Each bundle comes with a Battleship skin for the specified ship, a tracer and a trailer, and a unique title you can't get anywhere else for the discounted price of just 2000 Gunpowder.
GORGER BUNDLE
FURY'S HOLD BUNDLE
Additionally, starting tomorrow evening, we'll begin another Maelstrom Madness Weekend with a 25% boost to match earnings.
See you on the seas!
Maelstrom Balance Patch: Speed Burst!
BUG FIXES
- Corrected display issues for the following stats: Cannon Spread, Current Navigation, Pickup Range and Boarding Duration Resist - Corrected an issue where you can be stuck in a "Boarded" state and be unable to move after being boarded - Corrected an issue where you lose the ability to control your ship if you were aiming a Captain ability pre-match - Corrected several issues where the Thrashers would not properly kill its intended target - Corrected an issue where quest events may not have triggered properly in some instances - When a player does not load properly into a team game, they will now be replaced by a bot - Removed some bugged quests
GENERAL
- In-Game Encyclopedia Wiki button now bounces until clicked on - Power rating values tweaked slightly to allow for greater variety within the newbie queue and to disallow uniques (Tier X) in newbie queue - Rare quest spawn chance reduced from 15% to 10% (this should decrease the rate at which players are asked to complete quests with more restrictive requirements)
REWARDS
- Adjusted rewards in various ways to better reward players who are more active in battles as well bring rewards in Team Mode up to par with Solo Mode - Rewards for Team Mode has been increased slightly, particularly XP rates for bounties and assists - Decreased bonus %s given for rank - Modified gold drops from bounties, increasing the base amount reward for early kills, late kills should be roughly equivalent - "NEW" tag added to unowned mate types when viewing Contract choices
GAMEPLAY BALANCE
The desire with this set of balance changes is to encourage greater diversity with ship builds in general. Most of the lesser used mates were given substantial buffs in order to be on par with some of the mates that are currently defining the meta. The repair boon removal of sail repair in conjunction with the sail master buff is intended to open up new 'speed' avenues for sail ships as a means of utility and defense as opposed to straight up armor and damage reduction. So get creative!
- Repair boons no longer repair sails. - Corrected an issue with Current Navigation not functioning correctly (it works great now!) - Getaway (mate trait) stealth duration lowered from 15 seconds to 7 seconds
MATES
The following does not necessarily apply to all variants of the mates, but are general notes for the class of mates indicated. - Powder Monkey: Gained new stat, 'Cannon Velocity' which increases cannonball velocity. Firing Delay stat moved to master gunner. - Master Gunner: Gained new stat, Firing Delay (stat originally on Powder Monkey). Crew and sail damage lowered. - Sail Master: Now has access to the Max Speed stat - Navigator: Max Speed improved - Quartermaster: Cannon Reload improved - Surgeon: All surgeons now grant Crew Heal - Cook: Gained new stats Critical Chance Resistance & Critical Hit Chance - Various other minor stat adjustments
Bonus Currency Weekend, Gunpowder Giveaway Annoucement and Other Updates!
[Bonus Currency Weekend]
After a successful launch week, we have decided to double down this weekend and give everyone a 25% currency bonus for the entire weekend.
All matches played will earn a bonus 25% Gold and XP.
[Maelstrom Giveaway]
We are giving away packages of 1000 Gunpowder ($10 value).
Enter simply by commenting on our Facebook post which of our 9 Ships is your favorite and why!
There will be 3 prizes:
1) Selected by Gunpowder Games Development Team 2) Comment with the most Likes 3) Random selection from all entries
Additionally, for each 50 Shares or Likes this post gets, we'll add another Random selection prize.
Note: Entries made before October 1st (Pacific Time) will be counted.
[Premium Bundles]
Did you know that there are some discounted bundles on sale right now?
The pricing for our bundles is correctly at and introductory 50% off. This sale price is ending on Monday, Sept 30th. Once October rolls around, these deals will rise to their regular price.
Each racial bundle unlocks all Ships, Captains and 1 Frigate Skin not available for purchase outside of the bundle for 800 Gunpowder (1600 Gunpowder starting October 1st).
The Leviathan's Deal contains all 3 Racial bundles for one low prices of 2000 Gunpowder (4000 Gunpowder starting October 1st).
