help to figure game out

[Luxiwow]

I need help to figur those things out:
#1 I guess the arrow on the compass shows which way the wind goes, so why do I not move at all when I line up with it?

#2 Why are all my cannon shots missing if my crew is on "master" skill level?

#3 How am I supposed to board a ship (1v8 all NPCs alone because my crew just dies) and then keep fighting a 2nd ship with no crew? And how is my crew supposed to level up the boarding skill level if we just die the first time?

#4 Do Quests give any exp? I did 4 missions to drive people to different Islands and idk if I ever get exp for it

#5 What do those 1000 pesos people in taverns actually do? I hired some and I thought they would be companions or one of those special slot people for the ship but they are nowhere to be found

thanks for any answers

[stretch]

Take all this with a pinch of salt because I barely know much at all but until someone corrects it it might help you out a bit.

1) Wind direction means next to nothing.
What you have is 2 values on your ship should look something like 114/65 and that is the angle in relation to the wind direction that you will see the small black arrows on the compass. When you aim at those arrows you will be going at max speed. I have no clue why going into the wind can be faster than a full tailwind into square sails but ??? Different ships have different angles so some like the corvette actually do go quickest slightly off a full tailwind but generally it's pretty counter-intuitive. So look at those black arrows and take that into account when you pick your angle of attack to start a fight because often you will do better coming into a headwind than with a tailwind. It's nuts.

2) Crew cannon skill means next to nothing too. Go figure. What you need is to hire a cannoneer officer and slot them into their place. You can recruit them at taverns or if you capture an enemy officer and convert them (in your hold) they might have some cannon skill.

3) To board. Like cannons you want an officer. Boatswain. Check their stats and also their passive skills. You want boarding ones and they should say boatswain officer on them but your captain can have them too. On your skill sheet any skills you have are brown and any your officers have are green but they must be in the right officer slot to work and highlight green. Then you need to equip grapeshot and take out their crew. Blue bar. Then fit your ship with every crew you can. It will be red on the recruit screen as it is overfull but your own blue bar will be full. If it is not full then you are probably only fitting what it says is maximum. Ignore that. Fill up.
The idea is to overpower the enemy before you even get on their deck. There are skills like a musket volley and also use boarders among your officers. Give them armour and health potions.
You need to then be pretty close and usually alongside the enemy ship to hit space bar to start boarding when you are in position and the option appears. Skills you can get later make this position a lot better, as in further away and at any angle. You or your boatswain can have those skills.

4) Yeah I think they do and positive reputation and stuff but I don't know how much. XP is top right corner of your character sheet. I think the really big quests give noticable XP but you will soon realise just how trivial those transport missions really are so I doubt you get a lot of XP for them. Honestly never checked properly. With your captain learn the flag skills so you can change flags and dock in 'enemy' ports without agro.

5) No idea. I have gotten a few too but from reading what they say I gather they are simply crew members. When you recruit crew at a tavern you see 3 skills shown and how good they are at it. I guess that the specialisation they talk about when you hire them for 1000 is one of those. It's all guess work and I am not entirely sure. Probably not worth the money though.

Good luck. Hope that helps. I am learning as I go and there are lots of other things that are no obvious. This barely scratches the surface.

[Ahad88]

5) I think they are just maxed out sailors how increase the average efficiency of you crew.

[Luxiwow]

Thanks a lot! I appreciate the long answer & the short one

About #1 I wish there was just an option in the game menu to select "realistic or simple" sailing but oh well.

[stretch]

Originally posted by Luxiwow:

Thanks a lot! I appreciate the long answer & the short one

About #1 I wish there was just an option in the game menu to select "realistic or simple" sailing but oh well.

Chasing a smaller, quicker ship is a PITA. Just remember you can speed things up with the +/- on the numberpad to take the edge off the 15 minutes it takes to catch one pathetic lugger.

