Naval Action: Patches/Updates

[Asid]

Hotfix 9.84 Patch notes
15 JUNE - ADMIN
Hello Captains
 
Here are the patch notes for the final hot fix before the next June content patch.
 
Tunings
•   Ingermanland blueprint drop learning chances adjusted
•   Mast thickness adjusted as most pvp matches turn into a mastshootfest again
       o      Ship of the same level will achieve comfortable results in demasting at distances below 300m
•   Frigates planking increased for all ships from cerberus to Trincomalee
•   Chain shot accuracy lowered by 5% (formerly it was increased by 10%)
•   Chain shot damage reduced by 15% (formerly it was increased 100%)
•   Waterline height adjusted on to correct levels on some vessels (it was placed too high before)
Other changes based on your feedback (like tuning the ROE timers and Reinforcement zones positions) will get in during the content patch deployment. We are currently focused on crew, officers and several other important changes.

[Asid]

Patch 9.9 Fishing, Officers, Fleets and other things
29 JUNE - ADMIN
Preliminary Patch notes 9.9
 
What's new:
 
Officers
•   Basic implementation of officers added to the game
•   Player can now recruit a first lieutenant that will sail with him.
•   Officer can level up with the player opening new possibilities and options
•   Officer will be wounded when your ship is lost - implemented as lives
•   Officer does not lose lives when you surrender in battle
•   Total number of lives = 10 and if you lose all of them you will have to hire a new officer
•   Starting set of perk is limited - a lot of things had to be reworked to support them. The set of perks will be drastically increased in the next patches adding open world perks, crafting perks and trading perks and of course more battle related perks. The main goal of officer perks is to provide unique and exciting bonuses without any useless options (so called filler).
A lot of perks were proposed by players and as promised - captains whose ideas will get into the game eventually will receive rare ships as rewards.
 
Starting perk set
•   Double charge – officer knows how to efficiently use double charge powder allowing using this option in battle
•   Double shot – Officer knows how to efficiently use double shotted guns (cannot be used on carronades)
•   Determined defender – Officer knows how to prepare the organized defence on boarding. Your ship can only be boarded if the attacker has 40% higher crew. It also gives you the option to use the defend command for free (during boarding) 
•   Thrifty – Repair kit is not consumed if you use them in battle
•   Prepared – Ship starts with loaded cannons
•   Pirate Hunter – Officer hates pirates and is able to motivate his crew better, allowing faster reload if the enemy ship has a pirate flag. Reload bonus is 20%. In the future this perk will only be available to nationals
•   Pirate – officer with the shady piracy past, allows to extract more sailing performance increasing battle speed by 1 knot if the enemy has a national ship on their side. In the future this perk will only be available to Pirates.
•   Frigate Master/Lineship Master/Light ship Master: Basic implementation of class bonuses. Currently give +1 knot speed and +5% faster reload. These bonuses are temporary we have already found interesting ways to improve them to provide true class related improvements. 
•   Mortar Officer – officer knows how to use mortars better and gives great bonuses to mortar usage. 
•   Coward – Officer loves to run from battle and knows how to do it. Exit timer is 2x shorter
Perk prices in points and their characteristics are not final. They will constantly be improved. In the next couple of patches 20-25 more unique perks are coming. 
 
Fishing

sailor fishing on a Palas class frigate


•   Basic fishing is added to the game, giving more options during travel and giving an income boost for new players who are just starting.
•   We initially added 25 caribbean fishes with realistic fishing zones; reefs, shallows, deep water, coastal water all have unique fish distributions based on the real fishing maps 
•   Fish is used to make provisions that are needed for crew recovery.
Depending on the popularity fishing will be improved in the future. 
 
Crew Management
•   Crew mechanics have been changed significantly for testing.
•   Crew is no longer a free element and does not have auto-recovery from the air.
•   Crew needs to be hired and recovered after losses
•   Crew is lost on any ship loss
•   Crew is not lost if you surrender in battle
•   Every rank has its limit of free crew provided by the admiralty. For example a first ranked newbie has 40 free crew, so he does not have to pay for crew if he loses the ship. At higher levels the free limit will be enough to jump into a basic frigate. Lineships will be more expensive to maintain. 
•   Crew can be recovered by medkits in the open sea after battle
•   In the future doctor can be added to recover parts of casualties slowly in battle.
•   Basic medkits will be available in all ports, more advanced options have to be crafted by players.
One of the purposes of the crew is to provide more options in fleet managements as fleets are back. This is a third attempt to bring player fleets back. 
Player can add any ship to their fleet provided he has enough crew to man those vessels. 
Fleets can now be repaired at sea by using consumable repair kits
 
Other changes 
•   Npc Capture is back - players can capture ships from NPCs up to 4th rank. Captured ships will have to have crew assigned to them and they can be given a command to escape battle if you want to save that ship even if you have enemies present.
•   New buildings added - Tobacco Plantation, Sugar Plantation, Farm
•   New resources added - tobacco, sugar, salt
•   New materials added - fish meat, food supplies
•   New consumables added for crafting repair kits, medkits
•   Chat security improved (problem was identified by the player qw569)
•   Land added to minimap
•   Coordinate grid has been added to open world map
•   Home is disabled in Open world
•   New sounds added

Fixed bugs:
•   Shadows bugs fixed
•   Crew casualties caused by grapeshot were not counted - fixed
•   Certain bugs with the single tracking shot from lower decks fixed
•   Fixed bugs with boarding crew focus visualization after boarding
•   Fixed bug of player teleport after port re-entry
•   Fixed bug that was not dropping full loot on ship capture
•   Fixed certain sound bugs

Tunings:
•   Number of regional centers increased to allow more ship of the line port battles for several nations (list here[forum.game-labs.net])
•   Flag purchase cooldown increased to 2 days (48 hours). Initially we wanted to make it 7 days but based on player feedback it could create problems for several nations. Port battle rework is now set as high priority and they will be changed drastically by August.
•   Battle relog after disconnect time increased to 40 mins to allow player to return to battle during longer time if internet went nuts.
•   Certain blueprints have been changed to reduce redundant clicks
•   Port battle win conditions changed - small port battles 1 tower is required for large port battles 3 towers are required
•   Building productions increased
•   Prices of production in buildings reduced
•   Knee requirements increased - it was too low for many ships (18 knees for santisima). It is based on cannon count now.
•   Rum prices increased 5 times. Rum requirements for certain blueprints reduced accordingly. Prices were changed to provide for medkit pricing.
•   Reload times for 4lb guns increased
•   Crew requirements for 4lb and 6lb cannons and 12lb carronades reduced by 1 gunner.
•   Spawns in missions are now closer to each other
•   Grapeshot damage curves changed to allow for more consistent kills at low planking integrity
•   Mast thickness increased for all vessels
•   Speed slightly reduced for Trincomalee and Rattlesnake
•   Belle poule speed increased
•   AI command fulfillment behavior improved
•   Bots lost hammock bonuses to avoid certain bugs in crew transfers
•   Boarding tuned slightly.
Due to significant changes in crew - we expect that there might be some bugs we missed.

