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    Maelstrom New Horizons


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Ideas

Elemental-X

Landlubber
Hello team "PiratesAhoy" ..
I have to you some ideas, and corrections on the subject, your new project: "New Horizones Remastered"
but there are inaccuracies in it that I decided to show to you, and several ideas personally from myself ..

1.Also, if possible, add the Sharks Sea on the bottom
2.Since this is "Unity", revitalize the seabed, put is 4k coral reef textures
3.Put some sea reptiles on the bottom
4.The wreckage of ships covered with moss, is bottom of the Sea
5.Increase, AI, guards, in the cities
6.Increase the number of people in cities, and people with whom you can talk
7.And also the number of topics with people with whom you can chat
8.When you sail if port, and went down to the shore, you need to go to the port office, and pay for the stay 3800 gold
9.When the main character, looking for a treasure, and finds it, make an animation as he digs the earth, with a shovel, and takes out the treasure.
10.Since this is the engine of "Unity", then, on an uninhabited island, with the help of the Architect, you could make any desired city of the type available, and make plantations there, etc.
11.Possibility to take under control, enemy and isolated territories, and to receive from them the income
12.The ability to receive advice, from your personal adviser, and quartermaster at the same time
13.The opportunity to hire your own "master" to improve the ship, and then improve the "nose figure" replacing, or the caliber of cannons on the ship on each level separately, etc.
14.When it rains, there are very plausible puddles on the ground
15.And in a tavern and a brothel of musicians, well, someone should play music there right?))
16.And please increase the polygonality of the old character models, for greater plausibility, and realism of the picture ..
17.And the textures of the windows, this windows, make it rather transparent and that you can see the interior of the houses
18.Install Prostitutes, at night on the Pier in the Big Cities, the Caribbean Basin
19.Add the ability to collect fruits from trees, and thereby, restore the "HP", the protagonist
20.And also make the ability to disassemble weapons for the details, then to create a unique weapon that is nowhere to be found in the game ...
21.And add is the opportunity to build a warehouse on an uninhabited island, with the possibility of its further development
22.Add also, Tropical birds, is everywhere
23.Add also a military shipyard where you can create ships, 1,2,3 and 4 ranks, from those Materials that will be extracted in battles
24.And add the creation of the ship that the ship can be manufactured by its own design, and the stronger it will have the characteristics, the higher the price will be at the shipyard ..
 
I've moved the above posts to a new thread to keep the Progress Screenshots thread on-topic.

Thank you for your input, but some of your ideas are beyond the scope of this game, so we can't promise that any specific requests will be implemented.

Note to all members:
You may discuss ideas for the game if you want, but please be aware that we are keeping new features to a minimum to make development more achievable.
 
I was thinking of remodelling the islands in the game, to make them more identical to real ones. However, since the overall shape will change, especially on overlay, this might cause the need to also change interaction zones for mooring, as well as the position and waypoints of NPC ships. The storylines could also need editing... Shall we leave this for the end of the remastering process?

1.Also, if possible, add the Sharks Sea on the bottom
2.Since this is "Unity", revitalize the seabed, put is 4k coral reef textures
3.Put some sea reptiles on the bottom
4.The wreckage of ships covered with moss, is bottom of the Sea
These are included in the island remodelling process, if we do it.
 
The islands do need replacing at some point. The interaction zones and other locators are easily changed, and if we kept the same number of shore locations for each island, that would minimise the impact on storylines, other than being less familiar to navigate.

I think it might be best to wait until we have at least two islands in the game before replacing them, just so we can work out the mechanics of sailing between them first. After that, it might be worth a try.
 
The islands do need replacing at some point. The interaction zones and other locators are easily changed, and if we kept the same number of shore locations for each island, that would minimise the impact on storylines, other than being less familiar to navigate.

