[quote=Red-XIII]
Even though I’ve had my own thoughts of a speed-up button for SS, I have to agree with the counterpoint here - people WILL overuse it and break their own fun, just because it’s there.
It’s a bit of a paradox, but quite often the speed up button just gets you bored faster.
And, IMHO, isn’t not the lack of a speed-up button that’s the problem. The problem is that some players are left with nothing to do at zee. A smoother mechanic would do to them the same thing it does to the rest - make them too occupied with the process to get bored. I think this is the only right way to fix the problem.
edited by Red-XIII on 2/26/2015[/quote]
Good points.
In general the best way to make the zee more interesting would be to detach the current spawns from their definite anchor points on the map and start working on encounter tables to create more at-zee variation.
I mean, there’s seemingly a tiny bit of this near the coasts of London and Mutton Island - There seem to be a variable # of Crabs that spawn there. But that could literally just be my imagination combined with the fact that the little crabs are super mobile when they’re not aggroed, and move around so much they seem like they’re spawning in different places and in different amounts.
But if you go North from London to Venderbight? Oh hello o’l familiar Pirate cutter! Hello Bats swooping in from the East! You’re old friends at this point!
The issue is that, while the big map tiles that contain the islands swap in position a bit, the spawns on them are constant once you’re in a new map. This ensures reliability - which has it’s benefits of predictability - but lessens spontaneity and randomness.
If they treated each spawn point as having different chances to spawn different sets of potential encounters, it would make sailing 10,000% more interesting and involving, and likely (as you say) eliminate the complaint entirely.
This would especially be the case if they spawned in whole encounters.
Stuff like when you get near Gaider’s Mourn, there’s 50% chance for it to spawn an Pirate frigate in a particular spot, a 25% chance for it to spawn two pirate Cutters, and a 25% chance for it to spawn 3 pirate cutters engaged in an attack on a neutral steamer. Then you can choose if you want to try to defend the steamer and potentially get a reward or make a friend, or, if you want to gain some (potential as I don’t think this is actually in the game yet) pirate affiliation, help the cutters take down the Steamer, and you’ll get a different storylet with a new outcome should you succeed.
This seems to be the biggest missing element on the high zee. Changing the spawn locations and types of enemies would be great, but what’s really missing are unique situations.
Stuff like a sailing merchant vessel that opens up a temporary market on the sea with you, Admiralty Frigates engaged in pitch battle with Khanagat Triremes, a neutral Caligo-class Freighter low on fuel after a pirate attack - if you help it out they’ll ask you to escort them to London for a share in their cargoes.
Stuff like that - that’s what makes sailing the sea potentially interesting.