Hotfix 9.81 Patch notes

[admin]

What's new:

 

We are continuing to search for the best survivability model that allows historical accuracy and gameplay fun. We started from somewhat historical parameters (maybe a bit exaggerated) and are now tuning them to get more fun out of them.

Multiple changes at once usually do not allow to make quick judgement of changes, thus in this hot fix we will only address ship of the line armor. 

 

Changes in effective planking width (cm)

• HMS Victory  – from 100 to 80
• Santisima – from 90 to 78
• St Pavel – from 80 to 75
• HMS Bellona – с 80 to 77
• 3rd rate с 75 to 73
• USS Constitution  75 to 70
• Frigate armor have been buffed a bit (from 1 to 5cm across for most vessels)

Planking was also changed for the following vessels

• USS Constitution –  5700 to 7000
• Ingermanland - 6500 to 6300
• Third Rate –  8000 to 7500 

Third rate cost of production was lowered by 10%

Bellona now allows 24lb on second deck

 

Tuning of gun parameters will happen next patch. Our goal is to allow ships of the line to fight comfortably at distances up to 300 meters. To do that we need to tune the armor and top deck gun penetrations in the way that wont affect frigate combat (which is believed to be a lot better than before 9.8). This has to be done gradually because if we buff  9lb and 12lb guns too much to help rates we will make frigates too weak against each other.

 

Port battle timers

 

Timers can now be set right after port capture (fixed the bug that only allowed to change it after maintenance).

The feature will work this way

• During Contested status - timer can be reset unlimited number of times. 
• After port changes status from Contested to Captured during maintenance - timers cannot be reset at all (only by next capturer)

Cannon loss and grape damage

 

Cannon damage and grape damage is moved closer to old damage model where you had to lower planking integrity to inflict more casualties on guns or crews. Because cannonballs pass inside the ship inflicting damage while they retain energy you will still get more damage done by raking through stern or bow.

 

Other changes

• If clan creator deletes his character clan does not cease to exist - clan creator status will be transferred to one of the officers with the latest log in date.
• Officers can now open and close clan warehouses
• Ships of the line can now install cannons on stern (in addition to carronades)
• In several countries with strict internet policies server list was not visible - this problem was fixed.

Fixed bugs:

• OW Battle icon bugs were fixed
• Auto connect to battles now works during the 120 second invulnerability timer. If nearby ships are attacked you will be pulled into a battle. You still won't be able to join already existing battles. This will fix the problem when your team mates are unable to join the battle initiated against you even if you exited the port or battle together at the same time.
• Visualizations of ricochets and non-penetrating shots have been improved (to sync server and client visualization better).

Tunings:

• Mission NPC spawn closer to players
• Battle timer in small events and large events and duels is now 15 mins
• Size of reinforcement circles is increased and their distance between each other lowered
• Indiaman rudder HP bug fixed
• Penetrating leaks water inflow reduced by approximately 30% to fix the fast insta-sinking
• Ramming underwater hole size decreased which in turn reduced the crew requirement to fix them
• Chain shot accuracy increased 10%
• Kill threshold reduced 10x times from 55% of overall hp to 5% overall hp
• Rudder penalties are now binary. White rudder indicator = 0 penalties, Yellow rudder indicator = 50% turning penalty. (previously 1pt damage to rudder already lowered it performance linearly, but it was not visualized anywhere)
• Time to relogin to battle after crash or disconnect increased from 10 to 15 minutes

Discuss

[LeBoiteux]

XP for travel also seem to have been increased. Experiments go on ?

[Babble]

Looks good to me.

 

Now if we could turn port battles into a multi-time zone event you might actually get more then 10% of your player base attending them and make RvR much more interesting.

 

See my post here  for a suggestion > http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/13606-war-and-port-battles-rework-moderated/page-4

[Bommel]

The Constitution shows 6800 Side Structure (base) for me.

[Konali89]

Looks good:)

I like the new damage model:) finetune it, dont nerf it too much:) I really like it.

