I believe that having an anchor falling animation underwater or simply having a chain extend to the sea floor would increase the polish of the game immeasurably. So many times my immersion has been soured by anchoring a ship then as i swim away i see nothing but open water underneath. While this is awfully nitpicky I believe the game would benefit from it.
Anchors
@jolafo Having an anchor can greatly improve the physics of the game. Imagine if it took into account of depth when lowering or rising up your anchor. This would definitely add new challenges and strategies. Anchors can also make ship drift be possible. Right now an anchor is just a break, similar to a car, it's strange.
As cool as a chain to indicate an anchored ship would be the actual "physics" of including animated anchors is probably too much of a challenge.
First problem is that the In-Game anchor stops your boat dead in the water and fixes it to the spot. That's not how anchors work. Your anchor will sink straight down but then drag until it catches something. You ship will then drift further until it reaches the extent of the chain. Raising the anchor means sailing back the way you "drifted" before attempting to raise the anchor. Which will often take a few tries. This would create a huge change to way the game plays.
Then there is the depth. Another huge coding headache. Whether you are in water up to your knees or out in the deep sea, the in-game anchor takes the same amount of time to drop and raise. Why? Because it's easier for the programers.
I could add some more examples of the challenges of coding the physics of an anchor... but basically the amount of coding, time, money, energy and testing it would take to include (even semi) realistic anchors is monumental. And almost certainly not worth the pay-off. At least in Rare's opinion. Remember, we are talking about a sailing game where they still haven't gotten the physics of the how sails work right after a year of trying.
I guess they could just have an anchor chain "appear" to indicate that a ship is "anchored" easily enough. But that might hurt the "immersion" more than it would help?
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