Free Abandonned Ships

  • Currently we are assigned a ship, one of three standard types, when we log in. But what if unique, empty 'unowned' abandonned ships could be found in the world, and commandeered. Ships that are not "tied" to any one player, and therefore can be hijacked, or borrowed, without fear they will be scuttled by the owner. They would be "owned" by whomever is sailing them at any given moment.

    So the idea is you find a new, unique abandonned ship out in the world that is not "tied" to a player. It is literally there for anyone to take or steal, and use for their own purposes. It could be of a unique design and quite different in style and capability from our standard ships we choose when we log in. It may also have pre-loaded supplies, cargo, loot, or nothing.

    It could have special sails, armor... could be made of iron or other metal, could be old and delapidated, or brand new, ... whatever. It could be really funky and different than anything we have seen before in ship design.

    The catch is that these abandonned ships, if sunk, are sunk permanently. They do not respawn. They have one life only for your current gaming session. But you should be able to pass them on to another player if you wish.

    Occasionally, another new, unique abandonned ship may appear randomly in the world. Like the rowboats we find, but should not be as numerous as rowboats. These should be rare.

    You could then split up your crew and control more than one ship, as a crew. The new ship could be used as a decoy, a trap, or just another ship to add to your "fleet" and carry abundant amounts of loot in one go. Or you could create a fierce fighting force.

    They would have to be taken and accepted "As is" though. They also cannot be scuttled by anyone, only sunk. If you were to quit game, they would not sink, unless you destroyed them yourself.

    Once sunk, the player would have to mermaid to their "assigned" standard vessel, or find another new abandonned one somewhere else in the world, if one was available.

    Thoughts?

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  • @starship42 I like the idea. We could then have a galleon of four split between two ships creating the beginning of a fleet.
    Hoist the colors!

  • Me and my crew recently found a brigantine without anyone on it. The original crew must went afk or died and just went afk on the ferry of the damned. We would have loved to take over that ship. You don't have the opportunity to really damage another crew by taking their ship away. On the one hand the ship means everything in this game. On the other hand, if your ship sinks it basically respawns in no-time.

    In my opinion, the game should at least give one the offer or the possibility of taking over another crews ship or, as you suggested in your post, find abandonned ships to take over. It would change the game very hard.

  • Interesting concept. Not sure if it would work, but it at least sounds promising. That said, I would hate to be on a 4-man galleon, only to lose half of my crew to another ship, making my own ship harder to sail in the process.

  • It is allready possible to hijack ships and build fleets.
    It's just a lil work around.

    Fleets can be gained by alliances, its quick. 1 of your crew can commendeer the other ship as long as all is friendly.
    Still a bit of risk if u die u spawn at own ship.

    How to fix?
    When sailing we all come across ships with crews not filled.
    Board them, Be friendly, Make friends (in-game emote), Join crew. Tada your 2nd ship. U can die and spawn on it. It can sink and u can still continue.

  • @starship42 that could be used for the man o' war

  • I like the idea, it's different.
    I can effectively 2 man a Galleon (outside of combat), so being able to pick up a sloop for a 3rd crewmate would be awesome!
    They could knock out those merchant or GH voyages while the 2 man crew focus on skellies (darn Athena's).

  • They should add really interesting and unique ship variants that arent anything like the ones we spawn with.

    A barge with only a small hold that has the ingredients for players to be able to craft gunpowder barrels every 5-10 minutes, that has a catapult or trebuchet on the large otherwise mostly empty deck of the barge, to throw the barrels with.

    A fishing/merchant ship with trawling nets, live pool for bait or catchs you want to keep alive, and an ice box for fish you want to save to cook or sell.

    A merchant ship that has empty bottles and a station to brew grogs and rum with collectable resources such as bananas or crates of sugar.

    They would need to expand the item economy and allow merchant crates to be emergently harvested/created in the world at various stations/places on islands that are similar to how i described how powder kegs could be created, with fun little creation minigames that reward consistency and can have poorer results for errors in the creation minigame.

    The purpose of these ships should be specific to different aspects of gameplay, and should only be combat oriented if they are creative ideas like powder keg mortars, rather than just more cannons on blank/same ships we already have.

    However if they did just add one of each ship type per server as is, as a first iteration, i wouldnt complain. Just would be better to have unique uses and new and interesting ways to play being added rather than it being something where some crews have extra ships.