I think it might be best to wait until we have at least two islands in the game before replacing them, just so we can work out the mechanics of sailing between them first. After that, it might be worth a try.
What I would really like to be done, is a revamp of the world map and the real-time one, so as everything is correct in size shape and relative distance, and all based on a certain scale (1:100 for example). What was quite annoying for me, was the fact that the sizes of each island were wrong in relation. For example, as I noticed from the world map, puerto rico is 1:100, guadeloupe is 1:50, nevis 1:20, cuba 1:150, etc... Not to mention the overall shapes that were stretched, especially the Continental America.

To sum up, I would really love if we could agree on a correct relative scale, position of the islands and shape for the whole map.

Also, adding Gulf of Mexico would be great!:doff

But of course the latter, is the last thing we could do.
 
Expect problems getting the scales to work right. There's just not enough room.

I've been sailing in Vehicle Simulator (the new version of Virtual Sailor) in a scale Gulf. The full map includes from the coast of Texas to Barbados and from Baltimore to the Galapagaos. I've been everywhere on this map except exploring the Pacific coast of South and Central America. The land elevations are exaggerated a bit to make the land masses more interesting.

If everything is the same scale, the smaller islands are just too small, or the larger islands are too big and the distances are too great. I've found that a 1/10 scale works for the smaller islands while 1/40 works for the mainland and larger islands including Hispaniola. I've experimented with fitting the 1/10 scale islands into a 1/40 scale map and there's not enough room; things have to be rearranged simply to fit and they don't always fit well.

You'll probably have to set 2x time compression just to make it possible to sail between islands, but show the ship speeds as they would be for normal time and run the clock at 10x.

COAS and TEHO have the same problem. Some island sizes are off, and the mainland and Cuba are 1/2 the scale of the rest of the map which causes some problems at times.

Good luck with it.

Hook
 
Consider that real life is by definition the same scale.
As such, captains in real life have the exact same problem that the world is "too big".

Real life captains solve that by going to bed on occasion and leaving their officers in charge.
So why not use the real world solution too?
Put the player squarely in the shoes of the captain and allow the player to leave the "bridge" and skip time until anything happens that demands your attention.

Speaking as a real life navigation officer, I know exactly how this works.
It would certainly be a very different approach to gameplay and the AC4 fans would end up MASSIVELY confused.
But there's a lot of gameplay potential in it and it'll be really very realistic.
It'll even serve to educate the players on how ships are actually run in real life! :shock

But maybe it is wise to continue this discussion elsewhere?
 
Real life captains solve that by going to bed on occasion and leaving their officers in charge.
So why not use the real world solution too?
Put the player squarely in the shoes of the captain and allow the player to leave the "bridge" and skip time until anything happens that demands your attention.
Regardless of map scale, this is a feature I'd like to implement. Ideally, we could let the player specify a destination and let the AI helmsman take over while you sleep in your cabin to skip time. This would be far quicker (and less jerky) than using time compression all the way or having to switch to a World Map scene to navigate manually. In fact, the 3D World Map would no longer be necessary; we'd only need a 2D interface to select a destination while still in 3D sailing mode.
 
Sounds like a navigator's dream! :bow
(With me being the navigator. ;) )
 
Real Life scale won't work for a game. It barely works for a sailing simulator.

I'm currently sailing on a 1/4 scale map. At this point I've done all the sightseeing I want to do and am more interested in the navigation problems involved. A recent trip from Martinique to Barbados took 4.7 hours and for the first three I couldn't see my destination. I was also sailing upwind and had to do some tacking, making navigation interesting. That would have been 18.8 hours on a full scale map. Even 5 hours isn't going to work for a game pretty much no matter how you do it.

I was being rushed out the door earlier and didn't get to explain myself completely. I suggest a 1/10 scale map with 2x time compression as normal time, but with your speed displayed as if you were sailing normal time. That means if you're sailing at 10 knots, you display 10 knots but move the ship as if you were doing 20. At that point the long trip from Martinique to Barbados would take 2.4 hours, which is long for a game but workable for those who want to do the actual sailing and not much worse than sailing NH with Open Sea. On a 1/10 scale map, which is what I'd recommend, it would take 1.9 hours or 0.9 hours if you double the ship speed. Well within reason for a game.

