Battle Pirates HQ

Spectator Mode

There is currently no way for a 3rd party to view a battle in progress. 

We will be implementing a feature that allows any player to view a “Fleet VS Fleet” or “Fleet VS Base” battle. Any player can use the mouse to click on a battle and view the battle as a spectator only (cannot participate in battle). Spectators will not be able to view submerged submarines.

There will also a feature that announces when battles are taking place near your base in the Comm (chat window). This feature can be easily disabled if you do not want to receive battle notifications.

As Battle Pirates is a Massively Multiplayer Online game, we feel this will greatly enhance the effect of being an open-world game. The game has a strong emphasis on competition, so it only makes sense to grant anyone the ability to view players competing with each other.
Predator Submarine Armor AdjustmentThe Predator Submarines currently have a base armor value of 80. This means that if Predators are not equipped with any additional armor and have small flagship, they can instant repair. After several months of seeing how the Predator is being used in combat, we feel that they should not be able to instant repair.
We will be buffing the base armor value of Predator Submarines to ensure that no fleet combination of “4 Predators + a small flagship” will allow for an instant repair time.Base Patrol Fleet 
You can currently deploy a fleet outside of your base to defend it. While this can be helpful in defending your base, we feel that players should also have the ability to have a fleet to defend inside of the base as well.

We will be implementing a feature that allows players to deploy a single fleet within their base that will attack invading fleets. Players will be able to set an attack radius of the fleet to customize how far away a fleet will travel to engage enemy ships. This gives players the ability to prevent the patrolling fleet from being “kited” (lured) away from the base.

If a player is present when their base is being attacked by an enemy fleet, the player will be free to control the patrolling ships how they see fit. 
Alliance WarAn enhanced Alliance system is being developed to provide greater incentives for teamwork and organized combat. Alliances will have the ability to set "postures" between one another ranging from Allied to War. Here we will describe the current plan for "War":

An Alliance can choose to instigate a war with one other Alliance once per week. War is a mutual posture meaning that both Alliances are set at "War" with each other when war is declared. The target Alliance has no chance to avoid War although they can sue for peace after it has started. Only the Alliance Leader has control over setting Alliance postures and starting a War.

While an Alliance can start only one War per week they can be the target of other Alliance Wars and so could be participating in multiple Wars. 

• Now is the time to suggest ideas to extend the Alliance War feature! We are particularly interested in feedback around the following:
• War bonuses: special bonuses that are generated from combat between warring Alliances.
• Victory Conditions: what factors are used to declare a winner.
• Fair Fights: how to stop large powerful Alliances picking on much lower Alliances.

Damage Protection Rules ChangeThere are currently several ways that a player’s base can get temporary Damage Protection (a bubble over the base). Two of the ways that you can get Damage Protection is if your base is attacked 4 times in one hour, or 10 times within 24 hours. Unfortunately, players repeatedly “bubbling” each other are abusing this system.

We will be removing the rules of Damage Protection for when a base is attacked 4 times in one hour, or 10 times within 24 hours. Bases will only receive Damage Protection if it has received a certain percentage of damage to the buildings within a certain period of time.

This change will take effect in conjunction with the new Base Patrol Fleet Feature, which should help to prevent any of the possible negative effects of removing these damage protection rules.

Greetings Captains,

We’re getting ahead of the curve this week and posting this week’s update in advance so you can get properly prepared. This update is expected to go live on Thursday, but keep in mind that this is subject to change should a technical issue force a delay. Enjoy!

New Features

This week marks the introduction of another set of Defense Platform Special Equipment that you can research in the Advanced Lab. If you thought the ones you already have are cool, then feast your eyes on these bad boys…

• Screamjet Engine – Increases missile range
• Slide Loader – Increase mortar fire rate (but lowers damage)

This post will be updated with the specific numbers for these closer to release.

Mini-Event

Previously, there was an issue where certain Draconian Weapon Blueprints did not properly display the amount of damage the weapon would do to a building. That issue was corrected nearly a month ago, and now the blueprints do display the damage value.

We understand that some players spent to speed up the process of finding blueprint pieces and resources to refit ships during the time building damage value was not displayed on the blueprint.

To offer you a chance to earn some of that time and resources back, we will be having a bonus weekend where all ship repair times will be cut in half. With the blueprint streak-breaker in place, you should be able to attack more salvages to earn blueprint pieces and gain more resources. Salvage ships will also respawn faster. Of course, you may also choose to attack bases or mine to earn resources as well.

Bug Fixes

• Ships will no longer “disappear” upon completing a refit.
• A 6th ship will no longer appear in the middle of a battle screen.

All this should make for a great weekend of play. Happy hunting!