The sloop has one pump near the front of the ship by the main sail mast. If you have someone on the pump, you're still going to sink, but it's going to take a little while longer. Hypothetically speaking, if your ship just has one hole and you do nothing about it, you're going to sink. The pump will help to counteract the water you are taking from the holes, so it will extend your life, but not indefinitely. If you have a large crew, have someone on the pumps while the rest of the team patches the holes. It's important to focus on fixing the holes before you man the pump as you can still sink while pumping. You can see if your ship has any holes by looking at the top middle of your screen. If your ship gets hit with a cannon, or gets rammed by another ship, it will take on holes. People that can hear you will see your name appear in white. Allies names will appear in green and enemies will appear in red.Īs mentioned earlier, you can use the F key for proximity voip. People that speak through faction chat will have their name in purple above their ships name.

The B key is for speaking with members of the same faction. If you are a shipsman, your name will appear in blue. If you are the captain, your name will appear in gold when you speak. If you are using the V key, only your shipmates will be able to hear you. If you don't have a microphone you can use Y to type in global chat or U to type to shipmates. Only use proximity if you are trying to talk to an enemy crew that you are boarding or antagonizing. Stick with V for your crew and B for your faction if you need to talk to other captains or players not on your ship. You can't hear what other people are saying at all unless they are standing directly next to you. Many people tend to use F, which is proximity voip, and the sound quality is terrible you can't hear people on the other side of your ship. With such a solid foundation the game’s only going to get better from here on out.īlackwake is available now on Steam Early Access for $19.99.It's best to use your V key to talk through your microphone for shipwide/squad talk. Blackwake has a mostly positive review rating on Steam. They’ve also encouraged anyone who wasn’t enjoying Blackwake, due to the current issues, to refund the game and try it again later.įortunately, most players seem to already love the game, bugs and all. Rather than over-promising and alienating new-users they have been communicating issues and patching things as they are able. Working With The Communityĭespite the stress to get the servers and game running as smoothly as possible, Mastfire remains practical.

In the meantime, the devs have recommended that players join servers through the Steam server list if they are able. In a recent Steam update, Mastfire told players they were aware of the server issues and had enlisted the help of a Unity developer to address them. So far this has been the biggest issue for Mastfire’s 2 man dev team. Occasionally, these users also experience a loss of connection during matches. Mastfire has noted that a small subset of users are unable to connect to the game’s servers. The game is already riding high on Steam’s weekly top sellers list. Developer, Mastfire Studios, is making steady improvements under the wave of new players.Īlong with the usual early access bug fixes, players have also experienced a few more troubling problems.

Over 4,000 backers helped raise AU$ 171,422 during the 2015 Kickstarter campaign. Less than a month on Steam Early Access and the multiplayer ship combat FPS, Blackwake has already amassed a huge following.

Blackwake pre alpha