Patch Notes: The Sea's Second Refit

Your hold, from anywhere

• F4 (rebindable, "Cargo" under Come Sail Away) opens the hold of the ship you're on: at the helm, on deck or in the cabin. Away from it, F4 opens the last ship you helmed, or the first ship in your fleet with a hold, wherever it's moored or laid up.
• The helm panel has a Hold button, and so does each ship on the Fleet page.
• The hold now works as real storage in the Enhanced inventory. You can put cargo in, not just take it out. A laid-up ship's packed weight updates when you close the hold.

Pirate raids end when you win

• If pirates raid you while you're ashore with your cabin ship and you beat them, the raid now ends. The crews that kept spawning, passive, after the fight are gone, and leftover raiders are removed from the street and from the room you're in.
• You can't fast-travel away from a raid that's still going.

Ram and board

• Ram a ship hard enough and the two ships lock together for 20 seconds. The enemy ship lowers its sails and slows to a crawl, but its guns keep firing.
• While the ships are locked you can board straight away, without battering the enemy into surrender first. The whole enemy crew fights you.
• The target card shows "Fouled - E: board" while the ship is in reach.

Shot types

• Each battery can be loaded with round, grape, chain or heated shot. The broadsides share one load; the bow chasers and the stern guns each have their own.
• Grape kills crew and does little to the hull. It loses force at long range.
• Chain shreds sails and rigging.
• Heated shot often sets the hull on fire, and a hit to the sails can set them burning.
• Change the load with the mouse wheel while aiming, with the helm's Shot button, or with the new Shot key (unbound by default, under Combat). Switching unloads a ready battery and reloads it with the new shot.
• Each load has its own ball, muzzle flash, splash and hit. Pirates coming alongside to board load grape.

Sea combat improvements

• Gun smoke drifts with the wind. A broadside leaves a bank of smoke that hangs over the fight and drifts downwind. Smoke from a burning or damaged ship trails away from it.
• Easier to read splashes. Each cannonball lands with a tall spout of water. Splashes are scaled up with distance, so you can see where far-off shots land.
• Near misses. A ball passing close to your ship whistles, louder the closer it passes. One landing right beside you throws water over the rail and rocks the deck.
• Hits on your ship. The side the shot came from (bow, stern, port or starboard) flashes on your helm plate, and the hull bar shows how much you lost.
• Sinking ships. A ship that sinks while on fire may blow its powder magazine, and every player sees the same blast. Air bubbles up where a ship goes under.
• Damage you can see. When your ship is badly damaged in a fight, smoke rises along the deck.
• Enemy crew on the card. The target card now shows the enemy's crew, and your broadside's tally says how many crew went down, so you can see grapeshot working.
• Reload times. Each battery shows how many seconds it has left to reload.

Enemy ships no longer use fast travel against you

• Within 700 m of a hostile ship, a journey now runs at normal speed. Before, an avoided encounter could carry you past a pirate at up to 60x speed, with the pirate firing at that speed while you couldn't fire back from the Overworld.
• The Overworld view now closes when a hostile ship is near, won't open next to one, and won't start a journey next to one, as it already did for enemies on land.
• Online, sea combat near another player always runs in real time. One player's fast travel or helm time acceleration can no longer speed up enemy ships fighting someone else.

Your own flag

• On the Fleet page, Colours opens a flag designer. Pick a shape (flag, swallowtail, pennant or burgee), a field colour with an optional division and second colour, a border, and a device with its own colour.
• Fly my guild's arms uses your guild's heraldry instead, and updates when the guild changes it.
• The flag is real waving cloth at the masthead, in place of the old pennant, sized to the hull. Every player sees it.

