Greetings Captain,
It's been almost two months since our last Developer's Diary and we are back with another reboot of the series, talking about the next Big Update. The long awaited Crew Rework is the main object of this Big Update, but we also have many other things to talk about, so let's get right down to it!
The crew system has been rewritten from the ground up to be more responsive and fluid. One particular thing you might notice is that the same point can be serviced by multiple crew members at the same time, and they should also move to positions assigned by their roles more quickly.
We also added a "haste" system that makes the crew run in times of emergency, addressing an observation made by our Captains that crew would often walk at the pace of a leisurely stroll as their boat is falling apart around them. This is a temporary ability on a quick cooldown, and will activate on its own using our AI logic, but you can also prompt a sprint to station by right clicking twice with a crew member selected if it's not on cooldown at the time.
Aside from the haste mechanic and the updated models for the supply boxes, most of the improvements here are under the hood. The best way to communicate the significance of these changes will be to show you, as you will be able to see for yourselves on the next Experimental Branch starting on Friday, tomorrow.
Another thing Captains have often lamented the lack of is berthing for additional crew. We're happy to say we are finally adding upgrades for your boats, starting with Additional Crew Space upgrades. These upgrades will be obtained directly from our new unlock tree, giving you a permanent increase in crew capacity per level. You will be able to have up to 14 crew on PT boats, or up to 18 on the eventual playable version of the PC-461 Submarine Chaser.
Purchasable upgrades are not bought with RP. Instead, we are introducing the Captain Rank system, which acts as a global progress and upgrade system tracking your overall Campaign progress. Combat score, RP earned and VP earned all generate xp for you, and each level of Captain Rank will require an increasing amount of xp.
Each Captain Rank allows you to purchase a permanent global upgrade in one of four categories: Armament, Leadership, Survivability and Resourcefulness. You must go down these upgrade trees in sequence, but you are free to pick which tree to invest in with the only restriction being that your highest level in a category can't exceed the level in the category you have invested the least in by more than 2. So before you can get 3 levels in armament, you must have at least a point of investment in every other tree. This limitation will be disabled during the Experimental branch though so you won't have to worry about that for now.
We are hoping the global upgrade system will be a good balance of flexibility and structured progress, allowing you to prioritize to your preferences. In the first Experimental version, only the Leadership tree will be available, but you will be able to keep gaining Captain Rank for future unlocks as we add the other trees.
Last but not least, we are also including basic Squadron commands as the first part of a broader Squadron Rework. Using a new, convenient interface, you will be able to give Hold Position, Follow Me, and Retreat orders.
Hold Position allows you to designate a place, similar to how you might call Artillery, to be defended by your squadron boats. Your squadron will move to target position and patrol around it.
The Follow Me order cancels other orders, making the boats start following you. This will remain their default behaviour.
Finally, Retreat will order all Squadron boats to move out of bounds of the combat zone, for when you want to get them in out of harm's way for whatever reason.
We're hoping these additions will be welcome, particularly for those of you who have been asking for improved Squadron functionality. We'll have more on that later.
That about sums up what you might expect to see on the Experimental Branch, starting tomorrow. We are excited to start another cycle with you, and are looking forward to hearing your comments and feedback on our work so far.
That's all for now,
Captain,
T.T.