Idea High-seas expansion update

Darkslinger

Darkslinger

Notorious Pirate
High-seas expansion

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What I'm about to propose is a large set of ideas that should be implemented in the game's future. The ideas could be merged together serving as a large high-seas expansion update. The details of the update will be explained below.

Are the ideas realistic (in terms of development)? Many are, many aren't. But with hard work and persistence many ideas can come to life.

Why should this update happen? The update will serve as a stepping stone for future content to come. This update would allow for more content and features to arrive to the shores of TLOPO. Not only would it ensure the games longevity, it would also give pirates all across the Caribbean much more to do.


1. High-seas (size) expansion
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The high-seas are in need of a literal expansion — this would allow for more enemy ships to battle, as well as new features and updates that will be mentioned in this thread such as territories, trading and more.

The simplest way this could be achieved is by shrinking the ship and character model sizes to a much smaller scale so that pre-existing high-seas and islands would look much larger in comparison.

This would allow the high-seas of TLOPO to be populated with a large amount of enemy ships, sea creatures and fleets. More importantly, this would lead to an overhaul in ship spawning and refined enemy territories.


2. Territories


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With the current ship population, the large expansion would lead to nearly empty high-seas. This could be counteracted by increasing ship-spawning rates and dividing the high seas into territories that could be further divided into sectors. A new updated map will be required to display the different NPC territories (and their sectors, if you zoom in). Weather alerts will play a large impact in the new map (more in pt. 5).

There are two types of protected territories - NPC territories and Live territories.
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NPC territories are controlled by either the Navy, EITC, Undead (ghost ships), rebel Pirates or the Doomed. These territories are scattered across the high-seas and contain different sectors. You'll find that the ship difficulties vary depending on which sector of the territory you're sailing in. NPC territories will be placed in predictable areas.

Navy territory surrounding Port Royal, Kingshead, and Cuba
EITC territory surrounding Padres del Fuego, Devil's Anvil and Isla Perdida
Undead territory surrounding Raven's Cove, Cutthroat Isle and Isla Cangrejos.
Rebel territory surrounding Tortuga, Rumrunner's Isle and Driftwood Island
Doomed territory surrounding Isla Tormenta and Outcast Isle

New enemy factions:

Rebel Pirates
Rebel Pirates will look like the enemies you'll fight on Isla Escondida, with varying ship designs similar to those of bounty hunters.

The Doomed
The Doomed will be visually similar to the enemies you fight on Isla Tormenta and are Davy Jones' henchmen. New barnacle-covered ship designs will be implemented alongside The Doomed.
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Live territories are controlled by player Guilds and contain a non-customizable Guild stronghold (island) containing a tavern, shipwright as well as clothing and weapon vendors. There will be 4 live territories across the high-seas.

Guild members will be responsible for patrolling their territory to ensure its safe from a foreign invasion. Guild ships, flags and islands will all display the Guild Emblem of the occupying guild when on patrol.

These live territories are areas of Open SvS and will be strategically placed in the edges of the high-seas to prevent low-level or unintended ships from accidentally sailing there and sinking.
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Unprotected Territories

Empty territories at the edges of the high-seas rumored to house legendary creatures.
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3. New Islands​

After the high-seas' expansion in size, we will no longer be limited to 16 islands. Future islands such as Isla Escondida, Jolly Roger's Island, and the 4 Guild strongholds can be integrated into the larger high-seas. Even more islands could be squeezed-in in the future!

4. Trading
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A much-awaited feature could arrive alongside this major update. Marketplaces with trade vendors could be added to pre-existing islands such as Port Royal, Tortuga, Padres del Fuego and Cuba.

Sea trading involves either sinking ships and returning the required materials or delivering materials from point A to point B safely... These activities will require pirates to modify and adjust their routes through the different territories and weathers accordingly to prevent being sunk. Losing the materials by sinking or dying will lead to a deduction in trading points. Completing trading quests successfully leads to an increase in trading points.

The higher trading points a pirate has, the more lucrative the deals they receive from traders all across the islands are. A pirate could be sent on a land trading quest on a islands to find or loot certain materials, be tasked with escaping multiple warships or even be offered a large reward in return for sabotaging large enemy fleets to disturb the Caribbean's economy. Weekly and monthly challenges with exclusive rewards can be implemented alongside trading to add another competitive flair to TLOPO.

