Fellow swashbucklers,
We’ve released a new update with many enhancements to make your life on the seas all the merrier! Open world sailing has been given major improvements including support for bounties and quest encounters, plus a new world map UI for quick reference. You’ll also notice some new music in a few places including battles, sailing and taverns, so we hope you’ll enjoy them! Check out the full patch notes below:
Buccaneers! Version 1.0.14
New Features
- You can now replace a captured ship’s faction upgrades with your faction’s upgrades in friendly shipyards. From the Fleet Management menu, select a ship and go to Upgrades > Refit to preview and confirm the changes.
- You can now view a condensed version of the World Map from your Captain’s Log while in open-world sailing. This allows you to see your current position, view information about each town (including imports and exports), and set a town as your destination.
- Bounties and other quest battles can now be encountered in open-world sailing without needing to use the World Map.
- You can now use the spyglass to mark a town as a destination or track a nearby quest encounter.
Changes
- Added some new music tracks and made improvements to several existing ones. Taverns now play some jaunty sailor’s tunes from time to time...
- Ship battle music is now split into two groups: one for smaller battles and one for larger battles (including forts).
- Encounters in open-world sailing now show the same “Sail Ho” pop-up as the World Map, giving you the same options to attack or evade. The outcome takes place after a fade-to-black which advances time slightly.
- Location and quest markers in open-world sailing now update when you change the tracked quest in your Quest Log.
- Quest encounters that happen in specific regions no longer randomise their position every time you enter your cabin. This now only happens after leaving a town or ending a battle.
- Treasure Fleet quests now include the name of the target ship in the title.
- You can no longer open the Captain’s Log while using the spyglass.
- Increased the minimum starting distance between friendly and enemy ships in ship battles.
- The accent colour on the ship’s wheel’s centre spoke no longer changes with your ship’s paint scheme, so it is now easy to see at all times. This is especially helpful for manually recentering the wheel in VR mode.
- Modified the design of ship health bars and VR boarding progress bars for better contrast and consistency with other UI elements.
- Added a bell to every fort which plays the ringing alarm sound during land battles.
- Added some new sketches to the World Map and moved some existing ones.
- Added an icon that displays when you manually save the game via the Pause Menu.
- [VR] The spyglass view is now slightly clearer and location marker text is larger and easier to read.
- [VR] Highlighted locations and quest markers now remain visible outside the spyglass view until you hold it near your face, instead of disappearing as soon as you grab it.
Performance
- Removed potential stutter when changing ships in a shipyard.
- Reduced framerate drops when boarding starts.
- Reduced occasional framerate drops while sailing in the open world.
- [VR] Improved performance while using the spyglass.
Fixes
- Location markers in open-world sailing no longer slide around unexpectedly.
- The delay between increases in fire severity on your ship now correctly scales with the Cannon Reload Speed setting (Options > Gameplay).
- Subtitles no longer get stuck on screen when the game is paused.
- Region buttons on the World Map now align more closely with the dotted boundary lines.
Happy pirating and have a spooktacular Halloween, me hearteys! 🏴☠️🎃