and another one

[migck]

You see, scurvy was one of the main causes of death among sailors in the XVII century. Few captains knew that it could be avoided providing their crew with fresh fruit and vegetables. What about implementing scurvy in the game, with a drop in morale and the crew dying as time goes by if you sail away too long without fruit in the cargo hold?

If this has been suggested before please don't kill me..

 

[Pieter Boelen]

A long time ago this was suggested, but nobody ever did anything with the suggestion. This might actually be relatively easy to acchieve by looking up the food and rum consumption code, seeing how it works and modifying it slightly to add a check for fruit in the cargo hold and adding an attribute for scurvy to the player. It always surprised me how your crew always stays alive unless they die from hunger or enemies. Still we would need someone to mod this into the game. And like usuall... well, you all know the story. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whistling.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="whistling.gif" />

 

[bassman7]

it's possible to do yes but doesn't it just promote more bugs in the game. besides that it's just another complication or challenge to getting a quest done. if it is to be done though i suggest making a toggle for it like the rest and/or apply it only to a higher difficulty rating.

 

[morgan terror]

i'd think it should be added to realistic sailing mode.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Every new mod could add new bugs into the game. But I think we all agree that shouldn't hold us from making more mods. Personally it always struck me as odd that your crew never dies, except in battles, storms or because of lack of food. Adding some diseases would make this a lot more realistic. Also it might enable us to give the doctor officers something to do. And I would like it if there was some more player-crew interaction, so that if the crew if feeling ill, they can tell the player and the player can decide what to do. We would also need to add fruit rations then and the player can decide how often to hand them out. It costs money, but saves the crew from becoming sick. And sick crew would be less effective in battle. This mod could be greatly expanded and could add some more interesting aspects into the game. Again we need somebody to <i>make</i> the mod though. That is always the main problem.

 

[morgan terror]

one thing that concerns me is that there might be too many things that a new player has to look out for. a new helpfile for gameplay is pretty important by now. although there was once work being done on it.

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Many people have started on it, only Doober finished one. The one used as Build 13 ReadMe. We stll don't have a real comprehensive ReadMe and we REALLY DO NEED ONE!!!

As for the scurvy being a problem to new players: I think this disease should only come into play after several months of gameplay. After all: The player starts out with a healthy crew. Then we should have one of the sailors or officers basically just telling the player that the crew is not feeling well, so that the player is aware of what's going on. It is then up to the player to decide what to do.

 

[morgan terror]

i guess that would work. maybe the health should be indicated like the morale is now, and it should rise a little when visiting port. maybe it could drop a little after a battle as well, due to wounds.

 

[Darth-me]

Another idea:

Could we add fresh water to the game? it would act as rum, but cheaper, however the crews moral would be lower. Smart players could then balance it out between rum and water, aka, happiness and cost.

EDIT: Plus maybe you could get some piece of expensive equipment (like a telescope) which can et the salt out of salt water. This would provide you with a little extra water.