Developer's Diary - 15th of August - 1st Checkpoint
Greetings, Captain! It's been two weeks since Boat Crew was released on Early Access, and we figured it would be a good time to talk about what has happened in the two weeks after launch. Before we begin, we'd like to direct your attention to the updated Roadmap.
We noticed that the original Roadmap had some issues in chronology, and we are sorry about those errors! They have now been corrected. There's no practical change other than that the Campaign Alpha release has been postponed to a more realistic 2nd week of September release as we wanted to put more time into improving customization and Wave Survival, now called Fleet Endurance.
Beyond that, the game is still scheduled for completion by November and our changes have mostly been in correcting awkward typos or mistaken dates that don't correspond to every second Monday. Now, without further ado, let's move on to what's changed within the game!
Roadmap:
1st of August - Early Access Launch
- Tutorial and 15 Challenges to play though - Complete Combat Mechanics - Campaign Tech Preview as a Spectator Mode
- Final retouches - Preparation for Release - Early Access Reward
Bonus - Post Release Modding Tools
Current Situation:
First of all, we've added new graphics settings to support lower-end or older computers. Level of Detail can now be customized to adjust model detail; it's a slider that can be adjusted on the go so feel free to use it on the go. Similarly, display resolution can also be changed on the go with a slider, though the game should automatically default to your native settings if possible. Still, if you wanted to adjust the display resolution, the option is now there.
As an experimental setting, we've also given the option to adjust the rotation assist impulse for your boat. Normally in Boat Crew, when you try to turn your boat, an additional impulse is provided to make the rotation smoother. This makes the boat feel nimbler, but it also makes the boat feel lighter, so to speak. This impulse is now adjustable as an option, and can give you a heftier boat feeling when reduced or turned off. It's normally a game mechanic and the impulse as well as the tuning of it will be included in the Campaign as a progression element, but for now, we have an experimental slider to adjust it in Options.
We also now have mouse sensitivity settings, adjustable zoom speed, and the ability to toggle the targeting mode instead of having to hold it down. You also now have the option to enable free rotation of the camera in the targeting mode, without having to hold a button down. Overall, we can say that this week has been quite productive in improving the ways in which the player can adjust the game controls to their liking. If you have any further suggestions on this or about Boat Crew in general, feel free to make Community Hub thread or hit us up at our Discord channel.
Besides these changes, there have also been changes, content-wise. The mission Dangerous Waters has been updated to have more depth charges; and have the player start out at a greater distance. The search area for the submarine has also been widened.
Previously, the mission already had a secret mechanic to encourage experimentation; if you took a detour and went around the other side of the first island instead of taking a straight path, you wouldn't encounter enemy scout planes, which immediately started a countdown to spawn more enemies to disrupt your sub hunt. This option is now communicated to the player in an in-game message, so if you would like to have notably less resistance during your sub hunt, you're now made aware that taking a detour will help you with this.
The pacing issues in this mission have been brought to our attention by our players, so thanks again for the feedback. After these changes, we feel that these issues have been resolved and the pacing of the mission has been improved. If you haven't tried this mission before or if you're simply in the mood for some sub hunting, make sure to try the new and improved Dangerous Waters out!
We also have a brand new mission; a 2-star mission called the Free Fire Zone. Using the cover of the night, you're expected to take a lightly armed but fast boat to evade enemy patrols and destroy AAA positions around the enemy airfield. Doing so will allow a friendly carrier air wing to conduct their attack. This mission is supposed to act as an introduction to our Stealth mechanics, which are functional if admittedly incomplete at the moment. You don't have enough ammunition or repair kits on you to clear the map out, so you're expected to focus on the primary targets and avoid combat whenever possible. We feel that these skills will be useful to cultivate for the future Campaign. Overall, Free Fire Zone is a fun night mission with a simple objective that nevertheless gives you room to think in its execution. We've had a lot of fun making and playing it; we hope you will have fun with it as well.
