When Swimming Is Better than Sailing

[Karna5]

Alternate Title: Starter Ships Are Horrible

Two or three years ago I did the starter sailing quests and got what I thought nice ship (worth three million which was a fortune to me back then). I'd sailed around quite a bit on it but could never figure out how to feed the crew or add rations.

I'd put 10 rations in the hold, but it didn't do anything. Finally I gave up and dockked the ship until this week because I wanted to do the Fughar's Secret Book #3 (for the +1DP).

DAY ONE
I got on my boat, told the warf master to repair it, activated a 2 hour compass and set sail for Crows Nest.

Around an hour later I was what seemed to be pretty close to the destination, but there was an island in the way. So I set sail to the right around the island. And the island kept stretching and stretching and stretching to the right, and I kept getting farther from myh destination and started running low on rations.

So I gave up figuring it was a stupid graphical bug in BDO making it look like an isand was in front of me when really it was an endless wall. I turned around from whence I came.

This time when I got close to the destination, I could see on the horizon what should be the crows nest, but my ship couldn't sail faster than the currents and wind, and I kept losing ground. A whole hour later I was still in he same area and hadn't moved the ship even 100 meters closer to Crows Nest.

My ship ran out of rations completely, and I kept sailing another half hour, but I caved in to the fact the ship would never get there.

So I dove into the water and swam, and not 3 minutes later I was at Crows Nest.

DAY TWO
The next thing Fughar's journal told me to do was kill a sea monster. I watched YouTube films on how to do that. One film said to ram it, and another said I could shoot while steering. I pulled out my ship, and I tested shooting while steering. It does not work. Apparently shooting while steering is only for upgraded ships, not starter ships.

So I set for sail way to the north and found a sea monster. I tried ramming it several times, but it did nothing Apparently ramming is also only for upgraded ships.

For the next hour I kept getting the ship positioned, got off the wheel and onto the cannon and tried to shoot the sea monster. Not one shot hit because there's almnost no control on aiming, and the sea monster was never kind enough to get in front of the cannons.

An hour later it destroyed my ship, but I managed to get to an island right before it got destroyed.

While I was on the shore, though, the sea monster kept attacking me. So I pulled out my +10 professional rifle and a tent for repairs and shot and shot and shot and shot the sea monster until it was almost dead (health bar showed a very dark orange). And suddenly the sea monster turned around and left not waiting for the final shot.

Another hour down the dumps, now with a destroyed ship and a long swim home.

I rejected the idea of using a Traveler's Map because I treasure them as rare drops, and I didn't want to waste one when the predicament I was in came from having an impossible quest, a useless ship and a fickle sea monster.

Swimming home was so much easier and stress free than sailing.

The internet is full of posts saying how wonderful sailing is in BDO. But as someone who loves Assassin's Creed Black Flag and the later Assassins's Creeds with sailing, I can't see anything remotely appealing in BDO sailing.

Maybe you need a fancy, upgraded ship before it gets good, but sailing in a game should be accessible and fun from the beginning. And in BDO it's not.

Swimming is okay, though.

[Maconijnr]

Dang dude lmao :) right for the sea monster quests (solo)
here's what you do with a starter ship :)
sail to required monster area and when you spot the 1 you want, look at the mini map you will see a lighter coloured ring around your ship, sail closer but keep the monster to the left or the right of your ship at 3 0r 9 oclock but a little outside that ring :)
switch to your cannons facing the monster press and hold the button until the blue arrow extends all the way out to the monster then release to fire :) if you got your distance right you will be outside the aggro range of the sea monster and can just keep bombarding them at range perfectly safe from attack :)

Edit: the monster wont move around so stationary target :)

[Karna5]

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

Dang dude lmao :) right for the sea monster quests (solo)
here's what you do with a starter ship :)
sail to required monster area and when you spot the 1 you want, look at the mini map you will see a lighter coloured ring around your ship, sail closer but keep the monster to the left or the right of your ship at 3 0r 9 oclock but a little outside that ring :)
switch to your cannons facing the monster press and hold the button until the blue arrow extends all the way out to the monster then release to fire :) if you got your distance right you will be outside the aggro range of the sea monster and can just keep bombarding them at range perfectly safe from attack :)

Edit: the monster wont move around so stationary target :)

Wait *laughs* You mean I was supposed to hold down LMB until the blue arrow tells me it'll h it him? Haha, man BDO ship stuff is so unintuitive.

