• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Letters of Marque Public Demo Now Ready!

Captain Murphy

Actually a Captain
TOP CONTRIBUTOR
Programmer
Public Relations
Hearts of Oak Donator
Pirate Legend


Download “Letters of Marque Test Build” Letters-of-Marque.zip – 82 MB

Wha?!?! Did you say the demo was playable by everyone?!?!?!

YES! It is playable and downloadable and free to play. No ‘Early Access’ or fees to pay, just a plain ol’ game in testing that you can play with your friends. Now, there is one limitation, it requires you to sign up on our website for an account, but that is the only stipulation. We are using the login to track some basic metrics and crash reports so it helps us help you! Now, on to some of the details of the latest build.

Installation

Download, extract to your favorite games folder, enjoy. It is just that simple. No installer to worry about. Just put it somewhere that has decent file permissions and you are good to go.

Patcher/Launcher

In order to stay up to date we have included a patcher that will download and install new patches to the game. In your game folder there are two executable files. The one with “launcher” in the name is… well… the launcher. It patches the program and makes sure you are up to date. It is recommended to run it instead of the other executable simply because we release patches constantly.

Multiplayer

In order to host a multiplayer match you will need to forward your chosen port to your computer. By default we are using port 15937 for the game, but you are welcome to host on any port you please. When someone picks your game to join from the master server list, it will pass along what port to use so you don’t have to.

When playing locally with multiple clients on one machine or on LAN, you will need to use the ‘Join IP’ and type in the IP of the hosting machine. We will, one day, make that automatic but that is fairly low priority right now, sorry.

Input and Keys

When in game you can press the Options button from the main menu, or the Exit menu from in a game to get to your settings. On the top right is the Controls button that lets you reassign your keys to your hearts content. Here are some of the defaults:

Camera Type
Change View Type (On-deck or 3rd Person) – F
Change View Point (On-deck Only) – R

Camera 3rd Person
Mouse Right Click – Unlock camera to move
Mouse Left/Right/Up/Down – Orbit around ship (While right clicking)
Mouse Scroll Wheel – Zoom in/out (while right clicking)

Camera 1st Person
Mouse Right Click – Unlock camera to move
Mouse Left/Right/Up/Down – Look (While right clicking)
Mouse Scroll Wheel – Use telescope (while right clicking)

Movement
W/S – Sails raise/lower (double tap to full/douse sails)
A/D – Rudder left/right (double tap to full left/right rudder)
A+D - Center Rudder

Gunnery
Space – Fire battery that is facing the same direction the camera is
E -Fire one shot from the battery
Shift + W/S – Elevate guns

Other
C – Begin Damage Control
O – Take Screenshot without GUI
P – Take Screenshot with GUI
I - Hi-res Screenshot
Enter – focus on text box/send chat message
~ – see your current FPS and memory usage
 
Last edited:
Two awesome Age of Sail demos in one day! :woot
 
I just finished pushing the newest patch as well:

Today had a new release with a couple of important changes:

  • Particle rewrite on smoke and splashes
    • Splashes are seen further away and scale for camera distance, this makes it easier to see your shots
    • Smoke no longer has a ‘delay’ while is comes out of inactivity
  • Ship cannons have slightly lower max elevation. This gives a bit more control over the guns elevation.
  • Ship syncing was redone to only need one RPC on client connect. Reducing overhead network load when a new player joins.
  • Player join/disconnect messages now are sent when someone joins or leaves a server
  • Enter key now focuses on the chat more reliably. Also enter after sending message removes focus from the chat box.
  • Controls page has been fixed for its spawning. Moved to a new method of control.
  • Starting splash screen delay sort-of fixed. It loads smoother but still working on reducing the time some more.
  • Players can only join servers that are the same version as them. Keeps crashes from occurring when someone tries to join an older/newer server.