[Asid]

Hotfix 9.92 - Patch notes
7 JULY

What's new:
•   Small repair kit and small medical kit is added to loot tables
•   Sealed bottles can now be stacked

Fixed bugs:
•   Mixed decks (carronades + cannons) bug, causing guns shooting ball even if it had double shot loaded - fixed
•   NPC fleets did not lose durability when sank – fixed
•   Repair kits sometimes did not fix the NPC fleet ships – fixed
•   Mixed deck bug causing shorter distance on long guns fixed

Tunings:
•   5X min BR difference for attack added back
•   Double shot penetration penalty removed
•   Double charge damage penalty removed
•   Carronade penetration drop reduced slightly
•   Cannons will be destroyed more often with raking fire
•   Fire chance lowered
•   HP for all rudders lowered by 20%
•   Determined defender lost free defend command
•   Salt requirement in food supplies lowered
•   Fish meat consumption in ports increased
•   Tobacco and sugar production prices lowered
•   Salt production increased

[Asid]

Patch 9.93 Bucentaure, acceleration fixes and other things
28 JULY - GAMELABS
Patch 9.93 will be deployed today
 
What's new:

•   New ship added: Bucentaure - a superb and powerful french ship of the line (drops from 3rd rates and rarely from Ingermanland). Blueprints will be reworked in the future through the academy building so please ignore that it drops from english/russian lineships
•   New set of battle and economy perks/skills added
•   Battle
o   Press Gang – crew members alive after boarding join your crew
o   Area Control – you and all enemy ships within 500m from you cannot exit the battle
o   Pump inventor – improves pump performance
o   Carronade master – improves carronade accuracy
o   Storage master – provides additional repair kit in battle but reduces speed 
o   Admiralty connections – reduces crew hire price
o   Trimming Expert – reduces ship heel
o   Rigging Specialist – improves your sails (reducing incoming damage) and repairs them better 
o   Emergency master – reduces emergency repairs cool down 
o   Expert Carpenter – increases repair amount in battle and in the open world
o   Expert Surgeon – medical kits efficiency increased
o   Defence Drill – reduces cost of defend command

•   Economy
o   Foreman – increase Labor hours regeneration
o   Overseer – increase Labor hours storage
o   Royal shipbuilder – reduces LH consumption for all vessels
o   Lineship shipmaster – reduces LH consumption for ships of the line 
o   Frigate shipmaster – reduces LH consumption for all frigates and 4th rates
o   Light ship master – reduces LH consumption for unrated vessels
o   Gifted – increases blueprint learning chance
o   Fisher – increases chance to fish something out of the water

•   New acceleration physics. Expect significant changes and temporary annoyance. 
•   Auto-escape functionality added. If you internet disappears in 5 mins your ship will set sail at best angle and will sail straight until exit timer allows exit the battle. 
•   Sail animations somewhat improved
•   Perk reset functionality added - costs 3 levels
•   Pirates are now considered nation in large battles in the lobby - no longer filling both sides. 
•   Convert All (fish) button added to convert all types of fish
•   Repair and Medical kits allows teleport now
•   Surrender is no longer possible if you are sinking or on fire

Fixed bugs:
•   Fixed bugs with free crew generation in certain cases (e.g with basic cutter)
•   Fixed bugs with extra pump upgrade
•   Fixed bugs with shipwreck locations distribution
•   Fixed bug that dropped sails to 0 if you started surrender
•   Fixed certain bugs in command tablet (m)
•   Fixed bug that your officer did not get XP if you lost a durability
•   Bucentaure visual bugs fixed

Tunings:
•   Changes to turning (turning acceleration is coming in one of the next few patches)
•   Mastery perks speed bonuses lowered
•   Assault flag requirement lowered to Master and Commander
•   Shipwreck resource variability increased
•   Chance for shipwreck bottle drop increased
•   New tobacco and sugar sources added (american coast in particular)
•   Speed changed for Victory and Santisima
•   Damaged rudder (yellow) penalty lowered by 25%
•   Morale bonuses for all boarding upgrades lowered
•   Steeltoolbox and survival handbooks rebalanced
•   Cannon loss through stern somewhat increased
•   BR tuned for St Pavel and Bucentaure 
•   Color blind colors adjusted for better visibility
•   Enable communcations with enemy nations is enabled by default
•   Leaks adjusted for all vessels
•   Waterline lowered for ships of the line (was a bit too high)
•   New bugs most likely introduced
Discuss.. 
 
Next patch alliances and some other minor things

[Asid]

Patch 9.94 Alliances, New ships, New features
17 AUGUST - GAMELABS
Hello captains. Here are the notes for the patch that will be deployed today.
 
New ships
  To celebrate the increase in the steam ratings 4 ships will be added to the game as event ships.
•   Rattlesnake Heavy – event blueprint.
•   L Ocean – event blueprint.
•   Agamemnon – event blueprint.
•   Gunboat – redeemable for existing users and event blueprint. Redeemable will be given out by end of the week.
Event ships are available from special events only – that will be available for for all users on PvP and PvE servers.
 
If ratings continue to grow we will try hard to add more ships before release. We need your support to make the game better. Please go to Steam and rate the game if you have not done so. Thank you for all the generous support!
 
Alliances
•   Alliances added as the first step in the conquest rework. Alliances are a testing feature and might change the game completely. We believe that alliances should make the game play better, but we don't know if they will.
•   IMPORTANT: For initial testing alliances are signed for short periods to help us run several rounds of votes and find bugs together during mass testing. Alliances between nations will change often in this testing patch. In the future alliances length will be increased to intended 3 weeks in a hot fix.
•   Voting is available from third lowest rank and only if your character existed for 15 days in this nation. Number of votes increases with your rank.
•   For more detailed information on the alliance mechanics please visit this topic: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15577-alliances-final-design/.
To enforce alliances better we made several additional changes.
•   All captains have learnt flag recognition better. As a result attacks on friendlies by intent or by mistake are no longer possible. Pirates always acted as a big brotherhood - its is the same for pirates now. Outlaw class is planned for the real pirates who are against all authorities. 
•   Friendly player smugglers are no longer attackable. The main reason for this change is the battle denial exploit.
•   Groups can be created with alliance members.
•   Alliance chats added – 1 chat for 2 nations. If your nation has 2 alliances you will have to use 2 rooms. But remember - Loose lips might sink ships:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loose_lips_sink_ships.

Other features
•   Special new feature added – you will find it out by playing.
•   Special new event added – you will find it out by playing.
•   Ships crafted after patch have the name of the crafter added to it. 5% of all combat xp earned on that ship will also be given to a crafter directly to his XP.

Perks changes
•   We are continuing to add and test systems that can be modified by perks/officer skills. These systems give us extra flexibility in the development and allow to quickly test new interesting gameplay options and features. Some perks can be unbalanced and will eventually be removed if they are hated by the players. Please ignore annoying perks - all bad designs will be removed eventually.
•   Next patch month we will start actively changing perks and upgrades. To give players some flexibility perk reset becomes free until perks are stabilized.
•   Storage perk becomes useless. All bonuses from the perk are removed. Use free reset to replace the perk.
•   New perk Doctor – perk recovers 70% of all casualties in combat if you ship is alive by the end of the instance.
•   New perk Social – battle generated by the player with this perk stay open for 30 mins for both sides. Other battles will not get affected.
•   New perk Hold optimization – 20% more hold weight.
•   New perk Shipyard connections - +15% to ship prices sold to NPC buyer in ports.
•   We know that trading and combat should be done through separate officers and plan to add a non-combat officer as a second hire in the future.

Fixed bugs:
•   Fixed bug when muskets were sometimes counted incorrectly during boarding.
•   Multiple other bugs fixed.

Tunings:
•   Bucentaure excessive crew loss somewhat addressed.
•   36pounder gun added. It is exclusive for only one vessel at this stage, but this limitation will be removed in the near future.
•   Extra check is added during player deletion to avoid unfortunate accidents.
•   Holds are finally rebalanced for all vessels, it is now closer to historical hold sizes. We will continue tuning hold sizes going forward.
•   Small battles room balancer and conditions changed: http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/15739-tournament-support-changes-to-small-battles.
•   Storm sailing speed penalties lowered.
•   Sealed bottle drop chance reduced.
•   Sealed bottle distance brought back to old – closer distance. No more excessive long journeys. 
•   Copper coins added to shipwrecks.
•   Area control perk radius increased to 750 meters.
•   Press gang bonus lowered to 50%.
•   Stiffness was buffed to give +5% to mast HP and +2cm to armor.
•   Boarding tweaks were made. Boarding will be more dynamic and generally more enjoyable.
•   Minor changes to some ship performances were made.
•   Cannons penetrate trough water a lot less.
•   Bot name tables improved thanks to several mod volunteers.
•   Probably several horrible horrible bugs introduced.
After patch is stabilized we will start working on the second part of war&peace improvements in relation to port battles, war effort and conquest in general. + New sounds and AI improvements.
 
Discuss. http://steamcommunity.com/games/311310/announcements/detail/815536179393717923
 
Extra requests
Groups preparing for the tournament  - please test the small battles room functionality with your practice partners if it works correctly as intended. We are ready to hot fix the problems if any appear.

