Yeah, it's called a case of the lazy ass. Which is nothing BUT a pain in the ass for any player who actually wants to SAIL the dang seas and go from port to port. Yes, you can't drydock your boat but you could dang sure move it to a location that is 8 screens away from a dock. Oh wait I forget your type can't be bothered to actually take into consideration others that play. It's all about you.
I really HATE that mentality both in game and outside of it.
Then you REALLY must hate the mirrors in your house showing you one every time you pass by.
My ship sails everywhere, already, thank you very much; but I see no reason why I must handicap myself for no benefit to you.
Oh, I forgot, you choose to play on a shard where the population density impinges on your access to the docks, whereas I play on one where I routinely change course THIRTY DEGREES WEST of the Floating Emporium, and sail straight in through my usual mooring spot, into that boat slip, without having to change course, even once, to avoid other boats. In fact, I even did it a couple times in a single hour in a FRIEND'S ship, (mine being left elsewhere, half way through a delivery), blowing their minds that I could routinely move the ship into port to deliver the pirate captain, with a perfect docking every time, without manuevering, and by simple turn commands based on the latitude I knew us to be at (no maps to the pilot, no manual steering, just voice commands). How could I do it? Because NO ONE PARKS on that latitude on that side of the docks, except me. I have several neighbors where I park, whose ships are always brought back to those same spots, when possible. Because that is what is convenient (NOT lazy) for them. You definition of lazy is the equivalent of demanding that instead of parking your car on your street by your house, in the areas parking is allowed, you should instead park your car in the next county over.
In other words, I park where I do because there is ample room to do so where I play, without it causing any access problems to the docks for others.
Maybe some day you should visit a real marina, and see how off base your conceptions are. I've lived the last 35 years within a half-hour of 2 lakes large enough to have multiple marinas.
You have a navigational channel, which EA finally added and expanded on.
If you try to park long-term at the short-term docks, you get towed.
But, just outside the short term docks, there is long term parking, where people pay fees to rent out mooring spots for large vessels safely outside the navigation channel.
And, frankly, other than the ship styles, a row of sailing vessels parked along the East and West Buoy lines at the Floating Emporium looks nearly identical to real life houseboats at anchorage in parking slips (see below) or offshore moorage, except that ships in game don't have to maintain a 360 degree spacing to account for the ship being blown in circles when moored offshore, since there's no wind in game (for that matter, they don't have to anchor or otherwise tie off). Even the use of rowboats parallels what people with offshore moorage do to get to and from their houseboats.
Left: State Dock on Lake Cumberland
Right: Marina Del Rey, Los Angeles, CA
Not much difference, other than the weather and water salinity.
Realism, if anything, means that ships will tend to be parked as close as possible to the dock. Not "8 screens away", as you wish.
