Announcements Page 1
Hi everyone, MK here. Well as always there is a lot to talk about regarding our common interests here.
Where to begin…. hmmmm.
Well I guess I should start off by talking a little about what’s going on with me. A lot of REALLY bad stuff has happened to me on a personal level in the last six months and I almost quit all of this completely because of it. I have known Death for a long part of my life. Most of my friends are dead and many family members as well – a few very dear family members have been gone a while now.
This year, Death has been a close personal acquaintance and a house guest for the last few months – and I just would like him to leave now and go back to his own home – and leave me alone and those I love for the time being.
I’m afraid that just isn’t going to happen however, with aging friends, family and dogs in ever declining health. Maybe I should start playing chess with him – or maybe poker. HA! LOL!
I was even in such a melancholy mood a short while back that I began writing poetry – something I have never really done before unless it was something I was working into one of my stories. Here’s a sampling. I even wrote about death. You will have to scroll down to the last part of the page. MK’s dark poems
Amusingly enough, its been my book research and playing/developing our favorite video game here that has really kept my mood healthy and helped me the most through this period in my life. I want to thank my friends and our mod team for making that possible. Thank you my friends.
I know that I have not changed the website over to the new domain yet as I said I was going to months ago. A lot of this just has to do with time and energy. However, it really has just as much to do with a simple lack of interest – both on your part and mine.
Some of you who actually care, keep telling me that if we would just change the website and forum over to a new design and domain that the interest will finally come – in a meaningful noticeable way.
I am sure you guys are correct, but with everything I’ve got going on in my life right now, updating the website is not at the top of my priority list.
I have done one really fun thing this year! We took a trip to Mexico. I visited Cozumel, Merida, and the ancient city of Uxmal. I got some essential tips for my book from the Merida archive and about the Reef under the Scorpion where Laurens DeGraaf used to hang out with his pirates. I really needed to take this trip and plan to take another when the summer heat lets up.
I learned some other interesting things on this trip. Do you realize our old friend Henry Morgan used to hang out on Cozumel to reprovision and rest up? Spanish authorities became so pissed off about the natives helping pirates visiting Cozumel that they deported them to mainland Mexico! This is a location that IS going in the game. Also Merida was both a place pirates hung out and a place they attacked. Much more to come about these places in the future.
We had the chance to visit a bunch of Mayan cities (Tulum, Chitzan-Itza or Uxmal) but with our schedule and the other activities we wanted to do more, I settled on only one spot this time. Uxmal – it was a no brainer – less well known, no crowds, and you can still climb the ruins. This place is actually immense and bigger than the others. One of the guides told me it went on for miles but had been overgrown with jungle.
You could see several pyramids peering out of the vegetation that have not yet been excavated outside of the main site. I captured them in photos. Take a look at my FLICKR photo album of these if you’re interested. It was very impressive. Ancient Mayan City of UXMAL
As far as my books are concerned I have written several new chapters I had never originally intended and the Index and Note work goes well. On my illustration efforts however, there have been some brick-walls. I have not been able to obtain permission to use several pictures. One academic institution wouldn’t even accept my application to sign into their website which I found both cronyistically typical and frustrating. I have not been able to get back to Barbados or Merida this year to finish research in a couple of essential areas. Next year for sure – especially since I’ve made some life decisions.
I was planning to go back to work full time this year as well and the worse things got recently the more convinced I became that this would be the right thing for me to do. I could make more money to help out family and keep my mind engaged and busy in order to forget and ignore all of the bad things in my world.
However, I have decided against going back to work yet and there are some very good reasons. First and foremost are the breakthroughs that we have been making in the last six months regarding our favorite game. These things have been so dramatic that I have chosen not to go back to work full time for the foreseeable future. Second, is that the sporadic consulting work I do is more than enough to augment my already fat military field grade pension and military disability.
Our game improvements continue to be so satisfying. We really have created a brand new game and this is just going to become more and more evident to everyone as we implement all of the new content we are working on and new DLC’s in the future – which I will talk more about at the end of these announcements.
