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With the wiki and many of our guides becoming outdated, I've put up a new one (Posted over on Steam) which will hopefully answer many of the questions facing new players. I will be adding more content but for now it includes sections on: Nation Selection First Steps Basic Guidance on Port/Sea screens and the Map Combat and Sailing Levelling Making Money Evaluating Ships and sample recommended builds for current meta Equipping ships Solo vs Clan play DLC content guide [Note - Steam has been experiencing issues the past week on its servers that have not been resolved, and new content is taking a long time to load up. If you have problems, they should be resolved shortly, just let it take a minute to load in the meantime]. Edit: The lag/loading issue on community hub content on steam right now is caused by a new text filtering tool they began to implement two days ago. You may be able to fix this problem by disabling the text filter options. To do this click "View" in the top left corner of your steam client, click Settings, click "Account Details," go to "preferences," scroll to text filtering, click "join experiment," disable all the options. If the issue isn't resolved this week I'll put together an alternative form of distributing it. Picture below. Cheers.

I preferred the old one.

Preface: First of, my goal is not to point out what the game should be or how historically accurate it is. This analysis only objective is determining what are the best way to built, fight and win in Alpha 4v68. I will split my analysis in defense and offense. Some of you may be aware that traditionally there is a third category added to this, namely speed. I will however not include it as its overlap with offense and defense is too great to be treated separately. I will touch cost effectiveness a little bit, but not maintenance cost. The main reason for this is that I feel that economics aspect are not very balanced in current version of the game. (if you do not wish to read the wall of text, here is what it is all about) The concept is to go for high speed, top armor and medium armament. It is possible to do so on a relatively small and inexpensive ship. A ship like I describe in my conclusion and trough the example I provide can easily go against multiple heavy battleship and their escort. Defense: Defense can be separated in 3 category: Hit avoidance, armor and damage mitigation. Hit avoidance: Ship size/target signature is the largest hit chance malus and is static, ranging from -20% for very small destroyer to more than +400% for largest super battleship. The other way to avoid hit is speed, malus range from 10% at 0kt to 90% at 37kt (credit to @Evil4Zerggin). Making speed the second largest hit chance malus. Combined together, small size/target signature and high speed can provide incredible level of protection against gun fire. As for torpedo, hit avoidance is achieved trough high speed and agility. At distance, a slight turn is enough to make torpedo wave miss, specially if going fast. For last second avoidance, Aux. engine and Shaft provide a nice turning bonus. Armor: Armor is the second line of defense. There is two important question: What to armor and how much armor ? It is important to note that turret have their ammunition located under the compartment they sit on, thus can be outside of main belt. Damaged compartment, even above water, affect top speed and its accuracy malus. For these reason it is unwise to opt a "all or nothing" approach. Given how light and cheap armor is, immunity on a wide bracket of range is possible against the largest gun, even on relatively small ship. Therefore there is no reason to not opt for a all around and thick armor. However note that armor do not protect against torpedo. Damage mitigation: Damage mitigation is the last line of defense and can be divided into 5 types: Fire, flood, ammo explosion, engine damage and torpedo defense. Fire and flooding can be reasonably mitigated with "many bulkhead" plus 1st level of Anti-flood and Anti-fire for a minimal cost&weight. Penetrating damage is required damage engine or trigger ammo explosion. Given how massive Citadel and Barbette are, it is better to reinvest this mass into armor. Armor is simply lighter, cheaper and more effective than Barbette or Citadel. As for torpedo defense, at first glance their damage reduction may seem attractive, but in any case a torpedo will destroy the compartment it hit. This is important because if one of the 3 mid bottom compartment is destroyed engine will be lost, regardless of citadel or torpedo protection. At best, Torpedo provide a damage reduction to compartment surrounding the place it hit. But does it matter? A ship that lost engine become a easy target from both torpedo and gun fire, most case scenario it will be lost. For these reasons I am of the opinion that torpedo defense is a extra at best. Specially considering how heavy and expensive it is. Offence: Weapons consist of Main gun, secondary gun and torpedo. Before covering them it is important to mention the effect of roll, pitch and balance have on accuracy. A heavily armed ship, with high pitch and roll, may end up landing less hit than a lightly armed one. There is no point in adding more gun if it impair the ability to hit of the rest of them. Main gun: Alpha 4 improved accuracy of lesser caliber, but bigger is better motto is still true. Mainly, it is a question of penetration. Some may argue that HE can compensate the lack of penetration, I am not of that opinion. When looking at damage done, most of it is from penetrating shots. Penetrating also mean risk of ammo explosion and engine damage. When you get those battle is most likely won already. Going for bigger caliber also allow to do the same amount of damage with a lesser number of turrets, thus reducing target signature, pitch, roll and ship mass. Secondary gun: Secondary is mainly useful against destroyer and lightly armored cruiser. Fire is not much of a treat, therefore secondary have almost no effect on heavy armored ship. Bigger is also better for secondary. A single triple 8" will kill a destroyer faster and further way than two triple 6" or six triple 5". It is unnecessary to have many secondary gun, a few will do, over doing it will just impair accuracy of the main battery. About casemate guns, don't use them! They have terrible effect on roll. Better have the secondary on turrets and close to center. Torpedo: Since Alpha 4, torpedo have become a primary weapon even on capital ship as soon as you can use deck launcher on them (1920). Torpedo bypass armor, ignore aiming penalty and do massive damage and crits. Pound for pound they are better than guns. On the down side, ship with strong torpedo defense can be almost impossible to finish with torpedo alone, so it can't be the only offensive weapon. Strong TDS do not negate torpedo, they will still destroy engines, making ships easy target for main battery. Deck torpedo launcher have to be placed far away from centerline, too much of them and it will have a big impact on roll. Therefore it is better to add just enough of them to be effective. Single launcher reload faster and are proportionally lighter than larger one, but they do not spread torpedo as good. For that reason, at range 5x torp launcher are preferable. Point black, multiple single launcher will do better. Conclusion: Taking it all in consideration, the ideal "meta" ship is as small it can be made to reduce target size, with the most mass effective tower available. To minimize target signature, only two main turrets, preferably of high pen big caliber. One or two secondary turrets of 6" or above, preferably on the rear. As Fast as it can be made, preferably 37kn or above. 2 to 4 deck torpedo launcher per side, preferably 5x. Enough armor to stop shell of the best gun of the era. Some aux engine and shaft, lvl 1 anti-fire and anti-flood. And lastly, no barbette, no torpedo protection, no citadel. So little armament may look scary but remember, if you manage to reduce target size/signature to its minimum and dash at 37kt. You will have a hit chance of potentially more than 10 times what a conventional enemy would have. In other word, a fleet of conventional battleship would need 20 turrets to match your firepower. The only thing you have to care about is to stay in your armor immunity zone, stay far from torpedo armed ship and maneuver frequently. Few example: Excluding the deck torpedo, ship with that focus can be made in all era, even per-dreadnought. But it get far better once you have Battlecruiser hull available. To make it easier, chose hull with good "hull form". Here is some example: 1900: No secondary on that one, simply get rid of destroyer with main battery before engaging enemy. There is not much deck armor, but since accuracy is so low no one can shoot from far anyways. Immunity zone vs 12": 5km to 7km Obsolete as soon as Dreadnought and battlecruiser arrive. 1910, More deck armor, but still no deck torpedo. Immunity zone: 2.5km to 15km Obsolete by +-1925 1925: At this point the concept ca be fully implemented. Immunity zone: 7.5km to 25km Remain competitive until the end of the game.