We've also changed the targeting sound to something a little more serious. Previously, our sound was a pitch-shifted sample of a Japanese flute playing on loop. Though attention catching, it was a little bit goofy for our taste and so was changed to a mechanical wind-up sound. It feels more serious and less distracting, so we hope you'll agree with us that it's a change for the better.
Our Lead Developer Cotanius was annoyed that he was unable to determine whether a target is within in lock-on range at a glance. Fortunately for him, he was in a position to do something about it and so added the range line, which is a dashed circle around the player's boat that shows the lock-on range. Since our weather and time system directly affects the lock-on range, we found this to be quite useful, though it can always be disabled in the options.
So that's how our launch week has gone. A new mission, some tweaks to existing ones, a whole bunch of quality of life changes and expanded options. Our launch sale also came to an end after the first week, with Boat Crew reaching the price it's meant to have until halfway through Early Access.
Our second week, in some ways, has been more exciting! Fleet Endurance, or Wave Survival as we've called it in the previous Developer's Diary, is due to be released on Friday into the experimental branch. It is almost done and we're currently doing the final retouches on it, and if we may say so, are quite excited for it too as customization is finally making its way into the live version of Boat Crew.
As for our routine unit additions; we've added our first Heavy Fighter to the Japanese roster: the Ki-45 Dragonslayer! This tough opponent is not easy to kill and will have devastating strafing attacks with its 37mm cannon, but it also turns slowly and is easier to avoid than light fighters. Be careful though, as they will make short work of allied surface targets if left alone and can definitely cripple you with a few good hits if you get careless!
Ki-45 is currently not available in any Challenges as an opponent, but will be available in Fleet Endurance, so you'd better drill on your evasive maneuvers!
Goals for the Next Cycle:
Firstly, the Campaign's release may have been postponed by two weeks, but that doesn't mean the work on it won't be continuing in the background. In the next two weeks, most of our effort will be going into expanding and improving the Campaign, preparing it for release.
Customization will be further improved and expanded as well. We intend to routinely add further customization options throughout Early Access, and with the release of Fleet Endurance, we will finally have a platform to present these options before the release of the Campaign. Routine unit additions will also continue; perhaps something for the blue team this time?
Closing Remarks:
That's our report for the last two weeks, Captain! We hope that you've enjoyed Boat Crew so far and are sharing our excitement for what's to come in the future! The release of Fleet Endurance is imminent and the mode will get its own announcement upon release, so stay tuned!
Fair winds, Captain! T.T.
1.3.1.8 Stable
v1.3.1.8 Stable
- Improved level loading speed and stability through analysis of automated testing results. - Fixed "Search and Destroy" & "Hold the Line!" grading and description query. - Merged v1.3.1.7
1.3.1.7 Experimental
v1.3.1.7 Experimental
- Replaced strafe lineup indicator model - Made crew fall off if boat is capsizing. They should fall off at around 60-70 degrees. - Fixed repairs of weapons interfering with gunner. - Fixed negative sinking cooldown on fast forward. - Fixed damaged systems not consistently reflecting visual. - Fixed small naming mistakes in directory that were preventing your Hold the Line! and Search and Destroy mission grades from showing up on the list, you should be able to see them now if you already beat the levels.
1.3.1.6 Stable
v1.3.1.6 Stable
- Attempted to manually log a rare bug causing a "Crew Eliminated" message on challenge start. - Unbroke planes so they don't float around on death. - Attempted to fix crew standing up on seated weapons - Rewired the components that make the crew crawl into turrets in the PT-625 class. - Merged experimental changes
1.3.1.5 Experimental
v1.3.1.5 [Experimental] - New range finding circle. - Explode aircraft if they hit terrain, so they don't float off into the horizon. - New locking process sound. - Forced alive while floating depth change. - Stability fixes.
