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https://potbs.fandom.com/wiki/Category:Patch_Notes
¶ 2.x
¶ 2.15.x
¶ TEST BUILD 2.15.45.0
June 09, 2016 / Fodderboy
Build 2.15.45.0 is now available on the Test server for testing and evaluation. Build 2.15.45.0 features the following changes:
The size restriction has been removed from the Privateer and Buccaneer Jugular skills.
The combat reinforcement timers have had an additional 90 seconds added to them.
Production structures in Treasure Aisle have had their prices reduced.
Seasonal Pieces of Eight content has been changed. Since some of this content has not been available for a considerable length of time we have added all of the following items to the seasonal Pieces of Eight exchange:
- Precise Navigator
- Inflammatory Writ
- Scraps of Canvas
- Extra Slippery Banana Peel
- Enlarged Cargo Hold
- Expanding Bar Shot
- Basalt Stone Shot
- Dutch Gunpowder
- Dutch Chainmail
- Wooden Sabots
- Fine Victuals
- Sea Anchor
- Talkative Gunner’s Mate
- Flechette Shot
- Shot Ovens
- Divining Bowsprit
- Hickory Planking
- Book of Bayou Bogeymen
- Jar of Swamp Gas
- Innovative Ensign
Labor values for most recipes involved with production of materials and items produced from them for construction have been reduced. This change affects hundreds of material and construction component recipes (excluding outfitting and most consumable recipes).
Treasure Aisle structures have gained additional reduction in recipe labor values to increase the benefit of using these structures in material and component construction.
We appreciate any testing and feedback that can be provided regarding this build. Any bugs found or feedback regarding this build can be sent to
customerservice@portalusgames.com.
BUILD 2.15.43.0
November 15, 2015 / Fodderboy
Build 2.15.43.0 is now available on the Test Server. The build contains the following changes, updates and additions:
Bit Raider Launcher Update
The BitRaider launcher has been updated. To obtain this update for the BitRaider launcher for use with the Test server it is recommended that the updated file be downloaded from the following location before attempting to login to the Test server: http://burningsea.com/download-test
Please note this BitRaider update is not for the Live servers (Antigua and Roberts). The update for use with the Live servers will be provided when Build 2.15.43.0 is moved to the Live servers.
The following ship deeds have been added to the Ships section of Treasure Aisle:
Invincible 1st rate
Prince 1st rate
Triumphant 2nd rate
Trinity 2nd rate
Hercules Heavy
Hercules Sleek
Mordaunt Sleek
Oliphant Heavy
Raa Courier
- A new item has been added to the account section of Treasure Aisle that can be redeemed to have the character possessing the item advanced to Level 50.
The following changes have been made to Treasure Chest loot:
-The number of Pieces of Eight awarded per Treasure Chest opened has been increased.
-The likelihood of ship deeds being awarded for opened Treasure Chests has been increased.
-Higher level characters should no longer see lower quality consumables and ammunition awarded from Treasure Chests.
-Depending on the level of the character opening a Treasure Chest the following ships are potential rewards:
Myrmidon Heavy
Capricieux Heavy
Hercules
Leviathan
Raa Heavy
Minerva
Hercules Sleek
Dauntless
San Mateo Heavy
Tigre
Tigre Heavy
Archelon
Oliphant Heavy
Conquistador
Deliverance
Couronne
San Fernando
Poseidon
Valiant
Triumphant
Trinity
Prince
Invincible
Formidable
Indomitable
The following bug fixes have been applied in Build 2.15.43.0:
-The Breed Cattle recipe has been added to the Farm Estate structure.
-The Knot Rigging recipe has been added to Textile Factory.
-The Make Parchment recipe has been removed from Improved Textile Factory. The recipe is supposed to be a Textile Factory only item.
-The Wood Unrest Bundle recipe has been added to the Saw Mill structure.
-The Metal Unrest Bundle Metal recipe has been added to the Finery and Ironworks structures.
-The Weapons Unrest Bundle recipe has been added to the Finery and Ironworks structures.
-The Texiles Unrest Bundle recipe has been added to Improved Textile Mill and Textile Factory structures.
-A recipe refresh routine has been added to refresh the recipe lists of each character in order to pick up the above changes. The refresh routine should occur when a character changes zones.
Please note that some players may experience duplication of recipes in structures that share recipes with other structures. We will work to resolve this issue in a future build but would not hold the build back for this issue as the issue is a display issue only and it is of greater importance that players have access to the recipes.
Unless issues are found with Build 2.15.43.0 during the upcoming week we plan to move this Build to the Live servers over the upcoming weekend.
¶ Patchnotes for build 2.15.40.0
LIVE SERVER DOWNTIME - 6/16/2015 - UPDATED
June 15, 2015 / HamledUpdate (12:45 AM PDT): All servers are online and open again with version 2.15.40! Thank you for your patience with this. If you are unable to see any servers when you start your client, please make sure to download and run the installer/patcher.
Update (12:15 AM PDT): We're getting a late start due to some trouble with the maintenance we had planned to do alongside the patch upgrade. However, since we will not be doing that maintenance any longer, the current estimated downtime is now 30 minutes.Hello Captains!
We'll be releasing our latest update to 2.15 which includes a new level 50 frigate for all classes, tonight at midnight (6/16/2015 at 12 AM Pacific Time, 3 AM Eastern Time, 7 AM GMT, 10 AM MSK). We will be performing regularly scheduled maintenance at the same time which will require us to take the servers offline for up to 1 hour. Patch notes may be read here.
TEST SERVER - 2.15.40 PATCH NOTES
June 15, 2015 / HamledAhoy Captains!
For our first new update in many months, we're releasing a new ship! This ship follows the trend of our most recent series of releases: the recipe is purchasable from Treasure Aisle (for 1,500 Burning Sea Points) and it requires only constructed (rather than purchased) components, allowing it to be built in Large Shipyards throughout the Caribbean.
PATCH NOTES
SHIPS
The new 'Viper' level 50 frigate is available to all classes. Check out the stats page below:
¶ 2.10.x
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.10.57.0
Posted by Rhaegar | 07/02/2012
Differences between 2.10.56.0 and 2.10.57.0 include but aren’t limited to:General:
- Six-player groups should no longer experience difficulty auto-joining open sea battles.
- Active Nation Change items in the Treasure Aisle shop now take effect immediately upon use.
- This version also includes some updated localization files.
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.10.56.0
Posted by Rhaegar | 06/20/2012
The 2.10.56.0 build is a fix build to clean up some updating functionality for society warehouses. The build also includes some localization updates and some minor text corrections.Differences between 2.10.54.1 and 2.10.56.0 include but aren’t limited to:
General:
- Fixed an issue with society warehouses where players were having to zone in order to get their warehouse UI to update properly.
- Fixed an issue with the Long-Barreled Guns recipe.
- Fixed an issue with names in Craft Huge Wadding recipes.
- Updated some localization files.
¶ Release notes for Build 2.10.54.1
Posted by Rhaegar | 06/08/2012
The 2.10.54.1 build is a server-only hotfix build. We have set stored labor to its pre-2.10 value of 3 days regardless of account type. This will change again when we release more economy tuning changes in 2.11 as originally planned.Differences between 2.10.54.0 and 2.10.54.1 include but aren’t limited to:
General:
- Stored labor is temporarily back at its pre-2.10 value for all account types.
¶ Release notes for Build 2.10.54.0
Posted by Rhaegar | 06/06/2012
The 2.10.54.0 build is a hot fix build to address issues players are experiencing when logging in with a non-English selected language. This hot fix build also includes a fix for server transfers and for some ship combat levels that were incorrect.Differences between 2.10.52.0 and 2.10.54.0 include but aren’t limited to:
General:
- Fixed an issue with translation files that was causing players using non-English language initializations to fail.
- Fixed an issue that was not allowing server transfers to process properly.
Ships:
- Fixed an issue that was not properly displaying or using ship combat levels correctly for several ships.
- Fixed an issue with target tracking on a few ships.
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.10.52.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 06/05/2012
This milestone build features the introduction of Society Warehouses and another new ship – the Peregrine light frigate! Other changes include the introduction of ship combat levels, ship outfitting streamlining, the removal of Area Chat and Traitor Flagging and several important bug fixes.Differences between 2.9.42.0 and 2.10.52.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Known issues:
- Society warehouses contents cannot be viewed unless you are in the port they are located. We will add this feature either by hot fix or as part of the 2.11 build.
- When creating a new society role the society warehouse will default to Hidden even if another selection is made. This can be corrected by updating the role after creation and saving the default warehouse access to the desired setting for the role. We will correct this issue at the same time as adding remote society warehouse viewing.
- Obsolete ship outfittings (those that were eliminated as part of streamling) do not stack with one another. We will fix this issue in the 2.11 build.
Ship and Ship Combat:
- We added a new ship, the Peregrine light frigate! This level 28 ship is available for all careers.
- Ship Combat levels have been implemented. The ship combat levels replace ship levels for group strength calculations and should be more reflective of the ship’s combat capabilities.
- We’ve increased the amount of MoVs and MoTs awarded for ship combat level 55 ships and above.
- Fixed the invalid state issue for the constructed Centurion.
- Fixed an OS bug that would cause autojoin to fail and lock out some group members when engaging as a group of 6.
Ship Outfittings:
- We have implemented our first streamlining of ship outfittings to reduce their overall numbers. For details regarding the changes implemented as part of this streamlining process please consult the Devlog located here.
Economy:
- Society Warehouses are now available in Treasure Aisle! Access privileges to a society warehouse are defined as a part of the role assigned to a player within a society. We recommend all society leaders review their society’s role privileges to ensure they are set to desired settings before adding society warehouses.
- Note – A society warehouse becomes the property of the society when placed. It will no longer belong to the player that placed it if that player leaves or is removed from the society.
General:
- Fixed an issue that was preventing clients from displaying or allowing the use of stored labor on structures. No stored labor should have been lost as a result of this fix.
- Fixed a bug that was causing issues when members of the same group attempted to share missions. Groups should now be able to share missions without issue.
- Area chat channel is now disabled for all players.
- The ability to traitor flag other players has been disabled. Any penalties from traitor flagging applied prior to the disabling of traitor flagging should be unaffected, (they are not reset).
¶ 2.9.x
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.9.46.2
Posted by Fodderboy | 02/19/2012
This is a patch to 2.9 that addresses an issue with PvE OS engagement mechanics and addresses a potential OS exploit.Differences between 2.9.42.0 and 2.9.46.2 include but aren’t limited to:
Ships and Ship Combat:
- A modification has been made to the group strength mechanics involving PvE. PvE battles should now function as they did prior to the 2.9 build.
- Fixed a potential OS exploit.
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.9.42.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 01/17/2012 | Patch Notes
This is a patch to 2.9 that addresses an issue with the OS engagement mechanics involving NPCs contributions to group strength. This build also fixes the invalid status of the San Fernando.Differences between 2.9.40.0 and 2.9.42.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Ships and Ship Combat:
- A modification has been made to the group strength mechanics involving NPCs. NPCs now only count for .02 of their displayed value for group strength calculations regarding reinforcement. This value is adjustable and we welcome feedback regarding this setting.
- The San Fernando is no longer invalid for Pirate players when built or purchased by them as it was at its introduction.
¶ Release Notes for Server Build 2.9.40.2
Posted by Fodderboy | 01/04/2012
This is a server side fix to make the Transfer Character and Change Active Nation Treasure Aisle items available to all players.Differences between 2.9.40.0 and 2.9.40.2 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
- Transfer Character was only available for Captain’s Club members. It is now available to all players.
- Change Active Nation was only available for Captain’s Club members. It is now available to all players.
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.9.40.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 12/13/2011
This milestone build features our holiday content for Christmas and another new ship – the Centurion 3rd Rate! This build also includes significant changes to Open Sea engagement mechanics, penalties for directly trading with opposing nations, removal of the blind auction system, and making character transfers between our live servers available through Treasure Aisle. Also included in this build are new Kilts and Tams for avatars, new ship outfittings, changes to bonus books and the ability to purchase active nation resets.Differences between 2.8.84.0 and 2.9.40.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
- Non-consumable clickable mission rewards have been added to Treasure Aisle for characters that have unlocked them by completing the affiliated mission.
- A Halfway Pack has been added alongside the Starter Pack for levels 25 and up.
- A new recipe book “Pages from a Bosun’s Journal” can be found in Treasure Aisle. The recipe book allows for the creation of: Tight-Braced Cross Catharpins, Hammock Netting, and Well-Ordered Pinrails.
- A Server Transfer Request token added to “Account” tab, with a special price in the Captain’s Club tab.
- An Active Nation Reset Request token added to “Account” tab, with a special price in the Captain’s Club tab.
- New 1-hour and 6-hour bonus books have been added to “Consumables” tab. The 6-hour books are replacing the 8-hour books. All bonus books have received price adjustments.
- A new “All New” category has been added in each tab to easily find the newest items in each category.
- A new “Festive Loyal Dog” has been added to the “Pets” tab. (We couldn’t find a reindeer, so we made one instead.)
- A Holly-Day hat accent is unlocked in Treasure Aisle by completing the seasonal mission “A Penny to Bury the Wren.”
- Captain’s Club now contains older seasonal clothing in the Specially Priced section. Enjoy!
- Tackle Box: Bahamas, Florida, Louisiana was still hidden from Captain’s Club members after being removed from the Specially Priced section. It is now back in the Angling section for all players.
- Two new kilts and two new tams have been added to the Captain’s Club section of Treasure Aisle.
Ships and Outfittings:
- The Centurion Third Rate has been added to the game. The recipe to create the Uncertified Deed will be purchasable in Treasure Aisle.
- Insurance on the Centurion was lower than it should have been, and captured versions of it and the San Fernando were not flagged as Invalid for Pirates. This is fixed.
- Boarding resistance for all ships has been returned to its previous value of 50% to correct boarding resistance issues.
- Captured San Fernando deeds are now tradable, and they no longer pay out insurance.
- The new outfitting rewards Careful Gun Crews and Ship’s Cat have been added to each national MoV Exchange Shop.
Avatars:
- We’ve adjusted how the Hellhounds swords sit when sheathed so that they no longer have clipping issues.
- The Halloween swords healing effects should no longer stomp other healing effects such as those in fighting school-specific skills.
- The Bone Pole fishing pole should no longer suffer animation issues.
- The Floral Calaca and Black & White Calaca face paints were swapped. This has been fixed.
- The reward coat for completing “Yard Armor” wasn’t working with certain glove and coat combinations on male avatars. Fixed.
Missions:
- Added 2011 Holiday titles for A Penny to Bury the Wren mission and the gift exchange.
- The mission “Black Flags or Dread Saints” wasn’t possible to complete, since none of the treasure spots generated any treasure. This is fixed.
General:
The Blind Auction system has been turned off allowing players to see the lowest price for auction house items. While the lowest price is now visible the quantity of items at each price still remains hidden. The quantity accurately reflects the total number of units in a particular category regardless of pricing.
Players will now lose 300 player faction with their nation for each direct trade with any character from an opposing nation. Penalties for losing too much faction with a player’s nation may include some or all of the following: increased tax rates, loss of the ability to generate unrest, loss of ability to attend port battles, loss of ability to group, permanent PvP flagging, loss of ability to be a member of a society, and loss of chat channels.
OS engagement mechanics have been modified to use player level and ship level in new group strength calculations. Group strength comparisons for engagements now work both up and down and will only allow engagement if group strengths are within the allowable engagement ratio of 2:1. Once engaged both sides in the battle may reinforce within the allowable engagement ratio for 30 seconds after which only the weaker side may reinforce for 90 seconds up to a group strength value equal to the larger side.
Blockading now requires a group strength of 500. Patrolling now requires a group strength of 400.
The “B” hot key was dropping sails instead of going to battle sails. Fixed.
Fort Deeds were sometimes found on the Auction House. Since they are not useable by players, this should not have happened. Fixed.
¶ 2.9.34.0
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¶ 2.8.x
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.8.92.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 11/22/2011
This is a hot fix build to address some issues found with the 2.8.84.0 build.Differences between 2.7.84.0 and 2.8.92.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
- The Briar Canadian and Porcelain pipes were swapped for female characters on accounts that purchased one or the other. Fixed.
Privateer Skill Changes:
- Deception Skill Line -The requirement for Hired Crew allowed it to be obtained prematurely, this has been fixed.
Ships:
- San Fernando recipe now produces two ship deeds instead of one, making the insurance and production costs more consistent with other fourth rate ships of the line.
Missions:
- “What’s In Your Head?” secret achievement now rewards the amount of XP and doubloons as it says it does.
UI:
- A new feature added to 2.8.84.0 was the friend list notes field. This field currently stores text, but removes carriage return-line feeds. This is now fixed.
- A new feature added to 2.8.84.0 was the inventory count and value of your auction house listings. The value was not being calculated properly. This is now fixed.
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.8.84.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 10/24/2011
This milestone build includes our holiday content for Halloween and Dia de los Muertos. Featured in the holiday content are the Harvest Monkey shoulder and follow pets, holiday face paints, a new LT commission character, new weapons, consumables and fishing gear. This milestone build also includes significant tuning changes to both Avcom and Captain skills as well as adding a new Mohawk hairstyle, new pipes and a new ship: the San Fernando!Differences between 2.7.56.0 and 2.8.84.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
The Harvest Monkey shoulder pet has been added to the Captains Club section of Treasure Aisle as part of the upcoming seasonal content.
The Loyal Harvest Monkey follow pet has been added to the Pets section of Treasure Aisle as part of the upcoming seasonal content.
Five new Dia de los Muertos facepaints have been added to the Clothing section of Treasure Aisle as part of the upcoming seasonal content.
Eight new pipes have been added to the Captain’s Club section of Treasure Aisle.
A Mohican hairstyle has been added to the Captain’s Club section of Treasure Aisle.
The Loyal Rooster and Loyal White Hen follow pets have been added to the Captain’s Club section of Treasure Aisle.
The San Fernando recipe book has been added to the Ship Recipes section of Treasure Aisle.
Devils Night Tequila: new seasonal consumable for avcom that gives +10% damage, but at the cost of -15% parry and dodge and -.5 initiative regen for 30 seconds. This seasonally available consumable is unlocked after completing seasonal missions (see below).
New Commissioned Ally: Bogey-Man: this seasonally available commission is unlocked after completing seasonal missions (see below)
New Bone Weapons: a set of new weapons are unlocked after completing seasonal missions (see below).
The new Bone Pole fishing rod is unlocked after completing seasonal missions (see below).Missions:
“What’s In Your Head?” is a new seasonal mission that can be obtained from seasonal NPCs: Hitchcock (Jenny Bay),La Fontaine (Charlesfort), O’Barr (Marsh Harbor), and Mother Crow (Vera Cruz). This mission scales to level and is designed for group play.
“Haunted Harbor” is a new seasonal mission, obtained from seasonal NPCs: Hitchcock (Jenny Bay), La Fontaine (Charlesfort), O’Barr (Marsh Harbor), and Mother Crow (Vera Cruz). This mission is suggested for level 13 and up, and allows for group play.
“It Takes a Village” is a new seasonal mission available from the seasonal NPCs in starter towns. Completing it unlocks a new LTCom, a new fishing rod, and a new set of avcom weapons in Treasure Aisle.
Completing “What’s In Your Head?” or “Haunted Harbor” unlocks Devil’s Night Tequila in Treasure Aisle.Angling:
Common and Uncommon fish can now be exchanged for Fish, Fresh in the Fishmongers’ Consumables shop.
Common and Uncommon fish can now be sold to the Fishmonger’s Tackle Shop.
Salvaging Supplies and Smuggler’s Overhaul have been added to the Fishmonger Consumables shop.
The numbers of Rare Fish needed to acquire any of the Permanent Outfittings in the Fishmongers Outfitting shop have been lowered.Ships and Outfittings:
A new ship the San Fernando has been added as a recipe to Treasure Aisle. This recipe is not tradable but deeds produced by this recipe can be traded and listed on the Auction House.
Increased the cannon sizes of Reaper’s Grasp as follows: Top Deck cannon from 5lb to 6lb, Gun Deck Cannon from 9lb to 10lb, Bow Cannon from 10lb to 11lb.
Increased the acceleration of Neptune’s Disgrace from .79 to 1.1.Ship Combat:
The speed at which you can board has been reduced from 8 to 6.
The base boarding resistance for all ships has been increased from 50% to 70%.
The number of MoVs needed to exchange for Explosive Round Shot has been lowered from 5 to 1.
Cutthroat Skill Changes:Destruction Skill “Cut Shroud” – battle speed debuff has been lowered from -30% to -25%.
Buccaneer Skill Changes:
Tough Crew skill “Second Wind” – crew recovery rate has been reduced from 25% to 15%.
Tough Crew skill “Exploit Weakness” – crew damage has been reduced from 15% to 10%.
Tough Crew skill “Endurance” – lowered morale recovery rate from 50% to 35%.
Tough Crew skill “Bloody Minds” – Max Crew penalty has been lowered from -25% to -20%; Crew Damage Resistance has been lowered from 45% to 30%; the “Defense All +3” bonus has been removed.
Skirmish skill “Jugular” has had the following debuffs added to successful broadside hits: Morale Recovery Rate -0.5%, Crew Recovery Rate: -0.5%.
Command skill “Maneuvers” – reset timer has been increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes; Crew Recovery Rate has been lowered from 15% to 7.5%.
Command skill “Evasion” – reset timer has been increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes; Sail Defense has been lowered from 3 to 2.
Command skill “Battle” – reset timer has been increased from 3 to 5 minutes; “Accuracy, All” has been lowered from 3 to 1.
Command skill “Speed” – reset timer has been increased from 3 minutes to 5 minutes.
Career Skill “Master of Pursuit” – sail damage has been reduced from 15% to 12%.Privateer Skill Changes:
All skills in the Unpredictability line have had their morale upkeep lowered from 50 to 40.
Battle Skill “Ride the Wind” – added a 7.5% acceleration bonus.
Agility Skill “Agile Tactician” – decreased duration from 5 minutes to 4 minutes, decreased reset timer from 8 minutes to 4 minutes.
Deception Skill “Second Wind” has been moved to the first position in the skill line, “Stealth” is now the fourth skill in the Deception line.
Battle Skill “Increased Damage” – added a +2 accuracy bonus.
Career Skill “Break Formation” – increased the duration from 5 to 7 seconds.
Survival Skill “Defense” – added 5% acceleration bonus.Naval Officer Skill Changes:
Prestige Skill “Battle Doctrine Offense” cool down timer has been reduced to 2 minutes.
Prestige Skill “Battle Doctrine Defense” – cool down timer has been reduced to 2 minutes.Free Trader Skill Changes:
Escape Skill “Repel Grapples” – lowered duration from 90 seconds to 60 seconds.
Desperation Skill “Desperation Fire” – damage has been reduced from 50% to 45%.
Escape Skill “Determination” – the enemy proximity condition has been removed, it can now be used regardless of an enemy being within 250 yards or not.
Escape Skill Determination the grappling defense bonus has been removed, duration has been lowered from 3 to 2 minutes.
Ship Mastery Skill “Debilitating Broadside” – has been changed to a Primary debuff in-lieu of a Secondary.
Ship Mastery Skill “Plug Leaks” – duration has been lowered from 2 minutes to 60 seconds.
Ship Mastery Skill “Rebuild Rig” – duration has been lowered from 2 minutes to 60 seconds.Avcom General Skill Changes:
Staggered effect duration has been lowered to 15s.
Removed the 25% movement penalty debuff from the Staggered effect.
Combat Medicine now removes most negative effects when used.
Changed base stat values for Offense, Parry and Dodge in order to make these attributes more noticeable. At level 50 these values should now be the following: Offense 600, Parry 67, Dodge 43.
While in boarding combat, run speed has been reduced by 30%.Brawling Skill Changes:
Increased damage on all Brawling Offense line attacks by 10%.
Removed all Cannot be parried effects from Brawling attacks
Offense Skill “High Knee” – attack radius was increased to 180 degrees.
Offense Skill “Flying Knee” – damage increased by 10%..
Defense Skill “Two Hand Strike” – attack radius was increased to 180 degrees.
Defense Skill “Uppercut” – damage increased by 10%.
Control Skill “Double Punch” – damage increased by 10%.
Control Skill “Face Punch” – can now be used at any time during combat with or without being in a stance.
Control Skill “Roundhouse” – damage reduced by 10%..
Control Skill “Throw Sand” – stun duration lowered to 4 seconds.Fencing Skill Changes:
Increased damage on all Fencing Offense line attacks by 10%.
Offensive skill “Stance: Offense” – increased the offensive bonus by 5%.
Offense Skill “Lunge” – the skill no longer applies the Marked effect to targets; Lunge now adds Broken Defense to targets that are bleeding.
Offense Skill “Bladework” now adds the effect “Fencers Rage” which grants +5% parry and +5% damage on each successful attack. The effect can be stacked up to 3 times.
Control Skill “Flick” – attack radius has been increased to 180 degrees.
Control skill “Slash” – now applies a 4s stun on Blinded targets.
Control Skill “Group Regain Footing” – Lowered the reset timer from 60 seconds to 30 seconds.
Defense Skill “Recover Guard” – duration was lowered from 20 to 12 seconds, the amount of guard recovered over the new duration remains at 120.Dirty Fighting Skill Changes:
Increased damage on all Dirty Fighting Offense line attacks by 10%.
Defense Skill “Fortitude” – removed guard regeneration from the skill.
Defense Skill “Perfect Dodge” – removed guard regeneration from the skill.
Defense Skill “Steady Strike” – reduced damage by 10%.
Control Skill “Firm Grip” – lowered the reset timer on 60 to 30 seconds.
Control Skill “Sudden Strike” – lowered the duration to 4 seconds.
Control Skill “Maelstrom” – lowered the stun duration to 4 seconds.Florentine Skill Changes:
Increased damage on all Florentine Offense line attacks by 10%.
Control Skill “Trip” – attack radius has been increased to 180 degrees.
Defense Skill “Corps-a-Corps” – damage bonus has been lowered from 60% to 40%; stun duration has been lowered to 4s.
Defense Skill “Reversal” – damage bonuses that are applied on buffed targets have been lowered from 20% to 10%.UI:
The Port drop-down menu in the Auction House UI now shows the approximate distance to a selected port and also displays whether or not the port is currently in a state of Unrest.
My Listings in the Auction House UI now shows the player’s total number of units for sale and their combined doubloon value for the character viewing them.
All UI windows with drop down menus suffered from sizing issues depending on the order they were opened and/or whether or not the were opened and reopened multiple times. This should now be fixed.
Economy, Warehouse and Inventory windows now display the ship type and ship name to help players distinguish between multiple ships of the same type when moving items between them.
The Esc Menu now contains a command button that opens the PotBS Leaderboards web page.
A Notes field has been added to the Friends tab of the Social dialog. Players can add a note of up to 1000 characters for each friend on their friends list.
A new dialog has been added to warn players if they are PvP flagged or in an invalid ship before zoning to the Open Sea. A check box has also been provided in this dialog allowing players to turn this dialog off by selecting the “Don’t show this again” option.
When a pickup item is selected in the Pickups list of the Pickup tab in the Auction House window, the Pickup Information box now lists the distance to the Pickup Port and the Pickup Port’s contention state.
Fixed an exchange shop dialog that would overlay items being viewed in “View All” tabs.
¶ 2.7.x
¶ Release Notes for Build 2.7.56.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 08/29/2011
This milestone build introduces several tuning and balance changes. Notably, unrest bundles are now not tradeable, and influence can no longer be traded between nations. It also includes a new Captains Club section in Treasure Aisle. This new section gives early access to new Treasure Aisle content as well as exclusive items and discounts. We have also added a new avatar customization type: Tattoos!Differences between 2.6.63.0 and 2.7.56.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
A new Captains Club button has been added to Treasure Aisle. If you are not a Captains Club member, this will direct you to the sign-up page. If you are already a Captains Club member, you will have access to a new section in Treasure Aisle with things like special offers and exclusive and limited-time content for Captains Club members only. New content releases in the future will reside in this section of Treasure Aisle for a milestone before being moved into the main sections of Treasure Aisle. Contents of this new section are as follows:
New: category (items reside here for the first milestone): Avatar Tattoos, Curious Black Cat follow pet, Weapon Breaker hook hand for avatar customization, and Ol Woody fishing pole.Limited/Exclusive category (these will remain Captains Club exclusives and may only be available for a limited time): Curious Ocelot follow pet, Quetzalcoatl fishing pole, new free title Joined the Club, and new PvP bounty titles. These items will remain exclusive to Captains Club members. The Ocelot and the titles require a current Captains Club membership to be summoned/worn.
Specially Priced (items available to non-Captains Club members offered in a special bundle or reduced price for a limited time): a randomized Lieutenant Commission bundle containing four different stacks of five Lieutenants, reduced price 8hr Bonus books (Doubloons, Faction, Loot), and a reduced price Orange Frog shoulder pet.
The BSP prices of vanilla ships in Treasure Aisle have been adjusted (downward) to narrow the difference between the BSP price converted to doubloons and the actual market value of the ships. It is still much cheaper to purchase these ships from the Auction Houses but not so dramatically as before.
Ships and Outfittings:
Based upon player feedback, Fortified Linen Sailcloth (permanent outfitting) had a stat added for improved usefulness: Mast Damage Resistance (+2).
The Dauntless frigate recipe was requiring MoVs. This was incongruent with other ship recipes and didn’t make much sense. MoVs were removed from the recipe and the number of ships output by the recipe was reduced.
Insurance values for all craftable ships has been reduced to match minimum crafting costs at maximum Port Infrastructure, with Lineship Structure Bundles providing 50% of their cost in insurable value. The existing 90% multiplier standard is then factored in.
Fallback ships all have one durability. Previously some of the starter fallbacks had multiple durability possibly making it more difficult for newer players to understand the fallback mechanic.
First and Second Rate ships can no longer have durability refilled.
The stats of captured versions of the Khan, Conquistador MC and Achilles were out of synch with changes made in 2.5.60.0. These captured ship deeds should now show their corrected stats.
Adjusted insurance of refits to more closely match their base ship’s insurance value. This means that MOVs are no longer insured in these refits.
Sail decal colorization bug has been fixed. You should now be able to colorize yours sails as before.
PvP:
In an effort to increase the value of the individual Mark as currency, the amount of Marks that Bounty Missions were paying out has been reduced. Additionally, some prices have been raised in the MOV exchange shop.
Counterboarding an unsuccessful boarding attacker was freezing at the countdown, breaking the mechanic. Fixed.
A boarding attacker who lost the boarding attack was only being blocked from a re-attempt for 20 seconds, which was often over by the time the loading screens went away. This blocking effect, now called Boarding Repelled, was extended to one minute and given its own icon and tooltip.
Missions:
Prison Riot was causing zone server crashes in rare situations due to the infinite respawns and lack of objective constraints. The mission now has a 6 minute time limit and a fixed number of respawns shared between the group.
Some loot tables were generating more items than they should. Known ones have been fixed to be more appropriate for levels, etc. Let us know if you find any issues with certain mission NPCs loot drops.
Daily missions have received a reduction to their doubloon reward payout.
The Prince of Thieves mission was blocked from completion by an unrelated dialog in the Grand Turk Home. Fixed.
The Dividing Loyalties mission mislabeled the destination regions players were directed to. Fixed.
Due to popular demand, the Turtle Recall mission chain is now available to all nations.
Killing Captain Iguana in the Baptism by Fire daily mission was not properly failing the mission as it should. Fixed.
NPC’s:
Civilian Ship Deed Traders have been removed. The original reason for the inclusion of these NPCs in the game no longer exists. We are removing them to remove a competing source for player made ships in the economy.
Ad-Hoc NPCs on the OS were shooting squishy cannonballs. We gave all of the level 25 (and above) Ad-Hoc NPCs Heavy Round shot to make them hit just a little harder.
RvR:
Unrest bundles are now no trade items – this also means they cannot be listed on the Auction Houses and no longer go into the opponent’s Loot Box when you lose or surrender in ship combat. They are removed from your cargo and destroyed if you lose or surrender while carrying them.
Port Governance:
Influence can no longer be traded across national boundaries. All influence trading must now be conducted with characters of the same nation as the character attempting to trade influence.
Avatars:
A new shirt (Flirty Blouse) has been added for female avatars to accommodate the new Tattoos.
¶ 2.6.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.6.63.0
Posted by Rhaegar | 07/19/2011
We’ve fixed the issue with follow pets appearing in boarding combat as well as a bug where they were duplicating themselves under certain conditions. Since we needed to do another build in order to get this fix out we decided to add an easy fix for the Fishmonger’s inability to see you had an Octopus and a slight tweak to a lure to help with angling.Differences between 2.6.62.0 and 2.6.63.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Pets:
Follow pets were causing issues when spawning in boarding combat. They should no longer be spawning in boarding combat.
Follow pets were being replicated in an unintentional manner. This issue could cause noticable performance issues for players. Follow pets should no longer replicate.
Angling:The New Granada lure wasn’t performing as desired when angling with the Simple Fishing Rod. It has now been tweaked so you should see better results when using this combination.
If you had an Octopus as your only Trophy Fish the Fishmonger was not offering the appropriate exchange items for it. This should now be fixed.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.6.62.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 07/15/2011
This hotfix build contains some fixes to problems that were introduced in 2.6.57.0. Most notably, it fixes an issue that allowed pets to sail their own ships in port battles. While potentially hilarious, this could cause some serious problems with the battle logic. We also included some other miscellaneous angling-related fixes detailed below.Known Issues:
Possessing an Octopus does not cause the Fishmonger to offer the associated turn in reward. If you have another trophy fish in your character’s inventory when you talk to the Fishmonger you can still turn in the Octopus successfully for its reward.
Forming a group from the society tab is not working. The option isn’t being presented but other methods of forming groups are still working.
Sail decal colorization is not working.
Various text strings that were introduced in 2.6 are not currently localized.Differences between 2.6.57.0 and 2.6.62.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Angling:
Loot bonuses were unintentionally skewing Angling results. Fixed.
Ships/Outfittings:
Small, medium and large versions of the Neptunus Equestris outfittings now each possess a flat value of +1 Armor Damage Reduction.
Swashbuckling:
Goliath’s Plate was using the wrong stats. Fixed.
The Tiger Claws brawling weapon wasn’t applying the Shred Armor effect when it should have. Fixed.
RvR/Port BattlesPets were appearing in port battles. Fixed.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.6.57.0
Posted by Fodderboy | 07/12/2011
We also introduce Society Roles and Society Wallets! Roles enable society leaders to create specialized sets of privileges for members, giving them more control over who has which powers and responsibilities in the society. Wallets enable society members to make donations to or withdraw money from the centralized society coffers. We also now keep a History log that enables you to see society activity such as influence donations or salary withdrawals.Known Issues:
The mission “Send in the Hounds” was not functioning properly. We’ve disabled this mission on the Live servers until we can implement repairs.
Differences between 2.5.61.0 and 2.6.57.0 include but aren’t limited to:Treasure Aisle:
We have added engagement rings for females and wedding bands for both genders to Treasure Aisle. The wedding bands come with the title “Happily Ever After.” Buy one today for that special someone.
For females, the engagement ring can be worn with the wedding band in a beautiful combination set.
An Angling tab has been added to Treasure Aisle where you can purchase high-end rods, bait, and lures. Angling Trophy Rewards should be available in Treasure Aisle after they’ve been unlocked in-game.
We’ve added the ability to purchase a single Burning Sea Note. The price is currently set at $3.
We’ve made it clearer when you’ve unlocked a new purchase in Treasure Aisle like when a new Commissioned Ally is available. You’ll get a message in the HUD.
When this build goes live, the 800 BSP reward for patience during the SOE outage in May will no longer be available.Angling:
In every port, there are now casting spots on the town’s waterfront. You can see them on the local map (represented by a fish icon) and in the water (look for a circular ripple). Equip a rod and either bait or lure (available from the Fishmonger in every town or from Treasure Aisle) and click on the casting spot to cast your line. You won’t catch a fish every time and sometimes you’ll lose your bait or lure and need to replace it before continuing to fish. Each region has fish you’ll catch often, fish you’ll catch sometimes, and fish you’ll catch rarely. All can be traded to the Fishmonger for cool stuff. See the Fishmonger in any port for more information, and to get started!
Ship Combat / Skills:
The trainers in Oranjestad and the career trainers in the clubhouses in Port Royal and Pointe-Pitre now offer respecs.
Shred Armor: Help didn’t list the Armor Damage Reduction buff. Fixed.
Salvaging Supplies was not damaging armor as it should. Fixed.Societies:
Roles: You can now define up to 25 roles for your society, granting them various privileges and naming them appropriately. In this way, you now have more power and flexibility in running your societies and enabling multiple members to participate in various aspects of leadership without necessarily granting them all powers.
Wallets: You can now deposit personal doubloons into a Society Wallet. Roles can be assigned privileges for making withdrawals from the Wallet, and/or be assigned a daily salary. You will find the Society Wallet deposit and withdraw options in the lower-right corner of the Society tab in your Social UI.
History: Societies now have a history log that displays the last 1000 society-related actions that have taken place and who performed the action. See the History tab in the Society UI. The Export button allows you to save the history to a text file stored under My Documents.
You can now invite a Society Member to a group or skirmish by right-clicking on their name in the Society UI.
In some rare edge cases, you could pledge the same influence to two different society members. Fixed.
We were rounding up the display of Influence points, making it look like you have more than you did. Now we round down so that we never make you think you can try to pledge more than you have.
Note: It is no longer possible to disband a society other than by having all members leave. With the implementation of wallets, we don’t want you to be able to easily and unintentionally strand resources.Swashbuckling:
Fixed some level requirements on a few skills that required more points to purchase than you could possibly have at that level. Also fixed some invalid level requirements information in Help.
Corrected the tooltip for the Anticipation status effect. It had said the effect lasts 5 seconds but it actually lasts 10s.Missions:
Several Tutorials such as Claim Prize, Scavenge, and Take Command of Ship could be accepted from any port but only the ones in the starter ports worked correctly. The ones that don’t work have been removed.
Falling to Pieces: The shipwreck had some graphical issues. Fixed.
Her Blood is Boiling: Clicking to enter the mission would show you a Loading screen then dump you back at the Coxswain. Fixed.
Does He Not Bleed?: Clicking to enter the mission would show you a Loading screen then dump you back at the Coxswain. Fixed.Art / Sound:
Havana (and towns that look like it) had a bell tower that came and went as you moved. Fixed – it stays put now as bell towers should.
Port de Paix (and towns that look like it): Fixed a bug that let your camera intersect with a cliff face.UI:
If the selected item is removed from any list box, we will select the next item in the list. If it was the last item, we will select the previous (now last in the list) item. We made this change in the process of getting Society Roles working, but it affects every list box in the game.
Stability / Performance:If a group member disconnected while you were in a mission, you could get kicked from the mission when you shouldn’t. Fixed.
Fixed a rare zone server crash.
Added logging to help us track down the remaining Out of Memory errors.
Misc:If you sent mail before having your name changed and they replied, the reply would be sent to your old name. Fixed.
Name changes weren’t updating Friends/Ignore Lists correctly. It works much better now, however, there will be cases where we cannot link a name in your Friends List to the new name. In that case, we’ll remove the name from your Friends List and send you email letting you know what happened.
Some Featured Item Images (those touts at the top of Treasure Aisle and our website for items you can buy) weren’t showing up correctly in languages other than English. Fixed.
Russian name change requests now ask about declension as we do when you create your name in the first place.
Made some preparations for resetting Leaderboards when 2.6 goes live.
Updated translations from SOE.
¶ 2.5.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.5.61.0
Posted by Misha | 06/13/2011
We’ve improved the Out of Memory situation. Sadly, it is still not 100% fixed but it appears to be much better than before.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.5.60.0
Posted by Misha | 06/06/2011
This is a milestone build with several changes and new features. In addition, 800 BSP eagerly await you as a gesture of thanks for your patience and support during the SOE outage in May (if you haven’t already claimed them on Test Server). In Treasure Aisle, we’ve added Society and Character Renames, cats, a cutthroat parrot, and a new pipe. My favorite of these is the brown cat since he’s modeled after my very own Petey.We’ve done some ship tuning per your survey responses and testing feedback – see below and this thread for details. There are a number of other changes, listed below. Enjoy!
Differences between 2.4.38.0 and 2.5.60.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
The first time you log in, your account will receive 800 Burning Sea Points (unless you’ve already received them by logging in to Test Server). This is our thank-you for your patience during the 2-week SOE outage in May. We’re glad to have you back!
Society Renames are now available in Treasure Aisle. Only leaders can purchase and use Society Renames. The rename happens immediately after the name chosen is confirmed to pass the profanity filters.
Character Renames are now available in Treasure Aisle. We can’t rename you while you’re logged in so the rename doesn’t show up visually until you log out/in. The name is reserved for you for up to 6 months.
Cats follower pets (brown, orange, and silver) are now available for purchase in Treasure Aisle. Like most cats, telling them to perform a trick (/petsit, /petplaydead, /petspin, /petjump) may or may not result in that trick being performed.
Cutthroat Parrot: We’ve added a parrot with a hat and eye patch.
Simple Pipe: We have a new pipe for sale in Treasure Aisle. Enjoy!
If a problem occurs when purchasing Burning Sea Notes, we now do a better job of providing you any information SOE provided us.
Due to changes in the tax laws, SOE now have to charge taxes on certain transactions. When you buy Burning Sea Notes, you’ll now see “*plus applicable taxes” in the dialog and we’ll ask for your zip code if SOE tells us that need that info for your account. (If you’ve already provided a State / Zip Code for your Station Account through SOE’s site, we likely won’t request it again.) You’ll also see a transaction summary dialog if you use a credit card that details discounts and taxes applied to the sale.
We changed the way we decide whether to show a requirement in red in a tooltip. You shouldn’t notice any real difference other than increased clarity.Ships / Outfitting:
Achilles: Increased accuracy bonus to 4%, increased defense to 21%.
Conquistador Mastercraft: Increased acceleration to 1.
Intrepid: Increased broadside DR to 7, increased defense to 22%, increased crew recovery to 30%.
Khan: Increased acceleration to 1.3, increased turning acceleration to 9.5.
Macedon: Decreased max speed to 16.4, decreased DR to 9/5, and added a Lineship Bundle to the cost. Also increased insurance payout as a result of that LSB.
Red Devil: Decreased acceleration to 2.5, decreased turning acceleration to 13, decreased minimum deceleration to 9, decreased fast turn rate to 10.25, increased bow and broadside DR to 7, increased stern DR to 2, and changed the gundeck from 28 10 pounders to 24 9 pounders.
Corsair’s Figurehead, Bloodstained: Part of the tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed.
Smuggler’s Overhaul wasn’t doing battery damage. Fixed.Ship Combat / Skills:
It is no longer possible to claim unsecured items from your loot box AFTER you have been sunk in ship combat. (Avatar combat loot rules and situations like Skirmish where you can respawn have not changed. And Personal Inventory can still be claimed.)
When exiting from Boarding combat, we used to put you into a new instance of your ship and that meant we weren’t respawning you in quite the exact same spot as before. In some crowded ship rooms this could result in inconvenient things like landing pretty far from where you should or even getting zoned back to port. Several of you experienced this with “A Man with a Mission.” Now we transfer control back to your original ship. (We still do the spawn-new-thing-very-near-where-the-old-thing-used-to-be thing with derelicts.)
Floating Mines: Decreased range from 200 to 150 yards.Swashbuckling:
A number of skills had bugs or inconsistencies in the way they working. These skills all now have their immunity effect increased to 10 seconds and no longer buff allies who are affected by the associated debuff. They still buff you if you use the skill and immunities are still shared with allies. The skills affected by this change are: Too Drunk (Brawling), Fighting Spirit (Brawling), Firm Grip (Dirty Fighting), Resolve (Dirty Fighting), Group Regain Footing (Fencing), En Garde (Fencing), Group Resolve (Florentine), and Regain Footing (Florentine).
St. Elmo’s Fire: Now applies Stun Immunity for 30 seconds. Can no longer be used on a target with Stun Immunity.
Sword of David: The buff remained after you unequipped the sword. Fixed. The effect that prevented you from getting that buff again for 30 seconds remains.Missions:
Man of Wealth and Taste (Spanish): When you return, having successfully defended the town, the fires in the town have been put out.
Just in Time: This mission couldn’t be completed with a follower pet or commissioned ally. Fixed.
Reporting for Duty: Gabriel Cortez was leaning on nothing. Now he leans on the table in front of him.
Hostage Crisis: If you wrongly accuse a servant, they should attack you but they weren’t. Fixed.
Bey’s Retreat: Added some hints that you can use the fort guns.
Captive Audience: The exit encounter button wasn’t lighting up when you completed the mission. Fixed that and a number of typos.
Guards and Wards: The forts were sinking. Raised.
A Ripple in Wine: Mogen David wasn’t an enemy so you couldn’t kill him, thus preventing mission completion. Fixed.
Sleep Tight: In some circumstances, some NPCs didn’t attack, preventing you from completing the mission. Fixed.
It Takes a Hero: Instructions for the turning in the mission sent you to the wrong location. Fixed.
Mettle Testing: You used to fight the guy in the tavern and then have to exit and re-enter the tavern to turn the mission in. The combat no longer occurs inside the tavern.
Strong Right Arm (British version only): The turn-in text was missing. Fixed.
Free Radical: This mission couldn’t be completed with a follower pet or commissioned ally. Fixed.
High Spirits: Trying to share this mission was failing. Fixed.
One Move Ahead (and missions like it): The NPCs will now fight you upon your arrival instead of standing around waiting for you to attack.Art / Sound:
We made a change to the way items (like shoulder pets, crates in a town, etc.) receive light. They should look a little better now.
Corrected some clipping issues with some of the sashes.
Fixed clipping issues with the 3rd Anniversary Coat.
We think we’ve fixed a problem some players were having downloading user content.
Gibara (and towns that look like it): There was a graphical issue that could spam your logs. Fixed by moving a chest out of a wagon onto the ground.
Havana (and towns that look like it): There was a wall that disappeared and reappeared as you moved. Fixed – it now stays put as walls should.
San Juan: Madam Billings was hovering above her perch. Now she’s alighted on the perch.
Santiago (and towns that look like it): Some foliage was way too dark for this town and there were shadows on the beach that didn’t belong there. Fixed.
St. John’s: Sometimes a salesman and an audience member were occupying the same space. Fixed.UI:
We’ve renamed Testbed to Test Server. The former name was confusing some players, particularly ones for whom English isn’t their native tongue.
Local Map and Compass: If some else had a follow pet and wasn’t in your view, you could see their pet on the map but you’d see code instead of text describing the pet. You shouldn’t have been able to see the pet at all. I doubt there was a noticeable perf hit, but we cull with distance for a reason. Now avatar followers (including commissioned allies) appear on the local map only if they belong to you or a groupmate. Follow pets have a purple arrow and commissioned allies have a green arrow (unless only provided temporarily by a mission in which case they still have the green star, same as before).
Dockyard UI: Ship stats viewed via the Harbormaster didn’t reflect skill-based mods. You could see that info in the Character UI. Now it’s consistent – you can see that info both places.
Free account UI: Our graphic artist has never liked the dark UI that shows when you log into the game on a free account so he changed it. We all think this one looks nicer.
Mardi Gras Bayou was still showing up on the World Map even though it’s not there. Fixed.Stability / Performance:
We made some changes in an attempt to fix the out of memory errors. They are not completely fixed but you should not crash more often than before. As before, running with your graphics settings lowered can help mitigate these.
Fixed a crash that could occur sometimes when changing the game window (resizing, switching too or from full screen, etc.). Try these activities frequently in various environments and let us know if you can still make it crash.
Fixed the bug that caused problems with zone and login servers back in March.
Fixed a rare mission server crash that had to do with unrest and bounty missions.
Fixed a very rare zone server crash that could occur at the end of boarding combat.
Made a change that should make it easier to debug crash dumps from players. Thanks to all who send those in!Misc:
There was a bug with character transfers where, if you were governor when you moved servers, your character still thought it was governor upon arrival (even though the port knew that you were not its governor). This prevented you from running for governor on the new server. Fixed.
It was possible to leave dogs behind when using the Harbor Master. (There was also an issue with commissioned allies and other pets.) Fixed.
In certain circumstances, we’d spam your logs with “ERROR: Texture: failed to load texture …nationless_flag.” Fixed.
Several featured items were showing up in English when they should show up in some other language. Fixed.
Russians need a tweak to their pirates_product.ini now that Caribbean is closed. Fixed.
Updated translations from SOE.
¶ 2.4.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.4.38.0
Posted by Misha | 04/24/2011
We’ve fixed this bug[Puppy farm. pet spawn]. While we were at it, we fixed a toolbar bug and included the most recent translations from SOE.Differences between 2.4.35.0 and 2.4.38.0 include but aren’t limited to:
UI:
It used to be that dragging an equipped item to your toolbar would show a semaphore flag instead of the appropriate icon. Fixed.
Stability / Performance:It was possible to have more than one follower pet at a time. While hilarious, this could cause performance problems if abused so we now prevent it.
Misc:Updated translations from SOE.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.4.35.0
Posted by Misha | 04/04/2011
There was a bug preventing Agents in a Society from inviting new members. Fixed.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.4.34.0
Posted by Misha | 03/29/2011
This milestone, we’ve continued some mission chains in Fort de France, tweaked Port Governance a touch, added some new items to Treasure Aisle, and fixed some bugs. See below for more details. We’ve also changed the back end of Societies in preparation for implementing Society Warehouses in a future milestone – they should work the same for now, though.Differences between 2.3.40.3 and 2.4.34.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
I’m a new player – where do I start? One suggestion would be the Starter Pack in Treasure Aisle. It contains a Lt. Commission, bonus XP books, bonus Doubloon books, bonus Loot books, and Novice Ship Bundles. It also includes an exclusive Hook Hand to complete your “experienced Captain” look!
New frog shoulder pets have been added to Treasure Aisle! In addition to the Bullfrog, you can now buy Blue, Orange, or Yellow Frogs to complement your amphibious fashion sense.
New variations of the dog follow pet are now available. Regal white, bold black, or brazen brindle dogs are just as loyal as the brown one already available. If you can’t decide, they’re all available to purchase as a pack!
New Sashes are now available in Treasure Aisle to sharpen any outfit for a formal occasion.
Rings, the latest addition to our jewelry fashions, are now available in Treasure Aisle. They all come in a pack so buy one and swap between them as your mood suits you. These are “Hands” items, similar to gloves, and are added and removed via that category in Character Customization.Societies:
In preparation for adding player-defined Roles to Societies, we’ve re-written the way Societies usually work to base it on Roles. You should see no difference in functionality at this time.
Social UI: Offline members now show how long they’ve been offline. This should make it easier to keep your rosters clean. Also, invited folks show as Invited instead of Offline.Ship Combat / Skills:
Captain’s Club members can now get a free career or swashbuckling respec by visiting their respective nation’s career or swashbuckling trainer. This option will not appear to Free-to-Play or Premium members.
Smoky Buccaneer Jerky wasn’t restoring crew or morale. Fixed. Also, increased crew restoration from 150 to 180 and changed the cooldown – it’s now shared with other repair consumables.Swashbuckling:
Some Commissioned Allies were using two mutually exclusive group buffs, causing the second to cancel the first, making them not as effective as they could be. Fixed.
Missions:
If you happened to be in Mardi Gras Bayou when we turned off the Mardi Gras content, you’d log in to find yourself on the Open Sea, possibly in a PvP zone. We should never do that to you. Fixed. Now we’ll put you in New Orleans.
Connecting the Dots: Completing this mission could cause that Magistrate’s Office in Pensacola to close. The Magistrate’s Office should never close. Fixed.
Sleep Tight: Sometimes it appeared a Corsair awoke & then went back to sleep. He wasn’t awake; he was sleep bandaging. Fixed.
Wagging Tongues: There was no reward for completion. Fixed.
Sick in the Headland and Hammer and Anvil: We’ve expanded the mission chains in Fort-de-France and there are now missions that continue where those two left off. Check out Down with the Sickness, Cataclysm Saint, Memoirs of an Agent, and Agent’s Redemption and let us know what you think.
Hodgeson’s Gambit: You had to press X to enter the town as clicking didn’t work. Fixed.
Rutger’s Revenge: Previously a bug was preventing completion of this mission so we made it unavailable. We’ve fixed the bug and restored this mission. This is a side mission of the level 50 version of Bey’s Retreat. If you have purchased Bey’s Retreat from Treasure Aisle, even if you have already completed it, you now have this additional mission available to you.
When Angels Fall: It was possible to repeat when it shouldn’t have been. Fixed.PvP / Port Contention:
It’s no longer possible to donate money to the Treasury of a port in the Raided state.
Fixed a bug that could cause the Governance info in the Port UI to be all wrong.
Fixed a bug that could cause the wrong thing to happen to your contention points if you logged out at the end of battle.Art / Sound:
We (y’all) recognized JW Santhem in the January edition of the Community Spotlight. He has been immortalized in game as San Juan’s Town Clerk.
The Cutthroat Bicorn hat disappeared when you zoned while wearing it. Fixed.
The /eyebrow emote wasn’t working. Fixed.
Campeche (and towns that look like it): Fixed a problem where you could see the water when you shouldn’t be able to.
Gibara: Ol’ Chumbucket was sunk too far into the pile of gold. Fixed.
Matthew Town: If you spent some time there, you may eventually notice the Cutthroat Brutes sparring out of sync. Fixed.
Tortuga: The Port Captain was located at the prison. We’ve put him on the docks like he is in every other town.
Fixed an animation issue with brawlers, particularly when kicking.
The fisherman fought valiantly and then seemed excited to find his hook empty. That never made any sense. Now he’s appropriately disappointed.UI:
Fixed a bug that could cause the Port Info UI to spam your log files.
Chat: If you had Display Chat Language set, the Live Event chat channel was bugged. Fixed.Stability / Performance:
We had a bug where we didn’t do a good job cleaning up particles. End result would be laggy AvCom or possibly a crash. Fixed.
Fixed an uncommon crash that could occur if the game received invalid information due to a poor network connection.
Fixed a crash that could occur when we were trying to figure out the insurance value of your ship.
Fixed a crash that could occur when loading the game if there was a problem with your localization files.
Fixed a crash that could occur on zoning.
Fixed a rare zone server crash that could occur during Empty Shadow.Misc:
SOE had some players correctly marked Premium but we had them incorrectly marked F2P. This shouldn’t happen in the future.
Updated translations from SOE.
¶ 2.3.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.3.40.3
Posted by Misha | 03/08/2011
This is a server-only change and does not require a client patch.Differences between 2.3.40.0 and 2.3.40.3 include but aren’t limited to:
Missions:
Undercover Man and Pecking Order were crashing their zone servers. They should work correctly now.
Misc:
With the release of 2.3, we managed to bork one of our internal tools. The servers run just fine but troubleshooting certain problems is more of a hassle than it should be. Fixed.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.3.40.0
Posted by Misha | 02/28/2011
We’ve fixed the problem that was breaking port battles and the Open Sea. We had already checked in some fixes to the Mardi Gras missions and with copying to Testbed so we’ve incorporated them too.Differences between 2.3.39.0 and 2.3.40.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Missions:
Fixed some typos and other issues in Just a Rat in a Cajun.
PvP / Port Contention:
The port battle and Open Sea issues on Antigua & Roberts were due to a race condition. Fixed.
Misc:
When you copy your character to Testbed, your Burning Sea Notes aren’t copied. If you want BSN on Testbed, buy them there.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.3.39.0
Posted by Misha | 02/18/2011
Mardi Gras is March 8th this year. Celebrate on the Burning Sea with new mission content and a peacock follow pet! See below for more details.Differences between 2.2.85.0 and 2.3.39.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
We had a bug in the way we requested a Station Cash purchase from SOE that could cause difficulties for non-US players. The work-around has been to buy Station Cash directly from SOE and then use Station Cash to buy Burning Sea Notes. Now non-US players should be able to buy Notes in game using a credit card.
A few Premium accounts were showing up as Free to Play. Fixed.
We’ve added a Level 50 version of Bey’s Retreat for sale. Bey’s Retreat is a level 25 group mission. The one in Treasure Aisle is level 50 with updated combat and rewards.
Check out the new bullfrog shoulder pet and the new monkey shoulder pet for sale in Treasure Aisle!
You have a hat, why shouldn’t your pet? You can now purchase a shoulder monkey with a pirate hat!
For a limited time only, to celebrate Mardi Gras, a peacock follow pet is available. As are Mardi Gras masks, a hat, and a vest.
If you missed out on our 3rd Anniversary celebration, you can still acquire the coat from Treasure Aisle. Also, if you wanted one or two bits of the clothing pack from our 2nd Anniversary but didn’t feel like shelling out for the whole thing, we’ve made the individual items available for purchase separately.
The $20 and $50 Notes bundles are pretty darn popular so we’ve added a $100 Notes bundle.
Some folks play longer than 2 hours at a time. Rather than having to purchase multiple buffs and remembering to refresh them, we’ve added 4-hour and 8-hour versions of the XP, Loot, Faction, and Doubloon buffs.
Career & Swashbuckling Respecs have been removed from the Trainer shops and added to the Treasure Aisle for purchase. You can still acquire them by going to the Commendation Exchange Shop in your nation’s capital.
We’ve added slot bundles for character, structure, and ship slots. You can now buy one slot at a time or buy them all at once.
Fixed a bug that prevented the fulfilling of Buy Orders with Burning Sea Notes and other RMT items.Ship Combat / Skills:
Commissioned Allies can’t be members of a group so weren’t able to use group buffs to help out. Now they can buff players during battle as another player would.
