After swapping out our netcode, player-hosted games are now available!
Which means your favorite boating game has found its way back into Gaben’s good graces (praise be Gaben, open thy crates in his name).
Which ALSO means you can download Sirocco again and host custom games. Games are now coordinated through Discord, so what are you waiting for?
The water’s just fine.
Happy boating.
Story time:
Switching from an online dedicated server setup to a peer-to-peer system was not a straightforward task. There are still plenty of improvements needed, both when getting into a game and during gameplay, but the core experience is now available for single-player and peer-to-peer matches, including playing against bots with your friends.
All captains are playable, but you won’t have access to your skins. If we find a way to get the backend services back up and running, we have copies of everyone’s progress, so nothing will be lost.
The community has been amazing on Discord. They even have a working matchmaking system with MMR if that’s your thing or if you just want to play some boat games, that’s the best place to coordinate for now.
Future:
The plan is to improve the game’s UI and fix bugs and weird issues that came with the transition from dedicated servers to peer-to-peer. After that, I’ll look into adding a lobby system through Steam and making gameplay improvements (looking at you, weapon system), along with balance updates and anything else the community prioritizes.
Come join the Discord to get involved, we’re a friendly bunch.
It is just me working directly on the game right now, so updates will slow down a bit, both in frequency and in size. The community’s feedback, bug reports, and support are invaluable (seriously, you’re all amazing).
We’ve spent too long on this project to simply let it go, and now, no matter what the future brings, the game has a solid foundation to keep being playable.