Ahoy!
… and a Happy New Year! It has been a super productive couple of months for us. If we double the same amount of effort for a couple of months more - the release is going to be something to remember.
This dev diary will be focused on the progress we have made recently, and even though we can’t show you the best part just yet, you are in for a treat!
But first, let’s go through the master schedule again:
Jan 15th: Release for the owners of the Early Access Edition.
Jan 15th: The third and the final pre-order push - last chance to purchase Exclusive Edition/Early Access.
Jan 15th: Steam page release for an unannounced title.
Jan 22d: ???
Feb 8th: Release for the owners of the Exclusive Edition.
Feb 12th: ???
Feb 15th: Caribbean Legend Release Day.
Notable Items:
UI fixes
The original game was quite notorious for obscuring important mechanics and stats. Well, that’s not the case anymore. No matter what perks you choose, what attributes you buff or what equipment you wear, you will immediately see the changes in stats of your build.
Two more experience bars added to allow better progress tracking. Skill Points never had their own bars, even though they are more valuable than level ups. One look at the character window and you will see everything you need.
Stealth System
Stealth was never the most fun and well thought feature of the series. We added a few adjustments to make it less reliable on save/load. First, check out the eye indicator on the character’s portrait at the top left. The closer you get to a hostile guard, the more intense it gets.
You still have options if they catch you. Stealth is now heavily dependent on: Stealth skill, character’s notoriety, clothes, amulets and social perks. Early game, when your character’s mug is not very well known, you can get by with amulets. But it will take either an expensive trading license or a much better prep in the late game though. The game will always tell you of your chances to pass a stealth dialogue check.
New Items
Originally we promised 9 new items to you. Welp, we got 29 , armament mostly . Some of which will be available only to the owners of First Wave or Exclusive Editions. We found a place for each in the balance, often introducing new and fun way to play the game.
Basse-Terre Expanded
As an experiment we increased the location size of the capital of Guadeloupe. After the release we will do the same to other cities in the game, thus giving you a better sense of townspace and colony life.
New jungle locations are a different story though. We managed to produce two of them, but they will require a significant improvement before we allow them into the release build. Maybe later?
Achievements
The game will have 98 achievements in total, and I guess we will need to add two more to make it a nice round number. Below are the 25 new ones - try to guess what lies behind each title, but rest assured that you will need at least two full playthroughs to get them all!
- Dating Sim
- My Soulmate
- Very ******* funny!
- My temple, my rules!
- Vile Lil' God
- Clean Hands
- Caribbean Legend
- Hi, dad
- Pension and Benefits
- Deadman
- Hogar, dulce hogar
- All your base are belong to us
- El Comercio
- Point Blank
- First of many
- No Regrets
- So it begins!
- Money do buy happiness
- Live By the Sword
- The Most Notorious Pirate
- Lootbox Hunter
- A*!
- Honoring the Classics
- Caribbean Virgin
- Three's Crowd
Main Character’s Visuals
We promised you new skins for the main character, and now it’s time to deliver.
Added a second tier of the French Navy Uniform along with a new quest to make it.
Currently we are making a new model for the leather armor. The screenshot below is a WIP, but it represents the idea of having headwear for top-tier armor in the game, like helmets or hats, allowing a better feel of progression.
Old models will get an update as well, for example we plan to add leg armor to a heavy chestplate.
Animations
Thanks to super talented Antix we have more diverse animations now. At this moment, we focus on the combat animations and musket handling. Big one, really, something that was never intended to be included in the game, but the most welcome addition to be sure!
https://youtu.be/y-J7b28U8og
WIP. Will probably consider other variants of this one.
https://youtu.be/PUxO5xt8J28
New heavy strike. Musket handling should be more lively now.
https://youtu.be/H_zQL4m6Gto
WIP. Something to consider post-release, the game is super stubborn when it comes to real-time musket equipping.
https://youtu.be/bXJ3Y2w2zvo
The left one is the new dodging move.The one at the right is the old.
https://youtu.be/--ryIA5S0p8
More dodging. Feels more natural now!
We have all kinds of crazy plans for the animation department. Next ones in our to-do list are street musicians, gamblers and fishermen to spice up the colony life.
Uplifted Textures
Same as with animations, this was not planned, but thanks to our community we have a way to improve the oldest and the ugliest textures that had been with us for almost 20 years! Thank you so much, КА!
It is tedious work, but the effect should be noticeable in the release build.
Examples:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Ebvl890DZaukH-YOMP-pmetSDvw1ySFU/view?usp=sharing
As bonus, we have also uplifted textures of the sails. Sea scenery is already looking fantastic and now it is even better. New sails complement the new sea, improved weather, updated sky so well!
Ship Gameplay
Now, what is the way to make the old naval combat formula a second life? How to make it more tactical and fun? Right, change some numbers!
- The Caleuche (Ghost Ship) now requires 100 Navigation Skill. She is the strongest ship in the game.
- You can’t hire Navigators with more than 75 Navigation Skill in taverns.
- Helen McArthur and Longway are the best Navigators in the game now.
- Ships get x2 to hull HP. Unique ships get x3.
- Ships get x0.75 to max crew. Unique ships get x0.85..
- Grapeshot loses all efficiency after depleting more than 50% of the target’s crew. Bombs don’t.
- Bombs cost much more and you can buy or loot much less of them in game.
- The game takes in account the rank of the player’s flagship and adjusts quest naval battles to it.
- The heaviest warships in the game now cost a fortune to command.
- 1 and 2 rank warships can be encountered in the open world only after the player reaches level 30.
Therefore, the game encourages you to command lighter vessels until the mid-game. It makes naval combat more tactical, forgiving and more welcome to experiments. You don’t have to reload a game after a bad volley or grind from the start to get yourself a warship before the midgame. But if you do get a warship early, it wont auto level your enemies accordingly or punish you. You will have a fun time ruining everyones day as long as you can afford to operate such a monster.
OST
The OST is complete - over an hour of new music, making almost two hours in total. Fits the 200 hours of content we have. Check out the new national themes - playing for French, English, Dutch and Spanish towns!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53hIPEf5rL4
And… That’s all for today, folks! See you all soon on January 15th! ːauthorityː
Happy New Year