Greetings, Captain!
After months of hard work and Experimental Branch testing, we are proud to present to you one of the largest and most ambitious updates yet, v1.8.0 Stable - Combined Offensive!
As usual, it has been a long period of very active development, with constant feedback from many of you and 15 patches of various sizes building up to this eventual Stable version update.
Our highlight features are the addition of a Co-Op mode, which allows you to play the Campaign with up to 5 fellow Captains, as well as the addition of the new PC-461 Submarine Chaser as a playable boat, which can be unlocked through Campaign progression.
Accompanying these, we also have a long list of gameplay and balance changes, optimization improvements and bug fixes, the comprehensive list of which you can find in the patch notes below.
We are close to the end of Early Access at this point, and we would like to once again extend our thanks to you for supporting us through this prolonged development period. Your feedback and enthusiasm for Boat Crew have been a major source of motivation for us, and we appreciate you taking part in making Boat Crew what it is today.
Fair winds,
Captain,
T.T.
Early Access v1.8.0 Patch Notes
Major Features
★ Campaign Co-Op multiplayer support; play the Campaign with up to 5 fellow Captains!
★ Playable PC-461 Submarine Chaser added, alongside an exclusive 5"/25 Deck Gun option.
- Elco Thunderbolt main gun option added for withering firepower served by just one gunner.
- Added Japanese naval officers with rank-based call-ins including artillery, aircraft, and surface reinforcements, supplanting the earlier threat-based spawn system.
- Target Priority system for squadron AI, call-ins, and gunners added, using Left Mouse Button.
- Added post-engagement review screen and improved crew recovery mechanics.
- Added upgradeable/shared engine system within boat classes.
- Reworked smoke for better handling of obstructed targeting and rendering performance.
- Character arrangement UI improved with smart fill and order by stats buttons.
- Weapons/explosions audio rework with distance-delayed sounds and frequency muffling.
Gameplay
- Overboard crew may now be recovered or captured after sinking, depending on nearby allies/enemies.
- Airfields no longer force campaign map air engagements against players.
- Reworked campaign engagement spawning, with smarter spawns for planes, landings, surface reinforcements and player call-ins.
- Submarines now behave less predictably and may surface to engage.
- Crew loader AI adjusted to prefer guns that are lowest in ammo rather than guns that need the most amount of ammo boxes to be filled.
- Larger naval guns now fire at longer ranges and use tighter salvos but have more natural dispersion.
- Torpedoes now have a maximum range, but will cause temporary buoyancy penalties to simulate flooding better.
- Concurrent with torpedo buoyancy impact changes, ships will now lose buoyancy more slowly to better simulate the difference between non-critical damage and catastrophic flooding.
- Small surface enemies are individually tougher and reduced in number, with new elite variants.
- Difficulty presets adjusted for lower enemy intensity and higher allied presence.
- Rebalanced supply values across multiple ships and logistics units.
- Landing craft now have a small amount of supply, to encourage defending/destroying them during invasions.
- RP crates now eject physically from exploding ships and can be knocked overboard with splash damage.
- Crew now takes reduced explosive damage, to ensure they won't immediately be wiped out by weapons that are meant to sink ships.
- Torpedo and depth charge costs rebalanced.
- Gunner/medic XP gain increased by 50%.
- Repairman XP gain increased by 25%.
- Bofors engagement range increased to 1800m.
- Bofors direct damage significantly increased.
- 3-inch AP shell damage and splash damage increased.
Misc
- Improved muzzle flashes, explosions, flak rendering, and water VFX.
- Gunfire now illuminates surroundings.
- Rearranged squadron preview placement and added visible preview slots visual for ships.
- Loadout UI now displays torpedo range, max speed and power-to-weight ratio.
- New renders for weapon sprites.
- Gun/loadout UI expanded to support more weapon slots.
- Loadout screen now supports right click to go back up a menu.
- Call-ins can now be called through clicking the cards in game.
- Call-in hotkeys are now rebindable.
- Added hint for magnification button.
- Significant optimizations to simulation, audio, rendering, memory usage, raycasting and ocean reflections.
- Reduced RAM overhead through addressable texture systems and material instance reductions.
- Remodeled Oerlikon, .30 cal barrels and .50 cal barrels.
- Added searchlights and IJN markings to several ships.
- Improved sky colors and environmental lighting.
- Added edge wear textures and visual detailing to various weapons and ships.
- Optimized several ship meshes and LODs.
- Expanded localization backend support for testing.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed issues preventing certain weapons on ships from firing.
- Fixed torpedo UI stuck with information from previous selected boat type.
- Fixed issues related to spotting aircraft at night.
- Fixed various camera, UI, and hotkey issues.
Early Access v1.8.0.16 Stable
- Titlescreen has been reworked to be more accessible and also preview your boat from your last save.
- Playable submarine chaser must now be unlocked through progression.
- Coastal tanker minor collider fixes and new textures.
- Crew gear color and texture adjustments.
- Fixed submarines being able to shoot backwards through their helms.
- Fixed broken targets menu button.
For those who are interested, v1.7 is still available as an option in as a part of the beta branches.
