We've already finished a round of play testing with the new control system, and the
results were great -- it’s easy to use, and we’re really happy with it.
The quest system got a nice polish pass as well, making your encounters with Jack
Sparrow, Elizabeth Swann, Joshamee Gibbs and the rest of the game’s personalities and
NPCs (Non-Player Characters) more cinematic -- and making the actual interfaces you
will use to get quests and manage quests clearer and more intuitive.
Next up was ship boarding. This has gotten much simpler -- now you can just walk up to
a dingy on the shore of any island and use it to row out to (read: pull up) your ship,
already rigged and ready to set sail.
Crewing up got streamlined at the same time ship boarding was tweaked -- the definition
of a crew is now much looser than it was in Phase 1 of the Beta test – now it’s really the
pirates who are on the ship. The trick is, to get onto a ship, you have to teleport to one of
your friends who is already on deck. This can be someone on your Friends List, a fellow
Guild member, or a mate from your Pirate Band.
The biggest and most exciting improvement is the overall sense of story that now
permeates the world of the game. There are little things, like the behaviors NPCs have
now when you encounter them going about their daily business, the presence of the
prison dog in the jail, and the richer palette of sound effects and music. There are plenty
of big things too, like great new spawning and defeat animations for Jolly Roger’s
undead army, a burning town deep in the jungles of Tortuga, and a Navy mining
operation in the caves underneath Port Royal. All of this is contributing to make the
experience richer and deeper, and the world that much more immersive.
There is tons more to talk about -- more killer PVP game play (And what is PVP, really?
Player versus Player or Pirate versus Pirate?), more polish in the poker and blackjack
game systems, fine-tuning on ship-to-ship combat, an improved chat interface, and
balancing and tuning for just about every weapon, from cannon shot to the voodoo staff.
There is way too much to talk about -- you’ll just have to experience it all firsthand when
you’re playing again.
See you in Phase 2 of the Beta!
- Jason (aka Bilgeratte)
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