[Asid]

Patch 9.96 New conquest, New trading, New ships and many other things..
20 OCTOBER - GAMELABS

What's new:
 
Rookie regions
•   Bahamas has become a rookie region.
•   Additional uncapturable capitals are added in the Bahamas.
•   Rookie region has special ROE (identified by the message rookie battles area). All battles start 1v1 and other players can only reinforce it using reinforcement zones for 30 minutes. Limit of reinforcements is set at 300 BR.

Map changed
The map is split into regions. All information on the regions and their composition can be seen on the in game map.   
 
Combat tuning
Starting from this patch we will actively work on ship rebalancing. These works were delayed because of the tournament, but the tournament helped to uncover more balancing issues that require attention.
Currently the main goal is to increase ship importance and reduce upgrade importance for combat performance. 

•   All men are created equal and all crew colliders were standardized. Previously some ships had men with 180cm height (cutter) and some had 150cm men. This is no longer the case. Although cutter captains still have the biggest hands.
•   Many upgrades were rebalanced and mostly nerfed
•   Several perks were rebalanced and mostly nerfed
•   Lower calibers that were often used on 5^th and 4^th rates had their penetrations improved. The change affected 4lb 6lb 9lb guns mostly. But these guns penetration drop from distance was slightly increased
•   Carronades penetration drop from distance significantly increased making them effectively a short range weapon. Don't expect any penetrations above 500m.
•   We also changed how penetration shot retain energy depending on the wood type. Fir hulls allow to pass more penetrating energy to the opposite side, live oak less. Previously all wood types had same penetration retention.
•   Splinter damage: When a cannonball hits a broadside it affects crew differently when it flies above the deck creating casualties by shockwave or hitting men directly. Nelson’s assistant was killed by a shockwave from a high flying cannonball. We have separated cannonball damage to crew into two parts. Cannonball hitting an unprotected crew will generally have less casualties on the ship than cannoball penetrating the broadside, generating splinters. If you aim at broadside areas with crew behind it you might inflict good damage on the crew.

Shipbuilding, Trading and Resources
Trading was completely overhauled. We are very excited about it because we have coded in a very flexible system allowing us to easy add or remove resources by group, nation, region, island and large area, control prices and margins, demand and supply and multiple other elements helping us to make trading and resource generation to feel more alive.
When we first introduced trading into game in 2015 it required several months of balancing based on mass use by large number of players. Thus - expect resource shortages, abnormal profits, and strange things in the first two weeks. Report them in the respective feedback topics and they will be fixed.
 
•   All buildings were removed from player accounts and funds used to build them were compensated
•   Shipyards removed from game for rebalancing, to allow players to build ships in multiple regions with regional bonuses. So building ships no longer requires a shipyard. All allied ports will provide shipbuilding capacity for the player. Funds used to build shipyards were compensated. 
•   Delivery orders will allow players to receive trading xp and crafting xp by helping the in game economy. All ports with the unfulfilled NPC demand and large player contracts will generate delivery quests that players can take and fulfill. This will allow traders to exert more influence on the market and see what is needed. 
•   Pricing systems were upgraded, new goods introduced, new NPC demand was created for some crafted materials (initially in the several areas only). 
•   Weights, prices, stacks and volumes will change. New buildings for new resources were added.
•   Trader tools are integrated into the client. They will help adventurous traders to find good deals in the Caribbean. They might also help privateers to see where people might be going for good deals. Trader tools are accessible from the in game map (M).
•   New resources will be required to craft quality ships depending on ship weight.
•   Ship quality importance increased. Increasing ship quality will improve its characteristics starting from ship HP, speed, turning and other parameters.
•   Speed and stiffness added to selectable characteristics, all RNG removed from crafting.
•   Regional bonuses for ships introduced. Controlling certain regions will become more important if you want that particular bonus for the vessel. Capital regions will not give bonuses.
•   2 new wood types added: Mahogany (ligher live oak basically), Bermuda Cedar (fir without negatives)
•   Contracts will be allowed for upgrades
•   Upgrades can be broken down for parts and resources
•   You can no longer sell a ship if it has something in hold or has upgrades installed (many players were losing items when not reading warnings)
•   Wood production slightly changed. Compass wood is no longer a separate resource. Compass wood (curved trees) can drop from any forest during wood production. Fine logs (e.g. fine oak) will drop some times when growing trees in forests.
•   European traders removed (experimental feature)
•   Salt can now drop when fishing
•   Contract number increased from 5 to 10

ROE (experimental feature)
We will be testing several options for Rules of Engagement – ROE this patch. This might upset some users but it have to be done before release (will be impossible after).

•   Open world battles: 2 circles system is being tested. 1 tag circle for attack and 1 large circle for pull. Battles will close instantly on start (except for rookie zones)
•   Rookie zones battles. Battles always start 1v1. Battle will be opened until BR evens out. BR limit is set at 300. Players wont be able to enter if their ship will exceed the BR limit.
•   Hostility missions: Battle will be opened for 30 mins. 
•   OW NPC fleets will no longer count for 5X anti griefing protection. Only players will affect that rating
•   Crew size will lower battle rating of your fleet. Example (numbers are for illustration only): If sail a cutter with 2 Bucentaures in your fleet with 40 crew on each - you will fleet will be valued as 3 cutters for ROE.
 
Mission changes.

•   Missions can be taken for every region from any port.
•   Missions will generate or reduce hostility - thus enemy should be able to influence the flow of events. Because of that missions will always be open for entry for all sides for 30 minutes.
Bot distribution changes
•   With new hostility system bot distribution changed. Regions will have national NPC fleets. For example you will mostly see british NPCs near Jamaica and only occasionally will see other nations fleets who sailed there from the nearby region. 
•   Pirate fleets added.
•   Captured NPC ships will be good sometimes. And because of randomization of the hidden upgrades they might come up to be uniquely interesting (experimental feature).

Port battles and conquest
Port battle set up system changed significantly.

•   Port battles will automatically arrange 46 (previously 48) hours after hostility level reaches 100%. Hostility will be generated by PVP (major impact), PVE (minor impact), Missions (minor impact), and War effort supplies deliveries (minor impact). Port battles will be a national effort and will require coordinated work of several fleets. 
•   Assault flag is be removed. 
•   Timers are removed (for testing) as we believe that in new system port battles will arrange themselves when there is max presence of players for both size (due to pvp impact). Also we expect that all timezones will need to participate to bring hostility to the port battle levels. If this assumption proves to be inaccurate we will bring back lord protectors (but with wider time limits). In addition to this we will reduce the speed of hostility generation if necessary to bring more timezones into action.
•   New port system will immediately show players where the action is because the number of port battles and hostility zones is limited and nation can have a limited number of port battles set up. 
•   Port battles themselves will still be done on the open water with towers (but this wont last long). 
•   Alliances will continue for 3 weeks, voting period is set at 1 week.

Port and coastline defenses

•   Large forts and towers will be added around ports. The number will depend on the island and coast line size. They are placed randomly at appropriate places. Please report weird looking coastlines in F11 or in the forums.
•   Forts will fire at enemies of the state and can provide good protection for traders and small groups.

New ships

•   Endymion
•   Indefatigable
•   Both ships are only available for capture from NPC fleets (experimental feature).
•   Ship hulls were made by one of the community member Ragnar Hairy Trousers (sails for Britain)

Other tunings

•   More slots for loot added in the battle result screen.
•   You can enter allied contested ports
•   You now can capture lineships if they belong to AI fleet of a player.
•   You cannot add the ship to fleet if it has something in the hold
•   Upgrades and paints will be saved if you add a ship to fleet. You can freely add precious upgraded ships to the fleets.
•   NPC trader loot improvements - Bigger traders carry more goods
•   You can surrender during boarding now. Press escape and surrender if you don't want to lose crew during boarding.
•   Minimal crew requirements increased for higher level vessels. Players wont be able to sail 1^st rates with 10 men. 1^st rates will require 100 men at least to operate.

