William Death

Yep its "not accurate" (yet it worked 100% of the time to tell me if my shots were penning or not). And "fog of war" to make it more realistic while we rebuild our masts and construct new sides of our ships every 12 minutes. In addition to your speculations, I'll provide mine: Ctrl + L was removed at the same time as epic event patch was added. Now, its only anecdotal evidence, but the "42 pd cannons" on the bottom decks of those epic first rates hurt my Live Oak Floating Battery Santisima A lot more than any player's 42 cannons have ever done. I'd not be surprised if they're really using the same long cannons the towers use, or some other, heavier loadout like that. I also seem to recall hearing that some AI Victories on the testbed version of that patch were running 42/32/24/18 for their loadout, or something like that (but I can't confirm this). So perhaps the shotlogger is hidden from us to hide hard evidence that AI is sailing better equipped ships than us . Also, admin told me to learn to play when I sent my bug report of AI using double charge through carros and said that AI never cheats. Yet I did the final exam on an alt the other day and the Cerberus I captured had double charged carronades in the stern.... But absolutely not. AI has no ability a player doesn't!

Because AI can use double shot/charge in carronades and we're not supposed to know about it. Hence "shotlogger is not accurate and was removed." Seriously though, we should have a shotlogger. And no, from what I can tell, if you pen, you do full damage. No pen = no damage. Same with demasting: if you have mast thickness 122, but I can pen 124 at the range I'm at, your mast is coming down. But if you had 125cm mast thickness, I'll never make that mast fall. Well, I could, doing 1.2 damage (or whatever the non-pen value is these days....not much) per non-penetrating shot....which, for a 1000HP mast (or hull) would be.....~834 hits. Assuming 17 cannons on the bottom deck of a Santisima, and I get 100% hit rate to that mast (nobody does). Thats approximately 50 reloads @ ~60s per reload means its going to take pretty much the whole fight for me to destroy 1000HP with cannons that are under pen by 1cm. And then there's a repair every 12 minutes....yeah not gonna happen. As far as over pen...best I can tell is if you have big enough guns, you can basically punch all the way through the ship, taking out both sides and the center bar by simply shooting one side. I noticed this in some frigate duels where I had 24s, or in 4th rate duels where I sailed Ingermanland. Firing point blank into the enemy's side would take down all three bars. And always, long cannons or carronades. Leave mediums to casuals and crazy captains with ridiculous builds (full reload + some pen mods on a fast ship with mediums equipped). Every time I try medium cannons, I regret it. They don't have the pen to demast, they don't have the accuracy or pen to fight at range, and they don't do enough damage to justify picking them over carronades for short range stuff. Oh, and the couple seconds faster reload is laughable. Much, much better to simply run carronades with lots of accuracy mods. Maybe a pen mod or two and you'll feel like you have mediums for the effective ranges you can fight at. As it stands, carronades are good to about 250-400m depending on class....I can't justify picking mediums to extend that range by a little more, while doing significantly less damage and still no ability to demast.

Aaarrrggghhh! I be's here to make me report to ye! 'Greetings Lord Christendom, Knight of the Nightflip, Admiral of the Fleet, Vanquisher of Clans, etc. Since me last report to ye: I've heard rumors of you sacking the clan warehouse of a prominent Spanish (formerly British) clan. Is there any gold safe from the hands of VCO? *hearty laugh* Also I recall countless reports of you terrorizing almost the entirety of the active United States Navy whilst alone in your Le Requin. The mere mention of your name seems to strike fear into the hearts of the American sailors. However, it seems a few battle hardened American veterans are convinced that we, the mighty VCO Pirates, have no skill whatsoever and can only gank, yet they never attempt to engage us in equal fights....they only run from us or attempt to fight with massive advantage (and even then, sometimes get sunk). Very peculiar. Rumors of Spanish attempts to pay for use of a VCO port. Rumors of dissent in the Prussian nation, offers for peace shot down by a heartless commander with an image to uphold and a point to prove... Rumors of a large fleet destroyed by nightflips.... The usual accusations of hacks, exploits, farming, and secret alliances to roll the server with black dots. Various and sundry other rumors, I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I remain, your officer and trusted disposer of Surprises (via loss to LGVs), the dread pirate, fearsome hunter, and master duelist, William Death.' To everyone else: Please forward any further theories and rumors to me, and to global chat and someone will be along to notice and respond.

