Actually, I haven't felt that experience in my last game.

Out of all my sailing trips with a Karve and longboat, I think only one ended up with having the wind blowing against me. And even that one changed pretty fast to a better angle not long after I had begun tacking. So even that was done by two turns before being able to sail straight again.

However, I think the biggest problem isn't the wind, but more that players think they will immediately loose velocity the moment the wind is shifting from their back to one of the sides, or even partially in front of them.
As long as the wind symbol remains white, you can sail ahead. Even if it means you need to turn your boat a bit.

Thorin :)

Black core powered black metal hulled warship with lanterns and at least the capacity of a black metal chest... when?

I am pretty confident that wind is programmed into the game to a significant percentage to be against you. I spent a good amount of time just sailing around the ocean keeping a track of the wind pattern and would watch it constantly try and "correct" itself to blow completely against me as I changed directions to avoid it. I do wonder if you can use this to your advantage but I think it would be cumbersome. A paddling skill that helps you go faster would be pretty funny. I feel a big portion of the reason for the "conscious" wind is to help give the Moder's ability for existing, cause other than that, its pretty useless and a disappointment.

You can paddle your ship. That is the first thing that happens when yo hit the raise sails button and in the long ship paddling is slower than minimum wind speed for half sails and ~ 1/2 speed of maximum wind half sails and a little more than half speed for minimum wind at full sail and about 1/3 speed of full sails at maximum wind speed. The wind is definitely not purposely programmed against you and if it were you could easily game it by setting sail in the opposite direction from that you wish to travel and then paddling 180 degrees into what would then be fair winds. If the wind happens to be against you when you set sail use the sailing technique called tacking.

When tacking your long ship is always faster than paddling. With the Karve it is always faster than paddling at wind speeds higher than 2. With the raft its always faster than paddling at wind speed higher than 1.

Another wind thread it's cute

As mentioned in another thread it's mainly down to confirmation bias.

You remember the annoying experiences much clearer and more vividly than the non annoying experiences, which gives you a biased impression of their relative proportions.

So its not just you, it feels like that for everybody. But it isn't actually true.

If you want to prove it to yourself you'd have to do the actual research, ie pick a good length straight line journey back and forth between 2 places and time exactly how long in total the wind is against or behind you, do it several times to get an accurate average.

In actual fact I'd predict the wind would be favourable roughly 75% of the time in accordance with the 75% coverage between all your points of sail. (between 1:30 & 10:30 on the clockface)

Though to be honest I've not actually done this, I've just felt the rage myself so many times and was lucky enough to learn precisely how pseudo random number generators work at a machine code level. There might be some algorithm that 'tailors' the wind direction to 'tease' the player but this seems like an illogical design choice. The major problem PRNG has is that it's essentially too random, whereas real randoms allow for some exceptionally apparently ordered sequences, like rolling 1 on a dice in excess of 10 times in a row etc. PRNGs really struggle to produce sequences like this. Don't laugh I have had this happen to me more than once.

Yeah It does feel like every time I set sail the wind shifts to blow in my face. I have to wonder if it’s intentional. Just yesterday I set sail the wind at my back. I had waited until it was. Then it 180ed out of nowhere.

I would say “Use the Moder Power” but it’s a mid/late game ability. Also not sure if needing it to have it to sail is the best design. Your best bet is to learn the points of sail. As you can sail 45 degrees into the wind and tac back and forth. Takes a bit longer but it gets you where you need to go.

Originally posted by Vinegaroon:

I would say “Use the Moder Power” but it’s a mid/late game ability.

And horrible uptime/downtime ratio.

it's not just you but that doesn't make it any more real.

SAME. every time i set sail it is against me, and keeps turning against me when i turn direction, it is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ annoying. Also THAT DAMNABLE SEA-FOG APPEARS 100% OF TIMES WHEN I TRY TO EXPLORE. add these two together and I gave up trying to search new stuff.

Speaking of fog, I think the Moder's power could be buffed to blow that away, it changes direction of wind after all. Thoughts?

The sea is always right! It's your fault you wanna sail in the wrong direction:)
But seriously, sometimes it kinda feels that way. You sail around an island and the wind always changes in the worst way imaginable. Just bad luck. It's RNG. Many times the wind changed in the right direction in the moment i started my journey.
Kill Modr, sacrifice the trophy and you will get a buff to change the wind in your favor. Until then: Good luck! :)

The fog needs taming down. Wind if it changes direction should also affected fog inmo, where as if you heading into a head wind, the fog should be worse. However if you have a tail wind, you should see further in front of your ship.

The weather inmho, needs an overhaul

we need a sailing skill , one that improves your wind or visibility or both
mine would be at 100 im sure , bury me with my longboat
i use moder extensively , 5 minutes can cross most ocean areas , stop and explore land until it recharges - once the ocean highways are explored it becomes easier , sailing into swamps or plains before you are ready can be a real issue in the fog , hit a sandbar once that had 3 lox and a fuling camp - 3 longboats later i got my stuff back -

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

I have mostly sailed the longboat, and I can't compare the rowing, but I like the longboat much better. Of course, it handles storms much better, as well as sea monsters, but I also like how it handles better.

