Developer Diaries — III

[p][/p][p] While we're preparing a meaty developer diary on "Quest Improvements" — the winner of the recent poll — today we'll talk about the main character's property: equipment, items, ships, and goods. We've put a solid chunk of work into these. Fair warning to all fans — things are going to heat up towards the end...[/p][p][/p][p] But before we dive into the property overhaul — don't forget to add Age of Pirates to your wishlist![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Chapter 1 — Storage[/h2][p] A true captain isn't just a terror of the seas — let's be honest — they're also a professional hoarder and packrat. Sooner or later in the original game, everyone faced the same problem: the chests in your cabin are stuffed to the brim, and you'd really like to save all that plundered loot for later. Well... It's time to leave behind this nomadic romance and move on to civilized storage.[/p][p][/p][h3]Personal Vault[/h3][p] The lack of anywhere to store your hard-earned goods was frustrating. In the original, players had to exploit bugs — hiding items in stoves, caves, dubious chests on deck — which obviously wasn't ideal. Finally, the moneylender's house has been upgraded into a proper bank with a vault! Now, for a reasonable fee, you can use their services to safely store your belongings.[/p][p]Making storage arrangements before heading off to the Isle of Justice.[/p][p][/p][h3]Commodity Warehouse[/h3][p] Storing goods isn't the most sought-after feature, but for stockpiling players it'll be a dream come true. Now in every town, shipyard managers have joined forces with port authority chiefs to expand their warehouses into proper storage facilities. Specially trained clerks at the shipyard building will now offer cargo storage services at reasonable rates. [/p][p]With the warehouse, you can start stockpiling materials for Master Alexus in advance.[/p][p][/p][h3]Ship Docks[/h3][p] While storing items and goods is now possible, ship storage — though it existed from the start — needed an overhaul. Forget about clunky dialogues with the port authority chief and the need to assign an extra officer just to babysit your vessel at the docks.[/p]

• [p]Mooring a ship no longer requires a spare officer.[/p]
• [p]Under the new port authority rules, sailors no longer live aboard docked vessels. You can discharge them ashore with their wages or redistribute them across the rest of your squadron with a single click.[/p]
• [p]The port authority doesn't allow storing cargo in the hold. So when handing over your ship, you'll need to empty it. You can:[/p]
  • [p]Sell everything to the shop at once (contraband will be confiscated);[/p]
  • [p]Transfer the entire cargo to your flagship (if there's room);[/p]
  • [p]Offload it to a rented warehouse (slaves will be set free).[/p]

• [p]The docks will always have 3 slots available for ships, though there may be exceptions.[/p]

[p]All fleet management in the player's reserve is now handled through a convenient interface.[/p][p][/p][h3]A Place for Officers[/h3][p] An attentive player will likely have a reasonable question: "How do I keep my officers now if I can't hand them over with the ship?" Fair point, but... Let's be honest — the old mechanic of handing ships over to the Port Authority was sometimes used to bypass the officer limit. [/p][p] The exploit was simple: hand over an officer with any old tub for storage, hire a new one, retrieve the old one — and suddenly you have more officers than your (A) Allure allows, which we discussed in the first developer diaries. This turned yet another Main Character stat into a meaningless number and broke the intended progression.[/p][p] We've solved this problem radically but fairly: An officer's place is beside the captain. Since they're no longer "preserved" along with ships, the limit regains its meaning. This approach forces players to think more carefully about building their crew. You'll have to choose the best of the best.[/p][p]That said, there will be a way to keep officers around — but we'll save that little secret for release.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Chapter 2 — Goods[/h2][p] In this category, we tried not to mess too much with the balance and types of goods. Still, some changes related to ship cargo did happen. For example: [/p]

• [p]Players should now stock up on more medicine, as there was a bug with consumption rates;[/p]
• [p]Slaves can now be purchased on the new island of Providence, but in limited quantities;[/p]
• [p]Contraband goods can be bought in small amounts from shops with a special perk;[/p]
• [p]Trading with smugglers will now happen through an interface, not dialogues;[/p]
• [p]Pearl divers now give you actual ship cargo, not just fill your pockets with pearls.[/p]

[p][/p][p]However, our team understands the original still has many problems in this category: [/p]

• [p]lack of strategic goods for ship upgrades;[/p]
• [p]historically and logically questionable goods;[/p]
• [p]no interaction between production buildings and the player;[/p]
• [p]no ability for players to produce goods by starting their own business;[/p]
• [p]goods are barely connected to other gameplay aspects, representing only basic trade and plunder;[/p]
• [p]icons and rarity of goods are often hard to identify.[/p]

[p]Working on improved cargo icons. For now, we can only show a very rough draft.[/p][p] In the future, we'll try to pay more attention to this gameplay aspect and approach the problem more comprehensively. Maybe you have thoughts on this — share them in the comments![/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Chapter 3 — Items and Equipment[/h2][p] The entire list of items in the game — from important documents to cold steel — has undergone a massive overhaul. Let's break down the changes and improvements into several main directions.
[/p][h3]Visual Changes[/h3][p]Icons for almost all items have been redrawn not just for aesthetic pleasure and historical accuracy (in the case of weapons), but also for convenient readability:[/p]

