a new update is here, though we have a pretty short patch notes today (it's mostly visuals, as been promised)
new line-up for manufacturing buildings added (this, in fact, was a rather time-consuming thing)
additional visual effects for rainy weather
frazil ice and snowy surfaces added
Another big update is planned and should be delivered in two weeks. Stay tuned.
Status update #14
Hello everyone,
We hope this newsletter will find you safe and well. First of all, we want to say thank you for your supportive comments - it’s great help reading your feedback in these uneasy times.
We are going to release a new patch this week - this one will bring visual effects & improvements (like frost fog) and a number of additional buildings for the cities.
And also the pretty big update is expected to be delivered at the very beginning of May, providing you with a vassal system, advanced diplomacy options and state development.
Epidemics do happen but game development must run. Stay safe.
Making games while quarantined
This is how the office of Snowbird Games looks today. Just the same as yesterday, and it has been looking pretty abandoned for the last week.
There is an irony that we have created our first games, for example, Combat Mission: Afghanistan or Mount & Blade: With Fire and Sword - as a distributed team, so this current quarantine mode is not as stressful for us as for many other teams. There is only one member of the team who suffers from frustration - our cat Girya (is diminutive of Snegirya, literally ‘a little snowbird’ in Russian).
This kitty had a bit of a rough start, we found her and adopted her in 2014. Once she’s spent 2 weeks in a locked basement, and that is why she doesn't like it at all if there are less than three or four people around. Of course, we don’t abandon our kitty, and our level designer Stanislav became her personal curator, but Girya still doesn’t understand where everyone has gone and is it already possible to bring everyone back. Oh my dear cat, we’d be happy to know the answer.
This is not to say that when everyone works from home, they have plenty of time. There is no time at all now - instead of one finger you could point to the monitor and three words (what the hell? ), you have to assemble a Skype congregation. Some of us have children, and this is a special hell of having a remote school in your living room. All your family members also have constant calls, there is little space, there is a lot of noise, you can’t go for a walk, so you’re going bananas. Still, you can’t say that this is SO BAD. The blockade of Leningrad anyone? That was terrible, and the current quarantine routine is only annoying.
Why do we write all this stuff, anyways? Plague comes and goes, but production can’t be stopped. There are loads of tasks for our level designer Stanislav, besides feeding the cat. This week we are writing perks for enemy and friendly captains and completing a stash system (after all, every pirate game should have an opportunity to bury the treasure). We are also busy with the interface of diplomacy. It’s hard to say when the next update will be shipped, but we are doing our best to release it in May.
Take care of yourself and try not to overfeed your cats. Do not believe them at all. This sad face is only a vile deception.
Update Notes (March 27)
Hello everyone,
Today we're releasing a new update for Feral Blue. We will working on a huge chunk of gameplay till mid April, so we decided to deliver you some nice visual stuff - please check our patch notes below. Hey, GALLEON IS HERE!
Highlights
Gorgeous Spanish galleon added (there are 3 modifications)
It took a bit longer than expected, but we are very proud with the results. We really hope we can add more examples of classic ship design.
Visuals
Faction-colored sails for ships
The most delightful arsonistic fire effects for burning ships
Update notes (March 20)
Hi everyone,
Today we're releasing a new update for Feral Blue.
This update will bring you in-game music, new town walls for each faction, some fancy visual effects and economy tweaks. Make a pause and stop reading this and go wash your hands, then you may proceed with the patch notes below.
Highlishts
Romantic guitar medley has been added as soundtrack
New town walls (faction specific) added
New visual effects for sea battles added
Balance in boarding fights has been greatly amended - now AI teams are not that overpowered
Gameplay
Requirements for construction, repair and update have been adjusted
Trasnfering goods between ships and towns works better now
New jump animation for warriors in boarding attack added
Misc
Signal bonfires in land missions look much cooler now
Different sound options added
Collisions for a number of sails have been corrected
Damaged sails change their visual state way better
The next patch is almost here
Hello guys,
what a day to be alive, huh? We live in a difficult time indeed. On the one hand, it was not for nothing that all those games, books, comics and TV shows have prepared us for life during and after the apocalypse. On the other hand, they didn’t really prepare us for a toilet paper-buying frenzy.
