Patch 1.6 — OUT NOW

Ahoy!

On the menu:

• Patch 1.6 is live
• Character builds and replayability added to the game
• Combat system completely reworked
• A dozen of new feautures and over a hundred of improvements
• "Supporter Pack" DLC released
• No need to start a new game
• Please disable all mods
• You can always return to any previous major patch via Steam Library

Supporter Pack

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2749310/Caribbean_Legend__Supporter_Pack/
For a year and a half, the "Supporter Pack" remained exclusive to owners of the most expensive pre-orders, contest winners and our friends. That's over two hundred people without whom the game would never have been released.

The DLC is generous with loot, available in story mode and free play. This is the best way to support the team. If you enjoy our work and share our desire to make the game better — buy it while it's still available.

Some people ask: why are the DLCs so small?
It's simple. Either we make large paid expansions, or we keep adding tons of mechanics, quests and free content with every patch.

This isn't a big brainer, as the project still has a long way to go before becoming our dream game. Small DLCs help balance the budget and provide valuable rewards to players, while most of the money goes toward developing new content and mechanics. This won't change until we reach version 2.0 in the main menu.

Patch 1.6

The patch radically changes the combat system, adds character builds and reimagines the balance of all items in the game.
1.6 would have been much weaker without Pvt. Joker and Apdyak. And it would have not been possible at all without those hundreds of players who dared to try out the open beta.

A massive shoutout for: Sarevok, flashdeck, Gregg, Rinsvind, Nordilys(Jerrian I.), Sana, DWG, MaZaHaKa, imposter, GqM, Blu and RenaudNadeau.

Thank you guys. For your dedication and your time.

We have an incredibly rich list of changes ahead. You'll need to relearn how to fight, rediscover items, and build character progression. Ship controls, navigation on the world map and trading haven't been left untouched either.

Let's go.

Ships

Remade:

• Barquentine
• Trading Schooner
• Ghost Caleuche
• Restored Caleuche

Creating ships is a long and expensive process. That's why any new ship must solve a specific problem in the game, not just exist for the sake of it.

The Barquentine and Schooner appear frequently, and their old hulls stood out and spoiled the first impression. Plus, we're planning to increase the role of merchant ships — an upgrade was necessary.

The Caleuche is the most popular ship among players, and its original model was outdated. Now it's a true wonder of the Caribbean Sea. You can no longer restore its hull, but you don't need to anyway.

Based on your demand, we have made a new model for the restored Caleuche too (with three paint variants!). The restored ship now features 42-caliber gun ports, boosted stats, and has become the best vessel in the game. For now.

The restoration cost for the Caleuche has increased significantly and is now one of the ultimate long-term goals worth saving doubloons for from the very start of your playthrough.

Ship Interiors

• Small Hold
• Medium Hold
• Small Cabin
• Small Cabin with Windows
• Medium Cabin
• Large Cabin
• Galleon Cabin
• Ghost Caleuche Cabin
• Restored Caleuche Cabin

...and I think we are done with ship interiors!
A couple of months ago we had big plans for cabins, but priorities changed. It's disappointing, of course, those ideas were great, but when you see what we traded them for — you'll understand it was worth it.

Although, t's no coincidence that you can now sit at the captain's table. We'll probably implement this mechanic eventually.

Cities

• Saint Pierre
• Bridgetown
• Basse-Terre
• St. John's
• Capsterville
• Philipsburg
• Port-au-Prince
• Santo Domingo
• San Jose
• Santiago
• Havana
• Tortuga
• Belize
• Bluefield
• Porto Bello
• Panama
• Cartagena
• Maracaibo
• Caracas
• Cumana
• San-Jose

Instead of completely rebuilding cities, we took a different approach. Thanks to the hard work of Apdyak and mPlank, some cities have been incredibly transformed.
High-quality textures, artistic decisions and a unified style. Amazing work — we'll soon update the remaining cities in the same way.

Quests

• "The Caleuche" quest now available in free play.
• "Grant Albalate" - available in free play.
• "Prison Break - available in free play.
• Mystery of Le François - new event.
• Mystery of Saint Pierre - new event.
• Shackles of Gambling - new side quest.
• Letter from the Dead - new side quest.
• La Espada Del Rey - new side quest.

All these quests are available in story mode and free play, but designed specifically for free play. With each patch, we increase the value of this mode and move away from Charles de Maure's story...
But it's not going well.

• "The Wild Rose" - major story quest.

Dedicated to your favorite Mary Casper. An Opus Magnum spanning 250 pages, which was proofread, rewritten and developed by an entire team over several months with active participation from alpha testers.

Available after resolving the Tortuga situation, requires normal relations with England and a visit to Barbados. It will give you three items and a tragedy in six acts.

