Patch 2.32 is here!
!! This update will require server owners to update !!
With 2.32 starts the beginning of our journey to raise the skill ceiling for crew gameplay. While captaining has many tactics and tricks to learn, crew gameplay has always been a bit repetitive. All the captain had to do was have good alignment and firing a broadside was a skill-less race against the clock.
For 2.32, we've now given the spyglass a very important purpose. The spyglass is now used to spot enemy ships for your team, this will make them appear in the Q menu and expose their distance to the gunners.
The spotter is awarded 30 points per ship spot, making it a good method to gain points while also being very important to your ships offensive function. A spot will only last 20 seconds before it will need to be refreshed.
Players on the cannon will use Q to see this distance and range their cannon using the SCROLL WHEEL. There is a grace area of 100m when distancing the cannon, meaning a ship at 550 can be hit at 500 and 600 with no compensation needed. Once you're ranged you must use the reticle to fight the waves and keep on target until the cannon fires. The fuse delay has been severely reduced.
SHOTS UNDER 300M DO NOT NEED TO BE AIMED. At 300m the cannons function the old way, and can hit without entering the aim view. If your crew are not good shots just get them closer!
We've also added two new melee weapons, the two handed axe and boarding pike. Both will be balanced more in hotfixes.
Two new maps have been added, the first being an arctic arena where you are locked within a glacial cove and forced to deal with close combat and obstacles such as ice bergs and sharp patches of ice that will give you holes.
The second is open water map with two ticking time bomb volcanos in place that will change the entire atmosphere when they erupt.
Full patch notes for 2.32:
- Cannon aiming overhauled. Now requires distance to be set with the scroll wheel and you must fight the waves with a verticle reticle. This is the first of our many updates to create a higher crew skillcap.
- When a spyglass views an enemy ship it will become visible with range in the Q menu to everyone on that ship for 20 seconds. Spotting a ship awards 200 points.
- Cannon fuse delay severely reduced.
- Server owners can now place a 500x80 Banner.jpg file in the directory to show on connect. The smaller the file size the better.
- Server owners can now create and edit a welcome message (Run the server to generate ServerMessage.txt template).
- New arctic environment containing patches of sharp ice that will damage your ship.
- New volcano environment that... well, you'll see.
- Two handed axe melee weapon has been added
- Boarding pike melee weapon has been added
- Spyglass third person animations added
- Heartbeat sound to indicate you're bleeding out
- You no longer bleed from fall damage
- Music slider influences menu music
- Cannon medal should track, note that it is kills and not hits.
- Current rank badge icon is shown during levelup
- 1v1 is now schooners
- Intermission reduced to 40 seconds
2.32 hotfix 1
- 2H Axe reduced to 80dmg per hit (down from 100)
- Pike range reduced, damage reduced to 33 dmg per hit (down from 50)
- Sailing over ice patches now has sound
- Volcano eruptions now have sound (may be out of sync until servers update)
- 30 score for ship spotting reinstated
- Cannon crosshair resets when using a cannon
- Ships should now respot without having to look away and back on
Further adjustments are being made to aiming based on feedback: https://www.reddit.com/r/BlackwakeGame/comments/6x7f81/cannon_aiming_what_dodont_you_like/
2.323 Hotfix 2
- Tweaked cannon shot code to not hone in on underwater areas if above water areas were near where you hit.
- Crosshair turns green on friendly ships
- Corsshair will turn white if contact is below waterline
- Random maps shouldn't repeat twice in a row
- Pike attack speed and length reduced
That's all for 2.32, 2.33 will include our new ship based on the HMS Sophie that will replace the navy galleon!
We've also updated our roadmap:
Dakota & Tyler