Patch Note:1.7.37.0

(The original Patch Notes for 1.7.37.0 are here.)

Patch Notes for Build 1.7.37.0

This is a milestone build and contains several exciting new features as well as several bug fixes.

Main new features:

• Talk Like a Pirate Day: Find Cap’n Slappy and Ol’ Chumbucket in Tortuga or Marsh Harbor and take some new missions from them. These missions will ONLY be AVAILABLE from about September 17th to about September 26th. (Exact datest will be announced closer to the event.) Be sure to check them out when they're available.
• Daily Group Missions: These reset daily at 11a GMT. Look for them in Orleans. Even though that town is French owned, these missions are available to all nations.
• More XP from Missions: Missions at level 11 and higher now offer more XP. This is to help balance the reward for doing missions vs. fighting NPCs.
• Updated Tutorial: There's a new UI with better instructional text.
• Luxury Clothing: Show off how rich you are by sporting the latest styles.
• Cinematic Camera: Camera is now smoother to operate and offers more options.
• Ad Hoc PvP changes: This is the most far-reaching area of change by far. See below for details.

Known Issues:

• Freetrader provisions skill tree skills are stackable when they shouldn't be. We hope to fix this soon.

Differences between 1.6.34.1 and 1.7.37.0 include but aren't limited to:

Ships / Outfitting:

• Most level 30+ warships: Gained 1-2 points of tracking (The Sleek Defiant gained 4), 5 points of sail defense and a point of broadside DR.
• Most small-medium ships: Lost 3-4 defense
• Bahamut: 9lb topdeck guns -> 11lb
• Bermuda (Mastercraft): Speed 17.25 -> 17
• Bermuda (Trader's): Speed 17.5 -> 17.25
• Cursed Blade: 34x11lb guns -> 36x11lb
• Hermes (Sleek): Speed 17.5 -> 17.25
• Lancer: Speed 17 -> 16.85
• Mercy: Speed 16.4 -> 16.5, Acceleration 1.08 -> 1.18, Close Haul Speed 70% -> 80%, Beam Reach Speed 85% -> 87.5%, Running Speed 85% -> 90%
• Minerva: Speed 17.5 -> 17.25
• Mont Blanc: Reload bonus 25% -> 22.5%
• Valiant: Narrow side DR 3 -> 8
• Wenden: Narrow side DR 4 -> 8 (does not affect Treason)
• Outfitting now auto-stacks like other inventory.
• Added a "rarity" line to the tooltips of equipped outfitting so you can better remember, after you've equipped an item, how "special" it is.
• Fixed categories of several outfitting items.

Ship Combat / Skills:

• The loot button used to flash whenever anything changed in the loot box. Particularly, in group encounters when you'd already diced, this was useless. Now it only flashes when something new has been added to the loot box.
• If you changed ammo type, your in-world firing arc length might not update appropriately. Fixed that.
• Fixed a bug that caused armor percents to show incorrectly in skill requirements. (.95% now shows correctly as 95%, for example.)

Navy

• Convoy: Changed from a group buff to a passive skill.
• Dominate: Reset Timer 5min -> 4min
• Last Resort: Speed: The description says this prevents skill use, but it didn't. Fixed to prevent skill use.
• Pirate Hunter: 10% -> 12.5%

Swashbuckling:

• Added a Damage Resistance stat to your Character Info UI.

Missions:

• As mentioned above, we've made improvements to the Tutorial.
• Talk Like a Pirate Day missions will be available around that holiday.
• We've added several Daily Group Missions. More to come.
• Increased XP rewards for missions of level 10 and up. The change at the lower levels isn't significant but above level 20, you typically get 2x the XP you did before.
• A Small and Deadly War: If Otenio Marquez was killed, you couldn't exit immediately. Fixed that.

