TEST Release Notes 9/29/09
 

wow nice updates, though i was initially expecting something bigger. unfortunately i will not be there to see these invasions. but they will come along sometime. who was that bloody knave who said that there be no new stuff comin' and that we be only having that bloody Muertos MMoon again? ( i really like the curse though )

Footstep ! Finaly ! :D

EDIT : I can't log into test for the moment

I just tried to log into test, its not letting me at this time. :degen:

Looks like it may be a pretty well off update, though it is small, it is more than we've seen in a month or so, so I am happy. It also feels weird to walk by PR's docks without Casa De Muertos shaking their heads, and looking dumb, but I'll get over it. Still, if anybody could get on the test server and make pics, go for it, we all want to see what this is about, or if it's just a bunch of meaningless words.

it also looks as if we had a note of this happening before as well.

Cayman Trench doesn't always speak bull then....

Wow i think this is one of the biggest things ive ever seen done on the game since i joined (a year and a half ago)cant wait till its on open. makes me wonder if we see the invasion we get to fight em right? either way im liking this

you get to fight them Lawrence

2 words... What the..

Invasions.... Could this be like the toontown invasions?

That's what I'm thinking. I hope so, because I'm sure it'd be fun to see Jolly Roger often. But, I wonder if they'll be frequent, like everyday, or only once a week.

Okay... am I the only one who is truly giddy?

This new stuff sounds awesome! I mean the footsteps may sound trivial, but NPC's actually reacting - nifty! And I can NOT wait to repel my first invasion!

Can someone explain to me why there are always 2 threads with the same release notes? I see that one is under News and one is under Helm and I can understand the theoretical difference in the threads (discussion of how it works in Helm and "yay new stuff" from non-testers in News) but to me, it just seems like big jumble with the same things being said in 2 different places.

I think i was just thinking of it a bit like black guard if it were the other way.but fightings much better:pirate2:

There are two threads for Test release notes to separate general discussion and the actual test discussion (finds, notes, issues, bugs, etc). The Release Notes are posted in the Helm for that latter purpose, to bring the serious testing discussion together without cohesiveness being lost in off-topic posts. General discussion posts within the post in the Helm will most likely be moved and merged into the News thread.

Its not letting me on either, but I guess its server problems or something, but they are letting me be a tester but not with full access even though I was a tester before the game came out in the open

They forgot to mention in the release notes that the new update also makes the servers unstable and then you can't log on to test anything!

(It's the new methodolgy to reduce bug reports!)

Aye, Basil..Been trying all morning..still can't get on...
Are the testers being tested???

I can't get on either..... but my guess is it will be fixed late today or tomorrow :P.

Sorry to hear you guys can't get on the test servers! That's not good.

I am very excited about the invasion though, it sounds really cool.

Ooh!

Very good! I can't wait 'till these new features hit the Open.

I expect it will improve the game a bit.

i got on for about 3 mins and i did notice in options there is a button to make the game 3D for 3D glasses?

For anyone getting excited, thinking this means a step closer to the second story quest, don't give your hopes up.

If these are anything like the invasions in toontown, then this should just be a side update to keep us busy while they work on the second story quest a bit more. Hey, it would make sense. While we're busy for a month with random invasions they can finish up the story quest and then release it.(I think I contradicted myself)

So you are saying that I spent about 4 hours trying to download a 3D glasses software on my computer for POTCO, then next day They come out with an option for it? XD

Is it me or every time that a Test Release shows up the rumors of the Kraken show up too?

aye i think ye be right hopefully big d keeps to their word and releases it "before" the end of the year. still keeping my hopes up i would like to see a new developers diary though :/

Well, the invasion happened. For those of you not in the Helm here on POF, here's the rundown:

PR Map with Barricade Locations:

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...nShot020-1.jpg

Five minute warning

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...nShot025-1.jpg

Yeah, the Moon is Back...

