Trade Winds / Ocean Currents for "fast travel" that doesn't bypass the open world

[Aetrion]

Reasoning for the Suggestion:

 

Since we've had a lot of discussion on this board recently about how teleports are both somewhat needed because it's very annoying to have to traverse the entire map every time to get anywhere, but at the same time they really ruin the risk that should be inherent in traversing the open world with a hold full of cargo I was thinking that the game needs an alternate method of travelling to places a little more quickly and reliably.

 

Historic / Realistic Underpinnings:

 

In the age of sail making use of the currents and prevailing winds was the primary strategy for making long voyages reliably. The voyage across the Atlantic for example was facilitated by the North Atlantic Gyre, an ocean current that churns water from the mouth of the Mediterranean to the Caribbean and water from the American east coast toward the European north sea.  

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Atlantic_Gyre

 

Likewise the prevailing winds in the Atlantic form a similar pattern. The Westerlies blow most of the time from the American coast toward Europe, and the North-easterner back to the Gulf area.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_winds

 

These weather phenomena were predictable and relied upon to make ocean journeys.

 

 

In Game Mechanics:

 

The map would contain some regions out in the open ocean where winds follow a predictable path, and underlying ocean currents allow ships to exceed their normal speed limits as their hull is carried along with the wind. While inside of a tradewind your ship could travel downwind the whole way, and the water itself might add another 5-10 knots or so of movement in the direction of the current to anyone in those areas.

 

Of course this isn't 100% realistic, these weather patterns are much more large scale in real life than what we'd need in the game to make it meaningful, but for the sake of making a good open world game I think this would work quite well.

 

It would basically create a system of "Highways" through the map, where you can travel very fast and reliably, but that in turn also creates significant risk, because anyone using the tradewinds is in a place where they are much easier to intercept. Just like in real life, pirates knew where to look for trade ships bound for Europe or the new world based on these passages.

 

Initially I'd suggest a current that carries people in a sort of loop, from the US coast out to Bermuda on the North Atlantic Drift, south of that you would encounter the Equatorial Current which carries you east again, and splits into the Antilles Current which moves along the north-side of Cuba and Espana back toward Florida, and the Caribbean Current which carries you along the South American coast line and then up from the Yucatan back toward Floraida. The Gulf of Mexico would also have a current moving in a clockwise direction inside of it.

 

That configuration would be somewhat realistic to what exists in real life. That pattern could later be expanded with some more tradewinds that make sense for the gameplay, but may not necessarily be related to any real life weather events. Maybe the Antilles Current could be reversed in this game, and flow to the east, to give us a tighter loop around Cuba and Espana. That would make sense from a game design standpoint anyways.

 

The currents would lie out a ways in the open ocean, not right up against the coastlines, since it would make coastal sailing really annoying if the wind was always going in the same direction there. Tradewinds would be something you seek out specifically for making journeys to other parts of the map, not something you'd encounter while doing missions and stuff.

Edited February 22, 2016 by Aetrion

[Aetrion]

So, nobody either likes or dislikes this idea?  Given how much discussion there is about adding more avenues for map control and taking emphasis off teleporting I kind of thought this would be relevant to someone at least.

[Wicked Mouse]

I'm all in for a fun implementation of real world weather and sea currents mechanics