Hello, Sea dogs! Welcome to another weekly Seadogs of Nassau Devlog.
In our previous devlog, we talked about how to form and manage a fleet and just how useful a fleet can be in the progression of the game. We also briefly discussed how your crew plays an important role in managing your fleet and sails. In this Devlog, we are going to take a deep dive into Pirate Crew Management and let you in on some juicy things your crew can pull off!
Pirate Crew in Seadogs of Nassau
You will come across a variety of ships sailing along the Caribbean in different shapes and sizes but what’s common between them is the crew living on these ships and taking care of every operation. Each ship requires a minimum amount of crew members or sailors for it to be able to operate properly.
The number of crew members on board determines how efficiently the ship fills its sails, how quickly it reloads its canons, and just how much manpower it has to defend against a lethal attack from the enemy combatants. If you have more than one ship in your fleet, the crew gets divided into the ships to ensure the fleet can properly sail.
How to Form a Pirate Crew
There are many different ways of forming a crew in Seadogs in Nassau. The most common way is recruiting pirates from ports. Each port in the Caribbean has an area where you can recruit/bolster your crew. The ports having a larger population with smaller wealth is likely to have more men willing to join you. However, these pirates sail with you “On Account”, meaning they expect a fair share of the profits at the end of every voyage instead of working on a regular payroll like the navy.
Recruiting these men is just one small step in building a loyal crew, you have to make sure that your pirate crew’s expectations and basic needs are met. This includes carrying enough food to properly feed the whole crew when sailing, having a doctor on board to treat the crew members after raids, and giving them a fair share of wealth from battles with other ships or ports. If you fail to keep up with the crew’s basic needs, they are likely to rebel against you and ditch the ships when anchored at a port
Some Key Features of Pirate Crew
While the most common place to recruit new crew members is ports, you can also recruit them through a number of random events taking place around the world.
In addition to ports, you can also get crew members from enemy ships after you have successfully boarded the enemy vessels or in case they surrender.
Each crew also has a “Crew Rating” starting from E up to S, which determines how weak or strong they are and just how efficiently they can operate a ship.
A crew with a higher crew rating can increase the ship’s movement speed and ensure the damages are repaired much quicker during a battle.
Besides managing and taking care of the ship, your crew also double as Raiders for attacking enemy ports.
There’s a lot of diversity in crews, your infamy throughout the Caribbean also affects the type of pirate crew that you can recruit (i.e. Only S class crew members will only join you if you’re a well renowned pirate).
There’s much to be explored but I hope this Devlog should give you some idea of how crucial a crew is to your success and progression in the game.
Stay tuned!
Developer Blog #4 Fleet
Hello, Sea dogs! Welcome to the weekly Seadogs of Nassau Devlog.
In our previous Devlog, we talked about all the different types of ships and how exactly players can acquire them to battle against rival factions or use them to expand their trading empire. In this Devlog, we want to continue on the topic of ships to give you an idea of what having a fleet means in Seadogs of Nassau, what you can do with it, and more importantly what NOT to do with it!
Fleet in Seadogs of Nassau
Seadogs of Nassau offers different types of ships with varying characteristics and uses. And while the players do start with just one ship, they are free to have up to 5 ships in their fleet. They can either capture enemy ships or buy new vessels to include in their fleet.
But what good is having a fleet? Glad you asked!
For one, the fleet allows players to carry more cargo while sailing and in some games, it can even increase the maximum number of crew members that you can have onboard. Having a fleet also comes in handy when facing an ambush as you can call them for backup to help you out. You can also send them away for trading or treasure hunting on their own to get a steady income and a random amount of supplies. If the you ever loses your flagship, it simply gets replaced by one of the ships in your fleet.
However, having a fleet has its own share of disadvantages as well.
If you have a large fleet, you will have to spend quite some money to ensure all the ships in your fleet are well-maintained for sailing. The more ships you have in your fleet, the more men you will need in your pirate crew to sail, which ultimately reduces the number of people on your flagship. Having a fleet also increases your chances of having a random bounty placed on you, which could potentially slow down your progress in the game.
