• New Horizons on Maelstrom
    Maelstrom New Horizons


    Visit our website www.piratehorizons.com to quickly find download links for the newest versions of our New Horizons mods Beyond New Horizons and Maelstrom New Horizons!

Tempest [Steam Early Access]

Stallion

Sea Dog
Public Relations
Save 10% on Tempest on Steam

Spotted this on the store yesterday, unfortunately there's not much to be found on the net yet about it. There are a couple gameplay videos of it out, though:



Fighting the temptation to buy it due to past bad experiences with Early Access games, plus it sounds barebones at the moment according to some reviews. At least, that's what I keep telling myself... :p
 
Nice find mate. Looking at the above videos, the game looks quite nice, and $11 is pretty good bargain for any game, even if it still needs a little work.

Though the sailing looks more like speedboats than sailing, but that seems to be the trend nowadays. The hull collision also looks like it needs a bit of work as well, the way those waves are washing over the decks, there wouldn't be anyone left on board to fire the cannons! :pirate41:
 
It looks a bit like a 3D version of Tortuga: Pirates of the New World (or Pirate Hunter, as it's sometimes known), with more intricate ship management and upgrades. I hope it's better than that, because that game got repetetive really quickly. I did use some of it's music in my music packs though.

Have you noticed how it doesn't take the wind direction into account? The flags move along with the ship.
 
Last edited:
Nice find mate. Looking at the above videos, the game looks quite nice, and $11 is pretty good bargain for any game, even if it still needs a little work.

Though the sailing looks more like speedboats than sailing, but that seems to be the trend nowadays. The hull collision also looks like it needs a bit of work as well, the way those waves are washing over the decks, there wouldn't be anyone left on board to fir the cannons! :pirate41:
Yeah, the more gameplay I see of it, the less I want it. Too arcadey, plus I already have Windward if that's the type of gameplay I'm after :D

Is that this Tempest?
Tempest: Wayward Ventures Windows game
We've had some talks with the developers on here.
Didn't know they were on Steam yet though.
Nope, it's not them. These guys are hard to find though off of Steam, they claim to have been working on Tempest for around a year but there's almost nothing on the net about them.

It looks a bit like a 3D version of Tortuga: Pirates of the New World (or Pirate Hunter, as it's sometimes known), with more intricate ship management and upgrades. I hope it's better than that, because that game got repetetive really quickly. I did use some of it's music in my music packs though.

Have you noticed how it doesn't take the wind direction into account? The flags move along with the ship.
Yeah, it's still pretty barebones for Early Access. Staying away from it for a few patches at least :)
 
Ended up getting this as a birthday gift from a Steam friend. It is very arcade driven, with no accounting for wind direction.

There's also Gatling guns, mortars, flamethrowers, and other weird deck-mounted stuff so this is about as far from realistic as you can get xD

On the plus side, I started it up the first time planning on a 15 min play session...and finally quit 3 hours later :modding
 
Ended up getting this as a birthday gift from a Steam friend. It is very arcade driven, with no accounting for wind direction.

There's also Gatling guns, mortars, flamethrowers, and other weird deck-mounted stuff so this is about as far from realistic as you can get xD

On the plus side, I started it up the first time planning on a 15 min play session...and finally quit 3 hours later :modding
Sometimes simple and fantastic is just the right combination to have some fun and lose track of time! Not everything needs to be super realistic to be exciting.
 
Is that this Tempest?
Tempest: Wayward Ventures Windows game
We've had some talks with the developers on here.
Didn't know they were on Steam yet though.

A bit of a late reply but this is actually why we changed our name. Although I tried to transition it smoothly first from Tempest to Tempest: Wayward Ventures and now we've lost the Tempest entirely. I do prefer Wayward Ventures as a name though, it's a little more indicative of the kind of thing we want players to be doing.

Best of luck to these chaps though. I'm not too in to the camera hovering above the ships myself - makes it seem like an RC toy!
 
A bit of a late reply but this is actually why we changed our name. Although I tried to transition it smoothly first from Tempest to Tempest: Wayward Ventures and now we've lost the Tempest entirely. I do prefer Wayward Ventures as a name though, it's a little more indicative of the kind of thing we want players to be doing.
Makes sense to prevent confusion with names! :onya
 
Pre-release review of the upcoming "Treasure Islands"-DLC

Due to a mistake, I was one of the fortunate ones to receive the pre-release keys for the Treasure Island DLC. It came from a friend, who claims it came from a friend of his, and even then from their friend.

Well, where to start?

First of, I'm happy to receive new content to one of the best indie-pirate games I have ever played, so I would be able to invest even more hours in it. I see that a lot of work was put into the new islands, even going as far as bringing us new animations, two new, beautiful music tracks and a “new” enemy in form of a giant crab. I also really like the support fire from your ship, if you are battling larger groups, the crabs or just think “No thanks, I don't want to fight now”, so you blast them away in one volley. The variety of the quests also make sure that it won't get boring so fast.
And if it's getting too hot for you, you can just run back to your ship and leave, getting another shot at it. Excellent!

Cool are also the (temporary) bonuses provided by those magic stones.

But the best is definitely the enchanted gear, which will improve your ship even further! I'll refer to it as “glasscannon gear”, because you will lose it if you sink or die on land. That might be seem a harsh punishment at first, but given the potentially gamebreaking power, it's a necessary drawback. Also, considering the shortness of the levels, you can gather loads of them in a short amount of time.

While it doesn't offer much content (But hey, it's only 5 dollars), it will still add many hours of playtime thanks to the randomized loot. You will play a lot to gather all the items you need to build your magic ship of dreams!



Okay, now for the rest. You know, the stuff I'm not that thrilled about or actually dislike. I'll also make some suggestions to them.
Note that the criticism will always be longer than the positives. This doesn't mean that the DLC is bad (It's very far from that) at all.