I was thinking about coming back to the game and see what it's like these days but wanted to ask here about the current state of the game in shallows ( not interested in the bigger and expensive ships anymore ) first. Is there any good PvP to be had in the shallows these days and if so what is the meta like? Is it still only Hercules spam or are other ships viable too now? How is the Surprise and Renommeé?

Contact @Christendom for all sailors wishing to come aboard. Glory. Adventure. Riches untold. Rum. Do all of these sound as good to you as they do to us? Does freedom flow through your veins (as do your love of the sea)? Do you seek not just a great sailing experience, but a GRAND one? If yes to any or all of the above, BATTEN DOWN YER HATCHES AND HOIST SAIL! Based out of where the wind blows, the Voodoo Shipping Company (VCO) is seeking sailors of all experience and fancies - be they of the shallow or deepwater sailing, merchanting or exploring ilk- to be a part of our crew. - Active, dedicated leadership who put their crew before themselves - An excellent, community oriented atmosphere for players both new and old (because friendship is the best ship) - An "in" on the political scene; we love the metagame! Proud members of the Association of United Society Leaders. - Readily available opportunities for fleet leadership and one-on-one leadership development - Fleet nights! Including (but are not limited to): sea patrol, mission running, port battles, trade runs and more! Join us for our fleet operations nights! All are welcome! Schedule: Upon Whims Discord: Contact @Christendom TS: See Above Company Officers Christendom - Lead Wraith Lord Amplify of key west Elric Forlorn Hope Dusty Attenborough Gorven Teutonic Vodka McMannis Tiargo The Voodoo Shipping Company: Delivering Freedom Across The Caribbean, One Broadside at A Time Est. 2010 www.voodooshipping.net

Greetings, fellow captains! I have not played the game for a couple of weeks and noticed there has been a patch that changed the penetration mechanics and increased the importance of angles on armor in relation to the cannon ball trajectory. So I would like to know what choice of wood types is the meta now for OW PvP? Ships of particular interest are L'Ocean, Bellona and Belle Poule. Are T/WO ships still the best choice? Has anyone tested T/T Bellona or BP in OW? How do they compare to T/WO now? I would also like to know what is generally considered the best wood combination for a OW PvP L'Ocean to get the maximum armor effectiveness out of it. The constitution should suffer from these changes alot with its more than decent armor but god-aweful turnrate, making it harder to get a proper angle in order to deflect incoming shots. How noticeable are the changes really? Thank you for any helpful input.

Found this refit and it gives +8% turn,yard turn and sail rising speed. Is this worth putting on a pvp ship in the current speed mod stacking meta at all since it is a perm slot upgrade? How much could i sell it for?

Hey all, I feel like the community would really benefit by having a name by which to call their respective server rather than just PVP1, 2, and etc. I feel that by using these current names, it breaks what would otherwise be an exciting, traditional MMO feel - near all of the most past and present successful MMOs don't name their servers by just 1, 2, 3, etc, but by something related to the game (either by lore, in-game terms, or etc). For example, naming the EU PVP server "Windjammer" or something like that, while naming the NA PVP server "Spinnaker". Or any other of the endless, cool sounding nautical and sailing terms there are out there. What does everyone else think? And thank you for reading!