[Dius]

Nothing seems to have changed, lots of shots still bouncing. 

 

Game just feels so different to pre - 9.8.

Less fun... 

[admin]

Nothing seems to have changed, lots of shots still bouncing. 

 

Game just feels so different to pre - 9.8.

Less fun... 

 

 

did you try frigates a lot of players say they are awesome

[Inkompetent]

Thank you devs for not neutering the Ingermanland completely! Due to 32pd and 18pd synergy in penetration on the Ingermanland the Connie is probably the better ship still for PBs, but at least not by a huge margin.

 

Really nice changes

 

 

The Constitution shows 6800 Side Structure (base) for me.

 

Same here.

[Dius]

did you try frigates a lot of players say they are awesome

 

Well you got me there, I have just been using different cannon types on my Victory in Curse Order Missions. 

 

Usually against 2x Bellonas / 3rd Rates. Long 12s do nothing even at less then 250m.

 

I can understand the direction the changes are intended for but its just so different to the previous damage model.

I was hoping today's patch would step it back a bit but it hasn't.

[admin]

 

 

I can understand the direction the changes are intended for but its just so different to the previous damage model.

I was hoping today's patch would step it back a bit but it hasn't.

 

20% width loss for Victory looks pretty drastic to me 

[ITFHunter]

did you try frigates a lot of players say they are awesome

and a lot of Players also saying that it's bad....

no penetration imrpovement was done (?), so basicly nothing was really changed. Battle has still to be fought at a range were it's not possibile to do team fights. your " fight comfortably at distances up to 300 meters" is a good way and that should also apply to frigates (but depends quite on what your Definition of "comfortably" is)

[Destraex]

I assume grape does not destroy cannons or penetrate all the way from one end of the ship to the other like a cannon ball would. I.e. Grape energy would dissipate fast as soon as it hit something.

[Ned Loe]

Looks good to me.

 

Now if we could turn port battles into a multi-time zone event you might actually get more then 10% of your player base attending them and make RvR much more interesting.

 

See my post here  for a suggestion > http://forum.game-labs.net/index.php?/topic/13606-war-and-port-battles-rework-moderated/page-4

Well said. 

[Dius]

20% width loss for Victory looks pretty drastic to me 

 

Indeed it is...

 

However my statement was directed more at cannon penetration issue.

 

Its just very disheartening to wait for a full broadside only to see 90% of your cannon balls bounce off the side of the aforementioned ships.

Especially when you take into account prior to patch 9.8 - 90% of your shots would pen the target.

 

As I say the game just feels less fun to me this way. Maybe that is just me...

[Hethwill]

Looking forward to test some of the changes.

 

Guess comfortable means - by historical records, captain's logs, combat reports all amassed into a intelligent way into game code.

 

So yes, no doubt there, at Frigate, Sloop and Brig level the combat is gripingly good.

[Bommel]

did you try frigates a lot of players say they are awesome

Is the 7000 structure for Connies a typo, because as I said it shows 6800 base structure ingame?

[admin]

 

 

Its just very disheartening to wait for a full broadside only to see 90% of your cannon balls bounce off the side of the aforementioned ships.

Especially when you take into account prior to patch 9.8 - 90% of your shots would pen the target.

 

 

its a journey..

it will get to a good state eventually

 

new pen system brings new dimensions that did not exist before

• positioning matters now and matters a lot
• ships of the line feel like ships of the line and can dispatch multiple weaker targets
• equal ship battles don't depend on dps only - 1 ship can win against 2-3 enemies in skilled hands
• ships tank with broadside and stern is vulnerable
• convergence of guns matter (locked sector penetrate better because 40% convergence to point increase angle of shot)
• shape of hull matters

if you start using these tools suddenly you got a lot more options than before (which was click click at any angle from any distance)

 

the only issues are:  the weak top decks for ships of the line and maybe mast thickness

we will find the solution for them

[Paint]

 

Usually against 2x Bellonas / 3rd Rates. Long 12s do nothing even at less then 250m.