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...eenShot027.jpg

Jolly Roger's Ship pulling in

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...nShot030-1.jpg

First wave of attacks (there are six, and before the next comes, you get a sound bite of Jolly Roger heckeling you, nice touch) Enemies have no levels, and the damage done to them, and by them is LOW. Pretty hard to kill them.

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...nShot033-1.jpg

After the last wave of the undead, Jolly Roger himself comes to fight. He is TOUGH. Finally Took Out the old guy...he wasn't happy ;)

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...nShot047-2.jpg

Reward Screen. I didn't have my rep go up though...reporting that one ;)

http://i874.photobucket.com/albums/a...nShot048-1.jpg

All in all, it was a lot of fun, but a LAG Fest!

Now THAT is an event! I would add to you Rep Sarah but I couldn't... I nominate you to post of the year!

2 questions.

1) How was the lag and freezing?
2) Was that your rep or the rep given to all?

I didn't realize it at the time, but when I saw the final figures...total Notoriety Bonus (which included Crew Bonus) showed over 4K on my screen. I thought it was for everyone. But after seeing Sarah's screen shot I guess they were individual...
I didn't get a screen shot so I don't remember the rest of the stats...Hmmm I know I did level my staff & sword during the event & my noto circle went up alot. I'm kinna shocked that this was individual and not overall. If I am wrong...someone please correct me.
With all the Lag, it was very difficult to lock in & fight & move on to where you thought you were needed next.

awesome! i like the muertos moon, but this is way better. heres a hint : soon it may be more than just PR. they said something about Stumpies and Dragoons. i suppose they are meant for pdf or Tortuga. anyway that would be cool, slighty better if it were different from the PR battle by a wee bit. of course, nobody likes the same thing occuring twice, but i want to see these battles come very often

I have another question for the Testers... Does it have a time frame or rather dates that this will be available to do?

So... I thought this is what might have happened. Not to sound like a know-it-all, of course, but I thought they would make it so we'd be able to fight Jolly Roger himself without having to do go through a bunch of quests. I'm sure in the future there will be a boss battle for him, though.

Also, I don't think anyone pointed this out yet, but since Sarah had pictures of the invasion on port royal, I was thinking this meant that the POTCO devs are going to say something like, "Too many of you helped during the Casa De Muerta quest, so Jolly Roger will stop at nothing to destroy Port Royal. It is up to you trusting pirates to stop him from defeating Port Royal during his many invasions!"

Also, I haven't been on yet, but are the invasions only on Port Royal? If so... I wonder if this means that in the future we'll see a different invasion for every island. I'd love an EITC, Navy, animal, etc... invasion.

surely they will release a new lore for this, and James i think the invasion begins next week in next month. a new developer's diary will be promising though. i want to see what happened to my dear loot and inventory system, and shi custom and kraken.
but mates, this invasion came with little warning, so i suppose that there are more things they havent promised us that just might be coming. namely, new forests, redesigned wild islands, ?new islands?, possibly more guild features, and more ship features. i have no source, im saying these just might come as one of their surprises. the new cave environments were not highlighted as much of a bug thing in the diary, yet it is a big thing. lvl caps happened to be mentioned in the brackets lol. and its still a big thing.imagine what big things they promised us to come. they will be humongous and rock the caribbe. the Kraken is such, they've been working on this for a year. i wonder what its gonna be anyway. ship custom and new loot and inventory have also been promised to us last year, and thus been worked on for one year
but has anyone had the me to imagine, what they will give us once all their promises ( and more ) are done.
probably for that, tey'll look into that whole list i made for my ideas and suggestion thread lol

Just wanted to add...Roger commented about Stumpies & Dragoons Well there were stumps to fight on PR...

I am in ecstasy!!! DANG IT! I have to wait for this!!

thank you Combat Lizzy, but still a few more qustions:
what of pdf and tortuga next?
what if in servers, there arent players and thus the city falls, what will Jolly do to the mansion?

but i have a funny idea. me and he rest of me guild will um, go to a quiet server and take on them undead and stumpies. once jolly roger comes, we disperse and run away from him while he destroys PR. nice idea right?

