“Dark clouds billow from the north, and with them, something terrifying spreads across the seas. Whole regions fall silent, and warships sail through black waters only to disappear without a trace. The sailors of all the warring factions—Forsaken, Draconian, Reaver, Legion, and Scourge—tremble in fear alike. Who will stand against it?”
Greeting Captains,
I bring news of exciting new developments in Battle Pirates! Over the last few months we’ve been feverishly planning a range of changes to shake up the game, and bring interesting opportunities to PvE and PvP alike, and I hope here to give a brief taste of things to come.
First off, we recognize many players were fond of three month seasons, and are seeking more opportunities to use their hulls at their peak. So one of the first changes we’ve made is to extend this Skirmish season across July, August, and September. Future seasons will also follow this format. Importantly, as part of this, the Flagship will move from the Pillage to the first raid, and players will go into the first raid with a four ship fleet.
We’re also replacing the Pillage activity with a new activity called “Strikes”. These will run in the first week of the month, and instead of using a mix of both Garrison and prior hulls, players will use their latest hull to conquer their enemies and unlock a powerful new prize…Dreadnoughts!
Dreadnoughts are a new super hull, a single larger hull with many slots available to allow the player to really customize their ship. You’ll only use one in a fleet, and targets will appear for them in the Raid. More info coming soonTM!
I’m sure you’re wondering—if I’m not using my prior season hull in raids, or pillage, where does it appear? In the Forsaken Missions! Garrison targets will no longer feature as the primary target in the FM, and instead will form part of the regular event cycle—Skirmish, Siege, Assault, Garrison. The FM will continue to run every week but Raid week. This also means there will not be a new Garrison hull in July as would normally have happened.
Onto PvP… PvP has always been where the most dynamic combat and unique hull design occurs, and to better support this we’re adding a new event called “Conquest”. This activity will appear after the Strike, with the Raid moved back a week. Conquest will feature a range of interesting challenge targets that will test players skills using their Conqueror fleets and allow players to unlock exciting new PvP tech.
Lastly, the Bounty event will be replaced with “Vengeance”, a pure PvP event allowing players to demonstrate their might by battling each other directly.
The overall monthly activity calendar becomes:
- Strike
- Conquest
- Raid
- Vengeance
There’s a lot to take in and more information will be revealed for each of these new events as we get closer to their dates. Join us on Discord to discuss, we welcome feedback.
Battle Pirates is entering a new era, and you don’t want to miss it!
Regards,
The Battle Pirates Development team
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What is the event calendar moving forward?
A: VXP this week, then Bounty, Beach Party, Strike, Conquest, Raid, Vengeance. A full calendar for July will be posted soon.
Q: We have an event each week now?!
A: Nothing particularly new here, you always did. At a high level, we’ve split Bounty in two and we’ve replaced the VXP weekend.
Q: Are VXP weekends being removed?
A: No, the first one is happening, though the format may change for the next cycle and it may occur in the bonus week.
Q: Will KIXEYE Bases be in Bounty? If not, where can people who are not as powerful at PvP earn their points?
A: We wanted to create a pure PvP activity that focused on player ranking and bragging rights, and that is what Vengeance will focus on. Conquest will be the primary place where players can unlock new PvP content and will feature a range of targets for different power/skill levels to ensure everyone isn’t blocked from getting tech. Individual posts with more info on these activities will be released closer to their start date.
Q: What's happening with medals?
A: We are planning significant changes to the system. It will come later this year.
Q: Are Dreadnoughts mega hulls?
A: No, they are their own class of ships similar to the Proto-nemesis/Ghostcrawler. It’s a type of hull players have asked numerous times for us to revisit, and as such we decided to build on the concept. More information about their unique abilities and features will be provided closer to the strike.
Q: Once you get the "Dreadnought" will it be good "forever" or will it cycle through the classes? (ie siege/skirmish etc etc)
A: New Dreadnoughts associated with each class will appear in future seasons.
Q: Will raid targets be tuned to 4 ships or 4 ships plus flag, given the flag isn’t available in the event?
A: The first raid and strike will be tuned to 4 ships.
Q: What options will exist for players to reduce the grind?
A: We recognize that grinding targets can be a chore for some players. We’re looking at a range of different solutions similar to the Elite targets in the FM that allow players to hit a target of their choice and strike a balance between their power/skill and time. We recognize that Bounty in particular suffered from this problem and hope the structure of Conquest provides a better experience for players. More information will be available in the event briefings.
Q: Where can we get VXP tokens for the Flagship?
A: VXP tokens will be available for it in the Raid, much the same as the Flagship and tokens were previously available in Pillage.
Q: What happens with Pillage Leaderboard prizes?
A: They will be given in the Strike event instead.
Q: How much will effective build times (after tokens from TLCs and FM tokens etc) increase? Will free to play players still be able to get a full fleet (or ship) done with extremely diligent planning?
A: Overall the time taken to build and upgrade things in the shipyard over time will remain the same, though the individual build and upgrade times of different pieces of content may vary from what you are used to. I.e. Players traditionally built and upgraded 4 hulls over the course of 6 months (1 Garrison, 1 Siege, 1 Skirmish, 1 Assault), and that effectively remains the same (2 season Hulls, and 2 Dreadnoughts), but is smoother because it doesn’t spike with the release of the new Garrison hull. An ongoing focus for the team is ensuring players have access to the tech to participate in all activities regardless of their playstyle, and avoid the historic problems around having partially built ships, such as players having to guess between whether to put armors or specials on a hull and having the results of that decision be different in different events. Rest assured that these changes are not cover for a sneaky build time increase.
Q: Is there anything happening with other legacy systems such as Mega Hulls, Arena, Expeditions, Research, Foundry, etc.?
A: Other systems are on our roadmap to be adjusted but are not currently being changed, we will announce any changes to those systems when we are ready to release them.
We acknowledge we haven’t answered all the questions here, however we are saving those for when we provide more detailed information about specific activities in future posts.