Forthcoming patch information for the new season
Captains.
We would like to announce a patch and a start of the new season. Patch will be deployed somewhere next week. Most likely date is 22nd.
Wipe
All assets except for special chest (where you can transfer your items you want for the next season) will be reset on the patch date. Player Experience and investments will NOT be reset and will remain as is. All port ownership will be reset.
Major improvements to AI of NPC vessels
Combat AI have received full overhaul where we improved the behavior and fixed multiple found bugs
AI will now pick the role for combat (short range, medium range, long range kite), which will improve variety of combat and allow large fleets to behave more like human fleets (some will kite, some will brawl), AI will now pick targets better, maneuver and evade obstacles better. Multiple bugs with aiming, reloading, evasion fixed as well - full list of changes will be provided on the Patch date.
New player experience and quality of life improvements.
- Bot locations have been improved to provide smooth leveling experience with less gaps in NPC locations
- Combat rank visualization added to open world and ship auction to give new players better understanding of the target level compared to his.
- Multiple other minor changes to help new and current players enjoy the game more.
Repair changes
We believe that this patch will bring the best implementation of repairs to date
The goal of repairs is to a) help the player to recover from minor mistakes b) give the ability to not interrupt the fun and return to action after successful local engagement in large battles c) help to balance hitpoints of ships both for large battles and small engagements d) ship that is repairing should be fighting as well as the ship that is not repairing.
Unfortunately current implementation was not solving these goals - and instead was increasing the length of many battles especially for lineships.
Changes to repairs.
To solve the problems of current repairs and give natural balance to all battles (1v1 VS 25v25) the following changes will be done to repairs.
- Player will only have one repair per hour (cooldown will be increased to 60 mins)
- Player is already able to gain additional repairs by sinking ships (gaining kills - by delivering most damage to enemy vessel). Combat repair perk price will be decreased as it is becoming a key perk for all battles. Combat repairs will reset the cooldown granting additional repairs after local tactical victories in battles larger than 1v1.
- Amount of repairs to hull mast and structure will be adjusted to reflect goals listed above.
- Amount of crew for repairing will be significantly increased forcing player to move them from other crew focuses
- Time to repair will be doubled.
As a result. In 1v1 engagement the player can only have 1 repair; in 25v25 players of one side will have 1 repair per ship + up to maximum of 25 additional repairs per fleet based on the number of enemies they sink. This will promote action and naturally balance the speed of large battles. Ships repairing will not have full combat performance due to amount of crew required and time required to repair and will have to disengage and be protected.
RvR and port battle improvements .
To improve incentives to capture and control ports counties will allow clan owners to buy unique resources like permits, rare guns, rare woods, and other things.
- Some resources will also be available on the NPC market in that port and/or only in clan barter (some will only be available for controlling clans).
- Resources will be available in all ports of the county which will reduce the chances to monopolize access by one clan (as it will be hard to keep all ports of the region).
- For example Santisima permit currently drops from NPCs, in addition to that all ports in one county of the Caribbean will also deliver Santisima permits for controlling clan in exchange for certain currency. This will give an incentive to capture ports of that region to guarantee supply of permits.
Port battles - Players leaving the battle before it ends will count as a kill for the enemy and give points.
Privateering and Safe Zone changes.
Amount of ports with safe zones will be decreased but will still allow safe levelling up to heavy frigates.
Crafting changes – special resources for Lineships and Heavy Guns
Ships of the line and heavy guns will now require special resources for crafting, requiring logistic planning and some minimal amount hauling. Clans that want to field large fleets of heavy crafted lineships will have to involve more players in either crafting and occasional hauling or in privateering to capture those resources by force.
Lineship rarity.
Admiralty will no longer allow capture of the ships of the line from NPC ships reverting the capture rules to the older naval action version. Only 7th to 4th rates will be capturable from NPCs.
Boarding changes
Boarding commands, costs and flow have been reworked and generally improved. Commands received better clear counters and boarding combat overall have been made more fluid and dynamic.
Player who successfully defended against boarding will be immune from re-boarding for 1 min (cannot be boarded).
Combat changes
- Critical damage to structure will be reduced. Overall structure of ships will be modestly increased.
- Broadside HP will be reduced for heavy vessels.
- Penetration curves adjusted for all types of guns, accuracy
Final full patchnotes will be posted on patch day.
Please discuss on Steam and Discord. We will be visiting the steam forums and discord next week to answer questions and discuss the patch with you.