Update 0.2: sea battles that fight back
Enemy ships now sail properly and keep up the chase, cannons reach twice as far, and a ship needs a second sailor at the new Sail Lines. Creatures chase you further, and quest chains no longer send you back to clear the same camp twice.
This update is mostly about the sea. Testers told us that enemy ships ran into the nearest pier and sat there while you shot them. That’s fixed, and fights at sea last longer and range wider. On land, creatures chase you further and quest chains need fewer trips.
Sea battles
- Enemy ships can sail. Before, the Black Gull and the Cutwater often ran into a pier or the shore and stayed there. Now their helmsmen look ahead and steer around shallows, rocks and piers. If a ship does run aground, her crew backs the sails and works her free. They also keep clear of other ships.
- They don’t give up so easily. Ships turn wide and sail fast, so a fight spreads out, and a long turn used to end it by accident. Now an enemy ship that is fighting you follows you up to 420 yards from where she patrols. She only gives up after you’ve been out of reach for 15 seconds: more than 280 yards ahead of her, or past the edge of her chase.
- Cannons reach twice as far. Broadside now reaches 140 yards (was 70) and Chain Shot 100 yards (was 50). Balls scatter more and fly longer the further you aim, so long shots need a good lead. Enemy ships also fight from a little further out.
- Survivors of a sinking ship. Her crew now jump clear of the wreck, swim over and climb aboard your ship. Before, they could land back on her sinking deck. Once aboard, they keep fighting even if you sail away. If you’re standing on an enemy deck when she goes under, you end up in the water where you were standing. Before, you could find yourself somewhere else on the map.
Sailing needs a crew: the new Sail Lines
The ship’s wheel now only steers. To set the sails (Backed, Furled, Slow, Half or Full), use the new Sail Lines: the pin rail at the foot of the foremast, down on the main deck. Right-click it and press W/S, or click a setting on the bar.
On a ship this size, one person can’t steer and handle the sails from the same spot. A crew works best with one sailor at the wheel and another at the sail lines, calling orders to each other. You can still sail alone: the sails hold their setting while you’re away, and the rudder straightens when nobody holds the wheel. You’ll be running up and down the deck, though.
If you press W/S at the wheel out of habit, the game reminds you where the sails are worked.
Creatures chase you further
Creatures still notice you only when you come close. Once they’re fighting, they follow you a long way, at least 80 yards from where they stand. You can shoot one from range and back off to fight it somewhere safer, and it comes after you. Before, it often turned back halfway.
Backing away no longer makes a creature give up, either. It gives up only when it truly can’t reach you, for example when you’re up on a ledge or a ship’s deck.
Quest chains need fewer trips
Some chains made you clear the creatures around a boss, go back to the quest giver, and only then get the quest for the boss. You killed the boss twice and walked there twice. Now each camp’s quests are offered together, so one trip does them all:
- Old Wren (Gullhaven) offers Smoke in the Wood and The Marauders’ Orders together.
- Hattie Marsh (Marsh Farm) offers Who Burned the Abbots? and Contraband together. After that she offers The Lookouts of Smugglers’ Cove and Fat Ned’s Last Run together.
- Brother Aldous (Reedwatch) offers Witchlights and Mother Silt together.
- Captain Rourke (Southwatch) offers The Restless Garrison, Powder and Shot, The Ashcombe Colours and Captain Ashcombe as soon as you’re high enough level. The Ashcombe Colours is now a scouting job for Rourke, and you can do it on the same trip.
If you’re partway through one of these chains, nothing is lost: you may just see a new “!” over the quest giver.
Thanks for the reports. Please keep them coming with /bug in chat.