How to Manage a Fleet
Capturing an enemy ship is just the beginning, managing a fleet is what takes a lot of skills and strategic planning. The ships in your fleet can be ordered to follow you around to defend you while sailing or attack ships that the flagship attacks.
In case your ships get damaged, there are places (ports and other places) where you can take them to get repaired or if you want, you can even sell them for a good price. You can also convert one of your ships to “fire ships” which can be sent out to blow up enemy ships.
Keep in mind…
There are many events in this game that can cause you to lose a ship from your fleet. For instance, if you decide to attack an enemy port that is well fortified, you are likely to lose your ship in case of retaliation if you’re not prepared.
You can also lose your ships in battles if the enemy ships manage to heavily broadside them. They are most likely to attack your flagship first, which might lead to marooning in case you only had one ship. Otherwise, you will simply get picked up by one of the other ships in your fleet.
But enemy ships aren’t the only thing that you have to worry about, your own men can rebel against you and lead a mutiny if they get angry enough. In that case, they can take a ship from your fleet and leave your crew.
So, there’s a lot that you have to do in order to manage your fleet. We hope this Devlog gave you some idea of what to expect from a fleet in Seadogs of Nassau. As always, if you have any questions, do let us know and we would love to address them in a future Devlog.
Developer Blog #3 Ships
Hello, Sea dogs! Welcome to the weekly Seadogs of Nassau Devlog.
In our previous Devlog, we talked about what ports are and how they work in Seadogs of Nassau. But what good would ports be if there weren’t any ships in the first place? So, today we are going to tell you everything that you need to know about ships in Seadogs of Nassau and exactly how you can get an edge over your enemies using them!
Ships in Seadogs of Nassau and How they work?
Just like any other Pirate game, ships are an essential part of Seadogs of Nassau. You will see a ton of different ships sailing along the Caribbean performing various tasks such as trading, attacking enemy ships or ports, providing resources to friendly ports, and so on.
Each of these ships is categorized by a “ship type” which basically defines the characteristics of a ship including what it carries, how it behaves in combat, and what faction it might belong to. Furthermore, each ship also has a limit as to how much cargo it can hold at its full capacity, besides the number of crew members that it can carry along with the number of canons that it can use for battle.
There are many factors that can affect the performance of a ship. For instance, the movement speed of a ship highly depends on the ship type (Sloop, Galleon, Man-of-War) and also the wind speed. You can slow down any ship by damaging its sail but be careful the enemies can do the same to your ship as well.
Your crew also plays a MAJOR role in determining the efficiency of your ship depending on their “Crew Rank”, starting from E all the way up to S. A crew with higher rank can help you move your ship faster, repair damages inflicted in and out of combat without falling back to the port, and get you useful information about the enemy ships.
How to Get a Ship?
The player already owns a ship at the start of the game, which is given the “Flagship” status. But as the game progresses, players can own more by capturing other ships from the enemy, purchasing them from a shipwright or receiving as a gift in a guild. Once the player gets a second ship (or more), the flagship status can be easily assigned to any one of the ships in your fleet.
There are sets of rules in Seadogs of Nassau that determines what type of ship can be owned and by what nation. However, the player is free to capture and own any type of ship that they want from any nation, if they manage to do so.
That brings us to the end of this Devlog! Hope you enjoyed it and if you have any questions or comments, do let us know and we would love to address them in future Devlogs.
In this Developer Update, we were heavily focused on improving our Fireships! Wooden ships filled with tar and other highly combustible material that could wreak havoc on the battlefield!
Players can turn any ship from their fleet into a Fireship, a ticking time bomb floating on the seas of the Bahamas that could be sent out to target enemy ships dealing significant splash damage to anything and everything within its vicinity.
But beware, these Fireships are extremely dangerous, not only for the enemies but also for your own fleet and allies due to friendly fire damage. So, it’s best to send these bad boys well before your ships dive into battle with the enemies to soften the enemy lines!
Hello, Gamers! Welcome to this weeks Seadogs of Nassau Devlog.
As promised in the previous Devlog, we are here to share with you some of the defining features of our game, starting with PORTS! The whole point of this post is to give you a high level idea of what Ports are and how they work in our game.
