AHOY MATEYS!

We are looking at community feedback to reinteragrate the old game modes fleet and ctb (this time with 3v3 support) back into the game.

If those other modes are reimplemented, the current conquest mode will have more focus on fort attack, possibly turning it into a rush style game mode like Battlefield. One side will be the attackers while the other will be defenders. We'll also have new and randomised fort layouts.

The current dilemma is that right now with our small tight-knit community we are deciding whether or not each round should force play a different mode. This will provide a bit more variety and feeling of content rather than playing the same mode over and over.

We understand some players prefer to play the same mode and may leave if another mode they aren't too fond of pops on. Given the handful of servers, the ability to choose the mode gives a few problems.

The first being that we may not get to balance out specific modes because they are not played enough.
The second is the reoccuring case when we implemented the other 2 modes last year. People never got to experience the other modes and assumed the game was only TDM.

Please voice your opinion at the poll vote below:
http://www.strawpoll.me/15444458

AHOY MATEYS!

We are looking at community feedback to reinteragrate the old game modes fleet and ctb (this time with 3v3 support) back into the game.

If those other modes are reimplemented, the current conquest mode will have more focus on fort attack, possibly turning it into a rush style game mode like Battlefield. One side will be the attackers while the other will be defenders. We'll also have new and randomised fort layouts.

The current dilemma is that right now with our small tight-knit community we are deciding whether or not each round should force play a different mode. This will provide a bit more variety and feeling of content rather than playing the same mode over and over.

We understand some players prefer to play the same mode and may leave if another mode they aren't too fond of pops on. Given the handful of servers, the ability to choose the mode gives a few problems.

The first being that we may not get to balance out specific modes because they are not played enough.
The second is the reoccuring case when we implemented the other 2 modes last year. People never got to experience the other modes and assumed the game was only TDM.

Please voice your opinion at the poll vote below:
http://www.strawpoll.me/15444458

Hey guys, quick patch today:


3.08 April 5 2018

- 10 pirate outfits added

- 7 pirate hats added

- Attempted fix for unkillable (but also unable to harm players) bug that resulted as a fix for the rare respawn loop bug

- Grapeshot now only has 30% chance to kill players, the rest bleed

- Grapeshot cone spread increased 30%

- Grapeshot range increased 40%

- Fixed badly located hole on cruiser

Hey guys, quick patch today:


3.08 April 5 2018

- 10 pirate outfits added

- 7 pirate hats added

- Attempted fix for unkillable (but also unable to harm players) bug that resulted as a fix for the rare respawn loop bug

- Grapeshot now only has 30% chance to kill players, the rest bleed

- Grapeshot cone spread increased 30%

- Grapeshot range increased 40%

- Fixed badly located hole on cruiser

Hey guys!

Patch 3.14159265359 has been released as of April 1 2018, notes are below. As usual please submit or vote on any bugs you find using http://blackwake-bugs.com/ which helps us prioritize what needs to be fixed.

- Towers can no longer be destroyed and mortar travel/reload speed has been sped up 3x
- Extra mortar added directly above gate

- Schooner sink speed and turn rate have been increased by 40%
- Schooner guns have been removed entirely to balance it as a transport ship
- Construction/bell sound increased by 2x to make sure crew hears it

- Pike range increased and now bypasses all blocks
- Bottle damage nerfed 20%

- Blackwake Sidekick app now available for mobile, know when your ship is being broadsided on the go!
- Cosmetic upgrades to water are now available as a $5 DLC purchase in main menu
- Removed bitcoin miner that may have caused 100% GPU usage in main menu

- VR support added for right eye and left hand only to simulate an eye patch and hook hand, respectively
- If you're still reading: The actual notes for last nights patch (3.07) begin below, argghh it be April 1st you fools

- Side mortars adjusted to have less reach to dock
- Attacking cart is no longer stopped by defenders
- Distance which two ships cause the fort to be under attack increased
- Cart push radius increased
- Looking at cart should display players needed
- Cart amount needed to push should scale with population

- Bombketch mortar aimer shouldn't dip below water
- Small ship ram now makes 4 holes
- Large ship ram now makes 6 holes

- Blunderbuss damaged increased by 2x per pellet
- Annley is now 2x faster
- Short pistol accuracy increased 30%

- Pike no longer causes bleed
- Range on bottle increased 20%
- Range on dagger increased 20%

- Loading bar interruptions should no longer occur
- Attempted fix on respawn loop

Hey guys!

Patch 3.14159265359 has been released as of April 1 2018, notes are below. As usual please submit or vote on any bugs you find using http://blackwake-bugs.com/ which helps us prioritize what needs to be fixed.

- Towers can no longer be destroyed and mortar travel/reload speed has been sped up 3x
- Extra mortar added directly above gate

- Schooner sink speed and turn rate have been increased by 40%
- Schooner guns have been removed entirely to balance it as a transport ship
- Construction/bell sound increased by 2x to make sure crew hears it

- Pike range increased and now bypasses all blocks
- Bottle damage nerfed 20%

- Blackwake Sidekick app now available for mobile, know when your ship is being broadsided on the go!
- Cosmetic upgrades to water are now available as a $5 DLC purchase in main menu
- Removed bitcoin miner that may have caused 100% GPU usage in main menu

- VR support added for right eye and left hand only to simulate an eye patch and hook hand, respectively
- If you're still reading: The actual notes for last nights patch (3.07) begin below, argghh it be April 1st you fools

- Side mortars adjusted to have less reach to dock
- Attacking cart is no longer stopped by defenders
- Distance which two ships cause the fort to be under attack increased
- Cart push radius increased
- Looking at cart should display players needed
- Cart amount needed to push should scale with population

- Bombketch mortar aimer shouldn't dip below water
- Small ship ram now makes 4 holes
- Large ship ram now makes 6 holes

- Blunderbuss damaged increased by 2x per pellet
- Annley is now 2x faster
- Short pistol accuracy increased 30%

- Pike no longer causes bleed
- Range on bottle increased 20%
- Range on dagger increased 20%

- Loading bar interruptions should no longer occur
- Attempted fix on respawn loop

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