Jeffrey’s continuing breakthroughs in fixing and improving the games appearance and performance are just incredible. Orazio’s new cabins, decks, and his new Santiago de Compostella galleon are amazing and just add a whole new dimension to the game.
My own breakthroughs with new ships, improving ships and new textures for new towns and ships – continue to occupy my time with a great deal of satisfaction. Soon you will all be able to see the fruits of my continuing labors yourselves.
So in this new site refresh I would like to point your attention to a few items of interest.
First off, be sure to keep a watch on the pirate stories section again. I have been editing and writing on my stories of historical fiction again. The next installment of Piet Heyn’s saga is just around the corner.
Second, my next installment of the Pirates of Puerto Rico history lecture series is ready for you to read HERE. I really have gone overboard this time. Sometimes I don’t realize just how much I write. I was writing a lot of this article at the same time as I was putting new content into my book manuscripts, so I got a little carried away.
I have cut a bunch of content out and made numerous edits. I knew I needed to when I sent the document to myself via email and saw that it was nearly 60 pages long! A little long for a historical article eh. Well all I have to say is – it’s me – and it’s my article and people that know and read my stuff will get it. Suffice it to say – if you do actually read the whole thing – you will know a LOT more about pirate history than you ever knew before LOL.
Next take a look at my article on Votive Models HERE. I am certain that many of you have no idea about what a votive model actually even is.
I have changed the ship of the month to Orazio’s galleon. To see what I have featured, simply scroll down the home page to the bottom.
The next two features include an explanation of shortcomings in models we are missing for the game and a place to access ship plans for modelers. Look for an upcoming forum feature topic very soon of the Best and Worst models in ERAS2 – this will be a continuation of a topic which I started on Pirates Ahoy! years ago. To see the original discussion click HERE
There are a couple of new historical articles I am working on but they are not yet finished. They will be soon, so continue to check for them here.
MODELING CONTEST!
To go along with this I want to announce a modeling contest that will include sizeable cash awards. I am doing this for several reasons.
1) because we are missing some key historical models that will make our game more historically complete and immersive.
2) because there are modelers out there who have already built some beautiful models for other games or mods, but have never shared them (intentionally, unintentionally or indifferent) beyond those limited spaces. In some cases these are games and mods that are dead, dying, or have not continued to develop – so only a handful of people have been able to play with these models.
I not only want to give these modelers a chance to show-case their work here and be recognized, but also a chance to be publicly rewarded for their talent, excellence and achievement. I want their work to be appreciated in ways it may not be or never could be currently. So the obvious reward is accolades and acknowledgement, but I also wanted to sweeten the desire to compete with cash rewards as well. Its a win win scenario.
So they get exposure and acknowledgement if they want it and win money for winning the contest and making their models available for many more people to play with. Its good exposure and everyone wins! In some cases I don’t think these modelers even realize that they can actually freely give their models to us for use. However, I have the contract in the case of Portalus/Flying Labs and POTBS that spells out that they can give away their models to anyone they wish.
I truly hope this brings some talent out of the woodwork who will show off their work, give us some new ships, and win some money and recognition in the process. The winners will be decided by your votes as members of the REEF. For more about the contest and its rules and prize amounts please click MODELING CONTEST RULES.
Also take a look at this topic about what ships we are missing to get an idea about the kinds of models we would really love to see built: SHIPS WE NEED
One last thing on this subject – modelers can enter more than one model in the contest. Also Orazio as a core developmental team member and co-owner of the REEF and ERAS is still entitled to enter his models and he can vote on them as well. He is even allowed to enter his galleon into the contest regardless of the fact it is already in our game. Its only fair. I heartily encourage all modelers to come forward and show us what they’ve got!
Speaking of modelers I would like to welcome the great Yo Ho Ho to Buccaneer’s Reef! He has kindly offered his models of the English Restoration Era ships to us that I covered in the last set of announcements. I hope he will consider entering one or more of these fine ships in our contest.
Thanks also to Galleon for contacting him and also his efforts in trying to contact Rider88 on PA! and in getting ahold of the plans he had hung up on their dead FTP some time ago.
