Put 4 Slipstream Highways into each sea: Forumers do cartography

[Keiko]

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

---

1. (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..) ↩︎

[BiologLOL]

@ThoseWhoSnow

the northern line to Ielorchos

I’m noticing that people tend to make a Highway to Ierochos and not from it. In my opinion, its better to first suffer the long ride, and then get rewarded with a quick getaway, not the other way around.

@ThoseWhoSnow

the highway from the bronze sea spawn to the Ravennian gap

Sure, great idea, especially with Wind-Row not being there, but still near enough. Luckly, we can put spawnpoints in camps now, so this isn’t the obligatory spawn anymore.

@ThoseWhoSnow

the eastern route strayed far away from Silverhold and Fort Talos to prevent any Happy Accidents

@ThoseWhoSnow

the western route for any player heading north instead

These do be used a lot, but they could be an inconvenience by being in the way every time you’re not sailing in their direction, thats why I avoided putting the Highways in the center.

@ThoseWhoSnow

There are a few problems with this map

Amazing that you noted these yourself, I respect when people do that. Blackreach and Shell being abandoned kinds sucks indeed, and going south is often needed. What I would do is take the western central Slipstream, start it at the northwestern edge of Cernunno and take it to the Thrylos while curving it near Shell. The start of Ierochos Highway will instead be put near the Caverns’ southern edge to not cross the western one.

@ThoseWhoSnow

North Western route

I forked that one between Claw and the Forest of Masts, you did it between the Forest and the Vents. Fair enough.

@ThoseWhoSnow

the weird loop route for claw island that’s also touching Dragon’s Arch

Reasonable, but you could get to Claw fast enough via the previous one anyway. Best to turn this Highway around, since none are going to Sameria currently, and that is the island you want to reach the most often.

@ThoseWhoSnow

the Vents Of Aeolus southern route

Yep, think we all have agreed on this one.

@ThoseWhoSnow

The last route

I’d put it a bit more north to not get close to Makrinaos, like the person above noted, and instead let it stretch to Shale Reef while bending around Fort Montu to avoid cannon fire.

[BiologLOL]

@Keiko

(unless said otherwise, all current speeds would be equal)

Yeah, about twice the increase in speed that the Navigator deckhand gives you at max level.

@Keiko

(not sure why the limit of 4 was imposed to begin with)

I thought more would make the transportation too easy and too reliant on these Highways. It shouldn’t be “I need to get there, I must seek the current that goes there”, and more like “I’m sailing this way. Oh hey, a current that goes there! How convenient!”

@Keiko

from ravenna to shell island while passing by blasted rock and fort castrum

You drew these currents as if Nero Caesar himself made those for his kingdom’s convenience. Nah, these formed by themselves, so why should they be based around what is comfortable for some random nation?

@Keiko

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

So, the main “I want to go north” route. The Gloam Ruins detour isn’t necessary, as there isn’t anything to be done on the island past the 100% exploration. Main priority with designing these Slipstreams is player convenience, not lore or formation or whatever.

@Keiko

it also connects dawn island to redwake to serve as a good spot for beginners to sail into

I think its too early for them to be interacting with the currents. Let them sail in calm, shallow waters first. The Highway I put near Frostmill is a much better option for introducing freshies to the mechanic.

@Keiko

the current would be stronger from shell to dawn, and then weaken drastically from dawn to redwake

Huh, interesting, I didn’t plan on them having different strenght at different places. Most because the Slipstreams weren’t intended to be this long.

@Keiko

going from frostmill to stepstones

Yeah, this one’s pointless.

@Keiko

going from stepstones to ravenna

The “I want to go south” current. Good that all your routes aren’t in the dead center of the map, but still too close for comfort, so I’d push them to the sides a bit more. You should really stop basing them on what the kingdoms would prefer, though.

@Keiko

going from ravenna to nimbus sea

Why? I’d turn this one around.