Economy:

• In 1.6, the Studding Sails recipes incorrectly report what the output will be. Studding Sails, Heavy produced Studding Sails, Quality. Studding Sails, Superior produced Studding Sails, Heavy. Studding Sails, Exceptional produced Studding Sails, Superior. Fixed that.
• There were problems with some uncommon outfitting not being able to be made in the appropriate Shipyards. Fixed.
• Removed all ship recipes from Ship Construction books that you learn automatically on building a shipyard. Adjusted the descriptions for each of these books to more accurately match the recipes they teach, and where those recipes can be used.
• Moved the Fishing Smack on to the Fishing Lodge itself, and we will remove that book from circulation at a later time, since there's no real reason to have the Smack in its own book.
• Removed the West Indiaman from the default list of ships in the Large Shipyard, since it's a medium ship. It's now available in the Medium Ship Construction book.
• Deeds for the Hellbrand Dromedary Flute and the Limburg Mississippi Co. Flute were unsecured cargo but not tradable. Fixed that - they're now secured cargo as any untradeable deed should be.
• The insurance payout for the Defiant was too high. Fixed.
• There was a bug in the production cost calculation for the MC Couronne, resulting in an insufficient insurance payout. Fixed.
• Fixed an exploit in inventory that allowed you to trade no-trade items sometimes.
• Removed all traces of the Curing Shed, since it doesn't exist anymore. Everything should point to the Slaughterhouse now.
• If you bring up the Make an Offer dialog and then change selection, the dialog stays up with the old item filled in. Now the dialog closes so you don't accidentally make an offer on the wrong thing.
• "European" Commendations were rewarded to Pirates as to any other "nation" although that makes no sense. They've been renamed to "Fleet" Commendations and the text flavor is a bit different depending on your nation.

Open Sea:

• Spanish Patrolling Fleets spawned ships that looked British. They now look Spanish as they should.
• If a player attacked a groupmate, the HUD reported the defender was attacking your group. Which made no sense because the defender was in your group. Fixed that.

PvP / Port Contention:

• There was apparently some confusion about various ways you might get flagged for PvP. For example, did you know that attacking a PvP-flagged player flags you for PvP also? We've added text to the tooltips to help clarify how you got PvP flagged and what it means.
• Battle marker ships for PvP battles have red sails so they look different from PvE battles.
• Clarified the tooltip for Preparing Ship.
• Fixed a potential exploit in Dueling that could affect non-duel PVP battles.
• If you attack an NPC in a red circle, players of the same nation may join to defend those NPCs. Any battle in the red is considered a PvP battle even if it doesn't include players on both sides at the start. This hasn't changed but not everyone is aware of this.
• When you join an ad hoc PvP battle, there is now a 45-second battle start timer during which no one can move or fire. This lets you assess the situation and leave if you like.
• When you join an ad hoc PvP battle, if the battle is 1v1 at the end of the 45-second timer, the battle is now locked at 1v1.
• When you join an ad hoc PvP battle during the 45-second battle start timer, you arrive at one of 4 spawn points which are arranged in a square. The attacker's spawn point is randomly chosen and the wind is set based on the wind in the OS in relation to that player. Then the defender's spawn point is randomly chosen as one of the adjacent corners of the square.
• In ad hoc PvP battles, reinforcement spawn points are behind the initial spawn points and are marked on the map. In this way, you can see which way you'd like to drag your enemy and what area of the map you need to avoid. Anyone joining after the 45-second battle start timer is considered a reinforcement.
• When you join an ad hoc PvP battle, if the number of ships on one side exceeds the number of ships on the other by 3 or more (4v1, 5v2 or 1, 6v3, 2 or 1), the side with smaller numbers is allowed to bring up to 9 reinforcements to the fight. Otherwise, sides are capped at 6 as before.
• Unless an ad hoc battle is locked at 1v1, other players can join either side as reinforcements up to the side cap (6 or 9) for the next 10 minutes.
• If your side in an ad hoc is full (e.g. you're allowed 6 players and that's how many are fighting) and one dies before the 10 minute timer expires, another player may join to replace him/her. And so on until the 10 minute timer expires.
• Ad Hoc Invisibility and Preparing Ship are now only applied when zoning in a PvP environment, not at the end of PvE battles outside the red. In other words, you get them when zoning into the red from port and exiting a PvP battle.
• Preparing Ship is now simpler - it prevents you from attacking or being attacked, period. (One exception: You can still auto-join a groupmate's battle when you have this effect.)
• Added Info Services to the Port Captains explaining a bit about our new ad hoc rules and how PvP works in general.

