Bring WINDCATCHER back please!
 

Way back when, a long long time ago, on my first unlimited pirate, I got Windcatcher. I did not measure how big of a difference it was, but MAN I got to Driftwood Island fast. Rank one windcatcher was noticeably faster than plain sailing. The next two points I also threw onto windcatcher, as it was so fantastic.

Today, windcatcher does nothing. It is fashionable to blame everything on Ship vs. Ship, so I will. It is all SvS' fault! It is all SvS' fault! :-)

Ahem. Anyhow, it would be nice to have windcatcher do something once again. In this morning's race, when I was far out ahead of the pack, I apologized for having rank 3 windcatcher. Someone immediately pointed out that they had rank 4 (and were far behind.) Someone else then confessed to having rank 5.

I tested the speed of launching my light sloop from Port Royal (no turns, no full sail, no ramming speed, no nothin) and at the minute, pressing the up arrow (heading directly to Devil's Anvil.) Fifty two seconds until I saw "Drop Anchor."

I tried it again on a baby pirate (level 5 sailing - windcatcher unlocks at lvl 6) and got the same exact result - 52 seconds. Different boats have different speeds, but windcatcher is now being ignored. C'mon, 12% faster should be AT LEAST six seconds faster. Not, um, zero.


So, I have a little trouble blaming this directly on SvS. But, I'll try anyhow. It does explain how those ****s were able to outrun me.

I know i hate it! I have rank 2 windcatcher and b4 my light sloop would go EXTREMELY FAST
now its a piece of junk it goes super slow.
Idk who to blame these days

Well darn. I'll have to test that myself before I sink anything else into that skill. Did you notice any lag at all? I'd like to think it was due to lag and not potco taking something else away from us.....lag ...right?? Please? sigh, i'm guessing not. I'll let you know my results when I get a chance to give it a run through.

You guys are correct. Before the recent updates my ships would sail around from island to island very quickly. Now, my ship goes MUCH slower than it has. And yes, i do have Windcatcher unlocked. This is very strange and i should also try and test this out if i get a chance.

- Captain Del Darkskull

lol - LAG! No SvS! Lag! SvS! Lag! SvS! Tastes great! Less filling!

Well ummm - in the first race - you won right? LOL :D Now since we both have 3 pt WC in the first race you a) hit less islands than me :D b) launched up from cuba a bit farther than I did ;) and c) you got a nice shot on sinking that ship at Toug (where I had to stop bah) :) - but when just racing I thought we were going the same (I wasn't losing ground on you - but not gaining either)...

Now in the second race I can tell you the difference - SwashII has 4 pts on WC and I only have 3 pts - and when we did the pass from Toug to Cut he 'slowly' passed me which is what I expected (and teased him so on it :D ) - so on that I have to say WC was working... (lucky for me I had the full cargo and could go right for doc - and that Ogre wanted nothing to do with SwashII LOL :D )

I guess you didn't read what I wrote. AFTER the race I definitively TESTED it. A minimum difference of 6 seconds was expected - more I wouldn't have complained about. But ZERO seconds means they have completely disabled windcatcher now, for no reason whatsoever. Hopefully, it is just a simple mistake somewhere along the way.

Ahem... now its me... do you REALLY think I didnt read your post? :)

Yes yes, I seen the 'testing' part and the whole '6 seconds' part.. but that still doesnt explain the facts that took place today :) (Thats why I didn't disput your findings - just presented the ones we encountered today during the race ;) )

SwashII and myself know for a fact (well you were there referee! LOL :D ) that his 1 extra point on WC made him get to Cut just a bit quicker on the Toug stretch... even after he had to do that course correction he still managed to pass me again just before cut and we both know he wasnt using Ramming or Full Sail :) Its the only explaination (ok, maybe he was puffing intot he sails harderr than I was LOL!!! :D But not likely... and I didn't see an extra sail on his War Sloop either ;) )

Tomorrow I'll run a test also and see what I get, and I'll let ya know what I find :)

LOL - ok. But there certainly is an explanation - exactly the same as when Davy cut past me in the third race, then I cut past him, then he cut past me, then I cut past him. If you go in the same direction for five seconds without turning you start going slightly faster. If you turn, you are back to slow speed. If you go straight for ten seconds, you go slightly faster than if you went only 5 seconds...but the slightest turn, puts you back to normal "turtle" speed. Whenever one boat is making two sides of the triangle, the other boat is "cutting" the triangle in a straight line (which is why Davy and I kept trading places.) (P.S. Man, I was shocked the first time I saw him FLY past me, going around Tormenta! His boat jumped forward like it was starting a full sail, without the wind animation.)

