The boat topic to end all boat topics

[SekoETC]

Heyyy, I ain't no thief man! I wuz gonna give it back, seriously, just happen'd to need it.

[Black Canyon]

bump

[Nick]

There should have been a warning to the non-thieves before it was implemented that their docked ships could now be boarded.

IF character.thief = false THEN
message player
ELSE
ignore
END IF


Now, that doesn't make much sense...

[julie2]

I didn't vote because I don't agree with your entire proposal. Please add a third option of Somewhat Agree, if you can, Sho. I like that ships can dock to docked ships. My char who is alone was able to build a dinghy and dock it to her sloop because of this.

Well it's a pity that she won't be able to do the same next time, if Sho's suggestion is implemented She'll either have to take a one-off risk of either trusting somenbody to help her, or else leaving the sloop unlocked for a little while, I suppose. That's still better than the constant risk ever-after of pirates sneaking on to her ship from the seaward side while she's docked, isn't it?

I voted yes to the whole package. I'd like to see built-in cargo hold implemented too, mind, but that's a different (if very closely related) issue.

[julie2]

There should have been a warning to the non-thieves before it was implemented that their docked ships could now be boarded.

This secrecy surounding changes in game mechanics seems silly to me. It always winds up on the forums anyway. Why not just tell us what changes have been made so our precious chars don't get killed when we thought they were safe?

How realistic is it that things our chars believe to be true about the world change from one day to the next? What if in RL we all woke up and discovered that anybody who felt like it could just walk right through our locked doors and rob or even kill us?

I'm with you there. Now the find-out-in-game rule has been scrapped, why should we still have to find out in-game that the laws of physics just alterered overernight.? Why won't the ProgD give us chance to prepare for these events? A notice posted on this forum a week or two beforehand (to give those who are away some chance of noticing it too), would be ideal. A notice posted just a day or two ahead would be huge improvement

[Nick]

On a similar note, I didn't really like Jur's message to all players implying that all of us destroying locks with screwdrivers were purposefully abusing bugs.

Maybe if someone had actually come out and said something along the lines of:

You can destroy locks now, provided you have a screwdriver and crowbar in your inventory.

Then maybe, if I work on a project with just a screwdriver, and see it progresses, I might be doing wrong.

Do you know how I learned locks could be broken? One of my prisoners did it. Walked in, saw them using a screwdriver, and that's how I learned. How was I supposed to know the project is actually supposed to require a crowbar? Nobody has told us this other than this accusing message sent to us all.

Not to mention, even as of now we're not fully told of this function. If you need a crowbar, what's the difference between destroying and unlocking? Come on, you guys have been improving with communication, but I think this is a big enough change that warrants an announcement, message, or even a post on the forum, but at least somewhere.

Moreso on this topic; I don't like the idea of pushing boats off. Nobody has responded to my question of rationalising how that's done? Sure, a pirate would be annoying, but its not like you can just "push" a pirate away in real life. It would be very convenient (for pirates, too), but it just isn't reasonable, IMO.

[kinvoya]

I didn't know you were suppose to need a screwdriver and a crowbar. That wasn't in the message was it? I thought it just said that it was a bug and we shouldn't exploit it.

What's up with this? What are we suppose to be able to do here and what tools are we supposed to be using?

Is this supposed to work on both locked and unlocked doors? For some reason I thought it was supposed to only be for breaking locks on unlocked doors.

[Pie]

YES!!!

[Jur Schagen]

I didn't know you were suppose to need a screwdriver and a crowbar. That wasn't in the message was it? I thought it just said that it was a bug and we shouldn't exploit it.

What's up with this? What are we suppose to be able to do here and what tools are we supposed to be using?

Is this supposed to work on both locked and unlocked doors? For some reason I thought it was supposed to only be for breaking locks on unlocked doors.

True, it was supposed to be, but it wasn't. The message wasn't accusing anyone of bug abuse, it just said that it was a bug and we would try to prevent any abuse if it should occur, and no locked locks were intended to get destroyed.

The way it was intended, and has now been put in place, is that you can destroy an unlocked lock with a screwdriver and three days work. Nothing major, I'd say, just a way to be able to get new locks on unlocked places where the keys have long disappeared.

Jur.

[AoM]

I wouldn't call it "pushing" a boat off, but since we aren't too technical with how boats board others in the first place, I don't see the need for a realistic explanation as to how to detach an unwanted boat.

(...but I'll try it anyway.)

If we were to be realistic about boarding another ship, first of all locks wouldn't mean a thing, because there really are no doors on boats. (At least not any galleon or longboat that I've ever seen.) But conversely, everyone who wanted to board would have to possess something along the lines of a grappling hook to tie the boats together. If this were the case, then it would be viable to "detach" a boat simply by cutting the ropes that are tying the two vessels together.

Furthermore, if we were being a tad more realistic, there would be none of this large boats can't board little boats.


Now, the locks are in this game to make up for the fact that sometimes people are sleeping, so the lock is a deterant and forces an attacker to waste time and resources to get through it. Unfortunately, the way piracy works now, the attacker doesn't need to deal with it at all. And there is no in-game defense for docked ships against any yahoo noob pirate with a dinghy.

I'll repeat for all the programmers out there... There is no ingame defense against pirates in dinghys docking to large locked ships and either stealing the ship itself or just swagging all the loot stored in it. Or if they were really malicious, slaughtering the crew piecemeal a little at a time.

Now I know that the programmers are watching this thread and I know they're very cool, swell people who intrinsically care about the balance and playability of this game, and I know that despite their busy lives they can see that this is an important, high priority problem that needs a tweaking or two.

And when they do fix this, there will be much rejoicing and a heartfelt thanks from yours truly.

[Nick]

Okay, I'm in favor of pushing off; but only if it's implemented with some reasonability.
How about, you can detatch yourself from the boat and pick a direction to sail in, but until you've moved, you're still boardable and instantly dockable.
I don't want the "pushed" pirate to be moved a signifigant distance. Hours worth of travel by boat, all done by the muscles of a few sailors? Common, guys.

edit: my suggestion being that yeah, you could just sail away from the pirates, and if they're not good enough to keep up with you then you've outsmarted them anyway and deserve to win.

[kinvoya]

Dear Sweet Programmers,

I am also willing to pucker up if you will please fix these two horrible features before some evil dinghy owners (who should all rot in a jail cell in Lad) steal all my beautiful boats.

Love and kisses forever,

Jeanne

[Nick]

For reasons I won't mention I don't think that will work.

[Jos Elkink]

Docking on docked ships is disabled now.

We're still working on how to deal with docking on sailing or floating ships that are locked. For now this works as it used to.

[Nick]

Docking on docked ships is disabled now.

We're still working on how to deal with docking on sailing or floating ships that are locked. For now this works as it used to.

Thank you!