Ok i'm going to have to quote basically everyone to answer all these questions:
Where the hell did you come from?
Lol, long time no see oblivion. I was quitting, then heard of the pirate booster. I've been asking for a pirate expansion since i started UO, so i had to come back.
I'll check it out. Anything that would interest a thief?
Plenty. There are reasons for Fel players to be busy on the seas. Scallis seems to be the same as a Yellow Crystal, as far as summoning goes. Not sure what summons him, but the fact is a player can summon him anywhere they choose in the water. Any smart player will want to summon him in open ocean, so that ships can get in and use their cannons. Taking him head on from a dock seems to be suicide in comparison. I'm not sure about the other spawn, but it's another reason players will be adding traffic to the seas.
A thief-run fleet of ships can work together to track down, disable, and board player ships. When damaged enough, any ship can be boarded with or without permission from the player. After boarding, the more cut-throat thieves can get to killing, while others can steal from backpacks and loot the hold. I've already tested it, there's no worry of turning red as a thief attacking another boat. Unless you FLAG the player, cannons you fire will only damage the boat, not the enemy player. This allows thieves to disable ships, and board them without worry of splash damage turning you red. Plus, we won't be thieves anymore, we'll be pirates, lol.
Shinobi,
How many people, real players, do you think it would take to adequately man a boat? I'll see what I can dig up.
It depends on the boat being used. I'd like to eventually have a group of thieves/pirates running at least one of each ship as a fleet at all times. The tokuno ship has less cannons, but is significantly faster. It also seems to be the only ship that can use tracking, which makes sense. The other two are larger and have two more cannons.
As far as an amount, that all depends. At the very least, i'd say for a tokuno ship you'd need 6 players, 8 for the other two ships. One player to steer the ship (if you wish, you can also set the NPC pilot of the boat to steer by voice-command, like the old boats...this does not change how smooth the boat runs on the water, it works just the same), the others to man at least one player per cannon. Cannons have several steps until they can be fired, and supposedly the more players per cannon the quicker it moves, although i've yet to be able to test this.
Why would you need fel testers when the booster adds absolutely nothing to fel?
It adds a new form of PvP, ship-to-ship combat.
Does something run differently in Fel then other shards?
The ship-to-ship combat needs to be put into action. It seems that practically everyone on the beta loves to stay in tram and not fight real players in boats. It needs to be tested just like everything else, not to mention we can get a head start on techniques for ship combat.
Does ship-to-ship combat and hostile boarding of boats work as intended?
Does the need to push through characters, NPCs (e.g., the tillerman), and animals in Fel cause any problems?
Can you use the new boats (big ones and row boats) to transport sigils?
Can you remain hidden while using mouse controls to move your boat (versus having to be visible to utter spoken boat commands)? (Maybe this is already available in the EC with boat movement "actions.") If yes, is this a good idea?
Special issues for Siege that I think at least one person already pointed out (e.g., how do you get to your boat if you can't get close to land, can't use recall or SJ on a boat key because it's Siege, and gate command that does work on Siege doesn't work on boat keys).
Is it time to revise the rule that prevents you from self-rezzing with Sacrifice on a boat?
Are boat deeds and dry docked boats blessed or stealable? Are the items you received to complete a quest blessed? Are they reasonably sized for carrying around while you have an incomplete quest? Are any of them exploitable for PvP or faction use?
How secure are the holds of the new boats? Do rowboats have holds? Has anything changed with regard to the security of holds of old-style boats?
When using cannons to kill faction characters, whose faction status determines whether or not the killing shot from a cannon causes temporary skill loss--the ship owner or the character that fired the cannon? Does it matter if the cannon was loaded by one character but fired by a different character?
Question 1: Yes.
Question 2: It doesn't seem to change anything, we're used to it now.
Question 3: Not sure, needs to be tested.
Question 4: Yes, to an extent. If you start the ship moving, then hide and continue moving in the same direction, yes you stay hidden. However, it seems that if you are hiding, then change direction in your ship, it reveals you. Is this a good idea? Yes, considering i could ride on the old ships while hidden. There's no reason they should change this.
Question 5: There's no need to worry about recalling off of ship keys anymore. Ship keys do not exist in this booster. The second you place a ship in the water, you are given 2 runes. One goes in your hold, another in your bank (it's placed in your backpack if the bank is full). These runes work just like any other rune, and will recall you directly onto the deck of your ship. However, if another player doesn't have permission to board your ship (i'm not sure how to grant permission) then it won't let them recall onto your boat. I haven't tested gating onto ships, so that should be checked out.
Question 6: Not sure.
Question 7: I'll just answer the first portion of this. Ship deeds are stealable, but the moment they're placed in the water they become a blessed ship in your backpack. Rowboats, however, remain in your backpack in deed form constantly, and if uninsured, can be stolen at any time. Also, there seems to be no way of dry docking someone else's ship, so you can leave your boat anywhere at anytime without worries of it being stolen.
Question 8: Holds can be looted by anyone, but without permission to board your ship, and without your ship being damaged to the point of free boarding, no one can hop on and loot the hold.
Question 9: No clue, needs testing.
Also, does ship tracking work correctly in Fel? The booster notes say it doesn't work for some types of boats... And if you are tracking ships, do you really get to see up to five different arrows? Also, can you still use the regular Tracking skill to track characters/NPCs/animals while you are tracking ships?
Yes it works amazingly. It seems only tokuno ships can track, but that's fitting. You do see multiple arrows, however there's no way to tell the difference between an arrow pointing at an NPC ship and a player ship. I haven't tried real tracking at the same time as ship tracking yet, but i'm sure it gets real confusing.
I hope i answered everything you guys were wondering about. Now, download the beta and get on.
Is there any real reason to go on a boat in Fel, not unless the champ spawns in fel will give off powerscrolls like other champs, but sadley these will just get camped (on Atl) buy the zergs and wont really be worth it. Unless they make it so most of the special fish can only be caught in fel or fel specific champs there will be no reason for people to boat in fel and they won't. Soo testing is sadley not going to get its fair shake 
