Boat Crew
Developer Playthrough | Campaign Preview V1
v1.4.0.3 Stable | Campaign Preview V1
Three weeks ago, we released the Campaign Preview on the Experimental Branch. We had intended to push it to Stable not long after, but after hearing some of your feedback, as well as hitting some more stubborn issues as we'd talked about previously, we decided to take our time and give the version that would go on to be on the Stable build one more week. We appreciate all your feedback during the Experimental phase of the Campaign, and hope you will enjoy the stable version as we move on to the next phase of the Campaign's development. You will hear again from us soon in a Developer's Diary.
Fair winds, Captain!
T.T.
v1.4.0.3 Stable
Features
★ Campaign Preview V1.
- Basic character management.
- Crew loadout customization.
New Units
- Two Japanese supply vessels.
- LVT Amphibious Tank, Higgins Boat.
- Ka-Mi Amphibious Tank, Type A Landing Boat.
Changes
- Spawn with two officers.
- Challenges now always spawn with random crew.
- Crew will now get knocked off of your boat when there is a strong enough projectile impact.
- Getting sighted will prompt vessels with long range weapons to bombard you.
Polish & Bug Fixes
- Thorough memory optimization.
- Reworked Fubuki model.
- Elco 80' model improvements.
- Dual barrel Bofors model upgrade.
- .30 and .50 Cal belts dynamic visuals.
- The amount of available rockets are now visible in the 3d model.
- Visible animation of captain turning wheel.
- Improved torpedo tube physics.
- Overhauled water splashes and effects, water splashes by shells or planes generate actual water waves.
- Improved reload sounds, fixed obnoxious flare noise.
- 3D crew symbols (hammer, ammo) have shadows.
- Shorter shell trajectory visuals with length capping closer to hit and better fade render.
- Use SMAA instead of TAA anti-aliasing in boat customization screen to prevent ghosting on item change.
- Level of detail slider now also changes foliage density.
- Optimized crew portrait generation.
- Coal smoke instead of steam (very late realization).
- Fixed Elco 80' rudder visual being indistinguishably small.
- Customization menu sounds.
Merged v1.4.0.2
- Reworked player triggered assaults to be as consistent as possible.
- Air raid triggered engagements bring in surroundings.
- Nerfed ships velocities according to angular speed, i.e. 20m/s ship now goes 16m/s while turning. Turn rates rebalanced to be more or less the same.
- Separated base combat value from garrison and added total garrison combat value in a rectangle below the hex base UI.
- Fixed base combat value display update bugs after engagements.
- Rebalanced vessel speeds in campaign map.
- New alternate task forces, air wings and supply convoys, including submarine supplies.
New visuals
Delays on Stable Release (Campaign Preview)
Due to some particularly stubborn issues, the stable release of the Campaign Preview, which we had hoped would be released sometime this week, will be delayed by at least a week. Therefore, we thought we would like to remind you that the latest released build of the Campaign Preview is still in the Experimental Branch, which can be found in Betas in Settings.
We hope for your understanding, and thank you!
T.T.
v1.4.0.2 Experimental
v1.4.0.2 Experimental
New
- .30 Cal and .50 Cal Belt animations.
- Assault route visual.
- Assaults forces found in scouted bases now show up in log.
- Log localizability.
Changes
- New boats now start with plain color camo.
Bug Fixes
- Torpedo splashes were missing.
- Radar visibility issue for friendlies.
- 3D crew symbols (hammer, ammo) have shadows.
- Threat level doesn't reset when starting new campaign.
- Pathing to repair sometimes causes a few seconds stutter at specific places.
- Added new routes to the campaign map pathing network to avoid some issues.
- Supply groups don't remove invaded bases from their existing path and can also start landings.
Note: Full v1.4.0 changelog will be posted on stable release.
Art of War - 10th of April - Developer's Diary R11
On Friday, we released the Campaign Preview to the Experimental Branch after months of hard work, and today it has been updated based on your feedback as well as the changes we had planned that didn't make it to the initial launch of the preview. Many of you have already tried it out; in fact, our statistics show that a surprising 80% of all active players went on the Experimental Branch! For benefit of the uninitiated however, we'd like to once again remind you that you can access the Experimental Branch from Boat Crew's Settings panel, under the Betas section as depicted below:
Current Situation:
Our update today has brought some bug fixes, and multiple combat groups into the game, including supply submarines as historically used by the IJN as well as particularly big convoys that are meant to help remind you that sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor. We fixed the bug that prevented defenses from spawning in some bases, and tweaked the strength values of bases. Perhaps most importantly, we've implemented a system to reliably start an Allied Assault following a successful Base Raid on your part; so now you don't have to wait as long to be rewarded for your labor!
