Steady as she goes

 

Not ours, but I love the style!

Ahoy all you captains, battle masters, and Bnav Ults!  

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    Our next part of Sky Pirates is focusing on the actual ship's movement in the world! We still wanted to keep the puzzle and planning aspect, but also wanted to speed up play a bit as well as give the ships more freedom of movement. 

    No more will you be locked into lanes! Now you will be able to move your ships as you see fit. This will be controlled in a new Navigation system, similar to the old Bnav, but both simplified and expanded.

Our little test board!
The style we're shooting for might
actually make a nice board game later!

    For our initial release, before we expand into open-world exploration, ships will leave port and immediately enter a grid. The player on the captain station will be given a selection of movement cards to place in the ships movement slots. Each ship type will have a different selection of movement cards, but the core “deck” will allow all ships basic movements. You’ll be able to place cards one at a time or up to four at a time (until the water level drops, more on that below). This is to make it easier for players to plan their routes, and should allow more players to feel comfortable at the helm. 

    Every round the ship will activate the top move from the stack (if any). After the move has completed, the remaining moves cycle up, and a slot opens at the bottom of the stack. All cards still in hand go to the discard pile and a new set is drawn. This repeats until the ship sails into a border, moving it to a new grid sector, or there are not enough cards to draw from the deck. In both cases, the discard pile is shuffled and the hand is refilled. 

Entering/Exiting a grid sector

    On the captain's board are three borders, plus the one the ship enters from. Each will have marks on them giving general information on the danger levels and possible modifiers to be expected if crossing that border. 

    Returning to port to divvy up the loot only requires exiting the current map successfully through the border the ship entered from.

Captains and players can choose their risk/reward level as they push further, but the longer they are out, the more likely they are to draw a hostile Navy’s attention and their ships to hunt them down.             These ships will only become more numerous and dangerous the more ships are raided! As a bonus to exploration, some ships and locations will have discoverable treasure maps. These will require the ship to travel to a specific sector, face the challenge there, and escape with the booty! Sometimes getting to the location will be the challenge, other times it may be a fat merchant ship, a creature of legend, or something even more mysterious!

Bit of Battle-deck art

How do other puzzles interact with the ship?

    Windcatcher and Hydronautics will be the primary puzzles affecting ship movement. Hydronautics will keep the water level up, which determines how many move slots are unlocked. Starting at the first position, as water level decreases, move slots will no longer be accessible. This means you cannot add or remove any moves in that slot, limiting your ability to make adjustments and forcing you to plan your moves further ahead. If a water level gets too low, all positions could become locked, leaving the ship stuck!

    Meanwhile, performance on Windcatcher will increase the number of cards drawn for the captain to choose from each round. Having good sailors can not only expand the options available, but also work through the ships deck more rapidly. This is key for keeping your ship moving where you want, when you want, and how you want!

    Battledeck and Repair will not make a major impact on ship travel and movement- though keeping the ship repaired will benefit all other stations. And quickly loading cannons will always make your captain happy, so get to it!

What sort of things will I find as I fly around?

    Encounters will vary with difficulty, but most will feature 1-3 opposing NPC ships. Some will be merchants who will try to move across the board while defending themselves, while others will be escorts or marauders looking to take your ship down! Picking your targets and planning ahead will be key for victory. 

What about boarding!?

    Russ is working on it. We're still trying to find a good way to have it feel challenging and rewarding, but it's not translating well to the speed we're also looking for. For now, you will simply need to shoot your opponent till they surrender (merchants) or you send them burning into the eternal storms below (escorts/marauders/navy). We want to get this right, and we appreciate your input and patience as we try different approaches.

    Eventually, we'll have to make a decision on what grappling and boarding will look like. I see players engaging multiple ships, with escor
ts only eligible for destruction, and the merchant ships able to be boarded. This creates some challenges with the order of operations of course. What if the merchant escapes? What if the escorts aren't defeated? What if there are multiple merchants? What if there are multiple player ships?

    All of these will need to be detailed and refined before I feel like we'd have a proper flow for it.

How will this translate later to the open world?

    Our plan is for the open world to be largely the same: ships will move from grid sector to grid sector. Players will experience persistent trade lanes, with the primary sectors between islands largely clear of dangerous creatures and other hazards. 

    Rich hunting grounds will only persist for so long before the defenders adjust to threats and merchants choose another route for their goods!

    But do not fret, you're a cloud-cutting buccaneer after all! You can move through the grid sectors in between lanes to catch the merchants on their new paths unaware!

    An open world will also bring the option for Sky Pirates’ ships to work together as well. Rich convoys of fat merchant ships and dangerous creatures will require plenty of pirate ships to engage and raid. Getting there in time will yield the greatest rewards, but escaping targets can be picked up by those who weren't able to make the initial ambush!

    This is no small part of how we envision Sky Pirates: Puzzles and Plunder to capture the thrill of exploration and the heart of all our fans.

    When we have the Navigator puzzle to our liking, it'll be part of our big launch! We're pushing as hard as our sanity will sustain, so stay tuned for more updates!

Till next time!

Discord: https://discord.gg/da6JQrWDVd

Website: https://rxrgaming.com/

Wishlist: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3510580/SkyPirates__Plunder__Puzzles/

My cat (moonlight) joined us for board game night, patiently awaiting her turn