Hey everyone, We hope you've been enjoying the recent blogs about the upcoming Naval Command Update, we have some exciting news about when you can expect to play it as well as some new screens, a personal thank you from Tomas, and more! Let's get started! [h1]The Naval Update[/h1] So first of all, get hyped - the Naval Update will be dropping onto your public Beta access branches on 13th August! We don't have a SOLID date for the full on release yet until we've seen how you react to the beta branch - but mark the date down in your calendars! [h2]Naval Update Preview[/h2] Just to get you warmed up to the idea of what to expect - Tomas sat down and played with it to demonstrate the new features in an early iteration, and talk through the differences to the Bulwark play experience that you can expect. Put the kettle on and set aside 30 minutes so you can hit the water running on the 13th. [previewyoutube=0E6xopHvyW4;full][/previewyoutube] [h3]New Naval Update Screens [/h3] It wouldn't be an update without some shiny new Ursee eye candy - so here's some new screens fresh from Tomas PC for you to admire! [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/1a38a28cfeb38c6e2f48da716f847b49668a2c92.png[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/6e64a8f66ee134d3d141962c30207c46716e6ae0.png[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/265d175a0efdc8932c1995bcd201c7263f237561.png[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/6a48999cddce3e8e302b42c06a5ed9518ffaa2dd.png[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/89d442222f90178e5847fa788eb7c111baabdef8.png[/img] [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/b57f7b36021cd085c684787cded4b483356376bb.png[/img] [h1]Thank You Surveyors[/h1] Moving on from the Naval Update for a moment. We had a little peek at the player counts across Bulwark and The Falconeer, taking into account all of you who have played on Console, the cloud, downloaded on services such as Gamepass, and of course - the hardcore who have been part of our beta tests since day one. [img]https://clan.cloudflare.steamstatic.com/images//42854035/45c1dbb984765027659e3db351c46e91c14ba888.jpg[/img] Turns out that there are over 2 Million of you across both games and all platforms combined. Which is WILD!! It is every developers ambition to take an idea they've had in their head and see people resonate with it the world over, and the fact that over the course Tomas creation of The Falconeer Universe, from a aerial dogfighting RPG on Xbox, to an evolving sandbox builder - so many of you have joined into the fantasy, shared your creations and helped spread the word of this unusual series - is just mind blowing. As a little thank you - Tomas is currently putting together a free unit DLC pack containing some new trade ships that you'll be able to recruit and set to work. No set date on these, but we'll keep you updated! [h1]Naval Update Patch Notes[/h1] Wrapping things up here on this mini update - we know there's more than a few of you that like reading the nuts and bolts and raw numbers of how the game world is changing - so here's the update notes for what to expect for those of you that like to see behind the curtain. WARNING! It's Long! [h3]New Features:[/h3] [list] [*] Added new total conquest mode [*] Total conquest you start at war with the other factions except your starting faction and freehouse [*] You gain one officer and commander when starting total conquest [*] Hostile attacks are increased [*] No diplomacy [*] Survive [*] unit commanders now have three possible tactical groupings [*] defensive grouping lets unit patrol around the command tower [*] escort lets units follow the surveyor [*] assault adds units to an assault group that can be given a target via the map or from the surveyor. [*] Extra units can now be bought in the commander select screen [*] Splinters are earned in more ways [*] Population growth is your base splinter income [*] Trade and banking may provide additional repeating splinter income [*] ancient fortresses can be found in the world and purchased for splinters [*] Ancient fortresses require stone,iron and workers to expand [*] Ancient fortresses have either a giant missile dome or giant anti shipping gun [*] Ancient fortresses can be expanded with smaller gun batteries [*] added new stone curtain walls that spawn beneath skyways for stone towers. [*] added new metal curtain walls that spawn beneath skyways for command towers. [*] Different wallguns are spawned from different commanders [*] Wallguns aren’t spawned from empty command towers [*] Wallguns may be point defense, naval batteries or multirole guns [*] turrets now prefer their proper class of targets, point defense will hit warbirds and fighters, default guns will hit all, big guns and giant batteries will only hit airships, fixed turrets and surface vessels [*] guns on naval vessels or airships have deadlier ordnance and longer range, with a preference for targeting gun batteries or other capital ships first. [*] naval vessels of other factions patrol the Ursee between faction settlements [*] War behavior for factions improved [*] attacking enemies will form in waves at a rally point until a force is formed and then [*] attacking enemies will retreat back to the rally point after a few minutes and reform [*] Factions may spawn their own fortresses to defend their settlements [*] wars will allow faction settlements that have a commander HQ to spawn appropriate units to attack you, size of the fleet is dependent on the war levels and your empire size [*] A command flagship is summoned when you first build the naval command harbor, or if you repair your fleet or if you rebuild the naval command harbor. [*] You can control your command flagship similarly to the surveyor [*] you can switch to surveyor or command flagship via the map or via selecting it with the switch button [*] you can assign two combat captains to your naval command to form a surface fleet. [*] surface fleet vessels will follow your command flagship [*] surface fleet vessels shown on map [/list] [h3]New world Content[/h3] [list] [*] 24 new locations added on the map where you may buy Outposts, fortresses and unique buildings [*] combat zone "the Hole" added , farm combat for splinters and xp, opposition scales with your assault force [*] combat zone "the Stump" added , farm combat for splinters and xp, opposition scales with your assault force [*] Mosaurs may attack your trade routes [*] Mosaur Hunting Lodge unique building can be found in the world [*] Treewatchers unique location added [*] Several existing random encounters such as the lighthouse now have fixed locations on the map [*] Dynamic fishing boats spawn near settlements [*] mongres mercenaries are joined by a mongres banker [*] mongres commanders can only be acquired