Originally posted by YoulluPukki:

Is it me or it's by design sailing made torturing?

After over 1.200+ hours I can tell you...
It's completely random. I tested it several times.

https://www.segelwagen.de/img/blog/post-Segelkunde-gegenWind.jpg
We have even tested which is faster, a ship that is constantly rowing straight ahead is faster than a ship that zig zags against the wind (like in the picture).

If you calculate, that you haven't ALWAYS zero wind, a ship moving in straight line is very much faster as if you try to apply to the wind.

At least it should be rewarded if you master your sailing "knowledge". Before Valheim I had no clue that this is a method used in real life. It should be rewarded, but the game doesn't in this case. Was a suggestion in their discord long time ago, high voted, but no one cared.

If you have a portal set up at your starting point, just switch to moder buff if you sail a long distance. For any other case -> you are better off to row against the wind in 90%+ of the cases.

So there are few circumstances in which deviating from the course makes sense - for example, when you only need a minor sail adjustment or need to sail a few miles further around an island anyway. But that's less sail mechanics than pre-planning.

I was hoping for a rework in the ship and sea update. But I'm not sure which direction they went in total. Feels like they are disconnected now somehow and don't know what they want to do in the first place - at least that's how Mistlands seems to be.

If performance would not suffer then ocean and atmospheric currents would be interesting to include in the game just as the Vikings of old had to learn and contend with. There are times in the year when you don't go a-Viking because currents run against you.

Originally posted by Gisbert:

At least it should be rewarded if you master your sailing "knowledge". Before Valheim I had no clue that this is a method used in real life. It should be rewarded, but the game doesn't in this case. Was a suggestion in their discord long time ago, high voted, but no one cared.

First of all thank you for your thoughts and the picture, that was interesting to reed!
Second, in real life you are rewarded by tha fact that rowing is more difficult (in terms of efforts and energy) than sailing. In Valheim, however, it is not so important, though you can walk your deck freely while sailing and you can't while rowing.

All in all I think boats are one of the best parts of the game so far. And I hope it will be made even better with the future updates.

I find what works best when sailing is pretending you want to go in the opposite direction :D

i think it can take a while sailing, if they are going to make us go back n forth by boat so often it would be nice if it was a little faster, though i have ripped along a coast a few times, i wonder if when they locked mining to the boat did they compensate for it.

Could also wait for a good day to sail, thought about it but I'm impatient

It's random

Originally posted by YoulluPukki:

Is it me or it's by design sailing made torturing?

The world's wind direction is completely random. The world is split in "zones" that have different wind. Every time you change the zone - the wind might easily go "the other way".

Though I have a feeling that wind has a slight preference to blow towards the center. I usually find myself moving faster towards the center than the other way around.

Originally posted by YoulluPukki:

Is it me or it's by design sailing made torturing?

Yes it actually is by design.

It takes longer to sail upwind, so on average, with completely random wind, you will spend more time and effort struggling upwind. Which your brain, by design, interprets as rigged.

tbh it looks like not that random

Originally posted by SiEgE:

Originally posted by YoulluPukki:

Is it me or it's by design sailing made torturing?

Though I have a feeling that wind has a slight preference to blow towards the center. I usually find myself moving faster towards the center than the other way around.

Interesting. I have my own hunches like that, but what if:

When you sail out you follow land more closely OR pick a specific direction (like boss altar). For that you get normal random distribution of wind, but when coming back you have the map uncovered, so it becomes possible to pick directions that on average produce better wind toward base, even with same random wind.

Just a thought.

Originally posted by lorifel:

1. Paddle

never herad of it before, amazing! thnk!

you know how you have 3 up arrows you can swap between? stick on the 1st arrow (no sail), and you should start moving at a steady pace. Just keep an eye out for the wind so you can lower your sail and take advantage of it.

just paddle.

it's a known fact that a "true" random feels unfair to the player. so i guess the wind is random in this game

Originally posted by YoulluPukki:

tbh it looks like not that random

If you believe that trick the game. Park your boat in the opposite direction that you want to sail when you get back in the boat or start sailing in the opposite direction that you want to go to trick the game into giving you fair winds. Should be easy right?

It's random

Originally posted by YoulluPukki:

Is it me or it's by design sailing made torturing?

You have several options to overcome it:
1. Paddle
2. Sail in zig-zag pattern
3. Wait for better wind
4. Choose another direction to explore - go with the wind!
5. Magic

I usually choose between options 1, 2 and 4 as I don't have the wind magic yet.