The ships are considerably smaller, not 10x smaller though. I scaled them down as I saw fit, so the ratios are slightly inaccurate and will vary from photo to photo. The traveling times would definitely increase, but every journey will be unique and will hold many possibilities. The ship count will increase, but they'll be spread out accordingly so they don't negatively impact performance.
Finding ships will be much easier than before, actually. If you previously took a look at the
high-seas expansion update you might have noticed the territory map I concocted. The high-seas will be split into territories - so you'll have a rough idea where the ships you intend to sink will be. Pirates will have to figure out the best route they should take depending on the weather conditions, too. This will make your journeys even more unpredictable. These weather changes also have the potential to affect naval combat through varying stat boosts for you and/or your enemies.
[If you want to read more about territories and weather system, check out the link embedded in the text above]
The territory idea provides countless opportunities to enhance the players experience. Random server-triggered events such as fleets, creature hunts, and weather changes will take place randomly in different territories, so you'll never know what to expect when sailing from one island to the other. Also, some territories (eg: Undead and Doomed) may have an attack-on-sight rule regardless of pirate bounty, so this is another challenge.
EDIT - Plus, more islands can be squeezed in-between pre-existing ones.
I see the appeal and understand the desire for something new for sailing. I have read your high seas expansion thread and I feel it may be too much. But there is a lot I like.
I like the idea of territories. It would make the locations of ship make more sense and make ships easier to find, as you said.
I also like the idea of sea invasions, it would be cool if it would be a precursor to the regular land invasions. It would add a lot of depth to invasions.
The idea for better customization would be nice, and making the ships sit right in the water also a big one for me (even though it would make them harder to hit).
I am very wary though of the weather system. The idea of my sailing combat, or just my sailing in general being affected by, what I assume to be, random weather conditions, doesn't bode well for me. I know you said it could improve combat, such as storms improving the damage of lighting shot, but I would much prefer it to be a cosmetic change only.
And the wave physics I imagine would be a hassle to program, and also cause massive performance issues. I mean the devs had to reduce the size of ships wakes because it was crashing people.
I also feel adding the ship of the line is a bad idea, even worse if they would make so that lower class/their ships have a loot type cap. That wouldn't only make it harder for people who are trying to pay for a war ship (as they can only get lower their loot), but it would also make trying to pay for ship upgrades harder as well (if war ships get a loot type cap as well).
The change I am most against is still the change in ship size. I know you said there would be more stuff to do, and if everything was implemented, but that still wouldn't change the fact that it would drastically increase the time to travel from island to island.
I'm more of a landlubber, I like doing stuff on land, and I'm probably not the only one. So I usually use my ship to travel to islands I can't teleport to, as it is the only way. Most of the time I want to be uninterrupted in my travels. I don't want it to take even longer for me to get to tormenta or kings head or whatever.
I like a lot of your ideas, and I know sailing is kinda stale, but I would prefer a smaller group of changes, and none that are too drastic.
I'm one of those people who are wary of change in general. So I would probably have to see some of these changes be made to better get an opinion on them.
Just my thoughts.