Sea ships in their own colours

• Navies use their kingdom's paint and royal ensign: Daggerfall's blue with the dagger, Wayrest's crimson with the rose, Sentinel's gold with the sun.
• Merchant ships each belong to one of eight trading houses, with the house's paint and its mark on the kingdom's merchant colours. Past the Veil they fly the Isles' teal.
• Pirates use one of six crews' dark paint and black flags: skulls, crossed blades, serpents, daggers or bats. A pirate using false colours is painted and flagged as the merchant house it's pretending to be, until it raises the black flag.
• Legendary ships have their own colours.
• A ship that surrenders, sinks or is captured lowers its flag. Every player sees the same ship in the same colours. Cloth flags show on ships within 450 m, up to 24 at once. Further away, ships fly the old pennant, and a ship fading in or out of view fades its flag too.

Paint your ship

• On the Fleet page, Paint lets you choose a colour for each part of your ship:
  • Large Boat, Small Ship and Carrack: hull strakes, trim and gilding, and sails.
  • Large Galley: wood stain and sails.
  • Rowboat: wood stain.
• There are fourteen paints: Oxblood, Crimson, Tar black, Navy, Bay blue, Teal, Sea green, Forest green, Ochre, Gold leaf, White lead, Slate grey, Tyrian purple and Tan. Any part can also keep its original look.
• Paint keeps the grain, seams and shading of the planks and sails, and the stern windows still glow at night.
• Painting is free, works wherever the ship is, and every player sees it. Remove paint puts the ship back to its original look.

Cabin wood

• Ships with a cabin (Small Ship, Large Galley and Carrack) can also choose a wood stain for the cabin in the Paint panel. Walls, floor, beams and built-in furniture all take that stain. It applies the next time you enter the cabin, and the windows light up as before.

Crates and chests on deck

• On the Fleet page, Deck opens a top-down plan of the deck. On a wide screen a long hull is shown bow to the right, so it's drawn larger.
• To place a fitting, pick a crate or chest from the list and click the deck. Click a placed fitting to select it, drag to move it, turn it with Q and E, and remove it with Delete. Click Save layout to keep it. A ship holds up to 24 fittings.
• Each fitting has to sit fully on the open deck and clear of the others: no crates hanging over the rail or overlapping, whether moved or turned.
• Fittings stand on the deck in the world and rock with the ship. You can walk around them and climb on them. Every player sees them.
• The plan opens once the deck is loaded, so place the ship in the world first. The cabin can still be furnished with the decorator, as before.

Ship name on the bow

• On the Fleet page, Show name puts your ship's name on both sides of the bow: a dark wooden board with the name in gold, in Daggerfall's own lettering, fitted to the curve of the hull just below the rail. Hide name removes it.
• It reads the right way from either side, on every hull from the Rowboat to the Carrack, and every player sees it.
• Only a named ship can show its name, so rename the ship first. Clearing the name removes the board. It's free and works wherever the ship is.

The Captain's Stars

• You now have a captain level (up to 30). Captain XP comes from sinking and capturing ships, beating off boarders, claiming prizes, finishing contracts, distance sailed, treasure charts, charting isles and selling goods at the exchange.
• Each level after the first gives one point to spend in the Captain's Stars, a skill tree in the Firmament's style. Open it from the Captain page.
• The Master (left) improves seamanship: speed under sail and oars, turning, cargo, hull, repairs, and better prices at the exchange.
• The Commander (right) improves combat: reload speed, gun damage, accuracy, grapeshot, chain shot and heated shot, boarding, ram damage, and how long a rammed ship stays locked.
• Keystones give a big bonus with a cost (for example, Master of the Wind: +12% speed under sail, -12% under oars). Stars apply to every ship you own. Removing or changing stars is free.

Metal refits: Steel to Daedric

• After the shipwright's three refit tiers, each upgrade line now has nine metal tiers: Steel, Silver, Elven, Dwarven, Mithril, Adamantium, Ebony, Orcish and Daedric. Each needs a captain level, from 3 for Steel up to 28 for Daedric.
• Each tier needs ingots of its metal, or weapons and plate armour of that metal for the shipwright to melt down. Only plain items are melted: never gear you're wearing, locked or bound gear, quest items, artifacts, player-made, enchanted, conjured, Magic-or-better, Legendary or socketed items. Ingots are used first.
• The refit panel shows what each tier adds now and next, how many items it would melt, and the level it needs.

