Update v1.6.55 and v1.6.56: every sea feels different
Update v1.6.55
Every sea feels different
- A card names each sea as you arrive, with its own chord
- Each sea has three skies, so the same sea can look different from run to run
- Sea 2, the Burning Straits: calmer weather, and patches of fire on the water in some fights. Enemies steer around them too
- Sea 3, the Maelstrom: more storms, stronger wind, and currents that push every ship. Use them to slingshot
- Seas 2 and 3 have their own sailing and battle music
Captains
- Work in progress: each captain's signature now shows on the HUD while you sail and calls out when it fires, and the captain pick screen says how each captain fights. This is a first pass at making every captain play differently, so tell me on the Discord what reads well and what doesn't
- BUGFIX: Marisol mends 1% every 5 seconds instead of 1% a second. She was leaving every fight on full hull
Difficulty
- Pirate Lord is the hardcore tier: enemies are stronger.
- Captain enemies are stronger.
Fights feel heavier
- Broadsides kick the camera, and controllers rumble
- Hits look and sound their weight, fire grows and warns you before it sinks you, and a burning hull trails smoke
- Kills land with a sting, and plunder is now a choice between cards
- Switching ammo now clicks, flashes the slot and names the shot above your ship
The sea
- A new wake: a foam trail behind the hull with soft ripples to the sides
- Rain falls through the air in storms and splashes on the water
- Ships bob and roll with the sea and sit in the water
- Treasure Hunts got a clock you can hear, chests that pop open, and an X that draws itself on the chart
Tutorial
- You can now win the opening fight. Before, a good captain could get stuck in it forever
- The cave teaches the zoom (Z, or L3 on a controller), one press at a time
- The K key no longer skips tutorial steps, a click or Enter does.
Fixes
- Alt+Tab on the reward screen no longer locks the cards
- The mouse comes back to the pause menu after Alt+Tab
- The crew roster fits on screen without scrolling
- Fire, running aground and falling cave stones do flat damage now, not a share of your max hull
- On Captain from sea 2, and on Pirate Lord, the Clue Hunt no longer tells you when a cache is in reach
- Enemies ram without stopping to line up first, and a few boss moves were fixed
Later edit: Update v1.6.56
Wind
- Each chart is split into 2 to 4 stretches of sea, each with its own wind, and some lie in dead calm. Your captain calls the wind as you sail into a new one.
- The wind no longer swings mid-fight. Only a squall shifts it, and it settles back when the squall passes.
Pirate Lord
- Enemies are now 100% stronger (was 80%), with +100% XP (was +80%) and +25% gold. I did a full run with a captain starting at level 8 (Reyes) and it wasn't as hardcore as I'd expect, but then again I have ~1000 hours in the game.
- Reinforcements join pirate and boss fights: a fire ship every 60 seconds and a Sloop every 90 seconds, up to 4 at a time.
Combat
- A crowd of rammers can no longer keep you pinned. After a ram stops you, more rams in the next 4 seconds still hit and shove you, but don't stop you or silence your guns.
- Broken sails furl, on your ship and the enemy's, and the message log shows how far your sails have recovered.
- Running aground and sail status now sit at the top of the message log instead of in separate badges.
Hull
- Hull damage stays with your ship between fights and seas. The captain now tells you so the first time, and on Deckhand reminds you on the chart where to repair.
- The hull bar flashes when it drops under 50% and again under 25%, and whenever you arrive somewhere with a low hull.
Fixes
- Enemies no longer spawn at a dock or close to an island, and a ship stuck at a pier can no longer hold a fight open forever.
- The "What went wrong?" report now asks for an email, so I can reply. Sorry for that, but I got a lot of feedback and I have no idea from who.
- Tutorial: the reminder to read the guides again stays on the top line of the message log.
Smoother
- Performance improvements: Fish, islands, settings and enemy routing cost less every frame, most of all in Defend the Port.
Tell me what breaks on the Discord and will get that fixed ASAP. Happy sailing!