[stretch]

4) This is from doing a transport quest.
I got 2 general XP
I got 1 personal XP and one ship XP
I do not know if they are linked or separate. By this I mean I don't know if I got 4 XP or the 1+1 equals the 2 general XP. Is the general xp the sum of the ship and personal XP or different?
Whatever the answer to the XP question I can confirm you get XP for transport missions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3162509370
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3162509302
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3162509230
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3162509199

[Luxiwow]

Hmm Interesting, I'm kinda bummed with the wind situation. I remember Sailing in Sea of Thieves and Valheim was super satisfying and simple yet deep enough to be a bother sometimes. And even in Sea Dogs 2 which I played last night to have a comparison to this game, was rather simple and smooth. Maybe I'm just being difficult.

[VaeliusNoctu]

Dont works i did this and get not attacked from the fort (means my ship is detected as spain) but the port is closed. So Raising flags is, i have no idea for what they are.

Im French and must visit some spain towns for quests an rewards.
With transport you mean bring villager to a target village? Did that often maybe gives EXP but not that much for me, but the cash is ok.

Man is this game broken. I did the raising flag thing and sometimes it works sometimes not, most not.

After 10+ trys i was be able to use fast travel to Santo Domingo Port but cant enter the town. Another countless trys i can fast travel and enter.

Thats not for the reason what the tutorial explained that its not save that this trick works otherwise i get attacked from the Fort Guns what happened bevore. Its a broken feature that needs savescum.

[Danizin]

Originally posted by VaeliusNoctu:

Dont works i did this and get not attacked from the fort (means my ship is detected as spain) but the port is closed. So Raising flags is, i have no idea for what they are.

Im French and must visit some spain towns for quests an rewards.
With transport you mean bring villager to a target village? Did that often maybe gives EXP but not that much for me, but the cash is ok.

Man is this game broken. I did the raising flag thing and sometimes it works sometimes not, most not.

After 10+ trys i was be able to use fast travel to Santo Domingo Port but cant enter the town. Another countless trys i can fast travel and enter.

Thats not for the reason what the tutorial explained that its not save that this trick works otherwise i get attacked from the Fort Guns what happened bevore. Its a broken feature that needs savescum.

This part is not broken, to be able to dock or approach on an "enemy" port you need to have the flag of said country raised AND pass the Stealth check - when you try to approach on the "sea" mode, it's possible to notice a small notification on the upper right corner as "Skill Check Failed/Passed", if it has Failed, you will be attacked and if it Passed, you will not. :D

[AfkForCoffee]

Originally posted by Luxiwow:

I need help to figur those things out:
#1 I guess the arrow on the compass shows which way the wind goes, so why do I not move at all when I line up with it?

#2 Why are all my cannon shots missing if my crew is on "master" skill level?

#3 How am I supposed to board a ship (1v8 all NPCs alone because my crew just dies) and then keep fighting a 2nd ship with no crew? And how is my crew supposed to level up the boarding skill level if we just die the first time?

#4 Do Quests give any exp? I did 4 missions to drive people to different Islands and idk if I ever get exp for it

#5 What do those 1000 pesos people in taverns actually do? I hired some and I thought they would be companions or one of those special slot people for the ship but they are nowhere to be found

thanks for any answers

1: Depends on the ship. Just look at the two black arrows in your minimap. You will go fastest when pointing your bow nearly at those points towards the wind. Too much and you come to a near standstill.

2: Don't remember anymore what the crew levels affected and how much but it depends mostly/mainly on the cannon skill and not crew level, either yours or the cannoneer officer.

3: Shoot grapeshot to kill the enemy ship crew first or at least reduce their numbers. You need the weapons goods item in your cargo hold for you crew for a boarding to be effective. Hire a bosun (boatswain) officer with the boatswain perks and high boarding skill level or you yourself just need those perks and high boarding though former is a better choice.

4: Yes. When you arrive at the destination port the passenger comes to talk to you, check on your right the skills that got improved and your reward. You can test this by taking a screenshot before mooring at the port and then checking it after.

5: IIRC they increase your crew skill level. Don't remember if they actually add to your crew.