Does PA know that their new QoL simplication of sailing stones is actually a massive nerf which will make upgrading much more time consuming and put off even more people from taking part in sea adventures (making a giant area of Black Desert even more under utilised).

Here are my current findings.

Before:  Young Sea Creatures used to drop Verdant Black stones very often.  This was used for the first upgrades of the lowest level of ship items (old epheria items).  It took 55 Verdant Stones to get an item to +10.  Four +10 items are needed to take (for example) a Sailboat to a Caravel, or a Frigate to a Galleass (along with other crafting materials).

After:  You now need 10 Tidal Black Stones to upgrade the ship item to +10.  So 40 needed in total to get prepared for a ship upgrade (needed for the tier 2 ship which has captain controlled cannons).  Young Sea Creatures do not seem to drop Tidal Black Stones at all (from killing around 100) and anything above this cannot really be done in a tier 1 ship as you would have to stop, leave the helm, man a cannon, take a shot... run back to the helm, reposition, etc....  Margoria Sea creatures would have long killed you before you even took a few shots (and that's if you even get a stone to drop).

So, this means you have to barter (as the daily quests need you to kill mostly).  So bartering on a tier 1 ship is going to be slow.  If you manage to get the barter for Tidal Black stones it requires Tier 2 or 3 bartered goods.  A Tier 1 ship only holds 2000LT weight (basic), so this is going to be a lot of sailing around really slowly (tier 1 are SLOW) to barter up to tier 2 or 3 barter goods.  The exchange for Verdant Stones at Ravinia on the docks is gone (so they did not change this for Tidal).  Ravinia (Illya Island) is now the most stupid NPC on the game (called a "Trade Exchange" that actually has absolutely nothing to trade or exchange and does nothing at all now.. lol).   If you are totally committed, you could trade up  to a Tier 5 barter item and wait for a good barter at Hakoven (long way to travel on a slow boat) and maybe get a trade for 400-600 crow coins.  This would solve your issues, but wow.. thats gonna take time versus getting easy Tier 1 barter items and handing to Ravinia.

So, new captains are really shafted with this new update.

Please rethink this PA.  If my math is correct then this is seriously more complex and time consuming for new captains and making it even more difficult to get into sailing / bartering.

(For the record.  I would regard my playtime as being a Shipwright.  I spend my time buildings ships and have 4 Carracks (2 Advanced, 1 Volante, 1 Valor), 1 Galleass, 1 Caravel, 1 Frigate and a Frigate in construction.  I plan to sell the Carracks when the finall make them sellable.  I am not posting this for me as I can get the needed items, but would like other people to experience the seas and how cool it actually is out there).