Ocean Currents

@m1sterpunch said in Ocean Currents:

Loot in water despawns too fast. I understand in part why. The ocean is vast and having to keep resources in "play" for an extended period of time might be somehow taxing for the client. I dunno, that's just a guess. A possible solution for this would be ocean currents. Loot in the water would eventually wash up on the beach. Also with this ocean current could be mapped and have a way to predict storms and wind with a bit of skill.

This would also make for another interesting mechanic: Drift.
Right now the Brigantine drifts quite a bit. Sometimes when anchored. This is a bug but it got me thinking. Usually I don't drop anchor at an island because as soon as the ship stops completely, only a storm or a keg will move it if the sails are reefed.

What if a ship that wasn't at anchor would drift onto the rocks or beach making it imperative to anchor unless someone stayed with the ship? The same drift the would make loot drift to wash up on a beach would also move your boat to the shoal.

This also makes for the ability to still have movement when you are becalmed. Yes, NO WIND. I want this to be something to deal with too.

Anyway Ocean currents, could be a neat thing. And would allow for less loot sinking to the abyss.

You bring up some things that are not too common...

No wind - Joe Neate spoke of this in a recent video; too little wind discourages gameplay from early feedback, I believe the current wind system aims to reach an equilibrium...to give players something to be annoyed with (forget the term he used), and still be somewhat endurable.

No wind does affect ships in reality, but I think it could discourage players.

Ship drift, the brig has very little water resistance; why it drifts so much when sails lifted. But it should not drift being anchored?

Some locations do cause the ships to drift, in between the rocks at crooked masts for example. But, I prefer my anchor up and boat positioned so I can hightail it out of there if I'm caught off gaurd... if it drifted on a beach, I would be pretty mad lol.

Drifting loot is interesting, not sure how I feel about that to be honest with you.

I know it's not supposed to be a real "pirate simulator" as the sailing mechanics are far from real life physics (I have raced on a bermuda sloop IRL) but it seems to me that having no wind discouraging players is not as annoying as having to sail into the wind pretty much every other time. No wind would still allow minimal movement but it would just be like sailing into the wind only in ALL directions.

@m1sterpunch true that is interesting, an ai weather system with no wind elements; always unpredictable.

I too would like to see some more variable weather, although I prefer some perfect storm stuff, just through a tsunami at me you know? Haha

*like a once month, enable a storm with waves 2x the size, rain on 3/4 of the map, rogue waves...I'd love that

I love the atmosphere of the wind howling and the trees flapping during a storms approach to an island. I really wish that high winds could capsize a ship though if not watched. The storms are great but only a minor inconvenience as it stands.

@m1sterpunch I am not a fan of the currents moving loot (as it is already hard enough to find sometimes). But It would be interesting to see currents in certain areas, where if you hit them it might give you a bit of a speed boost.

@enginefear said in Ocean Currents:

@m1sterpunch I am not a fan of the currents moving loot (as it is already hard enough to find sometimes). But It would be interesting to see currents in certain areas, where if you hit them it might give you a bit of a speed boost.

My hope is that the loot if not found in time would eventually wash up on a beach somewhere and knowledge of the currents you could predict where. Plus imagine finding a colossal hoard of loot just wash up on a beach you are currently questing on instead of that cache just being lost to the despawn purgatory.