Patch 29. Sextant, shallow water changes, improvements in the User interface.

[admin]

Captains.
Patch was deployed today 17th of December 2018

New content and experimental changes.

• Sextant perk
  • 2 points (price might change) perk will allow to determine your position at sea
• Shallow water based on draught of ships (experimental change)
  • All ships below 4m draught will be allowed into shallow waters and shallow water battles
  • This includes
    • Cerberus
    • Renommee
    • Pandora
    • Surprise (L Unite)
  • Hercules and LRQ will be allowed into shallow port battles. 
  • Please make necessary preparations if needed. 
• The game code has been almost completely prepared for localization. Localization/Tranlsation has started into main promised languages. Custom language file added for those who want to translate the game into any language for themselves or community or those who are not satisfied with our main english version
  • To use the custom file for your version of the translation:
    • Open folder Languages (currently Langs)
    • Copy the file named  _English.csv 
    • Paste and rename it to another name
    • Translate or edit that file to the language you want 
    • Save it in the standard CSV format if you open it in the Excel (file uses UTF-8)
    • Name of that file will be available in the general section of options in the drop down menu
    • File will be working properly after game has been restarted.
  • WARNING - This feature is for advanced users only. If in doubt - do not touch and do not save. 
  • If you screwed up the custom file and something does not work: delete the file you created. And restart the game. 
  • WARNING 2 - currently the file has some language IDs mixed up. Will be fixed in a couple of days.

Fixes

• Important: Fixed the annoying redraw of all icons when dragging items between holds and warehouse. This will significantly increase the speed of item management if you have a lot of items in holds and warehouses.
• Fixed annoying blinking of expand button 
• Clan leaderboards should now work properly and show statistics for the last 7 days (without weekly reset)
• Fixed the bug that does not allow to build buildings if doubloons are in money chest
• Fixed the bug that did not reset the exit timer when using grape against crew
• Fixed rare crash of client during teleports
• Fixed bug that closed port trade chat after sinking in the open world
• Fixed visual bugs of DLC flags on Essex
• Fixed bug that allowed the NPC fleet to reappear on the open world at the place of previous attack (if you sank any ship besides the flagship)
• Fixed the bug that hotkey did not work if you had tooltip active (when mouseover)
• Fixed the bug that did not let players pick rewards for previous challenge on the day new challenge starts

Improvements

• Multiple minor fixes on the Port UI.
• Added new shallow patrol zone Deadman's Cay (+1 shallow patrol)
• New icons added to most trading goods
• New warning symbol D (damaged) under LEAVE PORT button to show that your or your fleet ship needs to be repaired.
• Added indication to Hunt and S&D missions to show 3 nearest regions where your targets can be found
• Improved performance of port UI
• Reduced FPS drops when opening windows.
• Improved the performance of drag and drop - holds and warehouses no longer hide behind other windows if drag and drop is in progress
• Barter resources are now spawned during the day (not immediately after maintenance)
• Loot from sealed bottles has been generally improved.
• Added 5th rate S&D missions in common non capital ports

 

Hotfix 20th December

Added FPS limiter in port UI (in graphical settings). This will help to reduce overloading of CPU and Video cards in ports. 

 

Hotfix 11th January

• Boading muskets bonuses and percentages was significantly lowered. (for example total firepower (resulting from accuracy and %) on Redoutable musket was lowered from 933% to 260%)
• Chests now appear more often in Hunt and Search and Destroy missions
• Victory marks cannot now be purchased for doubloons on the War Server (they still can be purchased in the admiralty on the Peace server in the PVE Exchange tab)

[Koltes]

5 minutes ago, admin said:

Hercules and LRQ will be allowed into shallow port battles. 

Please dont or remove from DLC.
In fact any DLC ships should not be allowed to start PVP battles, e.g. attack players. Basic Cutter rules.
Instead they should give extra XP and money bonus when used fro missions or attacking AI so people would use them simply as money makers or xp grinders.

Else sounds promising
 

Edited December 11, 2018 by koltes

[Anolytic]

1 minute ago, admin said:

2 points (price might change) perk will allow to determine your position at sea

Cool.

1 minute ago, admin said:

• All ships below 4m draught will be allowed into shallow waters and shallow water battles
• This includes
  • Cerberus
  • Renommee
  • Pandora
  • Surprise (L Unite)

Interesting, however I think the shallows might rather loose some of their charm with a bunch of 5th rates sailing around. I still think this is very good to test however. Especially now that tutorial allows everyone to bypass the lower rates and jump straight to 5th rates if they wish to.

One thing though: Make max rate (for earning rewards) 6th rate in the shallow patrol zone.

4 minutes ago, admin said:

Hercules and LRQ will be allowed into shallow port battles. 

Hmm. I'd rather not to be honest.

Why are we going back to this exactly?

4 minutes ago, admin said:

Additional patch details will be added soon.

