Author Topic: Traveling in Azamoth  (Read 5396 times)

Spriggan

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Traveling in Azamoth
« on: May 23, 2004, 10:15:43 AM »
Ok last on of these for a while, I promise *fingers crossed*, but this stuff is important to me and I cannot write with out it.

What is the main type of travel in the world?  It would seam that boats would take up 80% of it just by the layout of the world.  Every country has ports (except some of the free cities) and why would someone what to ride/walk from one place/country to another when they can just take a ship?  I know with in the countries there would be a lot of travel by foot.  I know the sea is supposed to be dangerious becasue of storms and monsters but what about along the coasts?
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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #1 on: May 23, 2004, 10:25:35 AM »
any common ship travel would definitely be coast hugging. They probabyl dont' ever leave sight of the coast, due to sudden storms, unless they have to. It would be dangerous, even in ships that can handle it.

But because of hte storms, I believe travel by foot/horse would be much more common than it was, say, in the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean. Ships are faster, sure, but if you're not hauling goods, the safety factor is huge. Yeah, there's a lot of sea travel (near the coasts) though. I'm not suggesting that there's even LESS sea travel than by land. Just that there's a lot of land travel too.

Probably there's going to be a network of roads in most nations to get from place to place.

I think there aren't; that many cities right on the southern coasts, for reasons of the weather, mostly. In the north, they're there because people've only been there for half a century, they haven't gone that far inland yet.

So, anyway, that's what i think. I don't think sea travel is 80%, maybe 60%, just because of the nature of sea travel.

Spriggan

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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #2 on: May 23, 2004, 10:38:21 AM »
ok, I'm still worried about the constant storms in the sea though.  I know they're important to the world but I could undersand seasonal weather but from all your descriptions the whole sea would be coverd in violent storms 80%+ of the time.  And that just dosen't seam right.  All of Bask's islands would be coverd in constant typhoons the sea would be so violent that no one would ever use it etc.  You see my point?  It's the same problem that I mention in the world creating thread, and even if we just explain it's a curse or an act of the gods it dosen't seam like anyone would ever go by boat in open waters.
« Last Edit: May 23, 2004, 10:46:22 AM by Spriggan »
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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #3 on: May 23, 2004, 12:33:36 PM »
well, they haven't for thousands of years. That's why the northern continent was only (re)discovered in the last 50 years. They've only barely managed to design ships that can cross the sea with any level of safety, and it's still very dangerous. Most storms occur (or at least start)near the center of the sea, by the equator, because the prevailing current in the south is west to east, and in the north it is east to west. So if you hugged the coast, you could have a pretty good chance of getting there, but as soon as you get further than that, your risk of storms grows That factors into why we don't necessarily have to see greenery on all the coasts. the prevaling weather in that area keeps the storms out to sea.

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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #4 on: May 25, 2004, 03:20:07 AM »
ok one more question, if they're following the coast for safeties reason what do they do when they hit a inlandsea or gulf, like the one at Parth, or where Bask is?  Would they just shoot across it (from corner to corner)? or follow the coast in that situation as well?  Becasue unless they absolutly had too they wouldn't take such a long route following the coast in that situation.  So I guess what I'm asking is do the storms regulary affect those areas?
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Spriggan

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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #5 on: May 25, 2004, 07:25:51 AM »
I have a question about boats, and maybe Jeffe can help on this one since he has experence with them.  How much water does a ship need to sail?  I've got a river delta that varies in width (adverage is 1/4 of a mile) and depth (average is about 20').  I take it your tipical gallion could not sail on it.  And what do you think the biggest ship might be that could sail safely down it?
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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #6 on: May 25, 2004, 09:43:55 AM »
bays and inlets tend to be less affected by weather of the open seas. The land mitigates the worst of the storms. YOu could probably cut straight across the opening of a bay.

On the other hand, merchants would go in anyway in most cases: more places to trade.

My understanding of ships is that the length or breadth of the ship doesn't matter so much as the draft: how far underwater it sticks. From what I remember, the shallower the draft, the less absolute control you have, since you don't have as much ship in the water to cut through the seas and stear, but in very shallow water, which low draft ships are designed for, you usually don't have to do a lot of fighting against storms, so it doesn't matter.

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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #7 on: May 26, 2004, 04:10:06 AM »
Well I'm still not sure how deep the waters are at the delta, considering how much of the water gets spread out depends on how maby outlets there are.  If you had 2 major lines and a few small things (more of a flooding hence the mash) the depth would be less then half on those lines (or rivers).  So 10'-15' might be a little generios (the main river will be between 30'-40'), and I don't think 10' is enough for a seagoing vessal (especaily ones that have to constantly deal with rough waters).  This is currently what I'm planning:

Quote
at the center edge of the delta is the waypoint known as Sea Harbor, since the Ilne isn't deep enough for large cargo ships to sail down captains dock here and unload their cargo on skiffs which are sailed down river to various cities, more luxurious boats are used for dignitaries and can be rented by anyone with the money.


Those skifs would be flatbed boats.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2004, 04:10:57 AM by Spriggan »
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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #8 on: May 26, 2004, 09:40:28 AM »
That sounds about right. YOu'd do different kinds of sailing on long term trips up and downa  river than on the open seas. A draft of 10 feet is, I think (hoping Jeffe will confirm this) pretty shallow for a big vessel, and wouldn't be the easiest thing to take on a stormy sea.

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Re: Traveling in Azamoth
« Reply #9 on: May 26, 2004, 09:49:09 AM »
And it adds a sence of originality to the setting.  Especitaly when I go in length talking about the place being run by the Parthann military and that Bask and Parthann nobles want it privitised, it brings in a lot of cash that others want.
« Last Edit: May 26, 2004, 09:51:08 AM by Spriggan »
Screw it, I'm buying crayons and paper. I can imagineer my own adventures! Wheeee!

Chuck Norris is the reason Waldo is hiding.