ObiQuiet

Press M in game to see port owners.

I know they didn't have cut & paste in the olden days, or if they did it was much more difficult than the technology we have now. I simply want to copy the ship data over to a ledger or notebook when I look at a ship in a port. Then I can paste another next to it and see which is the better deal. Or, I can send the details to a friend. Is that too much to ask? (If so, just say my name out loud.) Cheers, -ObiQuiet

I was in an excellent (I mean very nasty) storm last night. Sailing in a narrow channel with less visibility than I've seen before. Fog, pelting rain, heavy seas, sounds -- I got a chill in my easy chair. If someone had hit me with water, I might not have even noticed. In fact, I thought the wave were unrealistically steep for the narrow waterway -- open sea waves. Most excellent (I mean terrible) weather! The storms are out there. Damage from storms is one factor that would make the OW more strategic and tactical and less like going shopping. I would like to see bad weather as an accelerator of gradual wear and tear. I think some map areas could be known for bad weather, affecting the flow of commerce and ones ability to hold the area for long periods of time.

Well, no. The players I know of don't use it for navigation, though they do use maps that were made before the in-game map existed. I venture that those most in the spirit of the game and the age it represents would like an approximate location indicator, equivalent to the errors inherent in navigation at that time. We even made one to use in place of the accurate co-ords.

What does this mean? (Very nice work on the otiginal)

If you've already seen it, skip it. If not and you care for a contrary view, here is my opinion in some detail.

@Ruthless4u, maybe we can sail it together some time when I'm up there next. My own most embarrassing navigation mistake was following a coast line down around South America only to find I had sailed full circle around an island without realising it. Twice. Two loops.

It is clear that navigation tools are conspicuous by their absence, especially on a player’s initial experience with the Open World. I too noticed it immediately when OW started 6+ months ago. Rough count has 13 active threads on the topic in the last 2 weeks. I hope this qualifies for a sticky post. However, let me lend you the voice of some experience. TL;DR: Shut the $*&%!@* up about navigation debates. Instead, try out the player-made tools and give the community feedback in the Maps subforum.. I think the tools we and others have built can help the community to move the conversation in a productive direction. IMHO the player made tools can be seen as prototypes of what you all are asking for and debating about. Background: Early in OW members of TDA charted the whole world as you see it now with no tools other than the XZ co-ordinate system. (The F11 function was critical to that effort) We visited every port multiple times, and followed every coastline We built some experimental tools that would blow your mind, but which were completely anachonistic and are now obsolete. Points on which we all agree: No one in their right mind wants an exact position. Instead, we want tools that feel like what mariners of the era had. It’s a pain to be lost at sea. It happens to us in the game when we’re not careful. Facts: The game world is FLAT. This means that straight lines, the in-game compass and the distance formula we learned in school are sufficient for navigating from a known location. There is no leeway, no compass error, no currents or tides. This is not true in the real world which is why chronometers, sextants and tedious math were needed. The in-game maps and the compass have enough accuracy that all but the longest journeys to small targets are risk-free. (The one challenge is getting to Bermuda. But if you notice, a course due east from Wilmington bisects the islands.) Opinions: Fancy in-game navigation tools beyond heading lines will quickly get tiresome. There is no skill involved in taking a noon-sight with a sextant, only the possibility of error. If the game forces the occasional error, we’d get frustrated and just go with dead reckoning. This is my opinion based on thousands of sea miles over many months of playing I reject the idea that mini-games about finding our way will have any staying power or interest. Recognizing that the NEW PLAYER experience is important, I can strongly recommend the realistic behavior of STICKING to the COAST until you are comfortable venturing out of sight of land. It won't take you long. There is a LEGITIMATE desire for a convenient way to see course headings, so that captains know what course to steer. There are several of these tools made by players, and you can make your own using any drawing tools you want: Paper & Pencil, MSPaint, PowerPoint, and hundreds of better tools. You can even hold a protractor up to your flat screen monitor!! There is a LEGITIMATE desire to judge travel times. We had this on an earlier version of TDAMap, and I am considering re-implementing it. (The map makers on this forum have recently agreed on a shared definition of distance and speed, so our various implementations will be consistent in the times we give you. Domox has one now.) You can even hold a ruler up to your (on-screen) map and determine the distance and thus the travel time for you own ship. That's what real mariners did. Remember, the world is FLAT. Accounting for wind direction is a MINI-GAME you can play in your head. If you are concerned about getting LOST AT SEA, use techniques that are similar to what real navigators used: Write down your position and heading occasionally in a LOG BOOK, so when you forget if your battle was off Almeria or Almirante you’ll have notes to look at. For those wanting REALISTIC TOOLS, this is about as realistic as it gets. Head in the direction of known land, duh. Try out the noon sight feature at TDAmap.com and post your feedback here. My Rants: For heaven’s sake, stop filling the forums with new threads and debates about the obvious. Instead, look at the available tools and tell us how well they work for you and whether or not you find their implementations useful, convenient, and sufficiently realistic. I sincerely hope this moves the discussion FORWARD, and PERHAPS gives the developers some good material to work with IF they choose to implement an in-game feature.

A group should choose from this list: Fleet Squadron Armada Navy Flotilla For trading organizations: Guild, Leagues (e.g. the Hanseatic League), Company (e.g. The Dutch East India Company) For Pirates it's a little harder, but maybe we could concede to provide some more appropriate terms like: Band, Freebooters (from the Dutch term), Clan.

I really like this kind of role playing. Well done indeed!

Yes, please keep up this reporting! If possible, a time lapse of the map would be great to build up over time.

The best recourse in this situation is to use the chat ignore and report. At the same time I agree with Bouzioune that it's not what a civil society should be blind to.

They are sensitive to that in part, I think, to discourage ramming. IRL, it was a suicide move and was basically never done. In the earlier tests it was a viable tactic which had to be compensated for.

Would be extra cool if GL would publish a conquest API we could query over HTTP... (hint)

A list of player-made tools that do some of what you want is here.

Www.tdamap.com/portmap.html

A number of people have spent many months making the tools you want. They are here.

I'm happy with the ms lifechat lx-4000. Inexpensive, light, fine for voices. Game audio comes out other speakers.

Try out our map at tdamap.com It is accurate for navigation, lets you indicate your positions, and even simulates taking noon sightings.

Squadrons, Fleet

The map at tdamap.com now does this.

Sounds like Excells wants more stuff for less time investment. (Either that, or 5000 XP just sounds better than 50XP.) The reward here, Mr./Ms. Excells, is in learning to hold your own. Can't do that without a lot of practice.

I've added a page for player-made maps, but can't link it into the main page.

Check out our work at tdamap.com . It is close to what you want. You can now add one or more ship marker, and it will draw the lines from your position. It's not perfect, but making it so would take away battle time. For personal annotations, I suggest using one of the many, many screen cap / annotation tools that are around.

The rig is a dynamic structure: yards sway, lines vibrate, gusts shake the luff and leach, even when sailing close-hauled, or on a bowline with the rig hard up against the wind. For the game, it might be enough to add a little bit of relative motion in the yards to liven up the motion. Perhaps more when rolling and pitching, less when sailing close-hauled.