[Suggestion] Water Drafting

  • iDevilsdocry
    Marauder
    Insider

    Anything moving on water leaves behind a trail that displaces water from rest of the water.

    Let's assume a normal ship speed is 500 mpm with sails in full wind. Now with "water trail" that ship will go little bit faster as long as it stays in the trail. So if the trail is 50m long, chasing ship will get slightly faster as it gets closer to the ship thats being chased.

    Speeds below are in full wind and chasing smaller ships is hard because trail isn't as big as it is for big ships.

    Waves outside of the trail and wind can push a ship off the trail so someone has to be on the wheel.

    Galleon speed: 600 mpm.
    If the trail is 50m long, divide in an increment of 5.
    Chasing a galleon, chasing galleon will gain 13 mpm per increment (665 mpm overall)
    Chasing a brig, galleon will get faster at 10 mpm per increment. (650 mpm overall)
    Chasing a sloop, galleon will get faster at 7 mpm per increment. (635 mpm overall)

    Brigantine: Speed 450 mpm.
    Chasing a galleon, brig gains 12 mpm per increment. (510 mpm overall)
    Chasing a brig, chasing brig gains 9 mpm per increment. (495 mpm overall)
    Chasing a sloop, bring gains 8 mpm per increment. (490 mpm overall)

    Sloop: Speed 350 mpm.
    Chasing a galleon, 13 mpm per increment. (420 mpm overall)
    Chasing a brigantine, 10 mpm per increment. (400 mpm overall)
    Chasing a sloop, chasing sloop gain 8 mpm per increment. (390 mpm overall)

    Note: mpm = meters per minute.

    This feature isn't meant to let slower ships catch up to faster ships or anyway around. It's just a feature.

    Let me know what you think about it or how it could be improved. Thanks!

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  • Mith Bosevem
    Marauder

    Ive always thought there should be wakes but only to make it look more realistic. That would add a cool dynamic espcially during slow sloop-sloop chases lol.
    The wake could also cause loot to get pushed along it.

  • MarsMayflower
    Captain
    Insider

    For more immersion I would love to see more caustic effects for interaction with the water or some kind of shader at the least for behind the boat. but what they have accomplished for modest hardware is impressive so I can understand why they haven't added it.

  • iDevilsdocry
    Marauder
    Insider

    @mith-bosevem Ah yes! Totally forgot about same ship chases. Thanks!

  • Nabberwar
    Lord
    Insider

    @idevilsdocry
    Word your looking for is drafting.

  • iDevilsdocry
    Marauder
    Insider

    @nabberwar Jackpot! Thanks!

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    EDIT: I was mistaken about drafting. Upon further research, I've found the term used interchangeably with wake riding, mainly in small vessel racing, like outriggers and canoes. It seems to me they refer to slightly different things. As I understand it, drafting requires you to get really close--like within a boat-length--of the leading vessel.

    The "trail" left behind by a moving vessel is called a "wake." Riding the wake does indeed provide improved speed and efficiency. The water is already moving in the desired direction, resulting in less drag on the following vessel.

    This normally would have no effect on the leading vessel. But with sailing vessels, there is an exception. If both vessels happen to be sailing with the wind, the trailing vessel can actually steal the wind of the leading vessel. This would naturally slow the leading vessel down considerably, and the following vessel would easily overtake them.

  • XxCaptMichaelxX
    Captain
    Insider

    This is a cool idea. It'll bring chases to a conclusion faster, and it'll give the lead ship a chance to predict the movement of the chasing vessel so counter attacks will be more frequent.

  • Genuine Heather
    Captain
    Insider

    The chasing ship would have to get pretty close to the lead vessel for the wake to provide any boost in speed. And stealing wind could only happen in very specific circumstances. I’m not saying “no,” but even if it was implemented, it would be very circumstantial. Not sure it’d be worth either the development time or server resources.

  • ENF0RCER
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @idevilsdocry

    This suggestion has been made before although this post is more detailed and laid out. May i add it to Community Ideas Master List? I find it interesting you choose mpm as your metric instead of Knots but it seems to work better using higher round numbers instead of decimal points.

    It's a good idea but im not sure if Rare would be willing to add such a mechnic cause it would considerably up the skill ceiling as it adds more complexity to sailing.

    I also see a rather complex issue with adding the ablity to steal wind as the wind itself is not an object it's simply a value the sails check for. The sails themselves have no colision mesh. So while it appears as though they are catching the wind they are not. This is why when all sails are facing forward they a go full billow instead of just the back sail as it doesn't block the wind as there nothin there to block. It's just a visual indicator. A system would have to be scripted to emulate this, but it would be very complex and waste alot of resources as it would need to track all the sails of every ship and there relation to eachother and calculate the value change based on proximity, line of sight and angle every second. Thats a lot of processing power right there.

  • iDevilsdocry
    Marauder
    Insider

    @enf0rcer you can add it to the list.

  • ENF0RCER
    Captain
    Insider
    Founder

    @idevilsdocry said in [Suggestion] Water Drafting:

    @enf0rcer you can add it to the list.

    You post has been added. Thankyou for your contribution.

  • CallMeBackdrafT
    Vanguard
    Insider
    Founder

    Its a cool idea however in sailing ships something else interesting could happen but that would need a huge overhaul i think, namely dynamic wind (yes i know it moves already but thats globally) if you have the wind in your back and get chased the trailing ship would have the option to steal the wind out of the sails of the ship ahead because that ship is basicly catching it with its sails

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