Caribbean Legend News

[h2]Ahoy![/h2]

It's been almost three months since our last DLC release. That's embarrassingly long, and we simply can't have that. ːrofl_pirateː

In just one week, we'll release not only patch 1.4 from beta, but also Ships Pack: Part II.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/3549890/Caribbean_Legend__Ships_Pack_Part_2/

For those who haven't been following, we'd like to remind you that the Ships Pack DLC series is dedicated to legendary captains and ships of the Caribbean Sea, all connected by one tragic and even terrifying story. When the fifth and final Ships Pack is released, the full picture will come together.

Meet "the Lady Beth" - a beautiful snow commanded (hopefully temporarily) by the formidable Albert Blackwood.



Our loyal friend and officer Tichingitu describes Albert best.

"Captain, Tichingitu see bad place here. Very bad place."
"What do you mean?"
"This island now be cursed. Earth absorb too much blood and tears. Anyone who dig here, breathe this curse."
"You think Blackwood was possessed?"
"Not just possessed. He be... how to say... empty vessel. Something enter him and push out his soul. Me see this before. When shaman of my tribe make human sacrifice to spirits. That shaman have same look."
"But what could cause such an obsession?"
"Man with emptiness inside easy to fill with others' thoughts. Someone find his weakness and use it. Tichingitu almost feel sorry for this man."
"Almost?"
"Yes, almost. Every warrior answer for his own choice. Even if demons whisper in his ear."

In other words, I suggest you stock up on ammunition and a good musket. The bloodiest land battle in the game awaits you. If you succeed, you'll be rewarded with not only the beautiful "Beth," but also a powerful arquebus. Look for parts in treasures - and you can transform it into a formidable weapon!



Add the DLC to your wishlist, play the beta, and a huge thank you to all beta testers and translation teams for German, French, Spanish, Polish, and Ukrainian!

See you in a week!
ːjollyrː

We have fixed several important issues that accompanied the release of beta version 1.4.

[h2]Changelog:[/h2]

• William Patterson can now equip hats (currently without visual representation).
  
• Made slight adjustments to remapping control keys.
  
• Fixed issues with picking up notes and keys in new town events.
  
• Fixed the migration issues with shotgun behavior — they now function correctly in old saves.
  
• Fixed a bug that preventedlooting Charile Prince's hat from Zorro's body. It now gets picked up automatically.
• Corrected hats descriptions in certain places.
  

[h2]Very important[/h2]
To enable shotguns and town events in old saves, you must load the save made BEFORE transitioning your profile to version 1.4 in order to redo the migrations.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

In profiles started with a new game, everything is working fine.

Thanks for the reports.
:jollyr:

[h2]Ahoy![/h2]

[h3]On the menu:[/h3]

• Patch 1.4 beta is now available.
  
• New controls are done.
  
• Lots of new features.
  
• Besides German, we've added support for Spanish, French, and Polish.
  
• No new game required.
  
• Access via instructions below - as usual. Please choose version 1.4.
  

Patch 1.4 was initially planned as an intermediate update aimed at solving two major game issues that we've all been suffering from for a year: tank controls and inconvenient key rebinding. The first one simply killed the game from the first seconds for a huge number of people, while the second severely limited left-handed players and simply didn't meet modern convenience standards.

Both problems are solved: the controls have become modern and dynamic, and keys can now be rebinded almost without limitations. And... is that all? Ready to release?

Not quite. As it turned out, while working on 1.5, we have already managed to complete many cool things that, moreover, don't require starting a new game. Let's throw them in too.

[h3]What's new:[/h3]

• Modern Controls 1.0
  In brief: the new control system is ready in its basic version. You can move along all axes, switch to sprint, jump with weapons in hand, aim manually, have full camera view control, and break through enemy formations. If you haven't seen the video below, take a look, although the game now has an even better version.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2RROaiNY9c
  
  The development of the new control system cost a lot of money and man-hours, but I'll gladly invest just as much again - because I really want to see Modern Controls 2.0. Since we've figured out shooting, I'd say it is time to reimagine fencing? Add gamepad support?
  
  
• Weapon switching while moving
  Now you can draw and put away weapons, switch between musket and saber and back while moving. Seems like a small thing, but it actually changes the game dramatically. With the addition of this feature, the controls have finally become fully dynamic, and it works especially well in new boarding scenes, where players can combine jumps, sprinting, aiming, pushing, and quick switching between musket and melee weapons.
  
  
• Improved key rebinding
  It's important for Steam players to have full control over key rebinding. Not to mention left-handed players who found it quite difficult to play our game. I can't say that development in this direction is completely finished, but now, hopefully, key rebinding meets modern standards and player expectations.
  
