Arelith

Ever since the ships were first introduced to Arelith I've never made a character that is not a sailor. Ships and ship travels have become my favorite thing in Arelith and after playing Sencliffian character in 2017-2018, I took a 2 year break from the server and now decided to come back after Ship System 2.0 was announced. Now I want to give my feedback about it, after experimenting with the system for two months. Needless to say I love there is now actual map, you can discover other PC ships and see their locations and follow them without a snitch around. The system feels less random, but it still has so many issues. Let's start with something important, a faction that lives entirely around sailing.

Sencliff
Sencliff is one of the first locations players can choose to place their fresh character. Along with Skal, Cordor and Underdark. New comers or people in general interested in creating a Pirate. You arrive to Sencliff, get your ink and talk to Eamon. The writs Eamon offers are massive and character level 3 might have no idea which one to pick first as there are lots of tough writs to start with (no level recommendations). Most folks go for Sandbanks or Shipwrecks since they are in the first page, not even knowing that there are even easier writs in LAST PAGE that you can do inside Sencliff without doing any sailing. A character chooses a writ, they need to find Sandbank, they sell their iron dagger or mayhaps more to get enough coins to rent a ship.

They get their gold. No one else is around, so might as well go solo. Probably should rent The Warship since it seemed to have some NPC guards. Now let's get into ship; "Uhhh... what now? Go back to Arelith? Why!? Iam a pirate! Choose a random location to sail? North? West? North-East? Let's go North-East, I have no idea where the sandbanks could be..."

Jackman: "ALRIGHT LADS SET SAIL TO NORTH-EAST!"

Now you probably know what happens from here... Immediately when ship departs, they get attacked by Illuskan raiders, Sahuagins, Skeletal pirates... or worse, Marids, if they actually get to North-East. Player dies, the ship is at sea for 24 hours and player gets frustrated. -delete_character and the other players have to wait for reset or rent time to expire. Dosen't matter if player releases the ship quarter before deleting their character. The ship will remain there for 24 hours (IG) before it comes back, which means 2 real hours. Sometimes the system gets glitched and the ship will remain there until reset. I've seen this happen quite often.

Sencliff is the most brutal place to start as new character without any OOC knowledge how ship system works and what is dangerous and what is not. The island of Sencliff is in "danger-zone" according to Naval grid, so no level 3 character is able to survive there and find those sandbanks and ship wrecks because that is the first thing they notice from Eamon and think it's first easiewst writ to do. When there are writs such as the one at below Feasting Hall or Smuggler to take you to Rayne's Landing.

Outside Sencliff
Back in 2018 I felt this was already a problem and it seems it's still a problem with the sea travels. I know it might be not everyone's cup of tea, but that's the beauty of Arelith. Freedom of choice. But right now, I feel mechanically, there's nothing that really encourages ship travels for other people that don't play pirates. Which makes ship traffic disappointingly quiet. Cordorian Navy obviously is for hunting pirates, but Penny Rose? That rentable ship in Cordor? Guldorand? Brogendenstein ship? Not once I've seen the ship from Guldorand or Brogendenstein ship at the sea. I saw half-orc ship sailing, but that was being used by a pirate. Penny Rose has been seen to go to Blackfin Rock and Island ruins, but that's about it. During summer times people do go to Skal. I feel we need more writs that encourage sailing and maybe add some resources to some locations that make people want to sail and get them. Maybe make the Guldorand and Brogendenstein ship rentable because those are barely used.

With suggestion forums being closed I was going to leave some suggestions too, but I'll leave it at this. Ship System 2.0 is awesome, but for new players in Sencliff it's too dangerous and frustrating as Sencliff has not recieved much updates and there are so many beginners' traps that will end up people with -delete_character. For other people Ship System 2.0 does not offer much, because there's no real reason to go to the seas except visiting Skaljard for old times sake.

I'll address some of the issues you brought up, its on my Todo list. As for writs I don't really add them but any Dev is free to expand there.

When im on the libirator and use my spyglass to look at the warship it wil say the warship is faster.

When im on the warship and use the spyglass to look at the libirator it says the libirator is faster.

So whats up with this?

I will only talk of my own experience ... Which isn't much, but can reflect the OP ...

I've played since last febvruary, almost on a daily basis, quite a lot. I started nwn jst before Arelith, and was not very acquainted with DnD lore. I am french, which is quite a barrier, but I am slowly learning, and am a big fan of Arelith so I keep trying at many things where I fail, rather patiently.

I love to try and discover many things, particularly on this so widely developped sever
I like to try new challenges (and old ones, as I am far from success at every challenge that I tried), so when I found fun dongeons accsessible by sea, and the writs that took place on islands, I had to try them. So, from my limitated point of view, the main factor here that makes seas look empty is not motivation to go at sea.

It took time for me to understand how the Pennyrose would work, and when I finally managed, yes I've been killed by sea monsters on second trip ... Once I was aware of the trouble, I found solutions to be protected while at sea. After the system changes, I've been willing to try and use the Pennyrose to have access to places to do new writs. I never managed to get on board. I may have tried 4 or 5 times "only".
I stopped trying as honestly taking the time to go to the place where you get the Pennyrose just to have the right to take a raffle ticket to see if "maybe" you'll be lucky this time is getting old rather quickly.
So, problem 1 : Access. Players like me would be thrilled to try the sea, as long as it doesn't involve a mandatory suscription to a faction (pirates, navy, and I don't know what else -and by the way, I'm not fondamentally opposed to those factions, but for me, access to those factions is hard too, for various reasons that don't all depend on me, and I won't detail here). One "free" boat with the system chosen would in my eyes not be able to give access to the sea to every players who could be interested by the sea, even if it worked as intended. I have no clue to the problems that could come with more boats, neither have I any idea of the work there is to do about it ... So, no reproach here, just explaining what I think is the cause of "no one at sea", and offering what I see as the only available option, which is to set (a lot) more "rentable", or even "buildable" boats.

problem 2 : Less of a problem, but still ... Long travels where you just look at the screen waiting, to watch if you're not under attack : not fun. I'll add that even if it never happened to me, tthe prospect of being attacked by PC pirates is clearly not an enjoyable one for me. So, ok, it's a RP, you're supposed to try and come with a party, it's a place where you could RP ... But honestly, given the problem 1, do you think someone who hasn't 6 to 10 hours a day to invest in the game could take the time to gather a party to incessantly try to rent the boat ? Personnally, I don't even try. Favorizing multiplayer sounds good. But making impossible for one solo to experiment sounds again like a reason that the seas look empty. I understand the idea that "sea is dangerous, pirates happen" etc ... If there were a place (I don't know, a Lake in a safe zone, or something like that) where players (yes, players) could experiment a boat system that works just fine but a little bit safier, they would be more inclined I suppose to gather parties to try the high sea -given access.

I hope my text is understandable and that my experience of the game brings clues on what could solve the empty seas question, and allow many more players to enjoy a system that looks like potentially very fun, and that I suppose have been a tremendous work. I thank again all the people that have and will work upon the game from the bottom of my heart!! Love and warmth to all ;;; kiss ;;;