I read through the posts at Wind direction in the Caribbean | PiratesAhoy! but I want to start a new discussion on the subject.
I have all the tools and most of the information I need to do a reasonable implementation of Caribbean trade winds. It's not a mod I'd want to play myself, and it will take away from my time playing COAS, but if enough people want it, I'll do it. I'd prefer to get opinions from people who would actually use it, and commit to doing 10 hours of sailing on the decks of their ships, especially Iron Man players. Just being a good idea isn't enough reason to do the work, but let me know what you think anyway.
If you look at Windytv, wind forecast you can see what the winds in the Caribbean are doing right now. Trade winds are generally from the east or northeast at 15 knots, give or take, and some random areas having speeds up to 25 knots. There are some localized areas that are different: larger islands can create a wind shadow, and winds at Port au Prince and all along the north edge of the peninsula running west of there you'll be lucky to see wind speeds of as much as 3 knots. If the wind is from the northeast, it's the same along the south edge. I wouldn't do that to anyone, but the wind speed might be 4-6 knots. Cuba has a large band of low winds to the southwest. Cartagena has winds from the northwest at 25 to more than 40 knots all the time.
If the wind is from a constant direction, you won't be able to sail into or out of some ports. For this reason, winds within a certain distance, say 500 to 1000 yards of a mooring spot need to be random. From that point to a more distant point, the winds should proportionally change to the prevailing wind direction depending on the distance from the mooring spot.
You should not get 180 degree wind shifts ever. You might get as much as a 60 degree wind shift each hour if the random wind direction is the opposite of the trade wind direction.
The mod would have a toggle, of course. Zero is off, 1 is wind speed only, 2 is wind speed and direction and local special conditions.
Determining the distance to the nearest landfall is already part of the newer directsail code, and the information is kept and can be accessed elsewhere. The currently used wind speed and direction calculations would be mostly bypassed if the mod is in effect.
The first thing I did when I downloaded the New Horizons mod that included trade winds was comment the entire thing out after the second 180 degree wind shift. I did make a change to the wind direction to make it vary more. The only thing I've done with the COAS code was to add 9 knots to the normal wind speed, which was typically 4-15 knots, then limit the ship speed to the current max speed attribute... it acts like the wind is blowing at 18.7 knots if it goes above that. I find this preferable to using time compression while sailing.
Of course, the world map isn't affected. The rate of the passage of time on the world map can be adjusted so you won't necessarily break any quests if you can use the world map. The higher wind speeds might help those who don't use the world map. Just imagine visiting Havana, then sailing anywhere else. Personally, I prefer the higher wind speeds from a random direction.
So let me know if this is something you want and would use.
Hook
I have all the tools and most of the information I need to do a reasonable implementation of Caribbean trade winds. It's not a mod I'd want to play myself, and it will take away from my time playing COAS, but if enough people want it, I'll do it. I'd prefer to get opinions from people who would actually use it, and commit to doing 10 hours of sailing on the decks of their ships, especially Iron Man players. Just being a good idea isn't enough reason to do the work, but let me know what you think anyway.
If you look at Windytv, wind forecast you can see what the winds in the Caribbean are doing right now. Trade winds are generally from the east or northeast at 15 knots, give or take, and some random areas having speeds up to 25 knots. There are some localized areas that are different: larger islands can create a wind shadow, and winds at Port au Prince and all along the north edge of the peninsula running west of there you'll be lucky to see wind speeds of as much as 3 knots. If the wind is from the northeast, it's the same along the south edge. I wouldn't do that to anyone, but the wind speed might be 4-6 knots. Cuba has a large band of low winds to the southwest. Cartagena has winds from the northwest at 25 to more than 40 knots all the time.
If the wind is from a constant direction, you won't be able to sail into or out of some ports. For this reason, winds within a certain distance, say 500 to 1000 yards of a mooring spot need to be random. From that point to a more distant point, the winds should proportionally change to the prevailing wind direction depending on the distance from the mooring spot.
You should not get 180 degree wind shifts ever. You might get as much as a 60 degree wind shift each hour if the random wind direction is the opposite of the trade wind direction.
The mod would have a toggle, of course. Zero is off, 1 is wind speed only, 2 is wind speed and direction and local special conditions.
Determining the distance to the nearest landfall is already part of the newer directsail code, and the information is kept and can be accessed elsewhere. The currently used wind speed and direction calculations would be mostly bypassed if the mod is in effect.
The first thing I did when I downloaded the New Horizons mod that included trade winds was comment the entire thing out after the second 180 degree wind shift. I did make a change to the wind direction to make it vary more. The only thing I've done with the COAS code was to add 9 knots to the normal wind speed, which was typically 4-15 knots, then limit the ship speed to the current max speed attribute... it acts like the wind is blowing at 18.7 knots if it goes above that. I find this preferable to using time compression while sailing.
Of course, the world map isn't affected. The rate of the passage of time on the world map can be adjusted so you won't necessarily break any quests if you can use the world map. The higher wind speeds might help those who don't use the world map. Just imagine visiting Havana, then sailing anywhere else. Personally, I prefer the higher wind speeds from a random direction.
So let me know if this is something you want and would use.
Hook
