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Testbed Patch Note:1.1.48.0

From PotBS Wiki

We batched up many bug fixes, particularly ones that increase the size of the patch, such as those for music and art, into this patch. This download will be bigger than previous patches but we're hoping you'll agree that it's worth it as fixes to bugs that have been driving many of you crazy are included.

Some highlights include:

  • New logout system that particularly improves logout in the Open Sea. Read this devlog for details.
  • Unrest supply bundles finally work. We've added the turn-in missions for these so you can produce them and hand them in to generate unrest on an enemy port.
  • Rare pirate gang spawns are now twice as frequent as before, so those bounty missions won't be so hard.
  • We fixed the bug that would cause an NPC you attacked in the Open Sea to spawn a different kind of ship when the battle started.
  • We shut up the Auctioneer!

Contents

[edit] Known Issues

  • If you are a Freetrader, doing a partial delivery in "Offers They Can't Refuse" will cause you to lose items. Only turn in the items when you have all of them to turn in at once. If you already have this mission and can't complete it, cancel it and re-take it. If we have more info, we'll update this thread.
  • It's not possible to use the Harbor Master to transport to a ship stored in Black Point.
  • This patch is a few hundred megabytes in size. Before this patch goes from Testbed to the live servers, we will be making some changes to reduce the size of the patch. This may mean Testbed testers experience multiple largish patches. We apologize and appreciate your patience.
  • We have multiple reports of some players crashing entering Campeche, Rosignol, and Puerto Cabezas. Some players have no problem at all. If you're a player experiencing this problem, please continue to send your crash reports to Microsoft - we're looking into it.

Differences between 1.0.48.4 and 1.1.48.0 include but aren't limited to:

[edit] Character Creation / Customization

  • Some combinations of items and colors in character creation had a bug that prevented you from starting to play. When this happened, the game displayed a message box reading "Error_Generic". We have fixed the issues that caused this error and also changed the error to say something helpful should it happen again.
  • The front of Female Vest (Merchant) is no longer invisible.
  • Fixed LOD problems with the Female Coat (Elegant) and Female Vest (Frilled).
  • Fixed males going bald in places at some LODs.
  • Fixed several places where the wrong vests or shirts were coupled with certain coats and such.
  • Some jackets had a Fleur-de-lis design even though the jackets could be worn by British and Spanish characters. Fixed that.
  • We had limited the Level 45 privateer "Patriot" coat to Spanish players only while we solved some bugs with the other versions. We've fixed those other bugs so have made that coat available to the other nations. If you are level 45 or more and you've completed the necessary career missions, you're welcome to head back to the Tailor Shop and try out that coat - you will automatically have it if you've completed the mission.
  • Cleaned up some texture problems with female coats. Also fixed gaps that allowed you to see into the hollow insides of avatars wearing these coats.
  • Corrected problems with the female frilly shirt.
  • There was a bug in one of the male shirts that caused duplicate entries to appear in the list of choices. No more duplicate entries.
  • One of the male heads, when bald, had lines down the back. Fixed that.
  • Fixed several more clothing interpenetration issues.