• [p]markers: bonus +, mixed ±, negative - and set *;[/p]
• [p]backgrounds: quest (gray), unique (purple), and legendary (gold);[/p]
• [p]charge count and ammo type.[/p]

[p]Three icon versions, since the AT 1.3.2 patch from BlackMark Studio was only available in Russian.[/p][p][/p][h3]Semantic Changes[/h3][p] First and foremost, we revised the names of some melee weapons, matching them to historical analogues of the era (where possible). We did extensive work with historical sources, examined some of the blades at the Hermitage exhibition, and consulted with fencing reenactors. [/p][p]It was the amateur mod "Reblading", which replaced the weapon arsenal, that started BlackMark Studio's journey.[/p][p] A monetary reform deserves special mention for the sake of logical financial relations. This might remind you of the doubloon mechanic from CL. Now the hero's pockets will jingle with the well-known silver piastres, while heavy chests stuffed with gold remain reserved for serious matters like ship upgrades.[/p][p][/p][h3]Functional Changes[/h3][p]These are essentially gameplay and QoL changes. We tried to fix old problems and expand the player's equipment options. Here are some of these improvements:[/p]

• [p]more firearms, including the blunderbuss (the original had a meager selection);[/p]
• [p]restoration of unused items from the original;[/p]
• [p]documents can now be conveniently read in a separate interface;[/p]
• [p]new ammo types for firearms;[/p]
• [p]proper resurrection with the jade skull;[/p]
• [p]item and potion crafting;[/p]
• [p]and... a rebalance of bonus items.[/p]

[p]Thanks to his backstory, Peter Blood is the only one who starts with the "Alchemy" perk.[/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h2]Chapter 4 — Bonus Items[/h2][p]And now — the promised heat. The ancient Mayan gods grew angry and stripped almost all enchantments from their idols, totems, and artifacts. And not just those...[/p][p]You can see some of the cut items from the game that have been restored in AoP.[/p][p]After studying the ins and outs of the leveling system, it became clear: the old "bonuses from the backpack" mechanic is hard to justify and leave "as is". Let's highlight several problem points: [/p][h3]Artifact Slots[/h3][p]Let's start with the fact that the original has no slots for bonus items. This means the mechanic of getting bonuses from your backpack is very hard to balance and expand with new items. Your first thought might be — "Just add slots or port everything from CL!" [/p][p]Well, another popular mod already added slots for bonus items, but it didn't make things better. It's still quite imbalanced — items can be easily juggled at any moment, turning into excessive actions, routine, and inventory clutter. Taking this mechanic from CL doesn't fit AoP conceptually.
[/p][h3]Devaluation of Progression[/h3][p]Keeping all these bonus items in your backpack is quite easy and doesn't require anything from the player in return, except weight. Moreover, they all become useless junk once all skills reach their maximum values.[/p][p]Let's say even if an item permanently gives +10 Stealth just because the player rummaged through ordinary containers rather than something valuable, that's a bad mechanic to begin with.[/p][p]For example: Giving +20 Navigation (Atlau) in a barrel on the global map with the possibility of save-scumming is an example of bad game design. Such an item breaks linear progression, allowing you to jump an entire ship class higher.[/p][p]Giving too few bonuses from many items means cluttering the player's inventory, which isn't good either.
[/p][h3]Value of Rewards[/h3][p]Thirdly, unique items are very hard to make desirable for players, as is adding new ones as quest rewards. If a regular idol gives 20 pistols and 10 accuracy (out of 100), then what should the hard-to-obtain and set bonuses from the great Toltec skulls give? 50 out of 100 everywhere? But that leads to the next point...
[/p][h3]Lack of Logic[/h3][p]And my favorite — there's a certain absurdity that such seriously enhancing items are lying around everywhere, yet the game's lore doesn't explain where these wondrous properties come from. And moreover — nobody is particularly interested in them, except for quest-specific bonus items. [/p][p]Additionally, it's a bit strange that all these enchanted things work "out of the box" on a European. [/p][p][/p][h3]Conclusions[/h3][p]It would be great to see a separate mechanic for shamanism/Christianity with obtaining bonuses. But introducing such a gameplay layer just for bonus items is a bad idea — such a theme should comprehensively affect the entire game. [/p][p]And that's a huge resource expenditure and pushing back the release date. I think everyone's a bit tired. Players are tired of waiting, and the team is tired of adding new things and reimagining old ones without live feedback.[/p][p]Besides, we have a monstrous design document for a mechanic that could easily replace the old bonus items. But for now, let's not rush — we might overload the game and the player's brain, so it's better to take it slow and postpone it for later. [/p][p][/p][hr][/hr][h3]📢 What's next?[/h3][p]Leave a thumbs up and write your comments. We're always glad for feedback and criticism — even the kind that sometimes sounds negative. We're doing this for you and for the game we've always dreamed of ourselves.[/p][p] As a bonus, we'd like to share a concept of our new land interface with you.[/p][p][/p][p]See you in the next issue of the developer diaries![/p]