Pirate101 Producer's Letters

My dear Pirates,

While I’m not thrilled that the winds have turned chilly, I am pleased they have brought me back to this side of the Spiral to chat. When last we spoke, we had just announced Book 15. How time has flown!

We’ve been excited to continue the storyline through the end of the Kane’s arc, and a bit beyond with the Rogue Armada event. This year, we’ve asked you to track down the mysterious “G”, marching directly into the belly of the beast – through the front gate of Valencia. We’ve sent you to participate in much drama and intrigue. And when all of your efforts failed, we asked you to sharpen your swords (or staves, or totems) and fight the ultimate battle against your greatest enemies – Kane and his court. Even after you thought you could rest, we’ve asked that you remain ever vigilant against the new, chaotic clockworks that appeared at the doorstep of Skull Island. We’ve asked a lot of you, but you’ve been up to the challenge!

We’re also super excited to have had the opportunity to release not one, not two, but THREE new puppet shows in this epic conclusion! These tell the tale of El Dorado, Kane’s humble beginnings, and the Resistance movement against the Armada.

You’ve gotten by with a little help from your friends - we also introduced a new companion, Contessa Argento, who joins you to help track down Kane. A mysterious stranger who may or may not be family opened up a brand new adventure ending with the promotion of the Presidio companions. Also, some other companions come up for gold-funded promotions at level 70, should you advance that far.

With your journey to level 70, you’ll find some new talents and powers.

• Privateers will learn Repel Boarders 2 and Blast of Discord, a new power that has the chance to make the enemy team randomly attack their allies.
• Buccaneers will learn Turn the Tide 3 and The Reaper, a new power that will attack all adjacent enemies and then knock them back by 1 square.
• Musketeers will learn Quick Draw 3 and Double Tap 3.
• Swashbucklers will learn Riposte 3 and Trap Sense 2.
• Witchdoctors will learn Mojo Echo 2 and Mojo Burn, a new power that will deal damage and add a damage-over-time effect to the target.

And there’s more!

• What’s a Pirate without his or her ship? We put out ship upgrades in various styles: Bison, Royal Navy, Samoorai, Pirate and Eagle.
• Ever wanted to be a Kane lookalike? Plundering his mask will certainly help your quest.
• Level 70 PVP rewards were added – so get to the Brawlin’ Hall to get your upgrades!

Kane’s defeat has not been without its repercussions. In September, we uncovered a big one –the haywire clockworks. Without Kane’s steady hand, lawful evil has become chaotic, and these fiends are out to do nothing but cause trouble, looting and pillaging in all corners of the Spiral. Only the most seasoned Pirates should attempt to board the Dreadnaught ship, as these are some fearsome foes. However, should you have the skills, the rewards are worth it!

We heard your feedback, and we’d been talking about putting together another CCG pack for a while. We’ve also heard you repeatedly request the clockworks as companions. Until now, it just hasn’t made sense. However, with Kane’s defeat, it’s a whole new era, and if you rip open a few of these packs you’ll have a chance to turn the Haywire Battle Angel, Musketeer, Dragoon, or Marine to your side permanently! You’ll also get a shot at some really powerful haywire weapons.

More went into that update as well!

• We introduced new improvements for epic talents. You can rank up to 4 and 5 now, improving your crit rating, strength, dodge, and much more!
• We attempted to take a crack at the longstanding Hydra fight issue. As you may know... that didn’t go well. Believe me, this one isn’t an easy problem to fix. We’ll examine it from other angles and take another crack at it with a future update.
• Abandoning a PVP queue now gives you a timeout period. We didn’t think it was fair to be able to join and quit repeatedly without a penalty, so we added this.
• General tidying up and bug fixing – see this link for more details.

Decius would scold me if I didn’t talk about all the new pets (and mounts) available this year, so let’s get to it!

• If you subscribed in May, you were gifted your very own permanent (very fast) Clockwork steed.
• In the Crown Shop, we added the Astral and Crystal Unicorn mounts, the Mountain Yeti and Autumn Yeti pets and the Pygmy Grey Whale mount.
• In the Brawlin’ Hall, we’ve seen the addition of the Cat Thugs, the Fennec Foxes, and something new for the winter season to close out 2016 (we’re not telling what it is yet though!!). And hey, how about those Gorillas?
• There’s still a whole bunch of undiscovered hybrids out there!

And, we return to the present. In that spirit, as many of us do outside of the Spiral, we’ve amassed a few more holiday decorations. You’ll notice some areas looking a little more festive than they did last year, and while I’m not typically the one to encourage this (my affinity to fire, and all that), I’d like to pass along the message to STAY FROSTY.

Stepping outside of the Spiral for a moment, I’ve been excited to be One-Eyed Jack’s new cohost for KI Live. It’s a little daunting to broadcast somewhere between 1-2 hours of LIVE content on a monthly basis, but it’s also been a lot of FUN! We just celebrated a holiday about being thankful – and I wanted to take a moment to thank Tom for convincing me to do it and Decius to help us support it. Also, I wanted to thank you, the community out there. You’ve been amazingly supportive and have made what seemed like a terrifying task a whole lot of FUN! We’re glad you appreciate KI Live and we’re excited to continue on with it in the future...

Speaking of next year… overall, we’re very pleased with how this one has gone. The Book 15 and Ashes of the Armada updates have been very well received, and it’s got our wheels turning. We’re spinning plans for what’s to come, though I don’t have anything concrete I can share just yet. We’re excited to continue charting our course and sail full speed ahead into next year, after a long winter’s nap, of course. May your course be true and may you steer clear of scoundrels this holiday season. From the crew to you, we wish you a warm, happy, and fun one!