As developers who spent our childhoods reading sci-fi novels such as Randevous with Rama, Dune, Starship Troopers, The Martian Chronicles, in the years before the Internet was discovered, we were aware that we were embarking on a difficult path when we started developing Pirate Patrol, and we have not regretted it, we have enjoyed every stage of this work.
Of course, when we come across a fantasy RPG, we enjoy swinging swords and throwing fireballs, battling dragons in Skyrim, replaying Divinity Original Sin 2 with different teammates, reliving the excitement of building a kingdom in Pathfinder: Kingmaker, or we never get tired of boarding our sailing pirate ship and boarding enemy ships in Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire...
However, when it comes to sci-fi, things stop for us. Although we are aware that science fiction is possible with a creative imagination, we are among those who believe that the "science" part of the work imposes a responsibility on any science fiction work.
Fireballs in Science Fiction
To take a very simple example, a fantasy roleplaying game wouldn't question the wizard's ability to create and throw a fireball in the palm of his hand. However, if a character in a science fiction story creates a fireball in the palm of his hand and throws it left and right, the science fiction reader/player will want to see a scientific explanation for this. So science fiction stories explain that characters can create a fireball by drawing energy from perhaps another dimension, perhaps with the various accessories/devices they wear. Of course, this is one of the simplest examples...
As we develop Pirate Patrol, we keep in mind our goal to appeal to science fiction fans. At the same time, we want you to have fun playing the game we have created. For this reason, we apologise to our players who are tired of seeing long texts in some parts of the game. This is partly due to our "sci-fi" obsession and our desire to get the story straight to the player.
With the new update, which will be released in the coming days,[/url] we will now be able to configure fighters and remove the long text sections at the beginning of the game, allowing the player to quickly get into the game and the action. The "long text at the beginning" that some of our players complained about has been spread out so that it appears in different parts of the game, bit by bit.
Play it fast or play it slow?
On the other hand, we would like to remind you that Pirate Patrol is actually a tactical RPG designed to be played "slowly".
Although it is not a big problem to play the game "fast" at this stage, our players will notice that the features we add in each update make tactical control more important in the game. In the final version, our players will have to make critical decisions in conflicts by pausing the game or reducing the speed of the Neural Network to "tactical" level.
For example, while fighters are out in space scanning for new technologies in enemy debris, there is a risk that flying asteroids will come fast and hit the debris, destroying it. Therefore, the player may need to protect these debris piles and hunt for asteroids with both the surrounding fighters and the mother ship's weapons.
Especially after the introduction of the fighter configuration update, making tactical decisions in the game will become even more important.
For example, the missile you load onto a fighter can reach much higher speeds than normal missiles. Since the missiles fired by other fighters will not be able to hit a very fast moving robot fighter, you may want to order the fighters you have specially loaded with "fast missiles" to attack this "fast" enemy.
Let's take another example. Soon enemy ships will be launching missiles, and enemy missiles will pose a great risk to both fighters and the FATHER.
The FATHER's point defence weapons will be able to destroy these enemy missiles, but if there are a large number of missiles, your fighters may need to hunt them down. In this case, if you have assigned your fighters to pilots with very strong piloting skills, who can move very fast and have powerful engines, and if you have equipped these fighters with long-range weapons that can fire very quickly, your job will be very easy. So you need to pause or slow down the conflict and choose and assign your "suitable" fighters.
For players who don't want to bother with these tactical decisions, the game will continue. Artificial intelligence pilots and officers will still find a way to destroy the "fast" robot ship. However, in the meantime, your mothership will have taken more damage, you will have burned more ammunition, your resources will have been more depleted, your valuable fighters may have taken more damage and will have to return to the mothership for repairs, leaving you vulnerable for a while. Each choice will have a different outcome.
To sum up, we put a lot of effort into making Pirate Patrol a game that offers a lot of options for sci-fi lovers and has a solid logical infrastructure. We are having a lot of fun and hope you enjoy the game. Thank you all for supporting Pirate Patrol during this development process.
