Patch Notes: Sail into the wind, and a sea serpent you can beat

Sailing

(Ship handling on Responsive, the default)

• A speed readout. At the helm, your ship's speed through the water shows beside her name, in knots.
• No more tacking. Your ship sails on every heading. Pointed straight into the wind she makes a little over half her best speed; before, she stalled or was blown backwards. She is fastest with the wind behind her, off to one side.
• More speed. Ships are faster under sail. A galleon with the wind on her side is nearly two thirds faster than before.
• A storm still drives her harder, up to twice what a fair breeze does. In fog she keeps nearly a third of her speed instead of lying becalmed.
• Every ship answers the helm as she did before: she gathers speed, loses it and turns at her new speed as she did at her old one. At her new speed she turns on a wider circle, as a faster ship does.
• Sails no longer flap uselessly or blow backwards when you point into the wind, and she can no longer get stuck "in irons".
• The helm trims the sails itself, so the trim buttons and keys are gone under Responsive.
• Overworld travel by sea sails straight for a port that lies upwind instead of zig-zagging. It steers well clear of islands at the new speeds, and sails through fog instead of rowing.
• Heaving to beside a ship that has struck her colours stops you within boarding reach. At storm speeds it is offered as you come up on her, early enough to stop alongside.
• Rowing after you strike sail no longer holds your speed: she slows as fast as she does with no oars out, then rows on.
• In a storm, a galleon or Carrack no longer vanishes from other players' screens.
• A short hiccup in the connection no longer puts you off a friend's ship you are riding on.
• Classic ship handling is unchanged: it sails exactly as the Come Sail Away mod does.
• Other captains on the Bay sail as before.

Sethrakul, the sea serpent

• It no longer teleports. It swims every move it makes. For a Rising Maw or a coil it dashes at you under the water, and a wake on the surface shows where it is going. The Maelstrom now forms where the serpent is swimming, and always inside its waters.
• It aims where you are going. A Rising Maw, a coil, a spit or a ram is aimed where your ship will be when it lands. Turn or slow when you see it coming.
• It closes in on the surface. If you are too far away for it to reach in time, it surges at you above the water, where your guns can hit it, faster than you are sailing up to its own top speed. Outsail it for about 12 seconds and it gives up and picks again.
• Your hits count. A broadside is judged where the serpent was when the shot landed, so a volley fired just before it moves is no longer wasted.
• Two ships can win. While exactly two ships are fighting it, its attacks deal two thirds of their damage: blows, coils, the Maelstrom and venom alike, crew losses included. A rowboat or a friend riding on your deck is not a second ship. In fair weather one ship alone still cannot beat it. Three or more ships take full damage, as before.
• A coil wraps round your ship the way its body lies, and no longer sweeps across your deck as it closes and lets go.
• A short drop in your connection no longer throws the serpent back across the water when you reconnect. If everyone sails away and comes back later, it is where it was, not somewhere new.
• Its wake no longer crowds out the splashes of your own cannon fire.
• An older version of the game is told to reload, and cannot fight until it has. While it reloads, it no longer counts as a ship in the fight.
• It moves smoothly on every screen, even for players whose connection lags behind, and no longer jumps when a relay restarts.
• A ship that wrecks inside a coil is let go.

What's Changed

• SAIL-FREE + SERPENT3 + AUDIT SHIPS: sail into the wind with more way; a sea serpent that never teleports and a pair can beat - relay world173 by @Lattymoy in #634

Full Changelog: app-v0.1.6546...app-v0.1.6561