Hmmm....well, maybe I'll just keep one point in it instead of the full 5. I lag too much to make it matter anyway.

Took me 14 minutes in my War Sloop with level 5 windcatcher (and using ramming speed/full sail) to get from Port Royal to Padres last night....that was terrible! Would've logged off if I wasn't trying to finish quest before maintenance shut down.

WindCatcher catches nothing
 

After hearing about the "windcatcher" from another pirate in the game, I admit I was hurt. After all I had invested 4 skill points on the passive skill and was unaware of the true effect it had on my ship. So then I came to POTCO and read this forum...boy were my eyes opened.

I decided to do the "Race" with each of my ships from Tortuga to Devil's Anvil with no extras (ie. full sail etc) and time myself with a stopwatch as I did the race. The first set was with 4 points on windcatcher and then without.

I GOT THE EXACT SAME TIME FOR EACH SET!!!

War Sloop w/WC 45 sec
War Sloop wo/WC 45 sec

War Galleon w/WC 57 Sec
War Galleon wo/WC 57 sec

War Frigate w/WC 50 sec
War Frigate wo/WC 50 sec

So I think it proves the point that WindCatcher does not improve your ships performance at all. Save your skill points and invest them in something else.

:piratewheelgo2:

i have one point just in case.

It's a great skill in concept, should, in concept, it work. It's kinda sad, as the sailing passives are supposed to be the only things that get a good turnout after the first point is inserted.

This is sort of a dead subject and the VETERANS of POTC came to this conclusion months ago .....Wind catcher does not work and quite possibly works in the opposite as it slows you down instead of speeding you up.

The only reason I can come up with is that the game developers for POTC who also play the game almost if not more then we do have made a few little changes in the game to make things more advantageous for their players.

Lots of the glitches in the game are not accidental and were put in the game by the very people who created the game. the lowly computer nerds and programmers

using windcatcher is a waste of points and prior to privateering wind catcher worked and worked very well it only became non functional shortly after SVS.

The reason being? Quite frankly if windcatcher worked then those players who invested points in those skills would be very very very hard to catch and sink.

Additional data:

Tortuga to Padres del Fuego, no full sail, no ramming speed, light sloop.

Rank 0 windcatcher: 3 minutes 35 seconds.
Rank 5 windcatcher: 3 minutes 41 seconds.


Even more dramatic: two pirates.exe running side by side.

Edward Edgemenace level 40, sailing 25, windcatcher 5. Ship: white warrior light sloop.
Edward Edgemenace level 10, sailing 5, windcatcher 0. Ship: white warrior light sloop.

Logged into both from linked accounts (identical configuration file.) Launched both from PDF on a quiet server, backed up so they were exactly side-by-side pointed at Isla Cangrejos. Pressed up arrow within one second of each other. Edward 10 took sail damage from a revenant, a centurion and a storm reaper. Edward 40 took only minor hull damage. Edward 10 beat Edward 40 to Isla Cangrejos by 37 seconds.

Hahah flippin ace Edward and nice testing, a lot of us do notice thats its gone too. I was in a viscious battle with two top svs freinds the other day and I recommended a race to try out the skills they both had out of the svs arena to prove there was no cheating going on.... needless to say no one wanted to do it so I am glad some one had the lvl head to test n tell us his findings!

To be fair it isnt the only thing thats wrong on the skills pages, I think disney should release a full description of what each skill does, I must admit when u see ones that say 'lasts 6 seconds' I wonder if that means 6 seconds per point or in total or what? ya end up stickin on yer points n hopin for the best.

But I do truely believe that the guy whose supposed to add up all the damage points per hit and speed times or skill durations is just bad with numbers, he uses the think of a number method of calculation an hopes for the best cos he knows we love the game...

But I am recommending that disney send him on a recalculation course so we can all just play a normal game.

WOOO WOO hear hear Zep! I like the pretty glow but if some one was waggin ten gold at me for it I would have their hand off soo fast!

Leadership is rubbish, and to think we had to get endless ear of wasp n toe of bat for it!

As stated before this is a very very old issue and I personally did tests just as these months ago to determine that yes windcatcher is honest to god "BROKE"
and it just so happens it became worthless probably within weeks of SVS coming online and functional.

As for leadership skill not working? The skill works perfectly fine as long as it is used strategically. For any other skill besides broadsides you need to wait for the skill you want to "boost" to be at least 75% charged already and when you hit the leadership button all skills get a 25% boost in charging if you have a skill that is boosted with leadership and not fully charged as soon as leadership wears off you lose the 25% boost and it goes back to where it would normally have been.

Leadership is best used as an emergency "ace in the hole" in order to either give you an extra shot of broadsides or bring take cover up real fast or recharge skills in order to run for the hills etc. it takes a long time to charge so better to be saved
to give you an advantage.
Never tested it but I imagine if you used leadership then stopped and repaired the ship it would speed up repairing ? dont know never tried but worth looking into.

So, Edward level 10 (sailing 5/no windcatcher) started the same time as Edward level 40 (sailing 25/windcatcher 5.) About 2/3rds the way through: http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...3_15-34-40.jpg

Then, close to the end, http://i476.photobucket.com/albums/r...3_15-36-48.jpg - Edward 10 won the 7 minute "race" by 37 seconds. No doubt, it was all lag from running two pirates at the same time...but still. 20% faster should have been, well, 20% faster, not 20% slower.

Well, for all the variables/conditions to be the same, it'd have to be: same ship type, same server conditions, same ocean conditions, same pirate conditions same, application/computer conditions, same route. It also would be more accurate to see the effect of Windcatcher on a bigger ship of a heavier class, as Windcatcher would technically decrease a time by the same rate, and the bigger ship would have a bigger time and bigger deduction.

I'm just posting because I don't think the skill actually decreases the speed of the ship.

Please read what I wrote. Both pirates were running on the same computer. Both pirates (inherently) used the same game options (linked account.) Not similar, but EXACTLY the same. Both were on the same server. Both started side-by-side. Both went the exact same route. Both launched the exact same type of boat (even named the same.)

Windcatcher has been broken exactly as long as we've had SvS - the only reasonable place for it to matter. With retraining in place, there is no reason for it to remain broken.

Mayb lag slowed down one more than the other? As well, the route isn't the same even if it is side by side. If one even started off tilted, it'd have a longer path. I did not say that the same time was a condition.

Still, just posting because I doubt it lowers speed at all: maybe does nothing, but not lowering speed.

So, just what sort of lag should affect one thread but not the other? The two boats were not sailing divergent (nor convergent) courses - they proceed the entire way in parallel.

I expected the test to come out even, since it is obvious that windcatcher is broken. I did not expect it to slow my "fast" pirate down, as it did in that (and a couple other) tests, with varying degrees of slowness induced.

If you devise and execute a better test, please share the results.

I don't care what most people are saying about windcatcher because I believe it works.
When I see my ship go faster and dodge enemy fire it seems to be working. No, I'm not talking about ramming speed.
You can do all these tests but I still won't believe it.

I also have a theory. Lag could have something to do with it. I experience almost no lag so I may not be experiencing the problems you might have.