    Though just the fact that you could wipe a crew and steal a ship and they wouldnt spawn back has me interested.

  • I love this idea. It would be great as the risk of splitting the crew or abandoning your ship altogether has to be worth it. Even a ship smaller than a sloop (which I hope they consider adding) could be found and turned into a support craft.

  • @weakdexx said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    It is allready possible to hijack ships and build fleets.
    It's just a lil work around.

    Fleets can be gained by alliances

    True enough. My emphasis, and interest in this, isn't so much about Fleet potential, it's simply the idea of a unique, disposable ship, that can belong to anyone, to make use of for any reason one can think of - and they cannot be scuttled by the "owner", because there is technically NO owner. That aspect alone is appealing to me. That this ship has limited longevity; to one game session, embues it with worth. That it can be bequethed to another player just logging on, or who wants to keep playing when you log off, gives it value and utility.

    The 'building a fleet' idea was minor and secondary to me than other aspects of finding a unique vessel in the world.

    Partly I'm attracted by the idea that the devs might have the opportunity to create some wild and unusual ship types, both useful, functional and fanciful, with beautiful artistry, and frightening ugliness. They could even have built in flaws as well as unique strengths and capabilities. Perhaps they are "possessed" and seem to have a mind of their own, making you do things you don't expect, taking you places you don't anticipate.

    The possibilities are endless. I think the Rare devs could have a lot of fun with this, and therefore we could too.

    Because they would be uniquely designed and different from our standard ships, there would be a significant learning curve when first boarding and learning to use them. There may be surprises built into their design that are not discovered until one is deep into ones mission/quest.

    (...and yes, you should be able to repair the new vessel just as you do now.)

    There are some really fun possibilities with this idea, imv.

  • @a-cranky-eskimo I'm glad you get the idea and like this. It is a deceptively simple idea, but has such potential for creativity - on the dev side for ship design, and on the player side for simply having surprising, unque fun with an entirely new and strange vessel noone has ever seen or used before.

  • @starship42 said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    Currently we are assigned a ship, one of three standard types, when we log in. But what if unique, empty 'unowned' abandonned ships could be found in the world, and commandeered. Ships that are not "tied" to any one player, and therefore can be hijacked, or borrowed, without fear they will be scuttled by the owner. They would be "owned" by whomever is sailing them at any given moment.

    So the idea is you find a new, unique abandonned ship out in the world that is not "tied" to a player. It is literally there for anyone to take or steal, and use for their own purposes. It could be of a unique design and quite different in style and capability from our standard ships we choose when we log in. It may also have pre-loaded supplies, cargo, loot, or nothing.

    It could have special sails, armor... could be made of iron or other metal, could be old and delapidated, or brand new, ... whatever. It could be really funky and different than anything we have seen before in ship design.

    The catch is that these abandonned ships, if sunk, are sunk permanently. They do not respawn. They have one life only for your current gaming session. But you should be able to pass them on to another player if you wish.

    Occasionally, another new, unique abandonned ship may appear randomly in the world. Like the rowboats we find, but should not be as numerous as rowboats. These should be rare.

    You could then split up your crew and control more than one ship, as a crew. The new ship could be used as a decoy, a trap, or just another ship to add to your "fleet" and carry abundant amounts of loot in one go. Or you could create a fierce fighting force.

    They would have to be taken and accepted "As is" though. They also cannot be scuttled by anyone, only sunk. If you were to quit game, they would not sink, unless you destroyed them yourself.

    Once sunk, the player would have to mermaid to their "assigned" standard vessel, or find another new abandonned one somewhere else in the world, if one was available.

    Thoughts?

    This is a wonderful idea an is a variation of similar ideas posted way back. One was where PL could resurrect sunking Ships.

    The issue is i can't see how they could make this work as the ships themselves act as player loobies. So even if you could take control of the ship there's no mechnism in place to reassign spawn points. So you couldn't spawn on the commendered vessal if you die.

    Another thing is the ship themselves are huge assets and is the reason why the server is limited to the amount of ships and not crew and is also why skelly ships were an issue requiring the devs to work h*****n server optimization to get them in along side skull forts.

    I would love to see this work though as it sound awesome.

  • @enf0rcer you make some very valid points. I'm not a dev, so I'm not sure what the limits and challenges would be implementing this idea.

