Sea Travel Feedback

[Tom]

Please post your impressions and feedback regarding sea travel here.

Please do not use this topic for speculations, discussions, complaints or anything else but feedback. If you dislike some aspect of sea travel, that is fine and I want to know about it, but keep it to what you dislike why - you know, constructive feedback. And resist the temptation to correct or comment others feedback - every feedback is valuable to me.

I need this feedback in order to tune, adjust, balance and improve this new feature which is still highly experimental. So please, do post everything you think about it, both positive and negative.

[vonGenf]

Just looking at embarking, I like that you are warned if you are low on provisions, that is most helpful.

I was surprised at the expense, but thinking about it makes sense. I have 46 men and it costs 28 gold to embark, in a region with a harbour. That means 3 days pay, roughly. Embarking in a region without a harbour is ludicrously expensive, but again this is expected.

Overall, the interface is clear, I like it.

[fodder]

This is some sort of running commentary on my 1st sea journey... can't really say much until the whole trip is done.

09/10/12 sunset, winter.
dwi, Jorradith (for a foreign trader noble with no men) embarking to Zenith Coast
A lone noble with 1 scout (don't think scouts are counted....) costs 9 gold and 2 hours to embark

and you get this screen...
You are now embarking ships into the Zenith Coast.
The ships will sail at sunset.
It will take about 4 hours until you reach the open sea. (i guess if you are low on hours, you'll be "stuck" on that screen for another turn... much like land travelling)

clicking on action in left tab says "you are not in a proper location".... i think it's because the left menu isn't immediately refreshed to show the new left tab that you get whilst sailing.. not certain. (ie.. play-action2.php instead of sea_action.php)...

interestingly sea_travel.php has the sea region names (as seen in dynamic map with layer ticked) but the normal embarking screen doesn't. no doubt it's todo. but i still prefer if the sea region names are baked into the basic map, so you can maybe shift them around so they are not centred into the sea region. the sea boundaries could be hard to see? horses for courses no doubt. there's an advantage with the current setup... the font size of the sea region stays the same in the various zoom.. so you could see the names of the sea regions quite clearly and get the general gist of where they are.

ah yes. no command menu. which is a bit of a shame. maybe could just disable the actionable stuff there but leave the info bits? (eg show food stock)

-----------------
10/10/12 sunrise

A Day at Sea   (43 minutes ago)
personal message
You have reached the open sea of Zenith Coast.

options
sail to:
Dancing Tides    (233 miles, ca. 20 hours)
Northern Passage    (396 miles, ca. 33 hours)

"Remember that these are ship travel times, independent of your personal hours."  <--- um... eh? ... no big round help link yet. right.. a look at the wiki explains it.. 12 hours' sailing a turn. probably easier to explain the 12 hours bit on that page directly. in that sentence even.

how come channel of gelene isn't an option? going to sail to northern passage to see if i can get the option to the channel.

Zenith Coast
You are currently sailing towards Northern Passage.
You will reach your destination in about 26 hours.
... eh? why did it change from 33 to 26?!


land at
Ienith (Iashalur, 70 miles, ca. 6 hours)
Jorradith (Iashalur, 25 miles, ca. 3 hours) <--- where he came from
Zereth (Astrum, 84 miles, ca. 7 hours)
Ygg d'Razhuul (Astrum, 138 miles, ca. 12 hours)
Yggdramir (Astrum, 197 miles, ca. 17 hours)
Valkyrja (Astrum, 199 miles, ca. 17 hours)

hmm.. so if i were to travel from Jorradith to Valkyrja by sea.. that would cost 9 gold, 1 turn for embarking and sailing to open sea. then 2-3 turns to land? (depends on how many hours you have left after embarking... i'm back up to 12 hours upon reaching open sea.. so 2 turns probably)

as opposed to land travelling hours of.. 13+7+10+3... maybe save 1-2 turns. useful.

... um.. the userdata.php says "ok" in status as opposed to "travelling" or "sailing"

[Tom]

ah yes. no command menu. which is a bit of a shame. maybe could just disable the actionable stuff there but leave the info bits? (eg show food stock)

That's intentional. While at sea, you are incommunicado. Basically, the fastest way to send messages anywhere would be - by ship.

[Chenier]

Where's the option to board?

As a priest, in Paisly, I see no such option.

[Tom]

Where's the option to board?

As a priest, in Paisly, I see no such option.

I've already said multiple times that for priests and adventurers, it has not yet been implemented.

[Chenier]

I've already said multiple times that for priests and adventurers, it has not yet been implemented.

I saw that later in another thread.

[fodder]

That's intentional. While at sea, you are incommunicado. Basically, the fastest way to send messages anywhere would be - by ship.

... eh.. we still receive messages and what not by magic pigeons? and can still write to the lord/steward (as the other person) for info about how much food is left?
---
ps. updating the original post every turn.. unless you prefer a separate post every turn.

[Tom]

... eh.. we still receive messages and what not by magic pigeons? and can still write to the lord/steward (as the other person) for info about how much food is left?

There are things I need to do for the game. If I cut off the messaging system, people would move to OOC messaging. It works for prison because that happens seldom and only to a few people so the player base in general doesn't bother setting up OOC channels for that. It wouldn't work for something like this.

And yes, a seperate post would be better, I only read new posts on the forum, there's too much otherwise.

[Tom]

no big round help link yet.

thanks, that was very helpful, as were some other comments. Will be added.

[Tom]

... eh? why did it change from 33 to 26?!

It shouldn't. Please everyone get me data on this, the two values should be identical.

[fodder]

10/10/12 sunset
userdata now says "at sea"... yay.

no travel messages (presumably because there's no delay or whatever.... maybe it should tell you how long left anyway... difficult to say.)

Zenith Coast
You are currently sailing towards Northern Passage.
You will reach your destination in about 14 hours.

14... so consistent with the 26 shown earlier (26-12).... I guess that's another 2 turns to go then.... don't suppose there'll be some sort of "sailing on" option if you know you won't be landing... or for that matter... turning back.. (towards the coast or whatever it is?)

[Zakilevo]

I hope buy provisions gets added soon. That would make this sea travel a lot more interesting.

From Flying Hongrns to White Coast costs 12 gold without a unit but costs 24 with a unit (1 man).

Does having more men affect the speed of travel or no?

[BardicNerd]

It shouldn't. Please everyone get me data on this, the two values should be identical.

It happens with land travel, too -- during winter travel times go up, they seem to go down now.  It was reported as a bug a month ago: http://bugs.battlemaster.org/view.php?id=7318

[fodder]

11/10/12
nothing to say.. 2 hours till arrival at Northern Passage.
well.. the round button is there in sea_travel.php.. and it's empty atm.. but you know that already XD