With the release of v0.9.2.0 continues our Early Access release! this is currently available on Steam! You can buy it here to support the game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2128430/Seven_Seas_Adventures/
This is a major update that changes a lot of code under the hood, specially around networking - the old code had some design flaws that led to a lot of networking issues because state was divided between clients and server. This new update brings a lot of updates to the networking code that makes it more secure, more efficient, and overall simpler in terms of addressing issues now that the server is in total control over the game state.
- Servers should now be fully authoritative :tada:
- Dedicated servers will now save world data when shutting down
- Made it so dedicated servers can change port, amount of players, and even made master server registration optional! (for those who prefer to have private servers)
- Increased default player count from 5 to 10 on locally hosted games
- Fixed numerous battle issues on dedicated servers
- Added proximity based network updates, **significantly** increasing network performance
- Fixed some UI issues with the Battle Result screen on wide screen monitors
- Fixed some UI issues with the Shipyard window on various monitor sizes (including wide screen)
- Fixed an issue where commodities purchased from the market weren't showing up in the player's cargo space
- Fixed an issue with NPCs not purchasing at port when they should be
- Made a slight adjustment to the number of commodity types that NPCs will attempt to purchase when they stop at a port
- Added the battle info window, that allows players to choose which "team" they want to join, as opposed to making the choice for them
- Fixed some errors around joining and ending battles
- Fixed an issue with the ocean UI not opening properly after leaving a battle
- Fixed a visual issue with ocean water in battles (it was too "tiled")
- Fixed an issue with dedicated servers picking the wrong default region
- Fixed an issue with dedicated servers trying to access texture data not in memory
- Fixed an issue with generating/spawning bounties
- Fixed an issue with the game disconnecting from a server due to thinking the connection timed out, even though the connection was successful
- Removed AI agents from the world map
- Fixed an issue with battle boundary shader not being included in builds
- Fixed an issue with object drift caused by physics on clients
- Reworked how sailing works - instead of having to hold down the forward/backward keys to slowly increase sail length - you can now press it once, and your sails will be set to a desired level between 0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, 100%, 110% (there is a 1 second cooldown between changing levels)
- Also added a new speed - Studding Sails - where your ship will sail at 110% of it's maximum speed, but at the cost of maneuverability (reduced by half) - perfect for getting to places quickly or hunting down enemy fleets!
- AI will have reduced speed when approaching ports
- Reworked ship control to share common code between both AI and Players
- Reworked the games core Observable system - it's ***way*** more efficient now - will result in faster connect times, less CPU usage, reduced bandwidth, and is far easier to maintain!
- Game metadata is now contextual,
- Disabled camera positioning while sailing (that let you look "ahead") the camera will now remain focused on your ship. This will proceed a future camera system overhaul
- Removed unused rendering feature that resulted in a significant rendering performance boost!
- Removed hidden scene on main menu to speed up initial loading
- Streamlined the systems for AI ship control
- Improved AI ship control in battles - they're more aggressive and keep ships in their broadsides when in range (AI-triggered boarding coming soon!)
- Fixed an issue with AI objects rotating incorrectly
- Fixed an issue with cannon aim being incorrect at times (related to the above issue)
- Fixed issues with navmesh generation and improved the speed at which navmeshes are generated
- Reworked how commodities are generated - crafting time is now computed as a fraction of day length (allowing worlds to scale with custom game times)
- Fixed bugs with facilities exporting their goods to market
- Ports will now round up their consumption to the nearest whole unit of a commodity
- Fixed some UI bugs with the Facility window, when looking at a Facility you own
- Fixed some UI bugs with the Facility Logistics window
- Added **Reinforcement System** - done to make battles more organized and reduce performance hit from large scale battles
- Rather than spawn all combat ships at the start of a battle, the game will limit the amount of "active" ships and spawn in reinforcements as the battle progresses (and ships are sunk)
- Removed the Minimap - you can still use the world map! (M to open)
- Let me know what you think of this change - I know a lot of people weren't a huge fan of it, so I removed it, but can easily re-add it if this isn't a popular change)
- Fixed an issue with the UI Tracker system (that shows you where various tracked items in the world are)
- Added tracking to battles - so you know where enemies and allies are located!
- Fixed an issue where you could board a sinking ship
- Fixed an issue with cannonballs not applying damage to ships correctly
- Reworked how firing cannons works - rather than firing one cannonball per "cooldown", you'll fire one per side, per cooldown. This allows you (and AI!) to fire dual broadsides if enemies are on both sides!
- Reworked the targeting code to allow multiple ships to be targeted during a single "fire" action, allow dual broadsides
- Reworked how AI prioritize targets during battles - rather than be hyper fixated on a specific target (as they were) they will now change targets if a closer target deals damage to them
- When switching ships in combat, state is properly updated (importantly for server tracking)
- Fixed a bug with how 3D ports are rendered - it will ensure buildings are rendered on top of the terrain
- Added the ability to bulk transfer items from loot in the after battle report
- Fixed a bug with AI not buying rations for their fleet when they had a small crew
- Improved AI commodity purchasing - they now properly buy trading goods based on pricing intelligence
- AI now purchase whole rations, as opposed to partial (same constraint as players)
- Also reworked how they spend their money - ie. higher amount of cheaper goods, sparse trading of luxury goods (unless wealthy)
- Fixed bugs with AI sorting cargo between their ships
- Reworked how much Gold the AI will keep on them - rather than being a percentage of their total gold, it'll now be based on their score (with percentage still being used as a fallback for poor AI) - everything else is stored in their bank account
- Fixed issue with Facility window and Facility Logistics window on ultra-wide monitors
- Fixed an issue with going back to Port from the Port Management view leaving some audio elements enabled