@Keiko

not sure where exactly hallowed grove or stormgale or anything of that would be placed

Uh, yeah, I didn’r account for these newcomers. Just draw as if they won’t be there, we can readjust later once we know their locations.

@Keiko

nimbus sea border to forest of masts

Not convenient - goes to only one island, begins in the middle of nowhere that you’re rarely at, and will be a bother to anyone going to the island.

@Keiko

forest of masts to rosehenge

Good one, but there isn’t much way to start it, since no Highways are going to the Forest of Masts, only from it. The crappy previous one doesn’t count.

@Keiko

forest of masts to sameria

Since you have currents going from Sameria later on, this one is good.

@Keiko

even if the other idea would be more geologically correct

Hey, this is a world of magic, I think we can ignore the “geologically correct” for a moment. Player convenience first, everything else second.

@Keiko

rosehenge to port mistral

Yep, everyone draws this one.

@Keiko

port mistral to the ice mines

Merge this one with the previous. You can enter and exit the Highway at any time you want, so this changes nothing.

@Keiko

big current from the ice mines to monos island

Thats too big for what I’ve envisioned. You really did turn these into something of greater purpose and centralised the transportation around the currents instead of them being just a nice timid speed boost occasionally, like I made them to be.

@Keiko

strong circular currents around makrinaos

10/10 logically and for lore, 0/10 for player convenience.

@Keiko

monos to presumably hallowed grove

Aight, good enough, still need to guess where Hallowed Grove will be.

@Keiko

break-off of the 8th current leading to mistral

Useless, remove it. These two are close enough.

@Keiko

10th current - presumably hallowed grove to join the 3rd current
11th current - caitara (i think?) merging with the 8th current

These two are just for merging the currents, I don’t think its needed. Also, its Masada. Caitara is the capital in the middle.

@Keiko

they would double, maybe even triple ship speed at base amounts

Woah, you really stand on making these the core of all sailing.

@Keiko

they would slightly force you into the current middle

Of course, good idea, I planned the same. You shouldn’t be worrying about leaving the current when you don’t want to.

@Keiko

when your sails are down, they’ll slowly drift you along the current

Yes, makes sense.

@Keiko

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)

Why? What is so gamebreaking in being able to fire cannons while moving faster in one established direction?

@Keiko

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

Yeah, last we want is a traffic jam.

@Keiko

boss ships cannot enter the current

Fresh delivery straight to Dawn Island, eh?

@Keiko

maybe some sort of confirmation or warning that you’re about to enter a current?

Well, the first time around you’ll get the tutorial pop-up, like every other feature, the rest of the time you’ll just get those wind streak effects that mean speed.

@Keiko

you’d unlock a toggleable ability to disable/enable all currents

Thats a weird one, you can’t just disable the ocean for you and for you only, even with the soul of Poseidon within you.

[BiologLOL]

I think a poll is warranted here. What will yall prefer?

• Current speed increase is about twice the Navigator gives you on ability usage at max level, the currents are limited and short, used opportunistically
• Current speed increase is twice or thrice your ship’s speed, the currents are many and serve as centralized sailing routes (if you aren’t using a current to get somewhere, what are you doing?)

I’d wait for you lot to reply, but its 3am, I wanna go to sleep already.

[Keiko]

@BiologLOL

You drew these currents as if Nero Caesar himself made those for his kingdom’s convenience. Nah, these formed by themselves, so why should they be based around what is comfortable for some random nation?

