Hello there everyone, Alex here once again with a little update.
As you may have noticed, we just updated the game and are pounding our heads against our keyboards as fast as we can to get the game in a solid condition prior to launch.
Now, having said this, it falls on me to mention that not everything that is PLANNED for the game will be making it in at 1.0.
Now, what does this mean? Well, it's simple. 1.0 is a version of Pixel Piracy that we feel comfortable enough with to present to the general public, the mass market.
THIS is why bug fixing and polish are critical at this moment, while a full multiplayer suite or base building, etc isn't.
We at Quadro Delta are commited to providing the title with a myriad of content well and beyond what is stipulated at version 1.0.
A MAGNIFICENT example of this is the game Mount And Blade: Warband.
At version 1.0 there were so many things they had PLANNED that were cut that I was surprised. But then I played the game, found it to be polished, found those memory leaks and all of those terrible bugs it had had just weeks prior gone, and realized that if I judged the title based on that, it stood on it's own two legs.
Mount and Blade continued to recieve (and CONTINUES to recieve) frequent updates, fixing bugs, adding new systems, and checking off things that had been on their plate for a long time but due to the time it takes to actually do it, they forfeitted it at the time.
This is essentially what 1.0 means for us at Quadro Delta. It's the FINISHED state of the game, without the flair and "Panache" that comes with a few of those additions.
The game will be playable in it's own right, and be able to be judged as a final product that, if revisited 5 months down the road, will have even MORE stuff crammed in it.
As always, transparency between us is key, you as a player want to know things that only we have answers to. So here comes a nice list of things you can expect in the game that WILL NOT make it in for 1.0, as well as the reasons WHY,because I want you to understand that it's not a simple case of us being lazy or us not wanting to, but of time "cost" versus absolute neccesity.
Bottom line,if we focused on these frills right now, we wouldn't be able to polish the game to a sheen prior to launch, and we would be absolutely slammed by negative reviews on metacritic, which in turn would hurt sales, which would harm production and our company, which would lead to neither the game being polished, nor the game seeing the awesome additional stuff you want to see. A simple truth, and I won't pussyfoot around it.
1. MULTIPLAYER
will not be in the game at launch due to a rather unfortunate and slightly embarrasing truth. The game was initially a prototype, had completely different end goals, and wasn't on Steam. As we were just two people who were simply making the game we wanted to make, it never occured to us to include something as trivial as basic net code functionality. Now, for those of you like me that don't understand the first thing about programming, let me sum it up.
Imagine five pieces of string , all straight and at short lengths from each other, each of these is a game module, something that we programmed. Maybe it's ship combat, perhaps it's the pirate friendship system, etc. After some time, those strings begin to intertwine, they become a mesh, kind of like a glob of silly string.
If we wanted to add multiplayer RIGHT NOW, we would have to re-work every line of code from start to finish in order to do so. WHY? Because multiplayer ripples through to each aspect of the game, this is why adding a completely NEW system like shoveling for treasure chests or new music, etc, works without consecuence. It builds upon pre-existing features.
Multiplayer NEEDS to be implemented from the start or it would require a prolonged effort that only gets more and more complex the more time that goes on. We either cut off ALL work on the game and focus exclusively on it for 2 odd months (in which case you would LYNCH ME, as we always update every friday) or we wait until version 1.0, then as a community decide when a pause from content needs to be done in order to add it. OR OPTION 3. Code in multiplayer in a way that doesn't touch the game engine in weird ways, which would mean ASYNCHRONOUS multiplayer, which is doable, but would be more like those F2P games where you make a single dude and then pitch him in battle against another dude and whoever wins gets more money etc. It's a whole different game.
Once 1.0 hits, as a community, we will decide HOW to do this. If we go the old fashioned route and rework the internal structure? It could take two months or so, WITHOUT any major updates at all in that time.
If we do it the quick and dirty way, it could take 2 weeks, but may or may not be to your liking due to the fact that there won't be coop play and it'd be more of a pseudo-multiplayer game than a real one. The good news is, Vitali and I are planning a proprietary engine we will use for our games, and Multiplayer is the first thing we have on that list (expect the engine for game number 3).
Sorry folks, it's how it is, and there's no two ways about it!
ETA 2 months from start to finish, ETA of beggining is POST launch, based on community feedback.
2 ISLAND BUILDING
will not be in at launch due to the following. We never planned on having it be in at launch, but a HUGE and COMPLETELY FREE sort of DLC. I won't cash in on your good will by making quick and dirty DLC for games. That means no PIRATE PACK 1-7 that cost 1$ each.
You get what you paid for and if we make something after it's done you don't pay for it again.
That's not to say if, for example, we took Pixel Piracy and used it to make a huge open world campaign set in viking times or feudal japan or what not we wouldn't charge it as a DLC, but that's only because we would rather charge a modical price instead of full-fee as if it were a new game! In this case the only reason we would charge it as a DLC is to save you money, as opposed to re-packaging it as it's own standalone and having you pay premium for it AGAIN!
It'd take us 3 weeks or so to get Pirate Haven mode down just right, and we'll decide when to begin post launch.
ETA 2-3 weeks, ETA of beggining 2-3 weeks POST launch.
Faction System:
It's in, barely. I currently don't like how little the player interacts with factions, but in order to make the system more "wholesome" we need a bit of time and dedication, two things we are hard-pressed to give right now. Once 1.0 is out we can easily focus on working in a system. I have it all planned out already and you can see my thoughts on both it and the building system here
https://www.dropbox.com/s/dyrqp6ja6ftivjk/Faction%20System.docx
once again, what is on this page is merely ROUGH PRODUCTION WORK, so it's subject to a lot of change, but you can see where I'm going with it.
Ghost Ships:
This should be fun actually, and MAY or MAY NOT make it into the final release. I'm putting it here just in case it doesn't blow up later if I can't come through. I don't want Ghost ships to just be a quick thing, I want them to play into how the game actually is, to be an integral part of end-game content. For that to happen we need to revamp some systems such as cannon combat and the faction system.
FINALLY
The reason why we decided on July the 5th as a release date? It's simple really, we started work on July 6 2013. Less than a year to make a hit title sounds "Correct" to me as an fledgeling Indie studio.
We want to provide you with a SOLID title, for under what you'd pay for in a restauraunt for a meal, that provides dozens of hours of content, with the hopes that other studios follow this simple rule and make it the NORM!
@alexpoysky is my twitter
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ALL opinions or frustrations CAN be vented on me!