Fixed bugs:

•   Fixed several particle bugs with demasting and mast collisions with water
•   Several bugs with contracts fixed
•   Fixed bugs with small/large repair kits when applied to fleet ships.
•   Prepared perk fixed. It now works on all types of ammunition and charges.
•   Fixed bugs with wrong rank of fleet ships when joining the instance
•   Instance loading times increased
•   Server technology improved.
•   Hundreds of other bugs and technical issues fixed

Conclusion.
When new features are introduced they always play out differently with large number of players. Expect problems, report them and they will be fixed. Keep an open mind because the game is still in development and is not released.
 
Plans for next patch
•   Raids
•   Land in port battles
•   Improvement of server events
•   And probably a weekly pvp tournament

all ships that were on sale on contracts were bought out by the game. money added to your gold count.
some ships have changed color of the tooltip. Stats are the same but the color could have change to indicate that there might be better ships now of this rank or type.

[Asid]

Weekend hotfix for patch 9.66
Community Announcements - Gamelabs


Patch was deployed today

Speed bonus for ships was turned into % by mistake - reverted to absolute.
Hostility points generation has been tuned
Hostility points drop reduced
Visual bugs for several ships fixed
Trader loot updated for new resource weights
Certain changes in prices and weights were done
All resources used in ship crafting had their weights lowered
Indefatigable cannons fixed
Giant sailor touching pig cloud fixed
Map mouseover tooltip showing port resources removed to avoid confusion as it was showing pre-war resources for many.

[Asid]

Hotfix for patch 9.66
26 OCTOBER   -


Speed was slightly reduced for several vessels including Endymion
Contracts can now be placed for medical kits, repair kits and other items.
Cannonball splinter damage slightly reduced for raking fire (from bow and from stern)
Regional bonuses information was added to a port tool tip
French refit and british refit slightly tuned
Prices were updated for standard resources
NPC distribution changed (less large fleets more solo or small fleet targets)
Several redundant resources removed from blueprints
New sources for naval materials and for rare woods were added to NPC supply

[Asid]

Hotfix 3 for patch 9.96


Hotfix was deployed today
•   Allies now generate hostility if sank in port waters (first reported by Plak and Jeheil)
•   Alliances bug was supposedly fixed. Alliances should work as intended and no reset was required. We will continue monitoring the situation (thanks Anolytic for timely warning)
•   Port battle entry was closed for some captains due to bug - fixed
•   Certain bugs with contract pricing and delivery orders fixed
•   Supply of materials from NPC lowered (and might get lowered again) we overestimated NPC production capacity. 
•   Critical bug with disconnects of players attacking on borders of capital protection waters fixed
•   BR changes for higher tier vessels was done to solve some of the problems with port battles (for example 25 ingermanlands vs 25 agamemnons)
•   Speed adjusted for several vessels
•   Niagara and Brigs slightly buffed in terms of HP and combat performance
•   Acceleration slightly lowered for 4th rates and higher (remained the same in 1st rates)
•   Wood types color schemes changed for certain wood types
•   Weights and recipe adjusted for War supplies
•   Other fixes and bugs
2-4/3-5 upgrade slots crafting change did not get in. It took more time than we expected.

[Asid]

Patch 9.97 New events, crafting changes and other things!
Community Announcements

Hello Captains. New patch have been deployed.

What's new:
Crafting changes: Fine woods removed from the game until further notice. Fine woods are no longer required for ship crafting and no longer drop during tree growth. NPC buyers have been instructed to buy fine woods at good prices if players decide to sell their acquired stocks.

As a compensation for all the struggles with fine wood two uncrafteable ships were added to redeemables to all players across all servers.   

PvE events – run daily
•   Time challenge – destroy 2 enemy ships in shortest possible time.
•   Kill challenge – destroy as many enemy ships in 30 mins. (Boarding does not count) - every kill grants +1 repair for the player.
•   Events are provided for testing. Initial ship for all events is Cerberus. In the forthcoming hotfixes and patches we will add variety to ships, enemies and challenges (demasting, boarding, etc).

PvP events – run 3 times a day.
•   3 PvP events per day added (one shallow waters one deep waters) that will spawn in 2 fixed locations on the map.
•   Deep water – Hispaniola channel (closest FT La Tortue and La Navasse)
•   Shallow water – Bahamas sand bank (closest FT Shroud Cay and Cayo Romano)

Other changes
•   Ships can now be sent from outpost to outpost (tow request). Sent ships will be delivered during maintenance. Please be wary when sending ships into contested ports.
•   War supplies can only raise hostility to 50% and not more to remove the risk of hostility bombs
•   Social perk returns reformed as Signaling perk. Signaling allows entry to the battle until the battle rating of both sides is somewhat equal.
•   Coward perk was removed
•   Brace command added for testing. Brace reduces incoming crew damage significantly and acts as a crew shock locking some of the on deck activity (repairs, reloads). It allows only yard turning as those crew on sails/yards are immune to deck damage.

Fixed bugs:
•   Fixed rare bug with group list disappearing from the screen
•   Fixed bug with incorrect BR calculations for several NPC ships in fleets
•   Fixed bug that allowed spawn of same characteristics for NPC captured ships creating double bonuses
•   Several critical exploits fixed thanks to the player Qw569

Tunings:
•   Duel room distance increased to 1km
•   Cannonball splinter damage somewhat lowered again
•   Max possible grape damage slightly increased
•   Hostility points adjusted and now depend on ship class. Port hostility points requirements adjusted as well. Approximate numbers = 1st rates 700 pts/unrated 100 pts.
 

Port battles entry zones algorithms and capture points placement still requires work and will be deployed in a hot fix within next week or two.

[Asid]

Hotfix for patch 9.97 - Land in port battles and the end of battle result screen camping
21 DECEMBER - GAMELABS

Hello Captains.

Land in port battles was deployed today.
This is an experimental feature and will require a lot of testing and tuning.

Key concepts.

What is removed
•   Removed - battle circle of death. It will be no longer necessary as we found the way to completely eliminate the need for kiting, running and griefing in port battles.
•   Removed - BR difference requirements. It is no longer necessary due to objectives in the port battles. Control objectives and you win the battle.
•   Removed - Tower requirements. If you controlled key points in real world port battle towers and forts would eventually surrender. Towers and forts are no longer a requirement for victory. But they are still going to be present and sometimes make things easier for the defenders. Tower and fort placement will be based on their current open world positions.

What is new

•   Port battles will be conducted in the harbors of regional capitals
•   Tower and fort placement will still be somewhat random but their number will depend on the city size. If new port battles will be fun some forts could be placed near objectives.
•   Entry to port battles. Entry to port battles will be purely positional from the open world. There will be two large circles around the port. Defenders can enter anywhere within the smaller circle. Attackers can enter anywhere in the large circle sometimes attacking from several different directions.
•   Initial wind will be determined from the open world on first entry to the port battle. That wind will stay static for a certain time and then will change based on the old proven formula sometimes providing equal opportunity for both sides. This means that timing the port battle start and entry matters and attackers have to carefully decide when to enter the port battle.
•   Capture zones (a-la BF3 conquest mode). 3 1.5km circles are placed in the harbor. Controlling those zones gives points.
•   Sinking enemy ships gives points to your side
•   Losing ships subtracts points from your side
•   Destroying towers and forts gives additional points (approximate time to destroy a large fort for a perked mortar brig = 12 mins)
•   The side which gains 1000 points first - wins
•   Alternatively you can get an immediate victory if you sank all opponents (or they all escaped exiting the battle).

To test the port battles properly we suggest the following
1.   To reduce the cool downs between failed port battles and won port battles to the minimum
2.   Provide ship chest reward for successful attacks or defensive action to all participants.
Concerns

Some port battles will be immensely fun due to harbor geography. Some battles will be very weird (especially in narrow passages). Some harbors will favor attackers, some harbors will favor defenders.

Example of entry circles and capture points:

attackers will be able to enter anywhere from the outside circle, defenders will be able to enter anywhere in the inner circle.
Approximate time at good wind to sail through all capture points is 25 mins on the good speed frigate. Against the wind it will take up to an hour. Thus attackers will have to control wind carefully.

Points distribution

Kills/Sinkings

Sinking enemy ships or losing your ships grants points according the following scheme.
1.   Lineships 40 pts
2.   All other ships 25 points.
Because entry to battles is limited by battle ratings we believe that all ships are important to victory. The system with different points for ships is also supported. This also provides somewhat equal time for both battles (because if cutters are worth less - battles in light ships could last a lot longer).