Unfortunately his efforts (which he was simply carrying out to assist me because I am banned there – [including IP banned and cannot sign up for a membership or communicate with anyone there]) in contacting people who might be able to help us – were called out by a PA! admin who I will not name here – who called his simple message “underhanded”.
Outrageous and just stupid but no surprise anymore. To read the string and get the story,
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/interesting-ship-plans.17705/
https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/full-correspondence-between-pa-and-mk/
Some of you may remember Rider88. He is the very talented modeler that brought us the Heavy Dutch Brigantine in the game which was also known as the Brandenburg brigantine. He also built/converted the Elessarias Xebec for GOF and converted the POTBS Postillionen.
He did a LOT of great stuff over on PA! and I think he probably still would be doing stuff over there if they had actually really cared about supporting COAS. The last things he was working on before he disappeared was some nice mid sized Dutch Galleons the Roter Lowe and Geenierde Provincien and the Saint Piotr Snow. Take a look – the topics are still there.
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/rotter-lowie-galeon-20-guns-1597.18217/
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/geunieerde-provincien-1603.18544/
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/sviatoi-piotr-st-peter-snow.18331/
I have wished for some years that we could get that BEAUTIFUL little snow into GOF ERAS, and the only place I’ve seen it is in the Secret Beach Quadratic Team efforts.
As always I like to save the best for last, so I am going to talk about other efforts taking place in the world of pirate gaming news scene first before our own.
OTHER PIRATE GAMING NEWS:
QUADRATIC TEAM: Secret Beach
Wow I have been so disappointed until today. There has been no activity on this project since March. In January, Mett had said he was going to stop work. There was some talk on the Russian forums of someone stealing a 3D model cannon from them and they were very upset.
Not sure what happened with all of that but I am SO ELATED that they are still working on this new game mod for STORM 2.8. This is quite frankly a completely new game. However a game that does not enjoy a new state of the art rebuilt and twenty times faster more efficient engine like we have in ERAS Maelstrom(TM) Engine. I think our teams could really benefit from working together.
AMAZINGLY a new video came out today on the Quadratic Team’s youtube channel. LINK This project is still going forward! Yeay!!! I am so glad! What these guys are doing with new locations is nothing short of amazing. It looks as though METT has some kind of developer tool kit for the engine that we do not. Sure wish we did – because there would already be half a dozen new locations in ERAS2 if we did!
So check out this video. If you really want to be teased beyond belief, take a look at 1:10 to 1:17. Also the last 10 minutes are some of the best as far as new location content creation is concerned. Just WOW!
Also look at the beautiful little Dutch schallop at around minute 1:16.15 …that with all of the other new ships they are working on! With that tool kit I feel like our engine could be everything Unity is now. Unnoticed Eastern built tools I guess sometimes are never considered or get a real chance in the west perhaps. If Mett had our new engine I would bet he wouldn’t have all the lag you see in this video.
Here’s the video link. LATEST SECRET BEACH VIDEO
I haven’t yet contacted Mett on his Skype address that he gave me months ago. Its not that I don’t want to, its just that I don’t have Skype or know anything about it. Yeah I know – I am not with the times. I guess I will have to learn if I want to get anywhere – right? This is one of the reasons that Galleon is so willing and able to coordinate for me because he has good access to excellent new tools and the places he needs to go. I on the other hand am just an aging dinosaur.
Anyway, while looking for more new content over there on the Russian sites I came across a beautiful little 17th century sloop model by a guy named Chandos built years ago in 2009. DAMN I wish I had seen this back when it was built and available. Unfortunately all links to download it are now long dead. Damn I would love to have her in ERAS2. I love little ships and half of my game play is with little ships. Here’s a picture:
I continued to poke around and found out some of these guys were working on yet another commercially released mod for COAS in Russian only called Pirates of the Mediterranean Seas. I had never heard of this one before and managed to download a few things out of it that might be useful. Most of the download links were dead. Wow there was some great content in these mods. Take a look at these pictures below to get an idea of what I am talking about.
Wow if anyone out there knows where I can score a copy of this whole COMPLETE software package please let me know.
