Did Cannon Defense just get massively harder?

[Skylark87]

I played a lot last Friday. There was a transition when the number of ships increased by the number of shots needed to kill a ship went down.

Then there was a second transition where the number of hits required to sink a ship returned to what it was previously, but the number of new ships stayed the same.

In brief conversations other pirates said they noticed the same thing. However, I haven't seen anything about it here.

I won't rule out the possibility that I came on when it was a little easier and that, comparatively, it would seem to me like they made it more difficult (but someone else would say, no, it was just the return to normal).

I have screen shots that show the amount of damage done at a given level is higher; I assume that suggests more ships. Anyone else have any thoughts on this?