  
• Improved German localization (beta)
• Added Spanish, French, and Polish localizations (beta)
  I'm not ready to announce official support for these languages yet, but work on localizations continues. For example, people are already actively working on Italian, Hungarian, and Ukrainian translations. It's a long process, and all participants of this Discord server are heroes. Join if you want to contribute and earn you rightful place in the game's credits.
  
  
• New grapeshot logic
  It used to be like this: the player targeted one enemy, and if grapeshot was loaded, all enemies around the target took damage. Now grapeshot actually fires pellets. We've introduced new parameters of spread and the number of projectiles per charge. Using different weapons and ammunition, you can either cover the entire deck or turn your grapeshot into a real "trench sweeper" and send dozens of pellets into a single enemy right in front of you. Or chose something in the middle perhaps?
  
  It's funny that during testing, we replaced the pellets with candles to make it easier to track the spread and test the mechanics. As a result, at the end of each battle, every battlefield started to look like a church.
  
  
• One more boarding scene
  We've added a Corvette VS Pinnace scene, which triggers if at least one boarding participant is a third-rate merchant ship. With this, rates 5, 4, and 3 are complete, and we're taking a break from boarding scenes. We have big plans for second and first rates, but making ships for them takes time. Hopefully, by then, the controls will have improved so much that we'll be able to make full vertical gameplay, fortification point assaults, and turn large ship boarding scenes into real battlefields.
  
  
• New Charles de Maure model
  The realization that we vitally needed new models for the main characters came exactly when I saw how bad everything looked when zooming in while aiming. Moreover, all the new accessories we have made (armor, weapons, hats) are very high quality, and the old, blurry model of the main character really starts to stand out. And anyway, let's face it - we are all tired of that green jacket with cuffs. Future plans include different clothing, dyes, and new models for Willie, Diego, and Helen.
  
  
• Hats
  We've wanted to add hats and helmets for a very long time. The game really needed another loot category and additional character customization. Hats can be found through the story, but almost all of them can be found in treasures too. Some hats have very powerful bonuses, but don't limit yourself to them. Fashion rules the world. Wear what you like. Hopefully, we'll manage belts and helmets in the future, thus allowing you to fully customize your characters. I think this is important. Bad news: for now, only Charles and Diego can wear hats.
  
  
• Treasure system overhaul
  Treasure contents now resemble something that a real person might have hidden, and they drop with more fair random. Level up your luck skill, make treasure hunting your job - and the game will reward you. Free play mode enjoyers are especially lucky: you'll be able to get all story mode rewards through treasures. Including the mighty Colt Revolver. All in all, check out Kirill's latest dev diary in case you've missed it.
  
  https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2230980/view/525336841073722793?l=english
  
• New Port Royal
  Making locations on this engine, especially exterior ones, is hellish work. And that's why I sincerely thank karlik.nos for helping us progress with updating colonial capitals in the game. We've adapted his work to the game's style and finally released it. Two more upgrades remain: Havana and Capsterville.
  
  
• New interior
  We've added another location - wine cellar. It was initially planned for one of the new scenes in 1.5, but we found use for it already. Small thing, but nice.
  
  
• "Mystery of Port Royal" event
• "Mystery of Willemstad" event
  Locations should not only look decent and serve the player and their ship but also tell stories. Until recently, there wasn't much to explore in the game. We're starting to fix that. Next up - Le François and Saint-Pierre.
  
  
• Bulk purchase of strategic goods
  If you have a high trading skill, need ironwood, silk, ropes, or resin, but don't have time, try negotiating with suppliers for large deliveries and become a shareholder. Now it will make sense to come for each delivery on a specific day of the month.
  
  
• Complete special effects overhaul
  New direction of work. We've redrawn effects from scratch - smoke, fire, explosions, blood, magic - basically, almost everything. The old effects were from 2008, had only 4 frames and 512x512 resolution. New ones have 16 frames and 2k resolution. There's still a lot of work, we'll be polishing and optimizing, but I like the first version. Good way to improve game graphics, enhance combat intensity and impact.
  
  
• Improved indoor graphics
• Texture improvements
• Lighting improvements
  This kind of work never stops. We're gradually improving various textures, adjusting ambient occlusion (AO) in interiors, improving lighting, and removing glare. Small steps, but the game is becoming more beautiful with each patch.
  
  
• New handheld firearm sounds
  We've upgraded shooting so well that it not only became OP but also demanded special attention. We've replaced all shooting sounds: from loading to firing.
  
  
• Improved body looting
  More convenient looting, especially for the new controls. When attempting to search an "empty" body, you'll get a quick and unobtrusive notification without opening the loot window.
  
  
• Removed camera restrictions in boarding scenes
  Since we've finally replaced most of the boarding decks in the game, we can now afford the luxury of disabling camera restrictions during boarding. Just don't look up on first and second-rate boarding decks. All for the better: someday we'll put marksmen on the fighting tops.
  
