I'm going to go out on a limb and assume that an anchor for a ship that travels through aetherspace is likely more complicated than an anchor for a boat.

You should need multiple tradeskills! Blacksmith to forge the initial framework, an enchanter to imbue it, a jeweler for powerstone to enchanter, a special type of unit to store it on the ship by an artisan, etc.

Artisans should be able to design figure heads for the boats, that can be placed onto the ram, to make them look cooler.

Alchemists should be able to create alchemic bombs! Fear the chemistry of the Communes!

Selthar would love that.

Define 'Magic' in context with Lusternia. Its not some utterly mystical thing, all the magic in Lusternia has a basis in scientific research and creation. Sure, we have things we can do by tugging on the Aether in the propper way, but its just a type of technique, technology, or summoning. Magic in Lusternia is unlike magic in any book, or Mud I've ever seen. Much more interesting.

As for the Anchor... It should be something relatively expensive... I like the idea of having to attach a powerstone to it to give it a propper charge. And one powerstone=1 deployment of the anchor. Making it so people have to stock pile powerstones on ships. Then Artisans could make special storage chests for powerstones or somethin. etc... Sounds usefull.

Giving that I haven't heard any examples of ship-to-ship combat yet, how do ramming heads work? You can use them to board the other ship, I know. But then what happens - does a link open up between your two ships and you can run between, attacking the other crew members? And when they're all killed, what happens then - it leaves the vessel empty and floating around until it's destroyed by creatures, or can you commandeer it? The file isn't really clear.

Also, it'd be nice if we had a sort of aetherspace arena to practice ship fighting in once the specializations arrive.

EDIT: Oh yeah, are there going to be ship instakills? That'd be interesting, though I'm not sure how it'd work...

DOUBLE EDIT: Also, anyone know what the shield generators do?

i don't see how gunpowder can be avoided now! pirates!
and i've asked this before but i didn't see any reply, what are the turrets? are they guns or not? or are they psuedo-guns that shoot magic or something?

I imagined them to be similar to the spell guns from FFT, or Gene's caster from Outlaw Star.

Shields protect your ship from attacks by other ships. They have a chance of absorbing all the damage of the blow. When you ram a ship, you do some mild damage and may breach its hull. When you breach the hull, the ship (nor your ship) can move until seperating. While you have the ship rammed, you can steal its energy reserves. It also opens a breach in the hull that your marines can run through and raid. Though they can also enter your ship if they find the breach, so it is good to keep the ramhead in a well protected room. Also, since running out of energy implodes a ship, the energy collectors that do the energy stealing can be used to kill a ship.

Marines? Oh my.

Errr, as for boarding:

1. Do both count as the same area (for purposes of coven circles and the like) while attached?
2. How is it determined where the rooms attach, or are people randomly transfered over?

How come we cannot see coordinates?


like x255 y 333

I think only the captain can see them if he's in the navigator chair. Or maybe the empath's level is key to seeing coordinates.

1. No.
2. It opens a hole in fixed room chosen at random other than a store's stockroom. (Having them connect to store's stockrooms would be so wrong...)

I only saw them for a brief second and it looked like @DYN12049

That has nothing to do with coordinates. That means it was the 12049th dynamic room to be created. The overhead map system dynamically creates rooms, like the illusary manse and tent room, as you navigate through them. This is something we inherited by virtue of using Achaea's map code.

It was a bug that you saw that....

FTW

That reminds me of a quote I love...

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. – Arthur C. Clarke

A couple more ideas.

Perhaps we could occasionally have a ship in distress far away. Maybe cargo ships heading for a specific community, with a lot of supplies. For instance, Gnomes heading to Serenwilde or Celest, Finks for Glomdoring or Magnagora. They shout a distress, then it's a race to either resuce the ship or raid it (depending on their alliance), with battles likely as each ship tried to get there first.

I'd love to see unique substances in some of the bubbles, such as the following ideas.

* starmetal: Forging with this produces weapons with a bonus, such as +25, or whatever is good without being too powerful.
* aethercloth: Tailored items last longer. Or have an automatic protection against a type of damage.
* mindheal: Unique herb that heals insanity.
* spacegem commodites: Greater chance of getting powerstones from this gem.

Etc...

That would be good, if you had to have a cargo hold type module on your ship (or at least for more than small amounts), then you could buy commodity at an aether bubble, ship it back to your local dock, and sell it on.