Replace open-world fast travel with an interactive map

[Grizzlyadamz]

Alright, I understand this has 0 chance of being acted on, but since I'd already gone to the trouble of making this & posting it elsewhere, I figured I'd make an account and drop it off here as well.

 

So, basically, I'm not a fan of the turbo-mode open world movement, and otherwise I think navigation can be made more interesting.

My proposal is to give the player 2 maps- the first is much like the map the player already has which accurately portrays the seas & ports, but doesn't show the player's position.

Now, in order to make navigating this map more interesting, I propose for this map to also include general wind currents & to be somewhat inaccurate when the player first starts, while also allowing the player to make notations & modifications to it. So, as a player sails & hits doldrums, finds shortcuts or strategically-placed landmarks, (more on that later), they can improve their map & share it with their friends.

 

As for the second map, it would be the replacement for the current open-world sailing. Basically the player controls their ship/fleet from this map, which allows movement at the same rate as turbo-mode, & it shows the area around the player's ship while presenting them with more ambiguous, navigational data: birds/clouds/masts/smoke on the horizon, wind/star/sun & local sea condition, vague fogged-up landmasses with ports & obvious features unlabeled & again, ambiguous.

In order to get the port names, look for landmarks & get a better view of the different features around them, the player would drop out of the map onto their ship, which now never goes faster than its natural wind-driven speed (no more turbo-mode), and they'll proceed sail 'close enough' to gather more intel about it.

In this way they'll identify where they are, open up previously-unavailable pathways through island/coral mazes, & discover landmarks they can identify from their secondary fast-travel map from that point forward.

And that's basically it- ships no longer have a turbo-mode & navigation is more involved. Thoughts?

 

 

Here's that mockup I've been mentioning:

[Legioneod]

I think its a bit late to try and change sailing in the open world. There's ways to improve it but from what your saying it sounds like you want to do away with it completely and just use maps?

Edited March 26, 2016 by Legioneod

[Grizzlyadamz]

For the most part. You'd still be able to drop down to sail in the open world, but only at snail-speed.

The map would take over for fast-travel.

[Diemos]

I like the idea in general, if for no other reason than it would allow me to sail the world real time, but it would also open up a massive exploit:

 

You're sailing close to an island to find out the port information when you're jumped by a patrol...  You click off into the "travel map" and dissapear...

 

Great idea for a single player game, but neigh unworkable for an MMO...

[Porpoise]

Carebears want to reach their missions location instantly thread?

[Pigafetta]

Your ideas seem interesting, but when we think about improvement in the game dynamics, we always should think about one important topic: playability. Or better: the relation between realism and playability.

 

In another post someone already proposed a change in the wind rotation (right now is constant and counter clockwise). He proposed random winds. The devs already answered that the current wind dynamic is a compromise between realism and playability.

 

In other topics the bathymetric lines were proposed. Again, we all are sailing in few feet of water and depth are always constant. It is the best compromise right now.

 

Proposing double maps could be fun, but as some players above mentioned, it will exposed to loopholes creating more issue than add fun to our game.

 

A possibility would be to implement the explorer role in the game (which I would love to see). In that case some advantages in navigation can be guaranteed to the discoverer of a secret island, or who was able to visit all the ports in a sea zone (the reward could be something like 1 knot in speed in OW). Again, devs promised us something but I think it is still far away in the future.

 

One thing I hope will be never developed: a GPS for any map. That would destroy the fun in navigation OW  

[Grizzlyadamz]

I like the idea in general, if for no other reason than it would allow me to sail the world real time, but it would also open up a massive exploit:

 

You're sailing close to an island to find out the port information when you're jumped by a patrol...  You click off into the "travel map" and dissapear...

 

Great idea for a single player game, but neigh unworkable for an MMO...

 

I'd say being jumped by a patrol would disable the travel map, while being tagged by other players who are in the travel-map would give the ambushed party a small window, something like 5 seconds to get back into travel-map and reposition themselves. (since players on the travel-map will be moving more quickly, this is mostly just to offer a bit of fairness)

That, or the travel-map player who is engaging the on-the-water player will be placed a minimum distance away from them & it'll just go from there with fast-travel disabled.

 

 

 

Carebears want to reach their missions location instantly thread?

I think you're both misunderstanding here. The travel map I'm proposing wouldn't be faster than the current turbo-mode, it'd be the same speed. The point of this is immersion, and while everything will be abstracted onto a 2D field, the actual information you'd have to work with would be more immersive & sailing in the open world at natural speeds would be held sacred.

 

 

 

Your ideas seem interesting, but when we think about improvement in the game dynamics, we always should think about one important topic: playability. Or better: the relation between realism and playability.

 

In another post someone already proposed a change in the wind rotation (right now is constant and counter clockwise). He proposed random winds. The devs already answered that the current wind dynamic is a compromise between realism and playability.

 

In other topics the bathymetric lines were proposed. Again, we all are sailing in few feet of water and depth are always constant. It is the best compromise right now.

 

For wind, I'd want it to be constant/static but more varied- keep the clockwise rotation but insert pockets of slowed or reversed wind currents, and I wouldn't be opposed to depth effects.

These changes would be addressing the goal of more-interesting navigation. 

But you report the devs said 'It is the best compromise right now'. So are there plans to change it?

 

 

One thing I hope will be never developed: a GPS for any map. That would destroy the fun in navigation OW  

 

Amen. If anything I want an even less-detailed map & more-involved navigation, with a greater chance of getting lost.