2026-10-01
Ships you leave behind now sail in squadron and answer flag signals, struck ships became derelicts, and the Battle Builder replaced the list of engagements.
The squadron
The ship you leave to take command of a prize doesn't drift off: it stays in your squadron. Press G for the signal list, then 1 to 5 to hoist a signal: line abreast to starboard or to port, ahead, astern, or engage at will. A ship in squadron keeps the station it's ordered to, making or shortening sail to hold it, fires as its guns bear and stays in the line until it's told to engage at will. Signals work in rooms too.
A signal takes time. The flags take five seconds to run up, at the mizzen topsail yardarm on the lee side. Each ship then answers, sooner the nearer it is, and only if it can see the hoist. Until it answers it keeps its old order, and when it does it repeats the hoist. Once every ship has answered, the flags come down. The flags themselves are placeholders for now.
Striking
A ship that strikes is now a derelict and belongs to nobody. Once its way is off, its player takes to its boat and can't go back aboard. Nothing fires on a boat. A notice in the middle of the screen says why. The white flag is unbleached linen now, and every flag waves in long folds.
The Battle Builder
The Battle Builder replaced the Engagements page. It draws a chart of two lines, the Crown against the Cabal, with every ship in plan to one scale. Each ship is switched between Player and NPC, and a tally gives the guns and the broadside on each side. A built battle lives in the page's address, so it can be shared, and it can be fought alone or hosted as a room. The welcome page has a card for it.
Names and numbers
- Every ship has a number and a name, Cutter001 and so on, shown in the telescope under its captain. A member's rank goes before their name.
- The merchant brigantine is unarmed now: no guns, no ports, fourteen men.
- Each ship's shipyard page has an Armament card, its guns by deck and its broadside, and a polar diagram of its speed on every heading off the wind.
Smaller things
- At a distance only the masts, yards, sails and shrouds are drawn, so a crowded sea stays quick.
- The ensign is bigger.
- A link to Quarterdeck shared elsewhere now shows Quarterdeck's own picture and description.
- The last leftovers from the old site were cleared out of the sign-in pages, the sitemap and the admin tools.