TEST Release notes: July 8, 2008
 

Release Notes - July 8 2008

• Removed a handful of French and Spanish Privateering related quests
• Removed the infamy reward temporarily
• Fixed a bug that was preventing clothing/jewelry/tattoo rewards from being dropped by enemies if your inventory was already full of these items
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to appear undead outside of PVP
• Removed the teleport totem icon from the map for Kingshead island
• The Ray-Of-Light should guide you better to your quest objectives
• Added the Crew Heads Up Display (HUD) so you can see what other crew members are doing
• Updated the ship damage GUI
• Adjusted the armor on NPC ships so it is slightly weaker than player ships
• Fixed several quest dialog bugs
• Added a new player animation for repairing your ship when in Privateering mode
• Added debugging information to help track down issues when ships sink

I'll update this post with some more info about the bolded new features, as they sound like key points of the update.

First off, this is what the meant by updated ship GUI. Noticed it when I set sail for a repair pic, but didn't get it due to a DC.
http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/g...0/medium/1.png

Next, the Crew HUD. I didn't notice anything fancy about it, doesn't seem to tell you where or what they're doing, but does help out a bit when watching their HP. There is also a crew icon button, which didn't make much sense to me. If some people would like to get on and meet in the top ocean at tortuga, I'd be glad to test this out more.
http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/g...0/medium/2.png

Here's a picture of the new animation, as long as another pic of the ship GUI. The new animation has your pirate pull out a hammer, then kneel down and start hammering on the deck. As for the ship GUI, it's a very nice upgrade. While we lost the ability to rotate your ship to see damage, you now have a damage meter for the left side, right side, and back of your ships on top of the overall damage meter.
http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/g...0/medium/3.png

cant wait till open! sweet! the fact that they did a repair animation is good. the jig was funny. "dance to repair!"

but i dont do test server, so i dont know.

I spent this morning roaming the high seas to find all 9 types of npc ships and count the total damage point needed to sink them.
Here are the results:

Dreadnaught lv 39 war frigate - 19700
Black Harbringer lv 35 war frigate - 15900
Warlord lv 33 war frigate - 14000
Man O War lv 28 war frigate - 12100
Ogre lv 32 war galleon - 12200
Ogre lv 30 war galleon - 11900
Predator lv 31 war sloop - 8000
Kingfisher lv 22 war sloop - 5200
Marauder lv 25 frigate - 9700
Marauder lv 24 frigate - 9300
Vanguard lv 17 galleon - 6800
Bloodhound lv 16 sloop - 3700
Panther lv 9 light frigate - 3000
Bullwark lv 6 light galleon - 2000
Sea Viper lv 6 light sloop - 1800

Numbers are rounded and possibly higher than actual damage point
needed to sink them because last cannon shot to sink them usually
have higher damage point than the remaining hull point left on that ship.

Now let's compare with our ship's hull points:
War frigate - 12600
War galleon - 10800
War sloop - 7200
Frigate - 8400
Galleon - 7200
Sloop - 4800
Light frigate - 4200
Light galleon - 3600
Light sloop - 2400

It seems that level 30 and above NPC's ships are stronger than
our ship while those below 30 are weaker.

what do they mean by "removed a handful of quests for privateering"? did they make it easier? take out the "without sinking" quests? im onn open. cant wait till live!! they really coming along with this.

awesome updates :) i like that repair ship ability

crew HUD is interesting i like it it helps out when crewing to watch other HP

also how do u see how much damage is being inflicted by cannons? i mean is this a test thing bc on open i dont see anything when i hit a ship.

Yes, you can see the damage being inflicted on ships now, it was added with privateering. ^^

aye ok i always wondered how much damage i was inflicting :) cool i cant wait for all of this to come to open

Do you think this means that they'll actually get around to fixing that on the open? It used to work and then after they added the infestation quest (I think) it just went kablewey. :explotar2jr:

Now that I think about it more, the ray-of-light still works, but the island that's marked on the map is usually the island that you're on not the one you need to be on.

And now, I realize I'm rambling and need sleep. :mybadki6:

Ok. Will Someone Answer Me?!?!?!?!? What Do They Mean By "removed A Handful Of Privateering Quests?!?!?!?!?

They probably mean they will remove the "without sinking" part of the quest because that would make it extremely easier to cokplete the quest. The crew HUD is becoming a lot like WoW's....

anyone read the news? it says youll soon be joining the ranks of sir francis drake or sir henry morgan so i looked them up and drake is english and morgan is from wales im confused

The news blurb is not a reference to you joining the spanish or french, it is a reference to you becoming a privateer, which nationality bears no significance (other than who you choose as an allie).

If you become a "privateer" you will be joining the 'ranks' of a long list of pirates.
African, Asian, Cuban, English, French, Hispanic, and <insert nationality here> pirates.. alike (all among the ranks of privateers).

I have a test account and I got the 10,000 points for the quest in about an hour.
But defeating the 5 ships using a ship and cannon quest isn't going to happen with my test pirate being a level 10 and only having a light galleon.

I think it's fun to have the french and spanish flags.
I personally think this is the only pirate game with really good ship battles!

Theres nothing i could do to get into a test server right?

Um Im Wondering how Do You Get On The Test Server

At this point, if you don't have access due to being involved from the start, you have to be invited.

They just recently did a mass invite (people who've been playing for a while, and I believe are all in good standing with Big D), so I wouldn't expect them to do another round anytime really soon. :)

You only get on the Test Servers if invited by Disney, and no - you cannot request to be on the Test Servers via membership services or any other communication (you will get the standard reply of 'we are currently not recruiting new members for our test env')

If you are luckly enough to get a magical e-mail from Disney one day asking you to be on the Test System - you then D/L and install the program just as you would the Live Program - then after each play (or every couple of days) send them an e-mail with your Bugs / Findings. :D

Ok Thx Guys