Would you guys have any interest in more realistic boat movement?

[The Drunken Sailor]

Hey, I just watched your Timosthenes feature video and it's pretty impressive. One thing that bothered me (and bothers me about games with boats in general) is that they move more or less like cars. I was thinking of maybe getting involved and coding a patch for more realistic movement, but I wanted to check if it's something you'd actually want first. I had in mind:

Acceleration and deceleration based on mass and sail area

Heeling

Pitching might be nice too

Different points of sail with different speeds, based on some invisible global wind vector. So square sailers will be faster downwind, lateens will be faster on a reach, both will be slower upwind etc.

Let me know if any of that sounds interesting.

[GunChleoc]

Sounds like a great idea - there could at least be some bobbing up and down, especially for small boats.

As to the rest, we'll have to consider how it might affect gameplay, e.g. targeting of ranged weapons, and how variable speed would affect gameplay.

[Itms]

As GunChleoc said, this is definitely something we would love to have in the game. From the programming side of things, this would need a lot of work, but if you are up to the task please propose patches!

Did you already take a look at http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GettingStartedProgrammers? Don't hesitate to ask around if you need some tips.

And welcome to the community!

[The Drunken Sailor]

Thanks, I'll start reading through that documentation over the next few weeks. Let me know what decisions you come to about which features would actually work.

[fcxSanya]

@The Drunken Sailor welcome to the forums!

We have a few ship-movement-related items in the planned features list: http://trac.wildfiregames.com/wiki/GameplayFeatureStatus , this is a good place to start, since these things were suggested/discussed before and are considered desirable.

[wowgetoffyourcellphone]

15 hours ago, The Drunken Sailor said:

Hey, I just watched your Timosthenes feature video and it's pretty impressive. One thing that bothered me (and bothers me about games with boats in general) is that they move more or less like cars. I was thinking of maybe getting involved and coding a patch for more realistic movement, but I wanted to check if it's something you'd actually want first. I had in mind:

People love to have this actually.

 

15 hours ago, The Drunken Sailor said:

Acceleration and deceleration based on mass and sail area

Heeling

Pitching might be nice too

All of this is good. The movement is good as long as it is automatic. I can see techs for acceleration speed and turn speed and stuff like that. When turning right, I would like to see the right oars stop moving, and when turn left see the left oars stop rowing. Things like that too.

 

15 hours ago, The Drunken Sailor said:

Different points of sail with different speeds, based on some invisible global wind vector. So square sailers will be faster downwind, lateens will be faster on a reach, both will be slower upwind etc.

 

This is way too much, IMHO. If you did do it, then base it on the wind direction already in the game (see in Atlas, wind direction change the direction of the water movement). Do not make invisible. The water movement should be a clue for the players. But like I said, this part is not good at this type of game. One step too far, just my opinion. Everything else sound great.

Edited November 3, 2016 by wowgetoffyourcellphone