    If spawn points, due to death, become an issue, my immediate thought would be, don't die. Or, have your "assigned" ship near by and don't stray too far. One of the luxuries and privileges of temporary usage of these "gifts", is to treat them with care and understand that they can easily be lost if one is not careful.

    I'm hopeful though a solution could be discovered to dying and respawning, at least close to the "abandonned ship".

    As for ships being assets for servers... yes, indeed. Of course, such random ship appearances should be rare. Perhaps limited according to current population. If a server is "full" they will not appear. Once a "place holder" becomes available, one appears - without exceeding server limits.

    I bet there might be work arounds for this. I hope there would be at any rate.

  • Here's an extended add-on to this idea. One of these abandonned ships is used for a time and left behind on a server for anyone who finds it. A new player finds it and discovers a message, or mission/quest from the previous player, that has not been completed.

    We could call this game/mission "Pass The Baton". It would be a game where you leave a partially completed quest/mission for another player who finds your ship after you are finished with it, and he/she continues to try to complete the mission. So the ship passes hands from one player session to the next. It could be a chain quest passed down to other players just logging in, indefinitely. Could make a unique game out of it with the SoT community.

    Just a thought.

  • I feel the best solution to this has already been implement, rowboats & alliance’s. I recently spent a couple of hours rowing around the Shores of Plenty doing cargo runs, and whatever other random voyages I found, while my crew sailed in a galleon around the Devils Roar. I wouldn’t want anything bigger as I was able to stay unnoticed by the nearby ships. Having something bigger would make you an easy target and if the new ships had cannons I feel the balance would be unfair for crews without this new addiction.

    However, a couple of changes I’d like to see are:
    “invite to crew” - Rather than the current setup where we need to make friends or open the main XBOX menu (or windows) to look for the GT. This would help players, whether in an alliance or not, switch ships more easily.
    Spawn locationI like the idea of setting a rowboat as your spawn point but can only be assigned to one pirate. My adventure on the rowboat was ended due to the game thinking I was stuck (when I wasn’t) and respawned me on my ship.

  • @starship42 said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    Here's an extended add-on to this idea. One of these abandonned ships is used for a time and left behind on a server for anyone who finds it. A new player finds it and discovers a message, or mission/quest from the previous player, that has not been completed.

    We could call this game/mission "Pass The Baton". It would be a game where you leave a partially completed quest/mission for another player who finds your ship after you are finished with it, and he/she continues to try to complete the mission. So the ship passes hands from one player session to the next. It could be a chain quest passed down to other players just logging in, indefinitely. Could make a unique game out of it with the SoT community.

    Just a thought.

    Man, you just hit on somthing. I actually tryed to play this kind of meta game back at the launch of the game where i tried to keep the same Ship afloat and always passing it down to freinds as I left a session hoping i could comback to the same ship as if to give the ship a History. I think this is a brillent idea althou i don't know how entrench the ship model is link to the player lobby since you would need to see the source code for that. Still if they could detach the looby from the ship and stay in the Map as a place holder this would definitly allow for more options. Althou the problem you would run into is the different sized Lobbies so if a crew of 2 left from the session then the game would have to despawn the sloop for a galleon. The only way this would work is if we had one dynamic lobby cap to 4 players instead of 3 static lobbies. This would also allow for other ideas such as changing ship types.

  • I think this idea is brilliant with all kinds of potential.
    Just give the finding crew a voting choice to "switch ships." Their original ship scuttles and only respawns when the unique ship is sunk.
    They could instead just pilot the ship around without officially switching over, at the cost of respawning on thier original ship.

  • @tartansnake no offense man but i couldnt disagree more. Rowboats have literally nothing that satisfies what people want from this idea. And beyond that alliances themselves are poorly designed to duplicate gold and otherwise dont even make sense how we flag ourselves rather than vote, and would have been better added with a notoriety system to offset their server farming game breaking nature.

  • @captain-arcanic said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    I think this idea is brilliant with all kinds of potential.
    Just give the finding crew a voting choice to "switch ships." Their original ship scuttles and only respawns when the unique ship is sunk.
    They could instead just pilot the ship around without officially switching over, at the cost of respawning on thier original ship.

    Or their original ship becomes the abandoned ship and stays, though tbh i would prefer these ships are just as much physical commodities as items, they are never yours. A max of 2-3 lives per player if that vote was taken and then they should respawn elswwhere.

  • @starship42

    It is a cool idea. It should just be a chance to one per server. It would be a disposable resource that could be fought over.

