>>33284551My take on Alola's water routes (or lack thereof). Basically what you said with some minor changes and combined with a couple of my ideas.
For the main story, open up the sea between Melemele and Akala, roughly between Kala'e Bay and the motel on Route 8 on one side and Hau'oli and Konikoni City on the other. You could even split it into smaller routes if necessary for whatever reason.
I'd also put in at least one other major route, but instead of sandwiching Akala between two long water routes, the second one could be between Poni and Melemele since they're already close together on the map, starting at Poni Coast and going back to Hau'oli City. At that point in the game, it could be completely optional, too.
Another cool thing they could include is an undersea tunnel like the Marine Tube in Unova. Aether Paradise, for instance, seems like a great location for it to lead to. I marked the area between the Paradise and Melemele since that's the island it's closest to, but it could just as easily terminate at Akala. A great way to incorporate more of the ocean without repeating the same water route over and over again—and it would look amazing, too.
Other than that, yeah, pretty much just expand on what we already have, especially on the first two islands. Not so much Ula'ula because it's already super busy, and a lot of its locations suffer because of it, so they should just fix that instead. And then there's Poni, of course. The area behind the canyon may be a little much, but man, does that island need more things to do.
