So, as I’m typing this version 0.289 – the Land Combat upgrade – is finally rolling out as a production release.
We’re not quite done yet. The current version is a first version and still very limited: there are only a few combat units available (and weapons cannot be used yet) – most notably no artillery yet, battles don’t have any terrain (I need to commission some artwork for this), and no fortresses. You can only attack ports which are hostile to you, so you need to do a little (piracy) work before attacking them. And you can only plunder ports – it’s not possible to conquer anything yet.
All of these features will be added, but before I do so, I want to be sure that the combat engine works as intended – without crashes or other issues. The data from the beta tests look good, but experience tends to be that there is a huge difference between ~10-20 players testing the game and when several thousands get their hands on it.
There are also some quality of life improvements needed – auto-resolution is one, hints and tips is another. Saves have to be enabled (currently you can’t save during a battle). However, at the end of the day, I thought it better to release the combat engine and get some feedback, rather than sit for more weeks polishing things up.
As usual, when I’m releasing a big update after a long hiatus, the next period will probably see a rapid update pace. Let me know of any issues you find.
Some documentation for the land combat can be found here: http://www.micabytes.com/wiki/pirates2/index.php/Land_Combat