Some suggestions to perhaps give the ocean some love!

[KinaUndead 5]

So... I'd like to start off by addressing my reasoning for all this and the fact that well, I understand the game is called Ylands, and as such most of the focus of the game is likely going to be land based. However... let's consider the fact that most of the world is in fact ocean, and traveling between all the "Ylands"  takes a considerable amount of time, especially if you already have some set destinations in mind which you already know is quite a distance off. You see.. the thing is, I actually don't mind the amount of time it takes to make these travels as it's part of the journey, all except for one little issue... there is nothing to do along the way. At best, the most interesting thing that will happen to you is you pick up a "pet shark" along the way that tries it's very hardest at chewing away the hull of your ship.. To be frank, I understand that the ocean is seemingly rather barren at sea level, but there is quite literally a whole world underneath those waters, and Ylands is missing a huge opportunity for some great content by leaving all that out, I mean... sailing is practically half the game!

Having made my point, I'll move on to only quickly just jot down some ideas that could really add some depth and passion to those depths, and practically add an entire new side to the game that didn't exist before. I'll be first to admit, some of these are even just off the top of my head as I sit here writing these very words even.. but, please, don't take them for granted! These could honestly add some good content to the game and make the entirety of it a fun adventure rather than just the "Ylands" alone.

1. Introduce more marine life to the game: Obviously, this is a given. You've already got your feet wet by having sharks currently, but.. the ocean is so much more than that! Turtles, jellyfish, dolphins, schools of fish, stingrays, angler fish to light up those dark seafloors, whales! The list just keeps going. Of course, I understand that we have to keep game/server performance in mind here... so I'm not suggesting you fill every square inch of water with life, but something at least to bring it to life.

2. More plants: Much like above, you've already started this with having seaweed in the water, but the ocean is also so much more beautiful as well! There are all kinds of plants down there, however.. most of all I would really love to see coral/sea sponge reefs above all. They would also serve for a good area for spawning some of that marine life, as they usually will live around these for protection.

3. Resources: The sea floor is chuck full of valuable resources, some of which that can be unobtainable anywhere on land. Of course, what resources you choose for that to be would entirely be your call, however this would give players more incentive to get in the water and experience what it has to offer. Maybe perhaps they need some pearls which they can only obtain by breaking open some clams along the seafloor. Maybe perhaps a specific type of plant which they need to use in chemistry for a specific potion, this is quite literally limitless and again gives players more reasoning to experience the sea if underwater sight seeing isn't quite their thing.

4. Sunken ships: Honestly, I'm quite surprised this isn't already a thing! This would add so much exploration benefits to the ocean it would be amazing. Thing is, you already have pirate/colonist related items in the game... so this would pretty much "sink" right in there with it all! You could have sunken pirate, colonist, and merchant ships all containing loot of their own types  among the seafloor. If finding them becomes an issue for players, than in order to make them a little more accessible to find, an idea is that their locations can be denoted by say... a patch of floating, broken planks over top of their location.

(Little side tip: I know, eventually you guys have the idea for rewarding players with special items/coyns for doing specific things... Maybe, you can have it set up to where one of the sunken ships in the world is protected by a kracken boss in which they'll have to beat before accessing an especially rare chest in the ship to get the reward!)

5. Pirate ships and nighttime ghost ships: Best ready your cannons and prepare to fire, for the addition of AI pirate ships would be a great addition to the game, it adds a little bit of challenge to the sea as well, and maybe even perhaps if you can wipe out the pirate crew you can then even commandeer their ship for your own! Another cool idea is to have ghost ships spawn during the night time and disappear with the day, containing ghost and skeleton crews of especially ruthless nature... however with greater treasures aboard. It would add so much more thrill to night time sailing too whence you see those burning blue lanterns and shredded sails coming your way ever so slowly from the dark, especially if you guys introduce fog to your weather patterns which would obviously cut down visibility, especially during the night.

6. Tethering/towing of smaller boats by larger ones: This idea actually isn't an original, I've picked it up from a let's play on youtube as well as some forum goers here. I just hope to reiterate here that this is in fact a tremendously good idea. Better yet, the game already has rope to do just so.. and it would already seem that the games physics lends itself to it by allowing objects to move each other what with people building giant "scoops" off the side of their ships to tote along smaller boats. I would possibly like to suggest that maybe simply players will be able to craft a set of eye bolts out of iron in which they can attach anywhere they like to their ships just as they can anything else, and then use those bolts as attachment points for rope which will create a tether between the two.

And finally.

7. Scuba gear & spear gun: Of course, with all the addition of the above... exploring the sea is going to become much, much more prevalent. As such... we as the players are going to need proper equipment to brave the darkest of depths and make it back to the safety of our ships safe and sound. The introduction of scuba gear, or even diving suits for that matter would allow players to keep oxygen longer under the water. Perhaps, maybe the scuba gear can be the first tier of oxygen equipment while maybe say a diving suit lasts longer, but is more expensive and maybe requires it to be attached to an oxygen compressor on your ship which you can only run your oxygen hose so far from (this would also create an opportunity for running generators and power on ships! OooOooO~) Along with oxygen of course, we'd need a way to protect ourselves from all those nasty hostiles while down there, and what better to do that then the trusty spear gun! Obviously, the spear gun needs no further explanation... it's practically a must!

Honestly, take it for what you will. Some of this I contoured even as I was sitting here, but I didn't do it without some real thought or reasoning. I truly, honestly believe these things, and even more could really add some great content to the game's rather bland sea exploration as it currently sits. I understand that some of these things might be hard to accomplish do to either being resource intensive, or possibly outside of the scope of the general idea and flow of the game but I just honestly feel like development is missing a huge opportunity by not taking advantage of the fact that there is practically a whole untouched world above and below that shimmering, waving horizon. Especially considering that the world is limited and has it's boundaries, currently all we have going for us is just a collection of land masses and that's it... This would breathe SO much more life into the game that those boundaries could possibly even be all but forgotten, should the development team chose to keep the world size limited. Please at least honestly consider these ideas, and possibly more among yourselves and really think about what you can do with all that currently wasted map space, I'd hate to see it just remain the dead boring grind of time it is currently.

[Ane 1213]

Thanks a lot for the suggestions! Those are things that crossed our minds too, and we'd love to make the ocean exploration more fun! Hopefully soon.

Just as a note, in case you're not aware, if you find some floating debris in the ocean, you might want to dive and check what's underwater  Rumor says it some people have even found the lost city of Atlantis...

[Jimmy-T 9]

I found an underwater house, and there I found neoprine suit, with flippers, and a breathing mask. I can swim faster than sharks now, and I need to figure out a mechanism of how I can empty the house for water so I can expand on this amazing underwater house. 
I've also found a planewreck under water earlier with some passenger loot. Clothing and a computer. So there's certainly things to find on the bottom of the ocean! I just need to find out how to effectively kill sharks now.