📍New features and major evolutions

Nearly thirty years after the release of Corsairs: Conquest at Sea, we’re proud to finally lift the curtain on what Corsairs: Battle of the Caribbean truly brings to the table – far more than a modern reboot.

Our aim with this new game was never to make a carbon copy of the original, but to preserve its DNA – free exploration, naval strategy and life at sea – while rebuilding the experience from the keel up for a new era. That means technical upgrades, a complete visual overhaul, enhanced gameplay mechanics and a smoother, more accessible experience overall, all while staying true to the spirit that left its mark on a generation of players.

In this first pre-release update, we wanted to share a bird’s-eye view of the modifications we’ve made and new features we’ve implemented to give you a better idea of what’s changing – and what isn’t – in this new reimagining of the original classic.

1. New Feature – Online Multiplayer

The first big change for this instalment is that it’s now possible to sail – or clash – with players from around the world. Create custom Skirmishes in public or private sessions, or in competitive mode!

2. New Feature – Skirmish (Custom Game)

As mentioned above, you’re no longer stuck playing the same old campaigns. You can now also create your own custom game in single-player or multiplayer mode. Choose your map, number of opponents, difficulty and game mode, and fine-tune the settings to your liking.

3. New Feature – Game Modes

Outside of the campaigns, various game modes are also on offer.

○ Supremacy: Be the Last Corsair Standing You decide your own strategy: capture multiple cities to boost trade and accumulate resources to build the most powerful end-of-game ships, launch targeted attacks with faster vessels at the start of the game to gain the advantage, or pit your opponents against one another while you raid pirate ships so your only job is to finish off any survivors… There is no single path to victory, as long as you’re the last corsair standing.

○ Gold Rush: Become the Richest Corsair In this mode, wealth far outweighs warfare. Be the first to amass 1,000,000 gold coins, however you see fit…

○ Relic Collector: Own the Most Precious Items Legendary relics will be your most prized possessions in this game mode… Buy them, seize them or sink the ships transporting them, so long as the majority fall into your possession. But beware: relics are never truly safe, not even in your own towns and ships.

○ Rule the Waves: Be the Most Fearsome Corsair Everything’s at play here: gold, fleet strength, relics, territorial control, trading stock… Multiple paths lead to victory, and it’s up to you to choose which one to take.

4. New Feature – Relics

Relics are a new way to get the upper hand. These powerful legendary items provide a variety of passive bonuses for your towns and ships. They are typically found at neutral ports. You can purchase them, or attack the town and take them by force. The merchant company is also keen to acquire them, so don’t hesitate too long. Otherwise, you’ll be forced to buy them back at an extortionate price… or hunt down and sink the merchant ships carrying them.

5. New Feature – Weather Conditions and Ocean Currents

○ We’ve kept the wind system from the original game. Wind strength and direction shift, but you’ll go much faster with the wind in your sails!

○ Dangerous and chaotic storms are now also brewing on the horizon… Once dark clouds gather, torrential rain falls, and lightning bolts strike your ships. You’ll need to be savvy if you want to avoid a one-way trip down to Davy Jones’s locker.

○ Last but not least, phenomena known as ocean currents offer speed boosts. Turtles seem to like riding along in them, too… But why?

6. New Feature – New Nation

A new faction has also joined Corsairs: Denmark. We’ll discuss this faction in more detail in a later post.

7. Change – Towns

Each Corsairs map will be dotted with various towns. Three of them will be under your control at the start of the game. There will be a few trading posts and towns in enemy countries, and the rest will all be neutral territory. You can, if you’re powerful enough, capture enemy and neutral towns. They will then fly your flag and produce resources exclusively for you. But that’s not all:

○ You can manage your reserves as you wish, filling your ship’s holds or securing cargo in your towns. Just bear in mind that production halts once storage limits are reached. Be careful not to leave too much precious stock in your towns, or it could end up in the hands of any enemy who dares capture it!

○ Towns can be upgraded with specialised buildings. The governor’s palace can raise limits on your towns’ maximum production, as well as increase production speed. Dry docks are the perfect place to build more powerful vessels. A fortress protects your town and blocks boarding attempts as long as it remains intact. And, last but not least, the lighthouse increases the town’s range of visibility and expands the repair and resupply radius of your ships.

8. Change – Pirates

Those relentless pirates who raid your ships when you’re transporting your most precious cargo? Don’t worry – they’re still out there and just as covetous of your loot as ever. Not only have the years done nothing to temper their hostility – they now scale with your progression. The more powerful you become, the fiercer they grow. That said, you can now board pirate ships and claim them for your own. High risk, high reward!

9. Change – Trade

The merchants who buy your goods for a pittance and sell them on for a small fortune haven’t gone anywhere either. Luckily, the neutral towns are there to prevent them holding a total monopoly! Don’t think you can avoid them forever, though. They’ve now invested in more ships, developing more trade routes across the map, meaning your paths are going to cross eventually. These ships are often packed full of resources, making them easy prey… But attack them, and your relationship with the trading company will suffer – and they’ll raise prices to offset the losses.

Neutral towns all produce two different types of resources. They buy and sell their homegrown resources at a lower cost than the merchants, and they pay more for resources they need to import. This usually makes for good customers. The further these towns are from your home port, the higher these prices will be. This means long crossings could potentially be very profitable, although they will make you more vulnerable to attack.

10. Change – Goods and Resources

The goods themselves have also changed and are now split into three categories: common resources (sugar cane and coffee), rare resources (metal and silk) and precious resources (spices and jewels). These three tiers influence both market value and the importance of the towns that produce them. These resources can also be used, alongside gold, to upgrade towns and build ships.

Resources stored in the holds of sunken ships are now no longer lost forever either. Part of a ship’s cargo will float on the surface for a few minutes before sinking, giving you an opportunity to salvage some of the spoils and profit from your enemies’ misfortune.

Crew and cannonballs are no longer purchasable resources, though. They are now automatically replenished when you return to your own towns.

11. Change – Ship Statistics

Certain ship statistics are still visible, and we’ve reworked some of them to add a little more depth to the game. Visible attributes include unit counts (which we’ll talk about in our next news update!), firepower, tonnage, hull durability, sail strength and cannonball reserves per category.

Other statistics will remain hidden, such as size, speed, acceleration and deceleration, cargo impact on speed, rotation speed, rotation impact on speed, wind impact on speed and sail condition effects.

Corsairs also grant passive bonuses to the ships to which they have been allocated.

12. Change – UX/UI/QOL

In parallel to the above, we’ve also completely redesigned the interface and user experience to align with modern standards. A number of tooltips have been added to provide additional information, and menu navigation has been streamlined. We’ve also introduced additional accessibility settings, such as text and interface size, to make the game better suited to a larger audience.

These are the most significant additions and improvements shaping this remake, which demonstrate how we’ve modernised the experience without losing any of the spirit of the original game.

We hope that this overview has given you a clearer sense of our direction and leaves you ready to raise anchor and join us in the Caribbean once more.

A big thanks for all your interest and your support, which means the world to the entire team. We hope to see you all at the game’s release, and we will be back next week with a news update that focuses more on game development.