Henry d'Esterre Darby

Please do not spam multiple threads with your discussion about alts and crafting. If it's that important, please create a neutrally worded request for clarification from Admin in the Open World forum. Thank you.

This is why we can't have nice things.

All character and asset information is stored on the server, not your computer. You can reinstall at any time without loss of progress.

Remember. We're here testing - things like having a "free" Yacht hanging around aren't necessarily production features/systems.

You can be very sure that there will be additional wipes prior to release. No one can say just how many, but hard wipes are normal during early testing phases, and it is also normal to wipe just before release as well.

Please understand that Admin's English is better than my Russian. He is quite open to ideas that will enhance gameplay. He also has to rely on those of us that are moe familiar with sailing terms and concepts to give a friendly explanation where needed without being dismissive or condescending. There is a ton of hours that go into even the most simple feature and Admin has to triage only the most important features to include to ensure the game gets finished before the end of the century. Please cut him a little slack, thank you.

Attack a friendly or neutral. Bang, pirate. There is a hard wipe scheduled for next week. Everyone will be a Midshipman with no gold then.

The card is DirectX 10 and Shader Model 4.0. The game requires DirectX 11 and Shader Model 5.0. I'm sorry to say that this card will not run the game.

Awesome. No worries at all. I maintain that thread manually, so sometimes there is a short delay, but I try to keep it up for everyone.

You mean like this? http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/6040-official-patch-notes-thread-current-version-open-world-wackypatch-updated-sept-4th/

It's not that it's a bad thing to have simulation, it's just about focusing resources on making a fun game to play, that has enough of the complexities of sailing to give you the flavor of the age, without making things so tedious or complex that the layperson is totally lost and confused. Now, I'll agree that Admin's explanation above isn't exactly accurate for leeway - one doesn't hold the rudder, one simply adjusts course to account for the lateral drift, much like an airplane that is in cruise does to account for the same effect, and I'll agree that it was excessive leeway that made some ships poorer sailors than other ships (the more leeway you have, the less speed you can get at a particular wind angle as forward speed is converted to lateral speed creating drag), but I'll argue that instead of implementing leeway directly, you could model that behavior through a slightly slower straight-line speed for a particular ship that was not weatherly, as well as more rapidly reducing the ship's best possible speed as the wind direction approaches the ship's desired course.

Good morning sir. This request has already been made and discussed a few times. Here are a couple of existing threads in which this can be discussed: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/6715-animals http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/5478-open-world-esthetics I'm going to close this thread as a duplicate. Thanks for posting!

To date, the Developers have felt that modeling currents, tidal currents, and leeway are too far towards the "simulation" side.

We already have this - you exit while in Open World. You're vulnerable for two or three minutes and then you're gone. I have three children, one of which is 6mos old, and a busy life, and I have had no problems with just logging out when I need to. I'm not sure, personally, I see much need for this based on what we already have.

I'm fine with it staying, but would like to see it knocked way down above, say, Brigs. So you have the Brigs to get squares figured out, and then above that your turn rate when stopped or in irons (with sails not in manual to turn the vessel through rig imbalance) is extremely reduced. That's a great compromise.

Good morning. After speaking with Admin this morning, he indicated that amnesty for Warning Points will be coming at some point in the future. If you'd like a Warning Point removed, please post here. Thank you!

I agree. The Devs put the zero speed rotation in to prevent people from getting caught in irons forever I believe. It's not my favorite thing, but I can understand the need for it. I just think it's a little OP right now.

In real life, generally, unless there is a crap ton of wind, your ability to apply rudder to change heading if you are not under sail is impossible - if the wind is strong enough to defeat the current/waves, the boat will "weathervane" to turn either its bow or stern into the wind (whichever is closest to the direction from which the wind is coming), otherwise the boat swirls in the current/waves. The rudder, if water is not passing over it, is useless. If the wind is acting on the boat to give it a little bit of speed, the bow can be turned downwind by deploying a sea anchor - effectively creating drag by putting a sail over the side rigged in such a way as to catch the water. The current game's turning action pretends that you have put out boats to pull the bow one way or the other, or that you have anchors and are using their rodes to kedge the bow back and forth. I agree that I think the speed at which you can currently turn with no masts and/or no sails deployed is too high and should be reduced by half.

I'd be fine with it being near 90%, but obviously we'd have to find the right number for balance if the idea was implemented. Thanks!

Another great idea as well Maturin. Being able to take one's Officers with you, while it was customary, was at the discretion of the Admiralty. If you were out of favor, you might find yourself alone amongst an entirely new crew when you were transferred.

Most people at the time didn't know how to swim. And while they'd tow the boats during combat, a smashed up sinking ship isn't going to provide much opportunity for the crew to bring those boats alongside and make an orderly boarding. More often the crew broke into the spirits locker and went berserk on a sinking ship. While I'd agree you shouldn't lose all of your crew, sinking your ship should incur a 75%+ crew loss IMO.

It's not an all or nothing idea though. For gameplay purposes, a port will always have enough unskilled landsmen (let's just say what every ship has under the current system is completely crewed with landsmen) to fill every ship that arrives - filling a ship unskilled crew will never be a limitation. Pressing landsmen is free - you pull in, and your crew refills, just like today. Each port might have a more limited number of better skilled crew available as well. These crew will cost gold or reputation to purchase - the higher the crew skill level, the more they cost. While a ship that is now low on crew due to a sinking or a failed boarding will sail short handed to the nearest port, they can always at least fill the ranks with unskilled crew. Crew experience is tracked in "pools" to be nice to the database and programming - you have, say, three pools of crew per ship - one for each crew skill rank. When crew is lost, they are removed randomly from those pools. Each battle will apply x% chance that random y crewmen will jump up to the next skill level. Jumping a Landsman to a Seaman should be fairly easy (higher % chance that crew will advance), Seaman to Able Seaman less so, Able Seaman to Mate even less still. The percentage could be higher for a win versus a loss, higher for engaging in PvP, and higher still for PvP "honor" kills. Losing a Mate should be somewhat painful. The percentage of crew above landsman will provide a small boost to ship performance - reload, turning, boarding, etc. Skill packs could be sold to boost one of these items, but not more than one at a time (simulating a Captain focusing on a particular aspect, such as Redoubtable's Captain training his entire crew in boarding skills). In the end, there must be incentive to not fight to the death. Loss of crew and/or ransoming officers is the only way I can immediately think of to do this. Fighting to the death every time is lame and extremely unrealistic.

The Developers are currently extremely busy getting the current patch ready for release next week. Keys should be sent on a Friday, however, it's a manual process and they may not have been able to get it done this week. I know it's disappointing, but please hang in there until they can circle around and get to it.

I'm sorry I don't live closer so I can go. Sounds like a lot of fun!

As Maturin mentioned, this isn't entirely true. The rigging is designed with stays and shrouds that hold the masts from all four major directions. While there are situations where being in irons could create complications, it wasn't a frequent guarantee as you have asserted.