Fixed an exploit that would enable Commissioned Allies to be summoned during PvP.Swashbuckling:
We’ve added a new command skill: Save for Last. Target an enemy and use this skill to tell your commandable allies to attack other enemies first. This skill should be added automatically to your skill list at level 2 or higher.
Recover Guard (Fencing): The tooltip had code instead of English text. Fixed.Missions:
Join the Mardi Gras celebration by entering Mardi Gras Bayou between Biloxi and New Orleans. You can visit the Mysterious Harlequin in starter towns and capitals for more information.
Hollow Man: If you had a follow pet, you couldn’t complete this mission. Fixed.
The Sea Dog Slayer (French): The mission sent you to the wrong guy for completion. Fixed.
Empty Shadow: If you went chasing after Pierre before untying Nadine, you could end up stuck. Fixed.
The Finer Things: Once you completed the mission, the place where you turned it in still said “The Finer Things” even though that mission is no longer available. Fixed. The place shows up on the map because there are still missions to be found there. This fix isn’t retroactive – if you’re like me and have already done the mission, you still see the old text on the map.
Children of an Angry God: If you had a follow pet, you couldn’t complete this mission. Fixed.
Turnabout is Fair Play: If you demasted the flagship, it was impossible to complete the mission. Fixed by making it unattackable once it starts for the cave.
Codifying Blasphemy: The icon on the local map for turning in this mission never appeared. Fixed. This change could affect a number of missions. Let us know if you see duplicate tooltip entries or other issues when you hover over things in the local map or compass.Economy:
There was a bug in the Auction House that caused it to list Lieutenant Commissions as a category. Fixed.
PvP / Port Contention:
When we added new Port Battle rooms, we made it more likely they’d be the ones you’d land in. However, the new rooms have been around long enough, it’s time to re-balance the list. Now each room has an equal chance of being the room you have a Port Battle in.
If we had an outage during the 72 hours after a map win, changing nations would be prevented after the outage as if it had been too long since the map win. Fixed.Art / Sound:
Kerrilyn’s skirt was poking through the barrel off the dock at Jenny Bay. Fixed. The skirt remains inside the barrel now. She’s got enough to do without worrying about that.
Soft Feathers for female hats looked terrible with most hats. They’ve been moved to the side so they look better with a wider variety of hats.
The follow monkey tended to lose an eye when playing dead. Fixed.
Added a little variety to the Loading… screens.
Golden Lake: With high infrastructure, NPC were standing up to their ankles in carpet. Fixed.UI:
Moved the Close button on the Captain’s Club ad so free players with low screen resolutions can close it.
Added a Feedback button to the Options menu. Now you can give us feedback while you’re thinking about it during the game by pressing Esc and then clicking on Feedback to bring up the survey.
If you are a Captain’s Club member and the Login server rebooted, you could end up seeing the UI that says you’re a free player and encourages you to subscribe. We made that less likely to occur.
We converted TGAs for the UI to PNGs. This saves about 100M of disk space for you and makes it less likely that our artists will break the UI like they did with the first 2.2 build to Testbed. Let us know if you see any graphical issues with the cursor, chat, or other UI elements.
There was a bug in the port info UI that caused it to sometimes show up with code instead of text and also not show valid numbers. Fixed.Stability / Performance:
Fixed an exploit that could enable F2P accounts to receive extra econ slots and such for free.
Fixed a rare zone server crash by minimizing chances of a race condition. Let us know if you see any performance issues, particularly with animations and graphical effects.
Fixed a rare zone server crash that was caused by you zoning before your Lt. Comm was ready.
Fixed a very rare zone server crash that was caused by surrendering to a group leader when they weren’t in the zone.
Fixed a crash in the authentication server that could have caused new players to lose Burning Sea Points.
Fixed a very rare mission server crash.
Fixed a game crash that could occur if we were trying to update your UI when all you could see was a Loading… screen. We don’t need to update your UI if you can’t see it so we no longer try.
Fixed one cause of the Out of Memory error. Also added additional logging in an attempt to find and fix other causes.
Misc:Updated translations from SOE.
We updated some Alchemy bits. You should see no difference – this was only to improve our build process.
¶ 2.2.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.2.85.0
Posted by Misha | 01/23/2011
Folks wearing the Fine Sunhat were crashing trying to run the game. Fixed the hat and the crash.Differences between 2.2.83.1 and 2.2.85.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Art / Sound:
Fixed the mesh on the Fine Sunhat.
Stability / Performance:
Fixed a crash caused by invalid LODs on clothing items.
Misc:
Updated translations from SOE.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.2.83.0
Posted by Misha | 01/18/2011
Happy Anniversary to Pirates of the Burning Sea! We celebrate our 3rd Anniversary on 1/22/2011. This is quite an achievement and we’ve added some fun new content to celebrate. Look for the Royal Society representative in your starter town or nation’s capital for the mission / mini-games. Completing these will grant you a new coat. For a limited time only, a black cockatoo is available in Treasure Aisle as is a monkey dressed for celebration!As this is a milestone build, we also have other new items and content available. Spain’s capital, San Juan, has an updated and much improved look. Check it out! There are new pets in Treasure Aisle and all follower pets have learned new tricks. See below for details on these and other new items in Treasure Aisle.
We’ve also added four more Community Spotlight tributes – we’d gotten a bit behind while working on F2P and now we’re caught up.
Differences between 2.1.116.0 and 2.2.83.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Treasure Aisle:
We made the button for getting into Treasure Aisle shinier and more attractive.
Check out the new shoulder pets: Seagull, Cockatiel, and Raven!
New! Anniversary monkey in a top hat and an Anniversary black cockatoo. Available for a limited time only!
Loyal Pet Followers (available for purchase in Treasure Aisle) can now, in addition to /petsit and /petspin, perform /petjump and /petplaydead. And they are hilarious!
Stacks of Burning Sea Notes and other RMT items could not be split. Makes it hard to trade one Note to another player if you have two. Fixed.
Subscribers don’t need a society charter to create a society so the charter should not be available to them in Treasure Aisle. Fixed.
One of the economy slot upgrades had code for a tooltip instead of text. Fixed.
If you buy something via Auction House and don’t pick it up for a month, we “donate it to the poor.” We should not do that with Burning Sea Notes. Fixed.Ships / Outfitting:
Spanish Inquisition sails blocked the ability to change sail color. Fixed. Similarly for the Spanish Navy and Spanish Trade Union Sails.
Missions:
Community Spotlight: There’s a statue of Ubert le Danois in Pointe-à-Pitre. Click the plaque to read a commemorative poem.
Community Spotlight: Jon Smith-Tank appears as a contender in the 2nd round of the Pit Fight in Tortuga.
Community Spotlight: Look for Bennet in Matthew Town near the Cutthroat Trainer.
Community Spotlight: Paul Kingtiger can be found near the end of the southern dock in Port Royal with his ship behind him.
Visit the Royal Society representative in Vera Cruz, San Juan, Jenny Bay, Port Royal, Charlesfort, Pointe-à-Pitre, Marsh Harbour, or Tortuga to participate in our Anniversary celebration. It’s free and you can win the new Anniversary Coat.
Economy Tutorial: If you had no spare slots, you couldn’t complete this mission but you didn’t receive an explanation of the problem. Fixed.
Economy Tutorial: If you already had a warehouse in town, you couldn’t complete this mission but you weren’t told why not. Fixed.
Time to Crate: Clarified how/where to turn this in.
Looking for Clues (Pirate version): The local map showed “Magistrate’s Office” instead of “Town Boss’ Office.” Fixed.
Just for the Record: It was possible for different group members to choose different responses to Anastas and break things. Fixed.
Economy:Fixed a bug that caused a different number of doubloons to be charged in tax on running a recipe than showed up in the Port Treasury.
Fixed an exploit that enabled players to get more Burning Sea Points than they should.PvP / Port Contention:
Nations now get Capture points every time they capture a Pirate port instead of just the first time. They still only get Capture points the first time they capture another national port.
Fixed a bug that occurred on Raided ports at the end of the cease fire period.
We’ve tuned RvR rewards a bit in order to increase the rewards for Captain’s Club members. Free players now receive zero RvR rewards for losing and one Citation of Conquest for winning. Rewards haven’t changed for Premium players. Captain’s Club members now receive double RvR rewards for winning and losing as long as they are Captain’s Club members when they log in the first time after a map win. We’ve adjusted the prices of items in the Citation of Conquest exchange shop accordingly.
Fixed an exploit that enabled players to call commissioned allies during PvP.
We now show the name of the society member instead of the name of the society in the pledge transaction log.Art / Sound:
San Juan: The Spanish capital has been updated with new, unique, and much better looking art.
Caracas (and towns that look like it) had lighting problems and was too dark. Fixed.
Preview images for the Baron & Viceroy hats were reversed. Fixed.
Similar to the way we improved lighting on avatars in a previous release, we’ve improved lighting on ships in this release.
At some point, we stopped reflecting the sky in the water. That was unintended. Fixed.
Improved the particle effects for leveling up. We want it to be more elaborate and last longer to be a bigger visual reward for your hard work.
Improved particle effects for gun shots.
Improved the emote/particle effects for the Privateer’s hip flask.
Improved particle effects for sword clashes (parry impacts).
Improved the effect when you fire a gun from your gun hand.
Port Royal: Mr. Honeybone looks more reverend-like now.
Tortuga: Noah Rivers looks more priest-like now.
Added/replaced some sounds such as those for oceans, rivers, birds, wind, and others. Some of these sounds are now in stereo. Also improved sounds in Bartica, St. Johns, Biloxi , Bridgetown, Nassau , Cayenne, Vieux Fort, Irish Point, Portobello, and Belle Isle and towns that look like those towns.UI:
Not everyone reads release notes or the forums or even burningsea.com. In order to better communicate news about new items, sales, and other changes to Pirates of the Burning Sea to players who don’t receive the news in other ways, we’re launching a monthly newsletter. When you log in to the game, you’re prompted to subscribe. We’ll be using the email address you provided to SOE when you created your Station Account so be sure that’s a valid and current address and that flyinglab.com isn’t blocked by your spam filter.
We’ve added a chat channel for live events. Everyone can listen on this channel but only event coordinators can talk. This should help keep events from spamming in other channels and give folks participating in events one clear place to look for information.
Screenshots were screwy, particularly if you had a second monitor or Vista or any number of other reasonable things that shouldn’t break screenshots. Fixed.
Clarified the Governor’s Clerk’s description of Influence.
Renamed the “Captain’s Club” in Port Royal to “The Frontier Room” since “Captain’s Club” is what we call paid membership in the game.
Tooltips for follow pets on the local map and compass were code instead of text. Fixed.Stability / Performance:
Fixed a crash that could occur due to a race condition when zoning.
Fixed a crash that could occur if you were changing ammo types and boarding at the same time.
Fixed a crash that was a result of a race condition between zoning and using skills.
Fixed a crash that was a result of a race condition between zoning and econ stuff happening.
Fixed a crash caused by a poor interaction with PhysX. Let us know if you see any new performance issues, particularly when zoning.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur if the auction house was trying to do something as you were quitting the game.
Fixed a rare crash that could occur if we failed to load an avatar texture.
Fixed a very rare crash that could occur if something went wonky while we were trying to figure out who was on which side in an encounter.
Fixed a mission server crash that could be caused by sharing a mission with your group just as they disbanded.
Fixed a zone server crash that could result from taking a pet into Tale of the Broken Blade.
Fixed a zone server crash that could result from enemies dying too soon in Hell Hath No Fury.
Fixed a login server crash that could occur if you got disconnected while we’re trying to look up your payment sources. Login server crashes aren’t a big deal but they will make Treasure Aisle look empty. Simply close and reopen Treasure Aisle (slowly to give the login server time to restart) and you should be good to go.
We’ve been working around the problem that started on Christmas Eve day manually. Now we’ve made it so that, if we’re all dead, the machines will keep chugging away without us.
We removed some unused items from the build. If you had the previous version, your patch size was a little bigger but if you’re a new player, the download/install took slightly less time. Let us know if you notice crates sitting where they shouldn’t, buildings missing textures, ships with guns in the wrong spots, or any other wonky graphical issues.
We made a change that should help prevent pigg file corruption.
Misc:Updated translations from SOE including fixing an inaccuracy in German.
¶ 2.1.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.1.112.0
Posted by Misha | 12/01/2010
This build fixes the last of the ship loss issues, we believe, as well as a few other issues.Known Issues:
Russians have difficulty seeing Caribbean and don’t have the latest Russian text in game. You should be able to resolve this by going to Options in LaunchPad, dropping down the Build list, and selecting Russian.
Russians can’t transfer characters from Caribbean. This is an issue with our website. We expect to have the solution today.
Some accounts are showing up as Premium when they should be Captain’s Club or Free when they shouldn’t be. We believe this is an issue with the account modifications that SOE made. They’re running the process again today. If you have fewer ship slots than you should, DO NOT USE THE HARBORMASTER. You may lose a ship if you do.
Buying Burning Sea Notes sometimes fails with an error. Follow these instructions to try again. If that doesn’t work, please file a support request. We’re working with SOE to resolve an issue with the way we’re calling their API.
Differences between 2.1.111.0 and 2.1.112.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Fixed the last of the ship loss bugs, we believe. If you have lost a ship, file a support ticket to get it returned.
Premium accounts were unable to place ships in storage. Fixed.Missions:
Vigilante Justice: Fixed a bug that made non-Brits think they needed to go to Jenny Bay to complete the mission.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.1.111.0
Posted by Misha | 11/28/2010
This build introduces Treasure Aisle, our new RMT store that allows you to buy all sorts of things, including pets, ships, buffs, clothes, for Burning Sea Points. Burning Sea Points are created by trading in Burning Sea Notes, which you can purchase in Treasure Aisle for real world money, or in trades from other players.Access Treasure Aisle by clicking the first button on the left in your toolbar or pressing T. See below for more details on how this works and what you can buy.
Subscribers are now Captain’s Club members. Previously subscribed accounts should be treated as Premium accounts. Trial accounts should be treated as Free to Play accounts. See this chart for more details.
We’ve also revamped our starter missions. This is part of our on-going effort to make the game more accessible to new players. See below for details
This build also contains our holiday content in preparation for the holiday season. Enjoy!
Known Issues:
Vigilante Justice: Pirate players get told to go to Jenny Bay as if they were Brit but the man you’re looking for is closer than that – check your map. This will be fixed in 2.2.
The Bigger They Are: One of our testers managed to get himself trapped in this mission. However, we haven’t been able to repro. If this happens to you, defeat all the enemy ships and you should be able to get out.
There’s a bug in the tax calculations for running recipes that results in a different amount going into the Treasury than was removed from the player sometimes. This is fixed in the next major build.
Differences between 2.0.49.0 and 2.1.111.0 include but aren’t limited to:Treasure Aisle:
You can enter Treasure Aisle via a button on the toolbar or by pressing T. Because the data for the shop is stored on the server, you might get a Loading… message the first time you enter during a game session but the shop should quickly load and enable you to purchase in-game items.
A Burning Sea Note is worth 300 Burning Sea Points. If you have insufficient points to buy an item, Notes will be converted to points. If you have insufficient Notes, you’ll be prompted to buy some.
Burning Sea Notes are tradable. You can give them to your friends or sell them in the auction house.
Captain’s Club members receive a 20% discount on points purchases made in Treasure Aisle.
Captain’s Club members receive a 10% XP bonus, 10% additional loot chance, and 10% faction bonus when playing while subscribed.
Captain’s Club members have 5 Dockyard slots. Free Accounts have two Dockyard slots but can purchase more from Treasure Aisle and own up to 5.
Captain’s Club members have access to 100 Ship Storage slots in their nation’s capital. Free Accounts have none but can purchase them from Treasure Aisle& and own up to 100.
You can buy Evasion items from Treasure Aisle. Purchase and use these items to increase your speed and stealth on the Open Sea for a period of time.
You can buy Lieutenant Commissions from Treasure Aisle. These are NPC allies you can summon in PvE combat (ship or swashbuckling combat but not boarding combat). You can summon one at a time in an encounter and they do not follow you between encounters. If one dies, you can summon another. They cannot be used in ad hocs until the end of the reinforcement timer and not at all if another player joins the fight. They also cannot be used in Port Battles, Besieged Tortuga, Skirmishes, or Duels.
A Map Case is available for purchase at Treasure Aisle. It (randomly) grants one of the new Treasure Hunt missions: The Sleepwalkers, Money for Nothing, Hundred Acre Bay, Guardian of Secrets, The Last Confession of Sebastien Tartre, Claiming What’s Yours, or Empty Nest.
Captain’s Club members can play through the entire Black Flags and Dread Saints story line. Free Accounts can play Chapters 1-5 for free but access to the final chapter of that critically acclaimed epic mission arc is available for purchase from Treasure Aisle.
Captain’s Club members have 10 economy slots. Free Accounts have only two econ slots but can purchase more from Treasure Aisle and own up to 10.
Using Warehouse Vouchers, available for purchase from Treasure Aisle, you can pay cash instead of doubloons to create a warehouse.
Captain’s Club members receive insurance when a ship is sunk. Free Accounts receive insurance when a ship is sunk only if purchased in advance.
Captain’s Club members can create societies by visiting the Society Registrar in their starter town or nation’s capital and paying 1000 doubloons. Free Accounts need to buy a Society Charter from Treasure Aisle (and give that plus 1000 doubloons to the Society Registrar) in order to create a society.
Bonus Faction books are available in Treasure Aisle. Buying and using one of these will, for a period of time, increase the faction you receive from normal faction-changing activities such as missions. If you are a Captain’s Club member, this stacks with the bonus you already have. Multiple Bonus Faction Books cannot be used at the same time.
Bonus Doubloon books are available in Treasure Aisle. Buying and using one of these will, for a period of time, increase the doubloons you receive from sinking NPCs in the Open Sea.
Bonus Experience books are available in Treasure Aisle. Buying and using one of these will, for a period of time, increase the XP you receive from normal XP-granting activities such as missions or sinking certain ships. If you are a Captain’s Club member, this stacks with the bonus you already have. Multiple Bonus Experience Books cannot be used at the same time.
Bonus Loot books are available in Treasure Aisle. Buying and using one of these will, for a period of time, increase the loot you receive from normal loot-generating activities such as sinking NPCs. If you are a Captain’s Club member, this stacks with the bonus you already have. Multiple Bonus Loot Books cannot be used at the same time.
Ship bundles for each size ship, containing three permanent outfitting, two repairs, and gunpowder are available for purchase from Treasure Aisle.
You can purchase luxury clothing and clothing never before available in the game from Treasure Aisle. The Luxury Clothing Tailor has been removed from the capital ports as all his wares are now available only through Treasure Aisle.
You can buy pets from Treasure Aisle. If you already own the pet, it won’t be offered to you in the shop. Along with shoulder pets such as parrots and rats, you can also purchase follow-pets such as dogs and monkeys. Chickens make surprisingly well-trained companions as it turns out.
We’ve added holiday pets and other items to Treasure Aisle for a limited time only. Enjoy!
Right-clicking on pets, clothing items, and Lt. Commissions in Treasure Aisle with give you a preview of the item so you know what you’re getting before you buy it.Ship Outfitting:
Fixed an exploit that had to do with ship outfitting.
Ship Combat / Skills:
The way we were doing forced respecs was a bit confusing. I logged into P&P; for the first time and was told I’d been refunded X captain skills and 0 swashbuckling skills and X swashbuckling skills and 0 captain skills. Wha? We’ve clarified it a bit so it should be less confusing now.
Fixed the bug that caused NPCs to sit there and raise/lower their sails repeatedly when you came out of boarding combat in a mission.
Expert Repairs (Freetrader): The repair part of the skill lasted 45 seconds but the Armor & Mast Damage Reduction only lasted 30 seconds. Now it all lasts 45 seconds.
“Storm” affected grappling offense but we told you it affected grappling defense. Now it affects defense as it should.
Give the Slip (Freetrader): Clarified the tooltip.
Dump Guns (Cutthroat & Freetrader): Clarified the tooltip.
We added duration information to the tooltips for Determination (Freetrader) and Scrapper (Buccaneer and Privateer).
Tooltips for Expert Consumables referred to obsolete skills. Fixed.Swashbuckling:
We’ve added to Preferences an option for you to auto-face your target. We tried this in P&P; Beta and it got mixed reviews. However, it might be handy for folks who suffer network lag so we offer you the option.
Ballestra Lunge (Fencing): Now works even if the target isn’t Weakened, as it should.
Mastercraft Brass Knuckles cost Royal Encomiums which no longer exist in the game. Fixed. Now they cost Royal Commendations.
Missions:If you entered a mission from the Open Sea and died with ship dura remaining, we sent you to your nation’s capital. Now we put you in a town roughly where you started.
Port Captains were still claiming to be able to change your mission difficulty level. Fixed.
Swampcats Bounty Missions: Weren’t available to the French in Grenville. Fixed.
Many of the first missions for new players were just like the last mission you did only different. We’ve removed several of the missions we call “standard encounter” missions and you call “cookie cutter” missions. We’ve improved the tutorials, teaching about several aspects of the game never before explained to beginners and added some unique (read: “more fun!”) content.
Added some training on crew focus skills to the tutorial.
Boarding Tutorial: To Boarder’s Bay! (Spanish version): The Urbane Acrobats were French. Now they are Spanish as they should be.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Using the exit button (instead of the door) landed you at the Coxswain (instead of the door) which was wonky. Fixed. We also fixed a bug whereby defeating the last ship while sitting on the exit point will cause the exit point to not be revealed. And we repositioned the fire a bit to make it look better.
Claim Prize Tutorial: In order to complete this, you had to sail to your nation’s capital which is likely in the red. Instead, it’s explained how to exchange commendations but you don’t actually have to do that in order to complete the mission.
Fate is Sealed: The NPCs were behaving strangely – attacking without being provoked and such. Now they’re only aggressive when they should be.
Get Well Soon: You can no longer walk through the well.
Sharktooth Menace: The exit button didn’t flash when you successfully completed the mission. Fixed.
The Truth of Things: It was possible to skip a fight and miss some key storyline. Fixed.
Join or Die: One of the fights was a bit difficult for first-time players. Tuned it down a bit. Also clarified a confusing encounter objective.
The Undercover Man: After completing the mission, the Brethren Liaison still gave advice for how to complete the mission. He’s more up to speed now.
Black Heart, Black Powder and other missions: Mousing over the Longboat caused some wonkiness. Fixed.
Deals Within Wheels (French version): You were directed to Campeche when you really needed to go to Grenville. Fixed.
A Riot is an Ugly Thing: The location of the jail wasn’t shown on the map. Fixed.
Masts for Mayhem: You can no longer walk through the tree.
Bey’s Retreat: Some swashbuckling portions were too easy. Fixed by increasing the health, guard, and guard recovery of all the mooks in Bey’s Retreat. Dez and Irena’s stats were increased as well.
Local Commerce: Ironsides were supposed to receive more intensity from embolden prompts than they were. Fixed.
Loot Drop: This mission shouldn’t have been groupable. Fixed.
Death Rattle: Using AOE attacks in the vicinity of Captain Hassan could fail the mission. That seems a bit harsh. Fixed.
Sleep Tight: Fixed a minor exploit. You can no longer leave and return while in combat.
Montague’s Special Reserve: You were directed to the shop when you needed to go to the warehouse. Fixed.
The Swan: Told you to return to the surface. After you were already on the surface. Now it more helpfully points you at Jeannet Denot.
Fore-Gun Conclusion: Summoning allies in the first part of this mission would be a waste of money at best and cause problems for you at worst. So we now prevent you from summoning allies in that part of the mission.
For King and Country: There were some confusing encounter objectives. Added some clarifying text.
Hold the Line: Fixed it so you can’t so easily spawn camp anymore.
Duplicitous Evil: You had to choose a reward from a list of one item. Now you don’t have to choose – you just get the reward.
Fortaleza da Luz: Fixed a bug that caused you to lose your Spirit Trap and be unable to get it back if you exited the mission at the wrong time.
Keeper of the Crossroads: This mission claimed to take place in Gyasi’s shack but didn’t. The destination is more accurate now.
The Show Must Go On: Added some sounds where they were missing.
Uncivil War: Grounded a floating fort.
Daniel Lianor Pires, a Lieutenant Commission, becomes available to you when you complete Old Money.
Gaou Guinou, a Lieutenant Commission, now becomes available to you after Sovereign of the Seas.
By the Sword: Tireless Batab fought alone in boarding combat. Now he has crew to fight by his side as he should.
Fixed a minor exploit with Treasure Hunt missions.
Zoe Franche was sometimes walking around with a treasure chest on her head. Fixed.
Hazel Thatcher was offering a mission during another mission. Fixed.
Fixed or improved destination strings in a number of missions. Some said “a mission” in the compass when they should have given better info. Some said “Return to John Doe” without giving any hint where to find that person. There are still missions with these issues, but fewer than before.
We had previously made it so a number of missions would no longer force you to still sail to the escape point (or guide an ally to an escape point) if all enemies were defeated. However, we missed a few in that first pass. This build includes more.Economy:
In some instances, there was a problem running a recipe the maximum number of times. If you tried to run one less than the max, no problem. Fixed now.
Fees for extending auction listings were not going into the Port Treasury. Fixed.
Fixed a bug that caused tax rate changes by Governors to not always be recognized.
It’s no longer possible for the governor of an unconquerable port to change tax rates. That made no sense anyway.
We now notify you of the doubloon cost when you, as governor, change the tax rate in your port.
Added Artemis’ Cannon Modification 2 to the Advanced General Outfitting recipe book.PvP / Port Contention:
Open Bidding now lasts 30 hours so Closed Bidding should occur closer to the population peak on each server. It will still happen pretty much the same time every time but it should be a more convenient time for more people.
It was possible to be elected governor of a port in the raided state, although you shouldn’t be able to. Fixed.
If you were governor of a raided port when the cease fire ended, you were ousted even if the port didn’t change hands at that time. Fixed.
Elections were being cancelled at the beginning of the cease fire. Also, it was possible to start an election during server victory. Elections are now cancelled at server victory, not the start of the cease fire.
Governors could reduce unrest on a port after the port battle was scheduled. We’ve decided to disallow that behavior.
Increased from 20 to 45 the level you must be to exchange Citations of Conquest for Marks of Trade or Marks of Victory.Art / Sound:
Tweaked walk a touch. We did this because pets were acting funny when they spawned. We feel we have more work to do on the pets but people should still look OK.
We’ve added animations for /absent, /blush, /hymn, /wink, /whistle, /hail, /dawn, /poke, /egyptian, and /ahoy. Check ‘em out!
Fixed a bug that could cause your character to stop fidgeting. Left idle long enough, your character should look around, cross arms perhaps, maybe tap foot.
Port Royal: Improved the lighting.
San Juan: You had to use X to talk to Garcia Tinoco in the church. Now you can also click on him if you’d rather.
Added an acid burn particle effect for when Royal Society members throw acid.
Made some improvements to belching.
Added a particle effect to spit.
Improved particle effects for treasure hunting.
Puerto del Principe: Approaching the church, you could hear organ music. However, it stopped when you entered. Now the organ music is better positioned outside the church and can be heard inside the church also.
Fixed quite a few sound issues with NPC conversations and other lively in a variety of towns.UI:
Replaced an unattractive Loading… screen with a nicer one.
Infoservices now have a new icon more appropriate to the situation than a boat.
Characters created after we launched Power & Prestige did not receive the Governor’s title when elected. When this build goes live, characters who should have the title but don’t will receive it. And newly created characters elected Governor in the future won’t experience the bug.
The Governor’s Clerk had some text and grammar errors. Fixed.
The Town Steward was offering inaccurate information about Weapons Stockpiles and Fortifications. Fixed. Also we clarified his description of unrest reduction.
The cooldown for Port Message of the Day changes was 24 minutes. This has been changed to 30 minutes.
Fixed text and grammar errors on the Port Information tooltips.
Fixed a bug where speech bubbles showed up on wrong NPCs or at wrong times.Stability / Performance:
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if someone was colliding with a ship that was leaving the room (being sunk, for example).
Fixed a rare crash that occur as a result of a race condition when zoning, perhaps while having your warehouse open or such.
Fixed a rare crash caused by not cleaning the cache enough. (The only folks who hit this were testers and we suspect that’s because they tend to zone around a lot more than the average player.)
Fixed a crash that could occur trying to adjust your graphics. (If you ever crashed and found “ERROR : ... Expect a crash on the next draw call” in your log, that was this crash.)
Fixed a zone server crash a GM could cause. It’s not like it happened often but GMs shouldn’t be taking down zone servers with typos.Misc:
We shrunk our build a bit by removing old, unused assets. Existing installs won’t notice much difference but it will help new downloads a little.
Updated localizations from SOE.
¶ 2.0.x
¶ Release Notes for build 2.0.49.0
Posted by Misha | 09/28/2010
This build fixes a few issues we found that could cause you to lose or gain items you shouldn’t.Known Issues:
- The Lab Rat can only be /claimed on one character per account. Be sure to be logged in to the correct character on the correct server when you /claim. If you experience difficulties, please log a support request.
Differences between 2.0.48.0 and 2.0.49.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Ships / Outfitting:
- Fixed a bug where outfitting from destroyed ships wasn’t handled properly.
- Fixed a bug in the way outfitting items revert when you leave the Harbor Master without saving.
Missions:
- Smash and Grab, Crop Failure: Fixed a problem with the enemy ships.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.0.48.0
Posted by Misha | 09/20/2010
This build is primarily to fix a game crash that could occur if you had Inquisition clothes before the launch of Power & Prestige and tried to change them after.Known Issues:
- Some fees do not get added to the Port Treasury, although they should. For example, extending and Auction listing charges a fee and that fee should be applied to the Treasury but it’s not. This will be fixed in the next update.
- The Lab Rat can only be claimed once per account currently. If you’ve claimed it on the wrong character by mistake, please log a support ticket and we’ll get your sorted
Differences between 2.0.47.0 and 2.0.48.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Fixed a bug in our clothing database that caused Inquisition clothing to show up invisible and caused the game to crash if you tried to change to using visible clothing.
Testers in our closed Beta for Power & Prestige can now /claim the Lab Rat. Enjoy!
Fixed a bug that was causing some flogger data not to show up.
¶ Release Notes for build 2.0.47.0
Posted by Misha | 09/13/2010
We are proud to launch our first expansion, Power and Prestige! The biggest new features in P&P; are Port Governance and Stacking Penalties. We’re also adding a Brawling fighting school to Swashbuckling combat which means a revamp of all the schools. And we’ve tuned the career skills and most ships. See below for more details on these changes and more.Join us in celebrating Talk Like a Pirate Day!Talk to Captain Billings (the parrot) in Tortuga to join the fun and earn a title.
Also, this is a milestone build and so honors a Community Member of the Month. Look for Kerrilyn off the dock of Jenny Bay. MOG
Known Issues:
- Inquisition clothing is problematic. If your character was wearing Inquisition clothing before the launch of P&P;, it will now show up invisible. If you try to change clothes, the game will crash. We will be pushing a hotfix to address this.
- Some fees do not get added to the Port Treasury, although they should. For example, extending and Auction listing charges a fee and that fee should be applied to the Treasury but it’s not. This will be fixed in the next update.
Differences between 1.26.27.0 and 2.0.47.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Port Governance:
- Ask the Governor’s Clerk in any town about becoming Governor. The Governor’s Seal above her head makes her easy to find.
- As society members gain XP, their Society gains Influence. Even level 50 members generate Influence as they participate in activities that generate XP.
- Society leaders and agentscan pledge influence to a player – even one outside the society – thatthey want to become governor. See the Governor’s Clerk for info on how to do this. Check your Character UI to see how much influence you have been pledged.
- The Governor’s Clerk also provides information about Port Infrastructure, Fortification, and Weapons Stockpile levels.
- Visit the Governor’s Clerk to make a bid to become Governor. After2 days of open bidding, there is a period of closed bidding which ends when a certain amount of time has elapsed with no new bids. Area-wide announcements are sent at each stage in the process.
- If someone makes a bid to take over from the current governor, the current governor gets mail alerting him. Also, an area-wide announcement goes out.
- When you’re elected governor, you get mail explaining your next steps, directing you to the resources you’ll need to learn to be effective.
- Only the Governor may enter the Governor’s Mansion, where they may interact with the Town Steward (who provides information on governing), the Secretary of the Treasury (who provides access to Port Governance systems), and the Governor’s Tailor (who offers special Governor-only clothing).
- Any town can have a governor. However, a Governor can only change Infrastructure, tax rates, and defenses in conquerable ports.
- Governors can use money in the Treasury to change infrastructure levels in the port, affecting the economy.
- Governors can draw a salary from Treasury.
- Players can donate funds to the Treasury.
- Governors can set the tax rates to entice commerce or discourage foreign development. Tax rates are set independently for each nation.
- Governors can change defense levels in a port, improving the performance of defending NPCs in Port Battles for that port.
- Governors can use money in the Treasury to reduce unrest in a port.
- Infrastructure and defense have a weekly upkeep cost pulled from the Treasury. The governor gets a warning mail in advance, and then another mail when maintenance is deducted.
- Funds enter the Treasury from taxes, listing fees, recipe execution, and rewards from special “Governor’s Request” daily missions.
- When a port is conquered, the Governor is removed and Infrastructure and defense levels are automatically decreased one level.
- When a new Governor is elected, infrastructure and defense levels set by the previous Governor decrease one level.
- When port defenses are higher, you’ll see more soldiers patrolling the town and such. When port infrastructure is higher, you’ll see more merchants with fresher goods about town.
- Fortifications, one of the Defense values the Governor may set, give 1% damage resistance and 1% armor integrity per level to the Fort and Gun Emplacements. Fortifications give 1% guard and 1% dodge per level to all defending NPCs. Higher levels of Fortification increase the status of the extra Forts from Weapons Stockpiles (from Gun Emplacements to Large Fortresses).
- Weapons Stockpiles, one of the Defense values the Governor may set, give 1% damage and 1% reload per level to the Fort and Gun Emplacements. Weapons Stockpiles give 1% damage per level to all defending NPCs. Higher levels of Weapons Stockpile causes extra Forts during Port Battles at that port.
- When a town has a governor, the governor’s flag shows up below the national flag. When port infrastructure and defenses are increased, burgees are added below the governor’s flag.
- The Governor can set a Message of the Day for his port. If the Governor has set a MOTD, you’ll see it in chat upon entering the town.
- Governors can set their names or Society names to show in the tooltip for the port. They can change what is displayed there for a price that he pays from the Treasury.
- The Governor’s title appears before their name when they speak in Area chat.
- The Garrison Commanders in conquerable ports offer special missions, marked as “Governor’s Request”. These missions reward players who complete optional objectives with extra donations to that port’s Treasury.
Ships / Outfitting:
We made tuning changes to most Scout ships. Scouts were not sufficiently weighted for their advantages, like acceleration and turning, for how good those stats are versus the other advantages that Warships get, namely DR and Armor. As such, most Large and Huge scouts lost some acceleration, and some turning stats, as well as some DR. In addition to those changes, many scouts received additional tuning to make them more useful, and make sub-50 variant ships more able to compete on the Open Sea. See the following list for details.
- Cerberus: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, added 1 Sail DR
- Heavy Cerberus: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, reload Bonus 3% -> 7.5%, added 5% Sail Bonus, inherits 1 Sail DR from base Cerberus.
- Mastercraft Cerberus: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, inherits 1 Sail DR from the base Cerberus
- Raa: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, added 1 Sail DR
- Heavy Raa: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, added 2 Sail DR
- Sleek Raa: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, added 2 Sail DR
- Mastercraft Raa: Broadside DR 5 -> 4, added 2 Sail DR
- Arcadia: Accel 3.15 -> 3, turning decel 9.75 -> 10, broadside DR 6 -> 5, added 2 Sail DR
- Mastercraft Arcadia: Accel 3.15 -> 3, turning decel 9.75 -> 10, broadside DR 6 -> 5, armor/structure bonus 20% -> 22.5%, mast bonus 17.5% – 20%, reload bonus 10% -> 15%, added 3 sail DR
- Capricieux: Accel 2.68 -> 2.5, turning decel 8.5 -> 9, broadside DR 6 -> 5, topdeck 12×6lb -> 14×6lb, gundeck 22×12lb -> 24×12lb, added 1 Sail DR
- Heavy Capricieux: Accel 2.68 -> 2.5, turning decel 8.5 -> 9, broadside DR 6 -> 5, topdeck 12×6lb -> 14×6lb, added 1 Sail DR
- Mastercraft Capricieux: Accel 2.68 -> 2.5, turning decel 8.5 -> 9, broadside DR 6 -> 5, battle speed 15.75 -> 15.7, reload bonus 17.5% -> 12.5%, target tracking 15 -> 14, added 2 Sail DR
- Tigre: Accel 2.8 -> 2.65, turning decel 8.50 -> 9, broadside DR 6 -> 5, added 1 sail DR
- Heavy Tigre: Accel 2.65 -> 2.5, turning decel 8.50 -> 9, broadside DR 8 -> 7, battle speed 14.5 -> 14.8, topdeck 14×6lb -> 16×9lb, reload bonus 7.5% -> 10%, added 10% sail bonus, added 1 sail DR
- Sleek Tigre: Accel 2.90 -> 2.75, turning decel 8.50 -> 9, broadside DR 6 -> 5, gundeck 24×12lb -> 26×12lb, topdeck 12×8lb -> 16×8lb, reload bonus 7.5% -> 10%, added 20% sail bonus, added 3 sail DR
- Mastercraft Tigre: Accel 2.8 -> 2.65, turning decel 8.50 -> 9, broadside DR 6 -> 5, reload bonus 10% -> 15%, added 2 accuracy bonus, added 15% sail bonus, added 2 sail DR
- Hercules: topdeck 12×8lb -> 16×8lb, target tracking 11 -> 12, broadside DR 6 -> 7, added 2 sail DR
- Heavy Hercules: Topdeck 12×9lb -> 16×9lb, inherits 2 sail DR from the base Hercules
- Sleek Hercules: Close haul angle 45 -> 40, battle speed 16 -> 15.8, accel 2.12 -> 1.21, defense 23 -> 24, topdeck 16×8lb -> 18×8lb, added 7.5% reload bonus, added 3 sail DR, inherits 7 broadside DR from base Hercules
- Pirate Hercules: Defense 27 -> 24, crew 340 -> 350, topdeck 22×8lb -> 20×8lb, structure bonus 20% -> 17.5%, target tracking 16 -> 15, inherits 2 sail DR from the base Hercules
- Mastercraft Hercules: Accel 1.66 -> 1.81, defense 26 -> 23, crew 340 -> 325, battle speed 15.7 -> 15.5, gundeck 28×22lb -> 28×20lb, accuracy bonus 4 -> 2, structure bonus 22.5% -> 20%, armor bonus 22.5% -> 20%, reload bonus 18.5% -> 15%, target tracking 16 -> 15, inherits 2 sail DR from the base Hercules.
We made tuning changes to most Warships. Defensive stats, DR specifically, got much cheaper for warships. Most Large and Huge warships have increased DR, and most ships have more narrow-side DR. In addition, most warships got some extra guns. All Large, Huge, and Colossal warships are getting a large increase in top speed. The general idea is to establish an archetype for scouts and warships more specifically, mostly in effort to offset the large maneuverability advantage Scouts have. Scouts have high accel, neutral or better turning profiles, and moderate to low top speeds. Warships have low accel, neutral or worse turning profiles, and moderate to high top speeds. Finally, there are very little changes to Colossal ships besides top speed and sail DR.
- Stralsund: Accel 1.65 -> 1.5, battle speed 14.5 -> 16.5, topdeck 8×4lb -> 10×6lb, added 2 sail DR, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus
- Stralsund Mastercraft: Accel 1.65 -> 1.5, battle speed 14.5 -> 16.5, topdeck 10×6lb -> 12×7lb, armor/structure bonus 12.5% -> 15%, added 2 sail DR
- Athena: Accel 1.2 -> 1.1, turning accel 7.32 -> 8, turning decel 9.15 -> 9, topdeck 16×8lb -> 14×7lb, gundeck 8×12lb -> 14×11lb, added 2 sail DR, added 5% sail bonus
Defiant: OS Speed 54 -> 56, battle speed 16.4 -> 17, bow/stern DR 4 -> 5, topdeck 8×7lb -> 14×7lb, target tracking 15 -> 16, added 3 sail DR
Defiant Sleek: Level req 40 -> 46, accel 1.13 -> 1.1, battle speed 17.05 -> 17.65, bow/stern DR 4 -> 5, topdeck 8×6lb -> 14×7lb, added 4 sail DR- Defiant Mastercraft: Level req 46 -> 50, crew 390 -> 405, OS speed 54 -> 56, battle speed 16.4 -> 17, topdeck 14×8lb -> 16×9lb, armor/structure bonus 25% -> 30%, sail bonus 17.5% -> 20%, reload bonus 10% -> 15%, target tracking 15 -> 15, added 3 sail DR, added 2 accuracy
- Myrmidon: Accel 1.5 -> 1.25, crew 380 -> 405, battle speed 15.2 -> 16.3, bow/stern DR 4 -> 5, topdeck 4×6lb -> 6×6lb, gundeck 26×11lb -> 28×11lb, target tracking 15 -> 16, added 3 sail DR, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus
- Myrmidon Heavy: Level req 41 -> 44, accel 1.5 -> 1.25, crew 380 -> 405, battle speed 15.2 -> 16.3, broadside DR 8 -> 9, bow/stern DR 4 -> 6, topdeck 4×6lb -> 6×6lb, gundeck 26×11lb -> 28×11lb, armor/structure Bonus 25% -> 30%, sail bonus 10% -> 15%, target tracking 15 -> 16, added 3 sail DR, added 1 accuracy
- Myrmidon Mastercraft: Level req 46 -> 50, crew 380 -> 425, accel 1.5 -> 1.25, battle speed 15.2 -> 16.3, bow/stern DR 4 -> 5, topdeck 6×7lb -> 10×7lb, target tracking 15 -> 16, added 4 sail DR, added 1 accuracy
- Oliphant: OS speed 53 -> 54, turning accel 7 -> 8, battle speed 15.3 -> 17.1, structure 1825 -> 2000, bow/stern DR 4 -> 5, upperdeck 18×8lb -> 20×8lb, swivels 4x -> 6x, target tracking 13 -> 14, added 4 sail DR
- Oliphant Heavy: OS speed 53 -> 54, turning accel 7 -> 8, battle speed 15.3 -> 17.1, structure 1825 -> 2000, broadside DR 9 -> 10, bow/stern DR 4 -> 6, upperdeck 18×8lb -> 20×8lb, swivels 4x -> 6x, target tracking 13 -> 14, added 4 sail DR, added 15% sail bonus
- Oliphant Mastercraft: OS Speed 53 -> 54, Turning Accel 7 -> 8, Battle Speed 15.3 -> 17.1, Structure 1825 -> 2000, Bow/Stern DR 4 -> 6, upperdeck 18×9lb -> 22×9lb, swivels 4x -> 6x, target tracking 13 -> 14, added 4 sail DR, added 10% mast bonus
- Minerva: Turning accel 7.32 -> 7.15, fast turning 11.7 -> 11.5, battle speed 17.25 -> 17.5, topdeck 18×6lb -> 18×7lb, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus, added 3 sail DR
- Minerva Mastercraft: Turning accel 7.32 -> 7.15, fast turning 11.7 -> 11.5, battle speed 17.25 -> 17.5, armor/structure bonus 15% -> 17.5%, added 3 sail DR
- Deliverance: OS speed 53 -> 54, fast turning 10.35 -> 10, battle speed 14.5 -> 16.9, bow/stern DR 4 -> 5, topdeck 10×9lb -> 12×9lb, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus, added 3 sail DR
- Deliverance Heavy: OS speed 53 -> 54, fast turning 10.35 -> 10, battle speed 14.5 -> 16.9, bow/stern DR 7 -> 8, topdeck 12×9lb -> 14×9lb, added 3 sail DR
- Conquistador: Accel 1.25 -> 1, battle speed 15.25 -> 16.7, added 3 sail DR
- Conquistador Sleek: Accel 1.42 -> 1.17, battle speed 16.1 -> 17.45, added 4 sail DR
- Mordaunt: Turning accel 4.5 -> 5, turning decel 8.65 -> 8.5, fast turning 6.55 -> 7, battle speed 15.3 -> 17, bow/stern DR 3 -> 5, upperdeck 20×9lb -> 22×9lb, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus, added 3 sail DR
- Mordaunt Sleek: Turning accel 4.5 -> 5, turning decel 8.65 -> 8.5, OS speed 54 -> 55, fast turning 7.3 -> 7.75, beam reach speed 0.85 -> 0.9, running speed 0.85 -> 0.925, battle speed 15.95 -> 17.65, bow/stern DR 2 -> 4, upperdeck 20×8lb -> 22×8lb, mast bonus 10% -> 12.5%, added 4 sail DR, added 5% armor/structure bonus
- Alexander: OS speed 52 -> 53, fast turning 7.12 -> 7.5, beam reach speed 0.825 -> 0.85, bow/stern DR 4 -> 6, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus, added 4 sail DR
- Poseidon: OS speed 49 -> 52, Accel .55 -> .63, turning accel 3.25 -> 4.25, turning decel 9.35 -> 8.35, stopped turning 0.7 -> 0.78, slow turning 2.1 -> 2.35, fast turning 5.5 -> 6.5, battle reach speed 16 -> 17.4, beam reach speed 0.825 -> 0.85, stern DR 3 -> 7, topdeck 8lb -> 9lb, upperdeck 11lb -> 12lb, gundeck 16lb -> 18lb, added 4 sail DR, added 5% reload bonus
- Valiant: Battle speed 16.5 -> 17.1, added 4 sail DR
- Wenden: Battle speed 16.5 -> 17.1, added 4 sail DR
- Triumphant: Battle speed 16 -> 17, added 4 sail DR
- Trinity: Battle speed 16 -> 17, added 4 sail DR
- Invincible: Battle speed 16.25 -> 16.9, added 4 sail DR
- Prince: Battle speed 16.25 -> 16.9, added 4 sail DR.
We made tuning changes to most Merchant ships. Previously, Merchants were largely overweighted for their cargo capacity and hauling ability. Merchants now get their capacity and hauling weights largely free, simply as a feature of merchants in general. This allows some specific ships to not simply be dead weight, and instead be a viable combat choice for Freetraders and Buccaneers. Merchants have different places in the warship/scout dynamic, largely dependant on their acceleration. High accel merchants will behave more like scouts (high accel, neutral or better turning profile, low top speed), low accel merchants will behave more like warships (low accel, neutral or worse turning profile, high top speed).
- Santiago: Battle speed 16.25 -> 16.9, added 3 sail DR
- Santiago Traders: Added 3 sail DR
- Sultan: Added 3 sail DR
- Mignone: Added 3 sail DR
- Mignone Stripped: Added 3 sail DR
- Mignone Mastercraft: Added 3 sail DR
- Mignone Privateer: Added 3 sail DR
- San Mateo: OS speed 51 -> 54, topdeck 20×6lb -> 22×9lb, gundeck 20×12lb -> 22×13lb, added 5% armor/structure bonus, added 5% sail bonus, added 5% reload bonus, added 2 accuracy, added 3 sail DR
- San Mateo Heavy: OS speed 51 -> 54, crew 300 -> 350, topdeck 20×6lb -> 22×11lb, gundeck 20×12lb -> 22×16lb, added 4 accuracy, added 4 sail DR
- San Mateo Traders: Topdeck 20×6lb -> 22×9lb, gundeck 20×10lb -> 22×13lb, added 25% structure bonus, added 4 sail DR
- Couronne: Turning accel 3 -> 4, crew 425 -> 500, bow/stern DR 7 -> 8, topdeck 10×7lb -> 12×10lb, middledeck 18×12lb -> 22×13lb, gundeck 20×20lb -> 22×22lb, added 4 sail DR
- Couronne Mastercraft: Turning accel 3 -> 4, battle speed 16.5 -> 17, crew 425 -> 550, bow/stern DR 7 -> 8, topdeck 14×8lb -> 14×10lb, middledeck 26×12lb -> 24×14lb, gundeck 32×20lb -> 24×24lb, added 5 sail DR
- Leviathan: Battle speed 16 -> 17.75, added 4 sail DR
Refit Ship Tuning: Refits should, more or less, fall into the correct warship/scout/merchant buckets, but they stray farther from their intended archetype on purpose.
- Falcon: Topdeck 10×6lb -> 12×7lb, gundeck 20×11lb -> 22×12lb, added 3 mast DR, added 15% reload bonus
- Gallant: Topdeck 10×7lb -> 14×7lb, added 3 mast DR
- Mercy: Topdeck 16×8lb -> 18×9lb, added 4 mast DR
- Reason: added 4 mast DR
- Macedon: Middledeck 18×11lb -> 18×12lb, added 4 Mast DR
- Arrow: Battle speed 16.85 -> 16.35, added 2 mast DR
- Discovery: Battle speed 16.6 -> 16.1, added 2 mast DR
- Intrepid: Battle speed 16 -> 15.7, added 3 mast DR
- Achilles: Battle speed 16.2 -> 16, added 3 mast DR
- Vengeance: Battle speed 16.1 -> 16, added 3 mast DR
- Reaper’s Grasp: Battle speed 16.75 -> 16, added 3 mast DR
- Neptune’s Disgrace: Accel 0.63 -> 1.05, turning accel 6.9 -> 7, added 4 mast DR
- Abaddon’s Will: Added 4 mast DR
- Cursed Blade: Added 4 mast DR
- Bahamut: Battle speed 15.7 -> 17.5, added 5 mast DR
- Hyperion: Added 4 mast DR
- Treason: Battle speed 16 -> 17, topdeck 28×7lb -> 26×7lb, middledeck 28×12lb -> 26×12lb, gundeck 28×24lb -> 26×24lb, added 4 mast DR
- Red Devil: Added 2 mast DR
- Bloody Dagger: Battle speed 16.35 -> 15.9, topdeck 14×9lb -> 16×9lb, added 3 mast DR
- Mont Blanc: Added 4 mast DR
- Monarch: Added 3 mast DR
- Khan: Battle speed 16.15 -> 15.3, added 3 mast DR
- Trinidad: Battle speed 16.1 -> 16, accuracy bonus 1 -> 2, added 3 mast DR
- Dauntless: Turning accel 4.9 -> 6, added 3 mast DR
- Archelon: Battle speed 15 -> 17, added 4 mast DR
Ship tuning based on Beta feedback:
- Lowered the acceleration of all ships by 25%. Player feedback has been pointing to the warship/scout dynamic not being quite strong enough. Players feel that the top speed isn’t the problem, but acceleration.
- Increased the sail DR of all ships that have it by 2. Ships that have no sail DR will see no change.
Curieuse Trader’s Snow: Skilled Spotters icon was missing. Fixed.
Corrected misinformation in the tooltip of the Couronne Galleon.
You can, in Preferences, turn off drawing avatars on other ships to improve your graphical performance. However, some ships look funny that way. We’ve added an override so that the captain of a barrel always shows up, for example.
You can read about Stacking Penalties here. You can also ask the Harbor Master about it. When you add outfitting to your ship, we confirm changes to your ship before saving them in case you change your mind.
You can no longer outfit your ship from your Character UI. You’ll need to talk to the Harbor Master to outfit your ship.
We disabled right-click equipping of cargo items (now use the Dockyard UI exclusively).
We now display it in the tooltip when an item is subject to stacking penalties.
Cargo capacity wasn’t getting modified as expected. Your character sheet would show the correct number but adding things to your inventory used the original value before the modifier. Fixed.
Tuned outfitting with stacking penalties in mind:
- Resilient Gun Ports: Reduced the bonus to broadside armor
- Explosive Powder & Cantonese Powder: Reduced the bonus to damage. Removed the penalty to crew defense. Added a penalty to reload rate
- Overloaded Cannons & Treacherous Cannons: Slightly reduced both the bonus to damage and penalty to crew damage resistance
- Heavy Cannon Modification & Vicious Cannon Modification: Reduced the damage bonus and added a bonus to short range damage
- Double Planked Armor: Removed the penalty to crew defense. Added a penalty to hull defense. Slightly reduced the armor bonus for the huge and colossal versions
- Runner’s Rig: Removed the penalty to crew defense and added a penalty to sail defense.
Resistance outfitting tuning based on beta feedback:
- Discordant Reinforcement 1: Reduced armor damage resistance 5% -> 4%
- Discordant Reinforcement 2: Reduced armor damage resistance 6.5% -> 5.5%
- Discordant Reinforcement 3: Reduced armor damage resistance 7.5% -> 6.5%
- Victor’s Armor 1: Removed 5% damage resistance, added 4% armor damage resistance, added 4% structure damage resistance, added 4% mast damage resistance, added 4% crew damage resistance
- Victor’s Armor 2: Removed 7% damage resistance, added 6% armor damage resistance, added 6% structure damage resistance, added 6% mast damage resistance, added 6% crew damage resistance.
Suzette’s Dissertation is now usable in combat and gives +10% DR. It is still consumable.
Ship Combat / Skills:
Naval Officer career revision:
- Career Skills:
- Career Skill: Increased damage resistance 1% -> 2%, added +1 sail DR
- Rapid Reload is now the level 10 career skill. Reduced morale cost 30 -> 20, increased max hits 10 -> 15, no longer canceled on attack
- Guardian is now the level 20 career skill. Added +1 sail DR, +15% accel
- Break Morale is now the level 30 career skill.
- Final Defense is now the level 40 career skill. Increased morale cost 5 -> 10, decreased duration 40 -> 30.
- Ultima Ratio Regum: Decreased damage 100% -> 50%, added +1 sail damage and +1 crew damage, reduced morale cost 50 -> 40, reduced reset time 1800s -> 600s
- Defense:
- Emergency Repairs: Increased sail repair amount 20% -> 27.5%, reduced duration 30s -> 25s
- Military Grade Construction: Increased mast integrity 5% -> 10%
- Desperation:
- Last Resort Maneuverability: Removed morale block, added Last Resort cooldown category, shared with Last Resort Speed
- Scatter Shot: Changed armor/structure resist to all resist, reduced to 0.5% per hit, increased first hit 4% -> 8%, decreased max hits 14 -> 8, removed speed, added turning.
- Last Resort Speed: Changed to a toggle, reduced morale cost 85 -> 20, reduced reset time 480s -> 30s, battle speed 10% -> 4%, added broad reach speed bonus, increased close haul speed 4% -> 8%, turn rate -5% -> -7.5%, reload rate -5% -> -7.5%, tracking -2 -> -4, added turning/reload/tracking debuff, added Last Resort cooldown category, shared with Last Resort Maneuverability
- Last Stand: Increased duration 30 -> 40, reduced armor/structure resistance 25% -> 20%, added 15% reload rate
- Disabling:
- Rake: Removed bow/stern facing requirement, added a bonus crew regen debuff if used when facing a targets’ bow or stern, decreased first hit bonus 5 -> 3, decreased max hits 10 > 8
- Show of Force: Changed to click debuff, applies a debuff to all enemies within 300y, -25% reload (Primary), reduced morale cost 30 -> 20, increased cooldown 120s -> 300s
- Crippling Broadside: Removed reload rate debuff, added damage debuff
- Discipline:
- Boarding Discipline is now the second skill in this tree
- Warning Shot is now the third skill in this tree, changed bonus from 2% damage/hit to 1% damage and 0.5 target tracking/hit
- For God and Country is now the fourth skill in this tree, reduced morale cost 40 -> 20, increased reload rate 5% -> 10%, added crew regen, reduced reset time 420s -> 360s
- Focused Fire is now the fifth skill in this tree, increased damage reduction -3 -> -6, reduced morale 40 -> 30
- Dominance:
- Fortress: Removed hull resist, increased defense 5 -> 8
- Defensive Ship: Added +1 sail DR
- Escort:
- Escort: Removed this skill
- Convoy: Now a passive skill
- Acceleration Increase: Reduced morale cost 50 -> 30
- Pirate Hunter is now the second skill in this tree, reduced all speed 4% -> 3%, reduced broad reach speed 4% -> 3, reduced accel 7% -> 6%
- Speed Increase is now the third skill in this line, reduced all speed 11.5% -> 8%, added broad reach speed, added beam reach speed, decreased morale cost 50 -> 30, decreased duration 300 -> 120, decreased reset time 480s -> 300s
- Added Master and Commander, the fourth skill in this line, adds +1 battle speed, passive
- Gunnery:
- Reload Discipline: Reduced morale cost 50 -> 35, increased reset time 5s -> 45s, added cooldown category Discipline, shared with Damage Discipline
- Damage Discipline: Decreased reset time 60s -> 45s, added cooldown category Discipline, shared with Reload Discipline
- Prestige:
- Military Intelligence: Reduced reset time 480s -> 180s, reduced duration 300s -> 120s, reduced morale cost 30 -> 10
- Battle Doctrine: Reduced reset timer 480s -> 300s, reduced duration 300s -> 120s, reduced morale cost 50 -> 30, increased damage 1% -> 2%, increased accel 1% -> 2%, added 1 accuracy.
- Strategic Position: Added damage buff, no longer cancels on attack.
Privateer career revision
- Career Skills:
- Added 1 mast DR. Removed battle speed bonus, beam reach speed 4% -> 8%, broad reach speed 2% -> 4%.
- Jugular is the new level 30 career skill.
- Break Formation: Duration 10s -> 5s. Fixed a bug that caused Stun Immunity to reset on each use.
- Beam Reach: Speed 8% -> 4%, added 3% battle speed
- Aggression:
- Hit and Run: Increased first hit bonus from 1 -> 3
- Morale recovery increased 10% -> 15%
- Death’s Embrace: Self debuff 3% -> 4%
- Agility:
- Tack Upwind is now the first skill in this tree.
- Expert Rigging is the second skill in this tree and is a combination of Agile Rigging and Sturdy Rigging. Decreased the bonus to mast integrity from 10% -> 5%. OS speed 4% -> 5%.
- Agile Tactician is now the third skill in this tree. Reload rate 1.5% -> 1%, damage 1.5% -> 1%.
- New fourth skill: Scrapper: Increases reload/tracking/turn rate/acceleration at close range. 350 yard range, 30 morale, 2.5 minute duration, 5 minute reset.
- New fifth skill: Hit and Spin: Attack. Increases your turn speed and maneuverability after firing. The effect improves with each shot that hits. Similar to Hit and Run but with 1.25% bonus turn rate per shot instead of ship speed. First hit is for 6% up to a max of 24% bonus turn rate.
- Battle:
- All or Nothing Shot: damage 40% -> 30%, reload Penalty 15% -> 10%
- Increased Damage: Damage 5% -> 7.5%
- Surprise Attack: damage 25% -> 20%
- Deception:
- Evade Aggression: Skill removed.
- Stealth is now the first skill in this tree.
- Surprise Below Decks is now the 3rd rank skill in this tree.
- Second Wind is now the 4th skill in this tree. Removed additional boarding wave. Crew recovery 40% -> 20%.
- Hired Crew: Maximum crew bonus increased 15% -> 20%. Crew recovery bonus increased 15% -> 20%. Added 5% crew protection.
- Disabling:
- Entangling Shot: Sail resistance -15% -> -10%.
- Flexibility:
- Battle Preparations: Offense is now the third skill in this tree. Self resists removed and 10% self reload added.
- Rapid Reload is now the fourth skill in this tree.
- Maneuver is now the fifth skill in this tree. Duration is now 40 seconds instead of a toggle. 5 minute reset timer. Morale cost increased 20 -> 30 Bonus turn rate increased 15% -> 40%. Defense bonus removed.
- Survival:
- Evasion is now the 4th skill in this tree. Duration increased 15 seconds -> 20 seconds. Reset timer increased 1.5 minutes -> 3 minutes.
- Rebuilt Ship is now the 5th skill in this tree.
- Improvise Sails: Mast repair 37.5% -> 35%, sail resistance 20% -> 10%, added 4 mast DR.
- Unpredictability:
- Sail Defense: Mast damage resistance decreased from 35% -> 25%.
- Increased the debuff of all Unpredictability skills by 1%.
Freetrader Career Revision:
- Career Skills:
- All 5 existing Career skills have been removed, and replaced.
- Career Skill: Damage resistance 4% -> 3%
- New level 10 career skill: Expert Repairs. 30% armor/sail repair, 15% structure repair.
- New level 20 career skill: Economic Specialist: Passive skill, allows use of advanced recipes and global auction house.
- New level 30 career skill: Reinforce Ally: Remote repair and buff an allied ship.
- New level 40 career skill: Expensive Ship: Passive skill, buffs armor/structure/sails and cargo capacity.
- New level 50 career skill: Mercenaries: Click Buff, large boost to most stats with a debuff when the buff wears off.
- Desperation:
- Underdog: Reduced cooldown 600s -> 480s, battle speed 7.5% -> 3%, added 3% running speed
- Dump Guns: Increased cooldown 75s -> 300s, added an effect that blocks single or combined gun repairs for 300s
- Desperation Fire: Damage increased 40% -> 50%
- Logistics:
- Removed entire tree, rolled skills into career and other trees.
- Disabling:
- New skill tree, borrowed from Buccaneer.
- Disorienting Shot: Attack debuff (primary) reduces targets accel and turning, duration 40s -> 60s, turn rate -1.5% -> -1.75%.
- Cut Shroud: Attack debuff (secondary), reduces target speed, requires dismantling shot, morale 35 -> 20, speed -1.5% -> -2%.
- Shred Sails: Attack, +25% damage, requires dismantling shot, reset time 240s -> 180s, morale 35 -> 20, damage 25% -> 35%.
- Shred Armor: Attack, ignores target DR, morale 40 -> 30, added 20% damage.
- Disrupt Formation: Attack debuff (primary), reduces target accuracy and target tracking. Morale 40 -> 30, first hit 2 -> 4, max hits 10 -> 8, added 10 accuracy and 10% damage.
- Escape:
- Repel Grapples: Removed defense, increased duration 75s -> 90s
- Defense: Removed all resist, added turn rate, crew recovery
- Deter Pursuit: This skill is now the 3rd skill in this tree, speed debuff increased -45% -> -50%.
- Evasion: Morale cost reduced 30 -> 20
- Determination: This skill is now the 5th skill in this tree, added crew recovery and morale recovery.
- Provisions:
- Removed cooldown categories, reduced durations, reduced morale costs and made them behave exactly like Buccaneer Command skills.
- Extra Rations: Removed accuracy and damage, added max morale and morale recovery
- Ship Mastery:
- Hold Together: Removed this skill
- Identify Weakness: Removed this skill
- Reinforcement: Removed this skill
- Debilitating Broadside: This is now the first skill in this tree, removed speed debuff
- Plug Leaks: New skill, long duration armor repair, combined with offensive and defensive buffs
- Overloaded Shot: This is now the third skill in this tree, damage increased 40% -> 50%
- Rebuild Rig: New skill, long duration sail repair, combined with maneuverability and sail defense buffs
- High Grade Armament: New skill, passive skill, provides damage/accuracy/max cannon range.
- Smuggling:
- Running Dark: Removed this skill
- Ranging Shot: Buff is no longer removed on next attack, increased first hit bonus, reduced max hits
- Smuggled Cargo: Added stealth, OS speed
- Skilled Negotiator: Moved skill from old Logistics tree, is now the 4th skill in this tree
- Misdirection is now the 5th skill in this tree
- Trade:
- Rescue Me: Removed this skill
- Inspiration: New skill, group buff, adds armor/structure resist and accel
- Optimal Rigging: This is now the 3rd skill in this tree
- Before the Wind: This is now the 4th skill in this tree, speed increased 9% -> 10%, broad reach/running speed 10% -> 5%, added 3% battle speed.
- Sailhandling Drills: OS speed removed, added all broad reach and all running speed
- Travel:
- Battle Preparations: Speed: Removed this skill
- Battle Preparations: Offense: This is now the 4th skill in this tree
- Distraction: New skill, click debuff, reduces damage, morale, morale recovery of all targets within 300y.
Cutthroat Career Revision
- Career:
- Career Skill: Added +50% open sea attack range.
- Brutality:
- Target Weakness: Reduced duration from 300 -> 120 seconds and reduced reset timer from 480 -> 180 seconds.
- Plague Ship: Reduced morale cost from 60 -> 40, duration 30 ->20 seconds and crew damage from 30% to 20%.
- Destruction:
- Vaporing: Reduced morale cost from 60 -> 40, decreased turn rate/acceleration/reload rate debuff from 40% to 30%.
- Disaster:
- Dump Guns now blocks using any single or combined gun repair for 5 minutes.
- Deter Pursuit: Duration increased from 30 -> 40 seconds.
- Flogging:
- Wolf Pack: Hunters reduced reset timer to 5 minutes.
- Gunnery:
- Rake can now be used on any armor facing and do additional crew damage. If this attack hits the target’s bow or stern, the target gains the Raked Crew effect and becomes immune to additional crew debuffs for 5 minutes.
- Raked Crew is an effect that reduces crew regeneration rate by 25% for 30 seconds.
- Smuggling:
- Devil Take The Hindmost is now the 2nd skill in this tree.
- Before The Wind is now the 3rd skill in this tree, broad reach/running speed 8% -> 4%, added 4% battle speed
- Stealth is now the 4th rank skill in this tree.
- Survival:
- Hit And Run: Increased first hit bonus from 1 -> 3.
- Additional Changes/fixes:
- Fixed the NO Rake Bonus effect (now lasts 30 seconds when applied by Rake instead of 1800 seconds.)
- Fixed the NO Rake skill (now properly applies the Rake Bonus effect when the target’s bow and stern are hit.)
- Added text for the NO and CT Rake Bonus effects.
- Updated tooltips for the CT skills and NO skill Rake where applicable.
Buccaneer Career Revision
Career Skills:
- Career skill: Armor/structure/crew resist -> 3% resist all, battle speed 4% -> 3%, added 3% damage
- Dark as Night: Removed battle speed bonus, added 6% all running speed, 6% all broad reach speed
- Wolf Pack: Removed speed bonus, added +1 accuracy
- Master of Pursuit: Sail damage 10% -> 15%
- Heated Shot: Reset timer 600s -> 480s, effect duration 60s -> 120s
Command:
- Reset timers 8m -> 6m, skill durations 4m -> 3m
- Battle: Reload 4% -> 3%, damage 4% -> 3%
- Speed: Accel 15% -> 10%
- Will to Survive: Removed this skill
- Reinforce Ally: Added new skill, the 5th skill in this tree. Targeted short duration ally repair.
Disabling:
- Disorienting Shot: Duration 40s -> 60s
- Cut Shroud: Morale cost 35 -> 20
- Shred Sails: Reset time 240s -> 180s, morale cost 35 -> 20, damage 25% -> 35%
- Shred Armor: Morale cost 40 -> 30, added 20% damage
- Disrupt Formation: First hit bonus 2 -> 4, max hits 9 -> 8, added 10 accuracy, 10% damage
Gambler:
- Scrapper: Battle Speed 10% -> 4%, added broad reach/running speed 4%.
Prowler:
- Inspiration: Reset timer 8m -> 6m, effect duration 240s -> 180s, armor/structure resist 4% -> 3%
- Deadly Force: Effect duration 40s -> 45s
- Battle Logistics: Removed armor/structure resist, added 5% mast integrity, structure integrity 2% -> 5%, reload rate 4% -> 5%
Smuggling:
- Tack Upwind: Upwind/luffing/close haul 7% -> 8%
- Smuggled Cargo: Surrendered cargo mult 60% -> 75%, added 5% and -21 stealth
- Hidden Treasure: Added 25% NPC gold mult
Skirmish:
- First Blow: Reset timer 120s -> 60s, armor integrity req 92.5% -> 90%
- Weapons Handling: Cannon range mult 2% -> 3%
- Shatter Armor: Reset timer 300s ->180s, morale cost 50 -> 40, damage 45% -> 50%
- Jugular: Damage reduction -.015 -> -.02, reload rate .75% -> 1%
Survival:
- Rebuild: Armor repair 25% -> 27.5%
- Defense: All resist 5% -> 3%
- Repair Under Fire: Reset timer 1080s -> 900s
- Survival Instincts: Added 4 sail DR
Tough Crew:
- Bosons Starter: removed this skill
- Fighting Spirit is now the first skill in this tree
- Second Wind: Added this skill, the second skill in this tree. Passive, adds +1 boarding crew level and 25% crew regen.
- Exploit Weakness: Crew damage 10% -> 15%
- Bloody Minds: Crew resist 40% -> 45%, defense 2 -> 3.
Boarders: The requirement that ship speed must be lower than 8 was showing up twice. One was for you and the other for your enemy. We clarified the one for your enemy so it doesn’t look like the same requirement duplicated.
Tuned NPC ship combat. NPC ships now use skills appropriate to their career in all cases, and may favor different strategies based on their personality. Generally, they will be focused on attacking (damaging skills), escorting (buffing themselves and their allies), and disabling (debuffing their enemies). This will increase the challenge and variety of NPC ship battles.
Corrected the tooltip for Commendation awards. It’s not just for the Navy anymore!
Swashbuckling:
Increased player offense so you hit more often (because missing a lot is not FunTM). Increased player health also. In this way, fights should last about the same amount of time. As an example, a level 50 player now has about an 80% chance to hit (vs. about 67% previously) and has about 650 combined health (vs. about 550). Let us know how this feels.
Auto-face target is now a Preference you can set. If you set this while you have someone targeted, you’ll need to un-target then re-target them in order to auto-face them. Best to set this before you go into battle.
We’ve created a new Brawling school. See the Brawling Trainer for details. We took Brawling away from the other schools and you’ll have to respec as a result.
The Brawling Trainer requires players to be level 25 before learning to Brawl. This school is difficult to master and is best for group play. As such, we’d like players to have a reasonable grasp of AvCom before spec’ing this school.
Missions that give weapons as a reward now also offer Brawling weapons. In the case of Career mission rewards, we have added an Exchange Shop to the career mentors in the career clubhouses in capitals.
AvCom Tuning based on beta feedback:
Reduced the reset timer of all defense toggles 30s -> 15s.
Removed all traces of forced combos with targetRequirements. We now rely only on reset timers and implied combos (if target has X, do Y) to encourage skill progression. It was too difficult to hit-check multiple enemies to see if you could use your next skill, and the client detection made it impossible to make the skills dim/light up when appropriate.
First Aid/Surgeon:
- Increased First Aid 1-5 from 25/50/75/100/125 to 50/75/125/150/200. First aid now overwrites Surgeon effects.
- Increased Surgeon 1-3 from 25/50/75 to 50/75/125. Surgeon is now overwritten by First Aid effects.
- Combat Medicine: Increased 25 -> 50, now removes bleeds. Fixed a bug that caused this skill to be interrupted when you move.
Florentine tuning:
- Offense:
- Florentine players do no lose initiative when they dodge.
- Adrenaline stacks with Flowing Attacks.
- Mark has a 6s reset timer, and applies Marked for 15s. Mark does 20% damage.
- Momentum has a 60s reset timer, and gives +2/s initiative regen, with a burst of +4/s for 6s.
- Precise Strike costs 10 initiative, has a 6s reset timer, does +60% damage, and no longer removes Marked.
- Group Momentum costs 0 initiative, and has a 60s reset timer.
- Rending Strike requires the target to be Marked, and does +40% damage.
- Dual Fangs costs 30 initiative, requires the target to be Shaken and Weakened, does 20 damage for each effect, applies Marked for 15s, and does +40% damage.
- Rising Strike costs 50 initiative, and does +80% damage.
- Defense:
- Reversal now also does 20 damage if the target has Battle Cry.
- Replaced Hamstring with Disarm. Disarm does +40% damage, and puts Disabled on the target. Disabled is a stacking debuff: -5% offense, -5% damage. Disabled stacks up to three times.
- Regain Footing costs 10 initiative, can now be used even when you’re not off-balance, and will provide temporary immunity to off-balance
- Second Wind heals 20% of your health, and 40% of your guard.
- Corps-a-Corps does +60% damage and can only be used on Disabled targets.
- Fluid Defense costs 30 initiative.
- Untouchable is a toggle with a 20 max initiative cost. It gives +20% damage resistance, +20% dodge, and +20% parry.
- Control:
- Staggered does -1/s initiative regen, -1/s guard regen, and -25% movement speed.
- Coup de Grace no longer removes Staggered.
- Flashing Blades costs 10 initiative.
- Group Resolve costs 10 initiative, can now be used even when you’re not Weakened, and will provide temporary immunity to Weakened, and has a 30s cooldown.
- Spinning Slice applies Disabled and costs 20 initiative.
- Cyclone is only usable on a Disabled or Staggered target, costs 30 initiative, and has a 6s cooldown.
- Black Powder:
- Increased the ranged cooldown to 15s.
- Point-Blank Shot does +40% damage.
- Aim costs 10 initiative, gives +20 ranged accuracy, with a burst of +40.
- Cross Shot no longer applies Staggered.
- Gut Shot for some reason didn’t do it’s +40% damage, now it does.
- Grenade is now on the Ranged cooldown.
- Headshot now does +80% damage, and two random effects.
- Rapid Shot costs 30 initiative, and resets the Ranged cooldown.
Dirty Fighting Tuning
- Control:
- Sudden Strike has a 90 degree arc.
- Eviscerate applies Bleeding even if the target isn’t stunned, and a larger Bleed if the target is stunned.
- Flash Powder costs 10 initiative.
- Cleave applies Bleeding (2/s, 15s) and costs 20 initiative.
- Firm Grip should now provide immunity to Shaken.
- Maelstrom has a 180 degree arc.
- Bladestorm: Deep wounds 1/s 15s -> 2/s 15s
- Defense:
- Fortitude increases guard by 15%, and guard regen by 2/s.
- Switched Crush the Weak and Brutal Strike, CtW comes first.
- Brutal Strike applies Shaken, and has a 6s reset timer.
- Crush the Weak is only usable on Shaken targets. It does 30 damage, adds a large amount of hate, and has a 6s reset timer.
- Resolve should now provide immunity to Weakened.
- Tough It Out heals 120 health over 6s.
- Steady Strike now applies Focus (8s), a stacking buff. Focus gives +2% offense, +2% damage resistance, and stacks up to 5 times. This attack has a 6s cooldown.
- Perfect Dodge gives +50% dodge, and +5/s guard regen for 10s.
- Unbreakable is now a toggle, and costs 20 max initiative. It gives +20% damage resistance, +20% dodge, and +20% parry.
- Offense:
- Intensity costs 10 initiative.
- Stance: Berserk costs 10 max initiative.
- Group Intensity costs 20 initiative.
- Seize Opening only works on Off-Balance targets, and has a 6s cooldown.
- Twist the Blade only works on Bleeding targets, and has a 6s cooldown. It applies gushing, a stacking bleed, and does +40% damage.
- Overwhelm costs 50 initiative, and does +80% damage.
Fencing Tuning
- Control:
- Redoublement only works on Blinded targets.
- Appel costs 10 initiative.
- Heart Thrust has a 270 degree arc, does +20% damage, and costs 20 initiative.
- Group Regain Footing should now provide immunity to Off-Balance.
- Slash costs 20 initiative.
- Lightning Thrusts now applies Devastate if the target has Blinded and Heart Thrust. Devastate reduces the target’s maximum guard regen by 15%. This skill costs 30 initiative, and does +40% damage.
- Defense:
- Switched Moulinet and Stop Thrust.
- Moulinet applies Weakened.
- Stop Thrust can only be used on Weakened targets, adds additional hate, and 15 damage.
- En Guard should now provide immunity from Shaken.
- Recover Guard now recovers 120 guard over 10s
- Ballestra Lunge can only be used on Weakened targets, and does +30% damage.
- Wall of Steel is now a toggle, costs 20 max initiative, grants +30% damage resistance, and +30% parry.
- Offense:
- Gash costs 20 initiative, does +20% damage, and has a 6s reset time.
- Precision costs 10 initiative.
- Stance: Offensive is now a toggle, and costs 10 max initiative.
- Group Precision costs 20 initiative.
- Lunge is only usable on Bleeding targets, costs 30 initiative, and does 40% damage. Removed Broken Defense, added Marked.
- Bladework costs 30 initiative, does 40% damage and adds Broken Defense.
- Trompement costs 50 initiative, and does +80% damage.
Fixed a bug where using a grenade on someone with stun immunity gave them the blood slash effect.
We’ve added exchange shops for the level 50 career reward weapons. Since we forced you to respec, you may no longer need the weapon you had and can now exchange it for one appropriate to your current combat school.
We’ve tweaked the way we decide who to send you when you call a wave in Boarding combat. In this way, you should be less likely to receive all pistoliers in a wave (which is almost never what you’d want); your more likely to get a better balanced variety of allies. It’s kinda subtle – you may not notice.
Tuned NPC avatar combat. While we were adding new NPC swashbuckling archetypes for Brawling (such as Boxers), we updated and improved archetypes for other schools also.
Defenders: No longer use preparatory attacks (they actually do damage now!)
Damager Flurry: Added a new mechanic, Flurry – for every successful attack, the damager reduces their global cooldown by 1 second. If they are dodged or parried they lose this buff. The buff caps at 3 stacks. They have -5% damage and +25% offense.
Grunts and buffs: In general, activating a buff for grunts will not trigger a global cooldown, but will take them the execution time of the skill. This will slow down their next attack by a second, but not 5 seconds. As a general rule, grunts should at least use a strike every 5 seconds now.
Navy:
- Supporter Commanding: The Bravery skill lasts 8s and no longer triggers a global cooldown.
- Musketeer: The firing squad skill no longer triggers a global cooldown. The volley fire skill was not modified, but now that they have the global cooldown to use it, musketeers in groups will actually volley fire. (Volley fire is a 50% bonus damage shot that can be used every other attack.)
General: This faction represents the Privateer boarding crew, and was previously very uninteresting. We’ve changed them around to use primarily the Weakened and Shaken debuffs as their survivability mechanic, and they have gained a new archetype (Boxer) that makes them the only faction with a grunt that can apply bruised. Because they do not have a combo attack chain, but are generally debuffing to augment their low survivability, the feel of this faction is fairly fast and loose.
- Supporter Harrying: Has a new skill, Warning Shout. Buffs all nearby allies dodge by 20% (5s). Also has an attack that applies Shaken (8s).
- Defender Distracting: The only truly defensive archetype in the faction, applies the impaired effect (5s) which is the factions only snare.
- Brawler Boxing: Uses the standard brawler boxing chain to bruise twice, and then finish for bonus damage and apply blind. Deals +15% damage on the second strike and +30% damage on the third.
- Pistolier: Applies the Shaken debuff (8s). They lack other debuffing shots, but have a damage shot that deals normal grunt damage. If engaged at close range will strike with both weapons and apply a bleed for 10 damage over 5 seconds.
- Brute Tough-Nasty: Now applies the Weakened Effect (8s).
Trade: This faction represents the Freetrader boarding crew, and was also very uninteresting. Their primary debuffs are now Marked and Staggered, though they have a broader than average debuff spectrum and suffer a bit on damage output to compensate. There is a damage combo chain between the support archetypes and the Damager Opportunistic with the mark debuff which gives the faction some inter dependence.
- Supporter Harrying: Has a new skill, Double Bluff – debuffs all nearby enemies damage by 20% (6s). This has a downside of buffing their dodge and parry by 10% each. Also has an attack that applies Marked (8s).
- Defender Distracting: Applies the impaired effect (5s). Uses a strike which stacks the Disabled Effect. Because this attack only comes every 10 seconds however, it is unlikely that a single grunt will stack it to 3.
- Damager Opportunistic: Has a +30% finisher gated on the Marked debuff, applies a 10 damage bleed over 5 seconds. When reduced below 35% health, uses the self-preservation skill. Dodges incoming attacks and recovers 30 guard over 6 seconds, but reduces damage done by 20%.
- Brawler Acrobatic: Standard Acrobat, applies staggered in a 90 degree arc. Does +30% damage on their single target strike.
- Pistolier: Applies the Marked debuff (8s). Also applies the Staggered debuff (8s).
Smuggler: This faction will hopefully represent the Buccaneer boarding crew. Their primary debuffs are now Shaken and Off Balance; their new brawler also applies Blind in a wide arc. They have two combo chains based on Off Balance with the Supporter and Pistolier supplying the debuff and the Damager and Brute finishing on said debuff. This makes smugglers a fairly offensive faction, though their defender interrupting provides a bit of mitigation to their mix.
- Supporter Harrying: Has an attack that applies Off Balance (8s).
- Defender Interrupting: Does the usual initiative drain. Also has a new skill, Flashing Blades – gains 50% parry for 4 seconds.
- Damager Opportunistic: Has a +50% damage finisher gated on the Off Balance debuff.
- Brawler Drunk: Has the modified Throw Sand skill which applies Blind (8s) to enemies within 8 yards.
- Pistolier: Applies the Off Balance debuff (8s). Also applies the Shaken debuff (8s).
- Brute Tough-Nasty: Has a finisher gated on the Off Balance debuff that applies a 20 (10 for lowbies) damage bleed over 5 seconds.
Sword of David (rare drop from the Dread Saints missions): Decreased dodge/parry penalty from 20 to 15, removed the passive damage bonus, added 50% chance of getting “Courage of David” on hit (+20% damage, 10s duration, 30s reset).
Supple Boots cost twice what they should. Fixed.
Fixed a bug that prevented Kidd’s Favor from being used in combat.
Mad Maginn’s Mezcal: Didn’t do what the tooltip said. Now the tooltip says what it really does (buffs initiative regen and melee accuracy).
Missions:
- For some factions, it was impossible to reach the highest reputation; for others, Celebrated reputation required an extensive and unintended grind. To address this issue, we have created daily missions for the Royal Society, the Acadie Nationale, the Spanish Inquisition, the Knights Templar, the Dutch West India Company, the British East India Company, the French Mississippi Company, and the Spanish House of Trade. Furthermore, we have added two high-level storylines, one for the Acadie Nationale and one for the Royal Society, to help players who have reached “Esteemed” with those factions make their way to Celebrated.
- We have added 4 new factions, dubbed the ‘Pirate Hunters’. These are the bureaucratic Board of Marque (England), the foppish Salon d’Aventure (France), the stalwart Corsarios del Rey (Spain) , and the brutal Men of War (Pirate). Each of these factions has storylines of their own, located throughout the Caribbean. Additionally, players may gain reputation with any Pirate Hunter faction by doing bounty missions for that nation’s Pirate Hunter. Missions for the Board of Marque are now available in Belize. Missions for the Salon d’Aventure are now available in Grenville. Missions for the Corsarios del Rey are now available in Villa Hermosa. Missions for the Men of War are now available in Cat Island. Missions for the Board of Marque are available in Georgetown, Belize, and Port Royal. Missions for the Salon d’Aventure are available in Grenville, Biloxi and Pointe-Pitre. Missions for the Corsarios del Rey are available in Villa Hermosa, Maracaibo and San Juan. Missions for the Men of War are now available in Cat Island, Golden Lake and Tortuga.
- Pirate Hunter bounty missions no longer require you to kill rare individuals. Instead, those rare pirates will drop items that you can take back to the Pirate Hunter for extra rewards.
- We’ve created faction shops where you can acquire rewards for reaching Trusted, Esteemed, and Celebrated with reputable factions.
- With all of the changes we’ve made to Avatar Combat and Ship Combat, existing characters may be feeling buyer’s remorse over their choice of mission rewards, particularly in career missions. Thanks to some excellent Beta Forum feedback, we’ve taken steps to remedy that issue by including exchange shops on the career mentors in each capitol city. You may trade old outfitting rewards for any of the rewards that were offered at the completion of that particular career mission.
- The Broadsheet Peddler had become inundated with headlines. He has been improved with filters, so now you may ask to see Headlines, Daily Extras, and Special Bulletins separately. You can also choose whether or not to filter by level, so if you’ve leveled past a mission arc, now you can still find it.
- Spanish Tutorial: The ship room was all bright and sunny but it was dusk in the fort room. Now they match better.
- Boarding Tutorial: The fort was floating. Forts shouldn’t float in midair. Fixed.
- Consolation Prize: Your ally was too weak and made the mission harder than it should have been. Fixed.
- Delivery Pains (and other missions that we call “overrun” missions): It used to be that shipNPCs stopped moving when there were no players in the room. Now, they’ll keep coming and potentially even send landing parties into the fort.
- Black Heart, Black Powder: Corrected a graphical issue with the fort.
- Bey’s Retreat: Corbaji’s treasure chest could be clicked on repeatedly and it wasn’t obvious you had already received loot the first time. Fixed.
- Guards and Wards: Added icons to make it easier to tell which is the red, gold, or green beach.
- High Camp: Sometimes you arrived with your face in a pulley. Fixed.
- Of Necessity: Rodolph Sicot was suffering some gender confusion. Corrected.
- Why Make What You Can Take: Dominga De La Garza wasn’t fighting. Now she does.
- Honest Wages: You should now start facing your enemy instead of having your back to them.
- Chain of Command: There were no lamps on the table and yet an argument ensued about how many lamps there were. Fixed. Now they’re arguing about how many candles are on the table.
- Escape from the Island of the Monkeys: Delilah Purcell was harder to find than she should have been. We’ve clarified the Destination text.
- Stitch in Time and My Hero: We’ve added info on where to find Alvin Humphreys to the Destination text.
- A Fort Too Far: Grounded the fort. Forts should not hover in the air.
- Standing Stone: Zoe Franche was harder to find than she should have been. Now it’s easier to figure out where to go to turn the mission in.
- Burdens of Command: The Corsarios del Rey have established their headquarters where this mission used to take place so this mission has been moved to a different door in San Juan.
- Can You Dig It?: We added a shovel brawling weapon. If you’d completed that mission already and received the shovels appropriate for the other schools, you would miss out on this one so we added a rule to give you this one on login if appropriate.
- Pit Fight: Tweaked the enemies a bit.
- We had a number of missions where you still had to sail to the escape point (or worse, convince NPCs to do so) even after you’d killed every enemy. When there are no enemies, that sailing to the escape point bit is pretty darn boring. Now, we declare you Winnar! if all enemies have been defeated.
- A number of missions just said “A Mission” below the compass or the location shown would be too long and not fit in the space provided. We’ve fixed several of these, although some remain.
- We had a few daily missions that required gathering more stuff than you could carry in one go and the HUD would get spammed with your progress. Also, the way we were tracking and counting was causing lag. Fixed.
- There was a bug whereby you could get multiple groups into the same mission. Fixed. We now save which group “owns” a mission instance. Anyone leaving that group will be kicked from the zone after a notification and a 30-second delay. If the owning group is disbanded, everyone will be kicked, unless a new group is formed. The first group formed will become the new owning group.
- Many faction reputation values were out-of-date, unintuitive, or incorrect. These have been modified to be appropriate to the current state of the game.
- National characters had Men of War reputation at -750 (-2600 for Navy) at character creation. This has been changed to 0 for all national characters, and existing characters have had their values adjusted appropriately.
- Knights of Christ and Iron Maidens have been removed from the character sheet. Players with Knights of Christ reputation will be awarded Knights Templar reputation based on their progress in the Knights of Christ arc.
- The missions in the Knights Templar arc starting with “Taking Chances” and ending with “Planting the Seed” have had their reputation rewards reduced to compensate for the increased reputation from Knights of Christ missions. Players who have completed these missions have their reputation with the Knights Templar modified to match the current value.
- The missions in the Acadie Nationale arc starting with “Misfits of Science” and ending with “The Excursus Strikes Back” have had their reputation rewards increased. Players who have completed these missions have their reputation with the Acadie Nationale modified to match the current value.
- Sinking any nation’s Navy ships (including the Brethren of the Coast) on the Open Sea will now award an amount of reputation with your Navy or Brethren of the Coast faction equal to the amount awarded sinking any other Navy or Brethren ship.
- Sinking any nation’s pirate hunter ships (Board of Marque, Salon d’Aventure, Men of War, Corsarios del Rey) on the Open Sea will now award an amount of reputation with your nations’s pirate hunter faction equal to the amount awarded sinking any other pirate hunter ship.
- Sinking any nation’s Trade Union ships on the Open Sea will now award an equal amount of reputation with all other nation’s Trade Unions.
- Sinking any European Trade Company ships on the Open Sea will now award an equal amount of reputation with all other European Trade Companies.
- Sinking De Zeetrekkers ships on the Open Sea will now award a very small amount of reputation with all European Trade Companies.
- Sinking Varyags ships on the Open Sea will now award reputation with the Dutch West India Company, the Brethren of the Coast, the Smuggler’s Union, and the Men of War.
- Sinking Merry Men ships on the Open Sea no longer awards Brethren of the Coast reputation, but does award British East India Company reputation.
- The British Navy and the Board of Marque respect captains who sink Merry Men, Lost Ironsides, Dead Redcoats, and Drakesmen ships on the Open Sea.
- The Spanish Navy and the Corsarios del Rey respect captains who sink Hijos Verdaderos, Corsairs of the Main, Sons of Cortez and Los Ladrones ships on the Open Sea.
- The French Navy and the Salon d’Aventure respect captains who sink Confrerie Libre, Samediens, Swampcats, and Bloody Arms ships on the Open Sea.
- The Brethren of the Coast and the Men of War respect captains who sink Varyags, Mithridati, Sharktooth Raiders, and Bloody Arms ships on the Open Sea.
Economy:
Removed the Recipes for the Invincible, Prince, Trinity, and Triumphant. These First and Second rate ships of the line can no longer be produced.
Removed the Recipes for all Courier variant ships. This includes the Cerberus Courier, the Capricieux Courier, and the Raa Courier.
Unless you own an uncertified deed, you won’t see the writ exchanges for 1st and 2nd rates.
Added recipes for the two new ships, the Mastercraft Deliverance, and the Mastercraft Conquistador. They can be found in a new book, available for 25 MoT, or via loot.
Global Labor Mult increased from 0.5 -> 1.
Advanced Huge Cannon Construction was supposed to require the Manufacturing skill but didn’t. Fixed.
Several structure deed recipes had the wrong icon. Fixed.
Fixed the recipe icons for Admirals, both First Rate and Well Made.
Loot Exchange Shops: In response to a suggestion in the Beta forums, we’ve removed the Collection missions on the Junk Buyer and replaced them with a series of shops. There is now a starting region shop, a mid-level region shop, a Hispanola shop, a Cuba shop, a North Lesser Antilles shop and a South Lesser Antilles shop. These will be on every junk buyer in that region and will contain the exchanges best suited to the loot items you’ll collect in that area. Furthermore, the rarity of the loot items have been tuned and their values have been adjusted. Lower level loot is now worth more doubloons to the Junk Buyer, and the higher level loot has more consistent pricing (topping out at 1800 dbs for the rarest items, the same as before).
Faction shops: All these personas have an exchange shop that lets you purchase items from that persona’s faction, provided you have the reputation required. There are three levels – trusted, esteemed, and celebrated. Trusted gets you a title. Esteemed gets you a sail pattern and avatar customization piece. Celebrated gets you a piece of avatar outfitting and a piece of general ship outfitting.
- Men of War
- Brethren Liaison in Cat Island
- Noah Alawiye in Golden Lake
- William Kidd in Tortuga (Crime Lord’s Office)
- Salon d’Aventure
- Gustave Fleuret in Grenville
- Pirate Hunter in Biloxi
- Philippe Deleau in Pointe-Pitre
- Board of Marque
- Jebediah Crimble in Georgetown
- Robert Bannings in Belize (Tavern)
- Edward Randolph in Port Royal (Board of Marque HQ)
- Brethren
- William Kidd in Tortuga (Crime Lord’s Office)
- Smuggler
- Smuggling Ringleader in Tortuga (Black Market)
- Dutch West India Company
- West India Company Auditor in Oranjestad
- Corsarios Del Rey
- Pirate Hunter in Villa Hermosa
- Zara Dominguez in Maracaibo
- Felix Cahera in San Juan (Corsarios HQ)
- Spanish Navy
- Octavio Osorio in San Juan (Admiralty)
- British Navy
- Samuel Howard in Port Royal (Admiralty)
- French Navy
- Adrien Darcy in Pointe-Pitre (Admiralty)
- French Trade
- French Trade Representative in Pointe-Pitre (Company Office)
- Mississippi Company
- Mississippi Trade Company Auditor in Pointe-Pitre (Company Office)
- Margery Kelley in Leogane
- Spanish Trade
- Spanish Trade Representative in San Juan (Company Office)
- House of Trade
- House of Trade Auditor in San Juan (Company Office)
- Carmela el Moro in Havana (Company Office)
- British Trade
- British Trade Representative in Port Royal (Company Office)
- East India Company
- East India Company Auditor in Port Royal (Company Office)
- Victor Pepper in St. Johns
- Knights Templar
- Brother Ohan in Santiago
- Spanish Inquisition
- Brother Mandez in Santiago
Raw Materials:
- Oak Harvest 1hr -> 2hrs
- Fir Harvest 1hr -> 2hrs
- Iron Mining 1hr -> 2hrs
- Copper Mining 1hr -> 2hrs
- Zinc Mining 1hr -> 4hrs
- Gold Mining 4hrs -> 8hrs
- Lignum Vitae Harvest 1hr -> 4hrs
Shipwright Materials:
- Lineship Structure Bundle 18hrs -> 72hrs
Ships:
- Mastercraft Deliverance: 4 durability -> 3 durability, added correct insurance value
- Mastercraft Conquistador: added correct insurance value
- Couronne: 6 LSB -> 4 LSB, corrected insurance value
- Mastercraft Couronne: 8 LSB -> 4 LSB, click cost 3.6mil -> 1mil, corrected insurance value
- Mastercraft Hercules: 6 LSB -> 3 LSB, corrected insurance value.
PvP / Port Contention:
- If you accepted a Port Battle invitation while in Boarding combat, wonky things happened. Fixed.
- Fixed an exploit in Boarding combat.
Open Sea:
- To balance out which factions spawn at which levels in the Antilles, we have moved some of the traditional stomping grounds of the Varyags, Merrymen, Hijos and Confrerie. Part of this means that there will be pirate gangs crossing the entire Antilles to attack a capital or town. There will be some outliers in the level ranges, but they should be sailing away from where they don’t belong.
- Low level Merrymen and Hijos are haunting the waters around Cuba and Port Royal. (30-40, with the occasional 50)
- Low level Varyags and the Confrerie Libre are now patrolling around Hispanola and Tortuga. (30-40, with the occasional 50)
- Hijos and Varyags are now infesting the waters around the northern Lesser Antilles and San Juan. (40-50)
- The Confrerie and Merrymen are lurking in the southern Lesser Antilles and Pointe-a-Pitre. (40-50)
- Removed the hidden Dread Saints from other pirate gang groups (so they don’t interfere with the bounties).
- Reduced the likelihood of Dread Saints spawning on the Open Sea by 75%. They will favor waters near San Juan and Tortuga, and sinking them will provide reputation with the Knights Templar and Spanish Inquisition.
- Added spawns of Fairfax Excursus gangs to the Open Sea, spawning as often as the newly adjusted Dread Saints. They will favor waters near Port Royal and Pointe-Pitre, and sinking them will provide reputation with the Royal Society and Acadie Nationale.
- De Zeetrekkers, a gang of Dutch pirates who broke ranks with the DWIC, have appeared in the waters around St. John’s and Oranjestad, driving out the Lost Ironsides.
- The Lost Ironsides have relocated to the British territory east and south of the Yucatan. They have been reduced in level to make them appropriate for their new area.
- Ships belonging to many factions have received new sails, making them more identifiable on the Open Sea. This includes Trade Unions, the French Mississippi Company, the Inquisition, the Royal Society, the Acadie Nationale, and our new Pirate Hunter factions: the Board of Marque, the Salon d’Aventure, the Corsarios del Rey, and the Men of War.
- We’ve replaced the port models for towns with newer, prettier ones.
- Fixed a number of graphical issues.
Art / Sound:
- Character lighting improvements: We now compute the light on your character from light sources all around you so you look much more naturally lit in most places. No more looking blue because of ocean below the ground reflecting up onto you. No more looking brightly lit in shadow. This change affects all avatars, including NPCs. It does not affect other items such as buildings or crates or wagons or what have you.
- Fixed a bug that prevented bald men from wearing hats. (Wearing a hat magically put hair on their heads.)
- Hats used to cast really wrong-looking shadows. Should be much better now. The changes we made should smooth out some other shadows a touch also.
- Tweaked the water mesh a bit so it looks better.
- Cat Island (and towns that look like it): Fixed some chambering bugs
- Havana (and towns that look like it): Tweaked the lively and some other graphics.
- Irish Point (and towns that look like it): Corrected some graphical issues.
- Jenny Bay (and other towns that use that same type of Shop): You couldn’t click on the Flag and Sail Customizer in the shop – you had to press X to talk to him. Fixed.
- Les Hattes (and towns that look like it): Corrected a number of graphical issues.
- Pointe-Pitre: Fixed a number of chambering and other graphical issues.
- Port of Spain and Roseau: The Magistrates Offices in these two night towns no longer have bright sunshine streaming in the windows.
- Port Royal: We’ve re-chambered the town in the hopes of smoothing travel through it. (It used to be that you’d hit a certain point and you’d have a sudden jolt as buildings and/or NPCs popped in. We believe we’ve fixed that.)
- Tortuga: Corrected a number of graphical issues.
- Vera Cruz (and towns that look like it): Fixed some graphical issues.
- Fixed a problem with clickable dudes in the Black Market. They’re all clickable now.
- Cliff Coastline: Tweaked the ocean color in the room we call Cliff Coastline. You know it by a variety of other names as it is used in several missions. Also made the waterfall louder.
- Fort Cruz: Corrected some graphical issues in the room used for the Spanish Tutorial (and a few other missions).
- Fort Spire: Improved the lighting.
- Jungle Beach (the room used in Missionary Imposition and a number of other missions): Corrected a number of graphical issues.
- Vulcan’s Caldera: Fixed a number of graphical issues.
- Magistrate’s Office: Fixed some graphical and sound issues.
- Fixed a problem with ship shadows.
- Improved the look of the blow fire effect.
- We’ve made a pass on several unconquerable towns and improved the lively.
- Fixed a problem with the horse looking weird from a distance.
UI:
- You’ll notice some UI changes on login and throughout the game. Basically, we’ve cleaned and freshened the look a bit.
- Local Map: made the initial zoom setting be such that the map fills the window. Also changed texture filtering mode to linear to get rid of those blocky pixels you saw when zoomed wayyyy in.
- Character UI: The ship stats tab didn’t have tooltips for DR and Res. Fixed.
- Local Map: The Port Information tab had gotten large, preventing shrinking the map itself as much as you might prefer. So we moved the Port Information to the Governor’s Clerk.
- World Map: We made it a little prettier and moved the “Show Unrest” checkbox to a better location. Also the listbox is bigger.
- Fixed several occurrences of the sticky Alt key – at least the ones we’ve been able to reproduce.
- Sail Damage Reduction (DR) is now visible in the UI in the Ship tab of your Character UI and the Sail portion of your Health bar.
- We decreased the amount of time that you have to wait for a tooltip to show up.
- Clarified the tooltip for the Conquest channel – only Naval Officers with Military Communications can use this channel.
- Added some new Loading screens.
Stability / Performance:
Previously, when you zoned into a room, the client displayed the loading screen, loaded up the room geometry, waited for the zone server to tell it to remove the loading screen, removed the loading screen, and displayed avatars as the zone server started sending them. Now, when you zone into a room, the zone server will send all nearby avatars BEFORE telling the game to remove the loading screen. In addition, the game will load all textures and meshes to the video card before removing the loading screen. The result is about 3-4 seconds of extra loading screen time, but with a completely populated and fast room afterward.
Changed the way NPCs discuss their combat status with the server. This may result in a slight performance improvement in some missions.
Several builds ago, we added detection for running out of memory and we set it up so we shut the game down before it crashes from that. In this way, we can exit cleanly and potentially even prevent dumping you in the middle of battle. (Note this only applied to crashes due to running out of memory.) In this build, we’ve
- Added some additional debugging to improve our ability to fix memory leaks (because fixing those would be the true fix for this problem),
- Stopped Alchemy from reporting a non-existent memory leak, and
- Changed to cleaning the cache more fully on zoning.
Fixed a bug that could keep your zombie in game when it should have disappeared.
Fixed a problem that could occur if the zone server crashed while you were in a mission. We’d already fixed the zone server crash that caused us to find this problem, but now we’ve fixed this problem also in case there are ever any other zone server crashes.
Fixed a rare Zone Server crash that could happen during battle.
Fixed a Zone Server crash that happened under very odd circumstances in A Barbadian’s Head.
Fixed a crash that might happen if you had a skill checking its state as you were zoning.
Misc:
Updated translations from SOE.
¶ 1.x
¶ 1.12.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.12.45.1
02/02/2009 MISHA
This is a milestone build and contains about a month’s worth of changes including new missions in our serial arc and improvements to the economy.
Major changes include:
- Black Sails and Dread Saints: We’ve begun a mission serial that begins in this milestone and will continue through the summer with more of the plot revealed during every milestone. For more information, check out Pramas’ devlog.
- Bey’s Retreat and Fortaleza da Luz have been tuned with regard to the new Swashbuckling combat we introduced last milestone and have been re-enabled in game. We’ve made several fixes to the predecessor missions and some tuning changes based on internal play-testing. Let us know your feedback also.
- Low Population Incentives: In order to give players who are on the fence about what nation to play a reason to play the nations that are currently underrepresented in the game, we’ve added some bonuses to playing those nations. Currently the underpopulated nations are French and Spanish. Players choosing to roll characters of those nations receive double XP and a 30% chance to receive a bonus loot roll for PvP tokens. See Yardarm’s devlog for more info.
- Economic changes: We’ve streamlined and simplified a number of processes and halved (on average) the amount of labor required for everything. See Lum’s devlog for more info.
- New Coats: Happy Anniversary to Pirates of the Burning Sea! To celebrate the anniversary of our launch, we’ve added a new coat for each nation. Enjoy!
Known Issues:
We’re aware of a couple Exchange Shop trades that don’t give exactly the right amount of items, but the difference is minor. We will fix this in the next release.
Differences between 1.11.55.0 and 1.12.45.1 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
- Fixed gun counts in the tooltips for the Discovery Privateer Frigate, Gallant Navy Frigate, and Mercy Naval Frigate. The guns changed a while back and we forgot to update the descriptions then.
- If you couldn’t buy a ship because it wasn’t valid for your career and yet it was valid for multiple other careers, the tooltip would show green as if you could buy it. Fixed.
Ship Combat / Skills:
- Damage resistance can no longer be reduced below -10%.
- Reverted NPC behavior. We’d made them more likely to want to stay with their allies. However, this could lead to problems in certain types of battles. So we changed it back. Sadly, this reintroduces the problem where your NPC allies may not stay where you want them in a mission. We’re working on a better solution.
- Groups now maintain kill tags. For example, if you attack me and get the kill tag but then go off to fight my ally while your groupmate finishes me off, your groupmate renews your kill tag and you get credit for the kill.
- The grappling chance penalty for traveling 0 knots is now 20% instead of 15%.
- Grappling: Maximum Usable Speed 10 knots -> 8 knots, applies to both target and self.
- We calculate grappling penalties based on the size difference between the targets. The maximum penalty for boarding a ship larger than yours is now 60% instead of 40%.
- Some NPCs were unable to call waves during Boarding combat. Now they can.
Buccaneera
- Battle Logistics: Added 4% reload rate.
- Bloody Minds: Added 5% crew recovery rate.
- Command Battle: Group Reload 1% -> 3%, Group Damage 1% -> 3%, Self Accuracy 2 -> 3, Self Reload 1% -> 4%, Self Damage 1% ->4%
- Command Evasion: Self Sail Defense 2 -> 3, Group Defense 2 -> 3, Group Sail Defense 2 -> 3, Added 5% group resistance
- Command Maneuvers: Added 15% crew recovery group
- Command Speed: Added 5% group morale recovery, Self Speed 3% -> 5%
- Deadly Force: Reset Timer 8 min -> 5 min, added 15% reload rate
- Disrupt Formation: Max Hits 6 -> 7
- First Blow: Activation requirements loosened. 92.5% total armor instead of 95%.
- Jugular: Morale 35 -> 30, can now be used against equal sized targets. DR Reduction 2% per hit -> 1.5% per hit, Duration 2 minutes -> 90 seconds.
- Shatter Armor: Reset Timer 8 min -> 5 min, removed reload/accuracy penalty
- Shred Armor: Reset Timer 4 min -> 3 min.
- Survival Instincts: Added 4 DR.
- Weapons Handling: Added 2% maximum cannon range.
- Will to Survive: Added 10 max morale.
- Wolf Pack Prowlers: Morale 50 -> 20, Reset Timer 8 min -> 5 min..
Cutthroat
- Cripple Enemy: Target Speed -12.5% -> -10%, ;Target Grappling Defense -5 -> 0, Added -15% Target Armor Resistance, -10% Target Structure Resistance
- Defense: Bow DR 2 -> 3, Resistance 2.5% -> 4%
- Devil Take the Hindmost: Target Defense -4 -> -5
- Drink and the Devil: Changed Acceleration to Resistance.
- Fury: Added 10% morale recovery rate
- Sacrifice for Damage: Added 5 accuracy.
- Shred Armor: DR Penetration 60% -> 75%, Added 8 accuracy
Navy
- Career Base: Added 1.5% Max Broad Reach Speed, Combat
- Crippling Broadside: 40 Morale Cost -> 30
- Emergency Repairs: Morale Cost 50 -> 30
- Escort: Morale Cost 40 -> 30
- Final Defense: Strips the Concentrated Fire effect.
- Fortress: Removed speed penalty.
- Last Resort Speed: Close Haul Speed 5% -> 4%, Beam Reach Speed 5% -> 4%, Broad Reach Speed 5% -> 7%
- Pirate Hunter: Revamped skill. Passive, increases Max Speed by 4%, Broad Reach Speed by 4%
- Rally the Crew: Morale Cost 30 -> 20
- Scatter Shot: 40 Morale Cost -> 30
- Show of Force: 40 Morale Cost -> 30
- Speed Increase: Self effect 10% -> 11.5% (total self speed boost of 16.5%)
Freetrader
- Evasion: Revamped skill. Click buff. +20 defense for 20 seconds, 30 morale, 5 minute reset timer. Stacks with Defense.
Privateer
- Aggression: Added 10% morale recovery rate.
- Agile Tactician: Morale 50 -> 20. Reload Rate 1% -> 1.5%, Damage 1% -> 1.5%, Acceleration 1% -> 2%
- Battle Preparations (Defense & Offense): These are now group buffs. Added a 5% self-only resistance component.
- Concentrated Fire: Morale 40 -> 30, DR Penetration 50% -> 65%. Now applies a 15 second DoT that deals 5% armor and structure damage to equal or larger sized ships. Removed facing requirement.
- Cripple Enemy: Added -2 target accuracy.
- Crushing Broadside: Added -3 target accuracy. Removed facing requirement.
- Demoralize: Duration 1 min -> 3 min
- Evasion: Revamped skill. Click buff. +20 defense, 15% resist for 15 seconds, 15 morale, 90 second reset timer. Stacks with Defense.
- Hidden Reserves: Reset Timer 12 min -> 8 min
- Hired Crew: Added 15% Crew Recovery Rate
- Jugular: Morale 35 -> 30, can now be used against equal sized targets. -1.5% Resist/Hit -> -1.25% Armor Resist/Hit, -1% Structure Resist/Hit. Replaced Damage Reduction with Damage Resistance. Duration 2 min -> 90 seconds.
- Plunder: Doubloon Bonus 20% -> 30%, Bonus Loot Chance 5% -> 7.5%
- Signals: Target Defense -4 -> -5
- Surprise Below Decks: Reset Timer 5 min -> 4 min, Morale 40 -> 30
- Unpredictability Offense: Morale Cost 25 -> 20 (does not impact morale block)
- Unpredictability Sail Resist: Now provides 35% sail resist, 7.5% ship speed, 5 defense, 7 grappling attack, -3% damage
- Unpredictability Resist: Resist 15% -> 18%
Swashbuckling:
- Skills you can’t buy due to insufficient skill points were showing as Valid in the skill shops. Fixed.
- Mousing over the left half of your Life circle gave you Guard values. Now gives you Life values as it should.
- Surgeon: Corrected the cooldown. All three levels share a 30 second cooldown now.
- Firm Grip (Dirty Fighting): It was possible to use this (although it had no benefit) without Shaken. Fixed.
- Shaken (Dirty Fighting): Now reduces Offense by 15%
- Precision (Fencing): Now gives +10 Melee Accuracy, with a burst of +20, and has a cooldown of 30s. Group Precision now has a cooldown of 30s.
- Broken Defense (Fencing): Now lasts 15s.
- Blind (Fencing): Now reduces Offense by 10%, Dodge by 5%, and Parry by 5%.
- Flashing Blades (Florentine): Added missing particle effects.
- Reversal (Florentine): Now does 20 Health damage for each effect present.
- Corps-a-Corpse (Florentine): Now does 20 Health damage when Crippled is present.
- Improved the animations for the gun skills.
- A few swashbuckling skills acted like you could use them in ship space even though you couldn’t. Now they behave properly.
- Banana of Disruption: The icon is now a banana (instead of sugar cane).
- Tweaked the stats on Fortaleza weapons. They remain about as powerful as they were, just slightly different.
- You should no longer receive Combat Medicine twice.
- There was a brute NPC who did damage after you successfully blocked. Fixed.
- There were a few other places where skills used by NPCs didn’t do quite the right thing. Tweaked those. For example, particle effects are the right color in some instances. And NPCs with torches don’t do silly things like cross their arms.
- Zombies that wield arms now hold the arm in their hand at all times.
- Each of the final Defense skills are now in their own stacking category. This means these skills will stack in addition to other defensive buffs.
- In boarding NPCs, you should no longer find captains who rely on guns. Now, they should all bravely charge into battle with swords swinging.
Missions:
- If we change a mission encounter, the mission should be cancelled for you. Otherwise, you could land in a mission you can’t complete or, worse, trapped in a room. This wasn’t happening, though. Fixed.
- If you have missions in port, when you click on the Longboat Coxswain, the list he shows you is sorted alphabetically.
- Broadsheet Peddlers have been added to low-level towns. They now call Daily missions out via “Daily Extra” so you have a hint that they’re group missions.
- British Tutorial: In the swashbuckling section, Bilge Rats no longer respawn endlessly.
- French Tutorial: Fixed a bug that required you to speak to Berri twice.
- Spanish Tutorial: You can’t click the map, only press X to retrieve it. Noobs don’t always figure that out so the Tutorial is a really horrible place to have that bug. Fixed.
- The room used by the Swashbuckling portion of the Spanish Tutorial has been updated – it looks much nicer now.
- Heartless Romantic: Mother and Son had no weapons. Fixed.
- Commendable Action: Guards in the Spanish Magistrate’s Office are Spanish now, not Brit.
- Delivery Pains: Fixed some problems with ships interacting with the fort.
- Disparate Measures: Fixed an inconsistency between the text and the mission. You really do have to sink 3 ships as it says.
- Wayward Son: Improved NPC spawns.
- Mob Rule: Townsfolk no longer spawn so close together.
- Unforeseen Cargo: The mission couldn’t be completed. Fixed.
- Chasing the Money: Some prisoners couldn’t be rescued so the mission couldn’t be completed. Fixed.
- Punitive Strike: Your allies were called “Attacker (Generic).” Now they have a more appropriate name.
- The List: You shouldn’t be able to talk to your enemy during the fight. Fixed.
- Too Close for Comfort: The talked-up Buccaneers were Cutthroats. Now they’re Buc’s.
- Hangman’s Noose: It was never our intention that you should have to sail to Jenny Bay to complete this mission. Now you can stay in Port Royal.
- Stay Alive (and the rest of that chain): Corrected the destination.
- Flora and Fauna: The croc no longer has a nation or career. That was just silly.
- Island of the Monkeys: Monkeys couldn’t move or be targeted. Fixed.
- The Sinner Revealed: The longboat isn’t marked on the local map. Fixed.
- Vendetta’s End: The swashbuckling fight is more difficult now. It was a bit boring before.
- Become Esteemed: Not all ships counted toward the goal but they should have. Fixed.
- Final Justice: Sent you to Port Royal on completion. It’s supposed to put you in Charlestown. Fixed.
- Flying the Black Flag: Tweaked the summary text to match the encounter.
- House of Solomon: Increased the AOE of the canopic jar. As it was, you had to do some maneuvering for the effect to occur correctly.
- Submitted for Your Approval: It was impossible to advance the mission after a certain point because a key NPC was missing. Fixed.
- Bey’s Retreat: Fixed a bug where talking to DeGenaro wouldn’t end the mission or give rewards as it should.
- The Concord Mutiny: You shouldn’t be able to talk to the ghosts. And you should only be able to talk to Jonah until after Duboc. Fixed.
- The Ruins: Removed a dead body that wasn’t supposed to be there. Yet.
- Unhappy Meals: Updated the personas.
Economy:
- We’ve globally set the labor multiplier to 0.5. This effectively halves the amount of labor needed by all recipes. For example, recipes that used to use 4 hours of labor will now use 2 hours of labor to create the same amount of output. Help for the recipe will still show 4 hours needed but, in your structure, the recipe itself will show “Labor required: 2 hours (0.5 * 4 hours).”
- Streamlined some recipes by consolidating buildings. In some instances, you may need to demolish/rebuild some structures to acquire all recipes. For example, if you have a Lumber Mill and a Carpenter, you can simply demolish the Carpenter. However, if you only have a Lumber Mill, you will need to demolish and rebuild it in order to get the Carpenter recipes. The buildings aren’t demolished for you – if you had a Carpenter, you still have a Carpenter. There’s just no way to build another.
- Combined Lumber Mill and Carpenter; removed Carpenter.
- Combined Sugar Refinery and Rum Distillery; removed Rum Distillery.
- Combined Forge and Weaponsmith; removed Weaponsmith.
- Streamlined some recipes by removing materials.
- Removed Refined Flour. Hardtack now requires Wheat. Provisions no longer require Refined Flour.
- Removed Maize. Cheesemaking and Cattle Breeding no longer require Maize. Adjusted the cost of Cheesemaking to compensate for not having Maize. Adjusted the cost of Livestock and Game Animals, they are now closer to one another.
- Removed Lead Ingots.
- Removed Copper Ingots. All recipes using Copper Ingots now use Copper Ore.
- Streamlined some ship recipes.
- Removed Large/Medium/Small Anchors; replaced with Anchors.
- Removed Large/Small Frame Timber, Large/Small Filing Frame, Large/Small Beam, Large/Small Transom; replaced with Frame Timbers.
- Removed Oak/Teak Strakes; replaced with Oak/Teak Planks.
- Removed Large/Medium/Small Keel; replaced with Keel.
