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Islands in depth. Maintenance and Control.


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So, as it's only been briefly mentioned I wanted to bring up the idea of detailed Islands.

There has been a lot of discussion about port business, trading and the economy, but I'm looking at this in a much more strategic light.

 

 

The idea is to make 4 different types of islands, with 4 types of sizes, every one of different shapes & strategic value.  Below are the types, the attachment gives a very basic example of the sizes I had in mind, and the names to give them.  A grand Island you will notice has an extra small isle attached to it, which can be used by the fleet controlling it.  I think there needs to be a good amount of islands in the game, perhaps around 60 in total, but obviously a much smaller amount whilst the game attracts more players, 15-25 to start off with maybe.  Each island, obviously located in different parts of the map will have different strategic value and can be claimed or even besieged by Fleets at war with the defenders.

 

An atoll is an island formed from a coral reef that has grown on an eroded and submerged volcanic island. The reef rises to the surface of the water and forms a new island. Atolls are typically ring-shaped with a central lagoon. Examples include the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and Line Islands in the Pacific. 

Continental islands are bodies of land that lie on the continental shelf of a continent. Examples include Greenland and Sable Island off North America; Barbados and Trinidad off South America; Great Britain, Ireland and Sicily off Europe; Sumatra and Java off Asia; and New Guinea and Tasmania off Australia. 

Oceanic islands are ones that do not sit on continental shelves. They are volcanic in origin. One type of oceanic island is found in a volcanic island arc. These islands arise from volcanoes where the subduction of one plate under another is occurring. Examples include the Mariana Islands, the Aleutian Islands, Republic of Mauritius and most of Tonga in the Pacific Ocean. Some of the Lesser Antilles and the South Sandwich Islands are the only Atlantic Ocean examples. 

Another type of oceanic island occurs where an oceanic rift reaches the surface. There are two examples: Iceland, which is the world's largest volcanic island, and Jan Mayen — both are in the Atlantic. 


A third type of oceanic island is formed over volcanic hotspots. A hotspot is more or less stationary relative to the moving tectonic plate above it, so a chain of islands results as the plate drifts. Over long periods of time, this type of island is eventually eroded down and "drowned" by isostatic adjustment, becoming a seamount. An example is the Hawaiian Islands, from Hawaii to Kure,

 

 

How would you go about business in an Island belonging to your fleet?

 

I think Islands need to be fairly exclusive, available only to the Fleets [guilds/groups/clans] strong enough to capture them, a grand island obviously would need quite a large force to attack.

 

Once you have control of the island, you have a wealth of economic resources unique to that Island, you have another trading port + a stream of money generated from tax in the Large/Grand islands that are actually populated.  

You will also be able to upgrade the island with finances your fleet owns.  Such upgrades would include:

 

1 Battery [of 9 cannons up to 32 pounders]

2 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 32 pounders]

2 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 32 pounders] & 1 Howitzer

3 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 42 pounders] & 1 Howitzers

3 Batterys [of 9 cannons up to 42 pounders] & 2 Howitzers

 

Martello Tower x1 

Martello Tower x2

Martello Tower x3

Fort x1

 

The upgrades of course would not come cheap, and only islands of real strategic/economic value would be worth investing in.

 

 

 

 

Thanks for reading, let me know what you think

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Edited by Richard Bolitho
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I get the idea and the desire of players to have a haven/home but I'm thinking land control could be something for the future when the player base is larger thus the map would be larger. To be honest I can't think of a good way for the taking of ports or how subjugating islands would work. I figure if this is a plan for the game then it will have to be done very carefully as this could really impact the immersion aspect due to an unrealistic balance of power..... My concern is just how this would work, Will a strong clan be able to just hop from one port to the next taking all the ports? Say the initial map is the Carribean and 75% of the player base is alligned with England, how long before evey port is English controlled? Continuing with the Carribean example, you are playing as the French and England now controls a large amount of the ports. France is at war with the English so you can't use English ports. The French player base doesn't come close to the English so even if you take a port you can't hold it...basically your gaming experience is going to suffer dramatically. I guess what I am saying is it's not a bad idea but the ability to do this will have to be very well thought out or, in my opinion, stands to ruin the game if done poorly.