Reaching a certain amount of trading points will allow pirates to trade weapons, clothing items as well as Gold. Trading marketplaces contain storage sheds that can be purchased to store any excess items when the inventory is full. Multiple storage sheds can be bought, however the items you store are only retrievable from the storage shed you initially stored the item in.

Upon dropping anchor, there could be a button prompting you to "Send to storage shed".

5. Weather system
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In order to make things more challenging, a new sea weather system can be introduced. One that directly impacts battles and affects your odds of success. Weather alerts in certain territories can be seen across the high seas map making traveling from one island to the other or simply plundering a complicated and tactical affair in which pirates have to avoid certain routes. Confident and risk-taking pirates can sail through the unrelenting storms while less experienced ones can take advantage of the clear skies.

The different weather types are clear skies, fog, heavy rain, storms and blazing heat. As the weather changes, visual alterations take place and different limitations and stat boosts take place for both pirate and NPC ships. (eg: Storms lead to 10% extra thunderbolt damage and a 10% decrease in ship speed)


6. Enhanced wave physics​

Waves that vary in sizes and shapes (depending on the weather) can be added into the high-seas. Large waves would lead to some shots missing the target, thus making naval combat slightly more challenging and forcing players to anticipate the next best location at which they can take their shot.

Waves can also slow down ships or speed them up if they are utilized correctly.

7. Proper ship immersion​

This is a simple, yet much-needed update. Ships appear to be hovering above water. If the ship models are slightly "dipped" underwater, they will look like they are actually floating above water.

8. In-depth ship customization
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Further ship customization can be introduced to the game. Players can edit how their separate ship parts look in terms of design and color. Some of the editable components could be the wheel, ship steps, masts, cannons, and figureheads.

In the future, cabin upgrades and crew-quarters can be unlocked - leading to changes in factors such as cabin storage as well as cannon and cargo amount.

9. Ship of the Line implementation​

The implementation of the SOTL class has been a controversial topic, as a large amount of players are against its release into the high-seas due to how overpowered it is.

What if, to prevent players from "exhausting" the ship population, lower level or tier ships were made less lucrative towards SOTL tier ships? This could be manipulated through significantly lower rep rewards and only crude-to-rare loot drops.

Basically, normal ships wouldn't be rewarding or worth the time (and effort since they're considerably shorter than the SOTL). Do you ever go out of your way to sink a Navy Ferret in your war-class ship? Exactly.

SOTL-class ships will be primarily used in Guild patrol, sea invasions, as well as to battle much higher level ship classes and types that could be introduced later on.

10. Sea Invasions
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Sea invasions can be introduced to TLOPO. In order for the enemy to be able to invade an island on-land, they must first sink the ships surrounding the island. The islands prone to sea invasions are Port Royal, Tortuga and Padres del Fuego. Waves of enemy ships spawn in the surrounding territory and are fought against by pirates; there are 7 waves in total and each wave consist of ships of varying difficulty. The last few waves consist mainly of SOTL-class enemy ships as well as Warships. Participating pirates are rewarded at the end of the sea invasion.

New loot (made for the update) and sea items can be rewarded exclusively after the sea invasions.

IF THE SEA INVASION IS LOST, PIRATES MUST BE PREPARED TO FIGHT THE ENEMY ON-LAND.​

Port Royal is prone to sea invasion by the Undead, Rebel Pirates, and the Doomed.
Tortuga is prone to sea invasion by the Navy, the EITC, the Undead, and the Doomed.
Padres del Fuego is prone to sea invasion by the Rebel Pirates, and the Doomed.
Guild strongholds are prone to sea invasion by other online pirates.

11. Guild Fleet & Events​

Check out this thread I made a few months ago for more details on Guild fleets, special events, and leaderboards (if you're interested!).
 
