Wind speed differences - Idea

Ahoy @Sshteeve and @PersonalC0ffee,

I agree with you both that the wind speed can get worse, but it can also work in your favor.

The wind speed also doesn't necessarily have to give you the same speed difference. As an example I use the calm wind speed and the "normal" wind speed.

The "normal" wind speed gives you -30% speed when the wind is against you and 30% faster when the wind is with you.
Then you could make the calm wind speed so that if you have wind against you the wind speed becomes -10%, this makes you faster than if you have -30% and if you have wind with you you go 20% fast you will indeed be slower than if you have 30% speed, but you are never slower than if you had wind against you if you had the "normal" wind speed.

This actually makes the average speed become faster than if we only have the "normal" wind speed. (If I'm not wrong 😄)

@galactic-geek said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

I like how speed is based around ship design.

Yes, I agree with you that the speed differences of different ship design is a good thing and should remain and it also will remain if we have different wind speeds.

Because as an example if you are on a brigantine and you are chasing a sloop with wind in your back with the "normal" wind speed, then the brigantine will catch up with the sloop over time. If you are now in the same situation but with a calm wind speed, then the wind speed will change for everyone so the speed difference between the brigantine and the sloop will remain the same. The only thing that changes is the speed from location to location and we already have that, only it is not diverse.

Things are already complicated enough as is; why make it harder?

That something is more complicated is different for everyone. Why I want to make it "harder" is to make the environment more alive and also to give it more team work on reacting when the wind changes speed.

I think that's a good thing, so you have to work together more as a team and I also think that it balances out the difference between the different ship designs even more, because as a sloop you can change the sails more easily than compared to a brigantine or a galleon.

@galactic-geek said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

But it won't. Let's say that the sloop is going against the wind and is outpacing a chasing galleon, but all of a sudden the wind slows up and changes to a perpendicular direction. Since the sloop is leading, it can once again change direction against the wind and gain even more distance than it could before as the galleon struggles to keep up, make the turn, and maximize the change in wind direction that it has yet to reach.

Yes, it will stay the same if the wind speed and the direction of the wind do not change at the same time, then the sloop in your situation will still go the same speed compared to the galleon.

As an example with your situation the sloop is going against the wind and let's say it has a speed of 25%. The galleon is chasing the sloop, so the galleon also has wind against it, but because the galleon is a heavier ship the galleon will have a speed of 20%. The difference between them is 5% so the sloop will be a little further away from the galleon each time.

Now if we don't change the wind direction, but change the wind speed to calm then, say, 5% goes off. Then the speed of the sloop will be 20% and of the galleon 15% the difference between the galleon and the sloop remains 5%.

And of course it is possible that the wind speed and the direction of the wind change at the same time, but you already have this situation, so in that sense it remains the same as it is now. If I understand your situation correctly.

If that was true, I would argue that is even less reason to change it. As an example, with math, why go with 5/10 when you can simply say 1/2? It simplifies things.

Why add more diverse in the wind when we can also just use the one that we have now (wind with you and wind against you with always the same speed), because I think this is a fun way to make the environment feel more real.

There's a lot Rare can probably do to make the world feel more alive, but being a game, balance, fun, and accessibility trumps all else.

Yes, Rare can indeed make the world more alive in many ways and I think this is one way to do it.

But if nothing changes, how or why do you think it would improve teamwork?
If anything, teamwork will probably be less likely as the wind would probably frustrate many a pirate.

Because if, for example, you are sailing towards an island with calm winds, then you and your crew probably think that it will take a while before you are parked, but then suddenly the wind speed changes to strong and you suddenly have to react quickly with your crew to make sure that you don't hit the island.

I also think that this can create fun moments, for example, with a keg in the sea, suddenly you go full on the keg with a strong wind, and I think that this can apply to many more situations. Of course, it can also create a less fun situation, but that doesn't mean we don't have that already.

@metal-ravage said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

Although it might seem fun this idea upsets the balance of seafearing in SOT.

I don't see why this idea upsets the balance of seafaring, because the wind speed will change for everyone into the same wind speed, so I don't see the upsets in the balance of seafaring here.

Think of the wind more in terms of a power source for the ships, we know the rules and the way it behaves.

Yes that's right, we do know the rules and the way it behaves, but this will also be the case when there are different wind speeds.

Introducing rogue winds will make many naval actions impossible.

I think it actually does make naval actions more interesting.

@galactic-geek said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

@metal-ravage This is true. It disrupts consistency.

Yes that's right it does indeed take away consistency, but I think having difference in the wind speed is actually a more interesting thing than that it is always the same.

@d3adst1ck said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

With the way that wind works, different speeds isn't going to change anything other than increase or decrease the time to get between two points; something which the wind direction already handles.

