Captains

Patch has been deployed today

New perks

• Perk Bloodthirsty - Reduces cooldown of crew recovery if you get a confirmed kill
  
• Perk Combat Repairs - Reduces cooldowns of hull/sail repairs if you get a confirmed kill
  

Other changes

• Explosion damage has been lowered.
  
• Important: due to new mast HP you will still lose masts if you are in the explosion radius, please make precautions. It will be fixed next week.
  
• Rigging shock threshold has been tuned to a better state
  

• Rewards for PVE (combat) missions increased
  
• Variety of missions in ports greatly increased
  
• Loot from NPC ships (open world and mission npc) has been increased so you can fit your ships easier
  
• Rigging shock requirements increased by 80%
  
• OW NPC ships will prefer to sail alone or in small groups
  
• Elite bot damage bonuses reduced
  
• Hunt and search missions requirements slightly reduced
  
• OW and Mission bots will rarely sail rare wood ships
  
• Patrol NPC will have smaller fleets for easier patrols in PVE
  
• Penetrating leaks water intake (after previous 125% nerf from 6.5 to 3) have been slightly increased to 3.5
  

Important: Gun splinter damage difference between calibers greatly increased (10x difference)
example

• 4lb - Splinter damage 4 points
  
• 42lb - Splinter damage 42 points
  

• bloodthirsty - if you sink the enemy (get confirmed kill) cooldown of your crew repairs will reduce by 20 mins
  
• combat repairs - if you sink the enemy (get confirmed kill) cooldown of your sail/hull repairs will reduce by 10 mins
  

Captains

To save your ship

• Depower staysails - press T
  
• Switch off boarding and gunnery crew focus
  
• Turn yards to create negative wind power to stop faster (you take less water at zero speed).
  
• If you cant get negative wind set them to neutral (parallel to wind) this will remove heel as well.
  
• Only after that switch off the Sailing crew focus.
  

To sink enemies fast

• Use large calibers - aim below waterline if enemy is heeling.
  

Where is my shipment?

• All traders carry increased numbers of crafting resources and rare woods.

Diana Event

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

Other changes

• 1. Ships at low structure start taking water faster and take more water at speed. On average if you are below 3 bars of structure left it is advisable to slow down otherwise your ship will sink from incoming water (taken in due to structural damage).
  
• 2. Stopping ship reduces incoming water by 25% (instead of -50% previously)
  
• 3. Long gun penetrations have been adjusted to remove an unnecessary gameplay convention; (gameplay convention in question: increasing penetration with distance)
  

Captains

Small patch will be deployed today.

Structural damage improvements.

• In the previous patch we have changed how speed debuff on low structure works - Ships slow down when they take water (not artificially just because they have low structure)
  
• Ships taking water will lose rudder turning gradually depending on level of water taken
  
• Ships taking water will lose Yard power (ability to turn on yards) depending on level of water taken
  
• St Kitts pump bonus lowered from 200% to 125% (with 180% buff you pump out all water taken). It will still be good but will not provide invulnerability to sinking.
  

Gun differences.

• Low caliber guns Splinter damage will be lowered.
  
• Low caliber guns hitpoints and thickness of carriage will be decreased
  
• High caliber guns splinter damage will be increased
  
• High caliber guns hitpoints and thickness will be increased
  
• 
  

Other changes

• OW speed will be increased.
  
• Patrol thresholds will be lowered due to lower HP of ships participating in patrols
  

Still remains to be fixed

• Sailing on 0 structure - we need to start taking water earlier - as currently due to speed influence on water taken you can still find speed where you can sail on low structure without any water - maybe its a good thing as it increases chance to survive in the new damage model.
  
• Very high speeds - high speeds are caused by the change in wind model. You can now push your ship faster if you use manual sail properly setting sail better than autoskipper. But it increased speeds across the board to somewhat unrealistic numbers (19 knots for speed fitted ships. This will be adapted next week.
  
• Solo or small group bots - due to changes to damage model number of solo or small group NPCs should be increased
  
• Long gun penetration increasing with distance will be removed. They will provide universally good (same) penetration across all distances.
  

Where is my shipment?

• All traders carry increased numbers of crafting resources and rare woods.

Martinique Event

• Martinique 5 modules are available in the Admiralty, they can be exchanged for Broad Pennants that occasionally drop from 5th rates and higher
  
• Broad pennant will drop from military NPC ships

Diana Event

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

Major change in design methods.

Gameplay is king

• All сurrent improvements come from the major change in our design philosophy: Game play is king. Realism will be kept if it supports gameplay, but it is not going to be a key factor when it does not help to improve gameplay.
  
