Ideas for boats and sea mechanics.

[Seero]

On may 15th, 2019 Don't starve together got a massive update. Although it only was the barebones of what's about to come, a lot has changed in the past few days concerning the game and how it works. 

A long awaited feature has been ported from shipwrecked, which of course that's water and boat mechanics. The way the mechanics been introduced is far different then what singleplayer has, but it also has far more potential. Too put it simply; you can walk on boats while there in motion, you can also build nearly anything on boats, and that's extremely impressive at least from my point of view, who always perceived the ability to walk on something while it's in motion too be REALLY difficult to code.

Currently, you can craft a small raft, it's in the shape of a circle and it's roughly bigger then a turf piece. I've had a few ideas on how klei could expand on this, Or in general a few suggestions. 

Being able to tie circle-rafts together to connect them.

This one is one of the more simple ones. What if we used rope to tie a raft too another? That could open up a lot of possibilities including movable sea bases, Or just transferring stuff in general on a bigger scale. It would work kind of like this; you go on a boat, craft rope, connect it too the end of the boat and go on another one, then tie it there. 

This would mean a set length would be applied to rope, and depending on how many rafts you occupy, you would need to put more to keep it more sturdy, or less if you want a bunch of rafts be dragged by a main raft.

Adding more boats of different sizes. 

This one is self explanatory, You would be able to use up more boards (and maybe even rope too). to make more rafts of different shapes and sizes

Larger circle, square, triangle, trapezoid, all kinds of shapes can be made. but they would function the same. 

Even smaller variants like ones that are the size of turf would work too, bigger isn't always better, there's sure uses for smaller ones like how they are lighter/easier to maneuver.

And finally, being able to make bigger boats by connecting smaller boats together

This combines the last two suggestions into one. Basically it would allow you to connect boats like puzzle pieces. This would work far better then the last two independently by increasing late game potential, and increasing the possibility for sea bases beyond just a mere alchemy engine sitting on a circle. 

In order to compensate for it's massive size, more modules for boats should be added, Bigger and stronger variants of the steering wheel, mast, and anchor could work quite well. There also should be motors to have a definitive end game/better way for travelling.
(Too elaborate more, the bigger the ship = the more modules you would need to support it, that's why adding better tiers would work extremely well because adding a bunch of puny masts to a huge boat wouldn't work so well + be resource intensive, Maybe we could get ruins tier modules too?)

But mast's should wouldn't become obsolete because of how you would need to stay at the motor to properly control it instead of the masts being able to be sailed without anyone at the wheel, maybe if you left the wheel for about 5 seconds the motor would automatically turn off. 

Also how would we go about connecting these boats? I'd think the best way would be connecting them via boards or just regular logs

Using anything resource to connect these things so you wouldn't just be able to stick a boat piece to another and call it a day. A lot of people would complain that being too easy or even use the classic argument "it's OP!".

Finally, back to my suggestions on making smaller boats What if you where able to connect boats at the edge of land to make a dock, or extend the land while using boats? I think that would be a pretty neat side-function of the boat to have. 

 

Currently, those are my thoughts on how boats should be improved upon, i think the fact that this feature was added created endless possibilities for DST as a whole. 

What are your thoughts? On this thread and how boats should be worked upon.

 

 

 

[Well-met]

No offense, but it sounds like you just really want a mobile base.

[Seero]

2 hours ago, Hell-met said:

No offense, but it sounds like you just really want a mobile base.

What of it? what's wrong with wanting to make a mobile base, or sea bases for that matter. 

[TurtleKitty]

Sea base! Sea base! Sea Base!

[sir murica]

I agree tbh, the boats speed and mechanics have been a major letdown so far with literally no purpose other than getting to one biome. With the way the floating platforms are designed, the best way to take advantage of this design is to allow mobile bases to be created. Could be pretty cool if u also have option to make smaller SW-style boats to get to and from the sea base, would make team gameplay more interesting too ("ima go get mactusk while u control the wheel for the next 100 days trying to veeery slowly explore the map, brb")

[ZeRoboButler]

12 hours ago, Hell-met said:

No offense, but it sounds like you just really want a mobile base.

and who wouldn't?

[Seero]

10 hours ago, ZeRoboButler said:

and who wouldn't?

Not to mention suggestions are inherently people who "really want something" no matter how you put it

That "want" might belong in the game too, how i think my suggestion belongs in the game.