Aristocrates 11 Posted January 20, 2019 Just a few ideas I've had so far  Ships: -Caravel: basically the merchant ship model, but buildable by players in the small shipyard with sails and without the paddlewheels or the rest of the clutter on deck; forecastle and stern castle decks needed; a good intermediate ship for the gap between the schooner and the brigantine; schooner sail capacity and brigantine weight and gun capacity, so a slowish trader with a punch -Carrack: about 12-13 gunports per side, so twice the brigantine and half the galleon, providing a nice intermediate step in what is a large empty space; having a single-level forecastle like the galleon, but only a single level on the stern castle, unlike the galleon; roughly a brigantine and a half in length, and, say, 6-ceilings-and-change wide, to the brigantine's 4-and-change; 8-9 gunports per side on the gundeck, 1-2 on the forecastle and 2-3 on the stern castle; minimum of 2 stern-chaser gunports; gap in between forecastle and stern castle far closer to amidships than on galleon, where it is ridiculously forward -Xebec: a quintessentially piratey vessel: a little longer than the schooner but no wider or higher; having as many gunports and sail points as the brig, but limited by the schooner's weight and crew capacity; for its piratey nature, it should be buildable in the small shipyard; also good for anyone who likes speed -First-Rate: unsurprisingly I've already seen this suggested here; a capital ship with at least 100 broadside gunports and at least two but preferably four stern-chaser gunports; not necessarily longer than the existing galleon, but certainly a fair bit wider (the galleon is too narrow); three-and-a-half gundecks with no discernible stern castle, as typical of the late age of sail -Seventy-Four: a third-rate ship of the line with 74 broadside gunports and at least two stern-chaser gunports; slightly shorter and wider than the galleon; two-and-a-half gundecks with no discernible stern castle, as typical of the late age of sail Makeshift Raft: this one would be unusual in that it would be made in the smithy and look like a large makeshift crate with planks and beams poking out of it, and a thick rope net holding it down; when placed on a ship, it would "launch" the makeshift raft upon the ship sinking  Ship parts: -Swivel ports: for those of us who don't need to be armed to the teeth, but don't want to be defenceless either, and reeeeeeally care about symmetry; should be an alternative to those planks that can be replaced with gunports, but should also be able to be put on the stern of even the smallest vessels (ie sloop and schooner), and on the bow of larger ones; less elevation, depression and traverse than existing swivel mounts (which should have more than they do); when mounted by the player, a swivel on such a port should give a useful view from outside the planks -Colossal masts: real warships in the age of sail never had more than three masts (with perhaps the exception of a tiny second lateen mizzen on some early men-o-war); given how the sail point system works, and given how small and silly the existing large masts look on the galleon, a fourth, even larger sail tier is in order; say, six sail points per mast (both lineships mentioned above should be able to fit three of these masts); the weight variety should have a gaff sail on the lowest level and a square sail or two above -Paddlewheels: steampunk tier; not very fast but helpful when sailing upwind and when the wind dies out; balanced by the fact that they would take up two or three gunports on each side... and possibly some sail points too (having multiple pairs should give decent speed) -Large cannon, but with swivelling and wheeled gun-mount (like the one on the existing medium cannon): not able to be put on ships apart from the gunport snap points on the two lineships mentioned above (and maybe elephant-drawn carts hehe); otherwise identical to the existing large cannon in terms of ammunition and other parameters -Lateen sail: just what it says on the tin; either an additional sail type (crew capacity boost and upwind sailing, compared to the handling speed and upwind sailing of the handling sail...?) or a replacement appearance for handling sails, since the Bermuda rig is far too modern (a single pane of sailcloth from the period of the age of sail would not be able to cope with the strains at that size - only modern fabrics can); smaller in height than other sail types of the same tier -Diving Chamber: steampunk-tier alternative to the easily destroyed diving platform (though that is fairly steampunky already), composed of an airlock chamber snappable to some of the planks on the lowest level of the larger ships (brigantine and up) -Copper-Plated Planks: steampunk-tier improvement on the already heralded reinforced planks - would provide both toughness and a speed boost, but at the cost of a bit of weight, and of having to source copper specifically; far less prone to natural decay both anchored and at sea -Repair Station: another thing I've already seen suggested; a placeable item to which a crewmember can be assigned, to repair planks by default or everything by setting, slowly underway and faster