1. gameplay convenience
2. its not that they formed the currents for the kingdom, its that the currents themselves formed the kingdom, currents existing where i placed them would explain why blasted rock was claimed by ravenna but not forest of cernunno if that makes sense
3. the currents would form geologically like that according to the few sources i read, where they go east to west in the south and west to east in the north, so i just linked them into a circle with that in mind (and completely disregarded it for nimbus sea because it’s just not convenient for that sea)

@BiologLOL

So, the main “I want to go north” route. The Gloam Ruins detour isn’t necessary, as there isn’t anything to be done on the island past the 100% exploration. Main priority with designing these Slipstreams is player convenience, not lore or formation or whatever.

if the main priority of the design is player convenience and not lore, then why mention “you drew these currents as if nero caesar himself made those for his kingdom’s convenience”

i took convenience and lore into account when drawing them, the detour past gloam is just because its on the path so may as well, and since gloam seemingly isnt really that impressive of an island apart from what the fort used to be (literally just 2 rocks in the ocean), it would make sense that the reason for its construction is because its nearby a current/sea highway, also if i squeezed it past the icebergs of frostmill it would still be nearby gloam, except the path i drew also brings the current closer to ierochos which i didnt want to draw one directly to since its so out of the way

@BiologLOL

I think its too early for them to be interacting with the currents. Let them sail in calm, shallow waters first. The Highway I put near Frostmill is a much better option for introducing freshies to the mechanic.

i think its the perfect way to introduce them to currents and let them know that these will be important for travelling long distances, and it also solves the issue of constantly running out of stamina while rowing to redwake since once you run out you can let the current drag you, this is also why i specified it would be quite weak in this area purposefully to introduce beginners to them

@BiologLOL

Huh, interesting, I didn’t plan on them having different strenght at different places. Most because the Slipstreams weren’t intended to be this long.

yeah its not an idea i used a lot while making this but that first instance is because its at the start and the second instance is just because ice mines to monos is hugeeee distance, until some more islands get put in between there its mostly just empty water with no stops hence why i said it should be fast

@BiologLOL

Yeah, this one’s pointless.

connects the circle and as i mentioned it can basically be combined with the 4th current, i just specifically disconnected them because the turn is a bit drastic between palo town and stepstones (basically a 90 degree rather than something i can comfortably curve and still fit a brig in)

@BiologLOL

The “I want to go south” current. Good that all your routes aren’t in the dead center of the map, but still too close for comfort, so I’d push them to the sides a bit more. You should really stop basing them on what the kingdoms would prefer, though.

i based them off what the players would prefer (as you mentioned earlier, these should be for the player’s convenience), and yeah they can be pushed out more idm i didnt make them to be exactly how i imagined they would be placed it was moreso just an outline of where id place them

@BiologLOL

Why? I’d turn this one around.

story dictates that ways more important, could add another one next to it that merges with the ravenna to shell though if you really want (was something i planned originally)

@BiologLOL

Uh, yeah, I didn’r account for these newcomers. Just draw as if they won’t be there, we can readjust later once we know their locations.

i just kind of eyeballed it lol, gave general idea i guess

@BiologLOL

Not convenient - goes to only one island, begins in the middle of nowhere that you’re rarely at, and will be a bother to anyone going to the island.

again this ones for story, since you go to forest of masts there’s a convenient current drawing you towards it and also serves as the first current of the sea bringing you onto the highway

@BiologLOL

Good one, but there isn’t much way to start it, since no Highways are going to the Forest of Masts, only from it. The crappy previous one doesn’t count.

why doesnt it count D:
fine there can be another one similar to the bronze border to ravenna one i said would be fine to add earlier, that connects forest of masts to the boundary (one going towards forest and one going away), and then the hallowed grove one can branch out a new current going directly north into the forest, as well as a rose henge one connecting to the hallowed grove one to make a circle of forest > rosehenge > hallowed grove > forest (will draw if directions are too confusing)

@BiologLOL

Since you have currents going from Sameria later on, this one is good.

yeah this was added for story as well since you go to sameria after forest, i believe i already explained it but originally i had a branch off rosehenge going to sameria so that logically youd follow the current down to rosehenge (obligatory ability to see it before keraxe nukes it) and then follow the branch off to sameria, but i felt like that’d take too long and be pretty pointless unless the story changes and dictates we go there before sameria which wouldnt make sense so i just removed it lol

