Devblog #8 – Major Playtest Update and Naval Combat
Hello adventurers and welcome to the eighth Devblog for Distant Isles!
We recently released a major update for the Playtest on Itch, adding a whole lot of new content, quality of life upgrades, balancing and bug fixes.
We’ve had great engagement recently on the Playtest, but please make sure you check‑in and give it a shot if you haven’t already, or want to see what’s new.
The Playtest is crucial to making Distant Isles a better game, and is your opportunity to influence its direction.
This week, I’m going to continue the theme talking about Combat – but I wanted to showcase the recent work I’ve been doing on naval combat.
Naval Combat
There are two main types of naval combat – ship‑to‑ship combat (i.e. firing cannons and unleashing broadsides), and boarding combat.
I have recently been working on ship‑to‑ship combat and implementing cannon fire.
Different types of ships (e.g. Galleys, Brigs, Sloops, Cutters) will have a different combination of equipment slots available. There are three slots in total – the Forecastle, Midship and Quarterdeck.
Equipping a cannon in each of these three slots will give you a different cone of fire, i.e. equipping cannons mid‑ship will allow you to fire perpendicularly from both sides of the ship. A cannon equipped on the quarterdeck will allow you to fire backwards.
Enemy ships will have cannons equipped in different slots too, and will navigate to allow themselves to fire upon you.
If an enemy ship has cannons, it generally will use these in the first instance – however, if their ship becomes too damaged, they make seek to board your ship instead.
Boarding works similar to combat on the island – a field of battle will take place on the ship’s deck, and the victor takes the spoils!
If your ship is destroyed, or you lose a boarding fight, you will lose your ship (and all its stores) and wash up on the shore of an as yet undiscovered island with only a raft.
As you can see the penalty for losing ship combat is steep – best not to start a fight you can’t finish!
Wrap Up
It has been a big month of development! A massive thanks to everyone who has Playtested, and if you’re following our journey.
Just a reminder to Wishlist and Follow on Steam if you want to see more, and to join our small Discord community!
Huzzah!
Elliot