Does Tacking skill work?

[francesca]

Anybody notice a difference with this skill?

In other pirate ship games, the usual strategy was to shoot with the cannons on one side of the boat then swivel the boat around to shoot with the other side. But in this game, by the time you turn to the other side, the first side has just finished reloading so there is no point (of course this may be for the best since any cannoneers on board would get very dizzy).

So, does anybody notice with tacking that they can turn fast enough to fire both sides of the ship before the first side has finished reloading?

[Steely Jim]

I love my rank 3 Tacking, and my only issue with the skill is that I won't be able to justify a 5th point in Tacking and I won't have a chance to put a 4th point in it until about my 23rd Sailing point.

I love the skill, but it isn't very exciting to watch when it works and it only does what it says: for each point invested, you 'll reduce your turning radius by 3% per point. If you just want a skill to allow to flip your ship around quickly to bring the other broadside to bear, then you're better off investing a point or two in the Come About skill.

Tacking really comes into play when you're doing maneuvers like: a series of "S" turns out in front of a ship with no forward cannons. Another maneuver I like to pull is the oblique run end-around where I cruise by one end (usually the aft end) at an oblique angle and at high speed, as I pass the ship I make a hard turn to bring myself quickly around to hide in the gun shadow out in front of the bow. I'm at my most vulnerable when I'm making the turn, especially when I'm showing the largest part of my ship, but Tacking helps get through the worst part of the turn faster.

Still, I am affected by other elements of my build, such as not having any points in Windjammer; I can create short bursts of combat speed with Full Sail, but my preference is to stay in the thick of the fight and use erratic maneuvers to avoid damage. If I let the battle get away from me, then I might not be able to catch up to it before someone else sinks the ship.

That's what the Tacking skill is really for: performing erratic maneuvers. Sometimes that means tacking out of harm's way, and other time times that means being able to turn inside the ship I'm following on an intercept course.

[Pirate Rose]

I don't know about this skill. I tested it with a friend on WG's. He had nothing in tacking, and I think I had 3 or 4. We tested from a stand still, and with open sails. Both times we turned at exactly the same rate.

Come about though is a skill I like using for turning.

[Steely Jim]

I wouldn't necessarily expect the ship to actually turn faster, just require less distance to make the turn.

It would be a little difficult to check without a proper distance measurement tool; but instead of turning faster, you should find that you've traveled a shorter distance from the starting point of the turn.

EDIT: Just to give a little different example, think of the ship turning 180-degrees as forming a capital "D." The curved segment is the ship turning, and the straight segment is the distance between where the turn started and where it ended. So, if someone with no Tacking makes that turn in 100-meters, then with Rank 3 Tacking I'm making that same turn and ending up 91-meters from where I started making the turn.

[Jack Seawalker]

not worth it in my opinion. im just use speed to my advantage outrunning juggernauts and hopping on to a cannon. I can take them pretty well only coming out with half damage on my sloop and getting 4 royals.