- Removed Ballast. Ship Deeds now require Granite in equal amounts.
- Adjusted the cost of Sterns, they’re now slightly more expensive.
- Removed Large/Medium/Small Mast Sections and Large/Medium/Small Spars; replaced with Mast Sections.
- Removed Large/Medium/Small Sails; replaced with Sailcloth.
- Removed Mast Hoops; replaced with Iron Ship Fittings.
- Adjusted Rigging inputs and outputs by 5 so that Knot Rigging gives more output per click.
- Added an Exchange Shop on the Auctioneer in every town (except the starting towns). Use this Exchange Shop to trade goods made obsolete by these changes for new goods. As an example, if you have created Small Anchors, you still have them but they’re no longer used in recipes. Use the Exchange Shop to turn them into Iron Ingots.
- Reduced the labor on Lineship Structure Bundles to 18 hours; increased the click cost to 100,000 db.
- Changed the labor multiplier on all Freetrader Advanced structures to .9 (from .8). (They used to grant a 20% reduction in labor costs; now they only grant 10%.) Advanced recipes remain unchanged.
- Increased the cost of Lignum Vitae production. Harvesting now costs 2000 db, Blocks cost 250 db, and Frame Timber costs 500 db.
- Increased the cost of Teak production. Harvesting now costs 400 db, and Planks now cost 150 db.
- Slightly decreased the cost of the Large Hull and Huge Hull; slightly increased the cost of the Colossal Hull.
- When calculating the insurance value for ships built using Line-Ship Structure Bundles (LSBs), we use 50% of the value of the LSB (instead of 100%).
- We’ve re-calculated the value of insurance paid by all ships per the changes made to their recipes. For the most part, the changes were tiny – on the order of 20 db or so.
- Added gold/silver to a few pieces of uncommon outfitting because all other uncommon outfitting has it.
- Using Marks of Trade to improve Faction didn’t enable you to improve it as much as they should. Fixed – you should be able to get to neutral now.
Open Sea:
- Some Evil Pirates on the Open Sea have been replaced by Dread Saints.
PvP / Port Contention:
- We now show a timer in the tooltip for Raided ports similar to the timers for ports in other states.
- When on the waiting list for a Port Battle, you’d see it was for !!LANDMARKNAME!! We’ve fixed it so it should show the proper port name now.
- We had a bug where having a GM correct a port issue could switch it from Raided to Martial Law in a matter of seconds. We’ve fixed enough other bugs that GMs rarely have to muck about with landmark states but we fixed this in case they ever do need to again.
Art / Sound:
- There’s a new Anniversary coat available to all players – one for each nation. Check out your local tailor to try one on!
- Freetraders have a new “level-up” animation. The one they had before was difficult to enjoy when viewed from behind.
- The sword-swallower no longer slices through his throat. He’s much better at his trick now.
- Fixed a number of clipping bugs – NPC are less likely to have feet through the ground, hands through knees, etc.
- Added sounds to a variety of Magistrate Offices that were silent.
- BSharp has made a pass through several ports, improving lighting and textures.
- Bartica: Improved the clarity of the stars.
- Belize: Ambient sounds were Spanish although this is a British town. Fixed.
- Georgetown: Fixed some clipping issues with the Raven’s animation.
- Havana: The priest looks more priest-like and less pirate-like.
- Tortuga: If you used the Smuggler Tunnels, your missions could suddenly show up on the wrong place on the map. Fixed.
- West End: When Pillaged, there were musicians fiddling silently. Now they play a jaunty tune.
- All ghosts sounded male on death, regardless of their gender. Now female ghosts sound female.
- For many missions, if you failed and clicked Replay, no music would play the next time through. Fixed.
UI:
- Increased button size on Ship Control UI to accommodate localization.
- We tweaked how quickly skill tooltips show up when you hover over them. They were coming up so quickly they were too likely to block your view in Swashbuckling combat. They should be less distracting now.
- Make it clearer when a battery is out of guns and won’t fire.
- You can now map separate keybindings for ship controls vs. avatar controls. Previously, if you changed one, you changed both.
- Added sounds to some UI (Preference buttons and such) that didn’t have it before.
Stability / Performance:
- For some, the game crashed loading certain rooms. They sent their crash dumps to Microsoft and we found and fixed an issue.
- Fixed a rare chat server crash that was introduced in 1.10.
Misc:
- In French (and possibly other languages) some NPC names show up as “s” instead of the name. This was due to us using SOE’s localization tools incorrectly. We’ve fixed most of these, we believe. Let us know if you see any we missed.
- If the game fails to run due to a problem with a localization file, we pop up a dialog saying what went wrong and what to do about it. But that dialog showed only in code because the appropriate localization file was missing. Now it shows in English, French Spanish, German, and Russian.
Additional translations and localization fixes by SOE.
¶ 1.11.x
¶ 1.11.55.0
[Content not found]
¶ 1.11.54.0
01/15/2009 [Content not found
¶ Release Notes for build 1.11.52.0
01/06/2009 MILMAN
There are a few issues in the initial AvCom release that we wanted to address quickly.
Differences between 1.11.51.1 and 1.11.52.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Ship Combat / Skills:
We had changed the priorities on skills you’d ctrl-clicked vs. skills you’d clicked. This led to some graphical issues like skills appearing to have fired when they really didn’t and some behavioral issues like not being able to queue skills like you’d like. Now, if it’s a tie between ctrl-click and click, click wins. This affects Swashbuckling skills also.
Swashbuckling:
Stance: Defense no longer adds guard.
Misc:
New translations from SOE.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.11.51.1
01/02/2009 MILMAN
This build is a server-only build that removes a command general players shouldn’t be able to use. You should see no difference in gameplay and you won’t need to upgrade your client in order to play.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.11.51.0
12/29/2008 MISHA
This milestone update completes most of our work on the Swashbuckling revamp. Avatar Combat is now flashier and more exciting-looking as well as easier to learn and more fun to play. You can read more about the changes and the philosophy behind them here.
Other changes include:
When you log in for the first time, you’ll get a dialog briefly explaining the changes to Swashbuckling Combat and a link to follow for more info.
Repeatable Bloodsport Missions can be found via missions from the Swashbuckling Trainers and are located in Belize, Spanish Town, Biloxi, Roseau, Golden Lake, Matthew Town, Maracaibo, Santo Domingo, and other towns.
New Swashbuckling Dailies: Can be found in Santiago, Tortuga, and in your nation’s capital.
Boarding: Isildur increased number of boarding waves at the low end slightly, and flattened the difference between the low and high ends even more. And he reduced the number of boarding party members a bit.
UChat: We have activated SOE’s cross-server/cross-game chat system. The syntax is /tell character@game.server, message. If you’re chatting with someone on another PotBS server, you can leave off the game name.Known Issues:
Before upgrading to this build, you may want to make a note of the missions in your list. As always, if a mission is changed, it may be dropped from your list and you’ll need to re-take it. For the most part, the Avatar Combat missions themselves (story-line, location, patron) didn’t change, just the encounters (the room the mission takes place in, how many NPC enemies and allies there are, NPC tactics) did. When encounters change, you don’t need to re-take the mission. But as every AvCom anything was touched, it’s difficult for us to call out exactly which missions will need to be re-taken so make a note of what you have, just in case.
Your character will have lost its Swashbuckling Skills and will need to acquire new ones.
Charlesfort (and towns that look like it): There are a few chambering issues (where you can see the ocean instead of the town).
We have hidden Bey’s Retreat and Fortaleza de Luz. We have not yet completed re-tuning these per the AvCom revision. We expect to complete that tuning and make them available again in 1.12.
There are few bits of text here and there that have not been translated into other languages properly. If we patch this build, we will fix it then.
Differences between 1.10.30.0 and 1.11.51.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Sharp’s Blackout Stout decreased morale instead of increasing
it. Fixed.Ship Combat / Skills:
There are now Buccaneer trainers in Oranjestad and Somers Isle.
Swashbuckling:
As noted above, there are many, many changes, most detailed here.
Several new weapon models have been added including swords for
Florentine and Fencing and a couple new guns.
You can now turn on healthbars over avatars selectively. Instead of being on or off for all, you can set your own, your allies’, and your enemies’ healthbars. In Preferences -> Keybind, near the bottom you can set a key to toggle each of these. Or you can use /toggleSelfCombatName, /toggleAllyCombatName, and
/toggleEnemyCombatName.
Using Sprint would cause rubberbanding sometimes. Should be
better now.
In some cases, thumbs would clip weapon hilts instead of wrapping around them. Fixed.Missions:
If you exited a mission via an exit on the map without actually completing all the objectives, the escape point would still show up even when you were running around town. Fixed.
Man of Wealth and Taste: The noble in the library was facing the couch, typically facing away from you. Fixed.
Back Ordered: You couldn’t leave the mission when you’d completed the objectives if you were still in combat. Fixed.
Escape to Which Mountain: NPC allies were no help. Fixed.
Over Your Head: Changed the door to make it clearer the Shop is where you need to be.
Bey’s Retreat and Fortaleza de Luz (and their lead-in missions) have been hidden for now. They need to be revamped as a result of the AvCom Revision. We expect to make them available again in 1.12.
Crazy Like a Fox: Adjusted the longboat so it’s floating
instead of partially submerged.
Beyond the Island of the Monkeys: The reward given by this mission was useless. Changed the reward to be things you’re more likely to be able to use.
Burning Bridges: Bridges now has a crew and fights as he should.
Walking Wounded, Walking Dead: Quitting would break the mission. Fixed.
The Standover Man: The ship rewarded wasn’t usable by everyone who could complete the mission so we changed the reward to items usable by anyone who can take the mission.Economy:
Skill Respecs are now much cheaper than they were. We want you to be able to easily respec if you feel you’ve made poor choices
for your character.Open Sea:
If you were sailing near an ally and an NPC started pursuing that ally, you’d get the notification that you were being pursued. Fixed.
Pirate fleets tended to be level 65 while national fleets tended to be level 50. The Pirate Hercules is now level 55 (down from 65) and we’ve switched the Navy fleets to 64 gun ships (from Alexanders). In this way, most fleets are now level 55.PvP / Port Contention:
In some cases, when a port went from Pirate PvP to PvP, extending the zone, players in the newly included red area wouldn’t get flagged for PvP and yet would be able to attack other players. Fixed.
Art / Sound:
The Hercules now has its own model. Added 2 cannons to the front of the Hercules model. Also changed the vertex color on under hull and added couple of mission stays.
Cape de Vela: Multiple NPCs were occupying the exact same space. Fixed.
Golden Lake: Now has a new look. We’re in the process of replacing the town art in a number of towns while not further complicating the paths through them. This is one result of that effort.
Grand Turk: Fixed an NPC who was sometimes in danger of losing his head.
Oranjestad: There were several NPCs scattered about that you couldn’t talk to except by clicking their icon in the local map. You should now be able to talk to them by clicking on them directly.
Changed the way we were doing dx compression to improve the appearance of avatars. Sadly, that wasn’t the biggest problem. Work on avatar lighting to follow but there is some improvement from before.
The Male Duster had a cuff that, at low LODs, would float around detached from the avatar. Fixed.
Fixed a couple NPC males whose chests were bursting through their jackets.
Changed the proportions of female avatar waists and hips. In 1.10, we shrunk their shoulders a bit. The overall effect now should be that women look more like women than men.
NPCs in Pointe-a-Pitre Church aren’t just flapping their gums; now they’re actually talking.UI:
Fixed the unreadable red that was showing up in recipes and the Auction House offer UI. Should be lighter and easier to read
now.Misc:
Several items used for parties and events were marked Uncommon. Now they’re marked Special.
Fixed some issues that made localized text not necessarily show up correctly.
Some Russian random names were reported as being too long when they were perfectly valid because we were calculating length
incorrectly. Fixed.
The URL for trial accounts to buy the game was broken in the
Russian version. Fixed now.
¶ 1.10.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.10.30.1
MilMan 11/25/2008
This is a server-only build. There is no client update for you to install. The only difference between this build and the last is a potential fix to a zone server issue that was causing data loss on some characters.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.10.30.0
Misha 11/18/2008
This is a milestone update so there are about a month’s worth of changes/fixes.
Major changes include:
Variable Wind: The wind now changes direction during battle. The changes on the Open Sea are now less jarring. See below for details.
Christmas content: There are several new characters and missions as well as carols being sung in Jenny Bay, Vera Cruz, Marsh Harbour, Charlesfort, Port Royal, San Juan, Tortuga, and Pointe-a-Pitre. This content will become available closer to the holiday and be turned off again after the holiday.Known Issues:
Auction House: The font used for Total Price is too dark, making it unreadable. We hope to fix this in a future release.
The firing arcs shown in the Local Map are not necessarily to scale. We’re aware of this and working on a fix.
Differences between 1.9.32.0 and 1.10.30.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Heavy Hercules: Turning Acceleration 10 -> 9.
Ship Combat / Skills:
Using Take Command on a sinking ship could have bad consequences. Fixed – you can no longer Take Command when a ship is doomed.
Run them Down can no longer be used against other players unless they’re in a PvP zone or flagged for PvP.
Buccaneer Crime Network: Now provides +5% doubloon loot. Freetrader Trade Connections: Now provides +5% doubloon loot. Navy Military Communication: Accuracy 3 -> 2, Added 2 Target Tracking.
Sailing faster than 25 knots no longer continues to accumulate accuracy penalties. Relative motion accuracy penalties are now capped at 10%.
Swashbuckling:Boarding encounters should now match the time of day of the ship encounter they started from.
Missions:
The Broadsheet Peddler is of no help to low level players at this point. However, it didn’t say that – he said he’d happily help you and then didn’t. Now he’s clearer about his role.
Tutorial: Claim Prize: If you had Skilled Negotiator, you couldn’t complete this tutorial. Fixed.
Man of Wealth and Taste: Ships sometimes sailed into town. Literally. Fixed.
Calling on the Magistrate: If you were French, this pointed you to the wrong magistrate. Fixed.
Spirits of the Caribbean: This mission wasn’t supposed to be repeatable. Fixed.
Mysterious Bounty: The destinations weren’t always correct. Fixed.
Smuggler’s Dragnet: Sent you to the wrong NPC for turn-in. Now correctly directs you at Kirk.
If you used a Smuggler’s Tunnel in Tortuga, it would often break mission doors. Fixed that.
The Finer Things: Servant writing with a pen in a ledger now has a pen and a ledger.
Signed in Blood: It wasn’t possible to complete this mission. Fixed.
Battle of Grand Turk: If you played your cards right, it was possible for a dead Ismail to join the fight. Fixed.
Stop and Go: Is now a group mission. It makes more sense now.
Henry Harris, I Presume?: If you sunk Henry instead of boarding him, you could get trapped in the mission. Fixed.
Most Dangerous Ingredient: The mission couldn’t be completed. Fixed.
Pardon Me!: The ship cabin appeared to be on the moon. It now exists in a more appropriate environment.Economy:
Fixed a few ship deed icons that had the wrong color for the type of ship they were.
Open Sea:
Smoothed out the wind changes in the Open Sea. Now the wind drifts around with relative changes that are usually 30 degrees or less. Sometimes the wind resets back to coming from the east. Overall, this should be smoother and less chaotic than the old OS wind.
The Fleet Strength radius was too large. Halved it.
Ad hoc battles now have random wind fluctuations over time. The wind direction changes are most often within 15 or 30 degrees, but a larger change can be up to 60 degrees. There is no change to the wind’s strength.
In 1.9, we broke the strings for currents. Fixed.PvP / Port Contention:
If you flagged yourself for PvP then attacked someone, you’d lose your PvP flag when the effect you gained in combat wore off. Re-ordered the priorities of these effects so the one doesn’t incorrectly cancel the other.
Sometimes a port would skip Martial Law after a Port Battle and we’d have to manually set the state on the server. Fixed.Art / Sound:
Tweaked female shoulders a bit (and how animations play) to make them look more feminine.
Fixed a ton of places in the game where the time of day of a room didn’t match the time of day of the room you just came from.
Charlesfort: The Freetrader Trainer was a Navy Officer. Now he’s a Freetrader.
Leogane: Several seagulls were sitting around in thin air. Now they sit on more solid objects or they’ve been removed entirely.
Oranjestad: The bartender is friendlier now. And there’s now a Junk Merchant in town.
In 1.9 ship wake flickers got worse. They should be better now.
Added sound effects to the crocodiles in Tortuga.
In order to incorporate our Christmas music, we changed the sound code a bit. You should notice no change but let us know if we broke anything.UI:
Made a subtle change that may make it more likely for a new player to choose an underpopulated nation as their own.
You can no longer change clothes while shopping or talking to the Longboat Coxswain.
Updated on-line help about changing clothes to reflect the new Customize Outfit option added in 1.9.
Some ship deeds had the wrong background color. Should be: green = merchant, blue = scout, red = warship. Fixed the ones we know about. If you find others, let us know.
We had a bug where using Alt-Enter to go from full-screen to windowed mode would generate some wonky graphics. Fixed.Stability / Performance:
Improved the performance of drawing the compass and the local map.
Fixed a crash reported through Microsoft (when asked, it’s always a good idea to send crash data to Microsoft – do fix bugs as a result) that could occur when changing your Preferences. We were never able to reproduce the bug but received enough data to identify what code was crashing and fix it.Misc:
Made some changes that will enable us to make more reliably smaller patches. (In previous builds, a problem in a particular type of file prevented us from reliably predicting how much changing that file would affect the patch size. Now, we know and the answer will be “not as much as previous builds.”) Sadly, one result is that the game will take an extra 30Mb on your hard drive.
Sending a /tell in Russian added some extraneous characters to the name that had to be deleted in order for the /tell to work. Fixed.More translations and localization bug fixes from SOE.
¶ 1.9.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.9.32.2
Misha 11/05/2008
This is a server-only build. There is no patch for you to download. The only change is a server-side tool for our own use.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.9.32.0
Posted by MilMan | 11/03/2008 | Patch Notes | Discuss
We had to fix a couple bugs before launching in Russia that touch code used by the US/EU/AU builds also. While we were at it, we fixed a couple bugs affecting all builds.Known Issues:
A player with a voluntary PvP flag who then attacks another player, will no longer be voluntarily PvP flagged once PvP aggression wears off. We’re expect to fix this in the next major release.
Differences between 1.9.31.3 and 1.9.32.0 include but aren’t limited to:PvP/Port Contention:
When you lose by sinking, you’re supposed to lose all your unsecured cargo. You’d been losing 80% to the victor (correct) and keeping the remaining 20% (incorrect). Fixed.
UI:
Fixed a bug where certain Cyrillic characters would cause everything typed after to act as an /emote. Now Cyrillic characters act as they should and /emotes act as they should.
Right-clicking on a name in Russian would return “player not found” if you tried to /tell them or such. This is because Russian names change depending on where they are in the sentence and the name in Chat wasn’t the name in the database. In order to fix this, we’ve changed the way we pass name information throughout all Chat in all languages. Chat is handled by a variety of different systems (Area chat is handled by a different chunk of code than Nation chat which is handled differently than Group chat and so on). Let us know if you find a new issue with Chat in any language.Stability / Performance:
It was possible to time trades in a way that sometimes crashed the zone server. We thought we fixed this in an earlier build but we’ve fixed it harder now.
Misc:
Additional Russian translations from SOE.
¶ Relaese Notes for build 1.9.31.3
Posted by MilMan | 10/28/2008 | Patch Notes | Discuss
Since pushing 1.9 to Live, a couple server crashes have turned up. This fixes those and hopefully also fixes the “boarding gives no loot sometimes” bug. This is a server-only update – you won’t have to download anything new.Known Issues:
A player with a voluntary PvP flag who then attacks another player, will no longer be voluntarily PvP flagged once PvP aggression wears off. We’re expect to fix this in the next major release.
Differences between 1.9.31.1 and 1.9.31.3 include but aren’t limited to:
Stability / Performance:
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur when completing Past the Point of Subtlety and other missions.
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur when a ship you had a kill tag on disappeared from the encounter without sinking. We believe this is what caused the “boarding gives no loot sometimes” bug.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.9.31.1
10/22/2008 [Content not found]
¶ 1.8.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.8.28.2
Misha 09/29/2008
This is a server-only build. You will not need a new client install. The only difference between this build and the previous is a fix to the way we’re collecting certain metrics. You should see no change.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.8.28.1
09/22/2008 MISHA
This is a new milestone build so contains about a month’s worth of new features and bug fixes.
Release Notes for build 1.7.37.0 are here.
Main new features:
Cargo Manager: Ever want to move everything from the hold of one ship to the hold of another and get bored dragging/dropping each item/stack? Now you can multi-select everything and move it all at once! As we enabled that ability, we added some other nifty features as well. Check it out by clicking a new button in any UI where items can be to bring up the Cargo Manager UI.
PvP Fleet Strength: We now calculate the strength of your group vs. the strength of the group you’re attacking and we don’t let you attack if the difference is too great. This is intended to decrease time-griefing. See below for more info.
Port Battle Schedule Revision: Port Battles can now only be scheduled during certain hours on each server. Read more info here.
New daily missions: In 1.7, we introduced repeatable missions for high level players. In this build, we’ve added some for mid-level players.
Broadsheet Peddler: There is now a dude hanging out in Bridgetown and other highland towns who can direct you to missions you may have missed in your journeys.
Intel 945/965 integrated chipset support: Previously, if you tried to launch the game on hardware that had all the features the game needed except software vertex shading instead of hardware vertex shading, you’d get an error and the game would fail to launch. We’ve changed the game to support software vertex processing. Now when you launch the game, you are warned that performance may not be fantastic (these are still somewhat poor video cards for our needs). If it works sufficiently well for you, fantastic. If not, log a bug with details and we’ll try to improve the performance in a future release.
Differences between 1.7.37.0 and 1.8.28.1 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Tweaked fallback ship progression. Ships are generally available earlier now:
Buccaneer: Skuda (starter), Bermuda (9), Mediator (14), Corsair (17), Brig (21)
Cutthroat: Halifax (starter), Bermuda (9), Mediator (14), Corsair (17), Locust (21)
Freetrader: Skuda (starter), Ketch (9), Mediator (14), Curieuse (17), Brig (21)
Navy: La Belle (starter), Bermuda (9), Mediator (14), Curieuse (17), Brig (21)
Privateer: Halifax (starter), Bermuda (9), Corsair (17), Hermes (20)
Capricieux: When switching ships, the name was code instead of text. Fixed.
Defiant: Speed 15.6 -> 16.4.
Defiant (Sleek): Acceleration 1.3 -> 1.13, Speed 16.25 -> 17.05
Gallant: Speed 16.1 -> 17.2
Mercy: Acceleration 1.18 -> 1.08, Speed 16.5 -> 17
Tigre (Sleek): Speed 15.9 -> 16. OS Speed 61 -> 62.
A couple dozen outfitting items were using fractional values for accuracy and defense stats. Adjusted all the values to be integers. In most cases, this didn’t result in a change in the effective value provided by the item. A few items increased in effectiveness slightly.Tuned ammo:
Round Shot: Sail Damage 12.5%- 17.5% -> 11.5%-16%
Bronze Round Shot: Sail Damage 15%-20% -> 12.5%-18%
Explosive Round Shot: Sail Damage 17.5%-21% -> 15%-20%
Bar Shot: Sail Damage 57.5%-77.5% -> 54%-75%, Range 87.5% -> 85%
Chain Shot: Sail Damage 65%-92.5% -> 62.5%-90%, Range 70% -> 67.5%
Star Shot: Sail Damage 80%-107.5% -> 80%-105%
“Weight” was used inconsistently in the UI, sometimes to mean stack weight, sometimes to mean unit weight. Clarified.
Grand Turk gunpowders weighed more than others. Fixed.Ship Combat / Skills:
Any skill that consumed an item didn’t actually consume the item during PvP. Fixed.
If you targeted a ship that was already in the middle of a boarding combat, your Boarders skill would be lit as if it were a viable option even though it wasn’t. Fixed that.
Escort (Navy): This skill said it required you to stay close to your target to work. This isn’t true, so it was removed from the description.
Rapid Shot (Navy): Wasn’t working against targets that were immune to stun. Fixed.
Improvise Armor (Privateer): Reset timer 5 minutes -> 4 minutes
Rebuilt Ship (Privateer): 5% Structure/Armor -> 7.5% Structure/Armor
Take Command of Ship (Pirate): One of the requirements was code instead of text. Fixed.Swashbuckling:
Escort NPCs weren’t working properly. Found and fixed a couple bugs in that code. They should be a bit more intelligent and effective now.
St. Elmo’s Fire wasn’t draining enough morale to be worth your time to use it. Improved it.Missions:
Buccaneers aren’t able to do Cutthroat Commendation Missions. So they now have their own.
Business and Pleasure: After speaking to Wilham Dalton, the mission tells you to speak to Wilham Dalton instead of acknowledging you’d done that. Fixed.
Business Trip, Waterlogged, and Winning Bid couldn’t be completed after completing Showdown. We fixed this by changing the NPC you turn these in to among other things. The whole series should make a little more sense now.
Man of Wealth and Taste: In ship combat, the flagship was running upwind, making the battle long and boring. Fixed. After ship combat, Marsh Harbour no longer has explosions. Also fixed some NPC placement and animations.
Translation, Please: Fixed several places where the text made little sense.
New daily missions: Check out Orleans: You’ll now find additional daily missions for mid-level players.
Daily missions: Several of the Orleans Dailies that were supposed to be available in 1.7 were unavailable for various reasons. Fixed.
Daily missions: Increased the drop rate of “scrap” items for Orleans Dailies to 30%.
Faction missions, which used to be able to be done only once every 24 hours, have been moved to the new system such that they reset at 11a GMT daily.
Irish Eyes are Smiling: Didn’t make clear that one objective is to protect the merchants. This is clearer now.
Added missions to help direct you from the lower level towns to the mid-level towns. Previously, newer players tended to get stuck unsure where to proceed.
No Time for Heroes: Became impossible to complete in 1.7. Fixed.
Made it easier to find some Pillage missions – we didn’t intend to hide them from you.
Some Pillage missions, if the port changed hands, no longer made sense. Fixed.
Still Beyond the Sea: If you cancelled this mission, you might not be able to re-take it. Fixed that.
Signed in Blood: It wasn’t possible to complete the mission. Fixed.
Sinner Revealed: Some allied had no names and were members of the “Remap This String” faction. Fixed.
In Bridgetown and other high level towns, you can now find the Broadsheet Peddler. He helps you find missions you may have missed.
Corpi Hippocraticum: Fixed a group exploit with this mission. If you cancel and retake it, you can now complete it – that was broken before.
Money in the Bank: Was directing you to “the other bar.” You’re in the bar. Fixed.
Lost Boy: Made it more difficult to leave Kiefer Northlund behind (and fail the mission).
Sonia Cabrero’s Presentation: Destination line was code. Is now text.
A Tight Corner: Exiting the mission put you in Port Royal instead Charlestown. Fixed.
Fracture Point: Fixed the bug where defeating the whalebone ship in boarding combat didn’t count.
Musketeers Sans Muskets: Sometimes the friendly ship would sail toward the land instead of the exit. Changed the wind to make that less likely.Economy:
Added a Salvage Exchange to Orleans so you can easily turn in loot items found in the daily group missions.
Open Sea:
Fleet Strength: We now calculate the strength of groups based on number of members, levels of ships, etc. If the player group you’re planning to attack has a fleet strength 200 or more above yours, you’re not allowed to attack. Fleet strength is shown on the Healthbar UI.
Merchant Convoy (3) sometimes spawned with 4 ships. Now spawns with three as it should.
Made some changes to improve performance a bit.PvP / Port Contention:
It was possible, in certain circumstances to join an ad hoc in a default ship when you shouldn’t have been able to. Fixed that.
Fixed a bug in exit point locations that prevented some players from reaching them.
Port Battle Schedule Revision: Port Battles can now only be scheduled during peak population times. These times are set per server based on the population on that server and when they play.
If you accepted a Port Battle Invite, sometimes the game would think you hadn’t. Improved that.
Fixed the bug where, if Pirates won the map, the underdog status wasn’t set correctly and we had to do it by hand.Art / Sound:
Avatars
If you bought a Luxury Clothing Item, it still appeared in the Valid Items tab when it shouldn’t. Fixed.
In Maracaibo and towns that look like it, there was a solder floating near a porch. He now stands properly on the porch.
Taught some other NPCs the meaning of prepositions like on vs. near.Towns
In the Grand Turk Caves, the boat to the Pirate Hideout implied it would take you to Town instead. Fixed.
Ships
Defiant: Now has stern gunports.
Limburg: Changed stern windows to gunports since there isn’t enough space to add gunports on Flute.
Myrmidon: Stern cannons now fit in the gunports.Sound
Added weather sounds to some rooms with “weather.” Some apparently story rooms, for example, sounded like pleasant days before.
Added sounds to several rooms that had none or very few.
Added gull and fire SFX to a few rooms.UI:
Cargo Manager: There’s a button in inventory UIs that brings up the Cargo Manager, which lets you select multiple items to move or delete at once.
If moving an item from one container to another (e.g. warehouse to ship hold) fails, we now do a better job of notifying you of that.
Improved the icons for Luxury Clothing Items.
Help now remembers your scroll position when you use the Back button.Stability / Performance:
Made some improvements to our build process to help catch problems earlier, preventing them from becoming bugs that affect you.
We’ve made changes to the way we build pigg files in an attempt to shrink our crazy patch sizes a bit.Misc:
If you hit the level cap on a trial account, it wasn’t particularly obvious. We now notify you when that happens.
Changed the way we filter some profanity to catch more of it.
When NVIDIA acquired PhysX, the URL we supplied to people having PhysX problems broke. Fixed now.
SOE added more / fixed more localized strings.
¶ 1.7.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.7.37.0
08/27/2008 MISHA
This is a milestone build and contains several exciting new features as well as several bug fixes.
Main new features:
Talk Like a Pirate Day: Find Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket in Tortuga or Marsh Harbor and take some new missions from them. These missions will ONLY be AVAILABLE from about September 17th to about September 26th. (Exact datest will be announced closer to the event.) Be sure to check them out when they’re available.
Daily Group Missions: These reset daily at 11a GMT. Look for them in Orleans. Even though that town is French owned, these missions are available to all nations.
More XP from Missions: Missions at level 11 and higher now offer more XP. This is to help balance the reward for doing missions vs. fighting NPCs.
Updated Tutorial: There’s a new UI with better instructional text.
Luxury Clothing: Show off how rich you are by sporting the latest styles.
Cinematic Camera: Camera is now smoother to operate and offers more options.
Ad Hoc PvP changes: This is the most far-reaching area of change by far. See below for details.Known Issues:
Freetrader provisions skill tree skills are stackable when they shouldn’t be. We hope to fix this soon.
Differences between 1.6.34.1 and 1.7.37.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Most level 30+ warships: Gained 1-2 points of tracking (The Sleek Defiant gained 4), 5 points of sail defense and a point of broadside DR.
Most small-medium ships: Lost 3-4 defense
Bahamut: 9lb topdeck guns -> 11lb
Bermuda (Mastercraft): Speed 17.25 -> 17
Bermuda (Trader’s): Speed 17.5 -> 17.25
Cursed Blade: 34×11lb guns -> 36×11lb
Hermes (Sleek): Speed 17.5 -> 17.25
Lancer: Speed 17 -> 16.85
Mercy: Speed 16.4 -> 16.5, Acceleration 1.08 -> 1.18, Close Haul Speed 70% -> 80%, Beam Reach Speed 85% -> 87.5%, Running Speed 85% -> 90%
Minerva: Speed 17.5 -> 17.25
Mont Blanc: Reload bonus 25% -> 22.5%
Valiant: Narrow side DR 3 -> 8
Wenden: Narrow side DR 4 -> 8 (does not affect Treason)
Outfitting now auto-stacks like other inventory.
Added a “rarity” line to the tooltips of equipped outfitting so you can better remember, after you’ve equipped an item, how “special” it is.
Fixed categories of several outfitting items.Ship Combat / Skills:
The loot button used to flash whenever anything changed in the loot box. Particularly, in group encounters when you’d already diced, this was useless. Now it only flashes when something new has been added to the loot box.
If you changed ammo type, your in-world firing arc length might not update appropriately. Fixed that.
Fixed a bug that caused armor percents to show incorrectly in skill requirements. (.95% now shows correctly as 95%, for example.)Navy
Convoy: Changed from a group buff to a passive skill.
Dominate: Reset Timer 5min -> 4min
Last Resort Speed: The description says this prevents skill use, but it didn’t. Fixed to prevent skill use.
Pirate Hunter: 10% -> 12.5%Swashbuckling:
Added a Damage Resistance stat to your Character Info UI.
Missions:
As mentioned above, we’ve made improvements to the Tutorial.
Talk Like a Pirate Day missions will be available around that holiday.
We’ve added several Daily Group Missions. More to come.
Increased XP rewards for missions of level 10 and up. The change at the lower levels isn’t significant but above level 20, you typically get 2x the XP you did before.
A Small and Deadly War: If Otenio Marquez was killed, you couldn’t exit immediately. Fixed that.Economy:
In 1.6, the Studding Sails recipes incorrectly report what the output will be. Studding Sails, Heavy produced Studding Sails, Quality. Studding Sails, Superior produced Studding Sails, Heavy. Studding Sails, Exceptional produced Studding Sails, Superior. Fixed that.
There were problems with some uncommon outfitting not being able to be made in the appropriate Shipyards. Fixed.
Removed all ship recipes from Ship Construction books that you learn automatically on building a shipyard. Adjusted the descriptions for each of these books to more accurately match the recipes they teach, and where those recipes can be used.
Moved the Fishing Smack on to the Fishing Lodge itself, and we will remove that book from circulation at a later time, since there’s no real reason to have the Smack in its own book.
Removed the West Indiaman from the default list of ships in the Large Shipyard, since it’s a medium ship. It’s now available in the Medium Ship Construction book.
Deeds for the Hellbrand Dromedary Flute and the Limburg Mississippi Co. Flute were unsecured cargo but not tradable. Fixed that – they’re now secured cargo as any untradeable deed should be.
The insurance payout for the Defiant was too high. Fixed.
There was a bug in the production cost calculation for the MC Couronne, resulting in an insufficient insurance payout. Fixed.
Fixed an exploit in inventory that allowed you to trade no-trade items sometimes.
Removed all traces of the Curing Shed, since it doesn’t exist anymore. Everything should point to the Slaughterhouse now.
If you bring up the Make an Offer dialog and then change selection, the dialog stays up with the old item filled in. Now the dialog closes so you don’t accidentally make an offer on the wrong thing.
“European” Commendations were rewarded to Pirates as to any other “nation” although that makes no sense. They’ve been renamed to “Fleet” Commendations and the text flavor is a bit different depending on your nation.Open Sea:
Spanish Patrolling Fleets spawned ships that looked British. They now look Spanish as they should.
If a player attacked a groupmate, the HUD reported the defender was attacking your group. Which made no sense because the defender was in your group. Fixed that.PvP / Port Contention:
There was apparently some confusion about various ways you might get flagged for PvP. For example, did you know that attacking a PvP-flagged player flags you for PvP also? We’ve added text to the tooltips to help clarify how you got PvP flagged and what it means.
Battle marker ships for PvP battles have red sails so they look different from PvE battles.
Clarified the tooltip for Preparing Ship.
Fixed a potential exploit in Dueling that could affect non-duel PVP battles.
If you attack an NPC in a red circle, players of the same nation may join to defend those NPCs. Any battle in the red is considered a PvP battle even if it doesn’t include players on both sides at the start. This hasn’t changed but not everyone is aware of this.
When you join an ad hoc PvP battle, there is now a 45-second battle start timer during which no one can move or fire. This lets you assess the situation and leave if you like.
When you join an ad hoc PvP battle, if the battle is 1v1 at the end of the 45-second timer, the battle is now locked at 1v1.
When you join an ad hoc PvP battle during the 45-second battle start timer, you arrive at one of 4 spawn points which are arranged in a square. The attacker’s spawn point is randomly chosen and the wind is set based on the wind in the OS in relation to that player. Then the defender’s spawn point is randomly chosen as one of the adjacent corners of the square.
In ad hoc PvP battles, reinforcement spawn points are behind the initial spawn points and are marked on the map. In this way, you can see which way you’d like to drag your enemy and what area of the map you need to avoid. Anyone joining after the 45-second battle start timer is considered a reinforcement.
When you join an ad hoc PvP battle, if the number of ships on one side exceeds the number of ships on the other by 3 or more (4v1, 5v2 or 1, 6v3, 2 or 1), the side with smaller numbers is allowed to bring up to 9 reinforcements to the fight. Otherwise, sides are capped at 6 as before.
Unless an ad hoc battle is locked at 1v1, other players can join either side as reinforcements up to the side cap (6 or 9) for the next 10 minutes.
If your side in an ad hoc is full (e.g. you’re allowed 6 players and that’s how many are fighting) and one dies before the 10 minute timer expires, another player may join to replace him/her. And so on until the 10 minute timer expires.
Ad Hoc Invisibility and Preparing Ship are now only applied when zoning in a PvP environment, not at the end of PvE battles outside the red. In other words, you get them when zoning into the red from port and exiting a PvP battle.
Preparing Ship is now simpler – it prevents you from attacking or being attacked, period. (One exception: You can still auto-join a groupmate’s battle when you have this effect.)
Added Info Services to the Port Captains explaining a bit about our new ad hoc rules and how PvP works in general.Art / Sound:
Avatars
Soldiers no longer teleport up stairs in Bluefields.
An NPC in Grand Turk was missing a rifle. Fixed.
Fixed a number of NPC issues in taverns like the one in Les Hattes.
There was a pirate carrying a struggling female through Rio de la Hacha and the soldiers failed to notice or care. She’s now quietly and safely reading instead of being accosted.
NPC floating above a wall in Rosignol has now safely alighted on the wall and is sitting comfortably.
Marie Whitney in Sabanqui has been moved so as to no longer occupy the exact same space as another NPC.
NPC in San Juan is now playing the knife game on a table instead of in thin air over his legs.
Fixed a number of other NPC issues where they were clipping barrels, floating in the air, stuck in roofs, etc.
Fixed some log spam caused by some NPC problems.Towns
Ambergris: NPCs were overlapping in their duties, walking through each other and such. Fixed that.
Georgetown: Fixed several NPC clothing clipping problems.
Golden Lake: There’s a church in the middle of town that you can’t enter except using X. Once you get in, you can’t get out. Fixed that.
Jenny Bay (and towns that look like it): Is now much prettier.
Portobello: It was possible to stand in the bonfire. This isn’t safe. Now you are prevented from doing that.Ships
Athena Frigate: Now has bow spray.
Bahamut: Fixed several graphical issues including missing swivels.
Defiant: Fixed a bug that caused the damage graphics to show up incorrectly.
El Dragon: Wasn’t showing damage when hit. Fixed.
La Diligente: Fixed some damage graphics bugs including one where they don’t show up and one where the flag continued flying after the mast had been shot away.
Limburg Flute: The physics model for this ship wasn’t as big as the ship, allowing clipping. Fixed.
Lyon Hoy: Now has bow spray.
Minerva Frigate: Now has bow spray.
Polacre: Now has bow spray.
Renard Chasse-Maree: Fixed some damage graphics bugs including one where they don’t show up and one where the flag continued flying after the mast had been shot away.
Sultan Flute: Now has bow spray.
Valiant: Fixed some art bugs with rear gun ports.Sound
Added sounds for fire and candles in the Admiralty Office in Bartica.
Removed ship sounds from Bluefields where there is no ship.
Improved torch sounds in Tortuga.
Villa Hermosa is livelier now.
Fixed a few other NPCs that were supposed to have sounds associated with them but didn’t. This should also correct some log spam.UI:
Character Selection UI: Selecting by clicking or double-clicking on the national flag wasn’t working properly. (Clicking elsewhere on the line worked fine.) Fixed.
Camera: Added a Preference for looking at your avatar in the Open Sea. Default is that he’s your focal point. If you prefer the way it used to be, you can turn this off in Preferences.
Victory Status UI: Even we found “Current Ranking” confusing and we received many support requests in situations where, for example, Spain would very clearly be in last place for the current map win but Current Ranking would show them in 3rd place. “Current Ranking” meant the rank from the previous map win. So we changed the name to “Previous Rank” which should help clarify.
Made some changes to the code that handles the cursor. You shouldn’t notice any change but it’s always possible we introduced a bug. If you notice such, please let us know!
We’ve had multiple support requests since early Beta that sound like Shift, Ctrl, or Alt (or some combination thereof) are stuck. We’ve also experienced this ourselves. However, it’s been next to impossible to reliably repro. Dev has made a pass through our keystroke code and made some changes they think will improve the situation. It certainly fixes the one “reliable” repro we had and should have an overall positive effect.
Using Enter in multi-line edit boxes (like email and LFG) was broken in 1.6. Fixed now.Stability / Performance:
Fixed a problem with being boarded while disconnected. You’d return to find no Reinforcement UI – now you have one as you should.
Sending a long email containing non-ASCII characters not only failed but could log you out of the game. Fixed that.
Fixed a chat server crash that occurred a few times in 1.6.
Fixed a rare zone server crash that could occur during dueling.
Fixed a memory leak that could occur on server shutdown. It hadn’t caused any known problems, but leaking memory never a good idea.Misc:
Tweaked the way the profanity filter works in order to programmatically block more. Let us know if you see it blocking stuff it shouldn’t.
Cleaned up some log spam complaining about missing icons.
New localization bug fixes and localized text from SOE.
¶ 1.6.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.6.34.1
08.06.08 by MilMan
This is a server-only build – you do not need to download a patch. The only change in this build is a fix to a bug where, when an invitation to a port battle expires, it crashes the mission server, causing problems with the port battle. This is what happened on Rackham on 8/5/08.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.6.34.0
Misha 08/04/2008
This is another milestone build. There are about a month’s worth of changes and fixes in this build. Sadly, some of them you can’t see yet – they’re larger changes that are in the works for a future milestone. However, some of the things you can see include:
Accolades/Titles – You can receive a Title for a number of accomplishments: Completing missions (like career missions, Bey’s Retreat, and Fortaleza), creating ships, and others. Not all planned titles are in this build – more are planned for the next milestone. But I’m excited to run into Master Shipbuilders in town.
Pet slot - Parrots and such don’t give an advantage in battle but look cool. So do you look cool or do you have all the weapons you want? You no longer have to decide. Equip your pet into the new pet slot and free up space for more fighting tools.
New Ships – See below and also this link for more info.Known Issues:
If you are boarded while disconnected, upon reconnection you are missing the reinforcement wave UI. We are working to fix this ASAP.
Differences between 1.5.48.0 and 1.6.34.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Writ deeds are now flagged unique (cyan). Refit deeds are flagged uncommon (green).
Abaddon’s Will: Armor Bonus 10% -> 35%, Structure Bonus 10% -> 20%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 12.5%
Alexander: Broadside DR 10 -> 11
Athena: Acceleration 0.8 -> 1.2, Deceleration 1.68 -> 1.35, Broadside DR 4 -> 5, Topdeck 6lb -> 8lb, Structure 1300 -> 1350.
Bahamut: Broadside DR 10 -> 12
Capricieux (Mastercraft): Armor Bonus 25% -> 35%, Structure Bonus 20% -> 35%, Reload Bonus 12% -> 17.5%, 14×8lb -> 16×8lb
Conquistador (Sleek): Armor/Structure Bonus 5% -> 15%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 15%, Visibility 69 -> 63, Capacity 135 -> 145, Speed 16 -> 16.1. Fixed a bug with its wind angles, changing: Close Haul 70% -> 87.5%, Beam Reach 87.5% -> 94%
Curieuse (Trader’s): Speed 16 -> 16.5
Cursed Blade: Reload Bonus 10% -> 12.5%, Turn Rate Fast 9.45 -> 9.75, Close Haul 75% -> 80%, Beam Reach 87.5% -> 90%, 10×8lb -> 12×8lb
Defiant: Speed 15.4 -> 15.6
Defiant (Mastercraft): Defense 19 -> 20, Broadside DR 7 -> 8, 10×8lb -> 14×8lb
Defiant (Sleek): Tracking 13 -> 16, Acceleration 1.2 -> 1.3, Defense 20 -> 21
Deliverance: Armor 3520 -> 3740
Deliverance (Heavy): Reload Bonus 5% -> 10%, Broadside DR 10 -> 11, 10×9lb -> 12×9lb, 24×16lb -> 26×16lb
Discovery: Accuracy Bonus 2 -> 4, Reload Bonus 10% -> 17.5%, Tracking 18 -> 21
El Dragon: Defense 42 -> 47
Gallant: Accuracy Bonus 1 -> 5, Tracking 13 -> 23
Hercules: Speed 15.4 -> 15.3 (does not effect Sleek variant)
Intrepid: Armor/Structure Bonus 35% -> 45%, Reload Bonus 20% -> 22.5%, 14×8lb -> 16×8lb
Mignone (Privateer): Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 30%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 15%, Tracking 16 -> 17, Added 15% Sail Bonus, Speed 15 -> 15.4. Cargo stack limit has been increased from 200 to 250.
Minerva: Acceleration 0.8 -> 0.95, DR 4 -> 6
Mordaunt: Broadside DR 10 -> 11
Myrmidon: Bow Armor 550 -> 560
Neptune’s Disgrace: Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 30%, Tracking 18 -> 23, Added 20% Reload Bonus, 34×9lb -> 34×10lb
Oliphant (Heavy): Armor/Structure Bonus 30% -> 40%, Broadside DR 7 -> 9
Oliphant (Mastercraft): Armor/Structure Bonus 15% -> 25%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 15%
San Mateo (Heavy): Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 40%, Added 15% Reload Bonus, Broadside DR 12 -> 14, Narrow DR 5 -> 9
San Mateo (Trader’s): OS Speed 62 -> 64
Tigre (Heavy): Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 35%, Added 7.5% Reload Bonus, Broadside DR 6 -> 8, Narrow DR 3 -> 4, 24×14lb -> 24×16lb
Tigre (Mastercraft): Armor/Structure Bonus 2.5% -> 10%, Reload Bonus 5% -> 10%, 24×16lb -> 26×16lb, 14×9lb -> 16×10lb
Tigre (Sleek): Added 7.5% Reload Bonus, Speed 15.75 -> 15.9
Valiant: 14×6lb -> 14×10lb
New Ships!
Archelon: Level 50 all-career refit of the Deliverance.
Couronne (Mastercraft) – Level 50, Freetraders only.
Cruizer (Heavy) – Level 17.
Dauntless: Level 50 all-career refit.
El Dragon (Mastercraft) – Level 18.
Minerva (Mastercraft) – Level 50.
Monarch: Level 50 Freetrader refit of the Mignone.
Treason: Level 50 Buccaneer combo writ/refit of the Wenden.
Trinidad: Level 50 all-career refit of the Conquistador.
van Hoorn (Mastercraft) – Level 20.
Exceptional St. Elmos Masts now give +31.5% mast integrity.
Leibniz’s Reloader Mechanical Reloader now gives +18% reload
Iron Armor Plating (Medium) speed reduction reduced to -22.5%
Large Steam Lanched Grapples now gives +12 grappling attack
Round Shot: Sail Damage 15-20% -> 12.5-17.5%
Bronze Round: Sail Damage 17-22% -> 15-20%
Stone Shot: Sail Damage 17.5-21.5% -> 17-21%
Explosive Round: Sail Damage 20-25% -> 17.5-21%
Bar Shot: Sail Damage 60-80% -> 57.5-77.5%
Chain Shot: Sail Damage 67.5-95% -> 65-92.5%
Star Shot: Sail Damage 82.5-110% -> 80-107.5%Ship Combat / Skills:
NPCs now surrender under different circumstances based on their level. More info can be found here.
NPC allies would sometimes wander off while fighting your enemies, causing you to need to sail some distance to catch up to them to help. They should now stay closer to the team.
In some ship battles, it was possible to get trapped between two columns that appeared as if you had room to get through. Fixed that.Buccaneer
Bloody Minds: Defense 1 -> 2
Career: Money Loot -30% -> -20%
Command Skill Line: Duration 3min -> 4min. Changed these skills so that two can be active at any time (self and group). Maneuvers or Battle and Evasion or Speed.
Disrupt Formation: Accuracy -1 -> -2. First Hit Bonus 4 -> 2 (old max -10 accuracy, new max -16 accuracy). This skill only affects your target – the description was wrong.
Distraction: Duration 2min -> 3min
Endurance: Duration 2min -> 2.5min
Shred Armor: Reset 5min -> 4min, Ignore Armor 75% -> 90%
Will to Survive: Morale Recovery 7.5% -> 10%
Wolf Pack: Duration 5min -> 6min, Damage/Reload 1% -> 2%Freetrader
Career: Defense 3 -> 0, Added 4% resist
Debilitating Broadside: Additional Hits 15 -> 17
Ranging Shot: Reset 3min -> 2min
Running Dark: Now persists when you zone.Navy
Guardian: Defense 5 -> 0, Resist 5% -> 10%
Swashbuckling:
Your implied target no longer has a balance circle. It was too confusing to figure out which was your real target.
When NPCs die, their floaty names disappear and stop cluttering up the screen.
Tuned most avatar outfitting to be more uniform.
Changed the balanced and sturdy swords so they are no longer specialized. They had the highest stat bonuses for parry/offense so they become the best weapons to have for builds centered around those stats. This made all the much more interesting and cool mission and uncommon weapons not viable for those builds and the common weapons the ones to beat. These are now less useful than the mission loot swords, which is as it should be.
Tightened up the damage range on the heavy swords. They were overpowered compared to other weapons at that level.
Added descriptions to several items.
Added effect durations to several skill descriptions.
Combat medicine was set to replace Treat Wounds, which was a mistake since they have different roles. Combat Medicine doesn’t heal as much but can be used on an ally who is in close combat.
Ghede’s Exile and Kalfu’s Freedom now have a shared cooldown instead of reset timers.
Thrust, Vicious Thrust, Lunge, Vicious Lunge: These were not giving initiative on the killing blow as they should. Fixed that.
Improved Vicious Strike: Was giving more initiative than it should. Fixed that.Missions:
It was possible to have the Mission Failed effect (that blocks loot/XP) applied to you multiple times. They don’t stack so it didn’t hurt anything, just looked silly. Fixed now.
Added a new loot item (Disturbing Book) that generates a mission.
Pirate Tutorial: Fixed a few issues including preventing dead men from sliding across the floor.
Pirate Pillaging missions are now available from Spanish Town when that town is Raided.
One-Upsmanship: Changed the type of encounter that’s used for this mission and added missing text. If you had accepted but not completed this mission, it will be removed from your mission list. Simply re-take it.
Red Tide: The BlackPoint rare loot was only dropping in the French and Pirate versions. Fixed that.
Speedy Delivery: One part of the mission told you to bring 9 crates of sugar cane but another part told you to bring 20 crates of oak logs. Instructions for this mission no longer conflict.
Wayward Son: Sometimes a prisoner would spawn outside the cell and you’d end up in a 5:1 fight. That’s too hard. Fixed the spawn so you should never have to battle more than 2 NPCs at a time.
Persephone Hedden’s Invitation: You were mistakenly told to meet her in the Tavern. Now it correctly points you to the Company Office.
Captive Audience (and others): If you died during avatar combat in some missions, you couldn’t give up – you were stuck in the mission until the combat effect wore off. Fixed that.
Mysterious Bounty: Corrected some text that referenced the Garrison Commander when it should’ve referenced the Magistrate.
Too Close for Comfort: This is too easy to be a group mission. Now marked as a solo mission.
Diversionary Tactics: If you logged out at the wrong time, you wouldn’t be able to complete this mission. Fixed that.
Grand Turk: When it was time to speak to Stephanus van Meel, it was difficult to determine where to find him. Improved that.
Stop and Go: Doing this mission in a group made it impossible to complete. Fixed that.
Fortaleza da Luz: It was possible to enter the cathedral before you were ready. Fixed that.
The Fortaleze da Luz delivery missions are now available.
It was possible to complete both the Star Chamber and the Supernatural Jacqueme missions with the same character. That shouldn’t be true. Fixed.
Jurisdiction Clause: Implied that it was a group mission. It’s not. Clarified the text.Economy:
You can now sell extraneous avatar outfitting to the Junk Merchant.
We made Fine Timepieces tradeable.
It was possible for Freetraders to buy additional recipe books when they didn’t need them. Now you’re limited to one.
Freetrader recipe books bought from the shop are not stackable – this also helps keep you from thinking you want more than one when you don’t.
Removed Lineship Bundles from the MOV/MOT Exchange Shops.
Changed all the new ship refit items to cost 125 MOTs (was 100 MOVs) and increased the cost of the Treason refit from 50 of each of Trade and Victory to 75 each of Trade and Victory.
Advanced Skinning (Furs) required more resources than Skin Game (Furs) but output the same amount. Now they require the same resources.
Extra Powder Magazine 2 now costs 1200 db to produce. This has been wrong since launch.
It wasn’t possible to learn to make Hermes’ Sails Modifications 3 & 4. Now it is.
Huge and Colossal Hulls: Used to require the same amount of resources to build but that doesn’t make any sense. Changed the labor requirement to to match other advanced recipes.
Huge Raider’s Guns 2 now has a correct cost.
Medium Wadding 3 now has a correct cost.
Added recipe for Superior Grapples and Ladders.
Added recipe for higher level Hermes’ Sails Modifications.
The pricing for Artemis’ Cannon Modification 3 is now in line with the other versions.
Arcadia no longer requires a square sail when you build it (since it doesn’t have a square sail).
Santiago and Limburg Flutes were requiring the wrong size hulls. Fixed that.
Citations of Conquest now last 2 hours instead of 4 and you receive twice as many of them in general. (Existing Citations haven’t been doubled. If you haven’t used them yet, they now last 2 hours instead of 4.)Open Sea:
Santa Clara is now part of New Spain.
Fixed an exploit possible when player groups attacked NPC groups.
Now when NPCs spawn, they can’t attack for 15 seconds.
Patrolling fleets that were supposed to have 8 ships only had 7. Fixed.PvP / Port Contention:
It was possible to Duel yourself causing all manner of weirdness. No more Fight Club.
Having your PvP flag set could prevent you from reinforcing NPCs in ad hocs. Fixed that.
We now change your healthbar when you’re available to be attacked by another player to make that clearer.
If you rejected your enemy’s offer of surrender, you would get the same loot from boarding as from sinking. Boarding is supposed to grant more loot. Fixed.
There was a bug such that the local map and radar might show you outside the red but you were still flagged for PvP (as indicated by a status effect). This confused many players. Fixed.
If you had personal points for a port and we rescheduled the landmark battle for that port then you fought to earn more personal points, you’d lose your previously earned points. Fixed that.
Victory points for owning a port were being lost when a port battle was scheduled. Now they’re retained until the port is lost (if it’s lost).
The Battle Start Timer has a new UI.
Under certain conditions, Pirate raided ports would then become Pirate owned. Not supposed to happen. Fixed.Art / Sound:
Avatars
Some NPCs were missing their forearms. Fixed that.
Ships
Agamemnon: Fixed some LOD issues where the ships lost parts when viewed from a distance.
Arcadia Xebec: The national flag used to continue to fly after the masts were shot down. Fixed.
Breton Chassee Maree: The national flag used to continue to fly after the masts were shot down. Fixed.
Capricieux: Fix an art issue on the stern.
Cutter: Fixed the foremost trisail disappearing when viewed from a distance.
Dromedary: Damage wasn’t showing up correctly on the low LOD version. Fixed that.
La Diligente: Fixed some bugs reported by the steering committee.
Lyon Hoy: Fixed some bugs reported by the steering committee.
Trinity: There was a cannon on the topdeck pointing the wrong way. Fixed this safety hazard.
Van Hoorn: Only one side of the underhull was customizable. Fixed that.
Wenden: Decreased the resources used by the low resolution version. This should improve performance on the Open Sea if there are many of these about.Towns
Bartica: The Fencing Trainer now faces the correct direction.
Cayenne: Magistrate’s Office was sunny when it’s dusk out. Fixed.
Leogane: There were supposed to be career trainer NPCs in town. Now there are.
Nassau (and towns that look like it): The well was smoking. Turned that off.
Oranjestad: Fixed the flag on the auctioneer. He’s Dutch, not British.
Sisal (and towns that look like it): A pelican sometimes flew through solid trees as if they weren’t there. He now avoids the trees.
Spanish Town: Now looks different when Pillaged, simiar to Gibara or West End.Sound
Fixed some sound error spam in your logs when you’re playing Fortaleza da Luz
UI:
It’s no longer possible to Duel yourself. But now it’s also no longer possible to even try.
Group Health UI: Increased the font size for names and added a balance meter.
Character Status Initiative’s tooltip was blocked from being shown. Fixed now.
Conquest Port UI: Peaceful ports where you have personal unrest are no longer always shown.
Victory Status UI: Underdog points and the points a nation starts with just for owning points were combined into one value. Meanwhile, there was a value we didn’t use at all (it was always 0, no matter what). So Starting Points are now the points you get for owning ports to start with and Underdog Points are the points you get for losing the map in the last round.
Inventory UI: Added tooltips to the tabs.
Loot UI: Triple digit amounts were truncated. Fixed.
World Map: I’ve been known to click the [X] that closes the game instead of the [x] that closes the map. Now clicking the black area around the map closes it. Also, Esc closes it without anything bad happening.
Society and Friends List UIs: Some items now wrap which is better for localization.
Fixed some localization issues with some of our new UI pieces.
