Hey guys!

We've been hard at work since 3.0 launched dealing all of the bugs that came with it, fixing roughly 33 major bugs that took priority over all else. You can read more about it here:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1667893770970601591


We also want to announce that now that things are in a more stable place we will be going back to a more organized patch schedule. We are still balancing the gameplay of the TDM+Siege mode, but with this we want to start addressing some long standing bugs with each patch. We've always prioritized them ourselves to try and weigh time and benefit (assuming it is not gamebreaking) to make sure our time was being used in the most optimal way. We often would forgo fixing minor inconveniences in favor of spending more time on new content, but now we'll be trying to balance both.

So the community can now submit and vote on bugs so we fix whatever feels the most important to you. Bugs being investigated will be marked yellow and deleted once confirmed as being fixed.

http://www.blackwake-bugs.com/




Our first ship balance pass will also be coming later today/tonight. Before 3.0 launched we put analytics in the game to keep track of how often certain ships were constructed or sank (excluding grapples or scuttles) and also how often forts are attacked and win/fail. Here are the changes we've worked on based on these statistics and also our testing group:

- Patch 3.06-

• Front guns adjusted to be more forward and also equal in angle
  
• Second to front guns are now parallel, adding another shot to the broadside
  
• Turns 30% faster
  
• Sinks 20% slower

• Wheel has been properly centered for more consistent aiming

• Ship is now considered destroyed earlier so it does not turn into a submarine
  
• Speed decreased 10%

• Turn rate reduced by 40%
  
• Sinks 20% faster

• Sinks 20% slower

• Mortar will now be able to fire if the ship is moving due to nerfs made in the past
  
• Sinks 20% slower
  
• Additional ammo crate added to make front guns easier to load

• Additional ammo crates added to make front guns easier to load

• Sinks 10% slower

Hey guys!

We've been hard at work since 3.0 launched dealing all of the bugs that came with it, fixing roughly 33 major bugs that took priority over all else. You can read more about it here:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1667893770970601591


We also want to announce that now that things are in a more stable place we will be going back to a more organized patch schedule. We are still balancing the gameplay of the TDM+Siege mode, but with this we want to start addressing some long standing bugs with each patch. We've always prioritized them ourselves to try and weigh time and benefit (assuming it is not gamebreaking) to make sure our time was being used in the most optimal way. We often would forgo fixing minor inconveniences in favor of spending more time on new content, but now we'll be trying to balance both.

So the community can now submit and vote on bugs so we fix whatever feels the most important to you. Bugs being investigated will be marked yellow and deleted once confirmed as being fixed.

http://www.blackwake-bugs.com/




Our first ship balance pass will also be coming later today/tonight. Before 3.0 launched we put analytics in the game to keep track of how often certain ships were constructed or sank (excluding grapples or scuttles) and also how often forts are attacked and win/fail. Here are the changes we've worked on based on these statistics and also our testing group:

- Patch 3.06-

• Front guns adjusted to be more forward and also equal in angle
  
• Second to front guns are now parallel, adding another shot to the broadside
  
• Turns 30% faster
  
• Sinks 20% slower

• Wheel has been properly centered for more consistent aiming

• Ship is now considered destroyed earlier so it does not turn into a submarine
  
• Speed decreased 10%

• Turn rate reduced by 40%
  
• Sinks 20% faster

• Sinks 20% slower

• Mortar will now be able to fire if the ship is moving due to nerfs made in the past
  
• Sinks 20% slower
  
• Additional ammo crate added to make front guns easier to load

• Additional ammo crates added to make front guns easier to load

• Sinks 10% slower

Scroll down for a full list of changes since this post


Hey guys, we just want to give you all an update on the most recent patch. 3.0 required a lot of code to be rewritten and we have essentially back tracked on our progress bug wise. After a year in early access you'd expect us to be near complete by now, but this is not the case. To see why visit the news post below. For a TL;DR: We were not happy with the direction we were headed design wise and decided to overhaul some fundamentals of the game, ignoring any existing bugs because we saw no sense in patching things that would be changed.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1591325606922639270

This genre is still young and unprecedented, with little reference to go off of we were not surprised when halfway through Early Access we would completely change course. By that time we had seen enough public play to know where we wanted to go.


