POOP DECK Playtest · published
## New
- **Four new playable captains** — Terror (ships that linger nearby spill cargo overboard — and the plunder puts a price on the Terror's own head), Tactician (a 180° helm pivot backed by a kedge anchor), Corsair (blockades a port), and Buccaneer (can take the King's Pardon to shed their bounty).
- **Captain abilities are here** — hold the ability button to channel, fire a once-per-match active, and track its cooldown from a HUD readout that survives respawns and ship swaps.
- **First mates now pull real weight** — each has their own passive perk plus a separate active ability, with a dual HUD showing both captain and first mate.
- **New full-screen captain select** — separate rosters for Caribbean and Deathmatch, with portrait icons for every captain.
- **Captain HUD now tells you why an ability didn't fire** — on cooldown, already spent, or out of range; the Buccaneer's King's Pardon also plays its own success toast and chime when it lands.
- **Privateer fleets replace random bounty hunters** — a deterministic ladder of pursuers that retarget when one of them sinks and retire in turn.
- **Caribbean ship purchases are now permanent** — buy a hull once and it's yours; repurchasing after a sinking is free.
- **The Salvager captain preserves ship upgrades through a sinking.**
- **Score screen redesign** — a My Ship widget showing hull, cargo, and upgrades; captain icons with cooldown radials; inventory folded into the same overlay.
- **Fugitive's bonus "Full Canvas" sails now fly on every hull**, sloop through fourth rate.
- **Chain shot now renders as two linked, spinning iron balls** instead of a single projectile.
- **Ship wakes are proper V-shaped Kelvin wakes, scaled to each hull's size.**
- **The Fisherman captain reveals loot contents as overhead labels.**
- **Frigate got new visual dressing** — wood masts, deck crew, and a ship's wheel.
- **Galleon got deck crew and now rides half a meter higher in the water.**
- **Gamepad now uses native A/B for confirm/back**, with cleaned-up button mappings throughout.
## Changes & Balance
- **Terror's cargo-spill range increased 30%** (10m → 13m).
- **NPC trader density now scales with player count** — a 4-player game sees roughly 13 traders on the water instead of a fixed 5.
- **Brigantine's bonus sails repositioned.**
- **Paired chaser cannon shots now spawn much closer together, near the centerline** (aim direction unchanged).
## Fixes
- **Buccaneer's King's Pardon actually reaches the server now** — it was silently failing before.
- **Corsair's blockade range is now consistent, with proper per-port cooldowns.**
- **Tactician's kedge anchor now drifts the ship realistically** instead of freezing it in place.
- **Non-host players can reload and fire chasers again** — they used to get stuck after each cannon's first two loaded shots.
- **Santiago de Cuba's dock now faces the shore correctly, with a better hitbox.**