This is the penultimate addition to story mode. You'll meet the last one later this year.

Next, we'll talk about the new gameplay. I wasn't joking when I said the game has changed dramatically. This really is a different, fresh experience.
To help you (and myself) understand the new state of affairs, I'll ask you: when reading everything below, keep this scheme in mind.

Items and descriptors → Perks and archetypes → New combat system

Items

There are about a thousand items and dozens of crafting recipes in the game. Almost all have changed. The old meta and guides no longer work. There are almost no useless items left, and useful combinations are plentiful.

• All items now have descriptors that provide bonuses and properties, and stack with each other and with perks.
• Simple example: want to sail alone and fear no one? Take a powerful ship, exotic items and perks for them. From fleet power and manual cannon aiming to crafting efficiency and weapon attack speed — there are combinations everywhere.
• All weapons and their damage mechanics have been recalculated. Now length and curvature don't do anything on their own, what matters is which perks you choose.
• All armor has been standardized. Protection parameters depend on the material it's made from. Armor no longer negates crits and doesn't divide damage into melee and firearm. Armor no longer has penalties.
• Critical hit mechanics reworked — now all characters have a base crit chance, and items that increased crit chance are practically non-existent. There are items that increase or decrease crit damage. Crits happen rarely but deal massive damage.
• Effects of almost all amulets in the game have been reworked. Amulets have the same duration, no penalties and no incompatibilities.
• All potion effects have been reworked, from healing to mangarosa-based drinks. New recipes added.
• Ammunition effects changed, as well as crafting recipes. Paper cartridges and special ammo now require rare resources.
• Firearms reworked, their characteristics and features.

The new item balance and descriptor system serve as the foundation for the completely redesigned character progression and perks.

Perks

The new system was described in great detail with examples here.

• 56 new perks added.
• Perk points awarded more frequently.
• All perks have a different cost.
• You can unlock about half during a playthrough.
• Personal perks are divided into several archetypes: duelist, soldier, musketeer and pirate.
• The adventurer branch is dedicated to crafting, looting and quests.
• The mastery branch — for "tuning" your character to your favorite weapon.
• More naval perks — much more useful and fun.
• New character generator created. We're even closer to having every character in the game world live by the same rules as the player — like in Bannerlord or Kenshi.
• Characters receive perks according to their rank and status — from civilian to boss.
• Depending on their build, characters receive an archetype displayed next to their health bar.
  

The difference between archetypes is huge, so every non-standard opponent will require your attention and knowledge of perks.

Let's lock it in: items combine with each other and perks. Perks form archetypes for heroes and NPCs. When they clash — our new combat system begins.

Combat System

First, let's look at what we've done over the past six months:

• Sprint
• Pushing
• Weapon switching on the move
• Carrying muskets on your back
• Blocking while moving
• Aiming
• Headshots and buckshot
• Jumping with weapons in hand

And now let's add even more:

• Attack speed — weapon type, perks and amulets determine attack speed. Fending off a dozen enemies at once or standing in block against a duelist won't work. Finally, you need to use parries.
• Movement speed — armor type, encumbrance, ammo and amulets affect movement speed. Not dramatically, but sometimes it's all you need to change position or land a headshot.
• Block breaking and staggers — it now breaks: from perks, heavy attacks, firearm shots and backstabs. The victim receives strong stun. There are very few situations left in the game where opponents stand facing each other in eternal block with 10% energy, and pistols got a second life.
• Camera-based targeting — we heard your feedback, and now you don't need to move your character to target an enemy. Catch your target in the center of the screen, wait for the marker to appear — and strike.
• Area damage — if enemies stand close together, you can hit them not only with group attacks. Study perks and weapons. Nothing stops you from creating a real AOE build.
• Advanced attacks — high-level archetypes unlock advanced versions of heavy attacks, fast attacks and group attacks. Very dangerous and spectacular attacks.
• Feint removed — three attacks added, one removed. Feint looked bad, played bad and reduced duels to one button.
• Block no longer cancels animations — this exploit made any duel trivial, just like the deceased feint above. You can no longer abruptly stop an attack and instantly transition to block or parry. Personally, I had to retrain myself, my fingers were too used to constantly spamming the spacebar.
• New animations — for headshots, deaths, stuns, block breaks, advanced attacks. It looks very fun, and winning battles is now a real pleasure.

Now all our work in recent patches has come together into a new combat system, as originally intended.

Of course, it's become more complex. Now you need to build your character, consider different equipment options, use parries and blocks.

One thing I can say for sure: the last time "Sea Dogs" changed this much was in 2005.

