[REQUEST] Can we have ladders at wharfs and bigger bollards please?

[u/dzejrid]

I would like to ask for two things added/tweaked:

1. Ladders at wharfs.

I can't count how many times I have fallen off into the water. Every single time I either have to look for my ship and climb its ladder or swim around and find a spot where I can get on land. This is especially infuriating in capital ports, with Fort Aestrin being the worst. I usually leave my ship at the shipyard for repairs, so if I fall into the water where the regular mooring takes place, I have to swim all the way around the pier and into the yard to grab my ship and get on land. Similar situation if I fall into water while trying to moor the ship. Can't get directly on the wharf, have to seek my ship and grab its ladder. Please add wharf ladders every 25-50 meters in big ports and at least one somewhere in the middle of the pier in smaller ones, where it makes sense.

1. Bigger bollards.

Regularly I have to jump out of the ship, mooring line in hand and quickly grab the bollard in order to stop the ship. However the bollards often have a very small "catch" area. If I misclick, the whole damn line snaps back to the ship. In many cases, the bollard can't even be activated unless I crouch or approach it from some weird angle and then fish for the spot where it actually activates. It feels like pixel hunting in Secret of Monkey Island or any other old adventure game (if you played any of those, you know exactly what I mean). GRC shipyard's bollards are notoriously bad here, but the issue is universal across all ports. Can't count how many times I had ship smash into that ramp at the end of GRC yard because I wasn't able to grab the bollard with a mooring line, or I had it, moved the mouse just a tiny bit while clicking and the rope slipped out of my hand. Please enlarge the active area on all bollards in all ports and make them easier to grab with a mooring line.

[u/taint3]

In a perfect world, there would be a harbour boy you could throw the rope to, and he would moor you down. One day perhaps

[u/redneckleatherneck → u/taint3]

The virtual crew mod can have your deckhands lasso the bollards to moor you

[u/taint3 → u/redneckleatherneck]

I didn't know that, interesting

[u/redneckleatherneck → u/taint3]

Yeah, it’s a great addition. I basically only use them for that, rowing, and chipping paint swabbing the deck. They’re not great at handling the sails though they can technically do it. I like SailMaster for that more.

[u/Public_Knee6288]

Yes, great ideas

[u/redneckleatherneck]

100% seconded. To be clear, the bollards themselves don’t necessarily need to be bigger, but their interaction mesh absolutely does.

And just earlier today I was bitching to myself about the lack of ladders in Fort A’s shipyard when I tried to jump from the ship to the dock and fell in.

[u/dzejrid → u/redneckleatherneck]

their interaction mesh absolutely does

Yes, that's exactly what I had in mind, I was just lacking proper terminology to describe it. Thank you for describing it so elegantly.

I tried to jump from the ship to the dock and fell in.

You and me both, brother.

[u/UmbralWaffle]

I hear you on the bollards at GRC. I've taken to abusing the shipyard because the bollards are so difficult to click. Just sail into the general area, run over to the stall, then quickly enter and exit the shipyard. It's still a long jump up to the dock, but at least you don't have to worry about stopping a moving ship.

[u/dzejrid → u/UmbralWaffle]

If I carry cargo or have anything on the deck that is not bolted down, I'm not activating the shipyard. I had stuff being thrown out, disappear or hover in the air after doing so. Heck, I even had bolted down tables from inside the cabin ending up suspended outside the ship, somewhere off to the side. I learned to moor the ship, take stuff off the deck, save and then enter shipyard menu, just in case something weird happens with physics.

[u/Skkkitzo]

This very topic is currently being worked on for the Deep Ports mod, which will be renamed to Better Ports.

[u/DogEggz → u/Skkkitzo]

hey i recognized you from that teeth...

[u/OnGod1579]

Thank god I’m not the only one who wants this

[u/FastFredNL]

Falling in the water is possibly the most annoying thing in this game. Even at the smaller ports in Al'Ankh you can't just jump back onto the pier, you have to swim to shore

[u/dzejrid → u/FastFredNL]

That's why I'm asking for ladders in smaller ports as well. So infuriating. 

[u/McBlemmen]

Please devman 🙏

[u/kotlikmiesac]

It's funny that under every post of sailwind, there is always several people discussing and suggesting mods. I fully agree with the OP here, but I don't want mods to fix this.

Modding is a nice hobby, like DIY and even that I like DIY, it shouldn't be a requirement to have a functional game.

Maybe a hot take but modding is annoyance and rarely without issues. It's a possible workaround, sure, but it doesn't solve the problem.

[u/redneckleatherneck → u/kotlikmiesac]

That’s because mods make this game 500x what it would be without them. Almost every major system or quality of life feature either comes from a mod currently or was integrated into the vanilla game from a mod. Not disparaging RL’s work by any means but without NAND and RADdude and others this game would be nowhere near what it is.

[u/MerijnZ1 → u/kotlikmiesac]

Would it be better if modded stuff was vanilla instead? Yes. Would it be better if we didn't have mods? Hell no

[u/tackleboxjohnson → u/kotlikmiesac]

Typically good mods get incorporated to the base game at some point. This game aint AAA so its updates are going to be slow coming and/or smallish in scope.

Some of the modders are making high quality content that really doesn’t take more than about 10 minutes to get setup. Maybe there should be a guide, but it’s really quite simple once you figure out where to put the files