TEST Release Notes - May 18 & 19
 

Release Notes - May 19, 2009

•Fixed an AI crash that occurred when players sunk during the Black Pearl Battle
•Fixed a bug that caused some of the boss NPCs to be easily defeated
•The new Cargo Watchmen NPC's have been renamed to Dockworkers


Release Notes - May 18, 2009

Improved Early Player Experience
•Early Quests have been modified for better playability, including Quests to find the first three Black Pearl crew members and Quest lines related to the Voodoo Doll
•Introduced new tutorial pop-up hints. These hints can be turned on and off from the Game Options Menu (F7)
•In the Cutlass tutorial, Pirates are now shown the skills they can earn later

Transportation Enhancements
•Added new Dockworker NPCs to help Pirates stowaway on ships. This is a new transportation option which helps Pirates reach their destination without sailing a ship or needing a Teleport Totem. To become a stowaway, find a Dockworker on the docks of Tortuga, Port Royal, Padres Del Fuego or Cuba and pay him the gold he requests for the service.
•Added 38 new, player-submitted ship names to the Shipwright's Ship Naming Menu

Technical Enhancements
•Changed enemy difficulties in areas throughout the game for better playability
•Added Chat Permission Status to the Pirate Profile Panel
•Added an option to toggle on and off Windows Sticky Keys (this option is disabled by default)

Additional Improvements & Bug Fixes:
•Changing Cannon Ammunition types no longer restarts the recharge timer
•Made several bug fixes to NPC's: returned Navy Sailors to normal heights, enemies no longer ambush players and enemies will no longer attack Pirates once you leave their area
•Better feedback/flow for guild name requests
•The loading screen now appears when starting game instead of a black screen
•Polished the drop down Main Menu and Escape key interaction
•Made several improvements to the Ray of Light to address tracking and hint problems
•Removed the Quest completion percentages from the Journal page
•Re-enabled the "dazed" effect above a Pirates head (for higher-detail graphics/effects settings)
•Fixed a bug where your ship's repair spots would not be available even when the ship was stopped

Why remove the Quest completion percentage? Who complained about that I liked watching it and tracking my progress on longer quests?

Now this is what I call an update!

I'm going to be testing this new stowaway feature. It sounds very interesting.

The stowaway feature is only useful for those without TP access to the main Islands. It's pricy to boot. Not a very useful update IMO. If you happen to get stranded on Tormenta, just take your chances sailing back to a main Island, be cheaper to fix your boat if it sinks...

Also, there is no confirmation tab as of yet, you click it, it's done.

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/h...8_20-27-44.jpg

I was thinking the stowaway might be useful for the younger players who get *abaondoned* at PDF. Can't teleport off and their light sloops get creamed pretty quickly....

HOWEVER, the new loading screen is ALL I get since the update. After that the game crashes out on me.

It would be cool, if they added one of these to Kingshead. The prices are steep, but I would greatly pay for Kingshead so I could level staff and nades. Plus after the leveling you should redeem what you shelled out to get there.

well there r only to things im happy with the new updates the repair on a svs ship now works glad now i dont have to port again

and that loaded cannon ammo wont have to be reloaded saves time sounds good as for about everything else not worth it i hate that they removed the percentage thing on thee side of quests it helps so much only people 10 up play pirates online so cant they understand percents if not wow bad school and as for the dock workers

not helpful to me! i would pay 200 gold to go to kings or tormenta not PADRES

as for new ship names all my ships have good names

like

Silver Eagle war sloop :piratear:

Sea Crest war galleon :pirate91:

Dark Dragon war frigate :piratewheelgo2:

and the shortened quest for the first 3 crew members doesnt help me a bit i finished the pearl so long ago besides a long quest helps lvl and makes sure people get enough notoriety i think this update has been just a way for disney to get more young players well bad news all the age 8-10 players i can be almost certain someone that old did not see a potc movie the movie draws u in to the game

(well it dose for me)

i say tec people at disney u guys r idiots make something useful like fix the dock behind kingshead! or the broken svs compass!!!! :mat:

I like all of this and that they are finally working, but I REEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLYYYYYYYY hate how they got rid of the percentages on the journal page. I like tracking my quests, I don't see why we have to rid of it.