Faster out of combat

• With no enemies near, no ship chasing you, and no boarding or aiming going on, your ship's sails and oars give 15% more speed.

Trade in the Veil

• Every port isle in the Eltheric Ocean now sells at least one ordinary trade good alongside its ether goods. Veilhaven sells spice. The sea chart's isle card shows it.

Clearer ship text

• Ship text no longer calls a ship "her" or "she". Messages, buttons, cards and hints across the sea, the Fleet page, the shipyard, the crew hall, the Captain's Stars, the sea chart, the tutorials and the crew's chatter now say "the ship", "this ship" or "it", in plain wording.
• Examples: "This ship is in your pack. Launch it from its parts.", "Not while the ship is in combat.", "Ship renamed to Gull.", and the buttons Sell, Lay up, Bring here, Claim and Scuttle.
• The Captain's Stars read as plain stats: "Gun damage", "Turning speed", "Cargo capacity", "Guns reload 3% faster".
• The 13 translated languages were updated to match.

Fixes

• Metal refits never melt valuable gear. The shipwright only melts plain items, never ones you're wearing, locked or bound, player-made, enchanted (including your own enchantments), conjured with Create Item, Magic or better, Legendary, or socketed. Ingots still go first, with iron ingots before steel ones for an Iron requirement. A refit you can pay for with steel ingots and steel weapons together is no longer refused.
• The Captain's Stars apply to every ship. Accepting stars now updates laid-up and packed ships too, so a ship summoned later no longer uses stars you've since removed. Keystone costs (like Boarders Away's hull penalty or Merchant Prince's gun damage penalty) now apply in combat. Taking a star mid-fight no longer reloads your guns. The Quick Dial key now asks before closing the stars window with unaccepted changes.
• The exchange no longer lets you buy a cheap good back at the price you sold it for when your trade stars are maxed.
• Other players see the same fight. A ship sinking on another player's screen now plays its sinking sound, and its powder magazine explodes on every screen alike. Chain shot and grapeshot now kill crew on ships another player controls. A rammed ship being boarded keeps its flag up on other players' screens. Ramming a ship another player controls locks it for boarding on every screen.
• Combat fixes. The shot wheel steps once per scroll on a trackpad. The tally's crew count matches what the enemy actually loses. A hit on one of your moored ships no longer flashes your helm plate or shakes your camera. Sailing up to a ship that's already sinking no longer replays its sinking or explosion. A ram that sinks a ship no longer tells you to board it. Your hull bar is correct when you take the helm of a different ship.
• Name boards no longer show on hidden players' boats or float in the room when you're indoors, and other players see a board shown or hidden right away.
• Deck crates no longer disappear from the deck after you've visited several houses.
• Another player's cabin shows its original look, not your own ship's stain.
• The hold. Taking cargo out of a packed ship's hold no longer counts its weight twice. Putting a packed ship's parts in its own hold no longer loses the ship. A rowboat's plunder can now be opened. F4 no longer opens a ship you can't otherwise reach. The ship's hold can now be bound to a controller button.
• The Fleet page no longer says a hold or deck plan opened when it didn't.
• The aiming arcs stay visible in a crowded fight full of grapeshot and chain shot.
• Smoother frames. No stutter the first time a named or painted ship comes into view. Painted sea ships no longer slow rendering. Deck fittings, near-miss checks, the out-of-combat speed check and damaged-ship smoke are all faster.

What's Changed

• NAVAL-REFIT: the hold anywhere, raids that end, ram and board, shot types, ship flags, captain's stars, metal refits, ship paint and deck fittings, combat feel, name boards, the sea's own colours, no time dilation for enemy ships, plain ship text by @Lattymoy in #976

Full Changelog: app-v0.1.9472...app-v0.1.9503