After looking even deeper into more Russian game websites I was able to put two and two together. I realized that the beautiful little snow by Rider88 that we saw on PA! – which was never released there;
http://www.piratesahoy.net/threads/sviatoi-piotr-st-peter-snow.18331/
…and can also be found in Secret Beach! Look at the photo below from their awesome development. It’s not the one in the center (which is also amazing!) its the ones behind it.
So I now believe that Rider88 and Chandos are one and the same – with Chandos as his handle on some of the Russian forums. THIS is why I asked Galleon to inquire on PA! about getting those ships and plans. Just take a look at the beautiful work that this fine modeler has achieved. I would really LOVE to get these ships into ERAS. Also I will be truly disappointed if Mett does not finish Secret Beach. He has done so many amazing things with this mod. It would be such a pity if it all went to waste.
If you’re reading Mett – PLEASE KEEP WORKING MATE! Your effort is AWESOME! I know it can get frustrating – better than about anyone. I almost gave up on ERAS a dozen times plus…
For our audience here, I would ask that you leave comments on that last video he put up to show positive interest and support. THANKS!
Also an appeal to Rider88/Chandos if he ever looks at our little website here: Dude your work is just stellar! Please consider sharing some of it with a group of guys who would REALLY enjoy and appreciate it! Regardless – consider joining our modeling contest and all our best to you from Buccaneer’s Reef!
Take a look at these beautiful pictures. Mett told me if there was enough interest that he would consider an English version. My son who is STILL living at home because the university he was going to discontinued its advanced language studies degree – because of a lack of qualified faculty… my son who is almost fluent in Russian – (Hraktuus here on the Reef) I am certain would be willing to assist with translation. In fact I think he would really enjoy it!
Now after looking at that last picture of the French frigate Aurora (or Renominee?) I have to say – Isn’t she pretty?! WOW I would love to have that ship in our game! I have also been wondering if maybe this ship wasn’t shared with someone on Naval Action. Why? continue reading and see… (I’m sure they just look similar)
*NOTE you know it occurs to me that the great modeler BAVA on PA! was building one like that too. I wonder whatever happened with that model??? He seemed to have gone silent a long while back as well. Could be the quality of the air and atmosphere where he was contributing maybe? IDK I knew I had to get out of there. LOL
Naval Action:
Well a lot of things have continued to change with naval action. In our last installment I mentioned that they were failing on many levels and things were going badly for them. I also made some recommendations. Surprisingly enough it appears that they followed a couple of my recommendations, however I think it is too little too late and the way they are implementing some of these new things is still not going to make a lot of people (who at one time were hopeful and dedicated fans) very happy.
Now when I use the word “failing” I don’t believe at all that this game will ever completely “fail”. It will enjoy a following for years. What I mean to say is that the interest is now gone. Players have been leaving them in droves – and they continue to even with the changes they have been implementing in the last six months. It all comes down to giving your customer what he wants and their business model has always been about presenting the optimal offering that the most people would consume at a given time.
One of the sad things about that is that SO many people believed for such a long time, that these folks really actually cared more about giving players that true historical experience in many flavors and options that would truly offer an amazingly diverse set of opportunities to play the game in many different configurations, time periods, styles of play, with many unique and wonderful models available from numerous time periods, etc…
They allowed people for the longest time – teasing them even for years – that many of those things could be possible. So the damn shame is that many of those things WERE possible and STILL ARE possible given the talent and the money behind this project.
However, I think its now too late for them. The type of player they have in the current population will be the type of player they continue to have. The broader appeal brought about by what was possible is now gone and made even worse for many because they contaminated the historical playing field with fantasy (meaning a large pirate faction in Napoleonic times) and changed many of the old rules in order to accommodate these changes.
There is a good side to this. While I still think their pirate faction is a giant bit of laughable silliness, implemented pirate play options at the lowest level and with smaller ships and with AI play as well! WOW! that looks and sounds fun and if you remember some of my older rants, sounds like they might have just listened to some of my long time recommendations. WHOAAA! now that’s interesting eh?
How about a consultant kick back dudes? No? Oh well, Anyway take a look at these videos below. Here you will see their newest offering – the new pirate frigate – AURORA! Same model??? I could be possibly??? IDK… and I think that some of the new smaller ships also look remarkably like some of the ones from Secret Beach. Wow! Does that mean they could share them with other efforts? Like us??? One can only hope right?
