Pirate101 Updated: That was Quick!

So the updates that they announced as being on the test realm only a few days ago, are already live and implemented to the game!  At first glance, it seems the same.  Glad that the Cool Ranch buffaloon changes are live, since I am working through that zone and do like completing sidequests every now and again!  Complete list of changes is below:

Combat

• Adjusted the hit points of both monsters and companions in the higher levels.
• Increased running speed of many units in combat to decrease waiting time.
• Corrected how players join in combat when teleporting to a friend already in combat on a ship.
• Fixed a few buff spells that will increase the chance for causing a critical hit (Shadowdance and Grand Shadowdance for Swashbucklers and Discipline for Privateers).
• Changed the rules for late arrivals to combat! The goal was to make players joining a multiplayer combat less painful for the person already in combat.
  • Combat occurs as it would normally if a player arrives in combat on the first round. Players will appear on the left side of screen with their companions and multiple creatures will appear on the right side as expected.
  • After round 1 the following new rules apply:
  • Late arriving players appear alone with no companions.
  • Late arriving players appear on the enemy side of the combat.
  • Only one new enemy per late arriving player will be added to the battleboard.
  • The new enemy will be located near the late arriving player.
  • The new enemy will begin the combat with focused attention on the late arriving player.

Quests

• Adjusted the “Miner Difficulties” quest to require the correct quests be completed before it becomes available.
• Made a few updates to Buffaloons:
• Fixed the quest “If I was a Rich Rooster” so the Buffaloons now correctly drop their hides.
• The White Buffaloons have mysteriously departed and in their stead come the striped Bumbaloons! They can now only be found in the Big Sky Skyway. The spiral is sure to be buzzzzzing about these creatures!
• Further adjusted the drop rate of "Bumbaloon" meat for the quest “Hungry Like the Wolf,” and made changes to the difficulty of defeating the associated buffaloons that join in combat.
• Fixed the missing sigil for the “Zhayu Keepers” quest.
• Fixed the quest “The Things They Parried” so it can no longer be broken by exiting the room before completing the combat.
• Ensured Tonka now appears where expected during the quest “True Love Triumphs.”
• Fixed the faction issue that was causing players to be incorrectly blocked from fighting Archer for the quest “The Mooshu Falcon.” Players will now be able to engage Archer even if they are friendly with the Scurvy Dog faction.
• Ensured Captain Raleigh will properly spawn for the quest “The Fourth Card.”

Miscellaneous

• Set the pet renaming costs to 500 gold.
• Fixed several gold farming exploits.
• Changed the Goronado companion so he will now promote correctly.
• Expired rental mounts will now be properly removed from players’ inventories.
• Made multiple crash/stability fixes to improve gameplay.
• Created a new gift icon which will appear next to the health globe when a player has a gift awaiting redemption.
• Made minor adjustments to some spelling in game and corrected a few incorrect voiceovers.
• Adjusted the size of some larger companions so they now appear smaller when following the player in the world, which corrects a few camera issues. These units will be full-sized in combat.
• Raised the number of players that can visit a house at one time.
• Disallowed repeatedly clicking on the dialog box for purchasing a Premium Area.

Pirate101: Ninja Pig

The map that KI sent out to players' home addresses which, after some kind of puzzle, would yield codes for a Ninja Pig companion, did not arrive at my house.  Though I did have an active Wizard 101 account at the time the pulled the address for the mailer, I had it set up via my paypal account, so there was no address on file with KI.  Bummer.

That being said, I thought it couldn't hurt to ask here: anyone out there who received the map and has one of the 4 codes left who could send it to me?  If so, you can send it to talkintheplank@gmail.com

Since this is the only way I'll be able to get the Ninja Pig, which I hear is awesome, and I don't know anyone who was playing Wiz101, I would greatly appreciate it!

Pirate101: Selecting Your Crew's Epic Talents

As I mentioned in a previous post, I am quite pleased with the way Bonnie Anne has turned into a power house of a crew member for me, but I started thinking "hey, what about all the other crew members I have?  Can I get them to be just as powerful if I simply select the right talents?"  That of course raises the next question: "what are the right talents?"