One could argue we were putting content before bugs, which is half true. We were in a constant tug of war with retaining players long enough to have incentive to fix bugs. According to negative reviews from 2.0 and previous, players stopped playing due to lack of content, not because of a buggy experience. Because of this we shifted our focus onto content and only prioritized gamebreaking bugs that could be recreated almost all of the time. We would much prefer a content rich game that has some bugs to fix than a polished game that doesn't hold you.


Before going live 3.0 was tested as extensively as it could have been for those who volunteered to join the testing branch. As far as bugs go we have many on our list and are working as quickly as we can. We have been asked by server owners to actually slow the rate of our patches because it's causing them to restart too often.


Obvious signs that this has happened are invisible ships, being unable to jump, or seeing players on deck with the swimming animation. We are working to at least warn a user that this error has occurred while we investigate more into the issue. It doesn't appear to be consistent at all (making it difficult for us to get logs of what really went wrong).


As for the design and forts, this is being tweaked constantly. We also have analytics in place. A lot of things are currently happening that aren't exactly bugs, but oversights in design that we would never have known until the patch was public. As expected we are now patching reactively to these "tactics".


Please keep in mind 3.0 has only been out for 5 days and there are only two of us (minus any outsourcing to speed things up). Only one being a programmer. We're knocking bugs out as quickly as we can and we definitely won't stop until things are cleared up.

Overall the amount of positive feedback we've gotten has been overwhelming. We're much happier to see the game head in this direction even if it means going through a rough patch from such a large overhaul. Bugs have never been more crucial to us than they are now.

Dakota & Tyler



There seems to be a misunderstanding about our plans to leave early access being mistaken for planning to stop updating the game, this is not true. Also this initial bare bones 3.0 patch is not all of 3.0, we just released it in its rawest form to make bug fixing easier. Other features are done and not turned on yet. (See our 3.0 preview post in news history)


Changes since this post:

• Attempted to fix various bugs linked with connection issues
  
  
• Can no longer pass captain to yourself to reset mutiny votes
  
  
• Fixed issue where staying on deck while a ship sank would make you/other players invisible
  
  
• Fixed issue where joining late would not spawn existing ships for the faction with a fort under attack
  
  
• Fixed issue where long respawn times from fort battles would carry over after returning to ships
  
  
• Attempted fix on issue causing some rounds to start under attack and unable to construct ships
  
  
• Fixed issue where admins in spectate mode would trigger forts to be under attack or flags to capture and make building ships not possible
  
  
• Fixed issue where dead players would keep a fort in attack mode
  
  
• Fixed error in ship sinking that would cause desyncs if you joined during the process
  
  
• Made changes to help alleviate clicking the spawn button too quickly spawning you in the ocean if you just connected
  
  
• Attempted fix on issue that may have been causing some grapples to result in thousands of tickets and supplies being given to the victor
  
  
• Mutiny votes should no longer carry over between rounds
  
  
• Gate health regeneration has been buffed significantly to require most of the faction to break the gate and assault so there are less small skirmishes on the fort
  
  
• Because of the above flag capture speed has been tripled
  
  
• Fall damage has been made a little more forgiving on forts while still not allowing defenders to survive the fall from a wall and flank
  
  
• 5 players are now required to make your fort go into attack mode so single players hiding won't stop your ability to construct ships
  
  
• Adjustments made to ship labels in the Q menu to prevent issue where they sometimes wouldn't show
  
  
• Attempted fix on issue that may have been causing the respawn timer to count and never spawn you
  
  
• You should now be able to carry supply crates through water
  
  
• Tip boxes have been blocked if weapon select menu is up
  
  
• Cannons should no longer reset their turn angle just before firing if you leave them too soon after igniting
  
  
• Server owners can now see who manually restarted the server
  
  
• Server owners can now see the version mismatch that caused a restart
  
  
• (Already in place but not officially documented) a patch was released after hotfix C to make gates 2x slower at regenerating. We have a new system for gates on the way.
  
