That's what I always say. Wee need to be able to play without our bears, or other tames. But because we anyway need to gather and carry a lot of stuff, we need a horse in basic tool skill. So we should be able to obtain one, attach cargo harness and travel through the island and carry our stuff. As for other tools - to became alternative to tames, better quality tools should be same effectiveness as tames. Mythic scythe - gather same amount of fibers that bear do (masterwork then, for example, half as good) etc.
There I guess whole world system should be changed. So half-atlas travels should lasts for an hour, or less.
- All map size, all grids should be cut at least twice.
- Wind should not rotate clockwise and change it's strength from strong to calm and back, but to blow steady average strength (provide us full speed), rarely raise to hurricane (damaging full sails and planks with waves), and rarely drop to calm state. It should blow one direction, and from time to time change, for reasonable angle.
- Storm should not be global with hundreds whirlwinds, but to be local dangerous zone like that:
So our goal would not be to play pacman with hundreds of tornadoes, but to escape/avoid/survive one deadly zone with just one deadly tornado in center.
- There should not be tornado in polar or tundra. Snowstorm there instead.
So my idea is to change sailing from boring endless empty time-wasting to short and full of action travels (shorten maps with islands close to eachother - already requires to do some maneuvering between islands. Seaweed zones, random reefs, ship traffic, drifting icebergs, storms avoiding, chasing pirates or running from them, etc. Escorting or delivering missions, trading some stuff, cheaper to buy, in one island, more expensive to sell in to another one. NPS's ports and towns around the world - each grid sould have at least one with local and global quests. with life around... sailing game of my dreams (sigh).
Errr... well here is my Brig:
As you can see - there is no shootguns, no roof and walls armor. Just regular ship with 4 extra cannons. 10 cannons each side. I fought with it with 4 damned ships at once: two schooners lvl-60 and lvl-54 and two Brigs lvl-56 and lvl-54. Regular maneuver and boardside fight. I took all of them down solo and they were just took 3 planks from me (I replaced em as soon as debuff gone). I also did lvl-56 damned Galleon for quest (again - few leaks and 4 planks). So... in my opinion - the best way to fight damned ships is this. Fighting by Galleon is total torture due to lack of maneuverability and huge time waste for maintenance. And Brig - is fun (of course I have ALL in captaining skill tree I've got 6800+ planks and gunports. Also journeyman sails and 138% damage cannons for Galleon quest).
But anyway. I would change all ships system totally. I wrote it before:
26 ships in total 6 clases. No free building on ships, guns in just gunports (with top deck, nose, and stern ports introduced). One piece of sailing equipment for each ship - which contains all masts, cables, ropes, ladders, and sails spots. In loom we choice - which type of sails attach there. And "box" (or "rooms", or whatever) system for ship insides, like crew room, cargo hold, supply block, tames spaces, captain cockpit, armory, etc, and with limited space inside we choice what it will be. Trading ship, battle ship, fast, or big etc.
My 26 listed ships are here in this thread.
Pictures from another great pirate old game.