Tom Pullings

It's what would happen on a real ship. So, seems good to me. Can't see the able seaman complaining about having to hear that damned drum again.

Yes. Very cool.

TS2015 is like FSX, a very old engine running on state of the art computers that weren't even imagined when the game was written. Both of them are huge CPU hogs (rather than GPU) and are shamefully demanding. You can find a sweet spot if you do some tweaking (as in FSX).

I'm a bit ashamed of the amount of DLC I have and the number of hours I've spent in TS. :-) Also a steam fan. Mike's FEF and Connie are fantastic! I'm American, and so focus on US rolling stock just because of familiarity and nostalgia; but do enjoy the UK lines and locos as well. Anything by Keith is fantastic but the WLoS is his masterpiece. I never tire of that route. I recommend some of the little steamers, such as the 56XX, the 2MT, or the wonderful little 3F Jinty, all of which are fun to use along the docks at the harbor. And if you haven't tried the China Clay route, by CreativeRail, you really should. Beautiful Cornish route that really captures the feel of a short line, I think.

I'm not sure I understand these comments about WoWS lacking the need for skill. Certainly the mechanics are not difficult, and aiming, for instance, is relatively easy; but as you progress up the tiers, strategy becomes important. You can't just sail around shooting things, not even in a DD. those who work together utilizing ship cooperation as one would expect, cruisers providing AA for battleships for instance, have a significant advantage. Not unlike NA, team play is quite important.

I've been playing it. It's better and worse than WoT in some ways. The balance between ships is better than between tanks. I like no stats/xvm. The players aren't quite as toxic yet. I love ships. :-) It's not as deep, in terms of strategy or skill requirements as WoT, although DD play is closer. Team play in WoWs is perhaps more important, as noted above, but that could be a good thing, and only those willing to learn it will stick around. Playing in divisions gives a big advantage in the meantime. I don't think the aim mod has changed things much. And the next update is supposed to break it. Aiming isn't hard without it (I've never felt the need to find and try the mod...most of my shots hit already). I'm enjoying it. I'm burnt out on tanks. It's the player community in WoT that has diminished the game significantly for me. If that happens in WoWs, I'll probably just uninstall both when OW is opened. As for best play, cruisers are easy mode. destroyers are silly unrealistic, but challenging to play well. I enjoy setting up a stealth approach around islands on preoccupied enemy, especially other destroyers, flanking and torping for the kill, then scooting away, dancing between the enemy volleys. That doesn't get old! I'm Griphos in WoT and WoWs. Hit me up in game and we'll lob Volleyballs of Fire at the enemy together.

VERY nicely modeled sails and netting. For the non-modelers out there, sails are particularly hard to do so that they look prototypical, and you all should be impressed. :-)

Although your initial analysis of both the causes and dynamics of leeway is erroneous, you raise an interesting issue, and I would like to see the major causes for concern over a lee shore modeled if possible: reduced headway when facing storm waves, and currents. Even moderate waves -- and, if possible, the modeling of storm surge --and a strong tide -- i.e., the modeling of currents --should give sailors concern if they find themselves too close to shore with headlands on any possible upwind course. I understand if this is asking for too much, but it would considerably enhance realism if sailors had to take waves and current into account when approaching and trying to leave port, or when sailing around in shallow, close to shore waters.

It doesn't seem that we are still having an actual conversation, but I'll give it one more try. Perhaps actually reading my post would have cleared up a couple of things, though. 2) There is no disagreement I can see, for the reasons I gave above. Bottom line, it appears your concern, to be blunt, is that TDA will hunt you down in some kind of organized way. I'm not sure anyone can say anything to reassure you sufficiently that will not be the case. But the way you can ensure that WON'T be the case is to sail under the US flag. Which leads to point 4) 4) What has anyone involved with this game said anywhere that would lead us to suspect that players could sail for "Undecided" except in the sense of being a pirate? P.S. And I don't think I've EVER been on TS with Raatha. Not that I would mind being on TS with him. No offense, Raatha. You seem like a very cool guy to me.