  
• Made adjustments to some previous connection changes that ended up causing some players to not be able to join a crew or spawn after fix C
  
  
• Gate system has been overhauled. You will now escort an explosive payload from the dock to the gate to destroy it. The explosives can only be stalled by 3+ defenders. This will of course be balanced as analytics and feedback come in. Once stable, a hotfix will come to scale this based on population.
  
  
• Defenders should now respawn in the fort faster if the gate has not been breached so the option to defend the fort isn't delayed by a long respawn timer
  
  
• Should no longer be able to damage parts of ships below water
  
  
• NOTE!! Fixed an issue where all over aimed shots would hit no matter what, making ranging very easy. This has been fixed and aiming is now back to normal, NOT nerfed. It may be more difficult if you were not around just before 3.0
  
  
• Players on the lower deck of the galleon should no longer become invisible
  
  
• Tweaked the Q menu further to work on disappearing labels
  
  
• Tooltip adjusted on bomb payload to display more often
  
  
• "Target below surface" check has been removed, may or may not be re introduced. We decided we want to balance ships first
  
  
• Attempted to fix an interesting error brought to our attention where if you used non ASCII characters in your name your name would default to "x", making any player with the same situation not able to connect and be stuck at "connecting". We don't know how our font will treat these characters, but we have removed the ASCII check
  
  
• 2 ships near the fort will now put it in attack mode to stop ship construction until the area is cleared
  
  
• Attempted and tested another fix on grapples shot moments before a ship sinking would result in a massive amount of tickets and supplies
  
  
  
  

Scroll down for a full list of changes since this post


Hey guys, we just want to give you all an update on the most recent patch. 3.0 required a lot of code to be rewritten and we have essentially back tracked on our progress bug wise. After a year in early access you'd expect us to be near complete by now, but this is not the case. To see why visit the news post below. For a TL;DR: We were not happy with the direction we were headed design wise and decided to overhaul some fundamentals of the game, ignoring any existing bugs because we saw no sense in patching things that would be changed.

http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1591325606922639270

This genre is still young and unprecedented, with little reference to go off of we were not surprised when halfway through Early Access we would completely change course. By that time we had seen enough public play to know where we wanted to go.


One could argue we were putting content before bugs, which is half true. We were in a constant tug of war with retaining players long enough to have incentive to fix bugs. According to negative reviews from 2.0 and previous, players stopped playing due to lack of content, not because of a buggy experience. Because of this we shifted our focus onto content and only prioritized gamebreaking bugs that could be recreated almost all of the time. We would much prefer a content rich game that has some bugs to fix than a polished game that doesn't hold you.


Before going live 3.0 was tested as extensively as it could have been for those who volunteered to join the testing branch. As far as bugs go we have many on our list and are working as quickly as we can. We have been asked by server owners to actually slow the rate of our patches because it's causing them to restart too often.


Obvious signs that this has happened are invisible ships, being unable to jump, or seeing players on deck with the swimming animation. We are working to at least warn a user that this error has occurred while we investigate more into the issue. It doesn't appear to be consistent at all (making it difficult for us to get logs of what really went wrong).


As for the design and forts, this is being tweaked constantly. We also have analytics in place. A lot of things are currently happening that aren't exactly bugs, but oversights in design that we would never have known until the patch was public. As expected we are now patching reactively to these "tactics".


Please keep in mind 3.0 has only been out for 5 days and there are only two of us (minus any outsourcing to speed things up). Only one being a programmer. We're knocking bugs out as quickly as we can and we definitely won't stop until things are cleared up.

Overall the amount of positive feedback we've gotten has been overwhelming. We're much happier to see the game head in this direction even if it means going through a rough patch from such a large overhaul. Bugs have never been more crucial to us than they are now.