I love this next guy’s videos and commentary – intelligent and hilarious. He agrees with me that the pirates SHOULD NOT be their own nation in this game as it is now constructed. In his own words “it is a bit ridiculous.” However from watching his videos alone, I have decided to give this another try – Albeit I will only ever play limited small single ship actions with ships I actually like.
Even with all of these new features, most of the things I read and see on their forums and all of the youtube vids I have watched on the subject – seem to be very critical as to how they are continuing their way forward with the game. The consensus is that this game is still losing big-time popularity and players. I still say their true key to survival and retaining a large diverse gaming population, is in having other earlier eras portrayed with 16th and 17th century ships/battles AND a version that is completely offline dependent solely upon solid AI play.
I will continue to watch this. As I commented on that last video, those little ship to ship engagements are actually a reason for me to possibly play now.
I may actually have to try it out – especially with that BEAUTIFUL Aurora Pirate Frigate! I still hate the large engagements though – with all of the myriad 18th century Napoleonic ships lumbering about (out of line most of the time LOL – looking like engagements from two centuries prior LOL) – they all look nearly identical.
Its kind of like watching cereal boxes at Walmart shoot at each other. Oh well, some people enjoy watching golf, or women’s Olympic curling – Not me – but TO Each his Own. Right?
LOST ISLAND
Nothing new to report on the Lost Island effort in Unity. I wish there were as it looks like the most promising Age of Sail Unity based effort online. Take a look at the February announcements to see their video if you haven’t already. February Announcements 2017
SKULL AND BONES
Holy Crap there is a new pirate game on the horizon by Ubisoft and it looks REALLY BAD! It seems like they just don’t listen to anyone these days. This game seems like it is a quick non-developed fast money grab. There is no land component or combat in the game and the boarding actions are strictly cinematic only. This is simply a ship to ship battle simulation and an EXTREMELY HORRIBLE simulation at that. Why??? Because they used the ship battle components lifted directly out of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag to make this game.
What does that mean? Simply put: Ships which behave and maneuver like speed boats. Ships which aren’t in the least an accurate historical representation of sailing warships from this time in history – instead they look like cartoon fantasy anime monstrosities which possess clipper stun’sails and warhammer mortars.
Laughable! HA!!! Cannons and cannonballs which behave like giant Hollywood blockbuster explosions BOOM which can sink a ship with a single volley!
It looks very exciting, but what kills me about it is — WHY OH WHY SWEET HARRIET WHY – CAN’T THEY FUNNEL ALL OF THIS CREATIVE EFFORT, GRAPHICAL BEAUTY, TALENT, AND MONEY INTO DEVELOPING A REALISTIC BELIEVABLE TRULY HISTORIC PIRATE GAME EXPERIENCE? Why OH TELL ME WHY???? Imagine a new AOP or POTBS offering with this kind of developmental power and talent behind it – with authenticity BEING their number one mantra. Imagine….. IMAGINE!!!! ahhhhh….
Come on Ubisoft, come give me some sugar baby – let us live as one. Come over here and let me help you get it right. OK baby? Yeah…that’s it.
No??? Well I made the offer anyway LOL! In the words of Cool Aid Man – “Oh Yeah!”
Take a look below my friends. What a hairy vomited raw seafood leavings abortion of a game…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqRpOxv-wAM&t=203s
…and speaking of leavings…
- Pirates Ahoy! Home of the Build Mod
Well its no surprise really to anyone who has been following this for a while – Hearts of Oak is dead. This doomed project started off going in the wrong direction from the beginning. From the votes and surveys which were not followed or honored, to the bad decisions made by poorly historically educated admins who only care about minecraft and movies, to the leap frogging back and forth between developmental tools and engines, and disjointed developmental leadership, this project needed to die.
It was worse than a dwarf transgender anime version of Frankenstein’s monster high on crack. I hated the name Farts of Smoke from the get-go which proclaims a British Royal Navy centric game set after the age of piracy was over during the Napoleonic era. If that was the kind of game they wanted to develop (against the will of their majority voting population who FAVORED the Golden Age of Piracy) they would have done better to call it “Jack Aubrey beats up French people and Helpless Spanish peasants – AT SEA!!!”
