POTCO Release Notes: 2008
From Disneys Online Worlds Guide (Wiki)
| January | February | ||
| March | April | ||
| May | June | ||
| July | August | ||
January 2008
January 8, 2008
- Added a 7-day fullscreen preview. New accounts will start the game in fullscreen mode. After 7 days, the game will revert to a windowed mode with ads.
- Crew teleport issues should now be fixed.
- (Fixed a bug preventing family accounts with a large number of pirates from logging in.
- Increased the Notoriety gain for Voodoo Staff (except for the Blast skill, which was reduced).
- Reduced the amount of damage a lower level enemy deals to a higher level player.
- Added a fix so that players can't kill Jack the monkey during the pistol tutorial.
- Complete clothing system re-write to increase efficiency when rendering avatars.
January 10, 2008
- Changed default game mode to full screen for Unlimited Players. The game was previously starting in windowed mode.
- Clicking on a pirate's name in the guild panel will now bring up the regular pirate options panel. You can still update a pirate's guild membership through the guild button on that panel.
- Fixed bug that was intermittently causing buildings to be missing when teleporting to an island
- Made the placement of the pirate options panel more consistent when clicking on friend/crew/guild member in friends panel.
January 14, 2008
- Fixed a bug preventing the ability to promote, demote, or eject offline guild members
- Fixed a crash that occurred while teleporting to a friend's or crewmates' ship as they are docking
- Fixed a crash from using the up and down arrow keys in the Pick-a-Pirate screen while in Basic Access mode
- Fixed a bug that caused a change in the height of your pirate
- Fixed a bug with ponytails not showing up for certain hairstyles
January 18, 2008
- Fixed the bug causing braids to be missing on female pirates wearing a bandana.
- Fixed the bug that was causing players' ships to show up twice in the dinghy interface when they had a crew member aboard.
- Fixed the crash that was occurring when someone used the "port of call" button before downloading the entire game.
- Fixed the crash that was occurring when using the Voodoo Staff Soul Flay skill.
- Removed avatar panel pop-up that occurred when clicking on other ships. This was allowing people to teleport to another player's ship even if they were not friends, crew mates, or Guild mates.
January 23, 2008
- Fixed a bug that was causing flagships to disappear over time
- Changed default full screen resolution to 1024 x 768 for higher end graphics cards
- Added a fix for issues that occurred while the voodoo staff is charging
February 2008
February 27 2008
- Avatar Customization
- There are now jewelers, barbers, tailors, and tattoo parlors in Port Royal, Tortuga, Del Fuego, and Cuba
- Added the ability to zoom in on your avatar with the middle mouse wheel if you are not moving or in combat.
- Added random drops of rare clothing when defeating an enemy. The chance of getting clothes is rare, but the colors are unique and you can't find them in stores anywhere.
- Emotes.
- Added emotes! You can access them via the speed chat menu or by typing / at the chat prompt. Here is the list of some of the emotes you can use with the / command: Angry, arrr, bow, celebrate, coin, cry, dance, flex, greet, laugh, help, nod, sad, scared, sleep, smile, wave, wink, yawn, yes, no
- Guild invite token system update
- Added two additional types of Guild tokens: Limited Multi-use Codes (i.e. a token that can be redeemed 10 times) and Unlimited Codes (a token that can be used forever, until you invalidate it)
- Added a button on the Crew panel that lets you put a "Looking for Crew" message above your head. Click on the "Crew Options" button in your Crew panel to activate this feature. You can also type /lfc in your chat window to toggle the Looking for Crew label
- Added in-game pop-ups to notify players when Blackjack Friday has begun (Blackjack Fridays are every Friday from 3-9 PM Pacific Time)
- Moved the Game Options button to the main screen, next to your sea chest - it is now available in both Make-A-Pirate and the tutorial
- Fixed bug that was not allowing players to teleport or chat to guild/crew members who they couldn't see
- Fixed bug allowing players to teleport to servers that are full from the Pick-a-Pirate screen
- Added clearer messaging to explain why a teleport may have failed (i.e. other player's ship sunk, etc.)
- Added a check to see if your CPU is running at max frequency. If not, you will get a pop-up after the client has been running for 2 minutes.
- Doubled the chances of getting a cheat card dropped when defeating NPCs
- Fixed flickering in interiors on low graphics settings
- Increased maximum crew size to 12 so you can fill a War Frigate with a single crew
- Fixed an exploit where you could have multiple avatars switching being captain of the ship to avoid recharge times for broadsides
- Fix for short male and other low height avatar's feet showing up below the floor
- Fixed a bug on the compass that caused North to point the wrong direction
March 2008
March 1 2008
- Fixed a bug that prevented female avatars from changing clothing
March 4 2008
- Added feature to let other players know that you are away from the keyboard. Type /afk or /away in your chat window to activate it.
