April 2026 Update: New Ship Monates, new Combat, new Rules of Engagement & more

Note

Rewards for participating in the Test Server will be distributed later this week and announced separately.

New Ship Montanes

1. Montanes is a ship of the line of the Spanish Navy, designed by Julián Martín de Retamosa, built at Ferrol, and launched in 1794. Renowned for her speed, she is considered one of the finest Spanish warships of her era.

Rules of Engagement (ROE) Improvements

1. Rules of engagement will return to its 2016 state under following principles

2. Players will be able to help allies and clan mates in battle until the battle is over

To support these principles the following changes will be applied

1. Open world battle is open for 45 mins and allow entry for both sides

2. Safe zone battles are open for 15 mins and allow entry as ally

3. Open world battles (not hostility or port battles) will last for 60 mins

4. BR difference control is disabled but we might add it in the future for OTHER nations joining your battles.

5. Battle start distance from the enemy will depend on the BR of the attacking ship.

6. Small ships will spawn closer to targets if they attack (but not less than 250m)

7. Large ships will spawn at higher distance from enemy if they attack (but not more than 1km)

8. Min distance at spawn will be 150m - max distance 750 meters

9. At battle start, ship position, heading, and wind are taken from the open world

10. Reinforcements - Players who join battles will join in a distance from the battle center depending on positions of allies and enemies.

11. Reinforcements - players who join battles will face the direction they were facing in the open world.

Clan Management, Economy, Trade and Storage

1. Promotion to clan creator is now allowed only from the clan creation rank.

2. Diplomats can now change the clan port battle start timer.

3. The clan port battle timer can now be managed by the First Officer.

4. Added the Bermuda Exchange to all Admiralties across the sea.

5. The Bermuda Exchange now allows upgrades to be converted into a random higher-tier upgrade.

6. The Bermuda Exchange also allows 5 rare books to be converted into a random different book.

7. Trader Tool improved. The Trader Tool allows you to estimate travel time from your current port to any other port based on your ship’s speed. When opening the Trader Tool in the Open World, distance will be displayed instead of travel time. A visual display of the quantity of goods in storage has been added. The information is updated every hour. Nation flags have also been added to ports.

8. AddedTrade updatedadded trading hub ports

9. Several fixed trade routes added (e.g. Kingston - Nassau)

10. Long distance trade now provides good profit

11. Prices and production and consumption parameters have been updated for all sets.

12. Increased storage slots in warehouses.

Combat and PvP

1. Added PvP daily and PvP weekly leaderboards.

2. DLC ships can now be captured and sailed out of battle if the player owns the corresponding DLC.

3. Turned off crew damage reduction based on remaining crew amount. You can now destroy full crew by grape or splinter damage

4. Combat code for splinter and canister damage optimized.

5. Canister damage is set to 15% of base gun damage.

6. Splinter damage changed for all guns.

7. Splinter damage mechanics have been made 100% consistent - you will now always inflict splinter damage to crew if you hit the planking.

8. Raking mechanics improved for grape, and splinter damage

9. Angle required for a successful raking fire set to 40 degrees

10. Inconsistent crew colliders have been fixed

11. Carronades and Obusiers now deal heavy crew splinter damage.

12. Congreve guns now have a -40% structure damage debuff making them anti planking weapons. For structure they give the same damage as medium guns.

13. Double shot damage degradation curve: 300m: 1.00; 500m: 0.50

14. Canister damage degradation curve: 300m: 1.00; 550m: 0.00

15. Structure critical damage modifier increased from 2 to 2.7

16. Structure critical threshold lowered from 9% to 6%

17. AdjustedGun dispersion parameters changed to their 2016-21 statehorizontal accuracy improved for all guns.

18. Slightly adjusted reload values for long guns, navy guns, Congreve guns, carronades, and obusiers. Base damage for these cannons was also adjusted to keep overall damage per minute unchanged.

19. Set effective penetration range for carronades and obusiers to 450 m. At 775 m, these guns no longer penetrate at all.

20. Limitations on chain damage have been reduced.

21. Armor repair now restores 25% of structure instead of 10%

22. Reduced front armor to 50% of side armor (previously 75%).

23. Increased Stern armor to 15% of side armor (previously 5%).

24. It will be easier to inflict leaks

Boarding, Repairs, and Crew Focuses

1. To initiate boarding, you first need to deal 30% damage to sails, planking, or crew.

2. Boarding speed limit has been increased up to 9 knots to promote more aggressive action against damaged targets

3. Boarding counters in PVE boarding now work the same way as in PVP (counters work better)

4. Boarding timers changed:

• Initial waiting time: 14 -> 10

• First round duration: 14 -> 7

• All subsequent round durations: 14 -> 7

• Round command change timer for increased preparation: 7 -> 4

1. Disabled the boarding damage debuff based on the number of guns mounted on the ship.

2. Required crew for Survival (pump) reduced from 15% to 10% of base crew.

3. Ship repairs no longer remove crew from other focuses.

4. Hull and Sail repair cooldowns have been separated to promote action

Ship Handling and Balance

1. Key ship sailing parameters updated and rebalanced based on DPM and HP difference. This includes Speed, Turning, Rudder turn time, rudder inertia, sail setting speed, acceleration and deceleration and Yard power.