- Faster cannon reload times, yay!
- Yay, no more navy dudes all storming you when you search the first crate on the left when you go thru KH's gates haha
- Mmm, what? So they don't want us to know how far we are into quests or how close we are to completing it?
Weird, reminds me of how they removed HP stats of everyone in your crew list for no point what so ever. If all ur crew mates hits yellow, obviously the mate with the smallest amount of HP would need help, but now you have no idea, coz you might end up helping some high lvl pirate who is in yellow but still has over 1K HP left til Jail whereas the baby pirate that hits yellow with like only 200 HP left is actually the one that needs help.

I agree, what good does removing the percentages do? I too like watching my progress - and knowing how far I am from completing quests. Removing the percentages definitely looks like a step in the wrong direction.

As far as the rest of the updates, they look fine. The stowaway feature certainly has limited helpfulness, but eh, it's not a BAD new feature. And as long as Timmy and Darkhart are still in tact, the enemy changes don't bother me either.

Awesome I think I'll log on :) I miss this game so much :(

I'll admit.. we have quite a few useful updates there. But I'm still holding out for that update where I start jumping up and down, break out the rum, throw a little party, and say "FINALLY!"...

This.. Well this only deserves a mini "WooHoo":glare8: But still a "Woohoo" none the less... :)

Now I can finally get rid of this pesky sticky keys and I have to guesstimate how far I am on quests. Well does add to the surprise I guess

I agree - Whats up with that one?? I mean - did they find a bug in it and coudn't get it out or something? LOL :D

The %'s were good for tracking just how much you still had to do - they add markers to the Weapons and Noriety - yet take out the progress of Quests? DOH! :D

Worst thing in this update IMO.

Agreed I see it as not being necessary to remove those I think the reason why they did that was because they could not fix the +100% bug meaning if you need 100 gold in poker and you won 200 you would have like 2000% complete so they couldnt fix it they removed it.

I dislike the percentage removed as well... sucks for those questing.

Removing the quest percentages does not make sense.

They constantly seem to be catering to the early questers, those just getting started, perhaps they thought the percentages eluded to discouragement. (more like it helped represent progress and motivate players IMO)

Yeah like zeepers said. To me the percentages motivated me, now without it not knowing how far away I am... I wont quest as much cause i will feel like its taking so long with no sign to tell me how close i am.

I think they took out the % because there in the process of redoing the quests with the new enemys.

The percentages were great, they motivated me through the pearl quest.

Well, the percentage was something I wish they wouldn't have taken away.

The least they could have done is put in an option to turn the percentage on and off. If they did that just to keep players who wanted to make it through the Pearl quest, that was such a waste of time.

Why don't they actually come up with a blog asking for ideas for the game? At least we'd be able to make comments on what we liked about updates and what we didn't like. They're must be getting a whole lot of mixed ideas from non-hard core players.

You know, now that I think about it, I really wish the stowaway feature could take us to Kingshead. That would make the feature much more useful IMO.

Oh, and while they're doing enemy modification, why not make the Kingshead mob soldiers about, say, level 22-25? That would be SUPER! ;)

I have sent some feedback in game about these updates already. Please, I encourage everyone to do the same. Use the feedback button and tell disney what you think. They wont know players are unhappy if we dont tell them.

I'm sorry but from what I heard they did do something to em. From what i've heard from another person on they were downgraded to a witchdoctor and brigand. Again I have not seen this, I am just saying what i've heard (Would go there if I could but I would get taken out by the grunt in beckets ohko lol). If I can make it there i'll check to confirm it.