Morale cost was showing up twice in most skill tooltips. Fixed that.Stability / Performance:
We had earlier fixed a bug where a player lost his ship while teleporting. While looking for that bug, we found a place in the code where the connection server might try to zone you even though you were already zoning or had just completed a succesful zone. Fixed that. Dunno who, if anyone, ever hit that code but it’s fixed now.
Misc:
Joining and leaving a group sometimes booted you out of your mission. Now, when you leave a group while in a mission encounter we now start a kick timer and post a warning client event. Once that timer elapses, the player is booted from the encounter. The timer is canceled if the old group leader invites the player back into a group. The player who left the group cannot invite anyone to a group until his encounter boot timer elapses or is canceled.
Sometimes you couldn’t send email to your Society until you’d zoned – it would say you weren’t a member of that Society. Fixed.
Several keys such as Page Up, Page Down, Insert, Delete, Home, End, Pause, and others could be mapped to hotkeys but have no effect. Fixed.
Additional localization and translation fixes from SOE.
¶ 1.5.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.5.48.4
MilMan 07/17/2008
The purpose of this build is to deploy what we hope is the fix to the character and mission rollback bugs. The last attempt had a bug in the cache server that we’ve fixed. This may also fix the problems that were causing “ghost” characters to be created on Testbed. This is a server-side change and so you don’t need to download a new patch.
¶ Release Notes for 1.5.48.3
[Content not found]
¶ Release Notes for build 1.5.48.0
MilMan 07/10/2008
The primary purpose of this build is to fix the House of Solomon Relic. This build also includes some changes necessary to help us find and fix the character rollback bug. And it also includes some localization fixes from SOE.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.5.46.1
MilMan 07/08/2008
This is a server-side only patch – you won’t need to upgrade your client. The reason for this patch is that we broke the House of Solomon Relic when we released 1.5. Anyone who had completed the mission and received the item has since lost the item. Anyone who hadn’t completed the mission doesn’t receive the item on mission completion.
This build fixes the mission to once again reward the item and also restores the item to players who should have already had it.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.5.46.0
Misha 06/30/2008
This is a milestone update, meaning it has about a month of changes in it. This particular milestone focused on bugs and polish so there’s not as much new content as usual. However, there is quite a bit and hopefully some of your favorite bugs have been fixed as well.
Main changes include:
Port Contention: Changed the unrest values at which ports change state. See below for details.
Port Status UI (used to be Conquest Status UI): This piece of UI was annoying as heck if you were trying to check the status of contention for a particular port or find out when the next port battle is. The UI Strike Team has revamped this UI and made it 100x better than it was.
Fortaleza da Luz: This is new content for full groups of level 50 players. Prepare to be spooked.
Ship Outfitting balancing: Some outfitting was stupidly overpowered. Some was stupidly underpowered. The Design team has [tuned these items significantly](added insurance on ships and outfitting).
Insurance: PvP in our game has had a higher level of risk than many players were comfortable with or happy about. We’ve added insurance on ships and outfitting in order to mitigate that risk a bit.
When Gibara or West End are Raided by Pirates, they look different – it’s much more obvious what state they’re in. Have fun with that.Known Issues:
Ad Hoc Invisibility prevents players from initiating or joining PvE battles. No more puddle jumping to get through red zones.
Mission Rollbacks: We may or may not have fixed this. We have added some tools to help us figure it out if it happens again. If it happens to you, please log a support request ASAP and include your game log. You can simply cancel the missions you’ve done before and retake the ones you want. In certain circumstances, you may find you can’t complete the new missions. If so, mention that in your support request and a GM will happily work with your to resolve this.
Character Rollbacks: We believe we’ve fixed these. However, if this happens to you, log a support request ASAP with as much info as you can provide – where you were when you logged out, when you logged out, when you logged in, attach game logs from the session you logged out and the session you logged, and tell us what you lost (as much as you can recall). In most cases, a GM will quickly help you get reestablished.
Differences between 1.4.34.0 and 1.5.46.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Abaddon’s Will: Added 10% structure/armor/reload bonus. Secondary Battery 6lb -> 8lb, Main Battery 12lb -> 16lb
Achilles: Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 45%, Sail Bonus 17.5% -> 25%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 15%, Moved one pair of guns from the secondary battery to the main battery
Bahamut: Added 10% structure/armor bonus, 20% reload bonus
Cursed Blade: Speed 16.3 -> 16.4, Structure/Armor Bonus 20% -> 60%. Added a pair of 8lb guns.
Expedition: +7.5% reload rate, level 16 -> 19, Guns 18×6lb -> 20×7lb, Sail Bonus 10% -> 15%
Falcon: Speed 14.5 -> 16
Fallen: +12.5% reload rate, Level 16 -> 19, OS Speed 60 -> 64, Battle Speed 16.75 -> 17.5, Guns 20×6lb -> 22×6lb
Gallant: Speed 15.4 -> 15.9
Hercules Sleek: Speed 16.15 -> 16
Intrepid: Armor/Structure Bonus 30% -> 35%, Reload Bonus 12% -> 20%, Tracking 15 -> 16
Lancer: +10% reload rate
Mercy: Sail Bonus 20% -> 25%, Broadside DR 7 -> 9, Main Gun Battery 16lb -> 18lb, Acceleration 0.98 -> 1.08
Mont Blanc: Structure/Armor Bonus 35% -> 40%, Reload Bonus 15% -> 25%, Secondary Gun Battery 9lb -> 10lb, Main Gun Battery 15lb -> 18lb
Myrmidon MC: Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 30%, Mast Bonus 15% -> 20%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 16%, Main Gun Battery 30×12lb -> 34×12lb.
Reaper’s Grasp: Speed 15.75 -> 16.5, Main Gun Battery 14×8lb -> 16×9lb
Reason: Structure Bonus 10% -> 20%, Armor Bonus 10% -> 25%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 17.5%, Tracking 11 -> 13
Red Devil: Speed 16.05 -> 16.15, Armor/Structure Bonus 25% -> 32.5%, Reload Bonus 15% -> 20%
Tigre MC: Tracking 12 -> 14
Made a pass through our outfitting and set the display categories on items so that results and activatable cargo types show up as either “Usable Items” or “Consumable Items.” Also did away with our multiple consumable item categories, which never made any sense.
Most general ship outfitting and uncommon/unique permanent has been adjusted and brought into a consistent set of standards in relationship to common permanent ship outfitting. See the devlog here???
Multiple general outfitting items of the same type can now be stacked in inventory. Stack size limit = 5.
All Refits: 2 durability -> 3
Bonus Loot Book / Bonus XP Book: Added a 5-second cooldown in order to prevent two being used at the same time. (They don’t stack so using two at once wastes one.)
Some outfitting items (Company Hull Bracing and others) were listed as General outfitting but only fit certain size ships (small, in that example). Now they display their size requirement.
‘Extra Hammock Space, Colossal’ now has a weight of 10 instead of 1.
Insignia of Swiftness: Buffed slightly. BTW, this stacks with everything.
Navigation Map: This mission reward was supposed to grant a buff on the Open Sea but did nothing. Now it works with currents to increase your speed.
Smooth Planked Hull: Such outfitting is now available for colossal ships.
Studding Sails, Exceptional: There were two different items with this same name. Now one is called Superior and the other Exceptional.
Tangle of Ratlines: Required you be level 50 to use it but was rewared at level 20. Now you only have to be level 20 to use it.
Loot-only outfitting is no longer displayed in Help.Ship Combat / Skills:
NPCs no longer count against the limit of 6 on a side in ad hoc battles.
Reinforements now spawn close to groupmate’s initial spawn locations instead of in the middle of the enemy spawns. We hope.
There’s a greater chance per player in a group that NPCs killed by the group will drop additional loot. This is additive. Current tuning is such that, with 3 people in a group, there is an 80% chance that a second loot roll will be made when an NPC is sunk. If there are 4 people in the group, there is a 100% chance that a second loot roll will be made and a 20% chance that a third loot roll will be made.
There are no longer any invalid ships. Pirates are no longer flagged for PvP when they sail a captured ship that is career-restricted.
Respecs are now available in shops again. They are also available for commendations other than the lowest level of commendation.
Changed “Increase Crew” to “Recover Crew” in tooltips for skills such as Rally the Crew, To the Last Man, Fighting Spirit, and Surprise Below Decks.
Unstick: Corrected the tooltip. It doesn’t teleport you to the entry of the encounter – it only moves you a few feet. The goal is to help you get unstuck if you’ve beached your ship.
When entering a ship duel, players were sometimes facing the wrong way. Fixed.Cutthroat
Career Base: Added 5% turn rate
Death’s Embrace: Fixed a bug that caused the self effect to disappear if you changed targets.
Hit and Run: Range 400 -> 450
Plague Ship: Clarified the description in the tooltip as the duration shown is the longest duration, which is the “immunity” period. This applies to every crew damage skill and every stun skill.
Run Them Down: Fixed a bug that caused the self effect to disappear if you changed targets.Buccaneer
Bosun’s Starter: Now requires 80% or less sails to use.
Command Line: The self buff portion of these now stack, so you can use all commands at once if desired.
Dark as Night: Fixed a bug that reduced the amount of stealth this provides. Battle Speed 5% -> 9%.
Master of Pursuit: Added +4 accuracy. Fixed the skill description to be correct.
Sweep the Decks: No longer has a range requirement.
Weapons Handling: 5% reload/damage -> 6% reload/damagePrivateer
Claim Prize: Now always provides a freetrader commendation and has a 50% chance to provide a navy commendation.
Death’s Embrace: Fixed a bug that caused the self effect to disappear if you changed targets.Navy
Emergency Repair: Now works if your ship has taken any armor OR sail damage.
Escort: No longer provides a self buff.
Last Resort Speed: This was supposde to provide a 90 second speed boost and a 130 second attack block. The attack block was getting applied for 90 seconds. Fixed.Freetrader
Career Base: Added 6% reload rate
Determination: Fixed a bug that caused the self effect to disappear if you changed to any target outside the range requirement.
Expert Mercenary: Reset 20min -> 10min
Expert Gunner: Reset 20min -> 10min
Hold Together: Now works if your ship has taken armor or sail damage. Also, this no longer requires a repair bundle.
Provision Allies: Clarified the description in the tooltip. It doesn’t increase your crew, but it recovers lost crew.
Ranging Shot: Had no reset timer, but was supposed to have a 3 minute timer. Fixed.
Rescue Me: Now requires 80% or less sails to use.
Sailhandling Drills: Added 4% battle speedSwashbuckling:
Changed the way drawing weapons work to make it look less glitchy when you are out of combat.
Improved animation blending in general – all combats should look better now.
Active Block tooltip now states that it costs 10 Initiative to use.
Active Dodge and Active Parry tooltips now correctly display duration.
Reckless Swings line of skills now clearly state that they require the target be an enemy.
Added a 6-second cooldown to the Revive and Resuscitate skills.
Shin Kick has a new icon.
Slice now requires a target.
Victorious Foot Slash: Corrected offense bonus shown in tooltip.Missions:
Some players didn’t realize that flirting had such long-term consequences and wanted to change the choice they’d made. We now have a mission, available from an NPC named Dr. Love, that lets you do that.
There were several instances where NPCs either didn’t have the ! over their heads until you talked to them or, once you talked to them, it would disappear even though you needed to talk to them again. This happened most often in what we call “endless quests” – places where you have a bit of an ongoing conversation with an NPC or multiple NPCs in a room in order to advance a mission. The ! should show up correctly in all cases now. If you find any where it doesn’t, please let us know.
If you talked to an NPC and left the interact window open while you fought, you might not be able to complete the mission. Fixed.
Fixed a problem that was causing some missions to spawn the wrong ships.
E nemy and ally escorts will now be more proactive about attacking in pretty much all missions.
Some swashbuckling missions wouldn’t let you use Smelling Salts when you should have been able to. Fixed those. For those that don’t let you use Smelling Salts by design, text has been added to make this clear so you’re not surprised by the limitation.
Tweaked some Swashbuckling standard encounters to be less overwhelming to players so the missions that use this will be more reasonable for player level.
The following missions have been flagged as group missions: A Cunning Plan, Balancing the Books, Clean Sweep, Commendable Action, Gold Strike, The Gunpowder Plot, Irish Eyes are Smiling, False Choice, No Excuses No Exceptions, Nutty Navigator, Opposition Research, Place Your Bets, and Submit or Die. You can still solo these if you like but they’re very difficult to do alone. If you had accepted these missions but hadn’t completed them, they’ve been removed from your mission list and you’ll need to re-take them in order to complete them.
When looking for missions to flag as group missions, ConCo discovered one standard encounter used for missions like Ransom where 4 flagships were being spawned, making the missions very difficult. To make them more reasonable, the spawns have been reduced in level (they should come out as lower-level ships than the mission level), and only 3 flagships will spawn.
It was possible for groupmates to rejoin failed mission encounters. Now, when a mission is failed, after 2 minutes, players receive an effect that prevents receiving XP and loot while in that mission.
Reputation Missions: You were able to take certain Become Trusted missions when you were already trusted by the faction. And you wouldn’t get certain Become Esteemed missions until you were already esteemed. Fixed that.
Tutorial: Tab is supposed to cycle you through enemies from the nearest to the furtherest and back again. It wasn’t always working to cycle back again. Fixed that.
We did a polish pass on starter missions. As a result, we added missions pointing you to your career mentor to expedite finding “A Man of Wealth and Taste” and we removed the “Welcome to Town” mission chain.
Slightly increased the XP possible to acquire doing starter missions.
The Economy: Building the Warehouse: Not building the warehouse would put this mission into a wonky state. Fixed that.
The Economy: Delivering the Logs: Explained how to drag/drop items to move to/from inventory.
Man of Wealth and Taste: NPCs couldn’t surrender. Now they can.
Meat Me Halfway: The skybox was broken. Should look better now.
Unruly Patrons: The ally NPCs were no help at all. They’re better now.
Red Tide: It was possible to skip the bit about escorting the captains to the pilot boat. Fixed that. Also, if you let one enemy escape, you couldn’t progress in the mission. Fixed that too.
Miscommunication (and missions like it): The rival would sometimes veer off from port for no visible reason. Fixed that.
Portobello Missions: These were available to players of all nations but that made no sense. Now they’re available to Spanish players only.
Damaged Goods: Now offers a reward for completion.
Captured Crew: Now offers a reward for completion.
Pressing Need: You can no longer talk to the target NPC after the fight starts. That was causing some problems. Fixed several other issues with this mission as well. These changes may cause Pressing Need and A Pressing Engagement to fall off your mission list if you have accepted them but not completed them. If so, simply reaccept them from the NPC.
The Strange Case: Speaking to the enemy captain resulted in code instead of text. Fixed that.
Deals within Wheels: After meeting with Maxwell Fosbrooke, you were sent to the wrong location. Fixed that.
Shark Infested Waters (and missions like it): Made the crates easier to click on.
(18) Always Keep an Eye Out: After completing this mission, Alphonse Mercado should have been missing an eye but wasn’t. Fixed that.
Bad Neighbors: The friendly NPC was an unresponsive British Townsfolk, instead of Milla Gordet. Fixed.
Run Out the Guns!: You were sent to the wrong NPC to turn this in. Fixed.
Book Return: If you died, you had to wait for the 5-minute timer in order to leave. Fixed that.
Scholarly Pursuit: You were encouraged to exit the mission before you completed it. (The Exit Encounter button would start flashing even though you needed to speak to Jonas.) And, when you returned, you were told to speak to Jonas in the wrong location. Fixed that.
Family Matters: The wrong NPC was in the mission and you were told to kill the wrong guy. Fixed that.
Outfox the Henhouse: Allied ships should now appear Dutch. If you had this mission but hadn’t completed it, it will be removed from your mission list. Simply accept it again to complete it.
Tale of the Lost: You’re now flying your own flag as you should be.
Gesture of Peace: Corrected text for French and Spanish characters.
Beyond the Sea: If you cancelled this mission and retook it, you wouldn’t be able to complete it. Fixed that.
Flash of the Blade: Added missing text.
Wayward Officer: Your allies were useless. Fixed that.
By Popular Demand: Fixed some issues that could make this difficult to complete.
Patrolling Cayenne: It wasn’t possible to turn in this mission on completion. Fixed.
Under Scrutiny: There was an extraneous icon on the map for no reason and players naturally found it confusing. Removed it.
Island of the Monkeys: Clicking on the equipment didn’t complete the encounter objective. Now it does.
Proud Mary: It was possible to injure Mary, preventing mission completion. Fixed.
Caring for our Own: The conversation with the smuggler was code instead of text. Fixed that.
A Fort Too Far (and missions that use the same encounter): The longboat you click on to leave wasn’t showing up on the radar/local map. Fixed that.
Seventeen Bones: Fixed the broken skybox.
Spiritual Currency: Clarified the encounter objective: You use the rum to burn the tobacco.
Sinking the ‘Swallow’: British ships were a weird color. Fixed.
An Ill Wind…: Added a mouseover highlight to the paper you need to interact with to make it easier to discover.
An Ill Wind… / Strange Visitors: It’s now clearer when you accept these missions that doing so will prevent you from taking the other chain.
The Dealmaker: When you accept, you now see text instead of code.
Et Fili, Et Spiritus Sancti: You had to press X to get the chart fragment. You should be able to click on it now.
Jurisdiction Clause: Fixed an encounter objective that sometimes showed up multiple times.
Mousquetaires Noirs: There were a number of problems with the Musketeer Pistol, including difficulties using it during Boarding Combat. Fixed.
Musketeers Sans Muskets: If you failed the mission, you couldn’t exit until the In Combat timer cooled down. Fixed that.
Pardon Me!: NPCs in the final Buccaneer career mission should no longer get lost.
Total Coverage: Fixed the encounter objective. It used to say you needed to board two ships when one will do.
You Are What You Eat: It was possible to get stuck in this mission. Fixed that.
Suzette’s Dissertation now has a 12 second 40% swashbuckling DR buff. And tells you that.
NPCs in epic missions were dropping 3x as much loot as they should. Fixed that. (Affects Bey’s Retreat as well as Fortaleza de Luz.)Economy:
You can now drag and drop an item from your inventory to another player to initiate a trade with them.
When trading with another player, if you had a partial stack already of an item you were receiving, the trade would happen correctly but reporting (chat, for example) might be inaccurate. Fixed that.
Trade UI: Pressing Esc used to just hide the trade window. Now it actually cancels the trade.
Warehouses now have a stack cap of 250, instead of 100.
The Junk Merchant was paying more for Rough items than for Inferior items, which made no sense. He’s sobered up now.
There only exist oak Barrels so having oak in the name was redundant. Removed it.
Advanced Huge Hull Construction: Used to cost more than the standard, even though for all other such advanced things, the only difference in cost was labor. Brought it into line with the rest – costs the same but more labor required.
St. Anne Schooner recipe no longer requires ship provisioning items.
You now receive an insurance payment to recoup part of your losses if you sink. A portion of the cost of your ship and permanent outfitting is paid to you.
It wasn’t possible to learn the recipe for “Fine-Grained Gunpowder, Exceptional.” Now it is.
Master Shipyard (Large): Clarified the description of the structure recipe labor multiplier because we keep getting questions about what it is supposed to do.Open Sea:
Ad Hoc Invisibilty: 90 seconds -> 65 seconds
Preparing Ship: 100 seconds -> 75 seconds.
If you happened to sail over an NPC spawn point just as they spawned, you’d immediately get drawn into battle with no warning whatsoever. Now NPCs spawn with the “Preparing Ship” effect so that they can’t attack immediately and you can see them before they can do anything to you.
The Lyon Hoy now regularly spawns in level-appropriate Freetrader groups.
The El Dragon now regularly spawns in level-appropriate Pirate and Privateer groups.
Some Smuggler’s Union ships would appear to be one thing on the Open Sea but turn out to be something else in battle. Fixed that.
You should now get a HUD and hear a sound when sailing on the Open Sea and crossing the border into a Pirate PvP zone.PvP / Port Contention:
The rule is supposed to be “If you enter the open sea and you’re invisible, then you cannot join a PvP battle or attack another player. Invisibility prevents all PvP interaction.” There were a few instances where groupmates weren’t following that rule. Fixed that.
You get 100% loot for boarding and 80% for sinking. However, sinking a level 50 ship should have resulted in 5 MOV. Now it does and boarding results in 6 MOV.
Changed the points at which unrest changes port state. The new levels are: 3000 = Pirate PvP, 6000 = Open PvP. Port flipped is still 10,000. We’re doing this to make it easier for players to push ports to the point of interesting PvP happening at them. We chose 3000 because that is slightly more unrest than is gained by one complete economy unrest pick-up. So you can’t push a port into PvP with a single unrest pick-up.
It wasn’t possible to generate personal contention points after a port hit 10,000 unrest. Now it is.
Added Marks of War and set them up as part of the economic unrest turn in.
Tuned Economic unrest turn ins so that about 4-5 times as much unrest is generated per item. You can now generate about 2800 unrest per 6 hours with economic turn ins.
Based on player feedback, we’ve decided that defenders should be able to execute economic unrest turn-ins in the Normal landmark state. This means that Offensive and Defensive players should be able to turn in economic unrest goods during the same states.
The unrest bundle items now have distinguishable icons.
There were still some occasions when someone sunk while in boarding combat would break a Port Battle. Fixed.
When Pirates conquer a port, they now get 4 victory points instead of 3.
We now explain where to turn in your Citations of Conquest.Art / Sound:
Avatars:
Added some additional heads to choose from.
Changed the way you idle. Should look less goofy now.
Freetrader Recipe Trainer: Added a floaty over his head to make him more noticable.
Fixed several NPCs that were above or in the ground. They’re now on the ground as they should be.Towns
Cabo Raphael: The Fence was writing on a non-existent desk. Now he stands up as is fitting his station.
Charlesfort (and towns that look like it): Completely overhauled the town art.
Caracas: Added a sign to the door of the Admiralty Office.
Cartagena: The sounds emanating from musical NPCs now match their instruments.
Golden Lake (and towns that look like it): Some porches were inaccessible. Fixed that.
Pointe-a-Pitre: Fixed an issue where the camera could clip through a wall.
Port Royal: It was possible to stand near the sea and not hear the surf. Fixed that.
Puerta de Plata: Moved the Florentine and Dirty Fighting masters so they’re no longer facing rocks and trees.
Rosignol (and towns that look like it): Completely overhauled the town art.
Ruddy Cove (and towns that look like it): Completely overhauled the town art.
Tortuga: Almost none of the smuggler’s tunnels went where they said they did. Now they do. Also, fixed several chambering issues (places where you’d be walking along and suddenly there’s emptiness for a bit before the next part of the town loaded).Ships
Curieuse Snow: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This should improve performance where there are a lot of them about.
Corsair Xebec: Sails did not behave correctly. Fixed that.Sound:
Fixed some combat log spam due to sound problems during swashbuckling.
UI:
Server Selection UI: Added new artwork.
Chat UI: Chat windows can now be shrunk to two lines of chat.
Toolbars: It’s now possible to lock them in place via a preferences setting even when you have the rest of the UI set to be movable. Also, now when you drop something on the toolbar, if there is something in that slot, the old thing gets stuck to your cursor. Makes it easy to swap and arrange stuff in your toolbar.
Toolbars / Inventory UI: You now need to drag a toolbar item or cargo item much farther before it is recognized as a drag operation. This makes it harder to whip a toolbar item off your toolbar by mistake. Also, now when you drag an item (skill, cargo, etc), you can let up the mouse and, if there is no valid drop target under the mouse, the item sticks to the cursor. You can then click on a valid drop target for the item, and it will drop the item there. You can clear the item stuck to your cursor by right-clicking or dropping the item in the world. Dragging something out of the toolbar empties the toolbar button—cancelling the drag later will not bring that item back into the toolbar slot. Dragging cargo, however, does not remove the cargo unless you successfully drop it somewhere else. So cancelling a cargo drag has no effect.
Radar/Compass: There’s now a Preference that lets you lock this to always point North. There was an old Preference called “Rotate minimap with camera.” That has been deleted, and if anybody had that set, it has now been reset. That setting is merged into the new dropdown. Also, shrunk the size of the icon for Active Missions so they’re less likely to overlap each other. It’s still possible, if you scroll the map all the way, to get them to overlap in some cases, but that’s extreme.
Mission UI: Improved the art for some of the icons.
World Map: Currents are now shown. Also, if you had the World Map open while changing screen resolution, some port markers wouldn’t move. Fixed that.
Harbor Master UI: You can now double-click to move to another ship.
Swashbuckling Trainer UI scroll bar sweet spots were offset, making it difficult and confusing to scroll those windows. Fixed that.
New Port Status UI
In-world Firing Arcs and Wind Indicator are now turned on by default. We used to leave them turned off but turned them on during the tutorial but this caused a variety of problems. Now they’re on by default. If you’d like to turn them off, change the setting in the Interface section of Preferences.
Improved the look of the variety of message boxes in the game.
Society MOTD: If someone was trying to update this when a member zoned or the page updated in some other way, work would be lost. Fixed that.Stability / Performance:
Made a change that should prevent character rollbacks. Let us know ASAP if this happens to you!!!
A player reported that they teleported and lost their ship. This is slightly different from the other rollback bug some players have experienced. We figured out what happened to him and fixed it.
Made some changes to help prevent the mission rollback bug. Let us know ASAP if this happens to you!!!
Added some logging to help us track down the mission rollback bug if it turns out that we haven’t completely fixed it.
While digging into the mission rollback bug, we found a place we were sending unnecessary network traffic and keeping extraneous info in memory when we didn’t need to. Fixed that.
While testing, some of our QA staffers crashed the game. We have no record of players hitting this crash but crashes are bad so we fixed it.
Fixed a rare zone server crash cleaning up auction info on shut-down. We don’t think data was lost in this crash but crashes are bad so… fixed.
A GM was monkeying around one day and figured out a way to reliably crash the zone server he was in (which happened to be a popular town). Fixed the crash.
Removed a Society warning that was harmless. No need to spam your logs like that.Misc:
Several keys (Page Up, Page Down, Insert, Delete, Home, End, Pause, and others) could be mapped to hotkeys but have no effect. Fixed.
BSharp tweaked the rate that a camera snaps to your target. See what you think.
Fixed a bug in Societies where, if a character was renamed, the Society remembered the old name.
When the last player is removed from a Society, the society name is freed. That wasn’t true before.
Cleaned up some WARNING spam in your game logs. There were times when certain warnings would fire that really weren’t a problem so they didn’t need to be logged.
Removed descriptions for some obsolete deeds from Help.
Added more localized text and fixes to some localized text from SOE.
¶ 1.4.x
¶ Release Notes for Build 1.4.36.0
Gray Noten 05/29/2008
This is a milestone upgrade and, as such, is a large download and contains several changes with broad impact.Main Changes:
Buccaneer class: All characters are receiving a forced respec and a free respec token. In order to balance Pirates, we needed to create another class for them. They now have Cutthroat (what we’re calling the class we’ve had all along) and Buccaneer. Then we revamped skills on all classes. The logic and general overview is covered in several Devlogs by Taelorn (Cutthroat, Buccaneer, Privateer, Freetrader, Naval Officer). More details can also be seen below.
Unrest Supply: The intended effect of this system is to pace the rate at which unrest is generated by turn-ins, and to ensure that everyone has time to respond to economic moves by their enemies. There’s always a fixed, known amount of unrest at stake in each period, and you can tell at a glance how much of that your nation is going to get. You can also tell how much your enemies are going to get, and plan accordingly. When you visit the Rebel Agent or Garrison Commander, you’ll see a brand new UI. Through this UI, you’ll be able to turn in specific items, including unrest bundles, to contribute to your nation’s efforts in the port. Every six hours, at fixed times, a set quantity of each item is consumed, and the port generates a fixed quantity of unrest. You can’t always make turn-ins, though. Economic-driven unrest only works up to a point, after which the battle has to move out onto the waves. Neither the attackers nor the defenders can continue making turn-ins past the Pirate PvP stage. Isildur will be posting a Devlog on this soon where he’ll go into more detail.
New ships: Our creative and talented players have provided us with new ships. We’ve added four to the game in this build. Details below.
Buddy Key Restrictions: Now, when you’re logged in with a free account, there are certain limitations on your characters. For example, free accounts:
Can’t talk in Nation chat or Area chat (but still can in local and emote)
Can’t send /tells unless the target is a friend or is in the same group or society. Can reply to tells.
Can group.
Can PvP
Can’t earn credit for landmark unrest. They can still contribute to landmark unrest, the just don’t get any personal unrest points and thus will never get a landmark battle invite.
Can participate in player-to-player trades.
Can’t list items for sale in the Auction House and can have only one warehouse.
Only have access to two structure slots and cannot use certain structure deeds.
Are capped at level 12.Known Issues:
Several keys (the Windows key, Page Up, Page Down, and others) will execute all unbound hotkey functions. Since we recently added the ability to bind hotkeys to your additional toolbars but didn’t set default hotkeys for these, pressing those keys will attempt to execute whatever is on those toolbars. We strongly recommend either binding hotkeys to those toolbars or removing consumables from them. We hope to fix this very soon.
Missions you have already completed and turned in sometimes reappear on your mission list, replacing missions you haven’t completed. This is also happening in 1.3. We’re working frantically to find the problem and fix it ASAP.
ConCo made a pass through several of the starter missions to fix some problems. In some cases, the missions they fixed have been removed from your mission list. You will need to re-take those missions if you want to complete them. (If you already completed them and turned them in, you don’t need to do anything.)
The Smugglers tunnels in Tortuga may or may not take you where they say they will. For example, some Hills tunnels take you to the Prison instead. We’re aware of the problem and working on the fixes.
Differences between 1.3.32.0 and 1.4.34.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Alexander: Tracking 9 -> 11
Arcadia: 16.1 speed -> 15.95
Bahamut: NEW SHIP! A level 50 Buccaneer refit.
Capricieux: Decreased sails from 2850 to 2750.
Couronne: Can now be used by Buccaneers as well as Freetraders. Upgunned 5lb -> 7lb, 10lb -> 12lb, bow 4lb -> 8lb
Cursed Blade: Mast Bonus 10% -> 25%, topdeck 6lb -> 8lb, Reload Bonus 7.5% -> 10%
Defiant: Increased max speed from 15.25 to 15.4; increased armor from 2860 to 3465; increased sails from 2200 to 2300.
‘El Dragon’ Barque: NEW SHIP! A level 10, lateen-rigged counterpart to the Cutter that has 12×4lb guns. Think of it as the little cousin of the ‘Corsair’ Xebec.
Heavy Hercules: Can now be used by Freetraders as well as Cutthroats and Privateers. Armor Bonus 35% -> 30%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 7.5%, Structure Bonus 35% -> 20%, Tracking 16 -> 13
Mastercraft Hercules: Tracking 18 -> 16
Sleek Hercules: Tracking 21 -> 17
Invincible: Decreased speed from 17.5 to 16.25; decreased damage reduction from 17 to 15.
La Diligente: NEW SHIP! This is a level 1 ship with four guns. It’s a quick merchant ship.
Leviathan: NEW SHIP! This is a level 50 merchant ship restricted to Freetraders. It has a gigantic cargo hold. Note: While pirates can build a Leviathan in the careening camp, it is not a valid ship for them, and they will be flagged for PvP while sailing it. However, they can refit it into the Bahamut, which is a Buccaneer specific ship.
Lyon Hoy: NEW SHIP! This is a level 3 ship with eight guns. It performs like a cross between the Renard and Jamaica.
‘Mont Blanc’ Indiaman: New variant: A level 50 Freetrader refit of the Mastercraft Oliphant
Mordaunt: Tracking 9 -> 11
Myrmidon: Increased speed from 15 to 15.2; increased armor from 3025 to 3080; increased sails from 2340 to 2400.
Polacre: The Mystique and Algiers were supposed to have a max Open Sea speed of 62, but it was stuck at 57. Fixed.
Prince: Decreased speed from 17.5 to 16.25; decreased DR from 19 to 17.
‘Red Devil’ Xebec: New variant: A level 50 Cutthroat refit of the Mastercraft Arcadia
Tigre: Removed errant +2 accuracy bonus.
Heavy Tigre: Increased structure and armor bonuses from 20% to 25%.
Mastercraft Tigre: A bug was giving this ship a weight bonus to its topdeck instead of its gundeck. Fixed. New loadout: 14×9lb, 24×16lb
Trinity: Decreased speed from 17 to 16; decreased DR from 15 to 14.
Triumphant: Decreased speed from 17 to 16; decreased DR from 15 to 14.
Valiant: Increased DR from 13 to 14. Tracking 9 -> 11
Wenden: Increased DR from 13 to 14. Tracking 9 -> 11
Expert Sailmasters: Speed 5% -> 2%, repair 10% sails
Scuttle: We no longer allow scuttling ships with cargo or non-permanent outfitting. The confirmation box now contains the ship type and ship name to be scuttled.Ship Combat / Skills:
Reduced the range of bar shot by 5%
Some NPCs were using too much dismantling shot, making certain missions incredibly frustrating. Now Merchant NPCs will damage sails to a point, then concentrate on crew and hull damage. Similarly, they’ll damage crew to a point, then concentrate on hull damage.
You can now always exit a Duel.
If someone on your Ignore list invited you to Duel, they’d see no response from you at all. Now it tells them you’ve rejected their offer to duel.
Removed Repel Grapples from Freetrader NPCs.
It was possible to claim the derelict of an ally. Fixed that.
Fixed a bug with ad hocs that sometimes caused a player to create battle markers on the Open Sea where no one was in the battle.
It was possible to use Take Command of Ship on certain invalid ships. It didn’t work correctly due to a different problem but the end result could be player frustration and confusion. Fixed.
If your hold was full, it was impossible to claim loot even when it was 0 weight. Fixed that – zero-weight loot can be claimed even if your hold is too full for the rest of the loot.
During cooldown, tooltips for skills would flash annoyingly. Fixed that.
All characters are receiving a forced respec and a free respec token. Respec should now work properly, regardless of the ships you have docked.
All “tiered” ship skills are gone. If you had a skill with a number on the end, now there’s just one skill instead of two. The new skill is usually the same as the old second tier skill.
There are no more skills that give additional dockyard slots. All careers now start with four dockyards which means you can have 5 ships.
Adding the Buccaneer class, we had to change the way we detected invalid ships slightly. Let us know if you find any bugs with this change.
Surprise Attack (Privateer skill): The icon misleadingly implied this was a negative effect. Changed the background to blue.
Pirates are now called Cutthroats. There’s a new pirate career called the Buccaneer. We’ve tried to make this list comprehensive, but we probably missed a few.New Skill Types: Attacks that use a Per-Hit Bonus. These attacks become more effective with each shot that hits in a single broadside. They multiply the buffs/debuffs shown in the tooltip. These skills have three new fields:
First Hit Bonus: This is how effective the skill is just by landing a single hit.
Per-hit Bonus: This shows how much bonus is added for each additional hit. This is usually 1.
Maximum Hits: This shows how many hits can land before we stop increasing the strength of the skill.
Here’s an Example:
Rake: First-Hit Bonus: 5, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits: 10, Target Effects: 2% crew damage
This does 10% crew damage just for hitting, and it maxes out at 30% crew damage after 10 hits.Cutthroat Skill Tree (Existing Pirates)
Brutality: Sacrifice for Speed – Target Weakness – Sacrifice for Damage – Plague Ship – Sacrifice for Victory
Career: Scavenge – Run Them Down – To The Last Man – Drink and the Devil – Slaughter Their Crew
Destruction: Vaporing – Cut Shroud – Entangling Shot – Damage Rudder – Cripple Enemy
Disaster: Death’s Embrace – Dump Guns – Desperation Fire – Rum Ration – Deter Pursuit
Flogging: Cut Lines – Flog Gunners – Wolf Pack: Hunters – Increased Damage – Work the Crew
Gunnery: All or Nothing Shot – Rake – Overloaded Shot – Shred Armor – Vital Strike
Red Flag: Decimate – Bloodthirst – Tack Upwind – Bosun’s Whip – Fury
Smuggling: Agile Rigging – Stealth – Before the Wind – Devil Take the Hindmost – Black Market
Survival: Jury Rig – Defense – Plug Leaks – Hit and Run – Too Mean to Die
The Skullduggery and Evasion chains are gone.New Cutthroat Skills
Entangling Shot: Tier 3 Destruction. This replaces foul lines as an attack debuff instead of a short-range click debuff. Reduces target grappling defense by 10, sail resist by 15%. Requires dismantling shot.
Slaughter Their Crew: Tier 5 Career: Attack. +20% damage, +100% crew damage. First-Hit Bonus: 1, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits: 19. Target Effects: -1% acceleration, turn rate, reload rate, damage. Stacks with other debuffs. 40 morale, 40 second duration, 5 minute reset. Requires round shot.
Shred Armor: Tier 4 Gunnery. Attack, ignores 60% of target DR. 30 morale, 5 minute reset.
Work the Crew: Tier 5 Flogging. Passive +5% armor and structure. Provides 3% Open Sea speedChanges to Existing Cutthroat Skills
Agile Rigging: Turn 5% -> 6%, Defense 1 -> 2
All or Nothing Shot: Raised damage to 33%, dropped reload penalty to 13%.
Before the Wind: Broad Reach 12% -> 8%, Running 12% -> 8%
Black Market: 2% running speed -> 7.5% Open Sea Speed
Bloodthirst: Added 10% crew resist
Break Formation: 15 second duration -> 10
Cripple Enemy: Duration: 120 sec -> 150 sec
Cut Lines: 4 defense -> 5 defense
Decimate: Duration: 30s -> 60s
Defense: 4 defense -> 5, added 2.5% resist
Drink and the Devil: Can be stacked with Sacrifice skills. Now provides 7% turn, reload, acceleration, damage. Duration 2 min, reset 5 min, 30 morale
Dump Guns: Reset 60 sec -> 75 sec
Flog Gunners: Reduced reload rate to 14%, added 5% damage.
Fury: Now acts as a passive +10 max morale.
Hit & Run: Temporarily increases your speed and acceleration. Becomes more effective with each additional shot that hits. ~1.25% speed, accel per shot that lands, limit 9 hits. 1 minute duration, 450y range, 5 minute recharge.
Increased Damage: Added 3% resist
Plug Leaks: DR 7 -> 6
Rake: Now uses an intensity multiplier instead of flat crew damage. First-Hit Bonus 5, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits 10. Target effects: 2% crew damage (maximum 30%).
Rum Ration: Reload Rate 15% -> 10%, Morale 20 -> 30
Run Them Down: 7.5% Open Sea Speed -> 10%
Sacrifice for Damage: Reduced morale cost by 10
Sacrifice for Speed: 12.5% speed -> 15% speed
Sacrifice for Victory: Turn Rate 20% -> 12.5%, Reload 20% -> 15%, Morale 40 -> 30, Crew Penalty 40% -> 30%
Slaughter Their Crew: Reset 3min -> 5min
Stealth: Now mixes 30% relative stealth and 7.5 miles flat stealth.
To the Last Man: Now recovers 40 morale, 20% crew. Reset 10 minutes.
Vaporing: Now has a 4 minute reset and a 175 yard range
Vital Strike: Structure Damage 50 -> 60
Wolf Pack Hunters: Now gives 1% damage, 1% turn rate increase, 1.5% damage resistance.Privateer Skill Tree
Aggression: Tracking Shot – Deaths Embrace – Burst of Speed – Hit and Run – Aggression
Agility: Agile Rigging – Tack Upwind – Sturdy Rigging – Agile Tactician – Jugular
Battle: All or Nothing Shot – Increased Damage – Ride the Wind – Surprise Attack – Crushing Broadside
Career: Sanctioned Piracy (free @ 15) – Terrorize – Plunder – Second Wind – Concentrated Fire – Break Formation
Deception: Evade Aggression – Hidden Reserves – Stealth – Surprise Below Decks – Hired Crew
Disabling: Demoralize – Cut Shroud – Entangling Shot – Damage Rudder – Cripple Enemy
Flexibility: Signals – Battle Preparations Defense – Maneuver – Battle Preparations Offense – Rapid Reload
Survival: Improvise Sails – Defense – Improvise Armor – Evasion – Rebuilt Ship
Unpredictability: Speed – Resist – Maneuver – Sail Defense – OffenseNew Privateer Skills
Agile Tactician: Tier 4 Agility: A stackable group buff similar to Battle Doctrine. 1% resist, turn, damage, reload, accel
Concentrated Fire: Tier 4 Career: An attack that deals bonus damage and ignores a portion of the targets DR. +25% damage, ignores 35% DR
Hired Crew: Tier 5 Deception: Gives a passive boost to max crew. 15%
Jugular: Tier 5 Agility: This is a major debuff that can only be used if your target is in a bigger ship class than you. It reduces DR, acceleration, reload rate and a small amount of accuracy. It gets more effective with each hit that lands. -20% +2% DR, -15% +1.5% accel, -10% + 1% reload per hit. 7 First Hit Bonus, 18 Max Hits.
Rapid Reload: Tier 5 Flexibility: Click buff. +30% reload rate for 60 seconds. 30 morale, 5 minute reset.
Rebuilt Ship: Tier 5 Survival: Passive +5% structure, +5% armor
Ride the Wind: Tier 3 Battle: A passive boost to target tracking and Open Sea speed. 5 tracking, 4% Open Sea speed
Sturdy Rigging: Tier 3 Agility: Provides a passive boost to mast integrity. 10% mast integrityChanges to Existing Privateer Skills
Aggression: Changed to a passive skill.
Agile Rigging: Added 4% Open Sea speed
All or Nothing Shot: Reload Penalty 18% -> 15%
Battle Preparations: These skills now last for four minutes with an eight minute reset timer. They can be used in combat, allowing you to chain them.
Break Formation: 15 second duration -> 10
Burst of Speed: 25% speed bonus -> 20%, Reset 2 min
Demoralize: This is now an attack skill. Reduces target max morale by 5.
Evasion: Morale cost 50 -> 35
Entangling Shot (was Foul Lines): Now an attack skill that requires dismantling shot. Since its now very easy to apply, the amount of mast resist reduction is now 15%.
Hidden Reserves: Reset 30min -> 12min
Hit & Run: Temporarily increases your speed and acceleration. Becomes more effective with each additional shot that hits. ~1.25% speed, accel per shot that lands, limit 9 hits. 1 minute duration, 5 minute recharge.
Increased Damage: 5% -> 7.5%
Improvise Sails: Repair 40% -> 37.5%, Resist 25% -> 20%
Maneuver: +2 defense
Plunder: Added 5% chance for bonus loot
Resist: 17.5% resist -> 15%
Sail Defense: 35% mast resist -> 25%
Sanctioned Piracy: This is now received automatically at level 15.
Second Wind: Now includes the bonuses of No Quarter and 5% crew resist.
Signals: This is now a tier 1 skill.
Stealth: The stealth % is not as high as before, but it now includes an absolute stealth. This means its more useful on smaller ships. 30% stealth, -7.5 mi visibility
Surprise Attack: Revamped skill. Click buff, provides +25% damage for 1 minute. 30 morale cost, 5 minute reset.
Surprise Below Decks: Morale Cost 60 -> 40
Terrorize: Reduced morale cost (~40)
Tracking Shot: Now a single attack skill that costs 20 morale, has +15 target tracking and +10% damage. 4 minute reset.
Unpredictability line: Reduced morale activation cost by 5
Unpredictability Resist: Resist 17.5% -> 15%
Unpredictability Sail Defense: Sail Resist 35% -> 25%Freetrader Skill Tree
Career: Sailmaster – Mercenary – Carpenter – Gunner – Captain
Desperation: Underdog – Dump Guns – Desperation Fire – Rum Ration – Hasty Fire
Escape: Repel Grapples – Defense – Determination – Evasion – Deter Pursuit
Logistics: Economy: Production – Economy: Manufacturing – Trade Connections – Economy: Shipwright – Work the System
Provisions: Defense – Maneuver – Boarding – Offense – Extra Rations
Ship Mastery: Hold Together – Reinforcement – Identify Weakness – Overloaded Shot – Debilitating Shot
Smuggling: Ranging Shot – Smuggled Cargo – Give the Slip – Misdirection – Running Dark
Trade: Tax Evasion – Rescue Me – Before the Wind – Optimal Rigging – Sailhandling Drills
Travel: Travel – Battle Preparations: Maneuver – Battle Preparations: Defense – Battle Preparations: Speed – Battle Preparations: OffenseCareer Chain
Expert Sailmaster: Max Speed 10% -> 5%
Expert Captain: Max Speed 10% -> 5%
Expert Carpenter: 60% armor repair -> 55%, 50% structure repair -> 40%New Freetrader Skills
Debilitating Broadside: Tier 5 Ship Mastery: Attack skill with a per-hit bonus. First-Hit Bonus: 1, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits: 15. Reduces target reload rate, turn rate, speed and acceleration by 1% each (max 16%). 45 second duration, 2 minute recharge, 40 morale.
Determination: Tier 3 Escape: Boosts your resists and grappling defense by 15%. Requires an enemy target within 250y range. 4 minute duration, 8 minute reset.
Running Dark: Tier 5 Smuggling: A clickable Open Sea buff that improves your stealth (20% + 7.5 miles) and Open Sea speed (2.5%) at the cost of reload rate (-20%). Lasts 12 minutes, resets in 10 minutes. Yes, the duration overlaps.
Underdog: Tier 1 Desperation: Increases damage, acceleration, turn rate and speed by 7.5%. Only works if you have less than 82% total armor remaining (50% for one broadside).
Work the System: Tier 5 Logistics: An upgraded version of Claim Prize. Each derelict has a 20% chance to provide 1 pennant, a 40% chance to provide 2 and a 40% chance to provide 3.Changes to Existing Freetrader Skills
Career Base: added 1 defense
Battle Preparations (4 skills): These skills now last for four minutes with an eight minute reset timer. They work different from the Privateer version in that they have a shared cooldown of two minutes, and they can stack. They can be used in combat.
Battle Preparations Defense: Resistance 3% -> 4%
Battle Preparations Offense: Reload / Damage 2% -> 5%
Before the Wind: Broad Reach 12% -> 9%, Running 12% -> 9%
Evasion: Now costs 40 morale instead of 50.
Hasty Fire: now lasts 2 minutes instead of 1.
Provision Allies (4 skills): These skills now provide twice as much benefit to the user as to the group members. Can be used in combat.
Repel Grapples: Now provides +35 grappling defense and +4 defense
Ranging Shot: Revamped skill. Attack. Increases the accuracy and range of your next attack by 1% per shot that hits (max 15).
Repel Grapples: 4 defense -> 5
Rescue Me: Max Speed 25% -> 20%, 30 second duration -> 45, cannot be used at 100% health (cannot be used at the start of a fight)
Reinforcement: now provides 3% all protection, 5% structure integrity
Rum Ration: Morale 20 -> 30, Reload 15% -> 10%
Tax Evasion: +5% armor integrity
Travel: This is now a passive skill.Navy Skill Tree
Career: Guardian (Escort renamed) – Rapid Shot – Final Defense – Break Morale – Ultima Ratio Regum
Defense: Defender: Resist – Emergency Repairs – Rally the Crew – Military Grade Construction – Invincible
Desperation: Last Resort: Maneuverability – Desperate Shot – Scatter Shot – Last Resort: Speed – Last Stand
Disabling: Disable Rigging – Disable Rudder – Rake – Show of Force – Crippling Broadside
Discipline: Decimate – Warning Shot – Focused Fire – Boarding Discipline – For God And Country
Dominance: Fortress – Thundering Broadside – Flagship – Dominate – Defensive Ship
Escort: Acceleration Increase – Escort – Speed Increase – Pirate Hunter – Convoy
Gunnery: Precision Fire – Reload Discipline – Damage Discipline – Gunnery Drills – Vital Strike
Prestige: Military Communications – Military Intelligence – Battle Doctrine: Offense – Battle Doctrine: Defense – Strategic PositionNew Navy Skills
Battle Doctrine Defense: Tier 4 Prestige: +2% resistance, +3% turn rate, +3% acceleration. Stackable with other Battle Doctrines. It’s on the same cooldown as Battle Doctrine: Offense, but they can be chained (5 minutes of Offense, then 5 minutes of Defense).
Damage Discipline: Tier 3 Gunnery: A toggle to increase damage. +14% damage, 35 morale.
Defensive Ship: Tier 5 Dominance: Passively increases armor integrity and DR. +1 DR, +10% armor
Dominate: Tier 4 Dominance: An attack skill that has a high short-range damage boost and a target tracking boost. +40% short range damage, +10 target tracking
Escort: Tier 2 Escort: Allows you to escort a ship that’s larger than you, improving their resistance (5%), speed (4%) and DR (1). It also improves your own speed (5%). 4 minute duration, 8 minute reset
Last Resort Maneuverability: Tier 1 Desperation: This is a trade-off toggle that allows you to spend a small amount of structure to gain a large amount of turning and acceleration, for when you need a situational boost. 20% turn and acceleration, 0.2% self structure damage second.
Last Resort Speed: Tier 4 Desperation: A click buff that lasts 90 seconds. You cannot attack while this is active. It provides a large speed boost, but it has a prohibitive amount of morale reduction. It also reduces your morale recovery rate. +10% speed, +5% closehaul/beam reach/broad reach speed, 85 morale, -50% morale regeneration. 8 minute reset.
Military Grade Construction: Tier 4 Defense. Passive +10% structure, +5% sails.
Pirate Hunter: Tier 4 Escort: A toggle that improves speed (10%) when sailing small, medium or large ships. 30 morale.
Rapid Shot: Tier 2 Career: An attack skill that increases the rate at which your guns reload for your next attack (40%, plus another 10% possible from hit bonuses). 3 minute reset timer.
Scatter Shot: Tier 3 Desperation: This attack does almost no damage, but it provides a large bonus to your resistance and defense. It also provides a smaller bonus to speed. The amount of the bonus depends on how many shots in your broadside hit the target. -90% attack damage, 4% resist, 2% defense, 1% speed on success. 1% resist, 0.5% speed, 0.5 defense per additional shot that hits, 4 First Hit Bonus, 14 Max Hits.Changes to Existing Navy Skills
Battle Doctrine Offense (was Battle Doctrine): This now gives +2% reload rate, +1% damage, +1% acceleration
Break Morale: Increased attack damage to 20%
Desperate Shot: Easier use requirement. Can be used if one broadside facing is down to 50% (or if your current total armor is < 82% of the max).
Focused Fire: -50% DR -> -40%
Fortress: Max Speed -7.5% -> -5%
Last Stand: No use requirement.
Military Communications: Now available at tier 1. 2 acc -> 3 acc
Rake: Now uses an intensity multiplier instead of flat crew damage. First-Hit Bonus 5, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits 10. Target effects: 2% crew damage (maximum 30%).
Rally the Crew: Cheaper morale cost (~30)
Reload Discipline: 25% reload -> 22.5%
Show of Force: Now uses a per hit multiplier. Reduces target reload by 12% +1% per additional hit, maximum 25 hits.
Speed Increase: This is now split so that the user gets the full benefit (15% speed) and group members get less benefit (5% speed).
Strategic Position: This is now a click buff that applies a self buff that increases the maximum range and accuracy of your next attack. +10% range, acc.
Warning Shot: This skill now an attack that applies a self buff that increases the damage of your next attack based on the number of shots that hit. ~+2% damage per bonus, cap ~20 hits. First Hit Bonus 7, Max Hit Count 13, reset time 6 minutes. Max +40% damage.
Vital Strike: +2 accuracy, +5% damageSwashbuckling:
Fixed an exploit in boarding combat.
Increased the range at which AI enemies are willing to stand to fight you, so that they don’t all move around every time you touch the movement controls.
Smoothed the range of boarding combat waves. The minimum wave count at 0 crew is now 2, and the maximum count at 1000 crew is 12. This change should make boarding combat a little more of an interesting contest, and less of a gank-fest.
Wall of Steel (Florentine): Corrected tooltip which was incorrectly indicating the skill was instant when it actually lasts 6 seconds.
Blinding Sand and Throw Sand (Dirty Fighting): Corrected tooltips which neglected to mention the 20-point balance cost.
Create Opening, Mislead, and Ruse: These skills now have a range of 4 yards.
We have a new “defend me” floaty for avatar space. The one used for ship space was really too large.Missions:
We’ve changed the icon for mission doors on the local map to a white circle with an exclaimation point in it.
New items will now drop from rare spawns in the Open Sea that lead to unique quests.
British Tutorial: There were no enemy ships causing the explosions but there were a couple guys walking around on water. Fixed that.
French Tutorial: Fixed some text bugs.
Several missions, level 1-15, and several NPCs in the starter towns were “cleaned up.” We had rearranged the starter missions a while ago and, as a result, let several NPCs with nothing to do and created a few other problems as well. If you had one of the problematic missions in your mission list, it is no longer in your mission list and you will need to re-take it if you want to complete it.
Fifteen Magistrate’s Commendations: There was code where there should have been text. Fixed that.
To Protect and To Serve: The allies you were supposed to protect were too fragile and would often be sunk before you even got into range. You now have better allies.
Business and Pleasure: Made it clearer where to find the wine. Added a “journal” to help you track your progress. Also, fixed some text errors in the dialog.
Man of Wealth and Taste: The Freebooter was behaving badly, drawing out the encounter needlessly. Improved his intelligence a bit.
Piper Gets Paid / Get a Clue: These two missions shared a door which led to two different rooms. Fixed that.
Just in Time: The destination line in part 5 was code. Now it’s text.
Swampcats Bounty: Demanded you sink Jaguars. No such thing so good luck with that. Now demands Panthers.
Damaged Goods: Added XP and cash rewards.
Amalgamation: Was directing you to board a Sharktooth Raiders ship when there wasn’t one present. Now there is.
Smash the Squadron: Corrected the allegiance described in the flavor text.
Pressing Need: The fight encounter was a bit abrupt. Made a custom encounter that fits the mission a bit better.
Tender Negotiations: You and your allies were flying the wrong flags. We can’t easily fix the flags so we changed the text.
Deals within Wheels: Many players found this confusing as doors that you didn’t need to enter yet would light up and failure to read carefully could lead you down the wrong path. The mission’s creator has attempted to make it all clearer and easier to follow.
Like a Cure for Chocolate: Boarding wasn’t required and should have been. Fixed that.
Bad Neighbors: Fixed the bug that prevented taking this mission.
A Plea to a Higher Power: This mission used to dump you unexpectedly outside Jenny Bay. Fixed that.
Cooler Heads Prevail: The NPCs in the consulate looked Spanish but were actually British. Fixed that.
Dividing Loyalties: Text explaining where to go could be misleading. Removed the misleading part.
Hunting the Coyote: This mission now offers XP and reward for completion.
In Like Flynn: Attempted to clarify the situation so players don’t get stuck fiddling too slowly.
Mob Rule: If you’ve taken but cancelled “A Riot is an Ugly Thing,” your objectives will be unclear. Improved that.
Persephone Hedden’s Invitation: Corrected destination text. It was pointing you to the tavern when you should be going to the company office.
Road Scholar: If mission was cancelled after talking to Ogden and then you took it again, he would only say his default text. Fixed that.
The Teacher: Fixed some gender confusion in the text.
Ransom: Some players were finding this too difficult so we added some allies.
A Sad Tale: Your allies were “Attacker (Generic).” Now they have factions as appropriate.
Curious Delivery: This mission was groupable but played like a solo mission. Now it’s no longer groupable.
Offers They Can’t Refuse: Fixed some gender confusion when referring to your career mentor. Also the NPC would keep the ? over their head after they no longer needed it. Fixed.
Mysterious Bounty: If the port had been flipped, you couldn’t progress past the part where you talked to the Garrison Commander. Removed him from the loop so you can complete the mission regardless of Port Contention.
Plugging the Leak: The Traitor wasn’t fighting back. Fixed that.
Beyond the Sea: This mission was missing a stage where you needed to talk to Wade again. Fixed that.
Lazarus, We Hardly Knew Ye: Tristan’s ship was flying the wrong flag. We can’t easily fix the flag so we fixed the text.
Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Your allies were called Flagship (Generic). Fixed that.
The Master’s Craft: Corrected grammar.
Under Scrutiny: Mission text and NPC placement didn’t make a lot of sense. Cleaned that up a bit.
Heirs in Judgment: Fixed a problem interacting with one of the ships in the zone.
Island of the Monkeys: This mission will fall off your mission list if you have it. The standard encounter was tweaked to correct a problem with a conversation with an NPC. This mission had several other changes also.
Not Without My Daughter1: Boarding anyone would count as boarding the flagship. Fixed that.
End of the Millennium: The encounter now occurs in a more appropriate room.
Duty is a Four Letter Word: It was impossible to enter the mission due to a bug with the room. Fixed that.
Money in the Bank: Corrected the instructions so you’re not sent to the wrong bar.
Research Assistance: Rescued scientists are no longer clones.
Vendetta’s End: Fixed the destination line.(37) Caring for our Own: The smuggler spoke in code instead of text. Fixed that.
Best Laid Plans: After speaking to the Pirates, speaking to them again resulted in nonsense text. Fixed that.
Time to Crate: Attempted to make the rope ladder exit easier to discover.
Risqué Business: The enemy captain would respawn but his crew would not, making him a little too easy to kill. Fixed that.
Search Muenda Audoire: Fixed a graphical problem with the crates.
British East India Company: Become Esteemed: The stated goals didn’t match what you actually had to do to complete the mission. Fixed that by fixing what you actually have to do so that it matches the stated goals.
Deputy, My Deputy: It was possible to target the corpse. Fixed that.
Halls of Commerce: This mission was telling you to go to the wrong place to talk to the wrong NPC to complete it. Fixed that. Also moved the NPC out of the floor.
An Ill Wind…: The map was sometimes embedded in some crates. Fixed that.
Suppress the Guanica Pirates: The Magistrates name was code instead of text. Fixed that.
You Are What You Eat: Fixed the sword impaling the chef. “Fluffy” guys need special weapons placement.Economy:
Tweaked tax rates for all nations. Enemy nations now tax each other at 60%; pirates tax and are taxed at 80%. This means that a FT can get a 30% tax rate in enemy ports and a 40% tax rate in pirate ports; a Buccaneer can get a 20% tax rate in enemy ports.
The Writs for Pirate and National Hercules were not easily distinguishable from each other. Fixed that.
Writ exchanges are now done through exchange shops instead of missions.
Mastercraft Oliphant: It wasn’t possible to make this ship. Fixed that.
Valiant: Reduced the lineship structure bundle requirement from 8 to 3, bringing it more in line with the costs of comparable ships.
Ship deed tooltips had a requirement, “You must be in Location Not Known.” Now they say you must be in port.
Marks of Trade: The tooltip said you’d get 10 points of Reputation when you actually received 25. Fixed the tooltip.
There was a bug where, if you had permanent outfitting equipped and you also listed some for auction, your outfitting would get unequipped. Fixed that.
Added 25 swashbuckling weapons and outfitting items for level 50 players to the commendation exchange shops. They all cost 20 commendations, and are available to all nations.
Buccaneers now start with -450 faction with BrTrade, FrTrade and SpTrade (instead of -750). This allows a brand-new buccaneer to build structures in enemy ports.
It was possible to build 11 warehouses. Fixed that.Open Sea:
Changed the colors on the radar and local map to make it easier to distinguish NPC hostiles from enemy players.
When a groupmate was prompted to join an ad hoc, s/he would see code instead of the name of the NPC being fought. Fixed that.
San Juan: You had to be really close to click to enter. Improved that.
Grand Turk: Fixed it so it can be seen further away like other ports.
Fixed some incorrect textures in the Open Sea.
Roughly doubled the rate at which Fleets spawn.
Reduced the chance of a port calling for an evil pirate to roughly 66% of that it previously was, and local merchants to roughly 50% of what it previously was. This will increase the rate that other ship types, including fleets, are called for.
Area Traders are ships that are called from a nearby port to sail to the calling port. They are all trader type ships. Due to our port layout, virtually all Area Traders are currently the nation of the calling port. Now we spawn Area Traders of random nations. This will increase the flow of ships of different nations to all ports.
Tweaked the number of ships called for by various ports: Ports around the rim of the map: Gulf Coast, and Central and South America, now call for more ships. Ports in the middle of the map now call for less.PvP / Port Contention:
Increased PvP XP gains by 50%
The waiting list for port battles was backward. If you were the first on the list, players below you on the list were more likely to be invited when invitations were rejected. Fixed that.
Changed the conquest consumable books from 4 hours to 2 hours, and doubled the number you get from the turn-in. Note that existing books have been nerfed in this way.
Restored the HUD message when there’s a server victory. I think the previous changes to chat channels had relegated that huge news to the chat window only.
Fixed a bug that caused a few ports to jump straight from 5000 unrest to Martial Law.
Removed Unrest decay from West End, Nassau, Riding Rocks, Santa Clara and Sabanqui.
Reduced the PvP radii of Nassau, Riding Rocks, Santa Clara and Sabanqui so they do not cover the nearby low level ports.Art / Sound:
We had a bug where adding particle effects to an item would add it to all instances of that item everywhere, whether we wanted them there or not. Fixed that. As a result, we may have lost particle effects on some items where they should be. Let us know if you see anything like that.
There was an invisible wall at the carpet’s edge in the mansion. Fixed that. Also fixed the camera clipping through the stairway.
Added sound back to the Auctioneer. He’s got some great new lines but says them less frequently. The shop sounds have been added to the Preferences slider for voices so the haters can turn them off.
Lowered the volume of the plane on our splash screen.Ships
Atlas Bark: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
Capricieux Frigate: Hull damage wasn’t showing up graphically. Fixed that.
Curieuse Snow: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
Defiant Frigate: Added bilge pump. No more water in the hold. Increased the size of the flag to be more appropriate to the size of the ship. Fixed some clipping issues between sails and their mast.
Hermes Packet Boat: Fixed a sail that showed user content backwards.
Limburg Flute: Fixed bilge pump.
Mordaunt Fourth Rate: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about. Also fixed a bug where trim was disappearing when it shouldn’t.
Mystique Polacre: Decreased the resources required by the low LOD version.
Oliphant Indiaman: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
Otter Skuda: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
Renard Chasse-Maree: Hull damage was showing up other places than on the ship. Fixed that.
Santiago Galleon: Fixed a sail that showed user content incorrectly.
Trinity Second Rate: Fixed a sail that was clipping the bowsprit.
Van Hoorn Snow: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.Towns
Belize: Burton Stagg was sitting in the ground. Fixed that.
Bridgetown: Four NPCs looked identical, including some major players. There’s a little more variety between them now.
Charlesfort: It was difficult to click on the Privateer Trainer. Fixed that.
Fort Caroline: Cleaned up a seam on the beach.
Pointe-a-Pitre: None of the Judges had yea or nay animations or chat text. Fixed that.
Tortuga: The Crime Lord’s Office longboat didn’t glow like other doors when moused over. Fixed that. Also, it’s now possible to get to any smuggler tunnel from any other smuggler tunnel. And BSharp has a new tool that lets him set avatar lighting based on what part of town you’re in. He’s gone a little mad with power. But where your avatar sometimes looked wonky in Tortuga, based on where you were, it should look pretty good most anywhere in that town now.Avatars
New PvP rewards: Added new clothing rewards to the Mark of Victory exchange shops.
Names of several clothing items were code instead of text. Fixed.
Fixed clipping problems with the male left large eye patch.
Fixed clipping problems with the female longcoat and gloves.
Fixed clipping problems with the female naval coat and vests.
Fixed many other clothing clipping problems.
Fixed clipping problems with /boggle.
Some female soldiers were carrying invisible rifles. Now they have visible rifles.
Fixed Bishop’s eyes in Pointe-a-Pitre.
Fixed the hand on sword idle so that hand doesn’t clip pommel as it had been.UI:
Splash Screen: Changed the logo bar at the bottom. Blends better now instead of looking tacked on.
Server Selection UI: If there is no MOTD to display there, the box for it doesn’t appear.
Character Creation / Customization: If the secondary color field isn’t something you can set, we hide it. Previous attempts to disable it by making it white, gray, or brown failed to prevent confusion. Hopefully hiding it will help.
Chat UI: Your chat windows can now be made more or less transparent using a slider in Preferences.
Radar / Compass: Removed the wind indicator in avatar spaces.
Harbor Master UI: If disabled, the “Switch to Ship”, “Teleport to Ship”, “Scuttle Ship”, and “Refill Durability” buttons now have tooltips that say why.
Junk Merchant’s shop is no longer just generic “Shop.”
Inventory UI: There was a bug where the Junk Dealer’s sell pane sometimes had broken items (couldn’t right-click on them and other problems). Fixed that and we’re hoping it fixes a similar bug in Inventory UI also.
Economy UI: Allowed word-wrap in the region area so that text doesn’t overlap in foreign language versions.
Fences now have text names instead of code.
It was totally bothering Ivy that, if you were close to a door, it might say “Press X to Tavern” at the bottom of your screen instead of “Press X to enter Tavern.” So she fixed that.
World Map: Tooltip text showed incorrectly if a town name was too long. Fixed that.
Added more tips to the Loading… screens.
Combat UI: Two different fonts were being used by the Defiant Frigate. Fixed that.
Using healing and repairs would show floating 0’s. Now it shows positive numbers like +2 or such.
Victory Status UI: Tweaked the art to better match that used by Economic Unrest UI.
Character Info: Reputation bars were too long. Fixed that.
Preferences: Added a slider so you can set the opacity of your Chat UI.
Ignore List: The sweet spot for scrolling wasn’t where you’d expect. Cleaned that up.
Flag and Sail Customization Shop: The Sell tab served no purpose so it has been removed.
When you take a screenshot (press P), you get a HUD message telling you where it was saved.
Preferences: Trying to change the slider for Open Sea music would cause the window to scroll and not actually change the slider. Fixed that.
Created empty key bindings for our second horizontal and vertical tool bars. This will allow players to bind those hotkeys to whatever they’d like, without adding a default binding for those hotkeys.
Help: Some ‘Captured’ ships are not listed in the ‘Ship Deeds: Captured’ category. Fixed that.Stability / Performance:
Added some code to help prevent the character rollbacks we’ve been experiencing. We’ve also tweaked some database settings that may help. Or it may not – we’re still researching.
We have been fighting a problem that periodically causes us to need to reboot some or all of a cluster. We’ve had to reboot Rackham multiple times as well as Blackbeard and Antigua. We’ve finally tracked down and fixed that bug.
Fixed a physics memory leak that could eventually crash the game. Thanks for sending those reports to Microsoft – that helped us nail this one.
One of our testers hung while sailing in the Open Sea. We think we fixed the cause of that.
During some automated testing, the client hung. An error in the log file said, “ERROR Texture: flsTextureManager::loadTexture load failed to load file ” We think we fixed the cause of that.
One player had repeated hangs while zoning but sometimes when sailing the Open Sea. He sent us a crash dump and we were able to find and fix the problem.
We may have fixed a bug one player reported where he would crash on zoning when he had User Content equipped.
Fixed a rare zone server crash that was a result of a race condition.
UC flags have been downloading truncated on some machines, causing memory corruption crashes. Fixed that.
Cache Server: Fixed a crash we saw as a result of a player deleting a character. We only saw it once but crashes are bad and cache server crashes in particular can cause data loss. We don’t want data loss, even on deleted characters.
Added some robustness to the Character Transfer system.Misc:
The Server Status Button now links to the Server Status page on our site instead of the Message of the Day/Release Notes page.
We now have support for multiple keyboard language settings. We added a /switchKeyboard command and bound it to F9. So if you have a French keyboard layout installed, for example, you can now swap between keyboard layouts with F9.
Function keys are no longer swallowed by edit controls. This means F1 will work if you’re in the chat window now (in addition to F9).
Alt-Enter no longer also does Enter. Which means if you’re toggling fullscreen from the login screen it doesn’t also log you in.
Clarified the errors you get if the game fails to launch due to an issue with PhysX.
Added more localized text from SOE
¶ Patch Note:1.4.34.0
This is a milestone upgrade and, as such, is a large download and contains several changes with broad impact.
Main Changes:
Buccaneer class: All characters are receiving a forced respec and a free respec token. In order to balance Pirates, we needed to create another class for them. They now have Cutthroat (what we're calling the class we've had all along) and Buccaneer. Then we revamped skills on all classes. The logic and general overview is covered in several Devlogs by Taelorn (Cutthroat, Buccaneer, Privateer, Freetrader, Naval Officer). More details can also be seen below.
Unrest Supply: The intended effect of this system is to pace the rate at which unrest is generated by turn-ins, and to ensure that everyone has time to respond to economic moves by their enemies. There's always a fixed, known amount of unrest at stake in each period, and you can tell at a glance how much of that your nation is going to get. You can also tell how much your enemies are going to get, and plan accordingly. When you visit the Rebel Agent or Garrison Commander, you'll see a brand new UI. Through this UI, you'll be able to turn in specific items, including unrest bundles, to contribute to your nation's efforts in the port. Every six hours, at fixed times, a set quantity of each item is consumed, and the port generates a fixed quantity of unrest. You can't always make turn-ins, though. Economic-driven unrest only works up to a point, after which the battle has to move out onto the waves. Neither the attackers nor the defenders can continue making turn-ins past the Pirate PvP stage. Isildur will be posting a Devlog on this soon where he'll go into more detail.
New ships: Our creative and talented players have provided us with new ships. We've added four to the game in this build. Details below.
Buddy Key Restrictions: Now, when you're logged in with a free account, there are certain limitations on your characters. For example, free accounts:
Can't talk in Nation chat or Area chat (but still can in local and emote)
Can't send /tells unless the target is a friend or is in the same group or society. Can reply to tells.
Can group.
Can PvP
Can't earn credit for landmark unrest. They can still contribute to landmark unrest, the just don't get any personal unrest points and thus will never get a landmark battle invite.
Can participate in player-to-player trades.
Can't list items for sale in the Auction House and can have only one warehouse.
Only have access to two structure slots and cannot use certain structure deeds.
Are capped at level 12.Known Issues:
Several keys (the Windows key, Page Up, Page Down, and others) will execute all unbound hotkey functions. Since we recently added the ability to bind hotkeys to your additional toolbars but didn't set default hotkeys for these, pressing those keys will attempt to execute whatever is on those toolbars. We strongly recommend either binding hotkeys to those toolbars or removing consumables from them. We hope to fix this very soon.
Missions you have already completed and turned in sometimes reappear on your mission list, replacing missions you haven't completed. This is also happening in 1.3. We're working frantically to find the problem and fix it ASAP.
ConCo made a pass through several of the starter missions to fix some problems. In some cases, the missions they fixed have been removed from your mission list. You will need to re-take those missions if you want to complete them. (If you already completed them and turned them in, you don't need to do anything.)
The Smugglers tunnels in Tortuga may or may not take you where they say they will. For example, some Hills tunnels take you to the Prison instead. We're aware of the problem and working on the fixes.Differences between 1.3.32.0 and 1.4.34.0 include but aren't limited to:
Ships / Outfitting:
Alexander: Tracking 9 -> 11
Arcadia: 16.1 speed -> 15.95
Bahamut: NEW SHIP! A level 50 Buccaneer refit.
Capricieux: Decreased sails from 2850 to 2750.
Couronne: Can now be used by Buccaneers as well as Freetraders. Upgunned 5lb -> 7lb, 10lb -> 12lb, bow 4lb -> 8lb
Cursed Blade: Mast Bonus 10% -> 25%, topdeck 6lb -> 8lb, Reload Bonus 7.5% -> 10%
Defiant: Increased max speed from 15.25 to 15.4; increased armor from 2860 to 3465; increased sails from 2200 to 2300.
'El Dragon' Barque: NEW SHIP! A level 10, lateen-rigged counterpart to the Cutter that has 12x4lb guns. Think of it as the little cousin of the 'Corsair' Xebec.
Heavy Hercules: Can now be used by Freetraders as well as Cutthroats and Privateers. Armor Bonus 35% -> 30%, Reload Bonus 10% -> 7.5%, Structure Bonus 35% -> 20%, Tracking 16 -> 13
Mastercraft Hercules: Tracking 18 -> 16
Sleek Hercules: Tracking 21 -> 17
Invincible: Decreased speed from 17.5 to 16.25; decreased damage reduction from 17 to 15.
La Diligente: NEW SHIP! This is a level 1 ship with four guns. It's a quick merchant ship.
Leviathan: NEW SHIP! This is a level 50 merchant ship restricted to Freetraders. It has a gigantic cargo hold. Note: While pirates can build a Leviathan in the careening camp, it is not a valid ship for them, and they will be flagged for PvP while sailing it. However, they can refit it into the Bahamut, which is a Buccaneer specific ship.
'Lyon' Hoy: NEW SHIP! This is a level 3 ship with eight guns. It performs like a cross between the Renard and Jamaica.
'Mont Blanc' Indiaman: New variant: A level 50 Freetrader refit of the Mastercraft Oliphant
Mordaunt: Tracking 9 -> 11
Myrmidon: Increased speed from 15 to 15.2; increased armor from 3025 to 3080; increased sails from 2340 to 2400.
Polacre: The Mystique and Algiers were supposed to have a max Open Sea speed of 62, but it was stuck at 57. Fixed.
Prince: Decreased speed from 17.5 to 16.25; decreased DR from 19 to 17.
'Red Devil' Xebec: New variant: A level 50 Cutthroat refit of the Mastercraft Arcadia
Tigre: Removed errant +2 accuracy bonus.
Heavy Tigre: Increased structure and armor bonuses from 20% to 25%.
Mastercraft Tigre: A bug was giving this ship a weight bonus to its topdeck instead of its gundeck. Fixed. New loadout: 14x9lb, 24x16lb
Trinity: Decreased speed from 17 to 16; decreased DR from 15 to 14.
Triumphant: Decreased speed from 17 to 16; decreased DR from 15 to 14.
Valiant: Increased DR from 13 to 14. Tracking 9 -> 11
Wenden: Increased DR from 13 to 14. Tracking 9 -> 11
Expert Sailmasters: Speed 5% -> 2%, repair 10% sails
Scuttle: We no longer allow scuttling ships with cargo or non-permanent outfitting. The confirmation box now contains the ship type and ship name to be scuttled.Ship Combat / Skills:
Reduced the range of bar shot by 5%
Some NPCs were using too much dismantling shot, making certain missions incredibly frustrating. Now Merchant NPCs will damage sails to a point, then concentrate on crew and hull damage. Similarly, they'll damage crew to a point, then concentrate on hull damage.
You can now always exit a Duel.
If someone on your Ignore list invited you to Duel, they'd see no response from you at all. Now it tells them you've rejected their offer to duel.
Removed Repel Grapples from Freetrader NPCs.
It was possible to claim the derelict of an ally. Fixed that.
Fixed a bug with ad hocs that sometimes caused a player to create battle markers on the Open Sea where no one was in the battle.
It was possible to use Take Command of Ship on certain invalid ships. It didn't work correctly due to a different problem but the end result could be player frustration and confusion. Fixed.
If your hold was full, it was impossible to claim loot even when it was 0 weight. Fixed that - zero-weight loot can be claimed even if your hold is too full for the rest of the loot.
During cooldown, tooltips for skills would flash annoyingly. Fixed that.
All characters are receiving a forced respec and a free respec token. Respec should now work properly, regardless of the ships you have docked.
All "tiered" ship skills are gone. If you had a skill with a number on the end, now there's just one skill instead of two. The new skill is usually the same as the old second tier skill.
There are no more skills that give additional dockyard slots. All careers now start with four dockyards which means you can have 5 ships.
Adding the Buccaneer class, we had to change the way we detected invalid ships slightly. Let us know if you find any bugs with this change.
Surprise Attack (Privateer skill): The icon misleadingly implied this was a negative effect. Changed the background to blue.Pirates are now called Cutthroats. There’s a new pirate career called the Buccaneer. We've tried to make this list comprehensive, but we probably missed a few.
New Skill Types: Attacks that use a Per-Hit Bonus. These attacks become more effective with each shot that hits in a single broadside. They multiply the buffs/debuffs shown in the tooltip. These skills have three new fields:
First Hit Bonus: This is how effective the skill is just by landing a single hit.
Per-hit Bonus: This shows how much bonus is added for each additional hit. This is usually 1.
Maximum Hits: This shows how many hits can land before we stop increasing the strength of the skill.
Here’s an Example:
Rake: First-Hit Bonus: 5, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits: 10, Target Effects: 2% crew damage
This does 10% crew damage just for hitting, and it maxes out at 30% crew damage after 10 hits.Cutthroat Skill Tree (Existing Pirates)
Brutality: Sacrifice for Speed – Target Weakness – Sacrifice for Damage – Plague Ship – Sacrifice for Victory
Career: Scavenge – Run Them Down – To The Last Man – Drink and the Devil – Slaughter Their Crew
Destruction: Vaporing – Cut Shroud – Entangling Shot – Damage Rudder – Cripple Enemy
Disaster: Death's Embrace – Dump Guns – Desperation Fire – Rum Ration – Deter Pursuit
Flogging: Cut Lines – Flog Gunners – Wolf Pack: Hunters – Increased Damage– Work the Crew
Gunnery: All or Nothing Shot – Rake – Overloaded Shot – Shred Armor – Vital Strike
Red Flag: Decimate – Bloodthirst – Tack Upwind – Bosun's Whip – Fury
Smuggling: Agile Rigging – Stealth – Before the Wind – Devil Take the Hindmost – Black Market
Survival: Jury Rig – Defense – Plug Leaks – Hit and Run – Too Mean to Die
The Skullduggery and Evasion chains are gone.New Cutthroat Skills
Entangling Shot: Tier 3 Destruction. This replaces foul lines as an attack debuff instead of a short-range click debuff. Reduces target grappling defense by 10, sail resist by 15%. Requires dismantling shot.
Slaughter Their Crew: Tier 5 Career: Attack. +20% damage, +100% crew damage. First-Hit Bonus: 1, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits: 19. Target Effects: -1% acceleration, turn rate, reload rate, damage. Stacks with other debuffs. 40 morale, 40 second duration, 5 minute reset. Requires round shot.
Shred Armor: Tier 4 Gunnery. Attack, ignores 60% of target DR. 30 morale, 5 minute reset.
Work the Crew: Tier 5 Flogging. Passive +5% armor and structure. Provides 3% Open Sea speedChanges to Existing Cutthroat Skills
Agile Rigging: Turn 5% -> 6%, Defense 1 -> 2
All or Nothing Shot: Raised damage to 33%, dropped reload penalty to 13%.
Before the Wind: Broad Reach 12% -> 8%, Running 12% -> 8%
Black Market: 2% running speed -> 7.5% Open Sea Speed
Bloodthirst: Added 10% crew resist
Break Formation: 15 second duration -> 10
Cripple Enemy: Duration: 120 sec -> 150 sec
Cut Lines: 4 defense -> 5 defense
Decimate: Duration: 30s -> 60s
Defense: 4 defense -> 5, added 2.5% resist
Drink and the Devil: Can be stacked with Sacrifice skills. Now provides 7% turn, reload, acceleration, damage. Duration 2 min, reset 5 min, 30 morale
Dump Guns: Reset 60 sec -> 75 sec
Flog Gunners: Reduced reload rate to 14%, added 5% damage.
Fury: Now acts as a passive +10 max morale.
Hit & Run: Temporarily increases your speed and acceleration. Becomes more effective with each additional shot that hits. ~1.25% speed, accel per shot that lands, limit 9 hits. 1 minute duration, 450y range, 5 minute recharge.
Increased Damage: Added 3% resist
Plug Leaks: DR 7 -> 6
Rake: Now uses an intensity multiplier instead of flat crew damage. First-Hit Bonus 5, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits 10. Target effects: 2% crew damage (maximum 30%).
Rum Ration: Reload Rate 15% -> 10%, Morale 20 -> 30
Run Them Down: 7.5% Open Sea Speed -> 10%
Sacrifice for Damage: Reduced morale cost by 10
Sacrifice for Speed: 12.5% speed -> 15% speed
Sacrifice for Victory: Turn Rate 20% -> 12.5%, Reload 20% -> 15%, Morale 40 -> 30, Crew Penalty 40% -> 30%
Slaughter Their Crew: Reset 3min -> 5min
Stealth: Now mixes 30% relative stealth and 7.5 miles flat stealth.
To the Last Man: Now recovers 40 morale, 20% crew. Reset 10 minutes.
Vaporing: Now has a 4 minute reset and a 175 yard range
Vital Strike: Structure Damage 50 -> 60
Wolf Pack: Hunters: Now gives 1% damage, 1% turn rate increase, 1.5% damage resistance.Privateer Skill Tree
Aggression: Tracking Shot – Death's Embrace – Burst of Speed – Hit And Run – Aggression
Agility: Agile Rigging – Tack Upwind – Sturdy Rigging – Agile Tactician – Jugular
Battle: All Or Nothing Shot – Increased Damage – Ride the Wind – Surprise Attack – Crushing Broadside
Career: Sanctioned Piracy (free @ 15) – Terrorize – Plunder – Second Wind – Concentrated Fire – Break Formation
Deception: Evade Aggression – Hidden Reserves – Stealth – Surprise Below Decks – Hired Crew
Disabling: Demoralize – Cut Shroud – Entangling Shot – Damage Rudder – Cripple Enemy
Flexibility: Signals – Battle Preparations: Defense – Maneuver – Battle Preparations: Offense – Rapid Reload
Survival: Improvise Sails – Defense – Improvise Armor – Evasion – Rebuilt Ship
Unpredictability: Speed – Resist – Maneuver – Sail Defense – OffenseNew Privateer Skills
Agile Tactician: Tier 4 Agility: A stackable group buff similar to Battle Doctrine. 1% resist, turn, damage, reload, accel
Concentrated Fire: Tier 4 Career: An attack that deals bonus damage and ignores a portion of the targets DR. +25% damage, ignores 35% DR
Hired Crew: Tier 5 Deception: Gives a passive boost to max crew. 15%
Jugular: Tier 5 Agility: This is a major debuff that can only be used if your target is in a bigger ship class than you. It reduces DR, acceleration, reload rate and a small amount of accuracy. It gets more effective with each hit that lands. -20% +2% DR, -15% +1.5% accel, -10% + 1% reload per hit. 7 First Hit Bonus, 18 Max Hits.
Rapid Reload: Tier 5 Flexibility: Click buff. +30% reload rate for 60 seconds. 30 morale, 5 minute reset.
Rebuilt Ship: Tier 5 Survival: Passive +5% structure, +5% armor
Ride the Wind: Tier 3 Battle: A passive boost to target tracking and Open Sea speed. 5 tracking, 4% Open Sea speed
Sturdy Rigging: Tier 3 Agility: Provides a passive boost to mast integrity. 10% mast integrityChanges to Existing Privateer Skills
Aggression: Changed to a passive skill.
Agile Rigging: Added 4% Open Sea speed
All Or Nothing Shot: Reload Penalty 18% -> 15%
Battle Preparations: These skills now last for four minutes with an eight minute reset timer. They can be used in combat, allowing you to chain them.
Break Formation: 15 second duration -> 10
Burst of Speed: 25% speed bonus -> 20%, Reset 2 min
Demoralize: This is now an attack skill. Reduces target max morale by 5.
Evasion: Morale cost 50 -> 35
Entangling Shot (was Foul Lines): Now an attack skill that requires dismantling shot. Since its now very easy to apply, the amount of mast resist reduction is now 15%.
Hidden Reserves: Reset 30min -> 12min
Hit & Run: Temporarily increases your speed and acceleration. Becomes more effective with each additional shot that hits. ~1.25% speed, accel per shot that lands, limit 9 hits. 1 minute duration, 5 minute recharge.
Increased Damage: 5% -> 7.5%
Improvise Sails: Repair 40% -> 37.5%, Resist 25% -> 20%
Maneuver: +2 defense
Plunder: Added 5% chance for bonus loot
Sanctioned Piracy: This is now received automatically at level 15.
Second Wind: Now includes the bonuses of No Quarter and 5% crew resist.
Signals: This is now a tier 1 skill.
Stealth: The stealth % is not as high as before, but it now includes an absolute stealth. This means its more useful on smaller ships. 30% stealth, -7.5 mi visibility
Surprise Attack: Revamped skill. Click buff, provides +25% damage for 1 minute. 30 morale cost, 5 minute reset.
Surprise Below Decks: Morale Cost 60 -> 40
Terrorize: Reduced morale cost (~40)
Tracking Shot: Now a single attack skill that costs 20 morale, has +15 target tracking and +10% damage. 4 minute reset.
Unpredictability line:: Reduced morale activation cost by 5
Unpredictability: Resist: Resist 17.5% -> 15%
Unpredictability: Sail Defense: Sail Resist 35% -> 25%Freetrader Skill Tree
Career: Sailmaster – Mercenary – Carpenter– Gunner – Captain
Desperation: Underdog – Dump Guns – Desperation Fire – Rum Ration – Hasty Fire
Escape: Repel Grapples – Defense – Determination – Evasion – Deter Pursuit
Logistics: Economy: Production– Economy: Manufacturing – Trade Connections – Economy: Shipwright – Skilled Negotiator
Provisions: Defense – Maneuver – Boarding – Offense – Extra Rations
Ship Mastery: Hold Together– Reinforcement – Identify Weakness – Overloaded Shot – Debilitating Broadside
Smuggling: Ranging Shot - Smuggled Cargo - Give the Slip - Misdirection - Running Dark
Trade: Tax Evasion - Rescue Me - Before the Wind - Optimal Rigging - Sailhandling Drills
Travel: Travel – Battle Preparations: Maneuver – Battle Preparations: Defense – Battle Preparations: Speed – Battle Preparations: OffenseCareer Chain
Expert Sailmaster: Max Speed 10% -> 5%
Expert Captain: Max Speed 10% -> 5%
Expert Carpenter: 60% armor repair -> 55%, 50% structure repair -> 40%New Freetrader Skills
Debilitating Broadside: Tier 5 Ship Mastery: Attack skill with a per-hit bonus. First-Hit Bonus: 1, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits: 15. Reduces target reload rate, turn rate, speed and acceleration by 1% each (max 16%). 45 second duration, 2 minute recharge, 40 morale.
Determination: Tier 3 Escape: Boosts your resists and grappling defense by 15%. Requires an enemy target within 250y range. 4 minute duration, 8 minute reset.
Skilled Negotiator: Tier 5 Logistics: An upgraded version of Claim Prize. Each derelict has a 20% chance to provide 1 pennant, a 40% chance to provide 2 and a 40% chance to provide 3.
Running Dark: Tier 5 Smuggling: A clickable Open Sea buff that improves your stealth (20% + 7.5 miles) and Open Sea speed (2.5%) at the cost of reload rate (-20%). Lasts 12 minutes, resets in 10 minutes. Yes, the duration overlaps.
Underdog: Tier 1 Desperation: Increases damage, acceleration, turn rate and speed by 7.5%. Only works if you have less than 82% total armor remaining (50% for one broadside).Changes to Existing Freetrader Skills
Career Base: added 1 defense
Battle Preparations (4 skills): These skills now last for four minutes with an eight minute reset timer. They work different from the Privateer version in that they have a shared cooldown of two minutes, and they can stack. They can be used in combat.
Battle Preparations: Defense: Resistance 3% -> 4%
Battle Preparations: Offense: Reload / Damage 2% -> 5%
Before the Wind: Broad Reach 12% -> 9%, Running 12% -> 9%
Evasion: Now costs 40 morale instead of 50.
Hasty Fire: now lasts 2 minutes instead of 1.
Provision Allies (4 skills): These skills now provide twice as much benefit to the user as to the group members. Can be used in combat.
Repel Grapples: Now provides +35 grappling defense and +4 defense
Ranging Shot: Revamped skill. Attack. Increases the accuracy and range of your next attack by 1% per shot that hits (max 15).
Repel Grapples: 4 defense -> 5
Rescue Me: Max Speed 25% -> 20%, 30 second duration -> 45, cannot be used at 100% health (cannot be used at the start of a fight)
Reinforcement: now provides 3% all protection, 5% structure integrity
Rum Ration: Morale 20 -> 30, Reload 15% -> 10%
Tax Evasion: +5% armor integrity
Travel: This is now a passive skill.Navy Skill Tree
Career: Guardian (Escort renamed) - Rapid Shot - Final Defense - Break Morale - Ultima Ratio Regum
Defense: Defender: Resist - Emergency Repairs - Rally the Crew - Military Grade Construction - Invincible
Desperation: Last Resort: Maneuverability - Desperate Shot - Scatter Shot - Last Resort: Speed - Last Stand
Disabling: Disable Rigging - Disable Rudder - Rake - Show of Force - Crippling Broadside
Discipline: Decimate - Warning Shot - Focused Fire - Boarding Discipline - For God And Country
Dominance: Fortress - Thundering Broadside - Flagship - Dominate - Defensive Ship
Escort: Acceleration Increase - Escort - Speed Increase - Pirate Hunter - Convoy
Gunnery: Precision Fire - Reload Discipline - Damage Discipline - Gunnery Drills - Vital Strike
Prestige: Military Communications - Military Intelligence - Battle Doctrine: Offense - Battle Doctrine: Defense - Strategic PositionNew Navy Skills
Battle Doctrine: Defense: Tier 4 Prestige: +2% resistance, +3% turn rate, +3% acceleration. Stackable with other Battle Doctrines. It’s on the same cooldown as Battle Doctrine: Offense, but they can be chained (5 minutes of Offense, then 5 minutes of Defense).
Damage Discipline: Tier 3 Gunnery: A toggle to increase damage. +14% damage, 35 morale.
Defensive Ship: Tier 5 Dominance: Passively increases armor integrity and DR. +1 DR, +10% armor
Dominate: Tier 4 Dominance: An attack skill that has a high short-range damage boost and a target tracking boost. +40% short range damage, +10 target tracking
Escort: Tier 2 Escort: Allows you to escort a ship that's larger than you, improving their resistance (5%), speed (4%) and DR (1). It also improves your own speed (5%). 4 minute duration, 8 minute reset
Last Resort: Maneuverability: Tier 1 Desperation: This is a trade-off toggle that allows you to spend a small amount of structure to gain a large amount of turning and acceleration, for when you need a situational boost. 20% turn and acceleration, 0.2% self structure damage second.
Last Resort: Speed: Tier 4 Desperation: A click buff that lasts 90 seconds. You cannot attack while this is active. It provides a large speed boost, but it has a prohibitive amount of morale reduction. It also reduces your morale recovery rate. +10% speed, +5% closehaul/beam reach/broad reach speed, 85 morale, -50% morale regeneration. 8 minute reset.
Military Grade Construction: Tier 4 Defense. Passive +10% structure, +5% sails.
Pirate Hunter: Tier 4 Escort: A toggle that improves speed (10%) when sailing small, medium or large ships. 30 morale.
Rapid Shot: Tier 2 Career: An attack skill that increases the rate at which your guns reload for your next attack (40%, plus another 10% possible from hit bonuses). 3 minute reset timer.
Scatter Shot: Tier 3 Desperation: This attack does almost no damage, but it provides a large bonus to your resistance and defense. It also provides a smaller bonus to speed. The amount of the bonus depends on how many shots in your broadside hit the target. -90% attack damage, 4% resist, 2% defense, 1% speed on success. 1% resist, 0.5% speed, 0.5 defense per additional shot that hits, 4 First Hit Bonus, 14 Max Hits.Changes to Existing Navy Skills
Battle Doctrine: Offense (was Battle Doctrine): This now gives +2% reload rate, +1% damage, +1% acceleration
Break Morale: Increased attack damage to 20%
Desperate Shot: Easier use requirement. Can be used if one broadside facing is down to 50% (or if your current total armor is < 82% of the max).
Focused Fire: -50% DR -> -40%
Fortress: Max Speed -7.5% -> -5%
Last Stand: No use requirement.
Military Communications: Now available at tier 1. 2 acc -> 3 acc
Rake: Now uses an intensity multiplier instead of flat crew damage. First-Hit Bonus 5, Per-Hit Bonus: 1, Maximum Hits 10. Target effects: 2% crew damage (maximum 30%).
Rally the Crew: Cheaper morale cost (~30)
Reload Discipline: 25% reload -> 22.5%
Show of Force: Now uses a per hit multiplier. Reduces target reload by 12% +1% per additional hit, maximum 25 hits.
Speed Increase: This is now split so that the user gets the full benefit (15% speed) and group members get less benefit (5% speed).
Strategic Position: This is now a click buff that applies a self buff that increases the maximum range and accuracy of your next attack. +10% range, acc.
Warning Shot: This skill now an attack that applies a self buff that increases the damage of your next attack based on the number of shots that hit. ~+2% damage per bonus, cap ~20 hits. First Hit Bonus 7, Max Hit Count 13, reset time 6 minutes. Max +40% damage.
Vital Strike: +2 accuracy, +5% damageSwashbuckling:
Fixed an exploit in boarding combat.
Increased the range at which AI enemies are willing to stand to fight you, so that they don't all move around every time you touch the movement controls.
Smoothed the range of boarding combat waves. The minimum wave count at 0 crew is now 2, and the maximum count at 1000 crew is 12. This change should make boarding combat a little more of an interesting contest, and less of a gank-fest.
Wall of Steel (Florentine): Corrected tooltip which was incorrectly indicating the skill was instant when it actually lasts 6 seconds.
Blinding Sand and Throw Sand (Dirty Fighting): Corrected tooltips which neglected to mention the 20-point balance cost.
Create Opening, Mislead, and Ruse: These skills now have a range of 4 yards.
We have a new "defend me" floaty for avatar space. The one used for ship space was really too large.Missions:
We've changed the icon for mission doors on the local map to a white circle with an exclaimation point in it.
New items will now drop from rare spawns in the Open Sea that lead to unique quests.
British Tutorial: There were no enemy ships causing the explosions but there were a couple guys walking around on water. Fixed that.
French Tutorial: Fixed some text bugs.
Several missions, level 1-15, and several NPCs in the starter towns were "cleaned up." We had rearranged the starter missions a while ago and, as a result, let several NPCs with nothing to do and created a few other problems as well. If you had one of the problematic missions in your mission list, it is no longer in your mission list and you will need to re-take it if you want to complete it.
Fifteen Magistrate's Commendations: There was code where there should have been text. Fixed that.
To Protect and To Serve: The allies you were supposed to protect were too fragile and would often be sunk before you even got into range. You now have better allies.
Business and Pleasure: Made it clearer where to find the wine. Added a "journal" to help you track your progress. Also, fixed some text errors in the dialog.
A Man of Wealth and Taste: The Freebooter was behaving badly, drawing out the encounter needlessly. Improved his intelligence a bit.
The Piper Gets Paid / Get a Clue: These two missions shared a door which led to two different rooms. Fixed that.
Just in Time: The destination line in part 5 was code. Now it's text.
Swampcats Bounty: Demanded you sink Jaguars. No such thing so good luck with that. Now demands Panthers.
Damaged Goods: Added XP and cash rewards.
Amalgamation: Was directing you to board a Sharktooth Raiders ship when there wasn't one present. Now there is.
Smash the Squadron: Corrected the allegiance described in the flavor text.
Pressing Need: The fight encounter was a bit abrupt. Made a custom encounter that fits the mission a bit better.
Tender Negotiations: You and your allies were flying the wrong flags. We can't easily fix the flags so we changed the text.
Deals within Wheels: Many players found this confusing as doors that you didn't need to enter yet would light up and failure to read carefully could lead you down the wrong path. The mission's creator has attempted to make it all clearer and easier to follow.
Like a Cure for Chocolate: Boarding wasn't required and should have been. Fixed that.
Bad Neighbors: Fixed the bug that prevented taking this mission.
A Plea to a Higher Power: This mission used to dump you unexpectedly outside Jenny Bay. Fixed that.
Cooler Heads Prevail: The NPCs in the consulate looked Spanish but were actually British. Fixed that.
Dividing Loyalties: Text explaining where to go could be misleading. Removed the misleading part.
Hunting the Coyote: This mission now offers XP and reward for completion.
In Like Flynn: Attempted to clarify the situation so players don't get stuck fiddling too slowly.
Mob Rule: If you've taken but cancelled "A Riot is an Ugly Thing," your objectives will be unclear. Improved that.
Persephone Hedden's Invitation: Corrected destination text. It was pointing you to the tavern when you should be going to the company office.
Road Scholar: If mission was cancelled after talking to Ogden and then you took it again, he would only say his default text. Fixed that.
The Teacher: Fixed some gender confusion in the text.
Ransom: Some players were finding this too difficult so we added some allies.
A Sad Tale: Your allies were "Attacker (Generic)." Now they have factions as appropriate.
Curious Delivery: This mission was groupable but played like a solo mission. Now it's no longer groupable.
Offers They Can't Refuse: Fixed some gender confusion when referring to your career mentor. Also the NPC would keep the ? over their head after they no longer needed it. Fixed.
Mysterious Bounty: If the port had been flipped, you couldn't progress past the part where you talked to the Garrison Commander. Removed him from the loop so you can complete the mission regardless of Port Contention.
Plugging the Leak: The Traitor wasn't fighting back. Fixed that.
Beyond the Sea: This mission was missing a stage where you needed to talk to Wade again. Fixed that.
Lazarus, We Hardly Knew Ye: Tristan's ship was flying the wrong flag. We can't easily fix the flag so we fixed the text.
Mad Dogs and Englishmen: Your allies were called Flagship (Generic). Fixed that.
The Master's Craft: Corrected grammar.
Under Scrutiny: Mission text and NPC placement didn't make a lot of sense. Cleaned that up a bit.
Heirs in Judgment: Fixed a problem interacting with one of the ships in the zone.
Island of the Monkeys: This mission will fall off your mission list if you have it. The standard encounter was tweaked to correct a problem with a conversation with an NPC. This mission had several other changes also.
Not Without My Daughter!: Boarding anyone would count as boarding the flagship. Fixed that.
End of the Millenium: The encounter now occurs in a more appropriate room.
Duty is a Four Letter Word: It was impossible to enter the mission due to a bug with the room. Fixed that.
Money in the Bank: Corrected the instructions so you're not sent to the wrong bar.
Research Assistance: Rescued scientists are no longer clones.
Vendetta's End: Fixed the destination line.(37) Caring for our Own: The smuggler spoke in code instead of text. Fixed that.
Best Laid Plans: After speaking to the Pirates, speaking to them again resulted in nonsense text. Fixed that.
Time to Crate: Attempted to make the rope ladder exit easier to discover.
Risqué Business: The enemy captain would respawn but his crew would not, making him a little too easy to kill. Fixed that.
Search Muenda Audoire: Fixed a graphical problem with the crates.
British East India Company: Become Esteemed: The stated goals didn't match what you actually had to do to complete the mission. Fixed that by fixing what you actually have to do so that it matches the stated goals.
Deputy, My Deputy: It was possible to target the corpse. Fixed that.
Halls of Commerce: This mission was telling you to go to the wrong place to talk to the wrong NPC to complete it. Fixed that. Also moved the NPC out of the floor.
An Ill Wind...: The map was sometimes embedded in some crates. Fixed that.
Suppress the Guanica Pirates: The Magistrates name was code instead of text. Fixed that.
You Are What You Eat: Fixed the sword impaling the chef. "Fluffy" guys need special weapons placement.Economy:
Tweaked tax rates for all nations. Enemy nations now tax each other at 60%; pirates tax and are taxed at 80%. This means that a FT can get a 30% tax rate in enemy ports and a 40% tax rate in pirate ports; a Buccaneer can get a 20% tax rate in enemy ports.
The Writs for Pirate and National Hercules were not easily distinguishable from each other. Fixed that.
Writ exchanges are now done through exchange shops instead of missions.
Mastercraft Oliphant: It wasn't possible to make this ship. Fixed that.
Valiant: Reduced the lineship structure bundle requirement from 8 to 3, bringing it more in line with the costs of comparable ships.
Ship deed tooltips had a requirement, "You must be in Location Not Known." Now they say you must be in port.
Marks of Trade: The tooltip said you'd get 10 points of Reputation when you actually received 25. Fixed the tooltip.
There was a bug where, if you had permanent outfitting equipped and you also listed some for auction, your outfitting would get unequipped. Fixed that.
Added 25 swashbuckling weapons and outfitting items for level 50 players to the commendation exchange shops. They all cost 20 commendations, and are available to all nations.
Buccaneers now start with -450 faction with BrTrade, FrTrade and SpTrade (instead of -750). This allows a brand-new buccaneer to build structures in enemy ports.
It was possible to build 11 warehouses. Fixed that.Open Sea:
Changed the colors on the radar and local map to make it easier to distinguish NPC hostiles from enemy players.
When a groupmate was prompted to join an ad hoc, s/he would see code instead of the name of the NPC being fought. Fixed that.
San Juan: You had to be really close to click to enter. Improved that.
Grand Turk: Fixed it so it can be seen further away like other ports.
Fixed some incorrect textures in the Open Sea.
Roughly doubled the rate at which Fleets spawn.
Reduced the chance of a port calling for an evil pirate to roughly 66% of that it previously was, and local merchants to roughly 50% of what it previously was. This will increase the rate that other ship types, including fleets, are called for.
Area Traders are ships that are called from a nearby port to sail to the calling port. They are all trader type ships. Due to our port layout, virtually all Area Traders are currently the nation of the calling port. Now we spawn Area Traders of random nations. This will increase the flow of ships of different nations to all ports.
Tweaked the number of ships called for by various ports: Ports around the rim of the map: Gulf Coast, and Central and South America, now call for more ships. Ports in the middle of the map now call for less.PvP / Port Contention:
Increased PvP XP gains by 50%
The waiting list for port battles was backward. If you were the first on the list, players below you on the list were more likely to be invited when invitations were rejected. Fixed that.
Changed the conquest consumable books from 4 hours to 2 hours, and doubled the number you get from the turn-in. Note that existing books have been nerfed in this way.
Restored the HUD message when there's a server victory. I think the previous changes to chat channels had relegated that huge news to the chat window only.
Fixed a bug that caused a few ports to jump straight from 5000 unrest to Martial Law.
Removed Unrest decay from West End, Nassau, Riding Rocks, Santa Clara and Sabanqui.
Reduced the PvP radii of Nassau, Riding Rocks, Santa Clara and Sabanqui so they do not cover the nearby low level ports.Art / Sound:
We had a bug where adding particle effects to an item would add it to all instances of that item everywhere, whether we wanted them there or not. Fixed that. As a result, we may have lost particle effects on some items where they should be. Let us know if you see anything like that.
There was an invisible wall at the carpet's edge in the mansion. Fixed that. Also fixed the camera clipping through the stairway.
Added sound back to the Auctioneer. He's got some great new lines but says them less frequently. The shop sounds have been added to the Preferences slider for voices so the haters can turn them off.
Lowered the volume of the plane on our splash screen.Ships
'Atlas' Bark: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
'Capricieux' Frigate: Hull damage wasn't showing up graphically. Fixed that.
'Curieuse' Snow: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
'Defiant' Frigate: Added bilge pump. No more water in the hold. Increased the size of the flag to be more appropriate to the size of the ship. Fixed some clipping issues between sails and their mast.
'Hermes' Packet-Boat: Fixed a sail that showed user content backwards.
'Limburg' Flute: Fixed bilge pump.
'Mordaunt' Fourth Rate: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about. Also fixed a bug where trim was disappearing when it shouldn't.
'Mystique' Polacre: Decreased the resources required by the low LOD version.
'Oliphant' Indiaman: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
'Otter' Skuda: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.
'Renard' Chasse-Maree: Hull damage was showing up other places than on the ship. Fixed that.
'Santiago' Galleon: Fixed a sail that showed user content incorrectly.
'Trinity' Second Rate: Fixed a sail that was clipping the bowsprit.
'van Hoorn' Snow: Decreased the resources used by the low LOD version. This will help improve performance on the Open Sea when these ships are about.Towns
Belize: Burton Stagg was sitting in the ground. Fixed that.
Bridgetown: Four NPCs looked identical, including some major players. There's a little more variety between them now.
Charlesfort: It was difficult to click on the Privateer Trainer. Fixed that.
Fort Caroline: Cleaned up a seam on the beach.
Pointe-à-Pitre: None of the Judges had yea or nay animations or chat text. Fixed that.
Tortuga: The Crime Lord's Office longboat didn't glow like other doors when moused over. Fixed that. Also, it's now possible to get to any smuggler tunnel from any other smuggler tunnel. And BSharp has a new tool that lets him set avatar lighting based on what part of town you're in. He's gone a little mad with power. But where your avatar sometimes looked wonky in Tortuga, based on where you were, it should look pretty good most anywhere in that town now.Avatars
New PvP rewards: Added new clothing rewards to the Mark of Victory exchange shops.
Names of several clothing items were code instead of text. Fixed.
Fixed clipping problems with the male left large eye patch.
Fixed clipping problems with the female longcoat and gloves.
Fixed clipping problems with the female naval coat and vests.
Fixed many other clothing clipping problems.
Fixed clipping problems with /boggle.
Some female soldiers were carrying invisible rifles. Now they have visible rifles.
Fixed Bishop's eyes in Pointe-a-Pitre.
Fixed the hand on sword idle so that hand doesn't clip pommel as it had been.UI:
Splash Screen: Changed the logo bar at the bottom. Blends better now instead of looking tacked on.
Server Selection UI: If there is no MOTD to display there, the box for it doesn't appear.
Character Creation / Customization: If the secondary color field isn't something you can set, we hide it. Previous attempts to disable it by making it white, gray, or brown failed to prevent confusion. Hopefully hiding it will help.
Chat UI: Your chat windows can now be made more or less transparent using a slider in Preferences.
Radar / Compass: Removed the wind indicator in avatar spaces.
Harbor Master UI: If disabled, the "Switch to Ship", "Teleport to Ship", "Scuttle Ship", and "Refill Durability" buttons now have tooltips that say why.
Junk Merchant's shop is no longer just generic "Shop."
Inventory UI: There was a bug where the Junk Dealer's sell pane sometimes had broken items (couldn't right-click on them and other problems). Fixed that and we're hoping it fixes a similar bug in Inventory UI also.
Economy UI: Allowed word-wrap in the region area so that text doesn't overlap in foreign language versions.
Fences now have text names instead of code.
It was totally bothering Ivy that, if you were close to a door, it might say "Press X to Tavern" at the bottom of your screen instead of "Press X to enter Tavern." So she fixed that.
World Map: Tooltip text showed incorrectly if a town name was too long. Fixed that.
Added more tips to the Loading... screens.
Combat UI: Two different fonts were being used by the Defiant Frigate. Fixed that.
Using healing and repairs would show floating 0's. Now it shows positive numbers like +2 or such.
Victory Status UI: Tweaked the art to better match that used by Economic Unrest UI.
Character Info: Reputation bars were too long. Fixed that.
Preferences: Added a slider so you can set the opacity of your Chat UI.
Ignore List: The sweet spot for scrolling wasn't where you'd expect. Cleaned that up.
Flag and Sail Customization Shop: The Sell tab served no purpose so it has been removed.
When you take a screenshot (press P), you get a HUD message telling you where it was saved.
Preferences: Trying to change the slider for Open Sea music would cause the window to scroll and not actually change the slider. Fixed that.
Created empty key bindings for our second horizontal and vertical tool bars. This will allow players to bind those hotkeys to whatever they'd like, without adding a default binding for those hotkeys.
Help: Some 'Captured' ships are not listed in the 'Ship Deeds: Captured' category. Fixed that.Stability / Performance:
Added some code to help prevent the character rollbacks we've been experiencing. We've also tweaked some database settings that may help. Or it may not - we're still researching.
We have been fighting a problem that periodically causes us to need to reboot some or all of a cluster. We've had to reboot Rackham multiple times as well as Blackbeard and Antigua. We've finally tracked down and fixed that bug.
Fixed a physics memory leak that could eventually crash the game. Thanks for sending those reports to Microsoft - that helped us nail this one.
One of our testers hung while sailing in the Open Sea. We think we fixed the cause of that.
During some automated testing, the client hung. An error in the log file said, "ERROR Texture: flsTextureManager::loadTexture load failed to load file õµ.*ÅAD1õËŠ" We think we fixed the cause of that.
One player had repeated hangs while zoning but sometimes when sailing the Open Sea. He sent us a crash dump and we were able to find and fix the problem.
We may have fixed a bug one player reported where he would crash on zoning when he had User Content equipped.
Fixed a rare zone server crash that was a result of a race condition.
UC flags have been downloading truncated on some machines, causing memory corruption crashes. Fixed that.
Cache Server: Fixed a crash we saw as a result of a player deleting a character. We only saw it once but crashes are bad and cache server crashes in particular can cause data loss. We don't want data loss, even on deleted characters.
Added some robustness to the Character Transfer system.Misc:
The Server Status Button now links to the Server Status page on our site instead of the Message of the Day/Release Notes page.
We now have support for multiple keyboard language settings. We added a /switchKeyboard command and bound it to F9. So if you have a French keyboard layout installed, for example, you can now swap between keyboard layouts with F9.
Function keys are no longer swallowed by edit controls. This means F1 will work if you're in the chat window now (in addition to F9).
Alt-Enter no longer also does Enter. Which means if you're toggling fullscreen from the login screen it doesn't also log you in.
Clarified the errors you get if the game fails to launch due to an issue with PhysX.
Added more localized text from SOE
¶ 1.3.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.3.53.0
05/05/2008 MISHA
Differences between 1.3.32.0 and 1.3.53.0 include:
Port Battles that used the Wild Keys room would sometimes kick players back to town when they tried to zone in. We’ve removed Wild Keys as a Port Battle room until we can fix this properly.
Fixed issue with the port owner not getting updated in transition to raided state. This caused problems with the Auction House.
There was an exploit possible during Dueling that is no longer possible.
There was a bug where, if you got disconnected during Boarding combat, the results are not what you’d hope or expect. We believe we’ve fixed that.
Pointe-a-Pitre: There were problems with several textures which caused then to flash annoyingly. Fixed half of them.
Pointe-a-Pitre: Added multiple coxswains so it’s easier to get out of town.
It’s now possible to grapple when you’re moving 10 knots, as well as when your target is moving 10 knots.Known Issue:
Attackers can no longer withdraw from boarding combat (i.e. by clicking on the grappling hooks) until the combat is finished. It will appear that you can leave, but you can’t.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.3.51.0
05/02/2008 MISHA
Differences between 1.3.32.0 and 1.3.51.0 include:
There was a bug where, if you got disconnected during Boarding combat, the results are not what you’d hope or expect. We believe we’ve fixed that.
Pointe-a-Pitre: There were problems with several textures which caused then to flash annoyingly. Fixed half of them.
Pointe-a-Pitre: Added multiple coxswains so it’s easier to get out of town.
It’s now possible to grapple when you’re moving 10 knots, as well as when your target is moving 10 knots.Known Issue:
Attackers can no longer withdraw from boarding combat (i.e. by clicking on the grappling hooks) until the combat is finished. It will appear that you can leave, but you can’t.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.3.32.0
04.29.08 by Misha
Differences between 1.3.30.0 and 1.3.32.0 include:
We fixed the bug that prevented selection of any server other than the top one on the list.
We fixed the bug that could cause duelers to get trapped on an infinite Loading… screen.
We inadvertently nerfed the Pommern. Fixed that.
The medium fore-and-aft rig recipe is now given as a free recipe when you build a medium shipyard. It should have been all along.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.3.31.0
04.29.08 by Misha
Difference between 1.3.30.0 and 1.3.31.0:
The only change in this build is a fix the bug that prevented selecting any server other than the top one on the list on the server selection screen.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.3.30.0
04.22.08 by Misha
We’re trying to fix a few last bugs before pushing 1.3 to Live.
Known Issues:
There remain textures that flicker throughout the world.
When you’re a member of a group and you win a PvP battle, loot goes into the group loot box even if your groupmates aren’t in the battle.
If you get disconnected during Boarding combat, the results are not what you’d hope or expect. We’re working to resolve this ASAP.
Differences between 1.3.28.0 and 1.3.30.0 include but aren’t limited to:Economy:
The Pirate Pommern writ somehow got lost in the shuffle between commendation missions and the commendation exchange shop. Now it is back. The whole pipeline to produce a Pirate Hercules Frigate works, including writs.
Open Sea:
Pirate fleets were accidentally set to be aggressive on the open sea. Fixed that.
PvP / Port Contention:
Surrender: Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the winner from receiving surrendered loot.
Added chat window notifications when a port enters or exits Martial Law state.
Fixed a bug that caused the Reinforcement Timer on the Conquest Status tab on the Local Map to start counting negative numbers after reaching zero.Art / Sound:
Campeche: Fixed some LOD problems (buildings coming and going as you moved the camera around).
Pointe-a-Pitre: Fixed some texture problems throughout the town.
Port St. Joe: Fixed a texture problem on the signpost.Misc:
Added more localized text from SOE
¶ Release Notes for build 1.3.28.0
04.15.08 by Misha
Known Issues:
It is possible to use the Signals skill without a target selected. If you use it without a target selected, it has no effect.
Road Scholar: If you cancel the mission, you won’t be able to complete it if you take it again.
Pirate Fleet: They’re supposed to be non-aggressive. However, we have a report of a fleet aggroing a player. Avoid the Pirate Fleets if you don’t want to fight them.
PvP Surrender: In certain circumstances, it’s possible to surrender and lose your cargo and yet the player you surrendered to does not receive it.
Differences between 1.3.24.0 and 1.3.28.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ship Combat / Skills:
It was possible to have more than six ships on a side in an ad hoc battle. Fixed that.
Dropped boarding resist from 75% to 60% since it unintentionally stacks with outfitting resistance gear.
Signals (Privateer skill): The target of this skill would be set to in-combat. The cooldown for this skill is shorter than the cooldown for the in-combat status effect. Thus is was possible to use this skill to keep another player in combat indefinitely. Fixed that.
Switched Pirate’s Run Them Down speed boost to OS speed, it was incorrectly set on a battle speed boost.Missions:
New group missions are available for adding or reducing unrest in ports. Speak to your local rebel agent or garrison commander for details.
Economy:
If your inventory was full when you tried to use a European Commendation, you’d lose the commendation and not receive the items. Fixed that.
Exchange Shops: Hooked up Help on cargo items.
Exchange Shops: Tooltips were broken if you had the item selected.PvP / Port Contention:
The time remaining for the unrest and unrest protection states now show in the Conquest Status tab on the Local Map.
Art / Sound:
Pointe-a-Pitre: There were problems with several doors where the highlight and selection didn’t show up correctly. Fixed that.
UI:
Mission UI: The icon indicating you don’t have the group mission was broken. Fixed it.
Mission UI: Improved three other icons in this UI to be clearer.Stability / Performance:
We did additional work to try to shrink the size of the patch. One thing we did was delete several textures that aren’t used. We broke some things when we did that. We believe we fixed them all, but let us know if we missed anything.
Misc:Added more localized text from SOE
¶ 1.2.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.86.0
Source
04/03/2008Differences between 1.2.84.0 and 1.2.86.0 include:
We fixed the loot books that weren’t working and we’re handing out another two to characters level 2-50 in case you already used some of the broken ones.
