Game Update Notes

P.1.020 -- Spiral Date 425173

Pirate101 is proud to present our initial implementation of PvP! For 2012, we are introducing a "Practice Mode" PvP combat system that you can experience in both your housing and in open PvP areas on Skull Island!

The new Practice PVP system only showcases battleboard combat and currently does not feature a ladder, matchmaking, awards, or the introduction of "PvP Only" / "No PvP" flags for player gear. (This is just the beginning as a full implementation of PvP is still in the making.) Please read more about the philosophy behind our newest feature in this public announcement from J. Todd Coleman.

How Do I Get Started?

PvP totems and sigils have been added to the Pirate101 World in a couple of different areas:

• Open 4 versus 4 PvP can be found on Skull Island. Look for the Brawlin' Hall and Spar Chamber behind and to the side of the Kraken Skulls Tavern.
• 1 versus 1 PvP can be found in a couple of our Player houses: The Volcano Island from the exclusive (and no longer available) Boochbeard Bundle and the Castaway's Cove from the GameStop Cutthroat Bundle

To begin, approach the PvP sigils and press X. Next, select if you’d like to join the blue or red team. You must have at least one player for each side to begin a practice PvP session (you’ll know how many players can join a PvP match by the number of available sigil spots displayed). Once the sigil countdown has completed, you’ll then have a limited amount of time to choose the companions you’d like to bring into the fight (much like you would for an Epic Boss Battle).

Special Rules

• Fleeing is allowed.
• The "Pirate" talent will be active.
• Player avatars cannot be charmed (or targeted) but Companions can be.
• Players cannot eject someone from their house (via Friends menu) during PvP.
• The Crown Shop is available during combat.
• (Known issue) Traps can be seen by opposing team.
• (Known issue) Players using stealth abilities can still be seen by their opponents.

Combat Phases

After choosing your companions, each team will have their own Planning / Execution stage and the game will randomly choose which team enters combat first. That team will plan and execute their combat phase, followed by the second team. Finally, the pets/summoned creatures of first team will then get a turn followed by the pets/summoned creatures of the second team. Combat will continue in this order until one team is defeated.

Victory!

At the end of combat, both teams will receive a notification of which side won the combat.

Over 1,500 bugs and changes were made in this update to the game. There are so many fixes that it’s simply impractical to list them all; however, here is a general overview of those changes with some of the Pirate101 community’s key topics highlighted for your review:

Performance

• Several performance improvements and memory leaks have been addressed!

Art

• Fixed many minor art issues, including lighting, particles, mismatched portraits, and textures throughout the game.
• Fixed weapons so they are now properly holstered while mounted.
• Changed the “busy” icon above pirate’s heads from a spell book to a treasure map.
• Added several interior maps that were missing from the game.
• Added many missing map icons including the landing in Kaizoku Jima, Moo Manchu's Sanctum, Black Storm Raiders, Sun Pollen, and more!
• Enemy Waponi Watermoles are now be more easily identifiable by their silver color.

Sound

• Additional NPCs now have audio accompanying quest text. Also, several fixes were made where audio did not match the quest text.
• Music has been added to several zones.
• Added/tweaked sounds for many combat powers, broadside powers, and companion barks in combat.
  • Reduced the volume on the Kraken's Coils and Wind Spirit buffs.
• Players will no longer hear a “sell” sound when trying to sell an equipped item that can’t be sold.

Quests

• Fixed a lot of minor quest text issues.
• Fixed a lot of Quest Helper bugs, both in the quest arrow and in the text below the Quest Helper.

• Lowered the respawn time of several quest collection objects to support more players (including the Doom Shards in Avernus).
• Added more Troggy Warriors to the Scurvy Dog dungeon.
• Adjusted the difficulty of Senjo for the “This is the Pits” quest.
• Ensured Brother Owl now disappears after completing his quest, “Stray Feathers.”
• Ensured Sergeant Shepard no longer assists players with Fin Dorsal after they have successfully completed the fight once before.
• Ensured Skeletal Corsairs in the Ghost Town are now harder to avoid.
• Improved the Cave Fish in the quest “True Love Triumphs?” They will drop the ring needed to complete the quest more reliably now.
• Only Privateers will be prompted to visit the Old Chirp Place by Timmy for the quest “The Gang's All Here.”
• Accommodated Count Brastillo de Brass who simply wanted to be known as “The Brass Monkey.” He also now sails a much higher level ship in the Vortex of Disruption.
• Ensured Ordaz and his goons don’t stick around after they’ve been beaten in the Gortez encounter.
• Players may now group up together to fight the Dread Droga for the side quest “Emperor Moo.”
• Strengthened Brody so he can withstand shark attacks a bit better.
• Added a 1,000 gold reward for completing “Her Majesty’s Secret Service.”