2. Fixed incorrect heel at abnormal angles. Ship max heel can be achieved only around 90 degrees to wind.

3. Ship roll at 90 degrees to the wind increased to 12 degrees.

4. Ships will now heel more if one side is damaged

5. AdjustedGlobal deceleration curve updatedmaximum reverse speed reduced.

6. Improved deceleration logic

7. Rudder curve updated. Rudder state color indicators also updated.

8. Rudder mechanics improved - rudder will return to neutral position faster due to water pressure, countering turn inertia by rudder will work more consistently.

9. Reduced the yard power bonus at low ship speed from 40% to 30%.

10. Ship speeds updated based on the number of bow guns. Ships with less bow guns will now sail relatively faster

11. Square and fore-and-aft sail curves were improved for more natural gradual backing force and provide for less efficiency when wind is blowing backwards

12. Bugs in design logic of speed balancing have been eliminated

13. Spanker logic bugs fixed.

Interface, Visual Effects, and Audio

1. Sails are now transparent in fire modes allowing easier aiming and shooting

2. The reward chest now highlights when new items are added, and the highlight disappears after the chest is opened.

3. Improved port warnings for ammunition and consumables.

4. Improved the port interface for gun installation on the ship

Modules, Books, Perks and Woods Balance

1. Updated bonuses for modules, books, and perks to reduce excessive bonus stacking on key combat-related stats.

2. Example show max possible bonus before and after

   • Cannon traverse down: 5% -> 15%

   • Acceleration: 103% -> 25%

   • Marines percentage: 10% -> 17.5%

   • Horizontal dispersion: -57.25% -> -16%

   • Crew musket bonus: 6% -> 10%

   • Ship turn rate: 60.25% -> 26%

   • Cannon traverse up: 32.5% -> 15%

   • Cannon traverse speed: 72.5% -> 35%

   • Cannon reload time: -50.5% -> -26%

   • Vertical dispersion: -57.25% -> -32%

   • Yard power: 46.25% -> 25%

   • Heel: -120% -> -60%

   • Cannon crew requirement: -46% -> -35%

   • Structure hit points: 50% -> 64%

   • Splinter resistance: 35% -> 53%

   • Armor thickness: 52% -> 56%

3. Wood Frames and Planking now provide a much wider set of bonuses, offering players more variety in ship builds

AI, NPCs, and World Distribution

1. When choosing a side, NPCs now take side armor conditions into account.

2. NPCs fight under full sails. When they can no longer keep up with pumping water out, they reduce sails.

3. NPCs can now repair a damaged pump.

4. The angle required for NPCs to decide to fire chain shots has changed slightly.

5. Rank 7th-6th NPCs will fire chains much less often.

6. Adjusted NPC modules. Solo Area NPCs should now be more challenging.

7. Lynx, Trader Lynx, and Privateer removed from the list of possible NPC ships.

8. Brig ship class changed from 6 to 7.

9. Added special rookie preset for 7th rank NPCs

10. NPC now always prefer national ports if they can. Spanish cities will have Spanish combat NPCs.

11. OW NPC nation distribution changed accordingly.

12. NPCs redistributed across the world to spread them better and add more group content. More medium and large fleets.

13. Shallow waters will have 7th-6th rank ships

14. Upper Cuba and upper Hispaniola and Pitts Town area will have 5th-4th and sometimes 3rd and even 2nd rates

15. All other locations will have 4th-1st ranks sailing.

Raiders

1. Raiders will now have 2 attacks per day

2. Limit - 1 battle maximum per nation

3. Raider Cooldown on the port is set at 90 days for a start (but we are considering reducing it to 60)

4. The Raider Cooldown on the clan has been removed.

5. PVP (RVR) port battle KD remains the same

Changes for New Players

1. Added an account cooldown for creating a new character based on the last character creation time.

2. Boarding Exam time increased from 10 minutes to 15 minutes.

3. New players now start on a Basic Lynx with mounted guns and starting ammunition.

4. New players start with 7 slots

5. The starter Basic Lynx now comes equipped with 4-pounder medium guns.

6. New players will also have some ammunition repairs and gunpowder in the reward chest