Forts and towers.
1.   Towers 50 points
2.   Forts 150 points
Capture zones
1.   Captured zone ticks 2 points every 5 seconds. If attacker controls 1 zone and if defender controls another (with third being not captured) no points will tick for both sides. For points to tick your side has to control more zones than the enemy.
2.   1 ship will capture the zone in 120 seconds
3.   3 ships will capture the zones in 30 seconds.
4.   Zone can be captured if you have more ships in the capture zones than the enemy. It does not matter which size of vessels is in the zone - to promote diversity. So 2 frigates will capture the zone even if there is 1 enemy victory is present in the capture zone (of course 1 victory will not sail alone and will try to be in the main line with escorts easily sinking those frigates.

All numbers are initial and will require testing and tuning.

For testing purposes cool downs on port battles were reduced.
•   Failed PB can now be repeated in 1 day (instead of 3)
•   Captured regions now can be recaptured in 3 days (instead of 10)
•   Paints and Ship chests from events are added as victory rewards to port battles (both attacking and defensive victories)
To improve the ability to enter the port battle from distance if the port is behind land you can now click on buildings to bring the entry screen up. (you can still click on swords to enter the port battle).

Battle result screen camping fixes

Battle result screen camping options were reduced. For the discussions on this topic please visit this thread:
http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/17803-battle-screen-camping-log-off-camping-final-proposal/

When the battle is over you will now have 2 options:
•   Exit to open world within 5 mins
•   Exit to the nearest friendly port
If you don't exit to the open world in 5 mins then you will only be able to exit to the nearest friendly port.
This feature solves 2 important problem - sitting in BR screen to deny battles, wasting time for you and those chasing you. And camping in BR screen to attack unsuspected players from the safety of the BR screen.

Other changes
•   Some upgrades, perks, regional bonuses increasing ship speed were reduced.
•   Speed adjusted for 2nd rates, 3rd rates and HMS Trincomalee
•   Mast HP was modestly increased (30% on average)
•   Speed penalty for reinforced masts was slightly reduced
•   Determined defender perk was removed. If you have DD it is a useless perk now.
•   Bot routes were changed to reduce dense NPC distribution in certain areas
•   Bot composition were changed to reduce numbers of line ships
•   Number of forts and martello towers now can depend on the city size (1 fort + 1 tower for smallest cities 3-4 forts + towers for largest cities) - this feature will be tuned further going forward.
•   Free camera (with some limitations) returned to the open world.
•   Fixed bug where towers were shooting at captured ships on your side
•   Several other minor bugs fixed

[Asid]

Testbed: Content Patch 9.98 deployed today.
17 FEBRUARY
Hello Captains.

Patch have been deployed to testbed. Here is a brief description.

•   Challenges: PVE challenges now provide the ship for you. No need to purchase the ship anymore to participate in challenges.

•   1 durability for ships of the line did not achieve its required goal and is removed. It did not have any effect on rich veterans and was just punishing casuals who left the game instead of converting into pvp/conquest players because they lost the ships they worked so hard on. All linesips now have 3 durabilities with the corresponding increase of required resources.

•   You can now use the hold of your fleet ships.

•   Admiralty store has been added for testing. The content is not final, prices are not final and what is sold in stores is mostly for testing the systems. The following rewards were added
o   City Key - for raids or port attacks or defences
o   Battle Ensign - PVP reward
o   Short Pennant - PVE reward
o   Trading Manifest - reward for trader ships or trading missions etc.
o   Each reward can be used for exclusive content in admiralty stores (test content to test systems provided in testbed).
o   All rewards are given in the end of battle based on battle kills and damage. If 10 people sink 1 ship rewards are split for 10 people based on damage, kills and assists.

•   Officers. Officers had one problem, they punished you if you played actively (and sank a lot). As a result officers were removed from the game and all perks have been moved to a player. You get 1 point per rank. The system is not final and will continue development. Officers in their traditional sense might come back in the future.

•   Pirate vs Pirate - outlaw battles. Pirates can now attack each other. The battle created by pirates vs pirates is always open and has FFA rules (free for all). You can sink anyone you see. Signalling perk does not work in the battle. Battle cannot be created in the capital protected waters.

•   Recently killed tracker added to game. Players who recently lost the battle (sank or surrendered) no longer give rewards for 1 hour. This solves huge number of problems for a minor price.

•   Ship paints can now be stored in clan warehouses.

•   Forts and towers were significantly buffed (large fort will destroy a ship in approximately 5 minutes under constant fire). We hope this feature will help players to vary their fleets a bit and bring mortar vessels to battles (who can destroy a fort in 10 mins. If this damage is too big we will lower it, but we were not really satisfied with the forts uselessness in battles.

•   Chain shot damage fall off from distance implemented and added to game.

•   All instances are now immediately closing when last player leaves the instance. A good % of instances were wasted for bot vs bot entertainment

[Asid]

Information on the forthcoming mega patch to live servers.
15 MAY - GAMELABS

Captains.

Wipe patch is coming this month. The following content will be deployed to live servers. The deployed content is going to be more stable as it was properly checked on the testbed servers by a QA team and our amazing community volunteers who spent a lot of time on the testbed and provided a lot of feedback on bugs and improvements.

Estimated time of deployment of the patch is between 15th May and 24th May. We are testing the Nation change item (Forged Papers) now that is absolutely critical for the problem-free delivery of the wipe patch.

Here is what you can expect in the patch to live servers.

