This week's update introduces the anti-personnel auto turret, a new weapon intended to shift the burden of execution closer to the attackers when it comes to successful boarding. The APAT is an extremely short range (10 meter) auto turret with unrestricted rotation that can only target and damage airmen. The turret does no damage to parts but will kill an airman in about one second. All turrets will remain loyal to the original owner of the ship regardless of who controls it but they can still be stopped with a hold fire command. Boarders are no match for these turrets and will have to move carefully and attack creatively to circumvent them or do their work on unprotected parts of the ship.
The APAT will undoubtedly diminish the effectiveness of boarding only strategies especially on small ships where complete coverage is easy. Large ships will have to be smarter when taking advantage of the APAT focusing on defending critical locations to avoid cutting into their firepower budget as the part itself comes with a 300 firepower cost. Well coordinated crews should be entirely capable of defusing the weak turrets ahead of boarding using precision weapons. Boarding should remain relevant overall and but the highest priority targets will be off limits until some traditional ship-to-ship combat has taken place.
Some other boarding related tweaks have also been added this update. Bonus health on respawn has been increase from 150 to 200 which means you will no longer need to be better than a boarder to win fists vs sword after respawning and should win sword vs sword with 100 hit points to spare. The original owners of a ship will now be able to open its hatches even if control of the ship is lost so they can now be placed without need for a steering wheel on either side.
Join us on Discord for public playtests Friday at 12pm ET, Saturday at 3pm ET, and Monday at 7pm ET.
1.14.11
Major Features
- Added anti-personnel turrets.
Minor Features
- Hatches can always be opened by the team that spawned a ship even if they don't control it.
- Added rocks to copse and tooth.
- Added a settings menu accessible from expedition and sandbox.
- Submersibles now adjust buoyancy to compensate for cargo mass.
- Taking the wheel of a player fort does not change its team.
- Updated the starter ship with an anti-personnel turret.
- Increased bonus hp on respawn from 150 to 200.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed invisible trees on tooth.
- AI turrets will not longer track player targets after they are not longer targetable.
- Fixed AI turrets not holding their shot when an ally airman would immediately block the shot.