Ships
To make the economy more stable, when the level cap is raised I think ships should be added.
This way we would have a huge demand for exotic logs which should level out the prices.
Also, it would give us a chance to use those cannons, dama swords and crossbows that are collecting dust.
With that said it's time to get into the setup that can be used.
The Battle
I think when ships go into battle it would be based on rounds and ship speed.
Each ship would have a set number of rounds they can do per attack, this would allow you to retreat for repairs if
you underestimated your enemy.
The battle will start when a ship within range of another ship.
You would have two options. Target an enemy ship directly for a long battle or target one of it's icon at the
edge of it territory for a quick fly pass.
A fly pass mean you would emerge on the other side yet you may take some damage on the way (you may also run into
another ship's territory by doing this).
Tiny speedy ships can take great advantage of the flyby as they would be too quick for cannons to hit them,
however crossbowmen can target their ship and crew easily and fire crossbowmen can sink there ship. With enough fly bys, they can eventually sink
large ships if those ships have no crossbowmen aboard them.
Rounds
When a ship enters another ship territory a timer starts, stating how many rounds you have till a break in the
battle.
The longer it takes to pass, more time is added Even more if it a long battle and even more for boarding, of
course..
Whether you'll be able to say how long the battle should be as well as how long a boarding will take would depend
if that option would be added.
Basically cannons would take like 10 rounds, you could say, while archers whether they're normal or shoot fire
arrows could take about 3 rounds.
Even though cannons would would do massive damage an archer could maybe get 3 attacks in before cannons can fire.
The Ships
Dry docks would be used to make your ships.
You would have the option of a large ship which would take a huge amount of supplies or a smaller vessel.
Maybe even some fishing boats also.
Smaller vessels would be weaker, yet would cost less and can be built much quicker.
Maybe even have some smaller vessel filled with gunpowder for a suicide run to damage large vessel or even create
a barrier that would last a few hours.
Crew
Now that you have a ship you need a crew, you can go with cannons for damage yet they do take some time to load.
Cannons would be considered area of effect attack, damaging a ship and it's crew.
Elite soldier would be good at defending against ships that have boarded you or vice versa.
When boaring a ship you can target the crew of the enemy ship directly.
Crossbows would be used when a ship is about to board and once in progress.
Maybe they could be equipped with flame arrows to target a ship directly, this means they can't really target
enemy crew when their arrows are blazing.
Ship Maintenance
As you guess already your ship acts as sort of a shield in battle yet this comes at a price.
This means you need to place your ship into a dry dock at times for repair.
Repairs can become very expensive yet be careful, if your ship is damaged too much you will not be able to do
repair.
If that happens you can either send her to her death in combat or dismantle her.
Even fill her with a lot of gun powder for one last mission if you have a lot lying about.
Supplies
Your ships crew, of course, need plenty of water and bread if they want to survive.
The better your crews health is, the better they can fight and your ship will suffer less damage.
This means your crew would be able to have more round and your ship would gain a little health if she is damaged,
as long as the supplies last.
Yet the sea life isn't all glamorous as there one treacherous foe all crew members face.
It scurvy, of course, and the main protection against scurvy is fruit.
Scurvy will make your ship and crew more brittle after an hour or so, to recover your ship will need to either
dock or bring a lot of fruit. (yes this means fruit will need to be added to the game)
Water and Bread
Water will be needed to be able to put out fires.
Which will be useful against fast ships with fire crossbows because if the flames are not put out they would
spread, covering the entire ship.
If a ships water supplies run out, the ship will need to flee to save itself, a ship can be placed on auto flee
from fire damage if the fire spreads to a certain amount on the ship.
(this will make sure someone doesn't lose an expensive ship due to lag as the flames will be put out after it
flees)
For Bread, bread is useful to keep spirits up yet once bread runs out, the crew will likely not be able to do
much. Meaning they will become easy prey as the rounds they can perform will shrink.
A little bit of bread would be used per round and fire would increase per round also if your ship is burning.
(plz Note Drydock Island would be for a latter edition for more advanced ships as well as much faster building
time)
(Till then, normal docks would have to be used so no buying ship from other players till The DryDock Island
edition)
Ship Construction
The time to build a ship may be a week, even close to a month on the highest level dry dock.
Ships will not be cheap to build nor would they be a speedy thing.
Maybe when new islands come out a few of them would be good for mass exotic wood gathering as a lot of wood indeed
would be needed.
As well as a few rare islands only good for building high quality dry docks, a much better quality then the one
you be able to build on your island allowing even stronger ships to be built.
Of course what is one player doing to need multiple dry docks anyway on a far off island, ofcourse it is to build
ships for other players.
Just building those dry dock would be only for the very rich players as well as they need to get a ton of supplies
so those ships will not be sold cheaply.
Ship Payment
When buying a ship, one needs to vist a drydock island to make a purchase.
It is a ship, of course, did you really expect someone to pack it up and send it to you by mail?
Ship prices would be fixed from low to high this is to make sure players don't ask too outrageous prices or sell
too low to undercut the competition.
The process of payment would have it own calculator system built in allowing the builder to allow some part of the
payment to be the raw resources themselves.
Gold coins, of course, would be needed for labor yet a portion of the coins will not make it to the hand of the
drydock owner as they would go into the ship construction.
A new raw resorce might need to be added which would be cloth for the sail construction.
Please note, a ship can be purchased after construction or be paid up before being built, yet not while it's being
built as all resources need to be present before construction starts. That payment system will stay the same
either way.
Payment can be paid up over a time period (can be months) yet if the drydock owner cancels the order or you decide
to cancel it all those resources will be added to your start menu.
The drydock owner can pre-build ships, yet only so many can be placed in holding.
When the buyer pays, the drydock owner can either start construction or use a pre-built ship that never had a flag
as long as it matches what is being requested.
It's only when a flag is added to a ship that they become useable and you will have only a limited number of
different type of flags you can obtain.
When making a purchase, a flag must be added to the request or the order will not be able to be placed.
DryDock Island Ownership (guild?)
Unlike the normal drydock you can build on your island, a Drydock Island would allow more advanced ships to be
built and even sold. From military to pirates Ships and even advanced Fishing Ships.
Drydocks, I would assume, would need a huge amount of guild coins to purchase and to upgrade to larger sizes this
means one drydock island may be entirely owned by one guild.
There may also be a separate chat on your drydock island to encourage you to deal with your neighbors as you may
be competing with each other for orders.
Of course, each island would have an owner. This one person would have say who else can take up residence on the
island.
The owner or you could say mayor can only do a foreclosure and reclaim part of the island already own only if that
player decide not to log in for 3 or so months (that go for the owner also).
If a for closure happen all the resources that it took to build the drydock would return to that player.
(there would be resources you can only get from other islands)
(one possible way to get crossbow the ability for them to shoot fire could be a fire gem mine from a volcano)
