Hopefully this is the best place to put this: it's more of a kind of question that has feedback-y ramifications depending on the answer — and I don't know if I'll get it here, but that's ok.
The sailing in this game is so intuitive and suggestive of actual sailing that I'd play the game just to explore around the islands, but playing with my brother — who is much more of a real sailor — I wondered how far that realism goes. I wonder that because if certain mechanics weren't in the game, it would add an incredible amount of depth if they could be added. These really fall into two main points:
Weight & Buoyancy — Most things in any ship won't add much to the ship's weight, but taking on water sure would! Ships tend to behave more sluggishly the more water is on board, and if a holed ship became more sluggish in the water as it filled then strategies could be significantly different. Likewise, I know the different ships have different accelerations, top speeds etc. but does that map across ship size?
Holing vs. De-Rigging — Now this topic I am sure is a performance issue. But I bring it up anyway because targeting rigging and demasting a ship — well, there's nothing that speaks more to naval combat than that. You can kind of do it with the cursed cannonballs, but they wear off in short time. The prospect of demasting brings up a whole crazy set of contingent changes to gameplay including but not limited to clearing wreckage, coming up with a way to move if you're completely demasted, repairing said mast etc. etc. I totally get how practicalities that keep the game snappy and playable prevent this, but oh how sweet to hear that snapping sound and watch the sails drop! It would also allow for a new set of strategies against skeleton ships, and towing a hulk with a rowboat would seriously be fun in my mind!
So there's the two main ones. My ultimate point is that the more real-world physics can be represented in game the more strategic possibilities there are. Like I said, I get that practicalities being what they are these are probably not possible, but I thought mention them all the same.
