Sailing as a skill

[Aetherwalker 1,863]

It's just an idea, but perhaps having sailing as a skill could be an idea, making you go faster in a ship, have better control and be able to tack against the wind more efficiently, making sailing as a whole more practical.

[Farmerbob 369]

It's just an idea, but perhaps having sailing as a skill could be an idea, making you go faster in a ship, have better control and be able to tack against the wind more efficiently, making sailing as a whole more practical.

Yes.

Yes, yes, yes.

Did I say Yes yet?

Turn speed, max speed, acceleration, all based on skill, but with bits of random thrown in.

Horseback riding would be awesome too.

+1

[Dextrome 123]

makes sense

+1

[Gavin 971]

Maybe on Freedom, but it'd seriously cause issues on wild.

[Battlepaw 585]

Maybe on Freedom, but it'd seriously cause issues on wild.

[Hordern 2,177]

People would just go afk sailing to increase it. I'd just like to see the system overhauled a little to make sailing a bit faster into the wind/less laborious generally. I don't think adding a skill is the way to do it.

Edit: Couldn't be bothered to read Battlepaws before I posted mine (he posted while I was writing). My comment is directed at the OP.

[Battlepaw 585]

giving the ability to set a Keybind for "Row" or "Trim"  would be nice,  I mean you could do those actions or you could do something else to pass the time, like some arrow making or something.  Also, joining as crew should only be available in certain vesses for higher skill levels, say 5 Skill for the Small Sailing ship 10 for the Corb, 20 for Cog, 40 for Caravel If ya don't have the skill, its ok, you can just join as a passenger.  Knarr however, should be open to any skill level, as is the rowboat. 

[Klaa 4,872]

Dont see this as bad for Wild really. If anything it would make larger ships more effective than a simple sailboat.

Due to the complex nature of sailing, I can definitely see it as being a seperate skill.

[Banano 0]

Soon enough people will want a walking/running skill.

[Klaa 4,872]

Soon enough people will want a walking/running skill.

We already do. Its the stamina trait.

[Friend 2]

would be cool to somehow make sailing more interactive than just tacking rather than a skill level added to it. This way you would rely on RL skills and knowledge of the system to be good at it, rather than a high number

[Klaa 4,872]

Actually the number can be implemented to not affect the ship's speed directly. Rather the odds of you successfully performing the tasks to speed it up.

[Telarin 28]

Maybe on Freedom, but it'd seriously cause issues on wild.

Depends on if they ever bother to update boats.   Boats could really be impoved and given more fuctionality.  There have been suggestions in the past to be able to trim the sails, in addition to just tacking and stuff, to give it a more team feel.   I think there should be an option to join as "Crew" instead of just passenger, for some ships.   For the Small Sailing ships, perhaps 2 crew that can trim sails and depending on their sailing skill, it will reduce the trim timer.   For something like the Cog say have around 4-6 crew members.  In addition for ships that are supposed to operate diffrently like the Knarr, everyone who joins is crew, and has the option to "Row"  and only the commander can "Trim"  

The speed boosts should be very small, and only a large advantage with a larger number of players or higher sailing skill.  

Depending on the wind direction, the ship should be harder or easier to trim, and the success rate of your action depends on that.  Trimming into the wind should be harder, and be reflected as such.  

Example:  

Battlepaw starts to trim the sails

Battlepaw trims the sails and the vessel speeds up

Battlepaw starts to trim the sails

Battlepaw fails to trim the sails

Also, it should give you body control as well, and can be a good way to help grind it as you sail.   Rowing in a Knarr or Rowboat should give body strength instead

Battlepaw puts more effort into rowing the Knarr  

Battlepaw fails to row the Knarr faster

Battlepaw puts more effort into rowing the Knarr

Battlepaw rows the Knarr faster  

[Mark 47]

BP's idea has merit, and I would have suggested the same. If you have interaction, you can have a skill based on it. Just sailing forward on auto run is no basis for skill gain.

[Proterus 0]

We also need areas that are dangerous where you risk capsizing your boat and have the bigger boats be able to withstand tougher waters.  Then you can have islands separated by dangerous waters, add in reefs and sand bars so that there is a balance between big ships and shallow water boats.

[Klaa 4,872]

We also need areas that are dangerous where you risk capsizing your boat and have the bigger boats be able to withstand tougher waters.  Then you can have islands separated by dangerous waters, add in reefs and sand bars so that there is a balance between big ships and shallow water boats.

Agreed. Simulating the effects of small draft vessels vs large draft would provide more interesting results imho. Enabling someone with high level gardening (another skill perhaps?) to be able to encourage the spreading of reefs akin to current vegetation.

Ive seen video clips from MrB showing wave animations and ships bobbing gently. Not sure offhand with Wurm's current setup how much work it would be to increase such during storms, especially when one is outside of a protected harbour.

[Othob Rithol 700]

Battlepaw and Proteus are spot on.

[Proterus 0]

I'm not sure how damage would work with the waves/storms but why not just make a coral like a patch of moss only instead of slowing you down it damages the larger ships like a thorn bush for ships.  Beyond that you can just have different dirt elevations required for different boats and have it behave as it does currently when you try to sail into the shore.  Perhaps you can simulate waves/storms by just saying that water that is X dirts below the water will start to damage the smaller boat.

A 2nd suggestion

Allow the larger ships to contain rowboats say 3 rowboats for the caravel 1 rowboat for the cog that are contained on deck and you can lower into the water, so you sail off to a distant island on a caravel anchor it, lower the rowboat and row your way onto the shore while the caravel is anchored a little ways off shore and actually make the map designed so that this would be done because it is practical and not just for the sake of role playing.

[Hevets 0]

Protuerus and Battlepaw sound like they are onto it to me  ;D