Boat Crew: v1.6.1.1 Stable | Early Game and Quality of Life

Jan 14, 2025

As you might have noticed if you've been following us on our Discord, we have taken a little detour from our usual schedule of big updates with experimental cycles, and have been working on a relatively small but impactful update, mostly concerned with bug fixes, making the early game smoother and improving the game's feedback to the player.

This effort was, in part, motivated by your feedback that the early game can be frustrating to new players, and also that the game doesn't do enough to tell you that you are making progress. We have tried to address these issues, and hopefully you'll agree that our changes will make for a more refined experience. Thanks again to all of you who gave feedback or participated in our short experimental branch for this update!

Now let's talk about the changes.

First of all, we have added some early game engagements to the map, to add some opportunities for making easy RP early in the game. We noticed that new players don't tend to realize the main way of making RP in the game, especially in the early game, is to raid supply convoys, and thought that a visible, nearby engagement may encourage them to explore that possibility. If you've already been around the block, well, it's just free RPs to you as the allied side is stronger here!

We have increased the starting RP from 8000 to 12000, and also made is so that 12000 is the base amount of RP you have. What this means is that you will never have RP below this amount, and losing your boat, at worst, can put you at 12000 RP.

A long standing concern about the early game was that if you're sunk early on, you lose RP, and possibly end up with less RP than you started with. This causes a tailspin where your loadout gets weaker and weaker, making it more likely you'll lose the boat again and lose more RP, meaning you might as well restart at that point. We wanted to fix this issue by adding a base amount of RP you'll never go below.

This also means you won't be able to use your starting RPs to buy squadron boats or additional call-ins, but we thought sacrificing that flexibility for the sake of a smoother early game experience was worthwhile.

You will also now begin every campaign with 2 .30 cal-armed Squadron PT Boats, who will assist you in those crucial early engagements.

Having a base RP always available to you makes it possible for us to add default loadouts, which you will always have whenever you get a new boat. This is a basic, well rounded armament that can fight effectively against anything, which you can still customize to your taste as before. It is meant to help new players out and also to make getting back into the action quicker. The crew roles are also set to match what's needed on the boat, and you'll get a full crew every time you respawn, so you can sail straight back into the fight right away.

We have had the option to cancel lock-ons for a while, but the UI will now inform you of that possibility. We are hoping this will be helpful for players who were not aware of this feature, as it is particularly important when fighting aircraft.

Another issue was that it could sometimes be difficult to see what's on the map, so we added a progress bar that shows the weighted average of the strength of each side. Green shows your squadron boats as well as the call-in aircraft you've called, blue shows your allies and red shows your enemies.

All in all this should make it much easier to read the tactical situation at a glance.

Last, but not least, we've also added an indicator for the RP crates on the map, making it harder for you to miss any RP crates. The number on the right is the total value of the RP crates that have dropped so far, whereas the number on the left is the amount you have picked up.

v1.6.1.1 Stable

Early Game Balance

• Raised starting RP, 8000->12000.
• All player boats have been given improved default loadouts for the campaign.
• An RP floor will now prevent the sink penalty or purchases from falling below starting RP. Call-ins and squadrons will require RP surplus to be exchangeable for.
• Two .30 Cal squadron boats are now granted on campaign start.
• There will now always be a starter engagement placed between Tulagi and Savo.
  
  

Quality of Life

• Threat level visualization improvements.
• Implemented engagement progress bar for campaign.
• Default crew arrangement now consists of 1 medic and 3 gunners to compliment the loadout changes.
• Added right click to cancel locked target UI hint next to targeting reticle.
• Added scavenged RP counter.
• Resource pickups will now turn red if there is no allocated room left.
  
  

Changes

• Start time of campaign has been changed from 12pm to 5am.
• Updated campaign map to no longer bring in spawns from the central north, made minor pahing improvements towards Bologna.
• Increased prewarm days from 3->5 to keep map starter population balanced after central north spawns were removed.
• Squadron boats will now hold fire until either side is alerted by opened fire.
  
  

Bug Fixes

• Clicking directly on UI elements of bases will now help pathing to prevent potential terrain errors.
• Fixed a rare bug related to call-ins preventing engagements from starting later into playthroughs, previously just accessing the call-in menu was enough to prevent it from happening, now it is handled automatically.
• Fixed JC Butler and AGP6 Tender having the same formation tier as the Fletcher causing long line formations.
• Fixed utility weapon sights picking up sunk/dead boats.
• Fixed 80' Experimental PT boat damage visual mesh not being synchronized.
• Fixed targeting reticle remaining transparent when its animation is canceled when binoculars is interacted in a certain order.
• Fixed overwritten camo colors not resetting in game when camo is reselected despite it appearing to do so in loadout screen.
• Fixed searchlights stacking too much light when multiple are targeting you.
• Fixed targets list not being sorted by detection time for the first few minutes of a loaded save.
• Fixes to color scheme and material syncs for player and squadron boat radar models.
• Added missing damage and exhaust VFX to Huckins, 3D repair symbol positioning tweaks.
• Transmitter supplies is no longer spammable.