⚓ Update: Clan Upgrades, Shield Rework, and Combat Balance

A big one this time. Let's break it all down.

🏴‍☠️ Clan Upgrades

A new Research system has been added! Contribute resources to develop your clan and unlock powerful passive bonuses for all clan members.

• Increase your clan level to unlock new items from the Merchant
• A higher clan level also raises the Chest's maximum level

🛡️ Reworked Shields and Shield-Piercing Shots

Shield mechanics have been significantly improved, with several incorrect ability behaviors fixed.

General Changes

• Shields now block bullets with a 50% chance during the boarding stage
• Abilities that reflect or block bullet damage no longer affect shots empowered by shield-piercing abilities, such as Francesca's "Fissure"
• Reflected shots now retain their original effects, such as Bleeding

Sniper & Machine Gun

• Fixed the Sniper's shot, it now pierces through two targets, with the second target taking reduced damage
• The Sniper's "More Gunpowder" ability now allows shots to pierce targets without damage reduction
• The Machine Gun no longer pierces shields, but now deals more damage and can gradually destroy a target's bullet protection with the "Swiss Cheese" ability

Shield Abilities

• Reworked the "Defender," "Bodyguard," and "Attack into the Void" abilities on Light, Heavy, and Steel Shields, they now trigger constantly, absorbing part of the area damage dealt to the sailor behind the shield
• Fixed the Heavy Shield's "Cascade" ability
• The Steel Shield's "Ironclad" ability has been replaced with "Shrapnel Absorption," which reduces explosion radius
• The Steel Shield's "Counter Reaction" ability now reflects only regular cannonballs
• Fixed an issue where projectiles reflected by Redmond Force's shield did not deal area damage

✈️ Reworked Air Defense and Arc Projectiles

New Air Hunter shooting mechanics:

• Each projectile flying in an arc trajectory now has its own durability
• The Air Hunter no longer destroys projectiles instantly, instead, each shot deals damage to them, and its attack speed has been greatly increased
• The "Lucky Shot" ability has been replaced with "Clockwork Mechanism," allowing it to keep firing even after losing gunners
• The "Bull's-eye" ability now activates every time a projectile is destroyed
• The reload speed upgrade for the Air Hunter has been replaced with a damage increase
• Kraken's Poison Spits can no longer be destroyed, and defending against its Barrel now requires several Air Hunters, its durability also increases with Kraken's level

⚖️ Balance Fixes

• Cannons now deal damage to ships during boarding as well, hull durability has been rebalanced
• The Large Cannon's "Breach" ability now damages the ship only when hitting the first target in its line of fire
• Cannons now factor in rotation time before firing when selecting a target, and distance now has less influence on target selection
• Fixed an issue where cannons with frozen gunners continued reloading and firing
• Fixed an issue where the Ice Brig's "Frost Ram" ability only froze melee sailors, and only aboard ships with a collision knockdown ability
• The Sniper's "Bull's-eye" ability now always deals guaranteed critical damage
• The Repairman's "Flow" ability now grants a chance to dodge instead of invulnerability
• Fixed an issue where the Talisman of Calm affected sailors
• Fixed an issue where the Kamikaze could not attack
• Fixed an issue where gunners abandoned their cannons and ran off when unable to fire
• The Flamethrower's area damage has been reduced by half
• Shields and equipment no longer damage their owner when destroyed, cannons, however, now explode more noticeably, dealing shrapnel damage in a small radius
• Adjusted the balance of gold and building material production by forts
• Excess Sailor, Captain, and Ship Cards are no longer removed from shops, they can still be purchased and will automatically convert into Gold or Rubies

🔧 Other Changes

• Fixed battle freezing issues
• Fixed overlapping in-game events causing them to freeze
• Fixed an issue that allowed assigning multiple captains to a ship
• Fixed an issue where Marcus Sharp refused to shoot during boarding
• Various UI and text improvements

💬 Let Us Know

What do you think of the shield and air defense rework? Notice a difference in battle? Drop your thoughts in the comments.