While I don't have a definitive answer, I can tell you, based on my own trial and error, that for melee, buccaneer class crew specifically, you really want to get the reactive Epics as opposed to the extra hit.  The goal, in my mind anyway, is to get the maximum amount of hits in per round.  With Bonnie Anne, as I went through earlier, with the Double Tap and Burst Fire epics, I have seen her, under the right circumstances, get 6 or 7 hits in a single turn.  That is a ton of damage.  This is through a talent that gives a chance for an extra hit for every successful hit (Burst Fire) and an ability that gives you an extra hit on another nearby mob if you kill the mob you selected.  Since this was such a successful combination, I thought I would try and set it up with my Bison buccaneer who needed to be upgraded.  Now, I'm not sure if this was because Bonnie Anne has received a promotion and the bison hasn't, but the same type of combination doesn't work very well with him.  Rather, it seems more important for melee to have reactive Epic talents.  In essence, you get more hits in if you hit each time you're hit, for melee since they are in the thick of it.  First Strike is also a good one, as giving you an extra hit before an incoming melee attack can stop the attack altogether if the mob dies due to your extra hit.

I have some more experimenting to do for sure, and will do more posts on this subject when I have gotten a little further in the game.  Currently, I'm still running around Cool Ranch working on the main storyline and, though I haven't had as much playtime this week, have already gotten up to level 22.  I think that at the end of the Cool Ranch main story line, you get another ship, so I'll most likely keep on the main story until then, then go back and pick up the side quests I missed.  It's working so far!

Pirate101: Cool Ranch Continues

Had a bit of a frustrating play experience last night, though it was no fault of the games, as far as I know.  My computer was running slow.  I don't have the world's most advanced rig, but it's usually fine for the games I want to play as they don't tend to be the bleeding edge of graphics type of game.  For whatever reason, I couldn't get the game to stop hiccuping.  Even so, the xp gain in Cool Ranch is so fast that I still gained two levels and am now sitting on the verge of level 22.  At that point, I could start going back and completing the sidequests that were impossible at lvl 17.  My first impulse is to head all the way to the end of the Cool Ranch main story quests, then go back and complete the side quests when they are a bit more trivial (and therefore faster) but I have run into some money troubles, since I have gone up so many levels so quickly.  My crew, who I had kept at 2 levels below me for the entire game so far, are starting to lag a bit as funds have dried up from not doing side quests.  Add to that the fact that I haven't earned any training tomes from quests and I'm in quite a pickle!

What I think I'll do is continue playing until my companions are too weak to be viable and then go back and start doing all the side quests.  Hopefully, that will work everything out.  I'll let you know how it goes!

Pirate101 Breaking News!! Test Realm Updates Announced

I just saw that the One-Eyed Jack on the Pirate 101 message board posted a link to the latest test realm proposed changes!  You can view them here.  My thought on the changes are in blue.

Combat

• Adjusted the hit points of both monsters and companions in the higher levels. No complaints here.
• Increased running speed of many units in combat to decrease waiting time.  Anything that makes combat go a little faster is fine with me.  Combat dragging a bit is one of the only major complaints I have with the game.
• Corrected how players join in combat when teleporting to a friend already in combat on a ship.  Hadn't run across any issues with this myself, as I don't have a very substantial friend list yet, but it sounds positive.
• Fixed a few buff spells that will increase the chance for causing a critical hit (Shadowdance and Grand Shadowdance for Swashbucklers and Discipline for Privateers). 
• Changed the rules for late arrivals to combat! The goal was to make players joining a multiplayer combat less painful for the person already in combat.
• Combat occurs as it would normally if a player arrives in combat on the first round. Players will appear on the left side of screen with their companions and multiple creatures will appear on the right side as expected.
• After round 1 the following new rules apply:
• Late arriving players appear alone with no companions.
• Late arriving players appear on the enemy side of the combat.
• Only one new enemy per late arriving player will be added to the battleboard.
• The new enemy will be located near the late arriving player.
• The new enemy will begin the combat with focused attention on the late arriving player.

This is a huge deal!  This issue has been bandied about the forums since the game went live (and probably even before that), but one of the most annoying things that can happen is someone joining combat with you when you're about to win/close to death and making the situation worse because they bring 3 new mobs with them at full health.  This fixes that situation to an even better degree than I could have hoped.  I would still like to see an SOS button added, but with this change, see no need for a DND button.  Awesome.

