We have fixed a few bugs since the last update but more importantly, we've focused on taking the final steps to complete the new UI. The biggest changes were obviously the shops and travel section of the game. The next set of changes is easier but still will take some time.
In the meantime enjoy these previews of the new less ugly UI!
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
At last we have finished the new GUI and oh boy is it easy on the eyes. There isn't a whole lot to say about it but you'll definitely enjoy it more than the old UI.
Gameplay improvements
The cargo capacity of ships has been reduced drastically which makes managing your items much more important. You'll find that the general store takes note of the weight of items and will help you avoid any hassle sorting through items you can't purchase.
Islands no longer gain population as quickly now that we've made citizen recruitment available. This makes island building a lot more fun and involved.
New content & features
New general store UI
New tavern UI
New shipyard UI
Minor changes
Reduced population growth rate by 70%
Back button on map can now be clicked
Player and enemy ships now fire slightly more accurately
Removed twitter and twitch buttons from main menu (Twitter links are still active in the credits menu)
Reduced the cargo limits of every ship (on average the reductions were anywhere from 90% or more)
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Made nearly all saving asynchronous, should prevent/reduce stuttering for most users
Tavern crew feed option now deducts gold properly
Shipyard repair option now deducts gold properly
You can no longer attack an island you own
Removed old unused scripts/assets (reduces memory usage)
Quick menu and quest menu are disabled while transitioning between rooms
Quest menu and GUI can no longer be active at the same time which prevents overlapping
Map can no longer be interacted with once an action begins
General stores now account for ship weight limitations and will behave properly
Item giving/removing functions now include ship weight functionality
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
We've seen numerous reports of an error that occurs when fighting quest-based captains and famous captains (sometimes). This issue has been resolved in the latest hotfix. Make sure you're up-to-date and have fun dominating the seas!
We're also working on resolving a few sprite issues with the combat but that will likely have to wait until the next build is finished.
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Crash occurs when facing famous/quest-based pirates
Tsujima/Nikra are backwards on the map
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
The map was due for a tune up and we just decided to tear it apart, and do it from scratch. Now it's more functional, practical, and easy on the eyes.
Following this we will be implementing new UI for the general store, tavern, and shipyard. You can expect to see those changes coming in the next update.
Famous Captains
Here's why these captains are awesome. They each have unique dialogue, smarter AI, and even can be faced directly when boarding (meaning you'll be able to fight the captain yourself, not just a random crew member). They also drop extra gold compared to other crews in their class. They are fairly rare but you are sure to come across them as you progress through your pirate career.
Updates take time!
Compared to when we first released Don't Sink our updates have slowed town quite a bit. This is mostly due to the massive amounts of work required to rebuild the UI. In both the art and programming department, a single menu can take a week's worth of work. We just want you all to know that we are working hard and have some other exciting features in the works.
New content & features
New map UI
Famous pirates (7 so far)
1 new travel cutscene
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Journey distance bar goes past end
Scrolling through feeding UI causes items to be forgotten when off the menu
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
This update brings with it the addition of Discord's Rich Presence feature! What is that you ask? It is a dandy feature of Discord (the IRC software) that provides details about the game you are currently playing.
We've set it up to show some minor updates about what you are doing in Don't Sink. Pretty cool right? Obviously you can disable Rich Presence in your Discord settings if you would like. This is an optional feature.
Credit for the Game Maker implementation of Discord Rich Presence goes to Babyjeans (rousr)! Links to his information below.
Patreon Itch io Twitter
Important bug fixes
Turns out ships have been dropping tons of beef and water for pretty much no reason at all. There was also some memory leaks and mismatched information that could occur when boarding ships. All this has been resolved and so you can expect more stability.
New content & features
Quest, Rigby's Treasure (Mairyporan, Shipyard)
Discord Rich Presence (Thanks Babyjeans)
Minor changes
Black Shore now has black sand
NPCs walking around islands will no longer stand near interaction locations
Boarding combat can now show specific characters via quests, for example you might talk to someone, board them, and actually fight specifically that person
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Progress bar on the travel screen would keep going after the end when it's fading to the island screen
Fixed quest related ship battles only showing four crew members in some cases
Fixed issues regarding boarding an enemy and quitting
Fixed issues regarding boarding an enemy from a quest
Item lists for pirate ships were being modified improperly, often would add beef/water to item list
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
As we've discussed a lot recently... we have been working almost entirely on a UI overhaul. This is the first step of many to bring the game up to snuff and really make it shine. Below are some screenshots pulled from the Steam store page (which was recently updated).
