Ships and sea travels are amazing, but need more love from other players.

[-Heavyline-]

Correct me if Iam wrong. I remember when Irongron and ActionReplay brought The Sea Leopard, Penny Rose and Troubadour to the server years ago. It felt like whole new world was added to the server. After taking a break for several years and coming back to the server, just seeing how much more content was added to the sea travelling... It brought a smile to my face. There were now more ships, rentable ships, more islands, a frozen wasteland named Skal and even pirates had their own island... Yes! I love this!!!

Sailing at seas is my favorite thing to do at Arelith for many reasons. Sailing is exciting, because you never know what you get. Especially when you're a first timer. Later on you start to remember the islands and all the hostile encounters you might face when you travel at the seas. When you sail with a group it's easier to roleplay and interact with others when standing still and waiting for island/ship discoveries or possible hostiles attacking the ship. I can't stand dungeon crawling with groups anymore because it's very hard to RP there. I've had bad experience with folks rushing through the dungeons. Many times I've not been able to stay in group because I was trying to interact and roleplay, just to see my group far away seconds later because I tried to type something.

That being said. I feel that sea travelling and ships don't get enough love from other players. Pirates travel alot, because pirates have special writs that give them reason to travel. I've only seen non-pirate ships heading to Blackfin, Island Ruins or Skaljard. There is no real threat or competition for pirates from other players at seas. There are 2 rentable pirate ships and 3 rentable ships for non-pirates. One of these non-pirate ships is Orc-only ship. If Iam not mistaken, none of these rentable non-pirate ships have grappling hooks, which can attack other ships. Putting pirates in very safe spot if Flagship and Ironhelm are owned by inactive players and Sea Leopard is owned by a pirate or inactive player.

As much as I love sea travelling and ships in this server. I wish to see more things added and something fixed to add traffic to the high seas. Not for pirates, but for other people to give them reason to set sails. Obviously this requires adding more rentable ships. I think we could use one rentable ship that is pretty much like The Sea Leopard (cells, grappling hook)... this could open doors for pirate hunter vigilante RP for example (which is impossible right now). One thing I think could help to add traffic is to add similar "sailor writs" that pirates have in Sencliff. Find sandbanks, ruins, shipwrecks, ghost ships, etc. No level restrictions and they can be done only once.

[Zed]

Not enough boats for the population size IMO. Also it would be nice for more incentives to get on the boats. Considering the risks involved.

[Lady Astray]

I think having ships being "Owned" the same way as Shops and Quarters are is a mistake. Sure, you could have a few boats that people could "own" but I think the majority should just be rented on a per-trip basis so that most players can actually use them. Imagine if I "owned" a road and nobody could go to Guldorand or Brogdenstein unless I was online and gave them permission. Imagine if I "owned" the caravan in Trapper's Cave and nobody could fast travel back to Skaljard village unless I was online and gave them permission. Imagine if I "owned" the Mythal portal and nobody could enter Myon unless I was online and gave them permission. I constantly hear talk about how there's 2,000+ players on Arelith, but we got like 3 ships controlled by 3 players who are only on part of the time. Modes of travel should not be "owned" at most there should be a toll or some racial/alignment restriction.

[Dagonlives]

There is not much incentive for sea travel. Anything you can get from sea-travel can be acquired more quickly and easily from doing stuff on land. The random events don't pay much gold or have much resources.

Until that changes, I expect sailling will remain as it is.

[O-H41]

I love sailing too, and wish there were more rentable ships. It's a nice change of pace, and exciting in that the next encounter is assured to be random. Aside from the privately owned, settlement owned, and race-restricted ships, everyone else not associated with those has to scramble to rent two ships - some of which get abandoned at sea for the full rental duration. Andunor and Cordor are port cities that should have a lot of traffic on the waterways, and are supposed to be fairly main cities. I think they should have more rentable ships. Cordor has two (one doubles in Brogendenstein), but Andunor has none.

[Echohawk]

I can't really say yes or no to this, owning the ships makes a bit of sense in that you have them for more than just the rotating 24 hired hours. However pirates owning a permanent ship still sticks out in my mind as a 'don't they have two now already'?

Realistically players/characters who are interested should try to reach out to the owners if they think they can at least garner enough trust to be added to a faction and be allowed a key or captaining/keyless entry.
I remember back on Sarina Dragonsong, I was more than happy to lend out the Liberator back when it was tied to a set building ownership. I was happy to indulge in just about any reasonable excuse to allow others to use it since I couldn't be on all the time. And if people fell out of activity they could just be taken off the list until they returned, no big deal. It's a matter of choice, since ships unlike most houses actually serve a function rather than just storing things. (Granted they do this also but for the owned ships they do have internal cabins.)

I do think quarterlogging for ships and ship usage should be managed more strictly by the DM team, that is only my feeling and opinion however.

[Cerk Evermoore]

I believe Hrafnagar and Pennyrose can both grapple other ships. More sea based dungeons would be nice. Crows Nest could benefit from an expansion also i feel.

[Hunter548]

I believe Hrafnagar and Pennyrose can both grapple other ships. More sea based dungeons would be nice. Crows Nest could benefit from an expansion also i feel.

Neither of them can.

[msterswrdsmn]

I can't really say yes or no to this, owning the ships makes a bit of sense in that you have them for more than just the rotating 24 hired hours. However pirates owning a permanent ship still sticks out in my mind as a 'don't they have two now already'?

Three, actually.

Aside from getting to some harder to reach areas, i've never seen investing heavily in saiing RP worth it. And if I DO invest in it heavily, i'm either without a boat because none are available, or i'm hogging the rented boat out for myself, which kills the fun for other people if i'm blatantly holding it.

[-Heavyline-]

I can't really say yes or no to this, owning the ships makes a bit of sense in that you have them for more than just the rotating 24 hired hours. However pirates owning a permanent ship still sticks out in my mind as a 'don't they have two now already'?

Three, actually.

Three for now. But officially pirates have 2 ships in Sencliff (both are rentable. Pirates don't have a ship a player could own in Sencliff). The Sea Leopard is not really a pirate ship. It can be owned by anyone. It just happens to fall in the hands of pirates most of the time. I remember when The Sea Leopard was added the to server... it was a possible for Sea Leopard to be a "pirate ship" if someone wanted to RP that. We didn't have Sencliff, tattoos or anything else back in the day. Even the current pirate navigator "Maclean" used to be in Sea Leopard. Now he works at Sencliff in one of the rentable ships.

More sea based dungeons would be nice. Crows Nest could benefit from an expansion also i feel.

I agree with this. Especially with Crows Nest. All other towns/villages have recieved nice updates. But Crow's Nest still looks the same as it did 10 years ago. I also think Rayne's Landing could use a boost in content. Make it more worth for people to visit at... Keep the lighthouse lit, remove the smuggler's waypoint for it and add some quarters and shops there... Just an idea. Sea based dungeons are welcome sight. This is why I wanted to add this feedback. Blackfin Rock is fun, Island Ruins is long and well designed, however the dungeon is not rewarding enough for it's length. The recent update with Isle of Gnitaheithr is amazing. Unfortunately it's short, but I love the idea of it and the boss fight is intense if you're not prepared.