I agree with you that the only thing that changes is the speed from point A to point B, but what you can do with this idea is that you can make the average speed faster, slower or keep it the same.

This would just increase the extremes at either end by compounding with the wind direction, and since everyone in the server would experience the same thing at the same time there is no meaningful gameplay change.

Yes there is meaningful gameplay changes. For example, if a ship is stationary and you are circling around the ship, then if the wind speed changes you can react to that with your team, but also with the examples below.

Because if, for example, you are sailing towards an island with calm winds, then you and your crew probably think that it will take a while before you are parked, but then suddenly the wind speed changes to strong and you suddenly have to react quickly with your crew to make sure that you don't hit the island.

I also think that this can create fun moments, for example, with a keg in the sea, suddenly you go full on the keg with a strong wind, and I think that this can apply to many more situations. Of course, it can also create a less fun situation, but that doesn't mean we don't have that already.

@d3adst1ck said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

You're just increasing randomness without providing any meaningful change, which like you said we already have.

Yes, it does have a meaningful change, like the examples I gave in the previous response.

Rare could probably just have the wind direction change a lot quicker and/or more often to produce the same result but should they? I don't see the point.

That is indeed an option that Rare could make to get almost the same result as the different wind speeds. Why would they add this? To make the game more realistic, to give more variation to the wind speeds and also to give different experiences that you can get during different activities.

I like the idea in principle but the execution would be difficult to get right. For instance the galley already crawls when going into the wind. Even if Rare did it would not add that much more to the game when compared to other changes/issues.

@galactic-geek said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

@jtye-b said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

@galactic-geek said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

@metal-ravage This is true. It disrupts consistency.

Yes that's right it does indeed take away consistency, but I think having difference in the wind speed is actually a more interesting thing than that it is always the same.

Earlier this evening my open galleon crew had sailed for well over 6 hours, with 1 leaving half-way through during our Thieve's Haven run. His replacement, a friend of 1 of the other crew members, immediately took charge without even asking, and started barking orders via quick-chat. At 1st I didn't care - but then his ignorance shined through. As a Reaper 5 sloop bore down on us at the tail end of our voyage, he incorrectly ordered us to center the sails while directly against the wind. Anyone worth their salt would know that the galleon is the slowest in this scenario, and that the sloop would easily catch up. I shared a link with him (This 1 here), as well as with the rest of the crew to muster support. He ignored it, and his friend stated that he didn't care either. So, naturally the sloop caught up. 🙄

Thankfully, we collectively decided to fight and went to work. Then he decided it was better to raise all of our sails instead of staying mobile. All of our masts went down in short order, and we were boarded. Thankfully, in this case, firepower and manpower won out since the sloop got too close. I chastised him for taking unnecessary risks, and he used some colorful language with the in-game text chat (he attempted to bypass the filter) and started to routinely blunderbomb me to death - he was muted, blocked, and reported to both the Support site and to Xbox Live along with video proof of his actions.

Long story short - pirates don't understand it as is now, which causes division and strife, and you want it to be harder?!

I totally agree with you that there are indeed pirates who have no idea how the wind system works and this can indeed be annoying in such a situation, but this will always be the case, because no matter what you add to the game you will always have pirates who don't know/understand how something works.

I don't necessarily want to make it harder, in fact, I even think it will be easier for pirates to understand the wind system. If you adjust the animation and the sound of the wind to the different wind speeds, then pirates also get a better view of what is happening.

I also don't think it makes the game worse, because if you have wind against you, what would you rather not have? Strong wind, because then you are slower, but what you do want to have is "normal" wind and/or calm wind, because then you are faster than when you had strong wind and the same applies to if you have wind in the back, only then you want strong and/or "normal" wind instead of calm. And the wind speed we have now "normal" doesn't have to maintain exactly the same speed either, we can also make the "normal" speed a little slower or faster so that there is perhaps a better balance between the different wind speeds.

The only change for wind that I want is for wind to change direction more often. for me that rewards pro-active sailors with faster. All the while, those who are lazy on the sails will be left behind.

@d3adst1ck said in Wind speed differences - Idea:

A better idea would be to increase the amount of angles as which you can catch different amounts of wind for more variable speed boosts. Remove the random element and put it in the hands of the crew. This would be a meaningful change.

If I understand your idea correctly your idea is to make the middle part of the wind the strongest/fastest and the more your sails are away from the middle part of the wind the slower you will be?

If so, then it feels very much the same as what we already have, because if you don't have the middle part of the wind right now you will be already going slower than if you had the middle part of the wind.

I also forgot to mention to my idea, that if you have calm winds then the sea will also be calmer and if you have strong winds then the waves will also be a bit stronger. I personally think this will give a nicer view during sailing.