Link Requested Sail Power Percent to Sailing Crew Requirement

[Wesreidau]

So if I've got a ship at 100% sail and requiring 100 hands to manage all the ropes, blocks, tackle, hoists, jibs, and other words I don't particularly understand but are rattling off...

 

Then why is it being at 20% sail still requires all those men to stand by slack ropes and furled sheets?

 

I'm thinking that as we increase or decrease our requested sail level, men can be called to or freed from the sailing duty. So if I sail my 100-sailing job ship at 60% sails, I'd free 40 men for the guns or pumps. This would be useful for all ships and may even encourage fighting at reduced sail to more fully man the guns.

[maturin]

Good suggestion.

 

Lower sail settings could reduce the sailing requirement.

 

 

But to be devil's advocate: When you wanted to make sail again, you would be enjoying full efficiency at setting sail with your crew still reduced. So that's like getting something for free.

[Wesreidau]

The request can go as it pleases, but the actual sail power is tied to assigned crew and yard raising time (as well as sail condition). Trying to go from 0% to 100% sail will require crew transferred into the job, and depending on the  yard raising time to crew transfer relationship on your vessel, the charismatic boatswain may be more useful. Also this means setting full sail and then putting sailing to reduced priority will no longer give you full sail performance with only a fraction the crew assigned. You can currently have 100% sail and 0 crew assigned to sailing, this change will tie assigned crew to maximum sail power in such a way that you can't set sail, tie the lines off and ignore the sails thereafter. If you need extra men on the guns, you have to slacken sails. If you need full sails, you may end up sacrificing firepower to do it.

[maturin]

Point is, your hands-off suggestion will either handicap players when they go to set sail, or let them enjoy full-efficiency sailhandling for free, with the crew still manning the guns.

 

It would be better all around just to make some closer management of crew assignments possible. That would solve the problem.

[Wesreidau]

I'm a little confused here. Currently sails can be at 100% force and 0 sailors. My proposal will tie the required crew to the requested sailing level. If I request 60% sails, I request 60% of the maximum sailing jobs be filled. The maximum level of the sails is tied to the percent of sailing jobs filled. So I might have 100 sailing jobs, requesting 60% sails, have 60 sailing jobs, only 40 sailors assigned, and end up with a maximum of 40% sail force.

 

With the sails dropped to 0%, we'll see the guns fill up and the surplus crew sit idle. If sailing is still a priority job, they'll idle in the sailing job slots, able to respond quickly to a sail order.

[KrakkenSmacken]

I'm a little confused here. Currently sails can be at 100% force and 0 sailors. My proposal will tie the required crew to the requested sailing level. If I request 60% sails, I request 60% of the maximum sailing jobs be filled. The maximum level of the sails is tied to the percent of sailing jobs filled. So I might have 100 sailing jobs, requesting 60% sails, have 60 sailing jobs, only 40 sailors assigned, and end up with a maximum of 40% sail force.

 

With the sails dropped to 0%, we'll see the guns fill up and the surplus crew sit idle. If sailing is still a priority job, they'll idle in the sailing job slots, able to respond quickly to a sail order.

 

Your thinking in the wrong terms.  

 

When your at 0% crew, you have no crew to CHANGE how the sails are rigged, so the current rigging is lashed down how it is, and you go as fast as that rigging lets you.  

When you have full crew the change is faster, but just because you have no crew, does not mean the wind stops blowing.

 

Now, I would agree that there be a maximum based on % of crew, due to not being able to fine tune the rigging for stretch or perfecting the yard angles, but that should be the difference between 80-100% efficiency, and is largely based on which way the yards are swung, and would certainly not have the range of effect you are suggesting.

 

It's not like those hands are rowing the boat.

[Wesreidau]

Correct, at 0% crew there's no change to rigging. The thrust of my suggestion is to make full speed sailing manpower intensive and "battle" speed free up crew for the guns. And while the hands aren't rowing, their eyes are watching all those sheets and lines for trouble, splicing damaged rigging and standing by to swing the yards while under full force. There's a lot less to baby-sit at battle sail and fewer men would be needed to swing yards with their sails furled and not under force. So you could maintain full maneuverability with your rigging at battle sail with less men, since the yard turn time is determined by percent of jobs filled, not total manpower.

[KrakkenSmacken]

Correct, at 0% crew there's no change to rigging. The thrust of my suggestion is to make full speed sailing manpower intensive and "battle" speed free up crew for the guns. And while the hands aren't rowing, their eyes are watching all those sheets and lines for trouble, splicing damaged rigging and standing by to swing the yards while under full force. There's a lot less to baby-sit at battle sail and fewer men would be needed to swing yards with their sails furled and not under force. So you could maintain full maneuverability with your rigging at battle sail with less men, since the yard turn time is determined by percent of jobs filled, not total manpower.

 

I'm not 100% sure, and would have to test it, but I am pretty sure that in all cases the first priority of sails is to turn the yards already, then extra people are assigned to sail furl/unfurl and other rigging tasks already.

 

If you think that 100% sail means max power without manually controlling the yards, you need to spend some time flat aback and digging your way out of it in a heavy ship.

[The MetaBaron]

Just watch the way sails are lowered and raised in game. If you go to full stop from full sail you still take each sail down as if you were going from full to half etc... There is only so much room on the deck and in the rigging, as it is the game affords you much more control over this in a way that leads to very unrealistic tactics. The system right now is a good compromise from realism, anything further and it would become very arcade feeling.