We believe that the Campaign Preview is, in many ways, a good representative of what Boat Crew is building up to be, and we hope you will agree with that assessment as you try it out and see for yourself. However, as proud as we are of its current state, we believe it's once again time to tighten the helmet straps and start talking about what will be in the future for the Campaign, as well as Boat Crew in general.
The first and most obvious limitation of the Campaign Preview is that only one type of boat, the 80' Elco PT boat, is available. We didn't want to provide all of the options right away so as to avoid making updated playthroughs of the Campaign repetitive, and to keep the other two boats exclusive to Challenges and Fleet Endurance a little longer. More importantly, the preview lacks the elaborate onboarding system that we intend for the Campaign to eventually have.
What we mean by that is that currently, when you enter the Campaign, you're given a random crew, a specific boat and are sent off on your way straight into the action. After considering your feedback as well, we recognize to be a pacing issue in that a slower start would be desirable, one where you pick your boat and recruit her crew by hand at the beginning, and are given a more elaborate tour of the options available to you.
Since we do not have our intended progression system in place but a placeholder that simply pays you money based on your scouting, eliminations and supply raids, and since the squadron system is missing, we felt it would have been premature to tune the pacing. It simply was not a priority next to making the Campaign a playable experience, and now that that is out of the way, you can expect pacing to be tuned a lot more carefully as we build on the foundation we have set in the first half of Early Access.
Assaults by either side are also not telegraphed enough, and the AI to muster a defense against them is incomplete, so these are two issues regarding Assaults that we intend to improve upon.
The squadron system and the call-in system are both quite critical to the intended vision of the campaign, and they will determine the ultimate balance of the front. Right now, you only have a single boat at your command and a limited set of support abilities, which can make progression a little bit too back-and-forth at times, as you find yourself trying to put out fires while a new one springs up on the other side of the map. This, of course, is in part intended, in that the Campaign is not meant to be about winning as soon as possible but in getting you acquainted with managing a dynamic Campaign. Nevertheless, as you accumulate experience and as more tools become available, there will be more and more ways to keep the Campaign fresh through tuneable parameters and the addition of new unit types.
Finally, the current iteration of the Campaign lacks surface patrols. While being a little too active with the radio will readily attract attention, our Threat system is essentially a draft and there are no light patrols to both make the map livelier as patrols from both sides clash, and to give you opportunities for some sweet boat-on-boat action without interference from those pesky Fubukis. Making the map livelier in that regard is certainly on our itinerary.
Closing Notes:
In short, there is a lot to iterate on regarding several aspects of the gameplay, as well as the customization system, but we hope you'll agree with us when we say that there is a solid foundation for us to build upon. Given this is a launch diary, we've had to summarize greatly and speak in somewhat broad terms as there was much ground to cover, but in future diaries, we will resume more specific discussions. We also hope to release the Campaign Preview in a stable build soon.
Now get out there and do us proud, Captain!
T.T.
v1.4.0.1 Experimental
v1.4.0.1 Experimental
- Added rename functionality for crew specific loadouts.
Changes
- New 5 speed time controls.
- A friendly assault is a lot more likely to trigger after you raid a base.
Balance
- New and rebalanced group types of varying sizes and structure.
- Can no longer use torpedoes against submarines.
Bug Fixes
- Cash income exploits.
- Bright late night foliage LODs.
- Base spawn consistency issues.
- "New Campaign" button is broken.
- Infinite base health bug after landings.
- Landing units show up for defending side.
- Engagement boundary too wide, reduced by 10%.
- Boat customization screen crew visual glitch when some characters are missing.
Note: Full v1.4.0 changelog will be posted on stable release.
Campaign Preview v1 Experimental Release
Months of hard work has borne fruit, and we are proud to present to you our Campaign Preview. The battle for the Solomon Islands has finally begun! We have a lot to talk about concerning the current state of the Campaign Preview as well as our immediate plans for it, which will be presented on the Developer's Diary on Monday, but for now, it is available on the Experimental branch, which can be accessed from the Betas tab in Options.
We intend to continue updates on the preview in the coming days up until the release to the Stable Build, so stay tuned, and let us know what you think! Please keep in mind that this is not the final state of the Campaign; and the current placeholder progression does not represent our ultimate goal for Campaign progression.
