09/21/2009    |    Devlog    |    Lum    |    Discuss

Long ago, Isildur wrote about the Final Battle, the inevitable conflict that arises when two nations vie for control of a port. Since then, we’ve added excellent rewards for the winners and the losers, titles to prove all the times you’ve battled and beautiful maps to help plan your strategies. But you true die-hards, the veterans who lead the charge, you know all the tricks already. This devlog is for you.

For almost the entire milestone of 1.19, we’ve been working on Port Battles. We had two goals in mind: First, we wanted to make each port battle encounter unique and interesting. Second, wanted to give you two brand new encounters to enjoy and fight over.

The swashbucking portions of the Final Battle were previously shared by every one of the encounters. This meant that while the Ship Combat portions each had unique strategies and approaches, the swashbucking sections were tired and boring. To freshen things up, we’ve given each encounter its own swashbucking rooms.

Let’s walk through the changes to each encounter, shall we?

Encounter: Havana Harbor

Gone is the massive, sprawling Fort Cristobal, replaced with a much smaller, more manageable room: Fort Puente.

Since disabling the Fortress is an optional objective in the Final Battle, we decided that swashbucking inside the Fortress should be quicker, and less difficult. We chose Fort Puente for its great lighting and good approach views. While defenders may love to seek refuge in the fort, they may now find it to be a dangerous solution.

We also liked the linear approach that our Spanish Town room provided so that’s the second room. We replaced and adjusted all the spawns, added new enemies and groups of patrolling NPCs, and made the whole encounter feel livelier.

Fort Puente	Spanish Town

Encounter: Stingray Island

Stingray Island gets its own set of unique swashbucking rooms using Fort Battery and Plantation Village.

Fort Battery is a winding path through the cliffs near the point, leading up to an exciting battle with the Guard Captain in the fort itself. Plantation Village is another linear room, with only a single path leading from the docks to the Garrison Commander. You’ll face stiff resistance from the defending forces here, with lots of choke points to hold off the attackers!

Fort Battery	Plantation Village

Encounter: Arch Coastline

Arch Coastline is a small, almost cramped, room filled with rocky beaches and crags jutting out from the sea. The swashbucking sections in this map allow the attackers and defenders to take several paths to their objectives.

We paired Fort San Marcos with the Mineral Port, both of which fit into the coastline’s design, as well as offering interesting tactical approaches to the Final Battle. Mineral Port in particular has lots of places for defenders to ambush and combat the attackers!

Fort San Marcos	Mineral Port

Encounter: Wild Keys

For Wild Keys, we chose two semi-circular swashbucking maps. In Fort Longeuil, attackers have the option of skirting around some groups of enemies in order to get to the defenders, or to the Guard Captain.

Fort Longeuil goes well with Spanish Bay, whose own circular layout allows the defenders to sweep around the rear and surprise the attackers. Attackers will have to watch over their shoulders to keep from being overwhelmed.

Fort Longeuil	Spanish Bay

Now, we know that these are all interesting, but what you really want are the new encounters, right?

Encounter: Jawbone Bay

Jawbone Bay is the first of two brand new maps we’ll be releasing in M19. In this map, the attackers have completely encircled the defenders in a massive bay.

The starting door for the attackers is the Boarding Axe in the NE corner of the map. The additional doors are the two swords in the NW and SW corners. The starting door for the defenders is the Round shield, with the additional unlockable doors being further north of the Fortress.

Attackers can utilize the additional doors to bring the fight into the outer reaches of the map, into the large central bay, or even circumventing the heavy guns of the Fortress altogether. Defender positioning is more agile, with each door giving them good views of potential attacker entrance points, and easy areas to block off with a line of ships.

The default wind blows from the North, while the attacker bonus wind blows from the West.

The Fortess uses the beautiful Fort Pepla room, with its long beach approach.

And since many players have been asking for it, we’ve used the amazing St. Pierre as the Town Setting for this map.

Fort Pepla	St. Pierre

Encounter: Savage Cliffs

Savage Cliffs is the second new Map coming for 1.19. Here, the Defenders have an entrenched position in an inland bay, access by three large channels.

The starting door for the attackers is the Boarding Axe in the W side of the map. The additional doors are the two swords in the mouths of the north and south channels. The starting door for the defenders is the Round shield in the main channel, with the additional unlockable doors each guarding an exit from the north and south channels

On this map, the attackers have the option of sailing into the large main channel, directly into the defenders initial spawn, or taking the longer side channels which give more direct access to the Town.

The default wind blows from the NW favoring the main and northern channels, while the attacker bonus wind blows from the SW, favoring the main and southern channels.

Of course, there’s still swashbucking to be had. Since the Fortress sits on the edge of the big island in the bay, we chose Fort Cruz as the setting.

Should you make it past the Fortress, and chase off the Defenders, you’ll be doing battle in the narrow streets of French Town.

Fort Cruz	French Town

Since Jawbone Bay and Savage Cliffs are newer, they are both slightly more likely to appear in the random selection than the older maps are. We’re also continuing to work on more new maps, so keep your eyes peeled in the coming months.

We’ve really enjoyed working on these new encounters, and we can’t wait to see you play them. Enjoy your new Port Battles!

09/21/2009    |    Devlog    |    Lum    |    Discuss