Could we get a mounted compass on the rowboat? It's not a huge deal but I know I personally would find use for it. I get that rowboats aren't meant to be used like ships but still, it would let you use compass and oars at the same time in the few occasions that you don't want to get up from your seat just to pull out your compass. The times when I have, it just seems/looks kind of silly standing up in my rowboat to pull out my compass. I've been in instances where I was caught in fog, large waves, or on the opposite side of the island from the ship and I think it could help.
Mounted compass on rowboat
@bloodybil Yes I think that's also another viable solution. Really anything that avoids having to get up out of your oar seat would be nicer than the current options. I suppose you could enlist a crew member to sit down with you and wave their compass at you lol :D
@drizkillz How is adding a compass to the boat when you have one on your person an excuse for 'making the game easier'. Also I'm not familiar with many instances where being solo using a rowboat has ever been easy, compass or no compass. Are you suggesting that getting up to look at my compass presents extra mechanical difficulty? It's an absurd implication.
@levernicus Stand up. Pull out compass. Change course accordingly. Easy. Or, we can add little cannon to it, a map table, perhaps a little sail? It's a rowboat.
@drizkillz Following your argument, why would we have mounted compasses on the ship, then since all pirates come with a compass? Explain? Your argument doesn't hold up. Just add a compass to the rowboat. It's not that much different, as you literally just stated.
@drizkillz I have yet to see an argument from you explaining how standing up to look at a compass somehow adds a necessary level of difficulty to the game that you seem to be hellbent on defending even though you conceded in the very next post that there's almost no difference whatsoever.
To quote you:
Stand up. Pull out compass.
Can you explain how getting up from the oars is this somehow superior mechanic that you feel the need to defend rather than being able to use the oars and compass at the same time? I doubt you can justify the logic, but I'm willing to hear you if you have a reason.
@drizkillz Personally I wouldn't mind somehow being able to remain seated and pull out my own compass without getting up, but I can live with what we have at the moment.
@DrizKillz dude all he's suggesting is that they make pulling your compass out a little less annoying. It's not like he's asking the devs to make rowboats fly.
@LeVernicus I personally don't think a compass would be a good fit for the rowboat, but being able to pull out your compass and look at it real quick without having to stand up sounds good. It's not game breaking or anything like that. I'm assuming you would stop rowing to look at it though. It's just the act of standing up and looking at your compass gets annoying and this is a nice simple suggestion.
@bloodybil said in Mounted compass on rowboat:
@drizkillz Personally I wouldn't mind somehow being able to remain seated and pull out my own compass without getting up, but I can live with what we have at the moment.
I agree wholeheartedly with this idea, and I've wanted it in many forms since day 1. Instead of using the "Sit" emote in taverns for example, to appear seated, make objects like chairs, beds and already existing mechanics like sitting in the rowboat more interactable. Little things like that add so much to the game experience. And not just limited to your compass, let us deploy our instruments and tankards while seated as well.
@LeVernicus Honestly, I'd prefer @BloodyBil suggestion, over just adding a compass to the rowboat. It's just, a little much for me.
If you find yourself going on a longer voyage on a rowboat, for whatever reason, I see it as a welcome challenge. Without a map table and crewmates to check your heading, you gotta learn to trust your memory, compass and instinct. I believe challenges like this makes better pirates in the end, since you have to learn to navigate using landmarks among other things.Yeah standin' up to check a heading can be a little, meh, but overall I find it a welcome challenge still.
@cstrap Perhaps the over-arching issue is actually that it's not currently possible within the game mechanics to be in a state of 'interacting' with a 'workstation' (e.g. sails, captain wheel, cannons, rowboat seats) and be able to use your inventory at the same time.
If there was an exception made to objects such as rowboat seats, skeleton thrones, then we could sit in them and use our inventory at the same time. I'm not sure what the game engine limitations are and obviously this would bring some added difficulty to Rare's side, but I think this would be great and might also open new options to interacting with other objects in the game such as the captain's chair in the ship cabin or patron tables at the tavern.
I mentioned this briefly in another thread, but currently charming snakes with music or feeding pigs bananas isn't very convenient on the rowboats. But with such a change, this wouldn't be an issue either. I know it's not exactly a top tier issue, but I hate seeing the rowboats so awfully neglected.