Dakota & Tyler



There seems to be a misunderstanding about our plans to leave early access being mistaken for planning to stop updating the game, this is not true. Also this initial bare bones 3.0 patch is not all of 3.0, we just released it in its rawest form to make bug fixing easier. Other features are done and not turned on yet. (See our 3.0 preview post in news history)


Changes since this post:

• Attempted to fix various bugs linked with connection issues
  
  
• Can no longer pass captain to yourself to reset mutiny votes
  
  
• Fixed issue where staying on deck while a ship sank would make you/other players invisible
  
  
• Fixed issue where joining late would not spawn existing ships for the faction with a fort under attack
  
  
• Fixed issue where long respawn times from fort battles would carry over after returning to ships
  
  
• Attempted fix on issue causing some rounds to start under attack and unable to construct ships
  
  
• Fixed issue where admins in spectate mode would trigger forts to be under attack or flags to capture and make building ships not possible
  
  
• Fixed issue where dead players would keep a fort in attack mode
  
  
• Fixed error in ship sinking that would cause desyncs if you joined during the process
  
  
• Made changes to help alleviate clicking the spawn button too quickly spawning you in the ocean if you just connected
  
  
• Attempted fix on issue that may have been causing some grapples to result in thousands of tickets and supplies being given to the victor
  
  
• Mutiny votes should no longer carry over between rounds
  
  
• Gate health regeneration has been buffed significantly to require most of the faction to break the gate and assault so there are less small skirmishes on the fort
  
  
• Because of the above flag capture speed has been tripled
  
  
• Fall damage has been made a little more forgiving on forts while still not allowing defenders to survive the fall from a wall and flank
  
  
• 5 players are now required to make your fort go into attack mode so single players hiding won't stop your ability to construct ships
  
  
• Adjustments made to ship labels in the Q menu to prevent issue where they sometimes wouldn't show
  
  
• Attempted fix on issue that may have been causing the respawn timer to count and never spawn you
  
  
• You should now be able to carry supply crates through water
  
  
• Tip boxes have been blocked if weapon select menu is up
  
  
• Cannons should no longer reset their turn angle just before firing if you leave them too soon after igniting
  
  
• Server owners can now see who manually restarted the server
  
  
• Server owners can now see the version mismatch that caused a restart
  
  
• (Already in place but not officially documented) a patch was released after hotfix C to make gates 2x slower at regenerating. We have a new system for gates on the way.
  
  
• Made adjustments to some previous connection changes that ended up causing some players to not be able to join a crew or spawn after fix C
  
  
• Gate system has been overhauled. You will now escort an explosive payload from the dock to the gate to destroy it. The explosives can only be stalled by 3+ defenders. This will of course be balanced as analytics and feedback come in. Once stable, a hotfix will come to scale this based on population.
  
  
• Defenders should now respawn in the fort faster if the gate has not been breached so the option to defend the fort isn't delayed by a long respawn timer
  
  
• Should no longer be able to damage parts of ships below water
  
  
• NOTE!! Fixed an issue where all over aimed shots would hit no matter what, making ranging very easy. This has been fixed and aiming is now back to normal, NOT nerfed. It may be more difficult if you were not around just before 3.0
  
  
• Players on the lower deck of the galleon should no longer become invisible
  
  
• Tweaked the Q menu further to work on disappearing labels
  
  
• Tooltip adjusted on bomb payload to display more often
  
  
• "Target below surface" check has been removed, may or may not be re introduced. We decided we want to balance ships first
  
  
• Attempted to fix an interesting error brought to our attention where if you used non ASCII characters in your name your name would default to "x", making any player with the same situation not able to connect and be stuck at "connecting". We don't know how our font will treat these characters, but we have removed the ASCII check
  
  
• 2 ships near the fort will now put it in attack mode to stop ship construction until the area is cleared
  
  
• Attempted and tested another fix on grapples shot moments before a ship sinking would result in a massive amount of tickets and supplies
  
  
  
  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssqeD5Ryito

For any that may have missed it, our 3.0 patch is live! You can view more in depth details of our plans with the mode here:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1670143034852989265


Can't wait to see you in game!