We fixed the bug that caused auction listings to expire on the source character if you copied it to Testbed. Sadly, this does you no good at the moment because we have this feature turned off in preparation for upgrading Testbed to build 1.3.x. (This feature only works when both the source and destination databases are the same version.) We’ll let you know when we make the feature available again.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.84.0
This build gives out items to compensate for lost play time from the outage March 28th. These items will only appear on existing characters, not new characters. Also, you will receive these items even if there's no room for them in your inventory.
There has been a slight improvement to the originally advertised plan:
- If you're level 50, instead of getting XP Books, you get additional bonus loot books.
- If you're level 1, you get no compensation items.
Known Issue:
The strings associated with the compensation items haven't been localized. They will show up in English, regardless of which language you're playing. Apologies to our foreign-language friends.
This build also fixes a couple more bugs we found in the system for copying characters from the live servers to Testbed. We'll be taking that system live when we put this build on the servers.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.82.1
03/28/2008 [Content not found]
¶ Release Notes for Build 1.2.82.0
03/28/2008 [Content not found]
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.69.2
03/20/2008
The fix we made in 1.2.69.1 did indeed get players unstuck from the infinite Loading... screen. However, it trapped them in town, unable to exit to the Open Sea or advance missions. This patch fixes that.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.69.1
The only difference between 1.2.69.0 and 1.2.69.1 is a fix to a bug that could cause some players to get stuck on an infinite Loading... screen in such a way as to prevent GMs from rescuing them. This was caused by a disagreement between the zone you were leaving and the zone you were entering on where you actually were. Now your destination concedes and lets you in.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.69.0
03/19/2008
This patch fixes the Scuttle ship bug and a couple others. Do not use Scuttle until this goes live.
Differences between 1.2.67.0 and 1.2.69.0 include:
If you Scuttled a ship, it was entirely possible for the wrong ship to be removed. Fixed that.
If the Login server goes down for some reason, it's supposed to recover quietly - only the few people at a certain point in the login process should notice. However, we had introduced a bug that would kick everyone back to the login screen which you'd probably notice. Fixed that.
It was possible for a nation to put 4 ports into contention at once. The limit is supposed to be 3. Fixed that.
When someone of another nation chats in Area chat, you'd see "area_chat_event_empty" or the like, even if you had Diplomacy. Fixed that.
Pirates were unable to have both Cut Lines and Wolf Pack in their toolbar at the same time. Wolf Pack would replace Cut Lines even though they're different skills. Fixed that.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.2.67.0
Source
03/18/2008Brief Update Highlights
Includes the addition of a new group mission - Bey's Retreat
Addition of a spam-fighting tool: right-click on the spammer's name or type '/spam character name' to both add the character to your ignore list and notify Burning Sea about this spammer.
Reduction in durability for some lineships.
Overhaul of Social features such as chat bubbles, right-clicking on names, floating names, and the Society and Friends lists.Introduction
This is our first major content patch since launch. Some of the more exciting changes in this build include:
Bey's Retreat: Bey's Retreat is the unapproachable stronghold to which the Corsairs of the Main escape when the national navies and Brethren pirates chase them down. You and your allies (do not try this alone) have a rare window of opportunity to attack when the defenses are weaker than usual. Still, the chances of everyone making it through unscathed are minimal. See Mattt's Devlog for more info.
Changes to Open Sea battle placement: We've replaced a system where allies sometimes spawned too far from the battle to make it into the fight before it was over and enemies sometimes spawned on top of each other. The new system should result in a more fun experience for all. See Taelorn's Devlog for more info.
Underdog tools: If your nation wins the map, it becomes more difficult for them to do so next time. The losers get a little boost. See Isildur's Devlog for details.
UI Improvements: We've revamped chat channels, added chat bubbles (that you can turn off), improved the Social UI, and made other changes. See Fraxl's Devlog for more info.
Fight Gold Spammers: Among other changes we've made to combat these parasites, you can now use /spam to report gold spammers without leaving the game or right-click the character name in your chat window and choose Report Spam. Reporting spam also automatically adds the character to your ignore list. There are many other changes we're very excited about. Details of some are listed below.Known Issues
We had to reset your Chat preferences in order to implement the new features. You may want to check out the new preferences available and set them to your liking. Preferences other than Chat Preferences should be unaffected.
The new Pointe-a-Pitre didn't make it into this build. We wanted to polish it just a bit more before you see it, but we didn't want to delay the other bug fixes and new features while we did that. We expect it to appear in a patch in the very near future.
Sometimes colliding ships get stuck together. At least one won't be able to fire in that situation. We strongly recommend against ramming other ships. We're aware of the problem and working to fix it.
Red Tide: The first time a groupmate is in this with you, the mission won't advance for them. We're working on it.
Character Customization: New male facial hair styles have code for names instead of text. This will be fixed in the next build.
Repeatable Faction Point missions: If you cancel them, they will not be offered again, even though they should be. We have a fix - we just need to deploy it. Hopefully, in the next build.
Ships
SOLs: Slightly reduced target tracking
Fourth Rates: Some of the Fourth Rates had 3 durability when they were supposed to have 2. Fixed.
Fixed some errors in the base cannon stats so that the progression is appropriate. 14lb guns now reload 2 seconds faster (39sec), 15lb guns reload 6 seconds slower (41sec) and 16lb guns reload 1 second slower (43sec).
The Privateer Mignone and Heavy Oliphant were not flagged as invalid ships for pirates. Taking these ships will now properly flag pirates for PvP, since they are career-restricted.
Increased the weight of the topdeck guns of 4lb or less on ships with multiple batteries. This applies to all ships with multiple gun batteries except the Stralsund and Raa.
Set the Fallback Curieuse Snow (Navy) to level 16 instead of 18.
Adjusted the gun count on the recipes for the Courier Cerberus, Mastercraft Halifax, Mastercraft Oliphant and Heavy Ketch.
Achilles: Increased armor, structure and sails. It wasn't supposed to have less than the mastercraft Myrmidon. Set speed to 16.
Alexander: Increased the bow/stern damage reduction a bit. Decreased speed 0.35, decreased slow/fast turn by 0.2/0.52
Algiers Polacre: Increased the level by 1
Arcadia: Reduced: Open Sea visibility, acceleration, stern damage reduction. Increased: max crew, speed, luffing speed, structure, armor, sails, bow DR, changed best point to Close Haul. Upgunned 4lb battery to 5lb. * Armor damage wasn't showing up graphically. Fixed that.
Atlas: Fixed problems with the stern windows when you zoomed your camera out. Also, damage was only showing up for certain types of shot. Fixed that.
Cerberus: Increased max, close haul and beam reach speed. Increased structure and armor. Set best point to Beam Reach. Finally added some missing graphical features.
Capricieux: Increased max speed, structure, and armor. Set speed to 15.5, 77.5% close haul, 93.5% beam reach, 90% running. Variant max speed: MC 15.75, Courier 15.75, Intrepid 16
Corsair: Increased speed slightly.
Couronne: Significantly increased armor, narrow side DR. Increased sails. Upgunned 4lb battery to 5lb. Set speed to 16.35. Variant max speed: Courier 16.75, Arrow 16.85. Added bow spray.
Cruzier: Damage showed up all wrong. Fixed that.
Curieuse: Damage only showed up for some types of shot. Fixed that. Also tweaked what happens when masts fall to look better.
Cursed Blade: Set speed to 16.1
MC Cutter: This was supposed to have a speed boost, but didn't. Now 16.6 speed
Defiant: Increased structure and narrow side damage reduction. Reduced speed to 15.25. Change does not affect the Mercy. Added a bilge pump.
20 Royal Commendations now provide a Mastercraft Defiant instead of a Mordaunt.
Deliverance: Increased structure. The speed was set higher than intended. Now 14.5.
Heavy Deliverance: Added a structure integrity bonus. Reduced its tracking by 1.
Dolphyn: Stern windows would disappear as you zoomed out with your camera. Fixed that.
Fallen: Set speed to 16.75.
Ghost Ship: Removed the live crew.
Hercules: Increased max speed. Added bow spray. Added 3 defense. Set speed to 15.4, 77.5% close haul, 97.5% beam reach, 88.5% running. 15.85 speed for the Sleek variant. Fixed bilge pump.
Hermes: The stern damage was showing up out in the air near your ship. Now stern damage shows on the stern as it should.
Hiorten: Fixed a bug with the way the ship accepted customization and added a bilge pump to remove water from the hull. Also fixed a bug that caused the rigging to remain when the masts were shot down.
Invincible: Added bilge pump - no more water in the hold.
Limburg: Damage art looked pretty bad. Looks better now.
Medway: Damaged masts disappeared entirely. Fixed that. The hull damage was showing up near the ship, not on the ship. Fixed that.
Mignone: Increased running speed, acceleration, turning acceleration, max speed. Upgunned 7lb to 8lb, 12lb to 14lb.
Mordaunt: Decreased slow/fast turn by 0.4/0.9
Myrmidon: Increased armor and narrow side damage reduction, deceleration slightly. Reduced turning deceleration.
Neptune's Disgrace: Set speed to 17.
Oliphant: Increased armor. Increased narrow side damage reduction. Upgunned 4lb battery to 5lb. Upgunned 5lb battery to 8lb. Added 2 topdeck guns to the Mastercraft variant.
Heavy Oliphant: Reduced the armor bonus due to the improvements on the base ship. Reduced its tracking by 1.
Polacre: Set speed to 16.2 Fixed a couple places where the name was code instead of text.
Postillionen: Set speed to 15.75 Increased the level by 1. When masts were damaged, they disappeared entirely. Fixed that.
Prince: Fixed several graphical issues with the model.
Raa: Increased max speed, close haul speed and armor. Decreased beam reach speed and running speed % (they're still faster than they were before). Set speed to 16.1, 84% close haul, 95% beam reach, 92.5% running. Variant max speed: Courier 16.6, Sleek 16.6, Discovery 16.6. Damage was hanging out in the air near the ship. Now it's on the ship. Also corrected the look of damaged masts. The thumbnail in the Dockyard UI was corrupt. Fixed it.
Rowboat, Sultan: Damage didn't show up graphically. Fixed that.
San Mateo: Fixed the bilge pump. No more water in the hold.
Smack: Fixed bugs in the model
Stralsund: Fixed the bilge pump.
Tigre: Added 2 offense (accuracy). Increased armor by 275. Set speed to 15, 93.5% beam, 97.5% broad, 100% running. Variant max speed: Heavy 14.5, Sleek 15.75.
Trinity: Added bilge pump. No more water showing through stairways.
Optimized the way we draw masts and sails.
Fixed problems with customizing the colors on the Stralsund, Dromedary, and Corsair.
Added five new ships. These ships can be found in a new recipe book.
Added the Athena Frigate (new ship model) - A level 29 warship. It has 24 guns, both types of chasers, low acceleration and a high top speed.
Added the Minerva Frigate (new ship model) - This ship is replacing the Triton. It's a level 44 version of the Athena that has its own model. It's upgraded to 36 guns with more structure and armor over the Athena. It's almost identical to the old Triton, including the sailing characteristics.
Made the Triton obsolete - Existing 'Triton' Interceptor Frigates will be flagged (Obsolete). They will still function the same as before, but it will no longer be possible to acquire them.
Added three new ship variants: 'Postillionen' Heavy Frigate - level 23, 'Postillionen' Mastercraft Frigate - level 26, and 'Arcadia' Mastercraft Xebec - Level 44
Adjusted the spawntables so that the Dromedary appears in spawns more appropriate for its level.
Bermuda and Jamiaca Sloop ship models got switched with each other in various situations. Fixed that.
Postillionen, Limburg: Some sails showed backwards. Fixed that. There are several other ships that have the same problem. Work in progress.
Outfitting
Reduced the damage of dismantling shot by about 5-10%
Reduced the damage of antipersonnel shot by about 1-3%
Grape Shot: Fixed typo in description.
Made a new icon for Basic Round Shot to make it clearer that it's really not very good.
Consumable Items: General: The description in Help was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Cantonese Powder: Increased crew resistance penalty, slightly decreased damage on highest tier
Salvaged Gun Carriages: Clarified description.
Shumate's First Mate's Rum: Description was inaccurate. No longer makes false claims.
Small Wadding 1: Changed the icon to match other wadding outfitting icons.
Small and Medium Outfitting: All permanent slot outfitting that provides a speed boost provides a slightly larger speed boost.
A History of the Most Notorious Pirates: Clarified and corrected description.
Brass Hull Planking: Reduced armor integrity bonus
Dark-Wrapped Gear: Reduced reload penalty, cut stealth bonus in half.
Spyglasses: Reduced the range of detection provided by all spyglass items.
Double-Threaded Studdingsails: Significantly reduced running speed bonus
Ironwood Structural Reinforcement: Reduced structure integrity bonus
Reinforced Armor: Reduced armor integrity bonus
Steel Boarding Axes: Reduced grappling defense bonus
Steel Grappling Hooks: Reduced grappling attack bonus
Ship Combat
Tab has historically cycled through targeting the closest enemy to the furthest. Now it firsts targets any enemies with the Attack Target effect on them (applied by Signals and Devil Take the Hindmost), then cycles through the remainder. This helps a group focus on the same ships.
Pressing B was supposed to put you in Battle Sails. It set your slider to just above Battle Sails which raised all your sails, basically making the command useless. Now pressing B puts the slider just below the mark so you are in Battle Sails as expected.
The tooltip on Fire All, when grayed out, used to say you had to be in a PvP Zone. Sometimes you were and it would still say that. Generalized it to cover other potential issues.
Grapple: Shortly after successfully grappling, you would see an error in a tooltip that was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Fixed a bug where a victim killed by a player who was too high-level didn't get a RecentlyPlayerKilled effect.
You no longer get the Recently Killed effect when you surrender, only when you actually sink.
If you join a group whose members are in an ad hoc battle, you can now join that battle too.
It was too easy to get on the stern of an NPC and stay there because, once you were there, they would slow way down, enabling you to maneuver. They're a touch smarter now and are less likely to let you sit there safely pounding them.
Increased cash and loot item drop rates. Doubloon drops increased at level 15 and higher. Loot item drops had their maximum value increased.
Abandon Ship skill was using the wrong icon. Fixed that.
Bleed: We changed the floaty icon from blood to a red skull.
Added explanations to the crew damage effect tooltips.
Some skills actually had a trivial gold price which got refunded on respec. Fixed that.
In some cases, it was possible to have both a skill and its improved version on your toolbar at the same time when that shouldn't have been possible. (There are a few cases where it's possible by design.) Fixed those cases where it wasn't supposed to be like that.
If the target already has a pure speed debuff active, we no longer let you use another speed debuff skill on the target. In some cases, this prevents wasting the skill (because the debuffs didn't stack) and in other cases it prevents stacking speed debuffs. Mixed debuffs that reduce speed stack with pure speed debuffs.
Elite ships now receive a bonus to their mast integrity.
The crew protection stat stopped working recently, impacting various items and skills such as For God and Country. Fixed that.Navy Skills
Navy Skills: Career
Base Skill: Added resistance, damage reduction
Escort: Added damage reduction, increased duration and cooldown. The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Final Defense: Increased duration
Break Morale: Added damage. The tooltip showed the wrong duration. Fixed that.Navy Skills: Defense
Defender 1: Increased resist slightly
Emergency Repairs: Increased duration. Now strips disabling line debuffs and deter pursuit. Prevents those debuffs while the repairs are active. Can no longer be activated if you're at full health.
Defender 2: Increased resist
Rally the Crew: Increased heal, should no longer be usable when crew is completely healthy.Navy Skills: Desperation
Desperate Shot: Decreased structure requirement
For God and Country: This skill wasn’t functioning properly. Fixed that.
Last Stand: Decreased structure requirementNavy Skills: Discipline
Decimate: Added target crew recovery debuff
Warning Shot: The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Focused Fire: Increased duration. Added damage, accuracy.
Boarding Discipline: Added crew recovery buff
Perfect Discipline: Should not be usable when crew is completely healthy.Navy Skills: Dominance
Fortress: Reduced speed penalty
Flagship: Reduced morale costNavy Skills: Escort
Entire chain: reduced morale cost
Speed Increase: Reduced speed buff
Acceleration: Reduced acceleration
Hold Formation: Increased duration, reduced speed penalty
Convoy: Reduced cooldownNavy Skills: Gunnery
Reload Discipline: Increased reload. Clarified in Help that it's a toggle
Precision Fire: Reduced morale cost
Gunnery Drills: Improved the description in Help to mention that it increases cannon range.Navy Skills: Prestige
Battle Doctrine: Removed range bonus, added acceleration. Acquiring this didn't automatically add it to your * toolbar. Fixed that.
Military Communications: Added accuracyFreetrader Skills
Freetrader Skills: Career
Base Skill: Added defense, running speed
Expert Sailmaster: Improved description in Help to mention that use repairs sails.
Expert Mercenary (freetrader skill): Added crew recovery buff. Reduced recharge to 20 minutes.
Expert Gunner: Reduced recharge to 20 minutes.Freetrader Skills: Desperation
Desperation Fire 1: Shrunk self damage penalty
Dump Guns: You can no longer use this skill unless you have at least 20% of your guns remaining.
Hasty Fire: The skill tooltip showed the wrong duration. Fixed that. Fixed description in Help. It said use damaged crew but actually use decreases damage resistance of crew.Freetrader Skills: Escape
Repel Grapples: Added an all defense bonus, increased cooldown time
Repel Grapples 2: Wasn't replacing Repel Grapples 1 on your toolbar. Fixed that.
Deter Pursuit: Reduced speed debuffFreetrader Skills: Logistics
Economy Production: Added reload buff
Economy Manufacturing: Added damage buff
Economy Shipwright: Added structure resistance buff
Dockyard Contract: Added speed buffFreetrader Skills: Provisions
All four Provision skills: Reduced cooldown time.
Extra Rations: Fixed description which had neglected to mention that the skill also increases accuracy and damage. Also changed the icon to something more meaningful.Freetrader Skills: Ship Mastery
Hold Together: This uses a new item, the Repair Bundle. It's a secured cargo item produced by a low-labor recipe at any shipyard. The recipe is found in the common Basic Consumables book. YOU MUST REPLACE YOUR OAK PLANKS AND CANVAS WITH REPAIR BUNDLES IN ORDER TO USE THE SKILL.
Overloaded Shot: The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Reinforcement: Added sail resist buffFreetrader Skills: Smuggling
Ranged Shot: Reduced morale cost. The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Smuggled Cargo: Added running speed buff in battle
Give the Slip: Added OS turn rate and OS speed buffs
Misdirection: Added OS speed buffFreetrader Skills: Trade
Optimal Rigging: Reduced speed, added running speed buff
Sailhandling Drills: Added defenseFreetrader Skills: Travel
Travel: Increase OS speed buff
All Four Battle Preparations: Reduced cooldown
Battle Preparations Defense: Increased defense from 2 to 4 and reduced the resist from 5 to 3.
Battle Preparations Offense: Increased accuracy from 2 to 4, added a 2% reload bonus, and reduced damage from 5% to 2%.Privateer Skills
Privateer Skills: Agility
Evade Aggression: Now prevents you from attacking. Increased OS speed buff.
'Tack Upwind': Increased cooldown.
Grease the Wheels: Added beam reach speed
Tack Upwind: Removed defense penalty
Sanctioned Piracy: Added defensePrivateer Skills: Aggression
Tracking Shot: Reduced morale cost
Burst of Speed: Reduced cooldown
Death's Embrace: Increased target resistance debuff
Hit and Run: Reduced morale cost
Aggression: Reduced cooldownPrivateer Skills: Battle
All or Nothing Shot 1: Reduced reload penalty
Surprise Attack: Reduced morale cost, removed repair block. You weren't supposed to be able to use this skill if your crew health was below 20%. Fixed that.Privateer Skills: Career
Base Skill: Added max speed and beam reach speed
Second Wind: Added crew recovery rate
Plunder: Clarified confusing description in Help.
No Quarter: Added crew recovery rate
Break Formation: Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to be chained. Like other stuns, it now applies a 2 minute stun immunity to all affected targets.Privateer Skills: Deception
Stealth: The description said this skill is a toggle. It's not. Fixed the description.
Surprise Below Decks: Reduced morale cost, cannot be used (wasted) if your crew is full health
Hide Crew: Added crew recovery ratePrivateer Skills: Disabling
Foul Lines: Added target sail resistance debuff
Cut Shroud: Changed the icon from being mainly blue (buff) to mainly red (debuff).Privateer Skills: Flexibility
Maneuver 1: Tiny turn rate reduction
Maneuver 2: Increased turn ratePrivateer Skills: Survival
Defense 1: Added speed
Defense 2: Added speed, reduced defense slightly
Improvise Sails: Now repairs more sails and provides a resist bonus while repairing
Improvise Sails & Improvise Armor: Should not be usable when sails/armor are undamaged.Privateer Skills: Unpredictability
Speed: Reduced morale cost, reduced damage penalty
Defense: Reduced morale cost. Removed defense bonus. Added resist. Reduced speed, turn and damage penalties
Maneuver: Reduced morale cost. Reduced speed, grappling attack and damage penalty
Grappling: Replaced with Unpredictability: Sail Defense. Provides 35% sail resist.
Offense: Reduced morale cost. Reduced speed and turn penaltiesPirate Skills
Pirate Skills: Brutality
Sacrifice for X: Reduced crew penalty
Pirate Skills: Career
Base Skill: increased damage, increased close haul speed in battle, reduced gold penalty, added bonus loot chance
Vaporing: Reduced debuffs, added speed debuff
Run Them Down: Removed battle speed debuff, added a battle acceleration debuff. Still debuffs O.S. speed.
Take Command of Ship: If your level was too low do use this skill, the tooltip that showed was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Take Command of Ship: The tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.Pirate Skills: Destruction
Foul Lines: Reduces target sail resist
Pirate Skills: Disaster
Dump Guns: You can no longer use this skill unless you have at least 20% of your guns remaining.
Deter Pursuit: Reduced speed debuff
Plug Leaks: While repairing, plug leaks provides +7 DR. Can no longer be activated if you're at full health.
Jury-Rig: Can no longer be activated if you're at full health.Pirate Skills: Evasion
Maneuver 1: Tiny reduction to turn rate
Evade Aggression: Now prevents you from attacking. Added OS speed buff.
Maneuver 2: Increased turn rate
Tack Upwind: Removed defense penaltyPirate Skills: Flogging
Cut Lines: Increased cooldown, added an all defense bonus
Cut Lines 1: Is now Cut Lines, provides 35 grappling defense and 4 defense
Cut Lines 2: Replaced with Wolf Pack, a stackable group buff that gives 1% damage, reload, 2% speed, resist. * This buff hits a 1000y radius, costs 50 morale, lasts 5 minutes and resets in 8 minutes.Pirate Skills: Gunnery
All or Nothing Shot: Reduced reload penalty slightly
Hit and Run: Reduced morale costPirate Skills: Red Flag
Decimate: Added target crew recovery rate debuff
Bloodthirst: Added crew recovery rate buff
Death's Embrace: Increased target resistance debuff
Fury: Reduced cooldownPirate Skills: Skullduggery
Give the Slip: Added OS turn rate, OS speed
Misdirection: Added OS speedPirate Skills: Smuggling
Agile Rigging: Added an all defense bonus
Black Market: Added close haul speedPirate Skills: Stealth
Stealth: The description said this skill is a toggle. It's not. Fixed the description.
To The Last Man: The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.Pirate Skills: Survival
Defense 1: Added bow DR
Defense 2: Added bow DR, reduced defense slightly
Plug Leaks: Now repairs 40% bow armor and 25% stern armorSwashbuckling
Now smelling salts, instead of being handed out all at once, are distributed by several different low level missions.
Changed all bandage type skills to not cost balance and not penalize defense while in use. This should make running out of combat to bandage more viable. Expect further improvements in this area.
Added bandages and smelling salts to avatar loot tables. This change is intended to increase the supply of smelling salts and bandages to players who engage in a lot of avatar combat.
If you've failed the encounter objectives in avatar combat, we now pop up the "Exit Mission or Replay Mission" message box instead of the "Revive or Give Up" message box.
Meet the Trainer: Added a reminder to the respec tooltip that you'll need to change swords if you respec.
Sword tooltips now say which fighting school they belong to.
Somerset Island: All skill trainers had code instead of text where they were linking to their skill list.
Swashbuckling Fort encounters: Your forces can get spread out and join the fray at different times instead of concentrating your attack. Worked to improve that.
Active Block: Is now a toggle. While active it increases your balance regen by 2.5 per second, but decreases your initiative regen by 8 per second. It also slightly increases your block value. The idea is that this skill can be used as a way to 'go defensive' trading initiative for balance. Improved Active Block is similar but provides 3 balance per second instead of 2.5. The tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Active Dodge: Restores 10 balance on use, in addition to existing effects. The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Active Parry: Now lasts for 5 seconds, provides a +20 bonus to your parry rating, and is not canceled by parrying or attacking. Remember that some attacks, notably prep attacks, cannot be parried. Improved Active Parry is similar but with a +30 bonus to parry. The status tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Combat Medicine: Corrected the tooltip which incorrectly indicated it cost balance. It costs initiative, but not balance. Fixed a typo in the tooltip.
First Aid and Revive: Tweaked the requirements descriptions. Changed "dead/alive" to "incapacitated/conscious". First Aid tooltip was inaccurate. Fixed that.
Human Shield: Fixed typo in status tooltip.
Riposte was restoring balance even if it was not successful. Now it only restores balance on success.
Run Through was set to do 10-30 addition damage, it should be 10-20 like the other free finishing moves. This has been corrected.
Take Aim and Brace of Pistols rooted the user for 4 seconds instead of 1.5 to allow the animation to play. Fixed that.
Throw Sand: Clarified requirements to include the fact that your target must be an enemy and that you must be within 6 yards.
Wall of Steel: Tweaked the description to make it clear that preparatory attacks will not be stopped by this skill.
Warning Shot: Corrected tooltip which was showing information for the wrong skill.
Bleed: We changed the floaty icon from blood to a red skull.Missions
You will need to cancel and re-take missions that have changed in order to benefit from the fix.
Fixed a longstanding bug that was causing non-pirate groups of 3 to be 2 small ships and 1 big ship, while pirates got 3 small ships. Now, everyone gets 3 small ships in the "group of 3 small ships" spawn. This affects the balance of PVE missions. Generally, it lowers difficulty, but if players were relying on an allied group of navy NPCs in a particular mission, that mission has probably become harder.
Fixed a bug where NPCs would bandage themselves while surrendering. Looked silly.
The British Tutorial has been updated. The French, Spanish, and Pirates now have their own unique tutorials. Give them a try!
Boarding Tutorial: Reworded the bit about waves of reinforcements for accuracy. Also clarified the bit about taking defeated ships.
Fighting School Missions: Changed all the fighting school missions so that they give rewards and are non-repeatable.
There are a set of 20+ loot drops from the Rare Adhoc spawns that provide delivery missions. Some named NPCs such as Galloping Gerda and Corentin Sauvage now drop items that begin missions, when defeated on the Open Sea.
"Patrolling" missions: If your allies fired the killing shot at an enemy, the enemy didn't count toward the mission objective. Fixed that.
Career Missions: There were a number of problems with various of the clothing items. We think we fixed them all. Let us know if we missed any.
Freetrader Career Missions: The missions that reward career skills now give you 5 free experts for your new skills. If you've already completed these missions, you will receive the experts the first time you log on the appropriate character.
Role-Playing Story Arc: Made it really, really, REALLY obvious that the love interest you choose has long-lasting repercussions. Also, fixed a possible issue that might explain some players complaining that the choice they made got overridden.
Role-Playing Story Arc: Fixed a possible edge case where a player could take what should be two mutually exclusive missions. This should prevent that from happening in the future.
We will retroactively give players clothing rewards for the missions in the role-playing story arc if they've already completed the mission.
There were several missions that spawned enemy ships of the wrong level. Fixed 'em.
Bounty Missions: Tweaked the UI layout to make the objectives clearer. You now get a HUD message when you complete the objectives.
Delivery Missions: Players are now warned against delivering a partial order and then cancelling the mission. You will not get your goods back if you do that.
Flash of the Blade: Clarified some mission text that could be confusing if you hadn't seen certain other missions yet.
Writ Approval: Tweaked the text on the turn-in screen to make it more consistent with other missions.
Fruit of the Vine: Your ally now has the proper name.
Business and Pleasure: Triplets in the lobby have been replaced by three unrelated individuals.
A Man of Wealth and Taste: When you entered the tavern, it was the wrong type of tavern. Fixed that. Enemy flagship's behavior made for a long and boring battle. He's more exciting now. Ships could sail through the docks into the town. Fixed that.
Defend the Town: It was possible to get stuck on debris near Saint-Remy's door. It was also possible to get passed it. Fixed that.
Unruly Patrons: This mission used a different Tavern room than previous missions in the same town. Fixed that.
The Winning Bid: Talking to the guy in the black market would generate an error. Fixed that.
The Mastermind: An encounter objective was showing up before it was supposed to, making the mission confusing. Fixed that.
Red Tide: Naval officer spoke in code instead of text. Fixed that. Also fixed a bug that could prevent your allies from spawning. Fixed another bug that would cause the encounter objective to update even after you've lost. Once you've lost, it shouldn't change. After reaching the exit point, enemy ships despawned very slowly or not at all. Fixed that. Fixed a bug that would leave you in the fort even after it was destroyed. Now you should get sent back to whence you came. You were told to sink the ships trying to escape but you had to sink the ships attacking the fort also in order to complete the objective. Now you only have to sink the ships trying to escape.
Back Ordered (and others): Sharktooth Raider captains had code for names instead of text. Fixed that.
Commendable Action: The climax was kludgy and the magistrate and his brother, well... one was likely adopted. Fixed all that.
Groundbreaking: The door to Gilete Trevino's office was the same as the door to the Company Office which makes no sense. Fixed that.
Just In Time: When boarding, your crew looked wrong. Fixed that.
Pirate "Scavenge" skill Tutorial: After a pirate player has earned their Scavenge skill from their level 10 career mission, this skill and the Careening Camp aren't explained. This mission, along with some Info Services on Pirate Trainers, are being put into place to remedy the lack of info. This mission will open up after the Pirate player has earned their Scavenge skill and show them how to use Scavenge on a derelict target. After they have used the Scavenge skill on a target, they will be directed to the related Economy tutorial persona who will explain more details about the Careening Camp, and then give them the starter materials to build their own camp. One of the items given will be a "Hulk, Minor," which is one of the ingredients to making a lower-level Captured ship from the Careening Camp.
The Truth Comes Out: The requirements are now listed - it's a long list!
Escape to Which Mountain?: Your ally was standing around doing nothing. She's more helpful now.
Free Samples: Sent you back to the wrong port at the end. Fixed that.
Tying the Noose: This mission was too difficult to solo. Added some allies so the enemies don't all gang up on the player.
Step Into My Parlor: Spread out the enemies so they don't attack you all at once. It was too hard when you had to fight them all at the same time.
Swamp Demons: Fixed an exploit in this mission and re-enabled it in the game. Also it wasn't giving appropriate rewards on completion. Fixed that.
Ships of the Damned: You were being sent to the incorrect patron to continue. Fixed that. Also ships didn't look very damned. Spookier now.
This Time We Got 'Em: Destination was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Jumping at the Shadows: Sometimes enemies would spawn on barrels or railings. Fixed that.
The Strange Case: This destination was missing from the Mission UI. Fixed that.
Stranger in a Strange Town: You were getting ganked before talking to the other captain. Fixed that.
A Cutthroat Business: There were two missions by this name. One is now called A Cutthroat Affair.
Deals Within Wheels: Sometimes you'd end up talking to the wrong NPC for your nation. Fixed that.
The Gathering Storm: Clarified the Encounter Objective a bit.
The Grace of El Nazareno: Clarified some poorly worded text.
Morgan's Return: Morgan's defeat counted against two encounter objectives. Now only counts against one.
Nutty Navigator: Destination was incorrect. Fixed it. Also, the door to the jail was in the wrong place. Fixed that too.
Dark Arts: The enemies were Privateers when they should have been Navy. Fixed that.
Sea Legs: You couldn't fail except by letting the timer run out. Now you can also fail by letting the ship you're supposed to protect sink.
Under the Guns: Clarified the flavor text to better match what actually happens in the encounter.
Bad Neighbors: Moved the cultists off the couch. Also, it's night outside so avatar combat shouldn't take place in a room with sunlight streaming in. Fixed that.
Fight of the Valkyries: Valkyries are now all female.
The Pirates' Malady: Incomplete text was confusing. Clarified.
Run Out the Guns: Instructions said to sink one sort of enemy but a different sort counted toward completion. Fixed that.
Freakin' Deacon: Tweaked the mission text to no longer refer to the docks since that was the wrong place to send people.
Plea to a Higher Power: The destination was missing. Fixed that.
Mob Rule: If you died, you couldn't revive. Fixed that.
Plot Tryst: It was possible to see your lover in jail and also safe in the consulate. Your lover is no longer in the consulate while in jail.
Road Scholar: Fixed a problem where you could cancel the mission and lose the ability to access the original patron.
Bad Blood: Corrected location in mission description.
Incoming!: You were instructed to kill the wrong sort of enemy. Corrected that.
The Hermit's Secret: The door was on a wagon. Fixed the text to make more sense. Parlor door near the library has no door highlight or text string. Fixed that. Similarly for the door near the stairs.
Stealing Their Thunder: Tweaked Encounter Objectives to make more sense.
Cutting the Paper Trail: Crewmen don't make much sense in an office. They're now Guards.
Feed the Hungry: This mission claimed to offer no reward and, indeed, offered no reward. It now offers and gives a reward.
The Finer Things: Explained an incongruity with how the house looks on the outside.
Under Scrutiny: Fixed the door so you can get out of the mission. Once you complete the objectives, April stops following you around.
Heirs in Judgement: Ship name was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Not Without My Daughter and others: Now offer mission rewards as they should.
Pig Tracks: Allies are useless when you first zone in. Fixed that.
The Thing Beneath the Fort: Dead guys were standing around. Now they lie on the ground like dead guys should.
We Aren't the World and others: Now offer mission rewards as they should.
Blackbeard's Wreck: Changed the encounter to better fit the story.
The Gunpowder Plot: When it's time to leave, you get an unneeded popup. Fixed that.
Coins for the Poor: Clarified request of the player.
Get Out of Town: Rewrote bits of this mission to make more sense.
Cardinal Basilio: The mission wasn't giving the proper rewards on completion. Fixed that.
Duty is a Four Letter Word: Map now has the appropriate title. Similarly for several other missions.
Blue Harvest: On return, there were no mission details. There are now.
Corpi Hippocraticum: NPCs are no longer standing on the bed.
Honest Dishonesty: This mission should have been available to the other nations besides the British. Now it is.
Learn Combat Medicine: Description was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Money in the Bank: This mission hadn't been updated for the new Tortuga and was using the wrong bartender. Fixed that.
The Ram Rod of Asclepius: The naval captain shouldn't have been someone you can talk to - he had nothing to say. Now he no longer pops up an empty dialog when you click him. Similarly for Permission to Die, Sir!.
Stay Alive: When we made NPCs auto-heal, this mission got a lot harder. NPCs no longer auto-heal in this mission. But you should still bring friends along with you. Also fixed the bug where using Advanced First Aid didn't advance the mission.
The Shadow Lodge: Mission was using the same door as the Smuggler's Tunnel. Now it has its own door.
The Blackpowder Art: Should have had A Pinch of Saltpeter as a prerequisite. Otherwise it didn't make sense. Now it does.
Burning Bridges: Fixed a bug that prevented entering the mission.
Ouest Connection: when it's time to leave, you get an unneeded popup. Fixed that.
The Inquisition: Become Trusted: The requirements were incorrect. Fixed that.
Buying In: Brits were unable to complete this. Fixed that by removing the last part of the mission.
Seventeen Bones: The mission now takes place on a beach like it says.
San Marcos: The infoservice on Shoorai Edeline now only becomes available when you've completed The Missing Mayor.
Search Muenda Audoire: Moved the mission door to make more sense.
Shoorai's Trickery: Tweaked mission details on return to match encounter.
The Venom of Maqahauba: Changed the persona stage so "A Deal To Be Made" makes sense.
All Sewn Up: Once freed, the prisoner now runs to the longboat instead of the middle of the beach. Used to grant no reward. Now gives XP. No money because you're helping a poor man.
The Caves: If you went the back way through the caves, the mission was way too easy because not all enemies activated. Fixed that.
The Concord Mutiny: Clarified why you'd want to talk to a Johah.
The Enemy Within: For non-Brits, this mission referenced the British NPC. Fixed that. It was difficult to find the tiny little sweet spot that would allow you to click the ancient tomb. Should be easier now. Added a floaty over the cult leader so he's easier to find.
The Games Afoot!: Target ship had a generic name. Fixed that.
Hermit of High Wave Harbor: Some NPCs had invisible bits. Fixed that.
In Sheep's Clothing: Tweaked the mission text so the Encounter Objectives make sense.
Matters of Great Importance: One of our more verbose writers was surprised and dismayed to learn that there's a character limit - mission text can only be so long and after that, it gets truncated. He's reworded to try to fit the information he wants to convey into the space allowed.
Old Money: Fixed the text for la Chapelle who was previously just mimicking Holmes. She's got her own voice now.
Old Money and others: Mission reward name was code instead of text. Fixed that.
Riddering's Beach: One enemy NPC was giving boss-level XP for defeat but wasn't boss-level difficult to defeat. Reward is now commensurate with effort.
The Ruins: The crocodile was dodging pretty much all the time and it looked wrong. Shortened the animation to look more reasonable.
Said He Had A Message: Mission sent you to the wrong bartender. Fixed that.
The Sawbones: Placed the skulls on the ground where they belong.
Shackled Shipmates: Made several changes/fixes. The mission should make more sense, not be winnable by doing pretty much nothing, and be more fun.
The South Beach: It was a little too difficult to keep the wrong NPC from dying. He now spawns closer to you so you can get to him before he goes down.
Unwitting Accomplice: Rearranged the flavor text a bit for clarity.
Wolves at the Door: Fixed a bug that prevented enemies sunk by your allies from counting toward the encounter objectives.
Cleaned up many, many other text issues in missions - typos, punctuation, missing strings, etc.
Added descriptions to a bunch of mission loot items.
Made a wording tweak on the mission reward UI.
Inspected Teak: Tooltip was code instead of text. Fixed that.Economy
Trade: If you were in the middle of a trade and logged out (or got kicked due to a crash), the cash in the trade would be lost. Fixed that.
Economy Tutorial: Added two new missions to help mitigate the fragility of the Economy Tutorial. It's too easy to click the wrong button at the wrong time and be unable to recover. There are now two missions: "I've Lost My Woodcutter's Camp Deed!" and "I've Lost My Gravel Pit Deed!" They are available from the Assistant only when you might need them.
Build Warehouse: The cost shown in the tooltip wasn't updating dynamically so it could be quite wrong. Also when you click this, you now get a confirmation dialog with the cost to build shown. You also get a confirmation when building other structures but those don't show the cost.
Auction House UI: Renamed Retrieve tab to Pickup since that's how we refer to it other places in the game.
Auction House: If you're not paying attention when you make an offer, it's easy to pay way too much. Now if you offer more than 5x the going price, more than 60% of your total cash, or more than 100,000 doubloons, a warning will be displayed. Seriously, though - pay attention.
Auction House Make an Offer UI: Expanded the area for errors so localized versions will fit.
Auction House: Players can no longer spam the auction house with browse or buy operations. When we have had "runs" on the auction house, it's gotten very slow, and we think this is a big part of the fix.
Shop UI: Added a little more space to accommodate 3-line descriptions that result when we translate into other languages.
Careening Camp deeds are now tradable.
If you created a structure deed when your personal inventory was full, you didn't get a deed. Now the deed drops into your warehouse instead.
Pre-Measured Gunpowder, Exceptional and Fine-Grained Gunpowder, Exceptional: Outputs were swapped. Fixed that.
Revised loot drops. Tuned the economic loot dropped by defeated ships down. In some cases we were dropping ridiculous quantities of very valuable loot. In addition to nerfing those drops, Isildur generally adjusted all econ loot drops down, making it far more likely that you will (especially at lower levels) get no econ loot dropped at all. To compensate, he has also increased the drop rate of junk loot. Junk loot drops are not affected by the pirate loot reduction, so this change generally increases the money entering the economy for everyone. This is still an open tuning issue, and further changes may be forthcoming.
Open Sea
Several ports spawn you too far away to return to port safely. Now when you zone into the Open Sea, you get an effect, NavZoningModifiers, that increases your interact range by 200 yards. The effect goes away after 180 seconds, or as soon as you move.
We now have the ability to distinguish between getting pulled into an ad-hoc as an aggressor or a defender. As a result, the Preparing Ship effect now allows you to join battles if your allies get attacked, but it does not allow you to join if your allies are the aggressors. You can still freely attack NPCs during this period.
If you attacked an NPC in the Open Sea, if any survived, they returned to the Open Sea. Changed it so that killing any one of the group would prevent all of the group from returning to the Open Sea.
Killing lower-level NPCs in Ad Hocs was not awarding negative faction points. Fixed that.
Improved the loot of elite rare spawn Open Sea NPCs. The loot table now guarantees an item drop of some kind, has a greatly increased chance of dropping books, outfitting, and avatar outfitting.
The Confrerie Libre now spawn in the Open Sea. They were MIA previously.
Tweaked the color of the Port Names in the Open Sea a bit to make them stand out more.
On some machines, the Local Map of the Open Sea was displaying incorrectly, making it useless. Fixed that.
Fixed the grass texture vying for dominance outside Santa Clara.
Grounded floating trees in the Yucatan and New Grenada.
There are now moving clouds in the Open Sea.
Turned off the tooltip which was full of silly misinformation like "This port is owned by the Brethren of the Coast."PvP / Port Contention
You can't dump cargo in a PvP ad hoc encounter unless you are allowed to leave the zone.
If you offer unconditional surrender in PvP and it is rejected, if you lost the battle, the victor doesn't get anything from your cargo hold.
Increased the range at which unrest is generated around a port from roughly 40 miles to roughly 100 miles. There are a few ports where this increased range extends beyond the PvP zone around the port. While this is not ideal, it is intended, and killing NPCs in that range, beyond the PvP zone, but inside the range to generate contention, is not an exploit. We believe the ultimate impact of this will be minimal, as contention only goes to the closest port when two ports have overlapping areas of contention generation, so there will be very few places where you can generate contention for a port while being outside the PvP area of that port.
Players couldn't earn unrest if their victim was 15 levels below them. Removed that requirement. Any kill in the proper area should count toward unrest now.
Citation of Conquest rewards: Clarified tooltip to note that the effect is temporary.
Conquest delivery missions: Corrected requirements text to match reality.
Funds Conquest Missions: Asked for two items but required four. Fixed that.
Port St. Joe Unrest Bundle Missions: The Garrison Commander was offering these to all takers. Now he's a bit more selective who he talks to.
It was possible to earn contention points for group member kills that shouldn't have counted. Fixed that.
Increased the drop rate of battle ensigns for pirates to drop roughly 40% of the time.
On occasion, Marks of Victory would be rewarded for defeating a player who was too low level and whose ship was too many levels below yours. Fixed that.
Marks of Victory: Tweaked the text on the turn-in screen to make it more consistent with other missions. Fixed the mission description which was MIA.
We no longer allow multiple concurrent landmark battles against the same nation. And battle start times are always rounded up to the next hour.
Fixed a bug that caused the first person on the waiting list to receive ALL the waiting list notifications and no one else to receive any. When looping, it helps to increment the counter...
Underdog Tools: We have two types of unrest modifiers based on your rank. Attack Unrest multiplies the amount of unrest generated when you attack enemy ports. Defense Unrest multiplies the amount of unrest generated when your ports get attacked. Thus, a positive value in Attack Unrest is good (you flip ports faster) while a positive value in Defense Unrest is bad (your ports get flipped faster). 1st Place: +20% Defense Unrest. 2nd Place: No Modifiers. 3rd Place: +15% Attack Unrest, -15% Defense Unrest. 4th Place: +35% Attack Unrest, -35% Defense Unrest. These values are updated based on server victories, and not your standing in the current conquest map. The last place nation receives additional incentives: +20% bonus experience and a +20% chance for a bonus loot roll.Art
Made a change to the loading screens to prevent them blurring on lower texture settings.
In several shops, there was an extraneous NPC standing too close to the Local Trader. Removed them.
The sign on the Tailor Shop door is now a needle and thread instead of the standard shop sign.
Fixed a flashing window texture in the mansion.
The camera can now go through the bars in the jailhouse so it should feel less clunky and claustrophobic.
Bartica: Doors had sparkle effect but no highlight. Fixed that.
Campeche: An NPC in the Admiralty Office was leaning on nothing. Fixed that.
Caracas: Moved the soldier leaning in the wall to lean against the wall.
Charlesfort: Changed the ship deed trader's appearance slightly.
Charlesfort: Clicking on the bartender doesn't work - you have to press X. Fixed that.
Georgetown: The bartender was confused about his identity and location. Straightened him out.
Golden Lake: Fixed a bug that prevented adding folks to your Friends list or Ignore list while in this town.
Grand Turk: If you clicked on it when you weren't yet allowed in, nothing would happen and you may think it was broken. Wasn't broken; we just weren't giving you any hint of that. Now you get a popup regardless - one noting that you can't come in; one letting you in if you're qualified.
Iguana: The town boss just parroted what you said. He's more helpful and informative now.
Irish Point: There was an NPC with a flour sack pretending to sweep without a broom. He has been re-educated.
Marsh Harbour: Fire blowers weren't very good at their jobs. They've got the technique down now.
Port Royal: There was an NPC with her hand interpenetrating her dress. No more dress = no more problem.
Port Royal: There was a fisherman who's legs interpenetrated the dock. Fixed.
Port Royal: Mountains in the background would disappear and reappear as you moved your camera. Fixed that.
Port Royal: The bartender talks about someone who's not there yet. Fixed that.
Port St. Joe: Moved yet another NPC off his chair. This one was in the Company Office.
Portobello: The woman in the Company Office is no longer talking to the empty chair.
Santa Catalina: Fixed some graphics problems with the surf near the suspension bridge, terrain problems near the cave entrance, and camera volume issues in the cliff face.
Sisal: NPC near the tavern had his feet imbedded in the porch. Fixed that.
Spanish Town: The magistrate spoke in code instead of text. He's more helpful and informative now.
Tortuga: Removed some extra lively NPCs that were interpenetrating.
Tortuga: Removed a floating dancing woman, sword fighters in the pit, and moved the monkey.
BSharp made his monthly pilgrimage through the rooms, cleaning up lighting and fixing fog.
Cut one second off all the drawing weapon animations.
Added and hooked up more NPC fidgets.
/wolfwhistle now has an animation to go with it.
The /brat emote was showing code instead of text. Fixed that.
Fixed the animation for NPCs puking.
Tweaked crocodile animations to minimize popping.
Tweaked large flag animation to minimize popping.
Tweaked the torch effects. They're now lighter on draw calls and yet look better.
Fixed several clothing interpenetration problems.UI
Server List UI: Changed font size on the server selection screen hoping that Very Heavy load will show correctly instead of showing Very Hea.
Server List UI: Widened the columns a bit to accommodate localized text.
If you logged out in Black Point, you'd see code instead of text on your character selection screen when you logged back in. Fixed that.
Fixed a typo on the Avatar Quick Reference Guide.
We had a problem where, if you logged out with one character and logged in with another, the icons on your toolbar would get munged. We believe we've fixed this except in the case of the Spanish Tutorial, which is a different issue.
Added tips on the Loading... screen.
Healthbar UI: Cleaned up the art that shows damage to the stern armor.
Group UI: A groupmate's healthbar showed the wrong image when his ship was defeated. Now it shows the circular skull and crossbones as expected.
Healthbar UI: Changed the healthbar shields that represent unknown nation.
Chat UI: Right-clicking on chat tab button will display the settings for that tab. Double-clicking on the tab will bring up a message box to change the name.
Chat UI: Now selecting an active group mission puts the chat notification in the group chat tab instead of the log tab. Makes more sense.
Local Map UI: Used to always sort above other UI even though it shouldn't. Fixed that.
Local Map UI: Renamed the PvP Areas tab to Conquest Status. Not all places listed are PvP areas.
Character UI: Adjusted so that stats don't overlap when AC +balance/+initiative regen items are equipped.
Combat UI: Translations for the tooltips for swivels and batteries were not being shown - they were always showing up in English. Fixed that.
Boarding Combat UI: Some text overlaps in localized versions. Changed font size to improve the situation.
Mission UI: Sort by Title didn't sort alphabetically. Fixed that.
Preferences: Simply visiting the Graphics Preferences UI no longer reloads graphics. When you change a graphic setting, you must hit the Apply button for it to change. It does not remember your choices if you exit the dialog or switch to a different category. Of all the changes in this build, I think this one makes Misha happiest.
Preferences UI: Removed "Pan" keybindings. They didn't work.
If you had the Preference "Show Chat from other Nations" turned off and a GM logged in as a character of a different nation was talking to you, you didn't know that. Fixed that - you should always be able to hear GMs, regardless of your nation or theirs.
Generalized the tooltip on the Exit Encounter button. It used to say you could only exit ship encounters but that's not true.
Tooltips no longer display if they have nothing to say.
Tweaked the size of the title bar of several UI windows to accommodate longer and possibly multi-line localized text.
Created new slider art for the Combat UI, Local Map, and Ship Customization UI. Created new arrows for Character Creation and Customization and for the Economy UI and Ship Customization.Sound
Fixed a bug in looping sounds that was causing a memory leak.
Fixed a bug that was preventing sounds from playing in certain missions.
Fixed female NPCs sounding like males when fighting.
Added sounds to the Ship Jail.
Revamped and fixed sounds in the La Garza caves.
Port of Spain: Changed some sounds and animations out for ones that are more appropriate. Still not ideal, but better.
Added some Spanish crowd sounds.
Added pirate crowd sounds to pirate shops.
Added sound to the emote /belch. I'm going to regret telling you that, aren't I?
Stability / Performance
Several of our ships required the same amount of resources to view at long distances as they did close up. Having low detail models generally increases performance. Some ships now have low LOD models or better ones than they did before: Lexington, Capricieux, Renard, Breton, Stralsund, Myrmidon, Raa, Corsair, Dromedary, Defiant, Medway, Periauger, Invincible, Hiorten, Prince, Wenden, and Postillionen. More to come.
Optimized the checks that we do when we try to unload sounds to recoup memory.
Improved the way we validate where you're going to and coming from when you zone. This may prevent some cases of getting stuck on a Loading... screen.
Changed our UDP traffic to be more efficient and hopefully avoid being dumped mindlessly on the floor by older routers.
Optimized avatar movement not to call the function for dealing with obstructions if you're not obstructed.
Changed our code to work around a crash that's occurring in the Miles Sound System. We're not at all sure it will fix the problem, but it's our best try until Miles can figure out what's going on for reals.
Fixed a bug that could cause the game to crash if you had chat logging turned on.
Fixed a bug that could cause the game to crash and leave you stuck in Campeche.
Fixed several AI and Encounter log messages. You don't need that much spam in your logs.
Killed some of the more egregious log spam. Now, if there's a warning or error that would spam your logs, the messages should show up once or at least much less often.
If you lose connection to the server, you should usually get a dialog explaining what happened.
Fixed a Connection Server crash that could occur if sometimes when we got a packet with a garbage ID.
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if you left a boarding encounter and then we tried to update your location. You probably never saw this since you'd already left. But it's always good to fix crashes.
If a player happened to lose connection just as a trade was completing, the trade would fail and the zone server would crash. Fixed that.
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if a timer ran out after you logged out.
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur during Past the Point of Subtlety.
Fixed a bug that could cause character data loss on very rare occasions.
Misc
System messages now appear in the HUD as well as chat in a loud color so they're harder to miss.
If you delete a character, you now have to wait an hour before you can delete another one.
Killed that stupid log message "WARNING UI: findHyphen called when the word will fit"
Fixed massive log spam about ProgressBar being out of range.
We received new localized text from SOE for the new content in 1.2 and included it in this build.
¶ 1.1.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.1.71.0
02/29/2008
The addition of special celebration goodies (more information on that to be found here)
Minor adjustments to starting conquest point values to fix a bug we created in Beta
It will be more difficult to push starting ports into contention than other ports.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.1.69.0
Source
02.20.08 by MishaWe’ve made a few bug fixes and improvements we wanted to make available to you sooner than we can make 1.2.x available. Things like preventing turn-ins from taking a port past Pirate PvP and adding a couple new Tutorial missions.
Known Issues:
Some Arcadia Xebec’s guns reload when you zone. Those of you affected will need to wait to load them with non-default ammo until you’re in the battle. Not everyone has this problem.
Take Command of Ship Tutorial: The final destination line is code instead of text.
The outputs for Exceptional Pre-Measured and Fine-Grained Gunpowder recipes are swapped.
Differences between 1.1.54.0 and 1.1.69.0 include but aren’t limited to:Ships / Outfitting:
Reduced the Jamaica Sloop to level 5
Tweaked accuracy a bit more. These changes make it harder to hit small ships at long range without impacting the overall chance to hit them at close-mid range.
Partial surrender was broken. If you offered 25% of your cargo and the offer was accepted, you’d lose and your enemy would gain 100% of your cargo. At which point, why offer? Fixed that.
The very large uncommon outfitting was missing from the loot table. Added it and adjusted the levels at which items drop down by 5.
Career skills that apply modifiers to ship stats should now stack.Missions:
Take Command of Ship tutorial: Pirate trainers now offer a mission that teaches players how to use the Capture Ship skill. All career trainers now offer a mission that teaches the players how to use the Claim Prize/Scavenge skill.
Island of the Monkeys: Added missing XP reward
Marks of Victory: Major European Commendation: Players over level 45 were unable to take this mission. Fixed that.
Burdens of Command: This mission was too difficult, preventing Naval Officers from receiving their final career skill. ConCo made a quick and dirty fix. They want to completely revamp this mission but that won’t happen soon.PvP / Port Contention:
Prevented unrest turn-ins from working when the port is in Pirate PvP or higher.
Killing players was generating too much unrest. PvP kills are supposed to be worth 3x as much unrest, but the values they were providing were arbitrarily high. Fixed the calculation so that PvP kills are worth 3x unrest.
Removed the global unrest multiplier and increased the unrest gained for ship kills. This makes unrest missions provide the amount of unrest listed in their mission rewards, and has no impact on unrest gains for ship kills (the two changes cancel each other out).Economy:
Smelling salts now have a cost of 0.
Three of the advanced merchant recipes did not have their labor costs adjusted down after Isildur globally reduced labor costs for all recipes. Thus they were actually worse than the original recipes. Fixed that.UI / Art / Sound:
Charlesfort: You had to Press X to enter the tavern. Fixed that.
Charlesfort: There was a soldier leaning inside a wall. Fixed that.Misc:
Fixed the bug that prevented teleporting to Black Point as you can to other towns when you have a ship docked there.
/who and /whocount commands are no longer available. This is one of several tactics we’re implementing for fighting gold spammers.
¶ Patch Notes for Build 1.1.54.0
02.11.08 by Aether
We batched up some particularly large bug fixes, such as those for music and art, into this patch.
This download will be bigger than previous patches but we’re hoping you’ll agree that it’s worth it, with all the bug fixes we’ve included.
Some highlights are as follows:
- New logout system that particularly improves logout in the Open Sea. Read this devlog for details.
- Unrest supply bundles finally work. We’ve added the turn-in missions for these so you can produce them and hand them in to generate unrest on an enemy port. Read this other devlog from Rev on Conquest and PvP improvements.
- Rare pirate gang spawns are now twice as frequent as before, so those bounty missions won’t be so hard.
- We fixed the bug that would cause an NPC you attacked in the Open Sea to spawn a different kind of ship when the battle started.
- We shut up the Auctioneer!
Known Issues:
- Sometimes when you enter a ship combat room from the Open Sea, you’ll see the model of a nearby town in there. You can sail through it – it shouldn’t cause a problem. But it shouldn’t be there. We’re working to fix this.
- We have multiple reports of some players crashing entering Campeche, Rosignol, and Puerto Cabezas. Some players have no problem at all. If you’re a player experiencing this problem, please continue to send your crash reports to Microsoft – we’re looking into it.
- If you are a Freetrader, doing a partial delivery in “Offers They Can’t Refuse” will cause you to lose items. Only turn in the items when you have all of them to turn in at once. If you already have this mission and can’t complete it, cancel it and re-take it. If we have more info, we’ll update this thread.
- It’s not possible to use the Harbor Master to transport to a ship stored in Black Point.
- This patch is a few hundred megabytes in size. It’s going to take longer to download than previous patches.
Differences between 1.0.48.4 and 1.1.54.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Character Creation / Customization:
- Some combinations of items and colors in character creation had a bug that prevented you from starting to play. When this happened, the game displayed a message box reading “Error_Generic”. We have fixed the issues that caused this error and also changed the error to say something helpful should it happen again.
- The front of Female Vest (Merchant) is no longer invisible.
- Fixed LOD problems with the Female Coat (Elegant) and Female Vest (Frilled).
- Fixed males going bald in places at some LODs.
- Fixed several places where the wrong vests or shirts were coupled with certain coats and such.
- Some jackets had a Fleur-de-lis design even though the jackets could be worn by British and Spanish characters. Fixed that.
