Caribbean Legend News

[h3]In case you missed it:[/h3]Caribbean Legend: Age of Pirates is a remaster of City of Abandoned Ships. A standalone game developed by ReCon Team with a focus on open world and sandbox gameplay. BlackMark Studio acts as publisher, providing the engine and the best features from Caribbean Legend.


[h2]Ahoy, sea dogs![/h2][p]Our remaster is entering the home stretch before release, and we're inviting the most seasoned sea wolves and newcomers alike to join the closed playtest for Caribbean Legend: Age of Pirates![/p][p]But most importantly — make sure to add the game to your wishlist![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][h3]🌊 The entire archipelago at your disposal[/h3][p]We've decided to take a bold step: for the duration of the playtest, all content and features will be temporarily available without restrictions.[/p]

• [p]Optimization for modern systems and configurations.[/p]
• [p]All storylines and side quests.[/p]
• [p]All quality-of-life improvements from Caribbean Legend: tutorials, markers, controls, camera.[/p]
• [p]Full archipelago map and expanded ship roster.[/p]
• [p]Fresh visual enhancements.[/p]
• [p]No cut gameplay mechanics.[/p]

[p][/p][h3]🛠 How to participate?[/h3][p]Access is granted through the Steam Playtest system:[/p]

1. [p]Go to the game's Steam page.[/p]
2. [p]Click the "Request Access" button in the playtest section.[/p]
3. [p]Once your request is approved, the game will appear in your library.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Applications are accepted until February 13, 2026 — on the same day, we'll open temporary access to the game. [/p][p][/p][h3]🎁 Exclusive reward![/h3][p]As a special reward, all playtest participants who reach Rank 5 will receive a unique achievement and an exclusive bonus in the release version:[/p][p]The legendary native Tichingitu...
and his ancestral musket![/p][p][/p][p] The beloved loyal companion and unmatched marksman is now part of the Age of Pirates universe, ready to swear an oath of allegiance stronger than iron. Exclusive to playtest participants, highlighting the connection between the Caribbean Legend series and the friendship between ReCon Team and Black Mark Studio. Don't miss your chance to recruit this officer to your crew at launch![/p][hr][/hr][h3][/h3][h3]🗨 Your role in development[/h3][p]Since you have access to the full game, we're especially looking for feedback on both the early content and how the new features perform in the long run, as well as stability during extended play sessions.[/p][p]Discuss your playthrough and submit bug reports here:[/p]

• [p]Official Discord[/p]
• [p]Our Steam Forum[/p]

[p]Prepare to conquer the seas of the Age of Pirates![/p]

[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
  

[hr][/hr]
[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

Changelog

Added:

• Captured captains now take rank difference into account when you try to recruit them. They won’t sign on under an overly weak captain.
  
• Improved the algorithm for finding a character to talk to — characters standing in room corners now interact properly.
  
• Reintroduced a temporary Story completion bonus during the infiltration of Porto Bello in Caribbean Customs.
  
• Longway and Charlie Knippel, recruited in punitive squadrons in Free Play, can now be sacrificed to Aruba.
  
• The current Hangman bonus is now shown in the tooltip. The bonus has been strengthened.
  
• You can now search the cabin of a surrendered ship via a button on the ship exchange screen. Loot will be placed in the chest in the hold.
  

Fixes:

• Boarding officers can now be assigned as captains when capturing a ship.
  
• Two-handed firearms can now be equipped on officers without unequipping the previous weapon.
  
• Quick saves no longer get corrupted.
  
• Two-handed firearm melee damage has been returned to normal.
  
• Van Dorn now correctly counts victories over other legendary captains in the first conversation at the Office.
  
• Fixed numerous quest script errors.
  
• Stories no longer start during a land assault on a colony.
  
• Highlighting of suitable amulets during trading now works correctly.
  
• Fixed a rare bug where a church quest could be turned in infinitely.
  
• Boarding squads in bays during story quests no longer cause a soft lock.
  

