• We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year. We hope new year 2023 will bring you joy happiness and prosperity.
  
• Continuing our annual tradition, new year gifts will be provided to players by the end of the year (after seasonal reset). List of gifts will be posted shortly.

Caribbean server Only

• First test season will end on Monday 26th of December. Caribbean server will experience its first seasonal reset.
  
• Naval service medals that are already earned will be kept and all investments already made will remain on player account.
  
• All experience points, ranks, money, assets, buildings will be reset.
  
• War server and peace server will remain as is
  
• New Season One will start on the 26th of December and will last till end of March 2023.

• Basic cutter is gone. Welcome Basic Brig. Better stable platform for new players allowing to experience square riggers right from the start of the game.
  
• Ship crafting XP and its levels overhaul based on current ship HP and DPS data. Cost to craft ship will also change and will be reduced significantly for 3rd rates and below.
  
• Resource production and ability to open resource production buildings in regions will change to provide more incentives to investment use and resource trading.
  
• Detailed patch notes will be posted on 26th of December.

• Ship racing cup - Caribbean Cup - with special prizes will come in January 2023.

• Ship auction is now too fragmented and new players don’t see the whole selection of ships that they can buy. To fix this we are introducing the global ship auction available for shipbuilders. Once feature is added ships place to ship auction by shipbuilders will be visible and available for purchase in all national towns and free towns, Price will be adjusted by distance between city of purchase and city of auction.

Captains,

Two loot events will run from daily maintenance on December 23th until daily maintenance on December 26th.

• St. Kitts 5 modules are available in the Admiralty, they can be exchanged for Broad Pennants that occasionally drop from 5th rates and higher
  
• Broad pennant will drop from military NPC ships

Captains have to find rare ships like Diana, Santa Cecilia and Admiraal de Ruyter in the search areas provided below. These ships may carry a very rare ship notes and special loot coins, rare wood and rare guns:

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

Coins might be exchanged in the Academy building to receive:

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

If you already have the Navy Connection using the item will add even more outposts or docks (up to a total limit).

Search locations

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

In case of capture of certain ports in the area, the nation of ships will change.

*Spotlight image from Captain Holdfaust from the February screenshot competition.

Captains,

Two loot events are live from daily maintenance on December 16th until daily maintenance on December 19th:

• All traders carry increased numbers of crafting resources and rare woods.

• Martinique 5 modules are available in the Admiralty, they can be exchanged for Broad Pennants that occasionally drop from 5th rates and higher
  
• Broad pennant will drop from military NPC ships

*Spotlight image from Captain Revard (January screenshot competition)

Captains,

Two loot events will run from daily maintenance on December 9th until daily maintenance on December 12th.

• St. Kitts 5 modules are available in the Admiralty, they can be exchanged for Broad Pennants that occasionally drop from 5th rates and higher
  
• Broad pennant will drop from military NPC ships

Captains have to find rare ships like Diana, Santa Cecilia and Admiraal de Ruyter in the search areas provided below. These ships may carry a very rare ship notes and special loot coins, rare wood and rare guns:

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

Coins might be exchanged in the Academy building to receive:

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

If you already have the Navy Connection using the item will add even more outposts or docks (up to a total limit).

Search locations

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

In case of capture of certain ports in the area, the nation of ships will change.

*Spotlight image from Captain Johnny from the January screenshot competition.

Captains,

Martinique loot event will run from daily maintenance on December 2nd until daily maintenance on December 5th.

• Martinique 5 modules are available in the Admiralty, they can be exchanged for Broad Pennants that occasionally drop from 5th rates and higher
  
• Broad pennant will drop from military NPC ships

*Spotlight image from Captain Gustav156 from the January screenshot competition.

Captains,

A small update was deployed today, November 30th:

• Hunt and Search and Destroy missions:
  • Missions now grant higher stars for seasons
    
  • Higher level Hunt Missions now grant wood chests
    
  • Higher level Search and Destroy missions now grant rare wood chests
    
  • Progression no longer takes into account pvp kills (including fleet NPC ships) to remove exploits
    
  • Players need to sink NPC ships from Open World only to complete such missions
    
  • Difficulty level, rewards and required kills were tuned
• Rare shipbuilding woods thickness stats were slightly increased
  
• Rare guns damage was slightly increased

Captains

Grape shot has been buffed and improved to bring more variability to battles.