- We had limited the Level 45 privateer “Patriot” coat to Spanish players only while we solved some bugs with the other versions. We’ve fixed those other bugs so have made that coat available to the other nations. If you are level 45 or more and you’ve completed the necessary career missions, you’re welcome to head back to the Tailor Shop and try out that coat – you will automatically have it if you’ve completed the mission.
- Cleaned up some texture problems with female coats. Also fixed gaps that allowed you to see into the hollow insides of avatars wearing these coats.
- Corrected problems with the female frilly shirt.
- There was a bug in one of the male shirts that caused duplicate entries to appear in the list of choices. No more duplicate entries.
- One of the male heads, when bald, had lines down the back. Fixed that.
- Fixed several more clothing interpenetration issues.
Ships / Combat:
- Many players have not realized that some of your cargo is lost when you sink. This is because we never told them, so we’ve made some UI changes to make it clearer that unsecured cargo is lost when you sink. We added an explanation to the tooltips of these items, and also an overlay to their icons that, when you hover over it, gives a further explanation of unsecured cargo.
- Ship tuning: Added a small amount of target tracking to light guns.
- Ship tuning: Made small adjustments to target tracking, mainly on the mid to upper range ships. Most noticeable on the Raa.
- Ship tuning: Added a bit of max range accuracy to all guns
- Ship tuning: Added a small amount of mid-range accuracy to mid-heavy guns
- Ship tuning: Reduced small/medium ship defense slightly.
- Ship tuning: Added a little bit of damage reduction to large, huge and colossal ships.
- Ship tuning: Slightly reduced the relative motion accuracy penalty. Slightly extended the range at which we start applying relative motion penalties.
- Ship tuning: Decreased the defense of the Mastercraft La Belle, it was higher than intended.
- Ship tuning: Reduced the damage reduction of some ships (such as the Cruizer) that were set too high due to having their size reduced recently.
- Ship tuning: Increased the defense for third rate and above line ships.
- Ship tuning: Slightly increased the defense for some mid-range and high-end ships.
- Ship tuning: Slightly increased the crew damage reduction based on the amount of crew you have remaining compared to your total crew.
- Arcadia: This ship was supposed to have two gun decks. Fixed that.
- Packet Boat: Buffed the speed, cargo capacity and target tracking, and increased its level. Reduced its close haul speed to 72.5% (this makes it keep the same close haul speed as it had before the speed buff).
- Intrepid: Added two guns to the privateer refit so that it wouldn’t have less guns than the base ship.
- Hellbrand West Indiaman: Reduced the weight of the guns since it was recently changed to a medium ship instead of a large.
- Raft, Smack, Capricieux: Added some low resolution models to improve performance when they’re far from your camera.
- Changed the levels of a few civilian ships to more appropriately match the levels of the player-made versions. This change only affects the civilian versions. Ketch: 9 -8, Curieuse: 15 -14, Xebec: 16 -17, Packetboat: 17 -16, Lexington: 20 -18, Cerberus: 28 -29, Dromedary: 23 -22, Mignone: 43 -40.
- The Medway Longboat was level 5, but it was supposed to be level 1. Fixed.
- Fixed the bug that caused the crows nest to remain after masts were destroyed.
- Rowboat: Fixed several graphical bugs with the model.
- There was an elite status effect that had a generic icon. It has a better icon now.
- Made it so that NPC ships will switch targets as soon as an enemy gets more hate than the NPC’s current target. It used to be that an enemy had to get 10% more hate than the current target before the NPC would switch targets. That wasn’t a bad setting for avatar combat, but it made killing NPC ships too easy.
- Made it so that AIs won’t surrender unless they’ve been attacked in the last 3 seconds. Players have complained about AIs surrendering out of the blue, not in response to any recent attack.
- Rare pirate gang spawns were very hard to find. We’ve now doubled the chance of encountering one in a multi-ship ad hoc. These are the rare spawns targeted by the bounty missions, so they’ll be easier to find now.
Skills / Outfitting:
- Fixed a bug that let you activate skills you shouldn’t have been able to activate.
- Slightly reduced the amount of max range on outfitting.
- Significantly reduced the amount of max range on Long Guns, lessened the reload penalty and added an accuracy bonus.
- Increased the level requirements on long guns. Added a new equip category – Long Guns – for permanent gun outfitting that gives + range.
- Huge Lightweight Guns: These had an absolute effect where all other outfitting like them had a relative effect. Changed to a relative effect.
- Superior Grapples and Ladders stats shown in Tooltip and Character UI (which equipped) now match. Similarly for several other outfitting items which were using relative values instead of absolute values.
- St. Elmo’s Masts Modifications: Fixed a bug that caused the icons to change when moved.
Open Sea:
- Some pirate players who stole career-restricted ships were then confused when they were flagged for PvP. We clarified the text of the tooltip on the Invalid Ship PvP effect. It now says, “This stolen ship is flagged for PvP and can be attacked anywhere on the open sea. The (Captured) versions of all career-restricted ships are invalid.”
- Fixed the problem where you attacked a group of NPCs on the Open Sea and then, in battle, you found a different mix of ships. This was a code bug encountered by many players and we’re glad to have solved it.
- The Ad Hoc Invisibility effect is applied to your ship when you return to the Open Sea from an ad hoc battle. It temporarily prevents you from being seen by enemies, but it also made the enemies invisible to you. That latter part was a bug and we’ve now fixed it. You can see your enemies, but they can’t see you.
- Now if you try to quit or log out on the Open Sea, you will get a 30-second countdown. If you wait out the countdown, you will then log out safely. Otherwise your ship will be left in the Open Sea until the 30 seconds are up, and will be vulnerable to attack. This countdown should now clarify when it is and isn’t safe to log out.
- Many other changes to logout are also in this build. Please see this devlogdevlog for details.
Swashbuckling:
- If you respeced your fighting school and neglected to equip an appropriate weapon, you could end up unable to fight. We’ve now removed the fighting school requirements on all weapons. In this way, you won’t be able to use the special skills from your fighting school with the wrong weapon but you will at least be able to use Beat and Strike. We have more improvements planned but this is a start.
- It was possible to use command skills on NPCs only in a few boarding encounters. Those skills are supposed to be an integral aspect of Boarding Combat so we’ve made them work in all boarding encounters.
- Made some changes we believe will improve the problem with teleporting during avatar combat, particularly avatar combat in forts.
- You can no longer use Swashbuckling skills while sailing.
- Reduced boss balance regen slightly at low levels.
- Vicious Lunge now causes a bleed effect instead of a hamstrung effect. Should have been this way all along.
- All pistol attacks now lock you in place for 1.5 seconds. You have to stand still for a bit to take aim.
- Because of recent changes to how Initiative works, some swashbuckling skills that affected initiative stopped working correctly. We changed Intensity, Aggression, and Expert’s Initiative from giving you initiative over time to giving slightly more initiative immediately instead. Edited tooltips to reflect this.
- Ranged attack skills have a minimum 15 second cooldown. This is now visible in the tooltips.
- Unclaimed swashbuckling loot is no longer “lost at sea.” Cuz that doesn’t usually make sense.
- Master’s Rapier: Removed a duplicate balance damage entry on this item.
- Solingen: Corrected spelling.
- Vicious Thrust: Fixed the name in its tooltip.
- Fencing: Off-Hand Shot: Cleaned up the animation a bit.
Missions:
- Added an info service on career trainers to let players know how often they can expect career missions.
- European Trader Missions: We had a bug that prevented you from taking these missions if you were “celebrated” by the appropriate faction instead of simply “loved.” Fixed that.
- Some mission text was being truncated in localized versions because the buffer used for displaying it was too small. Increased that buffer so you can see all the mission text.
- There were about 30 missions that said they offered rewards but didn’t. Fixed them.
- Some enemies in the Tutorial were flying the wrong flag. Fixed that.
- Completed our low-level mission difficulty adjustment pass with some changes to the fourth and fifth towns you play missions in. This included adjusting the levels of some of the missions and removing some missions from some nations to enhance replayability. This concludes this mission difficulty pass and as with the first round, this only affects missions below level 15.
- Cleaned up text in dozens of missions. Places where NPCs let stuff slip they shouldn’t have or had code instead of text for instructions or the like – we’ve fixed a bunch of those.
- Fixed a bug that caused some players to get stuck in Grand Turk with no Longboat Coxswain to return them to their ship.
- Fixed a bug with the Poleacre Refit that prevented completion of the Xebec Refit mission.
- The Piper Gets Paid: Cleaned up some inconsistent text.
- Meet the Father: A couple of the NPCs were positioned strangely. Fixed that.
- Past the Point of Subtlety: Moved the goal of the Fire Ship in this mission. There were a lot of complaints in the forums that it wasn’t reaching its target and causing the mission to fail. We also set the smuggler’s cave to night-time to match the ship room.
- Just In Time: Put the enemy in minor ships and gave them shaky morale. This should make the mission a bit more doable.
- Black Heart, Black Powder: Fixed a bug that prevented the NPC from following you.
- Love Torn Asunder: Clarified the location of the pirate camp.
- Agent in Jeopardy: This mission was reportedly too difficult. Tweaked it. Should be better now.
- Breaking the Spell: Fixed the destination line which was code instead of text.
- Still Waters: Moved the magistrate off the floor. He’s important enough to sit properly in a chair.
- The Finer Things: Half the servants were British when they should’ve been French. Fixed that. Also, they no longer show up on the map as they’re not NPCs you need to interact with. And conversing servants now have sound.
- Chasing the Money: Freed Pirates were walking up to the door, standing inside each other, and waiting. Now they actually leave (despawn).
- Blackbeard’s Wreck: Corrected the encounter objective.
- Battle of Grand Turk: It was possible to leave early, breaking the mission. Fixed that.
- Holy Cargo: Fixed a bug that prevented claiming the derelict in this mission and a few others.
- Prize Denied: If you boarded the enemy instead of sinking him, the text of the mission made no sense. Fixed that.
- A Warm Greeting: Your allies are no longer generic.
- A Well-Found Ship: Was giving the wrong mission rewards. Fixed that.
Economy:
- Turtling Bay was missing the Harbor resource (to go along with its Deep Harbor). Added it.
- Bermuda Trader’s Sloop: Added the recipe to the master ships book.
- Captured ‘Tigre’ Frigate deeds did not have “(Captured)” in the item name. This made the careening camp recipes appear buggy when they weren’t. Fixed that.
- Large Hull: This freetrader advanced recipe had not been updated to include labor cost reductions and the ability to execute it in a medium shipyard instead of a large shipyard. Updated the recipe.
PvP / Contention:
- It was possible in a port battle for defenders to hide in town while attackers were locked out for 30 minutes. Fixed that. Defenders can’t use that door for 30 minutes just like attackers.
- Removed a mission that let you exchange Marks of Victory for Royal Commendations. We still let you exchange Marks of Victory for Commendations, just not Royal Commendations.
- Marks of Victory are now tradable.
- Marks of Victory weren’t being rewarded for sinking other players. Fixed that. You should now get 1 for sinking a level 10-19 ship, 2 for a level 20-29 ship, and so on up to 5 for sinking a level 50 ship. Note it’s the ship level that matters, not the level of the player sailing her.
- The Unrest Supply bundles you’ve been producing are finally useful! You can turn them in for Unrest points just like the other Conquest missions.
- We removed Marks of Victory from some of the Conquest missions and decreased the number rewarded by some other Conquest missions, since they were too easy to get too fast.
Added a 30-second cooldown timer to the Rebel Agent missions to help stabilize unrest gains achieved that way. We have code fixes for this as well and once we are confident that we’ve solved the issue where players can spam turnins to force contention, we will remove the timers on the missions.- If players got port unrest just up over the limit to flip the port and then didn’t attack for a few minutes before we calculated whether it was time to flip the port, the unrest decay would be such that the port wouldn’t flip. And the players would need to try again to increase unrest and wait for us to calculate again. (We calculate about once every 10 minutes right now, but that’s tunable.) We’ve moved the unrest decay calculation to occur AFTER the “should we flip the port?” calculation to help with that issue.
- We’ve changed the timer for Port Contention Battles to start the battle 46 hours after the port is flipped instead of 48 hours.
- If a Port Contention battle was supposed to be fought while the mission server was down (or if the mission server crashed during the battle), the port and its contention would end up in a wonky state. Fixed most of that. If a battle is supposed to occur when the server is down, it gets rescheduled for 24 hours later.
- If the zone server that is hosting a Port Contention battle goes down, it restarts on its own as it should. However, the mission server knows the battle already started and doesn’t try to restart it. End result: The players can’t get back into the battle and the defender wins by default. Fixed that. Now the mission server knows to reset the battle to the lobby state so players can enter.
Art:
- Improved the run animation. It’s been making TTobey nuts that this change didn’t make it into the launch build and that retail customers saw the old run.
- When you level up, your character gets a sparkly particle effect (as well as saluting or dancing a jig or whatever) that lasts a few seconds. It’s magic!
- Open Sea: Cleaned up a fort between Les Hettes and Cayenne that had sunk into the sea.
- Open Sea: Cleaned up an invisible barrier near New Orleans – ships should be able to follow the shoreline now. Similarly near Sabanqui.
- Open Sea: Cleaned up the area near Oranjestad so that ships can’t sail through the port.
- Open Sea: Fixed the land around St. Augustine so that you can no longer sail there. You’re not supposed to be able to sail on land in this game.
- Open Sea: Iguana had no floating name in the sky. Fixed that.
- Open Sea: Fixed the land around Somer’s Island so that you can’t sail on the land.
- Cleaned up some graphics artifacts on floaty names in the Open Sea like Baritca.
- Boulders near Jacob’s Clock are no longer floating above the beach.
- Cleaned up some grass and rock texture problems in the Open Sea.
- Santa Catalina was sinking. Fixed that.
- Fixed a missing texture on the church in Tortuga on the Open Sea.
- Corrected several other graphical issues in the Open Sea.
- Belize: Fixed the magistrate not being lined up right with his desk.
- Biloxi: The magistrate has aged a bit.
- Carbaneras: It was too dark to see. Lightened the town a bit.
- Campeche: The soldiers are no longer clones.
- Charlesfort: The Freetrader and Privateer trainers were leaning on thin air. Fixed that.
- Georgetown: Removed a guy whose name was code. He wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.
- Georgetown: Fixed two NPCs that got in each other’s way.
- Grand Turk: Cleaned up the nav mesh in places where players walked above the ground or in the ground. Everyone should walk on the ground.
- Jenny Bay: Fixed some graphical issues like a wall missing from a building.
- Jenny Bay: An NPC had a seam on the back of his head. Fixed that.
- Marsh Harbour: There was an NPC sawing the ground. Fixed that.
- Marsh Harbour: Removed the duplicate pacing lady in the shop.
- Marsh Harbour: Fixed several graphical issues including holes in the world.
- Matthew Town: Fixed an NPC who was leaning on nothing.
- Nassau: Changed from night to day.
- Port Royal: Fixed fencers who weren’t fencing.
- Port Royal: Improved the splats of the tomatoes thrown by the monkey.
- Port Royal: Fixed some NPCs who were interpenetrating crates and sacks.
- Port Royal: Cleaned up several seams and interpenetrations between items.
- Riding Rock: Removed a carpenter who was trying to work where it was too dark to see what he was doing. He could’ve sawed off his hand. Safety first!
- Rosignol: NPC was fishing without a pole. Fixed that.
- Ruddy Cove: Sent a guard outside the Town Boss’ office on vacation. She was working too hard.
- Tampa: When Pirates own the town, there’s no longer a Dutchman standing in a chair in the magistrate’s office. He was in the way.
- Tortuga is a night town, but wasn’t set up that way in data files. This caused problems with interior rooms, which defaulted to daytime. Fixed that.
- Tortuga: There were 3 ladies standing in the same spot. Fixed that.
- Tortuga: We made several other art fixes as well.
- Our art director made a pass through all the rooms and made some technical fixes. This should improve textures and lighting in several places.
- We changed the restriction on your camera in avatar space so you can now see higher into the sky. BSharp thinks this makes the game prettier and less claustrophobic. Misha predicts this will enable you to find more graphical bugs.
- The Spanish and British level 45 privateer coat designs were wrong. Fixed that.
- Fixed problems with NPC body parts intersecting other body parts. For example, some NPCs’ hands were in their legs (instead of resting on their legs).
- Female soldiers didn’t have guns. They’re now fully armed and dangerous.
- Fixed the animation bug that caused the fisherman’s pole to intersect his body as he cast the line.
- Added some contest-winner flags and sails we’d previously missed.
- Fixed graphical issues with prisoners in hanging cages.
- Moved some magistrates off the floor into chairs as would be fitting their station.
- You can no longer move your camera through the ceiling in the Admiralty Office.
- In several towns such as Belize and Bartica, put some bartenders in their proper place and made some taverns a little more lively.
- Fixed an NPC in some taverns with his leg stuck in a barrel.
- Some singing drunks were playing the wrong animations. Fixed that.
- The Tailor Shop now has its own sign on the door.
- Lightened several night-time rooms so it’s easier to see.
- Defend the Town: Fixed some flames that were hanging out in mid-air.
- NPCs were occasionally getting stuck in inlets in the map used by “A Captain in Chains” and other missions. Smoothed out the coast so this should happen less.
- Cleaned up the /boggle emote a bit so hands don’t penetrate hats so much.
- Updated our logo on the Loading… screens.
UI:
- Quick Reference Guides: Revamped, improved to fix layout problems among other things.
- Added more info to the Avatar Controls help UI.
- Ship Controls Window: Made the names of controls and the help for them consistent.
- Help UI: Tweaked to better accommodate ship stats.
- Cleaned up and added some text to Help also.
- Local Map: Improved the window’s texture.
- Character List UI: Expanded to accommodate localized text.
- Economy UI: Changed the way the Economy UI works to better accommodates long deed names.
- Economy UI: Fixed the bug where the tax rate was truncated.
- Economy UI: Tweaked the text color for better legibility.
- Economy UI: Room for text on icons was increased to accommodate localized text. It’s still pretty cramped but better than it was.
- Shop UI: Now can handle 5-digit quantities.
- Shop UI: Increased the width of the tabs to accommodate localized text.
- Fixed the truncation of your speed in the compass.
- Loot UI: Fixed truncation of long loot names.
- Loot UI: Widened to accommodate localized text. However, you can resize this UI smaller if you want.
- Group Loot UI: Cleaned up some graphics problems including improving font color.
- Skill Shop UI: Expanded to accommodate localized text.
- Preferences UI: Tweaked the colors of the controls to better match the rest of the game.
- Preferences UI: Expanded the UI and one of the buttons there in order to accommodate localized text.
- Preferences UI: Widened a Sound Preference tooltip to accommodate localized text.
- Expanded the width of the town list in the World Map to fix the town with the longest name.
- Tweaked the tooltip text on the World Map to make it more legible.
- Fixed some career skill tooltips that were code instead of text.
- Added some tooltips here and there. Reworded some other tooltips for clarity.
- Fixed the text that shows when you /drink.
- Fixed the text in some emotes to improve grammar.
Sound:
- Fixed footstep sounds in the Mansion.
- Decreased the repetitiveness of the prisoner’s declarations of innocence in the Magistrate’s Office in Marsh Harbour. He was annoying!
- Muted the Auctioneer in all shops so he’s not blathering on all the time.
Stability / Performance:
- Sometimes, the data files used to play the game can be corrupted during the download, causing odd problems. We now check them on launch to see if they are corrupted and if so, pop up a message box that you need to run a Full Scan in LaunchPad to fix them.
- Fixed a bug that trapped some players on an infinite Loading… screen.
- If you had a very large Society and many members were actively zoning around, your client would pause or stutter every time. This is probably to blame for many seemingly random pauses and stutters among Society players. Fixed that. There’s still an efficiency change we need to make when they’re logging in and out a lot, but it’s much better than it was.
- If you happened to mouse over something that would show a tooltip just as you were trying to zone, you might crash. Fixed that.
- Improved a lag spike that could occur when trying to load new avatars into view.
- Fixed a graphics memory leak allocating an avatar image.
- Plugged another graphics memory leak. We were making copies of cannons for each ship with a different number of cannons on it, and then leaking them.
- Fixed a memory leak in the Open Sea zone server that was leading to crashes. Besides fixing the cause of the crash, we’ve also set up a mechanism for predicting that sort of problem so if we ever cause another issue like this, we’ll be able to deal with it without crashing. Those of you who have experienced the Open Sea server going down, this fix is for you!
- Made a change to the way we unload textures. Works more cleanly now.
- Fixed a crash that could occur if the texture manager freed a texture incorrectly.
- In an attempt to improve the flashing ocean problem some NVIDIA cards were having, we had made a hacky change while waiting for NVIDIA’s driver fix. Now that they’ve supplied us with updated driversupdated drivers, we’ve removed that hack.
- Fixed a crash on shutdown that a few players experienced when they had been prompted to fill out a survey.
- Fixed another problem that could cause the game to crash on shutdown. Nothing bad was happening (no data loss), but still crashes are no good so we like to fix them.
- Fixed a crash that could occur in the Login server if we tried to shut it down just as someone was logging in. It didn’t happen on the live servers more than a time or two and nothing bad happened as a result (no data loss) but crashes are bad so we fixed it.
Misc:
- The only way to successfully launch PotBS is via LaunchPad. However, our exe lives on your hard drive. If you double click that by mistake, you see an empty server list and it’s not clear what you did wrong. Now, it pops up an error instead, explaining that you need to run LaunchPad.
- We were logging an ERROR to your log file when nothing bad actually happened. It was confusing our efforts to figure out what was really going on. Cleaned that up.
- Vista was asking some people whether the game needed to be elevated to be run. It doesn’t. So we now tell Vista that. (You do have to be Admin to install and patch, however.)
- Somers Isle is now Somerset.
- Added some additional words to the profanity filter.
- Added some additional names to the reserved names list.
- Fixed log spam that could occur if the game was running behind the Windows login screen.
- Removed some art files from the build that aren’t used. This helped shrink the patch size a little bit.
- We made a change to the way we process art files so that they don’t all have to change when we push a new build with art fixes. This should decrease the size of future patches.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.1.48.0
01.30.08 by Misha
We batched up many bug fixes, particularly ones that increase the size of the patch, such as those for music and art, into this patch. This download will be bigger than previous patches but we’re hoping you’ll agree that it’s worth it as fixes to bugs that have been driving many of you crazy are included.
Some highlights include:
- New logout system that particularly improves logout in the Open Sea. Read this devlog for details.
- Unrest supply bundles finally work. We’ve added the turn-in missions for these so you can produce them and hand them in to generate unrest on an enemy port.
- Rare pirate gang spawns are now twice as frequent as before, so those bounty missions won’t be so hard.
- We fixed the bug that would cause an NPC you attacked in the Open Sea to spawn a different kind of ship when the battle started.
- We shut up the Auctioneer!
Known Issues:
- If you are a Freetrader, doing a partial delivery in “Offers They Can’t Refuse” will cause you to lose items. Only turn in the items when you have all of them to turn in at once. If you already have this mission and can’t complete it, cancel it and re-take it. If we have more info, we’ll update this thread.
- It’s not possible to use the Harbor Master to transport to a ship stored in Black Point.
- This patch is a few hundred megabytes in size. Before this patch goes from Testbed to the live servers, we will be making some changes to reduce the size of the patch. This may mean Testbed testers experience multiple largish patches. We apologize and appreciate your patience.
- We have multiple reports of some players crashing entering Campeche, Rosignol, and Puerto Cabezas. Some players have no problem at all. If you’re a player experiencing this problem, please continue to send your crash reports to Microsoft – we’re looking into it.
- Differences between 1.0.48.4 and 1.1.48.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Character Creation / Customization:
- Some combinations of items and colors in character creation had a bug that prevented you from starting to play. When this happened, the game displayed a message box reading “Error_Generic”. We have fixed the issues that caused this error and also changed the error to say something helpful should it happen again.
- The front of Female Vest (Merchant) is no longer invisible.
- Fixed LOD problems with the Female Coat (Elegant) and Female Vest (Frilled).
- Fixed males going bald in places at some LODs.
- Fixed several places where the wrong vests or shirts were coupled with certain coats and such.
- Some jackets had a Fleur-de-lis design even though the jackets could be worn by British and Spanish characters. Fixed that.
- We had limited the Level 45 privateer “Patriot” coat to Spanish players only while we solved some bugs with the other versions. We’ve fixed those other bugs so have made that coat available to the other nations. If you are level 45 or more and you’ve completed the necessary career missions, you’re welcome to head back to the Tailor Shop and try out that coat – you will automatically have it if you’ve completed the mission.
- Cleaned up some texture problems with female coats. Also fixed gaps that allowed you to see into the hollow insides of avatars wearing these coats.
- Corrected problems with the female frilly shirt.
- There was a bug in one of the male shirts that caused duplicate entries to appear in the list of choices. No more duplicate entries.
- One of the male heads, when bald, had lines down the back. Fixed that.
- Fixed several more clothing interpenetration issues.
Ships / Combat:
- Arcadia: This ship was supposed to have two gun decks. Fixed that.
- Packet Boat: Buffed the speed, cargo capacity and target tracking, and increased its level. Reduced its close haul speed to 72.5% (this makes it keep the same close haul speed as it had before the speed buff).
- Intrepid: Added two guns to the privateer refit so that it wouldn’t have less guns than the base ship.
- Hellbrand West Indiaman: Reduced the weight of the guns since it was recently changed to a medium ship instead of a large.
- Raft, Smack, Capricieux: Added some low resolution models to improve performance when they’re far from your camera.
- Changed the levels of a few civilian ships to more appropriately match the levels of the player-made versions. This change only affects the civilian versions. Ketch: 9 -> 8, Curieuse: 15 -> 14, Xebec: 16 -> 17, Packetboat: 17 -> 16, Lexington: 20 -> 18, Cerberus: 28 -> 29, Dromedary: 23 -> 22, Mignone: 43 -> 40.
- The Medway Longboat was level 5, but it was supposed to be level 1. Fixed.
- Fixed the bug that caused the crows nest to remain after masts were destroyed.
- Rowboat: Fixed several graphical bugs with the model.
- There was an elite status effect that had a generic icon. It has a better icon now.
- Made it so that NPC ships will switch targets as soon as an enemy gets more hate than the NPC’s current target. It used to be that an enemy had to get 10% more hate than the current target before the NPC would switch targets. That wasn’t a bad setting for avatar combat, but it made killing NPC ships too easy.
- Made it so that AIs won’t surrender unless they’ve been attacked in the last 3 seconds. Players have complained about AIs surrendering out of the blue, not in response to any recent attack.
- Rare pirate gang spawns were very hard to find. We’ve now doubled the chance of encountering one in a multi-ship ad hoc. These are the rare spawns targeted by the bounty missions, so they’ll be easier to find now.
Skills / Outfitting:
- Slightly reduced the amount of max range on outfitting.
- Significantly reduced the amount of max range on Long Guns, lessened the reload penalty and added an accuracy bonus.
- Increased the level requirements on long guns. Added a new equip category – Long Guns – for permanent gun outfitting that gives + range.
- Huge Lightweight Guns: These had an absolute effect where all other outfitting like them had a relative effect. Changed to a relative effect.
- Superior Grapples and Ladders stats shown in Tooltip and Character UI (which equipped) now match. Similarly for several other outfitting items which were using relative values instead of absolute values.
- St. Elmo’s Masts Modifications: Fixed a bug that caused the icons to change when moved.
Open Sea:
- Fixed the problem where you attacked a group of NPCs on the Open Sea and then, in battle, you found a different mix of ships. This was a code bug encountered by many players and we’re glad to have solved it.
- The Ad Hoc Invisibility effect is applied to your ship when you return to the Open Sea from an ad hoc battle. It temporarily prevents you from being seen by enemies, but it also made the enemies invisible to you. That latter part was a bug and we’ve now fixed it. You can see your enemies, but they can’t see you.
- Now if you try to quit or log out on the Open Sea, you will get a 30-second countdown. If you wait out the countdown, you will then log out safely. Otherwise your ship will be left in the Open Sea until the 30 seconds are up, and will be vulnerable to attack. This countdown should now clarify when it is and isn’t safe to log out.
- Many other changes to logout are also in this build. Please see this devlog for details.
Swashbuckling:
- If you respeced your fighting school and neglected to equip an appropriate weapon, you could end up unable to fight. We’ve now removed the fighting school requirements on all weapons. In this way, you won’t be able to use the special skills from your fighting school with the wrong weapon but you will at least be able to use Beat and Strike. We have more improvements planned but this is a start.
- It was possible to use command skills on NPCs only in a few boarding encounters. Those skills are supposed to be an integral aspect of Boarding Combat so we’ve made them work in all boarding encounters.
- Made some changes we believe will improve the problem with teleporting during avatar combat, particularly avatar combat in forts.
- You can no longer use Swashbuckling skills while sailing.
- Reduced boss balance regen slightly at low levels.
- Vicious Lunge now causes a bleed effect instead of a hamstrung effect. Should have been this way all along.
- All pistol attacks now lock you in place for 1.5 seconds. You have to stand still for a bit to take aim.
- Because of recent changes to how Initiative works, some swashbuckling skills that affected initiative stopped working correctly. We changed Intensity, Aggression, and Expert’s Initiative from giving you initiative over time to giving slightly more initiative immediately instead. Edited tooltips to reflect this.
- Ranged attack skills have a minimum 15 second cooldown. This is now visible in the tooltips.
- Unclaimed swashbuckling loot is no longer “lost at sea.” Cuz that doesn’t usually make sense.
- Master’s Rapier: Removed a duplicate balance damage entry on this item.
- Solingen: Corrected spelling.
- Vicious Thrust: Fixed the name in its tooltip.
- Fencing: Off-Hand Shot: Cleaned up the animation a bit.
Missions:
- We removed Marks of Victory from some of the Conquest missions and decreased the number rewarded by some other Conquest missions, since they were too easy to get too fast.
- The Unrest Supply bundles you’ve been producing are finally useful! You can turn them in for Unrest points just like the other Conquest missions.
- Some mission text was being truncated in localized versions because the buffer used for displaying it was too small. Increased that buffer so you can see all the mission text.
- Some enemies in the Tutorial were flying the wrong flag. Fixed that.
- Completed our low-level mission difficulty adjustment pass with some changes to the fourth and fifth towns you play missions in. This included adjusting the levels of some of the missions and removing some missions from some nations to enhance replayability. This concludes this mission difficulty pass and as with the first round, this only affects missions below level 15.
- Cleaned up text in dozens of missions. Places where NPCs let stuff slip they shouldn’t have or had code instead of text for instructions or the like – we’ve fixed a bunch of those.
- Fixed a bug that caused some players to get stuck in Grand Turk with no Longboat Coxswain to return them to their ship.
- Fixed a bug with the Poleacre Refit that prevented completion of the Xebec Refit mission.
- The Piper Gets Paid: Cleaned up some inconsistent text.
- Meet the Father: A couple of the NPCs were positioned strangely. Fixed that.
- Past the Point of Subtlety: Moved the goal for one of the NPCs in this mission. There were a lot of complaints in the forums that it wasn’t reaching its target and causing the mission to fail. We also set the smuggler’s cave to night-time to match the ship room.
- Just In Time: Put the enemy in minor ships and gave them shaky morale. This should make the mission a bit more doable.
- Black Heart, Black Powder: Fixed a bug that prevented the NPC from following you.
- Love Torn Asunder: Clarified the location of the pirate camp.
- Agent in Jeopardy: This mission was reportedly too difficult. Tweaked it. Should be better now.
- Breaking the Spell: Fixed the destination line which was code instead of text.
- Still Waters: Moved the magistrate off the floor. He’s important enough to sit properly in a chair.
- The Finer Things: Half the servants were British when they should’ve been French. Fixed that. Also, they no longer show up on the map as they’re not NPCs you need to interact with. And conversing servants now have sound.
- Chasing the Money: Freed Pirates were walking up to the door, standing inside each other, and waiting. Now they actually leave (despawn).
- Blackbeard’s Wreck: Corrected the encounter objective.
- Battle of Grand Turk: It was possible to leave early, breaking the mission. Fixed that.
- Holy Cargo: Fixed a bug that prevented claiming the derelict in this mission and a few others.
- Prize Denied: If you boarded the enemy instead of sinking him, the text of the mission made no sense. Fixed that.
- A Warm Greeting: Your allies are no longer generic.
- A Well-Found Ship: Was giving the wrong mission rewards. Fixed that.
Economy:
- Turtling Bay was missing the Harbor resource (to go along with its Deep Harbor). Added it.
- Bermuda Trader’s Sloop: Added the recipe to the master ships book.
- Large Hull: This freetrader advanced recipe had not been updated to include labor cost reductions and the ability to execute it in a medium shipyard instead of a large shipyard. Updated the recipe.
Art:
- Improved the run animation. It’s been making TTobey nuts that this change didn’t make it into the launch build and that retail customers saw the old run.
- When you level up, your character gets a sparkly particle effect (as well as saluting or dancing a jig or whatever) that lasts a few seconds. It’s magic!* Open Sea: Cleaned up a fort between Les Hettes and Cayenne that had sunk into the sea.
- Open Sea: Cleaned up an invisible barrier near New Orleans – ships should be able to follow the shoreline now. Similarly near Sabanqui.
- Open Sea: Cleaned up the area near Oranjestad so that ships can’t sail through the port.
- Open Sea: Fixed the land around St. Augustine so that you can no longer sail there. You’re not supposed to be able to sail on land in this game.
- Open Sea: Iguana had no floating name in the sky. Fixed that.
- Open Sea: Fixed the land around Somer’s Island so that you can’t sail on the land.
- Cleaned up some graphics artifacts on floaty names in the Open Sea like Baritca.
- Boulders near Jacob’s Clock are no longer floating above the beach.
- Cleaned up some grass and rock texture problems in the Open Sea.
- Santa Catalina was sinking. Fixed that.
- Fixed a missing texture on the church in Tortuga on the Open Sea.
- Corrected several other graphical issues in the Open Sea.
- Belize: Fixed the magistrate not being lined up right with his desk.
- Biloxi: The magistrate has aged a bit.
- Carbaneras: It was too dark to see. Lightened the town a bit.
- Campeche: The soldiers are no longer clones.
- Charlesfort: The Freetrader and Privateer trainers were leaning on thin air. Fixed that.
- Georgetown: Removed a guy whose name was code. He wasn’t supposed to be there in the first place.
- Georgetown: Fixed two NPCs that got in each other’s way.
- Grand Turk: Cleaned up the nav mesh in places where players walked above the ground or in the ground. Everyone should walk on the ground.
- Jenny Bay: Fixed some graphical issues like a wall missing from a building.
- Jenny Bay: An NPC had a seam on the back of his head. Fixed that.
- Marsh Harbour: There was an NPC sawing the ground. Fixed that.
- Marsh Harbour: Removed the duplicate pacing lady in the shop.
- Marsh Harbour: Fixed several graphical issues including holes in the world.
- Matthew Town: Fixed an NPC who was leaning on nothing.
- Nassau: Changed from night to day.
- Port Royal: Fixed fencers who weren’t fencing.
- Port Royal: Improved the splats of the tomatoes thrown by the monkey.
- Port Royal: Fixed some NPCs who were interpenetrating crates and sacks.
- Port Royal: Cleaned up several seams and interpenetrations between items.
- Riding Rock: Removed a carpenter who was trying to work where it was too dark to see what he was doing. He could’ve sawed off his hand. Safety first!* Rosignol: NPC was fishing without a pole. Fixed that.
- Ruddy Cove: Sent a guard outside the Town Boss’ office on vacation. She was working too hard.
- Tampa: When Pirates own the town, there’s no longer a Dutchman standing in a chair in the magistrate’s office. He was in the way.
- Tortuga is a night town, but wasn’t set up that way in data files. This caused problems with interior rooms, which defaulted to daytime. Fixed that.
- Tortuga: There were 3 ladies standing in the same spot. Fixed that.
- Tortuga: We made several other art fixes as well.
- Our art director made a pass through all the rooms and made some technical fixes. This should improve textures and lighting in several places.
- Fixed problems with NPC body parts intersecting other body parts. For example, some NPCs’ hands were in their legs (instead of resting on their legs).
- Female soldiers didn’t have guns. They’re now fully armed and dangerous.
- Fixed the animation bug that caused the fisherman’s pole to intersect his body as he cast the line.
- Added some contest-winner flags and sails we’d previously missed.
- Fixed graphical issues with prisoners in hanging cages.
- Moved some magistrates off the floor into chairs as would be fitting their station.
- You can no longer move your camera through the ceiling in the Admiralty Office.
- In several towns such as Belize and Bartica, put some bartenders in their proper place and made some taverns a little more lively.
- Fixed an NPC in some taverns with his leg stuck in a barrel.
- Some singing drunks were playing the wrong animations. Fixed that.
- The Tailor Shop now has its own sign on the door.
- Lightened several night-time rooms so it’s easier to see.
- Defend the Town: Fixed some flames that were hanging out in mid-air.
- NPCs were occasionally getting stuck in inlets in the map used by “A Captain in Chains” and other missions. Smoothed out the coast so this should happen less.
- Cleaned up the /boggle emote a bit so hands don’t penetrate hats so much.
- Updated our logo on the Loading… screens.
UI:
- Quick Reference Guides: Revamped, improved to fix layout problems among other things.
- Added more info to the Avatar Controls help UI.
- Ship Controls Window: Made the names of controls and the help for them consistent.
- Help UI: Tweaked to better accommodate ship stats.
- Cleaned up and added some text to Help also.
- Local Map: Improved the window’s texture.
- Character List UI: Expanded to accommodate localized text.
- Economy UI: Changed the way the Economy UI works to better accommodates long deed names.
- Economy UI: Fixed the bug where the tax rate was truncated.
- Economy UI: Tweaked the text color for better legibility.
- Economy UI: Room for text on icons was increased to accommodate localized text. It’s still pretty cramped but better than it was.
- Shop UI: Now can handle 5-digit quantities.
- Shop UI: Increased the width of the tabs to accommodate localized text.
- Fixed the truncation of your speed in the compass.
- Loot UI: Fixed truncation of long loot names.
- Loot UI: Widened to accommodate localized text. However, you can resize this UI smaller if you want.
- Group Loot UI: Cleaned up some graphics problems including improving font color.
- Skill Shop UI: Expanded to accommodate localized text.
- Preferences UI: Tweaked the colors of the controls to better match the rest of the game.
- Preferences UI: Expanded the UI and one of the buttons there in order to accommodate localized text.
- Preferences UI: Widened a Sound Preference tooltip to accommodate localized text.
- Expanded the width of the town list in the World Map to fix the town with the longest name.
- Tweaked the tooltip text on the World Map to make it more legible.
- Fixed some career skill tooltips that were code instead of text.
- Added some tooltips here and there. Reworded some other tooltips for clarity.
- Fixed the text that shows when you /drink.
- Fixed the text in some emotes to improve grammar.
Sound:
- Fixed footstep sounds in the Mansion.
- Decreased the repetitiveness of the prisoner’s declarations of innocence in the Magistrate’s Office in Marsh Harbour. He was annoying!
- Muted the Auctioneer in all shops so he’s not blathering on all the time.
Stability / Performance:
- Sometimes, the data files used to play the game can be corrupted during the download, causing odd problems. We now check them on launch to see if they are corrupted and if so, pop up a message box that you need to run a Full Scan in LaunchPad to fix them.
- Fixed a bug that trapped some players on an infinite Loading… screen.
- If you happened to mouse over something that would show a tooltip just as you were trying to zone, you might crash. Fixed that.
- Improved a lag spike that could occur when trying to load new avatars into view.
- Fixed a graphics memory leak allocating an avatar image.
- Plugged another graphics memory leak. We were making copies of cannons for each ship with a different number of cannons on it, and then leaking them.
- Made a change to the way we unload textures. Works more cleanly now.
- Fixed a crash that could occur if the texture manager freed a texture incorrectly.
- Fixed a crash on shutdown that a few players experienced when they had been prompted to fill out a survey.
- Fixed another problem that could cause the game to crash on shutdown. Nothing bad was happening (no data loss), but still crashes are no good so we like to fix them.
- Fixed a crash that could occur in the Login server if we tried to shut it down just as someone was logging in. It didn’t happen on the live servers more than a time or two and nothing bad happened as a result (no data loss) but crashes are bad so we fixed it.
Misc:
- The only way to successfully launch PotBS is via LaunchPad. However, our exe lives on your hard drive. If you double click that by mistake, you see an empty server list and it’s not clear what you did wrong. Now, it pops up an error instead, explaining that you need to run LaunchPad.
- We were logging an ERROR to your log file when nothing bad actually happened. It was confusing our efforts to figure out what was really going on. Cleaned that up.
- Vista was asking some people whether the game needed to be elevated to be run. It doesn’t. So we now tell Vista that. (You do have to be Admin to install and patch, however.)
- Somers Isle is now Somerset.
- Added more French and German profanity to the profanity filter.
- Fixed log spam that could occur if the game was running behind the Windows login screen.
- Removed some art files from the build that aren’t used. This helped shrink the patch size a bit.
¶ 1.0.x
¶ Release Notes for build 1.0.48.4
01.29.08 by Misha
This build is server-side only – you don’t have to download a patch to the game.
The primary purpose of this build is fix a bug in aggro on outfitting. We tweaked Agent’s Spyglass and History of Notorious Pirates to avoid the problem.While we were at it, we fixed the chat server crash we hit on Bonny on Saturday.
We also fixed the problem that caused such a hassle with Blackbeard on Saturday. We made some config changes to work around the problem so we could get Blackbeard running. This fixes the actual code. We hope.
Known Issue:
- If you are a Freetrader, doing a partial delivery in “Offers They Can’t Refuse” will cause you to lose items. Only turn in the items when you have all of them to turn in at once. If you already have this mission and can’t complete it, cancel it and re-take it. If we have more info, we’ll update this thread.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.0.48.0
01.24.08 by Misha
The only difference between this build and 1.0.47.0 is another attempt to improve the flickering ocean problem that folks with high-end NVIDIA cards have. Weve made a change in an attempt to work around the driver bug. Preliminary test results suggests it improves the problem except perhaps in the Open Sea.
¶ Release Notes for build 1.0.48.0
01.22.08 by Misha
The only difference between this build and 1.0.47.0 is another attempt to improve the flickering ocean problem that folks with high-end NVIDIA cards have. Weve made a change in an attempt to work around the driver bug. Let us know what you think.
¶ Release Notes for 1.0.47.0
01.21.08 by ktatroe
This patch fixes several major graphics bugs that could result in crashes, slowdowns, poor performance, and visual glitches. Players running Vista, or XP with large amounts of CPU RAM, or anyone running very recent video cards and the latest drivers could be affected by these assorted issues. Read on for details!
Players running Vista could experience corrupted visuals and low framerate after playing the game for a while. Checking your task manager would show that PotBS.exe was using gigantic amounts of memory. This was because of differences in how Vista and XP report available memory. We weren’t properly detecting how much memory your Vista machine had, and so the longer you played the more we kept asking for. We now properly recognize memory under Vista and flush unused data appropriately to stay within available memory.
We had similar problems with machines under XP that had more than 2GB of CPU RAM. We now detect those large amounts of RAM properly.
Antialiasing is temporarily capped at 4x. Some newer video cards (such as NVIDIA 8800 and 8600) using 8x antialiasing and the latest driver updates introduced visual artifacts such as flashing areas of ocean. Until new driver updates solve the problem, we are capping antialiasing at 4x to avoid the glitch. This should fix the glitch for XP users, but not for Vista users.
Fixed some major memory leaks. Over time, entire ship models & textures could be left hanging in video memory, as could the in-world firing arcs, wind indicator ring, and bowspray particle effects. Now these elements are flushed from your video card when appropriate. On Vista machines, these leaks compounded the memory-detection problem described above.
Made some more fixes to the Privateer coat reward for the level 45 career mission.
It was possible for you to create an avatar that was not valid for play due to a color palette mismatch, which would keep you stuck on the character creation screen. Fixed this.
The latest localized text files are included, fixing many bugs in French, German, and Spanish translations of game text.
¶ Patch Notes for Build 1.0.44.0
01.14.08 by Rev
Welcome to our first post-launch patch!
Highlights:
- Stability: This patch includes several client graphics fixes that will improve performance, remove glitches for some ATI video cards, and stop crashes. We also fixed a crash in the sound manager and several server crashes.
- Sound Fixes: We fixed a client bug many of you encountered where your framerate in towns would slow down temporarily while music was playing. This is now gone. If you turned your Music volume slider down to avoid this problem, turn it back up again!
- Low-level mission revamp: The Open Beta taught us that there were too many missions in the low-level towns and that they were even lower level than they should be. We have made many changes here so that the number and level of missions better matches your leveling rate. This change means you will have missions closer to your level more often. That means the missions will be less boring (fewer “minor” ships!) and will also give better XP and doubloon rewards because they’ll be higher level. Details are below.
- Black Point: We also fixed the problem with ship deed turn-in at Black Point.
Known Issues:
- We’re still working on the problem where folks can get stuck on an infinite Loading screen when trying to port to a different ship via the Harbor Master.
- Black Heart, Black Powder: Often your NPC ally will refuse to follow you after you interact. This breaks the mission. You may want to hold off on taking this mission for now.
- Differences between 1.0.35.0 and 1.0.44.0 include but aren’t limited to:
Ships/Combat:
- Black Point has a Harbor Master now. You can now use the deed you turned in there.
- The ‘Pommern’ Frigate and all variants are now named the ‘Hercules’ Frigate instead. This is purely a name change and no stats were altered. The modeler of the ship requested that we use this name and we were happy to comply.
Swashbuckling:
- Whenever you block an attack, you now lose 4 Balance points. This has no real effect on combat, but it does resolve an exploit where you could stack Block and Balance buffs and actually become invulnerable. This slight Balance penalty is enough to resolve that exploit.
- Lead From the Front & Improved Lead From the Front: These skills weren’t buffing NPC allies as they should. Fixed that.
- Revive: If you were playing avatar combat in a group and someone Revived you after were defeated, enemy NPCs would ignore you once you came back from the dead. Now they agro on you as they should.
Missions:
- Black Heart, Black Powder: Fixed a bug that would prevent you from leaving the mission.
- Low-level mission revamp: We had a LOT of missions in the starting town of each nation (Jenny Bay, Vera Cruz, Charlesfort, and Marsh Harbour). This was kind of cool, but it also meant that if you played every mission in the first town you could leave as level 11, which meant much of the mission content in the low-level towns would then be trivial and, frankly, boring. To improve this, we have removed several missions from the first town. These missions are now gone from the game:
- Atonement
- Big Cargo
- The Captain-Cook
- Good Riddance
- No Loitering
- The Roving Eye
- Scout and About
- Sea of Souls
- Thinner Than Water
If you already have any of these missions on your characters, you will still have them and can finish them as usual. But they will no longer be offered by mission patrons.
- Low-level mission revamp part 2: The levels of missions in the second and third towns were too low. Very quickly, you could be level 12 but still be playing level 4-6 missions.
This meant too many low-level missions were boringly simple and you were frequently fighting “(minor)” ships, which are incredibly weak and can’t be captured or claimed for pennants and commendations. We have done two things to improve the low-level mission experience in the second and third towns.
We have adjusted mission levels throughout the second and third towns to keep better pace with your level as you play. This means the missions will be more challenging, and you will pretty much stop seeing “(minor)” ships once you get to the second town and beyond. In addition, since the missions are higher level they will give you better XP and doubloon rewards.The second town used to have missions that were mostly levels 4-6. They are now mostly levels 7-9. This affects Rosignol (British), Barilla (Spanish), Fort Caroline (French), and Morgan’s Bluff (Pirate).
The third town used to have missions that were mostly levels 6-7. They are now mostly levels 10-12. This affects Georgetown (British), Villa Hermosa (Spanish), St. Augustine (French), and Harbour Island (Pirate).
As you may have noticed, most missions are reused for all four nations with different characters, text, and enemies. Because we had a surplus of missions in the second and third towns, we have removed some missions from some nations. That means if you play a different nation later on, you will find missions you haven’t seen before.
Second Town (Rosignol (British), Barilla (Spanish), Fort Caroline (French), and Morgan’s Bluff (Pirate))
- The Bettor Man: Now British and Spanish only.
- Bon Appetit: Now French only.
- Booty, Booty, Booty: Now French only.
- Bring Him Back Alive: Now Spanish and Pirate only.
- Damning Evidence: Now British only.
- Escort Service: Now French only.
- Important Discovery: Now British only.
- A Matter of Honor: Now Spanish and French only.
- No Respect: Now British only.
- Out for a Limb: Now Spanish only.
- Physic: Now Spanish only.
- Proving Grounds: Now Spanish and Pirate only.
- A Regular Customer: Now French only.
- The Sage of Ale: Now Pirate only.
- Suspicious Activity: Now British only.
- Third Town (Georgetown (British), Villa Hermosa (Spanish), St. Augustine (French), and Harbour Island (Pirate))
- Back Ordered: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
- Dead of Night: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
- Dirty Dealings: Now Spanish only.
- An Eagerly Awaited Guest: Now Spanish only.
- Free Samples: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
- Looking for Trouble: Now Spanish and French only.
- Meet the Father: Now Spanish only.
- A New Business Partner: Now Spanish only.
- Not in My Port: Now Spanish only.
- Pay Day: Now Spanish only.
- The Perilous Road: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
- A Proposed Merger: Now Spanish only.
- Rival Company: Now Spanish only.
- Running Late: Now British only.
- The Searcher: Now Spanish only.
- Fort St. Catherine: Now French only.
- Submit or Die: Now British and Pirate only.
- Trying Dutchmen: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
- Tying the Noose: Now British and Pirate only.
- Under the Black Flag: Now Spanish and French only.
- Un Viejo Convoy Grande: Now British only.
- West by West India: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
- If you already have any of these missions on your characters but they are no longer valid for your nation, you will still have them on your list and you can finish them as usual. But they will no longer be offered by mission patrons.
Economy:
- Fixed the bug that caused Brits who took the Economy Tutorial out of Bartica to end up with a warehouse in Les Hattes, much to their surprise.
- Fixed a bug that prevented searching the Auction House in any language other than English. You can now search for auction items in the language you’re using to play the game.
- During the end of beta event, players spammed the Offer button in the auction house, causing transactions to stall and get screwed up. This won’t happen anymore.
- ‘Renard’ Chasse-Maree: Fixed a bug in the pricing for the Junk Merchant/Fence.
- Polacre: Fixed a bug in the pricing for the Junk Merchant/Fence.
- Ballast: Fixed a bug in the pricing for the Junk Merchant/Fence.
Stability / Performance:
- Made a graphics performance fix. Stopped rendering stuff every frame that didn’t need to be rendered nearly that often.
- Fixed a memory leak in the texture memory manager.
- Players with lower-end ATI cards encountered horrible visual problems in the game. We fixed most of these issues in the launch build, but now we’ve fixed some more. If the game ever looks like The Matrix to you, we think we’ve solved that problem.
- Fixed a crash that would occur if you changed your graphics preferences (particularly your texture slider), and then talked to the Harbor Master to look at your Dry Dock UI.
- Fixed a crash that occurred in boarding combat just after both the enemy captain and the player had been killed (in that order), and before the player respawned. This is what sending those crash reports to Microsoft buys you: This has been reported by a Beta tester but we couldn’t figure out the repro. But once we got the crash dumps from Microsoft, we could tell what was going on and fix it.
- Made a fix to the sound manager to clear sound buffer cache. This might prevent a game crash we’ve seen if you stayed in the same place for a while when there were a lot of sounds, such as Tortuga.
- Added some logging to help track down a game crash we can’t figure out.
- If you get an error about needing to open a port range in your router, you’ll now be shown the correct ports (7010-7100) in the popup window. We recently changed the range to try to work around connectivity issues on college campuses and the like.
- Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if players landed in the room not on the nav mesh.
- Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if you leveled up just as you died.
- Fixed a zone server crash that we saw numerous times over two days during Open Beta but not before or since. We don’t know what caused it, but it shouldn’t happen again.
UI / Art / Sound:
- Adjusted the names of the EU servers to show their languages.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Chat tab titles from being localized.
- Fixed a problem with how NPC names can show up in localized versions.
- Your framerate would die if you were hearing town intro music while standing near an NPC musician who was also playing music. Fixed this bug.
Misc:
- Removed text we thought might offend the ESRB.
- Integrated new localized text from SOE.
¶ Patch Note:1.0.35.0
Welcome to the first Preboarding Party patch! If you were playing up through the end of the Open Beta, this patch has several changes you haven’t seen.
Some of you who have shared-memory video cards such as Turbocache or Hypermemory have been unable to play. These cards have less than 128MB of RAM but they share RAM with the CPU and so should meet our min spec. We have made a change that should let you play. Please try it and see.
You can now turn in Marks of Victory to get refit ship items. These are available from the same NPCs who have always handed out rewards for Marks of Victory.
We’ve also made more server fixes, particularly to fix the bug that was taking the clusters down every 12 hours or so.
And we’ve made a few more tuning changes to both ship and avatar combat.
Known Issues
- Port Contention is disabled until we have the retail launch on January 22, so players dont show up that day to discover theyve already lost their first war. You can still PVP by talking to the Port Captain in any port and accepting the PvP Flag mission.
- The level cap is 21 until January 22.
- Certain older ATI cards are still experiencing graphical issues even after the fix that improved the situation for most. We’re still investigating and expect to release a fix soon.
- A new crash, potentially caused by a memory leak, was apparently introduced in a recent build. We believe we’ve fixed one or part of one in the next build (1.0.40.0) but keep sending those reports to Microsoft when prompted. That’ll help us track this down and fix it as quickly as possible.
Differences between 1.0.29.2 and 1.0.35.0 include but aren’t limited toShips / Combat
- Tweaked the range at which group-mates auto-join an ad hoc battle. They should spawn a little closer.
- Ship combat difficulty was ramping up around level 12, which meant it was way too easy for way too long. Changed this to make it ramp up a little around level 8. NPC spawns in this 8-12 range will be slightly harder.
- Made NPC ships a little bit more dangerous by increasing their damage and accuracy by around 3-5%. (Please note that NPCs already have substantial penalties to their damage and accuracy. This change actually lessens their penalties slightly; their damage and accuracy are still well below that of a player in the same ship. It’s more of a lessened nerf than a buff.)
- Increased the required levels on the refit ships so they are closer to their true level, but still slightly below. This means refit ships are slightly more powerful than their level, but are no longer massively more powerful for their level.
- Changed the sizes of several ships: Dolphyn Ketch: Medium -> Small, Postillionen: Large -> Medium, Curieuse Snow: Medium -> Small, van Hoorn: Medium -> Small, and Dromedary West Indiaman: Large -> Medium. We’ve wanted to do this for a while but had to wait for a database wipe.
- Expedition: Increased armor/structure.
- Arrow: Increased armor/structure.
- Myrmidon Refits: Reduced structure/armor, increased mast integrity.
Swashbuckling Combat
- Decreased the duration of the close-combat effect by almost half. This will cause players to exit close combat more quickly when they are not being attacked. This change makes it easier to stun some enemies, back away to get out of close combat, and then use a healing skill to remove the Bleed effect and regain some HP.
- First Aid, Advanced First Aid: Added a 10 point instant-heal effect to all of the self-targeting medical skills, so that you heal 10 points immediately upon use and then gain the normal healing over time. In tandem with the above change, this should let you get out of close combat just long enough to regain 10 HP before the enemies unstun and come at you again.
- Improved Flash Powder: Increased the duration slightly (from 3 seconds to 4 seconds) and added a 10-second offense debuff to it. Your enemies will be stunned longer and have a harder time hitting you.
- Fixed some log spam caused by a typo in a skill definition.
UI
- Tweaked the Quick Reference UI (both ship and avatar) to better accommodate localized text.
- Tweaked the Keybind UI to better accommodate localized text.
- Moved some drop-downs in Preferences UI around a bit in order to better accommodate localized text.
Sound
- Another music mix pass. More work is needed, but you can hear the music better now.
- Added more nationalized crowd sounds in more lively town areas.
- Attempted to fix a ton of log spam reporting problems with sound files. This may not be entirely fixed yet, though. (QA can still make it happen sometimes.)
Performance / Stability
- We now try to let you bypass the VRAM check. We still warn you that the game may not run but this may enable folks with Turbocache or Hypermemory cards to run the game.
- On low-end machines, if you turned shadows off, graphics looked HORRIBLE! Better now.
- We have a primary server that manages all the other servers (like the mission server and the zone servers). We’d turned him into a serial killer and he was taking the cluster down about every 12 hours. Fixed?
- Fixed a race condition in communications between the cache server and the mission server that could cause mission status on your character to get a little borked while zoning in missions on rare occasions.
- Fixed a cache server crash that could occur if it took too long to write your data. That was bad. Luckily, we only hit it a few times and most of those were during automation runs.
vWe think we’ve fixed a rare cache server crash on shutdown. By the time it’s shutting down, cache server should have written all your character data already but we figured we’d fix the crash, you know, just in case.- Fixed a rare zone server crash.
Misc
- Fixed a bug that enabled you to repeat some missions when you shouldn’t. Pressing X to talk to the NPC wasn’t triggering everything correctly but clicking on the NPC to talk to them did.
- Added additional Mark of Victory turn-in missions to get refits.
- When we rolled the Smoking Shed into the Slaughterhouse, we didn’t move the free recipes from the Smoking Shed to the Slaughterhouse. A sharp-eyed, economy-minded beta tester caught this and we’ve fixed it.
- Integrated more localized text from SOE.
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