while anchored, so the repair crew are safe from J and floataway glitches; possibly leveraging some repair power from sail crew and gunners when anchored; maybe this doen't need its own object: could work by assigning a crew member to the resource box (or two, one on each side of the box, for symmetry and additional repairing speed, at the cost of another crew slot); potential ability to put planks/gunports and buckets in specific slots in the resource box, for the addition of bailing and plank replacement capabilities when manned... and maybe a repair hammer slot too, with better-quality hammers boosting repair speed  Changes to existing ships: -Rear-facing gunports: stern chasers are a great necessity in larger vessels, and greatly realistic -Windows on the stern of larger ships: the place for them is already there on the galleon and the brigantine, but they're boarded up for some reason; possibly a plank variant requiring crystal - flimsier but prettier -Upper aft deck for the brigantine: I know that I am not alone in this desire, as I've seen it suggested already -Snapping points for medium cannon on the upper decks: at least when the plank below is a gunport; potential visible valleys in the gunwales necessary -Greater speed and maneuverability and reduced stamina drain for the dinghy, and ability to deploy a small lateen or gaff sail for faster and longer journeys, and upwind sailing; the dinghy can't carry much or be upgraded or built upon, so this wouldn't make it unbalanced, just not as worthless (especially as a means of escaping a sinking ship); furthermore, a dinghy attached to a ship should automatically deploy when that ship sinks Changes to existing ship parts: -addition of a small funtional speed sail to the existing yard on some bowsprits; there is only one bowsprit snap point on a ship, so this can be balanced outside of the sail point system; addition of bowsprits to flotsam as a very rare drop, so it's not speed for money; ultimately bowsprits and figureheads should be separate things, which they were historically (this would permit bowsprits to be craftable along with other mast types; the figurehead would change the appearance of the bowsprit (making it a bowsprit skin... and opening the door to mast skins), so as not to break existing and upcoming "figureheads") -upper sections of speed and weight masts should attach to lower sections forward, not abaft; this is supremely annoying to me; also the panes on medium and large speed masts (ie masts with several sails) should deploy from lower to higher, and lower from higher to lower; and I'm not even going to talk about the main anchor deploying from the stern -existing weight and handling sails turn the wrong way to face the wind: the manner in which fore-and-aft sails actually work is perhaps too complex to be worth putting into the game (unless they feel like letting us reverse faster), but they could at least laterally reverse the animation so these sails are not turning INTO the wind, which is something that annoys me even more than the previous point -Changing the handling sail appearance to that of a junk sail would fix the size and Bermuda issue mentioned in the lateen sail point above, but for realism the junk sail should then become the weight sail, and the gaff sail model which is currently the weight sail would become the handling sail (because junk sails are not terribly good for sailing upwind, and gaff sails are better at that; whereas the junk would be a very fitting look for a trade/transport ship) -Swivels need to be able to depress more - and their mounts might need to lean forward instead of going straight up to allow for this realism (historically, swivels were close-quarters anti-personnel weapons, and vertical mounts as currently seen in-game were only used on very small (and thus low) vessels (who here hasn't struggled to hit a crocodile or wolf with the swivel mounted on the gunwale of a brigantine, because it just won't depress?)) : 3 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aristocrates 11 Posted January 20, 2019 Correction: I can see by pressing T when placing brigantine decks that the brigantine actually reaches 6 ceilings wide; I therefore revise my carrack suggestion to being 8-wide. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aristocrates 11 Posted January 22, 2019 Oh, and another ship idea: Lugger: larger than the sloop but as low on the water; basically a larger sloop, for those of us who can't quite afford a schooner but still want a bit more room on deck; a sloop and a half in length, with the deck affording space for two ceilings along the width, rather than one; 3 sail points; low transom, for that bargey look...  ... and maybe allow small ships to reverse quicker?  And an addition to my swivel port suggestion: swivel ports which are in the highest position, meaning they also form the gunwale, should have an inbuilt swivel stand (wood gun mount) on the gunwale... which also opens the door to "small swivel planks" for the sloop and lugger 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Aristocrates 11 Posted January 25, 2019 13 hours ago, Mighty said: Great ideas! Thank you Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