@BiologLOL

Merge this one with the previous. You can enter and exit the Highway at any time you want, so this changes nothing.

these are less of individual currents and moreso just because i didnt want to constantly say something like “it’d slow around this town so you can exit the current”, so treat that and the one going to monos all as 1 huge current

@BiologLOL

Thats too big for what I’ve envisioned. You really did turn these into something of greater purpose and centralised the transportation around the currents instead of them being just a nice timid speed boost occasionally, like I made them to be.

were you the one who originally came up with the idea of the currents? i feel like they should be major parts of the game since travelling is one of the biggest parts of the game and also happens to be one of the most boringly slow parts, other than a fast travel system (which would make currents useless), i see these as the main feature to help remedy that fact

@BiologLOL

10/10 logically and for lore, 0/10 for player convenience.

thats on purpose, its supposed to be difficult to reach there but it doesnt feel difficult when you just sail in a straight line, current system could be a cool way to make sailing more interactive in ways like these and dark sea

@BiologLOL

Aight, good enough, still need to guess where Hallowed Grove will be.

yeah i put where my estimate was (where the 2 currents start and end in the middle)

@BiologLOL

These two are just for merging the currents, I don’t think its needed. Also, its Masada. Caitara is the capital in the middle.

thanks for the clarification and yeah i suppose it isn’t really needed since that distance isnt too big

@BiologLOL

Woah, you really stand on making these the core of all sailing.

yeah i feel like that was generally the idea behind them?

@BiologLOL

Of course, good idea, I planned the same. You shouldn’t be worrying about leaving the current when you don’t want to.

yep

@BiologLOL

Yes, makes sense.

only thing of concern is this gets messy with multiple players on the currents, i just added this in because i thought it’d be cool to turn off your sails and just fish while slowly getting dragged along the current (also the reason why i made a lot of them circular, so you wouldnt have to steer and can focus on relaxing), but then if someone else is coming down the same current it makes this bad so id have to come up with an idea to address that, possibly the auto-pilot feature other people suggested where if it detects a ship it’ll automatically move you around them or something? idk just an idea

@BiologLOL

Why? What is so gamebreaking in being able to fire cannons while moving faster in one established direction?

it isnt really needed, afterall you wouldnt be able to hit anything, so i guess it isnt that big of a deal

@BiologLOL

Yeah, last we want is a traffic jam.

yep

@BiologLOL

Fresh delivery straight to Dawn Island, eh?

@BiologLOL

Well, the first time around you’ll get the tutorial pop-up, like every other feature, the rest of the time you’ll just get those wind streak effects that mean speed.

yeah maybe

@BiologLOL

Thats a weird one, you can’t just disable the ocean for you and for you only, even with the soul of Poseidon within you.

i feel like the soul of poseidon definitely would be able to do that, afterall it was doing all sorts of crazy stuff with the water when we first obtain it

but that brings up a new idea, what if instead of a current system we just had a system that greatly increased your ships speed outside of combat using poseidon’s soul? logically it makes sense, the soul could be pushing you along the water to increase speed, but when youre in combat the soul can’t focus on that

this solves all of the issues of currents, but also doesnt have the convenience of some of the currents like calmly being dragged along the ocean while fishing, but still could be another idea if currents get shot down

[Eosphoros]

@Keiko

only thing of concern is this gets messy with multiple players on the currents

The currents should probably be a few brigs in length (the width of the brigs) to fix this issue. I’m not entirely sure about how many because it could be a problem if its too big cuz crossing it could send you a few 50 meters away (or just make currents not move you when your not facing that direction though it breaks immersion )

[Keiko]

@Eosphoros

(or just make currents not move you when your not facing that direction though it breaks immersion )

maybe decreased effectiveness if you arent facing that direction? like maybe half the speed of if you weren’t sailing at all and just letting it pull you

or we can just say “haha poseidon is negating it, what a cool guy”

[Eosphoros]

poseidon being the first god soul is such a life saver if features like this are added