- Fixed crash that occurred when clicking on the Rename button after your Pirate's name was denied approval
March 8 2008
- Fixed a bug that was causing combat sound effects to go off every time a ship came into view
March 20 2008
- Fix for the bug that was causing Grenade, Port Royal Teleport, Padres Teleport, and Cuba Teleport quests to not be assigned at the proper level
- Adjusted camera angle when receiving a quest from an NPC
- Fixed NPC animation for when they are talking to you
- Added a close button to pop-up messages for holiday items and Blackjack Fridays
- Fixed a bug in lighting on the jewelry shops in low graphic settings
- Removed extraneous sound effects that played after hitting Escape button during a cut scene
- Removed duplicate skeletons in the Port Royal graveyard
- Lowered the level of the Navy soldier outside of the Governor's mansion
- Moved the confirmation panel for a lookout match to the left of the screen
- Fixed a bug with War Frigate broadsides always showing 10/12 broadsides on the ship page
- Fixed the odd looking icon on the cannon level up message
- Added icons to indicate an island tunnel entrance on the compass
March 27 2008
- Reopened the Black Pearl Boss Battle. Thank you for your patience!
- Fixed a bug causing townsfolk to not appear neutral in the radar
- Fixed a rare crash in the barber shop
April 2008
April 30 2008
- New quests have been added for level 4 weapon upgrades for: Sword, Pistol, Dagger, Voodoo Doll and Voodoo Staff. These weapon quests will automatically appear in your journal once you've reached level 15 Notoriety for that weapon.
- You can now have an "inventory" of tattoos. You no longer have to remove a tattoo in order to buy a new - you can buy several and wear them whenever you want.
- Light Galleon ships are now available to Basic Access players.
- Fixed a bug occurring in Basic Access mode that was causing an "Upgrade Now" popup to appear every time you defeated an enemy, if you were carrying a blocked quest.
- Ammo pouches are now available for purchase. These pouches allow you to carry more ammo (i.e. bullets, cannonballs, daggers, grenades) than the base amount.
- It's now easier to find a crew using your crew panel (to open your crew panel: hit the "F" key and then press the "Crew" button). You can now:
- Create a crew: Crew Options -> Start A Crew
- Search for crewmates (once you've started a crew): Crew Options -> Recruit Crewmates (there are also some advanced options for the more discerning captains)
- Join someone else's crew: Crew Options -> Search For A Crew
- Let others near you know that you are looking for a crew: Crew Options -> Looking For Crew
- Better bonuses for crewing have been added: the notoriety bonus for a crew of 2 is 20%, and it ramps up to a max bonus of 50% for an 8 person crew.
- Improved whisper functionality:
- The chat panel remains in whisper mode as long as the player doesn't click X or try to reply to an absent avatar
- By pressing "Alt-Enter", you can automatically whisper to the player that most recently whispered to you
- The chat panel now provides more feedback when trying to send a whisper to someone who went away
- Modified the way NPC's target their attackers: they used to attack the person that first attacked them, but will now switch between attacking the person doing the most damage, as well as others nearby that are doing damage.
