Social Island - Social Hub

good to see you again after all of this time @kinggZANGA. like before, i fully support the idea.

as a reference for discussion, i would like to point out a thread i made not to long ago, and would like to have a continuation of it's discussion on this one. visit here

respectively, i would also like to link the post made on the mega-thread discussing safe zones as proof that many pirates already support the idea. visit here

as for my personal opinion on the subject, i think it would be fair to have this island be on a different server entirely. some dont like the idea of an escape, but than again, if you are going to this island, you obviously dont have loot, which means your pursuers are a combat griefers and shame on them if they cant process that truth. plus it would not require the devs to make a "take all loot in this area" system since you cant bring loot with you from another server anyway. exiting on either side of the map would bring you to a random PvP server. this is a simple alternative; im fine with either your concept or mine.

EDIT: to add to this hub concept, i would like to suggest two things.

Districs

the main tavern would be located on the slums district, where the s**m of the seas lurk, brawl, and pass-out from all their grog. the main district is where the basic shops would be. the noble district will be where the island's pirate owners will be, selling more expensive goods to anyone that can afford them. the docks is where pirates can dock their ships if they want to. all factions will be located on the docks, but will only give voyages.

lore

the pirate hub (current name) is an island owned by a pirate lord more interested in business. the pirate lord enforces four laws: none shall shed blood unless in an honorable duel, none shall sink a ship unless in an honorable duel, all ships shall have their cargo confiscated upon approaching this island, and all pirates keep to the code.

I supoort this idea. Would likely need to be a completely separate zone you can log into. Would support more players and wouldn’t break the phases instance mechanics of the open seas.

I believe that a "Social Space" is inevitable and we will see some form of one at some point.

My idea from the previous thread about how this could be implemented, while keeping both PvP and PvE camps happy!

A way to do this where you could have instancing while keeping things mainly as they are now in the main game space while not creating a "safe zone" and/or an edge camping situation could be...

Have a social island that's "ringed" in a large fog bank. No matter what angle you approach the fog, you would only see a faint darkened outline of an island deep within the fog. As you approach from open water and enter the fog bank you begin instancing. As you exit out of the fog into the center, you are now in the social hub island instance.

The fog bank ring should be a fairly good distance from the island within to include more area for the larger amount of ships that will be docking around island as well as space for people to have ship races around the island closer to the fog bank and/or fishing or other whatnots.

If you are in active battle (or have fired cannon, etc within the last xx mins) and/or have any loot or faction items at all on board as you attempted to enter the fogbank, you would not instance and would simply come out the other side of the fog (bank would be much smaller in this case or simply vanish after the game ready checked the criteria for entry). This would keep people from exploiting the game mechanic of fighting to keep your loot and not simply running away into a "safe space" if being chased or trying to avoid battle, etc.

Once there, you could do all the social things mentioned in this thread (and others) at the island (swap crews/ships, meet up, drink grog, play games, foot/boat races, play music, dance, show off yer fanciest gear, a bit of drunken brawling, even anchor a bunch of boats together lake tahoe style and just party between them, etc.) All resource barrels/crates on ships would be "withdrawal" locked while in this zone (to stop grieving), although you could still "deposit" into them if you wished.

Rare could even keep weapons active, that way if people want to have drunken shoot outs after a bit too much grog, they could do that as well. Just have it that if you shoot someone, you're jailed/stocked for a min or two (unless your crew breaks you out earlier). The dead pirate would simply re-zone on their ship or at the bar, etc. close-by and continue on their way (or look for revenge). Having active weapons would also allow for shooting ranges (or galleries... i.e. shooting bottles of grog/ducks/pirate cut-outs moving side to side carnival style), etc. to help pirates perfect their weapon proficiency. All Pubs are "weapon" locked. Got beef... Take it outside boys! Basically, plenty of gold/time sink activities!

After you've had you're fill of the social activities...

You get back on your ship (or another if you've swapped members around) and head for the fog bank in any direction you wish, you are then brought out to the main instance (which may or may not be the one you left - this would be a good way for Rare to maintain high population of the main instances as there would be lots of traffic coming and going into and out of the social space) and continue on your way within the main world. Using this process would keep the main instances more "fresh" as turn-around would be higher!

*Having this be the process would negate any need for "safe spaces" within/around the greater world (Rare's desire).

*It keeps people from camping the perimeter of the social island as there'd be no way to know if/when/where a ship would emerge from the fog bank (and they wouldn't have treasure anyway as they couldn't bring it in with them to begin with).

*And it would allow for both sets of gamers (pvp/pve) to have the things they want in the game without hindering each other. It would also negate the need to have "separate" servers that would functionally break the playerbase apart.

PVE'rs are happy due to having the social bits they want, when they're feeling the need for it (note: logging in would remain as it is now and anyone wanting to visit the social island would have to sail their ship(s) to it).

PVP'rs are happy because there are no safe spaces in the greater game, and the turnaround of possible "targets" is refreshed faster as people enter and leave the social space for the main game world zones.

Win/Win! :)

I like this idea as I have thought about how pirates could band together as friends and not have just a safe zone. I agree that there should be no turn ins at this area as it would ruin the pirating lifestyle and nature of the game

So, pleasure island? But without the part where you turn into a donkey?

a drinking contest would be cool as a mini-game.

imagine this: one player invites another to a drinking contest. once the player accepts, circles are placed around both players and each is given a tankard of grog. a player must drink one tankard of grog each round and they must stay within their circle until the round ends. the game ends when one player steps out of their circle.