(Not every single detail will be explained here as this is already too much text for a huge update. And as always with a big update like this expect bugs and things to change as we tweak going forward. For reference, the words "square," "grid square," and "tile" will be used interchangeably below with regards to the new Naval Grid.)
Ship System 2.0
The Ship System has been completely overhauled. Although there will many elements players will recognize, most of it has changed one way or another. The biggest change here is the move to the Naval Grid, with ships having a physical location on the grid itself to navigate on.
The grid represents the area of the Trackless Sea surrounding Arelith, with Arelith in its center grid square. Arelith's square ("Origin," at 0,0) is considered "safe-waters," and within here you can travel to all Arelith-specific ports as before and still encounter some events like NPC vessels and Locations. However, any Player vs Player ship interaction is disabled within this center-tile.
Outside of the Origin square, we have the wider Trackless Sea: here Ships can now navigate a large grid with fixed landmarks and encounter random events based on the region of the map the ship is currently located at.
The CR of these events will increase with further distance from Arelith at the center. Sailing deep waters is now consistently dangerous, but can also be rewarding as some encounters will only be found so far from friendly coasts.
Player vs Player Ship Combat
The Trackless Sea is open for Player vs Player ship combat, but any direct interaction between ships can only be done if their locations are close enough to each other.
Ships are only valid targets to another ship if they fail a Hide check, and are physically close to one another on the grid. Furthermore, hostile actions such as Grappling and Ship Weaponry are only allowed if a target ship is within 1-tile distance (non-diagonal) of one's current location.
If a ship is diagonal from another ship's location, it may be spotted and one can scout its direction to try and pursue it but it can't be engaged by any hostile means until pursued and directly adjacent again.
Traversing The Naval Grid
When sailing outside of Arelith on the Trackless Sea you must choose a Cardinal Direction to move your ship towards. This will move your position between tiles on the map and the duration it takes to travel 1 tile in distance depends on a number of factors:
* A straight Cardinal Direction (North, South, East and West) will have a shorter duration than moving Diagonally (South-West, North-East etc).
* Ship's base Speed skill
* Weather
* Upgrades
* Ship Health
When reaching a new Tile on the map the ship will continue to travel along its given direction automatically and you have to order it to stop in that tile if you wish to stay there. As explaiend above some tiles offers unique landmarks
and events so staying there is always a valid option. The Ship's Navigator lets you plot a Direction.