Ship Customisation Options

Kresslack

It's no secret that I'm a Seafaring and ships fanboy, and with such interest comes brainstorming ways to make ships even better. Now, I've thought about a lot of different ideas and options for this, but it wasn't until I started playing Black Flag again this week that it all started coming together.

A lot of time is spent on ships and they all pretty much look the same (with the exception of those touched by those artefact theme buckets). I think it would go a long way towards making individual ships stand out if there were certain customisation options available.

Just as you can buy and affix a figurehead of your choosing, what if you could also buy sails of a certain color or even two color pattern, various ship wheel designs, things such as lanterns, hammocks, etc? You want the hull of your ship painted red and black, and to sail crimson coloured sails, with a ship wheel carved of bone? Hell, why not?

The idea is to a) give people something to they'll enjoy looking at while they're stuck on it for hours and b) more uniquely distinguish ships, aside from the ship name and whatever flag might be flown.

Additionally, the ability to purchase or discover things such as sea shanties that you can give to your crew to learn and sing.

Shimi

I love all of this! Especially the sea shanties.. not gonna lie I would make my crew learns and sing them all!!

Melodie

I feel like this would segue very neatly into furnishing! Doesn't have to of course, but it just seems to fit the idea of it.

Also sea shanties yessss. I would super dig that. What is a Melodie boat of a previous Nereian without sea shanties?!

Shirszae

I definitely wish there were more ways to customise ships appearances and such.

Kresslack

Melodie said:

I feel like this would segue very neatly into furnishing! Doesn't have to of course, but it just seems to fit the idea of it.

Also sea shanties yessss. I would super dig that. What is a Melodie boat of a previous Nereian without sea shanties?!

Most, if not all of this could easily be made available as part of existing tradeskills such as Furnishing and Tailoring. Maybe ever off schematics for flag patterns and designs.

I'd especially like the ability to paint a ship (or various sections of a ship) in order to make it's overall appearance more unique. I mean, people shell out so much money for these things for them to essentially all look the exact same.

Bann

It would be nice if ship salvaging was actually feasible. In all honesty, from what I hear it's absolutely atrocious as it is. Feel like the salvaging crane should give you a much wider radius where you can potentially safely salvage from.

Kresslack

Ship salvaging is completely feasible (and free with the crane), and you naturally have to be over the wreckage to salvage it. Not sure how else that is supposed to work.

Lucianus

More pails!
Frost Pail:
Snowbound stern.
The stars twinkle in the clear night sky. Slightly curved along the transom and raked aft, the rear of the ship is well made
and could likely withstand even a full broadside bombardment, despite its blanket of frozen, pristine snow. The large rudder
blade is visible near the waterline, heavy with blue frost, although the mechanism that turns it is concealed within the body
of the ship. Similarly glazed, a tall rail runs along the edge of the deck, designed to prevent anyone from falling overboard
but perilous thanks to the lick of the ice. When the wind gusts, the snapping, fluttering sound of the rippling ensign cuts
through the chiming tones of icicles smashing as they fall from the rigging overhead. A heavy bait tank stands here, water
sloshing from its sides.
You see a single exit leading south.

Neat Pail:
Opulently appointed ship bow.
The sky lightens with the onset of dawn. Brightly white, the various lines from the sails are drawn tightly around gleaming
winches here, the pristine and sturdy ropes vibrating ever so slightly as the wind blows past them. The waist-high rails that
run the length of the ship on each side join here precisely in the middle, intricately scrolled woodwork creating the
illusion that the beams had grown together while they were alive. A large, scrubbed winch fitted with a long chain takes up
much of this neatly planked and ship-shape deck, the shining chain connected to the great anchor that rests against the boat
when not in use. Unsatisfied with the mere spotlessness of the vessel, every free surface upon this bow bears some sort of
decoration. Verdigrised knotwork vies with carven visages, even the running grain within the planking showcases extravagantly
monstrous and fantastical creatures. Affixed beneath the bowsprit is a life-like wooden dragon. There is a small group of
kola nuts here.
You see a single exit leading north.  

Immaculate cabin (indoors).
This room has not been mapped.
Precise and neat appointing creates a spotless marvel of this utilitarian cabin. Intricate carpentry and innovation allows
tables and benches to fold smartly away against the walls or under one another. The heady scents of varnish and polish fill
the room, the labours associated with each in gleaming evidence about the cabin. Overlooking the bustling deck, two brass
portholes shine with their innate rich lustre, not a speck of verdigris or tarnish visible, each securing a spotless and
streakless pane of glass. Cushioning the foot and kept almost impossibly clean, a rug of woven jute bears the ship's name in
gold upon a deep blue background.