Since there will be other things going on during the trip, like wind changes and encounters, you don't want to spend the entire trip asleep in your cabin. Again, think NH Open Sea. I'd prefer not to have any kind of world map, but use a map of the region to plot your courses and destinations.

You can see what such a map and islands would look like in COAS. By that I mean the stock game, not the mods. TEHO uses the same map but is too much hassle to get to the point of being able to sail.

I've got about 700 hours on the scale maps so far. I've even implemented a reasonable way to have Caribbean trade winds that works well enough and could be used in a game. I've thought about this a lot.

Hispaniola at 1/40 scale with exaggerated elevations is fascinating, the most interesting of all the islands.

For the purposes of a game and impatient gamers we need a way to get to a destination quickly in real world time. You could do this by specifying a destination on your map, then turning the ship over to your helmsman and displaying the actual ship motion on the same map you use to plot courses and destinations with time passing very quickly. If there's anything going on during the trip, you can see it unfold on the map and decide what to do. I'd suggest making the trip take longer in game time if you do this to encourage players to sail on the deck of their ship if they need to get to a destination quickly in game time. What might take a day on the deck of your ship would take 2-3 days or more on the map. And if you're on deck, you get more interesting encounters. And sailing skill increases for both you and your crew, which is what I did in my TEHO mod.

Hook
 
While I'm recommending the 1/10 scale map, the actual islands should be 1/40 scale for the mainland, Cuba and Hispaniola, but with the same time scale for both scales; only the land scale would change. This is where you have problems getting everything to fit. It might be possible to switch maps between 1/10 and 1/40 during sailing, but it would be a bit odd for the player. While everything will be the same shape, the distances (and visibility) will suddenly change. I have experimented with moving my ship between the different scale maps manually, and it almost works. There might be better ways.

I sailed the TEHO Regatta mission on the 1/40 scale map the entire way. Jamaica to Belize to Port au Prince to Antigua to Barbados to Jamaica. It took 12.3 hours and assuming a 1/10 time scale the whole way, 123 hours of game time, similar to what I actually did during the Regatta. In TEHO it took me 11 hours and you have to sail on deck the whole way to be able to win; world map takes too long. And that 11 hours was with much higher winds than the stock game has, my ship was at least twice as fast.

Hook
 
While I'm recommending the 1/10 scale map, the actual islands should be 1/40 scale for the mainland, Cuba and Hispaniola, but with the same time scale for both scales; only the land scale would change.
I'm afraid I don't quite understand the reason for that.
Could you please explain in some additional detail?
 
Hispaniola is too damn big. Cuba at the proper scale isn't an island, it's a continent. Trying to sail anywhere on the mainland would take forever, and some people will want to sail on the deck of their ship. Again, think NH Open Map and Iron Man.

Keep in mind that I have 700 hours sailing these various scale maps in VSF (Vehicle Simulation Framework or Vehicle Simulator for short). Add the 1670 hours of TEHO and a few hundred of COAS in their scales, and I've been everywhere on those maps many times. I sail on the deck of my ship everywhere in those two games, and I have a good idea what works and what doesn't. Hispaniola at the TEHO/COAS scale is just too big.

Hook
 
There is no way to please everyone with a one size fits all system. Methinks an updated version of the POTC system would be best with Pieter's system for the arcade players and some version of the Open Sea mod for the players who want to actually sail their ships. The time speed was adjusted so that even the slowest ships had a chance to make the longest possible runs in 30 days. I tested this in those ships in straight time and played the game that way for over a year. Now I use time compression and the world map. Must be getting old......
 