3D Sound

A modern 3D sound system is now built into the engine.
Currently implemented:

• Ship's bells every four hours.
• Explosions and projectiles.
• Thunder, waves, rains and tornadoes.
• Sails operations.
• Ship creaking, burning, sinking.
• Crew sounds outside of combat.
• Crew sounds during combat.
• Crew reactions to critical damage, taking damage, and battle victories.
• Officer commands.
• Cannon fire and echoes — varies by distance from player, with realistic sound travel speed.
• That's got the sea covered. It's the land's turn now.

Have a listen!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2aZl-erWg
The video had been recorded on the outdated version. It's even better now in 1.6

Gameplay

The tragedy of our game is that it has more than just progression and land combat. So we had to create several new mechanics and tweak the balance in various places.

• Escape on the world map. Previously, if an enemy caught you, there was no choice — you had to fight, flee in naval mode, reload or use exploits. With version 1.6, you can temporarily neutralize any pursuer. The chance depends on equipment, perks and build, as well as the composition, size, cargo and condition of your fleet. And luck — where would we be without it.
• Gathering nearby fleets into battles. Any encounter on the world map gathers not just you and your opponent, but all fleets nearby. Can create absolutely insane living world situations. Toggle the Engagement Zone on the Global Map to avoid attacking a single Spanish trade ship with four other very competitive pirates.
• Added first-person mode on land (toggle with mouse wheel). Works in combat too. Skyrim vibes. Work in progress, so use carefully.
• Reworked PIRATES logic for smoother progression for both player and NPCs. This is crucial for controlling combat difficulty and the new character generator.
• Rebalanced attribute system:
  • Critical hits: depend on Success and Insight.
  • HP: depend on Power and Endurance.
  • Energy: depend on Reaction and Talent, now gradually increase with each level.

• New boarding scenarios: the crew may surrender their captain, and the captain may take their own life. Fighting with the captain on the upper deck instead of the cabin can also happen.
• NPC captains now have their own officers, from whom they receive bonuses to skills and perks.
  

• Ability to pick up items when overloaded with penalties. Affects movement speed.
• Destroying punitive fleets resets threat from a nation.
• Pirate threat level is now dynamic and increases gradually. Destroying pirate ships lowers it, and if you don't feel like fighting, you can always negotiate with one of the barons.
• Small amounts of strategic goods added to the holds of pirates, hunters and gentlemen of fortune.
• Fleet power is used when extorting captains at sea.
• Added a perk reset potion (works for officers too!). Look for the recipe in graveyards, lighthouse keepers, and in alchemist shops.
• Spyglasses now show approximate crew numbers according to their descriptions and increase the viewing radius on the global map.
• Made significant changes to ship gunnery. Quick shot accuracy has been improved and balanced, so you won't have to struggle at the start and desperately search for a gunner - there's always a chance to hit. As a result, forts and AI ships also land hits more frequently.
• Hull wear mechanic removed.
• Chest traps mechanic removed.
• Sailing angle now works properly. Ships at maximum wind at the right angles now achieve speeds listed in ship characteristics. Fore-and-aft rigs are effective at most angles but have lower average speed. Square-rigged ships' efficiency drops sharply against the wind, but at their effective angles they're unbeatable.
  

• Trade rebalancing. Aggressive demand goods removed, increased influence of "Trade" skill on prices. Trading is now possible from the start of the game, as price jumps from trade skill are smoothed, but goods type now has more influence. For effective trading, it's now more important to collect price lists in cities and plan routes. "On-the-go" trading is now possible — while sailing the Caribbean on your business, you can make profitable deals using the difference between import and export.
• Boarding skill affects the range of goods collection at sea.
• You can leave a ship docked with its crew. Each month the crew disperses and requires payment. When selling a ship, the crew is distributed among other ships in the fleet, and the remainder goes to the tavern.

UI/UX/QoL

Originally, patch 1.6 was called the "QoL patch" and was supposed to focus on what makes the game more convenient and your life better.
We couldn't stay within the scope, but we did almost everything planned:

• Tooltips. Every UI element now highlights and provides a hint when hovering. Thanks to this, all interfaces have become much more convenient, and the game — clearer and more visual.
  
