OpenFront Warship Veterancy: Experience, Repairs, and Retreats

Direct answer: what does a Warship’s yellow bar mean?

The yellow bar is a Warship’s veterancy progress. It is not a timer, a display of damage dealt, or a promise that the next shell will upgrade the ship. In the v0.33.11 rules, a Warship can reach level 3. Destroying an enemy Warship immediately grants one level, up to that cap. Destroying Transport Ships and capturing Trade Ships feed a shared partial-progress meter: ten Transport kills or twenty-five Trade captures are enough for one level when used alone. Mixed progress is additive, so five Transport kills plus thirteen Trade captures is already enough for level 1 because 5/10 + 13/25 = 1.02. The practical reading is “which target path is close to a level, and what will I lose if I take a different fight?”

An upgrade raises the ship’s maximum health and shell damage, but it does not refill the health currently missing. The current maximum-health rule is 20% of the base Warship health per level, floored to an integer. The tagged configuration gives a fresh Warship 1,000 base health, so level 1 has 1,200 maximum, level 2 has 1,400, and level 3 has 1,600. Shell damage receives the same 20% per-level multiplier after the ordinary rolled damage is calculated. A veteran is therefore a stronger combat and denial asset, not merely a cosmetic badge.

The repair side is separate. A damaged ship passively heals for 1 health per tick while within 150 tiles of one of its owner’s active Ports. When the ship docks within 5 tiles, the Port also provides an active pool of 5 health per Port level per tick, divided among eligible docked Warships. A level-2 Port with two docked ships therefore supplies a pool of 10 per tick, about 5 per ship before integer remainder handling. The ship’s automatic repair retreat starts at or below 75% of its veterancy-adjusted maximum health, provided the owner is not in Doomsday and a friendly Port exists.

Use the bar and the hull together. A ship at 74% of a 1,600 cap is a level-3 veteran that has crossed the retreat trigger even though its absolute health is 1,184. A fresh 1,000-health ship at 760 health has a different tactical value despite showing a similar percentage. Before sending either ship toward a target, check the water component, the nearest usable Port, the next Transport window, and whether an opponent can force a fight during the repair trip. The team naval control guide covers fleet roles; this page explains the individual ship decision that keeps those roles alive.

How experience is earned, mixed, and lost

Treat the bar as two mechanisms with one visible result. A Warship kill is a discrete reward: the firing Warship that lands the killing blow records one level. The kill does not care whether the target was already damaged by another ship; the last shell is the event that awards the level. The level is capped at 3, so extra kills after level 3 cannot turn into hidden health, damage, or a future level. This makes a veteran kill valuable before the cap and strategically ordinary after it, unless removing that enemy ship opens a transport route.

Transport kills and Trade Ship captures work differently. The engine stores their unfinished civilian-target contribution as a shared fractional meter. One Transport is worth one tenth of a level, while one captured Trade Ship is worth one twenty-fifth. The contributions are not two separate bars. Nine Transport kills leave the ship just short of level 1; one more completes it. Twenty-four captures leave the same kind of gap. If a ship has five Transport kills and twelve captures, the sum is 0.5 + 0.48 = 0.98, so one additional capture completes the level. A surplus capture carries forward: twenty-six captures create level 1 and preserve the value of the twenty-sixth capture toward level 2, so the next level needs twenty-four more captures rather than twenty-five.

The mixed meter has a sharp exception. When the ship records a Warship kill, the discrete level is awarded and unfinished Transport/Trade progress is cleared. Nine Transport kills followed by a Warship kill produce level 1, not level 2. The next Transport starts a fresh civilian meter. This is easy to miss because the yellow bar may look almost full before the duel. It changes target selection: if a safe Trade capture would complete a level and an enemy Warship is a risky fight, the civilian finish can be the better short-term choice; if the Warship is about to escape or threaten a landing, taking the kill and accepting the reset can be correct.

Do not infer experience from time near a Port, shells fired, damage received, or ordinary patrol distance. The official test surface verifies the target events above, not a passive clock. A ship can sit safely at a Port and remain level 0 forever. Conversely, a ship can level while low on health, then still need a normal repair cycle. Record the state in plain language: “level 1, five transports, twelve captures” is actionable; “yellow bar at about half” is not. The hotkeys guide helps locate the transport command, but it does not replace reading the target and progress state.

