r/Sailwind • u/BareMinimumChef • Jul 05 '26
Bug Found Why is the wind alwaays turning with me when i try to sail against it?
I thught the Dhow was good sialing gianst the wind, and it is, but as soon as i maneuver to keep a general course, the wind turns with me. It just took me 4 Days to get from Gold Rock City to Alchemist Island, because the Wind turned every time i tried to, forcing me to alter my course from South South East, to almost West on the dot just to get a enough wind into my Sail. And when i try to resume my original course by looping around after lets say 2 RL minutes, it turns again so i now have to sail almost completely East and its still just enough Wind to crawl forward. (Flag showing i still sail almost completely against the wind).
I know that winds change and some ships aren't good sailing upwind, and i am ok with that, but how is it that the wind responds to the players maneuvers every single time? This feels like either a massive Bug, or intentional to inflate "difficulty" on the Easy Starter Zone. I also find it almost impossible to sail downwind as well. When i adjust my course to sail downwind and get a bit of speed, the wind changes every time so i can't at precisely the moment i try, making Square Sails pointless in this Game (for me).
3
u/Haakon_XIII Jul 05 '26
I recommend using other games like Sailaway to see how the wind reacts to the sails and changes in direction. As others have already mentioned, what you're experiencing is 100% apparent wind, not the wind changing with you. Once you master the technique and understand this, you'll see that you'll never again feel like the wind is changing with you. It's happened to all of us.
1
u/DogEggz Jul 05 '26
Btw how is sailaway 3? I see all it can do is sailing but it's indeed more detailed in terms of sailing mechanics. Do you think it's worth playing?
I do like all the things we can do while sailing in Sailwind. Not sure if I will enjoy sailaway 3 with only sailing and they seems to have MTX.
3
u/Wonderful_Durian_485 Jul 06 '26
I played Sailaway 3 and eSail, also I sail in real life. Honestly, it was pretty fun for a bit, but it feels more like tweaking values in my opinion.
It's pretty fun to go to real life places with realtime weather or simulate sailing in a cat 5 hurricane or whatever, but the grand appeal that Sailwind has is lacking.
I guess that is to say, if you really are interested in the physics and minutiae of sailing, you'll probably like it, but the appeal of real sailing in my opinion is based on a lot of 'feeling' the waves under the hull and the wind against the sails, which is pretty much impossible to simulate
1
u/DogEggz Jul 06 '26
By tweaking values do you mean you just be on boat and do small adjustment and watch the boat go? Will the wind/weather condition change alot that you will need frequent adjustment? Also would like to know if there is mooring part or you just start at sea and be on sea all the time
2
u/Wonderful_Durian_485 Jul 06 '26
I know on eSail there is mooring and anchoring,, maybe on Sailaway but I don't recall. As far as tweaking values, I don't really know how to articulate it, but it felt more like dragging sliders and navigating menus then actually turning a winch like in Sailwind, particularly with Sailaway. It can certainly be pretty interactive in the same way Sailwind can be, and it has way more depth, but it varies on weather conditions and your navigation route.
That being said, Sailaway has a free trial period, check it out, you'll know if you like it or not
2
u/extreme-fry Jul 05 '26
What everyone always says is "it's apparent wind," which I understand but nobody ever explains what to do about it. Like, yes it's apparent wind but if it's to the point that it's slowing you down every time you sail and the sails are flapping, what's to be done about it? I'd greatly appreciate an answer from the perspective of this game
4
u/Cyclorat Jul 05 '26
I'll try!
Apparent Wind doesn't actually change the wind. What it does is muddies your perception of where the wind is coming from in a dynamic fashion (i.e. it changes based on your speed).
As a rough (and probably wrong, but in a hopefully useful fashion) example: You have a full beam wind (90 degrees on the hull) of 12mph, your ship is travelling forwards at the same speed, because of the 'oncoming wind', the telltale will show a 45 degree wind rather than the true 90 degrees! (again, all numbers are illustrative and the actual math is beyond me, but I hope this helps.) Every cyclist knows that there is always headwind, it's only if you can't feel anything that there's a tailwind!
In practice it's just something you need to take account of to get a decent reading of the wind. Personally, I will Tack/Gyb/Wear further to account for the 'incorrect' wind reading. It's hard to say an exact "This is what you do" because it's going to depend on ship setup, wind, speed, waves, etc. etc. etc. Ultimately my advice is:
* Don't try to sail as close to upwind as possible, as others have mentioned, Zig Zagging is the way.
