Last night I took a few hours to implement basic wind behavior in the game. After all, a game set in the "Age of Sail" definitely should have wind affect the whole trading system. Wind severely affects the ships' speed, thus it also affects travel time and which trade routes are more profitable than others. Moving a fully-loaded galleon against a strong wind could prove to be frustrating and almost impossible, while your small and sleek schooner (full of illegal goods, of course) can ride the waves swiftly when the air is blowing in the right direction, so no pirates or port authorities will ever dream of catching you and your ill-gotten rum. From a technical point of view, this basic wind implementation has two parameters that define it. Yes, you guessed right, speed and direction. Those two parameters slowly change over time. The wind speed changes in such a way that it will always try to remain around an average value, with a few calm days and a few windy ones. Her...
