Ship Physics

@crimsonraziel yeah, I see your point, but I'm talking generally. Whether a galleon has one person or four would have little if any effect on the ship. Again, I'm talking cumulative totals of ALL mass, not just crew.

I've seen players load their ships to ridiculous amounts with supplies & loot - that should have a obvious effect on sailing physics/mechanics no matter what ship your sailing.

I'm thinking too of when you are being chased. Two galleons, say. If you are weighted down being chased, that should translate into slower speed for you, and greater gains by the pursuer.

Currently, a Brig can outrun a sloop, but if the Brig has more mass/weight than usual, the sloop, if empty, then should have the advantage.

Manoeuverability is a whole other set of effects on a boat. Two galleons. A lighter one chasing the other heavier one, should be quicker at changing course and make gains in velocity.

So the overall mass/weight difference of a ship, even two equivalent types of ship, can potentially make all the difference in a chase.

Generally the lighter the ship, the faster it can sail, the more agile/manoeuverable, under optimal conditions.

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@crimsonraziel how can supplies and loot; chests, canon balls, etc, have less effect than individual crew. We can agree to disagree, but you haven't explained how a chest filled with treasure could possibly be comparable to average human weight. Also, we don't know what the mass/weight of SoT's Galleons, or other ships, in fact are. Their actual historic weight/mass isn't necessarily related. SoT is a fantasy, based loosely on some aspects of the myths of piracy. Yet the developers have seen fit to make the sailing experience satisfying enough, i.e. sufficiently realistic in its limited physics, to create the illusion of actual sailing experience for players. All I'm suggesting is they enhance that a little more by applying weight/mass momentum effects on velocity and manoueverabily of these sailboats.
I'm not sure what your point is regarding players having nothing to lose. I think it's fair to say all video game players literally have nothing to lose by playing any game, other than their time, effort, and overall enjoyment of the illusion/immersion the game provides.

@tundra-793 said in Ship Physics:

@starship42 said in Ship Physics:

I'm not sure what your point is regarding players having nothing to lose. I think it's fair to say all video game players literally have nothing to lose by playing any game, other than their time, effort, and overall enjoyment of the illusion/immersion the game provides.

He means, that if you just spawn into a game, you have no treasure. Players already in game who have treasure, will be at every conceivable tactical disadvantage in the inevitable fight your suggestions promote.
Players will be infinitely more inclined to attack ships loaded with treasure, because they can always outmanouver and outsail them. And they will choose to do so, 'cause they have no treasure to lose if they lose the fight.

I'm not sure how you come to that conclusion. All 3 ship types, when empty, at optimal sailing conditions (perfect sail to wind efficiency), already each have their own set maximum velocity. They are not equal. I've been told the Brig is the fastest, and the sloop can only out run a galleon if it heads directly into the wind...

Unchanged, as it stands now, there are inequalities that guarantee seasoned sailors an advantage. I fail to see how tweaking their physics so that cargo/supplies/loot is taken into account, that this should make things even more disadvantageous. On the contrary, I think it gives a chance to even the score.

So now, instead of a sloop having greater advantage EMPTY, they will have to deal with an additional weight/manoueverability handicap, which would bring them within range of attack from those whom were previously at a disadvantage; empty Galleons & Brigs.

So an empty Galleon can now catch up to a full sloop where it could not before, when the sloop was empty.

An empty sloop can now catch up to or escape from a full Brig, which it could not do before when the Brig was empty.

I believe there is a way this could work to balance the inequities that already exist with empty ships as they are currently designed.

But is a galleon, which tends to be slower than the other two ship types, going to be even more slower once weighted down? Yes, but it also has a larger crew, more cannons, and greater strength generally, so the fact it is slower than the others doesn't seem to prevent players using it now as a successful vessel for their purposes.

Weighting any ship down comes with a cost/benefit ratio. Trade-offs.

All this is dependent upon and assuming ideal sailing skills and conditions are met also.

New players generally don't know what each ship they encounter may contain; most ships don't know, as it is not always obvious whether a ship has anything on board or not. It's a gamble. I drink the tears of disappointed pirates whom sink my ship only to find it empty, regularly.

So your claim that new players would be infinitely more inclined to attack loaded ships is false. Players generally attack ships not knowing what their target has on board, and hope for the best. Unless they have watched the ship from a distance and are aware, or have some idea of its contents before attacking. It would be an easy game if we knew what everyone had on board before attacking.

This is aside from all the players that don't care if you have treasure on board or not - yet they'll try to sink you anyway, just for fun.

@starship42 He came to that conclusion because he has played the game for more than five minutes and does this thing called... PVP.

Players usually attack with an empty hold in order to remove any self risk. If the player that has loot is at an inherent speed disadvantage and is therefore... unable to flee... people will not only do what they already do... but the players trying to flee will now be unable to.

Also your analysis of ship speeds and general handling is... wrong. Almost completely. The ships are built with differing characteristics to enable a chase to not be completely one-sided one way or another. A sloop is faster into the wind than any other ship. Fact. The galleon is faster with the wind than any other ship. Fact. The brig is faster into the wind than the galleon but slower than the sloop, and slower with the wind than the galleon but faster than the sloop. More facts. The sloop has the best maneuvering response time, but shares a maximum turn speed with the brig. The brig has a better maximum turn speed than the galleon, but shares the same turn acceleration with a 2 wheel rotation. The ships essentially have multiple checks and balances that ensure the better sailor with a better understanding of their ship will either escape, or emerge victorious. There's also the crew count, cannon count, and overall action speed for all actions (turning sails, pulling anchor, raising sails etc.) which is balanced to spec for each crew size. The ships are very well balanced as is. The only vessel that is currently overpowered isn't even an actual ship. It's the rowboat.

While this idea is cool, and well thought out, we're in a game where people heal bullet wounds with potassium... and get shot out of cannons at high velocity into hard objects with no negative effects. I don't think... you're ever going to see this level of physics implemented and... the game as currently balanced doesn't fit it very well.