Help! Sailing changed today on live/open!

[Edward Edgemenace]

OK, is it just me, or has everyone noticed that the NPC ships are sailing drastically different today, than they were yesterday. Some of the things I've noticed in the last hour (maybe it is two bad servers in a row) are:

NPC ships are aggro'ed by getting within one compass width of them.
NPC ships disengage if they get more than one compass width from their starting circle place.
NPC ships triple their speed once you shoot their masts.
Nearby NPC ships will suddenly use their strongest attacks on you (even though you were more than a compass away from them) once you cripple a flagship.
Your broadsides no longer shoot to the side, but auto-target to the boat that is nearest you (even if directly behind you, because you turned away to try to prevent the auto-targetting from selecting the wrong ship again.)
Auto-targetting, after selecting the wrong target, will miss with 80% of shots fired (within 1/3 of a compass radius.)
Enemy health meters appear when you are hit. For one second. Then disappear again.
Enemy NPC ships' broadsides now have free 360 degree targetting ability.

Has the AI learned to glitch? What is going on? I've never had a bad day NPC sailing before...this was horrific, one server after another. Halp!

[Chris]

Sounds like a lot of bugs to me gosh i hope this isnt an update i checked the site no new news.

[Edward Edgemenace]

Well, I'm asking, to find out if it is just quiet servers, or just me? The Juggernaut never attacked me like these barracudas and bloodhounds are.

For a colossus (not the flag ship) for each mast removed, it gains about 50% speed.

[Captain Seaford]

Originally Posted by Edward Edgemenace

OK, is it just me, or has everyone noticed that the NPC ships are sailing drastically different today, than they were yesterday. Some of the things I've noticed in the last hour (maybe it is two bad servers in a row) are:

NPC ships are aggro'ed by getting within one compass width of them.
NPC ships disengage if they get more than one compass width from their starting circle place.
NPC ships triple their speed once you shoot their masts.
Nearby NPC ships will suddenly use their strongest attacks on you (even though you were more than a compass away from them) once you cripple a flagship.
Your broadsides no longer shoot to the side, but auto-target to the boat that is nearest you (even if directly behind you, because you turned away to try to prevent the auto-targetting from selecting the wrong ship again.)
Auto-targetting, after selecting the wrong target, will miss with 80% of shots fired (within 1/3 of a compass radius.)
Enemy health meters appear when you are hit. For one second. Then disappear again.
Enemy NPC ships' broadsides now have free 360 degree targetting ability.

Has the AI learned to glitch? What is going on? I've never had a bad day NPC sailing before...this was horrific, one server after another. Halp!

Refer to this.

Originally Posted by Release Notes - August 27, 2008

•Added new Quests and new Clothing Sets as Quest rewards! Visit Nathaniel Truehounds, a tailor on Port Royal for the Pirate's Life Quest, Amelia Sunfellow, a tailor's assistant on Tortuga for the Clothing For a Pirate Quest, or Adoria Dolores, a tailor on Padres Del Fuego for the Adoria's Family Quest. These new Quests award 3 new Coordinated Outfits. Please note, you will need to have a minimum Notoriety of Level 10 to access the Quest from Nathaniel, a minimum Notoriety Level of 15 to access the Quest from Amelia, and a minimum Notoriety of Level 20 to access the Quest from Adoria.
•Updated lots of Quest dialog
•Fixed a crash that occasionally happened when teleporting to a friend or crewmate
•Reduced the penalty for being caught cheating at Poker
•Fixed a bug that was preventing some of the higher level ships (Death Omen, Juggernaut, etc.) from being spawned. You can now find these ships spawning around the outer perimeter of the Caribbean.
•Disabled the red glowing crew icon
•Fixed several camera related bugs
•If you skip the Cutlass Tutorial, you are no longer required to unlock Sweep as your first skill
•Your cannon ammo selection will now be remembered when you switch cannons
•Broadside cannons will target enemy ships better
•Relocated a treasure chest on Isla Perdida to a more accessible location on the island
•Fixed the cannonball trail graphic for machines with integrated graphics cards
•Reduced the travel time to Cuba
•Lowered the difficulty of some of the Quest task goals for the Voodoo Doll Quest
•Ships attacking you will now flash on your Radar
•Fixed a missing icon on the Map Button in your Sea Chest
•Changed the name of "Rutherford Bligh" to "Captain Job"
•Fixed a case in Blackjack where a player has a non-natural 21 and the dealer has a natural 21
•Updated the tutorial so that you have to get the free ship from Darby Drydock before being allowed to purchase additional ships
•Added a Poker table in the King's Arm Tavern on Tortuga

Only some things about ships, but in that update it most likely came with a lot of bugs. I also noticed that it misses a lot too!

