Currents

[Belphe]

Do you think ocean currents would be something worth modeling in Naval Action? They would not matter in battles but in conjunction with an open world AI NPC fleets sailing for the player across the globe this could make a difference between loss and profit. If one knew the "faster, current fuelled" route he or she could sell their goods for a better price, just before it dropped...

What do you think? It's probably very little programming but hell of a lot of immersion.

[chucknorris7890]

yeah i would be so down for having currents in the game, plus it would add to the realism of the game and it would make players decide which routes to go, for example the current and wind are good in this direction but you would be sailing into dangerous waters and there is a possibility of loosing ships but your profit margin will be much greater if they succeed. good idea Belphe. 

[maturin]

Not sure why current always seems to come up. They're not really that critical unless you are a climatologist or are drifting around helplessly in a raft.

 

Coastal tides, on the other hand, were critical for all aspects of seafaring. Practically the stoplight of the age of sail.

[chucknorris7890]

Yeah tides would be a cool feature as well.

[Destraex]

i always thought tides were part of what made up current in a given area. I had no idea that currents or the direction the water was running had no effect on battles.

[Destraex]

but yes if the direction water is flowing has an effect on battle i would like to see it in. Thus ships travelling in given directions ccould go faster, slower or get pulled if they did not have enough sail set. Would this not be worth doing? Or perhaps only worth doing near the coast?

[BungeeLemming]

Well maybe we shall not look at the "sea"currents as a factor but taking the common air currents into account.

If devs aim for a real world scenario they can simply apply the RL airflow into the game.

 

Maybe we get some sort of realistic wheater changes. Day/ night-time currents, all 4 seasons taken into account..

And of course (rage moments to come) the random dead calm:P

[Destraex]

All I need to know really is if the sea has a real effect in battle on a ships speed due to sea movement direction. Be they tides, currents or otherwise.

[Hawke]

Currents can be important from a game-play perspective. In an open world scenario it ensure people don't spent massive amounts of time doing nothing (sailing from point A to point B ) I think it's a feature that should be implemented in the open world. 

 

It would be great to see it in battle as well. An unwary captain could be laid up on a lee shore if he doesn't pay attention. 

[Chilly Willy]

currents in open world travel would be nice 

however reading about some of the currents it would be a 

fairly large project for the devs  ex. the currents in the english channel change direction every 6 hours

and there is this vidieo that shows currents in the med. if they can pull it off would make for some intresting open sea sailing

2:12 vid on youtube

[Johny Reb]

To say that currents weren't important is inaccurate as I understand it Maturin. First travel between Europe and the Carribean was often along currents which also happened to follow along with the trades and such. Currents in certain harbors could be down right treacherous.

 

Currents on a large scale would be nice if done in a way thats accurate and not the Potbs "sail over the arrow" routine. But it may prove to difficult unless they implement the pve explorer/map seller.

 

You would have to create effects that would alert players of currents in play and I think that will prove to difficult for them. For examples of effects that would be needed: different sea states, water moving in opposing directions, wave action at the boundary of two currents, possible water color differential, whirlpools, etc.

 

I'd rather see them focus on shoals, sand bars, and reefs first if I had to choose.