2026-09-29
Engagements stopped ending, a tutorial arrived to teach the controls, and the Co-op Arena opened as a standing room that anyone can join.
No victory, no defeat
Engagements never end now, in single player or in a room. There's no result screen, winner or time limit. A ship that strikes is out of the fight, but the sea goes on. Fight again moved into the Esc menu.
The tutorial
The first tutorial is a guided engagement that teaches the controls one step at a time. A single line over the sea names the key ("Press W to set topsails") and turns amber when the step is done. It covers setting and reducing sail, the staysails, a turn, latching the rudder hard over and centring it again, freeing the cursor, steering for a target, loading a battery, firing at will and furling. The target is a hulk: a Cabal seventy-four with bare lower masts and no guns, which never strikes. The hulk also lies 600 m off in Sea Trials, for practice.
The middle sail setting is now called topsails, its period name, in place of "battle sail". The gun orders read Stand Down, Load and Fire at will.
The Co-op Arena
The Co-op Arena is a room that is always open. Every captain who joins brings a Cabal twin, and the players form one line abreast against the Cabal's line. Rooms are now open to guests as well: a visitor can join as CaptNoob with four digits, though hosting a room still takes an account. The Frigate Duel split in two: Fight, against the Cabal, and Host, against another player.
Through the glass
Captains' names and morale bars no longer hang over every ship. They appear only in the telescope, under each ship in the glass, nearest on top. The Cabal's captains now have numbers: Bartholomew01, Bartholomew02 and so on.
The welcome page
The welcome page now offers three ways in, each a card with a still from the sim: the tutorial, Sea Trials and the Frigate Duel, then the Co-op Arena. The Cabal got a card of its own with its ensign, and an Open Sea card marks what's still to come. ENGAGEMENTS joined the nav, and the footer links to the Discord server.
Fixes and finish
- The sea no longer runs past like a river after a wind shift: the old sea fades as a new one builds to the new wind. The ensign no longer thrashes harder the longer you play.
- Guns finish running out before they fire, and port lids open further.
- Masts in period proportions, shrouds drawn as rope with a body, and the courses reaching down to the rail again.
- The crew have rounded limbs, faces and hands, and dark knitted caps.
- The shipyard's sail plan names every sail.