Yeah if they were 'real pirates' they'd go sail around in 6th and 7th rate troll boats (all captured from the enemy, OFC). Never craft ships, only work from out-of-the way strongholds and freeports, and generally make lots of noise and accomplish little else in terms of RvR or fleet engagements. Hmm...I seem to recall seeing several clans over the years that do basically that....I wonder if any are still around and what nation they are this month?? My bit of trolling aside, I really could not care any less about shallow water ports. I _strongly dislike_ the shallows. So until the people that 'care' about the shallow ports actually start caring enough to show up and help defend/attack them (and not just provide a PvP mark farm for the attacking fleet outside), I don't think we can be bothered to mess with them. I'd much rather go PvP than grind AI for an hour then deal with Le Broken spam the next night. Oh and @Banished Privateer you better put some speed mods on your grinding L'Ocean. We almost caught you before you made it to the fort. At least we got the one you guys left behind. And again, in the Grand Turk PB, running away while leaving your nation-mates behind to be sunk for points... How much longer will they continue to flip ports for you and provide meatshields in the battles?

Just stay away from sinking ships till they are truly sunk. I agree with Gregory, if my ship is past the point of saving, I'm going to have all my crew ready to jump on your ship if you come too close. I mean why man the pumps if you're gonna sink anyways? And hand-to-hand combat vs fending off hungry sharks circling you wouldn't be a hard choice for most sailors to make One of my favorite battles I fought 3v1 in a light Endymion vs Surprise, Endy, Indefatigable. I sank the Surprise, pounded the other Endy but I was beginning to sink, so I boarded the Indefatigable, took over his ship, chased off the Endy, then fought and won a 2v1 outside and sailed home on another Endymion. Their fault for sailing too close to me, thinking they had won already

BATTLE: PB for Grand Turk Attacker: Prussia. Defenders: Pirates. DATE: 6 October, 2018 Roleplaying narrative: /on\ A large Prussian fleet attempted to capture our stronghold in Grand Turk. The owners of the teak plantations beseeched us to prevent their businesses from falling under the oppressive Prussian rule once again. Gathering our fleet of second rates with first rate support, we formed a defense. At the start of the battle, a few of our lineships decided to form a line. Because lines are proven to increase scariness by over 227.3%. Sure enough, the Prussian fleet gave up the wind upon sight of our scary Santisima line. We sent our small ships to occupy their mortar brig and hold circles as long as possible. Meanwhile, our main fleets exchanged ranged broadsides. It became apparent to us that the Prussian shipbuilders have been turning out some shoddily constructed ships, so we moved to a close brawl. Several of their ships were sunk or boarded in quick succession and we nearly won on points gained from circles and sinkings right then. However the crafty Prussians were able to steal all the circles and sank one of our ships just in time to prolong the fight. Nevertheless, we managed to snag one more Bucentaure through boarding and won the battle. To all the courageous sailors lost aboard our ships, you shall be forever remembered by the Pirates for your indomitable defense of the great port of Grand Turk; may you find rest and peace, till the sea shall give up her dead. o7 Prussians and good fight #EZ #piratesarejustnoobssothisshouldbeEZ #linesRscary #teak/crewspace

