Board Thread:Suggestions Forum/@comment-26126189-20150326014155

I know, I know ships are planned. But I am only suggesting features of the ships not the ships themselves. Please read it all before judging. Even though it's quite long because I have put a lot of time and effort into it like I do with all of my suggestions to make them as good as possible. So here goes nothing.

I'm not sure if Mevans plans to make them an entity or more like an Archimedes Ship Mod type thing. I'm going with entities.

So anyways I have been thinking and I came up with a few (a lot) of things.

First of all, for each ship only one person will be "attached" to the ship. That player will be the driver. The rest of the players/NPCs will just stand on the deck of the ship (so however big the ship's deck is, thats how many players/NPCs can fit on the boat)

There will be two types of ships (with three sizes and models for each type). The types are civilian and warships (for warships the three models/sizes are: Dinghy (small), Frigate (medium), and Flag Ship (large). For civilian ships I'm not sure for names yet).

Before I go on I will just like to let everyone know that I am usually a HIgh-Elven player so they are what I had in mind the whole time I was making this. Other factions will have ships of course (Gondorian, Maybe like a makeshift boat for Rangers of the North since they are Numenorean, Corsairs of course. I can't think of other water-borne factions but I'm sure there are more).

You must purchase a crew to man your ship whether it's a civilain ship or a warship. You can buy these sailors from the shipwright that you purchased your ship from (ships and crews are only avaliable by this method). The crew will always stay on the boat. For example if your boat has 30 oars (bigger ships have more oars (also depends on faction)), you will need 60 sailors (2 per oar). Sailors will be very cheap (2-5 silver coins depending on shipwright and faction)

Any hired troops that you own that are within 30 blocks of the ship (when you go onto the ship and man the wheel) will automatically teleport onto the deck of the ship (excludes halted troops or troops on guard mode). If your troops cannot all fit on the ship, the deck will fill and the remaining troops will be halted on the dock.

If you have archers on board (highly recommended), they will only shoot enemies or enemy ships with the hotkey, C.

If taken to much damage (crashing, war, etc.), then the ship will give out a warning and slowly lose speed and maneuverability until it completely stops (before the ship completely stops if you get it to a shipwright and right click on him you will have the option to repair ship for a fee of course). When it stops that is when you should collect your things out of your ship's inventory and get the heck off of that boat. The ship will then start to sink. If you are attached to the boat or are standing on the deck when it completely submerges, then you will automatically die and lose all of you stuff.

To dock a boat this will require a dock of course, and a new block called a Horn Cleat (if you don't know what it is Google it). On the dock you will place down two horn cleats (not sure on crafting recipe) on either side of the boat. You will then attach a lead to each side of the ship and tie it down to the closest horn cleat. Once they are both tied, a plank will appear, linking the ship and the dock (will also lock ship into place) NPCs and players will both be able to walk on the plank and enter the ship's deck.

Now onto my favorite part: Warships

The smallest warship will be about the same size as a medium civilian boat. The Flag Ship will be the biggest ship for each faction.

Warships will also have more health (doesn't sink as easily) and more defenses. On warships you can add mounted crossbows which players and hired NPCs can operate.

Since warships are much bigger and heavier than civilian ships, they will travel significantly slower.

Also it will be harder for NPCs to get by arrows on warships.

Controls: (while operating ship)

Not presing any keys: travel at neutral pace in the direction that the ship is pointing

W: speed up/eventually will reach top speed

S: slow down/will eventually reach idle

A: turn ship left

D: turn ship left

Space Bar: anchor/parking break (once ship is idle)

Shift: exit wheel, stopping ship

R: reverse (travels at speed close to idle)

Ctrl: exit wheel but ship remains travelling in the same direction at a speed a little lower than neutral (can right click wheel again to regain control)

Z: raise/lower sails (when sails are raised, it allows more speed but less manueverbility)

C: commands archers to fire at nearest enemy/enemy ship (or at least general direction)

Most of you should know what I'm talking about when I say the captain's deck. But if you not, then it's where the steering wheel is and where the captain pilots/commands the ship

Ok hopefully you guys can actually see that screenshot but anyways..... The birch planks will be the steering wheel (1.5 blocks tall). The chests will be the access to the ship's inventory (civilian ships have a bigger storage capcity than warships). The bigger the ship, the larger the storage capacity (the largest civilian ship will have two double chests worth of storage while the Flag Ship will only have half of that)

The spruce plank is the ships stats (damage, current health, top speed, blocks travelled, etc.). The acacia plank is the Fleet Command Station (only avaliable on a Flag Ship). The FCS will be where you can access your fleet of course. To begin the construction of your fleet you must first have Flag Ship. You can only buy one Flag Ship (until your current one sinks).

Also any warship you buy can only be driven by you (as I am techincally counting them as hired units as I will explain soon). In the ship's stat block you can give access to other players. Civilian ships can be stolen from you and anyone can drive them.

Anyways back to the FCS. Once you purchase a Flag Ship, you can buy a new hirable unit: a Ship Captain. The Ship Captain will make it so, once you buy one, you can assign him to a ship (when you buy a ship from a shipwright you will name it) and he will drive the assigned ship behind the boat you are currently driving (like how hired units follow you on land). The archers on those ships (when they are on the ship you can hault them or put them on gaurd mode on the ship and they will stay on the ship) will automatically fire upon enemies/enemy ships.

If you board an assigned ship, the captain will be standing behind the wheel (players when driving will look the same) with his arms out like when riding a horse but the legs are straight.

If you wish to drive the ship, just right click the wheel and the captain will move out of the way and you will take his place as pilot. Once you release the wheel he will take his place as captain again. If you right click the captain instead of the wheel it will bring up options like Follow Flag Ship, anchor, dock, stay put, guard mode (will stay in same place and will fire upon enemies), etc. But the FCS is just a short cut. You can do all of those things on the FCS with ALL of you ships instead of going around to each one.

It is late where I live so I must stop this suggestion here for now. Tomorrow after school I will return to complete this suggestion. Feel free to express your thoughts, opinions, and improvements down below. Thanks 