Tyler & Dakota

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssqeD5Ryito

For any that may have missed it, our 3.0 patch is live! You can view more in depth details of our plans with the mode here:

http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1670143034852989265


Can't wait to see you in game!

Tyler & Dakota

Ahoy Mateys!

Here is a preview of what is to come in the upcoming 3.0 patch! Currently we have done over 60 internal tests with 2 being major stress tests, and are still going through the paces of adjustment and refinement. We are getting close but still have several tasks to complete.

As you know, our main goal for 3.0 was to provide content that increased replayability for Blackwake. Initially Blackwake was only meant to be a simple game, it was only focused on 1v1 small ships. As development went on design changed and we were left with some hard coded limitations in what we could achieve. Therefore to make 3.0 happen a lot of things had to be reworked. Instead of doing a sequel, we decided to try and get these things into Blackwake because many of you enjoy the game as it is now, and just want to see it expand. This was the cause of the stall of patches over the recent months.


3.0 will set us back a little, we admit, but we're much happier to proceed in this direction than the one we were on. With the initial 3.0 launch please bear with us and expect issues, we will work as hard as we can to resolve them.


You are now able to choose your starting vessel, as well as different vessels after it has sunk. We have both faction specific ships unlocked for both factions for the time being. This should provide a greater dynamic with combat from different encounters.

Eventually the ships will have more enticing pros/cons, allowing captains to choose ships that fit their play style the best. This isn't fully balanced yet.





4 New ships will be added for 3.0

GUNBOAT
Currently this is classed as a starting ship, which is small and extremely nimble. Primarily for close combat and boarding.



CUTTER
An agile anti-boarding ship with 2 stern guns.



BOMB KETCH
This has a mortar on the ship that can only be fired while stationary.



BRIG
A new large vessel ship that has a fully open deck and 9 guns a side.




A large part of future patches was to give players more choice in how they approach combat. We now have 3 new special shot types that can be utilized for different scenarios.

BARSHOT
Destroys ship masts. Can only be effective within 300m and must be aimed at the masts for a hit. If done so will incapacitate a ship for a long period of time. Players will need to repair the masts including all sails.



CHAINSHOT
This is primarily used for destroying sails. Has a medium range and does 100% sail damage. If you feel like outmanuevering a ship this may be an essential option.


HEATED SHOT
No longer will fire be an RNG element in the game. Cannonballs can be placed in a furnace, in which they require a short amount of time to heat up. Target specific parts of enemy ships to cripple them!



You can slowly horizontally turn cannons using the AD keys. These will reset once fired.
Max range has been changed to 700m to encourage more boarding. The purpose of this mechanic is to provide crew with more control on firing, and instead put strategy, manuevering and tactical thinking on the captain. The cannons turn extremely slow so lineup from captain is still required.

Along with increasing replayability and options, we've implemented a base for each team. We understand that constant ship combat can get tiring at times so have opted to have an optional way to WIN the game. This should take the coordination/agreement from the three crews ingame to make a successful assault.

• If your ship is not built, everyone will spawn at a fort. You can teleport to your ship at the ship constructer.
  
• The fort has a flag towards the top of it. If the enemy stands on the flag for long enough, it will capture the base and that team will win.
  
• There are mortar towers on the forts that each have three cannons and a mortar on it. These towers may be destroyed by firing cannonballs at them.
  
• Mortars will not destroy a mortar tower. Active enemy towers show up with their range on the ‘Q’ overlay.
  
• There is a red glowing area that can be used by the captain to raise the gate, it closes after 30 seconds. Gate will eventually be redone.
  
• When your base is under attack you will get a UI notification.

We've now changed the team select menu to show players on each crew before the round starts to help organize/balance things out.


We've done a pass on the galleon/cruizer to add some more details on the ships to make them look a bit more lived in.



As mentioned we have redone our ship destruction system. Now ships will have more precise holes. The primary purpose for this was to improve performance as well as fix those hard to reach holes! We will be adding effects to make these more visible, such as water spraying while submerged.