Rest in Peace, Carts of Joke: Conquest of the Cheese. Kinda reminds me of the old Monte Python sketch on RAF banter during WW2 – “Cabbage Crates coming over the Briney” LOL – I date myself badly I know. Google it.
So what are they doing now you ask? Well if you care about what they are up to, you already know. They are simply taking all of the junk they did in Unity for Barks of Coke and transferring it over to a new version of New Horizons they are working on – that won’t be at all very piratey in the least – if they stick in all of that content from AFTER the historical age of piracy was already OVER…..and that’s about it except I must also mention….
That Jeffrey has already offered them a new version of New Horizons that runs perfectly and flawlessly with NO crashing on our own Buccaneer’s Reef(TM) Maelstrom(TM) Engine! Here are the discussions and links for the game if you are interested in downloading it.
https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/pirates-ahoy-sold-down-the-river/
https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/new-horizons-2-8-engine-and-directx-9/
Maelstrom Engine supported DL for New Horizons: https://mega.nz/#F!L001VaYZ!hwNV3uh3sQPbKDkOeDvrcg
Here’s the PA! discussion: http://piratesahoy.net/threads/announcing-new-horizons-remastered-bringing-our-best-work-to-unity.28589/
SEA DOGS: To Each His Own
Well despite my criticism that this game is too cryptic and difficult, they are still going very strong. This game is hardcore made for hardcore gamers and their devs just are not letting up on that. I guess I can respect that but it still disappoints me. I think I am a fairly experienced “hardcore” guy when it comes to the Storm games.
I am such an expert with a sword that you can give me the crappiest of swords and put me on an extremely high difficulty setting with few potions and I will still more often beat very high level characters. But even I – have to say that this game is too hard from a cryptic clue and searching standpoint – just too frustrating for me. My gaming time is coveted and I want to feel awesome when I finish a session – not angry, pissed or frustrated. I could go back to work if I wanted that. Most STEAM voters seem to agree.
If I was the chief developer I would require a special beta test from my other developers. Anytime a cryptic clue was inserted I would have one of the experienced devs standing by who had no idea what we had put together and then ask them to play through it while we observed.
Part of this test would be to time how long it takes for people to find stuff or figure things out. I would set a gateway of a twenty minutes on any search and if my tester couldn’t find it we would change something. OR I might develop a hint window that would pop up after so much time had elapsed to give me a hint on where to go or who I needed to talk to. THAT would be extremely helpful.
Anyway, these guys have some great DLCs already. Final Lesson, Flying the Black Flag, and the Caleuche. Their PR guy and English speaking Dev – Joruba – announced that they are working on a new one still in development. That is exciting for those who play this game and for me as well. I have purchased all of their DLCs even if I have only bumbled through them in a limited fashion and then become too frustrated.
This is still a fantastic Storm based offering and I hope one day their devs will offer a more mild experience for a larger gaming population. Here’s is Joruba’s last announcement on Steam and here’s the link to their Steam webpage:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/223330/Sea_Dogs_To_Each_His_Own/
Ahoy!
Hope you are doing well today! Though we are still developing the biggest DLC so far, there is always a room for minor updates.
Today we have enabled Steam Cloud support for Sea Dogs. It’s currently on beta, you can’t be sure of anything with this game engine.
Please tell us in the comments if it’s working correctly and you are not experiencing any issues with the game.
Thank you and good hunting!
JORUBA
BUCCANEERS REEF: GOF ERAS2(TM)
So here we are – back to us – our continuing efforts on GOF ERAS2. First off, you can see that I jinned up this new video in June. Actually I have other newer better ones I am working on now that will be available soon. So check back here and on my youtube channel for those.
https://www.youtube.com/user/modernknightone
We are doing GREAT things and I just continue to be amazed at all of the improvements Jeffrey is making.
This year Jeffrey has managed to get amazing new never before seen efficiency out of the game. He has improved, sound, graphics, and game stability to new heights. Crashes and memory leaks are quite frankly an artifact of the ancient past now.
