Ahoy everyone!
We’re happy to join you once again for our monthly Developer Journal. Each time, we take a moment to talk with you about the development progress from the past month.
This month we discuss the new Journal schedule, showcase our latest addition to the fleet, and give a progress report across the team.
This month, we’re formalising the new schedule for future journals. We will be releasing new Journals for all supporters on the last day of each month (except in the case where this day might fall on a weekend, in which case we’ll aim to release it just before or after the weekend). For everyone else, our Journals will release one week later from the supporter release date. Meaning this Journal (as an example) will be made public on 7th October.
The main reason for this change is so that our Journal timeline better aligns with the ongoing work of the team, as we are generally working month-to-month on different milestones, which better allows us to show off our work in the months ahead.
We’re very happy to welcome the latest addition to the Ahoy fleet. Unlike our previous fleet additions, El PolvorĂn was a choice you knew would come along sooner or later! She marks the first of our three Kickstarter stretch goal ships – The gunboat!
Some of you may be wondering why weâre already talking about stretch goals. Didnât we say those would come later? The truth is that while the core team continues pushing ahead with Sea Trials, a few of our artists (particularly our shipwright, LoĂŻc) have the flexibility to explore future additions without interrupting development. This means we can lay the groundwork for whatâs next, even as the main focus remains squarely on the immediate milestones.
While she appears quite small, she comes in at a whopping 52ft (~15.84m), or 57 Spanish pies (“feet”) in length, and 15.2 pies across, or 13.86ft (~4.22m). Historical units of measurement can provide difficulties in verifying a precise set of dimensions, but we’re confident that El PolvorĂn is proportional based on her available draught.
Nothing much is known about the original vessel. We were unable to connect the plans to a particular service record, and it seems possible that vessels of this size and utility remained unnamed. We’ve elected to give her a name, regardless of this fact. “El PolvorĂn” translates literally to “The Powder Keg“, a fitting name considering she currently carries a 24 pounder – She’ll pack a punch if necessary!
She carries 15 oars per side, and has an incredibly low profile with no particular need for long-lasting stores. At full capacity she’ll carry thirty rowing men, though it’s currently unclear whether the crew responsible for the gun and rig would be considered separate, or if there would be some shared responsibility. Either way, she’s built for speed and provides little space for comfort.
Quite useful for our depiction was this alternative “Plan and Elevation of the Gunboats” arranged by the Squadron Leader Don Antonio BarcelĂł:
“In the plan and elevation shown with the letter A, the location of its cannon is shown when sailing, without in any way impeding the rowing of the 28 oars that each one has, hiding said cannon, covered with a tarpaulin or something else when appropriate, and removing its parapet, to disguise and appear as regular boats.
In those expressed with the Letter B, the Cannon is shown in Battery, the Parapet placed and the Gate open on the side of its bow, that both have very easy use by means of Competent Hinges and equal ease there is to Arm and disarm the last 10 benches of the bow, not only to leave the free handling of the cannon clear, but also so that the People of those Same can Serve it; And as for Ammunition, all are well preserved in their boxes distributed under the continuous deck that is denoted.”
â Archivo General de Simancas
This plan provided additional context for some of the decisions around the placement of the gun, which we can see represented in our recreation:
In the late 18th century, gunboats offered a unique set of advantages that made them invaluable in shallow waters where larger ships struggled to manoeuvre. They were put to great use in the Battle of Valcour Island (1776) on Lake Champlain during the Revolutionary War, and by the 1770s naval architects in Sweden and Russia were designing specialized variants to exploit the archipelagos of the Baltic. Even when carrying only a single heavy piece of artillery, these inexpensive vessels could be built quickly and their effectiveness was demonstrated across Europe and North America.
Spain pushed the concept further. Admiral Antonio BarcelĂł recognized the potential of small craft for coastal warfare. In 1781 he introduced a new form of gunboat, mounting heavy, long-range artillery on a compact and difficult-to-hit platform. This innovation further popularised the doctrine of fuerzas sutiles (âsubtle forcesâ), a strategy that emphasized concentrated firepower that was hard to hit back.
BarcelĂłâs gunboats proved their worth almost immediately during the Great Siege of Gibraltar, being used alongside the massive 80-gun floating batteries designed by the French engineer Jean Le Michaud dâArçon. While the floating batteries quickly proved a fiasco, the nimble Spanish gunboats played a decisive role.