More ships is a good thing, and I think a number of the ships you listed could find a spot in NA at some point. But some of the vessels you listed would be redundant with what we already have, or would be out of place in NA: USS Pennsylvania is too modern for NA. Also I don't think she ever saw combat or was even at sea for more than 7 days before going back into harbor (Wikipedia info so....). Also, talk about an ugly ship...I can barely get past Wasa's hideous paint How about USS Independence (razeed form) instead. She is an 1814 American third rate (meaning double decks of 32pdrs). However, she was too shallow for her armament, putting the lower gundeck too close to the water to be operable under any press of canvas or in a heavy sea. But she was an exceptional sailor, even in her lineship configuration and was razeed in 1836 to become a very fast 54gun 32pd frigate. I realize the 1836 modification puts her out of the timeframe for the game, but she was launched in 1814 (6 years inside the NA window), just not in her best form . And we have zero 32pd frigates in NA. I want a 32pd frigate! Balance it between Wasa and Agamemnon/Constitution. Fast in a straight line and reasonably thick, but a terrible turn rate and long acceleration times. Can make HP suffer a bit too for balance. We've got enough 30-40 gun frigates in 18pd and 12pd configuration (assuming Santa Cecilia/Hermione gets released to the public at some point soon...). Best to fill in other gaps (like a 54 gun SOL, such as HMS Leopard; or another first rate like the 1786 HMS Royal Sovereign). And devs are working on a 2nd rate, and at least one or two other new 3rd rates, from the polls, IIRC. Queen Anne's Revenge, Fancy, Whydah, and any other 'pirate ship' has too much fiction surrounding it to wade through, I think. And besides, their purposes are recreated basically with an LGV Refit, Trinco with tiny guns, or Requin/Prince/Niagara. Its a slippery slope going that route too. We've already got HMS Surprise as some sort of hybrid craft that appears to be based on the O'brian books, the movie, and a bit of the Unite' plans; and L'Hermione that looks to be based off the replica and entirely too high out of the water... A galleon would be neat, but probably out of place in Naval Action. Too slow and weakly armed and lightly built to compete with the state-of-the-art ships of the mid-late 18th century that most of us sail in the game. This part I think will never work in NA. If Britain is the only nation that can craft HMS Victory, and I'm a Pirate and I want one, I'll simply move one of my alts to GB, or speak with clanmates that have British alts. When I want a Santisima, I'll use a Spanish account to trade it over. It will simply punish the players who don't have alts or connections to those who do. I like the idea of Pirate Refits of certain ships (like Pirate Frigate and LGV Refit and a Pirate Refit of an Indiaman). Perhaps once the ship is captured by a Pirate and he sails it back to port, he has the option to refit it at any time, or keep it as-is. But beyond all that, I want to see devs fix the same broken mechanics we've had for 6-8 months+ and implement better hostility and PB mechanics that promote PBs. But instead we get a UI that is worse than the one we already have and even more boring crafting mechanics...at least we're getting new PvE missions...but I digress.

Understood. I was just pointing out that none of the mods in discussion are useless. Inferior for certain applications (Navy Hull < Elite Pirate for Requins in battle), but perhaps superior in others (Navy Hull > Elite Pirate for Requins in OW). Somewhat correct. All the ships listed, except Requin, have square sails (only topsails on the schooners, but more on Prince), so they get *some* negatives. For the most part, the negative to square sails isn't enough to outweigh the bonus provided by the gaff mainsails of the schooners, except maybe at 180* (but I haven't directly tested the same builds with and without pirate rig; I just always equip pirate rig on the troll boats because they're useless downwind anyways). But the negative to square sail force most definitely applies (even if it isn't strong enough to actually affect anything) to those ships since they do have square sails. This means the square sails have less power: to manual sail with, when chained, when using various sail configurations (half, battle, full, etc.). The ONLY ship in the game to receive absolutely no negative, either in practice or on paper, from using staysail mods is Le Requin (because there are no square sails to have a negative applied to). Granted the schooners don't get a practical negative, but at least they do *have* square sails for a negative to apply to. It may make a noticeable difference manual sailing but in my bit of practice with them, it doesn't. But the issue with Requin having 100% bonus and no negatives when using pirate rig refits is why I and others have proposed she not be able to equip pirate rig refits at all. Or code in something special for her that applies a negative when going downwind. Perhaps the same should be done for the schooners (and any future xebecs) too, since they don't get a negative... Valid point about Spanish Rig, see my suggestion to code in negatives for the schooners and xebecs, as above. I think schooners will have zero problems keeping speed, even if you equip no mods on them. Sheer sailing profile alone will let a lo/wo Lynx escape any square rigged ship in the game, provided the skipper not venture within chain or demasting range. I don't know exactly how the new mod system will work. Will the rig refits be classed as speed mods (same as navy hull, copper, naval clock, etc)? Or rigging mods (meaning the same category as mast mods, sail HP mods, and Bovenwinds refit as they are now)? If they are classed as rig mods, you could still stack one of those and a navy hull. If they are speed mods, then your point holds and you pick between superior speed in instance, or in OW. But I'm not sure that's an issue with larger ships. I enjoy my Elite Spanish Rigged ships. But if I had to choose between sailing them with copper plating or with Elite Spanish...I'd pick the copper plating at least 70% of the time. Because that's bonus all the way around, not just at certain angles and not just in instances. But sometimes I'd wish I had the Elite Spanish Rig instead...tough choice there. What would be better than all this balancing mods and new mod equipping system (all of which are band aid fixes for the glaring mod issue that has sprung up over the past 1.5 years since we went from 1-3 mods per type to 5-6+, sometimes even more per type), is going back to the old system. Handful of each type of mod, most craftable easily. Have the rest in the shop for PvP marks or combat marks. All bonuses are reasonable. Skill means more. =better system, IMO. Even if we stick with the current system, if we make everything more available by putting it in the admiralty shop for PvP and combat marks I think it would make the entire issue better. We'd all be sailing meta modded ships, but at least then everyone has equal access to the mods super books and nobody can whine that they got sunk because I had Cartagena and Art of Shiphandling and they didn't (because Carta is too expensive for them and AoSH is too rare).

