Pirate Twist Playtest · published · build 25193431
This one is long on purpose.
Playtest last got proper notes at v1.3.0 — the builds since then went out quiet — so everything from v1.4.0 to v1.5.0 is written up below. If you have been sailing the whole time, skim for the balance section; it is the part that will feel different under your hands.
There is somebody at the wheel now. A cutout bust and a slate plate sit bottom-left and your captain talks: when a ship goes under, when a rake bites, when a hand is wounded by name, when the hull is holed, when the wind dies. Five captains, five voices — Rourke growls, Voss barks, Sable says four words and means them
The face matches the beat. The portrait changes with what just happened: braced when you are taking it, triumphant when you are giving it, quiet and lamplit in the port rooms. Nobody authored that per line; it follows the moment
Your ledger, out loud. The little grey toasts in the corner are gone. What you bought, what it cost and what came aboard is now said by your captain, with the resource icons in the line rather than "15G"
The boss is a person now, not a card. The static headliner is gone. The captain waiting at the end of the chart taunts you from the bottom-right as you sail toward them, with their name and hull on the plate — and you can answer back. The exchange changes with how the run is going
Two people, one shop. The Chandler keeps his patter on the right; your captain reads the ledger on the left. Buy something and you hear both sides of it
The wager has a temper. Win at his table and your captain is delighted. Lose and they are furious — and already reaching for another throw. Lose four in a row and you will hear about it
One way out. The shelves lost their own BACK button. The bottom button now reads LEAVE at the counter wall and BACK inside a shelf, so the exit never moves
Cloud shadows. Hand-drawn banks drift across the whole map, moving with the real wind — and standing still when it dies
A dead calm always breaks. A fight that rolls becalmed now gets a squall on top of it. No more drifting in silence
Rammers actually arrive. Enemies used to wind up for a ram, drive at you, and break off short every time. Two causes, both measured, both fixed. They connect now. Turn
BACK TO PORT is never refused. A player bought gear in Ship Maintenance, could not leave the lesson, and quit. That lock is gone; step out mid-lesson and the door stays open behind you
The mount lesson points at each click. Buy it, pick the card, click a lit slot — three beats, each with its own glow, and the copy says a click, not a drag
Bow and stern rakes were swapped. The banner said one and the damage did the other. Fixed — and stern rakes are still the payoff
Combat auto-zoom tamed, with an opt-out in Settings for anyone who wants the camera to sit still
Fireships, give-way and confinement. Fireships commit to the ram, enemies stop sailing through each other, and nobody wanders off the map
The Sea Cave has an exit button.
The Codex is readable. Entry descriptions were set in a face with no lowercase and rendered as a wall of capitals
A crate reveal no longer outlives the counter that opened it.
The starter cannon was nerfed. 35 damage every 2.5s became 25 every 3s. Early fights take longer — that is the intent. The old starter was identical to the 100g Light Cannon, so your first gun purchase bought nothing. It is now a real upgrade, 8.3 DPS to 14
You are faster to make up for it. Top speed 6.5 to 7.5, so a fresh ship can outrun what it cannot yet out-shoot. Light Sloops and Fire Ships still edge you
Healing a wounded hand costs 20 supplies. TREAT is now HEAL, and it is no longer free
New cannon fire with real body, and new enemy-explode, sinking and module-mount cues
Every section above started as somebody's post. Bug reports go to the the Discord — the #bug-reports forum specifically, where each thread becomes a tracked ticket. The captain has a lot to say now; if any of it lands wrong, at the wrong moment, or on top of something you needed to read, that is exactly the report we want.