after doing a bit of research into both functional and logistical formation of sea currents this is what ive decided on this layout for the bronze sea (unless said otherwise, all current speeds would be equal)
i added 5 currents (not sure why the limit of 4 was imposed to begin with) and situated them in ways that would make sense geologically[1] and from a world-building prospective of how each civilization formed and additionally from game design perspective.
1st - going from ravenna to shell island while passing by blasted rock and fort castrum, this serves as ravennas main current for both trade of coal from shell as well as originally its town in blasted rock and its main fort
2nd - going from shell island to frostmill while passing by akursius keep gloam ruins, the trio of dawn island, elm island, and mango isle, and redwake, this one serves as a fast way to reach the north and an additional path for ravenna and formerly winterveil as it passes by akursius keep (formerly winterveil kingdom, then turned into another territory of ravenna before exploding), as well as gloam ruins which used to be a fort of winterveil if memory serves, it also connects dawn island to redwake to serve as a good spot for beginners to sail into, the current would be stronger from shell to dawn, and then weaken drastically from dawn to redwake, then strengthen a little bit more from redwake to frostmill (which also serves as another trade route for ravenna for their ice)
3rd - going from frostmill to stepstones, this one serves no real purpose other than connecting the 2nd to the 4th, and honestly couldve just been added to the 4th as a single current but geologically it would end at the stepstones and that also makes it a good current to follow when following iris, this current also passes by palo town which is known to trade with frostmill which facilitates that more readily.
4th - going from stepstones to ravenna, the end of the circle and the main current to reach ravenna, it passes by silverhold, munera garden (formerly a winterveil arena), fort talos which we all know as another ravennan fort, sailors lodge and then finally both rubica and rasna are on this route
5th - going from ravenna to nimbus sea, passing by windrow (just for convenience)
Nimbus sea is a bit harder since it isnt finished yet, not sure where exactly hallowed grove or stormgale or anything of that would be placed (id imagine hollow’s grove is in the void between pefkos and shieldguard, which is why i broke up the current there, and stormgale likely in the south close to tidecliff)
1st current - nimbus sea border to forest of masts, convenience and following the story
2nd current - forest of masts to rosehenge, passing by vents, this would be normal at first but once passing by the vents it would become very rapid currents because of the heat the vents add to the nearby waters
3rd current - forest of masts to sameria, originally didnt exist and instead i had a current blowing east from rosehenge, but i felt this would be better for convenience even if the other idea would be more geologically correct
4th current - rosehenge to port mistral, passing by westerpath isle, just a simple trade route current
5th current - port mistral to the ice mines, same as last current
6th current - big current from the ice mines to monos island, realistically it’d be slower but for gameplay convenience since its a big current lets just make it fast lol
7th current - strong circular currents around makrinaos, the storms cause it and makes it harder to traverse to makrinaos, felt this was just needed for worldbuilding and also makes sense because of the winds of the storms
8th current - monos to presumably hallowed grove, passing by the southern sameria town, fort montu, shale reef, and pefkos
9th current - break-off of the 8th current leading to mistral, for story convenience
10th current - presumably hallowed grove to join the 3rd current
11th current - caitara (i think?) merging with the 8th current
now that i added my own currents, here are a few ideas on how they’d work
1st - they would double, maybe even triple ship speed at base amounts
2nd - they would slightly force you into the current middle, so you wouldnt have to constantly readjust your turn, but if you wanted to turn off of the current you’d still be able to
3rd - when your sails are down, they’ll slowly drift you along the current
4th - disabled in combat and disables all weapon usage (excluding rams, which can be used to chase down player ships in the current and ctag them)
5th - npc ships will not stop when on the current, and they will always be slightly faster or equal to player ships so that they dont clog up the current by going slow (or npc ships are just gated from the currents in general and generally avoid overlapping them)
6th - boss ships cannot enter the current
7th - maybe some sort of confirmation or warning that you’re about to enter a current?
7.5th - or once you reach brig+ you’d unlock a toggleable ability to disable/enable all currents
(except for the 5th one going to nimbus, that ones just for convenience, we’ll say uhh the tide curse user was paid to put it there or something! yeah..) ↩︎