[edit] Ships / Combat

  • 'Arcadia' Xebec: This ship was supposed to have two gun decks. Fixed that.
  • Packet Boat: Buffed the speed, cargo capacity and target tracking, and increased its level. Reduced its close haul speed to 72.5% (this makes it keep the same close haul speed as it had before the speed buff).
  • 'Intrepid' Privateer Frigate: Added two guns to the privateer refit so that it wouldn't have less guns than the base ship.
  • 'Dromedary' Hellbrand Indiaman: Reduced the weight of the guns since it was recently changed to a medium ship instead of a large.
  • 'Desperation' Raft, Fishing Smack, 'Capricieux' Frigate: Added some low resolution models to improve performance when they're far from your camera.
  • Changed the levels of a few civilian ships to more appropriately match the levels of the player-made versions. This change only affects the civilian versions.
  • The 'Medway' Longboat was level 5, but it was supposed to be level 1. Fixed.
  • Fixed the bug that caused the crows nest to remain after masts were destroyed.
  • 'Fearless' Rowboat: Fixed several graphical bugs with the model.
  • There was an elite status effect that had a generic icon. It has a better icon now.
  • Made it so that NPC ships will switch targets as soon as an enemy gets more hate than the NPC's current target. It used to be that an enemy had to get 10% more hate than the current target before the NPC would switch targets. That wasn't a bad setting for avatar combat, but it made killing NPC ships too easy.
  • Made it so that AIs won't surrender unless they've been attacked in the last 3 seconds. Players have complained about AIs surrendering out of the blue, not in response to any recent attack.
  • Rare pirate gang spawns were very hard to find. We've now doubled the chance of encountering one in a multi-ship ad hoc. These are the rare spawns targeted by the bounty missions, so they'll be easier to find now.

[edit] Skills / Outfitting

  • Slightly reduced the amount of max range on outfitting.
  • Significantly reduced the amount of max range on Long Guns, lessened the reload penalty and added an accuracy bonus.
  • Increased the level requirements on long guns. Added a new equip category - Long Guns - for permanent gun outfitting that gives + range.
  • Huge Lightweight Guns: These had an absolute effect where all other outfitting like them had a relative effect. Changed to a relative effect.
  • Grapples and Ladders, Superior stats shown in Tooltip and Character UI (which equipped) now match. Similarly for several other outfitting items which were using relative values instead of absolute values.
  • St. Elmo's Masts Modifications: Fixed a bug that caused the icons to change when moved.

[edit] Open Sea

  • Fixed the problem where you attacked a group of NPCs on the Open Sea and then, in battle, you found a different mix of ships. This was a code bug encountered by many players and we're glad to have solved it.
  • The Ad Hoc Invisibility effect is applied to your ship when you return to the Open Sea from an ad hoc battle. It temporarily prevents you from being seen by enemies, but it also made the enemies invisible to you. That latter part was a bug and we've now fixed it. You can see your enemies, but they can't see you.
  • Now if you try to quit or log out on the Open Sea, you will get a 30-second countdown. If you wait out the countdown, you will then log out safely. Otherwise your ship will be left in the Open Sea until the 30 seconds are up, and will be vulnerable to attack. This countdown should now clarify when it is and isn't safe to log out.
  • Many other changes to logout are also in this build. Please see this devlog for details.

[edit] Swashbuckling

  • If you respeced your fighting school and neglected to equip an appropriate weapon, you could end up unable to fight. We've now removed the fighting school requirements on all weapons. In this way, you won't be able to use the special skills from your fighting school with the wrong weapon but you will at least be able to use Beat and Strike. We have more improvements planned but this is a start.
  • It was possible to use command skills on NPCs only in a few boarding encounters. Those skills are supposed to be an integral aspect of Boarding Combat so we've made them work in all boarding encounters.
  • Made some changes we believe will improve the problem with teleporting during avatar combat, particularly avatar combat in forts.
  • You can no longer use Swashbuckling skills while sailing.
  • Reduced boss balance regen slightly at low levels.
  • Vicious Lunge (skill) now causes a bleed effect instead of a hamstrung effect. Should have been this way all along.
  • All pistol attacks now lock you in place for 1.5 seconds. You have to stand still for a bit to take aim.
  • Because of recent changes to how Initiative works, some swashbuckling skills that affected initiative stopped working correctly. We changed Intensity, Aggression, and Expert's Initiative (skill) from giving you initiative over time to giving slightly more initiative immediately instead. Edited tooltips to reflect this.
  • Ranged attack skills have a minimum 15 second cooldown. This is now visible in the tooltips.
  • Unclaimed swashbuckling loot is no longer "lost at sea." Cuz that doesn't usually make sense.
  • Master's Rapier: Removed a duplicate balance damage entry on this item.
  • Solingen: Corrected spelling.
  • Vicious Thrust (skill): Fixed the name in its tooltip.
  • Fencing: Off-Hand Shot (skill): Cleaned up the animation a bit.

