Naval Action News

St. Kitts event, November 4th - 7th

Captains,

St. Kitts loot event will run from daily maintenance on November 4th until daily maintenance on November 7th.

[h3]St. Kitts Event[/h3]

St. Kitts 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

*Spotlight image from Captain Fezzola from the December screenshot competition.

[h3]Captains

We plan to deploy significant improvements to grapeshot damage this or next week. [/h3]

Old design

Previously grapeshot (a bag of metal balls ) anti personnel damage was based on flawed theory that caliber of the gun does not matter. We believed that if a small ball or a large ball hit a crew man the result would be the same: 1 casualty.
Unfortunately this made all guns equal in terms of grapeshot damage and it did not take into account the initial velocity, stopping and penetrating power of larger metal ball compared to a small one.

In addition

There was no reason to switch to grapeshot during battle unless you wanted to board. If you wanted to destroy the enemy combat power you had to shot cannon balls. Compared to 10-15 grapeshot broadsides to de-crew the enemy through side it took around 5-6 broadsides to destroy structure. As a result grapeshot was used during boarding or before boarding with only intent - to capture.

Adding more situational uses to Grapeshot.

From the next patch - grapeshot damage will be based on basic gun damage, and will be increased to the level allowing de-crewing the enemy ship in 5-6 broadsides if the side planking or stern planking is destroyed to below 15%
Artificial upper and lower limits on grape damage will be removed. Damage will depend on your skill of hitting right areas of the ship.
With more damage to crew captains will receive another option to destroy enemy ship without relying solely on cannonballs.

Addendum.
Grapeshot damage systems

The grapeshot damage depends on multiple of parameters

Casualty: Crew member unable to perform the duties due to injuries or death, or the need to help injured teammates. Not all casualties are deaths, some casualties can be recovered by use of Rum.
Direct crew damage: Damage to crew located on open decks, or through the gun ports and windows.
Through planking damage: If planking is destroyed below 15% grapeshot can hit crew directly through planking.
Crew locations: Crew is located on deck and around guns. Hitting other areas will not result in crew damage.
Crew density: Killing crew in certain location will result in less and less damage in the same area. Spread the damage around other crew locations.
Length of grapeshot flythrough: The longer the grapeshot bullets fly through the crew - the more casualties you will inflict. That's why hitting the crew through stern and bow results in the longest length of grapeshot flythrough and thus more damage.
Crew shock - destroying significant amount of crew in one shot can result in crew shock (morale shock) which will stop enemy ship from doing some basic functions.
Brace command: Forces your crew to take cover and allows significant reduction to crew damage you receive.
Upgrades to reduce damage: Some modules and wood types reduce damage to your crew, use them for your advantage.
Boarding crew focus: If your crew is preparing for boarding - damage you receive from grapeshot is doubled. This parameter is under review now and might be decreased.

Captains,

Martinique loot event will run from daily maintenance on October 28th until daily maintenance on October 31st.

[h3]Martinique Event[/h3]

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

*Spotlight image from Captain BotaQ from the January screenshot competition.

[h3]Captains

Patch have been deployed today 27th October.[/h3]

Change List

Battle Experience

Rank Experience levels have been lowered for faster progress due to short first season (ends end of the year). All levels will adjust retroactively, meaning all battle experience points you have earned - even if you played before this hotfix - will count towards progression levels.

Shipbuilding Level and experience

Battle Mission Availability

5th rate hunt and search and destroy missions are now available in county capitals and national capitals.

Good luck at Sea.

[h2]Captains.

Two hotfixes will be deployed this week. [/h2]

[h3]Tomorrow 25 October[/h3]

Repairs

Structure repair is reduced to 15% (from 30%). Broadside repairs will remain at 40%.
This will allow the same enjoyable PVE even when outnumbered as NPCs are not really good at raking, but will reduce the length of PVP battles which became too long due to increased repairs, which were doubled from 20% to 40% for hull and from 15 to 30% for structure before F2P launch
If you are fighting the Player enemy who is actively repairing - focus on the stern rakes.

Sinking

Low level enemy NPC ships around capitals.

Number of low level (7th rate and 6th) rate ships around capitals will be increased to provide new players with more hunting opportunities.

[h3]Wednesday 26th of October[/h3]

IMPORTANT: Player experience gains improvements

Rank experience tiers will be reduced for rank 5 and above (ships above heavy frigates). All experience gained will be calculated and your rank adjusted retroactively. This means that the new system will be used for your old experience gains.
Crafting tiers and crafting levelling will be made faster especially at rank 7, 6 and 5.

Other changes

More Search and Destroy missions variability in county capitals and regional cities.
NPC Raiders are disabled for Caribbean Main for 2 weeks
Сaptain of the White/Red stats have been slightly tweaked.