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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #45 on: December 31, 2017, 04:52:28 PM »
Update on 3.0 (Dec 26)
26 DECEMBER   - MASTFIRE STUDIOS

Hey guys just giving you a little recap of 3.0 and an update on where it is. Some of you are already familiar and some may be new, so we're going to go over everything.


As of this post 3.0 is on its 27th closed test, and mostly complete code wise. We're now leaning on art demands as multiple ships are being added along with some.. other art.



What is 3.0, why did you decide to do it, and why is it taking so long?
Many of you saw it, and we saw it too. Blackwake can be repetitive. If you have a captain that doesn't want to board, or if no one hosts any objective based gamemodes, or you never get a chance to be a captain, Blackwake can get stale quick. While we are grateful it's praised for what it is, we agree that what it is right now should not be the end product but it is a perfect foundation.

We did not like where we saw the end product going with Blackwake so we decided to take any plans we had for a sequel (things we deemed too difficult and nearly requiring a rewrite of the game) and just doing them now as an update. 3.0 is an overhaul and has pretty much paused any updates going out to the live game.

Why so little information?
Our community loves to pick apart our updates, which is great, we love feedback. But some are a bit over zealous and will deem a feature to be the bane of their existence before it is ever tested and balanced. This time around we decided to save ourselves the Discord mechanic debates (which we often do) and remain mostly silent, only talking with the closed testing players which is made up primarily of veterans who also are able to take on the view of a clueless new player. Having both of these perspectives helps make sure everyone is happy when we do roll out the update.


What CAN we know?
We have released a few sneak peeks over time:
http://steamcommunity.com/gid/[g:1:22128230]/announcements/detail/1492239278481874116

http://steamcommunity.com/gid/[g:1:22128230]/announcements/detail/1461840308423879009
Announcement: Hotfix to live build, 3.0 underway
Blackwake, 3 Oct
Hey guys just wanted to give you a quick update and not leave you in the dark. We recently pushed a couple patches that did the following: - Fixed aid boxes covering the confirmation button of weapon...



Announcement: Community Request - Ships!
Blackwake, 6 Oct
Ahoy Mateys! Going forward with updates we'd love to know what type of ships you'd want to have in the game. We already have a few planned but would like to see whatever interesting ideas people...


from r/BlackwakeGame


from r/BlackwakeGame



We'll also go a little more into detail in this post about what is in 3.0.

3.0 is designed to be controlled through the server configuration file. Meaning it can be turned into any gamemode you want (given the select features it releases with or are added in the future). It can be scaled how you'd like, and also balanced how you'd like. 3.0 gives server owners the ability to customize various settings and then name the gamemode what they feel fits the playstyle they've configured most.


Many new shot types are being introduced with devastating effects, RNG fire is being removed and will now be a crew controlled shot type that requires "cooking" a cannonball in a furnace for 60 seconds. Note that fires will be adjusted since their frequency will increase.


Max cannonball range will be reduced from 1000 to 700 to keep ship play in more exciting ranges. Far too much do we see a captain sailing very far away from any action and boring their crew to death while they struggle to land those unforgiving long range shots.


Captains will enjoy full control over what ship they sail, regardless of the team they're on.


3.0 will be our last big update before leaving Early Access. 3.0 will release and we will do a lot of polishing and balancing as we lead up to 4.0, which is planned to be full release. We should add we are not done with Blackwake after full release, we will continue to patch in content!


Happy holidays!

Dakota & Tyler
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #46 on: February 12, 2018, 12:41:52 PM »
Alpha 3.0 Preview
11 FEBRUARY   - ONEEYETYLER



Ahoy Mateys!

Here is a preview of what is to come in the upcoming 3.0 patch! Currently we have done over 60 internal tests with 2 being major stress tests, and are still going through the paces of adjustment and refinement. We are getting close but still have several tasks to complete.

As you know, our main goal for 3.0 was to provide content that increased replayability for Blackwake. Initially Blackwake was only meant to be a simple game, it was only focused on 1v1 small ships. As development went on design changed and we were left with some hard coded limitations in what we could achieve. Therefore to make 3.0 happen a lot of things had to be reworked. Instead of doing a sequel, we decided to try and get these things into Blackwake because many of you enjoy the game as it is now, and just want to see it expand. This was the cause of the stall of patches over the recent months.


3.0 will set us back a little, we admit, but we're much happier to proceed in this direction than the one we were on. With the initial 3.0 launch please bear with us and expect issues, we will work as hard as we can to resolve them.

SHIP CHOICE

You are now able to choose your starting vessel, as well as different vessels after it has sunk. We have both faction specific ships unlocked for both factions for the time being. This should provide a greater dynamic with combat from different encounters.

Eventually the ships will have more enticing pros/cons, allowing captains to choose ships that fit their play style the best. This isn't fully balanced yet.

Full announcement: http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1670143034852989265
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #47 on: February 28, 2018, 02:59:32 PM »
The (good looking) state of 3.0
27 FEBRUARY   - MASTFIRE STUDIOS



After our preview posts we kept getting asked: Date! Date! To which we responded with the surprisingly (though risky) estimate of "15 days from the news post".

Well instead of staying quiet we want to let you guys know where things are. First, things are going great. If you haven't been playing the game, 3.0 has been in public testing with the server appearing at the top of the server list in blue for the past few days. Public tests are going well and we're really nailing down the final balance. With fort sieges, mortars, numerous new ships, multiple new shot types, and improvements to destruction both mechanically and visually, we're starting to be happy with where it is.

The catch of our estimate was "if everything goes fine". So there is still no date, but we are very close

While everything is going great we've come across a handful of small bugs that are real thinkers. These bugs originate from how the game mechanics were originally designed and now conflict with 3.0, which is basically Blackwake 2 released as a patch. Remember that before 3.0 we were on our way out of Early Access and the game was on its way to being polished. 3.0 has taken such a toll on the game that we have back backpedaled in that regard. But it was for the better!





We're very excited, and the feedback we're getting on the updates is only making us more excited. Hearing comments like "I can't believe this, it's like a whole new game" or "This is how it should have been from day one" over voice chat while public testing alongside you guys make us very proud!


Dakota & Tyler
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #48 on: March 06, 2018, 04:20:38 PM »
3.0 Released!
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #49 on: March 08, 2018, 03:03:53 PM »
40% off and 3.0 live!
8 MARCH   - MASTFIRE STUDIOS







http://store.steampowered.com/app/420290/Blackwake/

For any that may have missed it, our 3.0 patch is live! You can view more in depth details of our plans with the mode here:

Announcement: Alpha 3.0 Preview
Blackwake, 11 Feb



http://steamcommunity.com/games/Blackwake/announcements/detail/1667893770954372876


NOTE: 3.0 is still very new and we are constantly making balance changes, expect lots of fine tuning over the next week or two, especially to ship stats and fort play.

Can't wait to see you in game!

Tyler & Dakota
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #50 on: March 13, 2018, 02:35:39 PM »
Bugs State of 3.0
Blackwake - Mastfire Studios

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.

If you missed it, here is why we did 3.0
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.


It is worthing noting that many bugs can be fixed by simply reconnecting. In some cases a single error during connect will botch the state of the game and cause a multitude of seemingly random bugs.

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


Side note
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)
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #51 on: March 27, 2018, 01:35:41 PM »
Ship balance pass 1 Bug voting
Blackwake - Mastfire Studios

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-

Brig
•   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

Galleon
•   Wheel has been properly centered for more consistent aiming

Cruiser
•   Ship is now considered destroyed earlier so it does not turn into a submarine
•   Speed decreased 10%

Schooner (made up ~1/3 of all ships built)
•   Turn rate reduced by 40%
•   Sinks 20% faster

Gunboat
•   Sinks 20% slower

Bombketch
•   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

cutter
•   Additional ammo crates added to make front guns easier to load

Hoy
•   Sinks 10% slower

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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #52 on: April 02, 2018, 02:58:43 PM »
Patch notes for 3.1
Blackwake - Mastfire Studios

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.

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

Ships
- 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

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

General
- 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
- 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

Forts
- 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

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

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

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

From www.blackwake-bugs.com
- Loading bar interruptions should no longer occur
- Attempted fix on respawn loop
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #53 on: April 05, 2018, 08:48:33 PM »
3.08
Blackwake - Mastfire Studios

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
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #54 on: April 21, 2018, 10:23:48 PM »
Old & New mode integration Poll
6 APRIL   - MASTFIRE STUDIOS

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
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #55 on: April 21, 2018, 10:24:49 PM »
Coming in 3.1
17 APRIL   - MASTFIRE STUDIOS


Based on our poll about 2 weeks ago (see above post) , the majority of you, and us, were in favor of mode voting. We thought we would go ahead and break the silence to say that this along with other changes and fixes are on the way. With mode voting players can vote on the next mode to play but it can't be the same as the previous (to prevent issues noted in the last news post)

The biggest change however is the removal of conquest. Conquest is being torn apart into two modes, traditional TDM and attack/defend turn based Siege where the fastest flag capture wins. Balances were causing too much collateral damage to the two aspects of conquest, they will be easier when handled as their own modes.

This system has entered closed testing, hopefully hitting the live game soon. Then shortly after CTB will be re introduced.



Update: All of those concerned about the removal of conquest, we did this because we would rather split the mode up and focus on each aspect so it can shine rather than keep them combined in a mode that felt incomplete. For example, the TDM aspect of conquest was hurt if we made the forts too powerful, and the Siege aspect was hurt if we made the forts too irrelevant. For TDM to be the war at sea it should be it must remain its own mode, and for Siege to be the invasion of a heavily armed fort that it should be it also needs to be its own mode. Keeping them in a single mode was holding back what we could do with each.

 
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Offline Asid

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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #56 on: April 26, 2018, 12:01:07 AM »
Patch 3.1
24 April - Mastfire Studios

Patch 3.1 has been pushed (now 3.11 due to capture the booty):



As many of you know conquest was removed in 3.1, for more information on that see the above post: Announcement: Coming in 3.1

- End of round mode voting added

- Conquest removed, replaced with two individual modes for siege and naval TDM

- Lowered requirements for all hats by 1 prestige as they originally were supposed to be

- Water spout spawns have been moved further out after play area increase so they don't spawn on your ship

- Capture the booty added back


We will continue to monitor and hotfix this patch as needed!



Follow up patches:

3.12 April 25 2018

Siege changes:

- Defenders respawn 30% faster

- Attacking team gains a spawn checkpoint once gate is destroyed

- Defending team can build 1 ship at the start of the round

- Tower health increased to 25


TDM changes:

- 30 seconds post-construction spawn protection for ships
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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #57 on: May 17, 2018, 04:48:34 PM »
3.17
Blackwake - Mastfire Studios

- Fixed bug causing some sails to be immune to anti-sail swivels

- Resupply crate is no longer used for changing loadout, we've gone back to the M key system

- Fixed visual issue where changing your vote did not subtract from your old selection. The votes were still counted correctly serverside

- Pirate outfit with white arms adjusted to not look so Navy-like

- Server owners can disable experimental modes using allowExperimentalModes=0

- Cannon damage to players now begins to taper off past 500m. At 700m no players will be injured from an impact. This is to combat ships staying at max range and fighting, boring their crew and making their gameplay experience repetitive.

- Numerous Navy hats and outfits added


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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #58 on: June 12, 2018, 12:17:12 PM »
3.18 May 28 2018

- You win more tickets for a successful grapple

- You no longer lose as many tickets for losing a grapple

- When grappling a ship both crews get an immediate respawn

- CTB bases are now closer to the islands

- CTB capture count to win is now 4

- CTB chest has a 90 second respawn

- CTB chest capture zones have been moved further inland
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Re: BlackWake
« Reply #59 on: June 12, 2018, 12:18:11 PM »
3.19
Blackwake - Mastfire Studios June 11 2018


- Capture the booty rounds now back to 3

- Mast repairing is now broken down into 20 or 40 quick repair segments depending on ship size

- Added light background behind your name in teamselect

- Fixed and added a navy hat that was supposed to be added last patch

- 3rd person reload weapon animations are in place for most weapons


A few other things were done in preparation of the next patch but are not listed here (or in the game)


Expect to see these new ships and the fort replaced with a much more optimized and balanced version soon!




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