It is more than 2 years in, and there is nothing more silly in the game than the 'set sails to stupid' META. Allow me to explain.
From the very first time anyone loads up the Sea of Thieves it is obvious that Rare spent buckets of time nailing down the sailing experience. The way the sails interact with the wind, the way the water creates different degrees of drag on the different ships, right down the ways the waves change your speed and trajectory. They have done an excellent job making sailing an actual skill, and the game rewards you for being a good sailor.
However, there is one major exception to this. The dead headwind. Now, I am not coming here to suggest that a boat should be unable to move in a dead headwind, even though that would be the most realistic; that would be immensely boring and would make navigation much too difficult for the average player. However, the average player understands that sailing into a headwind is slowest possible way to sail, and that the right thing to do in a headwind scenario would be to create the least amount of drag as possible. This makes intuitive sense. So, why on earth is the best choice to have your sails set to the position that creates the most drag? I call this position
'set sails to stupid', because it is the most counter-intuitive position to put the sails in when you're sailing into a headwind.
Now, in the past when I have voiced my opposition to the current state, I have been told that sloops (in particular solo sloops) need a way to escape, so, setting the sails to stupid and going into the headwind is a necessary tactic. I agree that sloops need an escape route when there is a galleon of Pace wannabes bearing down on them. They need options, and running needs to be one of those options. But that should be the case while still being intuitive. Meaning, the fastest option for going into a headwind should be a sloop with its sails set to either side, not perpendicular to the wind. Similarly, for a Brig or a Galleon, in NO WAY should sails perpendicular to a headwind ever be faster than literally any other configuration. Yes, a sloop should outrun any boat into a headwind, but only if the sails are set in a position that makes sense.
Of course, for everyone in this forum we know that the 'sails set to stupid' is the META, so, no harm no foul because 'everyone already knows'. But honestly, they don't. I see many, many noobs who see us bearing down on them and they head into a headwind (good) and then set their sails to be parallel to that headwind. Why? Because that is was makes sense! But the game does not reward them for being good sailors. Instead, it punishes them as I gain ground in my Brig with the sails set to stupid. They're left frustrated, feeling helpless, and it gives them a bad experience. They would never really know that setting the sails to worst position possible is the best course of action unless they go outside of the game, into Reddit, Youtube, or these forums, and do some research.
This is a bug that we have lived with for too long. It goes against logic, but also stands as a contradiction to the obvious care and attention Rare has put into the sailing experience. It is time to fix it.
