What is changing on the Steam server

The Steam launch comes with a new clean-start server, known as Fresh. The aim is a smaller ship list, a clearer economy and a smoother first few hours, without throwing out the missions and combat that people already know.

Everything on this wiki describes the Fresh server. If you have played before, this page is the quickest way to see what is different.

Already in

Combat

Ship size now affects your chance to hit. Big ships are easier to hit and small ships are harder, and the difference grows at long range. In the old game this setting existed but was switched off. The full table is in Cannon accuracy.
Cannons have been rebalanced as one family.
- Every ship gun now reaches a maximum of 700 m (it was 750 m).
- Mid range now depends on the weight of shot. Light guns have a long mid range, around 500 m for a 4-pounder. Heavy guns have a short one, around 355 m for a 24-pounder. Light guns are the long-range harassers and heavy guns are the close-range killers.
- Damage was reset so that heavier guns always do more damage over time than lighter ones, and two guns of the same weight perform alike whatever they are made of.
- Look up any gun under Cannons, or compare them in the hit chance calculator.
Large and Huge ships have much thicker armor, about two and three quarter times what they had. Fights between frigates and bigger ships were ending in under a minute; this puts them back to a sensible length. Small and Medium ships are unchanged. Forts are tougher too.
Shot is sized to the ship. Round, bar, chain, grape and canister now come in Small, Medium, Large and Huge, and your guns will only load the size that fits your ship. Each ship page shows its ammo size. You can still carry any shot in your hold as cargo. A number of exotic shot types from the old game have been retired. See Ammunition.
Disconnect protection. If you lose your connection in a fight against computer-controlled ships, they stop shooting at you. If nobody else is in the battle, the battle pauses until you are back.

Economy

Crafting is timed, and labor is gone. You queue batches at a structure and they finish on a real-world clock, whether or not you are online. You can queue about 6 hours of work per structure, or 48 hours as a subscriber. Finished batches can be collected while the rest are still running, and cancelling refunds what has not been made. The details are in Crafting step by step.
A smaller, clearer crafting tree. The old sprawl of buildings and half-finished goods has been rebuilt around a short list of workshops, each with an obvious job, and ships are built from a hull plus fittings-out. Browse it under Structures and Recipes.
Up to 10 structures per account.
Auction house improvements. New filters hide NPC sellers or show only items with sell orders or buy orders. You can sort by highest buy price, right-click a row for item details, and send a purchase straight to your warehouse when you have one in that port.

Ships

The player ship list is down to about 45 ships. Third rates and bigger, mastercraft and refit variants and most scout-only hulls can no longer be built, bought or won, and the Ships list shows only what is left. You will still meet the retired ships at sea under computer control.

Everything else

Fishing has been rebuilt around casting and reeling, with bait used up on each cast and bonuses from rods, lures and tackle boxes.
The ship tutorial is smoother: a clearer sailing section, fewer places to get stuck, and the sword-fighting part is now optional.
Translations are on a new system for English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Russian, which makes text fixes much quicker to ship.
The dockyard teleport can be used from port only and now shows its cooldown.
Society warehouses keep a history of who put in and took out what.

Being worked on for launch

These are planned but not final. Details may change.

Finishing the ship cut. No scout ships and no third rates or bigger for players at launch, with a couple of big armed merchantmen at the top of the list. Cut ships should not be craftable, buyable or capturable.
A new way to capture ships, so captures feel rewarding without handing out free fleets. The direction is that Pirates keep Take Command with a limited number of dock slots, and nationals use a Letter of Marque that leads to prize money or salvage rather than a free ship. Until it lands, capture works as described in Capturing ships.
Port size limits. Starter ports should favour small ships so new captains stay in the small-ship game for longer; the biggest hulls belong in the bigger ports.
Repairs after a fight made less of a chore.
Open sea traffic updated so the computer-controlled ships you meet match the new ship list.

After launch

Bigger ships coming back over time, starting with the third rates.
Port battles limited to ships that fit the port.
More depth on the open sea, and a real purpose for smuggling and the tiniest ships.
An overhaul of sword fighting.

If you played before: things to unlearn

There are no labor hours. Do not log in to “spend labor”; log in to refill your queues.
Bigger is not always safer. A Huge ship is now noticeably easier to hit than a Small one, especially at range.
Check your gun’s mid range. The numbers you remember are out of date.
Buy shot for your ship’s size. Your guns will not load anything else.