[edit] Missions

  • We removed Marks of Victory from some of the Conquest missions and decreased the number rewarded by some other Conquest missions, since they were too easy to get too fast.
  • The Unrest Supply bundles you've been producing are finally useful! You can turn them in for Unrest points just like the other Conquest missions.
  • Some mission text was being truncated in localized versions because the buffer used for displaying it was too small. Increased that buffer so you can see all the mission text.
  • Some enemies in the Tutorial were flying the wrong flag. Fixed that.
  • Completed our low-level mission difficulty adjustment pass with some changes to the fourth and fifth towns you play missions in. This included adjusting the levels of some of the missions and removing some missions from some nations to enhance replayability. This concludes this mission difficulty pass and as with the first round, this only affects missions below level 15.
  • Cleaned up text in dozens of missions. Places where NPCs let stuff slip they shouldn't have or had code instead of text for instructions or the like - we've fixed a bunch of those.
  • Fixed a bug that caused some players to get stuck in Grand Turk with no Longboat Coxswain to return them to their ship.
  • Fixed a bug with the Poleacre Refit that prevented completion of the Xebec Refit mission.
  • The Piper Gets Paid: Cleaned up some inconsistent text.
  • Meet the Father: A couple of the NPCs were positioned strangely. Fixed that.
  • Past the Point of Subtlety: Moved the goal for one of the NPCs in this mission. There were a lot of complaints in the forums that it wasn't reaching its target and causing the mission to fail. We also set the smuggler's cave to night-time to match the ship room.
  • Just In Time: Put the enemy in minor ships and gave them shaky morale. This should make the mission a bit more doable.
  • Black Heart, Black Powder: Fixed a bug that prevented the NPC from following you.
  • Love Torn Asunder: Clarified the location of the pirate camp.
  • Agent in Jeopardy: This mission was reportedly too difficult. Tweaked it. Should be better now.
  • Breaking the Spell: Fixed the destination line which was code instead of text.
  • Still Waters: Moved the magistrate off the floor. He's important enough to sit properly in a chair.
  • The Finer Things: Half the servants were British when they should've been French. Fixed that. Also, they no longer show up on the map as they're not NPCs you need to interact with. And conversing servants now have sound.
  • Chasing the Money: Freed Pirates were walking up to the door, standing inside each other, and waiting. Now they actually leave (despawn).
  • Blackbeard's Wreck: Corrected the encounter objective.
  • Battle of Grand Turk: It was possible to leave early, breaking the mission. Fixed that.
  • Holy Cargo: Fixed a bug that prevented claiming the derelict in this mission and a few others.
  • Prize Denied: If you boarded the enemy instead of sinking him, the text of the mission made no sense. Fixed that.
  • A Warm Greeting: Your allies are no longer generic.
  • A Well-Found Ship: Was giving the wrong mission rewards. Fixed that.

