Buoys & Docks

[Chakravanti]

Like milestones....except in water.

Docks would be place that someone travelling along a path would enter as the natural automated part of travelling on the route. It would automatically convert a cow and a wagon into a raft with the cow and the wagon assuming you had a raft in the wagon. The dock itself would function as a buoy/milestone and find it's way along rivers from buoy to buoy like milestones. And then to dock to reverse the function and continue on land.

[BWithey]

Buoys: I've contemplated this many times myself, I'm sure others have as well. The only thing I see with this is that I wouldn't want them to be visible (without turning them on, like scents) just clutters up the water too much.

Your idea for Docks is interesting as well.

On another note: Your sig is amazing, I love that song/style.

[Zirikana]

+1.

+3 actually. (buoy paths, wagon+cow on raft, and docks)

[Thijssnl]

Sounds good to me, cant think of any cons.

[Punkk]

What about, instead of storing the raft in the wagon, you store it in the Dock? You could also store Rowboats in there as well.

[Chakravanti]

The logistics of that don't ensure raft/boat availability to every traveller...

Bringing your own is definitely the way to be sure.

[Zirikana]

That might make it more difficult to use as a public resource. It would make sense to keep the automatic rafting with the raft parts on the wagon, but have the dock building behave like a leanto, with only boats and raft pieces allowed inside.

That way an unclaimed dock could always be used by someone caravaning across the countryside without them having to stop and check that there are raft pieces at each crossing, and having your own raft pieces gives the added benefit of the "automatic" rafting.

I'd suggest that building a dock should be a relatively large undertaking, and it should take up a large amount of real estate on dry land (maybe like four mansion's worth?). That would discourage having the waterways covered with docks every five steps, and it would give plenty of room to manoeuvre carts and wagons and horses and cows and whatnot.

[Punkk]

The logistics of that don't ensure raft/boat availability to every traveller...

Bringing your own is definitely the way to be sure.

If one wants to be sure, he brings his own raft/rowboat. If the village/hermit wants to be sure travellers can use the Dock to cross the lake/whatever, they add rowboats/rafts themselves and check regularly so there's always one there. Obviously you could bring your own and use it but being able to store dem ships somewhere would be nice and this is pretty much what I imagined would fit that chore better.

€: I think I misunderstood the use you wanted to give this... just ignore my posts.

[BrodytheMad]

This is a good idea, best I've heard I think. +(OVER NINE THOUSANDDD)

[AnnaC]

I like the ideas, except the automated transitions between land travel and water travel. If everything is automated, might as well just warp around on a crossroad network. If a deployed raft is there already then I can see some automation, but magically unpacking and deploying a raft automatically is a bit extreme in my opinion. I do like being able to have a cow and wagon on a raft at once, though; rafts need more cargo capacity, it might make livestock trading more viable as well.

Another option for a crossing, is maybe have it so docks near eachother you can bind together, and then bind a raft to one of those docks which only goes between those two docks? Then you can have a crossing and have a relatively secure craft there in case people without watercraft arrive.