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Mod Release Open Sea Mod and Realism Settings

When a DirectSail update (such as Land Ho or Sail Ho) occurs, that erases the ships from the previous DirectSail update.
The only way to prevent that from happening is by pressing the zero-key on your keyboard, which toggles DirectSail on/off.
This could be useful if one of the previous ships just surrendered and you want to capture her and not risk losing her to a DirectSail update.

I'm glad you like the Iron Man Mode and other realism options. While I never have the time to play like that, I do like the idea of getting much more involved in the game that way.
 
This is exactly what it does.
And I think the time is reasonable ... perhaps could be shorter, but not much. Once anything exciting happens, it's all fast enough.
And the one thing that lengthens travels is just bad wind. Either from wrong direction, or too weak. Or both, that's my favourite ;-)

I fugure, in most of my travels the wind was very constant. It had a main direction and was just changing a bit to one direction or the other.
Means, when I start with wind from north I have it most of the time.

And perhaps that's the point to help a bit.

Perhaps it is possible to get some sort of a weather report, before setting sail, and if this report is bad for my purpose, than just go back to tavern. Perhaps there could be a harbour master who can tell (from his long year experience with weather in this port) if that wind from south we actually have is about to be constant or not?
Just an idea.
 
Aye, bad wind really slows you down. In very general terms the wind comes from the North and the West. But in certain areas it can be just the opposite. In fact more often than not it seems to be coming from that island you are trying to sail to.
The choice of ship and options is vey important as all ships have their own personality. A Carrack is difficult to sail into the wind, but flies with the wind. A Caravel is good in any wind conditions. The fast galleons are very good all around sailing ships, while a frigate might be too slow.
And stay sails are a must.
 
Frigates are slow - well ok, not yet tested one in build 14, but I remember them being fast in build 13.

I fully agree to the ships, actually, I'm sailing an english fast galleon - besides, very beautiful ship and very detailed model - and it's fine sailing.

Also, I fully agree that wind seems to come from where I want to sail to. Not always, bot more often than not.
 
Clarification. Frigates do not sail well into the wind, but are very fast with the wind. Remember this when fighting them.
 
The wind direction changes randomly, but does take into account the prior wind direction to prevent it from flipping all over the place.
However, the way it is coded means that it is impossible to predict.
 
Thanks.
Than it is perhaps just a psychological "feel" that the wind seems to blow me right into the face in most times ;-)

Which is very well possible, because when wind changes to "blowing into my face", I need to take action and change course, and I'll remember that well. If it, on the other hand, keeps blowing from behind,, I don't need to do anything, and perhaps that's why I don't remember that so well.
But I did have some very fast travels, where exactly that was the case: Nothing to do, because wind was straight blowing me to my destination.

Tank you.
 
On the open sea the wind seems to be pretty consistent and easy to deal with, but when I get close to land it turns evil.
If I have a ship that tacks well I will play with it for the 3-9 hours it takes for the wind to change so I can actually continue sailing towards the island. If the ship does not tack well I just furl the sails and wait until the evil winds blow away, then continue on in.
At the "land ho" message it seems like I get a direct headwind 99% of the time that slowly moves off to the side. I used to get frustrated, but now I just grab a book to read.
 
That's really strange. The code is written as being purely random, but based on the prior wind direction and speed so there aren't any huge jumps between weather update.
If anyone remembers, this is different from Build 13 where there were also weather updates, but they were 100% random.
 
Well, level 15 and I spent 2 days sailing along in direct sail and straight time and got no sailing advance at all. It appears that from now on the only way to advance sailing skills is to get in storms, battles, and meet a teacher.
 
Were you using time compression? It is coded so you don't get experience then.

Does anyone else agree that we should remove this check and give experience always?
 
Heya Pieter,

changng the few lines to get sailing experience anytime was the first thing I did after installing 2-3. And it works find, my new charakter - level 7 - now already enjoys sailing 6. With direct sail and open seas it's getting up fairly fast.

But, as Hylie mentions storms above again - I must mention that I never ever encounter storms while direct sailing with open seas.
 
Storms are fairly common on the world map and I was looking for them to test a fix. In direct sail the weather you start with is usually how it is throughout your voyage. However, if the weather is bad but not a storm when you start it can turn into a storm. Once that happens the storms keep coming. Hence my 7 storm record. This has only happened to me 2 times.