Elite Pirate Rig works as intended on all ships (except Requin, because she has no square sails to get negatives from). Why, pray tell, should your Prince have a chance of upwind escape from a ship fitted to chase upwind ships? Furthermore, the high ship-card speed of your Prince will allow you to easily outrun the Requin at many angles in OW (I have outrun Requins in OW a little more than 90° off the wind with a fir Constitution). If you're worried about your Prince getting caught, use a regular pirate rig refit (less than 400k at major freeports). You'll see your speed spike over the Requin's speed around 90° off the wind and further downwind of that too. As it stands, you've got (and both your chart and the base sailing profile chart show this) 5-8 distinct points that you can outrun a Requin at, and only 4-6 where he can catch you. I understand the frustration that 1 permanent mod can basically replace several other expensive permanent mods. This becomes more annoying when said single permanent mod is very expensive and in short supply. I hate the RNG system for mods and books. I dislike the limited crafting resource system. I dislike the upgrade system. Our old (and still flawed) system from 2016 was much much better than this. But I can't change it back, no matter how much I'd like to. So I've adapted. Beyond the availability aspect, I think rig refits are alright, considering the other dumb books and mods we've got floating around with mega bonuses (game was so much better when we had just a few mods with small bonuses). I thought they were alright at 30% before their nerf. Every ship (except Requin) receives a nerf at some sailing angle for using the mod. (Though I think the nerf affecting Lynx and Privateer is so small as to be non-existent except in the case of sail-force affecting manual sailing). Elite Spanish Bellona loses speed close hauled (fleeing ships should run away close hauled not run downwind and whine that they got caught). Some ships, even, do best with no sail force modifiers because they lose too much of their sailing profile fitting one way or another (ex: Connie, Endy, Trinc).

Thats an excellent tool. I really like that you included the calculator at the bottom so if I want to take 4x of each repair, or 8x, etc. I can simply change the number and it'll perform the necessary multiplication across all 3 repairs and give me the amounts I need to carry in the ship. Oh, and it looks great too! A couple suggestions if you are planning on modifying it at all: If possible, add ability to select the other mods that affect hull HP and sail HP. So permanent upgrades like: basic strong sail, basic hull refit, crooked hull refit; and ship knowledge like: speed trim, reinforced sails, etc. Also, I'm not sure if the mods and books affecting mast HP would affect sail repairs or not. At any rate, its a nice tool to get a quick estimate of how many repairs per use. So many players seem to either be carrying too few or way too many repairs.

