Our third batch of ship and seafaring changes has just been loaded up! The main focus of this batch was overhauling the way ship weapons work and making ship combat a lot less frustrating and more fun. There are still many more changes in the works, include reworking specialisations to make solo sailing more accessible, adding in more fun and rewarding adventures at sea, and many more.

Without further ado, I give you:

Ship targeting
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* Ship captains can now set a ship-wide target for the vessel.
* Will colour the ship a different colour for all adventurers on the ship.
* Will allow weapons to be fired without specifying directions or names.
* SHIP TARGET LOCK <ship> will set the target. SHIP TARGET LOCK CLEAR will clear it
* Ships need to be within 40 metrons to target them.

Weapon aiming and accuracy
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* Weapons now have 100% accuracy, but aiming and firing upon the target vessel will now be a channeled action when you FIRE.
* The length of the aiming/firing sequence will be determined by your skill in the weapons specialisation, the distance to the target, and the size of the ship.
* In the future, we'll be adding more modifiers to these calculations, such as manoeuvres.
* Seamonsters are not included in these calculations yet, and will be changed as part of a larger overhaul in that area.

Ammunition
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* All ammunition damage has been adjusted and rebalanced.
* Chainshot will now do pure sails damage and will bind the sails until the rigging is CLEARed.
* When dipped, this will set the sails on fire.
* Spidershot will now bind a weapon on the enemy ship, rendering it inoperable until it is CLEARed.
* This ammunition no longer does any hull or sails damage.
* Wardisc will no longer damage players on a vessel, but will fly across the deck causing the crew to duck and cower.
* The crew will be interrupted from their present task and will not accept orders for a few seconds afterwards.
* Ballista darts will now cause significant hull damage and cause the enemy vessel to start leaking.
* When dipped, they will cause an outdoor room to catch fire.
* Rowing crew will be interrupted when hit.
* Starshot will now encircle the ship's figurehead, causing any melded sailors to be unmelded.
* The figurehead will remain unusable until it is CLEARed.
* When dipped, it will start a fire on the bow.
* Flares remain unchanged.

General weapon and skill changes
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* Weapons have a short recovery period as they return to a fireable state.
* Damage to weapons has been removed.
* Weapons will no longer misfire.
* Weapon enhancements are no longer in the game, and all weapons are now fixed speed.
* WEAPONENHANCEMENT have been removed from the Seafaring skill. (Don't worry, there are more changes to the skill to come).
* WEAPONMAINTENANCE has been modified to reflect the above.
* WEAPONAIMING has been repurposed as per the section above.
* LOADWEAPON has been added at Weapons specialisation rank 1, removing the balance cost to load a weapon.

Because this is such a large change, and we want to see people out trying them, we have removed all harbour salvage costs until further notice.

Penned by My hand on the 4th of Mayan, in the year 699 AF.