About sailing experience, I have been direct sailing in normal time while reading a 600+ page book and am at page 492. My sailing experience is 5 and 77% and I have perks to push it up to 9. I am at level 16. This is a little slow, but the real killer is my melee skill of 3. Boarding battles, treasure quests, or most combat for that matter are extremely difficult if not impossible. Even the town guards can kill me. Even with the golden cuirass i am a two stroke kill and my officers are no better. :duel:
 
This sub-mod (Open Sea + Directsail) is what made me come back to POTC and the Build Mod... Thank you so very much! I'm reading Patrick O'Brian's Master & Commander while my newly purchased Dutch-built brig "Zeehesten" (The Sea Horse in Dano-Dutch ;) traverses the Caribbean.

I'd wish the islands were placed properly though - it feels a bit awkward having to sail for so long to get from Cuba to Haiti e.g.
Also, about the storms - I haven't encountered any. Is it possible for one to appear randomly? I've been in a stiff breeze or two, but it seldom exceeded 30 knots.
I'll keep sailing, and mayhap I'll run into a storm when I least expect it! :pirateraft
 
I think I've run into storm while in directsail, though I'm not entirely sure. They occur more in the game than they do in nature, I can tell you that.

I don't think the islands will be fixed any time soon. I doubt any of us know how, and if someone does, I doubt he'll have the time. More effort is now being focused on the Hearts of Oak project, which will be geographically correct, by the way.

And keep reading O'Brian. It's worth it. :onya
 
This is a long thread but care was taken to place and scale the islands correctly and to get realistic sailing times. From Santiago, Cuba to Port Au Prince, Hispaniola should not take more than 2-3 days unless one catches contrary winds which can eat up 1-2 days with you going nowhere.

In the Open Sea mod storms are very very rare. The only time I have been caught in one is when I leave port in bad weather and sometimes it degenerates into a storm. The bad part is after that you get hit with one storm after the other. My personal record is getting sunk in the 7th storm. The only escape is going to the world Map.

PS: Ha! What do I know? I just got into my 3rd storm in nearly a year of sailing this mod while running up the North coast of Cuba to Havana.
 
Post Captain said:
I think I've run into storm while in directsail, though I'm not entirely sure. They occur more in the game than they do in nature, I can tell you that.
Click to expand...

I hear ye, I just wondered whether they were turned off by chance, if not, then what triggers it.

Hylie Pistof said:
This is a long thread but care was taken to place and scale the islands correctly and to get realistic sailing times. From Santiago, Cuba to Port Au Prince, Hispaniola should not take more than 2-3 days unless one catches contrary winds which can eat up 1-2 days with you going nowhere.
Click to expand...
I glanced through most of the thread and I did see that an effort was made to make the distances somewhat realistic - which is great! Must have required a lot of work. Still, one can always nitpick - and if you look at the map, many things could be remade. Of course I understand that few if any would lie down as much time as is required to achieve an accurate geography from what we have. 'twas only wishful thinking mate ;)

Hylie Pistof said:
In the Open Sea mod storms are very very rare. The only time I have been caught in one is when I leave port in bad weather and sometimes it degenerates into a storm. The bad part is after that you get hit with one storm after the other. My personal record is getting sunk in the 7th storm. The only escape is going to the world Map.

PS: Ha! What do I know? I just got into my 3rd storm in nearly a year of sailing this mod while running up the North coast of Cuba to Havana.
Click to expand...

Great! I just experienced my first 'storm' with these settings - I had been sailing in rainy, windy weather for a few days, and when I was locked in a battle against an Indiaman not far from Guadeloupe, it suddenly shifted to storm - but it only lasted the (in game) hour out.
:sail
 
Heyho..
is it possible to set this one-day-per-hour to another value? E.g. one-day-per-2hours? Because I changed my worldmap-voyagelength ( I know, unrealistic^^) And now Directsail takes way more days then sailing on world map.. I know that I can reduce the Time-Scalar, but then I have no day-night-cycles which are just too beautiful to play without :)
 
Eh? In the Open Sea mod one hour = one hour. The standard direct sail still has one hour = one day, so it can be changed. Not sure where...........

EDIT: Possible fix is in post #5 of this thread.
 
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