Solo playtest · 2026-08-14 · 17:28–17:50 UTC · 1 character · 306 events, 306 well-formed · focus: tutorial pacing + first combat
22:06
SESSION
6:50
INTRO CHAIN
15:11
TO FIRST COMBAT
2 / 15
CONTRACT KILLS
23
SKILL LEVEL-UPS
80 ms
AVG PING
Session milestones
Time from character creation to each milestone. Intro chain (light) lands at 6:50,
outfitting (mid) runs to launch at 13:14, and the first shot fired in anger comes at 15:11 —
a clean three-act shape for a first session. Backend join → in-world took 3.3 s (cold start).
Tutorial step pacing
Each bar is the gap since the previous step in the same chain (first Battleship bar is measured from Intro completion).
The three >2-minute bars are the real work steps — warehouse build, first ship, cannon smithing — and all three are material-gathering time, not confusion.
The Battleship first bar (177s) silently includes building an Anvil, which no step asks for; worth an explicit step so the player isn't solving an unstated prerequisite.
First combat
TIME (UTC)
DURATION
VOLLEYS F/T
DMG DEALT/TAKEN
LOADOUT
OUTCOME
17:43:48
12.4s
4 / 3
125 / 26
T1 full loadout
sunk_them
17:43:50
1.2s
0 / 1
0 / 0
T1 full loadout
disengaged teardown artifact
17:45:27
16.7s
5 / 4
125 / 21
T1 full loadout
sunk_them
17:45:29
1.2s
0 / 1
0 / 0
T1 full loadout
disengaged teardown artifact
17:48:05
24.2s
1 / 3
15 / 41
ball_tier −1 (dry)
disengaged
First fight: engaged 15:11 into the session, pirate merchant sunk after 12.4 s and 4 volleys, taking 125−26 in return — a decisive, low-risk win, which is the right shape for a tutorial's first fight.
Fight 3 is the story: ▲ the ship ran dry mid-fight (ball_tier −1, 3 refused FireCannon), dealt 15, took 41, and disengaged.
10 volleys emptied all 30 crafted cannonballs (3 guns × 1 ball per volley), so the tutorial's ammo grant is worth ~2 kills — against a 15-kill contract (Pirate Cull I).
The two 1.2 s rows are engagement-teardown artifacts: the sinking wreck re-opens an engagement for one tick. Worth cleaning before fleet-scale combat stats.
Skill progression
23 level-ups in 22:06, one every 58 s on average. The land skills go quiet the moment the ship launches and Navigation/SeaBattle take over —
the tutorial is exercising both halves of the skill sheet in sequence, with no dead zone.
Output & friction
Crafted (60 items)
Harvested: wood ×22, stone ×18 across 9 sessions (205 s swinging).
Buildings: crafting table, warehouse, anvil. 39 move orders, 29 interactions.
Refused actions (8)
TIME (UTC)
ACTION
REASON
17:30:43
CraftRecipe
can_execute
17:35:35
Mining
can_execute
17:35:38
Mining
can_execute
17:38:25
CraftRecipe
can_execute
17:38:53
CraftRecipe
can_execute
17:47:45
FireCannon
can_execute
17:47:46
FireCannon
can_execute
17:47:47
FireCannon
can_execute
All 8 refusals are server-side can_execute gates — 5 are ordinary "not enough materials yet" clicks;
the 3 FireCannon refusals are the ammo-dry moment at 17:47.
Where the session ended
The Battleship chain stopped at step 8 of 10 — tutbs_complete_contract ("Complete your Battleship contract") — with the kill
counter at 2 of 15. After running dry the player stayed at sea 2:46 longer, never docked to restock, and disconnected.
No tutorial_chain_completed, no contract_turned_in, and 0 coins moved the entire session
(no coins_delta rows at all — the whole tutorial economy is craft-and-barter until the first contract pays out).
Pacing question for the next iteration: 15 kills at ~3 balls each (plus misses) prices the contract step at roughly
7× the ammo the tutorial teaches the player to make — either the "craft a set" step should size the set against the contract,
or Pirate Cull I is a 15-kill goal sitting inside what plays like a 2–3-kill tutorial beat.