Ship behaviour and speeds

[Trooper #900129-H]

First off, absolutely love the game! I feel the whole pirate-theme is a wonderfull addition to the AC series and naval combat is a blast.

I do not own AC3 since I care little for revolutionairy America, but seeing how good the naval combat in black flag is, I just might buy it just to see it in AC3 aswell.


Just one teeny-tiny pet peeve I have....

The blistering speeds at which the ships are able to manouver!

Each time I am amazed how ships behave in the water, they react to the waves and wind properly like; but the insane speeds just get me down a little.
I come from a nautical family and love to sail as a hobby, so trust me when I say: There is not a ship in the world, not even today, not even racing vessels, able to move as fast as the Jackdaw.

I understand they upped the ship's speeds for gameplay's sake. Avarage speeds for medium-sized square-rigged vessels would lay around 9-11 knots depending on conditions, wich converts to about 20 km/h.

Thats not very fast and the game would get boring if that was accuratly portrayed, you would need a full day to sail from Nassau to Havana. I know why ships are faster.
Never mind being able to sail into the wind, a square-rigged brig wouldnt be able to do so, but for gameplay's sake, that's fine.

But as fast as the ships are now? At travelling speed, the Jackdaw feels as going as fast as 80-100 km/h.
Not a ship in the world is able to get up to those speeds, motorised or not. (save for some extreme exceptions perhaps).

This affects the combat aswell, I feel some strategic element is lost: stalking/outmanouvering your prey and strategicly corner your prize, etc.
All you need to do is "drive up" to your prey and fly circles around them.

Long story short: I feel that even though the naval combat is amazingly fun as it is (love boarding), it would be even more awesome if they toned down the speeds just a bit.

/discuss

[Ruin]

If they toned down the speed and made the maneuvering of the vessels in the game even moderately more realistic, people would complain that travel and combat were boring...

Though, I too would have liked to see far more realistic mechanics, I accept that the present mechanics were neccesary for the overall pace of the game...

Also consider the distance between ports, etc in game is a few kilometers, in reality, you'd easily be looking at 10x this distance from port to port, at least...

Not to mention just how busy the region's waters are... The number of ships per square kilometer is massively exagerated to what it would have been...

Given these two points, I'm quite comfortable with the maneuvering of the ships in-game and frankly if it took dramaticly longer to travel from A to B, it would actually result in considerable tedium just getting around...

[Trooper #900129-H]

Originally posted by Ruin:

If they toned down the speed and made the maneuvering of the vessels in the game even moderately more realistic, people would complain that travel and combat were boring...

[-snip-]

Given these two points, I'm quite comfortable with the maneuvering of the ships in-game and frankly if it took dramaticly longer to travel from A to B, it would actually result in considerable tedium just getting around...

Oh I agree fully, on all your points even.

Like I said, I very much understand they need to adjust the mechanics and make concessions on map scaling and speeds to suit gameplay (in order to prevent it getting boring).

All of that said though, I just find it a wee-bit too fast still. If only just a bit.

I don't know, might be just me, but at times I feel like I am sailing in a regatta-on-nitro in a nuclear-fueled spaceship rather then a 18th century pirate ship :)

Not asking to dramaticly tone down the speeds. But just a little to bring it more in line with actual ship behaviour and maybe make room for more strategic gameplay when hunting for prizes.

Just my 2 Reales!

[Ø76923]

Yeah, I agree that the speeds aren't particularly immersive but I suppose they're meant to drive gameplay. Ship speeds are probably a simple mod once the process of modding has been mastered. You'd be able to have travel speed still, but lower your general speed. there would probably have to be some minor turn speed changes to go with it for balancing.

[cassiels]

I find the speed of the Jackdaw very slow indeed for playing a game. I've got used to it now but it's boring, luckily we have fast travel.
On the other hand, I'll see a ship all on its own in the entire ocean. I shoot my cannons at it and wham! another five level 38 frigates will spawn out of nowhere. Where do they get their speed? I want that speed for the Jackdaw.

[#GLOCK-23]

if they slowed it down i wouldn't play the game

[Trooper #900129-H]

Originally posted by cassiels:

I find the speed of the Jackdaw very slow indeed for playing a game. I've got used to it now but it's boring, luckily we have fast travel.
On the other hand, I'll see a ship all on its own in the entire ocean. I shoot my cannons at it and wham! another five level 38 frigates will spawn out of nowhere. Where do they get their speed? I want that speed for the Jackdaw.

Slow? You think so?
Might be just me, but my Jackdaw seems to sail faster then most cars can drive! O.o

But I do agree with your second point: It can be a bit busy on the high seas at times.
Once again I understand they Ubi did so for gameplay reasons, looking all day for a target would get tedious rather quickly.

Still just my personal opinion: I believe they went just a tad overboard (pardon the pun) with it all.
For me: If they would all tone it done just a notch, it would be just perfect! (mind you, I feel the game is stellar already)

Perhaps it would work if they toned down the speeds, make the seas less crowded, but in turn up the rewards for capturing ships.
This way, it would take longer to hunt down, defeat and capture a prize, yet for a greater reward. Might make things just a tad more interesting.

Another point I'd like to make: Cannons...
I must have godly crew, reloading 12lbr-ish cannons in under 5 seconds, thats a feat!

[ahmz]

It's not a simulation. If you want slower speeds, simply sail at the slower speed.

[Virgil]

There should be a realism setting with multiple options. I personally don't mind the speed too much on boats in Black Flag and Rogue (haven't played more recent ones yet)- I mean, I don't want to have to tab over to another game while I wait for the ship to cover a long stretch, but what really cuts *my* enjoyment of the sailing is that when you crowd the sail, the wind 'turns off' and the ship starts moving as though it has gas-fueled propellers. At full speed, your sailboat is able to just as fast with the wind at its back as it does when it's traveling DIRECTLY INTO THE WIND. Sailing ships are notoriously unable to do this because physics.

[Cataleya22 (⁠ᵔ⁠ᴥ⁠ᵔ)]

It's true, but I don't mind that much, but I love it even more with a gamepad that has a rumble function.
Indeed it would make the game at point very boring since you have a lot of ground ehhh sea to cover.

And what about the quick travel?
That you can instantly jump to another Island or port where you have been.
Would you leave out that as well?

One thing though if you go against the exceptional ships you have to sail a long way and they are even faster for the size they are....

And about AC3, I found the ship handling not that good. But that can be because I used the keyboard back then. Now I am used to a game pad for ac4.
I will go back to AC3 sometime later to see what that does, but keep in mind the sailing is not the main part. That came in AC4