1.3.1.4 Experimental
New Challenge
Free Fire Zone
- Island Night Raid - 2 Stars
Challenge Update
Dangerous Waters
- More reliant on picket event - More depth charges - Submarine spawn area widened
Early Access v1.3.1.4 [Experimental]
- Respawn feature in tutorial. - Resolution Setting. - Level of Detail Setting. - Transferred center of mass of Elco 80' to help it's rear lifting issues, rebalanced steering. - Fixed changelog to not pop up every time you return to title. - Shrunk Fubuki shell landing circles since they where nerfed. - Fixed ground targets not resetting after death in offscreen pool - Increased sinking fast forward speed by +%30 - Forced player boat to not be "sunk" if above sea level - Nerfed WE CRUSH BUGS! text
1.3.1.3 Stable
Mission Update
Bluewater Patrol - Boat Changed to PT-625 class - Added Anti Tank gun - Selected x4 Mk 13 Torpedoes
v1.3.1.3
- Zoom control setting slider - Fix for audio problems related to recording software
Merged Early Access 1.3.1.2 [Experimental]
Features - Captain UI element is now highlighted when a call-in is ready, so players who aren't as aware that they exist are influenced to select the captain. - Camera control settings, sensitivity and smoothing. - Boat steering assist impulse control tuning for players who enjoy a more realistic control input.
1.3.1.2 Experimental
Early Access 1.3.1.2 [Experimental]
Features - Captain UI element is now highlighted when a call-in is ready, so players who aren't as aware that they exist are influenced to select the captain. - Camera control settings, sensitivity and smoothing. - Boat steering assist impulse control tuning for players who enjoy a more realistic control input.
How to access:
Roadmap & Buyer's Notice!
Greetings, Captain.
A highly productive Closed Beta, thanks to both our efforts and those of our Beta testers, has ended and Early Access is finally upon us. As Boat Crew enters a new era of even higher development tempo and maturation, we're glad to have you aboard and think it is only fair that you should know our course if we are to ask you to join us in our journey. To this end, we would like to share our roadmap for Early Access with you, and discuss our goals and progress in as much detail and transparency as possible. We find it effective and manageable to split development into two-week periods, with focused development being followed by a developer diary on what has been accomplished in these two weeks and on what our goals are for the following two. These diaries will be going into as much detail as possible, hopefully without being too drawn out, and we ourselves will be available on our Discord channel (https://discord.gg/ZgbuKrge8K) for discussions, suggestions and bug reports. Before we begin our first developer diary, here is a brief overview of our current roadmap, with the current week marked (*):
1st of August - Early Access Launch (*)
- Tutorial and 15 Challenges to play though - Complete Combat Mechanics - Campaign Tech Preview as a Spectator Mode
- Final retouches - Preparation for Release - Early Access Reward
Bonus - Post Release Modding Tools
0th Developer's Diary - Launch!
Current Situation:
Boat Crew slips anchor with three playable PT boats, several friendly and enemy unit types, complete mechanics, and action-packed combat to be found among the several Challenges available. Challenges are individual missions with pre-set loadouts of boats, as well as a time and score system. They're meant to provide bite-sized pieces of the Boat Crew experience and are great for getting acclimated to the game, trying different things our or just some fighting when you aren't feeling like committing to a full Campaign.
Challenges are balanced with the provided loadout in mind, and each Challenge is assigned a difficulty rating. Challenge difficulties range from pleasant cruises to pitched engagements that will put your skills to the test, so we recommend going through them all! Even if you think a challenge might be too easy for you, you might end up finding an interesting scenario or a unit you thought was cool to encounter.
Several Challenges were already in the Closed Beta, with even more being added on Launch. On the whole, Challenges are not meant to be all or even a large part of the Boat Crew experience; they're only the first step in a great journey, but that doesn't mean there isn't plenty of fun (and learning) to be had!