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i dont like big havens in players hand, maybe some small islands to anker your ship and maybe store your cargo.

But i would like the Islands and Fortifications managed by the AI of the Nation, if an Island gets a lot of trading traffic and gets rich of it it may upgrade to better defences, havens and traders...

Besiege a Islands Town of any Nation of AI and win, maybe only bring you a Lot of gold and being noticed of the own Nation and getting prestige & Honor.

 

Besiege a Player Island, you just wil get the Cargo stored there and some gold at the small village (no Defences like a Town, only some Fighters).

 

Sorry for bad spelling :P

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Besiege a Islands Town of any Nation of AI and win, maybe only bring you a Lot of gold and being noticed of the own Nation and getting prestige & Honor.

Besiege a Player Island, you just wil get the Cargo stored there and some gold at the small village (no Defences like a Town, only some Fighters).

 

 

We've had that already. SO many games cop out and do the bare minimum.  We don't want gold and cargo, we want ISLANDS! we want very own coastal defences, we want our own economy. This is next gen gaming so lets not cop out and do as much as is required. 

 

 

My concern is just how this would work, Will a strong clan be able to just hop from one port to the next taking all the ports? 

 

Of course not, after taking an island, realistically they wouldn't just send their reports back to the admiralty expecting a "good, now take the next one" in reply.  The amount of repairs, resupplying and organizing you'd have to do after capturing an island would be HUGE!  Not to mention if a Nation just got word they lost an island, they'd try and counter attack, so whatever ships are still in decent condition would be sent to patrol and defend the new island. 

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  • 4 weeks later...

I prefer the concept of ports rather than islands, largely due to the fact that small islands were hardly self efficient enough to support a village, which would not be big enough of a population to be able to produce the trade goods and ship building industries.

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I think this is a very ingenious idea. However, I see one problem. Having island bases could possibly result in guilds creating their own island "nations," and operating from them. Although this isn't necessarily an issue, we don't want to encourage the idea of "pirate nations." Imagine an island near a commonly used shipping route, swarming with pirates lying in wait for merchantmen... It would be quite frustrating to run into.

I cant quote this source, but I believe I saw an admin post somewhere saying that pirates will be KOS for all nations/players. If this is true, then the scenario I described won't really be an issue, because there won't be enough trust among pirates for them to band together.

Anyway, just my bit of insight.

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I think this is a very ingenious idea. However, I see one problem. Having island bases could possibly result in guilds creating their own island "nations," and operating from them. Although this isn't necessarily an issue, we don't want to encourage the idea of "pirate nations." Imagine an island near a commonly used shipping route, swarming with pirates lying in wait for merchantmen... It would be quite frustrating to run into.

I cant quote this source, but I believe I saw an admin post somewhere saying that pirates will be KOS for all nations/players. If this is true, then the scenario I described won't really be an issue, because there won't be enough trust among pirates for them to band together.

Anyway, just my bit of insight.

 

If this were to happen, other nations would just have to shift the trading routes so that the pirates would 'own' nearly useless land.  Of course, combined naval action against these pirates is another option...  As the players won't be real pirates, and will have a similar mindset to any other nation of players, I don't see a lack of unity tearing them apart.  However, I am with you about trying to limit any large band of pirates, though small local bands might be fun to have in game.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I would also love to see ports grow visually - for example, if you build a defensive fort, a new building would be added to your port - visible when sailing around that island. In the same way, I would love to see buildings (including houses and other neutral, non-defensive buildings) destroyed in raids by stray cannonballs, and ports grow as new buildings are constructed in times of peace. 

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