Kelp (forest) movement costs?

[Captain Fail]

Hi!

I really enjoy this modmod, and have been spending far too much time on it as of late...

I've been trying out as many of the civs as possible, and decided to try out a game with the Lanun on a medium and small map. I'd noticed the kelps before of course, but since I mainly played erebuscontinent as more or less landlubber civs (I particularly love the Khazad... tasty gold), but as the lanun they became really, really annoying.

So, to the core of this post: Why does kelp slow my ships to a crawl? Sailing is slower than ground movement, with kelp covering nearly every coast and ocean tile in the whole world by mid-game (on marathon, at least). Naval warfare in general just becomes a pain this way.

Is there a reasoning behind giving kelp an insane movement point cost of 6, or is it an oversight? Kelp grows along the bottom in my experience, and ships could care less about its presence.

If nothing else... is there a way to turn kelp off? I wanted to try out a game as a real backstabby pirate, but it doesn't seem feasible like this.

EDIT: Oh, and on a related note...
I've got a pirate sitting outside another civ's capital, blockading it... and it's raking in 900+ gold every turn. Is this intended...?

 

[inuyashasama]

Current growth rate of kelp is too high, fixed next version.

Trade patch caused a bug with blockading, giving you huge amounts of gold. Fixed next version.

 

[Gammon]

Does kelp really cost 6 move? If it does, IMO, that is egregious.

 

[inuyashasama]

It really does. It makes navies mostly worthless, since you go only one tile a turn, two if you have a really fast boat and have the fair winds promotion.

I think kelps should slow movement by one, at max, and grow less (which they will next version). I also think the reefs should stop movement since it makes more sense (ships getting grounded on on reefs with the tide).

 

[Valkrionn]

Hi!

I really enjoy this modmod, and have been spending far too much time on it as of late...

I've been trying out as many of the civs as possible, and decided to try out a game with the Lanun on a medium and small map. I'd noticed the kelps before of course, but since I mainly played erebuscontinent as more or less landlubber civs (I particularly love the Khazad... tasty gold), but as the lanun they became really, really annoying.

So, to the core of this post: Why does kelp slow my ships to a crawl? Sailing is slower than ground movement, with kelp covering nearly every coast and ocean tile in the whole world by mid-game (on marathon, at least). Naval warfare in general just becomes a pain this way.

Is there a reasoning behind giving kelp an insane movement point cost of 6, or is it an oversight? Kelp grows along the bottom in my experience, and ships could care less about its presence.

If nothing else... is there a way to turn kelp off? I wanted to try out a game as a real backstabby pirate, but it doesn't seem feasible like this.

EDIT: Oh, and on a related note...
I've got a pirate sitting outside another civ's capital, blockading it... and it's raking in 900+ gold every turn. Is this intended...?

The Kelp rate of growth is FAR too high atm, shouldn't be getting that much; It will be fixed in the next version.

I had set it to a high movement cost as it is supposed to be found in 'Forests' in the Ocean; Something you can avoid, or sail through. Shouldn't be every tile. Even then, the cost is a bit high right now and will be dropped.

The Blockading issue is my fault. While fixing the trade bug (had forgot to change a function to the new 'Times100' version), I had changed the two other similar calls as well; Shouldn't have, as they were for blockading and were not set up for decimal trade (nor should they be, no need). It's been changed back in 1.3.

Current growth rate of kelp is too high, fixed next version.

Trade patch caused a bug with blockading, giving you huge amounts of gold. Fixed next version.

Thanks.

 

[Gladi]

I also think the reefs should stop movement since it makes more sense (ships getting grounded on on reefs with the tide).

Bright day
Sure, if you do not know the reefs, but in real life many reefs were quickly mapped out or at least known to locals.

 

[Oranos]

I don't think the reefs should stop all movement, but they should at least cost more move points than kelp. Kelp is mostly harmless to ships, though can still cause a bit of a slowdown. Reefs on the other hand are downright dangerous to ships, and are often very hard to navigate through.

 

[IronClaymore]

IRL, a few month ago here in Australia, a coal freighter or some such was grounded on a reef, and the reason it was sailing through that area was because it was taking a shortcut, being far faster than going around .

While comparing a modern ship with accurate charts and GPS to a wooden sailing ship is a bit silly, perhaps it would be possible to give a promotion that removes movement cost for ships, either a spell promotion (adept uses divination powers to find the fastest safest route), or have it as an additional effect to navigation II or something.