Everyone's least favorite opt-in pvp mechanic, skull bounties, get an overhaul this update. Skull bounties are now integrated into the normal bounty system and are automatically acquired at a bounty of 15 gold. Ships with skull bounties are marked on the map for all players. As previously, ships with skull bounties can destroy each other for a resource reward based on the build cost of the victim. The new twist comes with the addition of the pirate king. The player with the highest skull bounty becomes the pirate king if there is not already a pirate king. The pirate king gets double rewards for claiming skull bounties but their skull bounty can be claimed by any other crew (even if they lack a skull bounty themselves) and is doubled.



The new skull bounty system aims to improve on the original by removing the hard opt-in mechanic without rewarding pirates for picking on players that don't want to fight. The pirate king mechanic gives a reason for bountyless players to get involved in the fighting and keeps pirates most interested in fighting other pirates. Returning skull bounties to their always visible state combined with the automatic skull bounty at 15 bounty should help pacifist player avoid the most dangerous players on a server.

Join us on Discord for public playtests Friday at 12pm ET, Saturday at 3pm ET, and Monday at 7pm ET.

1.16.0

Major Features

• Ships with a bounty of 15 gold or higher automatically become skull bounty ships.
  
• The general location of skull bounty ships are visible on the map to all players.
  
• The player with the highest skull bounty becomes the pirate king if there is not already a pirate king. The pirate king gets double rewards for claiming skull bounties but their skull bounty can be claimed by any other crew and is doubled.
  
• Reduced the reward for claiming skull bounties from 100% build cost to 75% build cost.

Minor Features

• Hunts and rescues will always spawn in open water instead of sometimes spawning at adjacent islands if one is nearby the contract destination.
  
• Added random position fuzzing to hunt and rescue spawn locations.
  
• Reduced the reload speeds of the heavy and ultra heavy battery cannon.
  
• Reduced the traverse speed of the ultra heavy battery. Increased the traverse speed of the light battery.
  
• Adjustable groups with mixed speeds will rotate at their own individual speeds instead of matching the slowest adjustable.
  
• Accepting a contract type for the first time opens its objective explanation window.
  
• Destroying the engines of a capture quarry no longer causes the contract to fail.
  
• Player fort spawns and jet stream spawns will avoid active installations.
  
• Added scrolling to the objectives menu.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed sub parts with multiple requirements to unlock being selectable when their additional requirements are not met.
  
• Fixed player ships brought to sieges not being destroyed at the end of the siege.
  
• Fixed the dedicated server causing steam to think airmen is already running, preventing the actual game from launching.
  
• Fixed player join messages appearing twice.
  
• Fixed bounties gained from destroying ships not being placed properly if the destroyer controlled the ship at the time of destruction.