Patch 42 - Regular Update, Bug Fixes, QOL, Ground Combat, Difficulty

Ahoy Mateys!

Today's regular patch is mostly driven by fixes and enhancing some of the existing newer systems. I also managed to work in some of the most heavily requested QOL and improved overall stability. There was also some exploratory work done in preparation for some of the bigger jobs coming up later.

This patch is mostly loaded with features, bug fixes and balance changes. Here is a summary of some of the larger items.

Pistol / Officer changes

Arguably one of the most impactful and noticeable changes this patch is the Pistoleer and Officers ability to reload on the move. The Musketeer remains unchanged, needing to take a knee to reload. But the officers and Pistols can let off their shot, and then move at a slower speed as they reload, allowing them to close distance and evade fire much easier. This opens up quite a bit of micro potential also.

Many more improvements to the ground combat systems are coming over the coming months so I appreciate your patience in that regard.

Grenadier Friendly Fire

Grenadiers no longer friendly fire your units. It was much too devastating especially for your melee units when a grenadier would slowly lob a grenade towards an enemy unit as your cutlass units would rush in to stab him! I always thought of grenadiers as alternatives to sending slower land cannons to take out buildings and open up paths on the maps. But the attention and micro required to use them was too much.

You can re-enable this option in the campaign difficulty settings.

Minimap improvements

I've added a preview to selected islands in the Minimap. It will tell you a brief description of the island without having to get close enough to hover it. This is something that has been requested quite a bit over the last few months so this should tide us over until we have a more complete trade summary page created for all your discovered ports.

Production Changes

Item production from settlements on the campaign map has been improved - with additions of extra items in some ports, and multiple productions complete for the Capitals. As time goes on I'll be expanding and improving the trade system. These kinds of smaller system changes make future enhancements much easier.

Player Portraits

This was exploratory work that needed doing for the Captains/Mayors update but I decided to make it a feature already. If you've completed the campaign, you should see a new "More" button showing up in your character creation screen. This work was also is part of a Roadmap item.

Guided YouTube Tutorials

Although mentioned in the tutorials, some of the features there are not defined / explained well enough. Although I'll be improving the tutorials constantly, its very difficult to predict where the issues will happen. To compensate for that gap, I decided to record myself going through the tutorials and talking briefly about the more important steps within them.

I tried to keep the tutorials brief and separated them out so that if you're having issues with a certain step within them, you should be able to find the section you're stuck on easily. A link to the whole course is available on the Tutorial screen.

UI Improvements

I've reviewed quite a bit of the UI in the game and added hints and tips here and there. As I reviewed some streams and videos of Rise of Piracy from the community, I've noticed that some of the QOL items are missed, over the next few updates I am planning on bringing these items to the surface a bit better by using hints and UI improvements across the board.

Difficulty Settings - Claiming Locked Ships

In addition to the above "Grenadier Friendly Fire" difficulty option, I've also added one that prevents players from claiming ships unless they've been unlocked. This feature is disabled by default, but can be enabled in the Campaign Difficulty settings.

Here is the full list of items completed for this update:

New

• Added new Section to the Minimap for showing a summary of the selected Island.

• Added more items to Capital production.

• Improved UI on some Load Screen items and warnings.

• Added extra selectable portraits for characters created after Campaigns are completed (With more coming soon!).

• Pistol and Officers can now Reload while moving! (Including soldiers of colonial factions)

• Added UI instruction and key for opening/closing cannon embrasures (K)

• Added capture point to Callodge Edge.

• Added hint for CTRL+Shift on the Deployment UI.

• Added Guided YouTube Video Tutorials to tide us over during Early Access between improvements to the Tutorial systems and a Link to them on the Tutorial screen.

• Added "Grenadier Friendly Fire" Difficulty Option.

• Added "Allow Claiming of Level-Locked ships" to prevent claiming of ships that you have not yet unlocked after a battle.

• Added experimental feature of setting the Uniform Color per-ship in your fleet.

Fixes

• Fixed Major issue with the loading of the Campaign Tutorial.

• Fixed sporadic issue where Legendary Items at capitals could be sold at low amounts.

• Fixed Major trade exploit - Infinite money from nearby islands from rapid restarts.

• Added more safety around some entry points into the game to prevent parsing errors / detect issues early.

• Fixed issues in Load Game arising from Deleted or invalid Character files.

• Fixed issue where Load Game select character popup would appear but not be closable.

• Fixed trailing issue from Log book sequences not ending correctly before unloading.

• Fixed issue where Continue button would blank out the screen and fail to load when File system was modified by players outside of the game.

• Fixed issue where trees falling wouldn't go fully to the ground.

• Fixed May 4th EasterEgg issue with weapon changes.

• Fixed issue where NPC's couldn't open their embrasures automatically.

• Fixed issue with unknown character music causing exceptions.

• Fixed grape shot expiring too early issue.

• Fixed issue where grape shot trajectory for Auto shot was always aiming high.

• Fixed Order Lines not showing during RTS Freeze Time.

• Hitting hotkeys while cheat menu is open will no longer trigger the hotkey.

• Fixed issue where incorrect ship types would display on the Encounter and Fleet screens.

• Fixed issue where troops wouldn't remember what ship they came from (causing overflow on flagships after battle)

• Fixed issue where ships added to defending fleet in Tribal islands would disappear during reloading phase.

Changes

• Removed distribution of Legendary early items for Capitals.

• Improved Cost distribution & price changes.

• Rebalanced some Cost changes for Capitals & Medium ports.

• Updated some Difficulty Settings UI

• Increased range of Musketeer

• Increased reload speed of the Pistoleer

• Added time hint to the Campaign Tutorial if time is paused when setting course towards Island.

• Tutorial button on the New Campaign screen now goes to the Tutorial screen.

• Freeze time now slows time down significantly rather than completely freezing it.

• Changed appearance of all Destructable Barrels to an assortment of more obvious "Explosive red barrels" appearances.

• Improvements to trajectory prediction.

Roadmap Updates

I have plans to update the roadmap soon. Some of the major items that have been included since release was driven heavily from player feedback and don't exist on the Roadmap. I will be adding to these and prioritizing some of the more heavily requested features.

400 Reviews!

Rise of Piracy hit 400 reviews this week! I'm delighted with how the game has been received after only 2 months in Early Access. So many folks see the potential & have put many hours into it. Its extremely motivating. Thank you all so much.

Here is the link to the discord where most tracking / communication is happening: https://discord.gg/Ws9fjmHP5U

Thanks again folks,

John