Removal of Automatic Locks

[Nick]

I find some of my characters in coastal places are using boats as storage devices rather than buildings, because you can create locks without using any iron. I find this rather out of the spirit of Cantr. People should deal with veichle theft in character, and I don't think that automatic locks should have been added.

If boats get stolen often, towns always had the option to build a coaster harbour, right?

[Agar]

Ever get that car back?

If you're that bent out of shape over it, change the way it works in character for you. Try applying a different concept to the process. Boats don't have "free locks" they can "batten down the hatches". See? In character solution to your out of character problem.

With populations the way they are and the vast proliferation of boats and boat making, there is already a challenge to keeping a boat in game as it is, what with pirates and thieves. Keep the locks, otherwise we'll have fleets of sleeper ships zooming to nowhere as newspawns jump on and set off in random directions only to starve with no food.

[Sunni Daez]

I agree with Agar...as for cars, they take to long to build, to have them built without locks. And with this being the slow paced game that it is, a boat made without a way to lock it, is not good. If a ship is stolen, It is almost impossible to get back, unless you are on a lake, without sea access..

[Surly]

Longboats and dinghys really shouldn't have locks, as they don't have iron.

Maybe two longboats?

"manufacturing a longboat" taking 10000g of wood
"manufacturing a longboat with lock" taking 10000g of wood and 180g of iron

I am fed up of the Longboat and dinghy having such unbalanced advantages.

Not to mention the sloop, the most poorly balanced thing in Cantr...

[melbi]

The first locks in the real world were not made of iron. They were made of wood. I'm talking about the two brackets on the side of a door and the crossbar that you drop into them.

[Surly]

You want to get all technical with RL comparisons? In RL you can remove locks without a crowbar. In RL, you couldn't add an iron lock to a boat and expect people to not just jump on board and take your boat. In RL, boats have cabins and holds for securing things. In RL, a dinghy couldn't dock to a galleon, and be impervious from boarding itself.

This is Cantr, and Cantr should abide by its own limitations. Until we have wooden locks (if we ever do) boats with no iron should not have automatic locks. They should have to pay for them.

[melbi]

I'm not trying to get "all technical" -- I was struck by Nick's indignation that locks were made of something other than iron...

On one of the islands, my character was invited to help build a sloop, and went off to the forest to gather lots of wood. When she came back and added the wood to the project, someone pointed out that there was no water nearby. Well, at least the project wasn't my idea.

Still, there is nothing to stop players from doing comical or nonsensical things like that, or like building a lighthouse or a galleon in the desert.

So, I'm sorry, I didn't realize this was an emotional issue. My comment was not really SERIOUS even if it was not funny.

[formerly known as hf]

Nick's indignation that locks were made of something other than iron...

Me too - I agree and was about to say the same thing as Agar... A little bit of imagination never hurt

[Nick]

Ships get stolen. It sucks. But it should never have been solved OOC.
Coaster Harbours can be locked, and used to build boats.

Your argument about cars being too hard to make well... sure you can make a car and someone can jump on it, but they won't get far without an engine, which you must be on the car to build.

BTW, good points Surly.

[formerly known as hf]

Until we have wooden locks (if we ever do) boats with no iron should not have automatic locks.

but how do you know there are no wooden locks in Cantr Surly? They may just be the preserve of boats...

My charries assume the locks on wooden boats are wooden, and so are the keys - they just need iron to make a copy as the process of copying a key in Cantr clearly requires iron...

RP your way around this... There would be no benifit from not having automatic locks on boats - it'd annoy newspawns who do not have access to iron - and it'd annoy older characters as the newspawns would simply nick any boat they see that's being built. And as for the coaster harbour argument - why make it more difficult? Having to build a harbour just to make a boat safely? No automatic locks would just bring all round annoyance

[Nick]

RP around obvious game mechanic irregularities? No. If my charrie started to rapidly gain damage, I wouldn't RP it. I'd complain.

And, ta da, here I am.

[formerly known as hf]

An iregularity - maybe

but a darned useful one - which needs no changing - and can be easily dealt with via a bit of imagination.

As for random damage - I'd complain too - but that's because it'd be annoying

changing this would create annoyance to a much greater level than the small annoyance of a slight miss in the game mechanics

[Surly]

Whatever you say, HF, it remains the same...

Balance cannot be achieved if things like free iron locks remain. And without balance, the game is skewed.

Consider the Skimmer against the sloop. Which is the better boat, regardless of cost? Which is a better boat? Quite blatantly the sloop. Yet the skimmer costs vastly more.

Dinghys and longboats already have a huge advantage over the larger boats in the docking to land thing, and the docking to larger boats. They should not have free locks as well. If you don't have the iron for a lock you shouldn't get it. By your logic, why not have free locks on buildings, to prevent someone sneaking in and putting a lock on your house before you wake?

[Nick]

Go, TSC.

[Agar]

Whatever you say, HF, it remains the same...

Balance cannot be achieved if things like free iron locks remain. And without balance, the game is skewed.

Consider the Skimmer against the sloop. Which is the better boat, regardless of cost? Which is a better boat? Quite blatantly the sloop. Yet the skimmer costs vastly more.

Dinghys and longboats already have a huge advantage over the larger boats in the docking to land thing, and the docking to larger boats. They should not have free locks as well. If you don't have the iron for a lock you shouldn't get it. By your logic, why not have free locks on buildings, to prevent someone sneaking in and putting a lock on your house before you wake?

Then along the same lines, if more expensive boats can't dock with land, why should the cheap ones get to do it?

This isn't a game, its a society simulator. Life doesn't have balance, why should this game? You try something, it's not everything you hope for, you learn a lesson and move on. That's life. If you want to avoid more mistakes, do your research. In life that means talking to people, getting a support group of friends together, and sometime just diving in and giving it a shot. That's how we find things out. Sometimes we're right, sometime we get screwed. you built a skimmer and feel cheated, tough cookies.

Balance isn't binary. You can't just flip things on or off and they'll be better. Free locks or no locks, neither one is a good option by itself. But either you're not upset about it enough to think of another soultion, or you're just not creative enough.