My thoughts on the encounter:

Waited 3 hours for a repeat, but no luck. I'm hoping they're poring through bug reports - LOL.

The undead showed no levels. They were insanely hard to kill, but didn't do much damage...more of a time killer.

I seem to be the only one that saw a 7th level...I thought that was the Jolly Roger landing, but it was an insane lag-fest so I'm probably wrong.

I took 7 screenshots, but can only get one to show...that's of the outcome and based on what Sarah and Lizzy posted (and Swash in The Helm), it's definitely player-based, not overall.

The lag was what you'd expect for an event of this size, but the duration was amazing. I didn't time how long it lasted, but it was a long time...I'd guess 30 minutes. Your character did not have time to heal from one wave of undead to the next. I believe the stumps didn't make an appearance until wave 5 (6 if you count JR's arrival).

It was tough. I'm a level 31 on test and some kind soul revived my dying keester. This event requires healers as well as fighters.

I had a ball. I'd have to say, apart from my first Boss Battle, this is the most fun I've had in the game in the nearly 2 years I've played. You have to be on-the-ball for this one.

I would advise those on Open only to level up your weapons as much as possible.

I thought this would be a repeat of last year's Halloween/Muertos Moon event, but it's ever so much more.

Good times - no idea when it will hit open, but I think you'll love it.

I wasn't there for the attack, but i have to say that i LOVE the 3D!!! It is beyond beautiful, kudos to Disney! :dancetl6::dancetl6::dancetl6:
I especially like the fighting in the 3D mode, your sword nearly comes out of the screen!
(so i highly recommend you all to get the r&b 3D glasses, it is worth it!)

And i think they have their hands full of feedback now, so the events will probably be back later. It is still the Test, so the delays and little maintenances are understandable :D

Beautiful pics as always Sarah ;)

And I'm hoping to find 3D glsses today to try to that feature. I must admit I had no issues with connection or any issues switching to 3D mode (video). Ionly got to play a few minutes last night though - so I'll see how it goes today.

As of now Padres and Tortuga are safe. The invasions are a follow up of the Muertos quests, which has given Jolly Roger the ability to set foot on Port Royal unscathed.

Still no clue what terrible thing could happen in Roger makes it to the mansion, probably won't be too good for us.

Ummm..... I was on last night and NOTHING came! What time did it start?? Lol. Or was it this morning.....?

Heh heh, Jolly Roger looked a little mad seeing someone taking a photo ( Screenshot ) of him, eh?

Buck, it was around 10 eastern last night, on the "A" server.

Ugh, I got off around that time yesterday after waiting a while! Why do they put it so late?!?!?! Looks like another disappointment from Disney......... :(

Agree, Sarah awesome shots. Pretty well covered the whole string of events. The notoriety bonus at the botton of the screen was for each pirate. Mine was around 1800. And yes, the lag was pretty bad when you were around a lot of other pirates. But a few times when I was battling a skelly with just a couple other pirates, not much lag at all.

All in all, it was a blast. Cant wait to do it again. Hoping tonight. Let the fun begin!

Lets see how are they going to do this one... what I mean is... is it going to be just some servers or all servers at the same time, are they going to schedule this, what days is this going to happen? so many questions for D and the testers. Keep it up guys, hopefully they listen to your bug reports and do something about it. Because it would be bad if Test became of a teaser server instead.

I would hope that they wouldn't run them one at a time or have a set schedule, or else people would just be flocking to those servers and the lagfest will just roll throughout. I'd like to see a good/great number of people doing the invasions but possibly not in the proportions that I saw last night where the map is a giant blue blob of pirates. Sure the event is quite epic, but there can only be so much lag before it becomes unbearable to play and enjoy.