Maelstrom Hotfix 09/26
MATCHMAKING - Adjusted matchmaking values slightly to better reflect value of a Level 1 Mate - Corrected an issue on our server configuration that led to intermittent lag
GENERAL - Additional FPS option added to settings under Max FPS (Experimental), please note that this is an experimental feature and instability may occur - Corrected an issue that allowed for equipping invalid hardpoints - Corrected a number of typos and descriptions error - Corrected a number of mate statistic issues - Crew Damage Resistance, Ramming Resistance and Pickup Range now correctly displays as Ship Stats (Ship Display Stats still have some issues) - Rare Ship quests now take 10 Battles but can be completed either in Solo or Team Mode
ORC REAVERS - Chomper's Charge (Splint Depthbringer): Duration from 2.75 to 3, Acceleration from 100 to 60 (This change means that the dash lasts longer but it takes longer to get to full speed.)
Maelstrom Hotfix 09/24
MATCHMAKING
New power rating calculations have been rolled out
New matchmaking rules have been implemented based on the new power rating calculations
The new max power rating is now 3000
GENERAL
Brinemaw now drops loot when killed
Chat will no longer autoscroll when new text arrives
Chat state will now save
Chat now has a background when scrolling
Added Season End date to Battle Pass
Initial starter ship selection now allows for any ship to be selected
Added note on Gunpowder Purchasing screen that it requires Steam Overlay to be enabled
Corrected an issue which could lead to black screen freezes at the end of matches (issue is not completely solved but should hopefully be less prevalent)
Corrected a number of typos with text and descriptions
PHOENIX EMPIRE (HUMANS)
Cinder swindles a quartet of Fury's cannons!
Cinder: Number of cannons 30-34 (+2 port & +2 starboard)
Ashborne: Max speed from 195 to 210, port & starboard armor from 460 to 540. Plate Armor (Defense Hardpoint) reduced from 50% to 40% port & starboard armor
Fury's Hold: Number of cannons 66-62 (-2 port & -2 starboard), turn rate 30 to 28
ORC REAVERS (ORCS)
Orc ships speed penalty increased with damaged sails (but still less impacted than Humans)
- Added a timer bar to the queue to give a better sense of how long a player has been in the queue - Reduced the prevalence of solo or team specific quests - Moved the In-Game Encyclopedia (Wiki) to the main Navigation Panel - Moved the Feedback button to the Settings submenu
Bug Fixes
- Players with Cyrillic/Special characters in Steam or PC names should now be able to queue for matches - News widget no longer pops up after every match - Corrected an issue that would cause boarding hooks not to fire - Corrected an issue where a player could be stuck in queue for longer than necessary
Known Issues Being Investigated
- Black screens at end of matches - Intermittent lengthy matchmaking queue times
Maelstrom Hotfix 09/20
General - Added power rating display to the Score Screen in Battles - Adjusted power rating values and calculation to better reflect values of hardpoints and mates - Bots will no longer pick fights with ships in dead waters - New and improved UI callouts for new items to collect on Quests, Battle Pass and the Store
Bug Fixes - Disabled some quests that are sometimes not progressing correctly (if you had one of these quests it will automatically be replaced with a new one) - Implemented a workaround for an issue where the matchmaking would show queued but not actually be queued - Addressed a series of issues that would cause matches to end prematurely - Corrected an issue with the matchmaking system that would prevent some players from being able to queue (this primarily affected users with special characters in their name or certain types of characters such as cyrillic) - Lifeboats now properly despawn when a player leaves the match - Corrected an issue with fog banks providing vision of players in other fog banks - Corrected an issue where some tooltips would not display correctly on icons
Maelstrom Open Beta
First & foremost a giant THANK YOU for your faith & sticking with us while we’ve continued to improve the game during Early Access. It was a solid success & allowed us to get to the next leg of our journey.
The big news is that Maelstrom is becoming a Free to Play game.
Being a premium 20$ title in Early Access worked, but moving forward as a multiplayer only title, transitioning to F2P allows a much larger player base. We expect it to bring in many new players that normally wouldn’t get a chance to sink you.
FREE-TO-PLAY DEFINITION FOR MAELSTROM
As Free-to-Play definitions vary with games we want to define it clearly so players know what they can expect:
All gameplay and progress can be unlocked by playing the game for free. No additional purchases are needed to enjoy the game to its fullest extent.
There are no ways to purchase a competitive advantage in game.
