A Glimpse of Sea Trials: Forthcoming changes to game balance.
Since 2015 we have launched 6 games each of which have reached top global 10 best sellers on Steam, and most were highly commended by the players. We learnt a lot during this time and got better.
Over all these years we have tried to improve the depth and realism of age of sail combat in Naval Action and have experimented a lot. We finally understand and now fully embraced the view that if gameplay is improved by realism, it becomes the must have feature, but if gameplay turns bland or unplayable because of realism – then gameplay must be prioritized and realism for that feature dropped.
Take gun penetration for example. 2015 Sea Trials and 2016 release version have had a simpler penetration system. All guns had clear specific and defined roles and did not intersect with each other, medium guns had much lower pen and worked at medium distance, long range guns worked at long distance. There were now drops in pen and you could expect your long gun to work at any long range the same way.
Later we have decided to bring more realism and moved all guns to real penetration tables from French and British age of sail gunnery treatises implementing real ballistics and penetration drops for all guns. This was a great idea for realism (we thought) but it did not bring anything from the tactical perspective. No guns were working at 1500m. all guns were working at 100m. In fact, all guns became almost the same with some minor differences. No clear gameplay or tactical difference, choice was not present.
And gun pen is just one example of realism bringing nothing to gameplay.
We became unsatisfied with the current state of balance in the following areas and are going to apply changes soon.
Penetration and thickness.
All gun penetration tables will be reworked to bring clarity for distance and angle. Choice of gun barrel length and gun type will become more important and defined (even better than in 2015/2016 Sea Trials).
- Long guns – best for distances above 750m, good at distances below 750m. If your gun penetrates target at 900m, it will penetrate at 1400 the same way. Penetration comes at a cost of lower damage.
- Medium guns – work only for distances below 750m, not effective at any other range. Medium penetration allowing somewhat comfortable angles. Medium damage.
- Short guns – Lowest penetration – work only below 300m. Highest damage. Require precise angles.
- Universal guns – acceptable penetration working at all distances.
Predictable Angles
Like in old Sea Trials penetration will be changing in 2-3 steps (not in gradual ballistic drop like now). This will bring clarity and control over angles at all distances. Nickname visibility helps with understanding of which guns work best when. As in Sea Trials we will be using 3 ranges.
- Short range -0-300m – nickname visible. your penetration will work same way at 0m and 299m
- Medium range – 0-750m – nickname visible. Your penetration will work the same way be it 100 or 749m.
- Long range – 750-2000m – nickname not visible. But your penetration will work the same at any distance above 750 be it 900m or 1400m
Once distance working again in shooting – the player will have to have better means to control distance better (for example if he wants to stay at long range against a faster ship). Several changes will help.
Chain and Rig Damage
Chain and rig damage will be reworked.
- Chain shot is losing current distance limitation (250m) and will damage rig as far as your canon will reach.
- Chain damage will be reduced drastically, as sails even with holes keep power in real life and only stop working if they are fully torn.
- Chain will now entangle the rig represented by rigging shock if you hit the rig right way (hitting as many sails as possible).
- Rigging shock will stop yard and sails from working for 1 min and will slow you down for a fixed % of speed loss.
What this brings to the table:
- You don’t lose sails even if 10 ships are shooting your sails from close distance.
- If you are a target you can only get a standard predictable debuff on speed and after it stops you regain your speed capabilities in full. You can never lose more speed than that predictable debuff even if you are ganked by 10 ships (and all of them have to be a good shot to get proper damage to apply a rigging shock)
- If you are a hunter you can slow the enemy for a predictable % and time even at full sails if you are a good shot. This will help you to close distance or increase distance (again if you are a good shot and have chain supplies left).
Additional changes
- We will also increase chain penetration to hull (chain shot are two cannonballs and should have ok pen)
- Chain will be working on damaging masts too.
- Plain cannonballs effectiveness against masts will be reduced for gameplay purposes as their supply is unlimited.
Turning on rudder and yards.
How turning is working is brought closer to sea trials design and given additional depth.
Overall: Increase in ship class will increase importance of using yards.
Specifics.
- Yard power importance will be gradually increased on all vessels (the heavier the higher).
- Rudder power will be gradually reduced for all vessels with class growth.
Speed vs Turning differences between ship will become more defined and pronounced allowing increased benefits and negatives. Balanced ship will have ok yards and ok rudder turn rates. Good turners will be slower. Fastest interceptors will have to rely mostly on yards to turn in combat unless at perfect turning speed.
Turning differences in ships and between classes will become more profound and will be based on 180 degree turn time (not theoretical turn diameter as before).
Difference Example
Before change
- Ship 1: Speed 11.95 Turn rate 4.95 - 130m turn diameter (DPM 2800) - theoretical turn time on rudder 55 sec
- Ship 2: Speed 12 Turn rate 5.45 – 120m turn diameter (DPM 2300) - theoretical turn time on rudder 50 sec
Yes turning parameters are historical, based on Block coeff, ship length, B/L ratios and what not. But what’s the real difference in gameplay if you only look at sailing performance. There is no point to pick ship 2. The problem alleviated with the incorrect mistaken improvement in rudders where yards give additional bonus to already good rudder turn rates.
After change (numbers for illustrative purposes only)
- Ship 1: Speed 15. Turn rate on rudder 0.5 + superior turning on yards.
- Ship 2: Speed 12. Turn rate on rudder 3 + ok turning on yards
Both ships will have same turn time (if using both rudder and yards) - but ship 1 will have to achieve it using mostly yards. And ship 2 can turn ok on rudder with yards providing some bonus.
As a result we will have a high skill ceiling interceptor (like Ford GT MK2 requiring precise control and planning) vs a comfortable brawler (Good quality road car).
Ship 2 can now be a choice as ship 1 has a drastically different style of combat. Ship 2 DPM can now be much higher due to faster broadside changes on rudder if ship 1 makes mistakes.
This brings us to the TTK and turning relationship to reload in balance.
TTK. Time to Kill, Turning relationship to reload
Turning was not balanced with DPM and reload before (it was somewhat touched in Sea trials).
Time to sink is now greatly unbalanced due to mods (40-80% hp boosts depending on woods and mods).
It is brought closer to Sea Trials levels, by reducing HP levels and tweaking DPM.
All reload times will be increased (become longer) to push for changing broadsides in a maneuvering combat. Together with turning changes it will bring more tactical variety and planning to combat
Other changes
Clan Port Investments.
- Clan port investments are getting discontinued. All investments (which can be compensated) will be compensated to the clan owner (we will post separately on how and when), there is no other way to track individual contributors unfortunately but some clans might help you get back what you invested. Only port features (like trading outposts or taxes) and investments into forts will remain on clans.
- All players will be able to individually develop resource or ship building capabilities. They will work the same as clan based investments before but will be player based and will work in any port where players can open buildings.
- The feature is new and will have to be tested and reset 1 or 2 times before the launch of the full version of the feature, in case bugs or exploits are found. All investments made during this time will be returned to player wallets or warehouses. You will be able to immediately reinvest refunded resources into cards.
This list of changes is not final and could be confusing. Please ask questions in comments if you don't understand something or find descriptions confusing. We will update the text during the next 1-2 days.
ETA for the patch - May
Edit 1 - Apologies for typos in advance. English is not our native language.
Screenshot by Thunderous Applause.