This week we are releasing a new update. There will finally be a soundtrack, we will fix the scattering of bugs, add new dramatic effects for ship scutting and improve a thing or two in the mechanics. Stay tuned and wash your hands.
Update Notes (March 6)
Hello everyone,
we do hope this report will find you well. In the midst of the current coronavirus hullabaloo it's quite important to stay calm, keep your hands washed and stay away from the crowd. You might also fancy checking a new update we are releasing today.
Highlights
Economic system for player towns was redesigned entirely
New interface for town management
New logic for treating crew members
Formulas for catapult ballistics were recalculated from the scratch (it seems that now you can at least hit someone)
Optimization
Large ships now run much smoother
City management screen performance was greatly improved
Bug fixes
Magic teleport when leaving a capital was removed
Collision for sails models was tuned
Spawn points for rebels at junk ships were amended
Numerous typos in the interface were corrected
A few fixes for GUI sound effects
Status Update #13
Hello everyone,
Since we have seriously updated the team management interface, we decided to make a user guide as well. After all, it nice to have a sort of manual for such a complex mechanics. We tried to describe everything in detail and with pictures — you may check the guide here.
Also, this week we are finishing the reconfiguration of the city economy: the interface will now display all resource flows - what is spent, what is extracted, what needs to be repaired. Hopefully, the next patch with bug fixes and a new interface will be uploaded in matter of days.
Screenshot Saturday (February 22)
So it's saturday and all indies have that sreenshot vibe. But before we get started, we'd like to make a small announcement on the upcoming patch. Definitely it's on the way to release, we do hope to upload itnext week. Special thanks to all folks who have been sending us their save files - without your help it would be much harder to iron out some issues.
Screenshots. Right now we are busy with some refurbishment activities in cities involving town fortifications (see below) and the city screen interface.
An image of work-in-progress GUI is a pretty boring thing to look at, so we better post some screenshots of our quest locations made with RTX ON mode. Don't have any strong intention of implementing it into the game, but we'll do some lighting improvements for sure.
Update Notes (February 13)
As you may have guessed (judging by the current Steam review score), the launch of Feral Blue wasn't a jaunt via calm waters for us. Needless to say there is no such thing as Early Access: players always expect a fully finished game. "Early access" here means that in the future the game will only be made better and bigger. A little bit unfair, perhaps, but there's no point in complaining. For a small indie teams like ours this is a serious challenge - and we need to respond.
We follow all comments carefully. We have read all the negative reviews (and positive ones too, thank you for them!) and took them into account. Today we are releasing an update that will change a lot of things in the game. We hope that we can continue to pull the project into a bright future.
So, there are the things we are bringing today.
Gameplay
Now almost every type of ship has its own economic (or military) specialization: there are heavy armored ships, extremely maneuverable ships, desalination ships, and so on
The speed of movement on the map now depends on the number and quality of personnel assigned to the engines
Now you need qualified personnel to keep your gun deck in service. If there are not enough crew members or they are not really skillful, your artillery might be at a risk of destruction
The number of warriors and freemen affects the reloading time during a battle
Added the influence of personnel on the ship's performance: maximum speed for rowing vessels, acceleration for steam vessels, and turnability for sailing vessels
Interface
Cabin management interface has been reworked
Added new information and pointer to the sea battle GUI
Updated trading interface
Updated a victory screen in battle - now players can see a list of cabins of the captured ship.
Bugfixes and optimization
Fixed the black fog of war effect when loading a save
Hit-boxes for sails have been expanded
Fixed a possible self-shoot case with ballistas (if placed as a bow gun)
Fixed a bug in trading with cities
Freemen now go to sleep in the correct cabins
Draw distance has been optimized for every locations.
UX
Added protection against incorrect clicks in dialogs
On land levels added sounds of the environment and different sounds of steps depending on the type of landscape
