wipe is coming soon

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

Dear Captains.
It is an important announcement. As promised last Autumn - we are bringing significant changes to your vessels that will streamline and improve the experience removing a lot of pain points from ship fitting and crafting. It will also solve the problem of ships being less expensive than some upgrades.
Here is what will happen.
Ships
Ships lose their quality levels - as it was deemed redundant
All Ships become have 1 durabilty as it should have been from the start
All captured/crafted ships are grey
You accumulate experience level sailing that particular vessel
By sailing that vessel you unlock better options for that vessel class. If you lose that vessel in battle you still have that experience and can use those unlocked better options in the future.
Example - after a lot of months at sea in the surprise your surprise will surprise any fresh leda captain, if you lose that surprise you still know how to sail it well.
You don't need to search or worry for rare upgrades anymore (if you have them)
Upgrades
Upgrades/refits are no longer craftable.
Upgrades/refits lose the quality level and no longer can be lost.
Upgrades/refits finally have size requirements. (large pumps can only be installed on large ships)
Upgrades/refits can be received in the admiralty and/or as loot items
Upgrades/refits are basically turned into ship skills
Example: If you have Spanish Silk Sail and a Naked angel figurehead - you won't ever lose them if you lost your ship
Crafting
Regional bonuses turn into refit items/blueprints
Shipyards will be brought back
Example: You can buy bermuda refit in bermuda, bring it to shipyards in Port Royal and refit your ship there
These changes will make all existing ships obsolete and impossible to use due to database structure changes. As a result all ships and upgrades will be removed/deleted from the game
ETA - Estimated time - within 30 days but not less than 2 weeks from this announcement.
Changes will be rolled out to testbed first
All current crafted or captured ships will be removed from the game
All Upgrades will be removed from the game
All Permanent upgrades will be removed from the game
Ship blueprints will not change significantly so you can and are encouraged to stockpile resources and materials for ship crafting after the wipe.
Apologies for all the inconvenience caused.

[MH6~SPARTA~]

Is this going to be the final wipe before release or are there still more wipes incoming? Maybe once they've finished doing wipes I will actually start playing again.

[custard~SPARTA~]

Is this going to be the final wipe before release or are there still more wipes incoming? Maybe once they've finished doing wipes I will actually start playing again.

They are not making any assurances this is the last before the game is released and we have the final wipe.

 

Today they made 3 posts about quite drastic changes I am not ready to start playing again just yet.

[Forrester~SPARTA~]

some more info and some details about the wipe, and concerns