by traveling to New Nerevin. [*] mongres banker adds interest to any splinter earnings [/list] [h3]Qol:[/h3] [list] [*] friendly units are tracked on the map, different groupings have different colors [*] Enemy patrolling ships are tracked on the map [*] Map shows the level of a settlement (from colony to capitol) [*] Map shows unique building locations, buyable outposts and fortresses on the map [*] You can fast travel to tradeships on your trade routes [*] You can select both the end or start harbor of a route on the map [*] You can edit the captains of a route from the start or end [*] Cycling through captains and clicking on the little portraits is now doubleclick [*] You can open up the captain selection on an endpoint harbor without it teleporting [*] A red outline on the little captain portraits shows when a click will un-assign them [*] turned on available action prompts on map [*] wood industry can spawn on hills and rock [*] factions will only surrender to vassal state if they have lost the majority of their settlements [*] when selecting a trade route from a harbor if the cursor is closer to a building it will select that and de-snap [*] captains and commanders from pacified factions don't protest who is in charge and still spawn [*] industry population buildings don't get demolished in an attempt to upgrade [*] The next nearest tower building indicator has the height of the buildline UI. [*] splinters are now calculated and shown in the resource flow mode [*] building near volcanoes less janky [*] scenario screen shows populations of your save [*] scenario screen shows flames if total conquest mode [*] range of shown resources and points of interest increased on the map [*] range of surveyors HQ on the map increased to unlock the entire map [*] scenario screen show population of each savegame [*] removed some advisor messages if your save file is already progressed [*] the camera can be tilted lower when controlling vessels [*] added expanded commander menu tutorial texts [*] tutorial end texts have been improved [*] camera sensitivity when zoomed in reduced [/list] [h3]Balance:[/h3] [list] [*] cannot build floors without resource access [*] top tier housing cannot spawn close to resource locations, except on foundations [*] harbor population building spaced out more.. [*] harbor population buildings earn more splinters [*] defending units on faction settlements mostly spawn beyond visual range [*] defending units on faction settlements only respawn after being defeated after 5 minutes.,. [*] defending units on faction settlements remain guarding even after you attack them. making escape easier and conquest more consistent as you whittle down their forces [*] depletion is no longer default in any scenario. [*] trade profits from all ships increased [*] raised total unit cap from 30 -50 [*] population of the soultree raised to 5000 [*] population will build top tier houses only when the worker access is high enough [*] old raids are removed [*] requirements for spawning the lighthouse reduced. [*] the amount of guns the Mancer gunner can spawn on a tower is 6, he does spawn special wall guns now [*] removed captains giving splinters upon rejection [*] anytime a business appears from a craftsman you get additional splinters [*] trade route raids start further out.. giving more time before units attack and more space to respond [*] ordnance doesn't get triggered when hitting friendlies or settlement [/list] [h3]Visual Improvements:[/h3] [list] [*] improved the colors of low hanging mist [*] made the low hanging mist variable [*] Volcanoes improved [*] Added red and green storms [*] gun turrets reset to default position [*] gun turrets start scanning when enemies are near but not yet in range [*] reduced jitter on ship floatation [*] captain and commander select screen has been positioned off center so players can see the hq or harbor [*] particle fx for splashes and gun impacts improved [*] explosion fx improved [*] on the map all harbors are shown with a harbor icon, [*] made impact of dead enemies on the water more epic [/list] [h3]Fixes [/h3] [list] [*] prevented audio flanging on buttons that scale [*] prevented audio flanging in scenario selector [*] removed endless repeating requests for tribute from vassals [*] imperial wonder quest has the correct title [*] fixed captains not appearing if you went hostile against the other major factions [*] fixed that unique craftsman house events get properly saved. [*] fixed that after resetting a scenario you might lose track of the surveyor on the map [*] fixed sluggish photo mode camera controls at high fps [*] reduced amount of building instructions for wonders [*] the commander selector won't jump back to the first commander sometimes after you already scrolled to another. [*] mines don't animate back to reset mode when resetting a scenario or all saves [*] the circle cursor around the active tower will be red if it cannot upgrade [*] buzzing sound from razorbeetles toned down [*] floating items don't bounce when unpausing [*] camera cannot go below the waves [*] prevented unfriendly captains from delaying the spawn of friendly captains [*] optimized the resource calculations, though it may still have inefficient outcomes at massive scales (Where multiple routes are possible for supplying resources, it might not find the optimal). [*] sometimes warbirds would fire at targets beyond the horizon [*] improved map scrolling snappiness [*] icon for sentry tower changed to separate from fortresses [*] turrets that were prevented from firing cuz they were obscured ignore any colliders that is part of their vehicle or building [*] camera shouldn't be dragging on low fps [*] unit xp now correct in all scenario [*] turrets that were prevented from firing cuz, rescan for enemies twice as fast [*] resource flow output prioritization, biggest extractors calculated first and dominant. [*] prevented ghost harbor walkways from being saved and loaded [/list] Told you it was extensive! Anyway - that should do it for now - keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks where we can show some more of both the Naval Update and the upcoming Free ships - and get ready to see the Ursee evolve once more! - Gary from Wired Productions [url=https://www.facebook.com/wiredpro/]Wired Facebook[/url] | [url=https://twitter.com/WiredP]Wired Twitter[/url] | [url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-9EJ9ddA6kC7H2czmwFvbA]Wired Youtube[/url] | [url=https://discord.gg/wiredp]Wired Discord[/url] | [url=https://www.instagram.com/wired_productions_games/?hl=en]Wired Instagram[/url] | [url=https://www.twitch.tv/wiredp]Wired Twitch[/url] | [url=https://www.tiktok.com/@wiredp?lang=en]Wired Tiktok[/url] | [url=https://www.instagram.com/wired_productions/?hl=en]Wired Instagram[/url]