Ideas for aspiring new Modders

[IncredibleHat]

(excuse the typo in the topic... if a moderator could edit the title for me... ahem)
Pieter Boelen: Done

<b>Merchant traders at sea.</b>

Able to to do ship to ship merchant trading with ships you encounter at sea. Great for if you need to buy some food for the journey if you are running low. Also better prices than in town, so trade may finally become profitable.

<b>Boarding friendly/neutral ships to persuade, or help.</b>

A new captain dialog system, where you can board a friendly or neutral ship during battles, to quickly talk to a captain about forming an alliance, or having them join your fleet for the battle. Could increase reputation (or decrease if you back stab the guy) with nations and the sort.

<b>Specific cargo for merchant trade quests.</b>

When taking a "Trade Quest" from a store merchant to deliver goods to another store merchant, have a 'special cargo' icon in your ships cargo. Helps prevent from accidental toss overboard or sell to another merchant. Helps reduce screw-up factor with the trade missions.

<b>Cave of loot that grows over time.</b>

Find a 'cave' on an island that you claim as your own, which you can dump goods, gold, items, whatever into. The graphics for it would grow and grow into aheaping pile of loot. Bigger the pile of loot, the more prestige you get with crew, and fame etc. Just a great place to store all your crap you accumulate.

<b>Random small chartable uncharted islands.</b>

Have rare change 'island' encounters at sea (tiny islands, things you get marooned on), where you either partake in a ship to ship battle over whats ON the island, or get to do a quick explore of the one location island. Find things like burried treasure, smugglers caches, or even stranded individuals who would pay you hansomly for a rescue (or increase your reputation if you do it out of the kindness of your own heart).

Islands would then show up as a 'point' on the worldmap that you can revisit to haul more loot off (if it had so much you couldnt take it all), or take a prisoner too and strand there, and lose reputation as a result.

<b>Helping in battles increase rep/rel with other nation in battle.</b>

I never understood why when I joined a battle of british vs pirates, or something, that if I helped sink the pirate ships, I never got an increase in reputation with the English nation. So pissed me off each time, I have come to the conclusion of "why help fight their battle? Whats the POINT of joining a battle at sea?!"... so, this idea is to actually make it worthwhile. helping defend some merchants from pirates will gain you more reputation, and coupled with the ship to ship merchant mod, you could then get GREAT discounts on stuff once you finish the battle favorably.

<b>New items:</b>
Fencing arm guard - increase melee skill
Books - increase skills in navigation, repair, cannons, etc (sailing stuff)
Sextant - increase navigation
Maps - add to the 'maps' interface for places and treasures

<b>Skill up items in captains quarters not need be carried around all the time.</b>

Certain items that add skill up, would only need to be stored in your captains chest (or on the table if the table was made into an itemsbox). Having the items in the cabin would still give you the skill increase. This would help reduce the amount of junk you have to carry around ALL the time. Why carry your books and maps with you, when they only help while sailing?

<b>New inventory system interface, split by groups, with equip summary.</b>

A new inventory management system. Group items into seperate scrollers, with a "Equipped" summary in upper right or left, that allows easy view of what you have equipped. Scrollers for weapons to quickly scan through those. Sort buttons to change the sort order of weapons and items. Those sort buttons would also apply to when you are doing item-item transfers, to help facilitate in filling your weapons locker for example.

+++

Anyhow, those are a bunch of mods I have written down that I wanted to do... however I now do not forsee myself having any time whatsoever to persue any of those. So, I write them here, so that maybe some modder will be inspired and want to 'fly' with the idea and create the mod.

Have fun!
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />

 

[Pieter Boelen]

Those are some excellent ideas. I hope to see those in Build 14 eventually, they would really improve the game.

<b>Boarding friendly/neutral ships to persuade, or help</b>
I actually made up that idea at one point. I thought perhaps it can be made to work with the Instant Boarding ability, so you can board friendly ships that way and talk to captain and crew. I think this is possible, though I don't actually know how to code it in.

<b>New inventory system interface, split by groups, with equip summary</b>
Do you remember when you made the fists item invisible in the itemsbox interface? Perhaps the same can be done for the inventory screen. So you can select which item type you want to see with a button and the game hides all other items the same way as the fists are hidden. Would that be possible?

 

[Black Bart]

thanks hat, nice ideas to add to the pot <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/me.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="me.gif" />

Ref:<b>Random small chartable uncharted islands.</b>

along those lines i'd been considering adding proper reefs and shoals to the game, things that the player would have to navigate/look out for. Its part of the port-to-port sailing mod idea and would include using 'fathom lines' and a crew look-out to steer safely through the danger. Not every where, but could be a different challange for the player from time to time - maybe on trips like you mentioned to little uncharted islands with treasure on etc.

Ref:<b>Helping in battles increase rep/rel with other nation in battle.</b>

Yeah this should be a priority mod - because of the way it currently works i never stop to help other ships at sea.

Ref:<b>New items:</b>

sounds good - any excuse for some new graphics/items to collect is good for me. My main worry is that with only 10 points available in each skill, we are already at a point where you advance these skills too quickly imo.
one solution would be to only give 1 new skillpoint with each level up, but in the long term as we add new items for the player to buy/find and use i'm thinking the 10 point system may be too limited?

Ref:<b>Merchant traders at sea+boarding friendly ships</b>

especaily usefull if we could lengthen the distance between islands, then you might actualy run out of food/drink? but along with the helping in battles thing, it would add some realism and things for the player to do while at sea. Trade ships would stop for each other, to exchange gossip and get help, even to just have the chance to meet new people and break up the voyage. I think this could be nicely expanded to even include getting new quests e.g.:

"Hello senior, welcome aboard. I have a problem i hope you could help me with. This lady i took aboard in Falaise de Fluer had tasked me with carrying her to Douwesen, but now she has changed her mind and wants to go to Isla Muelle - would you be willing to take her there by any chance, for a good price of course?"

further investigation might reveal that the Captain is keen to get rid of her becaue she has been getting far too much interest from the crew(if you know what i mean) and he fears a mutiny!

anyway lots of things could come out of being able to interact with ships at sea <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="yes.gif" />

Ref:<b>Cave of loot that grows over time.</b>

this would be the 'pirate' players alternative to the 'respectable citizen' mod. instead of having a bank/house to keep your loot, you opt for a hidden location? might be fun to include a chance of this hidden location getting discovered?(or maybe not?)
The main use of such a cave could be that its completely tax-free. Another part of the 'respectable citizen' mod idea would be to introduce a tax from the respective crown of whichever colony you decide to live in/use. So all trade through the islands shops would reflect this. Part of the reason for this would be to help strengthen the smugglers active role in the game, and having a a nice tax haven for your loot might be a preferble option for the greedy player <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

Again lots of possible options can stem from this.

yeah thanks again hat - i can see these helping flesh out certain others areas i've been looking at.