put the rudder on decent angle +45% and put sails on 2* so u circle the enemy then shoot its ass, eazy as that... ur boat wont stop moving if the sails are on 2 or 3 speed and u leave the rudder, unless u jump off ... wich is the eaziest to do when u loot ur kill because ur boat will insta stop on the spot :à then u dont have to sail back

if ur peddeling the boat aka speed 1 ur boat wil come to a halt if u leave the rudder yes... it wont move f no one is peddeling.

I'm serpenthunting all the time for its scales. Harpune it, crash with your ship into a coastline and drag & kill it on the beach. It will be completely defenseless outside of water.

Also its a really weak creature in water as soon you set foot to a swamp.
The poisonous arrows you get in the crypts will kill it in no time while just holding course like previous guys said already.

I'm fine at piloting it. But the sea serpent will catch me if I'm just going in a straight line. So if I get up to fight, it smacks the boat.

Best thing might be to not go too far off the coast in a Karve. At least try to keep an option to head for land if you encounter a sea serpent, and hope that a troll isn't waiting for you at shore :D.

Getting a better ship is ofc helpful...

Just kill them before they kill your ship.

you can sail and defend at the same time, this sounds much more like a roundabout way of crying about the portal restriction

Originally posted by Itharus:

Good to know it keeps going... when I faced a sea serpent last it was in a karve and I had to continuously steer to keep it from getting me, and to keep the wind. It hit hard enough that if I wasn't driving the boat would have been broken.

How did you keep a karve going in a straight line fast enough that it didn't just slap you silly? I had to maneuver to make it wig out.

Also the wind hates me.

The boat controls are really tight once you figure out the control mechanism.

I wouldn't expect nastier sea creatures, just more variety. Ore through portals thankfully isn't going to happen. As has been stated, your boat keeps going if you have the sail up until you leave the boat.

Originally posted by Itharus:

It occurs to me that if more nastier monsters are added to the sea biome, then returning by sea to your main base with your ore will become impossible as a solo player, as you cannot sail the boat and fight the monsters at the same time. If your boat cannot move, it's a sitting duck and gets destroyed.

This is frankly unacceptable :(

So... how would this be solved, other than by enabling ore through portals? Adding NPCs to sit in your boat with bows and protect it?

I have sailed both the Karve and the Longship and have yet to have it destroyed at sea, but have had them destroyed while parked near the shore. As to fighting while sailing, I do it all the time by using my bow.

If you are sailing (not rowing) the boat continues ahead and you can walk around and take shots at the nasty snake monster.

Good to know it keeps going... when I faced a sea serpent last it was in a karve and I had to continuously steer to keep it from getting me, and to keep the wind. It hit hard enough that if I wasn't driving the boat would have been broken.

How did you keep a karve going in a straight line fast enough that it didn't just slap you silly? I had to maneuver to make it wig out.

Also the wind hates me.

tbh you could use the morder power up to escape any sea serpants and probably anything they add.

Originally posted by Itharus:

It occurs to me that if more nastier monsters are added to the sea biome, then returning by sea to your main base with your ore will become impossible as a solo player, as you cannot sail the boat and fight the monsters at the same time. If your boat cannot move, it's a sitting duck and gets destroyed.

This is frankly unacceptable :(

So... how would this be solved, other than by enabling ore through portals? Adding NPCs to sit in your boat with bows and protect it?

But your boat can move while fighting monsters. Your sail can be down without you manning the boat. It is acceptable.

i wouldn't worry about it they wont make it impossible to sail as it is one of the main things they really want you to do. but they prlly will never make portals transport ore, you can always mod it yourself its not hard 2 do.

Originally posted by Itharus:

It occurs to me that if more nastier monsters are added to the sea biome, then returning by sea to your main base with your ore will become impossible as a solo player, as you cannot sail the boat and fight the monsters at the same time. If your boat cannot move, it's a sitting duck and gets destroyed.

If you leave the rudder while the boat is in motion, it will stay in motion as long as you do not exit the boat. You can totally stop directing the boat in order to fire some arrows at a bad guy.

We may (probably) also see an expansion of boats when the ocean biome is expanded. I doubt we’ll see much in the way of NPC’s beyond the Trader though. This is supposed to be a pretty isolated and little known realm after all.

since boats right now can just outrun the serpents (the only ocean threat) i would mainly be concerned an enemy dedicated to holding my metal shipment in place