- The first voodoo doll quest, acquired at level 5, is now available to Basic Access players
- Shortened the length of the groggy penalty
- Shortened recharge time for tonics
- Added a "/event" command so you can see what events are in progress and how much time is remaining. In order to activate this feature, type "/event" into your chat panel
- Fixed the bug that was allowing strangers to board your ship. Only the captain's friends and crewmates are now able to board
- Added the following new quests that provide jewelry and tattoo rewards that you cannot buy in shops:
- "Spy Trouble"
- Receive from Perla Alodia, Jeweler on Padres Del Fuego
- Black Market"
- Receive from Mercedes Corazon, Tattoo Artist on Padres Del Fuego
- "Eliminating The Competition"
- Receive from Dajin Ming, Jeweler on Tortuga
- "Lala's Brother"
- Receive from Lala Lovel, Tattoo Artist on Tortuga
- "Smitty's Sickness"
- Receive from Jeweler Smitty, Jeweler on Port Royal
- "Family Valuables"
- Receive from Solomon O'Dougal, Tattoo Artist on Port Royal
- "Precious Treasures"
- Receive from Perla Alodia, Jeweler on Padres Del Fuego
- "Picking Up The Slack"
- Receive from Dajin Ming, Jeweler on Tortuga
- "Smitty's Debt"
- Receive from Jeweler Smitty, Jeweler on Port Royal
- "Special Ink"
- Receive from Solomon O'Dougal, Tattoo Artist on Port Royal
- "Lala's Neighbors"
- Receive from Lala Lovel, Tattoo Artist on Tortuga
- "Helping Mercedes Corazon"
- Receive from Mercedes Corazon, Tattoo Artist on Padres Del Fuego
- "Spy Trouble"
May 2008
May 2 2008
- Put in a fix to prevent player on player damage that was occurring in parlor games and other non-PvP instances
- Put in fixes for a handful of crashes related to sailing, PvP, and the Lookout System
- Removed invalid crew invitation messages appearing when players switched servers
- Put in a fix for input controls freezing when using the pistol, grenades, or tonics
May 28 2008
- Added new French and Spanish skeletons. French skeletons can be found on Isla Cangrejos and Spanish skeletons can be found on Cutthroat Isle. New French and Spanish skeleton ships can be found sailing around Isla Cangrejos and Cutthroat Isle, respectively. The new skeleton types are as follows:
- French:
- French Undead Maitre
- French Undead Quarter Master
- French Undead Lieutenant
- French Undead Capitaine
- Spanish:
- Spanish Undead Conquistador
- Spanish Undead Bandido
- Spanish Undead Pirata
- Spanish Undead Captain
- French:
- Added two new islands to the world:
- Isla De La Avaricia
- Ile D'Etable De Porc
- Fixed a bug that was preventing people with PowerPC based Macs from being able to play the game
- Adjusted the placement of Mother's day tattoos
- Added new ship sinking cutscenes
- Added an in-game feedback form. When using this form, please be as specific as possible. Please note that you will not receive any feedback from support using this form (click here for technical support). The feedback form button icon is a question mark and can be found on the options menu
- In an effort to improve the early in-game experience, we have launched welcome worlds. This is a scaled down instance of the Pirates world that a player plays in until they launch a ship for the first time.
- Added some debugging for tracking down lingering issues with textures when using the DirectX9 graphics API.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing collisions with the masts of your ship once you had been on a cannon
- A new quest titled "Skeleton Infestation" will be given out by Orinda Le Jeune located on the Tortuga Docks
- Fixed some misspellings in quest dialog
- Ship panels no longer disappear when they break
- Fixed a bug that was breaking the "track quests" button after completing the black pearl boss battle
May 29 2008
- Fixed a crash that happened when throwing grenades at fly traps or ships
June 2008
June 10 2008
- Privateering has been added:
- Join either the French or Spanish factions as a mercenary and engage rival mercenaries in epic naval battles
- Launch your ship from the new islands of Isla De La Avaricia (Spanish) or Ile D'Etable De Porc (French), and you'll automatically be put into Privateering mode
- Please note: because it is a large, more complex feature, Privateering will stay on the Test Server for at least a few weeks, at which point it will move over to the live game.Thanks for your patience!
- Some new Privateering related loading screen hints have been added
- NPCs with glowing question marks above their heads are "helper NPCs" and will give advice in the same manner as quest dialog. You can find a couple of these NPCs on the privateering islands
- Improved some quest dialog
- The quest journal should now scroll when using your mouse's wheel
- Fixed the radar. Townsfolk are green, players are blue, and enemies are red.
- Updated the dx9 texture debugging
- A fix for the ship repair panel not updating after repairing your ship
- Fixed a bug that allowed the French/Spanish NPCs to respawn on their ship if it was taking too long to defeat all NPCs
- Fixed a bug with the voodoo doll that would divide healing power among all attuned targets(including enemy NPCs) instead of only dividing it among attuned targets that are players
June 13 2008
We have temporarily removed privateering from the test server in order to make some improvements. Not to worry...it will be back up soon! In the meantime, we hope you can help us test a special surprise that we have planned for the 4th of July. From 12:01 AM on Saturday, June 14, until midnight on Sunday, June 15, fireworks can be found in the nighttime sky around Tortuga, Port Royal, and Padres Del Fuego. If you see anything wrong with our fireworks display, please let us know by using the in-game feedback form. Thanks.
June 16 2008
- Fixed the radar. Townsfolk are green, players are blue, and enemies are red.
- The quest journal should now scroll when using your mouse's wheel
July 2008
July 23 2008
- Privateering has been added:
- Side with either the French or Spanish pirate "Lords" as a privateer and engage rival Pirates in epic sea battles
- Launch your ship from the islands of Isla De La Avaricia (Spanish) or Ile D'Etable De Porc (French), and you will automatically be put into Privateering mode
- New Privateering loading hint screens have been added
- Added Privateering chat. Now you can communicate with other members of your team without an opposing team knowing about it. (This type of chat will appear in a gold color in your chat window.)
