Drydocking Boats

[Red]

Now I can't remember any exact dates, but I do remember that when boat docking was first introduced, you actually had to use an NPC Harbormaster to drydock your boat(with some verbal command).

I think this feature is pretty neat, and it would lead to more interaction on the sea.

[Derrick]

True, it was in at the beginning of the era and changed in mid '99 i think. It would be some amount of work to switch this over, but if there is serious intrest I'd certainly consider it.

[Red]

The majority of people are lazy, and won't want this idea.

[CrazyJoe]

I just came here to comment on this little tidbit missing.

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[Faust]

Docking your boat in this manner is actually accurate based on our cutoff date.

You will be able to dock your boat anywhere as long as the hold is empty. It will turn into a miniature boat when you do so. To do this, simply double-click the tillerman while you are not standing on the boat.

There is enough information to support harbourmasters dry-docking in this manner stated by the original poster past this patch though.

[Derrick]

Info on this can be found here, indicating that both systems were in place:
http://uo.stratics.com/content/basics/ships/ships.shtml

Maintaining and Docking Your Ship


Remember all those ships you saw along the shoreline? Well, now you're competing with them for space to park your new prize. You may need to look around for a while to find a place that's isolated enough to have open shoreline, and yet close enough to town to save you a lot of walking. (While it is possible to mark a rune with your ship's location, you may find it difficult to keep track of you ship if you are constantly moving it around and marking new "Find Your Ship Here" runes).

Once you find a good spot to leave your ship, lower the anchor to keep it from drifting and then simply lower the plank and walk off. Double-check to ensure that both planks are locked (lest someone loot your ship's hold), and remember where you left it. The items you leave in the hold (up to 400 stones) are relatively safe, but anything left on the deck will decay in a few hours or can be looted by another ship owner.

Like homes, ships will decay in 9 to 11 days if they are not maintained. To maintain a ship, you simply need to double-click on the plank (with the key in your pack). This will not unlock the plank, but it will refresh the ship and its contents.

An alternate way of maintaining your ship is to drydock it. In order to do this, you must completely empty out your hold and wipe all items from the deck of your ship (including yourself -- you must be standing on land in order to drydock your ship), and also drop the anchor. After your ship has been emptied, you will need to find a "harbormaster". Harbormasters can usually be found along the city docks; ask her to "dock" your ship for 25 gold, then click on the tillerman of your ship. You will be given a claim ticket, which you can then place in your bank vault for safe-keeping.

However, in order to get your ship back into the water, you need to use the claim ticket in the same general area where you docked your ship in the first place. It is thus very important that you do not drydock your ship in a busy or overly-crowded seaport (particularly those that can be easily blocked off from the sea, like Moonglow and Ocllo), or you may not be able to reclaim your ship when you need it. Indeed, for those who may need their ship on short notice it is not recommended that they drydock their ship at all -- for finding an open spot on a city dock in order to re-launch it is often a frustrating, if not impossible, task. This claim ticket is worth little if you cannot re-launch it, for it cannot be sold back to the shipwright. (Note: If you placed a guildstone on top of your ship (before the game was patched to disallow this), you need to turn the guildstone into a guildstone teleporter before you can drydock the ship).

An even more convenient way of storing your ship is to deflate it. Yes matey, deflate I said. To do this just follow the same procedure as drydocking; empty the deck, empty the hold, drop the anchor and leave your ship. Make sure you have the key to the ship in your backpack. From the shore you then use the tillerman (by double-clicking on him), confirm the drydock command, and your ship will turn into a tiny vessel inside your backpack. You can take it with you where ever you go, and launch it again in another area. Please note: all keys to that ship in your bank and backpack will then be deleted and any keys to that ship not in your possession will become invalid. When you launch the miniature vessel again a new set of keys will be created. Knowing all this you can understand that there is now a safe way to buy and sell used ships, just transfer the miniature vessel to be sure there will be no 'old' keys that could be used to illegally reposes the ship. You will be pleased to hear that a deflated boat cannot be stolen and will even remain with you if you should die, much like a newbiefied item. Unlike newbiefied items, boat miniatures are not subject to ultra-fast decay.

This can certainly be implemented, but it's going to be a 25 gold charge to dock a ship and get a non-newbied or blessed claim ticket that will only allow you to place the boat in the same harbor in which it was docked.

Currently the Harbor Master will say "If ye be needin' to dock yer ship, just stand on the shore and click twice upon the tillerman." when you ask him to "dock". This is an OSI accurate message, I just don't know when it was changed to this.

[Fwerp]

The old system was horrible and riddled with bugs. there were issues with times, harbor masters dying, only original deed purchasers being able to claim , etc. They basically scrapped he whole system because it was so absurdly bugged.