Emergency Acceleration - worth it? ... Discuss

lefox271 · November 2018

I've got EA on all my main ships. Do they accelerate quicker? Do they travel faster?

I've never done a test - so I don't know for sure. I just have this feeling it's not making that much of a difference.

And meanwhile it uses lots of vig., needs cancelling if I want to swerve around NPCs, and takes up a valuable skill slot.

If it's only adding a little bit of extra speed, is it a luxury I can do without? Is there a better ship skill for an adventurer?

Spookles · November 2018

EA makes you accelerate faster, every ship has a topspeed EA only helps you get there quicker.

Once you're at your topspeed you might aswell cancel it.

Steam Engine is the better skill of the two, so if you have to choose between one or the other go for SE.

Here you can see [CA]Huseyin_Gazi testing the skill for it's capabilities.

Spookles · November 2018

*linked the wrong one, although it's not bad this one is better*

results can be found in the description aswell.

lefox271 · November 2018

Thanks Boo (and Gazi).

The game describes EA as an "increase [in] ship's speed for a fixed time" - but clearly that's not accurate. It always lead me to expect higher speed, so I would leave EA running throughout a voyage.

So it's helpful to know this is just about acceleration.

I'll use it differently in future.

It's interesting that the occasions when I notice the difference are when I'm escaping from NPCs. Combined with a stern carronade (which always slows a pursuer when you get a critical hit) I usually get away.

NB - I haven't used steam/ steamships in the game. I'm sticking with the Age of Sail.

Suraknar · November 2018

Very nice, most people thought it to be a Speed Boost indeed! Thanks for the Video too :)

calicaddy46 · November 2018

I have EA on almost all my ships that I actually sail. With an exception with MRF that I went with just SE to get speed up 1/2 grade bonus..........and I don't really like the choice I made so far. Huge difference in normal sailing performance compared to the version I had in GAMA...although there are a few more differences than EA. Now I am planning to inherit EA @ g6 for that ship.

This is just my observations, but SE seems to do great for acceleration, but it is inferior to EA in an open sea in terms of keeping it going at its top speed in various conditions. There has to be a reason why it turns off automatically. I kinda believe that it was not meant to be turned on once you are up to speed (done accelerating).

EA does help your ship fight through unfavorable sailing conditions like headwinds or high wave in the opposite direction, so you lose only a minimal amount of speed. SE might seem to do similar, but it does not seem quite up to task as much as EA.

I equipped my characters and ships to be able to sail with surveying, frugality and EA on.

purplepirate · November 2018

That video messed me up. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what that extra sailing skill was he was using then i realized it's an old video before they made sail handling automatic instead of manual use... lol

YunoAloe · November 2018

I strongly agree with CaliCaddy especially on the headwinds part. Try sailing up to Venice with and without EA, there'll be 2x difference.

Culvern · November 2018

Even at full speed, when chasing a suspect, if I turn off EA they will pull away easy.
Supposedly EA does not increase top speed, but you ship will not stay at top speed without it from my observations. I would guess due to wind and waves.
So without it you will be much slower.
The seas would be completely safe if every pirate ship sailed without EA.

lefox271 · November 2018

Okay - so I've been treating EA purely as an acceleration boost for the past few days. But it still doesn't explain all the effects.

I note what Calicaddy says about maintaining speed against wind and waves - I see this often as the speed varies up and down below it's max - a bit like your rev counter needle bouncing off the limiter.

But I'm tending to agree with Culvern - EA is doing more than that.

I've tried some trials - while I've been making repeated trips between Tunis and Alex doing Adv quests. This isn't like the controlled experiment in Gazi's video. It's more like a real-world trial - so it's impossible to control for all external factors.

The route runs across 3 seas (Tyrr/ Ionian/ E.Med). They all have S. Westerlies in both seasons. You can run from Tunis to Alex on a single heading - but you can't always get exactly the same vector.

(I was using a new toon I'm developing in a custom clipper, so the speeds weren't high)

Top speed was consistently higher, both up- and downwind, using EA - by somewhere between 10-15%. so for example max I achieved with EA was 8.5 knots downwind/ 7.2 knots upwind; compared with 7.2 and 6.2 without EA.

The variation in top speed - Calicaddy's wind/wave effect was only about 0.2 knots. Which is tiny compared with the actual speed difference (1-1.5 knots) with/without EA.

Here's a couple of other things I tried:

1. Upwind with EA, after reaching about 6.8 knots halfway across the Ionian Sea, I switched of EA. The speed steadily declined, losing 0.5 knots by Tunis - no bouncing off the limiter, just steady decline.

