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  • Hacker News
  • the control layout is a bit awkward on mobile. i find myself wanting to adjust both heading and trim continuously, but both controls are on the right so i cant use both thumbs. then the buttons to fire/ board are fiddly. tbh almost gave up then tried with keyboard and saw how it was supposed to go.
    by dgently7
  • In the settings menu you can move the rudder wheel to the left. I don't know why that's not the default.
    by kqr
  • Did you get this idea from the barebones Sid Meiers Pirates battle clone that hit the frontpage a few days ago? :)
    by EstanislaoStan
  • Haha no it’s a funny story.

    I’ve been building this since early May with active captains through the last month. I randomly noticed traffic from hacker news a few days ago, turns out somebody had linked tinywind in the comments there. Love to see other people in the space!

    by tinywind
  • This reminds me of Patrician III so much. The sailing battles had the same wind mechanics. It’s amazing, so many memories unlocked.
    by FacelessJim
  • Is it multiplayer or am I playing against bots?

    I submitted this a few days ago, so glad to see it posted again. Fun game. Funner to think I am sinking people, not bots :)

    by SubiculumCode
  • Both game modes are against enemy bot ships right now

    I’m working on a couple PvP modes so you can run naval battles with real captains very soon :)

    Thanks so much for submitting this earlier, we got a great boost!

    by tinywind
  • Awesome, great execution! This could become a really cool RL environment with a headless sim and procedural voyages. Factorio has something similar with the Factorio Learning Environment SDK.
    by vrtnis
  • I played it for half an hour on a 6.1" phone. Firefox Android, it worked flawlessly. The game is fun. Some ideas to improve the UI.

    The wind teller is OK but instead of a line ending with a circle it could be an arrow. Furthermore there is need to have it turn around the center of the teller. It can turn around the center of the arrow and be twice as large or take half the space.

    The wheel is confusing and should be removed. I spent minutes attempting to turn it before realizing that I was turning the ship by touching the water where I wanted the ship to go. I know where the ship is headed to (I look at the ship) so the wheel is taking space on screen and cpu for no reason at all.

    Every few minutes, maybe 10, a page of instructions opened in front of the game. They were always different. I don't know if I pressed a button or if it's a training mode. The problem is that it happens out of the blue and it's not welcome.

    I didn't notice any indicator of how many cannonballs I have left.

    The black cannonballs on blue water are not very visible. I also noted 4 circles in the water in front of the ship when I fire. What are they?

    by pmontra
  • If you have real wind physics, might as well apply realism to turning as well, so that ships can't turn in place. Rudder should only work with applied speed.
    by sanghoonio
  • Realistically, ships should tip over if you turn you broadside into the wind with full sails.
    by Jolter
  • The 2 game modes are free to play in browser. Come join our 245 active captains, I’d love any and all playtest feedback at this stage!
    by tinywind
  • Really want to play this with a controller. Seems to me that a joystick to steer and another to adjust the sail would be really intuitive. Aside from that really fun, looking forward to future updates.
    by TJTorola
  • Super fun. How do I 'fire" though given spacebar brings up the map? Is the mouse the only option? How do I see the controls as I see the "s" key does something with the sails?
    by uberman
  • Very cute and fun looking game, but I found it very difficult. Enemies have perfect aim, and I can't hit anything. I don't think you can even heal the ship unless you happen to stumble upon just the right treasure. Do you have a difficulty slider/setting? Maybe I missed it. It feels like I'm playing on the hardest mode.

    EDIT: After playing around some more, yea it feels less like an action game and more like a "sailing around with nearly zero health" simulator.

    by ryandrake
  • I thought it was quite the opposite, too easy. Your ship recharges health. Also you can claim and island and heal there. It's so easy to the point it's actually boring, I got 10 kills before I quit, never got close to dying. Hell you can even claim an island, sit there in healing-mode, while shooting down enemy ships that don't heal...

    A difficulty slider is a good idea though.

    by NoLinkToMe
  • Great! I feel well positioned to say this is great :) I’ve been hoping for something like this.

    My ideal: slower, more real time, full maps based on actual locations, replay specific naval battles. Multiplayer (maybe it is?), realistic fog of war. I could go on

    Edit: a few more. Sail trim is clunky and seems unresponsive or unclear how it maps to physics. Would be better to have trim on one side and steering on the other. Also to turn off tacking with tap. Steering too sensitive. The battles are great. (All on mobile)

    by sails
  • I doubt it has an "age of sail" mod, but there's this one: https://store.steampowered.com/app/794860/eSail_Sailing_Simu...
    by CGamesPlay
  • Oh wow thanks for the great suggestions and kind words, glad you’re enjoying the game!

    It’s funny, your ideal scenario is almost exactly what I have in mind for the first PvP map coming soon, a slower predetermined map with historic factions/safe zones and ofc lots of combat with bots or people

    I can definitely revisit the trim and responsiveness. Buried in the settings in ship logs you can move the wheel to the other side, need to make that more accessible

    by tinywind
  • There's a vague correlation between wind direction and sailing speed, but there's nothing real here. The mechanics of sailing upwind, downwind, or the cost of tacking are interesting mechanics that aren't explored here whatsoever. The dead angle on a ship with a square rig should be massive. This ship goes upwind like it has a motor.
    by torlok
  • Thanks for checking out the game! The correlation isn’t that vague it’s actually explicitly defined here: https://tinywind.io/wiki/sailing#point-of-sail

    Always trying to find a balance of realism vs arcade feel on the gameplay. Let me know how you would handle sailing upwind/downwind instead, always love more suggestions!

    by tinywind
  • That might be too realistic that it’s not fun. Maybe the game needs a simulation mode
    by cush
  • Ugh, that's extremely disappointing. That's exactly the sort of thing I expected from a game touting 'real wind physics'.

    Glad I know not to waste any time on it now, expecting it to be something it isn't.

    by TylerE
  • The use of a ship's wheel to steer is also a little much. The manipulation of the sails had far more impact. The wheel was for fine tuning. Comming about took far more planning than simply spinning the wheel around. A realistic limitation would see a several second delay between large direction changes. And most ships during the golden age of piracy would not have had wheels, not until the 1700s.
    by sandworm101
  • Yeah it's an arcade game. You can steer the ship as fast as you can turn a car too. Not real at all
    by johanyc
  • This is awesome! To offer some constructive feedback: the wind direction could be clearer. More particles flowing across the waters! Especially when the direction is changing. Looking up at the wind teller is unintuitive, even for this old sailor who understands where it comes from. I also didn't always feel like it mattered which direction I angled my sails, only how much I angled them. Like I could angle them for a port wind when in reality I had a starboard wind, and I'd sail just fine.

    In the other hand that made it easier, and it was already hard enough lol! I bet it's easier on desktop though...

    Edit: you should add a race/regatta mode!

    by amarant
  • Yeah, the simulation is very simple. Align sails with wind direction for more speed. I did 14kn when irl the boat would have gone backwards.

    I’m prly not the targeted audience, sailing for more then 30 years.

    by BlaDeKke
  • i'd suggest a big flag on the main mast of each ship so its super clear what direction wind you are sailing into :)
    by Dansvidania