Pirate101: Test Realm Open! Go PvP'ing!

Well, the latest list of updates has been put up on KI's website and the list is a doozy!  If we follow how long the test realm was active before the last update, I would guess that the update will be implemented mid next week, just in time for the new episode of the show!  I'll hop on the test realm this evening to check out the PvP and see how it works so I can report back here.  In the mean time, here is the list of all the changes that were made to the game.  My comments are in blue.

The letter that they mention is from J Todd Coleman, VP, who let's us know the intent behind this incarnation of PvP.  It seems this is just to test the waters and get a jump start before the implementation of full PvP will all features.  We'll see how it goes!

Practice Player Versus Player (PvP)! 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).  Thank goodness you get to choose which companions join you.  There would be rioting in the streets if this was random! Special Rules Fleeing is allowed. Bummer. The "Pirate" talent will be active. That should make the battles go a bit more quickly. 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. Okay . . . . (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.

Bug Fixes Galore! 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. That makes sense.  Always thought it was weird that they had this holdover from Wiz101 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 Sargent 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.”  Better rewards are always welcome! 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.  This is a big deal and I think is a necessary step to alleviating confusion.  Nothing worse than equipping a new piece of gear with an ability you can't use but you have no idea why. 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.  Good.  The game is lacking a bit in things to buy with gold.  Until the bazaar is introduced, this will have to do. 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.  Another convenience item. 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!)  People were clamoring for this.  Glad to see it implemented. Wood Kabuiki 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.  Clarification is always welcome, especially on some of the less straight forward abilities. 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.  This is good.  I wonder what was in there that we couldn't see . . . 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.  That's helpful. I'm not the best at remembering my friend's in game names. 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.  Sounds like a "duh" but glad they did this. 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 Swachbuckler’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. Overall, I don't see anything negative in here.  Looks like mostly changes for the better.  The jury is still out on how well PvP will work, but I'll find out tonight and report back soon!