Basic Navagation in OW [British]

[Windy]

OK your new to OW you spawn in and NOW WHAT ?

 

You will find that you are at St Johns, raise sails and head Due West by your compass, after 5 mins sailing you will see an Island, head to South tip and in a couple of minutes you will see the town of Charlestown, and there is another town just beyond that.

 

I hope this will help some  people.

 

Note: I used Google maps, to find St Johns, saw there were Islands Due West and headed that way, the same should apply to any other Port.

Find it on Google see whats around and head that way.

 

Good luck

 

[admin]

There are basically 2 lines you need to learn to follow when sailing first 1-2 weeks

 

Vertical Line from Gustavia (North) to St George (South) 

Horizontal Line from Gustavia (East) to Western point of Cuba (West) 

 

Follow these two lines and you will never get lost as almost always you will have next island visible in good weather. 

[Prater]

What I think is absolutely awesome about the Open World is that I am learning basic navigation and it works.  I can plot a course, find the bearing using a 360 degree compass and a lot of math, and travel it and end up where I want to go.  Right now I have the computer to crunch all the numbers but I am trying to learn the equations by hand.  Yesterday I traveled in a straight line from Jamaica to the Lesser Antilles and didn't get lost.  Open Sea for over 200 miles north of me to Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and open sea 300 miles to the South of me to South America.  In the middle of the 1.5 hour 1000 mile long journey I had 500 miles of open sea behind me, and 500 miles of open sea ahead of me. 

 

Real life tools work.  That is awesome.  I didn't know anything about navigation prior, and because of NA I've been  searching out the internet trying to learn the basics of maritime navigation and trying to figure out how they can apply to NA.

[Wobbly51]

Hi Guys, I've been struggling with my navigation in OW as my knowledge of the Caribbean is sketchy!

Found a good map here

 

http://upload.wikime...hnson-1864.jpg 

 

If you want a HiRes pdf file you can get it here - won't view in browser without 3rd party app so just download, too big for google to virus scan but I promise it's clean!

 

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B02tgqVcMUr8S1B3SmloemZ2RGc&authuser=0

 

Hope this is helpful!

Also posted this in other discussions

Edited May 12, 2015 by Henry d'Esterre Darby
Compressed your three posts (spam) into one. Please use the "Edit" function next time! Thanks.

[Wobbly51]

In my humble opinion, navigation would be enhanced if you were able to get a 'fix'  (Lat & Long) of your present position. I think this would be totally in keeping with the spirit of the game in the age of sail as they had the means to calculate this with sextant and chronometer and tabular data of stars and sun.

 

I think this should not be too difficult to implement in OW, you would probably have to 'heave to' to get your co-ordinates due to the time compression aspect of the game whilst sailing, not an issue I would think.

 

Once you have your Lat & Long you could then use 'real world' tools/maps to ascertain your current position in the world and then plot your onward course, this would be very useful if you have declined battle/run away and are dropped back into OW from the battle arena.

 

Currently, when you file a bug report  X & Y co-ordinates are supplied as part of the report so to establish 'real' lat & long co-ordinates within the OW map should I think be possible. Perhaps if it is too much programming to implement the Lat & Long co-ordinates the X & Y co-ordinates already established could be used if the settlements were also provided with these so that once discovered they could be recorded and used to plot relative positions? 

[Tryite]

Entirely in sinc with this remarq and this a thousand times.

[IonAguirre]

Direct course from coordinates:

 

Lets call point1 to the departure possition and point2 to the arrival.

Coordinates of both points would be:

Lat1 and LON1 for point1 (Latitude and Longitude)

Lat2 and LON2 for point2

 

Lets work the latitudes and Longitudes differences (iLat and iLONG)

iLat= Lat2-Lat1 (everything changed to nautical miles)

iLONG= LONG2-LON1(As above, everything in miles)

 

As the earth is not plane but spherical a correction must be done for arriving to the solution.

