Battle Pirates Faithful, 

First, I want to make it clear that our users are the lifeblood of this game. Your happiness is our primary objective and everything that we do to improve the game is aimed at increasing it. We have heard the feedback on the latest release from our respectful and dedicated users and I promise you that it will inform how we shape the game going forward. 

Second, let me give some rationale as to why we changed the graphics and look of the game. We have a major problem with the first time user experience of Battle Pirates, it's not entirely limited to the graphics, but it turns off a large percentage of new users and they never return. This is a big problem for a free-to-play game and we needed to address it. The early new user data shows that we were right in that assumption, and that first time users are responding better to Battle Pirates. We need new users to grow the game and incent us to devote more and more resources to improve the game. That said, we would NEVER want to alienate our existing, loyal users while fixing a problem for new ones. 

We knew that some people wouldn't like the changes just for the sake of change, however, I will admit that we fucked some stuff up and we are going to fix it ASAP (I agree that the Seawolf looks like shit, and we shouldn't have let that one launch the way it did). 

Good news is, that we have heard you and we have a plan of action to fix some things immediately. This is a partial list of what's happening in the next 24 hours:

1) SHIPS We are changing ALL ships back to the way they were. This isn't an easy change, so please be patient. After that, we will make some minor improvements over time, but any major changes we make in the future, we will let the community vote on it. 

2) TURRETS We are changing the turrets so they are much more easily identifiable and have more contrast

3) LOADING We are fixing the loading issues that some of you are having where buildings are taking too long to load in your base or during base battling.

4) CHAT We are increasing the size of the font in chat and making it white so you can read it better.

5) WORLD MAP We are removing the large sun spot on the world map. (I really liked this detail…sniff sniff)

6) BATTLE UI At smaller resolutions, the top health bar gets pushed down. We're fixing this

7) BASE HEALTH BARS Wall health bars will be removed entirely. All other health bars will be moved so that you can see them better (like with the turrets)

8) REFIT & REPAIR TIMES There is an intermittent bug that shows the incorrect repair and refit times. This will be fixed shortly.

We're dedicated to continually growing and improving Battle Pirates with your input. As always, thank you for playing. 

Thanks,
Will (DESTRO, sector 175...at the moment) 
 
Greetings Captains,

Today we are excited to release an update that will greatly improve the Battle Pirates experience. The improvements to the game include a more intuitive user interface, new graphics, enhanced battle animations, a new soundtrack and a host of bug fixes. 

Here is a quick overview of the improvements:

  • The user interface is more visceral and includes an improved mission log and sonar mini-map.
  • New world map animations including waves around ships & islands and water shimmer effects
  • Hundreds of bug fixes
  • New game soundtrack for your base, world map and combat scenarios.
  • New environmental art including sunken buildings, coral reefs and trenches
  • All of the Forsaken hulls have a stylish new streamlined look
  • Ship weapons fire is more detailed and the shells are more distinct from each other.
  • All Forsaken buildings are redesigned and have more engaging animations.
  • Visuals in combat include ship wakes and ship & building explosions
  • New loading screen art featuring the rival factions of the Forsaken and the Draconian.
  • Forsaken prize hulls have not been changed to allow the winners to keep their status

If you have any technical issues, please visit the Community Support forum or our FAQ as your question might already be answered. If you don’t find what you are looking for there, please feel free to use our Support Form.

For general feedback regarding this update, please post your comments below.

Good luck and have fun! 
 
We have all seen the graphical changes to Battle Pirates. This will take me a few days to redo the site and get everything in order. The information will be correct as this happens. I will just need to revamp all the pictures to the site. 

Thank you all
Salar
 

By Kixeye CM SWAG 
Greetings Captains, 

Over the past few weeks the crew of the Battle Pirates development team have been killing themselves working on the most massive update to the game yet. While we can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet, this update is going to push Battle Pirates to the next level and I’m glad you’re all going to be here to see it.

We are anticipating the release of this update sometime this week. And yes, you can bet that your buddy SWAG will have a video ready to showcase it. I predict that those of you with video capturing software will also want to get in on the action.

