Quote:Original post by chefgon_ign
Wind Waker is the only real point-of-reference on this one. I personally loved the semi-realistic wind interaction, and I did a lot of tacking.

However, it must be noted that I am in the minority on this situation, as the vast majority of conversation I have seen on the subject was that the average player hated it, and resorted to using their whistle to change the wind direction every time they made a turn. That wouldn't bode well for an action game.

From my perspective, the sailing aspects of the game were largely just filler; they got in the way of the land aspects, so I just wanted to get them over with as quickly as possible. Thus, I'd only not bother changing the wind to get where I'm going if tacking was faster (i.e. if the amount of time it took to pull out the baton, perform the song, and watch the wind change direction overcame the gains of moving faster).

Now it sounds like your game will be focusing on the marine aspects of sailing even more than Wind Waker did. If you can keep the player sufficiently entertained while they're sailing, they may not mind being obstructed by wind so much. Prevailing trade winds can also be used to make trade routes into a directed graph (You could sail against the winds from Cuba to the African coast, tacking all the way, but why would you want to?), which is more realistic than having no winds at all. I'm still not certain that having wind would add fun, but I'm not as convinced that it'd be as annoying as it was in Wind Waker.

Take a looks at Pirates! by Sid Myer It's an sailing adventure game where wind affects both traveling and combat. Ships move constantly in combat based primarily on the wind and agumented by sails, and hull design. It played an important factor in combat because ships could only fire directly left and right. So, with a fast ship and good sailing you cold prevent the enemy from being able to hit you while you constantly bombard them.

Also wind played a major factor when traveling as when the wind was against you your ships speed dropped to next to nothing or even start pushing you in the other direction. Making it difficult and time consuming to reach certain places.

Quote:Original post by Derakon
Now it sounds like your game will be focusing on the marine aspects of sailing even more than Wind Waker did. If you can keep the player sufficiently entertained while they're sailing, they may not mind being obstructed by wind so much. Prevailing trade winds can also be used to make trade routes into a directed graph (You could sail against the winds from Cuba to the African coast, tacking all the way, but why would you want to?), which is more realistic than having no winds at all. I'm still not certain that having wind would add fun, but I'm not as convinced that it'd be as annoying as it was in Wind Waker.

Yes you are correct, the game focuses exclusively on the marine aspects of sailing. So much so actually that that, as of my current plans, the player is not able to leave his/her ship and go ashore. [smile] (although making port and trading/making repairs via a dialog box is essential to the game.) Also, how would you suggest keeping the players entertained while traveling? (besides through open ocean combat)

Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
My understanding is that, in the age of fighting sail, utilizing the wind properly was an artform, one that could make a huge impact on the outcome of a fight or the duration of a journey.

This is my understanding also (gained from films like "Master and Commander") and i would like to incorporate the fact that players who have learned to use the wind can use their skill to their benefit.

Quote:Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
That said, I'm not sure it would be popular in a video game. Realistic simulation isn't always terribly popular... ...and if you work too hard to be faithful, you'll wind up alienating a lot of people.

This is also what I'm afraid of doing(thus the reason I posted a thread [smile]). To me, trade winds that sometimes stray from the normal seems like the solution. Currently i have only two ports in the game and i really want to add another one... mabey i should connect the first two with the "trade winds" and make the third somewhere out of the way where only skilled sailors could navigate?

thanks again,

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Stevo