You are reading material prepared during the development of the pirate life simulation game Corsairs Legacy by Ukrainian Mauris studio with the aim of popularizing the marine theme in general and pirate games in particular. 

You can follow the project news on our website, YouTube channel, and Telegram.

Learn more about the Corsairs Legacy - Historical Pirate RPG Simulator project and add it to your wishlist on the game's Steam page.

Continuing the topic of one of the best Russian franchises of games about pirates and naval battles, Sea Dogs, we want to note that we interviewed most of the developers of add-ons for both the Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships and Age of Pirates: Caribbean Tales.

Now we will talk about mods, or more precisely, about one specific build of a considerable number of different modifications, accompanied by the transfer of most of the game to the MaelStrom Engine. To be more precise - about the Corsairs Ship Pack or just a ship pack.

This is the third and final part of the interview, in which the issue of the MaelStrom Engine is discussed in detail. You can read the first and second parts through the links we have provided.

Volodymyr: Alexander, hello!

Alexander: Hello, Volodymyr!

Volodymyr: Earlier you said that the Age of Pirates 2: City of Abandoned Ships 1.3.2 patch, which was made by BlackMark Studio, and Corsairs Ship Pack is currently being developed based on this patch. You went on to say that Sea Dogs: To Each His Own (TEHO) is hardcore and unplayable. But, as the founder of BlackMark Studio said, the difficulty level of the game has not increased since patch 1.3.2. In fact, this level of difficulty, which is in 1.3.2, is in Sea Dogs: To Each His Own. And, it turns out, you are also sawing a hardcore game based on the BlackMark Studio patch?

Alexander: We are doing Corsairs Ship Pack based on 1.3.2 ATR. The fact is that the latest version 1.2.12 from Seaward is quite simple, and hardcore in its own way. I also like what BlackMark Studio did, they have their own hardcore, which I like, although they made their vassyanstvo about quests in some places, they refixed so many things that it’s just terrible.

But I do not like Sea Dogs: To Each His Own because there is very limited freedom of action, it is a very linear game. Even many of its fans say that very often they are pissed off by all these time limits, some kind of illogical tasks, and so on.

Volodymyr: The founder of BlackMark Studio said that if you carefully read all the texts and all the dialogues, then there are no problems during the passage. If you skip the texts, then, starting from the third level of complexity, problems will already arise.

Alexander: Yes, I agree with that. Texts must be read, as they are not just written for nothing. I encountered such a problem on the previous project “Space Rangers”. Without reading the text, it was impossible to understand how some mod works or how to complete this or that quest.

Volodymyr: I really love the game “Space Rangers”, but, to be honest, I just couldn’t stand all these text quests. I found some kind of algorithm, how it was possible to understand the correct answers, and basically just flipped through the text.

In Age of Pirates, I read about half of the texts, since, from my point of view, there were a lot of them. Also today, due to the spread of a large amount of audio and video content, the concept of reading is moving aside. You say that you support the BlackMark concept and that you need to read everything. Did you read all the texts in the TEHO to get out of the city?

Corsairs Ship Pack. Sea Dogs: To Each His Own

Alexander: The thing is, I didn't read it. Well, I rarely read texts. I have turned away because there was a training that at that time could not be skipped or turned off. As for Space Rangers, I also support you, I don't like to read a lot in the game. But some fans are excited about it. But, first of all, the developer does as he sees and wants, and the community decides for itself whether they like it or not.

Volodymyr: A little earlier, you mentioned the popular term “Vasyanstvo” in the context of the Age of Pirates. Tell me, do you know the definition of this word, and what did you put into it when you said it?

Alexander: In fact, absolutely anything can be called Vasyanstvo. Often this is what players say about certain elements of the gameplay in which they do not like something. Well, for example, there were complaints against us that we take someone else's code, implement it in Corsairs Ship Pack and pass everything off as our own. But that's not the case at all.

All the resources that we use, we designate where it all comes from. Also, we do not ask for a penny for our work. And by no means can I call our project Vasyansky. But I don't know the exact definition of this term. Do you know? How would you define it?

Volodymyr: Well, I was interested and I read on Google somewhat three months ago. Can you describe in one sentence what you mean by the word “vassyanstvo”, not knowing the exact definition, but intuitively feeling, based on the feedback of people who also probably do not know the exact definition of this word?

Alexander: Vasyanstvo is some absolutely illogical gameplay elements that break the logic and understanding of what is happening on the screen and what needs to be done next.

Volodymyr: According to Google, vassyanstvo is low-quality work that is done unprofessionally, inconveniently, and most often relates to game development. Do you consider your team and yourself personally Vasyans?

Corsairs Ship Pack

Alexander: I can’t say for sure, but it’s unlikely. Yes, we are far from being professionals, but hardly Vasyans either.

Volodymyr: We have already touched on the topic that you use other people's resources in the game, and even many people accused you of stealing. But you also said that you designate what and where you take it from. Tell me, how does the team generally feel about using other people's resources, and what will happen when some ready-made solutions run out in six months? What will you do next?

Alexander: First of all, we “revive” old projects. If the community asks us to add some elements that they want to see in the Corsairs Ship Pack, we look at it, and if we also want to see it in our project, then we take it and transfer it. And the whole team is fine with it. What we will do in six months - I do not know yet, because I do not know when we will complete this project.

Volodymyr: Do you think that in our small pirate community, synergy through the support of every project that is in this direction, it is a help to each of the projects? And the fact that the developers will mutually promote other people's projects will benefit everyone?

Alexander: Absolutely right. I am for all projects to be friends with each other and support each other. Because all the splits and problems between developers have a great impact on their work, and therefore on the consumers themselves.

Volodymyr: Summing up this question, I’ll say this: subscribe to the Corsairs Ship Pack discord channel, watch all the updates that are there, and buy “Sea Dogs: To Each His Own” on Steam, and don’t download it on torrents, support the developers.

Corsairs Ship Pack

The fact that the guys are doing Corsairs Ship Pack on their own enthusiasm without any finances is commendable. I think that you are great fellows and that BlackMark Studio is also great. I believe that all the modders who put their work into making the community see each new product — they all deserve praise and a positive assessment.

Peter Boel, who is the informal leader of the PiratesAhoy! who made “New Horizon” and for 17 years was doing an add-on for Pirates of the Caribbean, asked me how are things in the Russian-speaking community and could he “make friends” with someone to exchange experience, code, and mutually promote products. They also run on the MaelStorm Engine. Would you like to collaborate with them and do you plan to visit their forum?

Alexander: In general, yes, I would cooperate with them. I would be interested in how they would evaluate our project. And I would like to collaborate with the Western community.

Volodymyr: Thank you very much for the interview and bye!

Alexander: Bye, Volodymyr!