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 month we’re taking a look at the latest addition to the Ahoy fleet – Imogen, along with an update on our plans for Kickstarter and answering more of your questions!
We’ve been keeping you up to date on our plans for Ahoy’s upcoming crowdfunding campaign, and this month we want to announce that we’ve decided that we will be going live on Kickstarter in June of this year!
We’re still deciding on the precise day in June which will best fit within the campaign timeline and other events we have lined up around the campaign launch. We’ll let you know the specific day as soon as we can so that you can save it in your calendars!
The overall campaign preparation is going very well. Work has progressed significantly on our cinematic trailer, which will highlight some of the key thematic concepts of Ahoy’s planned Arena and Open World releases. We’re hopeful that this trailer will provide a great introduction to those who haven’t seen the project before, while also taking our cinematic showcases to the next level for those of you who have followed along for the journey so far.
In addition to this, we’ll be presenting a “History of Ahoy” mini-documentary, which will highlight the key historical events that make up Ahoy’s narrative backdrop. This documentary has been developed using a lot of the existing art assets we’ve developed for Ahoy, and was a fantastic way to explore how we might look to manipulate maps and charts within the game’s UI as well.
Finally, the Kickstarter itself will launch with an in-depth introductory video, explaining the project in detail, along with the journey the team has taken so far. Accompanied by a refreshed FAQ, we hope this showcase will really provide potential supporters with all of the information they need to make a sensible and educated decision about supporting Ahoy financially.
We’re still heavily in production on a lot of the above, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to fill these Journals with meaningful progress reports, as we believe there is a significant importance in keeping as much of the Kickstarter showcase fresh and hopefully a surprise for many of you. We hope that over the next couple of months, we can still highlight interesting parts of Ahoy’s development even with these limitations in place.
We’re really excited to share Imogen with you this month. Imogen marks the first Dutch ship added to Ahoy’s fleet, and a significant addition at that!
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Imogen is based on the lines of Mars, an 18-gun Dutch-built brig-sloop. Mars began life as a purpose-built privateer intending to prey on British shipping in the English Channel and North Sea during the Fourth Anglo-Dutch War. Unfortunately, Mars’ privateer career was only brief, managing to capture a British fishing smack before being captured herself by the 40-gun Artois.
Under British service, she was armed with eighteen short nine-pounders and twelve swivel guns. She was commissioned under the name Orestes, and saw action both in Europe and the West Indies.
In 1790, her main armament was reduced from nine-pounders to six-pounders. She continued to serve throughout the French Revolutionary Wars, being later fitted with an additional two eighteen-pound carronades.
Tragically, Orestes found her fate on her final voyage to the East Indies, where she is thought to have disappeared in a tropical cyclone with all 120 hands that passed over Bombay in November 1799.
Although Mars’ Dutch service remains limited, she represents a fantastic example of late 18th century Dutch ship building, and particularly highlights the differences in style to that of her foreign contemporaries.
She provides a perfect stepping stone between our Veloce (HMS Speedy) and Phoebus (HMS Pandora), as can be seen in the hull comparison below.
Like with all ships added to Ahoy, we feel Imogen presents a unique look at ships of the late 18th century which otherwise wouldn’t have the chance to be seen, let alone sailed. It represents a work to bring an almost 250 year old history to life, which we believe has significant cultural value far beyond use within a traditional video game.
Ahoy’s fleet now represents some 11 ships now digitally recreated, with two more yet to showcase to you. The eagle-eyed among you may notice a significant remaining gap within the current fleet line-up, which we hope you’ll enjoy seeing in our upcoming journals.
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 3rd person:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- I understand the firm stance on being locked to a first-person perspective, but sometimes I might want to look at the majesty of my ship underway or in battle in real time from a 3rd-person perspective. Would this be possible in the game? Perhaps through some sort of camera mode? Or would I have to lower a boat and have the ship sail away from me as I do my best to ogle it?
It's true - the primary viewing experience for Ahoy is first-person-only. That means during moments of important gameplay, there will not be ways to view the world in any way except for through your character's eyes.
That being said, we've long planned to include ways to view your character and your ship in more cinematic or third-person perspectives outside of important gameplay moments. For example, while sailing in peaceful waters, you'll be able to view the ship from a (perhaps literal) birds-eye perspective, while on deck you can orbit the camera around your character to get a preview of how you're perceived by others.
These features are locked in certain parts of the game to avoid presenting an advantage or becoming part of an unintended meta-gaming experience. To get around this limitation for combat encounters, we're hoping to explore options for a replay viewer and photo/spectator mode, which would allow you to remain in the moment during combat and perhaps capture more cinematic perspectives after the battle is over.
This removes the need for potentially game-breaking camera features, but also lets you watch and rewatch your battles over and over.
The complexities in a system like this cannot be overstated, however. While this is something we would very much like to include, it is impossible to say for sure whether a replay system would be compatible with all other gameplay systems we're planning to include.
On ship repairs:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- How will repairs work? Will we have to pound in every nail and have the supplies on hand? Or will it be a more abbreviated repair with repair kits that the sailors hammer on at their own discretion? What discretion will the NPC sailors have with fixing things as they see fit under the player’s command?
Repairs in Ahoy are slightly different to other games you might be familiar with. As a player officer, there will be no need to manually navigate around your ship looking for holes to patch up. This is the job of your NPC crew, and something that can be schedules for them to do within their daily routine. Repairs require access to both the appropriate resources and the necessary crew expertise.
Lacking the necessary resources will reduce the amount of repairs that can be undertaken at sea, while a lack of crew expertise will leave some jobs incomplete and others completed below satisfaction. In some cases you might find that returning to port will be necessary to make a full set of repairs.
As for how repairs will be undertaken - This is a mixture of a statistical change on your ship (represented within the Ship's Books UI), and visual changes to the elements of your ship that have been repaired (fresh paint, replaced decoration, fixed rigging, etc.)
On merchant careers:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- We will be able to be small merchants instead of pvp/war related? Something like trading routes and so on?
The plan for merchant careers in Ahoy is focused far more around small merchant vessels and trading goods between ports. As a merchant you'll either be directly transporting goods yourself to earn a wage, or organising the transport of goods through a mixture of player and NPC ships. Some of these ships might be provided by you, while others might offer their own vessels for the transit.
As you develop your career, you'll find more opportunities around larger trade deals will become available. Rather than working within civilian goods, you may find yourself picking up contracts to source, ship, or deliver military supplies, arms, and equipment. The larger the contract, the larger the pay-out and risk.
On wildlife and livestock:
– Respondent, Journal Questionnaire.
- Will there be animals? Like livestock to deliver from plantation to port, or animals to hunt like whales and rabbits
Almost all ships in Ahoy will carry livestock as part of your necessary provisions for each voyage. You'll need to source and transport these animals within your ship to ensure a steady supply of food and other materials.
In addition to the traditional requirements for livestock, we're hoping to include livestock as one of the many forms of transportable goods for merchant players. The same can be said for horses and other pack animals.
As for wildlife within the world of Ahoy, we're definitely planning to include a wide variety of sea life for you to come across during your voyages. We have no current plans to explore whaling, but fishing will be a regular activity your NPC crew can undertake to replenish low food supplies. Whaling and hunting on land are features that don't currently serve a direct benefit to the planned Ahoy experience and are therefore a lower priority addition, but perhaps something we'd look to explore some time in the future.
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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