Ship Lookouts and Eagle's Nests

Suggestions
Ship Lookouts and Eagle's Nests https://forum.arcaneodyssey.dev/uploads/default/original/3X/4/d/4d4fc68a7d1df44b51a048e85734184454f008f2.jpeg
effort 4.5 6 quality 4.6 5 reasonability 4.833333333333333 6
1

Ship Lookouts and Eagle’s Nests

Details

Add an Eagle’s Nest on the mast of every ship type (except the rowboat, obviously). The Caravel is currently the only one to bear such an example:

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Upon spawning in their ship, one extra ship crewmate will occupy the Eagle’s Nest and serve as a lookout for the vessel, notifying the player of developments around them similar to how a co-captain talks about rough seas or hostile ships preparing to fire.

Their dialogue will be much more diverse than a co-captain due to their wide range of responsibilities and reporting on whatever that may unfold on the high seas, compared to a co-captain who simply poses as an advisor to the player:

Hostile Vessel to the Left: “Navy/Assassin/Pirate Ship on the port side!”
Hostile Vessel to the Right: “Navy/Assassin/Pirate Ship on the starboard side!”
Hostile Vessel in Front: “Navy/Assassin/Pirate Ship dead ahead!”
Hostile Vessel Behind: “Navy/Assassin/Pirate Ship astern!”
Closing in on Iceberg/Island: “We’re about to run aground!”
Sea Monster/Shark Encounter: “I see something dark down there, watch your backs!”
Approaching a Town: “Land Ho!”
Spotting Castaways: “I see survivors, starboard side/port side/dead ahead!”
Natural Disaster (Storm, Tsunami, etc.) “Oh…that can’t be good…”

Heading up to the Eagle’s Nest and personally talking to the lookout will yield tips on seafaring:

“Crossing the T of your opponent brings all your guns to bear on them while staying out of the firing arc of your enemy’s. I suggest trying it out next time in battle.”
“If you want to head for a ram, do it from the rear. That way, your enemy won’t be able to fire their cannons at you, and you won’t risk them ramming you in return, either.”
“Giving your enemy broadside is a risky tactic, I don’t suggest doing it if we’re fighting a bigger ship.”
“Y’know, sometimes it’s better to just run away and stay alive…”
“If we’re in the open ocean, and we hear a roar, word of advice: don’t jump in the water.”

Reason to add

Lookouts are an integral part of a ship and without one any sailing vessel will be navigating blind. In gameplay terms they may actually be helpful to players who aren’t paying attention, or provide more information at the dark of night/fog where visibility is horribly limited.

More specifically though, I’d like more immersion for ship crews since right now they’re even more lifeless than the civilians in cities (you can’t even talk to them). They just stand next to a cannon and give 1-3 word responses to the co-captain. I suppose at least 1 of them (the lookout) should have some energy to them.

11 Likes
2

Not every ship has one, but that doesn’t mean every ship can’t have a lookout (except Rowboat).

3

yes, it just makes more sense for them to be in a crows nest/eagles nest and adding one doesn’t make anything less immersive, but rather more immersive

4

man, this would be awesome alongside the deckhands:rewritten suggestion

1 Like
5

Me and you probably don’t know enough about these kinds of ships to make a decision on what is or isn’t immersive or realistic.

6

Really high quality suggestion. It helps with visibility during nighttime while adding immersion and making your crew feel realistic. The nautical direction terms may be a bit confusing, so I think there should be a mini tutorial about them. When you hire your first lookout, they’ll tell you what the boat directions are. If you want to be really heavy-handed with the tutorial, you can add some sort of visual effect that points towards the hostile vessel, or just ditch the fancy words all together and say left or right. I don’t think they’ll be too hard to learn though, you can slowly pick up on them by simply looking at the threat.

1 Like
7

I would love this, and the dialogue is pretty good

8

it’s called a crow nest…

9

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10

Damn, that dude I talked to on a ferry ride lied to me then

11

id love this addition. id also like to see more boat accessories get added especially with bigger ships. like you could get an enchanting table so you dont need enizor as your quartermaster to enchant stuff on your ship. or one i like even more is just having the ability to place a cooking pot or potion thing on your ship. stuff like this could be bought from shipwright npcs

12

Dang, this is good. A add-on to the suggestion: Gives a buff in the dark sea. e.g: less insanity.
another add: give the lookout a sniper musket(joke, or not)

13

Maybe you could get a Lookout NPC from Sandfall Isle, them giving you a treasure chart quest and afterwards they join the crew.

14

Sounds both fun and annoying, love it

15

i love npc dialogue :slight_smile:

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I just said more immersive because most ships have them that were in that kinda era that I personally have seen
(I love it when it doesn’t make my post a reply even when I clicked on the reply button)

18

Not all are done in the same way as the caravel, and some bigger ones like the frigate have multiple from what I’ve seen going off of google images (assuming they’re accurate).

19

minor critique but i dont think you should do that; you are pretty prone to missing and sometimes the attack just wont connect even if you did make contact. but i do support this whole idea, even if this might invalidate quartermasters to the point of stat sticks

20

Nice work, I think it is really good but add the tips for the quatermatsers, because otherwise you have to climb so high just for some tips and so quatermasters arent just useful for stat buffs.

1 Like