Sailing

[Vinegaroon]

I love the boats in their current state.

Though I am curious what you guys think about the Art of Sailing? If you really get into sailing it's a complicated process taking into account the points of sail, tacking against the wind, manipulation of the main sheet, Wind Direction, and navigation. 

Seems like it would be very vintage story to raise the main sail and wait an hour for the wind to shift so I can go home, or having to use a quadrant to look at the stars because I got myself lost at sea. This might be neat as a map option on on more ocean map. I don't think it works well in smaller water.

[LadyWYT]

1 hour ago, Vinegaroon said:

Seems like it would be very vintage story to raise the main sail and wait an hour for the wind to shift so I can go home

One of the most fun and frustrating things of Valheim! I dunno about adding it to Vintage Story though...it would make wind power more frustrating than it already can be, if wind direction affects windmills in addition to ships. Of course, you could just make windmills ignore wind direction, and only factor in wind speed, but in that case you're going to have players wondering why direction affects one and not the other. Not to mention a lot of animations potentially needing some rework. Personally, I'd keep the style we have now and just ignore wind direction.

1 hour ago, Vinegaroon said:

having to use a quadrant to look at the stars because I got myself lost at sea.

Celestial navigation would be awesome in general, especially for players who don't like to rely on the map. Useful for both land and sea, provided the weather is right for it.

[Vinegaroon]

22 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Of course, you could just make windmills ignore wind direction, and only factor in wind speed, but in that case you're going to have players wondering why direction affects one and not the other. Not to mention a lot of animations potentially needing some rework. Personally, I'd keep the style we have now and just ignore wind direction.

I guess they would also need to add a way to rotate the mill which would be cool. Though I don't envy the codding they would need to do. :(

[Michał Bortkiewicz]

you guys could add some kind of item, or option for sailboat to show on map. searching for it after I wasn't sure on which part of the island I parked, was not great

[Bruno Willis]

On 12/20/2024 at 1:25 PM, LadyWYT said:

if wind direction affects windmills in addition to ships. Of course, you could just make windmills ignore wind direction, and only factor in wind speed, but in that case you're going to have players wondering why direction affects one and not the other. Not to mention a lot of animations potentially needing some rework. Personally, I'd keep the style we have now and just ignore wind direction.

I think it would actually be really interesting if we kept the current dominant wind direction, and had sailing ships go significantly faster in that direction, then sail at the current speed across the wind, and then tacking upwind you'd go slower. It'd give some nice rhythm to sailing and travel, and you'd prefer certain routes because of the dominant wind. That'd let windmills stay as they are.

Saying that, I hate that windmills don't take wind direction into consideration - those optimized windmills with rotors on all sides look so unnatural! 

I'd say, make wind direction mean something, and apply that across the board, but keep the world having a dominant wind direction so you can plan around it. Occasionally the wind might blow from one of the other directions, which would cause mills to halt (like they already do when the wind falls), and would allow you to sail in directions which would usually be a pain. 

16 hours ago, Michał Bortkiewicz said:

searching for it after I wasn't sure on which part of the island I parked, was not great

Oh the pain. Yeah, that's happened to me too, but it taught me to always mark my park and I've been fine ever since.

[LadyWYT]

11 hours ago, Bruno Willis said:

I think it would actually be really interesting if we kept the current dominant wind direction, and had sailing ships go significantly faster in that direction, then sail at the current speed across the wind, and then tacking upwind you'd go slower. It'd give some nice rhythm to sailing and travel, and you'd prefer certain routes because of the dominant wind. That'd let windmills stay as they are.

I'd actually prefer just a simple boost to sailing speed in proportion to current wind speed. What you've proposed here works on paper, but I think in actual practice it would be very frustrating, as it only ends up encouraging water travel in one direction. If wind direction is going to factor in, it really ought to be like Valheim's system, which...honestly, I'm not really a fan of. Valheim does sailing very well, but I do find it rather tedious, if not outright frustrating, since oftentimes the wind just isn't blowing in a useful direction and the game requires a LOT of sailing. There is a special ability to unlock that will make the wind always blow in a useful direction for a short time, but taking that ability does mean you're forgoing abilities that are far more useful on average.

[Bruno Willis]

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

Valheim does sailing very well, but I do find it rather tedious, if not outright frustrating, since oftentimes the wind just isn't blowing in a useful direction and the game requires a LOT of sailing

This just isn't realistic sailing though. When you're sailing, you can usually sail in any direction except straight towards the wind. Imagine a clock- if the wind is blowing from 12:00, you can sail in directions from 2:00 all the way round to 10:00. You can get even closer to the wind with a modern sail. All you need to do to go upwind is to tack back and forth, zigzagging upwind. It's slower, but it's no big deal. 

(Edit: I just watched a video on valheim's sailing, and that's how it works there. Oops.)

1 hour ago, LadyWYT said:

I'd actually prefer just a simple boost to sailing speed in proportion to current wind speed.

Whatever route they follow, this would be the best, simplest change. 

Along with making the flag on the top of the mast point away from the imagined wind direction instead of towards it. That drives my stability down every time I notice it. 

Edited October 13, 2025 by Bruno Willis
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