Distress Flare

[NaruShadow]

I know the concept of flags and flares has been suggested before, but my idea is a bit more specific. Say you have a boat, but no materials to make a radio for communication, this is where flares come in to play. Imagine you've got a crew member attempting to kill you, or a pirate on your ship. There may be other ships all around you, but you have no way of contacting them for help. You should be able to make a distress flare of sorts. Use magnesium powder for burning, and maybe a bit of clay or something for a primitive casing. When you launch a flare, it could be displayed on the events page of people on nearby ships as:

'You see a <i>Red Signal Flare</i> originating from the ship: <i>Dawn Under Heaven</i>'

The flares could be mixed with different chemicals or dyes to create the colors. And I'm sure if you see a red flare in the sky you will go check on the ship it came from.

[nateflory]

I rather like this suggestion. It would essentially use similar coding to the radio (in terms of area-range-events) but merely show a pre-set message as described. Of course, such generic "flares" could be used by pirates to lure others in as well, but that's a good thing IMHO. Groups could colour-coordinate their flares, (or if preferred, only one type of flare exists "you see a flare from [shipname]")

Alternate suggestion, the flare could be seen at a distance beyond the normal "boat names" similar to seeing Lighthouses currently. Far away boats would possible get an event such as "You see a signal flare at direction 123, very far away".

[SekoETC]

IRL flares have a little parachute so it floats to the ground (or sea) and is in the air longer, making it more likely to be seen. Although in Cantr I assume that if no ship or town is within view range when the rocket is fired, it's unlikely that any would appear within the next hour either, so it might be enough that it's just a momentary event instead of something that remains visible for an hour. But what would the case be made of? Cantr doesn't have plastic.

[NaruShadow]

perhaps a small amount of brass? Or maybe a more primitive material.

[SekoETC]

Or maybe there could be several ways of making a flare shell out of different metals. Hard ones should require a work bench or an anvil. Or depends on do we want people to buy/make flares in advance to be prepared, or should it be possible to just come up with one while sailing, for example if you are out of food and are seeing a ship in the distance?

[Piscator]

Why would you need metals? Common fireworks get by without metal casings and a distress flare doesn't necessarily need to be more.

[Money]

They could also be used on land as fire works and town signaling to vehichles and other towns if in range.

[NaruShadow]

I think it would be best if it was kept to the water. I think if people were using them in towns it would get hectic. Perhaps it could be a tool only usable in vehicles? Meaning you make a launcher of sorts as the tool, and to send up a flare you need X amount of materials A and B. Much like you would need to make clothing, food, etc.

[SekoETC]

It seems that Cantr has some unwritten rule that anything that's potentially useful needs to be either A) difficult to make or B) expensive or C) both. Not sure why. In any case the flare or any sort of fireworks would require some programming, at least to generate the message. Signal fires have been encoded a long time ago but there must be some sort of hassle involved if they still haven't been implemented.

If we eliminate the OOC excuse of "if they are too cheap then everyone would use them" we can start considering resources from a logical perspective. Metal was mentioned because it's malleable and fireproof, thus it wouldn't be destroyed on the way up. If there was a chance of failure involved (one more thing to program) durable shells would probably be less likely to burst into flames or to blow apart. Instead of metal you could for example make a shell out of clay, but it would need to dry for at least a day. Before someone suggests, we cannot use note paper because it's immaterial. Wood would be another option. The only reason to prevent making flares/firework on a ship or under primitive conditions would be the lack of equipment for making the shell and some OOC balance issues. Stuffing explosives into a shell can be done anywhere, but could you produce a shell with your bare hands? If shells were semi-finished objects, it wouldn't matter which metal was used for it, they could all be substituted for each other and you could use what ever materials you have available, yet there would only be one final project for making a flare (three if metal, wood and clay shells had different success rates). For example I have one character in a town where iron is more common than wood, so if had use for a flare, they would be more likely to use a metal shell than wood.

[Piscator]

The problem I see with metal is that it's probably to heavy for a small missile to be effective. Lighter materials would be preferable from a RL point of view. I'm not sure if we need a casing at all, though. Some types of firework consist only of a launching tube (which could be easily made from wood) and some gunpowder (a ball of gunpowder for the pyrotechnic effect and some propellant). I'm not sure how suitable that is for signalling purposes though.

I wonder why nobody mentioned the gunpowder yet. It alone should be able to be A,B or C.

[NaruShadow]

well speakin from a real life point of view, Flares are fired from a revolver or a specific flare gun, which is made of metal, and the shells are made of plastic and metal, so it makes sense to me.

[toon]

By this being added though, It would lead to a fight about whether or not guns should be implemented. Since it would be a gun/launcher it would lead to multiple posts about how guns should be added since flares would be alot like guns. I like the idea otherwise.

[NaruShadow]

If you think guns are that similar to flares, try shooting your foot with one. With a gun you'd probably loose your foot, or part of it, with a flare the most you'll get is a bad burn, maybe a cut. Flares would not lead to guns as the flare cannot be used as a weapon.

[joo]

A flare gun is closer to a cannon than a pistol, but, as Sawyer said, "And how d'you think that would feel?".

For the ignition, maybe a deck grill should be required: it might be dangerous to try and light a fire on the deck of an empty ship; or this might be a cause to implement matches or tinder boxes.

edit: I like the idea of different coloured flares based on the metals used, but the colour should only be visible if the boat is relatively close (i.e. in the map)

[Pie]

(AH! whatever did happen to those signal fires? I made them, they're ready to go and they're in the database...)