Test Server Update – New Ocean Fleets, Targeted Loot & Balance Changes

New Ocean Fleets

• Added new Dutch Ocean Fleets patrolling the Deep Waters between La Mona and Curacao (Benedenwinds region on the map).

• The fleets do not attack players for now (unlike the patrolling NPCs on Trincomalee ships).

• It is impossible to join a battle on the side of the Ocean Fleet, and the same applies to initial pulling into the battle — this prevents players from disrupting others’ engagements.

• On Live Servers, these fleets will sail at full strength with 20–25 NPC ships.

• On the Test Server, fleet size is limited to 3 NPC ships for more comfortable small-group testing.

• Sinking these ships provides a chance to loot rare offensive modules (e.g. gun reloading, boarding modules) and rare books for collections, with an increased drop rate.

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Targeted Loot Distribution

We are gradually introducing activity-specific loot targeting. This means different activities now yield different loot types.

Current implementation:

• Ocean Fleets → Rare offensive modules (blue to gold) and rare books for collections.

  • For example: Gun Sights, Marines, Gunners, etc.

• Raiders Port Battles → Rare defensive modules (blue to gold) and rare books for collections.

  • For example: Planking, Reinforced Sails, Reinforced Masts, etc.

We believe this approach will help players determine which activity to focus on in order to collect a desired module or book.

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Double Shot Effectiveness

The effectiveness of double shot has been significantly reduced at long ranges:

• Damage now starts to gradually fall off from 250m to 500m.

• Beyond 500m, double shot becomes completely ineffective.

Double shot is now exclusively a close-range ammunition.

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Other Changes

• Update on NPC decision-making regarding when to switch broadsides.

• Open World Patrol Trincomalee NPCs are now Dutch, same as the Ocean Fleets.

• Updated localization (conquest missions).

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Known Issues

It is currently impossible to teleport from/to outposts, create new buildings, or craft in existing buildings in the following Free Towns:

• Nassau

• La Tortue

• La Mona

• Aves

• Guayaguayare

• Dariena

• Great Corn

• Tumbado

This issue will be resolved in the next hotfix.

UPDATE – The issue was fixed on September 27 and Free Town functionality has been fully restored

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Spotlight image by Revard, from the January 2022 screenshot competition.