This week’s update brings in a few more overall quality of life fixes to the game. In the meanwhile we are still hard at work with the 1.0.0 update. You can also expect some new information regarding the 1.0.0 update in the coming weeks.
[NEW] Changed our skybox to a new and more dynamic one with moving clouds.
[UPDATE] Fixed an issue where players would fall endlessly in the tavern when clipping through the floor.
[UPDATE] Fixed a bug where wind calculations were completely off and would give ships incorrect speed.
[UPDATE] Water waves will now grow taller once a ship reaches more open sea, and be calmer when the ship is closer to islands.
[FIXED] Minor bugfixes.
Alpha 0.9.9f7 changelog
Avast!
This week's update introduces our new water system. Visually it has improved a lot due to it's using realtime reflection now from the sky.
Technically it has improved as well since it gives us more flexibility on how the water should behave i.e. the waves are more realistic and we have more control on the wave height etc. We still want to improve a lot but we think it has become much better already.
Besides that we fixed more bugs and continue to do so.
As mentioned in previous updates, we are still working hard on our 1.0.0 release and are getting closer to a product that is ready to show to you guys.
[NEW] Implemented new water visuals.
[UPDATE] Make anchor releasing sound less loud.
[UPDATE] Improve ship collision behaviour.
[FIXED] Player spawns in the water when trying to spawn on player-island.
[FIXED] Cannon barrel fuse can be lighted by any part of the botefeux instead of only the fuse part.
[FIXED] Usernames are no longer visible when a player dies.
[FIXED] Crowsnest and top mast pole no longer has player collision on climb.
Alpha 0.9.9f6 changelog
Greetings!
This week’s update introduces player damage to the game in preparation of update 1.0.0. It includes personal weapons and player death all available now, however the potential of this update will be fully met when the big update hits. This comes with a few new mechanics which will be explained here.
As of this update we have introduced personal weapons. Each player starts with a pistol and a cutlass in their item-belt upon spawning.
Pistols can be used to fire at players from a distance. To fire a pistol a player must load the pistol with a bullet, and pulling back the hammer. Bullets can be found in the bullet pouch attached to your item-belt.
Swords can be used in close-range combat. Swinging your sword around causes a wind-effect to follow it. The wind-effect indicates whether the sword is able to hit. A player drops items from his hands on death, while items in their item-belt will remain when respawning.
[NEW] Added kickback when firing cannons.
[NEW] Added new Cutlass weapon.
[NEW] Added new Pistol weapon.
[NEW] Added player damage, allowing players to take damage from other players.
[NEW] Added player death and respawning.
[NEW] Added bullet pouch, containing bullets for pistols.
[UPDATE] Made preparations for island exploration.
Alpha 0.9.9f5 changelog
Avast!
Last week we've released the devlog which contains more detailed information about the upcoming 1.0 "Conquest" update. We hope you guys see as much potential as we do in our effort to reduce the amount of required players needed to play a match. To prevent us from hiding in our dark developer rooms working on the 1.0 update, we've introduced the bugfix Friday in our workflow. This forces us to drop all other features on Fridays and solely work on existing bugs or QoL improvements. During the rest of the week we're still working hard on the Conquest update and we hope we can release more information and/or images soon.
If you have an idea, suggestion or want to report a bug please let us know on the official Crooked Waters Discord server:
https://discord.gg/m8yweFx
[NEW] Added ship sail tearing when a ship's sail is hit by a cannonball (this has no effect...yet).
[FIXED] When creating/joining a lobby, the player is now facing the lobby UI directly.
[FIXED] You'll stay the same character now during the whole lobby session.
[FIXED] Fixed blurry screen when opening SteamVR overlay.
[UPDATED] The waiting for host message on the starter island is now following the players view to always be visible.
[UPDATED] Improved visual effect when falling into the water.
[UPDATED] Improved lobby tavern collisions.
Another two weeks, another update. We are still hard at work behind the scenes on the 1.0.0 update. More details on the update will come soon. In the meantime we will continue to release normal updates every two weeks.
If you have an idea, suggestion or want to report a bug please let us know on the official Crooked Waters Discord server:
https://discord.gg/m8yweFx
[FIXED] Added missing colliders on the player starter island.
[FIXED] Fixed expired Discord server invite links in the main menu.
[FIXED] Fixed hand grabbing animation when grabbing an item from one hand with the other.
[FIXED] Fixed an issue where where a player’s hand would open despite holding an object.
[FIXED] You can now (finally) pick up all the candles in the lobby tavern.
[FIXED] Corrected collider placement in the lobby tavern.
[NEW] Falling in water will cause a player’s vision to blur.
[NEW] Starting the game with no compatible VR-device connected will display a message stating that no compatible device was found.
[NEW] Added a map of the environment on the table in the captain’s quarters on the ship.
Alpha 0.9.9f3 changelog
Avast!
This update focusses a bit more on implementing small quality of life changes as we start ramping up for the release of 1.0.0 and the new gamemode coming with it in the coming weeks.
This means that a lot of our resources are busy working on the big update, taking priority over our regular schedule.
This week we will also release a devblog about the upcoming 1.0.0 update, the new gamemode and the changes that it will bring.
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[FIXED] The position of a dingy when a ship is sinking will now no longer spawn in other objects such as islands.