Note that, while moving to the north on a sphere, meridians converge more and more, until being coincident at the poles. While the longitude coordinate of both meridians does not change, the distance (in miles) between them decreases, being maximum at the equator and zero at the poles.

 

Hence, the Longitude diference calculated above means nothing, as it depends on how far from the equator (Latitude), both points are located.

 

For correcting the meridians convergence .....

Lets compute the mean latitude between point1 and point2 (Now in degrees as we will apply a simple trig formula and the angle is required)

Lets call LATm to the mean latitude.

 

Now, the true distance between departure and arrival meridians at the mean latitude is given by:

 

Ap= iLONG x COS(LATm)

 

Now, we have, a vertical distance, given by iLAT in miles, an horizontal distance given by Ap, in miles as well. And as the spherical distortion has been corrected, both distances can be taken as straight lines, forming an angle of 90º. We've got an straight triangle, and bothe legs are known.

 

Distance between point1 and point2

 

Pythagoras: D= SQRT(iLat² + Ap²)

 

Heading from point1 to point2

 

H= ATANG(Ap/ILat). Use no signs for Ap and iLat.

Will result in quadrantal notation, an example   S37W  pronounced ---> South 37 to the west.

 

How to find the quadrant name.

If iLAT is negative, first name is SOUTH.

if Ap is negative, second name is EAST.

 

Moving from quadrant notation to circular heading (The one normally used for navigation, from 000º to 360º) is trivial. Anyway, if anybody wants an explanation, don't hersitate asking.

 

The location of the ship, from the actual OW schemme can only be adquired from two known points bearings and/or by estimation (DR) from heading, speed and elapsed time.

 

For accurate results when distances are over 300 Nm, another procedure a lot more complex would be required. But for the precission required by the game, this one works fine.

Edited June 11, 2015 by IonAguirre

[Prater]

Hmmmm.

 

Naval Action is a Plane, and not a sphere, so you only need to Calculate Initial Bearing.  Final Bearing has no use in Naval Action.  Same goes with Haversines (which you don't go into).

 

Next, you are making it way more difficult than it needs to be in part by using foggy terminology, calculating quadrantal headings instead of circular ones, and using abbreviations which are not standard.  As an example, what is AP?  iLat should be Dz or Dy or dLat.  Change in Y/Z/Latitude.  iLong should be Dx, for change in X or dLong for change in Longitude

 

Also, don't use "quadrantal notation," it doesn't work with the Naval Action Compass.  Use degrees, and look at a 360 degree compass to know which Naval Action Tick to point at.  Naval Action Ticks are every 15 degrees.  Naval Action's 24 point compass does not go into the standard 32 point compass so you have to use degrees.

[IonAguirre]

All I've posted above is related to Loxodromic lines and not to Orthodromic. Aren't you a little bit confused ?

 

For a loxodromic there are no initial nor final bearings, but a constant one along the whole line.

 

The Ap term does not depend on the map projection, but on the fact that the relation between linear and angular distances changes in a sphere when latitude changes.  Then, distances calculated from coordinates (not directly measured on a map), must be corrected for the sphericity of the Earth.

 

I repeat, please dont confuse all above with the Orthodromic line that has nothing to do with my explanation.

Edited June 13, 2015 by IonAguirre

[Prater]

There is no need for a "spherical correction."  Naval Action's world is not a sphere.

 

As the earth is not plane but spherical a correction must be done for arriving to the solution.

Note that, while moving to the north on a sphere, meridians converge more and more, until being coincident at the poles. While the longitude coordinate of both meridians does not change, the distance (in miles) between them decreases, being maximum at the equator and zero at the poles.

 

Hence, the Longitude diference calculated above means nothing, as it depends on how far from the equator (Latitude), both points are located.

 

For correcting the meridians convergence .....

Lets compute the mean latitude between point1 and point2 (Now in degrees as we will apply a simple trig formula and the angle is required)

Lets call LATm to the mean latitude.

