The Arcane Waters demo sailed into Steam's Next-Fest in June. Thanks to a huge influx of players and your feedback, we were able to identify a long list of ways to improve the game, including some new features.
The next preview window for Arcane Waters will open on July 28th and run through August 7th. Sail along with us and enjoy all the changes we have in store.
We're very excited to share some of the significant changes we've made to questing. See below for the results of the "Phase 1" changes to quests available during the current Playtest. We hope to gather feedback for "Phase 2" after this playtest is complete in early August.
The Big List: Questing, Combat and Loot Tweaks, Trading, and more!
Quest Log
Getting Shipshape
Combat Tweaks
Item and Loot Tweaks
UI Fixes
System Fixes
Be sure to leave your thoughts in our Feedback Forums and join the discussion on Discord.
Quest Phase 1
Our quest system is getting some love!
- Players can now track their active and complete quests with the new quest log seen in the picture above!
- Easily check your active quests, progress, and know where they need to be turned in!
- View friendship levels with NPC's you've met
Other Quest/NPC Fixes
- Fixed bar keep in port haven showing quest notification but no quest loaded
- Fixed npc quest bug related to quest requirements
- Fixed dynamic dialogue replacements for ship/players/etc
Things we think you'll like
- Players can now trade directly with each other.
- NPC's names now show above them.
- New thematically correct boss for first voyage.
- Steam Rich-Presence added.
- Leaderboard Rework.
- Do-Not-Disturb option (DND) with chat command.
- There’s now a fee to create a guild.
- Spore Wars & Glacial Barrier have uniquely themed power-up shops.
- Larger maps in voyages.
- Added a chance to have more loot bags drop when you fight more monsters in land combat.
- You can use backspace or delete to remove props from housing.
- Players are now invulnerable when warping into an open world map until an action is taken.
- The auction system now allows gold refund for users who bid and lost.
- Updated visit sign asset artwork.
- Instance warping improvements.
- Admin-exclusive guild icons.
- Mark-All-As-Read option in mail.
- Increase the radius when trying to interact with chest.
- Allow players to submit bug reports on loading screens and other situations.
- Auctions can no longer be canceled when the auction has received a bid.
- Auctions can be posted anonymously.
- Puzzle lever enhancements.
- Hazel's bar is now named something more chat filter friendly.
- Tutorial end directs players towards the open world.
- Alternate graveyard route.
Getting Shipshape
- Fixed bug where lifeboat does not show in certain scenarios
- Added refund gold for ships that have had invalid stats generated during older build versions
- Damage from low food cannot be healed.
- Brigantine & Nao ship prices corrected.
Combat Tweaks
- New default rum attack ability.
- Rum ability adjustments & balancing
- Fixed ability cooldown carrying over to the next land battle
- Added default ability rum "Bottle Toss"
- Fixed venom residue to be destroyed when the horror boss is eliminated
- Fixed players being able to join an empty land combat.
- Fixed pvp bug causing users to not display their status or health bar
- Aquatic Assault now slows with a higher chance to proc.
- "Davey Jones" ability damage reduction
Items & Loot Tweaks
- Loot distribution rework. Lower tiered items and blueprints will be available in regional towns, middle tier at POI's, and high tier in voyages. Higher tier weapons are only available from voyage blueprints.
- Fixed level requirements on some gear.
- Seed & Sapling tooltip updates.
- Shop pricing tweaks
- Rum weapons & recipes available
- Saplings/bush starters are now spread across the shops in each region.
- Fixed armor sprite swapping bug
Sounds
- Added new music and other fx
- Fixed sound effects for sending/receiving friend requests
- Added new background music for land combat while enemies are alive
- Added death sound sfx for players losing duels
UI Fixes
- Added “slow text” option
- Added do not disturb notifications
- Added npc friendship level progression to each dialogue
- Fixed waypoint button appearing with pvp chat announcements
- Fixed typing chat canceling emotes
- Improved notices coming from server during server reset
- Fixed local area banner and quest notifications for NPC
- Updated location banner for player farm and house
- Updated region names in the notice board
- Added the Pine Peaks and Lost Frost regions in the notice board panel
- Added slot effect text option for option screen
- Fixed issue where typing E in chat causes interacting/action trigger
- Performance improvements for inventory panel loading
- Fixed crafting panel highlighted item selection bug
- Added ui panel blockers during triggering of data fetch for inventory and crafting panel
- Fixed bug causing inventory to open when in the process of warping
- Updated options panel UI
- Improved inventory panel item filtering to prevent blank slots and updated spacing of panel
- Improved player right click menu to prevent compression
- Fixed bug for close button not working on shipyard panel
- Fixed bug causing item shortcuts in hot bar to have invalid icon indicator even if its valid
- Fixed bug where deleting waypoint still has the waypoint shown
- Fixed issue where PVP instructions panel would remain showing for players sent back to hometown after game closed.
- PVP instructions panel checks to ensure it's not showing in a location it shouldn't be.
- Updated blueprint item description when details panel prompts in auctions panel
- Updated panel to show who is selling and who bought the item
- Added toggle in crafting panel to enable/disable refine-able items
- Improved scroll speed for screen resolution drop down in options panel
- Fixed voyage entrance to be labelled as League in world map panel
- Fixed silver tooltip missing
- Added a message showing why an outpost can't be built
System Fixes
- Fixed “ghost crops” from other areas showing
- Fixed bug causing perk points to reset
- Fixed some login issues for certain users
- Fixed loot bug where users who damaged a sea monster will not receive treasure bags
- Fixed bug where watering or harvesting crops in your personal or guild farm would affect crops in other locations too
- enable droplet indicator for tree only on watering action type
- Fixed outpost bug where adding material when reaching the max cap causes items to still deduct
- Fixed mail issues with the auction house
- Tweaked chat filters
- Fixed bug where player gets stuck when entering voyage if another player spawns in the area at the same time
- Fixed other equipment item sprite color palettes
- Ensured players are not spawned in a town they haven't unlocked after a PVP game.
- Sailor XP will only be gained if a player returns to land via dock, not teleport.
- Fixed perks not being applied when a player logs in at sea
- Fixed bug causing group members to receive loot bag drops for land combats they did not participate in
- Can no longer refund the starter ship.
- Fixed bug where clients on multiple farms could receive crop updates twice when joining map
- Fixed issue where crop objects could receive updates twice in some circumstances.
- Fixed instance warping of POI maps
- Fixed bad vines in player housing map
- Fixed tree growth timers
Thanks to all of our Playtesters for sending us your suggestions!