Drastic changes to boarding ships

[SekoETC]

1.a. Moving from a small boat (for example a dinghy) floating next to a bigger boat (for example a raker) should be slow or near impossible without special equipment.

1.b. Special equipment: A grappling hook attached to a lenght of rope. The hook could be made of almost any metal, but brittle ones would naturally take more of it. The rope can be hand-woven of string or cloth in case someone doesn't want to invest in a rope machine. How ever this will be a slower method of production.

1.c. Climbing will cause tiredness to increase on every attempt. Chance of success depends on physical strenght, the quality of your climbing equipment and your tiredness. I propose that if the attempt is successful, you should appear on board the ship without delay.

2.a. Moving from a bigger boat to a smaller boat would be possible by jumping, but there would be a chance of suffering damage (from bumps and bruises up to a broken leg) depending on the height difference of these two vessels. There might also be a chance of landing in water. For example jumping from a galleon to a raft would be very risky while vessels of a smaller difference would pose not much risk at all. Getting back would be as difficult as it were for someone originally on the smaller vessel.

2.b. If ropes or ladders are used, the passage is safer, and you can return to the bigger boat provided that the ladders have not been lifted, but this also means that people from the smaller vessel can climb up to the bigger one. Moving between the two vessels is instanteneous, but if one of the ships starts moving, they will separate. (If someone is on the ladders then, they will remain attached to the bigger boat but risk a chance of falling. Also the ladders can be chopped off with any sharp object, causing them to fall into the sea along with the person.)

3. People on a dinghy or other small vessel may save a person who's ended up in water, but the risk of drowning grows every hour. People in the water should show up on the map as a pink dot.

4. A bigger ship may lift up a smaller vessel (provided that the crew agrees to this) with a set of hoists and pulleys, after which movement between the two is instantenious. However lowering as well as lifting up a boat would take one turn. Maybe even more if there's just one person pulling or if they are wounded. Also the weight of the smaller vessel matters.

5. Locks should not affect boarding. However, even small boats should offer the option to store resources (and items) in lockable containers.

6.a. People should not be able to attack other people on a different level without ranged weapons. You could shoot arrows and crossbow bolts, throw boomerangs, throwing stars (although they would remain on the deck of the ship you aimed them at) and so forth.

6.b. When small vessels (dinghys, rafts) are in question, people might be able to swing over the side with swords and such. However when big ships are in question, it is assumed that people have space away from the sides and can dodge.

7. Conserning vessels of the same size (two rakers, two longboats, etc), boarding would also be possible using a wooden plank or other similar item. Having grappling hooks would lower the chance of the waves pushing the boats apart and making the person fall in between. If the person ends up in water, the plank might float for a while and offer swimming aid.

[Nakranoth]

Sounds like alot of fun... Hope the ProgD likes it enough to figure out how to to code it.

[Mykey]

In my opinion you are mistaken. Let's discuss. Write to me in PM, we will communicate.

[N-Aldwitch]

Nice suggestions, but they're completely excessively stupid.. way to detailed.. like- jumping and having a chance to injure yourself? Come on..

So let me get this straight.

You want:
Small ship to Big ship: Next to impossible
Big ship to Small ship: Suffer damage.

What the hell? Leave it the way it is..

[SekoETC]

Well, no damage if you use a good rope ladder. This means boarding should be done with tools, meaning not every newspawn in a dinghy can go hitting people on a galleon over the broadside.

[Mykey]

On your place I so did not do.

[Phalynx]

I am absolutely sick of newspawns who have bad intents being blamed for everything wrong with cantr.

Agreed

I think we need more of them, and this 40 day rule needs tossed.

Disagreed. But we've had that discussion before.

SekoETC, whilst when I looked at the original suggestion it had considerable merit, I now see from your follow up post the real motivation behind it and I don't like it one little bit. If your older characters can't look after themselves with regard to 'newspawns' in a dinghy, they don't deserve to be around do they?