-The Galleon. I'm not a trader and the firepower, combined with the long reloading times, seems to be a bad joke for a ship this size (even the Bark is better armed without additional gear), so I have no use for it. It's hold is also nothing to get excited about: only 200 more than the Queen, which seems a bit low for a merchant ship. Yes, it's a bit more mobile, but that's it. It's literally worse everywhere else than the Queen, and you pay 90.000 piastres? For a vessel, that isn't suited for combat at all and has a barely larger hold, limiting its use for trading only? And lets not forget that it has less slots for gear and artifacts. Oh, and a fully outfitted Queen is just as fast as a Galleon, meaning that it can't even escape the slowest ship in the game.
Suggestions: Increase the hold to 2.500, make it a bit faster and give it the same number of slots like the Queen. While it shouldn't turn into a warship, it should be powerful enough to make at least frigates think twice before assaulting. Or simply reduce the price, for example down to 60.000.

-The temporary bonuses. While a nice idea, the short time isn't really worth the effort to get them. They last a complete trip through a map from A to B (without stops at harbours or fights), are randomized and highly situational.
Suggestions: Double or triple the time. Alternatively maybe a system like “+10% cannon accuracy for 20 broadsides”. Third option: Instead of these bonuses, implement additional magic gear which you can apply to the cannons, sails, etc. Like enchanted mermaid tears.

-The quest designs. Some are very easy and short (Valley of death: Just run to the goal and never stop), while others are rather difficult (Pirate's hideout: Only two allies against a whole group) and/or rather long (Ignite the ways with exploding barrels, which you have to shove with your body. Why can't you use your ship for that?). No problem: If it wasn't for the randomized loot, which doesn't seem to consider how hard and long the quests are. It's perfectly possible to receive enchanted highend-gear in one of those shorter and easier islands, while you can basically get rubbish from the harder ones.
Suggestions: Tie the loot drops to the quests, for example different chances for different peaces of gear to appear or more or less goods.

-Speaking of loot, the distribution. I'm probably just unlucky, but I get showered with enchanted fortified wood and bombards. While I have now enough for replacements, I really would like to see other magic items.
Are the chances for all items really equal?

-Bugs. I couldn't complete one of those abandoned town-islands despite having all three keys, as it never told me to go to the treasury. But it was only once, so just a minor annoyance.

-Pay to win. The improved magic gear is basically locked behind a paywall, which puts non-buyers at a disadvantage. One or two magic items won't make much of a difference in battles, but an entirely enchanted ship should be able to smash everything in PvP.



In sum I can say that for only 5 dollars, you will get a worthy DLC (despite needing some tweaks) which gifts you with many additional hours and a stronger ship then ever! Chances are that this might also reduce the “Early Game Hell” new players have to face.
 
Last edited:
Hi, guys! Steam version of Tempest gets the first paid DLC "Treasure Land".

Treasure Lands DLC includes:
- New ship to sail - a galleon;
- Quests and missions on the land;
- New advewntures;
- Valuable rewards.

Steam page: Tempest on Steam
 
Downloaded this game a year ago off of Steam and finally going to check it out. They have a tutorial now looks like. Hope it's as good as advertised.
 
I finally got around to trying this out. It is actually quite a bit of fun, not a lot of 'realism' to get in the way of gameplay. Probably have 6-7 hours in it so far, and I am barely scratching the surface of character progression, so I could easily see a SP game lasting a few hundred hours. I am not sure how it stacks up for long term gameplay since the missions are always the same, and are all based on your current status with X faction and getting higher with each faction tends to decrease standing with another, so you have to pick and choose. In all, fun, but fairly repetitive long term. I like some of the styling, but you can see the clear delineation between self-made assets in the game and ones that were purchased. It was on Humble Bundle, so I paid a whopping $1 for it, so I am happy with my purchase.
 
I finally got around to trying this out. It is actually quite a bit of fun, not a lot of 'realism' to get in the way of gameplay. Probably have 6-7 hours in it so far, and I am barely scratching the surface of character progression, so I could easily see a SP game lasting a few hundred hours. I am not sure how it stacks up for long term gameplay since the missions are always the same, and are all based on your current status with X faction and getting higher with each faction tends to decrease standing with another, so you have to pick and choose. In all, fun, but fairly repetitive long term. I like some of the styling, but you can see the clear delineation between self-made assets in the game and ones that were purchased. It was on Humble Bundle, so I paid a whopping $1 for it, so I am happy with my purchase.

I remember seeing it on Humble for $1, thank you for reminding me. I just bought it and will give it a shot.
 
A few hundred hours in SP are greatly exaggerated, as I'm at 86 hours and have pretty much done everything (5 or so hours from the Treasure Island DLC alone), but I still had more fun than every other pirate game as it just doesn't do anything wrong.

Easily my favourite pirate game out there.
 
You are probably correct, I was guessing there was more to the few parts of the map that I had seen so far. I imagine it is a snowball effect of progression, since the smaller ships are really easy even for my fairly small ship that I am running around in. It really depends on how tolerant you are of repetitive tasks as to how much time you can get from it. I am not really a 'repeat this' player, so this game will probably get me around 20-30 hours before I get bored of it, lol. Still, 80-90 hours is a good bit of time to play something that is as inexpensive as it is.

As for "doesn't do anything wrong", that is a pretty accurate summary. It stays just topical enough to be fun without overcomplicating any particular mechanic. I have found that I can just wander around without having any 'worry' like most games impart (time contraints, blowback for bad actions, etc) so it becomes all the enjoyable parts and none of the drawbacks. Also, who doesn't want to fight sea monsters, pirates, undead ships, or imperial nations?
 
Back
Top