Test Release Discussion - 20 August, 2009
 

Release Notes - August 20, 2009[LIST][*]New Game Features:

• Notoriety Level Cap and Weapon Reputation Levels have been increased
  • Notoriety Level Cap increased to 50
  • Weapon Reputation Level increased to 30
  • Pirates can level their character up faster, as you get more experience when defeating enemies
• New cave environments in the following areas:
  • Murky Hollow, Port Royal
  • Royal Caverns, Port Royal
  • Thieve's Den, Tortuga
  • Lava Gorge, Padres del Fuego
  • Beckett's Quary, Padres del Fuego
  • The Catacombs, Padres del Fuego
  • Cursed Caverns, Isla Tormenta
• New cave environments feature new higher level enemies
• New Casa Muertos Quest (Quest available from 8/21 . 8/23)

[*]Game Improvements:

• Ship Speed Improvements
  • You no longer lose all forward momentum when making small changes to your direction
  • A new speed meter now displays how fast your ship is moving.
  • Ships now move faster
• UI Improvements
  • The map in the compass now maintains consistent orientation with the full-screen minimap. The arrow in the center turns as the avatar turns.

Pictures of some of the new areas can be found here.

I see everyone is making the thread called release notes, woulden't it be test release notes?

You're absolutely right ... I will fix that. Thanks for pointing it out.

:)

For the time I was able to spend on test before they pulled it down for maintenance, I'm giddy!

Looks beautiful, plays fast, the number of enemies has increased dramatically with the massive cave expansions. I didn't have a chance to find the Padres Back Beach before they pulled the game down, but I really like what I've seen.

I never thought of it before, but Lava Gorge alone is at least 4 times as large as it was...this should help with fighting over enemies to battle and rep stealing. I think the same is true with Tormenta, although I wasn't able to spend much time there before the game crashed.

Congrats to all of those who had "mastered" pirates on test - ye've got new adventures ahead of ye now!

These are awesome updates however I get the feeling more things are on the way. Such as wild islands and indoors (shops ect) are also to be re-done. It appears as if Disney is re-making the entire game.

Which BTW is fine by me.

Wow!!!! Logged onto test to have a look around. You need a bread crumb trail to find your way back out of these caves. And the enemies are higher. The enemies that you encounter that are lower than your pirate don't bother you. But the higher do attack. Didn't make it to Menta, but I did check out PDF caves & Tortuga. I was fortunate to have the company of a pirate higher than me (Thanks Grizz). My level 28 on test would have been dead quick fighting many of the enemies I encountered. It's all still like a jig-saw puzzle to me even with the maps. I'm certain this will keep pirates occupied when released to the regular site. Fair winds, mates & have fun...lol

No longer Mastered
 

Nice update, love the new looks of the caves. Having a mastered pirate on test, I find losing that notoriety seems wrong.

We are no longer master pirates, and we do get new points for stuff we use now. Losing that just doesn't seem right. A higher notoriety other than mastered would've seemed nice.

Weapons used after mastering are not calculated as someone had mentioned in another post, and ouch can imagine the points needed to hit level 30 in each weapon.

Funny coincidence LadyDi, I just posted this yesterday.
In this thread, http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...3&postcount=25

And I'm sorry to hear that those level 40's who continued to play and accomplish tasks haven't been given some sort of rep credit for thier hard work. I have 4 level 40's on Open that will be in the same boat.

Regarding this update...

Observations (hows it work):
Once you complete the first quest, it will unlock the other four provided the pirate is the appropriate level.
The highest level requirement, by new quest giver Jeremiah appears to require level 20 to unlock.

Observations (problems):

Enemies often spawn with "shadows" turned on or something, very dark. They immediately brighten up and come to life once attacked. (reported)

New quests: Must press ESC at end of receiving quest, to exit quest giver screen. (reported)

New quests: Bill Barrett's quest "Murky Hollow Relics" appears to be busted, no digspots in Murky Hollow work, and the clue, points towards enemies that do not exist in the area. (reported)

I havent found any major wall glitchs, I can walk through a few rocks, and hide in a few walls (reported), but cant really get anywhere im not supposed to, however I have heard/seen others that are obviously better at slipping through the fabric of time/space better than I ;)

Added: Compass has changed, now basically a fixed compass, with only what its reflecting moving about.
This facilitates the F8 maps, but IMO messes everything else up. Now you must pay attention to your ship in the middle of the compass to determine your position, and THEN evaluate all the other activity around you. The old way, you paid attention to the traffic around you, knowing your ship was always pointed forward in the compass. IMO they broke this to work in a non-conventional manner strictly because of the F8 maps. Maybe this works on land, but definately NOT at sea.

Thought I'd provide a public service this morning. That ray of light places ya right in front of the Governor's mansion and people just can't see the barrel as it's around the corner.

I didnt even know they had a ray of light on this quest task.
Most of the searching tasks have never had them in the past.


Edit: I copied some of the more relevant comments from the long winded open news discussion, to a thread here in The Helm.
Some testers may wish to take a look here: http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...ad.php?t=12922

Thought I'd share some of the info I've found out about the sailing.

You no longer lose all forward momentum when making small changes to your direction

They nailed this one good, you don't lose it all, but you don't keep flying at full speed when you hit a turn. Sailing on my sloop, I could hit a top speed of 11 knots without Ramming Speed or Full Sail. Turning took me down to a minimum of 5 knots, and I never dropped below it.

When using Full Sail (3), my speed increased by 2 knots, with a max speed of 13 knots and turning speed of 7 knots. It seems that getting your sails ripped off affects stuff now as well. Just had a Barracuda knock my sloops only sail off, and I couldn't get above 1 knot unless I used full sail, which only took me to 3.

Also, something they didn't mention, the Cannon GUI changed.

• Bug: Only your sea chest and the ESC option should appear, but sometimes as seen below the other GUI does not disappear.

http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/g...Cannon_GUI.png

That's good to hear. Before you it wouldn't take your sails into account. SvS should take an interesting turn if people go to lop off sails and masts to slow down their opponents.

The new cannon interface, its alot cleaner, only one thing I think needs to be changed. It reflects a stack of cannonballs, with the number of loaded rounds in middle.
That image should change depending on selected cannonshot (maybe its supposed to but broke?).

Captain Ezekiel Rott - The first 'new' quest unlocks at Notoriety level 4
After that only Bill Barrett is then available as of level 5.

It appears that enemies disengage a bit quicker than they did in the past as well.

Interesting about your sloop's speed. My light sloop clocked at 20 kts without full sail or ramming speed. And very small changes in direction affect forward momentum only the lsightest bit for just a fraction of a second.

What kind of sloop were ye in, Jack?