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Black Skylands News

What’s New

[h3]Greetings, Captains![/h3]

We’ve got some freshly cooked updates and inside info for you today, so grab a cup of tea and make sure you’re sitting comfortably.

It has now been over a month since our last Aerial update (look here if you somehow missed it) and we are now gradually moving towards the last and largest release update of Black Skylands. HOWEVER, there are still a couple of small patches that await you before that (spoiler: one of them is already coming this month 😉).

Our main priority now is to add more depth to your experience as you complete Black Skylands: making changes to player progression, redesigning certain systems, reworking or even removing certain frustrating mechanics and working on convoluted / overcomplicated systems, mainly by simplifying them.

The last update for the release will include land and air opponent balance improvements and also completely new locations, new bosses... and a new plot! But we will tell you about that a bit later 🤫

For now, we want to thank you for all of your comments, suggestions and criticism from the bottom of our hearts, as well as sharing info about some of the latest game updates, while trying to avoid spoilers as much as we can.

So

As we wrote earlier, we are working on lots of new content that awaits you in the final update right now. For instance, one of the new locations is below — it’s been said that the place looks very harmless and even cozy at first sight... or does it? 👹



We’re not forgetting about improvements for Eva either and we will tell you about one of them — you can now use amulets. These are new items which provide various bonuses and you will be able to equip several of them at the same time.



While the artists were distracted with coffee and talking about art, we immediately managed to sneak a picture of one the new heroines away from them. What role do you think she’ll play? Share your ideas!



There is also something new from the world of flora and fauna.



In addition to creating new content, we’re not forgetting to update what we have already — for instance, we have changed the battle against the first boss so that it now consists of two parts. There’s a clip of the updated first part below.



In future, you will also be able to smelt Red and Blue Ore into Weapon and Ship Steel at the Factory.



In addition to all of that, we continue working on changes to weapon and ship component upgrades.



That’s it for today. Thanks for staying with us and see you soon!

Oh, and one more thing — if there are any aspects of the game that you want more details about, share them with us. We read all of your comments!

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Yours truly,



• • •

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Nominate Black Skylands for the Labor Of Love Award!

Greetings, Captains!

First of all we want to thank each one of you for your continuous Black Skylands support. Your passion gives us energy to improve the game further and tailor it in the best possible experience.

Throughout the Early Access stage we managed to deliver several big updates, but they would have never been as good as they are now without great and detailed feedback you provide to us. And we want to ask for your support again.

We would really appreciate, if you could dedicate several minutes of your time and nominate the game in the Steam Awards 2022 ‘Labor of Love’ category. This will mean a lot to us.

Thank you for staying with the game and for your help in developing it.



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Yours truly,

The Steam Autumn Sale

Hello Captains!

The Autumn Sale begins – from today to November 29th, you will have the opportunity to purchase Black Skylands with a 35% discount🍁

Full steam ahead!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1143810



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Yours truly,



• • •

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Patch 0.4.4

[h3]Knock, knock! The newest Black Skylands patch is already available for download. Please, update your game 🎃[/h3]

[h3]THE LIST OF CHANGES:[/h3]

- Air enemies’ HP is slightly reduced, the attack power of some air swarm enemies is also reduced;
- Spawn time of Jetpackers from Landing Ship was increased;
- Big Scarab Ship no longer spawns in starting locations;
- Fixed a bug when the machine gun on the Small Scarab Ship don’t shoot;
- Fixed a bug when opponents don’t move on one of the swarm islands;
- Fixed a bug when nose gun reloading visual state doesn’t update after weapons’ changing;
- Fixed a bug when Eva hung if you pick up any cargo and shoot the nose gun with a hook;
- Fixed a bug with displaying the list in Ron's shop;
- Fixed issues with displaying parameters of ship components;
- Fixed a bug when the sound of smoke doesn’t disappear after holes’ repairing on the ship;
- Fixed a bug when RocketTurret and ShipTurret don't reset aggro after its death;
- Fixed a bug when you can't resurrect if you die in the prologue;
- Fixed issues with displaying damage while comparing ship weapons;
- Fixed a bug when boost don’t stop if player leaves the helm;
- Fixed a bug when the music of the cutscene of Morgan's death don’t turn off after its ending;
- Fixed a bug when the Double Threat ship don’t shoot.

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Yours truly,



• • •

The AERIAL UPDATE is Now Available!

Greetings, Captains!


[h3]One of the biggest content updates we've ever done, the Aerial Update, is out now! In addition to that, the game is 30% off until October 20![/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1143810/Black_Skylands/

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]UPDATE FEATURES[/h2]

[h3]🔹 Salvo for skyship cannons[/h3]
The cannons on the player's ships have been replaced by salvo fire; now, air battles look much brighter and tactically more exciting.

[h3]🔹 Impulse Shield[/h3]
Reflects projectiles at the enemy.

[h3]🔹 Ship's forward guns[/h3]
The ship now has separate forward guns.

[h3]🔹 Reworked skyship boost[/h3]
The boost has a significant initial impact. It uses energy that replenishes automatically.

[h3]🔹 New enemies[/h3]
  • Landing Ship
  • Miner
[h3]🔹 New enemy cruisers[/h3]
  • Double Treat - equipped with a giant cannon;
  • Allin - an impregnable flying fortress.
[h3]🔹 Destructible armor on enemy ships[/h3]
Some enemy vessels are equipped with armor that can be destroyed gradually. Also, those vessels have weak spots: if you hit that spot, the enemy becomes more vulnerable.

[h3]🔹 Improved enemy balance and AI[/h3]
In addition, they have updated behavior - aerial enemies now attack at proximity and interact in squads. New types of flying Swarms have also been added.

[h3]🔹 Air currents[/h3]
Speed up map navigation or use the air currents in battles.

[h3]🔹 Increased space between islands[/h3]
More space for air battles

[h3]🔹 New music manager[/h3]
The music now depends on the environment and other conditions, such as the player's health. Also, the manager doesn't just switch tracks but turns the appropriate music layers on/off, which makes the music flow smoothly.

Captains, thank you for your support! We hope you’ll enjoy this update. Remember that we’re looking forward to reading your feedback!

[h3]Other changes[/h3]

- Added the possibility to order Luma to take the box with the cargo while player is operating the ship
- Holding the Fire button now allows you to start shooting even if the Fire button was pressed during the weapon’s change period
- Fixed interruption of music and notification, while entering the location at the docking of the Windyriver and Broken Stairs locations
- Ship’s controls were updated
- Blowders can explode the rocks obstructions with TNT
- Game camera no longer jerks, while entering / exiting the steering wheel or ship os colliding with the ground
- Fixed incorrect ship’s control tips
- Ships accelerate with a push effect, while using the boost now
- Fixed the repulsion of composite objects’ parts by explosions (for example, an engine, a fuel tank, a player's ship's steering wheel)
- Fixed grenade indicator is flashing while switching weapons
- Gun’s overheating system has been changed: now the cooling rate may be differ, depending on whether the gun was overheated (to the end or not)
- Fixed the bug when the artifact’s cooldown restorer had restored the cooldown of all artifacts at once
- Fixed the player's flashlight and the flashlight on the player's ship
- Ship ability widgets were removed from HUD
- Ship abilities tab from Ron's shop was removed
- Keybinding setting for ship abilities were removed
- Ship components’ UI in the tablet was rechanged: the button for installing a ship's nose guns was added, the button for installing ship abilities was removed
- Slightly increased bosses’ HP: Rhoda, Airis, Mort
- Fixed particles for projectiles
- Key assignment has been reset
- Cruise control will turn on automatically, while player is using gamepad

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Yours truly,



• • •

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