Doldrums call?

[Bubbzie]

With the new update, when you first log in, a message will appear. It'll say something along the lines of 'you feel winds to the North' (I'm paraphrasing.) Does anyone know what this means or what it leads to?
My main question is, what does the message 'the doldrums call' mean? Has anyone figured out what any of these messages me?

[Genghis Pawn]

The Doldrums[www.merriam-webster.com] is presumably the "no wind from any direction" message, so there is presumably no meaning/effect. As for the others, the Q was asked in this thread, not far below yours, and the only semblance of answer that was floated there was stated in the patch notes.

Don't know if there's anything more to it or any actual impact on gameplay -- none of the obvious stuff I've checked has any change. I don't see any new wind-specific skills like they hinted at back in their (quite remarkably old and possibly outdated) list of Features & Changes that's pinned to the top of this forum.

[Solstius]

Yeah I've noticed the wind message but other than when we log in directly, no other messages follow up on it. Like, no messages indicating that the wind may have changed directions or something.

I feel like the developers are laying this idea out now to indicate that when you enter this server & this wind blows, Knots of the corresponding wind message will yield bonuses or something. That and, depending on the message itself, say certain winds are blowing strongly or something for instance, could indicate that a Tempest Kettem of that type of wind may form...

[Genghis Pawn]

Short version of the answer to OPs question is nobody knows and we're all just guessing at this point; I haven't heard anyone provide documentation of any actual in-game effect, yet.

Originally posted by Chad Chestbeard:

I'm sure I'v seen new winds announce themselves when zoning. I theorize that winds provide some indication of events that are active, with doldrums translating to a relatively content dead server.

If this were so then wouldn't one generally predict that the "doldrums" message is most likely to appear when joining a server that already has a (relatively) large # of players in it? That's not my observation. It also seems to me unlikely that they would use the winds messaging to broadcast meta information about the state of the server ("hey you should hop between servers to keep farming"). The initial sketch they had posted way, way back in "Features and Changes" (linked above) suggests that the intent was to use winds to actually impact something like skills/knots in relation to your character's wind affinity. That seems to me more likely, though (again) I don't see anything implemented yet.

[Genghis Pawn]

Originally posted by Chad Chestbeard:

Hey, Genghis. I think I have more weight to support my theory. I amended my comment. I'v just observed a wind change at the changing of Night to Dawn which I feel endorses my theory of it being an event indicator. It could be an unfounded correlation but I strongly believe winds serve a very important purpose of indicating what conditions are facilitating the appearance of rare events and in turn which winds to look out for once identified.

It is interesting to hear that the winds change at Dawn and the player is notified (I don't think anyone had reported seeing a new wind message after login, ever). But that still leaves it a very open question as to what (if anything) they signify.

[BeanBear]

I think I did notice a second wind change after hanging around fishing for a long time. Next time ill try and catch it with a photo.