Buoys & Docks

[sabinati]

yeah rafts should really be able to hold a little more, e.g. wagon + cow, two cows, etc.

and a ferry would be great. docks + raft + ropes.

[Zirikana]

and a ferry would be great. docks + raft + ropes.

I like this. A lot. Just to discourage ferrys (ferries?) popping up every three feet, maybe there should be livestock involved? Like a cow permanently hooked up to a rope and pulley system to pull the ferry back and forth, and someone would have to conscientiously fill a trough with food to keep the cow alive. Maybe that's silly, but it seems like it would balance it out a bit.

If everything is automated, might as well just warp around on a crossroad network.

I think you're stealing a base there. The "automation" bit is the benefit from someone taking the time and effort to build one of these dock structures, and those would hopefully only exist at certain points that we organically decide are optimal. And it only would cut out the hassle of disassembling and reassembling rafts when crossing the river at that one point. You'd still have to schlep your cow and wagon cross country to get anywhere.

Still, I'd suggest that any sort of dock building would require a decent amount of attention and effort to keep functional (maybe a significant amount of stones each week for repairs or else it doesn't work for auto-rafting, only as a road/path marker?) so that they don't start popping up all over the place. it seems like something that should be a real civic structure, and not something some schmuck threw up one night cause they were drunk and felt like it

[AnnaC]

Just to discourage ferrys (ferries?) popping up every three feet, maybe there should be livestock involved? Like a cow permanently hooked up to a rope and pulley system to pull the ferry back and forth, and someone would have to conscientiously fill a trough with food to keep the cow alive. Maybe that's silly, but it seems like it would balance it out a bit.

Why would they be built every other tile? That'd be quite a waste of resources, considering you'd have to build the docks plus a raft for each one. If I could do that then I'd just leave rafts all over the place, something I don't think many people can afford to do.

The "automation" bit is the benefit from someone taking the time and effort to build one of these dock structures, and those would hopefully only exist at certain points that we organically decide are optimal. And it only would cut out the hassle of disassembling and reassembling rafts when crossing the river at that one point. You'd still have to schlep your cow and wagon cross country to get anywhere.

The investment to infrastructure is already established by the fact you have marked travel routes for people in that region; automating the unpacking and assembly of raft(s) you may or may not carry in your wagon is irrelevant to this. Also such a thing would require constant situational checks (has wagon entered the influence zone? does it have a raft? does have 4 raft pieces? etc.), which seems unneccesary. Now perhaps something like there is a ready space in the dock that you add your raft pieces to and it provides a clean reserved space to deploy the raft is nice; but that comes out from design.

Still, I'd suggest that any sort of dock building would require a decent amount of attention and effort to keep functional (maybe a significant amount of stones each week for repairs or else it doesn't work for auto-rafting, only as a road/path marker?) so that they don't start popping up all over the place.

So basically you want to add in more decay/repair grind? Isn't this the number one complaint of this game for veteran players? Remove the frivolous automation and you wouldn't need to balance it with that crap.

it seems like something that should be a real civic structure, and not something some schmuck threw up one night cause they were drunk and felt like it

Docks already are, and you can make them already in H&H. The main issue is dealing with claims with docks (and making sure there is enough surplus watercraft cycling in use for anyone who uses that dock). These are civic structures by the nature they need to be public to allow free access, but have some security or community effort to maintain in this regard.

Actually after reading this, I don't like the idea of a specialized dock structure, just because it would naturally be much more constrictive then the free-design docks hearthlings can construct now. The only real benefit would be if there was some sort of ferry system in place, or as buoy start/master points only. But it is definitely worth discussing as logistics and travel are fundamentally important in a world like the Hearthlands.

[Zirikana]

Why would they be built every other tile?

a combination of hyperbole and paranoia. pure and simple

The investment to infrastructure is already established by the fact you have marked travel routes for people in that region

That's assuming that every dock would be used as an endpoint to a long river route. I was envisioning some being built (at least initially) solely as a river crossing for an overland route. But your point still stands. And i think we needed to define "automatic" better. I wasn't picturing a wagon simply rolling up next to a dock and "poof", getting stuck on a raft, but simply a "board raft" command at the dock itself, so that loading your wagon onto a raft is reduced from however many clicks to deal with the raft segments, to one or two. You're totally right about any constant situation checks though, that would suck.

and you can make [docks] already in H&H.

I thought that as things stand now a legitimate "dock" could only exist at certain points along the river, where the shallow water area is wide enough to allow a raft to be built. Just some paving and a runestone carved with "this is a dock" doesn't really count Maybe i just suck at building rafts though. And i've been totally ignoring rowboats in this entire discussion, so maybe we're at crossed purposes there.

[Chakravanti]

i like the idea of having to open a flower menu on the dock that open two conversion options and one needs to select the appropriate one and from there it *proof* (or with animation from jorb) converts and might take a timer.

If one is following a milestone however it shouldn't require any clicking at all. One should, concievably, be able to travel from one end of the world on autopilot while making nothing more than the initial click on a milestone along a road/river combo path that was constructed with all the necessary connections made.

This happening however assumes two things:

1. No one built over your road.
2. No one ambushes you.

[saltmummy626]

This idea has the hearthlings seal of approval and also has several generous grants from the following groups:
the hopscotch party
the group for people who dont know what they are doing
and
the strip club down the street from where I live.

srsly for a sec though, I like this idea. It would make my project of building a road straight to nople much faster.