Today's playtest update is a big one! It includes all of the main islands for the game world, an overhead map, enemy wyvrens, the first pass at the dynamic economy, events, rumors, a save/load system, and a lot more!
World and Factions
All of the major islands are built for the game world. There are 35 islands with about 28 towns across four factions. I will be adding smaller islands to add a bit more interest between the larger islands. The world is also separated between the four factions and the towns on the islands have different styles based on the faction.
Each faction now has primary resources that they produce. Convoys from a faction are more likely to be carrying these resources and prices will vary depending on whether a faction produces a resource or not. More no this later.
Ship convoys are separated between "ocean going" and regular. Regular convoys tend to stay near their faction islands while ocean going can travel across the entire map.
Faction colors and symbols are now created after you create your faction. This ensures that the NPC factions never use the same colors or symbol that you used.
Combat
Some ships can be designated as wyvren carries. These ships will spawn wyvrens during a battle. Wyvrens prioritize attacking your ships their fire breath is just as deadly as yours! They are vulnerable to your fire breath however and can also be downed by the swivel guns on your ships.
Damage to ships is now shown by how many of its sails are on fire. The more damaged a ship is, the more of its sails will burn. The Guppy class of ship has three sails now (originally it only had one) so you can tell how damaged it is within this system. I also created a tutorial UI to explain how to attack ships and how the sail fire damage indicator works.
Swivel guns now shoot in volleys rather than independently. This allows you to get in close and breath fire on ships in-between their swivel gun shots. Swivel gun cannonballs also trail fire to differentiate them from the main cannon shots, which trail smoke.
All ships now react when hit by the lightning attack. The lightning attack pushes down on the ship, causing it to lower into the ocean a bit and reducing it's speed. This allows you to use the lightning attack not only to cause damage, but to also influence the movement of the enemy ships.
When you are looking at a ship during combat, the health UI for that ship will be highlighted. This makes it easier to tell which ship you are attacking, especially during larger fights!
Added sound effects your dragon's cannons reload and when attempting to use a breath weapon that is out of charges.
If one of your ships is destroyed, you now lose cargo based on what percentage of your maximum cargo that ship represented.
Note right now you can't lose a battle. If you lose all of your ships you will get two free ships to continue playing. I'm still deciding what losing a battle will mean, whether you can retreat, and what happens if you are killed and/or all of your ships are destroyed.
Economy
Faction convoys are separated in two categories, ocean going and local. Local convoys will stay closer to their faction area, usually only delivering cargo between different faction controlled islands. Ocean going convoys can travel to any island on the map and will be the primary driver of the eventual dynamic economy system. As cargo is delivered across factions, prices will vary depending on what cargo a faction needs and what resources were delivered.
Destroying a convoy will affect the prices of the resources that convoy was carrying at the town they were headed towards. Doing this will also negatively impact your faction standing with BOTH the ships' faction and the destination town's faction.
You can have up to four ships in your convoy. There is a button in the Docks UI to allow you to dismiss a ship if you are at the maximum and want to purchase a new ship.
User Interface
The battle victory UI has been updated to more clearly reflect the XP, gold, and cargo you gained from the battle.
The world map UI has been updated to show all 35 islands and the locations of convoys. The ship icon's sails are colored to match the faction color and the icons move in real time while the map is open. You can also click on a convoy to see its cargo and where it is headed.
The event UI has been updated to give more information regarding the result of your choice. I also added an event result screen that displays confirming the result and giving information regarding any other information.
Added a delete save button to the title screen UI so you can start over and test earlier parts of the game if you want to.
The settings UI now includes options for sound and music volume
Events and Rumors
Added locations for two new events, floating loot and buried treasure. Floating loot can appear anywhere in the ocean while buried treasure tends to appear on the uninhabited islands or on larger town islands, but away from the town.
You can speak with a tavernkeeper once per day to learn about a good price for a resource at another town. I'll be adding more types of rumors, such as a ship carrying specific cargo and quest related information as well.
Save System
Your progress is now saved between sessions. The game automatically saves every time you open the ESC UI and when finishing a battle. I'll be adding more to this as I add more features.
All of these updates bring Pirate Dragons to Alpha 1.0 and the game is getting very close to feature complete!
If you haven't already, be sure to sign up for the playtest and wishlist Pirate Dragons!
-Jonathan "Calandryll" Hanna
[email protected]
- My Twitter: https://twitter.com/SuperSixStudios
- Discord Channel: https://discord.gg/qjMQMA79xe