Current News - October 16, '09

[Basil Dreadflint]

Prepare to Repel Invaders!
http://piratesonline.go.com/#/news_b...repel_invaders
October 16, 2009


Jolly Roger is taking over the Caribbean and he's starting by invading Port Royal! You can stop him, but you'll need some help. Invasions mark the beginning of a war between Jolly Roger's Undead Army and the Pirates of the Caribbean, so all hands on deck!

We've put together a guide to answer all your questions about invasions. Now assemble your crew and get ready for action!

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Prepare to Repel Invaders!

Jolly Roger is taking over the Caribbean and he’s starting by invading Port Royal! You can stop him, but you’ll need some help. Assemble your crew and get ready for action! Here’s a guide to Invasions and how you can get the most out of this great new addition to the game:

Why is Jolly Roger invading? When? Where?

Jolly Roger and his undead army are attempting to take over the Caribbean and they’re starting with Port Royal. Only Jolly Roger knows when he’s planning to invade, so an invasion could happen at any time.

"A day of reckoning is coming Pirates! Prepare yourself for my wrath!"

What can I do to stop the Invasion?

When an invasion happens, Jolly’s army will attack Port Royal from several different locations. Ultimately, he’s trying to make his way to the governor’s mansion and destroy it.
To offer some defense against the undead invasion, townsfolk have set up barricades around town. Spread your crew out and keep Jolly Roger’s forces at bay by protecting the barricades and keep them from falling. When all the barricades fall, Jolly Roger will reach the mansion and accomplish his goal.

What’s the best strategy to defeat Jolly Roger?

• Jolly Roger will be trying to invade several locations at once, SPREAD OUT. Don’t follow large crowds – break up your crew or guild mates and scatter yourselves out to cover all the attack points.
• Like a good Pirate captain, you should communicate with your crew and work together with other Pirates as a team! Use Crew Chat to communicate with mates but also have a good plan of attack beforehand.
• Assign a crewmate with lots of Tonics or assign a Pirate with Voodoo healing powers as a healer. They can help heal and revive other Pirates during the battle.
• Also, use your Minimap (F8) to view where enemies are attacking and which barricades need to be defended.
• Finally, make sure your skill points are properly assigned on your weapons and you’ve got the right tools for the job, high level grenades and voodoo dolls can make a big dent in Jolly’s forces.
• Above all - have fun and good luck – the future of the Caribbean lies in your hands!

The game runs really slow during invasions, what can I do to fix this?

Invasions require a significant amount of your computer resources, if you have a less powerful computer you will want to adjust your settings before taking part in an invasion.
There are a number of things you can do to improve your gaming experience:

1. Lower your graphics settings. To do this, press F7 or the ‘Esc’ key while playing. In the Options Menu, select Graphic Options, select the ‘Display’ tab and change your settings. If you have your settings set on ‘High,’ a ‘Medium’ or ‘Low’ setting may help improve your computer performance greatly.
   Adjusting your Custom Settings under the same option can also help. Turn on ‘Compressed Textures’ and ‘Aggressive Memory Conservation.’ Turn off ‘Shaders’ and ‘Rendered Shadow,’ this along with lowering any of the individual graphics options will also help.
   Hide any menus or other displays such as your compass. Having your Sea Chest open will not only block your view of the action, but slow down the game during an Invasion.
2. Find a “Quiet” or “Ideal” Ocean/Server to play in – you will see a blue or green dot next to a server/ocean that has a good population. Jolly Roger will be trying to invade multiple locations at once, so spread out and don’t follow large crowds. Finally, steer clear of Abassa – as it’s a very busy location in general.
3. When the invasion starts, spread out. Jolly’s army will attack from many different locations and you need to defend them all:
   • The Wharf Barricade (near the Docks).
   • The Beach Barricade (near the Shipwright, Darby Drydock).
   • The Bridge Barricade (in the middle of town near the marketplace and Rowdy Rooster)
   • The King’s Way Barricade (near the Graveyard)
   • The Farmer’s Row Barricade (near the Governor’s Mansion)
4. Close all other applications while playing Pirates Online. This includes any Instant Message, music playing software, internet browsers, e-mail, etc. The more memory Pirates Online can use, the better the performance.
5. Play on a wired connection. We do not recommend playing Pirates Online on a wireless network at any time. Wireless networks are slower and experience drops in data causing slowdown in gameplay. If possible, connect directly to your internet connection using an internet cable when playing the game.
6. Don’t take part in an invasion with 3D turned on. 3D is an advanced graphics feature. Playing the game in 3D while taking part in an invasion will affect your game performance and produce slowdown. We DO NOT recommend using 3D during an invasion.

Is Port Royal the only island that will be invaded? Are invasions only happening in October?

Invasions will take place on Port Royal as long as Jolly Roger has forces to fuel his attacks. His ultimate goal is to take over the Caribbean, Port Royal is just the start.

[Chris Stormshot]

Amazing...
I took absolutely none of their speed advice, including playing over a wireless connection, and it still didn't work out half bad. XD
Those invasions are awesome, I hope I actually take down JR today! *Crosses fingers*
CS~

[Captain Whale]

Woot - just attended my first Live invasion and it was close but we won!! That was awesome and a ton of fun. I only when down once when we were trying keep the Mansion from burning. I was not alone there were a lot of revive tags out there! Lag was minor for me but several guildies were hit harder.

Captain Whales

[Chris Stormshot]

Wow, I logged onto Agassa, and it was totally unfair - in total, there were about 35 people.
He totally killed us all, but I did manage another pic!

It was definitely crazy.
Then again, I did see a LOT of people after it was all over, which is strange because earlier, no one was showing up on the map. XD
CS~

[Erich Uchiha]

Me and my guildmates did it 2 times today, what a blast!

[Deadpool]

We did ALOT better when there were fewer people that showed. Once today on a server that was packed the masion burned down, but with about I say 20 people JR didn't even make it to the mansion

[Chris Stormshot]

EDIT: WOOT! We finally won!
It was VERY laggy though...
But it was fun!
CS~