We wanted to get 3.0 out as soon as we could so we could return to our more frequent patch schedule. So we've decided to lay out the base foundation for 3.0 while adding things after balance and stability have been tested. 3.0 isn't an all in one patch, it marks a series of updates that will be more active.

This will only be in trial to see if it pans out. Complimentary to ship construction, having 3 resource nodes in the edges/center of the map that can be captured may offer more strategy. Wood, Hemp, Metal nodes can be captured and used to purchase ships that have defined costs.

Captains will eventually be able to purchase (with gold) their preffered sea mine during ship construction.



SEA MINES:

Throw overboard into water. If ship runs over it, it creates 1 hole (no damage to crew). players can throw onto ships during boarding and shoot it for explosion. (crew damage)

Barrel will sink after 30 seconds. limited count of 10.

SMOKE MINES:

Throw overboard into water. creates a large smoke volume. thrown over gradually allows ships to create smoke walls. ships cannot be spotted through smoke walls. this is to aid/help friendly damaged ships. can also be used to obscure chasing ship vision.

TAR MINES:

Throw overboard to dump tar into the ocean. ignites and creates a fire volume. throw multiple to create a fire wall. any ships sailing through this wall will catch on fire.

Eventually attributes such as turn rate, ship speed and sink speed will be adjusted per ship.

Currently we have the Bomb Vessel (13p), Carrack (7p) and Xebec (13p) in close completion.

We currently have over 20+ outfits in the pipeline, including some with wooden legs :) Eventually we will have ship figureheads and custom ship wheels that can be unlocked. We will show more of this as we get closer to that time.

Once the 3.0 content and beyond has been recieved well we will move onto 4.0. Which will be the final release for Blackwake. We will be ironing out a majority of the bugs, fixing game balance, adding quality of life improvements and adding more cosmetic unlocks for crew and ship.

We hope you enjoyed the preview mateys!

Dakota & Tyler

Ahoy Mateys!

Here is a preview of what is to come in the upcoming 3.0 patch! Currently we have done over 60 internal tests with 2 being major stress tests, and are still going through the paces of adjustment and refinement. We are getting close but still have several tasks to complete.

As you know, our main goal for 3.0 was to provide content that increased replayability for Blackwake. Initially Blackwake was only meant to be a simple game, it was only focused on 1v1 small ships. As development went on design changed and we were left with some hard coded limitations in what we could achieve. Therefore to make 3.0 happen a lot of things had to be reworked. Instead of doing a sequel, we decided to try and get these things into Blackwake because many of you enjoy the game as it is now, and just want to see it expand. This was the cause of the stall of patches over the recent months.


3.0 will set us back a little, we admit, but we're much happier to proceed in this direction than the one we were on. With the initial 3.0 launch please bear with us and expect issues, we will work as hard as we can to resolve them.


You are now able to choose your starting vessel, as well as different vessels after it has sunk. We have both faction specific ships unlocked for both factions for the time being. This should provide a greater dynamic with combat from different encounters.

Eventually the ships will have more enticing pros/cons, allowing captains to choose ships that fit their play style the best. This isn't fully balanced yet.





4 New ships will be added for 3.0

GUNBOAT
Currently this is classed as a starting ship, which is small and extremely nimble. Primarily for close combat and boarding.



CUTTER
An agile anti-boarding ship with 2 stern guns.



BOMB KETCH
This has a mortar on the ship that can only be fired while stationary.



BRIG
A new large vessel ship that has a fully open deck and 9 guns a side.




A large part of future patches was to give players more choice in how they approach combat. We now have 3 new special shot types that can be utilized for different scenarios.

BARSHOT
Destroys ship masts. Can only be effective within 300m and must be aimed at the masts for a hit. If done so will incapacitate a ship for a long period of time. Players will need to repair the masts including all sails.



CHAINSHOT
This is primarily used for destroying sails. Has a medium range and does 100% sail damage. If you feel like outmanuevering a ship this may be an essential option.


HEATED SHOT
No longer will fire be an RNG element in the game. Cannonballs can be placed in a furnace, in which they require a short amount of time to heat up. Target specific parts of enemy ships to cripple them!