New changes:
•   Combat model updated. Structure introduced. Ship now receives structural leaks when structure goes down (not when armor is destroyed like before). Structure affects leaks and masts integrity (you will be able to demast by bow and stern raking).
•   Port battle entry is only allowed 30 mins after login at sea. This penalty can be dropped if you enter any port. If you log off at sea and login within 5 mins (disconnects etc) you donТt get that penalty
•   Zone control points are not accumulated during first 10 mins of the port battle, zones cannot be captured during first 10 mins of the port battle.
•   New sounds system is implemented. Crew responds to your actions and intensity of combat.
•   All ships now have 1 durabilities with the corresponding change of required resources.
•   You can now use the hold of your fleet ships. New perks are introduced for fleet management
•   Admiralty store has been added. The following rewards were added (names are temporary and might not survive)
  o   PVP marks - for high end frigates permits and skillbooks
  o   PVE marks - for certain ships, skillbooks, resources and some other items
  o   Conquest marks - for port battles and permits for lineships
  o   Trading Manifest - reserved for potential future use.
  o   Each reward can be used for exclusive content in admiralty stores.
  o   PvP/PvE rewards are given in the end of battle based on battle kills and damage. If 10 people sink 1 ship rewards are split for 10 people based on damage, kills and assists.
  o   Conquest rewards are given for victorious port battles for attackers or defenders and only if they inflicted damage on enemy ships or infrastructure (forts and towers).
•   Officers. Officers had one problem, they punished you if you played actively (and sank a lot). As a result officers were removed from the game and all perks have been moved to a player. You get 1 point per rank. Officers in their traditional sense might come back in the future.
•   Perk reset cost introduced - to reset your character perks you have to pay 50 PVE marks.
•   Pirate vs Pirate - outlaw battles. Pirates can now attack each other. The battle created by pirates vs pirates is always open and has FFA rules (free for all). You can sink anyone you see. Signalling perk does not work in the battle. Battle cannot be created in the capital protected waters. Outlaw battles do not give rewards.
•   Recently killed tracker added to game. Players who recently lost the battle (sank or surrendered) no longer give rewards for 1 hour. This solves a number of problems with pvp rewards farming
•   Ship paints can now be stored in clan warehouses.
•   Chain shot damage fall off from distance implemented and added to game.
•   Removal of current upgrade system and ship quality level. Tiered ship knowledge is implemented. (Details[forum.game-labs.net])
•   Repairs changed. Repairs now can be crafted and carried in the hold. You can use your fleet to carry more repairs. Cooldown is implemented on repairs. The number of how many times you can repair in battles depends on your hold size. You can capture repairs from enemies
•   Hold management in instances added, hold management for fleets is revamped. You can now use holds of your fleet in battles and capture hold from boarded/sinking enemies.
•   Bot routes and npc fleet composition significantly improved.
•   Guns are now sold in units and can be crafted.
•   Rookie zones removed. Rookie capitals are added back to respective regions. (Details[forum.game-labs.net])
•   Assign crew functionality in instances updated and somewhat improved.
•   Resource transport between free towns removed
•   Ship transport between outposts removed
•   Teleport to freetown removed.
•   Outpost to outpost transport is now only available between national towns.
•   Tow to capital replaced by tow to port - which sends you to the nearest deep water port - this is done to allow players living in distant areas from the capital to have unstuck that does not send them across the map (forcing them to sail back).
•   Certain changes are done for trading resources production limits. Expensive trading resources are no longer produced up to 25000 items providing infinite money making opportunities (e.g. textile machinery)
•   Shipyard is added back and is a required building for ship crafting
•   Lineships blueprints are now available in the admiralty. Lineships require permits to construct
•   Gifted perk removed
•   Ship blueprints no longer drop when crafting as there is no more RNG in crafting. Blueprints are immediately unlocked based on your crafting level or can be bought for marks from the admiralty.
•   Antigriefing is now based on curve - not on fixed number (old number 5x). The paramteter changes based on the amount of ships in the pull zone. If you want to attack a large organized fleet you will have to have a lot of ships too. Solo line ship can be attacked by a very small force.
•   Minimal crew thresholds for all vessels are now 70% of max ship crew (only checked in port) - you still can use under crewed ships in battles though. This requirements is not valid for trading vessels.
•   Hold load now affects speed and acceleration both in the Open world and in the battle instances. Cannons affect hold load as well. .
•   Contracts on cannons can be placed in stores.
•   Medkit was replaced by RUM. Surgeon now needs rum to fix sailors (or cut them). Medkit blueprint eliminated.
•   Battle result screen removed. Can stay up to 15 minutes inside the battle after it is over. Player exiting battle spawns in the open world.
•   If you alt-f4 in battle you will be sent to the OW after battle
•   If you exit the battle and do nothing - normal disconnect mechanics will apply.
•   You can now loot hold from sinking ships if you are near the sinking enemy vessel.
•   NPC Ship capture on the PVP server
  o   From now on All NPC ships cannot be captured on the PVP server. You can still take their hold and loot but you cannot switch to an NPC ship anymore.
  o   PVE Server: NPC ships will be capturable on the PVE server with no restrictions.
  o   PVP Server: On PVP server you will only be able to capture ships from players. Player fleet ships are considered pvp ships and can be captured
  o   This fix also change closes final loopholes on pvp marks farming and provides guaranteed market to shipbuilders
•   Alliances tab disabled temporarily until alliance rework
•   Shipbuilding overhaul. Governors of regions announced a monopoly on all woods except for oak, fir and lignum. Imported resources (like teak) will only be available in the regions that imported them historically. Other woods will only be sold by NPC traders in the region. (Details[forum.game-labs.net])
  o   New planking trims added to game. Redundant trims removed
  o   New wood types added to game
•   Invisibility added when exiting battles under following conditions
  o   Both Sides will receive 1 min invisibility on exit.
  o   You cannot be attacked or attack during invisibility.
  o   Invisibility persists even if you die and spawn in port (lets say Free town)
•   Cannons can now be stored in the warehouse

Tunings:
•   Map zoom increased 2x in commander tablet
•   Port battle time increased to 105 mins
•   Accuracy and damage from land based guns increased by 15%
•   Points for kills increased by 50% in port battles instances
•   Attack circle timer (ow attack) reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds
•   If you sink in battle you will still be able to see the compass and wind indicator
•   Brace command is now a toggle
•   All contracts that are more than 15 days long are going to be automatically cancelled from now on.
•   All instances are now immediately closing when last player leaves the instance. A good % of instances were wasted for bot vs bot entertainment
•   Forts and towers were significantly buffed (large fort will destroy a ship in approximately 5 minutes under constant fire). We hope this feature will help players to vary their fleets a bit and bring mortar vessels to battles (who can destroy a fort in 10 mins. If this damage is too big we will lower it, but we were not really satisfied with the forts uselessness in battles).
•   Military NPCs now sometimes drop repairs as loot
•   Sugar added to many regions as resource - for rum production
•   Boarding preparation growth increased
•   Perk points are given to player faster - you will get 10 perk points 2x earlier.
•   Crew requirement lowered on 4lb,6lb and 12lb carronades
•   Tow to nearest deep water port do not check the hold weight any more
•   Redwood logs abandoned; blueprints using redwood now use lignum vitae.
•   Pine is merged with Fir and is now Fir from today. Pine logs abandoned, blueprints have changed
•   Fire damage is increased by 25%
•   Split function is improved
•   Bow figureheads rebalanced slightly (some bow figureheads might get abandoned though based on the historians feedback)
•   Fixed Rattlesnake figurehead bonuses bugs
•   Added a tooltip to cannon crafting blueprint
•   Port crew recruitment is now 68 per crew member. You will have to use rum at sea. 1 rum recovers 1 crew.
•   PVP content in the admiralty store rebalanced.
o   PVE server will have different prices and mark conversion options
•   Fleet and fort kills are properly counted to your fleet if you did the most damage
•   Added a button to sink a ship during cargo transfer interface (to receive kills and assists)
•   When instance ends all hulls with white flags left in instance are sank and give rewards to players who were supposed to receive kills for them
•   Recently killed flag is not given if you were sank by NPC
•   Certain tuning is done for Carpenter and Steel toolbox (bonuses reduced)
•   Repair cooldown increased from 10 mins to 15 mins (might get reverted back as we want to promote more aggressive combat)
•   Minimal crew requirement lowered on all traders
•   Victorious port battle defenders now properly receive conquest marks. To receive conquest marks you have to damage any enemy ship (any ship even one ship) above a certain threshold. Empty port battles will not give conquest marks. Conquest mark distribution. 3 for lineship ports, 2 for frigate ports, 1 for shallow ports.
•   It now takes some time to destroy stacks of resources in your cargo. This will allow privateers to get some cargo if they tag the trader in time. You can only destroy one stack in 25 seconds
•   Copper mine building removed, copper removed from all blueprints.
•   Ship blueprints updated and now require provisions. Ships in general became more expensive to make (especially higher level vessels)
•   Changed NPC production limits on certain resources
•   Port battles now properly allow PB battle points for recently killed captains (including pvp marks)

Fixed bugs:
•   Ship reverse speed bugs fixed
•   Trade window bug fixed (players lost their ships they traded via trade window)
•   Cargo duplication bug fixed
•   Fixed bug that did not allow to access hold for NPC ships in missions and events
•   Fixed bug that allowed to receive marks for basic cutter
•   Fixed bug that allowed your sank vessel to magically appear in the BRS screen
•   Fixed a memory leak with open combat information window.
•   Fixed UI bugs in ship to ship transfer
•   Bug causing blueprint drop during breakup removed
•   Fixed most bugs not giving rewards for sinking surrendered ships
•   Shipyard and workshop resource requirements bug fixed.
•   Several instance crashes bugs fixed
•   Fixed bug that did not allow you to craft even if you had a free slot in the port
•   Fix bug that shown the pve/pvp marks conversion rate for knees and furnishings
•   Fix bug that made captured derelict disappear if their owner exited the battle before assigning crew to them (to allow their capture for others who are still in instances)
•   Fix bug that allowed ships added to fleets without the perk in outlaw battles
•   Fixed several bugs with hold informational updates
•   Fixed bug that allowed bots to repair guns indefinitely
•   Fixed bug that increased deceleration on the Cutters
•   A lot of minor bugs fixed

One more hot fix will be deployed to the testbed before the wipe patch, the team is fully focused on the delivery of the wipe patch to live servers.


this topic will be updated with clarification and cross links to detailed information on some of the issues mentioned in the notes.

[Asid]

Mega patch 10.00
24 MAY - GAMELABS


Captains.

