In this developer update, we introduce you to the feature on our drawing board, the “Automated Freight” which will enhance the player gameplay experience by adding item transfer automation and restocking to the world of Airship: Kingdoms Adrift. The date of availability for this update is still not set in stone but we would like to invite you to have a look and discuss your thoughts on the design direction this feature is taking.
The overall goal of this feature set is to improve the gameplay experience focusing on one of the most important aspects of the game: item production, which in the current version, requires a lot of manual execution. At the same time, as the game progresses, most of the players will obtain airships that are underutilized. So we are giving them more purposes as well.
Let’s explore the current item production and transfer issues, and then we will look into the automated freight in detail.
Item production
Item production is one of the key features of Airship: Kingdoms Adrift. This feature allows the players to produce almost all items in the game including exclusive airships, ship parts, and valuable goods. But to produce such complex recipes, the factories also require a lot of resources, materials, and components that need to be collected and transferred from many regions of Suthseg.
Right now there are two ways to transfer items between ports, firstly, direct transportation using the player’s fleet, secondly, the players can fill an unassigned airship with items and then utilize the send airship feature.
Excess airships and send airship feature
In Airship: Kingdoms Adrift, the players can capture most enemy airships by winning a boarding battle against them. Once the players get a new airship, they can add it to their fleet, sell it by its base value (ship parts not included), or store it at any available port. And this is where the “send airship” system shines. Because the players can use all unassigned airships to transfer items within Suthseg, feeding items into the production chains or just selling the goods for profits. The only problem is, while fully functional, this method requires a fresh input for every single trip, afterward the players still need to transfer the items to the warehouse manually.
Automated freight feature
The automated freight system is our new addition to improve the player’s quality of life as an item transfer automation. Let’s look into this feature in detail.
Updated Hangar panel
Let’s start with the updated Hangar UI, we added a third button to the bottom part of the UI which is the “Freight Duty” button. The button will be available for any unassigned airship with an empty cargo hold. By clicking this button, the freight management panel will show up, allowing the players to create a freight route between ports. For the airship with an established freight route, the players can click on the same button (which will change to a “leave duty” button) to cancel the duty and return the airship to its former state.
Freight management panel
Upon opening the freight management panel, these are the adjustable parameters:
- Freight destination - The players can select any port with an active warehouse as their destination. On the other hand, the home base will always be assigned to the airship’s current port (each freight route will occupy one hangar slot of its home base but can be sent to any port with a full hangar as they are only visiting instead of staying).
- Enable cruise - The players can pay a fee to hasten the voyage. (The Eagles will be deducted before starting each voyage.)
- Outbound and return items - The automated freight feature allows the players to assign any possible items to be transferred between ports. By default, the players will see all available local warehouse items in their grayed-out version. Clicking on them and giving them an amount to transfer will set them active. Instead of viewing only warehouse items, deselecting the “View warehouse items only” button will let the players select all possible items instead.
- Voyage capacity - For an airship to start its voyage, one of the two conditions must be met. Firstly, all assigned items are already in the cargo hold, secondly, the voyage capacity is reached, meaning the players can adjust the voyage frequency as they see fit.
Freight Routes table
By clicking on the new “Data tables button” on the top of the travel screen, the players can choose to view all freight routes with the following details:
- Airship’s name
- Home base and destination
- Outbound and return items (deduct transferred items)
- Freight statuses
- Cruise mode status which you can toggle on/off
When all assigned items are transferred, the freight route will be completed and be removed from the freight routes panel
Restock feature
To make the system full circle, we will add one of the most requested QoL features: the “restock”.
There are three types of input you can use with the restock feature:
- Full amount (keep buying until the amount is reached or the warehouse is full)
- Maintain the desired amount (keep buying until the desired amount is reached or the warehouse is full)
- Infinite amount (keep buying until the warehouse is full)
Restock list
Within the same panel as the freight routes table, the player can select the “restock list” tab which displays the following details:
- Merchant name
- Restock item
- Amount to buy (with the amount already bought)
- Restock statuses
Can I remotely set the freight route?
Yes, you can. You can assign any available airship to create the freight route anytime. The only thing to remember is all airships will use their current locations as their home bases.
Can I keep transferring items indefinitely?
Of course! You can set any outbound and return item amount to “infinite”. This way you can keep this freight route active as long as you see fit.
What happens if I abort the freight?
There are 2 possibilities for this question, depending on your ship’s freight state, if the ship is still traveling to the destination, remove the ship from freight duty and immediately return the ship to its home base with all items inside its cargo hold. If the ship is already at the destination or is returning, aborting the freight will result in your airship's immediate return but without any item inside its cargo hold (highly not recommended).
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