The karve turns faster, but it still has most of the latency, so I tend to weave around in it more than the longboat.

I haven't built a longboat yet, but agree on the karve fast turning. If I'm not constantly on alert, I can be pointing almost any direction. Can't seem to keep it in a straight line.

It's not the wind that bothers me more, it's the fact that the boat keeps getting destroyed by monsters. Even if you leave it far away and go ashore swimming.

Personally I just swim and log out/in to get my stamina back

pray to odin that stamina is not consumed when rowing in future updates

I'm just on the verge of my first longboat, so I don't know if it's already the case, but the karve should probably be the best for rowing by a longshot.

I have mostly sailed the longboat, and I can't compare the rowing, but I like the longboat much better. Of course, it handles storms much better, as well as sea monsters, but I also like how it handles better.

The karve turns faster, but it still has most of the latency, so I tend to weave around in it more than the longboat.

Can't you move forward but at a slow speed just by tapping 'W' one time so sail doesn't lower?

did you know that 1 click speed is rowing?
Also there is a wind helper boss power later for just such occasions. No wind is rare. Headwinds are too common.

1) you can tell what direction the wind is facing on your minimap. If you know you want to go somewhere, keep an eye on the minimap and go when the wind is in your favor.

2) boats have 3 speeds, the first speed is just rowing, which isn't impacted by wind.

I've never seen no wind. Sometimes you have to sail into the wind, but then you just have to tack, which means that you sail to one side of where you want to go for a while (likely until you are going to hit land), and then turn to sail to the other side, so you're zig-zagging to your destination. Eventually the wind will clock around so that you don't have to tack anymore.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacking_(sailing)

The game uses a fairly life based Sailing technique... but doesn't use a Life based land distance. The waterways in the game are never wider than a really large river or small lake and so tacking is at times impossible and at other times so significantly time consuming as to be better to just paddle... or in some cases run. Sailing has it's issues

I've been on the water a few times now (on the new seed) and I have spent about 50% of the time paddling or tacking... even though only 30% of direction won't catch wind.

It's manageable but it would be nice if they tweaked it.

I sail quite often and I rarely have a situation where paddling would be faster. I don't know how running would help, since you either have to come back to your boat, or tear it down and haul all the cargo, etc.

I don't see how they could tweak it without removing one of the boss powers. That's the whole point of that power.

Originally posted by Faceplant8:

I sail quite often and I rarely have a situation where paddling would be faster. I don't know how running would help, since you either have to come back to your boat, or tear it down and haul all the cargo, etc.

I don't see how they could tweak it without removing one of the boss powers. That's the whole point of that power.

Couple things. First better doesn't mean faster. Tacking while it may be faster is often such a hassle I just don't do it depending on the distance. wind changes direction often enough that it is often better... in the sense of being less hassle making quick directions changes to tack in confined space. Particularly early in the game as I want to avoid a sea serpent spawn so I am avoiding ocean as much as I can as it is still early. I would be hard pressed to deal with it. Thus to Tack I might go 3 boat length before I have to change directions. In some parts that is 100% a necessity.

As for running. My Current Seed has the Spawn point on a small island just offshore connected a bit of marsh (not swamp) As such from my current location I can actually sail to it. To run to it I have to Cross to rivers one takes about 70 stamina to cross at swimming 10. It was significantly less hassle to run over to it when I realized I forgot to activate the forsaken power when I put the head up.

There are times when sailing is always faster but honestly I sail as LITTLE as I can. I sail for two and half reasons. To find my way to boss or resources and scout a outpost location for a portal. Then to ship ore. That is literally the ONLY reason I get in a boat. There are very few places in the game where sailing is any where near as enjoyable as sailing should be due to how close land masses are. (or hidden rocks)

My last seed the trip to the island the Elder was on was the only trip I found was good to tack on.

Most of the time Tacking goes as follows even when it is an option. Tack, tack, tack wind changes. Or my favourite, tack port... wind shifts so that was useless and you move back to the previous heading with good wind. It is RNG with the wind but it does shift heavily and often.

Lastly. As for changes... it is actually easy... narrow the dead zone by 25-50% You still have to tack but less often and when you do it is more fitting the space.

Normally when you tack you are looking to hold a direction for Kilometres not Metres. Which is why often I find it better to just paddle when you know you are sticking close to land and just wait for the wind to shift or if you can run the land mass with one Forsaken charge than just do that.

Imagine not having wind in Valheim. No seriously imagine, because this concept doesn't exist.

If you're trying to hug the coastline, obviously taking is going to be an issue. Maybe your map has less open ocean than the ones I play on, but I've sailed for many minutes in one direction many times.

In any case, everyone has their preferences, so I understand if you don't like it.

FWIW, I just figured out the other day that you could turn off the annoying music that plays when you're in the ocean, and it is SO much better. Hearing the waves lap your boat while sailing through a stary sky at night with Yggdrasil right above you is very enjoyable for me.