Ships getting old ?

[The Aberdonian]

Lads & Lassies,
This might have been posted before but in this category "Life at sea" I can not find the solution. Also "slow" or "old ship" have proven to be bad searchwords.

It appears that I have real trouble sailing the seven seas for some while as my ship has become slow like a turtle. This also, and that is even worse, affects sea battles.

When I try to board a ship in a sea battle, even against a miserable merchant ship and even if I come from the perfect angle of the wind, the enemy still gets three shots at me before I reach him. Also, turning the ship (and I have copper plating) is so slow all of a sudden that I start to get really annoyed.

As said, I have the copper plating, the cotton sails and the sailing master in the crew. I have a Royale Sloop, no other ships in the fleet and even when it has no damage at all it is so slow that I get frustrated with the game.

Do ships get old ? I got this Royale Sloop off Roc Brasiliano quite early in the game and it did a great service so far but somehow it is not as I remember it. I rebooted my PC, defragmented the harddrive and switched off everything running in the background but still this has no impact on the sailing speed. Fencing and dancing scenes are also quite fast so I do not know what is wrong.

Anyone knows what to do or had this as well ? Are there sailing items as well to collect ?

The Aberdonian

[Capitan Incognito]

Hmm... I think the higher the difficulty the more problematic the wind becomes... Did you get navigation as your skill? It may help... I think using a pinnace class ship can also help speed things up, try moving in a zigzagging motion, I notice my ships sometimes sail a little faster when not moving in a straight line... I don't think there are special items to help you speed up your ship, the barometer and weather glass could help you take less damage in storm clouds allowing you to use the storm to boost your ships... The number of crew you have may also have an effect if I am not mistaken, if tour crew is too few to sail the ship properly you would slow down... I actually just started at swashbuckler level and have yet to est these these techniques at that difficulty but in rogue it does seem to help me a little from getting to point a to b in a shorter time...

[Tom Pullings]

Sounds like a bug to me.

[rupertlittlebear]

how badly damaged is your ship and its sails

[The Aberdonian]

[The Aberdonian]

[The Aberdonian]

[Roland]

In my current game I have been sailing Roc's royal sloop for nearly a decade, and it still sails just fine.

Do you only have this problem in combat, or also when sailing on the main map?

I have seen something like this in combat against certain opponents. Named opponents - especially Montalban - can get outrageous advantages in ship-to-ship combat. Last night I attacked two Spanish treasure ships sailing together (I think they were the treasure fleet, but they weren't carrying much gold). I used my newly acquired large frigate (thanks, Henry!) against them and attacked from upwind. It took forever to reach the first treasure ship, which was running way from me. Then the second one got three or four shots at me while I was closing. Fortunately nothing like that has happened since then (though I did encounter a few other bugs right before and after recruiting Montalban as my cabin boy).

The one time when my game seems to slow down is in sword fighting against ordinary opponents after boarding. Those scenes seem to take place in slow motion (but, of course, I don't get this break against Montalban or other named opponents).

[Capitan Incognito]

My game usually slows down after like 4 hours of playing, though not bad, it is a little noticeable... Like the loading time when you are in town and visiting the tavern, governor, merchant, etc... But that gets corrected when I save, exit and restart the game...

In my latest swashbuckler level difficulty game, I've gotten a mail runner finally and am enjoying the speed it gives... You can't believe how fast these little buggers run away from you when you try to attack one, I was able to get one after 4 attempts... >.> But now the mail runner is my flagship... Anyhow, I picked the fencing skill instead of navigation and even with the mail runner, there is some difficulty sailing, I tried and changed my flagship to a brigantine and it was worse... And my getting to Gibraltar from Trinidad was incredibly slooooooooooowwwwww....

[The Aberdonian]

I could not get a mail runner but I got a pinnace ship and put cotton sails on it with the same results - still slow so it is not the ship itself which is getting old. I also started a new game and even the normal sloop ship you get in the beginning without cotton sails is faster than my fully upgraded royale sloop in the game. Seems as if this game has some defect...

The Aberdonian

[Capitan Incognito]

Well that is just bizarre... I still haven't experienced the slow down you are saying... Hmmm... Have you tried capturing another Royal Sloop in your current game? You can test it out then if a newly capture Royal Sloop is really faster...

Edit: I haven't tested this theory yet but does having a fleet of ships as compared to having one ship only also be a factor to sailing speed?

[rupertlittlebear]

[Blonde Pirate's Dad]

I've noticed in my travels that in certain areas where there are a lot of islands that my game seems slow. I believe it's the refresh rate when trying to refresh all the details in the game.
Sailing at an angle to the wind so all your sails can catch the wind helps, too.
_________________
Hey Dude!! Your gas cap is open!!!
Dude!! It's still open!!
Close it, already!!
Anybody got a rag and a match?
Kaboom!!!

[Capitan Incognito]

[rupertlittlebear]