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[FIXED] Ship culling on own ships is temporary disabled as it was not culling properly.
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[FIXED] Corrected the spelling in the tutorial texts.
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[FIXED] Fixed an issue where the host would have the name ‘username’ during a session.
Alpha 0.9.9f2 changelog
Avast!
We are on our way to Crooked Waters 1.0. Along the road to 1.0 we are releasing intermediate updates which will support the build of 1.0.
This update is mainly focused on catching up with some needed polish of the game. We've improved and added some additional sound effects, reworked the sandbank system and improved the look of the starter island. Right now the team is hard at work with the upcoming game mode, this requires us to shift focus from our regular schedule which might result in smaller regular updates.
[NEW] Winches have a networked soundeffect when interacting with it.
[UPDATED] Sandbanks are reworked and have a more pleasant and accurate behaviour.
[UPDATED] Starterisland is visually updated.
[UPDATED] Improved sails audio feedback.
[UPDATED] Updated overall audio effects.
[FIXED] Added physical limits to the ship's rotation which prevents ships from rolling too much.
[FIXED] Lobby Menu UI light flicker when moving away from the light.
Roadmap to 1.0
AVAST, Brethren of the Coast!
It’s been 2 weeks since the steam release and we’re now ready move into a regular update schedule: Updates are scheduled to release every 2 weeks on friday, starting next week. Patches and bugfixes are scheduled every week.
Multiplayer
Now that the game is on Steam we working on the main issue we’re facing: high amount of players required per match.
2 Player gameplay Right now you need 8 people in order to play a match. We’re looking to reduce the number of players needed for a valid game to 2. How we plan to do this is described below in the gameplay section.
Viveport, Oculus store We got a lot of questions about using other platforms than Steam and we started on getting the game to different retailers like Viveport, Oculus store, Green man gaming. This however, will take some time because we need to move from Steam lobbies to a more cross platform friendly solution.
Gameplay As you may have noticed we have been polling a lot of feedback about the current gamemode lately. We used the feedback to get a better feel for what the community wants. We feel that in order to further advance the gamemode we should add a few new elements in order to make the gamemode more interesting in general and increase playability for smaller groups.
Targets When starting a match, indications will appear for the crew on where different targets are located around the map. The goal is to sail towards one of these targets and take it down using your ship’s cannons, rewarding you with a crate upon completion.
These targets can be for example: a small fortress tower, an anchored ship, or a skeleton infested island.
Crates After destroying a target your ship will receive a crate containing a special set of items. A crate can contain a variety of different items like: Barshots to take down enemy masts, Grape shots that can be used as anti-personnel, Flammable or explosive projectiles to set aflame the enemy ship, barrels that you can drop in the water and shoot afterwards.
Final target When all targets are destroyed, ships are notified to move to the center of the map. Here they will have to fight a final target in order to win the game.
Co-op and PvP This gamemode can be played with 1 ship with a minimal crew of 2. The difficulty of the targets will scale with the amount of players in the game. When playing with 1 ship you are only playing against the computer controlled targets.
When played with 2 ships ( > 4 people) the gamemode will still be the same, but with two different teams battling for control!
Targets will have to be battled and fought over, whichever ship kills the target will receive the crates. These crates will give you an advantage over the enemy ship so it’s best to collect as many as possible.
When all targets are destroyed, both ships move to the center to battle each other and the final target. It’s also possible that one of the ships is already taken down in an earlier encounter before all targets were killed. In that case the ship that’s still left will have to fight the final target without the threat of the enemy ship. Whenever your ship is taken down you will leave the game and will be ready to start a new game.
Roadmap New features and concepts will appear on our new roadmap:
https://trello.com/b/Z4xjwJ5Q/crooked-waters-vr
While it’s still a work in progress, we hope to get some feedback on concepts before they are implemented.
If you have any concerns, opinions, thoughts or questions please fire away on Discord or reply on the roadmap on Trello.
This update is the first update following the official early access release of Crooked Waters! This patch we have implemented a few much requested features from the community and a few changes to solo play. We have expanded the options for movement controls in the settings menu. You can now choose whether you want smooth turning or snap turning with a wide array of snap angles.
[NEW] Each multiplayer ship now has a capstan on the front deck which can be used to lower or raise an anchor. The anchor can be used to stop the ship or make sharp turns.
[NEW] Implemented smooth turning. Smooth turning can be enabled in the settings menu.
[NEW] Added optional click turning.
[NEW] Added extra snap angles for snap turning; you can now choose to turn with either 90, 45, 30, 20, 10 or 5 degrees.
[FIXED] Roundshot damage is lowered, increasing the amount of hits needed to sink a ship in multiplayer.
[FIXED] Oculus snap turning has been fixed and now works accordingly.
[FIXED] Corrected an issue where cannon fuses would fire regardless if the cannon was loaded or not.
[FIXED] Bumping target boats in solo play does not get you stuck anymore.
[UPDATED] Completing a solo game automatically restarts a game after a while, this can be stopped by quitting back to the lobby using the arm UI.
[UPDATED] The solo play mode time is drastically lowered to two minutes making the games quicker and actually challenging. The old highscores will be removed this week to make it fair.
Greetings!