A note about crewspace: I never recommend it for anything besides Requin, and even now after the nerf to it, it may not be worth it. For PvP builds for frigates: (order of fastest to tankiest): Fir/Fir, Mahog/Fir, Teak/Cedar, Teak/Teak, Teak/White Oak. Trinco vs Endy: (Ignore any of the green bonus or red negatives, focus on the base stats in white text [I was in a different ship when I took the screenshot, so the values shown are the true base values]). Somewhere I've got a Trinco that is nearly identical to that Endy (which would have made for an easier to understand screenshot), but the base values can make the same comparison. So, Trinc vs Endy.....Thats one of the toughest choices for me. So short answer: I use both, and sail whichever I feel like at the time. Looking at stats, Endy seems better on paper, with her higher HP, thickness, base speed, crew count and gun caliber. But the numbers don't tell the whole truth. There is the manual sail force, turn acceleration, and hull shape to take into account. Taking into account turn acceleration and manual sail force, in my experience, Trinco does handle noticeably better. I'm certainly not saying Endy handles poorly, just that Trinco handles better by comparison. And on top of that, Trinco has more guns and a better turn rate base. Hence, why I call the ships equal. Where one has advantage in speed and toughness, (and a bit in firepower), the other has advantage in handling and gun count. Specific traits: Endymion has (laser guided) stern guns. Big bonus for when you have to run away. But has only two bow chasers, so many players run a smaller caliber for the faster reload to keep enemy tagged, but this has the negative of doing less damage if you shoot chainshot through the smaller caliber guns vs the 9pdrs you could have had there. Trincomalee has 4x bow chasers. Big bonus for chasing because 4x 9pd chainshot can really do damage. Lacks stern chasers so you have less ability to slow down chasing vessels without turning to fire broadsides. Speaking of guns, most players run long guns on the bottom, and 32pd carronades on top. A few run the other way around, and a few like all carronade or all long gun loadouts. Just remember that Trinco gets 11 top deck guns per side vs Endy's 10 per side. Otherwise they're the same. Try them and see what you like. Trinco's heel is famous, but not at all a negative, if you handle it right. Sometimes it can even be helpful (like when chaining the sails of a large ship, you want to make sure you get topsails and topgallants chained too, not just the courses). And Endymion is not a particularly stable gun platform either. More solid than Trincomalee, but not by any great order of magnitude. Just follow proper anti-leak procedures (manage sails to flatten your ship when your enemy is in a position to place leaks into you) to avoid being leaked out, and if you receive leaks, remember to keep them out of the water till your crew has had time to at least partially repair them. Endymion has a negative not always mentioned: its a long ship, with very straight sides (little curvature for-and-aft); but it does have a fairly good hull shape in regards to her tumblehome (top to bottom curvature of the sides). For this reason, bouncing shots with her *sometimes* requires a bit more careful angling because while you may get enough angle on one end of your ship to bounce, a smart enemy can train his guns around to the other end of your ship that is less angled to him and fire before you finish angling all the way. Trincomalee, on the other hand, is a shorter ship with a more pronounced fore-and-aft curve, so angling with it is *usually* a bit easier (although sometimes that curvature can work against you and make you bounce less). Its a subtle difference that doesn't always come up in every battle, but it is noticeable if you're dueling or fighting another competent player. And again, sometimes these differences can work for your advantage, sometimes they hurt you. Enough rambling! I should pick one: (I really can't pick one for myself) So, general recommendation Trinco vs. Endy for most players: Endymion. Having chasers at the bow and stern is the easiest way to start in PvP. You can keep fleeing targets tagged with 2 bow guns, or you can use chain out of your rear guns to help you run away. Using 24s on it forces you to either git gud at reload management or git sunk. /incoming veteran rant\ It astonishes me that so called "pros" complain all the time about frigates (especially Endy and Trinco and Connie) being undercrewed. They. Are. Not. I know they feel like they're undercrewed, but they're not, really. Its operator error. Fighting both sides of the ship at once is a luxury afforded to lineships and light frigates, both of which have large crews in proportion to their armament. If you want to fight both sides, you'll need to plan the battle carefully. I rarely find myself waiting for a broadside to reload because I only fire the guns that do damage. If my top deck of carronades won't pen, or won't do meaningful damage, I'm not going to shoot them. If they don't get fired, they don't have to be reloaded. So though I may only have 70% of my cannon crew requirement filled, I'm at 100% reload rate because I don't have crew reloading guns that weren't fired. /rant over\ Thats not to say Trinco can't be a fine frigate to go PvP with. Personally, I've always felt that Trinco is a tiny bit more capable in brawls, due to her better agility. Or, put another way, if you asked me to pick one of the two to fight 3v1 (vs average players in various 5th rates), I'd be likely to choose Trincomalee because I won't need the pen of 24s to fight other frigates, but I will need the turn rate to bounce shots quicker. On the other hand, if you asked me to pick one to try to solo an average player in a heavy 4th or 3rd rate, I'd probably pick Endy so that I have the option to demast him with my 24s. Well, you can do it with 18s, but 24s make it easier and safer. Perhaps try one of each and see how you like them. A Teak/Teak version of either shouldn't be much more than 400-600k from a crafter from ports with good shipyards. Sail them a bit with basic mods, get a feel for how you like it, and make a decision. Then sell whichever you like least (or don't sell it and start your collection of ships you don't use but don't want to get rid of). Whichever you decide to pick, keep an eye out at freeports and busy national capitals for a good deal on special one. I've bought several nice blue 4/5 ships for cheap (700k for a Fir/Fir 4/5 Connie and 800k for the 4/5 Teak/Teak Trinco pictured above).