But anyhow, his WC 5 should have beat the snot out of my WC 3. Instead, we were neck-n-neck all the way to the man-o-war. (Ahem! :piratear:)

Man, that race was such a good idea. Thanks again, Ironrat! Three cheers for Sven!

Its possible that a ship receives sail damage in the race hindering its progress and that WC was not the determining factor. (possible) I wasnt there.

It seemed to me Edwards test was in a much more controlled environment and 'should' be more accurate.

i tested it
I was .018 Sec faster on Swash guy (my other pirates)5 in WC
othr pirate was siters on swash girl(0 in wind catcher) So somthing is up

Just for the sake of completeness, what does the skills page say for rank 5 WC? Rank 3 says 12% faster. If Rank 5 indeed says 20% faster, that would be at least 10.04 seconds off of the 52 seconds... (If you own a calculator, or have pencil and paper, check my math.) :-)

The beauty of it is, that you each can reproduce the test as much as you want.

It is slower than it used to be. I think they just lowered the speed of ships in general, shrinking the percentage anyway. 5% of 5 is less than 5% of 4 and what not.

My Sloop used to be a fast ship. Now it's tiresome.

Um, that's exactly why I measured it with different pirates - one level 40 mastered sailing. And a different (new) pirate with level 4 or 5 sailing.

They didn't simply slow sailing down (although it seems they did that also.) The expected MINIMUM difference for one test was six seconds - measured actual difference was ZERO. On another test, the MINIMUM expected difference was ten seconds - measured actual difference was again zero.

Windcatcher is completely disabled right now. Could be just a programming error, or something nefarious (given the SvS exploits, I'm inclined to think it's the latter.)

It definately bothers me that this may not be working at all.

I can understand them perhaps adjusting the overall speed/effectiveness etc of Weapon/Skill, however the passive skills/points should have the same effect on them, since they are generally percentags or amount of time. This would make sure they had 'some' effect, and not just disable them.

Ugh yea i have noticed that it doesnt do as much and i think like you say it has to do with SVS.

I have rank two wind catcher and while doing SvS I as running away(for the quest) and some how someone managed to catch up to my war sloop. A war frigate vs a war sloop means that I should have outrun this person but later on this person told me he had rank five wind catcher. Note the fact that I had been using ramming speed and full sail to get away while this person only used full sail.
Of course I had used my mouse to look behind me.
How could someone catch up to me so fast?
But now seeing this I don't know weather or not wind catcher is useless or not.

The thing is, there USED to be a mesurable difference with windcatcher. You could SEE other boats getting left in your dust. Not anymore.

Really?
Well I never paid attention to it but I don't think there's really a use for it.
I have rank two wind catcher and I think my speed is fine. Compared to light sloops i'm slow of course but for traveling time I like it.
I use full sail and ramming speed a lot to get to places faster anyways.

My windcatcher is 4 and i'm always fast when sailing. I haven't tested it but seeing as my leadership only works the first time then after that only adds the glow but doesn't charge skills faster in those 10 seconds or so, i wouldn't be surprised if windcatcher has stopped working too. But in SvS i'm always told to take the wheel and sail outta there to repair, so i'm guessing i'm still pretty darn fast hehe. :)

So you've NEVER measured it, yet say that your measurements (comparisons) don't show a difference...despite rock solid, accurate measurements from other people that demonstrate you are wrong. Brilliant.

Ok, another observation of skills that do not work.

Leadership. This does absolutely nothing but look pretty.