• Every item every module and ship should have a reason to be used. If an item does not have any reason to be used it should be changed or improved or dropped.
  

Patch Content

Acceleration, Wind power and Speed Control

• Acceleration has been completely revamped
  
• Acceleration now depends on on wind power in sails. You will accelerate slower if you have less wind and faster if you have full wind power in all sails. Hull now influences deceleration and resistance based on speed much better, which provides a more natural and realistic sailing feeling
  
• This also means that you have to push your ship further when tacking if you want to gain speed faster.
  
• All ships passport speed can be exceeded if you use manual sails and add more wind to sails, some ships are affected more by this feature than others.
  

Chain and Demasting Changes

• Cannon Ball will no longer damage masts for clear game play difference.
  
• Cannonball can be used for hull and structure, chain will be used for masts and sails
  
• Chain shot damage is no longer limited by distance and will damage rig as far as your chainshot can reach.
  
• Chain shot always damages masts at any distance for clear predictable demasting gameplay. Battle sails and lower sail combinations reduce incoming mast damage by 50%
  
• Chain will have very low damage to sails (representing their ability to catch wind even if torn)
  
• Chain will now entangle the rig represented by rigging shock if you hit the rig right way (hitting as many sails as possible).
  
• Rigging shock will stop yard and sails from working for 1 min and will slow you down for a fixed % of speed loss. Rigging shock will provide predictable and standard speed debuff allowing you to keep enough speed to be effective in combat even if multiple gankers are shooting at you.
  

Structural leaks and speed

• Artificial low structure speed debuffs have been removed.
  
• Receiving water into hull increases your deceleration and thus reduces speed. Losing structure increases structural leaks as before.
  
• You can reduce incoming water by slowing down.
  
• At 0 speed incoming water is reduced by 50% even if you are at 0 structure.
  
• Increasing speed to max will double incoming water.
  

Penetration and thickness

• Choice of gun barrel length and gun type will become more important and defined (even better than in 2015/2016 Sea Trials).
  
• Angle will predictably work for the gun typical range.
  
• For example if medium gun penetrates at 50 degrees at 100 m it will penetrate the same way at all distances from 0 to 750 m - its typical gun range.
  

• Long guns – best for distances above 750m, good at distances below 750m. Guns: Long, Navy Long, Blomfield. Lower DPM
  
• Medium guns – good for distances below 750m, bad at any other range. Guns: Medium, Congrive, Edinorog. Medium DPM
  
• Short guns – Low penetration – work only below 300-400m. Do not work at any other distance. Guns: Carronade, Obusier. High DPM
  

Damage and Time to Sink

• Dependence of cannonball deflection on your ship speed has been removed due to inability to use this feature in combat effectively and predictably.
  
• All reload speeds have been lowered
  
• Planking hit points for ships have been lowered (base 900 for cutter, 10000 for Ocean)
  
• Damage and Time to Sink have been reworked closer to old Sea Trials Levels and tuned for average 8 broadsides to destroy all planking (both sides) for any similar class ship.
  
• Turning and changing broadsides is now absolutely required to increase damage that you deal to enemies.
  

Ship differences

• Interceptor classes (and fast battleships) - higher speed (1-2 knots higher), good turning at high speed, horrible turning on lower speeds. Use of yards absolutely required for maneuvering combat.
  
• Combat classes - lower speed, great turning at low speed, good turning at high speed. Use of yards further improves maneuvering combat ability.
  

Other changes

Clan Port Investments

• All current investments (which can be compensated) will be compensated. Refunds will be sent to clan warehouse of the current clan owner of the port.
  

  <*> IMPORTANT: If there is no space (number of slots) in the warehouse refund will be lost - so clear up clan warehouse space to have empty slots for the number of items refunded.

  
  
• There is no other way to track individual contributors unfortunately but some clans might help you get back what you invested..
  

Individual shipbuilding skills and investments in industry

• New seasonal reward has been added - Naval Service Medal.
  
• New ability has been added - ability to invest seasonal medals to improve your industrial knowledge (allowing adding new types of buildings) and shipbuilding knowledge (allowing building better ships)
  
• This feature is added in test mode and will be wiped 1-2 times before final release. All investments of seasonal medals to improve shipbuilding or investments will be refunded when reset.
  
• Shipbuilding capabilities will work in ANY port where you can build a shipyard.(The increased chance for more slots in capturable ports still remains).
  
• Industrial capabilities will work in ANY port where you can build buildings.
  

St. Kitts Event

Diana Event

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola