Release Notes - December 10, 2009

[Batleth]

Release Notes - December 10, 2009
New Game Features and Improvements:

• 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 is now invading Tortuga
• A new lighting and fog system gives more atmosphere to the environments based on the time of day.

• Pirates are no longer physically blocked by other Pirates. This means you can walk through another Pirate rather than having to walk around them. This makes it easier to walk through tight, crowded spaces.

Fixes and Additional Improvements:

• 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.
• Ship sails and masts now take significant damage from Chain Shot
• Ship armor is now more effective across all ships
• Boosted the defensive capabilities of enemy ships by 25%
• The screen no longer flashes red when you get hit by friendly fire.
• Fixed several graphic issues with a few cut scenes.
• Shortened Captain Barbossa's cut scene.

Known Issues - December 10, 2009

• Privateering Ships may not have their sails and nametags colored correctly.
• Galleon and Frigate sails do not raise when playing on Low Graphic Settings.
• There may be some missing cannonball sound effects during combat.

[Basil Dreadflint]

Pirates are no longer physically blocked by other Pirates. This means you can walk through another Pirate rather than having to walk around them. This makes it easier to walk through tight, crowded spaces.

Truthfully, I think this is a bad change.

[swashbuckler II]

Me either, I cant even think how bad the lag will be in a group of people...
Especially at the GM events, Everyone will be up with the GM, It would just be lagging like crazy...

Oh yeah... and the AFK pushing.

[Captain Whale]

I agree Basil, it's very wierd to run through everyone and you lose some of the realism that way. Not to mention AFK pushing P)

I am sure they did it to cut down on lag when there are large groups around like invasions and GM events. So I understand but prefer it the other way.

Captain Whale

[Midhav]

Argh! Why the go-through update? Pirates is slowly losing realism!

[Sven Niscadae]

Less valuable cargo will be dumped to make room for more valuable chests earned from sinking ships.

Did they fix this before bringing this update out? Last time I tested this feature out a couple of days ago, it wasn't counting correctly.

Ship sails and masts now take significant damage from Chain Shot

IMO, if they didn't adjust this so masts cannot be taken down by JUST hitting the sails, it's a bad move. Certainly takes away the need for too much skill in mast peeling. I honestly didn't see a problem with Chainshot before. I don't think it needed adjusting.

Originally Posted by Captain Whale

I am sure they did it to cut down on lag when there are large groups around like invasions and GM events. So I understand but prefer it the other way.

At the moment, I don't see how it will help reduce lag. The pirate models still have to be rendered. If anything, this may INCREASE lag due to the models intersecting and rendering complexities when they do. It should be common sense to Disney to keep all models separated from each other. They're using some sort of collision detection algorithm to help players not walk through walls (though it fails sometimes) and this routine should be constantly checking for these scenarios, whether it be a building or another player. I would think that they've actually added code to the routine and slightly increase the processing time for this task.

If Disney wants to combat performance issues, they need to seriously look into fixing the memory leak that their Panda3D games have had since they engineered it. There's really no reason why this game should be taking 50-70% of a computer's CPU when the same computer can run a much more graphically advanced MMO while taking only 20-30%. I don't really have too much hope for that solution though. ToonTown Online has been plagued by the same memory leak since its inception. If you contact Disney, support is likely to say to just restart the game or close any other open programs. Not a good solution, imo.

[Cannonfury]

Originally Posted by Batleth

Pirates are no longer physically blocked by other Pirates. This means you can walk through another Pirate rather than having to walk around them. This makes it easier to walk through tight, crowded spaces.

Oh no! Now their will be "naughty" pirates taking naughty screen shots(there is that phrased better?) -_-

[Kid Heartbreaker]

Originally Posted by Batleth

[*]Ship sails and masts now take significant damage from Chain Shot

Hope they are talking Enemy ships, who needs more damage to ours when a single Round Shot takes out half of your ship sail speed!

[gingeeann]

Originally Posted by Maria Cannonfury

Oh no! Now their will be "naughty" pirates taking naughty screen shots(there is that phrased better?) -_-

I totally agree I can imagine the email the mouse is going to get now. I have seen the positions some pirates have managed in the pre-invasion waits. Having gone afk during the wait for Jolly Roger and returning to find a person in my avatar.

[Sven Niscadae]

Originally Posted by Kid Heartbreaker

Hope they are talking Enemy ships, who needs more damage to ours when a single Round Shot takes out half of your ship sail speed!

Fortunately, they nixed that change in this update. Sailing speed is no longer affected by enemy fire.

[Charles Darkwolf]

So far, I have to say I'm not a big fan of the way the ships look now,(especially mine). I was a big fan of the way they looked before, and all I really wanted was to be able to change the color of my ships sails and hull.

[combatlizzy]

I keep walking through JR during invasions when I try to attune him. Then he has to play catch-up. But I just wait and try again...that is if he hasn't knocked me out with his voodoo. But for me my Dolly is the best weapon against him, so he & I play relay til I actually get him attuned. It's all part of a pirate's day...lol

[wmah]

combatlizzy, kinda said what I have noticed. Walking through others makes it harder to attune them with the doll. I rather have the ability to bump them on the run attuning them. Running through them is just not right. This really needs to be reverted back.

[Dockwrecker The Privateer]

Originally Posted by Basil Dreadflint

Truthfully, I think this is a bad change.[walking through other players]

Same here,I just don't like that one.It seems every time D makes six or seven good chagnes they always make a disageable one as well.

[Jamesvsthekraken]

Originally Posted by Dockwrecker The Privateer

Same here,I just don't like that one.It seems every time D makes six or seven good chagnes they always make a disageable one as well.

Ever hear the phrase "One step forward is two steps back"? Well i think that applies to this update. Seriously, though they need to take away that feature.