• Players shouldn't have to repeat the Iron Monkey fight during Kan Po, Egg Shen, and Wing Chun's promotion quests.
• Improved the loot drops for the Don Rodrigo line of quests.
• Navigating between Holy Monquistan ships should now prove more manageable.
• Isao Murasaki will no longer use the First Strike ability more than once.
• Significantly revised the Buck Bronco encounter in Arroyo Grande.
• Added several floors to the Inoshishi Pagoda encounter.
• Added additional chambers to the Cave of Whispers.
• The Shadow Fortress encounter is now longer and more challenging.
• Masamune's last line of the quest “off duty” will be played only for Musketeers.
• Removed the Mooshu level gear from Baron Cimitiere’s loot table.
• Deacon’s barrage ability no longer hits hidden characters.
• Fixed the Chapter 3 side quest badge so it will be properly awarded.
• Marleybone ships in Port Regal will no longer spawn more officers than redcoats.

Equip

• Made a lot of fixes for equipment name typos.
• Gear with powers that have weapon equipment requirements will now display those requirements.
• Reduced the Nautical level requirement on the Pagoda Sails sold on the Hamamitsu docks from level 32 to level 26.
• Added the missing Sneak Attack power on the level 40+ Tier of the Dread Pirate's Outfit.

Vendors

• Both a ship vendor and a parts vendor have taken up residence in St. Bonobos Abbey in Monquista.
• More parts are now available from most ship part vendors.
• Ned Cook has taken his leave from Jonah Town.
• Fixed a number of errors in the Vendor interface.
• Charlie Burrow now properly shows he’s a Boot Vendor.
• Vendors now warn when selling will exceed max gold rather than preventing the sale, so the gold cap may be more easily reached.

Ships

• Players can’t begin combat in the skyways with another player’s creature fight by flying through their ship while they’re in combat.
• Ships will no longer occasionally be invisible when docking.
• Ensured barrels created by player attacks on enemy ships can now be attacked and destroyed by players.
• Nautical XP awarded now appears in the chat log.
• Added a pop up that asks players if they really want to delete a ship if they try to put it in the trash.
• Ensured other player ships will no longer show a red nameplate if they are higher level than you.
• Passengers on ships will not be separated from the boat they were sailing on when the captain of the ship enters a new zone.
• Added a rubber ducky pirate icon to indicate a ship is unsinkable (you can’t sink a rubber ducky after all).

Housing

• Increased the number of housing items that can be placed in premium housing to 200 instead of 100. (Both on the inside and outside!)
• Wood Kabuki Wallpaper no longer applies as flooring.
• New players may use the “Go to Home” button as soon as they leave Avery’s office.
• Ensured rugs can have housing items placed on top of them.
• Housing items and more uncommon items have been added to enemies throughout The Spiral.

Powers and Talents

• Changed Talent cards so they have a different color background to help players identify they are different at first glance.
• Clarified wording for the power Walk in Shadows to indicate all hidden sneak attacks do double damage, not just Backstab.
• Changed the Mighty Strike power to Mighty Charge and the description has been updated.
• Witchdoctors can now no longer train either Peaceful or Loud, and they have been removed as prerequisites for Witchdoctors training up the other class talent trees.
• Swashbucklers will now be able to train Riposte at level 37.
• The Witchdoctor second and third tier “Haste” powers now correctly add a First Strike/Riposte capability to melee companions and Quick Draw/Return Fire to ranged companions.

Zones

• Fixed cases where zone overhead map didn’t match world, and added missing text to overhead map icons.
• Added wisps to many zones that were lacking them.
• Fixed many areas that were sometimes causing players to become stuck.
• Added a little extra distance between ships and creature enemies in several skyways.
• Added more enemies to Valley of Titans.
• Affixed many Life Fountains to the ground so they won’t “float away” on players.
• Made the grassy sidewalks in Yagizawa Village a bit safer to navigate.
• Riding the blue wind lane coming from Hamamitsu Skyway into Subata Skyway will now allow players to continue along the wind lane’s path.

