Drifting Ships

[Solfius]

Here's an idea for ye all:

When a ship is not under command (no one sailing it) it suffers from drift as it goes off course and suffers the whims of the sea.

What would happen would be once a day a random amount is added or subtracted to the heading and the speed (up to a minimum or maximum of course).

The we could have a project on a ship (perhaps as a machine which you work on an indefinate project) which stops this occuring. So sailors actually have to sail their ship now by being on a sailing project.

These "crewed items", like wheels, rigging, oars etc, would need to be crewed by a character to stop the ship from going astray.

Bigger ships would have more crew points to man.

Where there is more crew points, each unmanned crew point would subject the ship to a random deviation (so a ship with three points unmanned would suffer 3 random deviations) It would be possible to sail with a small crew, but harder as constant adjustments would be required.

(perhaps also, course adjustments can only be made on the ships wheel, as a short project {1 hour})


and ships should come with more than one area (or deck), because it seems like a good idea to me and I'm too tired to think of a better reason

[kinvoya]

Then Captains could actually scout for good sailors who would be alert a lot of the time and carrying out their assigned functions.

[Razorlance]

I like this, seems like a good way to implement minimum crews and get tangible feedback if your short on hands. And multiple decks, oh yes, on a galleon we could have one for sleeping, one for cargo and one for the large cannons.

[Agar]

Multiple decks + layers of locks = "relocation" of undesirable clans/cults to points unknown by a fanatical group.

Which sounds damn fun.

I do like the idea of drifting, although I don't like the idea of multiple people piloting a boat. I was thinking of it being more like a project that would let the boat go. Someone starts a project called something like "piloting boat" or "navigating" and that person can steer the ship. No one else. It'd be nice to be able to lock out the controls.

[Solfius]

not multiple people piloting it, but multiple positions that need to be occupied in order to keep it on the course set.

So, for example, a large ship might have on it's objects page

Rigging
Rigging
Rigging
Rigging
Ships Wheel

That's 5 crew points. To keep the ship dead on course, or stationary if not going anywhere, all 5 need to be manned whilst not docked/docking (whilst docking without a full crew perhaps there's a chance of failure equal to the percentage of unfilled crew points).

However, to steer you need to use the ships wheel to do a "change course" project, which is a mere hour long, and can be used to alter speed or course.

Or, even better now I think of it. Only the person on the project for the Ships Wheel has the option to change speed, dock, change course.

[colonel]

Now that sounds good. I like that idea a lot. Thank you.

[Ian]

That's a cool idea. Maybe they could have a tide system, that would make the ships drift in and out. But maybe that's a lot of programming, I don't know much about programming.

[Solfius]

it would be fairly complex, which is why i suggested the random changes in speed and direction. It gives a similar efect, but is a lot easier to implement