You can slowly horizontally turn cannons using the AD keys. These will reset once fired.
Max range has been changed to 700m to encourage more boarding. The purpose of this mechanic is to provide crew with more control on firing, and instead put strategy, manuevering and tactical thinking on the captain. The cannons turn extremely slow so lineup from captain is still required.

Along with increasing replayability and options, we've implemented a base for each team. We understand that constant ship combat can get tiring at times so have opted to have an optional way to WIN the game. This should take the coordination/agreement from the three crews ingame to make a successful assault.

• If your ship is not built, everyone will spawn at a fort. You can teleport to your ship at the ship constructer.
  
• The fort has a flag towards the top of it. If the enemy stands on the flag for long enough, it will capture the base and that team will win.
  
• There are mortar towers on the forts that each have three cannons and a mortar on it. These towers may be destroyed by firing cannonballs at them.
  
• Mortars will not destroy a mortar tower. Active enemy towers show up with their range on the ‘Q’ overlay.
  
• There is a red glowing area that can be used by the captain to raise the gate, it closes after 30 seconds. Gate will eventually be redone.
  
• When your base is under attack you will get a UI notification.

We've now changed the team select menu to show players on each crew before the round starts to help organize/balance things out.


We've done a pass on the galleon/cruizer to add some more details on the ships to make them look a bit more lived in.



As mentioned we have redone our ship destruction system. Now ships will have more precise holes. The primary purpose for this was to improve performance as well as fix those hard to reach holes! We will be adding effects to make these more visible, such as water spraying while submerged.



We wanted to get 3.0 out as soon as we could so we could return to our more frequent patch schedule. So we've decided to lay out the base foundation for 3.0 while adding things after balance and stability have been tested. 3.0 isn't an all in one patch, it marks a series of updates that will be more active.

This will only be in trial to see if it pans out. Complimentary to ship construction, having 3 resource nodes in the edges/center of the map that can be captured may offer more strategy. Wood, Hemp, Metal nodes can be captured and used to purchase ships that have defined costs.

Captains will eventually be able to purchase (with gold) their preffered sea mine during ship construction.



SEA MINES:

Throw overboard into water. If ship runs over it, it creates 1 hole (no damage to crew). players can throw onto ships during boarding and shoot it for explosion. (crew damage)

Barrel will sink after 30 seconds. limited count of 10.

SMOKE MINES:

Throw overboard into water. creates a large smoke volume. thrown over gradually allows ships to create smoke walls. ships cannot be spotted through smoke walls. this is to aid/help friendly damaged ships. can also be used to obscure chasing ship vision.

TAR MINES:

Throw overboard to dump tar into the ocean. ignites and creates a fire volume. throw multiple to create a fire wall. any ships sailing through this wall will catch on fire.

Eventually attributes such as turn rate, ship speed and sink speed will be adjusted per ship.

Currently we have the Bomb Vessel (13p), Carrack (7p) and Xebec (13p) in close completion.

We currently have over 20+ outfits in the pipeline, including some with wooden legs :) Eventually we will have ship figureheads and custom ship wheels that can be unlocked. We will show more of this as we get closer to that time.

Once the 3.0 content and beyond has been recieved well we will move onto 4.0. Which will be the final release for Blackwake. We will be ironing out a majority of the bugs, fixing game balance, adding quality of life improvements and adding more cosmetic unlocks for crew and ship.

We hope you enjoyed the preview mateys!

Dakota & Tyler

Requires both serverside and clientside update

Due to popular request we've backported a change from 3.0 into the current live branch given the amount of trolling going on after the recent sale.

- Vote kicks now publicly expose your name as wanting to kick a player

- Any cannon loaded with a shot that is special (non-cannonball) will be branded with your name


Tyler & Dakota

Requires both serverside and clientside update

Due to popular request we've backported a change from 3.0 into the current live branch given the amount of trolling going on after the recent sale.

- Vote kicks now publicly expose your name as wanting to kick a player

- Any cannon loaded with a shot that is special (non-cannonball) will be branded with your name


Tyler & Dakota