It NEVER has any effect on my skills charging other than make them "pulse" on the screen like it is doing something. If its faster, its EXTREMELY marginal difference in speed (takes me longer to click on the skill... wasting my time).

Whoa.

Leadership always works for me. For example, FULL SAIL takes a minute and a half (or somtehing) to recharge. The nine hash marks around the circle show ten second intervals. If full sail is on the last THREE hash marks (~30 seconds away) and you hit LEADERSHIP, you can then do a full sail.

If you don't do your full sail WITHIN the ten seconds that leadership is glowing, it rolls the clock BACK and you have to wait anyhow.

FURTHERMORE: Leadership makes your crew's cannons recharge faster.

Must be something special about your pirate or how you use it.
I've tried using it before using skills.. (using skills while its active) Nothing.
I've tried using it immediately after i've used a skill. Nothing

Does not have any effect for me except a glow.
It has never once benefited me.

Tell me, how can a skill that stays active for 10 seconds recharge anything?

If they'd give me 10 gold for it at the shipwright, id sell it.

I press three to activate FULL SAIL. That pesky war sloop is still on my tail. Normally, I'd have to wait 90 seconds to do another full sail...instead, after only 60 seconds I press 8 (LEADERSHIP) then 33333333333full sail. (OK, about 65 seconds...still, better than 90 seconds.) Pesky war sloop is now back at Rumrunner's, while I am now close to Isla Perdida. Yay, Leadership saved the day.

The trick to Leadership is when to use it (maybe thats what makes you a Leader? LOL :D )

IF I fire Broadsides and then use LS right away - its a waste. The BS won't fire again because though they are recharging faster - they don't finish before LS runs out and they reset back to normal...

But if they are 1/2 charged and you hit LS - now just before LS runs out I can use them again :D

As Edward mentions... its all in the timing :)

No I haven't.
But weather or not it does work I don't think I really care.
Sorry but using full sail and ramming speed get me to where I need to be to any place fast enough.
I don't care about traveling time because I like sailing.
Isn't sailing supposed to be fun? I don't think measuring time would make a difference because it's up to the devs to fix this BUG or PROBLEM.

Has this bug gotten fixed :[

Same question as above...has the Windcatcher been fixed? I can't tell if it's my comp's lag or the fact that it doesn't do anything. I've got level 5 Windcatcher and ships are always outrunning my war sloop.

I'm thinking of reassigning my skill points out of windcatcher...especially if it's broke

Percents are hard to measure, as the speeds of ships aren't exactly given. I just think they slowed down most ships: those new might not notice, those who've applied of old may. I can't shake the feeling that they docked (not a pun) the speed of ships.

Hmmm....well, maybe I'll just keep one point in it instead of the full 5. I lag too much to make it matter anyway.

Took me 14 minutes in my War Sloop with level 5 windcatcher (and using ramming speed/full sail) to get from Port Royal to Padres last night....that was terrible! Would've logged off if I wasn't trying to finish quest before maintenance shut down.

WindCatcher catches nothing
 

After hearing about the "windcatcher" from another pirate in the game, I admit I was hurt. After all I had invested 4 skill points on the passive skill and was unaware of the true effect it had on my ship. So then I came to POTCO and read this forum...boy were my eyes opened.

I decided to do the "Race" with each of my ships from Tortuga to Devil's Anvil with no extras (ie. full sail etc) and time myself with a stopwatch as I did the race. The first set was with 4 points on windcatcher and then without.

I GOT THE EXACT SAME TIME FOR EACH SET!!!

War Sloop w/WC 45 sec
War Sloop wo/WC 45 sec

War Galleon w/WC 57 Sec
War Galleon wo/WC 57 sec

War Frigate w/WC 50 sec
War Frigate wo/WC 50 sec

So I think it proves the point that WindCatcher does not improve your ships performance at all. Save your skill points and invest them in something else.

:piratewheelgo2:

i have one point just in case.

It's a great skill in concept, should, in concept, it work. It's kinda sad, as the sailing passives are supposed to be the only things that get a good turnout after the first point is inserted.

This is sort of a dead subject and the VETERANS of POTC came to this conclusion months ago .....Wind catcher does not work and quite possibly works in the opposite as it slows you down instead of speeding you up.

