POTCO Release Notes: 2009

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

January 2009

January 30, 2009

New and improved Port Royal: Players should see significant performance increases thanks to the new layout.
New and improved Tutorial: Now more action packed!
Added a player Profile Card so you can view details about players you meet.
Early Quest Line has been smoothed out and should be much more fun.
Overall smoother gameplay: Fewer hiccups and pauses during the action.
Improved crew making and display: Starting and joining crews is easier than ever before. The onscreen crew display is now even more useful.
Improved Chat interface: Only one text entry box now and it routes your message appropriately.
Clothing Store changes: It is much easier to browse through all your wardrobe choices.
Fixed another exploit that allowed you leave a PvP while still undead.
Reputation gains are no longer reduced for Basic Access players.
Lots of other small tweaks and improvements!

February 2009

February 4, 2009

Fixed a crash with NVidia and ATI graphics cards that prevented some Pirates from entering the game
Fixed the missing Dagger animations
Crew Members will remain pink on the mini-map
Plugged several client memory leaks which will improve performance during long game play
Fixed several crashes on exit
Optimized Teleportation effects to improve your frame rate when you teleport or when witnessing another avatar teleport.

February 5, 2009

Fixed the door in the smugglers' cache on Rumrunner's Isle. Pirates will no longer be trapped inside the cache.
Fixed text formatting issues with chat

February 11, 2009

Bug Fixes:

Fixed a bug where a Pirate could become invincible on Kingshead

Fixed a bug that allowed you to harm other Pirates if they were in a Privateer crew and on a team different than your own

Fixed a bug in the Crew HUD that would not show some crew members if you disconnected and reconnected

Display/Graphic Issues:

Fixed the icon that was not showing up when Guests were playing on a Windows machine in windowed mode

Fixed texture issues for Guests playing on a Mac

February 17, 2009

Updated NPC dialog

February 25, 2009

Environmental Improvements:

Redesigned Tortuga (including the Minimap) for better game performance

Moved the entrance of King's Run to the back of the Port Royal graveyard - this will help new players progress more easily through the tutorial

General Bug Fixes:

Fixed some issues with emotes not displaying properly

Fixed an issue where players could escape from the jail without kicking the door open

Resolved an weapon exploit that allowed Pirates to cast Voodoo Staff Desolation without charging it

Players are no longer slowed down by Undead Gravediggers' throwing daggers

Fixed a bug where you could not see your own Whispers to unknown Pirates

Made several improvements and fixes to the Crew System

Pirates of the Caribbean Online now supports 16 bit color in windowed mode when using DirectX8 and DirectX9

General Improvements:

The Game Options menu can now be accessed in-game by pressing the "F7" key

Improved the way avatars are being displayed to improve frame rate

When tracking enemies to complete a Quest, the Compass now glows when you reach the target area

Returned the Musicians to the taverns on Port Royal and Tortuga. Pirates can now play the sheet music earned in the Cannons of the Deep mobile game.

Improved Broadside Cannon aim

The Windcatcher Ship Skill (which increases your speed at sea) works again

Added the ability to bring up your Pirate profile by clicking on your Pirate name in the chat window

March 2009

March 6, 2009

Some missing NPCs on Port Royal and Tortuga have returned
Pressing "escape" now closes the Chat Panel as it used to
The Boarding Permission panel now hides when you click the Boarding Permission button
Fixed the ten second flicker on the Compass and Ray of Light for some tracked quests
Swamp water on Tortuga should look better now
Musicians in Tortuga tavern now have actual names
If a player rejects your invitation to become your friend, you now receive a notification
Harmless animals no longer appear as enemies on the Compass
Ships that have respawned now show up on the Compass
Your current ship now maintains its bronze color on the Compass
Fixed several client memory leaks
Fixed various other smaller bugs

March 17, 2009

Fixed a client bug that would cause tunnels not to work
Fixed an occasional download issue

April 2009

April 8, 2009

New and Improved Padres Del Fuego: Players should see significant performance increases thanks to the new layout.
Improved the Reputation Bar. It is now easier to track your Notoriety and Weapon progress.
The Compass Map now rotates with the camera instead of the avatar.
Cleaned up the Tutorial and early Quest lines.
Female avatar emotes now animate better.
Crew members that are AFK will no longer receive cargo credit for sunk ships.
Made several improvements to Quest tracking with the Ray of Light.
The graphics options will now warn you if you try to change your settings from what is recommended.
More performance improvements.
Numerous bug and memory leaks have also been fixed.

April 10, 2009

Fixed invisible re-spawning avatars (this was most common in PVP)
Moved the team indicator on low-detail avatars in PVP
Removed some waterfalls from the caves that had rendering problems

April 11, 2009

Fixed a few client crashes

April 16, 2009

Players who were stranded on Tormenta Island after the most recent updates should now appear on Padres Del Fuego when they log in next time

April 24, 2009

Fixed several client crashes and minor gameplay issues

May 2009

May 7, 2009

Added debugging information to track down an issue

June 2009

June 2, 2009

Improved Early Player Experience

Early Quests have been modified for better playability, including Quests to find the first three Black Pearl crew members and Quest lines related to the Voodoo Doll

Introduced new tutorial pop-up hints. These hints can be turned on and off from the Game Options Menu (F7)

In the Cutlass tutorial, Pirates are now shown the skills they can earn later

Transportation Enhancements

Added new Dockworker NPCs to help Pirates stowaway on ships. This is a new transportation option which helps Pirates reach their destination without sailing a ship or needing a Teleport Totem. To become a stowaway, find a Dockworker on the docks of Tortuga, Port Royal, Padres Del Fuego or Cuba and pay him the gold he requests for the service.

Added 38 new, player-submitted ship names to the Shipwright's Ship Naming Menu

Technical Enhancements

Changed enemy difficulties in areas throughout the game for better playability

Added Chat Permission Status to the Pirate Profile Panel

Added an option to toggle on and off Windows Sticky Keys (this option is disabled by default)

Additional Improvements & Bug Fixes:

Changing Cannon Ammunition types no longer restarts the recharge timer

Made several bug fixes to NPC's: returned Navy Sailors to normal heights, enemies no longer ambush players and enemies will no longer attack Pirates once you leave their area

Better feedback/flow for guild name requests

The loading screen now appears when starting game instead of a black screen

Polished the drop down Main Menu and Escape key interaction

Made several improvements to the Ray of Light to address tracking and hint problems

Removed the Quest completion percentages from the Journal page

Re-enabled the "dazed" effect above a Pirates head (for higher-detail graphics/effects settings)

Fixed a bug where your ship's repair spots would not be available even when the ship was stopped

For security reasons, we have removed the ability to tab between Linked Accounts on the Pirate selection screen. Please sign in with the appropriate login and password for the account you want to play

June 4, 2009

Fixed a server crash
Fixed a premature completion of some quest types

June 9, 2009

Various minor bug fixes