Ahoy mateys!
It's been a bit since our last update, and that is because we've been saving up for something BIG!
We've prepared this little trailer that shows our progress during Early Access + The latest additions:
Pirate Progression
While we think our game has improved a lot during the last few months of Early Access we always felt like our game was missing some of that special sauce that just keeps you interested even after playing many, many matches. Gone are those days! From now on, every completed match will reward you with experience to increase your Pirate Level! At the same time level based unlocks like: Special Chests, Hammer Skins and epic Pirate Titles will contribute in giving you something to work towards while leveling up!
In the meantime we've revamped the loot drop system. Instead of getting some random items after a match you'll now get either a normal or winner chest (or both!) when winning matches and leveling up. This way we want to make winning matches more rewarding while also giving those less experienced players the chance to get cool cosmetics via the player progression.
And that's not all! We've also revamped the end-game scoreboard so that it displays your experience earned that match, even when losing! We've also added some other extras to give it a more polished vibe.
We do however, want to be clear about this: the amount of experience, point distribution, drop-chance, loot amount, etc... is all bound to change while we gather more feedback. Many factors are involved with player progression. Especially because we've completely overhauled our previous system. In the end we want the progression system to be enjoyable and rewarding for both experienced and new players while also encouraging you to win and perform certain tasks on the ship.
There are still a few bugs and one crash. We are working very hard to fix them asap with a hotfix!
We're also working on the exchanging post, where you'll be able to trade your tradable duplicates or unwanted items for new item drops! We expect to release this feature shortly after this update!
Ghost Ship
In the final zone a Ghost Ship will now also rise from the depths to make the final zone a bit more interesting and challenging. The ghost ship is littered with loot and equipped with cannons that can be used by both you or your enemies! Each time it rises all 3 rocks will have a random height above the water. It also is a perfect vantage point for those experienced sharpshooters. By adding this we want to encourage players to use different tactics to win the game instead of just endlessly circling each other.
Hope you're all excited scallywags! We certainly are!
Patch notes version 1.6
Level and progression system:
- Added levels (unlimited max cap)
- Added progression timeline that shows all level based unlocks (click upper right icon or click mini level bar)
- Added mini level bar in top right corner of main menu
New loot system:
- Cosmetic loot chests added (replaces direct cosmetic drops)
- Loot chests always give one random item from tier range of the chest (winner: uncommon to legendary / regular: common to rare)
- Winning matches now grants a winner chest and some regular chests
- Main menu now shows a notification popup on the left to indicate unopened loot chests
- Seperate loot chest opening menu added (click main menu pop mentioned above)
Level based hammer skins:
- You can now unlock and equip special hammer skins that can be unlocked by leveling up
- Higher tier hammer skins produce a special repair particle effect and sound effect
Level based titles:
- You can now set special titles that can be unlocked by leveling up
New winning screen:
- Renamed "Most eliminations" to "The Marksman"
- Renamed "Best Repairs" to "The Handyman"
- More best roles will be added soon
- Winning screen now shows match rewards
- Winning screen now shows level based unlocks and rewards
- Winning screen now shows gained level experience and unlocked levels
In-game username additions:
- In-game username above player's head now also shows title and level
Steam achievements:
- Steam achievements are now unlockable (16 achievements)
Controller support:
- *Experimental* controller support added
Option improvements:
- Added a brightness slider
Rising ghost ship:
- Final zone now spawns 3 rocks with each a part of a ghost ship that contain cannons, loot and a treasure chest. (Sometimes the ghost ship can spawn through islands, we'll resolve this with future patches)
Gameplay improvements:
- Swimming speed increased with 50%
- Added loud swimming sounds to fast swimming
- Added quiet swimming sounds to slow swimming
- You can now climb twice as fast on ship ladders by holding shift but it makes a loud climbing sound (there is a tooltip as well)
- Slow ship ladder climbing is now silent
- Steering wheel now has twice as many angles and thus allows for more precise turning
- Healing speed increased by 20%
- Removed swivel cannon in ship wreck on Bird's Reef (performance cost and very rarely used)
- Enemies can no longer recork
Conquest tweaks:
- Flag capture progress bar now stays on screen even if the flag is behind you (screen edge widget)
Weapon rebalancing:
- Musket body shot damage reduced from 65 to 59 and headshot damage increased from 97 to 99
- Nockgun projectile damage increased from 10 to 11
- Nockgun reload time increased from 2.3s to 2.5s
- Double Barrel reload time increased from 1.8s to 2.5s
- Half barrel reload time increased from 1.8s to 2.5s
- Blunderbuss no longer fires all 11 pellets when not fully loaded
Score tweaks:
- Score is now given based on damage done instead of bullet damage amount (multipliers are now taken into account)
- Kills now reward 50 score instead of 100
UI improvements:
- Scoreboard redesigned visually
- Scoreboard now shows player levels
- Right clicking in scoreboard now makes your mouse cursor always appear in the center of the screen
- Added a small popup when joining a server
- Mouse interface tooltip visual tweaks
- Credits button moved to options (main menu only)
- New circular loading widget for server browser, party system and some other UI
New party UI:
- Party UI now shows icons for ready / unready / party leader state
- Party UI no longer requires hovering to leave or kick or see username
- Style revamped
Ship tweaks:
- All ship collisions improved which should make it harder to get stuck on sandbanks or rocks
- Sinking fire effect flames now more nicely placed on all ships (no more floating flames)
- All ship damage point locations tweaked so they align nicely with the interior hull planks (visual improvement)
- Brigantine steering wheel deck railings slightly redesigned
- Ship nameplate lettering now white instead of black for better readability
- All bomb vessel swivels can now fire both regular and anti-sail again
- Bomb vessel mortar turning radius decreased from 220 degrees to 180 degrees
- Bomb Vessel mortar projectile explosion radius decreased from 2000 to 1700
Bug fixes:
- Fixed a bug that caused multiple server popups to appear when trying to join multiple servers
- Fixed a bug that caused incorrect player amount on server after server connect rejection
- Disabled decals on clothing
- Fixed some blurry cosmetic item icons
- Fixed a floating teleport platform on Bird's Reef
- Fixed some issues with host screen time of day images
- Fixed a bug that caused dust particles not to work in conquest
- Fixed a bug that caused render scale to reset to a low value whenever you change resolution
- Fixed incorrect skin shininess on male and female models
- Fixed weirdly textured ropes in bomb vessel
- Fixed some material issues on the brigantine
Like this update? Let us know on Discord!