He has built a version that operates reliably in DX9 and in 64bit configurations. His use of new versions of machine language both computational and graphical have led to great new efficiencies and game engine/platform modernity. This is not your father’s Oldsmobile.
This baby is now competitive with much newer and current games – and far beyond what other teams are doing with the old Storm 2.8 engine. He is also tinkering with a DX11 version, but I think that may be unnecessary for what we want our game to be and do at the present time. The DX9 64bit version already looks insanely clean and clear and long items menus and transition screens open and changeover in one or two seconds consistently!
Not only that but he has developed a new proprietary process which allows us to better manage models and texture formats and their sizes. This means modeling data is accessed much quicker and that models and textures in our new formats can be compressed much smaller far beyond what was formerly possible – but still retaining an extremely high detailed resolution.
What does this mean to you? It means that we can offer downloads that will be half the size they used to be with much more content. We knew we were going to need to grow with all of the new locations and ships still coming up the pipeline, and this allows us to do that.
Also imagine battle fleets which are double or even larger than they are now. Imagine a historical scenario where you run into the Spanish Treasure fleet and instead of seeing just 9 to 12 ships in the game, you will see 24 to 30 in the Spanish fleet much more mirroring historical truth. Imagine (including your fleet) and other ships in the local area and towns that the ships on the scene might be as high as 40 or 50! and imagine NO degradation to game play speed. NO LAG! These are things that you have to look forward to.
So here’s what we are up to. As I’ve alluded to in the past we have licensing pending for Buccaneer’s Reef, Gentlemen of Fortune and the Maelstrom Engine trademarks. A sound legal review of our exclusive created content tells us we can proceed as long as other content which is considered public domain is not sold commercially. This means that we will still be offering free stuff, but also paid stuff as well.
A big reason we are doing this is to try to get noticed. Free modding is great but it does not get your foot in the door with investors or people who would like to help take the effort to the next level. By having a paid for version with all of the best and latest content and updates, we can offer very reasonably priced game versions on Itch.io and perhaps even STEAM in the future.
We already have the Itch.io site up and running – we just need a few more things complete before we launch for public consumption. In addition we will be offering up new DLCs that will offer famous historical battle scenarios.
Historical Playable Scenarios
DLCs: Historical Pirate Battles
I discussed this already in a thread recently as a teaser. https://buccaneersreef.com/forums/topic/64-bit-version-success/
Here is some additional discussion on the subject with more:
With commercial licensing underway and with two separate downloads (one which is the free public domain RESOURCE content download) and others which will be BUCCANEERS REEF owned and licensed content and source/executable code which will NOT be free.
Contributing members (including testers) will receive keys for free downloads and TEAM MEMBERS (Me, Orazio, Jeffrey, and possibly others who I will not name now that may be coming on board) will share the royalties from the sales of the downloads. Once we have these complete – we may even transition from ITCH.IO to STEAM.
Our DLCs in development will offer many of the things Blackmark/TEHO is offering – but imagine historical scenarios instead.
Imagine on your GUI having the option of:
START NEW GAME —- OR —– PLAY HISTORICAL SCENARIO
Imagine then getting to play your choice of say 5 or 10 historical vignettes for instance:
Scenario 1) Gentlemen Stede Bonnet grabs his BALLS. You have joined Blackbeard but must ensure that the crew of your REVENGE does not depose you as captain and join Blackbeard aboard his Queen Anne’s Revenge while Blackbeard simply takes control of your ship and adds it to his fleet. YOU MUST CHALLENGE HIM AND CHANGE HISTORY.
Scenario 2) BLACKBEARD”S FINAL BATTLE: You are Edward Teach stuck on your sloop the ADVENTURE in Ocracoke Inlet. Lieutenant Maynard has found you and is attempting to put an end to your piratical antics. He has entered the bay with the crew complements of the HMS PEARL and HMS LYME aboard the commandeered merchant sloops JANE and RANGER. You must change history and win this fateful battle.