• Hotkeys on the world map. Useful for beginners and those who don't know you can open the atlas or zoom out. Can be disabled in settings.
• Inventory and skill windows don't reset when switching between passengers and officers.
• Pictures for world map encounters and prettier windows.
• Characters available for dialogue are highlighted.
• Amulets highlighted by selected officer's specialty.
• Price profitability highlighting when selling to street vendors. You'll know which goods they buy more eagerly... If you have the perk, of course.
• Redesigned character health and energy bars. Added new effects.
• Amulets and charms in the inventory are now additionally highlighted for officers who can benefit from them.
• Officer professions are now displayed on the hiring screen.
• Portals and levers now get hotkey hints — like doors and chests.
• All officers are available in item trading and their positions are shown.
• "Sell All" and "Sell Luxury Items" buttons added.
• You can sell items even if the merchant doesn't have enough money.
• Learned recipes are additionally highlighted in the trade window.
• Vanguards are listed first in the officers list.
• In the captain's cabin during boarding, you can load loot into vanguards.
• Item exchange can be started from inventory if characters are nearby.
• Password and riddle input is no longer manual.
• You can raise morale on companion ships without exchanging ships.
• Atlas and maps reworked. Now sorted by water areas. Excellent maps are also added to the atlas. And if you have the navigator perk — sailing speed on the world map is increased in familiar waters.
• Maps are copied to the atlas without consuming them from inventory.
• Quests in the archive are sorted by last update.
• Doubloons are always taken from the cabin. The inventory counter accounts for all the player's doubloons.
• Sorting by clicking column headers in tables in inventory, journal, trade, chests, shipyard and exchange.
• Double-clicking a commodity in the trade journal opens a table with prices for that commodity by city.
• When selling a ship, you receive money for the cannons installed on it.
• When trading cannons, the current quantity on the ship is shown, accounting for installed and spare in the hold. The line with appropriate caliber cannons is highlighted.
• Ships at the shipyard are sold with cannons already installed.
• You can remove cannons in the ship exchange interface.
• Ability to toggle bay marker display on the world map.
• Tooltips include calculations of effects from skills, items, temporary boosts and PIRATES.
• Added ability to select assignments in port authority. If the ship specialization doesn't match, the port master will point this out.
• Character titles added. Useful when talking to officers and just nice to know who you're talking to: a nobleman or a living dead.
• Several new settings to control the features listed above.

Miscellaneous

Various small things. Not so small sometimes.

• William Patterson got a new haircut and can now wear displayable hats.
• Alonso model remaster.
• Various small things. And sometimes not so small.
• Global character system optimization. Previously, the game recalculated ALL characters on the location every second. Their inventory, skills and so on. Now it doesn't, and Willemstad no longer lags.
• Fixed FOV. Objects in the game now look more realistic and aren't stretched. You can return the classic FOV in settings.
• Character camera no longer switches with TAB. The setting is now available in the menu.
• Same music no longer loops endlessly.
• Remaster of some old animations.
• Many fixes for world map optimization. Fewer freezes and bugs. On powerful systems the changes aren't as noticeable, but daily world map updates and fleet loading are almost instant, eliminating unpleasant freezes and making the game smoother.
• World map fleet composition rebalanced based on tests and feedback. On average, fleets are slightly smaller, higher chance of meeting a lone merchant. Fleet progression is less aggressive. Crown expeditions are slightly less protected. Pirates, gentlemen of fortune and bounty hunters slightly weakened.
• Maneuverability and sail condition influence rebalanced. Now maneuverability is lowest with furled sails, highest with battle sails. Sail damage affects maneuverability more. Now you can stay in the blind spot of an attacked ship.
• Navigation influence on speed and maneuverability rebalanced. These characteristics now depend more on the ship than on skill.
• Musketeer officers no longer forget how to shoot.
• Sailors finally shoot pistols at each other during boarding actions.
• Officer loyalty rebalanced. Less whining and attempts to leave now. Base loyalty also increased.
• Complete calm at sea is now impossible. Wind, in general, has strengthened. Battles have become faster.
• Usurer deposits are not as profitable now. The Caribbean has lowered the key rate, so maximum deposit interest is about 2.5%, and loans are issued at 6%.
• Crafting of several items changed, recipes updated, cemetery watchman's assortment significantly expanded — now he's the best friend for a player with an alchemist build.
• Punitive fleet logic and pursuit duration fixed.
• Quest officer fixes in free play mode. Free play Longway can carry a musket.
• Reassigning vanguards outside the ship and friendly ports is no longer possible. This is an experimental feature, write feedback. The goal is to make the feeling of ship-as-home and ship-as-camp stronger.
• Added new cutscenes with increased levels of brutality to several old quests.
• (Hero of the Nation) You can now destroy the Capsterville blockade while rescuing the lugger.
• Skill check requirements for starting battle with Lady Beth's crew reduced.
• Treasure map seller generation and treasure content is now more fair and even. Merchant spawn no longer checks on location entry, but their appearance probability accumulates, no more long losing streaks. Treasure content and location no longer changes on reload.
• Free play starting equipment rebalanced. Removed tartan, gave each backstory a class 6 ship.
• Updated credits in main menu.
• English localization proofread and many errors fixed in other languages.
• 30 new achievements.

And... that's all!
Try it out, buy the DLC and leave reviews — blue ones ːsteamthumbsupː, like the Caribbean Sea!
What we do — we do for you.
ːjollyrː