New ships idea

[Grimrock Litless]

Name : Hulk

50 turn cost
100,000 gold cost
1500 wood cost
20 iron cost
160 tools cost
10 cotton
0 gold bar cost

Speed : Extremely slow(Shortest route : 1 - 2 hours)
Cargo : 200
Crew : 10
Cannons : 0

Can be upgraded to level 20, each upgrade cost 10,000.

This can become a tanking ship that would be placed behind fleets. Just an idea, don't know what to do so i just did.
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Name : Clipper

100 turn cost
250,000 gold cost
1000 wood cost
200 iron cost
160 tools cost
1150 cotton
0 gold bar cost

Speed : Extremely fast(Shortest route : 2 mins)
Cargo : 10
Crew : 175
Cannons : 20

Each upgrade cost 112,500

Clipper is a ships that was very fast due to the amount of sails it had, was even used in races.

-1

[Bigtea47]

What about a transport ship. 1000 cargo, shortest route ~6 hours

[Grimrock Litless]

Hulk and clipper is actual ships that existed.

[Meliva]

the hulk seems pointless to make since it would be a poor merchant ship due to its speed, and be pointless as a war ship due to no cannons, so if it was the tail, it would just sit around and take hit after hit until sunk. as for the clipper, its only use I can think of is as a scout, but honestly seems way too fast if it can do the shortest route in 2 minutes. maybe adjust them a bit to make it more balanced.

[Meliva]

heres what I would do
the hulk as you say is an actual ship that existed, however it was a ship that was not meant to sail anymore and just remain at port. maybe make the hulk a special ship that remains in one port, but would serve some sort of other purpose. for example, maybe to hold extra cargo, and maybe be used for battles at a specific port, one that you visit a lot. make it to where it is still slow in battle, but heavily armored and a decent amount of cannons. it would be unable to move to other ports but be useful in the port it is at.
as for the clipper, well maybe make it to where its a improved verson of the cutter, equal speed, or slightly faster, a little more firepower and equal hp.

[Grimrock Litless]

Yes, maybe hulk can be used like a fortress on a port, it is always on danger because of it size, and only one can be at a port.
And it can only be gained when you become a governor of the port.

For the clipper, it was a big big ship that has existed and it has a mass of 1000 tonnes, it was a large ship, but it was fast due to the amount of sails it had.

[Captain Jack]

We already have ships to improve in our current list. I understand that it is fascinating to think of new ships, ships better than the current ones. However if we keep adding new ship types without giving meaning to our current ones, we will end up with a couple of super ships where everyone will use them. This will damage the strategic part of the game - less used ship types makes the game more flat - we want more depth.

Therefore, till we find a way to utilize all current ship types, we will not implement new ships. There is one exception for a new battle ship that we already designed but this is another story.

These were the bad news. But I also have GOOD news. The good news are that the remaining ship types to improve are now less than before. We have been taking steps towards this direction for a long time now. In particular, we are looking for ways to improve the usability of the following ships:
-Fluyt
-Galleon
-Merchantman
-Brigantine
-War Galleon

These are all "sandwich" ships. Meaning that there are cheaper and more expensive ships than them which do the job better (always depending on the time built). I will be sincere and tell you that I currently have no statistic data at hand, to see the actual usage of these ships. I am more speaking about utility value of these ships and not popularity. Although I believe that they should have popularity issues too. The fluyt for example has the best utility value of them all in my opinion; It is very cheap and a value for money @ 80 cargo. Still, I bet it is underused. As it is a "sandwich" ship.

Sandwich ships can play a role of course as you can gradually increase the quality of ships you make. They are also specialized ships (they share a family with other ships, the family plays a role in certain technologies, voodoo, game concepts). The biggest problem that they face is that the price difference between them and their bigger and better counterpart is insignificant. This happens mainly due to to officers cost.

Therefore,the solution is going to be difficult. An idea is to make them "upgrade-able". Which means that you build now a Galleon and later you can upgrade the same ship to a Trade Galleon. If we also make the bigger ships cost greater, then we will create a reason for everyone to use them more. This is something we can discuss more in the future but I have just served you a very important idea of future game development.

[Crackedcubes]

Hmmm.. maybe make the sandwich vessels: the only vessels capable of carrying gold bars!

[Grimrock Litless]

Hmmm.. maybe make the sandwich vessels: the only vessels capable of carrying gold bars!

+1

[Bigtea47]

One option to what Captain jack said would be is to re-do the ships speed. Lets say the merchantman. Instead of it being a sandwich ship it can turn into a "alternate ship"
For example. Lets say we have a large merchantman that can earn lets say 30k gold a day. The merchantman because its smaller should sail faster, and for it to be useful and more of an "alternate ship" it could also earn 30k a day. But wouldn't be used in some scenarios because of danger rating. So then the merchantmen can create new alternate 1 hour routes that a large merchant wouldn't do.
Creating a new game strategy while keeping the balance.