As for another one of the updates:

Too Funny! Gray enemies cower in fear, or say "No!!" when you get close to them...then they walk away from you. Green enemies do the same. Didn't run into a yellow one last night, but the Reds...LOL, they laugh at you as if to say "yeah buddy, you think you can take me??"

I hope the invasions are spread out on different servers at varried times. It would be impossible to move if it was all at once. We shall see.

There was another event just now, was really fun! But only 3 barricades were left standing, hehe... :D
We also noticed that people with mastered weapons won't get rep afterwards... I'm not sure if it is a glitch or just the way it was meant to be, maybe i'll report that and ask. :)

I've tried to create a new pirates and, The tutorial is buggy and I crash.

this is what is concerning me i was told by one of me mates that the second "invasion" was a half hour ago or something and the last one was way up at 10 pm est at night! Now I'm seeing an issue here on disney's part i typed slash event which they should add so we have a countdown to know when it is instead of having people to wait all night for nothing. so does anyone have a clue when the so called invasions happened i waited like 4 hours last night and still nothing right now :/

I made my first invasion on test !!! And, Woa, it was very cool !!! Jolly Rogger have some powerful skills and his ship is very cool !!!

The funny things, all the townfolks was scared during the invasion, haha!:laughks2:

Nitnek, the Frenchie.

The idea behind an invasion is that it happens unannounced. If they were published and planned, then you wouldn't be able to participate AT ALL, due to the lag! It's pure luck if you happen to be ingame, and on the correct server, at the right time. If I read the release notes correctly, they will happen on test at a higher frequency than they will when finally released to open. If they run it 2 or 3 times a day on test, then we may expect it only once or twice a day on open, even with the multitude of servers.

it would be cool if his ship fired Fury and Grape and Round shots into the town.

I agree that this will not be a scheduled type thing. As others have pointed out, it would become a lagfest if we knew when and where. I will say this: it was complete mayhem and very, VERY FUN!!

Posted this on Helm thread...there were 3 invasions today up to this point...and from what I gathered from chat, they attacked on both test servers at the same time...

Invasion starting shortly

The last invasion...Jolly Rogers was actually killed!!!!!!

Is the lag getting any better? Because it looks as if it'll be fun, but lag may ruin it.

I was inn what was the first invasion as far as I could tell (last night).

Jolly Roger was killed then too. If you dont kill him, he will get to the Governors Mansion... his goal.


For those that are uncertain.

There were 6 brigades of undead (and stumps in last 2), then Jolly Roger after the 6 brigades (when it said there were 0 brigades left).

I didnt see any of the undead appaear to be attacking a barricade except Jolly Roger himself. Matter of fact, Jolly Roger brought down the only barricade that was defeated as far as I could tell.

I did see JR give up the fight at the Mansion when his health was waning...I think 2 times
At least that is what I thought I saw...unless the lag prevented me from seeing him killed...which is entriely possible...lol

Also, idk if anyone posted this, but undead captains are in the attack.

They do exist!!!

Just to let everyone know, I did the math and Jolly Roger himself is one of the following. ...

Level 18 Boss
Level 76 Enemy

... He's definitely not a normal enemy though, considering the amount of damage he can deal to people.

Not to be one to correct you Zep, but the skeles/stumps do indeed attack the barricades themselves. Both times I've played most have protected the wharf, and the skele's have taken down the Bridge and Farmer's Row Barricades. The second time we lost the Beach and Old Town barricades as well.

I must agree with Jack I...we successfully pulled of a deliberate "lose" and the skels were attacking barricades. I watched an Undead Gypsy hexing a barricade at the Governor's Mansion.

After the loss Jolly Roger set the mansion on fire. The skeletons remained on Port Royal.

http://i679.photobucket.com/albums/v...0_22-25-04.jpg

Jack, Either I did my math wrong, Or Jolly roger is level 760 XD
I think I did my math completly wrong though...

