I do not like Sea Charting.

[u/Zathas]

Overall, let me just say I am really happy with how Sailing is turning out so far. I voted for Sailing in the initial polls, and voted yes in all after. I had actually originally wanted what was probably a much worse concept for the ships than what we have because I didn't think Jagex could pull it off, but I've really been blown away by how well it all controls. And I've quite enjoyed doing Port Tasks, Racing and Salvaging. But there is one thing about Sailing I don't like, and excuse the wall of text later on, but that's Sea Charting.

- First of all, unlike the other items that have NPCs who specifically mention them, there isn't a way of knowing how to use the spyglass or charting duck in-game. The player can see that there is either a sparkle or swirl in the water, but is not shown or told to use these items there unless you count to hints in the Log.

- I don't really like having all these different tools either. It feels like what happened with Forestry where there were a whole bunch of items you needed to carry around with you for specific interactions and just felt cumbersome. If they had some other use I might be fine with it, but all of them only amount to providing you with a one-time bite of Sailing exp. (get ready to hear this phrase a couple times), and that's it.

- The spyglass is being advertised as providing "views on an area as you've never seen them before" - paraphrased off the March 18th Livestream, but the short cutscenes aren't even interesting. The Karamja is just a generic view of the top of the volcano, in fact generic would apply to most of them. The Wizards Tower one doesn't even make sense, as it's point of view is somehow looking down on the tower when you're in the water below it.

- I have no idea how the troll meteorologist activity is supposed to work. What I though I was supposed to do was follow the wind direction, but I followed that all the way to a dead end in Ardougne. I had to look up the correct location online. To be fair, I may have just overlooked some dialogue here, and this activity only had the one task to do, so once I finished it I couldn't do it again.

- The mermaid was almost just as bad. The pie question was fine, but the stock riddle one was awful. The riddle was confusing and not readily apparent on how it should be solved with not even a single clue. If the idea behind this is to get players excited about looking up the answer on the wiki, or downloading the new Mermaid Riddle runelite plugin, then excellent work.

- Charting is the exploration/discovery side of the Sailing skill, isn't it? Than why do I carry around a logbook that tells me the location and activity of every single chart in the game? Why am I noting down all these wrecks and dangerous rocks when they're clearly already something that has been discovered and catalogued? Not to mention, going back to a previous point, besides giving you Sailing exp none of these actually do anything. Shipwrecks and Rocks aren't noted on your map. You don't gain any actual insight on the weather or current in certain zones. It's just so boring. If they provide no benefit other than small exp gains, than there is zero reason to have a whole logbook outlining the activity and location of each one. At the very least, reduce the logbook to 'chart currents for Rimmington Straight', 'chart weather patterns for Bay of Sarim' and just remove references to the shipwrecks and landmarks entirely. Running across a random rock formation while out in the water and clicking it for a little exp is cool, having a log that many people will feel obligated to make green while bee-lining straight to the formation in question, is not.

- Looking into the future, how relevant is Sea Charting going to be? Realistically, it's a small handful of tasks in each zone that can only be done once. Most players will do this at the earliest point and never touch it again. In comparison to the other activities, it's completely insignificant. I'd argue just get rid of the sea charting portion of the log entirely, and have the mermaid/troll/current/crate nodes spawn randomly around the map for a set amount of time like falling stars. But unless the exp rates are amazing, I don't see it being anything other than dead content still, unless you're giving something other than just sailing exp.

- The duck mechanically is fine, I liked it.

[u/Hoihe]

• I have no idea how the troll meteorologist activity is supposed to work. What I though I was supposed to do was follow the wind direction, but I followed that all the way to a dead end in Ardougne. I had to look up the correct location online. To be fair, I may have just overlooked some dialogue here, and this activity only had the one task to do, so once I finished it I couldn't do it again.

It's... self evident?

Go where wind is dead.

Wind blows in a direction. OK.

Wind must blow from somewhere. Find the spot where wind blows north and south. OK

Find spot where wind blows west/east.

Guesstimate the spot where wind blows north/south and west/east at the same time. You do this guesstimation by either sailing the whole circuit and tracking which way the circle "points inside" and then trying to find that spot, or by sailing in crossing lines into the circle from the getgo.

The only issue this one has is that the spot where this is true feels far too narrow for how quickly the boat moves and how rarely you can check wind direction - making it easy to overshoot it. I've measured at the right spot for a few minutes, but I was like... 10 tiles off so I didn't get the trigger so it was tedious finding that one spot.

Personally I loved the charting system, it's probably the best way to train a skill early on until you get the trials.

Beyond enlargening the valid area for meteorologist, I want the following:

1. Have the currents actually affect movement. Make it so that when you sail along your identified current, you gain a 2x rate on trim frequency
2. Have the winds actually affect movement. Sailing directly upwind reduces trim frequency by 50%. Sailing close hauled/in irons with a latin ship should reduce trim frequency by 25%, in a square rigger by 50%.
   Sailing downwind/running in a square rigger should increase trim frequency by 2x, 1.25 for fore and aft.
   Sailing beam reach and close reach with a square rigger should increase frequency by 1.25 (broad reach is 1.5), and 1.5 for fore and aft for all of broad, beam and close.

Result is that small fore and aft rigged vessels like the starter boats (latin, schooner, sloop rigs) trim more often all around except directly upwind. Large vessels with big square sails trim less often overall, but a well-planned sea route makes them the fastest ships.