A Painted Ocean

Command a Napoleonic-era man-of-war.  Sail the oceans of the world.  

Featuring

• Square-rig sailing physics
• The whole world to sail in, with a year of real winds and weather
• Frigate vs frigate battles

Your ship is HMS Alpha, a 38-gun 18-pounder frigate (rather like this one) of around 1600 tons displacement, with a 150-foot hull and a crew of 300. 

Rock Paper Shotgun says:

"A Painted Ocean is an amazing free prototype tall ship sim boasting mesmerising sail management, globe-girdling oceans, and a surprising amount of nautical atmosphere. For a creation without gull mews, creaking rigging, or audible crews, it does an incredible job of evoking the world of Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey, and Thomas Cochrane."

This is a release of an unfinished project 

What is done is the simulation of the ship, the control system, the world, basic weather and combat. There are unlikely to be any major new features added, but see the devlog for plans for the future.

How to play

There are three options at the main menu screen.

1. Harbour.  This is a mostly-enclosed space  in which to try out maneuvering with sails. Open the tutorial window (from a button at the bottom left of the screen) to get started.
2. Battle.  Two frigates, broadside to broadside. You can control both ships - press tab to switch between them.
3. The World.  This starts you at the Canary islands, well-placed to sail to the Americas or towards the Indian ocean. Or you can open the map and ctrl+click to teleport anywhere. The buttons at the bottom right control your rate through and position in time. There is accurate seasonal weather.

Known issues

• Expect to see some placeholder graphics and UI elements, debug menus etc. 
• The physics can be glitchy, especially for falling spars
• The sea occasionally disappears in  rough weather
• Teleport sometimes doesn't go quite where you click
• Hold down shift as you start the game to open a menu to change resolution
• The option "going large" in the sail plans interface is badly named; it should be "wind astern"
  

The ship handling is tuned as well as I can to match historical data. I'm happy to hear suggestions on how to improve it.