On a lighter note, besides the percentage thing I think they did a pretty good job with those updates.

Tim and DH were downgraded to lev 10 one day, then back to normal the next. We'll see where they're at today...

I think we should create a petition to keep the percentages.

Just checked. They went back to normal. I'm glad because when I get my grenades I need to level them lol.

The only major one is the dockworker one but still not worth 10.00 a month for

They use to have a teleport totem for kingshead but for some reason they took it out

There has never been a TP Totem for KH. In the begining of the game, there was a little green circle on the map next to KH, but never a totem.

erhem, has anyone even posted the new enemies? They are
Navy:
Navy Marine
Navy Dragoon

EITC:
EITC _____ ( If anyone sees new EITC, post )

Undead:
Undead Mutineer
Undead Brute
Undead Duelist
Undead Slasher
Undead Executioner

Creatures:
Killer Wasp-----------------------------New to Live Updates.
Soldier Wasp
Frightful Stump------------------------Renamed Corrupt Stump since Live Updates.
Bayou Alligator
Crusher Crab---------------------------Renamed to Devourer Crab since Live Updates
Giant Fly Trap--------------------------New to Live Updates.
Rancid Fly Trap
Filthy Fly Trap
Dire Scorpion

New enemy Bosses:
Nathaniel Grimm-------------------------Marine Boss--------------Also the Sergeant Boss
Rip Tail---------------------------------Corrupt Stump Boss--------------Also the Giant Scorpion Boss
Bloodleach------------------------------Rabid Bat Boss
Bonebreaker----------------------------Undead Mutineer Boss
Stench---------------------------------Undead Slasher Boss

Notes:
If anyone has additional INFO, PM me or post about it.
Some enemy level maxes have been raised.
Some enemy's lowest levels have been lowered.
General Bloodless's enemy type has been changed to Undead Grenadier.
EITC Levels have been lowered.
General Bloodless's enemy type was reverted back to Undead Brigand.
Apparently, General Hex is now an Undead Gypsy.
Added new Boss list.

Ive seen a few of them Aye, several replaced some that were long counted upon when we did our questing, like grenadiers, brigands, gyspies in catacombs :(

not exactly, those are still there...

Well percents are back on journal today!

Here's what I've come up with so far for the new or renamed enemies:

Undead

• Undead Brute
• Undead Executioner
• Undead Duelist
• Undead Slasher
• Undead Mutineers

Navy

• Dragoon
• Marine

Plants

• Rancid Fly Trap
• Filthy Fly Trap
• Frightful Stump

Animals

• Bayou Alligator
• Crusher Crab
• Soldier Wasp
• Dire Scorpion

These still need verified and checked to see which one of these are renamed enemies.

yay!!!!!!!!! :)

Yay! They are back! lol

I haven't looked too much on test yet but do these new enemies have the same look as the old ones? Do they look different? If they don't or do I think it would have made more sense to make a couple of new islands so we would still have the same amount of the old enemies we had in the same locations. That's just my idea because I really want some more area.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but nothing phenomenal, nor anything that is actually worth checking out...

I would imagine they look the same, just different levels though.

Technicly there are no new enemys, They only changed some of their names/levels.

I figured it was too good to be true. I would love new enemies if they looked different and were in new locations. Some more area would be nice, too.

These updates are good but I wish they would focus on fixing bugs as much as possible.

Same enemies, slightly jumbled up mixture of weapons and moves.
So depending on what we mean by new....
They are 'new' in the sense they are not exactly the same as others, but use the same skins, etc. so theres nothing new to any looks, other than names/levels.

and btw, the only major change in some of the new enemies, is their sizes, Crusher crabs are a bit larger than GC's,
Stone Crabs are real, they are on Devil's Anvil

Did i forget the Navy Marine lol

and the Slasher is kind of like a type 2 of the grenadier, same lvl, same skin, but not the same weapon.

Also i updated the list with the Navy Marine

and soon i will update it with the levels and areas

and they ARE in fact new enemies, if you take note that all the original enemies are still around. also notice the level maxes and minimums are different then the original enemy that looks like them
Take note of the navy Dragoon.

and yes some are renamed.
The stumps are now Frightful Stumps
Not sure if Rabid Bats are the renamed version of Cave Bats, since i havent seen them around, i cant prove that these are renamed.

So, may we have the French Stomp of Foot and Spanish Dual Wield already? I could care less for your new enemies, new islands, and even new chapters, what we need are more powers, weapons, and definitely ships.

What we NEED is a new story quest and raised notoriety cap.

The rest is all just appetizers.

Actually, I think the main thing is that Disney just gives us the glasses. The glasses of change, so that we can actually see what the changes of these new enemies actually have.

I agree with Zeppers, we need a new story and lvl cap to be above 80. We want the big Dish, no appetizers. I am just hoping that these new enemies and stuff would lead to the next story line.

I just hope you're not looking forward to it until August, because with all these dull upgrades and events, you best believe they're never working any little bit when the GM's are with us. Sorry to disappoint you, but I'm sure right after this new story, you'll realize it's too short, and the cap will be about 45 without any kinds of new weapons or such. You'll be wanting a refund, and you all know it.

Besides, it was like a whole year until they remade Black Pearl Boss, what if they feel the Kraken isn't good enough after about a few months? You'll just be shooting certain ships, killling certain enemies, and you'll be delivering objects you've never even seen. If you want a level 80 cap, then the storyline will have to be about a 12 month quest at the fastest. I know well that Pirates doesn't have the thoughts of spending their time and thinking out the new quest, so you'll probably be disappointed there. It may be a 2 month quest, but you've also have to look at how 'fun' the actual quests are.

If you love to attack enemies continuously over and over again, then good, but if you don't you'll just be wasting your time. Sorry, but these quests I'm sure will not be as long as the first chapter. I see that they may raise the cap, but for you who mastered all of your weapons, I would expect when they raise the cap your levels will be messed up and they'll lock the cap again until they find a solution. I may be wrong, they may have something big time in store for the new quests, but I am not making any kinds of bets.

You do know that the GMs are NOT the developers of the game, right? They're just staff members who keep us entertained. I guess you could say they're a rank above the people we call on the phone for help.

New weapons are coming. I forget what they're called, the dark art weapons or something like that. They should do much more damage than the highest level weapons we have now. You see, we won't be able to get the quests for them until we master our weapons. I can't wait to get that cutlass.

POTCO isn't going to be repetitive. Like toontown, they'll be adding in more activities, quests, and areas. The devs can't do anything we want them to in a short amount of time. If you don't have the patience to wait for new things and the spirit to know that the new updates are going to be good, then why play the game?

Sorta like you think I play the game now.... I guess it's good news that I don't. But if you're really want to stay on board that ship, so be it. Whether you can actually see that the game is just getting worse and worse over time.

On another Note... I heard about the Dark Arts weapons in October... What are they to be, something with benefits? I highly doubt it, like I ever needed Rank 5 Weapons to murder in PvP anyways... Unless these weapons allow you to grow extra experience when battling certain enemies, or actually give you new powers, then I see nothing more than an unneeded and quite possibly ugly weapon. And what kind of quest can you get for these, another 5 minute one where you battle new bosses?

And you would like to talk about repetitive? That's what they're quests are, the exact same thing.... Styles and enemies may change, and maybe even the damage, but you still attack anything it tells you to, and with no true gain, but leading to another quest where you have to keep killing another enemy.... For what reason, I am not sure, but I feel you can't see that, and I'm also guessing Pirates may not see it either.

Listen, raising the lvl caps does NOT only mean the notoriety, it means the Weapons cap too. i suggest you WAIT, and not spread things like "This game's stupid" or "I dont wanna wait for stupid weapons". BE PATIENT AND WAIT FOR THE DEVS TO MAKE THE NEW THINGS, SO THEY CAN MAKE IT AS GOOD AS POSSIBLE!!!!!!

