I heard the developers say in that latest podcast that brick posted that you can share your stories of that game that we love! That!

So here goes. I'll try to remember what happened in each session.

Day 1: HWM launches their first ship.

So, which it were me, Monkey, Swift, and Jon. A rag-tag group of barnacles if there were ever to be a group of barnacles which were to be grouped up together, like. Mayhaps like barnacles on the hull of a ship, aye. They would to be grouped up all as being together, like. Aye. Let's be on with it, then. I won't be re-telling the tale in linear fashion. No, for that would take far too many moons. Moons which I do not have. Moreover, I am not privy to my memories of the time. All I find are tankards of grog when I sweep through the cobwebs of my brain in search of the past.

Anyways. From what I remember, we sunk 3 ships. After our first battle, I think it was Jon that checked down below, and was all like "! there's a million water down here!" So we started bailing the water out with our buckets. Our ship didn't sink, but it was very close, I think. We had water almost to the top deck. That's like 10 or 11 feet of water!! Luckily, our harry potter buckets were enough to quickly fix it.

What else happened. I don't really remember our actions (fights against other ships).

So, a few things that happened that I thought were funny.

At one point, I forgot who was at the helm. Either me, or hel monkey. Helm on key? hmm... And we were just sailing, and suddenly a GIANT ROCK appears on our port side, SUPER close. Jon was in the crows nest at this point, "keeping a lookout". We were all like "Jon! why you didn't say anything about that GIANT ROCK?" - "i noticed that we were gonna miss it!"

So later on in the session, Monkey and I were trying to get Swift and Jon to have a go at the helm. Things were kinda strange. When it was Jon's turn, we were heading straight for this big rock. Monkey and I were saying to Jon, as we were slowly getting closer and closer "You need to turn 1 point to starboard to avoid the rocks." a few seconds later "Jon, 2 points to starboard". Then, "JON! HARD TO STARBOARD MEOW!!!!!!!!!!" And still, we were heading straight for the rock, so we had to quickly drop the anchor to avoid a collision. Afterwards, swift said that he was watching Jon as all this was going on, and Jon was just stood there, not turning the wheel or anything! Fun stuff!

And when Swift was supposed to be on the wheel, we were just heading along, and the ship was acting pretty strangely. Veering off course. We didn't know what was wrong, where swift was trying to go. And then we realized that he wasn't even at the wheel! He left to play an instrument or drink grog or something, while on watch!! Crazy guy. You're lucky we're pirates, not still in the navy.

We also got stuck for a few minutes between a rock and a wrecked ship, while another ship was trying to sink us. We eventually managed to get free, and I don't remember exactly what happened, but i'm pretty sure we ended up sinking the other ship.

Now, onto my second session!

It was just me, and some randoms that it matched me up with. Two of them were Italian, and the other was English. At the start, I asked if anyone wanted to take the helm, because I had spent a lot of time on it in the previous session. No one spoke up, so I went ahead and did it again. (I love it) So, we go about our business, going island hopping to dig up treasure and kill skeletons. The first noteworthy event started after we had just dropped off a treasure chest. A ship came upon us right when we returned to our own ship. One of the enemy crew jumped onboard, and dropped our anchor so they could fight us in place. After a prolonged melee, and quite a bit of confusion, we managed to clear our ship and get under way again. The other ship's intentions were still clearly violent, and they gave chase. They managed to board us and drop our anchor another time, but we again repelled them, and escaped. Then ensued a chase that was probably the most fun I've had so far in this game. The chase went on for at least 45 minutes, maybe more. We tried out several tactics to gain distance, or escape. Our first was as such: They were quite close to us, sailing on a parallel course, slightly to leeward. The course I had chosen would bring us very close to windward of a rock. For some raisin, the other ship didn't notice this, because we sailed right by the rock, and they hit it dead on. And thus, we got a little sea room. Our second attempt to delay them was to have one of our crew jump overboard, and wait in the water until they sailed past, at which point she was to try to get onboard and drop their anchor. The plan didn't really work because she wasn't able to climb aboard. Butt it still confused the other ship, because they noticed that they hit something, and couldn't figure out what it was. So we probably gained some time with that. Next, we decided to all of us jump off the ship and swim to an island as we went by it, leaving our ship to carry on without us. We found cannons on the island, so we gave up on hiding, and started shooting at the enemy ship as they sailed past. I think they became really confused, because they just kept on sailing, and neither came after us on the island, nor continued after our ship. So, we then found a friendly mermaid, and she took us back to our ship, which had in the meantime swung back around and actually was very close to us again. Having regained our ship, and since we were free again, we went in search of more treasure! Right after selling our treasure and returning to our ship, we were beset by another ship which may or may not have been the same ship that was chasing us the entire time. Well, we were anchored, and as the other ship sailed by, we both traded as much cannonfire as we could. The enemy ship then passed behind a big rock, and as it came out the other side, it started to sink. It was pretty damn awesome. Their crew then attempted to board our ship, and after some confusing firefights, it seemed that we beat them off. We then went to look for more treasure, and someone from the enemy ship for some raisin told us that he was in our crows nest, and had been there for 20 minutes! How weird! After some verbal battles, it became quiet. Then, 10 minutes later, we realized that he had disappeared at some point.

That's a big paragraph, innit?

Session 3!

I was finally part of a ship that sank! During a battle, I somehow fell off the ship, and got a really good view of our ship going down. I wish I could have recorded it, because it looked awesome. The ship was at a 45 degree angle completely under water, with the bow lower than the stern, and I saw 2 of my crew mates swimming up. One from the stern, and one from the bow. It was one of the coolest moments I've seen in video games, I think. And it wasn't a cutscene, it was one of a kind.

Another funny thing that happened this session: We noticed 2 ships anchored right beside each other, blowing holes in their ships. So we anchored right in front of them, and watched for a butt until they noticed us. Then we opened fire, sunk one of them, and the other ran away. It was pretty funny how they didn't notice us for so long...



I think that's it for meow! I can't wait to play this game with more of you guys.

so jelly.... glad you're enjoying it

I'm so salty that literally every alpha event has coincided with something in my schedule. Enjoying the stories though! Hopefully one day soon.

you think YOU'RE salty???????

so this would be a good place to say that i have a thought that has been brewing for a parody song... just need some recording and editing stuff...

Swift, John, Cry, and I collected 7 chests at once, including one "mythic chest", which in the final game probably would have contained some item in addition to the 5 times the gold as the other chests. We cashed in all these with like 30 minutes to go in the play session, and with another ship on our tail (I don't think they really knew what was going on) After that we managed to find and cash in two more chests before the play session regrettably ended.

It was so cooooool. Can't wait to have time to relax and sail and explore without a playsession time limit looming overhead.

A big thing on the water, and in this game is effective communication. Directions must be given either relative to the ship, or relative to compass North. Communication relative to ones self if incredibly confusing and ineffective.

Also. I was surprised at how easily we got separated on land. There is literally no way of seeing other players except being in line of sight. To stay close mates!

We had swords today!

omg hel monkey and cri are great sailors (according to duce)

pulled into a port and lined up the plank perfectly with the dock... it was pretty fun (from what I hear)

Duce was a fast learner. It was nice.

This game is incredibly frustrating without good communication. With 2 ransoms and Cri without a mic, it was very difficult to get the ship to do what we needed when we needed it.