Patch 1.7 — OUT NOW

[h3]On the menu:[/h3]

• Patch 1.7 is live
  
• No need to start a new game
• Saving is now more convenient, losing progress — much harder
  
• Stealth is now more engaging and intuitive
  
• Land enemies are now much more dangerous
  

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[h2]Patch 1.7[/h2]

• Improved Land AI — experienced enemies now mimic human behavior and can interrupt attacks. They can avoid parries, cancel attacks when you disengage, and land a combo while you're staggered. When an NPC runs low on energy, they may save it for any attack type, not just thrusts.
  
  
• Land AI Pursuit — NPCs now react faster while moving, don't cluster together, and flank you. No more leading enemies in a conga line.
  
  
• Revamped Saving System — added regular autosaves, unlimited autosaves and quicksaves, and a new faster interface with filters. In other words, you can now play without manually saving at all.
  
  
• Stealth Remaster — for a long time, stealth was one of the main reasons players lost time and had to reload. We've solved this problem by minimizing load screens and making the mechanic much more immersive and engaging. Introducing Stories.
  
  
• Stories — a full-fledged new game system that we've currently applied only to stealth. After successfully completing a story, you become trusted by the colony and guards won't hassle you at every corner. Failure doesn't necessarily mean a reload.
  
  
  Every action you take affects the outcome and is recorded in a chronicle, letting you play through a complete narrative each time. The variations built into this version allow for over a thousand unique situations.
  
• Stealth is now a much deeper mechanic, involving not just the stealth skill but also perks, stats, and items.
  
  
• Ships, forts, and guards no longer have x-ray vision and won't attack you first when flying a friendly flag.
  
  
• Licenses have been reworked and are no longer items. A license is only revoked after three violations, and these violations are now visible in the UI. Buying a new license resets your violations, and the duration stacks.
  
  
• Pennants (nation flags) have been reworked. You no longer need to level them up — instead, capture ships flying those flags. When you board a ship, you receive that nation's pennant for the captured ship's class.
  For example, capturing a Spanish sloop grants you a Spanish pennant for rank 6. To fly the Spanish flag on a schooner or brig, you'll need to capture a rank 5 or rank 4 ship respectively.
  
  
• Economy overhaul:
  
  - Officers now demand fair wages. Maintaining high-level officers is significantly more expensive. The trust-inspiring perk for officers has been buffed.
  - Governors and fleet admirals pay you based on your Fleet Power.
  - Shipyard repairs are more expensive. At-sea repairs are more effective.
  - Base prices of some items have been changed.
  - The first 3 treasure maps are sold for pesos.
  - Super-expensive weapon cargoes removed from escort missions.
  - Increased the percentage of floating cargo after sinking a ship.
  
• Governor quest system reworked. Quests are now divided into types you can choose between, refusing doesn't cost honor, and rewards have been increased.
  
• Dialogue delay — a short delay has been added when NPCs address you, reducing accidental dialogue skips. Especially useful during captain duels.
  
• Full analog stick support — relevant for gamepads and Steam Deck on land and the global map. Smooth character control that accounts for stick pressure and angle.
  
• 'Hide Hat' option — you can now hide your equipped hat on your character model without losing its benefits.
  
  
• 'SFW Mode' option — replaces sounds during intimate scenes. Useful if you don't have headphones and you're not alone.
  
• Willemstad Remaster — updated textures and added spatial audio from the clock tower.
  
  
• Improved gambling mini-games — smoother animations and clearer controls.
  
• The Topaz (Resin Dog quest) now walks at normal speed.
  
• Increased underwater breath time by 20 seconds in all underwater locations.
  
• Hostile ships no longer sail away during quest battles in "Prison Break" and "Grand Albalate" missions.
  
• Governor quest system reworked. Quests are now divided into types you can choose between, refusing doesn't cost honor, and rewards have been increased.
  
• The Mirror Armor is now forged, making it the only forged medium armor in the game.
  
• Sped up item sorting — your saber collection in a chest won't cause lag anymore.
  
• Support for 4 additional languages — Korean, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, and Turkish.
  
• 11 new achievements.
  
• Fixed several item duplication exploits.
  
• Light rebalance of skill trees. Buffed Fencer and Soldier, removed conflicting perk requirements.
  
• Maximum optimization of hash-random with reflection. I don't know what that means, but it sounds cool.
  
• Significantly improved engine. This will be especially interesting for modders — we'll make a separate announcement for them early next year with a $1000 prize for the best mod of the season. We'll cover the details then.
  
• Added camera shake effect during dramatic scenes.
  
• New level bonus health and energy for the corresponding skills are now displayed.
  
• Leadership now affects officer payment amounts and the percentage of transferred experience.
  
• Hugo Avendell is now a loyal officer.
  
• Added character stats preview when exchanging ships.
  
• Added gun management button on the ship screen.
  
• Added settings for maximum number of autosaves of each type.
  
• Rebalanced all blades in the game. Overall combat lethality reduced, players have more room for error and more time to make decisions.
  
• Changed the formula for blade damage scaling with experience. Melee weapons now become effective faster.
  
• Increased experience gain rate for melee weapons. Let us know how the leveling pace feels now (it seemed too slow to us).
  
• Reworked health formula. Total health at rank 30 remains unchanged, but surviving at lower levels is now easier. Health bonuses for regular enemies reduced since they've become smarter.
  Combined, these changes made the early game significantly less punishing, while making leveling and officer choices in the mid-game more important.
  
• Significantly increased the number of ships in island waters, as well as their spawn chance. Fort sieges are now more fun, and the Caribbean Sea looks much more alive.
  
• Added tutorial window for the Stories mechanic.
  
• Base dodge distance increased by 30%. Dodging is now much more convenient and useful.
  
• Default autosave count for all types set to 50 instead of infinite. This can be changed in settings.
  
• Changed target order in the "sail to" command. Locations are now shown first, then ships.
  
• Captured captains now consider rank difference when you attempt to recruit them. They won't join a captain who's too weak.
  
• Improved character detection algorithm for conversations, characters in room corners now interact properly.
  
• Re-introduced temporary Story completion bonus during /the infiltration of Porto Bello in Caribbean in a Nutshell quest.
  
• Longway and Charlie Knippel, recruited from punitive squadrons in freeplay mode, can now be sacrificed to Aruba.
  
• The Hangman's current bonus is now displayed in the tooltip. The bonus has been buffed.
  
• You can now search the cabin of a surrendered ship via a button on the ship exchange screen. Loot will be placed in the hold chest.
  
• Pirate threat now grows slower, and you can reset it with any baron.
  
• Gaspar Goldtooth's services are now available in free play mode. You can get a tip if you have negative reputation — just pay the tavern keeper on Tortuga for a rumor.
  
• Fixed visual bugs with ship ropes.
  
• Story mode now has a full epilogue with two endings. With this, we've finished all story content. Farewell, Charles de Maure.
  

A year In review

This year — Age of Pirates release and Patch 2.0, stand by for the teaser trailer!
What we do — we do for you.
ːjollyrː