    Would work best if we each had our own crew flag or banner we could create. Our flag would be in the flag box to fly at any time. Would be nice if we could always fly it with all the other flags at the same time.

    We would claim the abandoned lost ship by climbing to the crow’s nest and placing our crew flag or banner. Another crew could commandeer it by swapping flags. The crew leaves it is abandoned again. If it sinks, it resoawns again at a random time later.

    Then have an invite to crew emote like @Tartansnake suggested to add and expand our crews. I have always wanted an invite to crew feature so we could pick up pirates in the game when we had the room.

  • As has been mentioned already, whilst this is a superb idea, the constraints on the server ship limit are there to prevent crashes.
    The sheer number of ships that we have at the moment (a whole 6) is the limit that the physics engine can handle with the other AI threats in the game and the movement on the waves.

    Would love to see it though!

  • @sshteeve said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    As has been mentioned already, whilst this is a superb idea, the constraints on the server ship limit are there to prevent crashes.
    The sheer number of ships that we have at the moment (a whole 6) is the limit that the physics engine can handle with the other AI threats in the game and the movement on the waves.

    Would love to see it though!

    If you replaced your ship with the new ship there would still be six on the server...?

  • The more I think about this, the more I think the ship should be anchored until a crew Takes Command by everyone climbing aboard, someone taking the wheel and a vote being taken. You can't take it for a spin without committing your crew to the new vessel. Then your original ship despawns and the new ship becomes yours until it sinks OR any other crew takes the wheel for say, 10 seconds? If that happens, the ship becomes neutral again, ready for a crew to Take Command in the same way.

    This would lead to interesting combat scenarios where a thieving crew needs to take the ship without sinking it, hold the wheel for 10 seconds in a fight, then have everyone aboard to Take Command.

    Now that I think about it, this would be a very cool way to handle all ships in the game. Then it REALLY would be a sea of thieves! Maybe too much of one?

    Also, the ships need a better name. How about Cursed Ships, or Ghost Ships?

  • @captain-arcanic what about the bobbing and physics of it whist it sits there waiting to be picked up though? Not 6 ships on the server.

  • @sshteeve said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    @captain-arcanic what about the bobbing and physics of it whist it sits there waiting to be picked up though? Not 6 ships on the server.

    You got me there. I have no idea what computing power an anchored ship takes. From a completely non-coding viewpoint, it seems at least reasonably possible they could do it, if they can add free roaming skeleton ships.

    Maybe the whole thing is instead a scroll you find that leads you to a spot where a cursed ship rises out of the waves as your ship sinks?

  • @captain-arcanic said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    The more I think about this, the more I think the ship should be anchored until a crew Takes Command by everyone climbing aboard, someone taking the wheel and a vote being taken. You can't take it for a spin without committing your crew to the new vessel. Then your original ship despawns and the new ship becomes yours until it sinks OR any other crew takes the wheel for say, 10 seconds? If that happens, the ship becomes neutral again, ready for a crew to Take Command in the same way.

    This would lead to interesting combat scenarios where a thieving crew needs to take the ship without sinking it, hold the wheel for 10 seconds in a fight, then have everyone aboard to Take Command.

    Now that I think about it, this would be a very cool way to handle all ships in the game. Then it REALLY would be a sea of thieves! Maybe too much of one?

    Also, the ships need a better name. How about Cursed Ships, or Ghost Ships?

    Add in a system that only allows crews to commandeer new ships every hour and all “ship theft griefing” beyond just the loss the first time would be avoided also.

    I still think non combat oriented ships that have unique purposes and allow more interaction with sandbox tools like powder kegs or cargo etc and the world itself rather than just current ships being stealable is a better idea.

    That way people will always have their safe space scuttle ship, but if they choose to take on the responsibility and session based progression of dedicating some of their crew to this new ship, and it is lost, there is nothing to complain about. It is just another emergent element/tool within the sandbox to be used as players see fit.

  • I like it. Just don’t let people respawn on these unmanned ships if they die

  • Thinking even further, if these ships were unique and were made to be used as a way to increase efficiency and profit in whatever eventual item economy we get, that isnt directly voyage related (god willing...) they could have this be a thing where an alliance of ships could each send one member rather than halve their crew or abandon their old ship, and the increased profits would be the incentive and they could fix the gold distribution issue that alliances currently have. Which basically makes piracy in a pirate game unnecesary and spiteful instead of a possible tactic or opportunity. Working together should increase profits through extra man power alone, not by screwing the npc over by making them pay 12 people by the hour for a job that dosnt require that many, so to speak.