The only reason I can come up with is that the game developers for POTC who also play the game almost if not more then we do have made a few little changes in the game to make things more advantageous for their players.

Lots of the glitches in the game are not accidental and were put in the game by the very people who created the game. the lowly computer nerds and programmers

using windcatcher is a waste of points and prior to privateering wind catcher worked and worked very well it only became non functional shortly after SVS.

The reason being? Quite frankly if windcatcher worked then those players who invested points in those skills would be very very very hard to catch and sink.

Additional data:

Tortuga to Padres del Fuego, no full sail, no ramming speed, light sloop.

Rank 0 windcatcher: 3 minutes 35 seconds.
Rank 5 windcatcher: 3 minutes 41 seconds.


Even more dramatic: two pirates.exe running side by side.

Edward Edgemenace level 40, sailing 25, windcatcher 5. Ship: white warrior light sloop.
Edward Edgemenace level 10, sailing 5, windcatcher 0. Ship: white warrior light sloop.

Logged into both from linked accounts (identical configuration file.) Launched both from PDF on a quiet server, backed up so they were exactly side-by-side pointed at Isla Cangrejos. Pressed up arrow within one second of each other. Edward 10 took sail damage from a revenant, a centurion and a storm reaper. Edward 40 took only minor hull damage. Edward 10 beat Edward 40 to Isla Cangrejos by 37 seconds.

Hahah flippin ace Edward and nice testing, a lot of us do notice thats its gone too. I was in a viscious battle with two top svs freinds the other day and I recommended a race to try out the skills they both had out of the svs arena to prove there was no cheating going on.... needless to say no one wanted to do it so I am glad some one had the lvl head to test n tell us his findings!

To be fair it isnt the only thing thats wrong on the skills pages, I think disney should release a full description of what each skill does, I must admit when u see ones that say 'lasts 6 seconds' I wonder if that means 6 seconds per point or in total or what? ya end up stickin on yer points n hopin for the best.

But I do truely believe that the guy whose supposed to add up all the damage points per hit and speed times or skill durations is just bad with numbers, he uses the think of a number method of calculation an hopes for the best cos he knows we love the game...

But I am recommending that disney send him on a recalculation course so we can all just play a normal game.

WOOO WOO hear hear Zep! I like the pretty glow but if some one was waggin ten gold at me for it I would have their hand off soo fast!

Leadership is rubbish, and to think we had to get endless ear of wasp n toe of bat for it!

As stated before this is a very very old issue and I personally did tests just as these months ago to determine that yes windcatcher is honest to god "BROKE"
and it just so happens it became worthless probably within weeks of SVS coming online and functional.

As for leadership skill not working? The skill works perfectly fine as long as it is used strategically. For any other skill besides broadsides you need to wait for the skill you want to "boost" to be at least 75% charged already and when you hit the leadership button all skills get a 25% boost in charging if you have a skill that is boosted with leadership and not fully charged as soon as leadership wears off you lose the 25% boost and it goes back to where it would normally have been.

Leadership is best used as an emergency "ace in the hole" in order to either give you an extra shot of broadsides or bring take cover up real fast or recharge skills in order to run for the hills etc. it takes a long time to charge so better to be saved
to give you an advantage.
Never tested it but I imagine if you used leadership then stopped and repaired the ship it would speed up repairing ? dont know never tried but worth looking into.

So, Edward level 10 (sailing 5/no windcatcher) started the same time as Edward level 40 (sailing 25/windcatcher 5.) About 2/3rds the way through: http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...3_15-34-40.jpg

Then, close to the end, http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...3_15-36-48.jpg - Edward 10 won the 7 minute "race" by 37 seconds. No doubt, it was all lag from running two pirates at the same time...but still. 20% faster should have been, well, 20% faster, not 20% slower.

Well, for all the variables/conditions to be the same, it'd have to be: same ship type, same server conditions, same ocean conditions, same pirate conditions same, application/computer conditions, same route. It also would be more accurate to see the effect of Windcatcher on a bigger ship of a heavier class, as Windcatcher would technically decrease a time by the same rate, and the bigger ship would have a bigger time and bigger deduction.

