Seasonal Patch: The “missing link”
The concept existed in Darwin's time, that a chimpanzee-like missing link—that looked like something between humans and apes—would eventually be found at the root of the human family tree.Lucy found in 1974 proved this concept; Ardi further connected these missing links.
Just like the scientists who study the human origin, we strive to find all missing links in the sailing model to make Naval Action (and future games) better.
Missing link one: The Battle Sail
- Everyone knows why Captains of the Age of sail fought on battle sails. Battle sails allowed to have a clear deck, improved visibility and reduced the risk of fires and falling sails. Many did not know why this allowed the ships to perform, sail and turn and the sailing model did not allow for that. Ships sails worked in linear progression.
- Careful and deep study of 18th century books on Seamanship helped us to uncover this link and connect the dots. Extra sails have diminishing power and every next sail that is set provides less and less power to the ship. As a result you will sail at very good speed and have best turning at just half of your sail set.
- For the majority of vessels sail settings will change to
- slow
- half
- battle
- full
- Undercooked sail settings (like sails opening and closing when increasing sail) will be fixed
Missing link two: The Wind shadow
- Ships fought in lines, station keeping was important. Captains who could not - were court martialed, as lack of station keeping caused great danger to fleets and their task. Why they had to keep station and plan maneuvers carefully? One of the main reasons was wind shadow.
- Wind shadow significantly cuts the wind to leeward. At certain range (depending on the height of the mast) the wind could be completely cut. If you sail in a frigate by the leeward side of the first rate you will completely stop - No wind there. This is being implemented in Naval Action.
- Your position to the enemy or a friendly ship becomes a lot more important. Ships will get stuck if they don’t keep the station, blobs stop working, chases change, enemy ships will no longer be able to push you into the wind to board.
Missing link three: Sail setting vs Sail furling
- This one is simple but important. It takes longer to furl (remove) the sail than to set it (drop it down). In active battle captain will have to turn yards and depower sails instead of removing them.
Gunnery changes
- Multiple treatises on gunnery and ordnance were studied and the main lessons will be applied to Naval Action gunnery.
- All guns over-penetrate at close range, but long-range penetration does not diminish a lot for heavy guns
- Long range accuracy grows with cannonball weight
- The wind shadow and proper sail power will increase the battle distance on some occasions, and the changes the sailing model will help tactical variety in battles
Other changes and fixes
Visual overhauls for ports
- Dutch
- British
- USA
- Prussia
- China
- France
- Russia (eventually)
Additional descriptions
- Sailing
- Fixed and tuned presets for all sails groups and ships
- Fixed proportional power of yard power
- Sail furling is now 2x slower compared to sail setting (sail setting/opening) has the same speed as before
- Sail preset bonuses
- Added bonuses to presets
- Lower crew depending on sails preset: more sails will require more crew, less sails will require less crew encouraging you to fight on battle sails
- Sail damage resistance changes based on sail preset (you get additional resistance when you have minimum sail)
- mast resistance based on sails open is coming soon
- Added bonuses to presets
- New mission content
- Mission to capture ports added.
- Requirements
- Capture several ports from neutrals or top 4 nations
- Must be all in different regions
- Requirements
- Front line change:
- You can now take hostility missions for 2 nearest ports AND 1 nearest port of top 3 nations.
- Mission to capture ports added.
- Damage model rebalance
- Full rebalance of hull penetration, cannon penetration and masts thickness numbers, giving better usability to lower calibers and giving more options in range for longer guns
- Hull thickness difference changed
- From 25 (cutter) - 75+ (first rates) to 70 - 100
- Mast thickness changed to 100 (cutter) to 130 (first rates)
- Gun penetration changes
- Distance change - heavy long guns can operate at 1km against unpgraded first rates, and at 1.5km against light ships
- Almost ALL guns penetrate first rates and their not upgraded masts at point blank range
- Hull thickness difference changed
- Re balanced several upgrades (mostly reduced bonuses on mast thickness)
- overall mast thickness boosts fell from 70+% from woods and upgrades to 49% total boost (max upgrades max wood)
- Increased mast HP of lower sections and mid section
- Increased charge penetration bonus from 10% to 20%
- Tracking shot accuracy bonus lowered from 40% to 10% as 40% was too much in new penetration logic
- Full rebalance of hull penetration, cannon penetration and masts thickness numbers, giving better usability to lower calibers and giving more options in range for longer guns
- Economy and looting
- Changed cannon prices
- Looting: You can now loot from ANY distance after battle is over.
- Loki invaders now count in PVE hunts (oops)
- Rebalanced prices for clan wood delivery missions
- Teleport to port battle is now 50,000 doubloons
- Chatting
- Help chat and global chat is now switched off for War Server.
- Help chat and global chat will continue working on Peace Server.
- Added ability to redeem Trincomalee if you already have it in docks
- Visual upgrade for some nations
Battle sails hotfix has been deployed 22 August
Warning - DONT FIGHT AT FULL SAIL at close/medium range.
Sail combinations bonuses have been updated.
Logic
- Turning bonus - You get better rudder performance due to less heel and water pressure at keel at certain sail positions
- Yard torque bonus - same as above - due to less resistance at keel you get better yard side torque
- Crew on sail reduction = 85%. - self explanatory - less sails = less crew to operate
- Sail damage resistance = less sail open, less damage to rig and entanglement from chain
- Mast thickness bonus= 45% = less sail open results in less wind pressure on masts ,thus they are harder to take down.
- Mast damage reduction= -80% = less sail open results in less wind pressure on masts, thus they are harder to break if rig is damaged or mast is hit.
We are thinking of also adding accuracy bonuses to lower sails as you have a lot better visibility on deck for gun crews if you dont have lower main sails opened.
Here is the current state of bonuses after maintenance.
Stop
- Turning bonus
- Yard torque bonus
- Crew on sail reduction = 85%.
- Sail damage resistance
- Mast thickness bonus= 45%
- Mast damage reduction= -80%
Slow
- Turning bonus = 5%
- Yard torque bonus
- Crew on sail reduction = -85%
- Sail damage resistance = -75%
- Mast thickness bonus = 35%
- Mast damage reduction= -65%
Half
- Turning bonus = 10%
- Yard torque bonus = 10%
- Crew on sail reduction = -75%
- Sail damage resistance = -60%
- Mast thickness bonus = 25%
- Mast damage reduction = -50%
Battle
- Turning bonus = 15%
- Yard torque bonus = 10%
- Crew on sail reduction = -50%
- Sail damage resistance = 40%
- Mast thickness bonus = 25%
- Mast damage reduction = -30%
Full
- Turning bonus =
- Yard torque bonus =
- Crew on sail reduction =
- Sail damage resistance = 10% more damage - due to full wind pressure
- Mast thickness bonus = -20% less thickness - due to full wind pressure
- Mast damage reduction = 20% more damage - due to full excessive wind pressure on sails
Hotfix 27 August 2020
- Hercules, Pandora, Xebec HP buffed, thickness buffed
- Turning curves changed slightly for more turning penalty at full speed and at less penalties at low speed.
- Optimal turning zone is from 50 to 85% ship speed. With increased resistance the ability of rudder to turn the ship becomes worse due to resistance of keel
- Full sails receive a penalty to turning and slightly increased penalty to mast thickness and hp.
- Determined defender now requires attacker to have 30% more crew to overcome stiff resistance.