Open world travel new solution

[Extrasalt]

Ok so everyone, including the developers, have heard of the age old need for a solution to the hours of sailing in a straight line doing nothing. Many say to increase the speed, others say to shrink the map or get rid of the wind mechanic in open world. The main reason why people want this to be fixed is to fill their gameplay with actual content that is interesting and productive. But others also want the game to be realistic and not have 19th century ships zooming faster than a lot of modern ships. So to please both parties, why not add content to the sailing itself, wether it be micro-managing the crew(for large crews, maybe just groups of people ie. gunners, helmsmen, people on sails etc.) allow for manual sail adjustment in open world, this has been suggested before. And maybe even a system of crew drills to improve crew skill levels like aim or sail adjustments. Along with these you could, for the micro-manage part, be able to look into the internals of the ship from a side view, as in the side hull would disappear for you to see inside and manage your crew groups. Of course most if not all of this would be disabled in combat. Maybe there are some rogue waves and now you have to bail water to retain speed and crew morale! I just pray that some dev sees this and at least discuss it with the team at the very least. And if you don’t want to change the game demographic so drastically then make a kind of micro-managing Lite Edition, where it’s less complicated and maybe you don’t have to give constant attention to detail, or just only add a few of these things in at first, if people like it and ask for more, give it to them! I don’t know if the devs invisibles their game to have the above content and if they just wanted pure combat, but from every open world game I’ve seen that has taken years to develop and in some cases still not released after over half a decade(looking at you star citizen), there comes a point in a game’s life where it is either successful or a complete failure based on just a few updates that the devs choose to put out. And from what I’ve noticed, it’s better to drift a little from your original vision to give something more, maybe not the main mechanic but significant nonetheless. I think this is that time for naval action as I have played across all time zone daytimes, and it has consistently never ever broken a thousand. I mean no disrespect.

[Cetric de Cornusiac]

Basically some good ideas about how to spend the time in an interesting way, but never make it mandatory. Some people like it perfectly the way it is now. Means, they can do other things while sailing afk - and they like it. It may even be the reason they can play at all (because the other occupation is important, like learning, like their job, even washing dishes or kissing the wife...).

[Cathal Brugha]

For me the problem is not having nothing to do sailing in OW, it is that it takes so much of the limited time available to play. If I only have an hour to play, I do not want to spend the entire time only getting part way to a destination, so I will go play something else, thereby, the long sailing time drives me away. Or, most often, I don't travel far, if at all. Micro management would just drive me away even more, it would just give a mindless things to do and would prevent afk sailing.

[Macjimm]

I like sailing.  If the long distance, open sea travel was removed the game would be boring to me.  But I dont want to be forced to do meaningless tasks.  I keep a log book, navigate, plot the course, estimate when I will arrive, time my travel in dangerous areas (to have the wind advantage), watch for enemy, hail other ships for info. Etc.   There is lots to do without making up stuff.  Keeping the log book and navigating, while watching for those supercharged speedboat raiders is enough.

When I can be resonably sure I am far away from shore, ports, and wind boosts, I enjoy a little break.  AFK is nice for part of the journey.  Brew a cup.  Hit the head.  If more make-busy-work tasks are added, I sure hope they are optional. The game is busy and rushed enough without adding unnecessary content, considering the rapid pace of travel in OW.

  I would like added;

1. Control of the ship from a proximal free view.  (Ship controls from a camera view within 2 meters of any part of the ship).
2. Enough OW manual sails to tweek speed.
3. Auto match the speed of the slowest member of a group.
4. Toggled lookout that alerts when a ship or land sighted.  (Must have On/Off keybind)

[Slim McSauce]

Jump points like E.V.E across continents. Set coastal sailing speed back to a natural <15 knot state. Open ocean travel is not a strength of NA

Edited March 23, 2020 by Slim McSauce