 

It also doesn't contain rhumb lines.

 

Further, you stated,

 

The Ap term does not depend on the map projection, but on the fact that the relation between linear and angular distances changes in a sphere when latitude changes.  Then, distances calculated from coordinates (not directly measured on a map), must be corrected for the sphericity of the Earth.

 

But what you describe IS map projection.  And it is not needed.  Naval Action's earth is not a sphere.  It is of a simpler construction than the earth.  It is a plane.

 

There is a much simpler way. However, this is all perfectly fine for Role playing.

[IonAguirre]

Once again ........

Are OW points coordinates taken from a real map ? Or are just an invention ? If yes, you are right, if not, you aren't.

 

Take two places at, lets say, 23º North latitude. One of them is at 83ºW and the other is at 84ºW. Whats the distance between both points?

 

Lets now take another two points. Now both located at 45º North latitude. Longitudes are the same than above 83º and 84º west. Once again, whats the distance between both points ?

 

Solve it without using a ruler on a map, but only from the provided numbers.

 

Try with no correction ¡¡

 

Calculation does not depend on the map projection. It doesn't mind if OW is plannar or not. What minds is only if real world coordinates have been used, or what is included in the game is just an invention.

 

Its not a matter of drawings nor games, but a matter of geometry.

Edited June 15, 2015 by IonAguirre

[Prater]

When the game world is created from a map, it is created from a rectangle map.  Map projection.  Spherical coordinates do not line up on a planar system perfectly.

 

Your method is perfect for roleplay.  It gives good enough accuracy if you stay within the same section of the map (travel only so many or so miles like you stated).  If you go any farther you will get off.  Though in certain areas it might be a problem.  Bermuda is one such place because it isn't in its real world position.  If you are trying to travel to a specific island that is smaller and has a narrow point that you have to hit, you might miss it as well.  Again, which is perfect for roleplay.

[Sir Cloudsley-Shovell]

Try using this,it gives you headings and distance on course "LEGS"

 

http://map.openseamap.org/

[IonAguirre]

Thanks Sir:

I've been testing OW with a professional Chart Plotter (SPS, Ship's Planning Station by Stentec Marine) and CM93V2 official charts installed. As fas as I've been able to explore in only two days, the Open World scenery is surprinsingly accurate. Predictions by SPS are complied by the Game, planning in SPS works for the game .....

 

Once again, developers .... Well done guys ¡¡

 

 

Regards

Edited June 22, 2015 by IonAguirre

[DFIL3]

On 5/9/2015 at 5:38 AM, Prater said:

What I think is absolutely awesome about the Open World is that I am learning basic navigation and it works.  I can plot a course, find the bearing using a 360 degree compass and a lot of math, and travel it and end up where I want to go.  Right now I have the computer to crunch all the numbers but I am trying to learn the equations by hand.  Yesterday I traveled in a straight line from Jamaica to the Lesser Antilles and didn't get lost.  Open Sea for over 200 miles north of me to Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, and open sea 300 miles to the South of me to South America.  In the middle of the 1.5 hour 1000 mile long journey I had 500 miles of open sea behind me, and 500 miles of open sea ahead of me. 

 

Real life tools work.  That is awesome.  I didn't know anything about navigation prior, and because of NA I've been  searching out the internet trying to learn the basics of maritime navigation and trying to figure out how they can apply to NA.

Congratulations mate!

You can also use  trigonometry to calculate your position at the open sea and it's as precise as  the F 11 button.

[Norfolk nChance]

Basic Navigation in NA-OW...

 

 

Here is my Captain Norfolk nCook guide to navigation. This PDF I suggest you download asap. Unfortunately, through memory constraints I’ll need to remove it in due course.

Also, look out for my Pacific Route in the Q&A section as well...

 

 

Norfolk

 

 

 

 

Edited March 22, 2019 by Norfolk nChance