Well, it's done.
After two nights and a days voyage through rough sea, me and me crew are rewarded by the sight of the sun rising over the rocky silouette of Barbados on 2nd days morning. It was it worth.
Aye, I overread the whole thread, but I did so with many other threads lately and I admit I may have missed some issues here and there. In fact, I wasn't really able to say if I'd like or like not this mod, and what exactly it does. That was the reason for my test voyage.
Ok, technical specialties I encountered were these:
1) sort of a graphic bug?
After installing the open seas mod, I had a 3rd perspective when pressing TAB. Additional to the usual "on deck" and "out of ship" view, I got sort of a "under the waterline camera". It didn't hurt though, it's just a bit strange to look at.
2) I missed my clockline in the upper part of the screen
That one with date and time. Also, I missed almost every messages. Perhaps, this I admit, because there simply was nothing to report over long times. The messages reappeared when I approached Barbados.
3) I had some crashes, both of game and of computer. They happened when ...
- saving the game (with a bad savegame after)
- watching a floating barrel (I was thinking about making a screenshot when it happened)
- short after the "land ho" meassage when I approached Barbados
Most of it seems to be in range of events like "see something" or "get to new region" perhaps it has to do with it.
Fortunately I did save often ;-)
4) Innacurracy of the island maps.
While the world map seems to work very accurate with this mod, the island maps don't. It seems, my ship has a fixed position in each map, which doesn't alter. I cannot say if this is a mod problem or a general build problem, because I got my chronometer right before starting this experiment. I'll look into it later.
In game aspects:
I had the advantage of good wind and of a fast ship. I sailed the ship Jack goit from vovernor Brin during that storyline, with modifications in both sails and hull. Plus, I had a steady brize from mostly western, sometimes southern and northern directions, but never had to sail against the wind in any way. That made me a considerably fast voyage.
And a boring one.
This is because exceot a "sail ho" which I never actually saw, and a floating barrel that crashed my computer, I did encounter absolutely nothing. I think this is realistic, of course. But, not exciting.
I had very small weather changes. I startet in a rainy night with rough sea and good wind, and had this over say 90% of my voyage. Wind direction altered a bit, but not too much. Clear sight I got in the morning I hit Barbados.
Timescale:
The voyage took some time:
In game in was:
26-07-1741 2:30 when setting sail at Sunny haven, La Grenade
to
27-07-1741 6:14 when Barbados appeared with the sunrise in the east
(it willa ctually take some time to hit a port there, though)
In real time it was roghly 4 hours 15 minutes, minus some time those crashes cost me ... which was around half an hour I think. I did not use any time compression, because I wanted to see how long it really takes.
So far about the facts.
Now for the subjective opinion.
It was my first direct sail ever. It was a very interesting experience, and, so far I can tell (I'm a complete land lubber in real life), it felt realistic. But I don't think it will be a feature that I use often. It is just too time consuming, and it seems a bit boring, since nothing happened. Perhaps that was luck, because you talk about surviving storms. But even with more action ... I don't think that makes it better. Had I met some groups of ships, some possibly hostile, or hit some storms, I'd never made it alive.
Thus, I think I'd not be much of a direct sailor, exciting as the idea itself may be.
Nonetheless, I like that mod. Not because I like direct sailing, but because I appreciate the other time scale. That "one hour plus one day" was really disturbing. Actually, I had meetings with smugglers missed because of that. Sil around half an island with unfortunate winds, you'll need days and weeks, and find no one waiting at [place any secret hidden smuggling place here] ;-)
This is what I'd like this mod for:
A better direct sailing experience while shipping aroud islands, searching hidden bays, or hunting pirate or nasty french privateers.
But the overall travel from island to island ist not my favorite.
Perhaps I'd use it to sail close to an island with the world map, and get a better "approaching the island" experience via direct sail with this mod.
Ok, that was a lot. I think I missed somthing. Ah yes ...
How to include it?
I'd prefer it included as configurabvle as possible. It may just be a personal preference, but I don't like few switches that toggle a lot of things at once. I'd prefer it one by one. For example, I like realism and direct sail (at least near some action), but I don't like to be forced to it, and somtimes even use the fast travels if I'm not in the mod to sail there manually.
Ok, that's it I think.
Ah yes, I aplogize for my bad english, I'm not a native speaker. I hope it's not too worse. ;-)