Thanks a ton, my friend. FYI I was going to message you on Steam when I was out there struggling with the sea monster since I knew you'd have the answers, but Steam said you were not in game, so I didn't want to leave a message hanging :)

But I did know you'd know what to do, haha. I'm worn out on that quest for today (spent a futile 4 hours counting the swim back). But I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks!

When It's dead I'll be sure to report back with the update, haha.

[Maconijnr]

Originally posted by Karna5:

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

Dang dude lmao :) right for the sea monster quests (solo)
here's what you do with a starter ship :)
sail to required monster area and when you spot the 1 you want, look at the mini map you will see a lighter coloured ring around your ship, sail closer but keep the monster to the left or the right of your ship at 3 0r 9 oclock but a little outside that ring :)
switch to your cannons facing the monster press and hold the button until the blue arrow extends all the way out to the monster then release to fire :) if you got your distance right you will be outside the aggro range of the sea monster and can just keep bombarding them at range perfectly safe from attack :)

Edit: the monster wont move around so stationary target :)

Wait *laughs* You mean I was supposed to hold down LMB until the blue arrow tells me it'll h it him? Haha, man BDO ship stuff is so unintuitive.

Thanks a ton, my friend. FYI I was going to message you on Steam when I was out there struggling with the sea monster since I knew you'd have the answers, but Steam said you were not in game, so I didn't want to leave a message hanging :)

But I did know you'd know what to do, haha. I'm worn out on that quest for today (spent a futile 4 hours counting the swim back). But I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks!

When It's dead I'll be sure to report back with the update, haha.

yeah i didn't get on till late today well tonight lol glad to help :) as for steam saying i'm not in game, it always say that as i only login to the friends side of steam if i get a steam dm notification :) you can always get me ingame though with the game dm :)

edit: another after thought lol when finding your range start with the monster mini map marker start with it further away from the light coloured circle to begin with and move closer if you need to until you learn the range, you'll be able to just know the distance after you have killed so many :) the cannons have a lot more range than you might think, at maximum range they will auto fire without you releasing the MB.

Some sailing tips :)
keep an eye on the head winds if the wind is directly at you start to tack at an angle to it, if it's really strong drop the sails (press ctrl and click the sail symbol)
never never ever never ever use the auto nav during sailing you will end up beached on some island or it will zig zag stupidly lol for auto sailing make sure you have no map markers and just press T and point in direction you want to head then press ctrl to show mouse cursor and leave it :) with the cursor showing you can't knock yourself off course knocking the mouse :)

[Dhansak]

Maconijnr - this is Gold!

I will be taking my sailor-to-be Corsair out of season next week, with a view to taking her new Epheria sailboat out for some watery fun! I didn't know any of the info you passed along here - I think you just changed my future initial experience of sailing hugely for the better!

Thank you :)

[Tsel13]

@Maconijnr

What ship are you using and if one of those multi cannon, shoot while you are at the ship's wheel, how long did it take you to make it?

[Maconijnr]

Originally posted by Dhansak:

Maconijnr - this is Gold!

I will be taking my sailor-to-be Corsair out of season next week, with a view to taking her new Epheria sailboat out for some watery fun! I didn't know any of the info you passed along here - I think you just changed my future initial experience of sailing hugely for the better!

Thank you :)

No worries :) sailing's fun at 1st then it gets tiresome real quick lmao :) better in a party so you can have a laugh doing it :)

Originally posted by Tsel13:

@Maconijnr

What ship are you using and if one of those multi cannon, shoot while you are at the ship's wheel, how long did it take you to make it?

i don't sail that much anymore it can be a lonely place out in the ocean lol
i'm using an upgraded epheria sailboat (yes multi-shot fire as you sail) with +7 black plating, +7 black sail and +8 julia cannon :)
there is far far better ships and gear available but i like the size of the ship think it fits well in the game without looking huge and because i play tactically i don't really need the firepower :) plus not sailing so much anymore don't feel i need to improve it anymore at min lol
I can't remember how long it took exactly to upgrade it, you can get most of the mats from the CM my biggest problem was square timber was chopping trees for logs to make scantling to make the square timber for a cple hrs, but if i remember correctly you just go to the wharf keeper with all the upgrade mats in your inventory and it's instant upgrade :)

[CrackeR]

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

Dang dude lmao :) right for the sea monster quests (solo)
here's what you do with a starter ship :)
sail to required monster area and when you spot the 1 you want, look at the mini map you will see a lighter coloured ring around your ship, sail closer but keep the monster to the left or the right of your ship at 3 0r 9 oclock but a little outside that ring :)
switch to your cannons facing the monster press and hold the button until the blue arrow extends all the way out to the monster then release to fire :) if you got your distance right you will be outside the aggro range of the sea monster and can just keep bombarding them at range perfectly safe from attack :)

Edit: the monster wont move around so stationary target :)

*****************************************************************************
You got an award for this post my friend!
This helped me so much, thank you!

