Naval Action News

[h2]Captains[/h2]

For everyone who suffered played through the raking Testing on Thursday the small gift of appreciation has been issued.

• 5/5 Very Sturdy Endymion with top port bonuses
  
• 5/5 Very Sturdy Ocean with top port bonuses
  

Only players who had an account before today's maintenance (17th of September) are eligible for the gift.

You must pick it up in redeemables until Monday 20th.
Gifts will be available by end of the day.

[h2]Captains.

Small update has been deployed. [/h2]

Trader's loot

• Traders now carry resources required for shipbuilding, cannon crafting: Resources like woods, tools, seasoned woods, and very rarely unique wood types.
  

Raking improvements

• Threshold to achieve raking has been increased. You now need to destroy at least 8% of ship structure to have raking modifiers applied (compared to 4% before). Raking damage modifier has been lowered from 3.5 to 3x. HMS Victory example - you need to get 20 guns to pass along the structure to get damage modifier working.
  
• Raking debuff time (time for which debuff was active) was also lowered from 60 seconds to 10 seconds) which means it will only work for your broadside and your team mates cannot capitalize on the debuff.
  
• Structure HP and Side HP has been slightly increased for all ships.
  
• Bow/Stern Armor and Bow/Stern structure has been increased.
  

Wind oscillation.

• There are still 2 types of wind changes.
  
• Short term oscillation - wind is never static and constantly shifts back and forth due to changes in air pressure.
  
• Long term changes - Wind changes to the opposite direction every 25-30 mins.
  
• Short term changes were adapted to be slightly slower and more predictable.
  
• You can use the short term changes to tack faster. Start to tack when wind is going to the direction of your turn. It will help you go with the wind first and when wind changes back it will help you pass the tack even faster. The goal is to time the tack so that wind helps you. If you mistime the tack start the wind will work against you.
  

Pavel Nerf

• Speed has been lowered
  
• BR raised to 600
  

Crew damage

• Crew damage was slightly adjusted for splinter damage (when cannonball hits crew after passing through broadside).
  

Speed changes

• Speed cap has been raised, to fully judge the speed differences and for future rebalancing during arsenal patch. The balance will be achieved.
  

There is still some unfinished things as proper crew damage differences between guns and grape which will be done next week. Speed is also on the priority list.

[h2]Captains.

Small update has been deployed. [/h2]

Trader's loot

• Traders now carry resources required for shipbuilding and cannon crafting, woods and seasoned woods, and very rarely unique wood types.
  

Raking improvements

• Threshold to achieve raking has been increased. You now need to destroy at least 8% of ship structure to have raking modifiers applied (compared to 4% before). Raking damage modifier has been lowered from 3.5 to 3x. HMS Victory example - you need to get 20 guns to hit structure to get damage modifier working.
  
• Raking debuff time (time for which debuff was active) was also lowered from 60 seconds to 10 seconds) which means it will only work for your broadside and your team mates cannot capitalize on the debuff.
  
• Structure HP and Side HP has been slightly increased.
  
• Bow/Stern Armor and Bow/Stern structure has been increased.
  

Wind oscillation.

• There are still 2 types of wind changes.
  
• Short term oscillation - wind is never static and constantly shifts back and forth due to changes in air pressure.
  
• Long term changes - Wind changes to the opposite direction every 25-30 mins.
  
• 
  
• Short term changes were adapted to be slightly slower and more predictable.
  
• You can use the short term changes to tack faster. Start to tack when wind is going to the direction of your turn. It will help you go with the wind first and when wind changes back it will help you pass the tack even faster. The goal is to time the tack so that wind helps you. If you mistime the tack start the wind will work against you.
  

Pavel Nerf

• Speed has been lowered
  
• BR raised to 600
  

Crew damage

• Crew damage was slightly adjusted for splinter damage (when cannonball hits crew after passing through broadside).
  

Speed changes

• Speed cap has been raised, to fully judge the speed differences and for future rebalancing and adaptation.
  

This is an experimental patch and has multiple changes at the same time. Please provide feedback in comments or discord



Raking is now devastating

Raking fire modifiers added. Shoot six bow guns into the stern and you will inflict similar damage as before. Deliver the whole broadside into stern and the damage will be devastating. Don't show your stern to lineships.


Wind mechanics

• Wind Oscillation added to instance. In addition to wind oscillations long term wind shifts changed.
  

Canvas and yards

• Yard power influence on turning (previously 3x – 1x) was reduced significantly after real life testing. The amount of canvas has more importance on how fast you turn as before. This is important as you will no longer be able to have a fast turn across the wind using just one fore top sail.
  
• Also fixed several bugs that allowed ships to turn excessively with some masts destroyed.
  

Guns rebalanced

• Damage and DPS gaps between short barrel and guns reduced based on length of barrels and energy of the cannonball.
  
• Carronade/Obusier penetration increased, damage reduced, reload changed. They are now closer to normal guns in their performance under 400m, with one major difference - they deliver a lot more crew damage due to splinters (if crew is hit behind the planking).
  