So either this is paranoia about what might happen, or irritation at some minor incident that has happened. This advice seems good enough for everyone else so, as someone on staff, you should perhaps follow it: deal with it in game

I think boarding from one vessel to another of any size should be possible, he concept of a lock on the side of a boat preventing access is surely already more than enough protection and makes things way more difficult than in real life. I would think that with the existing lockable cabins and perhaps provision of lockable steering. Locking boats should be eliminated. I know that the built-in locks on new boats are due to be phased out in any case.

[Oasis]

he concept of a lock on the side of a boat preventing access is surely already more than enough protection and makes things way more difficult than in real life.

Locking boats should be eliminated. I know that the built-in locks on new boats are due to be phased out in any case.

Do these two statements not contradict themselves? If they provide the protection needed, and thus these suggestions are not, wouldn't getting rid of them mean we would need to develop new protections? And unless I've missed something, this is the first I've heard that built-in locks are going to be eliminated.

[Chris Johnson]

And unless I've missed something, this is the first I've heard that built-in locks are going to be eliminated.

As it is for me as well

[Phalynx]

Of course we'll have to look at removing the free vehicle locks for all non-metal boats if this was implemented , as it would be a method of creating iron out of wood .. It's not always technical issues which hold back implementation.

here

My mistake mistaking a proposal for an accepted...


No contradiction in my post:
I would think that with the existing lockable cabins and perhaps provision of lockable steering. Locking boats should be eliminated.

[Nakranoth]

Well, if you're gonna let people climb into locked but open vehicles, it would have to apply to all bikes and motorcycles too... then those would need lockboxes built in them too... I have no idea weather that's a good thing or not.

[Phalynx]

No No No No!

If my boat is moored at a harbour, I can climb on board and walk all over it. I might not be able to access the locked hold down below, or the cabin with the wheel, but the deck is mine to walk all over if I want. The same is true of a cruiser or a ferry - I can climb up the side or on the mooring ropes.

I can sit on a motorbike I suppose, but I can't open the locked box on the back or operate the ignition.

A car/van/lorry is locked I can't get in. I can#t store stuff on top of my car. if I use a roof rack then its not secure...

Does that make more sense

[SekoETC]

The main annoyance comes from not being able to see who's on boats nearby, their weaponry or even numbers, no matter if they were on the same spot on the map. While anyone in a dinghy, although suffering from the slowness, may dock to anything, hit the people if they please and then be on their way before who ever is on board even wakes up. The advantage remains on their side, since even if you were awake, you couldn't sail against them and like.. drive on top of them or shoot them with a crossbow. (This being a general example, none of my characters really have a crossbow.)

Of course not all encounters are hostile, but it's a bit nerviating that especially on a raker, people can often dock to you even while you're moving. And if someone is docked to your ship, you cannot shake them off. Nowadays I'm nervous even conserning a character on a longboat, though as far as I know, they cannot be docked to. Or can they?

[Phalynx]

well I think all boats should be able to dock to each other - thus your raker could catch up with the dinghy and retaliate...

[SekoETC]

Though a bit off topic, I would be ok with letting people sit on a motorbike or a bicycle even without the key, but it should be possible to push them off without getting help. First of all, currently you cannot enter the vehicle if there's too much load, and you cannot pull from the outside. Also in real life it would be impossible for someone to stay in balance even with their feet on the ground if someone was pushing them with all their strenght. They would fall over. At least after you punched them.

Also it should be possible to board ships without having a key, how the hell do you lock a boat anyway? But usually in real life, again, you could push the person off and most people would leave when threatened. But in Cantr, the player might not even be online.

Undocking is instanious, sending you off the coast and it will take hours to get back. You cannot push people overboard. The only way to get rid of them is to kill them. Or to go through the docking process, ask help for dragging them off, only for the person to awake and undock again! And you'll be damned if you step off the boat, since then the person will steal it for sure, no matter that they will have to go through the same trouble in the next harbour.