Devblog #6 Muster the Crew: Your Guns Need Hands

Chart Your Course: a Living Main Menu & a Smoother Launch

Ahoy, captains! This update is all about what happens before you set sail — the game now greets you with a proper harbor instead of throwing you straight into the water.

Know Before You Sail

The server list is alive now:

• Live status on every server — see how many capt

  ains are out there and your ping to each server, straight from the menu, before you connect.

• No more guessing. A server that is down shows as Offline right in the list instead of leaving you staring at a connect timeout.

• Version warnings up front. If a server requires a newer game build, the menu says so the moment you look at it — and tells you to update instead of failing your sign-in halfway through.

• Custom addresses too. Hosting a server for your friends? The moment someone finishes typing your address, the menu checks it and shows whether it is up, how many players are on and the ping — same as the official list.

• The status of your selected server is duplicated in large print right above the Play button, where your eyes already are.

A Cleaner Cast-Off

• The game now boots straight into the hub: pick your server, check the news, see which friends are aboard — then press Play.

• Signing in and loading the world happen in one clean pass under a single loading screen. No flashes, no login forms popping over menus.

• Logging out drops you back in the menu instantly, ready to jump to another server.

• And the launch itself finally looks intentional — a proper studio splash instead of a blank flicker.

Fair winds — see you on the water.

Gunnery Overhaul: Your Cannons Finally Matter

Until today, every ship hit with the same fist no matter what was bolted to its gun deck. That's over — the cannon you install now decides how you fight.

The Gun Decides the Damage

• Damage comes from the cannon in the slot, not the hull. Light cannons hit for 25, carronades for 30, heavy cannons for 45 — swap your loadout in port and feel the difference on the very next broadside.

• Every cannon has its own character. Range, reload, firing arc, spread and damage falloff are all per-cannon now:

  • Light cannon — the all-rounder: long reach, quick reload.

  • Carronade — a close-range brawler: fast, vicious inside 30 meters, nearly harmless beyond them. Get close or go home.

  • Heavy cannon — slow to load, brutal on impact, keeps its punch at long range.

• New galleons now leave the shipyard with heavy cannons pre-installed — as a warship should.

• The cannon menu in port now shows damage alongside range, reload, arc and spread, so you can compare guns before you buy.

Know Your Shot

• The ammo menu (B) now shows what each round actually does — hull and sail damage multipliers for every type in your hold:

  • Round shot — honest damage to the hull.

  • Heavy ball — nearly double hull damage, weak against canvas.

  • Chain shot — shreds sails, barely scratches planking.

• Pick the right round for the fight: chain their sails, then switch to heavy balls and finish the hull.

Fixes

• Fixed a hang where the game could get stuck on"Signing in…"forever when Steam sign-in wasn't available — the password login form now appears as intended.

Load your guns wisely — see you on the water.

Life on the Gun Deck: Recoil, Gunports & Salvage Runs

Ships just got a lot more alive — and losing one finally leaves a trail worth following.

Guns That Behave Like Guns

• Cannons stay put while you aim. The barrels no longer swivel after your crosshair — the battery sits still on deck like a real broadside, and your aim moves independently. Heavier guns, heavier feel.

• Real recoil. Every shot kicks the gun inboard; the crew runs it back out over the reload. One glance down the deck tells you which guns are ready — the run-out gun is the loaded gun.

• Gunports open and close. Push to full sail and your crew hauls the guns inboard and shuts the ports — that's why you can't fire at top speed. Slow down and the ports swing open again, gun by gun, bow to stern.

Smarter Crews Across the Sea

• NPC ships now carry real cannons on deck — no more phantom broadsides from bare planks. Their guns recoil just like yours.

• NPC gunport discipline: merchants cruise with their ports shut, guards patrol ready with ports open, and any ship that turns to fight opens up and runs its guns out before the first shot. Read a ship's intentions from its hull.

Sink, Mark, Salvage

• Wrecks leave loot for 10 minutes (up from one) — enough time to finish the fight, come about and collect.

• Your death leaves a mark on the map. Went down at sea? A red mark shows where — respawn, open the map (M) and sail back for your cargo. Every new sinking moves the mark.