  
• Various fixes
  Bugs, spelling, crashes, exploits, improvements. There won't be a list - we still have chaos in this department. But I can say for certain: today is better than yesterday, and tomorrow will be better than today.
  

[h3]Mod of the Month[/h3]
It's been a month since we added modding support. Unfortunately, no proper mods for Helen and Mary have been released during this time, but the community has still rolled out plenty of cool stuff.

For example, Direct Sail feature improvement mod by Gregg. Allows you to travel the game immersively - without using the global map. This feature has always been in the game, but we hid because it was a potential bugfest. Nevertheless, you often asked to make it work properly, and what we couldn't or didn't want to do, the talented modders might do.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3433429137

Thanks, Gregg.
[h3]DLC[/h3]
This is us announcing the announcement of the second part of the Ships Pack DLC series. You'll meet Captain Albert Blackwood and his madness, actively employing new shooting and treasure mechanics in the process. A full Steam page with release date will appear next week.



See you at sea.
ːjollyrː

Hoist the topsails, set course for the bay of creativity!
Greetings from Kirill, I'm delighted to meet you all once again.

In this dev diary, we'll talk about a mechanic that is expected and loved in every pirate game - treasure hunting.
It has long needed reworking and revision, and has probably been waiting for its time longer than all other mechanics combined.

[h2]The Issue[/h2]

Treasure hunting is a theme shrouded in romance, mystery, and a thirst for exploration, and the gameplay implementation should reflect this. Since we currently don't have the opportunity to rework the treasure hunting process itself, we'll be working on the content.

Now, the big question. What would you prefer to find in a hidden treasure after sailing halfway through the archipelago in search of it:

Something valuable and immersive, telling a story and resembling what a real person might have hidden.

OR

Thirty cutlasses, twenty nails.

I'm more inclined towards the first option, but the game currently implements the second - and that's a problem. The treasure generation is too chaotic, and players can't influence it except by reloading before activating the map.
You might get lucky and find great items in your very first treasure, or you might dig up several treasures in a row and find only junk. Zero roleplay.

[h2]Treasure Generation[/h2]

Let's go step by step, starting from the moment you pick up a map.

Treasures are no longer a simple random number generator; now they're a complex and intricate random number generator with a bunch of conditions.

When generating a treasure upon picking up a map, the game checks many parameters, including:

• Map level (whether it's a simple map or one assembled from halves)
  
• Luck skill
  
• Number of treasures you found so far
  
• Accountant perk check
  

Based on these parameters, the boundaries of treasure tiers are calculated, after which a random one is selected.

Treasure tiers, in turn, determine the relative value of treasures and the list of items that can and cannot be generated in them. There are 15 tiers in total, and the set of items for each tier has been manually selected to look as immersive as possible.

Thus, treasure hunting transforms from a moderately useful side activity into a profession in which you can improve. The more treasures you find the more valuable they become. By enhancing your luck and taking a higher-level map, you can jump through several tiers at once.
The Accountant background becomes an ideal choice for finding better treasures, as it reaches high tiers much faster.



Here's an example of a low-tier treasure and a high-tier one. Reaching high treasure tiers isn't easy, but the reward is worth it.

[h2]Content Generation[/h2]

As I mentioned above, each treasure tier has its own set of items for generation, but what are these items?

In general, treasure contents are divided into 4 sections. Within each section, a treasure has a certain number of slots that can be filled with items available at the current treasure tier, each with different probabilities.

Items are generated in such a way that treasures are as diverse as possible - getting 2 identical items from 2 consecutive treasures is practically impossible.
Some items may be encountered only once, but this is a rare exception.
The Accountant background increases the probability of filling slots, making the average value of treasures higher.



These are 2 treasures taken right at the start of a new game in free play mode. Note the difference in content with and without the Accountant perk.

[h3]Equipment[/h3]

This category includes melee and firearms, armor, spyglasses, and hats.
It's worth mentioning that in free play mode, quest items from story mode can now be found in treasures.
For example, a katana can be found from tiers 11 to 14.
Each treasure can have 1 to 3 equipment slots filled.

[h3]Valuables[/h3]

This category includes money, jewelry, pearls, gems, crafting items, gold, and doubloons.
At high treasure tiers, you can find extremely valuable items - arrows, bombs, mangarosa, and a few other very special things.
From 1 to 5 valuable slots can be filled.



Here's an example of a high-tier treasure that contained bombs and arrows. Finding it required quite a bit of effort on a character with the Accountant background.