Quests

• Adjusted the “Miner Difficulties” quest to require the correct quests be completed before it becomes available.
• Fixed the quest “If I was a Rich Rooster” so the Buffaloons now correctly drop their hides.
• Removed White buffaloons from Cooper’s Roost Skyway so they are now only found in the Big Sky Skyway.
• Further adjusted the drop rate of White Buffaloon meat for the quest “Hungry Like the Wolf,” and made changes to the difficulty of defeating the associated buffaloons.
• Fixed the missing sigil for the “Zhayu Keepers” quest.
• Fixed the quest “The Things They Parried” so it can no longer be broken by exiting the room before completing the combat.
• Ensured Tonka now appears where expected during the quest “True Love Triumphs.”
• Fixed the faction issue that was causing players to be incorrectly blocked from fighting Archer for the quest “The Mooshu Falcon.” Players will now be able to engage Archer even if they are friendly with the Scurvy Dog faction.
• Ensured Captain Raleigh will properly spawn for the quest “The Fourth Card.”

All bug fixes and adjusting the drop rates.  No issues here.  All nice corrective changes.

Miscellaneous

• Set the pet renaming costs to 500 gold.
• Fixed several gold farming exploits. Wish I'd know what the old ones were :-)
• Changed the Goronado companion so he will now promote correctly.
• Expired rental mounts will now be properly removed from players’ inventories.
• Made multiple crash/stability fixes to improve gameplay.
• Created a new gift icon which will appear next to the health globe when a player has a gift awaiting redemption.  I wonder if this means they will be adding player to player gifting from the crown shop soon.  Could be indicative of that.
• Made minor adjustments to some spelling in game and corrected a few incorrect voiceovers.
• Adjusted the size of some larger companions so they now appear smaller when following the player in the world, which corrects a few camera issues. These units will be full-sized in combat.  Never had an issue with this, but then again, I run around with my pet out.
• Raised the number of players that can visit a house at one time.

All in all, sounds good to me.  I tend to be positive about changes to MMO's in general since I know the dev's are trying to improve our experience.  All MMO's are works in progress and if the community playing the game can continue a constructive feedback cycle, the game will only get better!  Thanks, KingsIsle!

Pirate101: Cool Ranch Blues Dispersed!

I was preparing to write a blog post for today in which I lamented how much more difficult going into Cool Ranch is than the rest of the game.  I started up the other night in CR and kept getting beaten, hand's down, by the side quest mobs I was trying to fight.  I would lose my whole team and only have killed one of them.  It was very frustrating.  I ended up quitting for the night and watching a movie instead, wondering if I had finally hit a wall in this game and would be unable to continue without going back to the previous area and grinding out an extra level or two (which would take several hours and severely test my patients).

When I logged in the next evening, a thought occurred to me: what level are these mobs that I'm fighting?  I got into combat and looked.  They were lvl 22-23.  I was level 17.  Of course I was getting destroyed!  I went back to the main story quest and started down that path and discovered that the first mobs I faced were lvl 13.  So, there was the problem.

I would recommend focusing on the main quest line when you first get to Cool Ranch.  I was level 17 when I started it and in 3-3.5 hours had gotten to level 20.  The quest line gives a ton of xp and is fairly quick.  I'll follow it a little while longer until I get to at least lvl 21 before even trying the side quests.

Moral of the story: pay attention to the mobs you're fighting.  If the battle seems wildly out of balance, there may be a good reason!

Pirate101: Best First Mate lvl 8-?

The only member of your crew with whom you can guarantee attendance to each battle is your first mate.  Your first mate is the crew member that you move to the top of your crew roster and will be marked as such when you do.  Being first mate equals 100% chance to show up in battle.  So, who is the best choice?  I currently have a lvl 17 Buccaneer and I have by no means tested every companion in the game (I haven't bought a single one from the crown shop, though I probably will once I reach top level), but at this point, I can't imagine that there is a consistently better companion than Bonnie Anne. 

Bonnie Anne is one of the first companions you get, after the one you get for choosing your own class, and she also get the first promotion quest.  After that quest, which happens when she turns level 8, you should make her your first mate.  You have her set up right, though.  I gave her Double Tap, which means she will fire on another enemy after she kills the one she was targeting and Burst Fire (I think that's what it's called), which says that with every successful hit, she has the possibility to take another shot as her epic abilities.  With this set-up, I've seen her shoot an enemy, Burst Fire, Burst Fire, mob dies, Double Tap onto another enemy, Burst Fire, Burst Fire, Burst Fire, next mob dies.  That was one turn!