From reading the prior posts, I get the feeling that we have a few varied perspectives in playing the game. PVPers vs Questers.

I for one dont see any relevant purpose for PVP in the game other than to just say its there. Coming from many years of online gaming, PVP in pirates cannot hold a match to the many online first person battle games that are out there and made for that purpose. It's the questing and adventure spawned from it that makes this game unique, despite some of the repetition the quests have in them.

I also find it rather amazing how so many seem to "know" whats going to happen, without having any real substantiated information. Making suggestions, pleas, requests, and discussing them is one thing, but to say you know something is going to be this way or that way is rather ludicrous, as it is obvious after over a years play that we do NOT know what Disney really has in store. They have already said one thing, and provided another in several different instances.

Furthermore.. We often in say, if you dont vote, you shouldnt complain about politics.
Well if your not playing, im thinking you shouldnt complain about the game either. Unless your making a point of why you left it.

I agree with Zep.

Andrea Shorecastle:swordpirate:

It sure can't. They could really make PVP fun and worth while but they haven't. The least they could do is give us a reward if we win a PVP match. Although that would just bring in the glitchers. I'd like to see a PVP island where it's dead vs living.

Also, people don't know what's coming but they can guess. The dark art weapons may be coming, since it's in the phase files. It's a flaw in the Panda engine that they've failed to fix. Disney can keep us from seeing what's in them, but they don't. They probably don't because they want people to see what's in them. Not everything in the files is what's coming to the game. The Kraken left the files a while ago for tuning.(if it's not tuning then it's redoing. And if it's not that, it's something else.)

If we look at the files and guess what's coming, it's not much. The only real interesting things in the files are the dark art weapons, a giant snake enemy, dolphins, audio for Tia Dalma talking about the dark art weapons, gold and bronze cannons for out ships, and some other "useless" things. I guess from our "observations", we could say that ship customization is in the works and some new weapons may or may not come. We never "know" what's coming, we guess.

Big oops on my part, I really should have said that, "I think they may add in new activities." I tend to exaggerate sometimes. Just another bad habit I can't seem to kick.(like proof reading.)

P.S. That whole voting thing, much more than true in my opinion. I even think that if you don't pay for the game, you shouldn't complain. But people do anyways.

So I am a voter, then good, but the truth is, I am complaining as to why I left, and truly, POTCO is an unfair crowd if you ask me. Call me a hater, and call me a scallywag, but you know, I haven't done anything more wrong than Pirates has done to me. I was tired of guessing, and I was tired of waiting, not to mention that Pirates had that two month drought near october/november, not counting the events. I do think I came on a little strong, but can you really blame me for telling how I feel the game is rather much failing. I haven't said they stink, I just think that the repetitive quests are a rather annoying thing.

You can call me a traitor, hater and scallywag, but truly, I am just a true pirate, and I decided to move on to other seas. If any of you are going to join Pirates UK, I'll see you there, maybe my England friends could make the game a little bit more fun.

People arent unfair here. Some people tend to take their frustrations from the game, out on people here, putting us down because we still like to play the game they've given up on for their own reasons. Hate the game, but dont hate us for making different decisions than you. Doesnt make them right and us wrong, makes us have different opinions.. period.

Edit: I doubt its on purpose, but thats the way it comes acrossfrom some folks.

"Furthermore.. We often in say, if you dont vote, you shouldnt complain about politics.Well if your not playing, im thinking you shouldnt complain about the game either. Unless your making a point of why you left it. "

That is a very important line written by Zeppers.. That should be outlined on the very first post of this thread. Excellent point Zepps.

i've updated the list since the stuff came on live, there are new things.

WOW, u guys actually do stuff to fix the game? Good for you guys, at least you do something...