Ahoy Mateys!

Another big update to mark off the first 3 Months in Early Access! Plenty of heavily requested changes, as well as some nice QOL and bug fixes included since the last big update. Some of the work I completed early on since the last Major Update has really paid off in terms of getting some of these items in a bit easier.

Raids & Changes to the Retreat Mechanic

Splash and Dash! The Retreat or Flee mechanic has been in need of some updates for quite some time! Now if you have a change of heart during a battle, and choose to leave, the game will assess your threat level. If your threat level is low enough, you can safely leave the battle & return to the campaign map, keeping all that you've .. acquired!

Items that influence the threat level are:

• Enemy ships nearby

• Enemy Towers

• The time you've spent in the battle

• The last moment a ship in your fleet has received damage

I'm looking forward to improving this mechanic further based on your feedback so do let me know what you think in the discussion boards and Discord.

Flag Upload

Although it was always possible to "mod" in your own flags, now you have the added quality of life with a brand new file selection dialog when in the flag creation screen! Hit the Upload button and you'll be presented with a file browser, navigate to your desired image and you can bring it straight into the game! Check out how good MicroProses' Ocean Fest promo image looks as a flag!

Partial Looting

Finally! I know! You can now take goods from enemy fleets without having to claim the ships that hold them. Overall even getting visibility of these items is useful, you can also destroy items on your ships to create space for these items. I'm considering the addition of a crew section to this screen also but I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this before pulling the trigger.

Take in Tow

This has been requested a good bit since we went to Early Access, and with the previous patch's new difficulty spike with "Level locking" ships being available, this makes more sense to add now. You can take ships in tow at the penalty of campaign Movement speed - even if your fleet limit has been reached for your current level. Ships taken in tow will automatically sell at the next port you visit. I have many more plans to improve this screen and overall looting experience in upcoming patches.

Changes to the initial loading

I've been experimenting over the past few weeks in an attempt to speed up the initial loading of the project, especially for the first time. The initial load times are not great and although this doesn't effect gameplay, and speeds up subsequent loads - there are ways I can speed this up. For now you can expect to see some small differences before you see the initial Main menu with the addition of a load screen.

Manage Settlement

Plenty of progress has been made in the background in this ongoing task. You can expect another section by the next Major update - most likely the Building segment, and perhaps the Production segment.

Here is a full list of items covered off in this update:

New

• Flag upload! You can now upload flags directly from your PC.

• Added cheat for Removing Fog of War from Campaign map.

• Retreating from battle is now Leave battle. You can choose to leave a battle at any time - depending on the risk posed by enemies or damage you're actively taking, you'll be able to keep loot and enemy vessels without having to secure a total victory.

• Added 3 new achievements.

• Capturing a point during a battle grants gold - scales with amount captured & difficulty - also, you can keep this if you "leave battle".

• Partial Looting - You can now loot cargo from fleets that have surrendered to you, without having to take the whole ship.

• Take ships in Tow. You can now tow unclaimed ships from a battle to a port for sale. Your fleet will suffer a movement penalty while ships are in tow.

Fixes

• Fixed issue where Scenario difficulty settings were ignored.

• Fixed issue with legendary items sometimes being able to be sold for higher than purchase price - especially when playing Trader.

• Fixed Negative Port balances blocking transactions.

• Fixed movement issue with Follow targets - this was a knock on effect from the Smooth Movement changes.

• Fixed issue where Encounters would sometimes not spawn on the campaign map.

• Fixed issue where enemy ships would sometimes not catch what they were chasing.

• Fixed issue with the 46 gun SOTL missing some cannon assignments.

• Fleets chasing Player will now engage combat much earlier and lose target much further away.

• Fixed unreachable capture point on Huntingris Islet

• Fixed issue where crowns for Flagships would not be culled from the Fleet details screen.

• Fixed Encumbered ships overflowing UI issue.

• Fixed "Can't Afford" issue with Island Market transactions when island values are in the negative.

• Fixed issue with enemy fleets perusing player would lose target easily & not be able to catch up.

• Fixed issue where the incorrect amount of gold would be taken when buying an upgrade.

• Fixed issue where money spent on Ship Upgrades would not go towards the Island Wealth.

• Fixed issue preventing the triggering of Capture 10 islands Achievement (Archipelago)

• Fixed issue where claimed ships after a battle would duplicate into their original fleets without being properly removed.

• Fixed issue where fleets with no ships could break other fleet logic.

Changes

• Changed the way that the project loads up initially.

• Changed Time increase amount to 0.1 instead of 0.5

• Objective list now shows during battle when Shift is Held.

• Objective list now has the faction flag associated with each row.

• Reordered the Starting Perks.

• Added another Capture point to Huntingris Islet.

• Islands now take a hiring fee for Tavern units.

• Made campaign fleet TargetLost wait time difficulty based.

• Campaign Fleet Engagement Range is now difficulty based.

• Redone some Pause Menu items.

• Redone the Retreat popup to give a detailed overview of what was damaged, lost and recovered from a battle that has been left.

• Rebalanced Bribing a little - more punishing to fail, less rewarding to succeed.

• Changed Bribe Captain achievement to Threaten Captain.

• Redone sale price calculation for damaged ships.

• You can now release your own fleet ships into the claimable ship pool.

• You can now scuttle claimable ships from the Claim Ship screen.

Thank you to the community for all your screenshots! Especially N'Fuei who recently hit 1000 uploaded Screenshots!

Roadmap Updates

The roadmap has received a nice few updates this month with a few more items ticked off, and a new item added to the Short Term goals to represent the Manage Settlement work.

Events!

I'll be jetting off to the Netherlands this week for TwitchCon! I attended an animation conference on Friday and bumped into the CEO of blender! Alot of interesting folks and great projects happening currently in Ireland in gamedev and adjacent spaces - its great to see.

Thank You!

This past month has been fantastic - reaching 400+ reviews, joining the Corsairs bundle, and the Steam Ocean Fest! The crew has grown on the Discord to over 1300 members. Delighted with how things are going & the feedback I've received has been incredibly valuable to me as a Solo developer. I can't thank ye enough :)

A quick reminder that the best way to support development is to leave a review on the steam page. Thank you to everyone who has left a review so far :)

Here is the link to the discord where most tracking / communication is happening:
https://discord.gg/Ws9fjmHP5U

Appreciate ye folks, and until next time, Happy hunting!

John