• All guns: Damage and reload times changed for all guns
  
• Long guns major buffs in damage and reload
  

Overall on guns

• Medium guns are now the worst basic guns
  
• Long guns are better in accuracy damage and ballistics
  
• Short guns are good in crew damage and close range DPS
  
• Congrive/Edinorog are universal guns - average at everything.
  
• Accuracy has been changed on all guns.
  
• Overall DPM is slightly lower on heavy calibers and slightly higher on light calibers
  

Woods

• Weak woods rebalanced.
  
• Top woods remained mostly the same or slightly better in some parameters.
  
• Structure bonuses removed from planking woods
  
• Repair time and amount removed from frame woods
  
• Choice of unseasoned woods removed from notes and DLC ships choice
  

The only major change is the buff of softwoods (firs/pines/cedars). The woods changes are not final and we think we should move more wood qualities to frame from planking,

Other tuning

• Removed extra accuracy from stern guns
  
• Improved minor bugs crew related damage on grape and cannonballs
  
• Brace changed – cooldown is now 1 minute. Damage resistance increased by 5%
  
• You can use Brace when you want now (almost)
  
• HP and Thickness of bow and stern reduced
  
• Penalties to HP and thickness of masts from full sails removed.
  

Captains
We are starting to prepare for a series of pre-Arsenal updates that will culminate with the Arsenal patch.

Today we deploy the loot overhaul hotfix:

• New items and drops – that will last for 1 week (weeklong event)
  
• St Kitts 5 new modules added to admiralty, they can be exchanged for Broad Pennants that now occasionally drop from 5th rates and higher.
  
• Broad pennant will drop from military NPC ships

[h3]Bot distribution[/h3]

• Bot distribution and fleet numbers improved to give small group and solo players more hunting opportunities.
  
• You will see more solo and 1-2 ship fleets
  
• You will see better distribution of 2-5 ship fleets
  
• Frigates will no longer sail in large packs (only line-ships will have large fleets)
  
• Bahamas will no longer have 8-12 ship packs
  
• Certain bugs and mistakes in bot distribution were also fixed. Additional rare ships added to NPCs for the duration of the event.

[h3]Loot changes[/h3]

• NPC Military ships will now drop more upgrades and items depending on rank
  
• PvP loot table changed – PVP kills will no longer grant drop of gold coins until further notice to reduce extensive alt farming
  
• Books will now drop from Bookshelves that Captains of NPC combat vessels will sometimes carry to read in their leasure time

On Tuesday/Wednesday (September 14th/15th) the following update will deploy the rebalance hotfix for live servers

[h3]Trader loot overhaul[/h3]
Traders will drop more useful resources that can be used in crafting, shipbuilding, cannon making to provide alternative route to getting resources from buildings.

[h3]Woods rebalance[/h3]

• Rare woods will remain the same - best woods for hp, thickness or speed.
  But we address some of the issues with other woods to make them more viable in choices for planking or frame.
  
• Softwoods buff
  
• Oaks small buff
  
• Minor rebalance of mast bonuses and mast thickness bonuses on frames
  
• Removal of the amount and time to repair from frame woods
  
• Removal of structure bonus from planking
  
• Ship notes, DLC ships will now only provide seasoned woods options when selecting frame or planking

[h3]Cannon and damage overhaul[/h3]

• General gun changes
  • We are changing stat progression for all cannons for the Arsenal Patch. These changes will be deployed before the arsenal to finalize and tune the gun levels. Medium guns will become the base guns and all other guns will be better than medium in one or another role. The 3 roles will remain (crew damage, dps, or sniping). There will be 4 tier of guns
    • Medium – Tier 1
      
    • Carronades, Long guns – Tier 2
      
    • Obusier, Congreve, Edinorog, Blomfield, Navy Long – Tier 3
      
    • Some calibers of tier 3 guns will also have an elite version
  • The rebalance will significantly affect carronades and obusiers
• Carronade changes
  • Carronade damage was lowered to compensate
    
  • Carronade penetration increased to correspond to a same energy and velocity of the cannonball
    
  • Carronade crew damage from splinters significantly increased due to lower impact velocity.
    • Example: 24lb carronade due to 2x shorter barrel than 12lb gun but 2x heavier cannonball will have similar penetration to a 12lb gun and similar damage but higher crew damage
• Dispersion changes
  • Dispersion of the gun itself is determined by a cannon chamber quality; violence of recoil does not affect the dispersion because the cannonball is already out of the chamber. As a result, vertical recoil was lowered and all cannonball accuracy was rebalanced around the length of the barrel and weight of the cannonball. Vertical dispersion now always equals horizontal dispersion.

[h3]Raking fire rework[/h3]

• Raking fire (stern/bow damage) mechanics will change the following way
  
• Smaller damage will work as before (for example occasional hits or shooting into the stern by bow guns). Larger damage when full broadside gets into stern at proper angle will have a devastating effect on ship structure.

[h3]NPC stat changes[/h3]

• NPC stats overhauled and slightly improved to be a fun and interesting opponent.

Additional information if any will be added with the deployment of the hotfix on Tuesday/Wednesday.