What each level changes in a real fight

The level changes two numbers that matter during contact: maximum health and rolled shell damage. It does not make the ship faster, enlarge the patrol radius, increase the number of shells per tick, or guarantee that a target will be selected. The engine applies 20% of base maximum health for each level and floors the result. With a 1,000-health base, the caps are 1,000 at level 0, 1,200 at level 1, 1,400 at level 2, and 1,600 at level 3. The bonus is calculated from 1,000 each time, so the sequence is linear in base health rather than compounding on the previous cap.

Shell damage is also linear per level, but it is applied after the ordinary random roll. If the same tick and seed produce a 250-damage base roll, level 1 deals 300, level 2 deals 350, and level 3 deals 400 after integer flooring. The actual base roll can vary, so compare repeated shots over a short exchange rather than expecting every shell to display the same number. A veteran’s advantage is reliable over time, not a single guaranteed critical hit. This matters when deciding whether one level is enough to finish an enemy before it reaches a Port or whether the fight needs a second ship.

The new maximum is a cap, not free healing. Suppose a level-0 ship has 900 health, records the killing blow, and becomes level 1. Its cap becomes 1,200, but its current health stays 900. It must receive passive or docked healing to fill the additional 300 and the original 100 missing. This is why a kill can improve future survivability while leaving the ship immediately vulnerable. If the ship is already below 75% of its new cap, the automatic retreat logic may select a Port on the next decision tick, subject to the manual-move grace period and Port availability.

The level also changes the value of time. A level-3 Warship is expensive to replace in strategic terms even when the build price of a replacement is known. It can deny three Transport kills’ worth of progress in one duel, punish a Trade route with fewer shells, and survive a little longer while escorting a landing. That does not mean it should always stay forward. A veteran caught outside the owner’s water component, without a reachable Port, can be less useful than a fresh ship assigned to the next transport corridor. Keep the level as an input to a route calculation, not as a command to chase.

Use this compact table when reading the panel:

Veterancy	Maximum health from 1,000 base	Shell multiplier	Best default role
0	1,000	100%	Scout, screen, or low-risk patrol
1	1,200	120%	Deny transports and contest weak trade routes
2	1,400	140%	Hold a route with repair access and a reserve
3	1,600	160%	Protect a decisive landing or force a naval retreat

These are tagged-rule values, not a promise that one ship beats another. Position, target priority, shell timing, and repair access still decide the exchange.

Repair, docking, and the automatic retreat decision

Repair has a near-Port layer and a docked-Port layer. Near any active friendly Port, the Warship receives 1 health per tick while it remains inside the 150-tile passive-healing range. The ship does not need to be docked for that small trickle, so a patrol line can recover while still watching a transport corridor. The range is measured from the Port and uses the game’s distance check; a ship outside the circle receives no passive repair just because the Port is visible on the map.

Docking is a different state. The ship must reach its chosen Port’s water component and come within a 5-tile docking radius. Once docked, the Port creates an active healing pool equal to 5 health per Port level per tick. Eligible docked Warships share that pool. A level-1 Port can therefore support one ship at roughly 5 health per tick, but two ships divide the same 5 rather than receiving 5 each. A level-3 Port provides a pool of 15; three ships can share it, while a fourth may wait until capacity opens. The implementation preserves fractional remainders so the long-run average is fair even when each tick’s integer heal rounds down.

Automatic retreat begins when the ship’s health is at or below 75% of its current, veterancy-adjusted maximum and the owner has at least one Port. That means the trigger is 750 at level 0, 900 at level 1, 1,050 at level 2, and 1,200 at level 3 with the 1,000 base. A level-up can move the absolute trigger upward even though current health stays put. The ship also waits through a 50-tick grace period after a manual patrol move, so a player can issue a purposeful route order without the repair routine immediately overriding it.

The retreat routine keeps fighting back against nearby Transport Ships and enemy Warships while it travels, then recalculates if its Port is destroyed, becomes full, or no longer shares the water component. It may switch to a significantly closer available Port, using the configured 0.75 distance comparison. A ship can wait near a full Port rather than teleport to safety; watch the docked count and send only the number of veterans the Port can actually heal. Doomsday is an exception: a side under its Doomsday Clock cannot repair its navy, so a retreating Warship is returned to patrol rather than left idling at a Port. Check the Port versus Factory guide when deciding whether another Port is an economic upgrade or a repair anchor.

