Hey everyone!
These three updates come straight from your reports. One of you told me you were stuck at the Harbor's free refit, I watched a Japanese let's-play by @さすらう老犬 and went through every moment where they got stuck or confused, and I took a hard look at whether the easy settings were really easy. Here's everything that changed.
Easier settings that are actually easier (1.9.22)
- Tailwinds (the easiest setting): enemies now deal 50% less damage (was 40%).
- Fair Winds: enemies now have 20% less hull and deal 20% less damage (was 10%).
- Bosses follow the same rules. Before, bosses on these settings didn't get the full hull reduction. Now they do.
- The damage cut now applies to everything on these settings. Before, hits on your rooms still knocked your weapons and wards out at full strength, and breaches took full hull. Now all of it is reduced.
- Small hits add up fairly: on Tailwinds, two 1-damage hits cost you one hull, instead of every scratch costing a full point.
- On Tailwinds your ship is also a little harder to hit in boss fights, as long as someone is at the Helm.
- Normal (Trade Winds) and the harder settings are unchanged.
The Harbor's free refit (1.9.23)
- The free refit and the yard's thanks are picked right on the Harbor screen. Every card now has a Take button.
- The Shipwright button no longer lights up gold while you still have a free pick waiting, and it's now called "Shipwright (paid upgrades)".
- If you open the shipwright anyway, a banner tells you your free refit is on the Harbor screen, with a button to go back.
- At the end of the tutorial, "Sail on" is now "Continue on".
Battle controls (1.9.23)
- Your aim stays put. Clicking empty sky, the enemy hull or a beast's body no longer clears your gun's target. To clear an aim, right-click it or press Esc while aiming.
- Ctrl+A no longer secretly switches off Repeat on all your guns, and pressing A tells you whether Repeat is on or off.
- Your mages keep repeating their attack spell after casting a ward or a heal.
- Turning Auto Battle off gives you back your own targets.
- Zoom now reaches the same size at any interface scale, and the view no longer jumps or snaps back on its own.
- Drag on the enemy ship to move the view, or press F to centre on the enemy.
- Bolt guns show how many bolts you have left, and warn you when you're running low.
- When a beast's wind shield is throwing your shots back, your guns say so and hold fire until it drops. The Stormmother's tip now covers her charges, her lightning and the warbirds.
- You get a warning when an enemy starts to flee, telling you how to stop it. Fleeing takes a little longer, and escaping ships now leave some loot behind.
- The Shard's battle button now explains exactly what it does.
Ports, your ship and money (1.9.23)
- A Ship button in every port, so you can always reach your ship screen. The close button tells you where it takes you back to.
- Buying a fitting with full slots now asks which one to replace, and the old one goes to your hold. Removing a fitting can also move it to the hold instead of throwing it overboard.
- At the Tinker's Bench you now choose which device your gnome builds.
- When your crew is full, you can make room right there when someone wants to join.
- Every map now has at least one town with a shipwright.
- The Construct Bay and the Battery Deck now explain clearly how they work.
- Fixed: crew recruited from beaten ships or the prison couldn't work the Tinker's Bench.
Explanations (1.9.23)
- The Shard finally has a full explanation in How to Play and the glossary, with the real numbers. Click the Shard counter to open it.
- Event choices now show what you'll get: silver, items, crew and more.
- Healing only shows when someone was actually hurt.
- Your active quests show their current objective, and the story so far is open by default.
- Bounties you deliver are marked differently from bounties you fight.
- The screen now shows which act you're in out of five.
Japanese (1.9.23 and 1.9.24)
日本語でプレイしてくださっている皆さん、ありがとうございます！
- The rules text matches the game again, and every game term uses one word throughout.
- Every event and quest has been revised. Choices now always say what you'll get or pay: silver amounts, items, who you're dealing with and what happens next.
- Character, ship and place names are now written the same way everywhere.
- Lines that said something different from the English have been corrected.
All new text is translated into all 30 supported languages.
Thank you to everyone who shares their play, and especially to the players who tell me when they get stuck. That's exactly how these fixes happen.