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Absolutely love how organized this is, it must've taken a long time, thanks! I completely agree mate, after the game is finished with testing, a "High Seas Overhaul" needs to be made. Generally, the whole game needs a tune-up, but since sailing is a large portion of the game, why not start there? My only input idea is to have maybe some dynamic NPC behavior, like Navy ships shooting at Undead ships. It would be cool to jump into a large scale battle between Navy, EITC, and the Undead all going at it. No of course there's the problem with stability, but "ship territories" could be the solution to this because then ships won't be scattered everywhere, resulting in all out chaos. So once a ship is stretching out too far into another territory, its in risk of getting sunk. Overall I think this kinda expansion is a MUST because after talking to loads of people, the game gets stale very quickly. Thank you for your time and I hope that this gets some serious consideration.
 
Hector wargull said:
I am not so sure about the live zones, but everything else seems cool.
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Thanks, Hector! I think the live zones would improve the concept of Guilds and would help show off a guilds strength. Keeping a guild stronghold for a day or two would be considered a great achievement, since people would start attacking all of the time.

Currently, it's a poorly planned idea since I never specified if there would be different strongholds for each server or cooldown times for the open SvS since always sailing and protecting the stronghold would be impossible. I also never clarified whether more than one guild can attack, but it's a rough sketch of a good concept. A lot of people love SvS, adding this gives guild members a cause to back and SvS-fans something to look forward to.

nowisdmoment said:
Absolutely love how organized this is, it must've taken a long time, thanks! I completely agree mate, after the game is finished with testing, a "High Seas Overhaul" needs to be made. Generally, the whole game needs a tune-up, but since sailing is a large portion of the game, why not start there? My only input idea is to have maybe some dynamic NPC behavior, like Navy ships shooting at Undead ships. It would be cool to jump into a large scale battle between Navy, EITC, and the Undead all going at it. No of course there's the problem with stability, but "ship territories" could be the solution to this because then ships won't be scattered everywhere, resulting in all out chaos. So once a ship is stretching out too far into another territory, its in risk of getting sunk. Overall I think this kinda expansion is a MUST because after talking to loads of people, the game gets stale very quickly. Thank you for your time and I hope that this gets some serious consideration.
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Thanks! It did take a lot of time but it was worth it since I wanted to document all my thoughts about the game before they were lost. I, too, am worried that I might lose interest and move on.

The dynamic NPC behavior you mentioned would work perfectly during sea invasions. For example, when the Undead attack Port Royal both the Navy NPC ships and Pirates can fight against the incoming threat. Territories would prevent a large-scale server-wrecking battle if dynamic behavior were to be implemented. A few things like Navy friendly fire and temporarily blocked territory spawning during invasions have to be added to polish the game experience.

I've said this many times, but the reason Disney abandoned this game was because of its lack of flexibility and freedom in terms of game development. The game concepts and mechanics are far too simple, so they had two options - either invest more in revitalizing a dying game or pursue a more profitable alternative (mobile). When comparing TLOPO to a huge MMO like Black Desert, for example, you know which one will grab your interest in the long term. TLOPO needs to have a lot of features and options - it shouldn't be limited to on-land combat and sailing, but much more. This is what'll guarantee its success and more importantly its longevity.
 
I personally like your idea. The suggestions would make sense and could be inserted into TLOPO such as the High Seas Overhaul and territory, and I think the programming team would have no problem in performing these tasks. I'll do my best to promote this idea to other pirates in hopes of getting it considered by the team.
 
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Splizzer said:
I personally like your idea. The suggestions would make sense and could be inserted into TLOPO such as the High Seas Overhaul and territory, and I think the programming team would have no problem in performing these tasks. I'll do my best to promote this idea to other pirates in hopes of getting it considered by the team.
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Thanks! I'd really like it if this thread got the attention it deserves since I'd love to hear about their thoughts and ideas.

I also agree, the team we have is highly skilled and is already doing a great job of recreating the game. Their skills alongside proper planning and the userbases creativity leaves me optimistic for the future.
 
Inferno said:
THIS IS GENIUS!!!!! Would add a whole new level of FUN to the game!!!
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Thanks for the kind words! It would definitely add a whole lot of stuff and features into TLOPO.

Also, many pre-existing areas within the game like the Port Royal marketplace and the slightly hidden Tortuga marketplace can be slightly modified and turned into trading marketplaces.

