Ships are slower with cargo? Just checking that they lose a few knots heavily laden

[Destraex]

Not a suggestion as such. Has anybody observed heavily laden ships (think gold convoy) being slower and thus requiring an escort and being easily caught?

[jodgi]

Not last time I checked, right before the headstart.

Everyone seems to want that player shipping should be vulnerable, so it might come. That bring a few problems but that's not my fight.

[Stix]

They wanted that in PotBS aswell, it's just not practical to have big conveys and escorts, when people have a few hours a day to play they will move x to z by themselves 99% of the time

[AKPyrate]

Additionally, heavily laden ships can be faster than if they're being transported 'in ballast' or in fighting trim.  They should accelerate and turn slower, but with the designs of these vessels a deeper draft can occasionally increase waterline length slightly, which will in turn create a faster theoretical hull speed (lots of factors here, including extra friction and extra draft, but in general the longer the vessel for the beam, the faster it is).  Additionally, once up to speed, waves will slow down a light ship much easier than a heavy ship, and the momentum can be used to carry them through a slower tack while maintaining more speed.  Furthermore, the weight of cargo should be compared to the weight of all the cannons, extra crew and possessions, food for the extra crew, shot and powder, less than optimal stowage of weight (cannons are higher weight than cargo would generally be, potentially causing stability and trim issues).  In short, a naval vessel and a merchant ship built along the same lines could be easily loaded to the same draft lines, and the speed would not be appreciably different.  Often why merchant vessels were slower was because of limited sails (many merchants eventually were 'cut down' creating fewer sails, thus cheaper to operate for the owners), and the design of larger merchants was heavily in favor of cargo space as opposed to speed.  But, if they're the 'same ship' in game, there really shouldn't be a difference in speed.