This thread was added on May 16, 2024, with posts from Old School RuneScape, JagexHusky, JagexLight.
With regards to luffing the sails, if I'm in navigation mode and can't directly click on the sails to luff them would I need to exit out of navigation each time they need luffing?
Yes, you'll currently have to click the tiller/wheel to stop navigating and then click on the rigging of the sails to trim the sails.
The specifics of this and how it feels in actual gameplay is something we'll be directly looking for feedback on when you can all playtest it and it's something we've discussed heavily during development so far.
In general, having some friction during the early parts of Sailing is probably a good thing, especially as we can relieve that with meaningful upgrades to your ship or by adding crewmates (both of which will be discussed later on during development) to do the task for you.
It also kind of makes sense that it's something you do when you've got a smaller ship with less facilities as there isn't exactly all that much for you to do while moving around anyway.
There's still many variables we can tune over time which impact this
We can change how often it happens
We can change how long you have to trim the sails before suffering the speed penalty
We can change how big or how small the speed penalty is
All of these could be dependent on the specific ship too!
Anyway, as per for me I've gone on a bit of a ramble for something I probably should've just answered Yes to but hopefully this provides a bit more context.
So is the actual sailing part going to be instanced? I don't see how this is going to work with multiple ships in the same area at once without it looking like an absolute mess
Hey Plebsaurus, I love your name btw!
We know that players really resonated with Sailing being NON-instanced as a skill, like most other skills are, so that it feels like it's part of Gielinor and not a minigame or silo'd off. The development team would like to re-affirm that it's non-instanced much as possible.
We mentioned having time-based challenges, like Barracuda Trials, for Sailing and those absolutely need instances where it makes sense as players would experience griefing if they are competing for a certain time.
The "mess" part is harder to answer with absolute certainty at the moment. We're not far enough in development yet but certainly we'll be looking to limit the amount of ships that are visible in an area at a time to avoid those problems.
Yes, you'll currently have to click the tiller/wheel to stop navigating and then click on the rigging of the sails to trim the sails.
The specifics of this and how it feels in actual gameplay is something we'll be directly looking for feedback on when you can all playtest it and it's something we've discussed heavily during development so far.
This was literally the one thing in the blog that did not give me joy. "Oh no. Is entering/exiting navigation mode going to be miserably clunky?" Good to see it's firmly on y'alls radar to monitor.
Yeah it's on the radar for sure.
We have some experimental builds with middle-ground approaches too we're still going back and forth on what we like better. It's all very divisive though and ultimately we may just have to make sure that there are different navigation-style options which players can build a ship to accomodate for choosing the upgrades to enable the gameplay they want to experience.
Yes, you'll currently have to click the tiller/wheel to stop navigating and then click on the rigging of the sails to trim the sails.
Sounds tedious, clicking on the sail should automatically exit you that way you don't need to click to exit.. to then click to luff. then click to enter again.
What are your thoughts on the points I touched on with regard to skill progression, starting off with a little friction and then alleviating that later on?
I also mentioned in another comment that it's quite divisive, we've seen some people say during playtests that clicking the sails accidentally was a problem, other's say that they liked it, so I'm keen to see what player's say during the tech alpha and I'm open to us allowing ship upgrades to help customise the navigation options available to you on a ship by ship basis if we can.
Edit: Follow up on reading the comments below, this is all really subjective, hard to pinpoint requires lots of playtesting and balancing. I have no intention of releasing something that just feels bad and there's so many variables involved. If I'm hating doing this from my multiple playthroughs of the skill closer to launch then I will not be subjecting players to the same. I'd just like everyone to remain open minded for now until they've tried it themselves which will happen before launch!
The worst part about OSRS is the navigation. You're spoken about how horrible walking and energy is in OSRS.
A huge part of the game progression is already unlocking teleports to walk less. Introducing a new clunky navigation mechanic isn't going to be fun for the player base. Players want to engage less with navigation. The aspect of 1 tick = 1 tile walked will always be a crude and punishing part of the game. That same limitation is going to exist in Sailing, only it's going to have an additional layer of tedium on top of it.
I really do think some fundamental aspects of OSRS have been missed in this. The messaging has been "we'll figure that out later" when it should be the very first thing you solve. It's possible it's an unsolvable problem, and Sailing isn't a good navigation method for the game. (Which this has become. Sailing is far more than just a skill, it's a new method of navigation and player control to interact with other skills.)
Perhaps I've just mis-spoken but the intention really is to figure this stuff out now! That's why we have the technical alpha which was set up purely to test how moving around on a ship and interacting with facilities on it while the ship is moving feels.
This 100% needs to be right at an early stage as it's the foundation for all things the skill is later built upon. The only thing I'm asking is for the current implementation to not be shot down until players have tried it for themselves which will hopefully be sooner rather than later