Greetings Captain!
Today, we're here to talk about the continuation of our work on destroyer variants, the new weather system, and our plans for a sort of "hit list" and dynamic radio chatter that will replace our previous plans for special missions. We've talked more than once about our plans for special missions to emulate notable engagements on the historical Solomon Islands campaign, but after much deliberation, we couldn't find a suitable implementation that wouldn't take away from the dynamic nature of the campaign. That's the summary of what we are going to talk about; now let's get into it!
Here you can see the Akizuki, which will finally get named variants. The Akizuki-Class ships would be some of the largest that get the name written on the hull, as anything larger would be a capital ship, which did not historically have their names written like that. Named ships will come in the configuration they historically came in, and so should be visually identifiable from a distance.
On occasion, named ships, along with their entourage, will be spawned on the map, and you will be informed of their presence. They will be tougher than usual opponents, but the encounter will also be more rewarding should you succeed. Scratching off a target from the kill list will unlock the last encounter, culminating in a "boss battle" after you go through several engagements of increasing difficulty. These engagements can happen anywhere on the map rather than on premade maps, and fit better with our vision of a dynamic campaign than fully scripted missions would have. We hope that this system will perform the role of a side quest chain that we previously intended for special missions to fullfil.
We are also looking into adding dynamic radio chatter; the messages of the sort you see in the Challenges. Now of course, Challenges are scripted missions, with precise timings for when you receive a message, and it's quite tricky to find a balance between bombarding the player with similar messages on repeat and not meaningfully engaging enough to make the world feel alive and vibrant. This is something we would like to look into and implement if we can manage a satisfying implementation. We imagine these messages to be a commentary on your actions and on the engagement, as well as warnings and recommendations on occasion.
Overall, this would be the second half of the cannibalization of the original concept of special missions; the missions themselves would be woven into the map through the kill list system, and the worldbuilding through messages would be made dynamic and added into the Campaign itself.
Last not but least, we have been working on the weather system. As you can see, we have improved visuals for the rain and the wind, and the wind will in fact slightly affect your movement and come in from ever changing directions with ever changing ferocity. So, make sure to take the sailwinds after you!
That's all we have to share for today, Captain.
We will see you on the next diary,
T.T.