UI

• Made several fixes to chat system
  • Changed the chat icons next to players’ names so they now correctly display chat capability: Open chat players have no icon. Players with filtered chat have a chat bubble. Players with menu chat only show a chat bubble that is crossed out.
  • Menu chat players can see chat log by hitting enter.
  • Menu chatting players will now see a chat bubble with “…” above a chat-enabled player to know they are speaking.

• Badges pages only show next available badge for defeating multiple creatures, not all the badges in the chain.
• Ensured badge pages now show rewards.
• Removed the Gift Button icon during combat.
• Fixed the placement of many name tags and weapons.
• Ignored player names will not show duplicates in the friend’s list.
• True friend names will now always appear green.
• Mousing over your ship’s health globe will show both current and maximum health.
• Fixed a bug causing the player’s ship action buttons to become unresponsive.
• Players may now more easily left-mouse click sigils on docks to board ships.

Keyboard Shortcuts

• Pressing “End” on the keyboard will act the same as pressing the Life Fountain button on the interface.
• Control+N will now open the Notification window.

Companions

• Some shrunken companions were made bigger again.
• Crown shop companions will no longer change names (including Unicorn Duelist Companion Ridolfo Capoferro).
• Made multiple fixes for companion quests.
• Companions now properly participate in important combats during their promotion quests.
• Companion statistics will now update immediately when promoting (previously they didn’t update until players closed the window and reopened it, so it appeared as if promoting companions made their statistics worse).
• Companions that were revived inside the Bison Sacred Cave will no longer appear defeated during combat.
• Ensured Sarah Steele's Swashbuckler’s stab reduces defense as advertised.
• Made notifications that you have gained new companion training points clickable so they open the companion management screen.
• Corrected Bonnie Anne’s Scatterblast ability so it now functions even if the character targeted moves during the turn.

Pets

• Rebalanced the Armadillo pet to be in line with other pets (it was incorrectly flagged as a much stronger henchman). A second talent, Relentless, was added to the Armadillo to still make it a unique and desired pet among players.
• Removed the duplicate name “Cookie” from the Pet name list and changed it to “Rascal.”

Crown shop / Premium Areas

• Changed wording on Premium Areas to indicate “Books” and “Chapters” instead of “Chapters” and “Parts.” (Badges previously awarded for completing “Chapters” are also now labeled “Books.”)
• Ensured players can only purchase a Mojo Potion only if they have first completed the initial Mojo potion quest and do not already have full Mojo.
• Passengers on ships will now auto-unbottle their own ships if they encounter a premium area instead of being teleported back to the last life fountain visited.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed several instances of incorrect ‘0’ damage numbers with certain companion and boss attacks.
• Made several minor grammatical changes to quest text throughout the game.
• Players are no longer able to teleport to a friend while their friend is playing a minigame.
• Loot tables have been adjusted globally.

PvP

• PvP matches will now randomly pick which team goes first.
• Players will receive a "Waiting for other team . . ." message during PvP that will remove the powerbar when it is the other team’s turn.
• The Chat Window will no longer appear beneath the Battleboard during PvP combat.
• PvP icons were added to the map to help players identify where the PvP halls are located.
• Barrier and minion summoning (Stone Bastion and Rally the Clay) were updated to function properly in PvP.
• A fleeing PvP team member will no longer make their teammate’s powerbars available to use.
• Traps will no longer remain after PvP combat ends.
• The "Collect the Treasure Chests Quickly!" message will no longer appear behind the winning team’s message.
• Players will now be able to switch realms within the PvP areas.

Misc

• Gallant Defense is now working as intended.
• Players will no longer be able to skip Mick Dagger's conversation and thereby become stuck and unable to progress with Sarah Steele’s promotion quest.
• An item purchased from the crown shop will remain selected, instead of the selection defaulting to the first item in the crown shop list.