[edit] Economy

[edit] Art

  • Improved the run animation. It's been making TTobey nuts that this change didn't make it into the launch build and that retail customers saw the old run.
  • When you level up, your character gets a sparkly particle effect (as well as saluting or dancing a jig or whatever) that lasts a few seconds. It's magic!
  • Open Sea: Cleaned up a fort between Les Hattes and [[Cayenne[[ that had sunk into the sea.
  • Open Sea: Cleaned up an invisible barrier near New Orleans - ships should be able to follow the shoreline now. Similarly near Sabanqui.
  • Open Sea: Cleaned up the area near ]]Oranjestad\\ so that ships can't sail through the port.
  • Open Sea: Fixed the land around St. Augustine so that you can no longer sail there. You're not supposed to be able to sail on land in this game.
  • Open Sea: Iguana had no floating name in the sky. Fixed that.
  • Open Sea: Fixed the land around Somer's Island so that you can't sail on the land.
  • Cleaned up some graphics artifacts on floaty names in the Open Sea like Bartica.
  • Boulders near Jacob's Clock are no longer floating above the beach.
  • Cleaned up some grass and rock texture problems in the Open Sea.
  • Santa Catalina was sinking. Fixed that.
  • Fixed a missing texture on the church in Tortuga on the Open Sea.
  • Corrected several other graphical issues in the Open Sea.
  • Belize: Fixed the magistrate not being lined up right with his desk.
  • Biloxi: The magistrate has aged a bit.
  • Carbaneras: It was too dark to see. Lightened the town a bit.
  • Campeche: The soldiers are no longer clones.
  • Charlesfort: The Freetrader and Privateer trainers were leaning on thin air. Fixed that.
  • Georgetown: Removed a guy whose name was code. He wasn't supposed to be there in the first place.
  • Georgetown]]: Fixed two NPCs that got in each other's way.
  • Grand Turk: Cleaned up the nav mesh in places where players walked above the ground or in the ground. Everyone should walk on the ground.
  • Jenny Bay: Fixed some graphical issues like a wall missing from a building.
  • Jenny Bay: An NPC had a seam on the back of his head. Fixed that.
  • Marsh Harbour: There was an NPC sawing the ground. Fixed that.
  • Marsh Harbour: Removed the duplicate pacing lady in the shop.
  • Marsh Harbour: Fixed several graphical issues including holes in the world.
  • Matthew Town: Fixed an NPC who was leaning on nothing.
  • Nassau: Changed from night to day.
  • Port Royal: Fixed fencers who weren't fencing.
  • Port Royal: Improved the splats of the tomatoes thrown by the monkey.
  • Port Royal: Fixed some NPCs who were interpenetrating crates and sacks.
  • Port Royal: Cleaned up several seams and interpenetrations between items.
  • Riding Rock: Removed a carpenter who was trying to work where it was too dark to see what he was doing. He could've sawed off his hand. Safety first!
  • Rosignol: NPC was fishing without a pole. Fixed that.
  • Ruddy Cove: Sent a guard outside the Town Boss' office on vacation. She was working too hard.
  • Tampa: When Pirates own the town, there's no longer a Dutchman standing in a chair in the magistrate's office. He was in the way.
  • Tortuga is a night town, but wasn't set up that way in data files. This caused problems with interior rooms, which defaulted to daytime. Fixed that.
  • Tortuga: There were 3 ladies standing in the same spot. Fixed that.
  • Tortuga: We made several other art fixes as well.
  • Our art director made a pass through all the rooms and made some technical fixes. This should improve textures and lighting in several places.
  • Fixed problems with NPC body parts intersecting other body parts. For example, some NPCs' hands were in their legs (instead of resting on their legs).
  • Female soldiers didn't have guns. They're now fully armed and dangerous.
  • Fixed the animation bug that caused the fisherman's pole to intersect his body as he cast the line.
  • Added some contest-winner flags and sails we'd previously missed.
  • Fixed graphical issues with prisoners in hanging cages.
  • Moved some magistrates off the floor into chairs as would be fitting their station.
  • You can no longer move your camera through the ceiling in the Admiralty Office.
  • In several towns such as Belize and Bartica, put some bartenders in their proper place and made some taverns a little more lively.
  • Fixed an NPC in some taverns with his leg stuck in a barrel.
  • Some singing drunks were playing the wrong animations. Fixed that.
  • The Tailor Shop now has its own sign on the door.
  • Lightened several night-time rooms so it's easier to see.
  • Defend the Town: Fixed some flames that were hanging out in mid-air.
  • NPCs were occasionally getting stuck in inlets in the map used by "A Captain in Chains" and other missions. Smoothed out the coast so this should happen less.
  • Cleaned up the /boggle emote a bit so hands don't penetrate hats so much.
  • Updated our logo on the Loading... screens.