When the batteries were forced to retreat and ultimately abandoned, it was BarcelĂłâs division of small craft that covered their withdrawal under fire.
Gunboats were in use by all major navies at this time, and went on to play significant roles in many pivotal naval and amphibious engagements across Europe and the Americas for decades to come.
While space is limited, there has been consideration made for the storage of powder and shot, along with arms necessary in the event of a landing or boarding event. The storage down here is tough to access but immensely efficient.
The introduction of El PolvorĂn marks the second Spanish-made ship included in the Ahoy fleet. As always, the challenge with selecting new additions is the readily available access to good quality plans and information. We are always looking for ways to balance the depiction of the playable nations throughout Ahoy’s reconstructions, and we’re excited to explore additional Spanish vessels in the future.
Some of you have been interested in the progress being made on the “Ship Catalogue” which we included as one of the Kickstarter physical (and digital) rewards. We’re very happy with how this work, a project in and of itself, is progressing. Here is a progress report from the writer and our lead historical advisor, John:
Ahoy, all! I am the author of your upcoming Ship Catalogue Kickstarter reward, and I am eager to share with you my work over these past few months to deliver an engaging, informative, and above all an enjoyable companion to Ahoyâs virtual fleet.
In many ways, this project has resembled my previous academic projects. I began in a familiar place, amidst a small mountain of new books and articles to read (highlights from these works will be shared in the Catalogue for those interested in further reading, in addition to the notes in the text). Very soon, however, I came to fresh and exciting challenges: this will not be an academic text, and both the subject and the audience (myself included) demand a superbly illustrated and suitably light commentary. Designing and redesigning layouts in this spirit is my chief work at this moment, with the completion of the several remaining ship biographies in the offing. Following those, I will have advice back from the advisors and the development team, and we will begin the long process of printing and shipping to you all.
As an aside, I have been surprised to note how little effort appears to underly the average book on âNelsonâs Navyâ or any given ship from our time of interest; the majority seem, with the perspective I have found from my own writing process and my humble literature review, to regurgitate the same facts and illustrations without adding much value in the process. It may be that innovation in this small field does not pay, but this is not the mindset behind your Ship Catalogue. I have sailed off soundings here and engaged with international collections and multilingual bodies of scholarship. The results will, I think, speak for themselves and (I hope) will continue to advance the value of international approaches to maritime history in the more complete and comparative picture they provide.
The nature of this project makes it deeply rewarding to work on. Each day spent exploring Ahoyâs ships yields new perspectives and discoveries; likewise, each hour exploring archives or reading the literature brings new angles to these shipsâ stories. There are too many of both to capture in even a much longer volume than this Ship Catalogue. The rest will be in your hands to discover in-game.
I look forward to sharing more progress with you all as the Catalogue nears completion, and particularly as we launch the bookâs website later this week.
Fair winds and following seas!
â John, Lead Historical Advsior
Thank you John! Yes, we’re launching a separate page on the Ahoy website which will allow you to purchase the book ahead of it’s print and publication. We currently only plan to run a single print of this volume, so we do urge you to consider pre-ordering the book when the purchase page becomes available. We’ll be sure to share the page on all of our social channels in the coming days.
For those of you who purchased the book as part of your Kickstarter reward pledge, you won’t need to take any further steps in regards to receiving your own copy of the book. Just make sure you’ve completed your Kickstarter survey and we’ll have all the information required to ship your book(s) to you.
For the rest of you, we wanted to ensure as many of you had the opportunity to purchase this book before it goes to print (especially those of you who were unable to support via Kickstarter).
In addition to the book page launch, we’ll be providing your Ahoy wallpaper Kickstarter reward early next week!
Last month, we showcased our plans for performance motion capture, and how this would elevate our ability to represent a wider variety of animation throughout the project. We’re pleased to say that the cameras have arrived! While we await the support of the professional engineers, who will come out to our capture space and further calibrate and improve our workflows – We’ve managed to get it working by ourselves!
A total of twelve cameras arrived at the door in the most enormous box of packing peanuts we’ve ever seen. Needless to say, we were incredibly excited to see this arrive, as it not only represented a huge increase in our capacity and capabilities as a team, but truly represented the first tangible recognition of your incredible support over on Kickstarter. After all of the planning and discussion, it was quite a strangely emotional experience getting to quite literally unpack such an incredible gift from our community.