You have me waiting on pins and needles.

[LeBoiteux]

13 minutes ago, admin said:

 

• Shallow water based on draught of ships (experimental change)
  • All ships below 4m draught will be allowed into shallow waters and shallow water battles
  • This includes
    • Cerberus
    • Renommee
    • Pandora
    • Surprise (L Unite)
  • Hercules and LRQ will be allowed into shallow port battles. 
  • Please make necessary preparations if needed. 

Great. Giving those 4 ships (Cerberus, Renommee, Pandora, Surprise) 'more power' is great.

In the same vein, will 5th kill missions be separated into two categories : kill missions for those light frigates (Cerberus, Renommee, Pandora, Surprise) and kill missions for the bigger frigates ?

Edited December 11, 2018 by LeBoiteux

[Sir Texas Sir]

Are we getting grids back on the map?  Cause cords don’t mean any thing without grids.

you should do like the yacht and make a cute off date for the pandora.  Kinda not far a guy testing for 2 years gets the same reward as some one that just bought the game.  Maybe when it goes beta only those in the alpha get it.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Sir Texas Sir

[Crimson Sunrise]

there goes pb's in the shallows it will be who can fleet the most DLC ships 

[admin]

4 minutes ago, Anolytic said:

 

Hmm. I'd rather not to be honest.

Why are we going back to this exactly?

 

 

5 minutes ago, koltes said:

Please dont or remove from DLC.
 

Full port battles and more port battles are better than empty port battles and no port battles. 
Surprise is better than herc and lrq. Properly fitted cerberus and renommee are also good against those ships.

[Powderhorn]

15 minutes ago, admin said:

Captains. Heads up on the patch 29 that will hit live servers within 7-10 days. 

• Sextant perk
  • 2 points (price might change) perk will allow to determine your position at sea

Excited to see more diverse perks.  I hope there are more in the works.

[Thonys]

nice  perk

pandora ,..great... always very good to have ships i really tip my hat for that.

just a remark: our nation has not even done 1 port battle for months ......

so .....why this,... and not customization and the other timeline stuff.

i just don't get this ... or is this an addition to the first quarter 2019  update?

[jodgi]

14 minutes ago, admin said:

Sextant perk

• 2 points (price might change) perk will allow to determine your position at sea

 

This is fantastic! Now the guys will get what they want but they have to pay for it in perks. So dragging fleet ships and sextant leaves little room for fighting perks. Meanwhile I completely ignore fleet perks and sextant for full-on fighting perks.

[Angus MacDuff]

3 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

Are we getting grids back on the map?  Cause cords don’t mean any thing without grids.

Really a grid and a scale.  A map without a scale is a picture.

[Sir Texas Sir]

3 minutes ago, Crimson Sunrise said:

there goes pb's in the shallows it will be who can fleet the most DLC ships 

If the BR is close than folks will and can bring suprise and Reno’s which have the same crew as the LRQ but more fire power.  The Cerberus has 195.  These ships have about 500-600 more hp than the dlc ships.  

 

1 minute ago, Thonys said:

nice  perk

pandora ,..great... always very good to have ships i really tip my hat for that.

just a remark: our nation has not even done 1 port battle for months ......

so .....why this,... and not customization and the other timeline stuff.

i just don't get this ... or is this an addition to the first quarter 2019  update?

These are easy code changes to allow them what you listed is not.  That is what I assume.

[Anolytic]

6 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

you should do like the yacht and make a cute off date for the pandora.

Cut off date is release I believe.

 

[Crimson Sunrise]

2 minutes ago, Sir Texas Sir said:

If the BR is close than folks will and can bring suprise and Reno’s which have the same crew as the LRQ but more fire power.  The Cerberus has 195.  These ships have about 500-600 more hp than the dlc ships.  

whats the point of adding the DLC ships back to shallow water PB's after removing them the requin was the last to be removed as the devs set 110 the prince being the largest ship to be in a shallow PB

[GhastlyGhost]

41 minutes ago, admin said:

 

• Shallow water based on draught of ships (experimental change)
  • All ships below 4m draught will be allowed into shallow waters and shallow water battles
  • This includes
    • Cerberus
    • Renommee
    • Pandora
    • Surprise (L Unite)
  • Hercules and LRQ will be allowed into shallow port battles. 

Glad to see that light frigates will get more love.

@admin will we get  in the future update for ships BR to better balance their  efficiency in PB ?

 

Edited December 11, 2018 by GhastlyGhost

[Celtiberofrog]

Thx for this update.

Could you plz share what features are permanent & final today, and what will still be reworked ?

[Miaowi]

Exciting changes! Thanks for the heads up and I'm looking forward to testing this one.

Will all below 4m draught vessels be able to partake in shallow port battles or only Herc and LRQ? 

[admin]

18 minutes ago, Miaowi said:

Exciting changes! Thanks for the heads up and I'm looking forward to testing this one.

