How to make sailing more fun (Ship Customization Ideas)

[Raikel]

As I have stated in my Blog post, it is come to my attention a fellow member of the forums has brought this idea to my attention. I personally feel that Ship Customization may be a few miles ahead of us, but these new ships lead me to a few ideas. Not just ideas on how to customize ships for unlimited players, but also a few ideas on how we could get some larger hulls for our unlimited players.

The recent ship additions/removals:


Although very short and sweet, we finally seen a glance of multiple ships that may soon be added into POTCO. In this preview we seen the enormous Ship of the Line, and varous other enemy ships. This leads me to believe we may have even longer to wait for a Ship customization ideas, but a few of these ships brought new ideas to my mind. I am supposing sails to be my first target in this post.

Sails, the first thing you see when you shoot, and the last thing you see while they're sinking.

Ever since the beginning of my time playing POTCO (so long ago I can't remember how long ago)I have wondered about the time that we would be able to change our colors to intimidate or impersonate our enemy. Whether or not the sails on the ships were meant to remain the color of Navy, Undead and EITC, it gave me a little light as to what idea we could add into the game. I was thinking why not be able to change the colors from white to black. Well, I was thinking that maybe Pirates could lead a promotion to allow us to create our own banner on their website. Nothing fancy, just a few tools such as Markers, pencils, paint buckets and such should do.

This could be a simple addition to our ships, and it shouldn't even take up more than a MB if they modify the sails a little bit.

An Undead Curse.... or an undead Gift?

I would think that the sails on an Undead ship would be decent to have on a ship. But I was thinking most of all, why call it an undead ship, when we can have a few categories of its hull. We could have a Rotted Ship, which has very low health, but is a very large hull for limited players and unlimited players. We could also have other types of ships that are named Cursed, Holy, and Undying.

Cursed ships could possess the ability to disappear and glow in ghost form and receive no damage from enemy ships for 5 seconds. Holy ships should be able to absorb the damage from enemies and use it to recover the ship a small bit for about 5 seconds. Then it should give your next attack a boost in power. Undying ships would be really powerful, and be able to grant your crew the ability of Fury due to a ship effect.

Many of these effects would be superficial, but could be adjusted to fit the ships very well. Nothing too hard about the programming other than the shapes or visuals of the ships.

The Failures of Indoor Plumbing

With a ship comes a captain, and to its captain a crew. Let's not forget to pleasure our crew mates either. At the moment we have no ability to enter the cabin of our ships, and are also unable to use the bathroom on our voyages. OK, so the bathroom isn't exactly necessary, but maybe being able to enter our ships cabin wouldn't be too bad of an idea.

If we had the ability to enter our ships I would enjoy having a trading station for our crew mates, and even a few poker tables. The chance to enter our ships would not be our only option either, but also the chance to enter enemy decks as the captain, and select which cargo we would like to take would be a good addition as well.

East Side, West Side, Broad Side!

Many players wonder about how we will, or if we will ever have broadsides that can possess the powers of Firebrand, Fury, and Lightning effects. I could see this coming in two possible ways. I could see us being able to place Fury cannons in the broadsides and pay a fee to have that type of ammo in it for that one broadside(for example, if you bought one and place one, all cannons except for that one would shoot normal cannon ammo). I could also see the effects being added as abilities, and could be initiated by pressing the 0 button or something.

Most likely they will probably have something similar to my first idea with a limit. That way one person does not end up with too many cannons on a light sloop, and that they cannot be completely powered up with fury and lightning.

The uses of everyday lumber, and some trash can lids

Our ships are not always held together well, and they do not stand much of a chance against the most powerful of our enemies. One could wonder if we will ever be able to upgrade more than simple hulls and sails, but I can simply say it is possible. One could have a frame weilded around a ship for extra support and protection. This way it could stay afloat for longer and even make your ship much stronger. Metal could even be used to make a better ram, possibly even one made out of a steel spike. With enough skill at sea, and the proper amount of luck, I could see us being able to find a Drill Ram that can attack an enemy ship multiple times with Ramming speed.

Let's sink them me Hearties!! Or we could settle for their gold and weapons....

Another aspect that needs to be observed would be the boarding system and the very much limited Flag ship system. One should not be limited to just being able to sink enemiy ships and boarding the ships with flags over them. We should be able to board any ship that has less than 25% health remaining with the use of grappling hooks. Not only that, but as a captain, we should be able to choose a Parlay with the enemy captain if we so desire. In this parlay we would demonstrate our power to the other Captain's crew mate, and threaten to do the same thing to him and his ship if he does not agree to hand over all of his loot and the gold his crew members have.

Being limited to only a few options inside of a game is dull and boring. Multiple choices, and multiple outcomes make any game better, and it would work for even kids. This is why I believe that being able to choose whether you want to sink and enemy ship, leave it be, or threaten to sink it if it ever bothers you again.

As for now that is all I can think of for Ships at the moment. Not much, but it is probably much better than what Disney can and will pull out. Feel free to leave any comments or complaints...