[Keiko]

i like this idea too, though i feel the bronze highway should be the entirety of bronze and the nimbus highway connects near the border instead lol

also interesting ideas

[Keiko]

I redrew a couple sets of both seas for 2 proposed ideas of currents/slipstream highways

1st set - Traditional/Immersive Highways (what we’ve been doing)
To put it simply, all streams are directional and pull you in that direction

1st Set Maps

Bronze Sea Explanation

Bottom 2 highways are for going to and from the Nimbus Sea. The other 3 are a circular highway that passes by almost every major town/island. These would all connect and perpetually pull you along them in circles until you exit the highway, but they would slow down around where the arrows/highways end (which is why they’re placed by the biggest points of interest) to allow easier exiting.

Nimbus Sea Explanation

Top 2 are the same currents from bronze sea just connected, also while travelling on these currents you would automatically teleport when crossing the border without needing to click and could possibly play an animation of the camera panning out while you travel across it into a nimbus server. The other currents are fairly simple, main destination of nimbus sea is Sameria so when getting off of the inter-sea branch current you’re immediately put into a current heading straight there (slows by forest of mast because story woohoo), then since Sameria and Monos are the 2 most popular islands to spawn at in this sea the current travels right beside them and brings them across the sea (hopefully past Stormgale presuming that’ll be in the south near Tidecliff), and then towards ice mines and port mistral (more story woohoo), then you sail up through the collection of islands there and back onto the original current going to Sameria. Also, completely forgot to add my currents of death around Makrinaos, just imagine they’re there cause I don’t want to keep drawing arrows onto AO images on MS paint.

2nd set - “Convenient” highways
Basically these would work like Deepwoken’s highway system, where you simply get a major speed boost purely by being in it. Immersive? No. Convenient? Yes.

2nd Set Maps

Bronze Sea Explanation

You’ll notice this is practically identical to the last map, thats because, well, it is! As I mentioned above these would be areas where your ship speed is increased overall rather than directionally. Less immersive but convenient. Bottom current is the border current, allowing you to travel both into bronze sea and out of bronze sea quickly. Works same as the other current except just merged into 1 since its omnidirectional. The other currents are in the same circle except this time you can choose the direction you want to go. No real other reasons since its up to you to choose which way you wish to travel.

Nimbus Sea Explanation

Uhh basically same as bronze, inter-sea current and then a circle around major spots.

I was tempted to do a 3rd set which would basically be a mix of the first 2 sets, where they are directional but each current also has a “twin” current that leads backwards from the original current, giving you the freedom of the 2nd set while keeping the immersion of the 1st set, but I felt this would be wayyy too convoluted so decided against it. Still adding this in to see if there’s any feedback towards it though.

[clowGenesis_CG]

@BiologLOL

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.

@BiologLOL

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.

I created these with the idea that a player would go on these if they were: low on ship health, multi-tasking, or didn’t feel like fighting. Basically just a version of automated fast travel. They are convenient but not in the way you’d think, most of the time it’s faster just to manually drive there yourself. I would assume you wouldn’t be going super duper fast and that having to circle around islands the long way balances out the speed.

1st highway exists for early game players to make it to a location easier without getting their ships blown to hell and back
2nd highway exists but for lategame (and to connect to the Nimbus Sea)
3rd highway exists for players entering/returning from the Dark Sea

I feel this is way better than having small ones in select few locations.

It would also seem I didn’t explain the well enough mechanics as I overestimated one’s familiarity with a pirate themed children’s MMO.

(fyi your able to exit and leave these anytime)

If you want to know what this mechanic looks like you can download and play the first part of Pirate101 for free.

@BiologLOL

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.

We can come up with lore justifications later.