Known Issues:

  • Masts do not sync their destroyed status on new player joins. The physics still respond the same but the new client would see full rigging regardless of damage state of the players rig.
  • No collision damage when ships hit, just rigging.
 
When i select an nation and click ''play'' nothing happens..... Wished i could test out the game but i unfortunaly can't ;(
 
Make sure you start with a fresh game (not trying to join a game or anything before hand). There is a weird bug in the networking that locks the socket after attempting to connect to a game or server. If you jumped into one of my test games today that definitely screwed it up, lol. I was running a masked version for testing and some poor saps jumped in earlier. I know it had to be a slew of errors on their side as my version was WAY different, lol.
 
MAJOR FIX

If you start with v0.2.15.1217a – 0.2.15.1217b then the Launcher application is broken in it. You can either download a new launcher (on the right on our website) or download the full game again with the fixed launcher included.
 
v0.2.15.1219b released about an hour ago

New Features

  • Camera shake when hit
  • Cannonballs can go through waves and leave a trail of splashes
  • Lanterns light on ships at night
Fixed

  • On-deck look camera jumping
  • On-deck camera locked on occasion
  • Host didn’t see damage smoke
  • Texture corrected for telescope view
  • Player connect messages corrected for clients
Changes

  • Menu ship replaced with current model
Next on the List

  • Add collision damage and camera shake
  • Camera motion and shake when dismasted
  • Hit Indicator when shots hit enemy
  • Sync mast damage on new player connection
 
Release 0.3.16.0106a
Fixed

  • Time of day not starting correctly
  • Sun not showing on start of match
  • Full Screen dialog contradicts the in-game setting
Added

  • Player list shows on spawn screen
  • New Screen Resolution dialog in Video Settings Panel
Changed

  • Cleaned up orphan assets from project to keep size down
Release 0.3.16.0105a
Fixed/Changed

  • Fixed – Camera switch leaves telescope view on
  • Fixed – Camera doesn’t switch to new ship after respawn
Added

  • Sail LOD manager started
  • Sail order redone
  • Sail code cleaned up and separated to a new script segment
  • Hit indicator for shots that impact on another ship
  • High resolution screenshot tool
  • Updated smoke particle shader
  • Updated cannon fire shader
  • Updated splash LOD manager


Release 0.3.16.0105a

Fixed/Changed

  • Fixed – Camera switch leaves telescope view on
  • Fixed – Camera doesn’t switch to new ship after respawn
Added

  • Sail LOD manager started
  • Sail order redone
  • Sail code cleaned up and separated to a new script segment
  • Hit indicator for shots that impact on another ship
  • High resolution screenshot tool
  • Updated smoke particle shader
  • Updated cannon fire shader
  • Updated splash LOD manager


Release 0.3.16.0101a
Fixed/Changed

  • Respawn code cleanup
  • Particles for water splash size adjusted
  • Fixed ships not sinking after being destroyed
  • Host now sees damage smoke from own ship
Added

  • Controls page new skinning
  • New Weather system and weather management
  • Lightning effect synced across network
  • New sky shader

Release 0.2.15.1221a

Fixed

  • Respawn code corrected for client side
Changed

  • Gun elevation expanded to 32 separate setting points, allowing finer control of long range shots
  • Wind/Vessel indicator in primary UI made larger
  • SSAA removed and replaced with FXAA3


Release 0.2.15.1220a
Fixed

  • Ship spawn code cleaned up, found a bug during slow client loads where multiple ships would spawn then disappear
  • Abandoned ships (ones without a client owner) now sink faster to clear the level, no more ghost ships driving around
  • Patcher updated to better handle exceptions
  • Smoke particles were lowered in performance needs
  • Water splashes consolidated to a single particle pooler
Added

  • Ships that have been killed will start on fire if they are not already
  • Respawn menu added to exit menu UI. Allows for a player to quickly respawn in a fresh ship. Old ship is sunk and set on fire.
  • Respawn message for when player respawns in new ship
 
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