New Broom Sweeps Clean

Hoist the studdingsails, setting course for the Gulf of Creativity!
Greetings everyone, this is Kirill here.

On December 31st, we published the first in a series of dev diaries about the new direction for the game and its gameplay.

It sparked intense debates within the community, primarily around the new ship balance, and more specifically - around ship speeds. Many were grieving over their favorites getting their wings clipped, which was expected, but there were also constructive opinions that we took into account.

In this diary, I'll talk about working with the community, the new speed system, and the new tavern recruit calculation mechanics, but first, I want to emphasize - your opinion matters, and we consider it.

To Each Their Own

Any serious changes in a project are always met with resistance from those parts of the audience that are used to the old ways. That's Game Industry 101. However, the game will continue to change, sometimes radically, right up until the final patch, because the game needs these changes. We perfectly understand that not everyone will like them, so we've decided to allow those who are satisfied with the current state to stay with the old balance and mechanics, rather than joining us in venturing into the exciting unknown seas of the new. More detailed information will be in a separate dev diary coming very soon.

Complete Speed Rework

The Real Problem

The speed rebalance, intended to reduce the imbalance between ships and give them more character, highlighted a more important issue. Behind the overpowered quest ships and motor-boat galleons lay a broken mechanic of ship speeds and sail types.

Currently in the game, there are ships with fore-and-aft rigs, having shallow drafts, high speeds, and ability to sail at any angle to the wind, and ships with square rigs - having generally lower speeds, huge penalties when wind direction doesn't match course angle, and typically being less maneuverable.

In such a situation, it's completely unclear why anyone would choose square-rigged ships if they're inferior in every way. This deprives players of interesting choices, the ability to find their preferred tactics, and forces us to make quest ships with square rigs unrealistically fast.

The problem is exacerbated by the fact that, in accordance with historical development, rate 1, 2, and most of rate 3 ships had square rigs. Fast and maneuverable vessels with fore-and-aft rigs had an overwhelming advantage in combat. The player ends up in a situation where there's an absolute favorite and an absolute outsider.

Clippers, as the fastest sailing ships in history, had square rigs and were the pinnacle of sailing vessel development.

The Power of Mathematics

We've identified the problem, but what to do about it?

As always with large and complex systems, it's easier to throw everything out and start anew than to untangle complicated interconnections. I threw out all the speeds and gave ships new ones according to the following logic:

• Each ship has a certain base speed
• Base speed is determined by rate, specialization, and the development of its rigging relative to mass
• Base speed tends to gradually increase towards rate 3 and gradually decrease towards rate 1
• Depending on the course angle (i.e., how close to the wind the ship can sail), speed receives a bonus or penalty that grows non-linearly
• Quest ships, as works of art, have increased base speed compared to their generated counterparts

Now ships with fore-and-aft rigs compensate for their course advantage with lower speed, while square-rigged ships develop the highest speeds with favorable winds.

Combat Dynamics

Speed changes can't be viewed separately from other mechanical changes that affect ship speeds in battles. We slightly reduced the course angle penalty, which strengthened differences and emphasized the strengths of vessels with fore-and-aft and square rigs.

Additionally, we changed how speed penalties accumulate from sail damage. Now severe speed penalties appear along with serious sail damage and loss of sail area. We'll also slightly reduce the course angle penalty to emphasize this logic.

Summary

This time we'll skip the balance sheet - it will likely change dramatically by release. The main pain points have been heard. The new system will present players with many interesting choices and encourage exploration in naval combat tactics.

• Average ship speed has barely decreased (in some cases even increased due to the base speed system)
• Ship sail type now truly affects tactics, wind severity has decreased
• A couple of hits to the sails aren't as terrible. Catching a broadside of grapeshot while under full sail - yes, that is

Thus, battles have actually become faster.

Tavern Recruit Calculations

As promised, let me explain the new tavern recruit calculation system. The old formula worked rather poorly - recruiting for large ships was very difficult, and players couldn't influence the number of sailors in taverns. The biggest effect in the formula came from daily random numbers and difficulty.

Running through 10-12 colonies to gather sailors doesn't seem like an interesting activity, especially considering the increased crew sizes in the rebalance, so the formula has undergone changes.

The following factors now influence the number of sailors:

• Player level
• Relations with the nation in specific ports
• Charisma skill
• Player honor and daily random factor

I see no point in showing the formula - without lengthy explanations of its mechanics, it would remain unclear. I'll just provide the general principles.

First, we expanded the range of people in taverns, with a minimum of about 20-30 sailors up to a maximum of ~250. This is a step towards game logic rather than real world logic, but these numbers are still believable.

The formula includes both passive growth and opportunities for targeted growth (improving relations with nations), as well as items to maximize recruitment. Wearing items that increase charisma before entering a tavern allows you to exceed the normal limits and squeeze even more sailors from the tavern.

This change demonstrates the game's development path - where possible, we try to provide opportunities for all layers of players to apply their skills - both newcomers and hardcore players.

Additionally, we'll update the recruitment screen to make all these modifiers and their effects visible. Now the number of sailors will become more predictable. This also aligns with our course toward improving the readability of game mechanics.

Sometimes infographics aren't enough to understand why some numbers are red and others green. For such cases, a tooltip is available.

Conclusion

Thank you very much for your attention, and see you in the next dev diaries!
We look forward to your opinions in the comments here or in Discord channels.

Kirill, Black Mark Studio
:jollyr: