Black Tide storms, the Matron of the First Flame, an Orders tab you can watch, crates at sea

The Black Tide brings its own weather now. Wherever one of its warbands holds an island, the whole ocean turns to storm. Fleets from your islands there sail slower and lose more ships on the way home, patrols turn for port, and the garrisons on your rocks drift back a few ships an hour. Break the warband and the sky clears. Every Black Tide island carries a black power bar under its name, so you can watch its garrison wear down raid by raid.

Your church calls the Tide

Church bells carry across the water. Build or upgrade a Church and a Black Tide warband sails into that ocean within about a minute, as strong as the church you raised, or the one already there grows stronger. Your first church waits until its island could beat the warband it calls, and the Matron shows how ready your island is. An ocean where a protected newcomer lives is left alone. The Black Tide handbook lists which warband each church level calls.

The Matron of the First Flame

New Governors have someone watching over them. The Matron keeps your shrine, explains the help you have and writes to you when it changes. Her help eases off as your islands grow and ends by day 14 at the latest, and each attack you launch at another Governor costs a step of it. While it lasts, her seal sits after your name in chat, the rankings and on the map. The Matron’s Favour page has the details.

New

• Realm has an Orders tab: everything under way on every island, in one list
• Tap any order to watch the work, from builders on the walls to a ship launched
• Watching a voyage, you may see crates float past: tap one and it comes home with the fleet
• A Black Tide warband turns its ocean to storm until it falls
• Building a Church draws a Black Tide warband into its ocean
• Your first church waits until its island can beat the warband it calls
• Every Black Tide island shows a power bar that drops as you wear it down
• The Matron of the First Flame looks after new Governors from her shrine
• A protected newcomer wears the Matron’s seal beside their name
• A Lumen Rupture opens with a 12-hour countdown before its creatures rise
• A finished Lumen Rupture shows its winner, every striker and what each kill paid

Improved

• World dominance counts the water you hold: 10 per ocean claimed, 1 per rock flag
• Every Governor who struck a Rupture creature gets a share of its kill in Claims
• New Governors start on open ground near the map’s edge, never beside the Black Tide
• The sea grows to the east and south, with new islands and rocks
• The Black Tide keeps its four great fortresses and lets the others go
• Empty and locked screens have your advisor point the way, with a button to go there
• Once a church stands, the shrine’s second tab is the Matron’s advice on raising it
• A private chat shows the other player’s flag, last seen, score and rank
• A friend you invite can start straight from your link as a guest
• Many smaller improvements to the tutorial, Quill, his tips and the Desk letters
• Many smaller improvements to storms, Black Tide raiders, the Rupture, the weather and the Patrol tab

Fixed

• Firefox on desktop no longer draws parts of the map as white or noisy squares
• Firefox on Android no longer cuts off the top bar and bottom buttons
• Turning a phone sideways asks you to turn it upright instead of hiding buttons
• Your first spy mission no longer leaves the map stuck on one shore
• The Harbour no longer refuses an expedition while some of your ships are away
• Two Governors arriving at the same moment no longer land on the same island
• An expedition left by an island’s last owner no longer sits stuck in your orders
• Long alliance names no longer break into one letter per line on a phone
• More fixes for phones and for Firefox, so the game fits and draws properly on more screens
• Lots of smaller fixes to the Workshop, the Desk, Forces, rock names, the tutorial, the Rupture and the handbook

By the numbers

118 changes in this update. Since the last one:

• 9,615 raids
• 2,705 spy reports filed
• 276 Black Tide attacks beaten off
• 104 islands freed from the Black Tide
• 101 islands claimed
• 14 gods awakened

The Black Tide would like it noted that 289 of its raids got through, and that it has storms now.

Thanks

Some of this release started as your reports. Thanks to Bam, Treehugger, Turtle Blues, VoidPirate, LANGSOMT, Notme and Prowling Brigand.

Where we’re heading

Our aim for Inselnova is simple: more people playing. Right now about 17 in every 100 new Governors stay with the game, and we want 30. So much of this release went into the first days: the tutorial, Quill, the Matron and safer starting islands. You sailed past all of that long ago, but every newcomer who stays is another sail on your horizon, as a neighbour, a rival or an ally. Over the next few weeks we’ll keep balancing the game alongside the onboarding work. The Tide has learned the weather. Keep an eye on the horizon.