I'm just posting because I don't think the skill actually decreases the speed of the ship.

Please read what I wrote. Both pirates were running on the same computer. Both pirates (inherently) used the same game options (linked account.) Not similar, but EXACTLY the same. Both were on the same server. Both started side-by-side. Both went the exact same route. Both launched the exact same type of boat (even named the same.)

Windcatcher has been broken exactly as long as we've had SvS - the only reasonable place for it to matter. With retraining in place, there is no reason for it to remain broken.

Mayb lag slowed down one more than the other? As well, the route isn't the same even if it is side by side. If one even started off tilted, it'd have a longer path. I did not say that the same time was a condition.

Still, just posting because I doubt it lowers speed at all: maybe does nothing, but not lowering speed.

So, just what sort of lag should affect one thread but not the other? The two boats were not sailing divergent (nor convergent) courses - they proceed the entire way in parallel.

I expected the test to come out even, since it is obvious that windcatcher is broken. I did not expect it to slow my "fast" pirate down, as it did in that (and a couple other) tests, with varying degrees of slowness induced.

If you devise and execute a better test, please share the results.

I don't care what most people are saying about windcatcher because I believe it works.
When I see my ship go faster and dodge enemy fire it seems to be working. No, I'm not talking about ramming speed.
You can do all these tests but I still won't believe it.

I also have a theory. Lag could have something to do with it. I experience almost no lag so I may not be experiencing the problems you might have.

On thing I do notice on pirates that have windcatcher, is that NPC ships shoot behind my ship, instead of at me. That does not mean (nor even imply) that my ship is traveling any faster. Many tests now, repeated by other people, confirm that this is the case: windcatcher is broken. But you personally, I am not asking to believe, anything.

I apologize, then.
I just went on a while ago and asked a friend to help me test this.

While I used a rank four windcatcher and got close to an enemy ship I had my friend sail next to me.
My speed didn't show an increase as I sailed neck and neck with him and the enemy fire went behind me.
My question is, why would POTCO waste time making enemy ships do that anytime we use windcatcher when it would be easier to make our ships go faster?

Talk about a good optical illusion.

To give advantage to people who knew about the defect, an initial advantage in SvS when it was first released. (There was no "re-training" back then.)

Yup, very obviously harder to go to the trouble of making the convincing optical illusion, instead of just making the ships go faster (exactly as described.)

Ok ......so we all know (most) of us that windcatcher does not make your ship (any ship) faster in any way shape or form... This I have known for months however the fact that it causes the affect of throwing off the aim of enemy ships?

This has not been noticed by me as I stopped using the skill entirely a long time ago.

So with that being said if you use lets say windcatcher 5 there is a possibility that you will be a hard ship to hit with broadsides in svs?

Just throwing this out there as I have noticed a lot of ships that seem to be harder to hit with broadsides and was blaming it on the server (abassa)

This is food for thought as it seemed to be the weaker ships (nubes) and evidently people who were not informed wind catcher does not work.

going to have to do somes tests concerning this in the near future. quite possibly it might also throw off the aim of gunners as well but I seriously doubt that.

The point is that before SvS, windcatcher did make my "Driftwood Express" go almost twice as fast. With the introduction of SvS, the windcatcher skill became negligible (broadsides "aiming" patch in Nov/Dec may have been what introduced the optical illusion thing.)

Well did some tests in SVS with windcatcher..... worthless utterly worthless
that whole hing where it makes enemy ships fire late is only NPC ships only as it has no affect on player ships. actually the opposite as I normally can dodge cannon fire with ease.

With windcatcher maxed it was like sailing with the anchor tossed over board.

To make things more frustrating....some of the enemy ships have inner-cooled turbo chargers. Then sail and turn in a very unrealistic fashion. This started a couple of months ago with one of the major updates.


Robert Darkskull
Pistols N Bladez

:piratear:

Thanks for confirming that, also.

