12/14/2007    |    Devlog    |    Taelorn    |    Discuss

Currently, ship speeds vary from about 45 to 75 knots on the Open Sea. This means the fastest ships in the game can feel like speed boats, whereas the frigates feel exactly right. And as anyone who’s sailed a Ship of the Line can tell you, they move like pigs!

We’re going to be changing that by adjusting the speed scale in an upcoming patch. Right now, the slowest ship in our game is 45 knots, while the fastest is currently 75 knots. The change will adjust the speed of our fastest ships down to 66 knots, but will have no effect on the slower ships. Most frigates are seeing a speed change of 0%-4%, while the most highly impacted small ship is seeing a reduction of 10% (with one outlier, the ‘Halifax’ Mastercraft Schooner, reduced by 12%).

In addition, we want to encourage players to upgrade from their starter ships. We’re making some minor adjustments so that when you do move from your starter ship to the next one, your Open Sea speed will increase slightly. And finally, we aren’t reducing their turn rates, meaning those ships that are slower will now turn tighter.

We’re doing this for a few reasons:

1) We think Open Sea speeds on the medium and larger ships feel pretty good. It’s the little speedboats that need trimming.

2) We want it to take a little longer to get through a PvP hotspot when in a fast ship.

3) Lowering those highest speed values has a multiplicative effect when you stack speed modifiers. So while some ships are getting a 10% change to base speed, the change is effectively larger at the stacked-modifier high end. Absolute maximum speed for a fully tricked-out small ship will be up to 16 knots slower than it is now, although it will still be very, very fast.

4) We absolutely don’t want to make the slow ships any slower.

5) Now that the starting ships are not used for PvP, we want you to upgrade from your starting ship ASAP. Upgrading your starting ship should not always make you slower.

6) Players who optimize their ships for Open Sea speed will be able to achieve fast travel through careful modification and skill use, but it will start with less of a speedboat feeling. It’ll take more customization through skills and outfitting to turn a ship into a speedboat.

The other nice thing about this is that it makes the Open Sea feel a little bigger. While the speed changes didn’t come from trying to solve this, it’s definitely a nice bonus!

Overall, the changes are pretty minor, but we know it’s an important issue so we wanted to share it with you before it hits beta. As with any tuning change, the specifics are subject to change based on testing and beta feedback.

12/14/2007    |    Devlog    |    Taelorn    |    Discuss