My experience with Unlimited status

[Hile]

Sounds to me like your computer is way way too slow to play this game. Lower all your video options to lowest settings. It may help a bit. I hope you're at least using a broadband connection.

For the mobs that appear out of nowhere, yes some are hidden like dread scorpians. If you can have a high enough graphic setting, you'll see a green mist appear just before they spawn.

One thing they did do was take out some of the high level mobs that were hanging out near the towns. There was a grenadier hidden behind the houses in Tortuga. If you got anywhere near him, he'd pulverize you fast and you wouldn't know where it was coming from. Also the huge alligators in Cuba are gone. I'm sure that was quite a daring run to Tia Dalma for a low level.

Another thing if you aggro a mob and run off they can still get some swipes in before you get far enough away, especially if they have ranged weapons. I've had those fly traps nail me from quite a distance. So to run away you really need to get very far away.

[SammyJay]

Hey Hile, thanks for your reply, what you said about the dread scorpions is most likely what I was encountering. I haven't run the game with graphics maxed out so I'm guessing I missed the warning signs.

As for now, my in-game graphics are all set to the lowest available.

I made a second character to see if maybe I was just glitched on Port Royal for some reason. My problem with the new character is mainly connection drops. Evidently my computer just does not like this game. I don't have a full gig of ram but I have more than 512. I thought for sure that would be enough to run this game. I've never had this much trouble with an online game before. But while waiting in a load screen I hit ctrl/alt/del just to see if the game was still running and the game was maxing out my cpu usage. Wow.

[Bilgepump]

Make sure your memory conservation option is set to "default". If it's "aggressive", it'll bog things down hard.

[BayouGirl]

When you say your connection drops, that makes me wonder if maybe your router is the problem. I don't know if you are aware that many wireless routers have a built in firewall that sometimes mistakes legitimate traffic as something that should be blocked. The fix for this is to do port triggering in your router's setup so that traffic is allowed on the ports that the game uses.

From the game's FAQ's:

Can I play Pirates through a network proxy or firewall?

Yes, but you will have to configure the proxy or firewall to allow traffic on port 80, 443, and 667. You will also need to add PiratesOnline.com to either the safe or exception list.

To do this, you can look up instructions on port triggering for your router's model number on the manufacturer's site, or go to portforward.com and look up your router's model number for a step by step tutorial that shows you how.

If you've already tried this, or this is not the issue, just ignore me

[Angel]

OMG Bayougirl, I think I may be in contact with you soon You know alot about the happenings of the computer issues here and have helped alot!!! Rep up for u!

[BayouGirl]

You're welcome to, anytime. I hardly ever come on here anymore as I don't play Pirates anymore, but you can always find me on the Toontown Central forums - I haven't been on there as much lately either, but I do check in at least a few times a week.

I don't know a whole lot, but if I can do anything to help, I'm always happy to try

[nat sharkskull]

I had the same problem. It was my video card. Check online to see which ones will work and get that one. Then go through the option setting to find which will work for you the best. It took me a couple of days to get the right options and when I did boy it is fun now. Do give up.

[Maximvs]

Originally Posted by Darthkuriboh

I don't understand why people are complaining so much. Everyone seems to forget this is practically a BRAND NEW GAME. Sure all the bugs haven't been worked out yet. That's not really unusual. Maybe I've just been working with computers too long tho, because I see things like that all the time, and just learned to take it in stride....

The issue is - one should not have to become compliant with software (or computers in general) being defective from the start and 'fix as you go'...

I go to buy a new house, and just before I move in I look around - two windows are missing - no plugs in the bedroom... oh thats ok they will 'fix it as they go'? So they put the plugs in my bedroom - but now the kitchen plugs aren't working? OOps they say - so they take out the bedrrom plugs and run an extension cord to my bedroom from the kitchen... but now this puts too much load on the kitchen plugs and the fuses break - so they decide..... blah blah blah.... (oh, and how about those windows that never got looked at in the first place???)

Don't even start me on the Space Shuttle or Mars Rovers... one tiny software mis-calcualtion there... the standards they set are WAY crazy and they still get it wrong (which unfortunately happens)...

We as a society have become too 'soft' in just accepting the fact that when you get computers and software - they will already have bugs before I even use it - when it should be 'don't even talk about it until its good'.

Not an agruement point in this case - its a general statement for all (I have no idea about WoW cause I've never played it...) I deal with 1000's of comps everyday myself - and it is strange that society has leaned this way when they wouldn't allow any other product be so poorly sold and accepted in general

Are you using an ATI Card?

Donno about others - But Yes I am - and No I am not LOL

My ATI card would NOT let me sail - at all... aftere up/down-grading drivers / reinstalling OS fresh, and trying other options - in th end I put an older card in to make it run (and sail).... BUT I will try these steps tonight when I get to the PC... maybe - it will finally see the power of my 512MB ATI Card (and not the junk card I have to use now) *crosses fingers*

[SammyJay]

I appreciate everyones input. Good to know there are helpful people here. I have given up on POTCO for now, I found myself hopelessly addicted to 9dragons and have been glued to that game lately. Evidently the system requirements for 9dragons aren't as picky and I'm able to play with no problems.

I may try POTCO again at another time, but for now I'm tired of pulling my hair out over it. I really did enjoy the game though, when I was able to play it, and when I decided to cancel my paid subscription after the problems started the customer service rep was very polite and prompt about cancelling for me.

Good luck to you all and be sure to do some plunderin for me will ya?

[Maximvs]

Originally Posted by Raven Night

Are you using an ATI card?
Even if you are not, you should try this...though it didnt solve all of my problems, it ended most of the freezes, disconnections and the like. Here it is.

Open your game_options.txt file in your PiratesOnline folder. When you have it open, look for the tag "api"

Replace what is below it (probably "default") to the following...

pandadx9

So that it looks something like this

api
pandadx9

Now save the file, close it, start the client and log in...and see if that fixes your problem.

It seems the game does not agree with openGL at all.

This was the perfect fix for my card - and ALL ATI users out there having this issue should be trying this ASAP!!!

It was SO bad that I had to use an ol'junky card instead of my ATI 2600 HD 512MB Card... but now - the picture is amazing...

Thank you for posting this fix.

[Sarah]

I had an ATI problem, too. Here's what pirates sent me:

I was having major graphics issues myself. On the official Pirates web site, there is a list of supported drivers (sorry, can't remember exactly where, but it's something like tech support, or known issues....i'll check)

Anyhow, turns out my graphoics driver was not on their "officially supported list" (ATI Radeon xpress 1100, also a vista os). I sent a question to customer support about the driver, and if it would be added to the supported list, and they sent back a fix. Works perfectly now!

Go see if your driver is supported, and if not email them. I got the fix sent back in less than a day, and for the POTCO team, that's like warp speed

This was the fix they sent me, I have no idea if this will work on your computer though, so check it out before you try this:

"The issue you reported may be due to an incompatibility with OpenGL and your video card driver. Enabling Pirates Online to use DirectX 9 should resolve the problem.

To specify Pirates Online to use DirectX9 you will need to edit the "game_options.txt" file located in the PiratesOnline directory if you have ever saced settings in the Options Panel.

1) Go to Start | Programs | Accessories | Windows Explorer
2)Navigate to C:\Program Files\Disney\Disney Online\PiratesOnline
3) Double click on game_option.txt
4) Make sure "state" has "working" on the line directly below it. If you see "attempted_working" change it to "working"
5) Under "api", please change the text from "default" to "pandadx9"
6) Save the file then launch the game"

That's word for word what they sent me, and it works like a charm

Copied from my post in computer problem section