Fair winds, Captain!
T.T.
Campaign Preview Trailer & Release Day Announcement!
We are happy to present to you our Campaign Preview gameplay trailer, which you can see right below:
The Campaign Preview itself will be released by the 7th of April, though we may have an experimental build earlier than that. We will follow the launch up with a Developer’s Diary, discussing the state of the campaign as well as our plans in depth, but for now, enjoy our gameplay trailer!
Keep in mind that things are subject to change between now and release, and so some things you see here may not end up representing the release version. Rest assured, any changes you might notice will be for the better!
That’s all for now, Captain!
T.T.
Rising Action - 20th of February - Developer's Diary R10
Today, we come to you with an important Developer's Diary, for it will be the last one before the release of Campaign Preview. We're happy to announce that we intend to release the Campaign Preview trailer on the 20th of March, with the release itself coming soon after. As the release of Campaign Preview draws ever closer, we will be laser-focused on completing, testing and polishing the Campaign Preview build, and so this will be our last Developer's Diary until the release day.
With that out of the way, let's show you some bits we've been working on recently!
Current Situation:
Here's our crew management UI; a work in progress that nevertheless have the layout we intend for it. Dragging and dropping crew cards will be easy in Boat Crew, and you will be able to assemble a crew for a boat from the available men quite rapidly. The card system will be featuring quite a bit wherever the player will need to do some sorting, including in, most likely, the squadron system in the future.
The cards are meant to quickly show you all the information you need to know about a character, giving information such as their name, rank, proficiency, and default role as set by you in the crew role assignment screen discussed in the previous diary.
You can also easily dismiss men from the same screen, who will be removed from your team and sent away as soon as you leave the screen. It's also not out of the question to add a button to just dismiss them right away in case you wanted to dismiss more sailors at once than the number of available slots.
Recruitment works similarly, with the recruitment pool replenishing itself periodically.
Last but not least is the Elco 77' class PT boat, which was one of the key players in the Solomon Islands Campaign. It will be our 4th playable Boat given its historical ubiquity.
The astute observer and the naval enthusiast might have noticed that we have slightly modified the boat, adding small step ladders and opening up the turret hubs. This was done to simplify movement around the boat and avoid complications, as well as to make it easier to see gunners entering and leaving the turret hubs.
That's all we have to share for now, and the next time we meet, it will be right after the most important update of Early Access Boat Crew! Until then, you can always drop by our Discord channel or the Steam forums for questions, comments, suggestions and support.
See you on the other side, Captain!
T.T.
Breaking Starch - 6th of February - Developer's Diary R9
As you well know, we currently have a preview customization system in the game for the boat herself within Fleet Endurance, which will receive comprehensive upgrades in the later parts of Early Access. In this diary, we're going to be talking about crew customization, an important feature for Boat Crew's vision that we talked about briefly before but hasn't made it to the game yet in any form despite having first been implemented in a test build all the way back in 2021. It will be available along with the first version of the Campaign, which is drawing ever closer, and so this is a good time for us to share with you some information and visuals about it!
Current Situation:
First of all, we will be introducing default loadouts, where you can select the outfit for a crew member as well as his role. Roles are of course something you can change in the heat of the battle, and that won't change, but we figured it would be quite helpful to have default loadouts you can snap back to with the press of a button.
We hope this will make players less reluctant to shuffle crews around because they want to avoid having to sort everything back to their default state again, so it's by and large a quality of life addition. As a design philosophy, we are trying to minimize the number of unnecessary clicks so the player can make the most of the flexibility of the crew system.
The lists themselves will be customizable too.
Loadout items will have gameplay effects, usually granting some sort of passive bonus in exchange for weighing on your crew member and slowing them down. While not hugely impactful for gameplay, they can make a difference. That said, we're most likely going to have multiple options for a given effect, so, your aesthetic preferences will also be a consideration here, and rest assured, you can also go shirtless.
The system we made back in 2021 was a rigid, mostly hard-coded system with little room for flexibility. That has since been replaced with a much more flexible system, allowing us to have not both excellent crew customization but also variability in crew size and dynamic crew member generation such as through taking men overboard on. We will be talking more about how this will feature in gameplay in a future diary.
On a closing note, we're always on the lookout for period-appropriate clothing and wearable you may think of, or even funny ideas that would make sense in the context of Boat Crew! Let us know at our Discord channel or in the comments if you have any suggestions for crew customization options!
That will be all for now, Captain!
T.T.