05/07/2008    |    Devlog    |    Taelorn    |    Discuss

If you havent read about the general skill changes, check the start of the first devlog in this series. You can find it here. The general changes to Cutthroat(new pirates) are linked to the new Buccaneer career. You can find information on the Buccaneer here.

A lot of the cutthroat changes were aimed at skill order and acquisition instead of new skills, since they already have so much functionality. The old skullduggery and evasion chains are gone, although some of the skills still exist. Due to the addition of the Buccaneer, Cutthroats now have the same number of skills as other careers. The two careers are intended to work together with complimentary abilities to compete on even terms against national groups. The removed skills were generally tiered skills and redundant skills. Were trying to move all the important Cutthroat functionality into a more condensed list, thereby providing more options with the same skill selection. This is harder to quantify, but important.

For an example, lets say you have a common build of Brutality 5, Disaster 5, Flogging 5, Smuggling 3 and Survival 5. If you compare that same skill set in 1.3 and 1.4, you get these differences:

GAINED SKILLS
To The Last Man
Slaughter Their Crew
Deaths Embrace
Work the Crew
Stealth
Hit and Run

LOST SKILL
Vaporing

With that out of the way, were moving on to some of the specific changes. As usual, the details here are subject to change. Here are some new Cutthroat skills:

 Slaughter Their Crew Tier 5 Career: An increased damage attack that reduces the targets acceleration, reload rate and damage by 1% per shot that hits. Also reduces speed 0.5% per shot that hits. Max 20 hits. Deals extra damage to crew. This debuff stacks with everything. 40 morale, 40 second duration, 3 minute reset.
 Entangling Shot Tier 3 Destruction. This replaces foul lines as an attack debuff instead of a short-range click debuff. Reduces target grappling defense by 10, sail resist by 20%. Requires dismantling shot.
 Work the Crew Tier 5 Flogging. Passive +5% armor and structure.
 Shred Armor Tier 4 Gunnery. Attack, ignores 60% of target DR.

And here are some of the skill changes:

 Sacrifice for Damage: -10 morale
 To the Last Man: This is now a combined morale and crew recovery. 40 morale, 20% crew. Reset 10 minutes.
 Drink and the Devil: Reduced tier. Can be stacked with Sacrifice skills. Reduced boost due to lowered tier and stacking.
 Cripple Enemy: Lasts 3 minutes
 Flog Gunners: Now provides a mixture of damage and reload instead of just reload.
 All or Nothing Shot: Raised damage to 33%, dropped reload penalty to 13%.
 Rake: Now uses an intensity multiplier instead of flat crew damage.
 Decimate: Doubled duration
 Fury: Now acts as a passive +10 max morale.
 Stealth: Now mixes 25% relative stealth and 7.5 miles flat stealth.

These skills are going the way of the dodo: Target Weakness 1, Demoralize, Desperation Fire 1, Maneuver 1, Evade Aggression, Flog Gunners 1, Stealth 1, Before the Wind 1, Defense 1, Maneuver, Give the Slip and Misdirection.

And heres what the Cutthroat skill tree looks like:
 Brutality: Sacrifice for Speed – Target Weakness – Sacrifice for Damage – Plague Ship – Sacrifice for Victory
 Career: Scavenge – Run Them Down – To The Last Man – Drink and the Devil – Slaughter Their Crew
 Destruction: Vaporing – Cut Shroud – Entangling Shot – Damage Rudder – Cripple Enemy
 Disaster: Deaths Embrace – Dump Guns – Desperation Fire – Rum Ration – Deter Pursuit
 Flogging: Cut Lines – Flog Gunners – Wolf Pack: Hunters – Increased Damage – Work the Crew
 Gunnery: All or Nothing Shot – Rake – Overloaded Shot – Shred Armor – Vital Strike
 Red Flag: Decimate – Bloodthirst – Tack Upwind – Bosuns Whip – Fury
 Smuggling: Agile Rigging – Stealth – Before the Wind – Devil Take the Hindmost – Black Market
 Survival: Jury Rig – Defense – Plug Leaks – Hit and Run – Too Mean to Die

That wraps up the 1.4 skill devlog series! The skills will be changing while theyre on testbed, so be sure to stop by and give them a try.

05/07/2008    |    Devlog    |    Taelorn    |    Discuss