Scenario one: preserve the veteran for the transport window

Assume a level-2 Warship has a 1,400 maximum and is currently at 1,020 health. The ship is below the 75% retreat threshold of 1,050, so the automatic routine wants a friendly Port. It has five Transport kills and twelve Trade captures, which is 0.98 of the next civilian level. A hostile Transport is expected to enter the water corridor in 20 ticks, and an enemy level-0 Warship is 80 tiles away. The owner has one level-2 Port 120 tiles away and no second ship in reserve. These assumptions are deliberately explicit; a different map or a second reserve changes the answer.

The first temptation is to chase the enemy Warship because a killing blow gives an immediate level. That choice is not free. If the duel does not finish before the 20-tick transport arrival, the veteran leaves the corridor and the landing may succeed. If the duel does finish, the level rises to 3 but the 0.98 civilian meter is cleared. The ship becomes stronger after the kill, yet still sits at roughly 1,020 health rather than jumping to 1,600. It then needs a long repair cycle while the enemy may send another transport.

The decision framework says to hold the corridor and protect the ship. Move toward the Port only if doing so does not abandon the transport approach; otherwise keep the ship inside passive-heal range when possible and target the incoming Transport first. A Transport kill would complete the civilian meter only if the existing 0.98 is preserved, creating level 3 without the reset. That is a high-value, low-risk upgrade. If the enemy Warship enters the same 130-tile targeting range, fire only when the transport is already safe or when the opponent’s route is clearly more important than the civilian completion.

The defender’s counterplay is to send the Transport as a distraction, forcing the veteran to choose, or to escort it with a second Warship so the level-2 ship cannot take the safe last hit. The veteran owner’s counter-counterplay is to assign a fresh ship as the screen, keep the veteran’s patrol tile on the corridor, and make the opponent choose between revealing the escort and losing the transport. If the Port is destroyed, re-evaluate immediately: passive repair stops outside 150 tiles, dock capacity disappears, and a heroic duel may turn a recoverable veteran into a dead ship.

Use the same arithmetic in other positions. A level-3 ship at 1,190 health is also at the retreat threshold, despite having more absolute health than the level-2 example. A full Port cannot heal unlimited veterans; the level-2 Port pool is 10 per tick total, not 10 per ship. The correct output is therefore a route and timing decision: “screen the next transport, preserve the 0.98 civilian meter, and dock when the corridor is covered,” not simply “always retreat when the bar turns red.”

Scenario two: a mixed bar, a Warship kill, and the reset trap

Assume a level-1 Warship has nine Transport kills and zero Trade captures. It is at full 1,200 health, inside passive-heal range of a level-1 Port, and an enemy Warship with 600 health is approaching. A Trade Ship is also available 90 tiles away, but capturing it requires leaving the defensive line for at least 25 ticks. The owner has a second fresh Warship that can escort the Trade route. The question is whether the veteran should take the duel now or complete the civilian level first.

Nine Transport kills represent 0.9 of a level. One more Transport kill would produce level 2 and preserve a clean, predictable path. If the veteran instead lands the final blow on the enemy Warship, it immediately becomes level 2, but the nine-Transport partial progress disappears. The owner has exchanged the near-certain value of one civilian target for a faster discrete reward. If the duel is uncertain, the reset is a real downside: after the kill, the ship is level 2 with zero civilian progress, so it needs ten new Transport kills or twenty-five new captures for level 3.

The decision depends on the board objective. If the enemy Warship is the only unit that can stop a landing this tick, fight it. The last-hit level is worth the denial, and the second fresh ship can later rebuild civilian progress. If the enemy is merely passing and the next Transport kill is already queued, keep the veteran on the line and let the fresh ship escort the Trade route. A captured Trade Ship would add only 1/25, so it cannot complete the level alone; moving the veteran for it is especially poor when the enemy duel is avoidable.

The opponent can exploit the trap by presenting a low-health Warship just inside targeting range, hoping the veteran abandons the transport. They can also send a Trade Ship first to make the yellow bar feel urgent. Respond by naming the actual completion condition before firing: “one Transport for level 2” or “enemy kill to deny the bridge.” If that sentence changes, the order changes. Do not let an almost-full bar become an automatic chase command.

After either choice, check health rather than assuming the level solved the problem. A level-up from a full 1,200-health ship raises the cap to 1,400, but the current value remains 1,200. It is now below the 75% retreat threshold of 1,050? No: 1,200 is above 1,050, so the ship can patrol. A damaged version at 900 would be below the threshold and should seek the Port. This distinction prevents a common mistake: treating the stronger cap as instant armor while ignoring the hull that the next enemy shell will actually hit.