Version 1.7 is about to leave beta very soon, and you'll remember February and March for a long time. Age of Pirates release and version 2.0 teaser trailer are coming!

But for now, let's not forget about our beloved Steam Workshop. The third season of the hunger games has ended, and the $1000 prize goes to the modder who stood out the most.

Art by Breaker (Maksim)

The third season stands out from the first two not only because we finally got a flood of fan art with a fair share of nsfw ːrespect_soldierː. Mods are now coming out almost every day, and many of them are quite complex and significantly change the game.
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Third Season Winner[/h2]

NathanAlejver is the author of a dozen useful mods, the best covers in our Steam Workshop, and an absolutely awesome global mod that's currently only available to friends and developers. But he's receiving his well-deserved prize primarily for Whale Mod Loader.

With the mod manager, you can run multiple mods that modify the same file in the game. This way, one mod can change combat difficulty while another changes a special attack effect, and everything will work together. Compatibility and collaboration improvements make every modder's work much easier and allow players to install more mods simultaneously. This is something we support, and we congratulate NathanAlejver on winning the third season!

[h2]Cool Works[/h2]

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3561262612&searchtext=

A monumental work by Escorpion753 — a contributor to the Spanish translation and a legendary community member.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3584270421&searchtext=
Chinese localization improvement by Miria. God knows we wouldn't have polished it ourselves.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3583103910&searchtext=
Not everyone likes our new vision for icons. Fortunately, everyone likes Breaker's vision.

And we can't fail to mention Winarik. This person has released over 60 mods. Now that's what I call a Caribbean Legend.
[hr][/hr]
Starting the fourth season! Rules

• All mods released from February 1 to April 30, 2026 are eligible.
  
• The author or authors of the winning mod receive $1000 in prize money.
  
• Authors are considered to be Steam users listed on the mod page.
  
• Mods that violate any copyrights in any way are not eligible.
  
• The winning criteria are determined personally by me (Joruba) and are not disclosed. This way, we protect participants from vote manipulation and any unfair behavior.
  
• Once a month, I will highlight favorites in the "Mod of the Month" feature.
  
• The contest is strictly a private initiative of BlackMark Studio aimed at supporting the Steam Workshop Caribbean Legend community. The contest is not an obligation or any other form of commitment for BlackMark Studio.
  

What we do — we do for you.
ːjollyrː

[h2]New[/h2]

• Rebalanced all Coldarms in the game. Overall combat lethality has been reduced, giving the player more room for mistakes and more time to make decisions.
  
• Changed the damage scaling formula for Coldarms based on experience. Coldarms now become effective faster.
  
• Increased the experience gain multiplier for Coldarms. Please share your feedback on how the progression pace feels now (it used to feel too slow to us).
  
• Reworked the health formula. The total final health by Rank 30 has not changed, but surviving at low levels is now easier. Bonus health on regular enemies has been reduced, since they have become smarter.
  
• Overall, these changes make the early game significantly less punishing, and make build path choices and officer choices more important in the mid game.
  
• Greatly increased the number of ships in island waters, as well as their spawn chance. Fort sieges will be more fun, and the Caribbean Sea will feel much more alive.
  
• Added a tutorial pop-up for the Stories mechanic.
  
• Increased the base bounce range by 30%. Bouncing is now much more convenient and useful.
  
• Set the default maximum number of autosaves of all types to 50 instead of unlimited. You can change this in the settings.
  
• Changed the target order in the “Sail to” command. Locations are now shown first, then ships.
  

[h2]Fixes[/h2]

• Fixed many autosave-related bugs. Thank you for your active help.
  
• Quest enemies no longer become immortal due to scripting errors.
  
• The required relations with the Netherlands in the “Clock Tower” quest log are now displayed correctly.
  
• Ship chests are now handled correctly. The Secret Lucky Hat can appear in the gundeck again.
• Fixed an old bug with incorrect shooting indoors.
  
• Rumors in taverns and conversations grant quests again.
  
• Quests that require visiting your own cabin no longer break when switching ships.
  
• Repair cost is now calculated correctly based on the ship.