What are Ports?
Ports are one of the most important features in the game, unlike many other titles, they are not just some random place where you dock ships and grab a quest. Instead, Ports in Seadogs of Nassau is a place where you can join a rivals’ guild, recruit crew members, upgrade your fleet, hunt down bounties in the streets, bribe informants at the local brothel and even divvy up the plunder from your hauls as a pirate!
There are more than 11 unique ports in this game, Nassau being the most prominent that you’ll have to build up in the beginning. Each of the ports that you come across in the game actually belongs to a faction (British, Spanish, Freedman, etc.), and each one you'll have to persuade, bribe, or threaten to get them to trade with your rogue nation.
Merchant's Guild's HQ
How do the AI in Ports work?
Ports in Seadogs of Nassau are all fully dynamic. Each port has its own separate resources that are gradually depleted during this war and eventually it has to request for more(food, gold, cotton, and so on) from another port under the same faction.
Following this request, a merchant ship is sent from the friendly port to the one who sends the request. Now, if the merchant ship fails to reach its destination, in case of a player hunting it down or an enemy AI faction attacking it, the port will lose some health, lowering the economy (Raising Price of goods) but also raising the amount of potential recruits that wouldn't mind a bit of pirating.
Whether you want to raise or lower a port's health, there are many ways and events that can affect the health rating of the ports.
For instance, the players directly attacking the port or kidnapping a governor will make the faction hate you but breaking a rival factions blockade or delivering medical supplies will raise that faction's health and happiness toward you. All of these actions are yours to choose when dealing with the economy of a port.
Trying to break through a blockade
Hope you enjoyed this Devlog let us know what you think, because there are many more to come!
Follow us on Twitter. We are gearing up for the first round of keys to be sent out in the near future! Stay Tuned!
We are proud to announce that Seadogs of Nassau is nearing the finalization of Pre-Alpha and is on track to be released on Steam in early 2023! This is the first of many Devlogs to keep you all updated with the development progress of the game.
What is Seadogs of Nassau?
You might be wondering what this game is all about. So let me give you a quick backstory about it. Seadogs of Nassau is a single-player pirate game inspired by none other than the highly popular Sid Meier’s Pirates, and AC Black Flag.
Our love for these games is what gave us the idea to develop this, but it was our desire to see some of the missing features in these titles that drove us to start working on this project. Seadogs of Nassau is basically going to be a combination of some of the best features inspired by these titles but with more freedom of choice and exploration for the players.
The Gameplay
Seadogs of Nassau carries a maritime Caribbean theme that focuses on the islands around the Bahamas. You are dropped at the port in Nassau which will be your home port throughout the game. Nassau needs to be restored, and players will need to gather resources and recruit skilled NPCs to help bring it back to its old glory!
The game at its core is really a complex simulation for players to interact with. If you choose to sit at one port gambling in a tavern, the world will keep turning with or without you. Factions will war with each other, economies of ports will rise and fall, smuggling routes will get crowded and so much more.
Prices will increase based on player's status with that faction and economy of the port
But what’s New?
If you've been playing any type of open world pirate game for a while, we can safely assume that you'll have noticed a trend of rigidness in these types of games, with a limited leeway granted to the player. At the same time, the actions of players and NPCs hardly seem to affect the whole ecosystem.
Now, that is something that we want to change here, by giving players the freedom to choose who they want to be and what they want to do. i.e. You could join the navy, become a merchant or gather a crew and gallivant down the pirate route; it is all your choice.
Not all merchants will fight back
The other main feature that makes this game unique is that every action that you take, has grave consequences for the entire Caribbean. For instance, there are merchants sailing from port to port with valuable resources. If you decide to hunt them down, the port’s economy that the ships were sailing towards, will dwindle, slowly leading it to chaos.
These mechanics and more tie to each other making these waters feel alive but we’ll go into more detail of each mechanic in a future dev log along with our status in developer updates.
If this sounds interesting you can sign up for Alpha testing on our site below. Or follow us on Twitter. We are gearing up for the first round of keys to be sent out in the near future! Stay Tuned!
Merchant's Guild's HQ
Trying to break through a blockade
