Dear shipwrights,
I noticed a fair amount of issues related to gunnery in bad weather, and seaworthiness in general pertaining to operations in the Caribbean.
Of concern is the large amount of pitch and roll exhibited by vessels on the high seas, be they large or small, they seem to all handle quite identical to each other in sea states 3 and above - they bob and pitch like boats floating in a bathtub!
Now, shallow draft vessels and coastal boats definitely aren't supposed to sail in the open Atlantic (and escorts like the Flower corvettes of WW2 suffered accordingly), but I started noticing even some of the Class 7 boats having very deep draught (some having very very deep cargo holds below the waterline) and rolling as much as a shallow draught yacht!
Hence the following suggestions for your consideration:
1. Is it possible to "upgrade" a ship for roll stability? Not sure if hydrodynamics were a part of 17th Century ship design and I understand ships of the line with their massive topweight were quite poor in seakeeping, but it does make sense to provide handling better than bathtub toys! And so picking the right ship for the job becomes important for the player - shallow draft, high payload for coastal ops, etc. Then again I notice from this game engine that there isn't a "stability" rating for any ship meaning they will be bathtub toys in the 3D simulation..
2. Might it be possible to dynamically alter the ships' waterline based on load? I have, or had, a Class 7 boat that sat so low in the water one could barely navigate at all much less fire in anything more than a calm sea, and the same for a Fast Caravel that could benefit from a keel extension (for stability) and which I was forced to fire grapeshot only in a high seas battle because her high velocity cannon with standard shot couldn't clear the wavetops. If I could have some control over loading and/or ballast I would dump cargo to raise her waterline to permit effective direct fire.
3. Remembering stock POTC, ships tended to roll with rudder applied, especially the fast ones in high winds. I might think that if we were able to mod the "roll stability index" for individual ship classes, we could make ships appear more natural in high seas and also in battle (MoW with poor seakeeping, for example, yet is not entirely at mercy of the seas due to her big tonnage). Currently I think the lack of roll in maneuvering makes for some unrealistic tactics on my part, what with gunnery being unaffected by maneuvering, while merchantmen and the like appear to be stationary fortresses maintaining an even keel even when doing 10 knots hauling downwind 3000 tons of gold with the rudder hard over... And YES I want my ships to capsize doing that if I picked the maneuverability related feats! One cannot defy nature!
4. The above suggestions wouldn't even be possible if the game engine didn't support the relevant seakeeping model settings.
I noticed a fair amount of issues related to gunnery in bad weather, and seaworthiness in general pertaining to operations in the Caribbean.
Of concern is the large amount of pitch and roll exhibited by vessels on the high seas, be they large or small, they seem to all handle quite identical to each other in sea states 3 and above - they bob and pitch like boats floating in a bathtub!
Now, shallow draft vessels and coastal boats definitely aren't supposed to sail in the open Atlantic (and escorts like the Flower corvettes of WW2 suffered accordingly), but I started noticing even some of the Class 7 boats having very deep draught (some having very very deep cargo holds below the waterline) and rolling as much as a shallow draught yacht!
Hence the following suggestions for your consideration:
1. Is it possible to "upgrade" a ship for roll stability? Not sure if hydrodynamics were a part of 17th Century ship design and I understand ships of the line with their massive topweight were quite poor in seakeeping, but it does make sense to provide handling better than bathtub toys! And so picking the right ship for the job becomes important for the player - shallow draft, high payload for coastal ops, etc. Then again I notice from this game engine that there isn't a "stability" rating for any ship meaning they will be bathtub toys in the 3D simulation..
2. Might it be possible to dynamically alter the ships' waterline based on load? I have, or had, a Class 7 boat that sat so low in the water one could barely navigate at all much less fire in anything more than a calm sea, and the same for a Fast Caravel that could benefit from a keel extension (for stability) and which I was forced to fire grapeshot only in a high seas battle because her high velocity cannon with standard shot couldn't clear the wavetops. If I could have some control over loading and/or ballast I would dump cargo to raise her waterline to permit effective direct fire.
3. Remembering stock POTC, ships tended to roll with rudder applied, especially the fast ones in high winds. I might think that if we were able to mod the "roll stability index" for individual ship classes, we could make ships appear more natural in high seas and also in battle (MoW with poor seakeeping, for example, yet is not entirely at mercy of the seas due to her big tonnage). Currently I think the lack of roll in maneuvering makes for some unrealistic tactics on my part, what with gunnery being unaffected by maneuvering, while merchantmen and the like appear to be stationary fortresses maintaining an even keel even when doing 10 knots hauling downwind 3000 tons of gold with the rudder hard over... And YES I want my ships to capsize doing that if I picked the maneuverability related feats! One cannot defy nature!
4. The above suggestions wouldn't even be possible if the game engine didn't support the relevant seakeeping model settings.
