Put 4 Slipstream Highways into each sea: Forumers do cartography

[BiologLOL]

I got this idea from the Patch Notes Discussion Thread:

Chapter 10 Update Patch Notes (Discussion Thread)

I wish there would be preset slipstreams in every sea people would use as highways

So, ships now get +50% speed if the cannons aren’t armed. That is great, thanks to the devs, a good decision for once. But, that isn’t quite enough. So, what about highways that speed up any ship (even NPC ones), if it sails in the same direction?

This topic is a preparation for the Slipstream Highways suggestion that I will make later. Core idea is, both Bronze and Nimbus seas will receive 4 Highways to speed up transportation across the sea. You can freely enter and exit a Slipstream wherever. More details on their exact functionality will be in the suggestion itself, since this topic isn’t one. What I need from you lot are opinions on where those four Slipstreams per sea will be located. I put the screenshots of both maps above, copy those, draw the arrows and post them back. Limits are, only four Highways, each is one direction only, they shouldn’t cross, and they shouldn’t be absurdly long. Max lenght would be half of Bronze Sea’s wight or half of Nimbus Sea’s lenght. Also, write the thought process on each Slipstream’s placement: why is it there?

[GemstoneDreams]

Id imagine the slipstreams (or at least some) would be placed along trading routes (by this I mean places of interest like Shell Island and Frostmill due to their mining operations)

[BiologLOL]

Here’s my idea:

Getting to Ierochos is tedious, so now you not only get to leave that place faster, but also have a convenient way to travel across the northern Bronze Sea all the way to Palo Town. Most notably, it doesn’t pass near Redwake, so freshies who sail from Dawn to there aren’t picked and carried away by the current.

Going from northern to southern regions takes time, so it makes sense once Highway goes straight south. I put it a away from the center, so it won’t slow down whoever goes north, but I put it in a place that is still well-visited - Harvest Island.

Most camps are placed at Palo or Cernunno, since those are in the middle of the sea. So, take those two islands, as well as both Gravy’s and AS’s spawns, and give them quick access to the western entrance into the Dark Sea - the best side out of the four to start the run from in my opinion.

Spawning at the border with Nimbus Sea is so much drag, you have to sail across a third of the map to get somewhere. Now solved.

You often get near the Vents of Aeolus, and sailing to the other important islands down south could get much easier with a Highway there. Important to place it east from them, and not west, since that is too far for convenience.

The Ice Mines are in the corner of the sea, very far from everything. Now there is a Slipstream to get out of that place faster, and it opens also for those near Shale Reef. It passes far from Tidecliff, since who cares for that isle anyway?

The Highway near Sameria is there to get you to either Forest of Masts, Claw Island, or the Bronze Sea. Simple and comfortable.

Got bored at Claw Island? Well, go visit Drakos now. Also serves as an okay way to get to Sameria if just came to Nimbus Sea from Bronze. This Highway could be put instead at Makrinaos, but the Eastern Reaches nearby completely ruin that idea, so I didn’t place it there.

[Scandin]

@BiologLOL

ships now get +50% speed if the cannons aren’t armed. That is great, thanks to the devs

You have to consider the potential unknown cap of already fast ships getting said boost, we do not know if it’ll be 10% above their current fast speeds or higher.

[BiologLOL]

Well, go draw them

[BiologLOL]

Yeah, yeah, let’s hope for the best

[Iris]

Palo town to ravenna, because you have to take that route to do the story and it’s just a very frequently used route in general
Ravenna to othrys because of the story again partially, but also because it just takes stupidly long to get to that overgrown rock if you don’t spawn right next to it
Blasted rock to shell, because of the awakening quest, and it’s a route I used to frequently use.
Shell to Ierochos because it goes close to a lot of other islands and getting to Ierochos takes so stupidly long so speeding it up is always good.

Sameria to bronze sea, because most people spawn on sameria and might want to go to the bronze sea (or crab island, I don’t judge)
Sameria to vents, partially because of the story, partially because you might want to have the two kingdoms in the same sea at least somewhat close ish together
vents to the south, it goes along quite a few islands and it helps with getting to port mistral for the story
that last one is to just kinda complete the loop so you can go back to sameria somewhat fast

[GemstoneDreams]

I’m glad none of the streams went to Makrinaos since that’d ruin the whole point of the Dead Halls being hidden

[Iris]

(that was totally the idea and I totally didn’t forget about the island and stuff of course)

[GemstoneDreams]

laziness

[ThoseWhoSnow]

One thing that’s going to be consistent for all maps, is the highway going south from the Vents Of Aeolus,

And maybe even a highway going from the Bronze Sea spawn to the gap inbetween Ravenna and Blasted Rock…

[TheTenorMan1942]

@BiologLOL

so freshies who sail from Dawn to there aren’t picked and carried away by the current.

That route does get in the way between Redwake and Frostmill, however. An alternative is having it go around the western side of Frostmill, which also gives easy access to islands like Thorin’s Refuge, a valuable shipwright island.

[BlueFighter15]

@Iris

crab island

Iris playing AO in 2062

[BiologLOL]

@Iris

Palo town to ravenna

Sure, this is useful, but it is in the dead center of the map, the ships will constantly be annoyingly displaced whilst sailing there. The goal is to put the Highways at important routes, but not too close to them, and not too far. Also, this one gets way too close to Silverhold, bounty players might have a problem here.

@Iris

Ravenna to othrys

I don’t understand this one. You are gonna use this once for the story and never again, barring the clearstones. If anything, this detriments those who come from Nimbus Sea, since they are going to sail against the current.

@Iris

Blasted rock to shell

This one’s better, and you can reach it from Ravenna as well.

