Patch Notes: The new galleon

A new galleon

• The Small Ship is a brand-new model by Mac. That is the galleon you can buy, and the hull the pirate brigantines, merchant galleons and navy cutters sail. She has a deep hull with a sharp bow, six oak beams carrying her main deck, and every texture at 64x64, the size of Daggerfall's own.
• Doors and hatches that open and close. Both hatch covers on her main deck lift open, and a ladder runs down under each one to her gun deck. The door into her great cabin and the door in her gun deck's bulkhead swing open and shut. Use them like any boat door.
• A wheel at the helm. Her wheel stands on the castle roof, where you steer from, and turns with the rudder as you put the helm over under sail. Under oars the wheel and rudder stay centred.
• Sails and ropes. She carries five sails: a fore course, two topsails, a big gaff sail on the main, and a jib. They furl and set, fill with the wind and swing as you trim, and their sheets and braces follow them. Shrouds with ratlines, stays and backstays hold them up.
• Painted properly. A painted hull with gilt bands, a panelled castle, a glazed stern gallery that glows at night, planked decks, gratings, red gunport shutters and tarred rigging.
• Cannon fire from her gunports. She has five gunports a side. When you lay a broadside, that side's shutters swing up and the guns run out through the ports, even on a quick click. Each ball leaves from its own port, and each gun kicks back as it fires before it's hauled out again. Other players see your shutters open and your guns run out, and when you leave the helm her guns run in and her ports shut. Ships of hers at sea open their ports when they run their guns out.
• Her castle is part of her deck. Two staircases climb to the castle roof and the helm. Her crew and boarders can walk up them, so nobody at the wheel is out of reach. Her officer and coxswain keep their posts up there while the hands work the main deck.
• Shots tear the canvas that's there. A ball through her sails tears them wherever the canvas hangs, however you trim. Chain shot passes through where a furled or shot-away sail would hang. Battle damage takes her highest canvas first: main topsail, fore topsail, jib, gaff, then the fore course.
• At a quay, her gangway climbs to the entry port in her waist. She stands tall, so it's a steeper climb than the Carrack's. Her carpenter keeps his post beside her hatch.
• Harbours sound for her keel. Where the sea floor shelves gently, berths and their quays lie a little further from the shore than before, so the ships that moor there can put out and come back in.
• If her model fails to load, the old galleon takes her place with its own guns, decks, sails, gangway and the shallower water it can reach.

Balance

• The new galleon carries five guns a side instead of the old one's six, so ships built on this hull hit a little lighter in a broadside. A cautious pirate brigantine is less eager to attack a boat on its own.
• That lighter broadside changes who picks a fight at sea. A cautious pirate brigantine no longer goes after merchant carracks, so from level 5 the brigantines' raids are on merchant galleons only. A cautious corsair galley now attacks merchant galleons, so from level 7 you can come across those fights. A cautious brigantine now runs from a navy war galley, and from a crewed Large Galley of yours.

Fixes

• Standing in the water or on a quay right next to a moored galleon no longer counts as being aboard her.
• A pirate boarding a prize that lies close to land now comes alongside instead of circling off.
• Head to wind with her sails set, her gaff and jib are taken aback and drive her astern: about 4 m/s in a steady wind, nearly half her speed ahead. The helm now tells you you're in irons while she goes astern. Put the helm over or strike sail to come out of it.
• A gaff, jib or lateen sail on a ship at sea now bellies away from the wind, on either tack. Before, they always bellied to starboard.
• Boarders can cross the Carrack's shut cargo doors, and standing on them counts as being aboard. Boarders follow you through open doors into cabins: the galleon's great cabin and the Carrack's rooms. Bodies on the Carrack no longer drop through her forecastle stair or get lifted onto her forecastle.

What's Changed

• GALLEON: Mac's new galleon for hull 2 - the arc and its two audits, merged up to main, with HOLDINGS fitted to her by @Lattymoy in #586

Full Changelog: app-v0.1.6087...app-v0.1.6136