Patch 9.8 Damage model, New ships and other things

New damage system was extensively tested by our QA and us, but of course it still requires final tuning based on player feedback and results. Expect potential problems and unbalanced ships or gun types. 
 
New ships added

• Player voted ship: Rattlesnake - sloop of war
• Player voted ship: Chapman's Indiaman - combat trader

Rattlesnake

Indiaman

Changes in port battles 

• There are 3 types of port battles now. To give frigates more intensive testing of the damage model and to give more options for frigate captains.
• Shallow water ports - no changes
• Medium depth port battles - Cerberus to Ingermanland/Constitution
• Regional port battles - Cerberus to Santisima 
• Defense timers cannot be changed by defenders after they were picked the first time. Choose them wisely.

Changes in battle entry, reinforcements, and capital waters 

• Captains wont be able to enter battles immediately after log in, port exit or sitting in battle result screens. To do that the system of invis/invul has beend changed. After login or port exit or battle exit you will not be able attack or be attacked for 30 seconds. 120 sec invulnerability timer wont let you enter battles. This will completely solve hiding in battles issues. 
• Positional reinforcements system has changed closer to the old method. Captains wont be able to position themselves ahead of the enemy. Captains can only reinforce battles from defined zones that will be visualized on the map. 
• Capital water protection system changed. You can attack enemy ships in your capital waters. Not only that. That battle will be opened for 1.5 hours and will be fully positional during the whole battle time. 

Other changes

• Spyglass added to open world
• Clan warehouse added to the game
• Clan tag is now showing on the open world
• Ports will sometimes purchase ships from players on the auctions
• Fleet orders will now scale based on your group size
• All orders after their start will be open for your nation for 2 mins to allow bigger engagements 
• We are doing certain experiments for xp for travel for future exploration and other features
• System allowing a much stronger side to exit battle has been reworked. We now take into account only starting battle rating difference situation at the start of the battle (previously it was dynamic). The rest works as before. If you were attacked by a weaker force - stronger side could deny battle and exit during first 2 mins (this is a legacy feature somewhat reducing the effect of trolling by light ships).
• Exit timer is now going to reset if you are taking water. This will help in group battles where you always had to keep destroyed enemy tagged.
• Mortar brig hits will now generate leaks under waterline if it penetrates
• Teleport between outposts(docks) is now without cooldown
• Teleport to capital (unstuck) is now possible only with the empty cargo hold 

Fixed bugs:

• Certain CPU load optimization was implemented.
• Fixed camera bugs on Essex
• Fixed bug with time bonus on Steel Toolbox
• Fixed main camera bugs on the Mortar Brig
• Fixed reload bugs on Mortar brig
• Fixed several lightning issues on Mortar brig
• Fixed bugs causing distance problems on mixed decks
• Several sound bugs fixed

Tunings:

• Ingermanland и Constitution are now built on 2nd level shipyards (because they are 4th rates)
• Ports will stop buying resources if NPC stock exceeds 25000 - further changes to economy will be done in the next patch
• Broken rudder bug fixed (it was not giving enough penalties)
• Repair kits are removed from loot
• Minor changes in pricing of blueprints and ships were done to allow faster tuning and design changes 
• Num Enter on keyboards can also send messages now
• 2 important exploits were fixed thanks to the Captain qw569
• Multiple headspinning bugs were introduced

Next content patch will be deployed in a month. Before that we plan to issue 1-2 hot fixed to finalize damage model and several other things.