Hello fellow-Captains!
We put updates on our progress in the Community Forums, but we wanted to post up some details of the new weapons and upgrades that are coming as part of the next Beta Branch update, just to whet your appetitie :)
This is a very small part of what we have coming, and we're really excited to show you everything when the update is ready to launch.
Gargoyles are an alternative upgrade that goes in the Harpoon slot.
If you come into contact with an enemy vessel, they spew out gouts of flame onto your ship, acting like one-shot flamethrowers.
The player is in control of when their own Gargoyles will fire, so has greater agency over when to deploy them.
The Anti-Boarding spikes line the rails of a ship, and any enemy leaping across will take damage as they do so.
Perennial boarders taking on ships with Gargoyles and Anti-Boarding Spikes may have to think twice before engaging!
These go into the Cannon slots on your ship, and only work at FAR range. However, they are the most powerful weapon in the game when it comes to causing hull damage.
If you like to control the battlefield and keep your distance, Catapults can be extremely devastating.
If you're on the receiving end of them, you'll want to get closer - fast!
This Swivel Gun fires a blast of Lightning at the enemy crew. The lightning will chain across multiple nearby crew members, causing damage. This damage is increased if there is rain in the combat.
One interesting facet of the lightning gun is that when it hits crew members, it briefly interrupts their actions, which can be put to good use disrupting them at key moments.
The Web Gun is a Swivel Gun that encases crew in a web cocoon. While in this state, the crew member is trapped, blocking the space they occupy (useful for shooting people on single-manned items like the Ship's Wheel or Winch).
It takes a long time for a crew member to break out of the cocoon on their own, although other crew can help cut them out - if you're prepared to drag other crew away from their duties.
If you like to harass and disrupt the enemy crew, this is the weapon for you.
Occupying the Swivel Gun slot, the Berserk Dart targets enemy crew. When hit, it turns that crew member berserk, attacking the closest target, regardless of whether they are friend or foe. Once the effects of the berserk dart have elapsed, the crew member returns to normal.
Another great weapon for griefing the enemy!
The Timed Bomb is a mortar that launches a projectile with a fuse.
That projectile will embed into the enemy deck, and a timer will appear above it. If the timer expires, the bomb will explode in a very large radius, causing massive damage.
However, if a crew member can reach the bomb in time, they can defuse it (defusing pauses the timer), where it will be harmlessly removed.
This is useful for pulling enemy crew away from other duties, but the real fun starts when you combine this with some of the existing and new crowd control weapons. A Timed Bomb plus Acid Mortar combo is quite devastating, and it's always a pleasure to hit defusers with the Suppression Gun moments before the bomb goes off.
We've been having a lot of fun testing these weapons on the enemy, and dealing with the effects of the enemy using them on your own crew :)
When the update goes live (ETA late July if all goes to plan), we'll post about it here, and leave it in the Beta Branch for a while to get feedback on the latest additions. Any necessary balancing tweaks and bug fixes can then be made before bundling Beta Branch Updates 3 & 4 into our next Major Update that will be released into the Main version of the game.
Thanks for the continued support!
The Abandon Ship Crew