The longest possible run is Barbados to Belize, 1700 nautical miles in the real world, and you can do that in 30 days if you can average 2.3 knots. Going the other direction you would be sailing against the trade winds so you'd need to average 3.3 knots on each tack. I think with the proper map scales and maybe a bit of manipulation, you can indeed do a one size fits all solution that will accommodate all play styles, from Iron Man to full map mode, and do it on a map that is recognizable as the Gulf, Atlantic coast and Caribbean.

A good starting island is Martinique. It has an interesting shape and three excellent mooring locations.

TEHO has, as part of the tutorial quests, a mission to sail a longboat from the town on the west side of Martinique, rendezvousing with a boat north of the island, then sailing to the pirate colony on the east side of the island. With good winds and a reasonably fast boat this can be done in under 10 hours real time, which on a 1/10 scale map would be 1 hour of real time or a half hour if you move the ships at twice their indicated speed. This is without time compression or using sail-to. With liberal use of sail-to and no time compression I've completed this mission in under 20 minutes in TEHO a few times with lousy winds and a slow boat.

On a full size map, all the shore lines will look alike because the islands are so big and the only time you'll see the deck of your ship is when you're in port or in battle because you'll be forced to use whatever version of map sailing that you decide upon in order to sail anywhere... including the mission described above, which does not allow use of the world map. With a scale map the islands are small enough that you can see differences in the shapes of the islands and you can sail around an island in a reasonable time. Except Hispaniola. Even at 1/40 scale. :)

Hook
 
Some people are going to want to sail on the deck of their ship. If this was not so, direct sail would never have existed, and Iron Man and Open Sea would never have been made.

Hook
 
Pieter's system for the arcade players
Nothing Arcade about what I'm suggesting, I can assure you. ;)

Some people are going to want to sail on the deck of their ship. If this was not so, direct sail would never have existed, and Iron Man and Open Sea would never have been made.
I'd want to sail on the deck of my ship myself. I used to make a living doing exactly that. ;)
But it's physically impossible to be there all the time yourself.

What these games technically do is to not just let you Captain your own ship, but for the player to take over from just about the entire crew.
From a gamey point of view, that can certainly be fun. But realistic sense has nothing to do with it.

If the wind dies down, would you really want to spend your own player time waiting for it to pick up?
Or should the wind be forced to never die down?
Or would you want time compression to remain a necessary feature of the game?

Anything contrary to real life leads to another situation that may also need to deviate from realism.
Take this to its logical extreme and you get Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.
Very nearly every member on this forum used to complain about the "speed boat sailing characteristics" when that was released.
Yet that is what you have to do as game developer to allow the player to be technically in charge of his own ship 24/7, sail around the entire Caribbean in real time and not use time compression.
 
For the purposes of a game and impatient gamers we need a way to get to a destination quickly in real world time. You could do this by specifying a destination on your map, then turning the ship over to your helmsman and displaying the actual ship motion on the same map you use to plot courses and destinations with time passing very quickly.
So instead of setting course on the 2D map and skipping time completely, have events unfold in fast-time without the player being in direct control of the ship's heading at all times?
That might actually work as a first version because it gets around the necessity of defining your own orders on when you should be called to take charge again.
So simpler to program, while still being more sensible than the Storm Engine World map. :onya

I'd suggest making the trip take longer in game time if you do this to encourage players to sail on the deck of their ship if they need to get to a destination quickly in game time. What might take a day on the deck of your ship would take 2-3 days or more on the map.
Ouch, that's some terrible officers you'd have there! I recommend firing them.
But you do have a point: Officer quality should influence sailing time if you don't do it manually yourself.
If you hire cheap officers (early game), expect time skipped to be spent less efficiently.
Eventually you might be able to find/afford officers though who can navigate with similar efficiency to yourself.

And if you're on deck, you get more interesting encounters.
Even if you skip time completely, I'd recommend that you are called for any encounters.
It should always be up to the captain to decide how to proceed.
 
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