[Amuka]

its late so i’ve prob made some bad choices but eh, here’s some thought for how some currents may go

Bronze

Nimbus

[Amuka]

(Post eaten by author)

[Iris]

my bro in vitality, sailing from island to island in the story takes too long
once you finish the story you can get faster stuff, so it’s less of an issue

@BiologLOL

near Shieldguard

not close enough to shieldguard to actually be in any sort of danger (aside from the regular gravy ships but those are everywhere anyway so it doesn’t really matter)

@BiologLOL

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

iirc hallowed grove should sit near it
but that’s also kinda the point. there isn’t much there so why not speed it up? Both Sameria and the vents are important locations and inbetween is a big stretch of just open sea.

the same goes for the last one. it’s a large open area without much going on, so why not speed it up
also it’s not close enough to the fort to aggro I’m pretty sure

[BiologLOL]

@Keiko

2. currents existing where i placed them would explain why blasted rock was claimed by ravenna but not forest of cernunno if that makes sense

The Forest is guarded by a very powerful guy, I think Ravenna at its beginning just didn’t have the power to overthrow his reigh over the island.

@Keiko

3. the currents would form geologically like that according to the few sources i read, where they go east to west in the south and west to east in the north

Bronze Sea is the northernmost one, yes.

@Keiko

it would make sense that the reason for its construction is because its nearby a current/sea highway

No, the reason was it being the only piece of somewhat land in the region. The War Seas aren’t exactly plentiful with choices.

@Keiko

and it also solves the issue of constantly running out of stamina while rowing to redwake

This isn’t that big of an issue.

@Keiko

it would be quite weak in this area purposefully to introduce beginners to them

They at this point have just explored Dawn Island, they don’t know anything about the game, they barely know how to control a rowboat. Let them have some straightforward rowing without any gimmicks.

@Keiko

i based them off what the players would prefer

So we’ve settled on these Highways being made a major part of transportation instead of minor assistance. Even the poll says so. Well, I’m not Vetex, I can agree when I was wrong, accept it and redraw my currents.

@Keiko

story dictates that ways more important

Who cares about story’s one and done route? You aren’t planning a permanent feature like this one around a path you had to make once.

@Keiko

since you go to forest of masts there’s a convenient current drawing you towards it

At that moment the eyes of the players entering Nimbus for the first time are busy looking around at all the new islands, I think a current carrying them at high speed at that time ruins the image.

@Keiko

fine there can be another one similar to the bronze border to ravenna

Wonder if so many Highways would cause lag or not.

@Keiko

were you the one who originally came up with the idea of the currents?

No, I pinned the reply at the top. But, they only provided the name and the purpose, I came up with the details, also being inspired by the Dark Sea Highways suggestion.

@Keiko

thats on purpose, its supposed to be difficult to reach there but it doesnt feel difficult when you just sail in a straight line

Hm, considering Veiling Storms were made by someone wanting to conceal the island, them making a strong current on top of that doesn’t seem out of place.

@Keiko

yeah i feel like that was generally the idea behind them?

Well, now it is.

@Keiko

i thought it’d be cool to turn off your sails and just fish while slowly getting dragged along the current

If you stop your equivalent of a car at the middle of the equivalent of a road and start doing the equivalent of drinking soda, you kinda deserve getting rammed by another car. Just don’t be an ahhhole.

@Keiko

what if instead of a current system we just had a system that greatly increased your ships speed outside of combat using poseidon’s soul?

This is literally what the devs added just now. But their speed boost is more of a slight buff instead of a major feature, so this and the currents would work great together.

@Keiko

maybe decreased effectiveness if you arent facing that direction?

Ofc, you will get slowed down if you sail against the current and you will get pushed along if you sail across one.

[BiologLOL]

@Keiko

1st set - Traditional/Immersive Highways (what we’ve been doing)

I still disagree with the current being between Dawn, Mango and Elm islands. Let it be south of Dawn and west of Darkpine instead. And, the current going south from Ravenna is better to start at the Shining Plaints and go near the eastern side of Wind-Row, so the two Highways wouldn’t be that close to eachother.

