Each month we take a moment to talk with you about the development process and progress from the past month, while also highlighting contributions from the Ahoy community.
This is the first journal of 2025 – so a very happy new year to you! We wish everyone in the community a happy and prosperous year ahead. Thank you so much for your ongoing support of Ahoy.
The Ahoy project celebrates a significant achievement with the introduction of Pincher, the tenth vessel to join our Ahoy fleet. Reaching ten ships is a wonderful beginning as we continue to expand our diverse collection of vessels in various shapes and sizes. Pincher concludes the current series of ships dedicated to mercantile purposes, at least for now!
As some of you certainly guessed – Pincher is based on the lines and profile of HMS Halifax. Halifax was launched in 1765. She was built in 1765 as a schooner for merchant service at Halifax, Nova Scotia, making Pincher one of our oldest servicing ships.
Her primary purpose was to establish a reliable packet service for mail and passengers between Halifax and Boston. As such, the schooner was built by a group of Halifax merchants with government support as the Nova Scotia Packet.
The Royal Navy purchased her in 1768 for coastal patrol in North America and renamed her Halifax; she met a need to combat smuggling and deal with colonial unrest in New England. After being surveyed in September 1768 she was commissioned in October and fitted out in Portsmouth.
In 1769 she confiscated Liberty, a schooner belonging to the prominent American founding father, John Hancock. After an active career on the coast of North America she was wrecked in a gale near Machias, Maine on 15 February 1775.
Reports indicate that a local pilot intentionally ran her aground, leading to her destruction in the gale. A subsequent court martial attributed the loss of the ship to the pilot’s lack of expertise, however nothing could come of this ruling as the pilot had since disappeared.
The wreck of the Halifax played a notable role in the Battle of Machias later that year, when Admiral Samuel Graves ordered the recovery of her guns due to them reportedly being of interest to the Patriots of Machias.
Pincher serves as a versatile and dependable vessel tailored to a wide range of maritime activities with a balance of speed, capacity, and manoeuvrability.
Well, 2025 has just begun and this year will likely prove to be the busiest year the project has seen so far. We’re still determining the final date for our Kickstarter campaign at this time, and a decision regarding when that will go live will be made fairly soon. Really it just comes down to whether we feel what we’ve prepared will be ready and to the quality we usually strive for in everything else we create.
There is still much to do. Production on our cinematic trailer is very much underway. Further progress on our sailing model is being made alongside the campaign preparation. We still have a lot to finalise regarding the reward structure and stretch goals for the Kickstarter campaign, as well as securing certain marketing priorities in the lead up to the campaign start date.
Of course, if we do choose to go for the later scheduling window, it will provide the necessary room to make quality improvements to the overall presentation, along with the possibility of producing additional content and a hopefully shorter subsequent path to the planned release of the “Sea Trials” sailing experience, which we’re aiming to have available to contributors during, or likely shortly after the end of the Kickstarter campaign. All things considered, whether we’re able to go earlier, or choose to go a bit later, the end result should focus quality and transparency.
Meanwhile, our progress on new ships never wavers – We’re excited to introduce the next ship in the fleet with next month’s journal. Any guesses?
Each month we ask some of the community questions asked since the last Journal update. We’re really enjoying this process of Q&A, and we would love to hear your thoughts on this month’s Journal.
On player and crew routines:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- The December Developer Journal showcases the Stinger and draws attention to the lack of crew space on the ship.
With this in mind, on the Stinger (and other ships in general), how will Ahoy approach the long stretches of downtime in a voyage? Some jobs on the ship will need to be done regularly of course, but will there be activities, events or games to keep a crew on their toes as the voyage progresses?
In a similar vein, will sleeping and resting be a part of the player routine? If so, how would you approach that in a way that keeps the game interesting and engaging?
Long voyages are a core part of the Ahoy gameplay experience. We are designing systems to keep them engaging while staying true to the setting. Various activities and events will help keep both players occupied during extended journeys. This could include ship and crew maintenance, meal and watch scheduling, officersā dinners, and leisure activities like chess, cards, and dice games. Additionally, we hope to include features like crew sea shanties, player musical instruments, and singing to increase the opportunities for roleplaying.
Regarding sleep, NPC crews will need rest as part of the scheduling system to maintain their energy and morale. Players, however, will not be required to sleep. In the multiplayer context, players can use their designated bed to log out of the game, which will grant a ārestedā experience bonus when they return, offering a small reward for taking planned breaks between sessions.
On the details of combat:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- How do you think the battle system will work in terms of ship combat? Will there be black powder explosions, fires, wood shrapnel, leaks and flooding? Or will it take a simpler approach to damage such as in other games, with health bars for each ship?
Instead of relying solely on traditional health bars, the system will simulate various aspects of naval warfare. One core difference from other games in the genre is the constant first-person perspective. You'll witness the thick smoke building up on the gundeck as your cannons unleash broadside after broadside. When shots land on your ship or strike the enemy, wood splinters and debris will scatter violently within the interior, causing additional crew injuries and chaos within the ship.
Developing our technology for more significant ship damage is still heavily under development, leaving room for exploration as the system evolves. The current plan is to implement a destruction model that emphasizes and enables the key moments of a battleādismasting, splinters, sail damage, flooding, and, in extreme cases, magazine explosions.
On national capitals:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- Will there be other important cities or ports with a similar or equally detailed quality as Port Royale (Jamaica), such as Havana (Cuba) or Port-au-Prince (Haiti)?
Yes, there will be other significant cities and ports in Ahoy that are crafted with a similar level of detail and importance as Port Royal in Jamaica. Each of the five playable nations will have two national capitals, and these will likely see a similar level of detail within them.
Each major port will have unique architectural styles, layouts, and cultural details that reflect its regional identity. With these more significant locations we will be very carefully working to the existing historical maps and building plans that we can uncover. This process will follow the same approach we used for Port Royal.
For other ports, either less historically notable or less well documented, they will receive a similar level of final quality but with some reuse of buildings and interior spaces from the other more established ports. Over the course of Ahoy's life, we'd love to revisit these ports as they grow in importance to players to give them that extra attention where appropriate.
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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