Naval Action News

[h3]Raking Fire Improvements[/h3]

• [p]Greatly increased grape and splinter damage from cannons.[/p]
• [p]Greatly increased the number of cannons destroyed during raking fire.[/p]
• [p]Grape shot damage is now effective up to 500 meters.[/p]
• [p]Increased bow hitpoints to allow closing distance with more safety [/p]

[p]Previously, raking fire was not a particularly effective tactic. We want to make it viable again. We look forward to your feedback.[/p][p][/p][h3]Other Changes[/h3]

• [p]Slightly increased the impact of angling — previously cannons could penetrate armor up to 45 degrees, now they can do so at roughly 40–43 degrees.[/p]
• [p]Successfully inflicted leaks from a single broadside can sink a ship if the captain does not react in time and shift the entire crew to Survival Focus.[/p]
• [p]Slightly reduced the hitpoints of mast sections.[/p]

[p]IMPORTANT: DATABASE RESET FOR TESTBED (TESTBED FULLY WIPED)
The current database on the testbed is from the Caribbean Main Server of September 12 maintenance time.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Changes to Cannon Penetration and Hull Thickness[/p][p]Improved base angling, which can be further enhanced by stacking thickness.
This is the first step; additional improvements will be introduced next week.[/p]

• [p]The penetration values of all cannons have been updated.[/p]
• [p]The hull thickness of all ships has been updated.[/p]
• [p]Cannons can penetrate the hull at angles up to 45–50 degrees relative to the target.[/p]

[p]New penetration pattern:[/p]

• [p]Medium Guns – penetrate the hull at distances up to 1500 m.[/p]
• [p]Long Guns – penetrate the hull at distances up to 2000 m.[/p]
• [p]Carronades – penetrate the hull at distances up to 1000 m.[/p]

[p]When firing at a ship with maximum hull thickness bonuses, these distances are reduced by approximately 500 m.[/p][p]The main goal of these changes is to increase the impact of angling and thickness on combat outcomes.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Bind on Pickup (BoP) Mechanic[/p]

• [p]With this update, modules and books become bound to the player who first obtained them.[/p]
• [p]These items cannot be sold or transferred to other players, and they cannot be placed on contracts.[/p]
• [p]These items cannot be moved into ships that do not belong to their owner (including derelict ships).[/p]
• [p]If a player leaves BoP items inside a ship and then makes that ship a derelict, the BoP items will disappear when another player opens the hold of that derelict.[/p]
• [p]Privateer perk – the extra module drop (SEARCH) has been removed.[/p]

[p]This change will allow us to significantly increase the drop chances of these items in one of the upcoming hotfixes – for example, making it easier to collect a full set of desired books and modules.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Clan Leaderboard and Conquest Missions[/p]

• [p]The clan leaderboard has been updated with improved visualization of sorting. Only the top 10 clans are displayed for each sorting criterion.[/p]
• [p]To take a conquest mission, a player must belong to a clan that is in the Top 10.[/p]
• [p]A ship battle rating requirement has been added to conquest missions, similar to port battles.[/p]
• [p]When taking a conquest mission, the ship used by the player is recorded. Losing that ship will cause the mission to fail.[/p]
• [p]A conquest mission can only be successfully completed (leading to port battle scheduling) if the player finishes the final battle in the same ship that the player used to accept the mission.[/p]

[p]Please note that this is not the final version of the conquest mission system. Final adjustments and balance changes will be released in one of the upcoming patches. We are looking forward to your feedback on these changes.[/p][hr][/hr][p]Other Changes[/p]

• [p]The real payout per unit of damage has been increased from 2 to 3.[/p]
• [p]The maximum efficiency of trading has been limited to approximately one hour per trade route.[/p]
• [p]Crafting recipes have been slightly adjusted.[/p]
• [p]The final balance of income will be released in one of the upcoming updates.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p]Update on the Investigation of the Exploit with Items
During the last week we removed over 50 rare books, modules, and guns that remained on other players after exploiters were banned.[/p][p]Several improvements have also been made to the exploit system, which should prevent possible duplication issues in the future:[/p]

• [p]During trade, any actions with items being transferred are now blocked.[/p]
• [p]It is no longer possible to transfer a ship that has items in its hold.[/p]
• [p]The ability to install modules and cannons via drag and drop has been removed. To equip them on a ship, you now need to click on the appropriate ship slots and select from the list of available items.[/p]

[hr][/hr][p]Spotlight image from Captain Malik from the February 2022 screenshot competition.[/p]

[p]Captains,[/p][p]
The following changes were applied today on the Testbed Server:[/p][p] [/p][h3]Updated Conquest Mission Mechanics[/h3]

• [p]The Conquest Flag item has been removed from RvR - you can still exchange it for doubloons.[/p]
• [p]The right to undertake conquest missions is now granted to the top 10 clans on the national leaderboard, determined by specific Activity Points accumulated during the past 7 days.[/p]
• [p]The price of Conquest Missions is tied to the level of activity within the targeted port.[/p]

[p]Once you take a conquest mission, the rest of the flow remains the same — you must start the mission within 45 minutes and then survive inside it for another 45 minutes, after which the Port Battle is scheduled for the next day.

These changes aim to eliminate several issues with the previous Conquest Flag mechanic that were reported by players.[/p][p] [/p][h3]Updated Sailing Model[/h3]

• [p]Adjusted rudder turn values based on the kinematic characteristics of ships.[/p]
• [p]Updated rudder curve.[/p]
• [p]Updated acceleration and deceleration for all ships.[/p]
• [p]Updated ship inertia.[/p]
• [p]Reworked speed loss mechanics from rudder inertia for all ships.[/p]
• [p]Increased ship turning from sails at low speeds.[/p]

[p]The purpose of this update is to establish a consistent tacking pattern. For example:[/p]

• [p]If a ship begins a tack with sufficient speed, it should retain positive speed by the end of the maneuver.[/p]
• [p]If a ship starts a tack from low speed, it will stall and end up moving backwards.[/p]

[p]In the current Testbed implementation, speed loss due to rudder inertia only affected ships under Battle Sails, leaving full sails unaffected. With this update:[/p]

• [p]Rudder inertia will reduce speed by up to 50% of a ship’s maximum speed, regardless of sail plan.[/p]
• [p]After that threshold, the impact of rudder inertia becomes negligible.[/p]

[h3]
Other Changes[/h3]

• [p]Sail damage caused by chain shot reduced by about 38%, based on player feedback.[/p]

• [p]Gun damage increased by about 5% across all guns.[/p]

[p][/p][p]*Spotlight image by Captain Lord Dorian Beckett from the June 2021 screenshot competition.[/p]

[p]Captains,
[/p][p]Due to the ongoing investigation of the exploit (see the Discord news section for details), port battles and conquest are temporarily disabled until all rare goods and resources created through the exploit are removed from the game.[/p][p]Clans will still be able to conduct port battles that were declared for today (26 August).[/p][p]Starting tomorrow, clans and guilds will not be able to declare new port battles until testbed testing is complete and the major patch is deployed to the live servers.[/p]