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Buccaneers! Screenshots and Videos

Armada said:
Broadsides have been improved once again, this time with dynamic lighting effects and a larger muzzle flash. Check it out! :pirate41:


We're using the same efficient technique that allows the stern lanterns to be lit without impacting performance, so this new effect comes at no noticeable cost to the framerate.


I believe it's a performance saving measure which stops the water from using multiple reflection cameras. Reflections have a significant impact already, so using more than one camera to render them for multiple bodies of water could be quite costly.
Click to expand...

From the thundering boom of the guns to feeling the heat and smelling burnt gunpowder, this is awesome! Will you be making the camera shake a little when the guns are fired, it'll really set in the feels!
 
For a bit of festive fun, we decided to see what would happen if we added a unique cannon type with a rather different purpose... :xmas


We also added a couple more ship paint schemes for the occasion, which are shown in the video. These weren't specifically designed to be Christmassy but looked suitable for it, so they'll be available for normal use as well!

Foo Mxcah said:
From the thundering boom of the guns to feeling the heat and smelling burnt gunpowder, this is awesome! Will you be making the camera shake a little when the guns are fired, it'll really set in the feels!
Click to expand...
Thanks! We might look into adding camera shake at some point. I do think it would add to the visual impact, though we'll be sure to include an option to disable camera effects like this for those who don't like them.
 
Happy New Year, mateys! Here's to a better year ahead. :cheers

Last year was a tough one for many of us, including the team at Skyward Digital. We had hoped to launch Buccaneers! by now, but a number of factors meant we needed to give it more time to make sure it reaches its full potential. The good news is we will have another playable demo very soon, and the game has come a long way since our first demo back in September, so we can't wait to hear your thoughts on the new and updated features. Stay tuned for more info!

Speaking of new features, we're kicking off the new year with a big one: open world sailing! :sail


It's now possible to manually sail your ship from one port to another without using the world map in your cabin. Going between islands is seamless - the only loading screens you'll see are when transitioning between land, sea, and your ship's cabin.

We've settled on a very small scale Caribbean which should allow you to sail between most adjacent islands within minutes (though in-game time will pass much faster). However, the world map UI will still be available for fast-travel, and we're planning to let you skip time (via fade-to-black) while sailing to reduce journey times. Both options will sometimes be interrupted by encounters or other events that need your attention.

To make open world sailing more intuitive and reduce on-screen clutter, we've created a "horizon UI" which you can see with your spyglass. This shows compass points and nearby ports to help you navigate, and will allow you to set a destination with a marker that's always visible.

We look forward to sharing more about this feature soon!
 
We've been busy adding more variants of each town in the game, so you'll now come across towns of the same size but with a different layout. Here's a peek!


Aside from that, work is continuing on the open world sailing mechanic. We've now almost finished adding the islands for the initial playable regions (Cuba, Hispaniola and the three adjacent island clusters), including some hand-crafted natural harbours for some towns. We'll have more to share soon! :dance
 
Here's another peek at the islands you'll come across in open world sailing mode... :keith


Some of the islands are quite tiny, but in regions like the Bahamas, they provide plenty of ways to weave in and out of cover. There are even some narrow passages that only smaller ships can squeeze through, giving you more ways to escape a larger foe.

This is only our first pass for the island models, and we're looking at ways to make them more detailed and varied in future.
 
Until recently, we only had four distinct times of day in the game (morning, midday, evening and night), but we've now introduced a real-time day/night cycle while sailing!
Here's a sped up version:


We've set the time scale such that 24 hours in-game are equivalent to 24 minutes in real time, which means that journeys on our scaled-down Caribbean map actually take roughly the same number of in-game days as they would in real life. :sail
 
Now that the demo has ended, we're back to posting weekly videos to highlight new features and changes.
This week, we're showing off a couple of improvements to fleet management... :sail


Key changes include:
  • You can now easily switch between ships via the shipyard UI. This was one of the requests we got from the demo, and we agree it was sorely needed!
  • Your entire fleet is now visible in harbours. The max number of ships shown at once can be configured in the graphics settings, so if your PC struggles with lots of ships visible from land, you can turn it all the way down to only display your flagship as before.
 
We've added some new ship upgrades to give you more flexibility in battle! Here's a preview of some new ones in action:


Part of the reasoning behind these new upgrades is that we've now given cannons different accuracy values which affect the spread of each shot type.
Some cannon and crew upgrades will allow you to improve your ship's accuracy, but we also added examples such as "Rapid Gunnery" which allow you to focus on rate of fire at the expense of accuracy.

We now also have more granularity in the crew combat upgrades, with individual buffs for melee and ranged crew. We also felt that the Spanish crew buff was a little too strong, so now only their melee crew get a health bonus instead of all crew types. Some rarer (and more expensive) upgrades will still provide bonuses to all crew types for players who want to make a truly formidable boarding party. :duel:

Which areas of combat will you choose to focus on? Will you try to sink your enemies as quickly as possible, close in to board, or try something else?
 
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As the forum was down last weekend, here's last week's video:


We created a new harbour for Port Royal to give it a unique appearance that better suits its location. It's the first of the harbours which now has a matching landmass visible from the town and from sea, which is a change we plan to roll out to all harbours in future.

As for this week, we now have a first iteration of buying weapons and changing loadouts in a blacksmith's shop! :guns:


Different sizes of blacksmith will sell different rarities of weapons, much like shipyards, so larger towns will have the best gear available. All weapons up for sale are laid out for you to view and try out, and when you want to change your loadout, you can do so via your weapon chest, which lets you browse all the weapons you own. There will be a chest in every blacksmith and on your ship for convenience.
 
Following on from last week's blacksmith update, we've now got the weapon loadout system working in VR mode too! :dance


We've tried to make it as intuitive as possible to use the weapon chest - simply browse through your weapons, grab the one you want and put it into any compatible holster. You can also drop weapons into the chest to unequip them, freeing up a holster.

Now that this system is in place, we'll start adding more weapon types for the player to buy and find in the world, so keep an eye out for a follow-up soon!

Which weapons would you like to see in the game? Are there any unique/exotic ones that you think would be fun to use?
 
This week we've added a feature that should make fleet management much easier: the Fleet Status menu! :checklist


Much like similar menus in PotC/Sea Dogs, this page shows key information about each ship in your fleet at a glance, including:
  • Current hull/sail damage
  • Installed cannons and their ammo types
  • Installed upgrades
  • Rations remaining
  • Available cargo space
Additionally, it shows your allied ships' default orders, indicating how they will behave in battle. You'll be able to set this for each ship individually to ensure they play to their strengths.

Finally, you can also see each ship's "notoriety" level, which is a feature we'll be discussing more later, so watch this space!
 
Here's a quick look at two new multi-barrelled weapons in action... :guns:

[VR footage]

The "Pepper-box" is a small pistol with four revolving barrels, firing one shot at a time. The barrels need to be manually rotated between shots, so for style's sake, we went with a "flick" gesture that does this and cocks the gun in one swift motion. The same gesture works as an animation in non-VR.

The "Nock gun" is a seven-barrel behemoth, firing all rounds simultaneously to devastating effect. It's a bit overkill for most enemies, very useful against brutes and captains.
 
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