@Keiko

also while travelling on these currents you would automatically teleport when crossing the border without needing to click

No, this is a terrible idea, you could get carried away by accident and lose the treasure charts you had. Don’t remove the teleport prompt.

@Keiko

The other currents are fairly simple

Good, but most players want to get to the Ice Mines due to a treasure chart, so they will probably arrive from the north, since there are many chart islands. I think the currents should be turned counter-clockwise, and a new current going from the Forest past Claw and Drakos to Sameria was added.

@Keiko

you simply get a major speed boost purely by being in it

No, this is too much, we better not push the system this far.

@Keiko

they are directional but each current also has a “twin” current that leads backwards from the original current

A slight turn and you start going in the opposite direction from what you wanted. No, this is bad, and also it will fry NPC pathfinding.

[BiologLOL]

@clowGenesis_CG

most of the time it’s faster just to manually drive there yourself

Great. Why do the Slipstreams exist, then?

@clowGenesis_CG

1st highway exists for early game players to make it to a location easier

You made it span across the path the freshies will take to Redwake, how is this helping them?

@clowGenesis_CG

2nd highway exists but for lategame

Fair enough…

@clowGenesis_CG

3rd highway exists for players entering/returning from the Dark Sea

Not really, it just gets in the way of both.

@clowGenesis_CG

your able to exit and leave these anytime

Yes, this was the plan.

@Amuka

here’s some thought for how some currents may go

The top one in Bronze is an interesting choice, but it needs to be further away from Lone Rock, there will be defenses shooting at your ship, after all.

Why is there a Highway starting at Fort Talos of all places? And it goes straight at the middle of the map, not convenient.

A current going from the Nimbus Sea to Whitesummit? Why? Just for Harvest Island?

The one a bit west from that is much better drawn.

The Slipstream from Blackreach is the only one going south, and it is too remote to be useful. I’d put its start between the Caverns and the Forest.

The one south from it is fine, but could be a little further from Castrum.

The Nimbus situation is an interesting, but a weird one. But at least it works. Remove the “Makrinaos-Tidecliff and back” route tho, its useless. Also, the part east from the Reaches will go through the Dark Sea, it isn’t good.

@Iris

sailing from island to island in the story takes too long
once you finish the story you can get faster stuff

How faster ships are connected to the story? Its not like there is a level requirement for buying them or only late-most game shipwrights selling them. If anything, story hinders getting the new ship, as you get distracted from exploring and hunting for cash.

[Amuka]

@BiologLOL

The Nimbus situation is an interesting, but a weird one. But at least it works. Remove the “Makrinaos-Tidecliff and back” route tho, its useless. Also, the part east from the Reaches will go through the Dark Sea, it isn’t good.

i put less effort into that one and somehow it was the better of my choices

anyways i mostly had that back and forth cause 2 islands right next to each other that had been screwed up by the previous storm curse user.

@BiologLOL

A current going from the Nimbus Sea to Whitesummit? Why? Just for Harvest Island?

I mostly had those 2 currents from the nimbus sea be there for convenience of the players that didn’t yet have a camp placed, so i had that one going all the way up, the player could leave at any time when they near around the same level the island they want to go to might be

@BiologLOL

Why is there a Highway starting at Fort Talos of all places? And it goes straight at the middle of the map, not convenient.

tired me was basically just thinking if the fort wanted to get news quickly the current goes down near ravenna, and it also moves up toward a population dense area (Frostmill, palo town, & Redwake)

Would be convenient for everyone to build their homes near where a current ended

@BiologLOL

The Slipstream from Blackreach is the only one going south

I mostly mostly thinking abt with how it was the northern edge of the sea cluster, there could be multiple currents moving over from the other seas heading up, influencing most of the currents to also go up (could have added one on the left edge of othyrs though i was tired)

[Iris]

we need seamonsters that live near/in the highway stuff so sailing can be a little more exciting

[BiologLOL]

We need to drunk drive over a kraken on our way