  • @captain-arcanic said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    I think this idea is brilliant with all kinds of potential.
    Just give the finding crew a voting choice to "switch ships." Their original ship scuttles and only respawns when the unique ship is sunk.
    They could instead just pilot the ship around without officially switching over, at the cost of respawning on thier original ship.

    You could implement a vote to switch ships.... that would provide spawn capability. Not sure how difficult that would be from the devs pov.

    I just wanted this to be simple, with no strings attached, or fuss. Since noone owns it, or is "tied" to it, or spawns on it, it becomes both a tool and prize to be protected and maintained, from theft and destruction. AND it provides incentive and effort, to not die.

    Your "assigned" ship is disposable, but you can always get another one - at a cost; respawning elsewhere. On the new ship your respawning convenience would be taken away. Forces players to be smarter and more careful if they want to keep their ships.

    Imv - and it's just my view - alot of players take death/respawning for granted. We are spoiled as players. We know we are virtually immortal, so we know we will live again and be given a new ship for nothing.

    This puts a door jam on that attitude.

    You've found a nice, beautiful, useful free ship... treat it with care, or you may lose it. Simple consequences. The ship then has value because it only has one life, then it's gone.

    Either way, if the devs implement free abandonned ships at all, I think it will be a plus for the game as a whole, however they finally decide it should work, for the best of the game and community.

  • @a-cranky-eskimo said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    Or their original ship becomes the abandoned ship and stays, though tbh i would prefer these ships are just as much physical commodities as items, they are never yours. A max of 2-3 lives per player if that vote was taken and then they should respawn elswwhere.

    Exactly. Ideally, I would like to see these ships as commodities as well as tools. They should have value and worth in their own right. They should be unique in a multitude of ways, and therefore players will want to fight over them and protect and maintain them.

    This is why my initial idea was that they had one life, until they got sunk. Then they were gone. That makes them valuable, but also disposable, depending how one views them and wants to use them.

  • @x-crowheart-x yes indeed, one per server at any given time. UNLESS... the server happens to have a low population that time and day.... then I see no reason why more than one couldn't spawn on occasion.

    But overall, I imagine them to be a rare occurance. Certainly much more rare than rowboats - which are pretty plentiful.

    Like the idea of hoisting flags/banners and anything else decorative or whatever. Not sure if that would work or how, but if its doable, sure.

    I'm hoping though the ships are uniquely designed and decorated in such a way that they would be left as is. I see this as an opportunity for the dev ship designers to have a field day designing new, intersting, bizarre, fantastic, ship types with their own decorations/cosmetics, "secrets", etc.

    I like the idea too that some of these ships will have built in weaknesses and strengths our standard ships do not have.

    Above all, I hope these "Abandonned Lost Ships" are mysterious.... evoking wonder and surprise... as well as unique usefulness and productivity.

    You'll never know what will materialize in the world. You won't know what this ship is capable of until you get on board and explore and use it. It could be a benevolent or malevolent ship by design.

    Imagination is the limit.

  • @straw-hat-blake said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    I like it. Just don’t let people respawn on these unmanned ships if they die

    Exactly. The inherent value and worth of these ships is directly related to the fact that:

    1. They have one life. Once they are sunk, they are sunk.

    2. Noone "owns" or is "tied" to them. So you can't respawn on them.

    3. Most if not all of them will be directly useful in the game in a variety of ways our standard ships may not be.

    Makes them meaningfuly challenging to protect and maintain - and ebues them with worth and value. You want this ship, you better protect it and maintain it, and stay close by in case you die... or you might lose it. Either to another pirate, or to Davy Jones!!

  • @starship42 Hey i currently trying to attemp to make a running and organized list of all the great idea's disscussed by the community. I was wondering if i could add a link to your post there?

  • @enf0rcer said in Free Abandonned Ships:

    @starship42 Hey i currently trying to attemp to make a running and organized list of all the great idea's disscussed by the community. I was wondering if i could add a link to your post there?

    By all means. Go for it. Thanks. :-)

  • @starship42 This does seem the simplest, and the survivalist in me loves the idea of one ship, one life, no respawns. I just don't think you should be able to cruise around with your old ship too. Both because it's limiting for small crews, and it clogs up the server with unnecessary ships.

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