Since we’re getting boats back, here are some suggestions to truly give the game a naval experience. (Gonna be long, scroll to the bottom for a TL:DR)
Ships
Ships in AA were nice, but there is room for improvement. They need more customization!
Keep ships as their own classes respective speeds, BUT! we should have a ship weight system (will explain why). Ships also shouldn’t just be blocks of wood with some sails, cannons, and a wheel. We should have lower decks where we can store shipments (naval trade like from Tradelands) food & water(if that’s still an idea). In the lower decks we should also be able to have things for decorations in bigger ships. Like you could hire NPC crews (metalworkers, alchemists, etc) that could turn your ship (if large enough) into a mobile base of operations. Perhaps even pianos and other big instruments for our music lovers.
Weight system: So, these decorations aren’t just weightless and these shipments aren’t either. The more you put onto your ship, the heavier it gets. Eventually, the ship reaches a capacity. Bigger ships have a greater capacity and smaller ships a smaller capacity. The heavier the ship is, the slower it gets. Things like cannon balls, players, or NPCs shouldn’t add to the ship’s weight. Only things that are placed on/in the ship like cannons, decorations, instruments, or shipment crates.
Naval trade: This is mostly a better way to earn crowns besides just quests, PVP, etc. Taking inspiration from tradelands, you could buy shipment crates from one island and the further you take the shipment the more crowns you’d get. So for example if you take a shipment from an island in the bottom left corner of the map and took it to the top right corner of a map (or to the furthest sea/zone from the island) you’d make more money than just taking it to a near by island. Crates would be really expensive so you’d have to dedicate a decent bulk of crowns in a single CHEAP shipment. Expensive/exotic shipments would be insanely profitable but expensive to even purchase. Now, shipments CAN be stolen or destroyed. If your ship sinks or if another player boards your ship. That player can steal your shipments. Once your ship spawns, you shouldn’t be able to despawn it but could instead put it into a dry dock/drop anchor (if an island isn’t advanced enough). NPCs should also be more common and all maps should be bigger (Third Sea levels of big minimum). NPCs can’t steal your shipments, but they can destroy them.
Cannons
We shouldn’t be restricted to a few types of cannons and that’s it. We should be able to have different calibers like 8 pounders and heavier. Fitting a ship with heavier cannons would slow a ship down but grant it greater firepower and damage. You could also choose what cannons you have on your ship. Such as, you could a frigate from AA with 6 cannons on each side and a mortar and then customize it to have 12 cannons on each side, two mortars, and swivel guns by the helm and bow. Lighter guns would deal less damage but have lower weight value. Heavier guns deal more damage, more weight value. Here are some examples of different cannon types:
Naval Long gun: Normal cannons that we had in AA, but in WoM/AO we can actually buy more and upgrade/downgrade the number of cannons on our ships as well as their pound rating as previously stated.
Mortars: Same as AA, plus different weight classes and amount.
Swivel guns: Small guns that can be placed on the main deck of a ship (top layer).
Culverins: Lighter versions of a naval long gun. Using these would decrease your firepower and strength but increase ship speed.
Bombards: For island/region defense. Big heavy cannons that are extremely powerful so getting hit by something they fire would deal insane scaled damage. CANNOT be used on ships and can only be put on islands as part of guild building.
All of these cannons minus the bombards should have more expensive breach loading, rifled, and breach loading rifled variants. Breaching loading decreases the reload time but decreases power. Rifled increases reload time but increases power. And breach loading rifled would have both benefits and no negatives but be extremely expensive per cannon & be level capped for high level players.
Ammo
Assuming we’re gonna get naval combat back, please let us get more than just different types of
cannonballs besides roundshot (the ones from AA). Here are some examples of different ammo types & how they could work.
Round shot: This is the standard type we know and love (including magic variant). Remove the explosion effect and make it more of an impact. Its purpose should be more anti-ship or bombardments. It’ll come in different weight classes just like AA.
Grapeshot/Canister/Scatter: These are more anti-personnel rounds meant to inflict bleed, and deal damage to players. ALSO to slightly slow ships. Sort of like a shotgun version of a cannonball. It’s short-range, so you can’t do any sort of long-range combat with this shell. It won’t come in any special variants.
Chain/Bar shot: These are anti-ship rounds explicitly. If they hit a person, they’ll do the same damage as a round shot & drag them along until they hit a more solid object (a side of a ship, mast, water, etc). This shot yet does extra ship damage, as well as GREATLY slows the ship. It won’t come with any special variants.
“Shell” shot: This is the explosive version of the round shot. It’s virtually just shooting a bomb at your target. This one make more expensive than the roundshot. It’ll also be better to use with a mortar cannon type rather than a normal cannon. It’ll come in different weight classes that increase the size of the explosion.
Grappling hooks/Harpoons: This is to make it so you can board other people’s ships easier without your own ship being sent off in an uncontrollable direction. This is a VERY close range ammo type and won’t be effective at a long distance. If you hook a ship, you can’t use your cannons and the enemy ship can’t use their cannons. You will have to duke it out with magic and weapons.
Have magic variants of the grapeshot and roundshot but not shell, “hook”, or chain shot.
Minor features/concepts:
Turning ships into spawn points if you purchase a certain upgrade (such as hammocks?)
Having cannons require players or NPC crew (must be hired) in order to be fired
(requires hunger/diseases) Scurvy?
Ship destruction. (Parts of the ship can be destroyed/damaged and would affect how the ship can operate or sink)
Ship maintenance: You have to clean and maintain your ship so remove things like barnacles, replace rotting areas, etc
TL:DR
Ship customization, more cannon types, a weight system, naval trade similar to Tradelands, more ammo types