[edit] UI

  • Quick Reference Guides: Revamped, improved to fix layout problems among other things.
  • Added more info to the Avatar Controls help UI.
  • Ship Controls Window: Made the names of controls and the help for them consistent.
  • Help UI: Tweaked to better accommodate ship stats.
  • Cleaned up and added some text to Help also.
  • Local Map: Improved the window's texture.
  • Character List UI: Expanded to accommodate localized text.
  • Economy UI: Changed the way the Economy UI works to better accommodates long deed names.
  • Economy UI: Fixed the bug where the tax rate was truncated.
  • Economy UI: Tweaked the text color for better legibility.
  • Economy UI: Room for text on icons was increased to accommodate localized text. It's still pretty cramped but better than it was.
  • Shop UI: Now can handle 5-digit quantities.
  • Shop UI: Increased the width of the tabs to accommodate localized text.
  • Fixed the truncation of your speed in the compass.
  • Loot UI: Fixed truncation of long loot names.
  • Loot UI: Widened to accommodate localized text. However, you can resize this UI smaller if you want.
  • Group Loot UI: Cleaned up some graphics problems including improving font color.
  • Skill Shop UI: Expanded to accommodate localized text.
  • Preferences UI: Tweaked the colors of the controls to better match the rest of the game.
  • Preferences UI: Expanded the UI and one of the buttons there in order to accommodate localized text.
  • Preferences UI: Widened a Sound Preference tooltip to accommodate localized text.
  • Expanded the width of the town list in the World Map to fix the town with the longest name.
  • Tweaked the tooltip text on the World Map to make it more legible.
  • Fixed some career skill tooltips that were code instead of text.
  • Added some tooltips here and there. Reworded some other tooltips for clarity.
  • Fixed the text that shows when you /drink.
  • Fixed the text in some emotes to improve grammar.

[edit] Sound

  • Fixed footstep sounds in the Mansion.
  • Decreased the repetitiveness of the prisoner's declarations of innocence in the Magistrate's Office in Marsh Harbour. He was annoying!
  • Muted the Auctioneer in all shops so he's not blathering on all the time.

[edit] Stability / Performance

  • Sometimes, the data files used to play the game can be corrupted during the download, causing odd problems. We now check them on launch to see if they are corrupted and if so, pop up a message box that you need to run a Full Scan in LaunchPad to fix them.
  • Fixed a bug that trapped some players on an infinite Loading... screen.
  • If you happened to mouse over something that would show a tooltip just as you were trying to zone, you might crash. Fixed that.
  • Improved a lag spike that could occur when trying to load new avatars into view.
  • Fixed a graphics memory leak allocating an avatar image.
  • Plugged another graphics memory leak. We were making copies of cannons for each ship with a different number of cannons on it, and then leaking them.
  • Made a change to the way we unload textures. Works more cleanly now.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur if the texture manager freed a texture incorrectly.
  • Fixed a crash on shutdown that a few players experienced when they had been prompted to fill out a survey.
  • Fixed another problem that could cause the game to crash on shutdown. Nothing bad was happening (no data loss), but still crashes are no good so we like to fix them.
  • Fixed a crash that could occur in the Login server if we tried to shut it down just as someone was logging in. It didn't happen on the live servers more than a time or two and nothing bad happened as a result (no data loss) but crashes are bad so we fixed it.

[edit] Misc

  • The only way to successfully launch PotBS is via LaunchPad. However, our exe lives on your hard drive. If you double click that by mistake, you see an empty server list and it's not clear what you did wrong. Now, it pops up an error instead, explaining that you need to run LaunchPad.
  • We were logging an ERROR to your log file when nothing bad actually happened. It was confusing our efforts to figure out what was really going on. Cleaned that up.
  • Vista was asking some people whether the game needed to be elevated to be run. It doesn't. So we now tell Vista that. (You do have to be Admin to install and patch, however.)
  • Somers Isle is now Somerset.
  • Added more French and German profanity to the profanity filter.
  • Fixed log spam that could occur if the game was running behind the Windows login screen.
  • Removed some art files from the build that aren't used. This helped shrink the patch size a bit.
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