2. Upwind without EA. At a similar point in the Ionian, doing about 5.6 knots, I switched EA on. I got the 'bouncing effect' but almost zero speed gain. I thought that was interesting - is it a quirk of the program coding?

Final point. Doing real-world trials with few controls, you get significant variation in results. Wind/ waves were enough to knock 10%-15% off my speed.

My conclusion is EA both increases acceleration and top speed. Some of the time. Lol.

carlalex · November 2018

Real world huh ?

If you want to move a real world ship you need to generate a force that will generate accelleration that will cause the ship to move in the desired direction. The environment (water and air) will cause a force in the opposite direction that grows with velocity and will cause an accelleration (deceleration is also acceleration).

When these two accellerations have the same magnitude they cancel each other out and the ship travels at constant velocity.

If you decrease the accelleration in the desired direction of travel the real life ship will go slower.

What is EA if not an accelleration in the desired direction of travel ?

lefox271 · November 2018

Carlalex - thanks for the physics lesson. But I'm unsure whether you are kidding with me or being a smart alec.

The question you ask at the end is exactly the question under discussion. What does EA actually do? What's the impact of EA on your ships' behaviour?

purplepirate · November 2018

I agree fox. Carlalex your statement is irrelevant here. The game code exaggerates real world physics for game play purposes. You have to look at what effect EA has in the game regardless of what physics sais.

WesDoobner · November 2018

My LLM speed goes up when I use EA, even if I've been going full speed with the wind for a long time - pop EA on and the speed starts going up.

carlalex · November 2018

If you had understood what I wrote you would have seen that I stated that whatever EA is - if its an acelleration in the desired direction of travel, then in real life it would increase the velocity of a ship just like it does in the game.

And I still find it a bit odd to call anything in the virtual world of the game "real world trials"

WesDoobner · November 2018

I've also got EA on one of my clermonts. Cuts my time from Cueta to Malaga from 3 days to 2.

lefox271 · November 2018

@carlalex Okay I see the misunderstanding. Sorry if I have been unclear.

'Real world trial' is just a term for describing a non-laboratory test where the external variables are not controlled. Gazi's was a lab-style test.

Nothing to do with real ships or physics. But yeah I agree there us an amusing irony about the word 'real' in a virtual context.

HuseyinGazi · November 2018

Apparently this turned into a hot topic and my video got even posted here. o_o

The reason I made this video was... after years of experience in sailing, I realized that I have been fooling myself that "Emergency Acceleration" increases your maximum ship speed.

Even if GVONavi would give a different ship speed in knots, one should bear in mind that it is not an accurate tool to measure your speed as it can vary easily depending on the settings that each individual as done on it (like response speed on your surveying skill). The GVONavi, I showed in my video, was only meant to ensure I was sailing straight from A to B as players would still come up with questions otherwise. Furthermore, another reason is... when I used the ship skill, the speed up % on my ship information did not change which brought me in question if it would perhaps affect your "base" ship speed.

That sailing with Emergency Acceleration saves your overall time like for nanban, adventure etc. does happen. However, that is because your acceleration to your maximum speed goes faster especially when restoring your loss on speed through wind change and turning your ship. Speaking of wind change, I did chose Central Atlantic Ocean on that purpose as it wind change is neglect-able. Otherwise I had an interference of losing my ship speed that gets restored faster by this ship skill.

In Summary, one should distinguish between increase in "Accelerating to your maximum speed" and "Your maximum ship speed". Because if you for instance accelerate at least five seconds sooner than me who has no EA active... it is obvious that you would save in overall your time with sailing even if your maximum speed did not change. Same goes in the battle ring.

I do hope this clears everything up :-)

Kind Regards,

lefox271 · November 2018

Thanks Gazi. Very interesting.

So you are saying in my trials the speeds were lower without EA because the ship needed more distance to reach top speed. In effect, I ran out of road.

The implication being a ship has a hypothetical top speed which it is unlikely to attain in normal conditions.

I can see why this topic is controversial lol. It's very difficult to prove because it's difficult to find a road long enough to test it. Sooner or later the wind/ current changes and spoils the test.

Although most seem to agree it's worth keeping EA on.

lefox271 · November 2018

Leaving aside the debate about top speed.

A ship will be quicker with EA, and slower without it.

SUNDOGG97 · November 2018

Back when i was a young sailor in this game emg acc was wanted to escape pirates, player and npc.

It is worth it

Emergency Acceleration - worth it? ... Discuss

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