- While in Privateering mode, flagships will sink immediately when you disable them
- Adjusted the armor on NPC ships so it is slightly weaker than player ships
- Cannon balls are no longer be able to be shot through islands
- Added a minimum system requirements check to the game launcher
- Added the Crew Heads Up Display (HUD) so you can see what other crew members are doing
- Updated the Basic Access player popup
- The radar now remembers your zoom level when boarding and leaving a ship
- Added NPCs with glowing question marks above their heads. These "helper NPCs" will give advice in the same manner as Quest dialog. You can find a couple of these NPCs on the Privateering islands
- The ship repair panel will update correctly when repairing your ship
- Undead Grenadiers now animate properly when attacking players
- Avatars that teleport to friends (but whose friends are still in jail) will be able to leave the jail, if the door was already kicked down
- Updated the ship damage interface
- Cannons do more damage the closer you are to your enemy
- Removed the teleport totem icon from the map for Kingshead island
- The Ray-Of-Light will guide you better to your Quest objectives
- Fixed several Quest dialog bugs
- Fixed a bug that caused the cannon reload status bar to occasionally hang at an intermediate point
- Fixed a bug that was preventing clothing/jewelry/tattoo rewards from being dropped by enemies if your inventory was already full of these items
- Fixed a bug that allowed players to appear undead outside of PVP
- Fixed a bug that allowed the French/Spanish NPCs to respawn on their ship if it was taking too long to defeat all NPCs
- Fixed a bug with the voodoo doll that would divide healing power among all attuned targets(including enemy NPCs) instead of only dividing it among attuned targets that are players
- Fixed a bug that would not allow you to run after you died while taking aim with the pistol
August 2008
August 14 2008
- Ships no longer spawn on top of one another in Privateering
- Fixed an exploit that allowed you to run faster than normal if you were running and strafing at the same time
- Added new hints for Privateering
- Players can now dock immediately after respawning regardless of time since taking damage when in Privateering mode
- Adjusted the collisions on ships
- Fixed several crashes that would occur if you exited the game while using a weapon
- The capitalization of the names of the Privateering islands and their lords is now consistent
- You must now be at least a level 15 pirate in order to get the French/Spanish undead quests from Orinda Le Jeune
- Reduced the amount of damage skeleton ships can deal
August 27 2008
- Added new Quests and new Clothing Sets as Quest rewards! Visit Nathaniel Truehounds, a tailor on Port Royal for the Pirate's Life Quest, Amelia Sunfellow, a tailor's assistant on Tortuga for the Clothing For a Pirate Quest, or Adoria Dolores, a tailor on Padres Del Fuego for the Adoria's Family Quest. These new Quests award 3 new Coordinated Outfits. Please note, you will need to have a minimum Notoriety of Level 10 to access the Quest from Nathaniel, a minimum Notoriety Level of 15 to access the Quest from Amelia, and a minimum Notoriety of Level 20 to access the Quest from Adoria.
- Updated lots of Quest dialog
- Fixed a crash that occasionally happened when teleporting to a friend or crewmate
- Reduced the penalty for being caught cheating at Poker
- Fixed a bug that was preventing some of the higher level ships (Death Omen, Juggernaut, etc.) from being spawned. You can now find these ships spawning around the outer perimeter of the Caribbean.
- Disabled the red glowing crew icon
- Fixed several camera related bugs
- If you skip the Cutlass Tutorial, you are no longer required to unlock Sweep as your first skill
- Your cannon ammo selection will now be remembered when you switch cannons
- Broadside cannons will target enemy ships better
- Relocated a treasure chest on Isla Perdida to a more accessible location on the island
- Fixed the cannonball trail graphic for machines with integrated graphics cards
- Reduced the travel time to Cuba
- Lowered the difficulty of some of the Quest task goals for the Voodoo Doll Quest
- Ships attacking you will now flash on your Radar
- Fixed a missing icon on the Map Button in your Sea Chest
- Changed the name of "Rutherford Bligh" to "Captain Job"
- Fixed a case in Blackjack where a player has a non-natural 21 and the dealer has a natural 21
- Updated the tutorial so that you have to get the free ship from Darby Drydock before being allowed to purchase additional ships
- Added a Poker table in the King's Arm Tavern on Tortuga
August 28 2008
- Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when at the wheel of a ship