I've never tried a fir Indefatigable, but I've had good luck with teak/teak and teak/wo Indefatigables with Elite Spanish Rig. They do roughly 14kn downwind, or a little more, and have excellent brawling capabilities. But the sailing profile upwind is already not very good and adding Elite Spanish makes it even worse, so many ships can escape upwind. Just something to think about. I can 100% recommend a fir/fir Constitution, so long as you carefully sail her. Thickness is already very high, as you pointed out, so nerfing it with the fir/fir really isn't an issue. Base speed isn't the best, so you'll really need to use lots of good speed mods and books, but you can hit roughly 13.5kn with fir/fir copper + bovenwinds + navy hull + art of shiphandling + speed trim. That is carrying about 100 of each repair, and 350 rum. Hopefully Connie gets a speed buff soon (I think Admin hinted that he had plans to buff Connie a bit), that'll make her more viable for solo PvP. Trincomalee and Endymion are both fast enough base speeds that you can go teak/teak and get enough speed to be viable for solo PvP. I'd rank them equal (along with Diana) for fighting capability. The 24s on Endymion and Diana are nice for the pen, but the 18s on the Trincomalee do just fine against most targets you come across, and have the advantage of a quicker reload. Also Trinco has more guns than either, so that helps her out in the damage-dealing department. Diana's speed is a bit low for solo PvP unless you go with a light build. I've had good luck with a fir/fir Diana, but I'm sure a teak/teak build would be fine if you had more than 3 slots to equip speed mods. Renommee, Pirate Frigate, and Frigate are all nice, but I don't sail them very often because for me (as you said), they don't hit hard enough. Also their masts are too flimsy for my use as well. Connie, Trinco, Endy, Indy, and Diana can all lose masts vs larger opponents, but at least it takes a concentrated effort and a bit of time. Renommee or Surprise loses a mast in 5-6 hits from anything bigger than a brig, and the Frigate class ships aren't much better. Don't worry about crew damage with fir/fir. Crew is meaningless unless you plan to board or allow yourself to be boarded. As long as you have enough crew to man sailing 50% and 50% of one side gunnery, you'll be fine (but you'll need proper reload management skills, only firing the guns that will do work).

Do this^ and you might. I don't recall the base value right off, but it *should* be possible to hit 14 with decent repairs. Assuming you go: Copper/Navy Hull/Bovenwinds + Art of Shiphandling + Trim Speed (if you have that, if not use something for repair or boarding) + Light Carriages. Don't go overboard with repairs. Maybe you'll reach 14kn, or very close this way. Easier if you get more slots. I'd not be concerned about HP and thickness because even fir/fir bounces if you angle. And you won't be fighting big fleets with it. 1v1 or 2v1 or 3v1 vs average players in average frigates will be well within her capabilities. I sail a fir/fir Constitution fairly regularly that hits 14kn. I can bounce L'Ocean broadsides, given a small angle. Even taking a full broadside square on, I didn't lose all HP. Its all in how you handle the ship, really. On the other hand, lightly built Ingermanlands (or Wapens or other 4th rates) are much easier to buff speed because speed trim 4-5 is much more common than 1-3, and finding 4/5 builds that are blue is fairly common in freeports (I bought a 4/5 Connie for 700k at Tortue and I've seen several others there for sale). As a rambling note, I've been considering a fir Bellona for solo PvP lately, but I haven't played around with builds and setups enough yet to decide on anything.

