So many people that I have spoken are worried about longevity of the game with only 2 ships to choose from and many people have asked for stern and bow mounted long gun chasers or 'long nines'. I think these would be a great idea and I fully support the notion.
The best way to implement this would be through ship configurations in my opinion. We can imagine ships as being modular with multiple components:
The Quarterdeck and P**p Deck
Where the wheel is placed, sits above the captain quarters situated in the quarterdeck. This largely wouldn't be able to be changed as it's a staple set up on almost every ship.
Upper Gun Deck
This would be one of the more configurable parts of the ship. It houses the cannons which would be the main element. Changes could include moving cannons to lower decks with gun ports, which would make cannons safer to fire but would hurt visibility and angle of fire.
Map Deck
This could be where cannons can be brought down from the Upper Gun Deck, this would also be the most likely place for the chaser cannons to be at the bow or stern positions. There is a lot of space on this deck.
Brig Deck
Currently all it does is house the brig and have plenty of space for future storage of animals and other cargo. This would remain largely unconfigurable also.
Masts and Sails
These would be very configurable but would offer no straight upgrades, configurations could include replacing one of the three square rigged sails with a jib sail attached to the bowspirit giving you more speed when the wind is at your port or starboard side but less when it is directly astern.
Ultimately I feel that there is a huge amount that can be done with the ships we have currently, especially the Galleon. Dataminers have already found that the ship files are constructed in a modular fashion so this gives me hope that maybe the developers have already considered this.
All said and done I would love to hear some criticism and for people to present their ideas.
-Zagwitz