Seaweed Pail:
Shaded side deck.
The sky lightens with the onset of dawn. Just slightly lower than the main deck, the side decks provide dangerously snarled
walkways for passage between bow and stern, as well as a breaker for waves that may crash up over the sides of the vessel.
Wooden stakes raise up from the deck every few feet, thick rope running between them just inches behind the rail running
along the edge. A giant mat of dark green kelp canopies the walk, hung from the rigging overhead and tangled about the side
rails.

The entangled quarterdeck of The Long Winter.
The sky lightens with the onset of dawn. Heavily burdened by some tonnage of seaweed, this ensnared quarterdeck is the centre
of activity on the ship. The bridge rests slightly raised here, the magnificent wheel for steering rising out from the deck,
hidden beneath a slithering mass of red bed kelp. Underfoot, endangering all who visit the Captain, helmsman, and crewchief,
great strands of bladderwrack burst with each footstep, daubing the deck with their slime-filled innards.


Still collecting all of the descs for each pail.

Kresslack

The pails are neat, but I'm more thinking along the line of making certain components interchangeable and customisable, from the ship wheel, to the sails, to the paint scheme.

Bann

@Kresslack how often, exactly, do you go out and salvage people? Or hear about someone going out to salvage another person?

Tahquil

I would just like the monster mapper talisman to work. Any news on that?

Trey

Tahquil said:

I would just like the monster mapper talisman to work. Any news on that?

or.... Or.... OR..... we could give seafaring bits a 10cr redeem value now that they look to be fully out of circulation?  

Aerek

Bann said:

@Kresslack how often, exactly, do you go out and salvage people? Or hear about someone going out to salvage another person?

When I was Shield, I salvaged the Shield ship nearly every time I sank it. Salvaging isn't hard, it's just that most sailors were kitted out for solo sailing; not a lot of people were kitted out for specialties like Salvaging. As long as you had Deckhand 4 and a ship with a crane, it was a pretty simple affair to go out and raise another ship, you just needed the extra crew to sail both ships back when you're done.

Sure, paying to have ships raised is easier, but it's not like salvaging was hard.

Vadik

Likewise chiming in, prior to leaving the Shield a few days ago, I'd probably salvaged a dozen or more ships for citymates that asked or that I happened to notice sink? A few I just couldn't help at the time, due to lack of crew, etc., but the task itself is pretty easy, especially if they made good note of where their ship actually went down.

Bann

I dunno, guess things must be different for you guys or something. It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me to sail out to where Artanis just sank my ship/someone else's ship and salvage them. Or where a badass seamonster just pooped on someone.

Also, I feel like it'd be really nice to be able to check ship stores and stuff like that from the bow, instead of having to break off and go in to the cabin just to check.

Would very much love to be able to customise my ship more, too. With as much as I paid/have put into it, being able to customise it would be fucking amazing. Please add this, @Makarios @Nicola!!

Krypton

Bann said:

Also, I feel like it'd be really nice to be able to check ship stores and stuff like that from the bow, instead of having to break off and go in to the cabin just to check.

Fleetsense.

Vadik

Bann said:

It just doesn't seem like a good idea to me to sail out to where Artanis just sank my ship/someone else's ship and salvage them. Or where a badass seamonster just pooped on someone.

Seamonsters I just put together a crew to kill, but pirates unless I had a full crew + a second ship (I usually sailed a strider) generally I just waited an hour or two then went and got it. Never knew someone to wait around that long to kill again, though I never had any issues with Artanis, either, though I know he's a common source of complaint. Definitely had the benefit of flying under a non-contentious flag.

Bann

Yeah that Ashtani flag bro. All good though, it is what it is! If the game didn't offer different experiences to people from different places, it'd be boring as fuck.

@Tahquil - Tah, what's the monster mapper talisman???

Jayden

All I can say is 'please' - Jayden's ship needs to be even more garish.

Arin!

Is there an IDEA to support for any of these, @Kresslack? I like a lot of the ones you proposed! They definitely seem like a good potential money sink for people sitting on their dragon hoards. (And for people who want to save up for fun customization)

Cooper

Ideas get purged from the system in like 2 weeks.

Cailin

@Arin! You can always IDEA things yourself!

Kresslack

This may have been back before the Idea system was put in, but yeah feel free to submit whatever you liked.