[POTCO fan]

POTCO has been having MAJOR issues with their NPC ships...

1. if i shoot a ships that just respawnd it gos about 3 times as faster, my broadsides shoot at it and they stop right before hitting the ship... and if i chop off sail it goes like 50% faster...

2.ships are attacking me while i am hooked with a flag ship.... and i have sunk along with NPC ship to wind up in jail becasue a pasing ship just starts attacking me...

3.THEY ARE DOING MESSED UP DAMAGE!!!!!!!!
i am sailing a war galleon and an ironwall just shoots me so i think ok i am fine it cant do that much damage....
BUT I WAS WRONG IT DID MORE DAMAGE THEN A JUGGER!!!!!!

i hope disney fixes these hopefully problems and i really hope this isnt an update becasue if it is sailing just aint worth it

has anyone else encounterd this problem...
(sorry for spelling)

[davy redflint]

not noctice any thing, just had a plunder party and sank alot of ship

[Edward Edgemenace]

That matches exactly what I noticed on several separate quiet servers today. (Noticed! HA! Neighbors heard me scream, thought I was in danger.) Did some normal sailing on the 8th server I tried, long enough to get to level 30 and start the staff quest. After Cangrejos, I sailed out to pick up two marauders I spotted on the way in.

Had to chase them down...broadsides kept missing (war galleons don't miss - what is going on???) even at two boat-lengths away. French Cerberus spawned in adjacent to me, blasting explosive before it was visible on compass. Ducking away to finish off the marauders and leave it in the dust, it not only outran me, it outran my RAMMING SPEED. Once the cerberus was completely out of range/angle, I fired to finish off the marauder, only to see my cannons shoot almost perfectly forward. !!!

Fine. Open fire, blasted the cerberus that wouldn't leave me alone. Boarded it alone. Level 30 still (staff quest almost complete at this point) and the level 14 maitres kill me with their asp venom. WHAT IS GOING ON? I've encountered the stronger asp venom before, but this was about ten times faster than even that. There were four maitres. I had killed one by the time I pressed T to drink tonic (holy water, I think) then got another almost immediately. But the venom effects sped up at that point!

I am not used to going to jail, sailing. I'm not used to levelling up a baby level 30 pirate, either. But sheesh!

If sailing is going to be this way, I'll have to adjust my tactics tremendously. But sailing ultra-conservative-all-the-time is not a fun way to play this game.

Thanks Captain Seaford, HOWEVER, I am not talking about behavior that has been around for a couple weeks. This stuff was new, today. Not sure if it is restricted to quiet servers, or having all graphics settings set to high, or what. But it is positively different than it was yesterday.

North East of PDF was the worst. Once I got West and South of PDF over in Mariner's Reef, the NPC ships stopped acting insane. I have no idea if that was just coincidence, timing, or what.

[Dr. Zeppers]

We grappled a flag tonight, and as soon as we did, it went nuts all over the place... dancing about through and round us.. we ended up just sailing away looking for another flag to unglitch on..hehe

[MacIronhawk]

Yes, it's also on test.
It seems as though skynet has taken over POTCO.
Hopefully this wont keep that nice update away from open for too long.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Hopefully it will disappear as quickly as it showed up.

I kept thinking last night.. boy they need to reset these servers!!!

[Evie]

We sailed yesterday and didn't notice anything. Whatever it is I hope they get rid of it soon! It sounds scary!

[POTCO fan]

Originally Posted by OFxZeppers

We grappled a flag tonight, and as soon as we did, it went nuts all over the place... dancing about through and round us.. we ended up just sailing away looking for another flag to unglitch on..hehe

that is a glitch were you land too many grapple hooks too fast so if you have a big crew try to get them to miss the grappling hooks until you are side to side with the ship

there is a another glitch were if you cripple a flag ship as soon as it respwans it just keeps moving with the green circles on it and you land so many grapple hooks it does nothing...

[Dr. Zeppers]

Originally Posted by POTCO fan

that is a glitch were you land too many grapple hooks too fast so if you have a big crew try to get them to miss the grappling hooks until you are side to side with the ship

I had seen this before, but not for months, it was an old bug that I understood to be fixed. We had 3 on crew... not a big crew. Anyhow... Noticed alot of peculiar behavior on the high seas last night. And the lag was the worst its been in awhile also even on quiet servers.

(perhaps they were having some quirky connectivity issues)

[Evie]

Maybe. One thing we did notice was a ton of lag, and we were on a quiet server!

[Edward Edgemenace]

Wow! Someone fixed something last night!

Not only is most sailing back to normal, the enemy health meter even showed up (until I used open fire.)