Hey Captain!
Following an unscheduled delay, we are back with our 15th diary of the reboot series, this time talking about some cosmetic changes, the continuation of our support power system and visible damage! Let's dive right into it!
First, we've added visible damage to enemy ships. We've always felt that it was a little unimpactful to see your torpedoes hit an enemy Fubuki, and see the still seemingly fully intact ship slowly go down. There should be visual feedback when you deal damage more than a puff of smoke; certainly so for torpedoes, after all. Steel should bend and buckle, fires should pop up where the target was hit, and in the case of torpedoes, massive holes should appear as torpedoes detonate under the hull.
The unfortunate Akizuki you see in the picture has been hit hard and is not long for this world. Although this isn't the ideal depiction of torpedo damage, we think it's a good compromise between the artistic constraints of the game and visual identification of how much of a bloody nose you've given your opponent.
We finally have usable binoculars, the competent Captain's favourite tool for situational awareness! You cannot aim weapons in this mode as it would not really be practical to do so in the context of Boat Crew's aiming mechanics. However, it's the perfect tool for getting a closer look at your opponents', and also for...
...calling down artillery strikes! You will be able to aim your "skill-shot" support powers with the binoculars, allowing you to decide on the perfect placement yourself. As opposed to the fairly hands-off planes that are good, reliable support, we intend for artillery support to be high-risk, high-reward that should shine in the hands of players with good aiming and intuition. Well-placed barrages will be able to truly maul enemy formations before the battle is joined, making the rest of that engagement that much simpler.
Off-map barrage support will come in a variety of weight classes and other randomly generated stats as we have discussed in the earlier diary about support powers, with these affecting cost, time to arrive, damage and shell count. What's intuitive will work here; such as light barrages being better against swarms of light boats whereas heavier barrages will be for proper ships.
Overall, we intend for artillery to be a more player-involved power compared to planes that should pay off with the appropriate target practice.
That will be all for now, Captain!
T.T.