What I see as the results of the 10/16/ 08 "upgrade" release
 

The new weapons (level 5) quests are absolutely useless to anyone who already is high level. A level 40 pirate already has high level skills, and is maxed notoriety, so what use is it to spend 8 hours game time to acquire a doll that gives an extra 4 points damage? No increase in Notoriety, no increase in weapon level, and a total of ZERO points earned doing the quest for a weapon that is virtually the same as the one you already have!

The changes to the fence at KH, and Hex Eater shot, have made it impossible to level grenades. They are a virtually worthless weapon to begin with, and now, the only way to use them is throw one, then pull your cutlass, because the enemy will be in your face the moment the first nade goes off. Unless you are going to throw nades at your feet, you will only get one toss per enemy. The Fence at KH was the ONLY place ingame where you had some minor protection, and a chance to level up nades.

The ruining of Hex Eater shot has MANY, MANY effects. Hex was the best way to level almost all of the other weapons! Using hex to stun gave you the ability to switch weapons and gain rep on 3 or 4 weapons at once. Now, hex is almost worthless, and I will be reassigning my skill points away from hex and to other areas on pistol.

The removal of the "Flagship" invulnerability was probably long overdue, but it has bad effects on other areas of the game. Now, it will be almost impossible to sail alone for any length of time, and truely impossible to sail alone to work cannon! So, leveling sail and cannon is going to be much harder, and require way more teamwork! You will not be able to work grenades at sea anymore, and there is no longer any reason to shoot a ships sails off.

The new visual effects are nice. YAY! Sarcasm!!!! I really didn't care if the stars twinkled in the night sky! So spending all that time to drive the graphics a little better was a waste in my opinion.

The dagger changes are absolutely rediculous!
"Back slash" you get one chance to use it before the enemy turns to face you! YAY! then, you get reduced damage for the rest of the time he is facing you and cutting you to ribbons! I won't even discuss the stupidity in the use of dagger to cause unattunement or loss of concentration! The ONLY place this could possibly be of any use is in PvP.

The new ship boarding interfaces are the only game improvement in the entire release! As captain, I immediately set it to Crew and Guild only,, yet I can change it to allow a friend on board. I will never LEAVE it at friend, since that allows all friends of ANYONE that is onboard, not just the captain. The new interface at the dingy is also much nicer!

A few other things I have noticed: Undead French Leiutenants no longer use doll, they use cutlass, and you can't attack just one at a time, they come at you in groups of 2 or 3. So, although you are level 30, and they are level 18, you better have tonics or a healer, otherwise the 3 of them are going to send you to jail!

Same in ither places, You attack one enemy, but 3 of them attack you back! This is in places this never used to happen.

Running through Misty Mire, Tortuga, a Giant Crab locked on me and followed me from end to end and back! I deliberately kept going to see if/when it would disengage. It never did! Enemies are engaging from much further away, and not disengaging if you run away from them.

Tonics don't always work! I hit the tonic button, watched my health go up, and 2 strokes of the enemy later, went to jail. In jail, my health was maxed, and the groggy bar was cutting my health bar in two!

ALL IN ALL, I give this upgrade a D-. Disney did a farily terrible job on this one! If the next MAJOR upgrade degrades the game as much as this one did, I doubt I will renew my account!

Amen!!!

You took the words right out of my brain...only much more shall we say politely.

Bella

You should e mail disney with your thoughts.....Im thinking of making a 4th pirate and putting him or her in Dueces Wild.

aye just finish the 5 new quest, was hopin this would be a good update but it very disapointing, D- might be to high a grade for this one. on the 1-10 scale -5, being max out I guess big d doesn't care about us higher lvl , or they would give us something to keep playin.

I agree Basil. I already posted my rant about the update in the release notes thread (http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...ead.php?t=8583) that Chris posted (btw thanks for posting it Chris). If this trend in poor updates continues, I plan to quit the game. It's becoming a pirate themed chat client, plain and simple.

Actually, the new visual effects have made my game more playable. I had this horrible thing going with my video card where the sky would go black if it was night and I moved my view in certain directions. It mostly happened when I had full reflections turned on but happened occasionally with the sky only setting. Now I can run it with more fuller video settings. I hated lowering it to the lowest reflection setting where the water looks like goop.

Great post Basil...I have to add that even for Basic access players this update only made the game more difficult to enjoy. With the new swarm coding for the enemy's it will be almost impossible to get anywhere alone. All the lower level enemies seem to be hitting a lot harder and they are now faster than we are in some cases, so running away is useless.

They seem to have geared the entire game for crews only. Players just starting have enough difficulty creating crews, or joining a guild, and unless you are in a group or regular players, your not going to get ahead. Like was said earlier this is getting to be a glorified chat room now. I hope they will go back to the old version and rethink this upgrade.

MOBs now move at near light-speed! What is up with that? Any shred of realism is gone. I mean, these things are racing around like Grand Prix cars--and angaging from 100 yards away.

As for some of the OPs complaints, I don't share views with him. The new graphics are much better and have helped people with other graphics cards have less probs. Also, the ship invincibility was a crutch IMO. I mastered Cutlass first and Sailing second--without glitching. They are not necessary.

I don't mind taking time to level. I mean, once you hit 40/25 and yer BB is done, what are ye gonna be doing then?

I actually find sailing more enjoyable now cause it doesn't take forever to chase down the ships. I think the new animation for the spanish undead is pretty neat, but I agree the swarming enemies is a bit much. Hopefully the big D will make tweaks to the upgrade to make it more palatable for everyone.

I think the bosses are downright silly, though. I was thinking that it'd be more along the lines of the Black Pearl Boss Battle, but alas, it's just giant, out-of-focused aura wearing, ninny heads that are part of the new weapon quests. Also, the names of the bosses are very [sarcasm]original[/sarcasm]. Seriously...the assassin's boss' name is Neban and the witchdoctor boss' name is General Hex. C'mon!

I haven't gotten enjoyment out of the game mechanics of this game for a while. I really do only enjoy it when playing with friends and basically hanging out as a pirate.

The game basics are designed to be basic, and they really are. I never expected much from this game when it came to gameplay. I mean, seriously, we do the same three missions over and over again. In any case, I agree, this was a bad update.

Cover your ears if you don't care to hear this...........THIS UPDATE IS THE WORST MAJOR REFIT OF ANY ONLINE GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED !!!!!! I really don't see much point in trying to lvl my baby....(he'll only get slaughtered in a swarm !!) I won't leave the guild, but I WILL NOT be renewing my unlimited when the time comes !!! (unless significant changes occur !!!)

I don't wish to harp terribly about gliching, but the flag glich was a major help to me, (as that I am on so late) it's hard to find a crew when I play...... the KH glich was good for lvling nades and a great place for baby pirates to get some fast reps. I won't judge pirates that don't glich, but sometimes it's takes forever just to make a lvl....... Now it's all gone.. forget about lvling grenades !!! And what's with the Hex eater ???? Was someone actually thinking about how the changes would affect gameplay or what ???

Major bonehead move disney !! scale of 1 - 100 ???? 5.....need i say more ??

I totally agree Basil......but i do like the twinkling stars lol

Just want to let everyone know that I have started a new thread concerning this update in the general potco game talk.......entitled: Massive update : like it.. or Not.. if we can get enough views or replies, purvis will have more ammo for disney !! and im all about ammo right now !! toodles... :16: