u/Witness-Current

With the Black Flag Resynced showcase right around the corner, I thought I would strike up a discussion on the rigging for the jackdaw, comparing it with the cinematic trailer version + a blueprint I found.

In the cinematic trailer for Black Flag, the rigging looks way better than in-game (compare picture 1 and 2 with picture 3 and you will see the difference). The in-game version seems to have the foresails (the sails on the front mast) comically high up, making the foremast higher then the mainmast by a significant margin. Not to mention that it just looks incredibly strange. Having the sails closer to the quarterdeck as seen in the cinematic trailer (picture 1) would be a great way to make the jackdaw actually fit in with other vessels, as well as making it look a lot better. Mind you, that the sails on the jackdaw are the only ones that are like this, making it stand out like a sore thumb.

The blueprint (picture 2) is also a way the jackdaw could look in the new game if they want to be more faithful to how ship rigging is in real life. The blueprint seems to have the sails even closer to the quarterdeck, even when comparing it to the cinematic trailer. Issue of visibility is always a cause for concern, but I think it's fine as long as halfsail (lowest sail only being half down) is used in close 3rd person view to increase visibility.

Ideally, the cinematic trailer look is probably the best of both worlds, but the blueprint option is also a valid alternative imo.

I'm of two minds here. I like the original black flag ships but they aren't hugely accurate to the time period. They are much too flat and flush and look more like Napoleonic era ships.

Having higher fore and after castles on the ships would be appreciated seeing as that was more accurate to the time period the game is set in.

Spritsails seem to also be completely excluded from the game even tho they were incredibly common in the early 18th century. Spritsails are the square sails mounted on the bowsprit, being in front of the beakhead and figurehead of the vessel.

Picture of spritsail below:

One spritsail at the front of the ship

The Man O' War in the game should also be renamed in my opinion. The term was mostly used for any ship outfitted for war by the navy.

A first rate ship-of-the-line would be an apt name description for it, or just first rate for simplicities sake. Line ships weren't really in the Caribbean, maybe in some incredibly rare instances but that doesn't bother me too much. It's for gameplay purposes anyway.

Black Flag Resynced will probably stick closely to the original designs. I just hope they add new ship types more accurate to the period as well. Fluyts for example, are non-existent in the game, despite it being essentially built for the Caribbeans shallow drafts.

Also changing the vessels in the cities to non Mediterranean ships would be good 😂. The assets were probably reused from ac1 and revelations.

What do you think of the ships in the game? Do you want them to change or stay the same, or maybe add new ones?