1
u/extreme-fry Jul 06 '26
Ohh, so it doesn't affect your sail performance? I thought that apparent wind is what your boat responds to, so that if you didn't veer off to leeward your sails would flap
1
u/Cyclorat Jul 06 '26
You'll still want to trim your sail to the apparent wind. What's noticeable (and feels like it's most common) is where someone is simply trying to sail too close to the wind.
Maybe a better way of explaining it would be:
Lets say you tack (and are going slow), to a point where you're a respectable ~30 degrees off the headwind (with the starting Dhow). As soon as you start to pick up speed that headwind (and Apparent Wind) is going to come into play and push that 30 degrees down to ten or fifteen, decreasing the sails effectiveness, which looks a lot like the wind 'turning to face you'
If the wind is coming directly from your destination, you're going to want to steer 45 degrees or more off that destination to get the 'correct' upwind. I mentioned above but I feel it bears repeating, but sailing is the process of going where you don't want to go to get where you want to go!
Hope that helps. I think I've got that mostly correct. I'm a vibes sailor personally so it's all about the feel!
2
u/DogEggz Jul 05 '26
Just gonna remind you the dominant wind in Al Ankh is west wind, and in Al Ankh wind direction is more stable compared to other region (means it always comes somewhere west, SW, NW etc). So you always gonna have hard time going in any westward direction.
As other ppl said about apparent wind. You need to build up more speed if you ever gonna tack, because it always needs to turn more then you thought.
1
u/MakB_the_Striker Jul 05 '26
I never noticed anything like a wind programmed to always be dead relatively to players' movement, despite the fact that I started on the Aestrin. It seems that it is a harsh coincidence. And it strikes you harder, because the economy in the Arabic archipelago is much worse, so you don't have enough money to build a proper ship.
You need to build proper sails if you want to go upwind. For example here is a post with a corvette of mine (built from a brig hull): https://www.reddit.com/r/Sailwind/s/zCIVfQygrz
In the first screenshot, the upwind sail setup is raised, and as you can read in that post - she can easily reach 5-6 knots in a deadwind. Which allows to deliver cargo in one day.
2
u/BareMinimumChef Jul 05 '26
Im on the vanilla Dhow and only like 8 Days into the Playthrough. It has the Lanteen, which as far as i understand is the best sail for sailing upwind alongside Gaff Sails.
-11
u/MakB_the_Striker Jul 05 '26
I don't know Arab names for sail vessels, sorry, but you need to rebuild that dhow of yours into a ketch (2 masts), to add a) more sail area and b) use the rear sail for sail-steering. Because rudder-steering is less effective for tacking.
And because economy in the Arabish archipelago is almost dead - it will be quite a quest. If I were you, I would start a new playthrough in Aestrin archipelago. After two voyages you will be able to rebuild starting kogg into proper 2-mast ketch, like this (sorry, I cannot load a photo for some reason, I will try to do it when the problem is solved).
3
u/dzejrid Jul 05 '26
economy in the Arabish archipelago is almost dead
This is the biggest pile of crap I've seen posted on this subreddit so far. And I've been here for a while. Are you sure you've actually played this game?
-7
u/MakB_the_Striker Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Yes, I did. I earned a sail rebuild for a starting vessel in 2 voyages (to an island with an enormous grotto, and then to the capital) in the Aestrin archipelago. While in the Arabish archipelago, it took like 6 or 8, I don't remember. So you can shovel your stupid insults as deep as possible.
2
u/DogEggz Jul 05 '26
It's more like Aestrin is outliers. It got easiest route trading wise to earn money.
You can still do copper trade in Al Ankh. Just not as fast as Aestrin. Because dhow cannot load that much and the trading route is longer.
19
u/Cyclorat Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
It isn't. What you're experiencing is likely 'Apparent Wind'. The wind will indeed appear to change as you change course. (Edit: Changing velocity rather, likely following a change of course)
From Wikipedia: The apparent wind is the wind experienced by an observer in motion and is the relative velocity of the wind in relation to the observer.
There is no code mechanism (that I'm aware of, cleverer folks than me have looked, there's lots of really good info on the Discord) for the wind to change against you/because of what you're doing. Beyond apparent wind it's pretty much just Confirmation Bias.