Feedback on the feature from the blog

[Sea Archer]

Since I couldn't find a topic here, where we can discuss the features, we can read in the blog, I opened this one here. @Ink, maybe you can open an official one ;).

I really like the hold management, you show there, but I have the following remarks.

When distributing the cargo, fore aft and in the middle, the only information we should get is the draft fore and aft, as it was historically. You shall have the information where the designed waterline is (so the calculated draft and your deviation from it), but the influence it has on sailing the ship. That is something every player should find out for himself. Some officers can you you advice, but that is only experience and not excact data. This draft can then directly be used when bathymetry comes into play.

 

When loading the ship there should be different layers (decks), where to stow the cargo. Since in those old days every ship was leaking more or less, the items down in the hold, in its lowest place will have a high properbility of getting wet. It would be wise to place water, coal and roundshot down there, but not valuable cargo. Therefor I suggest to have the different decks and sections along the length of the ship.

A few items would be stowed in always the same places as there is the bread-, spirit-, powder room. Those cannot be distributed in the hold, except those items are the cargo. They will have have their place and influence on the sailing properties.

During the journey, when food and water are getting used, the sailing properties should change and restowing on sea is necessary, that will take some hours, but can improve sailing, when done correctly.

 

[Sea Archer]

The sky in your video looks fantastic. I really like it.

You should make the water much darker at night. At least it is my experience, that water, when sailing at night, is more like sailing in black ink, even if you can see sometime the white spray in the starlight.

[Bonden]

16 hours ago, Sea Archer said:

Since I couldn't find a topic here, where we can discuss the features, we can read in the blog, I opened this one here. @Ink, maybe you can open an official one ;).

I really like the hold management, you show there, but I have the following remarks.

When distributing the cargo, fore aft and in the middle, the only information we should get is the draft fore and aft, as it was historically. You shall have the information where the designed waterline is (so the calculated draft and your deviation from it), but the influence it has on sailing the ship. That is something every player should find out for himself. Some officers can you you advice, but that is only experience and not excact data. This draft can then directly be used when bathymetry comes into play.

 

When loading the ship there should be different layers (decks), where to stow the cargo. Since in those old days every ship was leaking more or less, the items down in the hold, in its lowest place will have a high properbility of getting wet. It would be wise to place water, coal and roundshot down there, but not valuable cargo. Therefor I suggest to have the different decks and sections along the length of the ship.

A few items would be stowed in always the same places as there is the bread-, spirit-, powder room. Those cannot be distributed in the hold, except those items are the cargo. They will have have their place and influence on the sailing properties.

During the journey, when food and water are getting used, the sailing properties should change and restowing on sea is necessary, that will take some hours, but can improve sailing, when done correctly.

 

+1 

The loading log should indeed be established by the player himself by experience, with the help of the master, having the plan of the hold compartments and knowing the volume and weight of stores. The captain would assess himself the effect on the vessel's draught and stability. At least this could be an option. 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Bonden

[Bonden]

8 hours ago, Bonden said:

+1 

The loading log should indeed be established by the player himself by experience, with the help of the master, having the plan of the hold compartments and knowing the volume and weight of stores. The captain would assess the effect on the vessel's draught and stability himself/herself. At least this could be an option. 

Changing the trim should be done after the first cruises - the first being devoted to discovering the characteristics of the ship and the effect of the actual arrangement of the hold. It should be adjusted back in port, where the ship was stable and still. At sea, at the beginning of a cruise, when the hold is crammed with stores and casks, it was very difficult to make major changes in the hold arrangement. Trimming could however be changed by moving the guns (with tackles, out of their carriage) and/or roundshots aft and fore. It was possible to move several tons fore and aft with such system, without being obliged to change all the hold's arrangement. As the stores were consumed, more room was available for changes in the hold arrangement. A nice description of this operation can be found in "Hornblower and the Hotspur" (chap III). 

Edited February 9, 2021 by Bonden

[Bonden]

Hi devs,

A small question about the first entry in the SL blog (the Clerk): what kind of texts and litterature did you use to feed the Clerk ? Only contemporary accounts, newspapers and logs ? Or also present naval fiction literature ? As regards the  captain's orders (getting under way at port, setting the course, tacking, clearing for action, beating for quarters, etc.) and the dialogues between the player/captain and his officers (officer of the watch, master, etc.), it could be nice to feed the Clerk with chosen excerpts from realistic naval fiction, like Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and Thomas Kydd series. It could be very immersive to hear our watch officer shouting orders to tack after I decided it… 

Example: from Foster's Hornblower and the Hotspur, chap III:

"Slack water now, sir", announced Bush. "First of the ebb in ten minutes. And anchor's hove short, sir". "Thank you, Mr Bush".

(…)  "Mr Bush!" said Hornblower. "Get the ship under way, if you please. Set a course to weather the Foreland". "Aye aye, sir". 

(…) "Stand by there, at the captstan," he [Lieutenant Bush] ordered. "Loose the heads'ls. Hands aloft to loose the tops'ls."

Etc. If this kind of orders and dialogues were recreated that way or close to it by the Clerk, immersion and realism would be greatly enhanced. I don't know however if copyrights are necessary to feed the Clerk with such literature (well, at least Hornblower series should be now in the public domain, shouldn't it ?).

Edited February 9, 2021 by Bonden