[Maconijnr]

Originally posted by CrackeR:

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

Dang dude lmao :) right for the sea monster quests (solo)
here's what you do with a starter ship :)
sail to required monster area and when you spot the 1 you want, look at the mini map you will see a lighter coloured ring around your ship, sail closer but keep the monster to the left or the right of your ship at 3 0r 9 oclock but a little outside that ring :)
switch to your cannons facing the monster press and hold the button until the blue arrow extends all the way out to the monster then release to fire :) if you got your distance right you will be outside the aggro range of the sea monster and can just keep bombarding them at range perfectly safe from attack :)

Edit: the monster wont move around so stationary target :)

*****************************************************************************
You got an award for this post my friend!
This helped me so much, thank you!

No worries and thank you lol :D just another thing i didn't mention in 1st post, make sure your cannons are at max elevation for range or lowest for defence if a monster starts attacking (W or S whilst holding shift) :)

[Tsel13]

Something I just learned while doing a lot of reading after reading this thread.

I built my Epheria Sailboat from scratch a year and a half ago.
I sooooooooooo wished I built an Epheria Frigate instead.
Upgrading the Sailboat to a Caravel only gives you 2 captain controlled cannons, 1 per side.
Upgrading the Frigate to a Galleass gives you 4 captain controlled cannons, 2 per side.
Which is so much better to sea monster hunt and upgrade your Galleass further.

[Maconijnr]

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Something I just learned while doing a lot of reading after reading this thread.

I built my Epheria Sailboat from scratch a year and a half ago.
I sooooooooooo wished I built an Epheria Frigate instead.
Upgrading the Sailboat to a Caravel only gives you 2 captain controlled cannons, 1 per side.
Upgrading the Frigate to a Galleass gives you 4 captain controlled cannons, 2 per side.
Which is so much better to sea monster hunt and upgrade your Galleass further.

i use ermm think it's called improved epheria sailboat that's 2 cannon per side :)

[Tsel13]

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Something I just learned while doing a lot of reading after reading this thread.

I built my Epheria Sailboat from scratch a year and a half ago.
I sooooooooooo wished I built an Epheria Frigate instead.
Upgrading the Sailboat to a Caravel only gives you 2 captain controlled cannons, 1 per side.
Upgrading the Frigate to a Galleass gives you 4 captain controlled cannons, 2 per side.
Which is so much better to sea monster hunt and upgrade your Galleass further.

i use ermm think it's called improved epheria sailboat that's 2 cannon per side :)

GrumpyGreen showed 2 captain controlled cannons on the Improved Epheria Sailboat.
I'm guessing that is only 1 cannon per side.
Is that not correct?

[Maconijnr]

Originally posted by Tsel13:

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

i use ermm think it's called improved epheria sailboat that's 2 cannon per side :)

GrumpyGreen showed 2 captain controlled cannons on the Improved Epheria Sailboat.
I'm guessing that is only 1 cannon per side.
Is that not correct?

it's 2 per side so 4 total :)

[Tsel13]

Originally posted by Maconijnr:

Originally posted by Tsel13:

GrumpyGreen showed 2 captain controlled cannons on the Improved Epheria Sailboat.
I'm guessing that is only 1 cannon per side.
Is that not correct?

it's 2 per side so 4 total :)

I wonder if the Galleass has 4 per side.
That would be nice for a T4 ship.
Not top, top notch, but pretty good to sea monster hunt and dive for coral.

[Dhansak]

Tsel13 - this is a really nice guide to ship type and specification: "Which Ship To Choose Guide : How and What Upgrade Path for Carrack Volante, Valor, Advance & Balance" - it's on YT by Trinity Online.

[Karna5]

Hi, Maconijnr :) This is just to let you know I successfully used your technique with a starter ship to kill two sea monsters.

I didn't see the aggro circle you described in the minimap, but your description of the technique let me use trial and error to find a distance that let me hit the sea monsters without them coming after me.

Also the targetting with the cannons is absurdly difficult to figure out and to see, but again by trial and error I was able to hit with about 1/4 of my shots which was p lent good enough to kill the monsters.

I recorded the battles, but I'm not so sure there's value in uploading them. Your description (including the essential information to hold the LMB down until ready to fire) was enough.

Thanks a ton, my friend :)