Greetings Captain,
We're back with another diary, talking about the progress on the Level Editor, as well as the two new mighty warships we are adding!
Let's get right into it.
First of all, our efforts in integrating the Level Editor into the Workshop are almost complete, and the interface has been updated to easily pick, share and rename scenarios. The next patch onward, Workshop will be available for sharing player made levels.
During the Experimental Branch, we intend for the Workshop to be kept private, with sharing privileges given to a group of players who are in close contact with us to help form the very first corpus of player-made Boat Crew content. If you'd like to be among the pioneers of Boat Crew modding, join our Discord Channel and let us know if you'd like to be included in this initial effort.
Once the update reaches the Stable Branch, the Workshop will be freely available to everyone for uploading scenarios.
On the IJN side, we are adding the Furutaka-Class Cruiser to the game. The first ever class of heavy cruisers made by Imperial Japan, the two members of the class, the Furutaka and the Kako, both fought in and were sunk in the Solomon Islands campaign.
In Boat Crew, they will be your toughest enemies yet, being better armored than anything you've fought so far, with concentrated firepower and excellent torpedo accuracy being requirements for you to even stand a chance. Their 20.3 cm guns fire large, heavy shells that are easier to dodge than some other guns you've faced so far, but a single hit is almost guaranteed to blow your PT Boat into splinters. If that's not enough, they also have a secondary battery of 12.7 cm guns.
Being a capital ship if a relatively light one, the Furutaka will not be a rank and file enemy you see every day, being found exclusively in late game hunter killer groups that go after your Strategic Targets, or in enemy Strategic Target groups escorting carriers, again in the late game.
If you can sink both the Furutaka and Kako, they will be replaced by their sisters with fictional names, sporting a hypothetical armament upgrade replacing their single 12.7 cm guns with open twin mounts.
All in all, we hope she proves to be a major challenge and a memorable boss fight.
The emergence of this new threat hasn't escaped the US Navy's notice however, and the Atlanta-Class Cruiser is being deployed to provide you assistance and defend American carrier groups. Although nominally a light cruiser compared to the Furutaka's classification as a heavy cruiser, the Atlanta's displacement and number of guns make her more of a match to the Furutaka-Class than to the Nagara-Class.
USS Atlanta and her sister USS Juneau both fought and were sunk in the Solomon Islands campaign, mirroring the fates of their rivals in the Furutaka-Class. The two ships are roughly equivalent, with the Atlanta having the advantage in fire rate, volume of fire and damage control and the Furutaka having the advantage in raw stopping power and resilience.
Like the Furutaka, the Atlanta too will be a rare appearance in the Campaign, but you can always feel free to make a scenario with them if you want to see how they handle themselves in combat.
Lastly, we have made the second episode of the Level Editor Tutorial; you can check it out below.
You can expect the update with everything we've talked about reaching the Experimental Branch soon, though we will still need some more time before we are ready for Stable Branch. If you'd like to contribute to the process, fire up the Experimental Branch and don't be shy to share your feedback and comments.
That's all we have for now,
Captain,
T.T.