@levernicus said in Mounted compass on rowboat:
Could we get a mounted compass on the rowboat? It's not a huge deal but I know I personally would find use for it. I get that rowboats aren't meant to be used like ships but still, it would let you use compass and oars at the same time in the few occasions that you don't want to get up from your seat just to pull out your compass. The times when I have, it just seems/looks kind of silly standing up in my rowboat to pull out my compass. I've been in instances where I was caught in fog, large waves, or on the opposite side of the island from the ship and I think it could help.
Character should just place his compass on his lap so you can look at it by looking down...
I'm not for adding a mounted compass to the rowboat, at all, but I would love it if we could pull equipment items out while seated in the rowboat. I'm not sure, however, if that would be feasible, at all, when sitting with the oars.
The intended limitation is that you can't really multi-task while rowing the rowboat. And I think that should remain. Needing to stop in order to check your compass is a good factor - OR - having a partner in there directing you (team coordination - another intended aspect throughout the design).
I mean I said it before in this thread and I'll ask it again: How is the additional step of pressing one button just to stand up and use the compass really any different from just having the compass in front of you? Is the added step really necessary? Why or why not? Hypothetically if Rare did add a compass to the rowboat, are there reasons why people might advocate for its removal?
I myself could not come up with any real arguments to the contrary. I can see why initially the impression is that such an addition would be making the game marginally more feasible by rowboat, but is it really that different from what already exists? The rowboat has innate risks tied to the fact that you spawn on ships, not the rowboat. The pirate still would lack a map, and rely on their compass to guide them.
An interesting idea, which does make sense but for some reason I'd prefer it not to be there. I think what I'd prefer is that we are able to use items while seated or emoting, musical instruments etc
I say this because one of the most epic things me and my crew did once was to play a sort of 'survival mode' created from a story of losing all our money and our ship to gambling in the tavern.
We swam from an Outpost to an island to find a rowboat, with no HUD and surviving on what we found, then using the rowboat to travel around the map collecting items on our way to the eventual destination of Morrow's Peak. We relied on our knowledge of the island silhouettes, the rising and setting sun, the north star to find our way.@pdt-mindstream said in Mounted compass on rowboat:
I'm not for adding a mounted compass to the rowboat, at all, but I would love it if we could pull equipment items out while seated in the rowboat. I'm not sure, however, if that would be feasible, at all, when sitting with the oars.
The intended limitation is that you can't really multi-task while rowing the rowboat. And I think that should remain. Needing to stop in order to check your compass is a good factor - OR - having a partner in there directing you (team coordination - another intended aspect throughout the design).
Brought this up to Shelley Preston and Andrew Preston with @DuMy2008 at last year's EGX.
Shelley definitely wants to add that down the road.
Having your passengers pull out a compass, a map, music instruments etc. to make rowboat journeys more entertaining for both the person on the oars and the passengers alike.
Sounds like fun! I completed my first of 5 Legendary Reaper of Wanderer's Refuge voyages solo last night in just a rowboat. I rowed from island to island while ship battles were happening all around the area. I used my knowledge of the map and the rock and island formations. I was able to park my rowboat near Wanderer's while I snuck on to dig up my chests, using Wanda's hideout as my own secret base.
It was one of the most stealthy and rewarding voyages I've done, especially since one death would send me back to my boat and sink my humble rowboat with all my goods!
This idea is the perfect example of where the game design is not quite what you'd naturally want.
While on the rowboat, you can't do anything but row.
In order to do anything else you must...- stand up
- get out what you need
- use it
- turn and stare at the magic area of pixels that enables the "USE OARS" selection
- then you can row again.
Mess up any of the above chain of events and your pirate might...
- sit on the wrong seat
- fall off the rowboat
- fill in the blank with any wide variety of possible failures
While I agree that this increases the difficulty and benefits those who practice and hone such skills (which i'm all for) it can be annoying to have to accomplish 5 steps just to glance at your compass whilst rowing.
Remember when you had to leave the cannon, run over to the c-ball barrels, pull out the cursed c-ball of choice and then run over to the cannon again just to use that specific c-ball?
Few updates later, they made it so the inventory worked without leaving the cannon.
The very same concern is being illustrated here and Rare already has the code to replicate.Rare is easily becoming my favorite game developer purely for their receptivity and response to the community.
KUDOS!!!
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