Fellow swashbucklers, We’ve released another update for the free prologue which brings over new features and improvements from version 1.0.12 of the full game. Highlights include a new third-person sailing view, a streamlined system for issuing orders in ship battles, VR steering improvements and much more! Check out the list of notable changes below: [b]Buccaneers! The New Age of Piracy (Prologue) Version 1.0.04[/b] [b]New Features[/b] - Added a third-person view for non-VR sailing mode. You can freely switch between first-person and third-person at any time while sailing by pressing Tab (keyboard) or D-pad Up (controller). (Note that you always return to first-person when boarding.) - The game remembers which camera view you used last and will automatically switch to it whenever you enter sailing mode. [b]Balancing[/b] - The encounter spawn rate is now lower while sailing through friendly regions. - Your ship is no longer immobilised while repairing in battle. However, each repair cycle now takes 10 seconds (up from 7.5 seconds) at the default Cannon Reload Speed setting. - Made multiple adjustments to money and XP rewards for capturing ships, selling cargo and completing Bounties. [b]Changes[/b] - Added a new Orders page to the Fleet Status tab which allows you to quickly change the orders for all ships in your fleet from a single menu. Orders assigned to “Fleet” will be automatically applied to ships you purchase or capture. - Pressing the Map hotkey (M on keyboard or View/Back on controller) while in a ship battle now opens the Fleet Status tab instead, giving you quicker access to the new Orders page. - Added an on-screen prompt for accessing the Orders page in ship battles, and moved the Disengage prompt to the opposite side of the screen. - The “Orders” hotkey used in stealth combat on land now shares the same binding as the Map hotkey (M on keyboard, Back/View on controller) to be consistent with its use in ship battles. - Added critical hit sounds and sinking/destruction sounds for ship battles. - Your lieutenant now calls out critical hits against crew and forts in ship battles. - Repositioned most NPC dialogue panels and a few other UI elements to ensure text does not get cut off when playing in narrow aspect ratios (minimum of 5:4). - Added a visual effect to indicate the direction of enemies that hit you in combat. - Added new icons for player abilities. - [VR] Added an option to prevent the ship’s wheel from recentering itself when it is not being held (Options > Controls > Ship’s Wheel Recentering). - [VR] Increased the grab zone size of the ship’s wheel spokes to make it easier to grab them without looking or while it is recentering itself. - [VR] When turning the wheel, your ship now gradually turns towards the desired steering angle instead of immediately snapping to it. This helps to smooth out any jitter caused by hand tracking issues while holding the wheel. [b]Fixes[/b] - Improved the obstacle avoidance logic for AI ships to make them less likely to clip through islands. - Added a fallback to force quests to move on if they didn’t advance after completing an objective. - Fixed a rendering issue with the ocean when using the “Low” quality water setting. - Fixed non-pirate ships appearing in random encounters. - Fixed the “jolt” that occurred whenever your ship finished recentering the wheel in non-VR. - [VR] Fixed the town map showing on top of other elements in the post-battle UI after a fort battle. Happy pirating! 🏴‍☠️