Here is a quick video showing some movement and sailing mechanics:
Sailing and moving around the world in and around the water is a big part of this game. I've spent time working on a mechanic that is somewhat true to the real world, with challenge and reward for mastery, but still forgiving enough to be in a game. Different watercraft will have different ways of handling and movement. I feel like the base is pretty solid now.
LUUN's Water System
Originally I had a hand crafted solution somewhat based on the old OceanProject infinite water system. The solution worked really well otherwise and was stable and easy to control and worked really well over the network for multiplayer. Unfortunately the water system was VERY heavy on the GPU and was not future compatible with Unreal Engine 5 as it uses tessellation, something UE smartly dumped for better solutions.
I ended up switching over to the native Unreal Engine Water solution, which is quite robust, but has odd requirements needing landscapes and other dependencies. Nothing a little C++ overriding didn't fix but it wasn't exactly plug-and-play. I also need to work on the multiplayer networking aspect of it as it isn't synced properly out of the box. Syncing the water isn't exactly easy. I have a solution in mind, just needs time spent on it.
There are a lot more improvements coming to the water, most of them visual, so they are pushed a bit further back on the schedule... BUT, the water is so important to this game it is something I am looking forward into diving into. (pun not intended but I'm leaving it)