Another addition which would add a whole lot of fun is this. This is a thread I made a while ago discussing the possibility of new purchasable animations that would add a whole lot of variety into the game. In the comments, I mention a new storyline idea and highlight where the animation vendors would reside.
 
I forgot to add this very small detail in my earlier post: intense music.
It gets a bit boring hearing the same generic sailing music even when you're fighting a fleet of Undead, EITC, and Navy. So why not add some intense battle music during encounters with ships? It'd be just like when fighting land enemies, the battle music ques in. Just a feature that would go a long way. @Darkslinger, if you do consider making a second thread revising on this one, consider making this a final touch. Thanks mate.
 
nowisdmoment said:
I forgot to add this very small detail in my earlier post: intense music.
It gets a bit boring hearing the same generic sailing music even when you're fighting a fleet of Undead, EITC, and Navy. So why not add some intense battle music during encounters with ships? It'd be just like when fighting land enemies, the battle music ques in. Just a feature that would go a long way. @Darkslinger, if you do consider making a second thread revising on this one, consider making this a final touch. Thanks mate.
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I agree, the sailing music we hear should act as ambient music when no action takes place.

Different types of battle music can be triggered depending on the territory you’re fighting in and special music can be played during major sea-events like QAR, sea invasions, legendary creature battles (kraken, sea-serpent, etc.), and treasure fleets.

I might make a revised version later on. Since a mod merged my two posts into one since they exceeded the 10000 character limit, I’m unable to edit this thread.

I’ll use this thread to add more ideas and perfect the ones I stated above - afterwards, I can post a revised thread including the new and refined ideas. There are a few things I need to mention and get right like:

  • What happens when a sea invasion starts? Do NPC ships in the territory fight alongside pirates or do they all sink and not spawn until the sea invasion is over?
  • How do guild strongholds work? Is there a cool-down time implemented or do guild members have to be on the lookout 24/7? 4 strongholds in each server? What additions will the stronghold provide and how can I make it advantageous to guilds in terms of trading?
  • And more..

I was also thinking of implementing more activities to do on-board ships and small interesting featuees. Do you have any interesting ideas?

A few of mine are:

  • Lookout. Upon upgrading your ship, three ladders on each mast will lead to a lookout post where three pirates can stand and use their spyglasses to locate enemy ships and rifles to shoot NPCs like cannoneers, enemy lookouts and even the captain. The removal of the sea compass will have to take place and the field of view will be limited by fog to force communication between the captain and lookout. The lookout also warns the crew to avoid sailing into dangerous territories and hazardous weather like storms.
  • Ammo stash. The captain can buy extra ammo exceeding the current limits and store the ammo onto their ship. If the ammo barrel onboard the ship is not empty, when pressing shift - the crew can purchase ammo from the stash rather than teleporting back to land.
  • Visible chests. Upon sinking multiple ships and gaining chests, they can be visible in a cargo area (similar to the ones found in the SOTL). As you gain more chests, the amount of chests seen onboard increases.
  • Ship aggression. You can either list your ship as a friendly ship (meaning only other online pirates cannot do harm to you) or as an aggressive ship. (naming will be changed later). Aggressive ships can attack and siNJ other aggressive ships with high bounties. When you are onboard an aggressive ship that has sunk multiple bounty hunters and reached the chest limit - it appears on the map for all other aggressive ships to try and attack and board. Once other ships completely damage the ships hull, the ship is crippled for the ship who dealt the most damage to board. When they board, they need to kill all enemies onboard before looting the visible chests and sinking the ships. If they are unable to successfully board, their ship sinks and their crew is sent to the ship's jail cell. The ship completely regains hull health.
  • Ship jail cells. A cool addition where captured enemies can be stored. If another aggressive ship attacks the ship in which the people are held captive — they have the option of freeing these people to fight alongside them. More thought will have to be put in this aspect so it can be properly implemented. Possible questions that need answers are: what's the advantage, why not just send enemies to jail, what's the limit, what happens after they are freed by other aggressive pirates.
 
Hey guys, finally have some pictures to show of Part 1 of the high-seas expansion update. (Larger islands, smaller ships, fleets).

Check them out in this thread.
 
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