Patch 39 - Marque, Class Changes & Regular Update

Ahoy mateys!

With update 39 comes some major changes to play styles & mechanics! Letters of Marque were available in the game but the rarity & availability was always a problem for folks. From listening to your feedback & suggestions, I quickly learned how important a system this truly was and decided to focus on it for this patch :)

You are now guaranteed the offer of a letter of marque from a faction capital, if you have excellent relations with that faction. Accepting this will effect relations with that faction - locking you to them as you proceed through the campaign as a part of their faction. As a result - you can now complete the campaign by allying / conquering the other capitals in the name of that faction.

This change has a lot of knock on areas & systems that have been tested to the best of my ability and folks on the Test Branch. Please bear with me if things aren't 100% perfect first try :) As always - the discord is where most of the bug reporting & suggestions / feedback is happening, and I continually check and respond to folks in the Steam Forums. https://discord.gg/Ws9fjmHP5U

I hope you enjoy fighting for your favorite faction in the campaign & enjoy the improvements, QOL and overall improvements to the game happening largely due to your feedback!

In tandem last week I spent some time planning & building some scaffolding around the gigantic task of "Manage Settlement"! I've made some great progress there and am hoping to have an initial version of these improvements available for you to play with in an upcoming patch soon. I know this feature is something you've all been waiting for, and it will bring some much needed depth to the occupancy of settlements and late game expenditures.

Here is a full list of the issues / QOL and changes from this patch:

New

• Admirals now can start campaigns with letter of marque for any of the primary colonial factions. (In progress)

• Letters of Marque are now guaranteed from faction Capitals Mayors if relations are high enough. This will damage relations with other colonial factions and the pirates.

• Campaign can now be completed if you capture all capitals for your Marque

• Ship Upgrades can now be reset allowing you to respec your fleet.

• Breaking the marque agreement can be done at capitals of that marque - this will damage relations with the origin faction, but improve slightly relations with others.

Fixes

• Threatening successes no longer adds a second flagship to player fleet.

• Fixed issue with spawning where sometimes the ships would not match exactly what was in the Fleet Formation screen.

• Fixed issue where spawn points would be chosen from incorrect positions on some maps.

• Fixed issue where some Mission items would become inaccessible (showing 72NM away but not accessible).

• Fixed a few issues around some fleets spawning in invalid positions in games that have been going on for a while (allow 2 in game days before tracking).

• Fixed issue where fleets involved in an Encounter could still be fought by other fleets.

• Fixed issue where Names were incorrect in stats screen.

• Fixed issue on The Troubled Haven where the 2nd bridge was inaccessible.

• Fixed spawning issue with large sprawled fleets sometimes spawning under land.

• Fixed issue where sometimes defending fleets would spawn inside background islands.

• Fixed issue where sometimes colonial faction islands would spawn without civilians.

• Fixed some localization issues & bad wording in some parts of the Tutorial.

• Fixed some LOD issues that would not show some items unless super close on lowest graphics settings.

• Fixed issue where mouse cursor would be incorrect on the minimap.

• Fixed a performance sink with Trees.

• Fixed issue with Send Random Troop group sending incorrect units first.

• Fixed issue with Sending Troops not updating the fill amount on the boat icon during deployments.

Changes

• Changed some aggression settings for fleets when deciding to invade islands.

• Screw 3 Decker ships now have 25 crew upgrade slots.

• You may not take aggressive actions against factions if you have a letter of marque for that faction. (Encounters, fleet fights, island invasions and transport interceptions)

• Character name is now used as the flagship captain name when beginning campaign. (This will all change heavily during the Mayors/Captains update in future)

• Sailing Tutorial Waypoints will now spawn in front of the player.

• Nerfed the relation increase received from gifting islands to factions.

Thank you to everyone who helped us hit 350 reviews this week also! I'm delighted so many of you see the potential and are enjoying the game, constant updates & interaction!

Reviews help the ongoing development effort massively, so if you're enjoying the game - please consider taking the time to add one.

Appreciate all of the discussion and feedback coming my way daily! Thank you to all contributing to the discussions here, on the discord and steam forums.

A reminder that the discord is where most of the Tracking / Discussion / Planning and Updates are happening.

https://discord.gg/Ws9fjmHP5U

Until next time,

John