![](/uploads/1/2/7/5/127594980/191743832.jpg)
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos News Guides Reviews. 30 in Group Chat View Stats. Fast-paced naval battles in a grim fantasy world of leviathans, warships & magic! Captain Orc, Dwarf & Human warships with tactical, ship-vs-ship-vs-monster multiplayer. Maelstrom's Edge is a far-future science fiction setting, supported by a tabletop game and a range of plastic models, novels, and audiobooks. The Universe The Maelstrom, a gigantic apocalyptic explosion of dark energy, is rapidly expanding out from the heart of the galaxy, destroying everything it touches.
It's great to have you here - we are Gunpowder Games, a team of veteran developers based in California, and this is the subreddit for our fantasy naval combat game Maelstrom!Command a Human, Orc or Dwarven warship in fast-paced tactical battles where you'll need your wits to survive competing captains and the dangers of the Abyssal Ocean. Choose your ship, captain, crew and equipment to fit your playstyle - whether it's long range barrages and armor, fast ramming and boarding, or anything in between!We'll be posting news about our Early Access progression, plus info about our player number stretch goals. Feel free to ask questions about the game (check our FAQ first though!) or just chat:). Here I have a review to be taken with a grain of salt because it doesn't necessarily focus on the game itself but rather the whole marketing maybe around the game. I am not a marketing expert nor am I a game developer but just someone who really enjoy the game would love to see it succeed even more.I think the base you have right now is incredible, it is polished, the animation are great, the bugs are less than even fully released game and overall it feel complete if not for little things adjusted here and there. Now to the part where I just pour out my mind and see if anything can give anyone ideas or reinforce existing one. I've heard at some place that it was hard to catch what the game was when first looking at the steam page or website.
I kinda have a problem with this because I watched a stream and then played the game right away so for me it make sense but maybe its something to look at. Maybe a second video explaining a bit the nature of the game that it is currently more like battle royal could help but I am unsure. I know a dev mentioned having micro-transaction wasn't on your radar but sometime it can help. The micro-transaction in general have a bad rep because they are done usually a cheap gambling way. If you were to implement them, I think it could bring some people in the game if they could support it by buying out only cosmetic stuff like boat feature/color/skin.
This would obviously make more sense if the pricing model was revised which I am not sure is the way to go, but just pouring my mind out I suppose. In link to the past point, I've had many friends on discord kinda tell me that while the game looked nice and 20$ wasn't a lot in these days of gaming, it still is 20$. Even if they spend more on Fortnite skin they got into it because they had nothing to loose, enjoyed the game and stayed. For that, I think free events could make a whole lot of sense. For instance, a smallish discount and it being free in the summer sale once QoL stuff has been ironed out could be great. I know that when there were comments on stream basically just turning down what seemed like a fun game because well they had to pay and saw the early access tag.Anyway, those are my current thoughts on that for a great game which I hope will take off and bring us even more great content!.
Seconding this, I love the different shot type but I think the crew should a little something in order to make taking out the crew more appealing. Canon reload time increase is fine but in general by the time you take out the crew the effect of this are minimal.I'd maybe like the idea that it can make the ship sluggish to maneuver by transferring stuff like turn rate from the sail damage to crew damage so that it make taking out the sail not an easy choice and you'd have to think about it.Just food for thought but I do think there's something missing from taking out a ship crew. Copy pasting my feedback via steam;I've played duos most of the time with quite alot solo games aswell.
Played with all ships (with some ships high level and some others low level) So i don't want to give balance feedback about my ships lover than at least level 8.Before going race by race, i want to talk aboutGeneral issues;There should be 'assist' or similar mechanic for bounties. Bounty part matters a lot in terms of gold earning/progression. I mean after hitting level 10 for all ships the end game bounty number means so little but untill getting that point i think there should be an assist system for bounties. Assists should also increase gold multiplier but like half of the bounty.Vision and sight range/minimap: Well, i have high end computer with every setting on very high(including sight range) whereas my friend plays on medium-ish settings. The unfair advantage is, i can see particles way ahead of us.
I can't see the fighthing ships on my minimap but thanks to my sight range on max, i can spot enemy ships. Unfortunately for my friend, he can't see the cannons-captain abilities far away and i think that creates unfair advantage to the people with strong computers. Almost like cinder passive.The coloring for minimap, for duos at least, should be different. After one member dies, the color is perfect. Dead one is turqois-ish and alive member is navy blue. But while both of the members alive, they have the same color and it's kinda confusing.And i think general balance is okay.
Since you need to invest a lot for your main ship, weekly balance patches reck your progression. So, for future balance system i suggest if a ship is nerfed hugely there should be gold reward for people owning level 10 of nerfed ship.Lastly, i think tiny and huge ships are slightly better than medium ships. Medium ships are in between fast and slippery to big and tanky so it creates them a little identity issue. Medium ships aren't tanky enough to soak damages but not slippery enought to avoid them aswell.
![Maelstrom games miniatures Maelstrom games miniatures](/uploads/1/2/7/5/127594980/152896900.jpg)
Giving them more identity would be great. Sadly, i don't have the data of winrates/play rates etc. So i can't suggest a balance idea. (They might be great in terms of statistics, that is just my thoughts for mainly playing ashborne-thunderhead)Humans:Cinder might be little powerful due to the reason i mentioned above. Almost same cannon power as ashborne combined with her agility makes her tier 1.
She's squishy enough so taking away her armor won't solve the problem also taking away her speed won't solve either. Maybe make her cannons little less powerfull. Very little.Ashborne: Poor performance before level 8-9 and great glass cannon after you reach level 10.Fury's Hold: Only problem with fury is her level 10 special. It's not on point and it's the only reason i don't want to play fury cuz that special doesn't make you feel rewarded for grinding this ship to 10. Very little impact with very out of character. Why would you want to dot enemy crew (5 damage each shot if i remember correctly) on a 3k range cannon ship?
It's special should interact with her range-cannons at least armor or kite ability.Orcs:Cleaver and gorger is fine. Only issue with bloodfin is, everyone complaining about the great number of players. And people arguing about them being begginer ship and has no place on high levels. And i think it's wrong. Bloodfin is good high-end ship aswell. The only issue is, it's straightforward ship so for begginer-level your mistakes are easily forgiven unlike other ships.
I might suggest making her little less powerful for early levels. (Like decreasing it's overall power for level 1-7 by%10 and increase by%15 for 7-10 levels)Dwarfs:Again there are lots of complains about dwaves being op, i can understand that not having sails makes tham a little strong and i get most of my wins as dwarf but i think it's because lack of knowledge. Dwarves are very strong at late game compared to their early. If you and a dwarf ship with 10 upgrades are the last remaning, i'm sorry to say that but you're gonna lose.
Crew damage is their counter but not so many ship deals good crew damage so my only suggestion is, steal their loot and rush them at early stages. They can only fire 3-4 cannons and if they go stronger cannons, their range decreases with increased reload time. You can outrange them. This is playing against dwarves, for playing dwarves;Only thunderhead is level 8. All i can speak is for thunderhead; which is balanced ship. Bought the game earlier today and played about 3 hours total. You guys have really made a gem here!
The concept is just to good and I'm loving my time in it so far. Besides the balancing and UI tips already posted, my biggest (albeit minor) gripe is lack of customization or cosmetic variety.
I get this isn't a focus at this early stage, but consider adding cosmetic options for gold such as sail colors, figureheads, effects, or perhaps themed bundles of all those. Also can't wait to see what the Skeleton faction will look like! Great work!. First off, nice work so far.I think this game would benefit from larger maps or a better spawn system, some games I'm alone with 3 npc ships near me, some games I'm sandwiched between 2 enemies within the first 10 seconds.My opinion and I've seen it echoed a few times, final area of the map is too small and is a severe disadvantage to the smaller less tanky ships. Honestly I don't even know that I like the 'battle royal' mechanic in this game after the first two reductions.
Half the fun is using the map to your advantage, especially if you prefer playing the little ships.Final suggestion is to buff the human ships, I don't even play them because they feel entirely inferior to the orcs and dwarves. Maybe this changes in team play, But in solo play I rarely see human ships in the final 5. Loving the game so far after 8 hours of play time!My main gripe right now is managing mates and the abundance of bad ones. Maybe introduce a 3 for 1 system where you can combine 3 of the same type and get a new one 1 tier higher?I'd like to be able to view them all at once as well, like a big grid where I can sort by rarity/stats.As others have stated, spawning inbetween 2 teams is really annoying, unless you just leg it towards the middle, theres a good chance you'll get sandwiched.I think gameplay is really fun, mostly UI stuff that bugs me honestly!. 11 Hours in so far and loving it! Couple of feedback points.Spawning seems very crowded/poorly balanced currently. Sometimes i spawn between two other players, Sometimes i spawn in the middle of nowhere with nothing near me and sometimes i will spawn right by 3 npc ships which gives me a huge advantage.The current upgrade system is a lot of fun as you work your way towards each step, although some of the upgrades aren't always preferable due to their downsides.
This is perfectly okay but when i have to drop 30k just to skip that upgrade it feels like my gold is wasted.One thing i think it might be worth placing some countermeasure on is sniping. My friends and i were able to jump into the same game and work together very easily.
You can imagine this is a guaranteed win for whichever wants first place. This will be harder to do as more players join but it won't be impossible and the advantage it gives is far too great. Maybe have a random delay of 5/10/15/20 seconds every time an individual player queues up.Loving the game so far guys, i'm building up gold for future content you release, can't wait to see what direction you go with balancing as their is already an apparent meta to the FFA mode!.
![](/uploads/1/2/7/5/127594980/191743832.jpg)