How About a Jon Boat?

[Montauk]

Did some searching and didn't find anything on this specific type of boat. If it's been discussed, I apologize for not diving into search deep enough.

I think a Jon boat would make for a versatile form of lake, river, and coastal transportation. They could have both a trolling motor for when you need to be quiet/sneaky, and a standard motor for when you need to GTFO. Some Jon boats have one motor or the other, perhaps it can be made so you can pull a motor off from one Jon boat and put it on another so it has both types of motors. Or, perhaps players could make their own trolling motors, say out of drills and metal fan blades or whatever creativity sparks. I suppose they could even be rowed.

Standard motor equipped:

Trolling motor equipped:

Dual motor configuration (standard motor on aft, trolling motor on bow):

Pros - Cons of Jon boats:

• Pro: Low water profile, able to travel in very shallow waters.
  • Con: None?
• Pro: Small size, able to fit through narrow streams and make relatively sharp turns.
  • Con: overall low carrying capacity, 2-3 people max.
• Pro: Twin motor configuration (standard motor & trolling motor).
  • Con: Not all Jon boats have this (some have one, some have the other), more difficult to find.
• Pro: Quiet operation when outfitted with a trolling motor.
  • Con: Very slow movement speed when trolling motor is used.
• Pro: Relatively fast travel speed with standard motor.
  • Con: Significantly louder when in operation.
• Pro: No motor? No problem! Fashion a pair of ores and row yourself down the stream.
  • Con: Extremely slow movement speed & slightly louder than trolling motors.
• Pro: Great option for fishing!
  • Con: You get dehydrated because of excessive beer consumption...

I think it would be great to have these in the game. It's difficult to tell by the map posted HERE just how many waterways there will be. Obviously there will be the entire coast line, and a lake that looks like will be in the initial test build. Other than that you really can't make out if there are any rivers or streams, though I'm sure they'll be in there somewhere.

Thoughts?

 

[Montauk]

After some discussion in TS, these boats would likely not fare well along the coastline (likely get capsized easily), depending on how rough the Devs decide to make the seas.

Another thing to add, it would probably be relatively easy to craft your own makeshift Jon boat provided you have the resources, like sheet metal, metal tubing, etc.

 

[Zack Atkins]

this is true but what about rivers or lakes, i.e fishing. Although you would make good target practice.

 

[Montauk]

Oh yeah definitely rivers and lakes, and even streams provided they're wide & deep enough.

True you would be good target practice for PvP. Also in some rivers you would have to be cautious of zombies if the river is shallow enough to walk through. It would be advantageous to have both motors installed so if you survive the first shot or see/hear a zombie coming up on you, you can fire up the standard motor and get away.