The original intention was to release the Campaign in the beginning of Early Access, but as the scope of the Campaign increased, we realized that a barebones launch would take away from the excitement of the finalized Campaign. In the current stage of development, the Campaign, for lack of a better word, is "playable" with a few minor adjustments. However, we thought that, with many of the core mechanics of the Campaign yet to be added, it would be an underwhelming experience next to our Challenges, and figured that the Campaign should be released not in a "playable" state but in an "almost complete" state with most of its core features established. This is something we hope and expect to accomplish within the month of August, with the rest of the Early Access period dedicated to iterating on the Campaign. We will be discussing the details of this throughout our Developer Diaries, but for now, the Campaign is only available as a Spectator Mode; a sort of teaser where you can see engagements unfold between IJN and USN forces over the course of a grand campaign for the control of Solomon Islands.
Goals for the Next Cycle:
First of all, we're looking to add preliminary customization. As customization is a huge part of our vision for Boat Crew, if we hope for it to be expansive, we had to start quite early at it; and so we have. Many customization related steps have already been taken; the UIs are mostly complete, different camouflage patterns are available at colors of your choosing and we even have multiple options for crews to wear. In fact, some of our work on customization predates the Closed Beta period. However, we currently only have Challenges as a matured combat mode, which don't lend themselves well to customization due to their independent nature, so we're looking to introduce a new mode: Wave Survival.
As the name implies, Wave Survival is meant to be a mode where the player fights off waves of increasingly stronger enemies, with replenishment provided in between waves. Each wave will be allotted a certain amount of points to spawn units with, increasing between waves. Points will be adjustable to allow for custom difficulty settings. The player will be able to enter this mode with their custom boat, making it the perfect test environment for a given loadout as well as the player's mettle. Wave Survival will also have a Fleet Manager, where the player will be able to purchase allied units to support them with the resources accrued through successful engagements. In the meantime, new units will be added routinely over the Early Access period. We intend these to be done in batches and in short, irregular intervals, and so they won't always be specifically mentioned in Developer Diaries. Mentions will be made where possible and each new unit will be testable on Wave Survival, and new additions will also filter back to the existing challenges every now and then. Work on the Campaign will also continue behind the scenes.
Pricing Policy:
We'd also like to talk about our intended pricing policy for Boat Crew and most likely future Tabbing Tabby games. Boat Crew will be priced at $20 for the first half of the Early Access period, with the price being increased to $25 at the second half. During the first week of Early Access, there will be a 20% discount to show our appreciation for our very early followers, meaning Boat Crew will be available at $16 for a short time.
Regional prices may vary; but in general, the first week will have a 20% discount and after the week ends, the price will remain constant until the second half of Early Access for a 25% increase in price to $25. Release will see Boat Crew reach its final price, most likely of $30, from which point onward there will be no further increases or discounts unless there are exceptional and unpredictable circumstances. This is to say that as a studio of gamers looking to make games that we ourselves would like to play, we're adopting a no discount beyond the first week policy. The reasoning for this is two-fold; the first is that we want to be upfront with what our players can expect from us and match those expectations. Boat Crew is a niche game, and we would rather try and ensure everybody who puts their faith in our work feels the game is worth the asking price than to cast the net for more customers with sales. The second is that we feel that discounts, while increasing sales in the short run, end up doing so by getting the game to people who may not be very invested and get the game on a lark, diluting the player base. As a fledgling indie studio, building a tightly knit community who has an earned trust in us that they will get their money's worth from our projects, Boat Crew and future, is more important to us than the short term boosts in revenue sales would bring us. And in all honesty; sales just feel bad if you narrowly missed them! Nobody wants to pay something for a game only to find out they would have gotten it for a fourth of the price if they had waited a couple weeks, and being avid gamers, we can say we've been there!
A no discount policy is an uncommon (though not unprecedented) policy, particularly for an indie studio. Nevertheless, for the reasons we outlined above, after due consideration, we believe it is a strongly justified stance.
Closing Remarks:
Thanks for being with us so far, Captain! We've come far, and we still have a ways to go. If you find it within you, join us in our journey, and be on the lookout for regular updates. We'll see you on the battlefield,
T.T.
Note: We will launch within an hour, at 4 PM PST
Developer Playthrough
Early Access at 4 pm PDT! Here's a quick challenge playthrough compilation by the developers.