Will all below 4m draught vessels be able to partake in shallow port battles or only Herc and LRQ? 

all mentioned ships

[SnovaZdorowa]

1 hour ago, admin said:

Captains. Heads up on the patch 29 that will hit live servers within 7-10 day

Круто. Вот прям круто. Герк все-равно перебаффан по скорости и повороту, но по крайней мере больше не царь шаллоу.

Правда, выпадает весь смысл топ 6 рангов, становятся чисто проходными кораблями, хэви раттл так вообще юзлесс, слишком тяжелый.
Предлагаю подумать потом над увеличением скорости 6 рангов, тогда может быть можно будет их под что-нибудь приспособить. 

По секстанту я уже слышу в тс:

-кто-нибудь взял с собой секстант?
-нет
-нет
-и я нет
-**** *** *** !!!

Ну, за все надо платить. Я конечно думал, что навигация будет более ролевой, с измерением скорости движения лагом, отметкой курса, накапливаемой погрешностью, но так тоже хорошо.

Пожалуйста, не забудьте поменять BR патруля Нассау.

[Percival Merewether]

I'm worried that this will render the very small vessels useless by decreasing their important further. However, it will also bring life to a class of ships that have remained unused for as long as I remember.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out once the patch is deployed.

Overall, sounds pretty good 👍

[Pada]

9 minutes ago, Percival Merewether said:

I'm worried that this will render the very small vessels useless by decreasing their important further. However, it will also bring life to a class of ships that have remained unused for as long as I remember.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out once the patch is deployed.

Overall, sounds pretty good 👍

I was worried about that too. But looking at the BRs smaller ships seem well balanced. For example you can bring 2 Niagaras for 1 Surprise. Also smaller clans can now fill shallow port battles which is imo the best thing about this change. I'm looking forward to test this.

[Vernon Merrill]

21 minutes ago, Wraith said:

I'm in support of testing these, and seeing how it goes. I'm with others, I feel like DLC ships should be excluded from port battles. One, because the Requin circle kiting meta just doesn't make for fun battles, but two, I think crafting ships to support RvR is an important feedback loop, even in shallow water battles, and that should be encouraged.

Assuming all F11 coordinate workarounds are being removed, I'd suggest changing this so that at noon every in-game day, regardless of perk set up, everyone gets a map position. And then add a perk that allows you to get your position at any time, call it "Precise Navigator" or something. I appreciate you providing options but literally, I've read from only a handful of people, the usual suspects, that said getting lost was ever "fun." Everyone else, especially once they discover F11 coordinates and tools like Felix's map says, "Well, that's nice, why the hell isn't that in the game," and this is particularly true of newer players that we are trying to attract and retain.

Making them burn two perk points on not getting lost is just a needless pinch point for finding more Action, and that's what the game is about.  

 

LOL....  giant eyeroll at "usual suspect"...

Anyways, you know just as well as I do that this "perk" will be about as popular as Nickleback.  (after the first two weeks, when everyone realizes that the little dot tells them that "yep, thats pretty much where I assumed I was...)

But ok, feel free to spend two points on the little dot.

[Percival Merewether]

10 minutes ago, Vernon Merrill said:

LOL....  giant eyeroll at "usual suspect"...

Anyways, you know just as well as I do that this "perk" will be about as popular as Nickleback.  (after the first two weeks, when everyone realizes that the little dot tells them that "yep, thats pretty much where I assumed I was...)

But ok, feel free to spend two points on the little dot.

Don't underestimate the value such a perk brings to a new player who wants to explore the OW for the first time. Who cares if he/she removes the perk after the first two weeks.

EDIT: Do not forget that they intend to remove the trader tool, it could aid players doing trading. They spend a lot of time sailing afk, it's nice to know where you are after 30min of sailing.

Edited December 11, 2018 by Percival Merewether

[Angus MacDuff]

Just now, Percival Merewether said:

Don't underestimate the value such a perk brings to a new player who wants to explore the OW for the first time. Who cares if he/she removes the perk after the first two weeks.

I don't like that it's a perk, but then I don't like the whole perk system.  Perks should be tied to ships, not the player.(sry, off topic).  For me, Navigation is as automatic as having sails.  Noon sights was perfectly common in the day and should be here as well.

[Percival Merewether]

1 minute ago, Angus MacDuff said:

I don't like that it's a perk, but then I don't like the whole perk system.  Perks should be tied to ships, not the player.(sry, off topic).  For me, Navigation is as automatic as having sails.  Noon sights was perfectly common in the day and should be here as well.

I definately agree with you, but I wouldn't shoot down the idea of it being a perk before trying it out. There are numerous examples of things that I don't think should be a perk:

• Prepared
• Fleet Ship 1
• Double Shot
• Double Charge
• Area Contol

But with the system we have and considering that it's a game, think of it as trading the ability to know perfect navigation with something else that you yourself find more useful.