Patch has been deployed to live servers.
•   All assets, ships, resources have been reset.
•   Player experience and Craft experience has been provided in form of redeemables. Please use them wisely.
•   4 ships has been provided for a head start
o   Pickle
o   Surprise
o   Indefatigable
o   Trader Brig
•   Forged papers have been provided to all captains in case you are unhappy with your choice will want to change nation in the future.
•   Remember that deleting your character no longer saves XP. Do not delete your players unless you are absolutely sure about it. If you delete a player you will get a fully fresh start.
•   Please do not use XP redeemables if you want to delete your character. Used redeemables are gone forever.
•   Unused redeemables will remain on the server if you delete your character, but only UNUSED redeemables. Please be careful with them.
•   Game has 3 servers
o   PVE
o   PVP EU - with restricted port battle timers
o   PVP Global - no restrictions on port battle timers

Changes provided in the last couple of days to testbed
o   New regional refits blueprints and skill books have been added
o   Heavier guns still require coal, lighter guns require charcoal for production
o   Coal was repositioned to provide more goals in conquest
o   UI bugs were found and mostly fixed
o   Random teleport bug has been logged and we are working on the solution, please report random teleports when they happen
o   PVE server has conversion store (allowing conversion of pve marks into pvp and conquest marks)
o   PvP server has conversion store switched off - but it might come back in the future in some form.
o   Trader ships BPs were added to admiralty stores.
o   Preliminary hostility changes
•   Nation has 3 Port battles allowed instead of 2
•   Port battle starts in 22 hours after hostility reach 100% not in 46 as before
•   War supplies can now only be delivered to the regional capitals (not every port)

Patch changes:
o   Combat model updated. Structure introduced. Ship now receives structural leaks when structure goes down (not when armor is destroyed like before). Structure affects leaks and masts integrity (you will be able to demast by bow and stern raking).
o   Port battle entry is only allowed 30 mins after login at sea. This penalty can be dropped if you enter any port. If you log off at sea and login within 5 mins (disconnects etc) you don’t get that penalty
o   Zone control points are not accumulated during first 10 mins of the port battle, zones cannot be captured during first 10 mins of the port battle.
o   New sounds system is implemented. Crew responds to your actions and intensity of combat.
o   All ships now have 1 durabilities with the corresponding change of required resources.
o   You can now use the hold of your fleet ships. New perks are introduced for fleet management
o   Admiralty store has been added. The following rewards were added (names are temporary and might not survive)
•   PVP marks - for high end frigates permits and skillbooks
•   PVE marks - for certain ships, skillbooks, resources and some other items
•   Conquest marks - for port battles and permits for lineships
•   Trading Manifest - reserved for potential future use.
•   Each reward can be used for exclusive content in admiralty stores.
•   PvP/PvE rewards are given in the end of battle based on battle kills and damage. If 10 people sink 1 ship rewards are split for 10 people based on damage, kills and assists.
•   Conquest rewards are given for victorious port battles for attackers or defenders and only if they inflicted damage on enemy ships or infrastructure (forts and towers).
o   Officers. Officers had one problem, they punished you if you played actively (and sank a lot). As a result officers were removed from the game and all perks have been moved to a player. You get 1 point per rank. Officers in their traditional sense might come back in the future.
o   Perk reset cost introduced - to reset your character perks you have to pay 50 PVE marks.
o   Pirate vs Pirate - outlaw battles. Pirates can now attack each other. The battle created by pirates vs pirates is always open and has FFA rules (free for all). You can sink anyone you see. Signalling perk does not work in the battle. Battle cannot be created in the capital protected waters. Outlaw battles do not give rewards.
o   Recently killed tracker added to game. Players who recently lost the battle (sank or surrendered) no longer give rewards for 1 hour. This solves a number of problems with pvp rewards farming
o   Ship paints can now be stored in clan warehouses.
o   Chain shot damage fall off from distance implemented and added to game.
o   Removal of current upgrade system and ship quality level. Tiered ship knowledge is implemented. (Details)
o   Repairs changed. Repairs now can be crafted and carried in the hold. You can use your fleet to carry more repairs. Cooldown is implemented on repairs. The number of how many times you can repair in battles depends on your hold size. You can capture repairs from enemies
o   Hold management in instances added, hold management for fleets is revamped. You can now use holds of your fleet in battles and capture hold from boarded/sinking enemies.
o   Bot routes and npc fleet composition significantly improved.
o   Guns are now sold in units and can be crafted.
o   Rookie zones removed. Rookie capitals are added back to respective regions. (Details)
o   Assign crew functionality in instances updated and somewhat improved.
o   Resource transport between free towns removed
o   Ship transport between outposts removed
o   Teleport to freetown removed.
o   Outpost to outpost transport is now only available between national towns.
o   Tow to capital replaced by tow to port - which sends you to the nearest deep water port - this is done to allow players living in distant areas from the capital to have unstuck that does not send them across the map (forcing them to sail back).
o   Certain changes are done for trading resources production limits. Expensive trading resources are no longer produced up to 25000 items providing infinite money making opportunities (e.g. textile machinery)
o   Shipyard is added back and is a required building for ship crafting
o   Lineships blueprints are now available in the admiralty. Lineships require permits to construct
o   Gifted perk removed
o   Ship blueprints no longer drop when crafting as there is no more RNG in crafting. Blueprints are immediately unlocked based on your crafting level or can be bought for marks from the admiralty.
o   Antigriefing is now based on curve - not on fixed number (old number 5x). The paramteter changes based on the amount of ships in the pull zone. If you want to attack a large organized fleet you will have to have a lot of ships too. Solo line ship can be attacked by a very small force.
o   Minimal crew thresholds for all vessels are now 70% of max ship crew (only checked in port) - you still can use under crewed ships in battles though. This requirements is not valid for trading vessels.
o   Hold load now affects speed and acceleration both in the Open world and in the battle instances. Cannons affect hold load as well. .
o   Contracts on cannons can be placed in stores.
o   Medkit was replaced by RUM. Surgeon now needs rum to fix sailors (or cut them). Medkit blueprint eliminated.
o   Battle result screen removed. Can stay up to 15 minutes inside the battle after it is over.
o   Player exiting battle spawns in the open world.
o   If you alt-f4 in battle you will be sent to the OW after battle
o   If you exit the battle and do nothing - normal disconnect mechanics will apply.
o   You can now loot hold from sinking ships if you are near the sinking enemy vessel.
o   NPC Ship capture on the PVP server
•   From now on All NPC ships cannot be captured on the PVP server. You can still take their hold and loot but you cannot switch to an NPC ship anymore.
•   PVE Server: NPC ships will be capturable on the PVE server with no restrictions.
•   PVP Server: On PVP server you will only be able to capture ships from players. Player fleet ships are considered pvp ships and can be captured
•   This fix also change closes final loopholes on pvp marks farming and provides guaranteed market to shipbuilders
o   Alliances tab disabled temporarily until alliance rework
o   Shipbuilding overhaul. Governors of regions announced a monopoly on all woods except for oak, fir and lignum. Imported resources (like teak) will only be available in the regions that imported them historically. Other woods will only be sold by NPC traders in the region. ( Details[forum.game-labs.net] )
•   New planking trims added to game. Redundant trims removed
•   New wood types added to game
o   Invisibility added when exiting battles under following conditions
•   Both Sides will receive 1 min invisibility on exit.
•   You cannot be attacked or attack during invisibility.
•   Invisibility persists even if you die and spawn in port (lets say Free town)
o   Cannons can now be stored in the warehouse

