Hey guys just giving you a little recap of 3.0 and an update on where it is. Some of you are already familiar and some may be new, so we're going to go over everything.
As of this post 3.0 is on its 27th closed test, and mostly complete code wise. We're now leaning on art demands as multiple ships are being added along with some.. other art.
What is 3.0, why did you decide to do it, and why is it taking so long?
Many of you saw it, and we saw it too. Blackwake can be repetitive. If you have a captain that doesn't want to board, or if no one hosts any objective based gamemodes, or you never get a chance to be a captain, Blackwake can get stale quick. While we are grateful it's praised for what it is, we agree that what it is right now should not be the end product but it is a perfect foundation.
We did not like where we saw the end product going with Blackwake so we decided to take any plans we had for a sequel (things we deemed too difficult and nearly requiring a rewrite of the game) and just doing them now as an update. 3.0 is an overhaul and has pretty much paused any updates going out to the live game.
Why so little information?
Our community loves to pick apart our updates, which is great, we love feedback. But some are a bit over zealous and will deem a feature to be the bane of their existence before it is ever tested and balanced. This time around we decided to save ourselves the Discord mechanic debates (which we often do) and remain mostly silent, only talking with the closed testing players which is made up primarily of veterans who also are able to take on the view of a clueless new player. Having both of these perspectives helps make sure everyone is happy when we do roll out the update.
What CAN we know?
We have released a few sneak peeks over time:
http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1492239278481874116
http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1461840308423879009
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackwakeGame/comments/7gq6a2/this_30_sneak_peek_was_uploaded_in_discord_by_a/
https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackwakeGame/comments/7hzoo4/let_me_cauterize_that_for_you/
We'll also go a little more into detail in this post about what is in 3.0.
3.0 is designed to be controlled through the server configuration file. Meaning it can be turned into any gamemode you want (given the select features it releases with or are added in the future). It can be scaled how you'd like, and also balanced how you'd like. 3.0 gives server owners the ability to customize various settings and then name the gamemode what they feel fits the playstyle they've configured most.
Many new shot types are being introduced with devastating effects, RNG fire is being removed and will now be a crew controlled shot type that requires "cooking" a cannonball in a furnace for 60 seconds. Note that fires will be adjusted since their frequency will increase.
Max cannonball range will be reduced from 1000 to 700 to keep ship play in more exciting ranges. Far too much do we see a captain sailing very far away from any action and boring their crew to death while they struggle to land those unforgiving long range shots.
Captains will enjoy full control over what ship they sail, regardless of the team they're on.
3.0 will be our last big update before leaving Early Access. 3.0 will release and we will do a lot of polishing and balancing as we lead up to 4.0, which is planned to be full release. We should add we are not done with Blackwake after full release, we will continue to patch in content!
Happy holidays!
Dakota & Tyler