[h3]Special Items[/h3]

This category includes maps, amulets, treasure map fragments, hourglasses, chronometers, and so on.
All amulets are divided by their value to the player at different stages of the game and have a lower tier threshold for appearance, but no upper threshold.
For example, holy water and powder testers can drop at any treasure tier, from 1 to 15.
From 1 to 4 slots can be filled, plus 1 additional slot for a treasure map half, if it can appear.

[h3]Lore Items[/h3]

This section will always contain one item - a note from the treasure. We've prepared numerous small stories, some funny, some sad, which players can collect and keep in a special document in their journal.
Each of these notes appears only once, and players can earn an achievement for collecting all of them.



Here's just one example - someone's story, tragic or comical. Is the author of this note alive? I guess we'll never know.

[h2]Conclusion[/h2]

We hope to make treasure hunting as exciting and unique as possible, as it deserves to be, and we'll emphasize this in a future DLC.
Share your thoughts in Discord, and we'll see you in future dev diaries!

Kirill, Black Mark Studio
:jollyr:

Work in progress

We've updated beta 1.3.7. You can access the beta the same way as before — by selecting it in your Steam settings.



A new game is not required.

[h2]General:[/h2]
Various fixes and improvements. This work never stops.

• The flashback segment in "Long Shadows of Old Sins" companion quest has been redesigned, as well as all combat scenes for Charlie Knippel
  
• Fixed a bug in the "Mousetrap" quest where if you talk to Kaspar Gratton and immediately leave the location without letting the NPC reach the pier
  
• In the beginning of Sandbox mode, the dialogue with Sandro now has a new camera
  
• Fixed a bug with immortal Tonzag after the ending of "The Nemesis"
  
• In the "More Than Gold" quest, Angerran's phrase has been changed if you complete the quest before the defense of Saint Pierre
  
• Fixed controls for Steam Deck
  
• Fixed animations for secondary characters
  
• Updated German localization
  
• Fixed a bug during a court visit in "The Pirate Saga" quest
  

Proofreading of German, Spanish, French and Polish versions, as well as translation into Ukrainian and Hungarian, is already in full swing in the separate Discord translators channel. If you're interested in speeding up the release of official translations, welcome to join us!

[h2]Mods:[/h2]
We continue to improve support for user modifications.

• Scripts have been moved to GitHub
• Added tools for modders to avoid a new game requirement
  
• The engine will have a new function to get a list of mods and their full paths
  
• All documentation in the official wiki will be updated soon
  

[h2]Controls:[/h2]

We've fixed and improved a lot - all thanks to your feedback. But don't limit ourselves with only fixing, we continue to add new features to the new controls and camera scheme. We haven't even begin balancing it though, so the Sharpshooter's background is currently the most overpowered. Seize the moment!

• Fixed camera in cutscenes. There were many complaints about camera glitches in cutscenes. We've made every effort to fix this bug, and now it no longer occurs. If you encounter it again, please let us know
  
  
• Fixed control disabling in combat. Finding and fixing this problem was difficult, but after significant code rework, the bug no longer appears. If it occurs again, please report it with a detailed description of the conditions
  
  
• Significantly improved maneuverability. We've reworked the character's reaction speed to button presses, as well as acceleration and deceleration dynamics, especially in combat mode. The mechanism for changing direction during running has been changed — the character no longer performs a long, uncontrollable animation. Now control and positioning are much more convenient
  
  
• Adaptive turning speed. Many complained about the inconvenience of turning the character with the free camera. Now the turning speed increases depending on the angle of deviation from the camera, allowing quick 180-degree turns almost in place. Finally, people will stop falling in caves
  
  
• Fixed turning in aiming mode. Character behavior in aiming mode has become significantly smoother and more consistent
  
  
• Improved interaction with NPCs. Increased responsiveness when interacting with NPCs and improved adaptation to the over-the-shoulder camera
  
  
• Fixed the running issue during looting. The character no longer continues running in place after activating interaction with objects (searching corpses, chests)
  
  
• Fixed swimming and diving suits. Underwater swimming and movement in diving suits, including Justice Island, now work correctly
  
  
• Sprint in peaceful mode no longer consumes energy. You asked — we delivered. There may be minor bugs due to complex interaction with the hostility mode. Report any inconsistencies, and we'll fix them promptly
  
  
• Adaptive camera for swimming. The long-standing problem with the awkward camera while swimming has been fixed. Now when swimming above water, the camera automatically adjusts, providing an excellent view. We recommend testing it at Justice Island!
  
  
• New strafing animations. The old sideways running animations looked inappropriate and drew unwanted attention. Now they've been replaced with more realistic and attractive animations
  
  
• Headshots. Damage from headshots is doubled, combining with critical hits and aiming mechanics. While this mechanic is not yet balanced, enjoy spectacular 1000-damage shots without much effort
  

[h3]To be continued in 1.4[/h3]
ːjollyrː