Scenario 3) BART ROBERTS final battle. Imagine you are the infamous BARTHOLOMEW ROBERTS aboard your famous English 4th Rate Pirate Flagship the ROYAL FORTUNE. The Royal Navy 3rd rater HMS SWALLOW and her escort have found you and they intend to destroy you. Perhaps if you don’t get killed by a cannonball you can change history and continue your illustrious career.
Scenario 4) Battle Under the Scorpion. (Bayo de Alacranes) It is the year 1684 and you are the trusted Spanish Pirate Hunter Andres Pez del Malarangza – You have been searching for infamous pirate warlord Laurens DeGraaf for months. He must be punished for his raids – especially the sack of Veracruz. You have found him on the Scorpion Reefs repairing his fleet and dividing the loot. You have a fleet of Spanish War Galleons and Zabras to finally put an end to him. Don’t let him escape! – and even more importantly don’t let him get the better of you with his fleet of Dutch pinnaces and his flagship – the captured Spanish War Galleon Neptuno (San Francisco).
Scenario 5) You are Pierre LeGrande. You and a small group of buccaneers have witnessed a Spanish galleon (Orazio’s model) come into a deserted harbor where you have been hunting. As the sun goes down, the Spaniards seem to have gone to bed early and there are only light watches on deck. The only vessel you have hidden around the inlet is a small Barque Longue. Can you and your small group slip aboard the Galleon un-detected and take over the ship? Is it possible? Find out and see…
Scanario 6) You can choose to play as James Flint, Henry Jennings or Charles Vane. You have found the wreck of the Urca de Lima with an untold fortune in Plate Fleet gold strewn upon the beach in scattered coins, ingots and chests. Can you get there first and claim it? Others are after this treasure too. Will you fight them for it? Could the Spaniards also be nearby wanting to reclaim their gold? You will have to play and find out.
Scenario 7) Great Pirate Raid of 1683: Choose to play as the Spanish Captain of the Guard, Alonso de Huidibro, or the pirate captains, Laurens De Graaf, Nicholas VanHoorn, Michiel De Grammont, or Jan Yankee Willems. If Spanish, you must defend Vera Cruz from the pirates and specifically keep the Governor from being killed. If a pirate, you will have to successfully take the city, kill the governor and take the spoils before a Spanish fleet shows up. If you are DeGraaf or VanHoorn you will have to win the duel at the end of the battle to decide how the loot is divided and the fates of the hostages.
…. and there are MANY more.
You will have your choice of playing either side and if you win the battle you will see the following:
“CONGRATULATIONS YOU HAVE WON THE BATTLE OF XXXXXX – Would you like to continue the game with this character and captured ships in freeplay mode?”
So you could then begin this particular game play-through at say level 15 or 20 already – and already have all of the captured ships and loot from the battle with no sailing penalties. Those items owned and gained during the scenario you will retain for this game. This will be especially nice for those people who always wanted to get into this game but had limited gaming time to spend dozens of hours building up a character and eventually gaining the higher end ships. As people know who play this game it can be very time consuming to build up your character.
Would you pay for a DLC with 5 or 10 of these famous battles? Jeffrey and I are betting that many will. If it’s resource content that is not owned by us and is public domain now, that part of it can already be downloaded into your ERAS game for free. You will only be paying for the new content owned by us. When I ran these scenarios by Jeffrey and he said that it was very doable – I was elated – and he was excited. He loved the idea. This is what I have been dreaming of for a very long time.
Our continuing game development has been a fascinating evolution to watch happen and even more fun to test. I have to tell you that I kind of feel like Willy Wonka from the Chocolate factory movies. I am certain also that Jeffrey feels this way.
You don’t know how many times that we have been approached by third parties this year asking for the source code for the new Maelstrom(TM) game engine. I feel like Slugworth has been skulking about in back alleys trying any way he can to get the ever-lasting gob stopper. Some of these ploys have just been hilarious. No one yet has offered us anything good in trade…. like working together or giving us models, etc…
So we are just going to continue onwards and see where all of this goes. You are welcome to ride along with us!
MK
Oh and one last thing…. I have given up on Bannerlord completely. I am not the only one. Apparently one of my old friends is also really upset about this as well LOL.
by modernknight1