

This upgrade adds more functioning hatches/doors around the ship, and are meant to be one of the first ones you go for, due to their utility. These generate noise when opened/closed, and add:

-Functioning doors to the Captain's Quarters.
-Functioning Shutters/Curtains on the Windows
-Functioning Hatches/Doors to different sections of the ship that, when closed, all holes in the closed area stop flooding when the closed area is full. But as soon as you open the hatch, that water will drain through where the hatch opened, and the opened holes will begin flooding again. Built-up water still affects the ship's ballast and changes where it rides in the water.

Galleons can close the Top-to-Mid Hatch and the Mid-to-Bottom Hatch.

Brigs can close the Top-to-Bottom, the Map-to-Brigroom, and the Brigroom-to-Captain's Quarters.

Sloops can close the Top-to-Captain's Quarters, and the Captain's Quarters-to-Bottom

This allows players to close access to certain areas in an emergency. Have loads of holes below? Close it off until you patch the mid deck so dont sink immediately.

Conclusion

This rewards players for stocking up their ship, and gives them options to modify their ship after gathering resources. A player would be able to deck out their ship with a few things just by grabbing supplies from an outpost. Players could sacrifice their materials for temporary upgrades that expire when sunk or servers are swapped.

What do you guys think? Thanks to @TargasBR for the inspiration.

I just want functioning doors and windows without upgrading and the reinforcements it has to be balanced

To me most of these just seem like flat out better versions of the default with no reason not to get them and that usually results in that everyone just will upgrade the ship and the upgrades are just the new default. Causing that the start up time and gathering will be increased as people will just deck out their ship before heading out.

In my opinion the premise of the system seems reasonable and I like the idea of more customization to the ship and not have it rely on gold, doubloons or any persistent feature. I think a coin system isn't required, the ship upgrades could just be bought directly based on the supplies in the barrels or placing them in a specific chest at the merchant.

I think that there should be some downsides to the adaptations that we get, making it a trade off and not just have the default ship being just flat out worse in every single way. That every purchase dont just provides bonuses, but that adding weight makes the ship accelerating at a lower pace or turn slower and that some upgrades might not be compatible with others. Make it trade offs to make the ship better in one way but at a cost somewhere else in order to make it more diverse and more based on your playstyle than just making it a better version of the ship.

ultimatley im okay with some upgrades, like the improved compass the lantern and the hatches/ doors as they have little effect on ship v ship combat, otherwise im not much of a fan simply because of some upgrades effect on pvp. I dont think its a good idea to give any player a combatitive adavantage. the other stuff can improve your odds with navagation sure but it doesnt directly impact damage dealt. another issue i have is with upgrades that influence manuverabillity ans they would have profound impacts on fighting in storms an such.

@fllw3rb0y Its not much more a competitive advantage than stocking up is. Anyone can spend an extra 10 minutes grabbing supplies and decking out their ship.

@klutchxking518 Well then it just takes 10 more minutes to preform optimally which just slows the pace of the game. which is why im only okay with the upgrades that dont directly affect combat

@cotu42 That, my friend, is the point. It discourages players from going out without prepaing. The expensive upgrades may take a bit longer, but the cheaper ones are to reward players for stocking up early on.

This way, players who are sunk multiple times may not want to instantly return to the fight, but instead reinforce their ship a bit.

@fllw3rb0y Its not adding 10 minutes, those 10 minutes were already there. Do you not spend a bit of time stocking up? This uses your supplies to add more long term things to the boat.

@klutchxking518 i spend like 2 mins stocking up my guy i dont want to spend more time just to get on an equal playing feield when it comes to combat. im willing to do that for other stuff but combat is such a huge portion of the game.

@fllw3rb0y 2 minutes is all you need to empty an island. These upgrades would never exceed 100 coins, it wont take much to give yourself a boost.

@klutchxking518 thats not the point, there should be no need to do that in the first place. its just becomes an annoying mechanic.

@klutchxking518 my point is that I do not need to feel required to sit longer at the outpost when I start. Ship customization should result in specialized ships at a cost. The default ship should be the all rounder and perfectly fine.

I would adjust the suggestions a bit to have a downside, so you can choose to have it altered, but the default is just fine. Like I said I like the overall idea.

The purchases should just be done with materials, where we provide materials in the form of Cannonball crate materials, Planks and Food for the labor. The more rare or good the materials are more it contributes. I bet the easiest way is that it just gets taken from your ships supplies and you can see how much you have while purchasing them. So, the cannonball costs below contain all the items you can store in that barrel.

Reinforcements:
Costs: 50 cannonballs, 25 planks, 20 food
This should also slow your acceleration speed similar to the Ram and could not be used together with the Ram. You are adding weight to the ship.

Ram:
Costs: 20 cannonballs, 50 planks, 20 food
Limited use is a nice downside, I would add to that since you are adding weight to the ship it accelerates a bit slower, max speed would remain the same.

Improved Rudder
Costs: 25 planks, 10 food
I would not make it more resistant to spinning, but actually make your ship more influenced by the waves and attacks like the megan's bite. Your ship can turn easier, so that should be noticeable.

Improved Compass
Costs: 10 cannonballs, 5 planks, 5 food
No need for the secondary ability, but I would be fine with this just being an upgrade versus the storm.

Improved Rigging
Costs: Void
Just not needed, I just don't think this should be added. It would mess to much with ship balancing.

Enchanted Bell
Costs: 4x Cursed Cannonball, magical after all
Actually like it as it is suggested, ringing the bell makes a sound so that is a downside in itself. I like this one a lot as a nice feature to be able to buy.

Improved Lanterns
Costs: 5 cannonballs, 10 planks, 5 food
I would just make them emit more light and make easier to spot and be all for this.

Hatches and Doors
Costs: Void
I think this a feature in and of itself. I am not sure if I like it or hate it, but it has potential to be something. This is big enough to be its own thing that just is a part of ships.

i would add that with anything that raises weight would make the ship fill with water.

@cotu42 i like these. I do want to point out that the reinforcement actuallywould be a consumable. You can use it on patched holes to strengthen them

@klutchxking518 I would see it as an addition mounted on the ship like the ram, just absorbing the first couple of hits and falling off in bits based on where you took damage. Losing the weight in the process. That way you cannot reinforce one side of the ship constantly.

@cotu42 Oh, yeah, that sounds better. Coolio.

I think this 8s a pretty solid system. I just wish something like this were implemented.