• Loot chests now ride the waves instead of hovering on a flat sea, and the pickup hook is visible from far off — but you'll need to bring your ship alongside to actually haul the goods aboard.

Fixes

• The resource-tracking panel no longer lingers over the main menu after logging out.

• Rain (and its sound) no longer follows you into the main menu after a stormy voyage.

• Fixed rapid light flickering when a storm rolled in or out.

Batten down — see you on the water.

The Port Workshop: Craft, Smelt & Armored Hulls

The ports just learned some trades — and hulls finally learned to take a punch.

Roll Up Your Sleeves

• Every port now has a Workshop. Craft nails, beams, iron plates, cannonballs, repair kits — even whole cannons — straight from the port warehouse.

• Workstations unlock the good stuff. Buy a Carpentry Bench, a Foundry or a Gun Workshop with gold — each port you invest in remembers YOUR purchases and unlocks its gated recipes there. Build up your home port.

• Smelting. Feed the furnace coal and melt unwanted guns, cannonballs and scrap back into iron ingots. Nothing in your warehouse is dead weight anymore.

• Gun shop. Ports now sell cannons for gold — each port carries its own assortment. Type the quantity, see the total, buy the broadside.

• New goods on the market routes: coal, iron ingots, nails, ship beams, iron plates and repair kits.

Your Ship, At a Glance

The ship panel in port got a full refit — every line is alive now:

• Durability shows real hull condition, with the Repair button and its gold cost right on the row.

• Integrity shows a crafted ship's remaining lives as cubes; the trusty starter sloop wears the infinity mark.

• Cargo shows the live hold load — click to open the hold.

• Guns shows installed/total — click to enter cannon-outfit mode (the old floating button is gone).

• Defense is new. Which brings us to...

Iron Sides

• Ships now have armor. Incoming hull damage is divided by the ship's defense — a galleon shrugs off almost a third of every light cannonball.

• Cannons now have penetration. Heavier guns punch through plating: a heavy cannon ignores a galleon's armor entirely, while light guns are best saved for sloops and sails.

• Sails don't wear armor. Chain shot remains the honest answer to an ironclad opponent — strip their canvas first.

• NPC ships play by exactly the same rules: their hulls carry their ship's armor and their deck guns their penetration — including bot-vs-bot broadsides.

Fixes

• The spyglass now opens looking where YOU are looking, not over the bow.

Sharpen your tools — see you on the water.

Muster the Crew: Your Guns Need Hands

Ships are no longer crewed by ghosts. From this update every broadside is served by real, countable — and killable — gunners.

Two Kinds of Hands Aboard

• Every ship carries a free base crew. They work the sails, hold the wheel and haul loot aboard — your ship can ALWAYS sail, trade and salvage, no matter what happened to the rest of the crew.

• The guns need gunners. Each cannon takes a crew to serve it: a light cannon needs 3 hands, a carronade 4, a heavy gun 6. No gunners — no broadside, simple as that.

Short Crews Fire Slowly

• A fully crewed deck reloads at full speed. Lose half your gunners and every reload takes twice as long — watch the guns run back out to see who's still working.

• No gunners at all? The battery stays silent until you hire in port.

Blood on the Deck

• Hull hits now kill gunners. Round shot claims a man here and there, heavy balls hit the gun crews hard, chain shot tears canvas but spares the men below.

• Sinking loses the whole gun crew. The base sailors make it to shore — your gunners don't. Budget for a fresh muster after every disaster.

• You'll see it happen: "Crew lost" rises over your deck when men go down.

Hiring in Port

• The ship panel's Crew row shows your muster at a glance — orange means you're short-handed. Hit Hire, drag the slider for how many heads you want, and pay per man.

• Every port sets its own hiring price — a cheap muster might be worth the detour.

Ship Info, Now Also at Sea

• The ship screen (I) got the same clean stat rows as the port panel: durability, sails, crew, guns, defense, speed, maneuver — all live, even mid-fight. Check your losses without sailing home.

• Durability now always means the hull. Sails keep their own health and only slow you down when shredded — one number, one meaning, everywhere.

Muster well — see you on the water.