I was really an advocate for exactly this when we were in the concepting stage. Wind direction, wind speed, tacking, gybing and avoiding the boom - there's something about it that feels like it could have the same cosy feel as learning that copper + tin = bronze, while also providing interesting gameplay. Wind is an extremely fundamental part of IRL sailing, so that should be reflected in-game.
The problem is that OSRS needs to have a simple baseline. For an action to feel "old school" it needs to be dead simple, and these kinds of mechanics put a barrier up that makes the baseline gameplay just a bit too complicated. Moving my boat from point A to point B should be as intuitive and simple as we can make it, and then we can layer more simple mechanics (like the gust of wind) to add to the fun and thematics. Realistic wind and sail mechanics sadly require a bit too much thought from the player to exist as foundational mechanics in OSRS.
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