1) it just means our discussion will be necessarily quite speculative. The admins have weighed in, though, with what I would think would be more than sufficient assurance for the concern posted. 2) I don't see anyone disagreeing at all in the whole thread on this point. It would seem reasonable that any individual player is fair game for any pirate or pirate group, at the cost of any pirate or pirate group being hunted by all nations. But any individual player not a pirate will be part of a nation, and so will only be "hunted" by those he or she encounters from nations at war with his or her nation if they are so inclined and have the advantage. How would anything else results in anything at all like a naval action game? You seem to be worried that groups of players will roam the seas hunting down solo players regardless of their nation. Since we don't have the game yet, it's impossble to say this WON'T happen, but I see literally nothing stated by anyone that should lead one to worry that it would. Again, the admins seem to have a completely opposite vision of the game. 3). This is just unsupportable speculation on your part. There's no way you could know this will be the case. We'll have to wait to see how large or small it gets. It will need to be small enough that those sailing in the busy areas see others or there won't be much point to the game. But the admins have also emphasized many times that exploration and mapping will be part of game play as well. I suppose that those so engaged will find the world pretty empty except for fellow explorers. 4). I don't even know what you mean here. To a point? Where do you see any talk from admins about players not being part of a nation? This is a game that models the 18-19th century naval world where NO ONE just built a big ship and sailed around. All merchant and naval and even privateer ships sailed under national flags or were pirates. If you are worried that there will be large groups of pirates hunting the open seas, I think there is only one group so far formed as a specific pirate group. But, as was stated, every player would seem to be able to be part of a nation and so enlist national support to protect him or herself from such groups. And there would have to be very many pirate groups indeed for the solo player to be constantly in danger. And those groups would be hunted by ALL nations. I suspect your concern is more about whether a solo sailor will be in danger of encountering a group of vessels from a nation at war with your nation. My guess would be yes. But what else would you want, since in 5) you agree that this should be the case? If one or two groups come to dominate the seas (highly unlikely), just sail for the same nation and you will be safe from them at least, without having to associate with them in any way. And if you are sailing a fast fore and aft ship, as you stated is your intent, and encounter an unfriendly group, turn into the wind and keep the weather gauge or sail to the nearest friendly port as fast as you can. You may not make it, but if there is no risk, why play? There are sailing simulators. I have one. It's fun for a little while. The appeal of this game is that it models the high risk/high reward world of sailing for country or profit in the age of sail. It can't come soon enough for me! I can't wait for that first chase, whichever side of it i find myself on.

Actually, as a veteran of ROF from its start with many, many co-op battles both with and without AI, I can tell almost immediately which aircraft are AI. It might not be the same in NA, but I suspect it would be. I think the reason you don't want people to be able to tell from labels is so that they won't immediately jump a ship with AI escort as easy pickings. But the reason they would do so is because AI escorts would be easy pickings, which is part of how you can tell they are AI once the battle starts. I do appreciate the direction the devs are going in terms of escorts and player control. I'm sure we'll have to see how it all works in practice. PS: ROF is a truly excellent sim, and along with DCS, one of the only sims to ever model flight with a feel at all close to reality.

That's a good video!

Signed.

Yes, there is some overlap, and wind is one among several factors driving currents. But the Ekman Spiral effect means that the faster currents move at an angle to the wind, and the faster the flow, the more it moves against the wind. In addition, the prevailing winds pattern is much simpler, and they are prevailing winds, not constant winds, and sometimes don't correspond to the current, even when blowing in their usual pattern. So sailing upwind is something ships had to do with some frequency even out on the open ocean. That's all I'm saying. Certainly trade routes took advantage of the prevailing winds, but even ships following those would find winds against them at times, and naval ships couldn't always follow trade routes.

Those are currents, not prevailing winds. Although there are prevailing wind patterns as well. The winds just don't always conform to them over the course of a given day or week.