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Trading
During the Feats of Strength Competition in summer 2012, Game Master Ben Bowman confirmed that Trading was under production, but they still have to find a way to make Trading safe, preventing scams by other pirates.
New Staves
In fall 2010, Pirates Online confirmed that new staves were completed, and were awaiting a release date.
Evil Curse of Doom Storyline
In fall 2010, in the comments of the official Pirates Online YouTube Channel, Pirates Online confirmed that an Evil Curse of Doom Storyline (presumably a Story Quest) was under production. There was no indication, however on how far along production was, and any details about what the storyline would entail.
Weather
In fall 2010, in the comments of the official Pirates Online YouTube Channel, Pirates Online confirmed that Weather was in the early stages of testing and experimentation. However, there is no date set on when it will be released, if ever.
Sneak Peek: Ship Customization and Upgrades
Sneak Peek: Scoundrel of the Seas
Opinion Polls: Peddler Outfit Poll #2
In early August 2011, Pirates Online had another poll for peddler outfits. The options were:
- More colorful outfits
- Clothes from different countries
- More dark-colored clothes
More holiday outfits
Opinion Polls: Peddler Outfit Poll
In mid February 2011, Pirates had a poll discussing what the Peddlers should offer in their catalog next. The options were Garb from foreign lands, Undead rags, Clothes stolen from nobles, and Holiday themed garb.
Sneak Peek: Infamy
Pirates have many wish lists and requests but a few are always constant - Pirates want more challenge, adventure, customization and reward! Check out what the following Pirates have been saying:
Robert says, "How come there are no events or contests that are PvP related? It's been about 3 years since the game was launched, they never gave PvP any real attention ..."
Other pirates have gone on to say: "Can't you feel that they are going to do something major to PvP?"
Leo proclaims, "... I play this game because of PvP or Privateering..."
There's no getting past these Pirates who hold PvP and Privateering so close to their hearts. In honor of all Pirates who like to prove their worth battling in the player vs. player realm, we would like to formally introduce:
PvP Infamy Rewards
Infamy will be two new and separate experience tracks that will be earned with every victory you achieve in PvP and Privateering.
This experience will earn you special badges and rewards when you meet certain achievement levels. The rewards will allow you to customize your Pirate's name tag with Infamy Badges which you can proudly display for everyone to see. Show everybody that you are well on your way to becoming a War Master (PvP) or Admiral (Privateering)!
In addition to the badges and ranks, Pirates will also be able to use their Infamy to purchase unique items from new Pirates who have washed up on Pierre le Porc and Garcia de la Avaricia's islands.
In addition to all these new features, there are many concerns that will be addressed regarding PvP and Pirvateering. Long gone will be spawn kills, kill steals and cannon/weapon exploits. Please be patient as we prepare this release for Test. We will keep you fully informed here on www.PiratesOnline.com when Infamy is ready to be tested and released. Keep checking the Current News for more details.
Prepare to duel, Pirates!
Opinion Polls: On the Far Horizon
In an opinion poll back in January 2010, PotCo happened to ask players opinions on which of the following MAJOR updates they wanted the most:
More Adventures on LandNew Ship Types- Different Character Classes
New Weapon Types (muskets, etc)Customize your Ship(May Still have more Customization Options added in the future)- More Items
- Trading
- New Quests and Storylines
- Treasure Hunting
- In-game Events, Contests, Meet the GMs
- Sea Monster Battles (like the Kraken)
More Adventures on Ships- Dungeons, Raids, and Group Adventures
- Customize your own Pirate Hideout
- Pets
- More Islands and Areas to Explore
- Purchase Guild Islands / Guild Ships
- Siege and Take Over Enemy Fortresses
- Meet Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swann in the game (as game masters)
Mini-games- Boss Battles
- Work for the Navy, East India Trading Company, Jolly Roger, or Davy Jones
- Crafting, Blacksmithing, Creating Voodoo Items
L.A Game Focus Meet
The following is an excerpt from Kristine, a player who attended an L.A meet for kids conducted by an advertising company on the behest of PotCo. It gave vital information on the updates in the near future: (Scratched means done, Bold Italics means ongoing)
"mini games...yup like poker and such, they have come up with several more mini games to be played out in pirates. One of them is going to be fishing, apparently u will perhaps have to buy a fishing pole and u can go fishing with several types of fish to catch like undead and such with different levels and when u catch them, u get gold.
Some type of ship repair game where you have to fix your ship. You will use a bilge pump and there is something about being careful not to pump too slow or too fast. Barnacle scraping where some barnacles will need more scraping then others, and something called Pitching (like whack-a-mole my brother is telling me) where you have to throw tar at the holes in your ship.
Potion Making (It is possible that Potions will be expanded). Some potions you will be able to make are, Invulnerable for your pirate, Weapons potion to make them stronger. You can make a gold potion that doubles the gold u get from the enemies u kill. A damage potion that reduces damage, a rep potion that will give you double rep. All the potions are supposed to last for 5 minutes.
Cannon Defences, there will be cannons placed around different ports on land and pirates will be able to use them on the enemy ships. They didn't go into much detail on this.
SvS, they asked the boys what they thought about if during SvS when you sunk a ship that you could then board the ship and start attacking the other pirates (like a flag ship) which would turn into a PvP match right there on ship with the winners all receiving a gold reward for the win. You would then be returned back to your SvS ship for more action."
Developer Diary #15
'The State of the Caribbean Vince, Community Manager, Disney Online July 14th, 2009
For the past year, it's been all hands on deck for every member of the Pirates Online crew. Why? Well, we've been working to improve just about everything about Pirates Online ... the game, the Web site, customer service, and community interaction. And while lots of changes have been made recently, we've mainly been responding to feedback about how the game plays on your computer.
Towns like Port Royal got an Extreme Pirate Makeover as part of the improvement plan.
You told us in surveys that the game's performance wasn't as good as you thought it should be, so we immediately set the development team on fixing the foundation of the game before adding more stuff to it. For instance, we redesigned the major islands and made other graphics changes (like avatars) to improve players' game performance.
We also wanted to improve the early player experience and open the game up to lots more players. For that, we created better quest lines, added new Tutorial hints and improved the Ray of Light. And, since so many players were frustrated that they couldn't reach other islands without a teleport totem, we added Stowaway as a transportation option.
Now that we're done with these improvements, we're back to creating awesome content. By the way, this doesn't mean we won't keep fixing glitches or stop polishing the game. We'll always do that -- but now we're making great game content once more.
Why are we talking about this? Well, we want ALL of our players to enjoy the game and understand why we chose to do the work we did. We continue to work every day to squash bugs, fix glitches, and make the best Pirate game the MMO world has ever seen.
Looking Toward the Horizon
So what does the future hold for the Pirates of the Caribbean?
Powerful new weapons (and other surprises) will be coming to the Caribbean very soon!
Well, you'll see higher level enemies, introduced as part of the new cave environments (which will mean those level and gold caps will have to be raised too, hint, hint), new storylines, new quests, and a new Loot and Inventory System! This new inventory system will let Pirates collect and keep more booty - both treasures and clothing.
When will you get your hands on all this cool stuff? Game development is a unique art, and like any art, it takes time to get right. Hopefully, you'll see some of these additions before the end of summer. Leading up to that we'll add new quests and GM hosted events starting in July that will introduce many of these changes. Plus, we're bringing back your favorite events (by request) from the past year. All of these things will drive new stories and adventures, putting YOU in the center of these world-changing events.
So, there it is! Pretty exciting, don't you think? Now it's your turn to tell us how we're doing. Did we focus on the right things? Or maybe you think we should be tackling something else. Take a second and send us your suggestions - we want to hear from you!!
In the end, this is your game, mate - we're working for you. On behalf of the entire Pirates Online Crew, we want you to know we hear you and are always listening to you. Look for ongoing updates like this one and an even closer relationship with us as we answer your questions quicker and respond to your comments faster. And best yet, we'll equip you with a ton of new ways to connect with us and your friends - through social networks, member contributions, promotions, contests, and more!
Aye, there's a bold and bright future ahead for Pirates of the Caribbean Online, and we hope you'll be joining us!
Developer Blog #14
From Vince, Community Manager, Disney Online April 17, 2009
Extreme Pirates Makeover
Port Royal, Tortuga, Padres Del Fuego, it should be no surprise that all have been re-designed. On the surface the towns feel more like towns of the era - with winding side streets and alleyways - but underneath, by redesigning those environments we were able to get MUCH better frame rates and improve the way those environments are displayed on your computer.
Part of that performance improvement also included optimizing your Pirates. We have a lot of players, uh, Pirates running around in the Caribbean, and each one is made up of lots of graphic triangles called polygons. Displaying all these polygons can really slow down your computer! By optimizing in-game characters we reduced the polygon count so the game runs much better on everyone's computer.
Now we know several of you have been playing the game since the beginning - and you want us to focus on new content, Story Quests and raising those Level and Gold caps, we'll talk about that in a moment. Please understand we used player feedback to determine what to work on, and game performance was the main thing that is brought up over and over again. Since game performance is the foundation to everything, it just makes sense that we fix that first before adding new content, Story Quests and raising those Level and Gold caps.
The Player Experience
Right behind game performance, the Player Experience was your next concern. Now there are many things that encompass the player experience, but again based on your feedback, this primarily meant the tutorial and what Pirates encounter when they first enter the Caribbean. For example, the tools you're given, like the compass and how those things work. But this also included other improvements and interface enhancements, like the new Player Profile.
In addition to shortening the tutorial (to get players into the action quicker), we also wanted to clean up some of our player menus and improve things like the Ray of Light. The response to these changes has been overwhelming and we're very happy to see you're enjoying them, and more importantly, using these improved features.
The Test Server, Bugs & Behind the Scenes
As I mentioned, all of these changes are a direct result of your feedback. To that end, you should have noticed that we've stepped up our efforts to fix bugs quicker and get you on our test server (where we test many of these updates before they go live to the public). The response here has been phenomenal too, thank you.
We're going to continue to make improvements in this area too - getting things up on the Test Server sooner and for longer periods of time, so you can really pound away and test out the new stuff.
Behind the scenes we've made other changes to our Crew and the way we do business to give you better service. (This is your game - we work for you and want you to have the best experience possible.)
The Web site, the Community & Events
We recently launched a new Pirates Online Web site, while the response has been great; this is just the first phase! In the coming months, you'll see the site get even more polish as we add new sections, such as monthly and weekly columns. So that players can comment directly on news, we've made the Grog Blog into the News section - but look for lots more improvements to the site in the near future. It will truly become a destination for all things Pirates Online.
In the past few months, we've also seen events become a vital part of Pirates Online. Not only do these events propel story points (like the recent EITC conspiracy and attacks) but they've really helped to bring our community together. I encourage you to get involved in these events - they're a great way to meet your fellow buccaneers and release your inner-Pirate. In the future, these events will offer some pretty unique Pirate experiences, and we'll be rewarding those that participate in really special ways. As I've said before, while it's great to meet GM Captain Walter, what if he had a Quest for you the next time you met him or what if you came face to face with Captain Jack Sparrow?
The Kraken, Inventory System and New Content
While improving the game performance has been a huge focus for us, it hasn't taken us completely away from building other stuff we know you want. You may wonder why did we work on game performance first? Because game performance is the foundation for everything, if the game isn't working properly you won't be able to enjoy new content, like...
Inventory - Our inventory system is still undergoing a dynamic overhaul. As I've said before, Pirates by their very nature collect stuff, so having more slots for storage, is definitely something Pirates could use, and of course that will mean new clothing, hats, and other items to accessorize your Pirate.
The Kraken - This beast has proved to be a real challenge. Why? Well, it is basically our next story chapter, many things will be tied to it, such as Notoriety increases, new Story Quests, and so much more. So we ask for a little more patience while the dev team wrangles the monster. I know, I know, we keep saying that - I promise you, the Kraken will be more than worth the wait.
New Content - Alright, I can't give away all our secrets - that would spoil the fun! But I can tell you our Crew of craftsmen, shipwrights, and blacksmiths are working on some amazing stuff and other surprises that are going to blow you out of the water!
As the Community Manager, it's my job to make sure the messages that you're sending us reach the right ears. You can send me feedback through the Grog Blog, just make sure you put "Attention: Community Manager" in the first line of the message. My job is also to make sure you know where we're heading, for that you'll see more updates like this in the future.
Excerpted from Pirates Online