Failure modes, opponent counterplay, and mode adjustments

The first failure is reading the bar as damage experience. A ship that fired many shells without killing a target may remain level 0. The fix is to count target events: Warship last hits, Transport kills, and Trade captures. The second failure is treating Transport and Trade progress as separate levels. They share one meter, so use transport kills / 10 + captures / 25. The third failure is expecting a Warship kill to preserve that fraction. It resets unfinished civilian progress, so decide whether the kill’s tactical value exceeds the lost fraction.

The fourth failure is docking every damaged ship at one Port. A Port’s active pool is shared by its docked ships and its capacity is tied to Port level. If four veterans crowd a level-1 Port, each waits while an enemy targets the queue. Spread ships across connected Ports or keep one ship in passive-heal range as a screen. The fifth failure is retreating during Doomsday and assuming repair will catch up. A doomed side cannot repair its navy; stay on patrol, preserve the remaining route, and read the Doomsday Clock guide before spending a ship on a long trip.

Opponents have clear ways to punish a veteran. They can feed a low-health Warship to trigger a reset, send a Transport behind the veteran’s retreat path, embargo the Port network, or attack the Port itself. They can also force the veteran to choose between a Trade capture and a landing. Counter these with role separation: a fresh screen handles cheap targets, the veteran guards the decisive corridor, and a reserve watches the Port. Target priority in the engine is Transport Ship first, enemy Warship second, Trade Ship third, but the player can still reposition the patrol and change the strategic objective.

On compact maps, a 20-tick detour may cross the whole meaningful sea lane, so repair access and transport timing dominate the bar. On large maps, a Port 150 tiles away may be safe in straight-line terms but unreachable through a different water component. In team games, mark which Port belongs to the Warship owner; a teammate’s Port is not a valid repair anchor for this routine. In FFA, preserve a reserve because a veteran duel can invite a third player. In modes with Water Nukes, a channel can open or close after a strike, so recalculate the water component and Port route after the terrain changes. The level remains useful, but the map decides where that value can be applied.

A repeatable keep, repair, or redeploy checklist

Start with the ship’s identity: level, current health, maximum health, and civilian progress written as counts. Then identify the target that would actually change the board. If the target is a Transport, ask whether the ship is inside the 130-tile targeting range and whether the last hit would complete a civilian level. If the target is an enemy Warship, ask whether the kill’s immediate denial is worth clearing the partial meter. If the target is a Trade Ship, confirm that the route is not embargoed and that no Transport window is being abandoned. This first sentence prevents the yellow bar from becoming a substitute for an objective.

Next, calculate the repair state. Compare current health with 75% of the veteran-adjusted cap: 750, 900, 1,050, or 1,200 for levels 0 through 3 with a 1,000 base. Check whether the owner is in Doomsday, whether a friendly Port exists on the same water component, whether the ship is within the 150-tile passive range, and whether a 5-tile docking approach is clear. Count ships already using the Port. A level-2 Port’s 10-health-per-tick pool split across two ships is very different from the same pool split across four.

Then compare time and replacement value. A level-3 ship has a 1,600 cap and 160% rolled shell damage, but the bonus does not refund missing health. A trip to a Port can be correct if the next transport arrives after the heal window; it can be wrong if the only landing opportunity is now. Keep the veteran forward when it is the only unit that can deny the objective, but pair it with a fresh screen whenever possible. Redeploy to another Port or route when the current component is cut, the Port is full, or an opponent can force a trade that leaves the veteran isolated.

Finally, check the mode and the next link. Use team naval control for fleet assignments, Port versus Factory for the Gold network that pays for repairs and replacements, and First Match when the controls or map read are still unfamiliar. The rule sources are the official v0.33.11 Release, Veterancy.ts, WarshipExecution.ts, PortExecution.ts, and the tagged WarshipVeterancy tests. If an upstream change alters any of those values, update the version boundary before repeating the table.

Close each deployment with a sentence that another player could audit: “I stay until the Transport,” “I dock because 1,020 is below 1,050,” or “I take the kill because it blocks the landing.” If the board changes, rewrite that sentence instead of only dragging the patrol point. On the next important tick, check the result: level gained, civilian fraction preserved or cleared, health actually restored, and Port slots still available. Keep the release boundary beside the notes. If a later tag changes the 150-tile radius, the five-point pool, or the 50-tick grace period, update the boundary, table, scenarios, and links together. Until that official change is verified, every number here is specifically a v0.33.11 rule. This discipline prevents both a needless retreat from a veteran that could save a transport window and a reckless chase for a bar that only looks almost complete.