I don't know if she is working as intended, but she is may more powerful that any other companion I've seen and, in some ways, more powerful than my Pirate!  That's why she's my first mate.  If later on I find a replacement, I'll post it here!

Pirate101: Subclass Points and How to Spend Them

Alexander Hexforge posted a link in the comments to a guide that kezrik had set up over on Pirate 101 Central, an official fan site for Pirate 101.  Thanks for the link, Alexander!  I found it most enlightening!

Here are the broad strokes of what's posted over there:
Throughout the course of the game, through leveling and the Prospector Zeke side quests, you will be able to obtain 20 Practice points to spend on abilities from other classes.  At that link, kezrik has shown the sequences which you have to use to get each type of ability.  It's a great guide and very useful.

For my Buccaneer, I think I have chosen the right path.  I will continue to go down the Witchdoctor path and collect all of the +power effects and +resist talents.  Juju is one of the best buffs I've seen in the game so far as it boosts each characters main damage type all at once, so if you have 1 str based, 1 agi based and 1 will based, one buff will raise each member's main trait.  What a time saver!  After I have gotten everything out of the Witchdoctor class, I'll have to chose between using the remaining points for dodge in the swashbuckler tree or getting the healing from Privateer.  Likely, I'll go with dodge so that my focus remains damage output, mitigation and avoidance instead of throwing healing in there.  Although, if the +Power effects also affect healing, that might not be a bad idea to double up there.

Well, I still have some time to figure it all out!

Pirate101: Balancing your Combat

Last night I fell victim to my own desires. That sounds weirder than I meant it to. What I mean to say is, right when I was on the cusp of being forced to buy a crown ship to progress (or buy gold to buy a ship in game), I saw that I had finally gotten the quest chain that leads to your next free boat, a Monquistan Skiff, if I remember correctly. I was lvl 16 and got the quest from Hooktail in Puerto Mico after completing the main quest line through Monquista and back to Skull Island. I quickly completed the quest, having to kill some wharf rat ships, which I was having difficulty with until I got help on the last few from a friendly player (thanks Crazy Mary!), and got my new ship. Now, I thought, I can go back and complete all those ship combat quests that I couldn't do before because my ship was too weak!

The new ship you get is lvl 14 and, after making sure the ship was as well-equipped as I could make it, I headed out to the the open skies. I started with a few quests around Puerto Mico and, now that I had a better ship, was able to easily destroy the lvl 9 and 10 ships there. Then, I headed off to Monquista to finish all of the side quests I had given up in frustration before. These ships were lvl 12-14 (I think), so should be right on par with my new ship. Here's what I learned: if you want to do ship based only battles and you don't handily outclass the ships you're fighting against (or have someone else there helping you), it will talk a while. Your ship's health will drop so low after each battle that you might as well have done hand-to-hand combat by the time you slink off to regenerate. I was so focused on only doing ship combat that I ended up wasting a lot of time. The ships I was fighting were very close together, so often, when I was 25% into the battle another 1 or 2 enemy ships would join and start blasting me. Since I had given myself the arbitrary "failure" condition of being boarded, when this happened I would run away. This, I can see now, was foolish.

At least at this point in the game, the enemy ships will board you as soon as they can and engage you in hand-to-hand. Now, while I do struggle a bit with ship battles at the moment, hand-to-hand combat tends to be a blowout. This is especially true when I have already out-leveled the side quests, which is the case here. So, instead of quickly destroying the boats from the deck and getting better rewards and completing the quest goals, I would run away to regenerate without having accomplished anything.

Hopefully, my experience will help anyone else who has a mental block against boarding/being boarded. It's not that bad, seriously, and in this case, it would have meant more progress for me.

Episode 2 of Talkin' the Plank now live!

You can find the latest episode of Talkin' the Plank here.  I have a special guest this week and have upped the production value from the last episode.  There are a few more improvements I'd like to make, but in the mean time, I have to stay on top of the latest in Pirate 101!  Enjoy!