I’m noticing that you’ve based three of the four placements on the story, why? Who cares about that one and done route?

@Iris

Shell to Ierochos

Now that is an excellent one, no comments there.

@Iris

Sameria to bronze sea

Huh? You can just join the game on the Bronze Sea server to begin with, why dedicating a Slipstream for that? It even starts very far from Sameria and near Shieldguard, which is most inconvenient for bounty players.

@Iris

Sameria to vents

This one doesn’t cover any other islands, it just crosses the empty ocean space. A weird placement.

@Iris

vents to the south

Same as mine, great placement.

@Iris

that last one

Yeah, that is a strange one. The only islands kinda close to it are the raidable fort, close to which you don’t want to be, and the end destination.

[BiologLOL]

How is that related? I didn’t even intend for the Highways to be canon, they are just there to make players’ lives easier. And even if they would be canon, the sailors would just name that one “Road into the Shroud” or whatever, as it enters the Veiling Storms - npcs aren’t seeing past them.

[BiologLOL]

No, Palo is too good of a final destination, many want to get there. And a Slipstream being on the freshies’ way to Frostmill may be a great introduction to the mechanic.

[clowGenesis_CG]

I think the slipstreams should look like this

(Sorry for poor quality)

They should also make you completely invincible while in it (you can’t attack just in case I need to clarify) along with auto-pilot. I obviously forgot to take in account for things like quest location and player activity but I’d solve that later and this is a good starting point. You also can’t join the slipstream on a rowboat nor can you brake your ship. I also assume these highways would be visible and stand out enough so the player actually knows they exist.

The purple dots means that the highway connects and you can join another one during the autopilot. I like having autopilot just so I don’t crash into a whirlpool while looking at my phone during the very boring sailing process.

I stole this from pirate101, which is (And, hot take, way better than Wizard101) way better than AO in terms of ships and actually makes you feel like a yoho pirate.

Ngl Vetex should hire an artist and just steal the entire map system in general.

If I had more time I’d do some shit like this:

I also would’ve added like a foggy between point in between seas (With like a little island or something) to make the transition look better, or something like blockades or attack zones for certain kind of players, But nah I have better things to do than design someone’s game for them.

In short the moral of the story is that I’m the best and we should all play more video games outside of Roblox!!!

[GemstoneDreams]

I mean yeah but it increases the risk of the base being found out which is not ideal for the syndicate. The Dead Halls had to be in the most obscure place possible and a slipstream going there can make it a lot less secret. They often bribe people or threaten them to not reveal the location of the island but with a slipstream its only a matter of time until the location is actually leaked

[ThoseWhoSnow]

Now first, i did the obvious and drew the northern line to Ielorchos first and then the highway from the bronze sea spawn to the Ravennian gap (I purposefully made the highway as close to Blasted rock as possible so that you could sail south to windrow without the line getting in the way of the journey)
The more difficult routes however, are the two middle ones. I first made sure that the eastern route strayed far away from Silverhold and Fort Talos to prevent any Happy Accidents during the journey, and then added the western route for any player heading north instead, ending at the fork behind Frostmill so the player can pick their preferred way forward
There are a few problems with this map, first being the fact that Black Reach has no real route going for it, and second, That there is a lack of routes going south, with the entirety of the western side of the bronze sea having no highway to the south at all.

Second was the Nimbus map which was unbearably difficult to make routes for,
At first, it might just seem that North Western route is an useless Sameria to Bronze Sea route, but i actually wanted to make the route specifically to make the travel to The Vents Of Aeolus faster while still having a path to the forests of masts and for the very little use you get out of the bronze sea teleporter.
Then i made the weird loop route for claw island that’s also touching Dragon’s Arch.
Then i obviously drew the Vents Of Aeolus southern route, which needs no explanation.
The last route however was the most difficult one to figure out because while it’s easy to connect Monos and Makrianos, there really is no way to make a proper endpoint for the route itself because Tidecliff is just an useless barren wasteland (Also i could’ve moved the northern point a little to the west to make it easier to travel to makrianos from Sameria, so you just have to pretend that’s there…)
I think i overstretched the routes here quite a bit so please excuse that…

[BiologLOL]

@clowGenesis_CG

I think the slipstreams should look like this

Okay, what glue were you huffing?

The Slipstreams are longer than the map itself and cross multiple times. These aren’t just convenient quick travel between places anymore, you might as well slap a permanent speed boost onto every ship at that point.

@clowGenesis_CG

They should also make you completely invincible while in it (you can’t attack just in case I need to clarify) along with auto-pilot

Why? The attack restriction is detrimental in case you see a pirate ship near and want to do a drive-by, and the auto-pilot prevents you from exiting the Highway early.

@clowGenesis_CG

I obviously forgot to take in account for things like quest location and player activity but I’d solve that later and this is a good starting point.

No, it isn’t.

@clowGenesis_CG

You also can’t join the slipstream on a rowboat nor can you brake your ship.

The rowboat part would be fair for the freshies, but this is moving water, so not having sails doesn’t do much here. Instead, the Slipstreams could just be weak enough that crossing them even on a rowboat wouldn’t be an issue. They weren’t designed to carry you across the sea at lightspeed, the boost will be about twice what the Navigator deckhand gives you.

@clowGenesis_CG

I also assume these highways would be visible and stand out enough so the player actually knows they exist.

Of course they will. Some currents of water on the surface.

@clowGenesis_CG

I like having autopilot just so I don’t crash into a whirlpool while looking at my phone during the very boring sailing process.

We can just remove whirlpool and other hazards from spawning in this area. A good idea would be to also limit their range to not appear in the middle of Sameria, but I’ve done a suggestion on that already.