Ahoy!
Now that we grabbed your attention, on to the good news! ːbombingː
- The game is selling well, and we only have three positions left to fill on the team: a tester, a character artist, and a Storm Engine programmer.
- Patch 1.2 is available. This is the biggest one so far — bigger than 1.1 and 1.1.1 combined.
- We've launched a 33% discount in honor of the Steam Summer Sale, so seize the moment — we probably won't offer a bigger discount this year.
- The first DLC “Vile Little God” has been released.
What's New:
Story
- “Long Shadows of Old Sins” - Charlie Knippel's companion quest featuring a new unique ship.
- “The Last Knight” - Claude Duran's companion quest.
- “Three's a Crowd” - a special hidden event with its own Steam achievement.
- “Vile Little God” DLC - rebalanced and refined compared to the Early Access version.
Ships
We continue towards our goal of completely uplifting the entire fleet in the game. In 1.2, we added a new one and redid five original ships; about forty more to go. The new models will fit well in Unreal Engine too, significantly easing the future pre-production stage.
- Barque.
- Tartane.
- Sloop.
- Brigantine.
- Privateer Ketch - also known as the Mirage.
- War Ketch - The Chimera, a new quest ship.
- Multiple paintjobs for each.
Animations
We consider new animations one of the most important assets. They are a great way to enhance immersion and add variety to cutscenes, battles, and city life. We will continue experimenting with them until 1.3 — by then, we will determine which to focus on: combat, immersion, or story.
- Romantic scenes with girlfriends and brothel employees.
- Musicians in taverns.
- Blacksmiths in cities.
- Behavior of brothel employees.
- Civilians on benches in colonies.
- New idle animations for Charles - with and without a musket.
- New gunshot death animation.
We've actually done much more than what was included in the patch. For example, new character movement animations for modern gamepad control are ready, but testing and integration will take time. It took about a month, but we are now one step closer to dealing with 'tank controls.' Additionally, as you surely have noted already, the romantic aspect of the game is strongly emphasized in this patch. The main question is: should we take it even further? ːrofl_pirateː Personally, I very much hope so.
Locations
Unfortunately, we didn't manage to create a new boarding scene, but they will be our priority in the next patches. Nonetheless, we achieved a lot. We improved all the jungles in the game by adding details, better textures, vegetation, good shadows, and atmospheric haze. This is a major visual leap, so we can pause on global graphical improvements for now.
- Over 20 jungle locations have been significantly improved.
- Added a new location, Le Francois - huge thanks to the mega-talented Nikk.
- Enhanced even more textures.
- Improved lighting and weather.
General
- 11 new achievements.
- Reinforced Brigandine - new armor and an ultimate reward for the “Dead Man” quest.
- Tutorial video hints - the first test of a global tutorial system, designed to explain complex mechanics to the new audience.
- Crafting recipes are more accessible from the start, and the “Alchemy” perk is no longer required to actually be able to craft things — it only substitutes for special tools, like the alchemist's chest.
- Athlete background has been buffed. It deals more damage with slashing and heavy attacks.
- Added cutscenes to the “Rumba” and “Dead Man” quests.
- First iteration of trading rebalance - the choice of available equipment is more streamlined and tuned for better character progression.
- Treasure hunting rebalanced - tier-3 weapons no longer drop until a certain character level.
- The critical shot system has been refined - quality and precise weapons can crit now. Crit chance can be enhanced by amulets and PIRATES points.
- Added more quest markers on the global map and characters.
- Soldiers in hostile cities now stop the player much less frequently.
- Unloading the “Topaz” in the “Resin Dog” quest no longer causes a player to quit the game in rage.
- Heavy attacks now require three times more energy.
- Rebalanced the early stages of the “Slave Trader” quest to make it more accessible for early free play.
- Having a trade license unlocks the fast travel function in hostile cities.
- Upgrades for 4th and 5th class ships are cheaper to encourage the early use of this feature.
- Sandbox achievements now work without any restrictions.
- Proofread the English version - this time we focused on the quest log and Discord user reports.
- Fixed dozens of bugs found over the past two months.
- I really enjoyed working on this patch and am super proud of the team, and yet patch 1.2.1 is on its way. We're fixing bugs, finishing what we couldn't complete, and then jumping to 1.3 according to our grand strategy — improving the game in all areas: from graphics to content.
Priorities for version 1.3:
- Modern controls and camera behavior.
- The new and most non-linear story quest in the game.
- More animations.
- More ships.
- Boarding scenes.
That's it for today, pirates.
As for us...
...getting back to work.
ːjollyrː
