The helm cannot be enclosed and the captain must be able to see in all directions when sailing the ship in first person. If you cannot perform all maneuvers in first person from your current view, you must adjust your helm design (or your character is too short to captain).

Turtling is the act of creating shield-like defenses.

• Ships may never utilize structures to shield the deck, captain or cannons from attack in battle.
• Ships may never honeycomb, stack or mesh building structures in order to increase the “durability”.
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The only exception are aesthetically pleasing, unarmed civilian house-boats built using the Civilian Galleon frame.

All ships must use the proper sail color for their intended purpose and abide by the class combat rules. 

Companies that engage in pvp can own both combative ships that fly aggressive colors (black, red or naval) and passive trading ships. Sail class color refers to the ship itself, and not the company as a whole (though your reputation may precede you).

All aggressive ships must use the far-render sail skin appropriate for the ship, on at least 1 main sail to indicate the class of their ship, even from a far distance. If an aggressive ship has decorative jib sails, these must also utilize the far render color for easy identification.

These sail skins can be crafted by any shipwright in a loom.

Once a ship has been out on open ocean, you cannot change the color classification of the sails except in specific circumstances (however the design may change). In the following situations, sail classification may be changed once (and only once) but the change must be done at your home base:

• The company transitions from one classification to another due to RP.
• You upgrade a basic trade vessel that has never seen battle to a war vessel.
• You obtain property (by theft or transfer) and must change the flags.
• You are going to attempt a Trojan horse (requires admin approval).

You may utilize a ‘false flag’ as a Trojan horse against another group only if there is substantial conflict with that group and you have first spoken to an admin and received written permission. Using the wrong flag without admin approval will be seen as exploiting the system and is a punishable offense.

Cargo pallets cannot be used on aggressive battleships to minmax the weight of supplies. These are meant to be a quality of life item for transport and trade.