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Dev Blog: Training Sailing
As mentioned in the initial sailing developer blog, there will be 3 ways to train your sailing level: Ship building, navigation and exploration . Let's take a look at how each of these will play into leveling up sailing.

Please note: The level tables found inside this blog are drafts. We will be expanding on them and making some changes before the release of the skill.

The specifics of the skill may also be changed based on feedback from the Old School community.

Ship Building

For those of you that like to be able to grind away at a skill, ship building is for you. Building ships is a simple, repeatable process that will earn you sailing experience at a constant rate:

Step 1. Initiate the build

Head to a shipyard and initiate a build. To do this you will need to provide workers with the necessary resources and tell them what to build. The required resources will vary depending on the type of ship you are building but will generally include various types of planks, bars, nails and cloth.

Depending on the type of ship you are building you may also receive small amounts of construction, crafting or smithing experience.

Step 2. Check the status of your ship

After some time passes you can return to check the status of your ship. In a similar way to checking the health of trees in Farming, this will earn you experience.

Step 3. Modify your ship

Choose if you would like to add upgrades to your ship.

Step 4. Sail or sell

Choose whether you would like to sell the ship off to an NPC or commission it for use out at sea. Selling the ship off will allow you to immediately start a new build whereas commissioning the ship will prevent this.

As you level up your sailing you will gain the ability to build at more and more shipyards that offer faster build times. You will be able to build at different shipyards simultaneously.


Having a higher sailing level will, of course, help you build bigger and better ships. As you level up you will have access to an awful lot more customisations and upgrades for your ships.

Perhaps the most important part of your ship is the hull. As you level your sailing you will unlock the ability to build ships with stronger hulls , allowing you to take on heavier seas and lasting longer.


A higher sailing level will also mean more fire power . It will be possible to upgrade the cannons you have built into your ship from bronze to dragon. If you plan to take to the seas you may find yourself in need of some help from a big ol' cannon and if your sailing level is high enough you will find yourself more able to reap the rewards of passing through the challenges that come your way.

Below you can see a few examples of upgrades you will be able to add to your ship at different levels. There will be a variety of additions between 1 and 99 giving you a good reason to train your sailing level as high as possible.



Navigation

Point-to-point travel will be one of the key uses of sailing. As you level up your sailing you will find yourself able to travel to more and more locations including existing ports, islands, shipyards and a number of brand new islands to explore. The first time that you take on a certain route you will be rewarded with a big lump of experience. Each subsequent trip along the same route will provide you with a small amount of experience.

Exploration

For those of you that are truly adventurers at heart, exploration will be an excellent way to train your sailing. The content you run into will be different every time as you take on randomly generated seas that will throw a variety of challenges your way. Completing these challenges will provide you with sailing experience.

The different content you find coming your way when at sea will offer you opportunities to gather new resources that will be used both within sailing and throughout the wider game.

Underwater caverns

Large, underwater caverns will be one of the big attractions of sailing. Should you make your way to an underwater entrance, you will be able to jump off your ship to explore the randomly generated cavern containing brand new enemies and, of course, lots of potential loot .

Your sailing level will determine how much you can explore so being a master sailor will allow you to head to the furthest depths of these unexplored caverns. Of course, taking on a cavern will reward you with sailing experience.

Random events

There will be a huge number of potential challenges and encounters that you will find in the seas of Gielinor. These events will span from quick, action-packed 2 minute adventures to lasting as long as you can manage to stay afloat. All of these events will provide you with sailing experience.

Let's run over just a few of the ideas that we plan to include.

Please note: the challenges listed below are examples. We will be looking to the community to help us create a massive, varied list of events to occur when out at sea and will be able to go into more depth on these events in the near future.

Defend the settlement- A small island is under siege and needs your help to defend against the attack.

Kraken encounters- You've seen what the Kraken can do in a dank cave, now it is time to try your luck out at sea.

X marks the spot- You've discovered a small island. Perhaps there is a little more to it than it seems.

Cyclone crisis- You have ended up in the midst of a cyclone. Save yourself and your ship by escaping.

This is just an initial list of a few of the ideas that we are keen to include. We will be expanding on this an awful lot over the coming weeks. We will also be asking the community for content suggestions to help fill up this list as we know the input and creativity Old School players can provide is invaluable.

We want your feedback!

We can't say it enough: We need to know what YOU think!

Let us know wherever you can, be it the forums, Twitter, reddit... If you have something to say about sailing then we want to hear it!

Mods Alfred, Archie, Ash, Day, Ghost, Ian, John C, Kieren, Krista, Mat K, Maz, Ronan, Weath
The Old School Team