The setup has been quite the education. We were of two minds whether to tamper with such important equipment by ourselves, or whether to wait for the experts to arrive. In truth, we were equal parts anxious and excited to take a look through the equipment and get things set up. As a result, we have some pretty funny (and successful!) tests of the system, and while you can clearly see that the capture quality can be improved through that expert guidance soon to come, we’re already seeing pretty incredible results.
We’re very much still getting settled in this new gear, and we’re still awaiting accurate finger and face tracking to be combined into our system. We’ll continue to update you on how it’s being put to use and the real, usable results we get from it!
So, as you may have noticed this month, we’re looking to move over to a plan of the team talking more about their own work rather than us recapping it for them. We think this will give a good amount of insight into the team and ultimately who is bringing Ahoy to life. Weâve not fully acclimatised to this way of writing Journals, but we’re excited to continue to give these glances into the behind the scenes of the creation of Ahoy.
This month, we’re going to leave you with a few smaller updates from across the team, letting you get a very very early preview of some of the things we’ll show in the months ahead!
To close for this month, let’s answer some more of your questions!
On Stop Killing Games:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- What is the ahoy teams opinion regarding the “Stop killing games” EU initiative?
We're supportive! There are some elements that aren't as defined within the initiative as we would personally like for our very specific project requirements, but that is not the responsibility of the initiative itself to decide.
For us, it presents some interesting challenges. The "Open World" vision is predicated on a degree of connectivity and our own server architecture, however both Sea Trials and Arena allow for self-hosted dedicated servers. As a small team, some of the larger challenges there currently feel insurmountable for us, but we're confident that the general motivations of industry technology will move towards better enabling this kind of long-term accessibility if there is pressure to require it.
We'll certainly watch to see what the various policies may bring along in the future.
On French ship Hermione:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- Congratulations on the launch of the Kickstarter campaign. Do you plan to model the French frigate Hermione of Marquis de Lafayette? It was built in record time starting at the end of 1778. It has a very rich history and played an important role in the American War of Independence. It was even faithfully reconstructed in France starting in 1992. You should have all the resources needed to make an accurate reproduction.
Thank you! Regarding Hermione, she is, of course, a favourite of the team and has been an incredible example to examine for us on numerous occasions. If we were to approach a digital reconstruction of Hermione, we would want to work with the foundation more directly to ensure the reconstruction was as accurate as possible.
With the complexities of maintaining ships like Hermione, we see a possible extended value in a digital reconstruction beyond just as an inclusion within Ahoy. We'd love to connect with the foundation about this work, but unless we can achieve such a particularly special reconstruction, we feel that we would not add additional value over existing digital reconstructions of her already available elsewhere.
On Ship Balancing:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- Is there going to be a balance between small ships and big ships?
Not specifically. Actually we feel that each ship (regardless of size) should bring a slightly different experience. All nations can use all ships, so there is no real need to enforce ship-to-ship balancing. The truth is that there will always be some degree of balancing to ensure one particular ship doesn't obviously beat every other, but all ships should have their own strengths and weaknesses.
On Character Customisation:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- Character customization is a big part of modern gaming in my opinion. We know in Ahoy there will be some degree of ship customization. Will this extend to our player characters as well?
Absolutely! Our Sea Trials experience will feature an early iteration of the character customisation experience, but we expect customisation (whether it be ships or player characters) will be a huge element for most people. Being able to create your character how you want is a huge part of ensuring people can feel immersed in the world we're building.
On management & reuse:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- Thereâs a competitor already on the market (although theyâre struggling to maintain the player base), what are you doing to set yourself apart from the Naval Action team, and how do you believe your product will be different than thereâs?
There are so few Age of Sails games, and the ocean is certainly big enough for more than just the ones currently in operation and development. For us, Ahoy manages to create its own identity through the intense focus on historical accuracy, the first-person perspective, and the 50/50 distribution of game mechanics between "video game" and "simulation".
We're ultimately fans of the genre ourselves, and we always look forward to seeing what other teams are doing. There is no need to compete. Instead it's better if we all lift each other up and encourage more games in the Age of Sail space.
Please do keep sending in your questions about Ahoy. If you have more questions for the team and would like them answers next month, please submit your questions below.
Submit your questions:
https://forms.gle/1w9MRgU3qrvTNkqn7
Until next time, good day!
Sincerely your most humble servant,
Tyler – Project Lead
Our Journal updates are often discussed at length in the official Ahoy Discord server. Whether you have questions about the topics covered in this update, or you would like to leave your own feedback or suggestions, please join our Discord server to discuss!
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