Fun engagement in the Georgetown Reinforcement Zone (North of Charleston). Masts fell by the board and ships were leaked. We even managed to escape the revenge gank fleet afterward. o7 and GF USA 68pdrs for the win!

+1 But I seem to recall devs saying this could be a programming issue? At any rate, the issue of “able to outrun them in battle but not in OW” is annoying. It means that you either have to outsmart your enemy, have more patience than he does, or it’s only a matter of time before you are caught. There was a time when we could choose to log out in an after battle screen, or be towed to port, but both options allowed for some exploits. It’s a tricky mechanic to get right.

Yeah this concerns me more than my old clanmates sailing in basic cutters. I mean really, if they can manage to sink a Hercules with some cutters, imagine what they could do if they had real ships!

Just increase Surprise mast thickness some and she'll do fine. HP and hull thickness seem reasonable to me right now. But I won't sail a Surprise till I get a gold one (or 5 slot purple) so I can double stack Kiritimati and Elite French Rig, just so I can stand a chance of keeping my masts.

Nice little engagement up on the East Coast. Nothing super special here, but L'Ocean is still a tough ship, no matter how you slice it. L'Ocean is so difficult to deal with, that I was a bit worried that I may have bitten off more than my dear old Constitution could chew (though I could always escape), but she did remarkably well, proving that even without much hull shape, she can still be a threat. The fight started with me throwing some chain and doing my best to evade his broadsides. He didn't fire till he could hit me though, so this meant he wasn't wasting his double shot or charge. Unfortunately for him, I've done this sort of thing a time or two, so he didn't get the chance to fire at my hull too much. However, he also didn't fire at my masts when he could have, aside from a few shots that mostly missed. Once I had him down to around 450 crew, I decided I'd try "side-hugging" tactics, just to see if it was possible. One hit and... "NOPE!" My Constitution was way too squishy for that. So I went back to stern raking so I could eventually demast/chain (if necessary) and board him. By the time I got him to around 326 crew, one of my shots (using ball at this point) set him on fire. He decided to let the fire go and this is the result: His build was LO/WO with Floating Battery and French Rig. I forget the other module he had, but the French Rig dropped into the loot. Was fun. I hope the other party enjoyed it and maybe learned something from it. I got a nice screenshot from it too: Also, I like the new higher BRs=more marks (34PvP marks here)

Oh he tried to push me upwind to board, as I said. But he couldn't "pit" me into the wind to make it happen. It is extremely difficult, nearly impossible, to pit someone clever upwind to board them 1v1 if they don't want to be boarded. If he had demasted me, or chained me much more and then managed to get next to me, he probably could have done it. But I could outrun him straight downwind, even with low sail HP. And NavyBrig has a lot more sail turning force downwind than Le Requin does. So, he didn't choose to fight the cannon duel, he had to fight the cannon duel because I spent the entire fight trying to deny him a means to board me.

