I think it's a great idea that would add a nice twist to the game. The ability to send and receive messages via seagull.
How it would work:
There is now a birds nest with a friendly seagull sitting in it in the crows nest. You can interact with the seagull to write a message and send it to one of the ships that you are sharing the seas with, your seagull will then fly away with the message. It would also be optional to send it anonymously.
The recipient will know they received a message when they see another seagull fly by and drop it in their seagulls nest, their seagull will also start cawing every now and then to let the crew know they have a new message. They would receive the message instantly, however the senders seagull won't return for around 5-10 minutes (to avoid spam and maintain some realism).
This would add a new aspect to being a pirate, especially when it comes to forming alliances. (You cannot join alliances via seagull, you will have to agree on a meeting point meet up to form an alliance)
However there is something that would need to be added for this to work. Ship names! Which is something that this community has wanted pretty much since launch.
This would be necessary so you know who you are sending your message to. Now, if a ship is visible on the map, the name of there ship is displayed above the icon or if you hover over them with the cross hair. This now gives more reason to raise the PvP flag, which should probably be changed to something less aggressive with this update.
Ship names can be set at outposts in the ship customization chest by renaming your hull livery (similar to pets). This would also make it so you can assign a name to a hull livery so you don't have to retype it over and over if you wanna quickly change names. The ship name should also be visible somewhere on the boat and written on the side of the hull.
Pros:
Send threats of violence!
Send love letters!
Receive love letters!
Form alliances easier!
Bait people into and ambush!
Cons:
Receive threats of violence.
Get tricked into an ambush, thinking you were about to join an alliance.
Not receive any love letters ;(
If you've been down to the Halifax waterfront recently, around the Wave / VIC, you may have spotted a seagull with a wound on its chest. I'm calling them Buddy.
Buddy showed up last Wednesday, the wound looked raw, and there was still blood in their feathers. I was able to check that day that nothing was around their neck or chest, and in my untrained opinion, it was a cut of some kind.
Buddy stuck around the area of the Wave through the weekend. I made sure they could eat (special thanks to some lovely people at Cabin Coffee for digging in the compost bin), could walk perfectly well since they didn't want to open their wings, and Hope for Wildlife were contacted.
As of this Wednesday, Buddy was back to flying. They've cleaned up quite a bit, and the wound is definitely healing despite a flap of skin and feathers hanging like a scarf.
I met up with two ladies from Hope this morning (Friday), and asked if they were taking Buddy away. They tried to catch Buddy with no luck, but I was able to explain the story and show them Buddy's progress (I have been documenting the bird a bit).
They were impressed at Buddy's recovery and ultimately decided to leave Buddy be on the waterfront for now. Since I'm down there nearly every day for hours, I told them I would monitor, and they provided some eats. I will update them about any positive or negative changes.
Hope for Wildlife has been receiving many calls all week about Buddy the seagull, and I wanted to write this as a thank you to them, as well as to the concerned visitors, but to also inform or update those that might worry.
I mean officially as opposed to just because they feel like eating meat; I'm well aware of the hundreds of young children decapitated every year in their quest for food.