Players must play the game to progress & become more powerful. There are no ways to purchase a top tier ship with a powerful crew, it must be earned by playing the game. Players can however, accelerate progression with boosts.
Gold is in-game currency and earned by playing the game.
Gunpowder is premium currency & the only item sold for cash in-game. It is used to buy all of the premium items in the store such as the battle pass, cosmetics, boosters & bundles.
Gunpowder can also be earned for free via the Battle Pass, completing quests & checking the store.
Battle Passes unlock cosmetics, gold or gunpowder & there is a premium track that unlocks additional rewards for gunpowder.
Future content will be added through seasonal Battle Passes, events or content drops.
There are no loot boxes. All Items are directly purchasable in the store.
EARLY ACCESS REWARDS
For our Early Access players a ton of rewards are being granted automatically just for logging in. The rewards provide fun choices for all the new toys the game has to offer:
All Ships Unlocked
3 Mates for Each Race
1 Legendary Mate for Each Race
Seasonal Battle Pass Unlocked
10,000 Gunpowder Premium Currency
Exclusive Title 'Old Salt'
Exclusive Wind Trailer 'Happy'
Exclusive Cannon Trailer 'Grande Finale'
Exclusive Lifeboat 'Guppy Thrasher'
WHAT’S NEW
Here’s a shortlist of things to look out for:
Balance updates, including newly designed mates and updated hardpoints
Match rewards have been refactored for the new game economy
Mates now level up with Gold (keep an eye out for Legendary Mates!)
Quests and Medals
Cosmetics have been added: Skins, titles, lifeboats, tracers, and trailers
New cross-region Matchmaker that prioritizes fair matches based on ship power
UPCOMING PLANS
But that's not all. Here's our roadmap with the key features that are in development.
Come talk to us & our great community in our official Discord.
Sink ya soon!
- Your Gunpowder Games Team
Development Update: Titles
There are a number of cosmetic options coming, one of which we will go over today.
TITLES
Titles is a secondary line to your nameplate. We have put together a wide array of them - some are funny, others are serious, and we hope you will enjoy unlocking and discovering them!
EARNING TITLES
Titles will be available in a variety of ways.
They will be part of Quests (both normal and epic), as well as randomly available in the Store.
We will also be giving them away via Codes and other promotion materials.
Content creators and streamers, stayed tuned for collaboration opportunities!
Kickstarter Backers and Early Access players will also be getting their own exclusive titles.
TITLE IDEAS
Do you have ideas for titles that you'd like to see? Leave a comment below and we'll consider adding it to our list!
FUTURE UPDATES
We are hard at work finishing up everything we want for release.
We will continue to share new systems/features as they reach enough of a polished state that we feel comfortable with showing it off.
Development Update: Visuals and Quality of Life
In this update, we will talk about various qualify of life things we have been working on.
Combat Feedback
One of the primary feedback we have on our combat system from new users has been that sometimes it feels like they aren't doing damage even when they land hits.
After investigating this issue and talking with players we concluded that the issue is one of combat feedback. Specifically, the armor mechanic can make it seem like your shots are just being nullified without any effect.
To mitigate this, we have made some improvements to our combat feedback.
First, we have improved the visibility of the armor bars as well as incorporating an animation and sound effect related to the armor bar.
Second, we have added icons to the scrolling combat text (SCT) to indicate what type of damage is being dealt. You can also consolidate the SCT to reduce clutter.
Third, we have also added a "flash" animation to the name plate that flashes the same color as the damage type being dealt.
Stealth Feedback
Another area we have worked on is Stealth and Fog.
We have improved the visual of the fog banks and added an "edge" that appears when you are inside of them so you know exactly where you can sail and still remain hidden.
Additionally, we have added a visual effect on your ship that indicates that you are "stealthed." This effect will be re-used in other instances when your ship becomes stealthed.
Lighting and Reflections
We have reworked lighting across all maps and ships, as well as added water reflections and other neat lighting effects.
Ships and objects will now cast shadows on the water as well!
Network Optimizations and Anti-Cheat
The last one can't be shown with screenshots, but we have also made great strides in network optimization.
All players should feel an increased responsiveness to the ships, but in particular higher latency players should benefit the most from these improvements. This doesn't mean lag is eliminated, of course, but it should be less of a factor in the way the game feels and plays.
Additionally, the changes also makes the game more secure against cheaters and hackers.
