TEST Release Notes - Nov 20 '09

[Jack I]

Release Notes - November 20, 2009

• OSX clients may not be able to connect.
• Crew members's ships may not be available in the Dinghy's Choose a Ship's panel.
• Ships and Sailing have undergone several improvements. You may see a boost in performance while at sea and slight changes to ship design and sail animations, depending on your graphics settings.
• Jolly Roger has moved on to attacking other islands after Port Royal.
• A new lighting and fog system gives more atmosphere to the environments based on the time of day.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Crew Display to disappear at random times.
• Pirates now get a small Reputation Bonus for reviving a fellow Pirate.
• The Viper's Nest Dagger Skill breaks multiple attunements.
• Your ship will no longer take damage from enemies sailing beyond visual range.
• Less valuable cargo will be dumped to make room for more valuable chests earned from sinking ships.
• The screen no longer flashes red when you get hit by friendly fire.
• Added new Tutorial Loading Screens.
• Fixed several visual issues with a few cut scenes.
• Shortened Captain Barbossa's cut scene.

Please report any issues you encounter using this feedback form.

[Sven Niscadae]

Ooo! I must check this out. Oddly enough I'm more interested in the aesthetic changes than anything else really.

And things are looking way nice (as Mac has noted below)

Noticeable changes at sea with the ship textures... Also the masts wobble a bit when they're hit with cannon fire. Still wish they'd make the sails burn like it did way back when. Doesn't the sky look just... wow. Much better.


The swells created when a ship sinks are a nice touch too.


Hrm.. Let's not be too obvious now, Big D.

[MacIronhawk]

Wow, the new fog system and lightning is awesome. It just seems more... realistic, especially the new atmosphere.

Also, the ships do have some new animations, which also look better. The ships also look just a bit different, but nothing that will upset anyone or make anyone happy. At least, I'm nuetral.

And as a last note, the map is different too. But in a good way. There's more detail for the islands but Isla Perdida is missing. xD Yeah, the map(press M) looks way better. Port Royal got a major chance on the map.

P.S. There's more shadows at sea, and it looks great! It's different depending on the time of the day, just like they said. All I can really say is the game got way better as far as looks and atmosphere.

EDIT: And there's a bug while at sea. All the islands, up close, look horrible when your graphics are high, medium, or low. They need to fix that, and that's all i can think of.

EDIT2:The ships actually look way better. Especially the backs.

[Capt Seafury]

The lighting is simply awe-strikingly great looking. Too bad I won't be able to log on on my mac. Looks like my laptop is the only choice for POTCO. Oh well. I participated in what what have been the very first Tortuga invasion ever. They are just like on Port royal, exept Jolly Roger appears near the shipwright.

[Jack I]

It's not a full picture, I cropped it for my own purposes (I will grab a full pic after this invasion for proof), but it seems some holiday bows snuck in with this release too... in quite the strange places.



And for the sake of something more important, the Tortuga Invasion Map


You can start planning those strategies now. ;-)

[Sven Osymthe]

Player friends work... sorta..



Dig spots are easier to find now too...

[Jamesvsthekraken]

lol i only found that one but hopefully there are more around

[The Skirata Clan]

I really like the less value item drop thing.

Also Mr. Niscadae, are those images in the highest resolution possible?

[Sven Niscadae]

Originally Posted by The Skirata Clan

Also Mr. Niscadae, are those images in the highest resolution possible?

I currently have my graphic options set at everything highest except for character detail and texture detail (those on medium). compressed textures and aggressive memory conservation are off. Shader Level 3 on. Oh, OpenGL too. Not the best card in the world but it's doing pretty good.

[Jack I]

We will definitely need a strategy for these. Small spaces means more people in on small area, and as we all know...

Small areas x Lots of People = Lag thus Lag = Loss of the Bride

[Tom Sharkwash]

I like the, "Pirates now get a small Reputation Bonus for reviving a fellow Pirate." Even though it is a small amount of rep it's still something, and also helps fellow pirates! This will most likely increase the amount of people getting revived.

[toanuju22]

Sweet, I should have my account back when these updates come out on open.
Though I am a little sad with some of these updates mostly the cargo dumping one, now the chance of getting crates back into port in reduced. now I'll never get to make a full record of 18 crates from behemoths/juggernauts/colossuses/dreadnaughts.

[ninety3rd]

Thanks for all the screenshots, mates!
I would have been there, but lo and behold, they were right about OSX not connecting!
Grrr.....

[jason davy]

Originally Posted by ninety3rd

Thanks for all the screenshots, mates!
I would have been there, but lo and behold, they were right about OSX not connecting!
Grrr.....

I will give them the benefit of the doubt and assume this is on the top of their priority list. I'll be very upset if this is released to open before the problem is resolved.

[combatlizzy]

Player friends don't work so well as SOS has stated. I tried to whisper to one & crew one. Kept getting the message that the pirate was on pirates test...Duh!