I definitely think the idea of a personal hideout is a cool idea.

I don't think that it should have any tactical advantages, though. Purely cosmetic.

My two ideas for personal hideouts for our pirates.

Idea 1.) This one is personally my favorite. Who doesn't like a secret hideout/base? Player hideout vaults are the answer.

It would use a similar system to how gold hoarder vaults work. The player would purchase a key from the gold hoarders for an absorbent amount of gold, and the player would then take that key to a vault of their choosing, and place it on the pedestal to claim an instanced version of that vault (would not effect normal vaults). Once your hideout is opened up, the room inside is noticeably larger than normal vaults, and there would be space to place furniture, decorations, etc from your adventures. Commendations could be tied to decorations as well, so for instance if you're a legendary sea dog, you could get a golden wall plaque that shows your arena stats. A feature I thought that would be kind of cool is if there was a separate room inside the hideout where your accumulated riches would sit, and could change in real time as you get more gold. This could be shown by piles of gold, chests, trinkets, skulls, etc. Obviously these are purely decorative, and just act as a visual representation of your earnings. There could even be an informational tablet or something that tells you how much gold you've earned overall.

Idea 2.) The upstairs portion of the taverns have finally been finished, and players can rent their own rooms. Similarly to player vaults, these would be instanced, purely cosmetic places that show meaningful achievements through decorations, etc.

The point of these is for players to have visual representation (other than equippable cosmetics) of their adventures on the seas. These wouldn't be meant to escape from pvp, because there would be no point to do so, but rather simply a place that the player could call their own.

@prescafatty said:

But I'm also trying to solve a) how to make the seas more dynamic by giving islands variable personalities and b) giving players greater impact on the world. I think planting a flag on an island still accomplishes these pretty well.

Every island already has its own unique features and personality. And pirates already have the greatest impact upon the world that they could have - with each other.

Planting a flag, is well, just planting a flag...

...unless it's an emmisary flag on the back of your ship. In that case, it's mine. 😈

@d4m0r3d said in Claimable islands:

@galactic-geek honestly dont think it would be an issue. also dont see the point of claiming an island other than to bait people to you. if you claimed multiple, it wouldn't really affect anyone any different cause the force would be spread across each island. ain't no different to if people were to actually just chill at an island killing anyone who went there only maybe cause they claimed it and flagged it, it warns peeps that they are there. but yea if you claimed an island you just fight and kill them and clear it. if they have multiple islands they probs arent protecting 90 percent of them.

Do you know what else warns others that they were there?

Ships
Rowboats
Mermaids
Other pirates
Lit campfires
Lit beacons
Random upturned treasure

@nabberwar

The biggest flaw I see with these ideas is it requires an almost global participation. You will be lucky to land on a server with at least one crew willing to attack a claimed island.

Fair enough, and I agree there's a good chance you put up your pirate hideout and sit around waiting while nobody comes to fight you. But I'm also trying to solve a) how to make the seas more dynamic by giving islands variable personalities and b) giving players greater impact on the world. I think planting a flag on an island still accomplishes these pretty well.

@poisnclawttv

maybe a better idea would be maybe not claim an island thats already on the map but have an area in the shroud eventually unlocked that u can customize or maybe customizable captains quarters in the galleons or a room in the pirate legend hideout u can customize.

I think these are great ideas, especially a customizable captain's quarters. No reason you couldn't have these AND claimable islands.

@poisnclawttv said in Claimable islands:

@joe-krakatoa maybe throw some creative criticism in there man. Replies like this just put the person down. U can not like an idea thats fine. And u are free to voice that. But u shouldnt belittle another persons opinion just because u dont like it

SoT is a shared world and this forum about SiT is a public forum. What I should, or should not do here is irrelevant.

What the OP suggest would present gameplay that comes into direct contradiction to the developers core concept.

It is easy to daydream and think SoT has persistence like an MMO.

It does not.

I like to call out MMO drivel when I see it suggested.

Not sorry, but you are right.

@nabberwar
What if an event is on one of the islands tho, and you have skeleton ship protection, it will sink the event while people are at the event, or what if the people need to go to the island for a quest, they will need to attack in order to get in.

@joe-krakatoa maybe throw some creative criticism in there man. Replies like this just put the person down. U can not like an idea thats fine. And u are free to voice that. But u shouldnt belittle another persons opinion just because u dont like it

@prescafatty maybe a better idea would be maybe not claim an island thats already on the map but have an area in the shroud eventually unlocked that u can customize or maybe customizable captains quarters in the galleons or a room in the pirate legend hideout u can customize. Gives us more things to spend gold and dubloons on, doesnt hamper normal gameplay, and lets the creative people u mentioned be creative

@jetwolf31321908

What if while you play and claim islands, they generate gold based on how many hits the island lands on an approaching opponent, and after ever 30minuyes it adds it to your total gold, and if your defended island sinks an opponent or skeleton ship, it automatically puts it inside the vault on your island that you can open with easy but opponents have to figure out the custom code you put in.

I think one of the biggest problems in the current state of the game is there is too much gold already. One of the last things we need is another way to generate gold.

The biggest flaw I see with these ideas is it requires an almost global participation. You will be lucky to land on a server with at least one crew willing to attack a claimed island. What will likely happen, is a person will stake a claim and then....nothing. Everyone else on the server will be too preoccupied with FOTD, Emissaries, Ashen lords, normal forts, and Flameheart's fleet of ghost-ships. There is already plenty of distractions in this game, that no one will bother with a claimed island.

For ideas of this nature to work it requires a few things. First, server permanence, it feels wasteful to do all this work for it to all just disappear. Second, it requires the server as a whole to join in. This is like the game-mode 'Control Point' if you have ever played control point with small populations like only one other competing person, its rather boring. It requires large populations that are just unavailable in this game.

Short opinion:
The only things that belong to you are your ship, everything on it, the coins in your pockets, and the reputation you hold.
It should stay this way. What is the point of a hideout? What is the point of hiding stuff in it? So you can get it back if you sink?
Doesn't that defeat the purpose of sinking other people if all their loot is just stashed somewhere else?
Wouldn't this just make play sessions 10 hours as opposed to 2, so now it's harder for people with busy lives to stay ahead of the curve?
Likely all this would cause is people scared to go on the open seas, roleplay islands, and people just doing small voyages and turning in small hauls for 10 hours and not taking big risks.

@jetwolf31321908 Whoa, level up! You're taking this to a very interesting place.

@nabberwar
What if while you play and claim islands, they generate gold based on how many hits the island lands on an approaching opponent, and after ever 30minuyes it adds it to your total gold, and if your defended island sinks an opponent or skeleton ship, it automatically puts it inside the vault on your island that you can open with easy but opponents have to figure out the custom code you put in. So that way, they can raid opponents islands treasure in a way like a clearly that does not fill with water, and in order to collect the treasure inside your vault, you have to take your key and unload the vault, by using the key like on a fort.

@nabberwar Edited my last post. Removed that term to keep focus on the debate. Let's not get sidetracked here.

@prescafatty

@arctroopachedda and @nabberwar and all the other haters who just want to explore

When your disagree'ers are referred to as haters, all it does is demonstrate your inability to handle criticism. There is very little hate in this thread, just people pointing out flaws that you may be blinded to. Every person who posts an idea here can have a bias for their idea. Myself included, but at least I and others try to not see criticism as untargeted hate.

@jetwolf31321908 said in Claimable islands:

That would be cool, but it should be you can only get a flag by either buying it with doubloons or inside a vault.

Totally. I think something like this would be a great gold / doubloon sink. Or something you had to quest for. I don't think it should be given out easily.

@arctroopachedda and @nabberwar and all the other-people who disagree with this idea (OP edit)-who just want to explore, you are still free to do as you please! But there's a bonus in it for you: more of the unexpected. You'll never know which version of Mermaid's Lagoon or Kraken's Fall you'll encounter. Will it be under the GMU's control? A skeleton wasteland? Another pirate's lair? This will increase the adventure and make the seas much more emergent.

That would be cool, but it should be you can only get a flag by either buying it with doubloons or inside a vault.

The Pirate Legend Hideout should be our own instanced personal space.

It could also be used as a pregame lobby to dress your boat, dress your pirate, and get your loadout ready before setting sail.

If I want to be a adventuring landlord, I’ll play a Fable game. Leave the seas open for us pirates to explore freely!

I don't think it fits this game, maybe if the game had permeance to the game, but that isn't that game. By permeance, I mean you can log off and return to it at a later time. I join a server and claim a few islands, only for it to all disappear, seems like a waste of time for me.

You talk about flags building natural defenses, so would that imply that players will fight over it? I don't think that works for this game due to its size and population. Quite frankly, most players won't be bothered to fight over islands, due to the sheer availability of other islands. At most, you might get a ship or two out of the entire server that will fight, the rest will just do their own thing. I don't think this works in practice. It won't be remotely as engaging as you think.

It is one thing to personally defend an island, its another to call in an AI armada to defend it as well. Way back, my crew and I made an Athena Steal. We tracked this ship, counted islands to calculate voyage completion, and launched an attack to determine the final dig spot. We succeeded in getting that information by reading their circled map table. Now we staked out this island, imagine if we could do as you describe. We have ultimately check mated this crew by making it excruciatingly difficult to get that chest. Not only do they need to go through us, who have already bested them, but our island defenses. Hypothetically, even if we leave, the island naturally slows the crew down to by us time to return.

Its just a nay from me man.

@galactic-geek honestly dont think it would be an issue. also dont see the point of claiming an island other than to bait people to you. if you claimed multiple, it wouldn't really affect anyone any different cause the force would be spread across each island. ain't no different to if people were to actually just chill at an island killing anyone who went there only maybe cause they claimed it and flagged it, it warns peeps that they are there. but yea if you claimed an island you just fight and kill them and clear it. if they have multiple islands they probs arent protecting 90 percent of them.

The map is too big for this. Unoccupied islands will just be claimed over and over. Not really a worthwhile addition.

This sounds like more MMO drivel.

In a game that features players in wooden ships during the age of sail, OP would have us claiming real estate?
I'm as free as the wind and the OP expects me to be a landowner?

For a freaking clubhouse or gangster hideout on an island that morphs?
Of course there has to be a snow island.

Truly weaksauce gameplay.

@galactic-geek Gotcha. Yeah, all the static elements (journals, tall tales, etc) would remain through different island forms so core game elements could still be completed.

@prescafatty said in Claimable islands:

@galactic-geek said in [Claimable islands]

Also, feifdoms? In a pirate game? I don't 't about that. 🤔

Did I say fiefdoms? I meant pirate territories ladened with traps, skulls, and treasure.

What about static elements, like with journals, Tall Tales, etc.?

What about them?

If you remove them due to changes to the island, you would actively be preventing others from completing them. For example, I'm in the middle of fighting Briggsy, but all of a sudden, the island changes and she disappears. What if you're in the middle of fighting Flameheart's fleet? Or an Ashen Lord? Etc.

What I'm getting at is that your idea doesn't fit the style of gameplay that represents SoT. It's not about territory or control of who rules over what. It's about free pirates on the open sea.