Art / Sound:

Avatars

• Soldiers no longer teleport up stairs in Bluefields.
• An NPC in Grand Turk was missing a rifle. Fixed.
• Fixed a number of NPC issues in taverns like the one in Les Hattes.
• There was a pirate carrying a struggling female through Rio de la Hacha and the soldiers failed to notice or care. She's now quietly and safely reading instead of being accosted.
• NPC floating above a wall in Rosignol has now safely alighted on the wall and is sitting comfortably.
• Marie Whitney in Sabanqui has been moved so as to no longer occupy the exact same space as another NPC.
• NPC in San Juan is now playing the knife game on a table instead of in thin air over his legs.
• Fixed a number of other NPC issues where they were clipping barrels, floating in the air, stuck in roofs, etc.
• Fixed some log spam caused by some NPC problems.

Towns

• Ambergris: NPCs were overlapping in their duties, walking through each other and such. Fixed that.
• Georgetown: Fixed several NPC clothing clipping problems.
• Golden Lake: There's a church in the middle of town that you can't enter except using X. Once you get in, you can't get out. Fixed that.
• Jenny Bay (and towns that look like it): Is now much prettier.
• Portobello: It was possible to stand in the bonfire. This isn't safe. Now you are prevented from doing that.

Ships

• Athena Frigate: Now has bow spray.
• Bahamut: Fixed several graphical issues including missing swivels.
• Defiant: Fixed a bug that caused the damage graphics to show up incorrectly.
• El Dragon: Wasn't showing damage when hit. Fixed.
• La Diligente: Fixed some damage graphics bugs including one where they don't show up and one where the flag continued flying after the mast had been shot away.
• Limburg Flute: The physics model for this ship wasn't as big as the ship, allowing clipping. Fixed.
• Lyon Hoy: Now has bow spray.
• Minerva Frigate: Now has bow spray.
• Polacre: Now has bow spray.
• Renard Chasse-Maree: Fixed some damage graphics bugs including one where they don't show up and one where the flag continued flying after the mast had been shot away.
• Sultan Flute: Now has bow spray.
• Valiant: Fixed some art bugs with rear gun ports.

Sound

• Added sounds for fire and candles in the Admiralty Office in Bartica.
• Removed ship sounds from Bluefields where there is no ship.
• Improved torch sounds in Tortuga.
• Villa Hermosa is livelier now.
• Fixed a few other NPCs that were supposed to have sounds associated with them but didn't. This should also correct some log spam.

UI:

• Character Selection UI: Selecting by clicking or double-clicking on the national flag wasn't working properly. (Clicking elsewhere on the line worked fine.) Fixed.
• Camera: Added a Preference for looking at your avatar in the Open Sea. Default is that he's your focal point. If you prefer the way it used to be, you can turn this off in Preferences.
• Victory Status UI: Even we found "Current Ranking" confusing and we received many support requests in situations where, for example, Spain would very clearly be in last place for the current map win but Current Ranking would show them in 3rd place. "Current Ranking" meant the rank from the previous map win. So we changed the name to "Previous Rank" which should help clarify.
• Made some changes to the code that handles the cursor. You shouldn't notice any change but it's always possible we introduced a bug. If you notice such, please let us know!
• We've had multiple support requests since early Beta that sound like Shift, Ctrl, or Alt (or some combination thereof) are stuck. We've also experienced this ourselves. However, it's been next to impossible to reliably repro. Dev has made a pass through our keystroke code and made some changes they think will improve the situation. It certainly fixes the one "reliable" repro we had and should have an overall positive effect.
• Using Enter in multi-line edit boxes (like email and LFG) was broken in 1.6. Fixed now.

Stability / Performance:

• Fixed a problem with being boarded while disconnected. You'd return to find no Reinforcement UI - now you have one as you should.
• Sending a long email containing non-ASCII characters not only failed but could log you out of the game. Fixed that.
• Fixed a chat server crash that occurred a few times in 1.6.
• Fixed a rare zone server crash that could occur during dueling.
• Fixed a memory leak that could occur on server shutdown. It hadn't caused any known problems, but leaking memory never a good idea.

Misc:

• Tweaked the way the profanity filter works in order to programmatically block more. Let us know if you see it blocking stuff it shouldn't.
• Cleaned up some log spam complaining about missing icons.
• New localization bug fixes and localized text from SOE.