skeleton on the ship
 

Ok I have been playing long enough I remeber when we had the skeleton figure on the front of the ships. Big D decided to remove em and I never thought much about it except they looked kinda cool. SO...tonight I was looking around the ol war sloop and kickn barnecles and such and what to my wandering eyes should appear but my old mate skele. I went to drive and pulled the camera around front and no skele even though I can walk up front and see him. It may be to much rum or some kinda salt water induced mirage. So let me know if you see it. Its clear graphics are still there why not make em visible?

Hmmmm....good question. I'll have to look.


:piratewheelgo2:

Wow, I did not notice they went away! The ship's figurehead (from a quick internet search) dates back to Athenian times; originally a depiction of the goddess Athena. While a handful (perhaps one) of exceptions can be found, the figureheads were of a woman, sometimes with wings, usually angelic. Farther back in history, Chinese and Egyptian ships had "eyes" painted on the bow to help the ship find its way. Later, mermaids were used in many cultures as the figurehead for a ship. But in the Renaissance, Christianity's views on idol worship proscribed them; by the time of the "Golden Age of Piracy" they were all but gone, replaced by the more utilitarian "bowsprit" (the pole projecting forward from the prow, used to fly the jib.) The internet isn't always such a good reference, but several sites seem to corroborate these findings.

I never liked seeing the skeleton figureheads. They always seemed wrong, as the skeleton never seemed to be female (not sure how you'd depict that, as a skeleton!) For highly superstitious pirates, a mermaid would be the only acceptable ship figurehead. I always thought they were gilded (gold-plated or gold-painted.)

If you run up to the bow of the ship, you can still pan your view to see it, when you arre close enough to it. But when sailing, it no longer appears. This is similar to how the detail view is reduced, say, when you sail inside Port Royal; you no longer see the buildings, only the town layout. They made that change I think in December, in a failed attempt to reduce server-side lag (which seems to be caused by pirate density, not graphics object density.)

This figurehead will most likely enter the game again if ship customization comes out. I'm pretty sure we'll see the return of this skeleton figurehead and more.