 

Maybe you should try to get a bit closer. 250 meters is quiet a big distance for Combat. If you look at the Penetration table you have a massive drop off in terms of penetration. As it is realistic.

[Kanay]

Travel xp seems to have been increased x3 

 

RattleSnake armor slightly increased +2 on sides, +1 for stern and bow.

 

Le Gros Ventre armor have been lowered and is now one cm lower than a Renomee on the sides and stern , the same on bow, doesn't seems logical to me, is there any reason for that beside making those traders more easy preys ? 

 

A rattlesnake in teak have now 6cm more armor on sides than a LGV in fir for example.

 

Ingermanland took a hit too :

 

[OTMatt]

the only issue is:  the weak top decks for ships of the line..

we will find the solution for them

 

I think carronades already solves that. But What I'm thinking is the aiming is annoying to some players including me so we stick a uniform arrangement of all longs, all mediums, or all carronades.

 

If you could give us the toggle option for firing gun deck cannons first players can aim regular long guns instead of carronades.

[Ledinis]

Nice to see you didn't revert it back totally. Will test the new damage model later today. As for making the top deck guns on line ships useful, i would personally like the ability to load different ammo types for each separate gun deck so that i could for example use ball shots on the first 2 gun decks of a Santisima while at the same time utilizing the 12 pounders on the upper deck to shoot chain shots slowing the enemy line ship. 

[Horror]

Usually against 2x Bellonas / 3rd Rates. Long 12s do nothing even at less then 250m.

Are you trying to be funny? You want 12 pounders to pen an SOL at 250m?

[Strugelwits]

Indeed it is...

 

However my statement was directed more at cannon penetration issue.

 

Its just very disheartening to wait for a full broadside only to see 90% of your cannon balls bounce off the side of the aforementioned ships.

Especially when you take into account prior to patch 9.8 - 90% of your shots would pen the target.

 

As I say the game just feels less fun to me this way. Maybe that is just me...

Me and my clan are having no trouble with the new penetration system, the thing is in order to penetrate you need to get close, I find that this makes carronades more useful, the simple fact is, the damage model is not perfect but people just need to adapt. 

[Vaz]

If you could give us the toggle option for firing gun deck cannons first players can aim regular long guns instead of carronades.

 

Use F1/F2/F3 for the appropriate carronade gun deck, fire your normal guns, and then aim again with your carronades

[Cmdr RideZ]

Well, if I were a dev, I would give people a bit more time.  I think you started to alter values way too fast.

 

https://gaming.youtube.com/watch?v=LY31XoyPcz4

 

Dear Devs,

 

People have got used to fire like in the 1st scenario they made.  That is utter crap.  People complaining because the game got radically more realistic.

 

Later in the clip, 100-250m, which is far more realistic distance, they start to penetrate.

 

Their 12pd cannons have hard time still.  I think this is very nice change.  You have to learn which decks you can fire, and when.  Maybe all your cannons cannot penetrate on all distances.  So makes no sense to fire and reload those.  Or maybe some cannons are useless against some specific targets, which I think is good as well.

 

 

The reason why they now cry a river, is just because they had got used to the old mechanism.  And they want it back, just because.

 

The video shows clearly, that the new system was working really well.

 

 

Before the patch, PvP was only played by Long Cannons.  The new system made all the cannons to be useful.  Now dear devs, you are ruining your own system, just because some people have got used to the old system, and do not want to learn the new one.  Please stop these changes, you were doing amazing job.

 

 

edit.

 

Long cannons for smaller ships, to fight against bigger.  So that they get higher penetration values.

 

Before, people were using long cannons because of totally wrong reasons -> Just that you can hit your enemy from longer distance.

 

 

Do not start ruining your game.

 

 

edit2.

 

You can unlocking, 100m, 250 and locked.  With the new system these actually are important.  Do not start ruining that part please.

 

Give people time to understand.  Before changing the game back and closer to the old utter crap system.

Edited May 25, 2016 by Cmdr RideZ