Welcome to the very first of the Lithmeria weekly update announcements. The purpose of these is to help the players track the progress of the game as it is ongoing and to get feedback from the community on what we are working on.
The format for these updates is going to pretty much the same. A short introduction on the subject, a log involving it hosted on NoGfx and then some more detailed information on the topic from the designers. Finally there will be information about any planned but unimplemented as of yet features for the system, and then a peak of what we are doing for the upcoming week.
Now, without further ado. Ships!
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"There's something about the sailing the open seas that's always held a strange allure to our kind. The excitement, the serenity, the extremely high chance of a premature death.."
-- Invoker Eresthene
Ships are an important facet of the world, many islands with valuable commodities or hunting grounds require the use of a seaworthy veseel and a skilled captain to reach. The seas are more than a barrier to travel through, however; bays, coves, and port towns all make valuable prizes of war. Outside of the frequently traveled shipping lanes, monsters of the ocean abound, threatening ships and crew alike.
Ships come in many assortments, both of hulls as well as rigging and equipment mounted on them, from the slow, ponderous galleons armed to the teeth to the agile caravels relying on maneuverability to keep out of their enemy's devastating broadsides. Success in naval combat is just as skill-oriented as melee combat and requires careful strategy, positioning, and coordination
"The northern waters? You don't want to go there, sirs. No amount of riches is worth that. Something dark churns those waters, you'll have to find yourself another ship"
--Gregory Fairweather, owner of the merchant's galley "The Silver Rose"
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Thanks to Tobias at NoGFX Lithmeria has been added and we have a full-color log of ships in action posted
http://nogfx.org/logs/616.
SailingThe primary command when sailing is STEER which, as you would guess, steers your ship in a specific direction. Movement and turning both occur on the gamewide "ticks" which occur every 2 seconds and are also used for things such as bleeding. A ship can only turn so many compass point directions every tick, and will be slowed slightly when turning.
The main control for speed is raising and lowering your sails, a ship with its sails down will move at a bare crawl, drifting slowly through the water. However a ship with its sails full will accelerate up to the maximum speed for its hull type as the wind fills its sails. As mentioned, ships accelerate and decelerate to their speeds when the sails are changed, it is not an instant change. More agile ships generally accelerate faster. Stopping your ship is accomplished by lowering your sails and dropping your anchor, but only in water deeper than the ocean blue. You'll have to find a harbor or at least slightly shallower water.
Ship TypesNot all ships are created equal, each type of ship handles differently and has different fittings. Each ship can have varying turning rates, acceleration, maximum speed, hull strength, weapon capabilities, and hull depth. Turning rate, acceleration, and speed are all fairly self-explanatory and affect how much control a captain has over the ship. Hull strength is like hit points for a ship, once a ship takes too much damage it will sink under the waves, and you had best hope you are not on board when it does. Weapon capabilities vary from ship to ship, with the larger ones generally having more room for weapons. Finally, the shallower a hull the shallower the water it can pass over, a large galleon can't sail up a river without tearing its bottom apart, but a shallower ship pays for it with weapon room or even the entire lack of hold below the main deck, for the shallowest of ships.
Ship CombatNaval battles, the greatest pursuit of all ship captains and their crews. Most ships have a small number of light weapons on the deck of the ship, and a slightly larger number of heavy weapons in the hold. To use a weapon one must man it and then can FIRE it at targets within range. Light weapons can swivel and fire in any direction, striking any enemy in a circular range. The real deciding factor in a battle, however, are the heavy weapons. These weapons generally have greater range and much greater damage, but they face out the sides of the ships and therefore you can only fire them out of your broadsides. This makes positioning and steering very important, one can not merely sit in range and fire back and forth. This is why a lightly armed and armored caravel can take on a heavy galleon with a reasonable hope of survival if the captain is skilled.
Furthermore, the classes all have abilities that play into the battle between ships. A favorite example is the ability of those well-trained in the skill of acrobatics to leap from the deck of a ship to another nearby ship without a need for them to be locked together by grapples.
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Some upcoming features for ships that are not yet added are fittings, weather, currents, and monsters.
The fittings system is next on the plate for ships, and allows you to outfit ships differently, changing the rigging, the figurehead, customizing the appearance, and perhaps most importantly the weaponry. Currently all ships are fitted with a light ballista and a small catapult on the deck, and heavy ballista in the hold.
Weather once implemented will have two major impact on the sailing system. The first is wind, which will affect the speed and acceleration of ships, going into the wind is harder than having it at your back. 3-point sails (lateen rigging) will find going into the wind and at angles to it easier than 4-point sails (square rigging), but will not get quite as large a bonus from having it at their back. The other effect of weather is storms. Your ship can be tossed about on the waves, turned by them, and those without the training to lash themselves to the ship may even be swept overboard to their death in rough enough seas.
Which brings us to currents. Just as our world has currents that make certain routes more efficient so too will Lithmeria. They will be modeled on the same principles that create massive currents in our world like the gulf stream. A captain who masters both the winds and currents will be a much more efficient sailor than one without the experience, and this will factor heavily into ship combat.
Finally, we will be adding sea monsters to some of the less traveled parts of the sea. These monsters will attack passing ships and will come in varying shapes, sizes, and dangerousness. But will be roughly organized into "bashing waters" of various difficulty. Slaying a sea monster will give experience to all those on the ship who assisted in bringing it down. This provides a fun alternative to standard bashing as a way for teams to level, and allows those of wider level ranges to contribute together more effectively.
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Next week's update will unveil the first class and explain our unique skill system which provides variety even to those of the same class and allows you to specialize to better suit your playstyle.
