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Ship Changes!
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Comments
According to this TOTALLY OFFICIAL announce post I hacked from the depths of your databanks in the stormy sea of the mainframe, you are INSTRUMENTAL in ships!
I loved ship trades, but getting to the end and having to start over because oh crap I got sunk would not be fun. If I could not lose my cargo when I get sunk, I'd do ship trades again.
I loved diving, but it makes me a sitting duck. If on the ocean floor you could see the shadow of an approaching ship or monster, from far enough away to give time to get the bell topside and get moving before your hull snaps in half, I'd dive again.
I love checking out the islands, but sailing out there with the possibility of finding them occupied makes the trip a chore(and again, it's a chore with a risk attached). People worked hard on those islands, and they want to see them enjoyed by players. I don't think it's a good idea to take steps that will see the islands get less traffic, so I don't think there's anything wrong with people using their shipreturn in this way.
I don't think there's anything wrong with people being able to attack each other at sea. I just think that the process and result of it makes the sea unappealing. I don't want to go sailing and get boarded by a combat-bot, killed, sunk, and have to start over from scratch on that trade only to find them waiting at tasur'ke. I'd rather go sailing and if I encounter conflict, have it be something I at least have a chance to do something about and have the loss not make me have to start over in what I set out to do, because seafaring endeavours take a lot of time when you DON'T encounter conflict.
- With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
- (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
- Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
- Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."
- With sharp, crackling tones, Kyrra tells you, "The ladies must love you immensely."
- (Eleusian Ranger Techs): Savira says, "Most of the hard stuff seem to have this built in code like: If adventurer_hitting_me = "Sarathai" then send("terminate and selfdestruct")."
- Makarios says, "Serve well and perish."
- Xaden says, "Xaden confirmed scrub 2017."
Really, it's frustrating that it's a 200 credit one, to me. In Cyrene that becomes a wall to people even being allowed to use org ships, which seems inane.
Definitely looking forward to the other new ship changes though.
[ SnB PvP Guide | Link ]
Now, for example, if me and person A both have privs to a ship and, while I'm bashing, person A gets bored and decides to sail back to mainland, I'm stuck. It has nothing to do with being 'lazy' or qq/journaling somewhere. I'm just fucked, unless I want to ride back with them or they decide to find a different way back. Either way, someone's stuck. And that sucks pretty bad. Only solution to this is to buy my own ship and never go anywhere with anyone else. Which turns the whole seafaring thing into a solo affair. And by that point, I might as well be playing Ass Creed.
I think that I understand what the Garden seems to be trying to do in terms of shifting the paradigm of how people use their ships. I believe however that this can be accomplished differently, with far fewer ruffled feathers.
Fundamentally, it comes down to a question of economics. Ships are a very sizeable investment, and also a very large and necessary gold-sink for the Achaean economy. They are expensive to run and maintain and require multiple skills to use well. In the last six months however, I feel that the payoff of owning one or more ships has been greatly diminished.
While many of the new trade deals that were introduced are interesting, they tend to be the sort of things people only do once or twice in their sailing careers. With the new deals adding to the rotational mix, the very few old deals that people actually profit from - the Mayan Crown and 25 bound credits to be specific - have become so rare as to be almost non-existent. This had domino effect:
1. It is no longer profitable to own more than one ship, unless you use it as extra housing or a portal point.
2. The average player sails for crowns and credits. This means there are far fewer ships actually leaving port.
3. Fewer ships on the seas means the pirates have no reason to leave port.
4. Fewer pirates on the seas means the pirate hunters have no reason to leave port.
5. Fewer ships and fewer pirates means the Thalassian Seastrider is a much less sensible investment.
6. Lack of profits means that city navies have almost no reason to compete with each other or defend national ships.
It also needs to be said that since the introduction of multi-classing, the credit market has become INSANE. This subject is an entire topic unto itself, and I don't plan to speak much of it here. I point it out simply because it means the amount of gold you need to earn for the amount of time you spend and the amount of risk you accept in order to feel a sense of reward and accomplishment is far greater than it was before that change. Compounding things is the way in which mining has created economic imbalances and profit alternatives...which is also another entire topic unto itself.
My point is: Seafaring rewards have been scaling down as a result of all of this. Deep sea fishing might net the same amount of gold that it always did, but that amount of gold is worth far less than it once was. Same with diving. And trade deals like the 100k deal, which were not worth it to begin with, are now even less so.
@Kinilan also pointed out in the seafaring thread that most islands do not offer enough incentives to visit them often, and this is also something I tend to agree with. I hope I have not misquoted? I'm sure he'll correct me if I did.
I believe that scaling up the rewards to a sufficient level will solve all of these problems. Perhaps move the new trade deals to other locations, like Zanzibaar and Mysia. Increase the profit for the gold related trade deals to meaningful amounts. Make Mayan crown deals slightly more common (say, once every two or three RL months maybe?). Add in a few new deals for items that will be in general demand on the market to compete with the rare minerals of mining.
tl;dr
Create the incentives to take ships out, and the seas will become crowded over night. People will start buying them again instead of dumping them or using them only as store rooms or portal points. The problem, if it is a problem, will fix itself.
And @Daeir et al. I really don't understand the aversion to ships being a safe location. I mean, yes, it gets abused at times, such as the conclave event, but for people who don't, is it really such a harm? Sometimes someone can't be paying attention to the game all the time, but still want to keep some conversations going/work on things for orgs and the like. Requiring that playing means being always totally aware to be safe would lead to less activity from people who just can't manage that. Maybe that sort of thing sucks in your mind, but is it really a detriment to the game? And if the alternative is logging out, is people just being around less any better?
I mean, neither are the perfect solution that ships currently are, but they do require someone to make a very considerable effort to harm you, and if someone is legally making that effort, should you really be allowed to hide in a safe-zone?
This here is clearly the important implication of that post:
:hurrah:
Further, ships are one of the only ways to meet someone in secret, which is desirable in some cases. At least without using a bed and potentially making it very obvious you are doing something in secret (not to mention it'd be a little silly to get in bed with someone if you really just wanted to have a meeting with them).
And again, who's this really harming? It's not like thieves praying upon afk players is a real source of rp, either.