Random Encounters - Ghost ships...

[Vendetta109]

As we all know very well one of the oceans biggest mysteries (Aside from that of the Mariana Trench) are man made structures that for reasons unknown are abandoned and left to rot. In naval action it would be pretty spooky. Just imagine your on a one hour sail to do a trading run and in the distance you spot a vessel... her sails are furled and there don't appear to be any men in the rigging or on her deck, so you bring your ship close to her to investigate, even as you draw closer you begin to notice that the deck is in near perfect consition, cables, blocks and restraints are all where they need to be. doors and hatches are properly secured and there's still materials out on the deck. her anchor is on board yet there isnt a single sign of life. further investigation shows that she was hawling an immense load of spanish gold coins, enough to make damn near any man rich yet there isnt a single body on board, long boats are still here and the captain cabin is untouched, with the only thing missing being a captains log...

From these encounters you could come across Tbrigs, Indiamen, trincomalees, basically any ship with the bigger ships being much more rare and more likely to have signs of damage making them unsalvageable (Which means if you found a Bellona drifting in perfect condition it would be the open world equivalent of a gold crafted very sturdy L' Ocean. im thinking this could be done like having wrecks at sea, except you don't get bottles to locate them, they're just out there in the deep ocean (Atlantic, the gulf, etc) drifting along waiting for someone to find them. say there's only an allowed instance of 20 or 50 in the server to prevent lag and keep the occurence rare and creepy. people could gain goods, crafting parts or perhaps an entirely serperate ship from these encounters. I came up with this idea on sort of a whim but I hope to see actual reactions from the community this time around unlike my last post...

[Vendetta109]

I can honestly say I've never heard of "Emptiness" being considered a "Feature". By virtue of being a rare occurence I hope they see that it'd still maintain the sense of emptiness but also enforce an idea that there are mysteries within that openb ocean just waiting to be discovered.

[Tiedemann]

I like the OP suggestion in it self. It would add much needed content to OW and a reason not to just afk sail all the time, but keep an eye out for something interesting. I would still like like to add "The Trap" scenario for a bit of a challenge, and to not make it a guaranteed easy payday every time you spot a abandoned ship.

So you spot a Brig abandoned just drifting at a distance and as you sail closer to investigate. If it's a trader it might have some good loot in the hold..

Scenario 1: The enemy crew appears from under the deck, they man the cannons, sails and raise the black. 
Scenario 2:  An enemy hunter AI appears on the horizon and hunts you in OW. 

The enemy AI could be like a single AI from the epic event. If if you defeat it you can loot a special chest. The enemy ship can be special, so capturing it might be worth the risk. 

I do get that if you stumble over a scenario like this while afk sailing 4 fully loaded Indimans with no repairs in the hold, it would suck to get slaughtered by a AI Brig on steroids.. Or hunted down by a AI 3. rate for that mater. But I afk sail a lot, and I like the idea as long as it's 1 or 2 out of many other easy payday scenarios, and just spotting a abandoned ship wold be rare. 
We had aggressive AI fleets sailing around in OW back in the day attacking players, so that feature could be refurbished and reused for the 2. scenario.  

 

[Vendetta109]

1 hour ago, Tiedemann said:

I like the OP suggestion in it self. It would add much needed content to OW and a reason not to just afk sail all the time, but keep an eye out for something interesting. I would still like like to add "The Trap" scenario for a bit of a challenge, and to not make it a guaranteed easy payday every time you spot a abandoned ship.

So you spot a Brig abandoned just drifting at a distance and as you sail closer to investigate. If it's a trader it might have some good loot in the hold..

Scenario 1: The enemy crew appears from under the deck, they man the cannons, sails and raise the black. 
Scenario 2:  An enemy hunter AI appears on the horizon and hunts you in OW. 

The enemy AI could be like a single AI from the epic event. If if you defeat it you can loot a special chest. The enemy ship can be special, so capturing it might be worth the risk. 

I do get that if you stumble over a scenario like this while afk sailing 4 fully loaded Indimans with no repairs in the hold, it would suck to get slaughtered by a AI Brig on steroids.. Or hunted down by a AI 3. rate for that mater. But I afk sail a lot, and I like the idea as long as it's 1 or 2 out of many other easy payday scenarios, and just spotting a abandoned ship wold be rare. 
We had aggressive AI fleets sailing around in OW back in the day attacking players, so that feature could be refurbished and reused for the 2. scenario.  

 

Really like that idea, to fix the afk sailer getting rekt by these ai it should be a question mark in open world you stumble across and you have to click "Investigate" in the top right corner in order to interact with it or have that event happen, then once you interact with it you load in like you would any other battle with the seemingly abandoned ship nearby, you go to loot it and once your at a certain distance or you click x to inspect it'll trigger an event where the abandoned ship becomes manned or an enemy ship spawns near by to give chase.

[Lovec1990]

Thats great idea.

This will drive people in nice way to actually leave coasts and explore open seas

 

Edited May 3, 2018 by Lovec1990