2026-10-02
Chain shot now brings masts down one at a time and they fall over the side, the tutorial became two, and the gun stations show their loading and your hits.
Dismasting
A chain broadside is now laid on one mast, so the masts fall in turn rather than all of them weakening at once. A first rate's chain brings down a frigate's first mast in under two minutes from the first hit to the rigging. A mast breaks at the lower masthead: the topmast and topgallant topple to leeward with their yards and torn sails and lie across the side for two minutes while they're cut away. Losing a mast costs a quarter of the crew's morale, and some of that never comes back.
At the guns
- A gun station at Load shows a bar filling as its guns load, and a tally at the top of the screen counts your misses, hull hits and rigging hits.
- Changing the shot makes a side's loaded guns draw their load and reload with the new shot. The Cabal's captains wait until half the side has fired before they change.
- Ctrl+[ and Ctrl+] step the shot type.
- With both sides manned, the men the sails don't need work the guns.
- The station buttons read PORT GUNS and STARBOARD GUNS.
Two tutorials
The tutorials have a page of their own, in the nav and on the welcome page. The single tutorial became two. Basic Sailing teaches the rudder, holding it and latching it hard over, the sails and the crew they need, bracing the yards and handing them back to auto-trim, the compass rose and its wind arrow, the telescope, and steering for the hulk. Basic Gunnery starts stopped with the hulk on the starboard beam. It teaches loading, the gun crew moving from one side to the other, chain and double shot, and what fire at will means. An amber arrow points out the part of the screen each step is about.
Built battles
In a built battle, the captained ships on your side start in your squadron, ready for your signals. In a room, they follow the first player in the side's line.
Smaller things
- The cutter sits lower in the water, with an open rail aft, as the naval cutters of its day did. It's harder to hit now, so cutter duels run longer.
- The controls list moved to its own panel, opened from the Esc menu.
- The button in the sign-up email now carries straight on to choosing a username.
- The Q in the header matches the rest of the title.