Previously
There was no reason to switch to grapeshot during battle unless you wanted to board. If you wanted to destroy the enemy combat power you had to shot cannon balls. Compared to 10-15 grapeshot broadsides to de-crew the enemy through side it took around 5-6 broadsides to destroy structure. As a result grapeshot was used during boarding or before boarding with only intent - to capture.

New grapeshot usage.

• Grapeshot damage now depends on cannon damage. Heavier calibers destroy more crew.
  
• Grapeshot works best if planking HP has been reduced to below 15-20% as before
  
• Grapeshot also work if you shoot into areas where crew is located on open decks or shoot through unprotected areas (windows or stern galleries)
  
• One proper broadside into locations of crew will send the enemy ship into crew shock
  
• Crew shock will stop ALL activities on the enemy vessel for 1 minute and lock the rudder due to inability of the crew to operate the ship
  
• This will allow you to remove the determined defender advantage and board the enemy if you shocked the enemy crew in the right moment
  
• Crew cannot be destroyed completely - you kill less and less people per broadside once you get below 40% crew, Thus unlike rigging shock - crew shock can only be applied ONCE until you repair.

Example of usage
If you see one of the enemies close to you with low planking HP but high structure it might be beneficial to switch to grape shot, send enemy to crew shock and board his ship. This will get you an intact ship if you win the boarding. if you have press gang and combat repairs it will also recover some of the crew and will reset your repairs. This could work particularly well if you enemies are not well organized and have weak focus fire.

Such high risk high reward play was not possible before at all. Grape shot was weak. Not anymore.

ps.
Don't forget that if you are already sinking but have boarded the enemy the game gives you the "last chance" which will automatically place you in command of enemy ship if you win the boarding.

We will actively monitor the changes to grape and your feedback and will tweak it further if needed.
Next week we will buff rewards for hunts and S&D missions for PVE and will roll some additional buffs to rare guns.

Captains,

Diana event will run from daily maintenance on November 25th until daily maintenance on November 28th.

Captains have to find rare ships like Diana, Santa Cecilia and Admiraal de Ruyter in the search areas provided below. These ships may carry a very rare ship notes and special loot coins, rare wood and rare guns:

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

Coins might be exchanged in the Academy building to receive:

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

If you already have the Navy Connection using the item will add even more outposts or docks (up to a total limit).

Search locations

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

In case of capture of certain ports in the area, the nation of ships will change.

• Damage from grape shot and crew shock were tuned
  
• Crew shock duration was increased. In addition to current limitations (repairing and sail control) it is no longer possible to fire a broadside, change crew focus, extinguish a fire, control the helm and activate brace during crew shock
  
• Brace mechanics changed: players can no longer control sails, but helm control and pump work added instead.
  
• Splinter damage to crew from round shot was lowered
  
• Ship explosion now cause damage to nearby friendly ships too (exception: friendly NPC ships)
  
• Server name was added on the character selection and character deletion screens

*Spotlight image from Captain Junan from the January screenshot competition.

Captains,

Where is my shipment? Event will run from daily maintenance on November 18th until daily maintenance on November 21st:

• All traders carry increased numbers of crafting resources and rare woods.

Spotlight image from Captain Junan

Captains,

Diana event will run from daily maintenance on November 11th until daily maintenance on November 14th.

Captains have to find rare ships like Diana, Santa Cecilia and Admiraal de Ruyter in the search areas provided below. These ships may carry a very rare ship notes and special loot coins, rare wood and rare guns:

• Gold Ducat
  
• Gold Rouble
  
• Gold Sultani
  
• Gold Thaler
  
• Strange Gold Bar
  
• Rare wood
  
• Rare guns

Coins might be exchanged in the Academy building to receive:

• Additional outpost permit
  
• Additional dock permit
  
• Diana permit
  
• Admiraal de Ruyter permit

If you already have the Navy Connection using the item will add even more outposts or docks (up to a total limit).

Search locations

• South Antilles
  
• East of Tumbado - area between Cuba and Tumbado
  
• South of Hispaniola

In case of capture of certain ports in the area, the nation of ships will change.

*Spotlight image from Captain banymark from the December screenshot competition.