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Raw POWER is the missing piece to fix those values. Because if a ship of the line is somewhat equal to 2 light frigates, players will not pay for such power If the power is proper then players will pay for such power, will take such ships out (not only to screens and port battles) and will generally understand why they cost so much. It all comes back to the Trafalgar composition dilemma - which we finally address. If the frigates were so strong and good and balanced historically, why Nelson did not take 30 frigates, and took 30 ships of the line instead (taking 4 frigates only for signal repeating and messaging).

The problem is that the damage model is working but not for all. It should be supporting the historical patterns and general in game progression. If it is not supporting the progression it is making average players feel that they are wasting time. I personally believe that the combat model is one of the drivers of retention. And should support the historical mental patterns. Of course this is very important for new players as old players (those who are left) are very fine with the current model. But looking at data. I will repeat the previous comparison Old model Average player spends up to 30 days to level up to a ship of the line Average player spends immense resources and time to get the ship of the line Average player takes the ship of the line out Average player sinks to 3 frigates and whenever he hits them Player then finds out that DPS of light guns is 2x higher than DPS of heavy guns and gets told to learn to play Comparing this to the historical mental model (frigates avoided ships of the line) he is disappointed and blames the game In new model Average player will despatch 3 frigates with ease. Average player will still sink to other skilled heavy lineships This fits his historical mental model and he will be dissaponted a lot less He will feel amazing power of the ship of the line compared to a smaller vessel and will as a result consider his time and money investment worth it TLDR version Ships of the line were not kings of the sea in the old damage model. But in the mental models they are. Games must fit the mental models or CANON otherwise they its just pissing against the wind (losing customers) - that's why you wont find shooters on PC that do not use WASD for example. Because its already canon. And you wont find an MMO or any progression based game where DPS progression is reversed.

Mast thickness is not updated on the test bed (uses old parameters) and hull as well. It will be hotfixed on monday, after data review. We will tune the thickness for ships which will update the mast to all distances and values. We are even thinking of increasing mast hp a bit which will reduce mast sniping even to lower level than on current live servers making it so that new system is preferring the demasting through rakes. The increased speed commented on by @OjK is caused by change of structure damage calculations Previously structure was damaged ONLY if your planking was low. Creating cases where you had low planking on both sides but almost full structure we tuned it - because structure IS planting + frame, we start to damaging it early, Thats why battles are 20-30% faster (if you shoot into correct places). To bring them back couple of options exist and we will post them on monday.

mercury did not sink Turkish ships of the line. Mercury escaped with honor in very unfavorable conditions (turkish wanted to capture it). His name was chosen because of another russian Mercury - Cutter - which captured a swedish frigate Venus - designed by Chapman. Using rowing in full calm cutter sailed to stern of the frigate and camped for couple of hours until Venus surrendered. So it is possible to use light ships historically and win against heavy vessels in proper conditions.

We need a separate post on other issues you and some other captains named (on sailing, masts etc) But in terms of sailing close to the wind - ships have realistic comparable performance close to the wind between classes and sail groups. We just move the base slightly closer to wind for more comfort.

3rd and 4th will be addressed. We are still calculating hull thickness and it did not update this Friday. It will be deployed on monday.

We have time now, and we promised to address rebalance issues with modules and ships long ago Current system is great but clearly the balance is not working. Best balanced efficiency is only given to 5th rate captains operating in groups. Why i say so: Reason - time and reals and effort to get 1st rate is a incomparable with the 5th rate. Yet battle performance is somewhat comparable. If this balance was true - trafalgar would be fought in 5th rates (because why not - nelson was skilled and such). But if you look at the order of battle. You see only 9 frigates out of 74 warships for both sides. The game must fix 2 herculeses sinking a first rate problem before release. It is a mental model problem. And in reality 2 frigates would not have a single chance against a 1st rate ship of the line.

