So here I am, sailing from fort to fort with two stronghold kegs on board my sloop for commendations. I had a storm in my way, so I took them down and put them below on the middle deck (right beside the voyage table, to be precise). I'm sailing through the storm and lightning hits me on the helm, and blows up both kegs through the deck, instantly killing me and my ship. Then a server merge happens and the storm is suddenly on the other side of the map anyways, so I just continued and finished my voyage.
My issue here isn't being annoyed that I got blown up for carrying kegs, it's that the lightning somehow hit them when they were a floor down, through the deck. Lightning has never done that for as far back as I can remember (although being struck with kegs below deck is not a common occurrence for me), despite it's explosive impact radius. Making it a bit shorter (not as tall, not smaller altogether) would fix this, and be more realistic, since it shouldn't be able to hit through the deck from one up.
I get that carrying kegs through a storm is a bad idea, but having them belowdecks has always worked before, and I'm also wondering if the lightning is more powerful now or if it's just never been the same conditions.