Bring WINDCATCHER back please! - Pirates of the Caribbean Online Fansite & Forums

Edward Edgemenace · #1 09-06-2008, 09:44 PM

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.

Mr.LoveLocket · #2 09-06-2008, 09:49 PM

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

Sarah · #3 09-06-2008, 10:47 PM

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.

Captain Del · #4 09-06-2008, 11:00 PM

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

Edward Edgemenace · #5 09-07-2008, 12:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sarah

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.

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

Maximvs · #6 09-07-2008, 01:35 AM

Well ummm - in the first race - you won right? LOL

Now since we both have 3 pt WC in the first race you a) hit less islands than me

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

) - 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

)

Edward Edgemenace · #7 09-07-2008, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maximvs

Well ummm - in the first race - you won right? LOL

Now since we both have 3 pt WC in the first race you a) hit less islands than me

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

) - 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

)

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.

Maximvs · #8 09-07-2008, 04:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Edward Edgemenace

I guess you didn't read what I wrote.

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

Quote:

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.

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

) 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!!!

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

Edward Edgemenace · #9 09-07-2008, 05:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maximvs

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

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!

)

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

Dr. Zeppers · #10 09-07-2008, 06:19 AM

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.

swashbuckler II · #11 09-07-2008, 07:41 AM

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

Edward Edgemenace · #12 09-07-2008, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by swashbuckler II

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.) :-)

Quote:

Originally Posted by OFxZeppers

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

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

League · #13 09-13-2008, 03:31 AM

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.

Edward Edgemenace · #14 09-13-2008, 05:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by League

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.)

Dr. Zeppers · #15 09-13-2008, 08:44 AM

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.