Community update #4 - V1.51 - Calmer Seas

A snapshot will be taken at 13:00 UTC on 20/04/2022. Pirates must be in port to be registered. The vote will start immediately after the snapshot.

Rocky Launch

When launching 1.5 we had a deadline, due to the team's personal schedules it meant that we had a tight launch window, start of April or the start of May. We pushed as hard as we could and everything in the test environment was working well. The game was playing hard but with everyone sitting on huge stacks of doubloons we figured they’d have the resources to overcome that difficulty.

Unfortunately, we ran into problems on launch, Moonriver had blockchain issues that were unexpected. Metamask gas errors meant lost chests (all safely recovered) and working overtime on bug fixes to ensure it didn’t happen again.

Player Feedback

During this period, the overall consensus was that the game is too difficult. Only pirates who had accumulated thousands of chests during V1 were able to upgrade their flagships enough to have profitable voyages.

Easy voyages were too punishing. 2 and 3 chest voyages simply weren’t profitable once support ships and flagship repairs were taken into consideration. Due to the low chance of success on each interaction, flagship repairs were needed almost every time.

New Players were losing doubloons on voyages so they couldn’t make any progress. As we look to onboard new collections and communities in the future, it’s critical that easy voyages provide a way for players to get started and earn doubloons.

Artifacts also felt somewhat underwhelming. Considering the rarity of artifacts, we gave them a buff so they have a much larger impact on your chance of success.

The Answer - V1.51

1.51 seeks to address this imbalance as we’ve been working through our 41 variables to tweak the game until it’s satisfyingly rewarding, without being mindlessly easy.

Easy voyages are now easier, with a higher base chance of success and 4 chests on each voyage, but you’ll only be able to take one support ship.

Higher difficulty voyages are still satisfyingly challenging and do-able, as long as your flagship is upgraded to a high enough level and you are using support ships. 1.51 is more punishing to people who go on higher difficulty voyages without upgrading their ship. If you do that, you’ll get rekt.

Caravels and Galleons have been buffed, providing a higher skill boost than before. This allows you to compensate for your pirate’s weaknesses better, but if you lose a support ship it has a larger impact on your chance of success later in the voyage.

Sloops are now cheaper, providing newer players with the ability to take extra damage while on easy voyages. For higher level players, their minimal impact on skill points will make them less useful.

A higher level pirate with a fully upgraded ship could have a very high success rate on easy voyages, but legendary voyages should still be more profitable, and way more convenient.

Whether due to terrible luck, going on a voyage that’s too difficult or choosing the wrong set of support ships, there’s still a chance to lose doubloons on a voyage. But that will happen less frequently than with V1.5.

Many players have left their Pirates in the Tavern during this stormy period, others have managed to find solutions with high level flagships and strong pirates.

We’re excited to see more pirates taking to the seas again! Cheers! 🍻

Summary of changes

Increased Chest rewards

Easy - 45 Medium - 65 Hard - 85 Legendary -105