Quest Adjustments

• The quest title for “Hi-Yo Silver, Ahoy!” now displays properly, and the quest is a little easier to complete.
• Mr. Harker's Cane was moved to Fin Dorsal's room to start the “Lost and Found” quest.
• Rope is easier to obtain from Cutthroat ships for the “An Old Debt” quest.
• Sacks of sugar are easier to obtain from Banditoad ships for the “Banditoad Baggage” quest.
• Both mandrake root and bloodbat teeth are easier to obtain for the “Mighty Medicine” quest.

Miscellaneous

• Players can now successfully pick up the hidden Training Tome in McGee Mine Ranch.
• Gallant Defense will no longer cause companions to heal the player.
• The Walk in Shadows and Walk in Darkness Powers now display that players are hidden.

• Fixed an interface issue that was causing the game to hang before combat while fighting Buffaloons.

• The Rat Pack will now engage characters in combat as expected.
• Players will now be able to interact with NPC's in the teahouse for the quest Zhu Ro, My Hero.
• Fixed an issue where the Yule Trogg would play a “miss” animation when dealing damage.
• Brother Owl will now appear as expected.
• Enemies will now correctly attack all players in sigiled instances.

Go Go Stormzilla Encounter

• NOTE: The Go Go Stormzilla encounter is much easier than it was; however, the encounter still requires you use good strategy!
• Stupendor-X's talents will now work correctly.
• Replaced Stupendor-X's Cheap Shot talent with Riposte.
• Improved Stupendor-X's durability.
• Fixed the previous movement issues associated with Stupendor-X.
• Stupendor-X's health bar will no longer appear to rise and fall randomly during combat.
• Stormzilla Eggs will now display damage taken correctly.
• Improved the look of Stupendor-X as he emerges from the mountain to begin the encounter.
• Pets will no longer assist players during the Go Go Stormzilla encounter.

General

• Made changes to reduce player crashes and improve server stability.
• Players joining ship combat late or teleporting to a friend during broadside combat will no longer be stuck in the air after combat.
• Teleporting to a friend who is docking a ship should no longer cause players to become stuck in the air.
• Trainers will now appear to beckon players if they leveled from gaining combat experience and consequently now have a trainer quest available to them.
• Jumping across the center Metal Guardian area with El Toro no longer causes the game to crash.
• Removed the Cheap Shot talent from Chumba Wumba.

P.1.025

General Quest Adjustments

• New pirates will find Manny, Moe, Jack, and Lasko's quests in the Bloodshoals are now linear and slightly less difficult.
• Fewer Troggies will spawn during the Troggy Shrine encounter of the "Into Skull Cave" quest.
• Fewer Waponi ships must be defeated for the "Fishy Business" quest.
• Changed the Presidio encounter so it will be easier to avoid accidental combat, more wisps will be floating around, and the Monquistador Crossbowman are not as dangerous.
• Added wisps to the city drains below Monquista and made the bandit fight during the Leverage encounter there a bit easier.
• Made it easier to avoid a few fights in the Bronco Busting encounter.

Flight of the Penguin / Saving Mustang Sally Quest Changes

• Players won’t be able to slip past the guards and attack Klegg first, which could cause the instance to be unable to be completed.
• Optimus will now correctly engage the players in battle.
• The Brass Monkey's dialogue will now be seen by all in the encounter.

Miscellaneous

• Don Raphael and Tonka will remain visible during the Showdown at Boot Hill quest so players who log out during the quest will not become stuck.
• Fixed a few issues that were causing players to crash during combat.
• All docks will now have at least four sigils to dock with.

• The "Buy Crowns" button for resetting Practice Points will now function correctly.
• Players will no longer be blocked from promoting Barnabus if they have already completed the quest "One Good Favor".
• Players will still be able to progress in the storyline if they happen to log out right before talking to Timmy at the end of the quest "Jail Break."
• The Treasure Chest Graphic on the interface will correctly match the actual number of chests available to loot.
• Overflow furniture items picked up in your house will no longer appear doubled in the Player’s Bank.
• Iago's name in the Crown Shop now displays correctly
• Examining items in the Crown Shop will correctly display what you are currently wearing as well as the item you're looking at.

• Made a change to help improve the "stuck quest arrow" issue many players are experiencing. We will continue to review quest arrow issues further.
• Players visiting the Iron Monkey in the Vortex of Torment will no longer find their ships to be invisible upon exiting the Iron Sanctum.