New quests and/or other content?
We're trying to fit time in for new content but obviously with a team of three it isn't easy. You can expect another update in the next few days with some new content (hopefully)!
New content & features
New Random Event UI
New Travel UI
New Ship battle UI
Font management added internally to allow custom fonts for non-supported letters/characters, this will help translations down the road
UI improvements in other various parts of the game
Minor changes
Resized all fonts to be accurate to the 1:1 scale
Island discovery screen improved
URLs open in browser if Steam is disabled
Replaced victory/defeat screen with title font
Reduced the size of text buttons when selected
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Ship weight is updated when a saved game is first loaded (previously would not load until you were first given new items)
The blur shader used when pausing will be bypassed if it is not compiled properly
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
Trading cards, profile backgrounds, and emotes are now available!
Just another quick update!
We've finally got around to adding Steam trading cards! Special thanks to Thirteen (Pixel wizard, first of his name, heir to the throne of wizard city) for creating the amazing scenes shown in the cards/backgrounds and the dandy emotes of course!
Lastly we've updated the store page to reflect some of the new changes coming in the next few days.
Upcoming UI overhaul and various improvements!
We have finally reached a point in development where we feel that we are ready for our UI overhaul. Thirteen (pixel wizard and first of his name) has spent the past few weeks carefully designing and drawing up the new UI seen below.
These new designs are meant to improve the functionality and visual aesthetic of Don't Sink. Not only have menus been given completely new art assets but they also have been rewritten (reprogrammed) from the ground up to improve both performance and feel.
No stone has been left unturned as we've spent many hours carefully planning and executing the new UI based on both our own experience, and feedback provided by you, the community!
Mod tool and Steam workshop, tell us your opinion!
We are interested in creating a modding tool and providing users with an easy solution for installing mods via Steam workshop. However we do not want to spend precious time on a feature/tool that nobody is interested in so we are looking to get some feedback and hear what you think!
Here's a list of the modding features (things you can modify) we've come up with so far!
Crew and/or Ship stat reset on island arrival
Item hunger, thirst, and morale (overall modifier)
Crew hunger, thirst, and morale drain rate
Overall gold modifier
Specific item hunger, thirst, morale, weight, and gold cost
Cannonball, bomb, and grapeshot damage/accuracy
Damage done by sword in boarding combat
Ship hull hp, sails hp, speed, carry weight, and cost
Island income/cost modifier
Custom clothing and hair/beard
Custom colors
When's the next update?
We generally have a timeline for updates or at the very least a due date for the upcoming build. At the time of writing we plan to get a new build out to you by February 26th, 2018. It will include many of the new UI changes and hopefully some more content.
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
Ever wanted to jab your enemy right in the gut and then watch them fall to pieces? Of course you did and now you can!
We have been working on this feature for just over two weeks and we finally have finished implementing it. We need your help to ensure it isn't full of bugs and it is enjoyable for most people. I (Seabass) have tested it pretty excessively but you never really seem to find the bugs while testing. We hope everyone enjoys this new feature!
High performance build (YYC)
We are now distributing the game with a high performance build. What's the difference you ask? The standard build uses bytecode and runs in a VM (virtual machine) while the YYC build is compiled down to C++ and machine code. If you have a weak CPU the YYC build might just pull you above 60 fps.
New content & features
Boarding combat
Population video setting added, allows you to lower the number of, or disable background characters
YYC compiled build available to Windows users (2x - 3x faster than the default executable)
Minor changes
Boarding an enemy ship and winning will give the player 11% of the remaining enemy crew
Auto-feeding improved
Bug fixes and performance improvements
Reduced port screen VRAM usage by 2.6MB
Pausing uses a lot less GPU and system memory
Quest GUI optimized slightly (15% faster), item strings are split only once instead of every frame
Z-buffering disabled to improve performance
Clicking video settings would cause the settings file to be written to twice
Island capturing results will now show after quest pop-ups to avoid overlapping messages
"Broken bones" quest, when picking up supplies it would display the wrong item pop-up
Leaderboard positions no longer overlap with user names
Balance Changes
Ships have less cannons and more health
As always... stay salty sea dogs!
Team Lead / Lead programmer Sebastian Nigro (Seabass) Twitter
Artist / Visual design Daniel Marques (Thirteen) Twitter
Audio / Web / Programmer Chris Anselmo (Topher) Twitter