Guys we would like to remind everyone that feedback topics require content in posts. Nonsense like the quote i linked above is not welcome on this forum. We want to have a proper on topic discussion. Captains who waste time on nonsense posts IN FEEDBACK TOPICS will be shadow banned with no warnings and points. Models and numbers will change here and there, and sometimes back and forth so maybe there is no point to overreact on things. If you feel like you want to say unrelated things - post them in tavern

I know for the fact that if i copy your moves i will not have a drastically different time on the live server (against an weak oak NPC ship)

We always said that we will revisit ship and upgrade rebalance before release. Here it is - the revisit is here. The balance was great of course but it was great for one class of ship. Cheap fast turner with heavier calibers. This balance was supported by the fact that 4lb had biggest DPS in game and 42lb had worst DPS in game. This balance was standing because you could tank with bow and stern due to 25% hard limits forcing lineships to avoid raking shots. When a ship avoids raking shots it tells me something is wrong. You call it great balance.

on the live servers the side by side result against the oak/crew space NPC will not going to be drastically different. In fact it will be the same (time to remove side planking to 0 is tuned to be almost the same as in the old model) (if you copy your exact maneuvers (DPS from both sides you might even destroy the enemy faster on the live server)

Not 2 hours. For pvp it was 6 hours on average. But your statement about 4 hours (increase of pvp search) is not going to happen, for multiple reasons. If you are a real hunter you will adapt. Noone hunts in Lynx and just like with lynx hunters will always choose ships for the targets. But more people will sail slower (stronger) ships and you will actually get more prey. Many players are not taking out lineships because they hate the fact that they lose them to snows - now they will sail (because they hated to sail light ships).

3.7 mins exactly to take off planking and 2-3 more shots for structure. and how is it on live against the oak crew space NPC? Did you check lately? It should be same 3.7 mins exactly (side by side) Can you post the video of 3 mins destruction please?

Yes yes. Finally We have finished with the UI and almost finished with localization and now are fixing the long overdue issues with the combat model. No ship should tank with bow and stern - check 5th rate must avoid lineships - check DPS paradox must be solved - check We have stated that we are FULLY AWARE that some players will be very unhappy, and we are fine with it because WE KNOW lots of players will be extremely happy. (much bigger numbers) We do not have resources to continue feeding thousands average players to a 100 pro players in 5-6th rates (who sink in their 1st rate to hercs or belle poules and leave - because it does not fit the historical pattern they have been sold on all their life). 5th rates should hunt 5th rates and 4th rates and sometimes gank 3rd rates 25 to 1. Model requires tuning but we are not coming back. A light 5th rate (like hercules or surprise) should be 1-2 shotted by a 3rd rate. Or devastated losing most combat capabilities.

If you quote a question maybe it would be nice to answer question first before asking a new one.

What is supposed to happen with Surprise after a HMS Victory broadside in your mental historical pattern/model?

They should not be based on numbers and tests in dirty. Something must be wrong. Are you sure it is not because of un modded ships? Because based on numbers 1st rate should sink the first rate in the same amount of time as before. Same with other classes.

For how many hours? For how many broadsides? I hope you are not mixing those.

This is a testbed feedback section and your comments show that you are unfit for experiments and testing. Just by looking at your feedback.

24 hours is 75 days in NA. 20 mins is almost a day. Half day to sink a frigate from the SOL does not sound as dramatic. I know a lot of you are in shock but for the game new system is going to be good (after tuning) it will be music for the masses ps. because it fits the pattern imprinted into the brain of age of sail fans by history.

5 full broadside rakes - no structure damage at all? 5 rakes should get structure down to half (AT LEAST)

Mast goes all the way down to the keel; it does not end at the quarterdeck. You will be hitting them by raking fire.

Testbed updated Damage model updated. Ship HP is strongly tied to ship weight. Gun damage moved weighted model based on weight and cannonball Gun penetrations have moved to historical tables of penetrations (solving the 18lb pounder gap) Structure will start being damaged slightly faster. You will be able to demast more effectively using raking fire. Stern raking will tend to destroy rear mast, bow raking will tend to destroy bow mast. You can also demast by devastating structure damage through broadsides, but the volume of damage must be significant Reload Shocks are now working properly across all classes of vessels. Boarding actions You can now fire point blank during boarding using [ ] Brace is now weaker vs Attack and counter attack.

there are no ignore lists here

The gold rewards for them is not final and the hunt/sd missions rewards are going to be tuned with the addition of PVP rewards too. we think it is ok if new players will deliver passengers and letters to make doubloons while they are learning the game. so do not see the benefit of limiting weight.