Tunings:
•   Map zoom increased 2x in commander tablet
•   Port battle time increased to 105 mins
•   Accuracy and damage from land based guns increased by 15%
•   Points for kills increased by 50% in port battles instances
•   Attack circle timer (ow attack) reduced from 20 seconds to 15 seconds
•   If you sink in battle you will still be able to see the compass and wind indicator
•   Brace command is now a toggle
•   All contracts that are more than 15 days long are going to be automatically cancelled from now on.
•   All instances are now immediately closing when last player leaves the instance. A good % of instances were wasted for bot vs bot entertainment
•   Forts and towers were significantly buffed (large fort will destroy a ship in approximately 5 minutes under constant fire). We hope this feature will help players to vary their fleets a bit and bring mortar vessels to battles (who can destroy a fort in 10 mins. If this damage is too big we will lower it, but we were not really satisfied with the forts uselessness in battles).
•   Military NPCs now sometimes drop repairs as loot
•   Sugar added to many regions as resource - for rum production
•   Boarding preparation growth increased
•   Perk points are given to player faster - you will get 10 perk points 2x earlier.
•   Crew requirement lowered on 4lb,6lb and 12lb carronades
•   Tow to nearest deep water port do not check the hold weight any more
•   Redwood logs abandoned; blueprints using redwood now use lignum vitae.
•   Pine is merged with Fir and is now Fir from today. Pine logs abandoned, blueprints have changed
•   Fire damage is increased by 25%
•   Split function is improved
•   Bow figureheads rebalanced slightly (some bow figureheads might get abandoned though based on the historians feedback)
•   Fixed Rattlesnake figurehead bonuses bugs
•   Added a tooltip to cannon crafting blueprint
•   Port crew recruitment is now 68 per crew member. You will have to use rum at sea. 1 rum recovers 1 crew.
•   PVP content in the admiralty store rebalanced.
o   PVE server will have different prices and mark conversion options
•   Fleet and fort kills are properly counted to your fleet if you did the most damage
•   Added a button to sink a ship during cargo transfer interface (to receive kills and assists)
•   When instance ends all hulls with white flags left in instance are sank and give rewards to players who were supposed to receive kills for them
•   Recently killed flag is not given if you were sank by NPC
•   Certain tuning is done for Carpenter and Steel toolbox (bonuses reduced)
•   Repair cooldown increased from 10 mins to 15 mins (might get reverted back as we want to promote more aggressive combat)
•   Minimal crew requirement lowered on all traders
•   Victorious port battle defenders now properly receive conquest marks. To receive conquest marks you have to damage any enemy ship (any ship even one ship) above a certain threshold. Empty port battles will not give conquest marks. Conquest mark distribution. 3 for lineship ports, 2 for frigate ports, 1 for shallow ports.
•   It now takes some time to destroy stacks of resources in your cargo. This will allow privateers to get some cargo if they tag the trader in time. You can only destroy one stack in 25 seconds
•   Copper mine building removed, copper removed from all blueprints.
•   Ship blueprints updated and now require provisions. Ships in general became more expensive to make (especially higher level vessels)
•   Changed NPC production limits on certain resources
•   Port battles now properly allow PB battle points for recently killed captains (including pvp marks)
•   Wood planking splinter crew resistance now properly affects crew damage
•   Skillbooks tooltip now properly show if you know it or not
•   Fixed bugs appearing during redeeming of the Yacht
•   Recently killed status is not given if you surrender to fix the denial of marks exploit when players would surrender en masse before large battles to deny marks
•   Missions now only accept ships of the mission level and below. You can no longer do low level missions in 1st rates. This opens up more possibilities to create better and more challenging PVE content.
•   Nation change item added to the game. We will provide it for mass testing this week.
•   Free crew of 40 has returned the game to fix issues where a player can get stuck without money not allowing him to buy crew even for the basic cutter.
•   Fixed bug causing your knowledge level to work on a ship captured from you
•   Ship knowledge skills now work on your fleet ships
•   Food supplies added to certain regions allowing the construction of the Farm
•   Copper completely removed so you can now make war supplies and muskets without copper
•   Barrels blueprint updated

Fixed bugs:
•   Fixed the bug that did not allow entering of missions as a group
•   Missions now should allow fleets of mission rank and bellow
•   Fixed bug that did not repair leaks during OW repair
•   Fixed pirate bot distribution in the pirate regions
•   Fixed the tooltip of the ship that now properly shows bonuses from trims and wood type
•   Fixed the bug causing all items to be bought in stacks of 1
•   Fixed the bug causing permits to drop when breaking up crafted vessels
•   Ship reverse speed bugs fixed
•   Trade window bug fixed (players lost their ships they traded via trade window)
•   Cargo duplication bug fixed
•   Fixed bug that did not allow to access hold for NPC ships in missions and events
•   Fixed bug that allowed to receive marks for basic cutter
•   Fixed bug that allowed your sank vessel to magically appear in the BRS screen
•   Fixed a memory leak with open combat information window.
•   Fixed UI bugs in ship to ship transfer
•   Bug causing blueprint drop during breakup removed
•   Fixed most bugs not giving rewards for sinking surrendered ships
•   Shipyard and workshop resource requirements bug fixed.
•   Several instance crashes bugs fixed
•   Fixed bug that did not allow you to craft even if you had a free slot in the port
•   Fix bug that shown the pve/pvp marks conversion rate for knees and furnishings
•   Fix bug that made captured derelict disappear if their owner exited the battle before assigning crew to them (to allow their capture for others who are still in instances)
•   Fix bug that allowed ships added to fleets without the perk in outlaw battles
•   Fixed several bugs with hold informational updates
•   Fixed bug that allowed bots to repair guns indefinitely
•   Fixed bug that increased deceleration on the Cutters
•   A lot of minor bugs fixed

Next steps
•   Better PVE content (including some ai improvements)
•   UI rework and localization
•   Hostility improvements (including raids)

[Asid]

Hotfixes 1-4 to patch 10.00
1 JUNE - GAMELABS

Captains,

Here is the list of changes that were deployed to live servers this week

What's new
•   Refits blueprints are added to the admiralty stores for pve marks and removed for drop. We do not want luck in drop to affect gameplay for captains.
•   5 new ports added for coal production for balance the distance from capitals between all nations
•   Neutral counties were added to the PVE server to provide easier access to coal
•   On the pvp server coal is a conquest resource and nations must capture it from others to be able to make advanced guns
•   Protractor tool added to map in the open world

Gameplay tuning
•   Time to sink increased for vessels to allow a bit more space for loot pickup.
•   Gross ventre hold increased to 1900
•   War supplies pricing adjusted
•   Outposts and docks prices slightly adjusted
•   Mast hp and thickness increased for mid and top sections
•   Maintenance time moved 1hr earlier
•   Lock down before and after maintenance reduced for Global server
•   Conquest marks moved for rework and rebalance. Lineships prices are now in pvp marks
•   Capture zones updated for port battles in West end and Marsh harbour
•   Ports no longer buy ships at zero and purchase them at 30% of base price
•   NPC Ships prices adjusted to provide more benefits to crafters, it will take some time (up to a week) for this effect to spread across the Caribbean
•   Trading resources weight increased to provide the opportunity for more players to trade. Current supply of trading resources across caribbean remained the same - average profit remained the same. Only weight changed. Traders won't be able to clear out the whole port alone as before. Giving others the chance to buy the resources.
•   Tow to port TEMPORARILY changed. Due to teleport bug (that we are still fixing) that can send you across the map (sometimes to the pacific) we have changed it back to capital (increasing cool down to 6 hours). Otherwise player were stuck on the other side of the globe sometimes without the option to return
•   Signaling perk removed for rework and rebalance (because it did not work as intended)
•   Swing bed and elevating screw, Sur le Canonnage a Bord, Gunnery Encyclopedia, Table of parts of Ships of War angle bonuses temporarily removed for bug fixing (they will come back)
•   Regional bots routes slightly improved
•   Labor hours for cannon production/repair production reduced by approximately 30%
•   Cool-down for armor and crew repair is now 10 mins to test combat repairs on with a wider audience (previously it was ran on testbed only). Please hold your swords on this if you want no repairs or longer cool downs.
•   NPC Traders no longer have contraband status. That was causing a lot of issues when attacking them sometimes (due to their duality status). All regions have enemy traders assigned to them for easy privateering. As a result of this change some traders might have protection now (as they are no longer contraband carriers).
•   NPC traders now always try to stock goods on the routes back from their trading destinations
•   Combat npc ships now always try to carry something of use
•   Low level mission rewards slightly increased
•   Crafting notes blueprints removed

Fixed bugs
•   Fixed bug with negative rewards for delivery orders
•   Several bugs fixed for the UI
•   Cannon weights fixed
•   Morgan bluff can now produce coal and iron again
•   Fixed bug that did not allow Port battles to be set up on the Global server
•   Critical cannon stacking bug fixed (that caused locked cannon ui requiring players to relog).