Alternative steering method

[Wicked Mouse]

As a captain one is not holding the steering wheel and steering the ship him/herself. Instead one of the crew members is doing so. Depending on the size of the ship there may also be a navigator on board to give commands to the helmsman? In any way verbal orders are given. Why not represent this in the form of being able to click on the compass what direction you want to go to? Same style used in Silent Hunter 3 for instance (maybe also other games, but this one I know). There you steer the submarine either plotting a course on the map or clicking the compass for a course. An officer will call out the direction for the helmsmen, same with depth, by the way.

 

I think this will help with the immersion when directions are called out by an officer or the helmsman. Meanwhile you can keep the normal WASD steering for everyone who might dislike that system.

[Ned Loe]

It would be cool to see auto sailing while you firing guns. Simply turn on Auto sailing and select target (sail next to). All you have to do now is aim and shoot, NPC will take care of sailing for you and stick to the target that you fire at. 

[Cabral]

As a captain one is not holding the steering wheel and steering the ship him/herself. Instead one of the crew members is doing so. Depending on the size of the ship there may also be a navigator on board to give commands to the helmsman? In any way verbal orders are given. Why not represent this in the form of being able to click on the compass what direction you want to go to? Same style used in Silent Hunter 3 for instance (maybe also other games, but this one I know). There you steer the submarine either plotting a course on the map or clicking the compass for a course. An officer will call out the direction for the helmsmen, same with depth, by the way.

 

I think this will help with the immersion when directions are called out by an officer or the helmsman. Meanwhile you can keep the normal WASD steering for everyone who might dislike that system.

 When you are using WASD you are giving orders to the helmsman, not being helmsman yourself. And in battle is by using WASD that differentiates sailing skills among players, some are better than others doing maneuvers under fire.

[Wicked Mouse]

 When you are using WASD you are giving orders to the helmsman, not being helmsman yourself. And in battle is by using WASD that differentiates sailing skills among players, some are better than others doing maneuvers under fire.

It may be possible to be seen that way, but doesn't FEEL that way. And I'm not talking about automating it completely. So instead of pressing the A key until your ship is pointed into (roughly) the degree you wanted to go, you click the compass and watch the ship turn until it reaches that heading, while crew calls out the heading to you to confirm the order. Maybe same for sails: instead of pressing W a couple times until you reach full sail, you click one of the few options and an officer will call out the full sail order to the crew. Optionally the developers can give them keybindings that can be remapped by the player.

 

This is Silent Hunter III by the way:

Edited November 6, 2016 by Wicked Mouse

[Destraex]

I always wanted to be able to accurately set my rudder by degrees. Currently it's pretty much full or nothing.

[Winters]

Auto sail would be nice for OW.