Game Mechanics: A new use for the tiny row boats of Norrath...

[Rygar]

It appears the tiny row boats of Norrath have more uses than just entertaining us in Kraddok videos...

Basically, they have a lot of uses, some of which you have implemented already. However, what I see as the main and more useful purpose is not functioning: Whenever someone engages the boat (i.e. takes the helm), any and all agro should drop from the player.

There are a few more nuances as well that I'll get to...

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...0&p=2#comments
Edited out non-relevant info:

Jan 04 2002 at 8:07 PM
Rules about boats:
...
#7 Boats have a pre-defined "Range" If you sail long enough in a strait line the boat will eventually stop and not go any further.
#8 If you get into a boat and begin moving... You are taken off the hate list of any mob in the area that you've agro'd.
#9 If a boat is sitting in one area for long enough without moving the will eventually "port" back to their original resting place. (I believe this time period is about 30 min but I could be wrong)
...
#12 You can not board an empty boat that is out in the middle of the water. You will have to wait for it to port back to its spawn point.

Firstly, let me say people disputed point #12, lots of folks have said you can re-board a boat in the middle of the water but it is tricky, need to find the right angle on the side to jump out of the water. Another poster claimed it was easy. Is pretty easy on P99.

Secondly, I have not found any kind of hard evidence to what the 'range' should be on a boat if this is in fact a thing. The eq atlas OOT page makes mention that you can use the 'little canoes' to go between islands, and that is a pretty big range on some (like 5000 units or more). So don't feel any range limitation should be implemented (I didn't test this myself on P99).

Thirdly, he mentions half hour on the the 'port back to bind point' of the boat, but others have said about an hour, I didn't sit around to test on P99 so not sure what you have implemented. Hour reference here:
https://msu.edu/~oconne53/eqatlas/oot.html

Pay special attention to islands that do not have boats on them. The boats reset about every hour of real time or so, and if you're not in your boat or used it recently, it will vanish back to its starting point. This means two things. One is that if you are hunting on an island with no canoes, and you don't use the canoe every now and again, it will vanish and you will be stuck swimming off of the island. It also means that sometimes canoes aren't where you expect them to be, as someone took them a while ago or the canoe you thought spawned in that spot was actually just left there. Be aware of these problems and plan accordingly.

Evidence for agro drop (which I tested and is not working on P99):
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...0&p=1#comments

Apr 06 2005
In oot if you hop into teh little baot on the island with teh tarnslocater and sisters of erollsi all agro disappears... it works in all zones with boats lol.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...0&p=5#comments

Mar 17 2000
I was being chased by an NPC (DE) and I jumped in a boat and took control, and the NPC stopped attacking. A friend that was not KOS, hailed him, and after about 20 secs, he walked back up to the inn where I ran into him.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...3&p=2#comments

Mar 03 2002
Not really anywhere to run to bro. Better have a good Evac. or Gate spell ready. Against my dark beliefs though, here's a little secret..... when you get in trouble, if you can make it to the little Row Boat, jump in and see what happens. ;+D

4/27/01:

Works just fine, I practised this on the aviak Isle. I would pull down
towards the little boat and if in trouble I ran and jumped onto the canoe
right click and then paddled out a little. Healed and then paddled back. The
two named aviaks keep you on their hate list a little longer but as a life
saving tactic it works great.

it works i did it with seafurys and in lake rathe with teh barbarians with a
newbie char

It's true though not 100% successful. My group was fighting sisters on
Sister Island and when things got too hairy we'd jump in the boat and sail
off a little ways. That normally stopped the sisters from attacking, though
one time they apparently followed one guy on to the boat, or in the
confusion he didn't grab the helm in time. Whatever the case it was a
massacre :-)

This makes mention of mobs conning indifferent when you are on boats, currently on P99 your faction cons the same as being on land (even when you have the helm):
1/10/02:

You stand in boat and right click on it, then you steer the boat and
move like you normally move sort of. you right click the boat again to
stop moving the boat and move you. You are indiff when you are on the
boat with control of it to creatures so youd don't get attacked.

I only saw 1 claim that made mention you weren't indifferent on a tiny boat here (not sure if a bug, or they followed but didn't attack, happened upon someone else's train, etc):
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...0&p=6#comments

Mar 05 2000
Note to all: ignore the part Drok said about being indifferent to all. you are now. I swam over some aqua goblins in a boat and made a nasty little train.

A few links back someone made mention that appears there was a bug even on the big boats where it appears a mob followed you and agroed you when stepping off:

Not sure about the little boats, but theres some wierd hate list things with
the big boats in OOT
I was on the StormBreaker, headed out to the siren rocks for some hunting,
decided to get off on sister isle, 2 steps onto the dock:

A seafury cyclops hits you for 64 damage
A seafury cyclops hits you for 38 damage
/yell
<rinse and repeat>
<die right next to the other end of the docks>

Other Potential row boat uses:
I found a few mentions that if you camp out on a boat (like a main boat that zones), you may end up in a row boat:
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...8&p=2#comments

Nov 29 2001
Currently if you camp on a boat in the OOT and log back on you will be at the row boat at Sister Island.Oh and these little things can aggroe on the big boats like the Sirens Bane so kill em' whenever possible.

Now, the page is full of jokes about attacking and killing boats, so his follow-up remark seems in line with that. But I did find some odd mention of this in another thread.

http://www.eqemulator.org/forums/arc...p/t-19883.html

02-01-2007, 04:16 AM
Yep, John Adams is correct. Zoning is no problem, we use Perl. We'd have to anyway to help ensure that when you zone in there will still be a boat under you [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.] On Live if I remember the boat was a zone within a zone, so if you were a slow booter or crashed, you'd log back in on the "boat zone" no matter where it was. Obviously, we can't do that but we can setup delays and such...

So... not sure if you camp out on a boat and maybe log back in with that vessel is 'between zones' you get ported to the nearest 'boat' which may be a canoe?

Very flimsy evidence on this specific aspect and don't expect it to be implemented, but maybe some others can dig something up.

I haven't tested all the abilities, but I know on P99 you can level up your spells on it as well as your begging skill (without fear of being attacked!)... that is confirmed classic. I have seen older posts referencing pick pocketing to get skill (although no coin) and raising instill doubt. I suspect you can do anything to it except auto-attack to raise weapon skills / offense, and combat skills such as Kick/Bash (not sure how Taunt is classified).

I don't know if you can use this as a 'ghetto sneak' such as training a quest NPC to a canoe while you have the helm (conning indifferent if you fix that), and do trades. Couldn't find any mention of that.

Conclusion:
Classic agro dump from taking the helm. I'm sure immersed tears of joy will stream down Llandris' and Menden's faces when they get petitioned for someone stealing their canoe!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7yfISlGLNU