Liz Fireburn, what did the Cadets do against the undead. Just stood there or what? and what if all the undead were defeated and Jolly Roger came, then u let him destroy the mansion, will he remain on PR?

is this real? because even in PAINT i can draw pictures like that not good but there fine
it seams real probobly test

After Jolly Roger won, he left the Port Royal, but skelly's remained behind. Took awhile to kill them since they would not stand still. They were running around like 'their heads had been cut off'. This will be reported as a bug.

I arrived at the mansion just before it fell. I did not see Jolly Roger upon my arrival but I did see the green world wind of a Vanquish cast. Next thing I saw were close to, if not more, 24 'dead' pirates lying on the ground. Live had better watch out!!!

Zombie dance is also back........yea hah.

And Snifflefliner, Liz's picture is for real.

jack,

Jolly Roger is a boss, whose level is lsited as ??

Just FYI, as noted by LadyDi, who attuned JR to see what his health was:

Ouch

I'm really not sure what the cadets did, didn't think to look for them. I'll look for them next raid. As C Ray said, Jolly Roger left after he won.

Yes, its real.

The Cadets do nothing, just stand and act as nothing is going on.

I missed the first night's fun by minutes. Hopefull i will be able to get on tonight and see what its all about!!

Nice shot of the Mansion Anne!!

I wonder what the end result of losing the mansion would be on live?

Aye, that is the reason I walked up to them after & made them dead!!! Useless Navy...lol :psmiley35:

I was on Test yesterday afternoon and the invasions happened every hour or two on both servers. Took part in 3 of them on one server before dinner. Eastern Time

The zombie dance is BACK ! :grin:

Yes!!!! Ive waited over a year!!

Watch out... They come from all sides of port royal!!!
Not just from the sea as well!!!
They even come from the graveyard!!!!!!!!:dancetl6:

They also take for ever to kill!:degen:

Well at the last invasion of A server..Jolly Roger won...but it appeared that he & other enemies near mansion were glitched. Their health wouldn't go down...We then went to L server & Roger was killed. He wasn't glitched there....I was not the only pirate who noticed this...so it's not just my opinion

I caught the tail end of an invasion this afternoon, and JR was glitched, couldn't die. The last one I went to, he announced he was coming ashore, but didn't...we just won. It gets buggier and buggier. Keep reporting!

Here's some pictures to show you guys. The battle was, as Speedway Master told me, epic. Besides that, there was an enormous amount of lag. I don't know about you guys, but even on my incredibly low amount of lag, I was having a hard doing anything. I was literally throwing out random clicks to see if I would get lucky and hit an enemy or too.

No dice.

I mean, I'm sure if these invasions are permanent the lag will die down because people will stop doing them so often. But until then, this lag is horrible. I don't think I'll do any invasions if it means having over a hundred players on the map and two hundred enemies.

P.S. Does the amount of players during an invasion determain the amount of enemies? Also, I don't know if I got a shot or not, but when I saw Jolly Roger his enemy level was 77.

The amount of fog is cool. I love how that at a certain distance you can't see enemies. This makes the invasion even more "creepy" and "hard". It adds to the effect is basically what I'm trying to say.

Jolly Roger running back and forth attacking us. He didn't move much besides walking and waving his hands back and forth. I would like to see him use his pistol. And the black circle is a pretty great attack. I was one of many that died because of it.

I felt sorry for this guy. Because of the lag he was too busy trying to aim, but instead this poor guy got knocked out right after me.


EDIT: Actually, now seeing some pictures I've noticed the level is actually ??. At first I thought it was 77, but when I got a closer look I saw it was two question marks. Strange.

That black voodoo circle knocked me out at least twice...I try to stay my distance & use longer range weapons, but it doesn't always work...especially if you are not expecting to be in the path of the black voodoo...Thank goodness for Revive! Big D gets an "A" for that one from me...

I say that Revive is still useless even here, it can occupy a fellow pirate trying to revive a friend for a moment that could cause a barricade to nearly be destroyed. Best just to TP back and not mess around with that Waste of tonics/time.

