General Geography
As explained in the previous post regarding fantasy geography Axioms is a game with an expansive and detailed focus on naval gameplay both in trade, economics, diplomacy, and combat. I have made a significant attempt to reduce “deep ocean” to a very small proportion of the map. I am aiming for 70% landmass, 15% lakes, navigable rivers, land locked and interior seas, and 15% actual ocean. This will include plenty of straits and archipelagoes but given that the world is intended to represent a surface 10x the size of our own world you will still have some significant amount of ocean at least in some areas.
In any case: boats. Boats everywhere and for everyone. Well given the landmass size there will be some number of landlocked polities. Navigable rivers and connected lakes will be roughly 5x as common as they are on our own world. Seas cover roughly 2% of our own planet and will cover roughly 7.5% of an Axioms map. Essentially all the most interesting water features are far more common.
Rivers
Rivers were a key aspect of the rise of most large early civilizations. Some rivers created vast fertile floodplains while some merely facilitated trade and access to the interior of continents. Fresh water was also incredibly important purely as a resource.
Axioms possesses a canal mechanic that is extraordinarily relevant given the nature of water in the game. There is also a mechanic for digging out harbors which plays an important role, and also for dredging or even artificially widening rivers. Additionally there are some powerful fantasy terraforming options and the weather control discussed in the originating Esoteric Arcana series post.
Management of the rivers themselves is therefore part of an integrated and extensive set of game mechanics and systems that then ties wildly into other parts of the game. The most closely adjacent game system is obviously navies. Brown water navies play a key role in both trade, transport, and communication across the vast world as well as in military endeavors. Axioms has a system of raiding, piracy, and state interaction with such historically relevant activities.
River control or at least contestation allows for looting, disrupting trade, moving armies quickly and cost effectively, and in limiting access to a key economic resource. At an high level of magical and/or technical you can even engage is actions like diverting or drying up rivers. Depending on my speed in development there might also be intentional flooding mechanics.
Lakes, Large Lakes, And Landlocked Seas
Rivers share some elements with other water features such as lakes. They can be used for fishing, they can support brown water or inland navies, and they can be a crucial water source. There is also potential for use in mechanical energy generation. Axioms is not designed for industrial economies but you can access earlier industrial technologies including water power.
Fishing and irrigation are an important source of food and other aquatic resources. Even though a large lake has a limited impact on things like transport or trade, although particularly large enclosed bodies of water can still fulfill some of the duties of a river, it is very useful for growing crops in general and producing useful food sources.
Landlocked seas provide benefits more similar to those of large navigable rivers because of their size. Navigable water features of all kinds are distinct from land provinces. They can’t be owned although they can be patrolled.
Seas And Oceans
Seas and oceans can’t be used for drinking or irrigation but they provide for trade with distant lands with fewer obstacles. Powers with strong and effective navies can of course demand tolls where they have a strong naval presence but the viable areas are limited and you can always attempt to dodge them. These areas also provide a valuable defensive option for those on smaller landmasses. A key aspect of map generation is large islands in interesting spots across small channels and other such geographically valuable features.
Especially in the case where large powers haven’t formed or lacked massive navies the seas and the ocean are useful for trade and travel. There will be a decent amount of places where even a superpower would have trouble locating small fleets or convoys and especially individual boats or ships.
Every significant economic or political power will have very strong incentives, even stronger than in our own history, to obtain access to large waterways.
Military Maneuvers
Naval forces occupying the same “area” of the ocean do not automatically become involved in combat even if they are hostile. Each division of open water has a sort of size/capacity variable. In this way you lack the perfect information common in extant strategy games that limits the diversity of naval interaction. You must locate an enemy fleet before you can engage it. Without significant investment it will be hard to keep track of foreign fleets, especially smaller ones or ones attempting to evade detection. this mechanic is heavily ameliorated in navigable rivers and some other smaller water features although it can still apply in some special cases.
Ships have a variety of slots, almost like floating buildings, which can be filled with various capabilities. There isn’t a “ship designer” comparable to a typical space strategy game. The options for “modules” are quite limited and generally you’ll be mass producing ships of a few designs. However you can design ships for certain tasks and the resources with features/impacts/effects/aspects or w/e you like to call it are in play. Wood that is very light or strong, that is resistant to damage, etc.
Naval combat like land combat is not interactive. Battles happen with positioning and interactions and abilities but due to the scale and thus the number of events it isn’t possible to show each one to the player. You will receive a relatively detailed report which you can read the summary of or review in depth however.
There is some high level strategical impact from decisions with specialized ships to run blockades or avoid notice or to transport troops or to be used in harassing raids vs ships of the line meant for large naval engagements. There are also, as there are for land units, a variety of missions/goals that can be assigned to naval units. Raids, patrols, escorting, transport, trade, and so forth.