See you again very soon! 
 

ByKIXEYE CM Swag 

Alliance DefendingAlliances will enable players to support their battle brothers in some new and exciting ways. One feature currently under consideration is to enable player fleets to automatically defend the fleets and bases of players who are in the same alliance. So for example, a high level player could park one of their high level fleets next to fellow alliance member's base thereby giving it additional protection. Any attack on the protected player's base would be intercepted by the friendly high level fleet. By doing this, however, the high level player would be risking their fleet by leaving it visible on the world map. On the whole, we feel this feature will lead to more fleets on the world map which will lead to more combat and more interesting strategic choices for players in alliances. 
 
There has been a slurry of changes both noticed and unseen. The first is the RSS feed added to the home page to better display all the updates at a first glance. I have also widened the pages and will begin adding build times to the same page of the items. 
The Barracuda has been updated.
The Draconian armors have all been given sub pages.
Pictures updated on them as well.
Redid the Salvage Guide.


I am looking forward to the next few weeks to see how you all react to the new content that will be coming out. 
Thank you all!
Salar
 
From Kixeye CM Swag on 4/17/2012,

"Base Relocation Disabled Tomorrow As Base Invaders III starts on Thursday, the relocation feature will be turned off tomorrow (Wednesday) to allow sectors time to prepare for the event. The relocation feature will be reactivated soon after Base Invaders III has ended."
 
April 19th

The Forsaken Council has learned that Draconian Commander Maximilian Vassago is out to assert his power in the world. Our intel is sketchy, but it seems he plans on building numerous Outposts on April 19th. We must strike these sites before they're fully operational. Your daily participation in this attack will be rewarded with a Damage Quota Bonus. Will you join us?

Base Invaders III Start Times:**

Sectors 1-100: 9am PST
Sectors 101-200: 10am PST
Sectors 201-300: 11am PST
Sectors 301-400: 12pm PST
Sectors 400+: 1pm PST

**All players will have 96 hours to execute this coordinated attack.
 
New Features
• Base Defending Fleet - Now, in addition to ability to set your fleets to defend your base from the outside, you can now set one of your fleets to defend and patrol inside of your base.
• Spectator Mode - Any player of any level can now view a battle that is taking place on the world map. Up to 10 players can view a battle in Spectator Mode.
• Submarine Special Equipment – There are three new equipment specials for submarines. You can research this equipment in the Advanced Lab.
  • Concussion Warhead - increased torpedo damage.
  • Nautilus Battery - stay submerged for longer sprints in between surfacing.
  • Caterpillar Drive – enemy ships, even with sonar, will have to get closer to detect the sub while it is submerged.

• Cerberus Rockets – You can now research (weapons lab) and place rocket turrets on your defense platforms. They have limited range but do high amounts of area-of-effect damage.
• Double-clicking Fleet Icons – clicking on a fleet icon (bottom-right of screen) once will select a fleet. Clicking on it a second time will move the camera to the fleet’s location.

Game Balancing
• Stalker Submarine
  • Can now equip Havoc Torpedoes in all 4 of its weapon slots
  • Turning speed increased
  • Increased built-in sonar range
  • Reduced repair time

• Predator Submarine
  • Armor value has been increased
  • Maximum ship weight has been increased

• Damage Protection – A base will now have to be attacked 5 times in one hour to receive a bubble instead of 4.

Bug Fixes
• Players will no longer be able to launch fleets while their base is under attack.
• Screamjet Engines and Slideloader special equipment now work as intended.

Other
• Social Media Bar – below the game window, there is a bar with links to easily get to the Battle Pirates Facebook Timeline, Twitter page, and KIXEYE YouTube channel. 
 
Starting Thursday we will be uploading atleast one guide EVERY Thursday. These will be a slew across the whole gambit. The videos will range from SUB VS SUB to base designs and salvaging. Feel free to request a specific guide here or on the suggestion form!

Thanks as always patrons
Salar of sector 288