As you read in my previous blog, my last Kartuga experience was quite bitter. Here is the continuation of our office battle and my attempt to take revenge on Fabio.

The countdown has begun. There are only a few seconds until I can engage in the battle. Of course now self-doubt is plaguing me – How can it be that I was the first to sink?  What went wrong? The answer should be obvious. I played in the truest sense of the word unskilled. Actually, I equipped my Destroyer with four very exciting skills, but when the war horn sounded, I shot way too wild and thoughtless all around me. That should change now. One special skill that I will now use more frequently is the “Upgrade Chain Shot”. It not only increases the damage of time shots, by initiation of some additional skill points I can, for example, reduce the cool-time for this skill and use it more often.

Playing with Skills

I plunge into battle with new found courage. I was looking for one respawn point near a checkpoint. This proves to be a good move, because Kathleen is just going to conquer it.

So far, she could do that relatively undisturbed and the checkpoint is already 70% owned by the red team. With great enthusiasm I attack Kathleen at her broadside. When she tried to escape from me, I use the Hunting Gun again, with which I already used to damage Fabio. Finally she turns on and uses a movement skill that increases her maneuverability for a few seconds. That makes me look stupid for the moment and my guns only hit the water. Then I see the opportunities to use my “Westerly” skill. With it I increase my speed again for a few seconds and can compensate my disadvantage against Kathleen. I get up quickly and get so close to her that in spite of a hard turn to port, I still can shoot her with my broadside.

Chase in the Pirate’s – Cove

Now it is time for my Chain Shot. I use my now- complete skillset and attach it to the “scope” for a combo. This increases the range of my broadside, so I can be sure that Kathleen doesn’t use a reckless maneuver to manage to escape. By directly following the chain shot, this is not missing its impact and destroys Kathleen’s already battered Protector. Once again, I see planks burst – and this time, they are not mine. I admit feeling a very sublime sense: I have destroyed a ship, an animal instinct in me screams. Proudly I look left and right as “Dennis defeats Kathleen” appears on my screen. Looking around, waiting for praise, my eyes are not met as the screens around me receive exclusive attention and animate their viewers to hammer away at their keyboards.

Never make the same mistake twice …

A moment later, I recognize where my blind chase with Kathleen has led me once again. They took me back further from our control point and simultaneously had driven me into the arms of Fabio, who appears behind an island. Kartuga is intended to be a team-game and this is the second time I made the mistake to concentrate too much on my individual struggle. He owns “only” an Engineer-type that is not really designed for hand-to-hand fight. But even it is in the obviously better position against my leached ship. My heart misgives me, but cannot react fast enough: Fabio hits me with full broadside, and I have to turn in an inconvenient order to be able to defend myself. “Fabio has defeated Dennis” it appears for the second time on the screen. This time, the others no longer stare at their computers, but all gape at me. Sven compassionate, Kathleen rather triumphantly, but the worst is Fabio. He smiles again.

Disclaimer

As you know, the game is currently in the alpha-phase in which we test a lot. This may mean, for example, that some of the skills that I have now mentioned will be changed or renamed in the final version. I still wanted you describe some of the present features so you can get a concrete picture of the game.