That looks cool, but at my current state, I would probably drop dead after one attack from JR, that bloody scoundrel! =P (Yes, I might have misspelled that. XD)
CS~

true, some changes need to be made to Revive. it should happen a bit faster or there should ot be grogginess

Talk about jail overcrowding... Imagine if all the Knocked-out pirates that are laying all over the ground on one of these invasions all went to jail instead of being revived...LOLZ!!!!!

So, from what I just read, they reduced that awesome Rep amounts?

The whole idea of the whole grogginess method is ok, but the plain out way that it works just ruins it. I do believe that it could help if they took grogginess out of revive, but it will still take precious time.

Not sure if this has been brought up...

There are always a ton of pirates on test fighting this invasion and barely winning.
How are any other servers going to finish this other than abassa?

i place my bets on andaba. one good plan is that high lvls stay up front while low lvls stay at the Governor's Mansion just in case. tee high lvls obviously have to split in groups. some medium lvls can stay somewhere in the middle of the city and guard from the staircases, able to throw grenades, daggers, etc

ADDED : But heres the worst case scenario : a couple of high lvls ( 10 in number ), enter a server where there are a lot of noobs in PR. each of them go either offline, or to another server. now if the noobs were hundred in number. Well lets just say that those pirates were left taking on a hundred undead, and nothing was heard of them ever again :)

But we have been asking for it nearly since the game was released, since the official site has a picture reflecting an invasion. (the old screen reflected old tortuga bein overrun by skels)

They look at everyones suggestions, it seems what they get the most suggestions for (not as unique as their creators thinkt they are), are the ones that get adopted and attempted.

Burns it down

Well sorta been done, thats how we know the mansion burns down.. lol
But id do it anyhow for fun.. why not <shrug>

The times I played I was in the middle, and/or the main street as the undeads came from the bridge
those that made it to the barricade, ran past the barricades not attacking them. (Id chase and stop them after they'd run past)

I didnt see any barricades go down when we participated except the wharf one when Jolly Roger came on the scene. He did then attack the one further up near the Governors Mansion.

So it may be a matter of where, and their numbers at the time, I dont know.

Where'd you see that in the release notes? The huge amount of rep we get now is still there on test. I'd be surprised if they removed it, because it'd make getting your weapons to level thirty near impossible.(not to mention the amount of time levleing would be extremely boring)
That's also in one of the old commercials and news updates on the POTCO site. They gave hints at enemies invading your ship, and showed a huge amount of skeletons on the old Tortuga.

It's a really good Insider Video. Not only do they hint at the invasion but they show Jolly Roger in some bumpy, mysterious looking woodland with his minions.

And one of the more interesting hints is at SvS. They actually show the spanish flag as an enemy ship. Note that I said enemy ship, not an SvS ship.

They hinted at a lot of things in the old videos, and I/we can only assume that some of the other things in the old videos hint at future content.

P.S. What's this wharf people are speaking of?

The Wharf Barricade is the barricade directly up from the EITC dock.

My access to test was approved, and I like the looks of everything. The only thing I do find glitchy is Tattoo Bonita, who waved to me, and then jabbed her Tattoo customer directly after.

Also Gordon greer (thats his name I think...) in Fort charles, He got out of his head thingy, Waved to me, then just stood there

Oh My Gosh!! I have been going thru some real life problems and have been off pirates for over a year, and let me tell you I sure have missed everyone and playing pirates. I resumed my account about a week ago and the first thing I saw when I logged on test was an invasion!! It was sooo Kewl!! lol I LOVED it!! And I cannot wait to see what is going to happen next. Thumbs up to all the game creators and everyone that works to keep playing pirates so exciting! Hope to see everyone in the game!!
Luv to all,
Nikki ( aka Sierra Nicole, Liberty O'Bonney,
and my test pirate Katrina O'Bonney) :dancetl6: