UnReal World > Suggestions

Craftable punts ? And what should the limitations be ?

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Petike:
I've noticed that punts are only acquirable by quests or by buying them for adequate barter material in a village. This wouldn't be bad in terms of game balance, but from a realism perspective, it has me scratching my head a bit...

Unless I'm mistakened (and feel free to correct me), the punts in URW are basically dugout boats (monoxylons). They're a single tree trunk carved into the shape of a small, usable boat, and often propelled by a sesta (punt pole), or a paddle. At least that's the impression I've had from some of the photographic illustrations provided for these simple vehicles.

If they're made from a single tree trunk and are dugouts, wouldn't it make some degree of sense that the player could manufacture one ? At least a smaller, one-man version, perhaps ?

Not without limitations, of course. I think a natural potential limitation could be the type of axes (e.g. a carving axe) and other tools (e.g. knives) at the player's disposal. Unless the player acquires a small array of very specific tools, he/she can't hollow out the tree trunk on a whim, as if it was no hard work and no effort at all.

I just find it strange that you have to go to a lot of trouble finding material for a raft - three separate tree trunks, then tying equipment you have to manufacture over a long time - when it's a simple vehicle only at first glance, but requires a lot more material investment. The punt looks far simpler in comparison. Granted, I think that if craftable punts were to be included, another limitation for them would be the length of time needed for manufacturing.

For rafts, you'd need to gather a lot of materials, but the assembly time would be short, while for punts, you'd only need a tree trunk as material, but it might take a good long while until you hollow it out into a suitable punt shape. At least as long as it takes to build three or four segments of a log cabin ("Wooden Building") wall in the game, with an average character. This would help prevent the crafting of punts to become easily abusable, and instead make it into something more of a long-term goal.

Additionally, maybe another way to make punt crafting a bit harder is the need to gather information on the process first from particular villages. You go to a village, meet the local who sells fishing and watercraft related goods, and you have to be on good terms with him/her and sell them something before they decide to tell you how to properly build a punt. Only then, and with the right tools for the job, could you start hollowing out a tree trunk. In essence, you could still craft a punt, but it would require some effort to become skillful at this sort of task, and this would in turn guarantee that people wouldn't avoid crafting rafts. Rafts would still be useful and necessary until the player learns how to build his or her own punt.

Just some thoughts on the subject. I'd love to hear others' opinions on this, the pros and cons. :)

I know there are already some good mods out there or in development that add more craftable watercraft, especially of the simple variety, but I was wondering whether punts could be given a similar treatment. One that wouldn't make the game much easier, but would still give the player slightly more options when trying to fish or travel across water.

PALU:
I think the crucial issue is the crafting time. Currently UrW supports pausing and resuming of only a rather small number of tasks, but once pausing/resuming has been generalized, this kind of time consuming tasks would be reasonably possible to implement.
I don't think there's any need for a specific tool restriction, as the standard effects of using poorer tools should be cause enough of an incentive to get appropriate tools.

Tom H:
Perhaps it's an assumption on my part but I thought a punt was like a coracle, possibly made with skins?

If it's a dugout type, that would require controlled burns for days and a tool like an adze for working the inner hull down. I suppose it could be some type of bark-hulled boat, like a canoe?

PALU:
The game contains a quest where you're tasked with providing a log for the construction of a punt (for the quest giver, not for your character), so I think it's safe to assume it's intended to be a dugout craft.

Petike:

--- Quote from: Tom H on December 01, 2018, 12:46:35 AM ---Perhaps it's an assumption on my part but I thought a punt was like a coracle, possibly made with skins?
--- End quote ---

I myself am unsure at this point, but from what I remember, some older releases depicted it as a dugout.

As for other boat types, coracles would be quite plausible one-man vessels for limited small cargo loads. You could make those from slender trunks and enough outside leather covering, I suppose, and they could be carried by the character, instead of just dragged ashore. Though I'm not sure if there's any evidence for them in Fennoscandia in the period that URW is trying to loosely depict.

I never got the impression the punt is a coracle. Though non-circuclar coracles are possible, the punt has a very specific, boat-like shape. A real elongated coracle would have to have a roughly regular shape on both ends, or have the even more common circuclar shape (or a rectangular shape with highly curved, non-pointy ends). Real life coracles are rather limited in terms of the shape you can give them, given their construction. Even birch-bark canoes are more flexible in terms of how you can design them on the outside.


--- Quote from: Tom H on December 01, 2018, 12:46:35 AM ---If it's a dugout type, that would require controlled burns for days and a tool like an adze for working the inner hull down. I suppose it could be some type of bark-hulled boat, like a canoe?

--- End quote ---

Ah, good point !

You're right that the inclusion of an adze in particular (or similar tool) would necessitate new assets.

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