When they first released SvS, windcatcher stopped functioning. I was hopeful they would correct the mistake after the official contest, but apparently they don't get enough daily complaints about this. (Man, it would be nice if they did this to the twenty-dozen-glitches TAKE COVER, but restored windcatcher instead.)

Yeah since my pirates are fully mastered for quite some time rarely sail other then in SVS and yes any time you encounter one of those enemy ships in TURBO mode either sink it fast or run like the ****ens and pray it is not one of the really nasty ships like a dreadnaught. even an ogre in turbo mode is pretty nasty as a war galleon in turbo mode is no longer a slow puppy.

Any rumors of Windcatcher being fixed in any upcoming patches/updates? I'd hate to waste more $$ moving skill points if it will start working again.


:th_smellie_pirate:

Somebody? Anybody? Bueller? Bueller....? Bueller.....?

:bookishfj7:

As of today, the only advantage of unlocking windcatcher is that NPC ships shoot behind you, instead of at you, to maintain the optical illusion of speed. Ship speed is still not corrected.

We've been bamboozled!!! Arrrrrrrrr!!!!

:mickeypiratezd4:

Just now, time testing on TEST server gave my light sloop 47 seconds with windcatcher 2, 60 seconds with no windcatcher. Run was Port Royal to Devil's Anvil. I'm now too stunned for words...

WOW....that's smokin' news! Now we'll have to test all ships....and test some more. If they really did fix it I'll have to spend more $$ reallocating skills. Thanks for the 411 Edward.

:pirate2:

Yeah i just tested it. Just wow.

SO, it is back to the way it should be? It actually works??????????????????

Shouldn't they have put that into the test release notes? Or maybe big D doesn't want to admit they messed it up last year.

Eeeep. I may have done an invalid test last night. Trying it again today is not giving the same results.

To test: I launch a ship and take hull damage from an NPC, then land and repair ship fully. I then launch the light sloop from Port Royal and nudge the ship forward then back up as close to shore of Port Royal as I can. I carefully do no zoom the view out, nor change the compass. I aim the mast-top of my light sloop to line up with the middle "T" of the word "Tortuga" then wait for my clock to get to 59 seconds, then press the up arrow once. End time is when Tortuga's "Drop Anchor" appears. If any friends sign in or out during that minute and a half, I start test over. If any NPCs shoot at me, I start test over.

With or without windcatcher, that run is coming in at 87 seconds today on TEST. It must have been a fluke, or a friend or guildie coming online during yesterday's test?

Anyone else able to confirm or deny this? Was I just seeing what I hoped beyond hope to see?

I dunno, Swash II sounds like he got results...

Well, that's why I'm still asking...anyone with two pirates (one with zero windcatcher, one with windcatcher) able to confirm this?

I did notice this as well. I spent alot of gold retraining my maxed sailing for speed because I like the SvS feature and I am usually alone on my war sloop. Now I can't out run a war frig...

Aye.....I can do that. If not, I have a couple of friends on my list without windcatcher. A raced them a couple of weeks ago (with 2 points in mine). We used light sloops and we were neck and neck. I could not pull away from the other sloops in the slightest bit. I'll try this again soon and report results.

:sailr:

it is because of svs... they dont want a pirate with rank 1 windcatcher to not be able to sail away from a rank five.

I read today that Wincatcher has been fixed. Has anyone verified this? I am reluctant to spend another 10,000g to readadjust sailing if this is not true. I do not post much, but read everyday so I look forward to reading your thoughts. Thanks

It has been fixed on test! Hopefully it will be fixed on open soon. So yes, and no. It will be working again eventually, and that's exciting! (That means another 10k for me to redo my skills- I took all but 1 point out of windcatcher while it wasn't working.)

This is simply the best news I have seen in a long time. My test run from Port Royal to Devil's Anvil with windcatcher was 38 seconds. No pity for people having to retrain now, to get real speed in SvS. Bwahahaha. Skill point allocation for sailing now means REAL choices. I am tickled silly by this.

Thanks Guys. I'm looking forward to seeing this on open.

Yes.....this is most excellent. Time to whip out some $$ for moving skills....again...lol


:126:

Does windcatcher make a big difference? Like is the speed significant?

Yes. Very significant.