Navigation

[Preble]

Hi there,

Could you please bring back the position tool in the map screen?  Mariners in the 18th century would have been able to get a fix at sea with a reasonable degree of accuracy using celestial navigation, sextants, sun shots and the like--it wasn't all dead reckoning like the present in-game system.  Without this tool players cannot take long cruises and end game sessions out of sight of land lest they come back and not know where they are--which given navigational technology in the game period, is ahistorical.

Many thanks--

[Macjimm]

Preble,

because we have no wind or current drift in NA navigation is very easy.   We can follow bearings with lazer accuracy.   Some players enjoy that a small amount of skill is required to travel.  It can be satisfying to arrive at a destination at the planned precise time .

On the odd occasion that you are forced to flee from an enemy (or choose to chase one) and you are unable to follow your plotted course it is fairly easy to re orientate without returning to the land where you came from.  The Caribbean is pretty small and it is usually not too far from land.  Often during the chase you can still keep a rough idea of where you are.  It takes practice.   But if you do get a little lost, try one of the following suggestions:

1) make a estimate of where you are and set a course towards the nearest land.  When you reach it use the port names or the topography to re orientate your new location  (shape of the coast) to start a new course.

2) Use F11 to obtain your coordinates with a map to determine your position. (If it bothers you that the map (below) is not built into the game, pretend that when you Alt Tab to access the map that you are using a in game keybinding.   If it bothers you that F11 is not an ingame sextant well ... sigh ... maybe someday. )

http://burningsail.com/  Great for quick estimate of time and direction

http://justisdepartementet.org/naval-action-map Use F11 to get coordinates and then this map will give you a rough idea of your location

http://map.licornes.eu/ Can obtain a very accurate location.

https://namap.neocities.org/interactiveMap.html Very good map for obtaining accurate times of journey

Edited September 1, 2017 by Macjimm
grammar