Ship of the Line update adds real-time Naval Career, ironclad era

YDS has released a large update for Ship of the Line, its naval strategy simulation published by GM2SOFT and currently in Early Access on Steam. In the update post on the game’s Steam page, published on October 18 (UTC), the developer says its Naval Career mode now plays out in real time, a new starting period covers the ironclad years from 1866 to 1913, and 107 more ship models have been added.

Naval Career now runs in real time

Naval Career arrived only days earlier and originally advanced the world in weekly turns. That system is gone:

• Continuous sailing: voyages now unfold without turn breaks. Space pauses the game, the speed of time can be adjusted, and a fleet’s course or destination can be changed while it is under way. The clock also stops on its own when the game window is in the background.
• Spotting and chasing: enemy squadrons show up from around 35 km away, and a fight starts at roughly 8 km. The player decides whether to close in or steer clear, while computer-controlled fleets may give chase or run depending on which side is stronger. When an enemy drops out of sight, the chart keeps a marker where it was last seen.
• Better charts: more zoom steps, a button that snaps the view back to the player’s fleet, clearer fleet markers and labels, and place names tinted by nation.

A new starting era: the Ironclad Age

Players can now begin a career in the Ironclad Age (1866–1913). YDS says the world simulation covers the period’s major wars, among them the Franco-Prussian and Russo-Turkish wars, the Spanish-American War, the Italo-Turkish War and the Balkan Wars.

The timeline is not locked, either. Wars and peace settlements can move territory and ports from one nation to another, treaties and independence movements play a part, and the player’s own victories or defeats can change how a conflict turns out.

Ageing captains, ship conversions and port trade

• A whole career: captains and officers now grow older and eventually step down. When a captain retires, their service record and achievements can be reviewed, and play carries on with a successor.
• People aboard: characters earn experience, levels and attribute gains, and officers rise through the ranks. How well officers’ personalities fit together affects morale, feuds can break out, and an enemy commander who bears a grudge may come back for another fight.
• Razee conversions: eligible ships of the line can be cut down into heavy frigates by taking off their upper decks, and some heavy frigates can in turn become corvettes. The work is permanent and is done at naval dockyards and major shipyards.
• More harbours: ships can now put in at neutral and co-belligerent ports, though neutral ones offer fewer services and limit how long a ship may stay.
• Port economy: 100 goods tied to particular eras have been added, along with an economy driven by each port’s population; population and supplies now feed into production, recruiting and shipbuilding.

107 new ships and rebuilt fleets

The 107 new models, sister ships included, come from the navies of Britain, Germany, Japan, Russia, Qing China, the United States and Spain. Names the developer highlights include Dreadnought and Iron Duke for Britain, Kaiser and Seydlitz for Germany, Mikasa for Japan, Borodino for Russia, Dingyuan for Qing China, and Olympia and Cristóbal Colón on the American and Spanish side.

Existing fleets were reworked as well: 32 ships that fought at Jutland, 11 battleships from the Russo-Japanese War together with more cruisers, the fleets from the 1894 battle of the Yalu River, and the fleets that met at Santiago and Manila in the Spanish-American War.

Carriers and combat fixes

On the aviation side, bombs land more accurately and drop at better moments, carrier takeoffs and landings are more dependable, carriers turn into the wind more effectively, and seaplanes have an easier time taking off from the water. A new third-person camera can trail an assigned aircraft, planes now appear on the minimap, and 30 aircraft carriers have new looks and handling.

Combat fixes remove ship and camera jitter and ghosting, stop AI ships getting stuck at the edge of battle maps, help steam-powered ships turn, speed up crew rendering in big battles and correct several ship models and national hull assignments. The patch also fixes port docking problems and a bug in the 1775 career where Admiralty orders asked American players to blockade their own harbours. YDS lists one known issue: on large maps, carriers can take longer than expected to find enough wind over the deck to launch aircraft.

About the game

According to its Steam store page, Ship of the Line entered Early Access on June 25, 2026 for Windows and macOS. The game spans close to 300 years of war at sea, from Lepanto to Lissa, with 65 historical scenarios, a campaign set in 1778, custom battles built from more than 3,000 historical ships, and online PvP. The developer’s Early Access notes say the engine is built on a core it first released on iOS, that it plans roughly 6 to 12 months in Early Access, and that the price may rise step by step on the way to the full release.