I've noticed few crews actually trim, tack or jibe their sails when in a fight.
And thinking about it, there is no real weather gage in the game because there is no real penalty being down wind. You can still move and maneuver into the wind if you have to.
So is it just better to leave sails at one angle and focus on steering/gunnery and other ship activities?
Because the sailing in this game isn't very complicated, turn sails whenever you can to go into the wind. A lot of people don't turn their sails because they either forget, or just don't care. It's very annoying when I play with a crew on a galleon and I'm the only one turning sails, because getting our sails into max wind allows us to get to places 3 minutes faster. So to answer your question, yes turning sails is one of the things that you should always be doing if you're just sailing around with nothing to do. Normally you don't have to turn the wheel all that often, and you never have to cannon unless you're fighting someone. You don't HAVE to turn sails, but if you want to get to your destination faster and reduce the time that a galleon could find you and fight you, then turn the sails so that you can be done quicker.
And if you're actively fighting another ship, repairs and cannons come first. After you can no longer cannon and you don't NEED to bail or repair, then manage your sails after that. It's important to control the pace of the fight and make sure that you can suppress the enemy's cannons by shooting quickly.
@idneon Here's my take as someone who steers the ship 9/10 times as a high-rank reaper:
I move my sails CONSTANTLY during a fight. When you're first learning how to captain a ship, it can be a lot to manage steering and sails at the same time, but it's well worth your time to pay attention to it and practice it. When first starting out, I would recommend leaving sails at one angle with only partial speed as you practice keeping the ship at the right angle to the ship you're fighting.
Many ship fights devolve to chasing one another in a circle, firing at each other a bit. My focus is always to cut the circle smaller to stay on their back quarter. For example, this means that in a clock-wise circle, they are at the 12 o'clock position, going towards 3 and I'm on their back-right quarter at 9 going to 12. One thing that can help me keep this position, once I get it, is to angle my sails to angle my sails to match the angle of the ship I'm chasing. If both ships catch wind at the same time, the shape of the circle doesn't change and I can keep my position.
That's level 1. Level 2 is where fights are a bit more complicated than going in a circle. When your opponent is zig-zagging, running, anchor/harpoon turning, etc, you're fighting to catch up and/or gain a superior position. In this situation, whichever ship is faster on sail changes will come out on top (to some extent). This is much easier in a sloop, where you can do it yourself or have your trusty partner on the sails while you steer, but on a brig or galleon, you really have to have a solid crew that works together to make this happen.
Often, in a brig fight (not a chase), I'll leave the front sail up, back at half. I will focus mainly on steering to keep both of my crew mates some good angles on their cannons while raising and lowering the back sail myself to keep on the enemy's back quarter. Since you have better turning radius with less speed, I don't want 2 full sails anyways. If I can manage both steering and sails, that will give my crew more time to shoot and repair. Basically, the more multi-tasking you can do, the better for your crew overall.
my crew dont trim the sails at all when in combat.
breakneck speed is not an advantage while fighting, manoeuvrability is. so sails will be up, with the exception of the sail nearest the wheel. wheelman typically keeps it forward, but since its right there next to him he can turn it to wind if he wants to.
if we do need speed for some reason, the wheelman will call it out and we will drop/adjust sails as necessary.
but constantly turning 2-3 sails to keep wind during battle? thats just silly.
half the time you can just raise all the sails and let them sail right into your broadside.
there is no real weather gage in the game
Much respect for knowing what the weather gage is, and using the term correctly!
In battle, I will tend to move the sails to "dummy sails" (or if you prefer the proper nautical terms: I will "square the yards", setting them "athwartships") as a default; and just raise or lower them if required. Often you don't get much chance to do much else with them. Its a bit of a shame, really. But since our ships are able to defy physics and sail straight into the wind, you do not have to pay proper attention to the angle of the sails.
Depends on too mamy factors to say so.
What ships, attacking or defending, circling or not...?
what do they do is also important about what i need to do to react or dictate the battle.
The most important is what ships do fight, if i'm in a Galleone fully manned fighting a smaller ship i dont sail at all but get to a sweet stationary spot and let them come.
If you are solo slooping fighting a Brig/Galleone you have to use your sail and helm constantly to outmaneuver them.
If against another sloop, you dont have to do it that much.
If you are on a Brigantine fighting a Galleone you mostly have to, if you fight a sloop you mostly have to, if you fight another Brigantine it depends on what they do, many options.
It depends...
