POTCO Release Notes: 2008

January	February	March	April	May	June
July	August	September	October	November	December

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

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

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

September 2008

September 10 2008

Improved the frame-rate of cut scenes on low end graphics hardware
Updated Quest dialog
Fixed a couple of rendering issues when using the DX9 and DX8 graphics APIs
Fixed an exploit in the Black Pearl Boss Battle
Fixed a crash related to friends' list management
Fixed the download progress bar exceeding 100% when entering the game for the first time

October 2008

October 17 2008

Added new Quests for Level 5 Weapons. These new Quests are unlocked when a weapon reaches Level 20 and only after the Level 4 Weapon Quest for that weapon has been completed. These new Quests involve defeating Boss Enemies, so make sure you have a crew to help fight them! The Level 5 Weapons are:

Pirate Blade (L5 Cutlass Weapon)

Bloodletter Dagger (L5 Dagger Weapon)

Grand Pistol (L5 Pistol Weapon)

Taboo Doll (L5 Voodoo Doll Weapon)

Vile Staff (L5 Voodoo Staff Weapon)

Boss Enemies can now be found in the Caribbean. They are marked by a glowing skull icon over their heads and are much more difficult to defeat than normal enemies of the same level. Some boss enemies will always spawn in the same location, while others are more rare and randomly spawn throughout the world.
The Dagger has been rebalanced with new abilities:

Backstrike - Attacking an enemy in the back using a Combo Attack now does a Backstrike and deals extra damage. However, attacking an enemy from the front with a Combo Attack deals less damage than before.

Attunement Breaking - The Asp and Throw Dirt skills now can break Voodoo Doll Attunement on players and enemies. If a player using a Voodoo Doll is hit by these skills, they will lose their attunement and will need to re-attune their targets. Also, players who recently had an Attunement broken will be immune to further Attunement breaking for 30 seconds. Skeleton enemies who have their Attunement Broken will be unable to cast voodoo hexes for a short time.

Interrupt Ability- The Asp, Throw Dirt, and Viper Nest skills can now Interrupt another player who is charging an attack (such as Take Aim, Long Volley, and Staff Hexes). Interrupting a charge will cause that player to have to start his charge over again.

Throw Dirt also now gives a 25% reduced accuracy instead of 40% and lasts a shorter duration.

Trainer NPC's at local blacksmiths can now retrain your weapons, by retraining a weapon you can refund all your spent skill points and allow you to re-choose your skills for that same weapon.
Captains now have more control over who boards their ships with a new ship-boarding permission system. Additionally, players at dinghies now have a better interface for finding ships to board.
The Game Options interface is now more clear and easy to use.
The maximum size of Guilds has been increased to 500 members.
Fixed a major issue in Privateering affecting when players can make ship repairs.
Fixed a bug where players were not allowed to sell a ship if they could not carry the gold received from the sale.
Pistol and Grenades deal slightly more damage in PVP now.
The targeting sights for weapons now only turn red when the enemy is within range. The Voodoo Staff targeting sight turns yellow when the target is within range of a Blast and turns red when the target is within range for the selected Hex.
Improved the sky, as well as updated and optimized many visual effects throughout the game.
Health meters for enemy ships should no longer randomly disappear.
Enemy ships can now attack your ship after you've disabled a flagship (but not after you've boarded it).
Players can now replay The Black Pearl Boss Battle even after defeating the Goliath.
Fixed some animation issues with NPC's that occur when players interact with them, also updated NPC movement to be smoother and less erratic.
Fixed an issue where crew members were not receiving their crew bonus when sailing on larger ships.
Fixed a bug preventing enemies from recovering Health and Voodoo. Since enemies now recover Voodoo again, Hex Eater no longer permanently disables a Voodoo Doll using enemy. Constant Hex Eater shots will still keep an enemy's Voodoo near zero (preventing heavy spell-casting). Once the shots stop, the enemy will recover his Voodoo slowly and begin casting spells again.
Green and Grey leveled enemies yield slightly more Reputation Points than before

October 20 2008

Fixed a bug with skill respec pricing
Fixed a bug where pirates on a Privateering ship with spawn-invulnerability could still take damage from cannon fire
Numerous minor bug fixes

October 23 2008

Fixed several crashes
Fixed a bug with NPC disengage behavior
Reduced the amount of damage done by grenades in PVP

November 2008

November 18 2008

Added various holiday events
Enemies are no longer appearing tiny
Voodoo meter added to enemies' health display when engaged in battle with a Voodoo Doll using foe
The Break Attunement effect caused by Dagger Asp and Throw Dirt now prevents enemy NPCs from casting voodoo hexes for 15 seconds
Draining an enemy NPC's voodoo power to 0 with Hex Eater will now prevent it from casting spells for 10 seconds
Various bug fixes for crashes and other show issues

November 18 2008

Several bugs and crashes resolved

December 2008

December 16 2008

Added Winter Holiday decorations
Added New Year's holiday event
Resolved the majority of the issues regarding stranded ships
Fixed a bug where players could sometimes not take the wheel of their ship
Fixed a bug where players were occasionally dying repeatedly in jail
Fixed a bug where some skills displayed the wrong values on mouseover
Fixed some issues with NPC and ship movement
Chat text should now be hidden when F12 is pressed
Fixed a frequent client crash on logout related to special effects
We now prevent Lookout access while in the Black Pearl boss battle
Players who have been reverted to Basic Access status will no longer be able to use the number keys to access Unlimited Access skills or ammo
Enabled /time command for players