So, some more feedback: Tonight I dueled [EDIT: fought] @Rabman's carronade Requin with my long-cannon NavyBrig. My ship was Teak/White Oak/Fast with Cartagena/Light Ship Hammocks/French Rig Refit/Northern Carpenters. I was fitted with Art of Ship Handling, Steel Toolbox, Planking, Boarding Axes, and Book of Five Rings. I don't know what Rabman was fitted as, but he had a pretty decent crew buff and didn't feel too sturdy when broadsiding him. I'm no pro in shallow ships, and I wasn't in a dueling build, but it was a fun fight nonetheless. And I think I'm still "better than the average noob," even when I'm out of my 'element' and in the bumper boats. Rabman is certainly a good player too, so perhaps we can call this "roughly even" captain skill. Now, a bit of backstory is required here. I was tagged after we won a PB, and I couldn't make it to port in time. I asked if they (5 enemy) would give me a 1v1. They were kind enough to do so. Toward the end of the fight, just as Rabman was sinking, I was offered a choice: sink him or escape. I wanted to keep my NavyBrig, but ultimately decided to take what I had (bird in the hand, and all that, so I was sunk). Overall a fun little brawl though. I'll give a "play-by-play" in a moment. Here are two screenshots: just before the end ^ The End.^ So the battle started, I had been chained to about 92% sails. Hull was in perfect shape. I threw one broadside of chain into the Requin while he worked on my hull with his carronades. Then I began trying to dismast him. He was stern raking and also taking shots at my hull when I wasn't angled enough to bounce. His did the proper thing and repaired *just* before I would have gotten his mast, so I had to shoot it a number of times again to make it fall, but his repair brought him back to around 60%. At this point, I repaired hull and we both just shadowed each other, him upwind of me while we waited on our respective cooldowns (shoutout to unlimited repairs #content) <--[sarcasm there]. Then when we re-engaged, I went for masts again, while also taking shots at his hull when I could. This weakened his hull and eventually his foremast fell again. This time I was able to stick with him, even as he repaired his mast again. The Requin chained me, at some point here, to about 70ish%, making maneuvering very difficult for me. At one point, he nearly pitted me around into the wind to board, but I was able to pop a sail repair just in time and turn out of it. Knowing he'd used another sail repair and would be on cooldown for a bit, I began focusing hull. I discovered that whatever build he was, couldn't bounce shots as well as the Requin's I'd sailed. I was able to fire on his bow and remove HP from both sides, and center bar too. So I proceeded to get into a "turn fight" with him while slowly chipping away at his HP. Only instead of fighting for the wind, as I'm used to, I was fighting to keep from having the wind (meaning letting him get downwind of me to push me upwind and board). This was the most difficult part, one slip up and he's on my stern and pitting me upwind to board and its game over. His carronades were very painful, but my long sixes with double were pretty rough on his ship too. I managed at one point to get myself "stuck" on his bow, where I could throw a whole broadside into him, but he could only use maybe half/one-third of his broadside. At the end, I got the final shots in and at one point he had zero side HP and zero structure, but he was repairing and didn't sink. It was around this time that we declared the duel over and I was offered the choice to sink Rabman or escape. I made my choice to try to continue to sink him, but was unable to do so. Good fight though, I enjoyed it and I hope Rabman did too, he fought well. o7 So, from this it is once again shown that a 1v1 between reasonably equally skilled players 1 Requin vs 1 [other shallow ship] is winnable for either side. Also, some Requin builds aren't as bouncy as others (in the PB I'd just left, there was a Requin with 25% center bar and no side HP bouncing shots from long sixes at 250m and nearly 90° angle). So, do I still think Requin is broken and needs the same nerfs that I've written (at least two) walls of text about? Yes. Yes I do. But I think its important that people not forget, you can still beat them, its just not easy and they have the option to escape from you at any time if you don't remove their masts (but you *may* depending on your ship, have that same option, just by sailing downwind).

One that is still heard on the docks today: Don't turn a hatch cover upside down. Superstition is that it will 'encourage' the boat to sink. So, when I'm aboard my boat, I don't turn the hatch covers upside down. I suppose it'd be acceptable to turn it upside down to work on the hatch cover though... A few other common ones (google refreshed my memory here): Don't re-name a vessel. Or you have to go through an elaborate process if you do. (Must hold a ceremony for the old name and a christening for the new name). Don't leave port on a Friday. I've forgotten the reasoning behind this (something to do with Good Friday maybe?). Don't coil a rope counter-clockwise (left handed). I read this online and I'm not sure where the superstition comes from, but I suspect that there is some basis in truth: most 3-strand ropes are "right-laid ropes," meaning the final twist to make a 3 strand rope is done in such a way that the rope naturally wants to lay into a coil in a clockwise fashion. Trying to coil it left-handed can introduce kinks and give the rope a "memory," making handling of the rope just a bit worse. This isn't too much of a problem with modern synthetics, or with smaller lines, but if you've ever tried to deal with 1"+ rope thats been submerged in saltwater and then baked in the sun, all while under strain...it can be a challenge.

I'm not even sure lol, but I've always had good steady internet, and almost never have connection issues to NA.

Yeah I've restarted router, rebooted, etc. Can connect to everything I've tried, but NA. First issue was like, Friday or Saturday night, I dropped multiple times, but then no more issues till just now (assumed it was random). Dropped connection, managed to get back in for maybe 5 minutes, and dropped again.