On the Horizon

This page is dedicated for hints of things to come in POTCO or rumors of things in the works for the game.

What is the Navy Hiding?
For some time now we Pirates have able to carry out our business with ease, due mostly to the incompetence and laziness of the Navy. But that might be changing. Many good Pirates have noticed a sudden increase of new Navy flags. No one knows what these flags mean however, since it's the Navy, we can't help but assume the worst.

Our spies can only tell us that the Navy forts have been doing some construction. All of the movement and building takes place at night and, certain areas are cloaked and heavily guarded. But this we do know - it appears to be defensive and could mean the end of safe approaches to the islands. Is the Navy getting more agressive? Do they have a new, secret weapon to fire on us? What do you think?

New Islands?
Various characters in Pirates Online tell of mysterious islands shrouded in fog that pirates have spotted in the uncharted waters. This coincides with Ezekiel Rott 's threat of a new coming danger, and Captain Walter 's death/disappearance.

Coming Soon: Inventory Expansion & New Weapons!
March 18, 2010 - NOTE: This update has already been released to the game.

New Weapons That's right! The Pirates inventory of weapons and clothing is going to grow and become bigger and better. By listening to your ideas, we've come up with some completely new categories of weapons never seen before! Soon ... you can get your hands on Muskets and Blunderbusses. There are also new sword types like Sabres and Broadswords. And we'll be adding cool new variations of current weapons like Voodoo Staves, Pistols, Cutlasses, and much more.

New GUI

These are all part of the legendary El Patron's Lost Weapons! Getting them is simple. Just pillage and plunder like you've always done, and they'll drop from some of your enemies who found the fabulous weapons first. Here are some things you need to know about the new inventory ...


 * Your Sea Chest will change to let you put more items in your stash. It will hold 35 weapons, 42 clothing items, 40 different tattoos and jewelry, and 42 Potions.
 * You will also be able to decide which ones to keep and which ones to sell.
 * With the amount of new weapons types coming out, you will need to be able to choose your equipment. You will be able to drag and drop weapons into 4 Customizable Weapon Slots.
 * There is also a fifth Customizable Item Slot for equipping a Sailing Item, which will give you bonuses while sailing on a ship or firing cannons.

Weapon slots These new weapons have strong Voodoo Enchantments on them, which give their wielder new powers and fighting abilities! Some weapons have Skill Boosts, which make your existing skills stronger. Others weapons give you New Attacks or Voodoo Powers.



Just how many new weapons and special powers are there? You will need to collect and discover them all to find out! Now get pillaging!

And while you're looking - keep a wary eye for the legendary, Lost Sword of El Patron. This powerful blade once belonged to the famous conquistador, El Patron himself. According to legend, the blade was cursed with El Patron's last breath and his soul now haunts the blade. Anyone wielding this sword will have tremendous power, but will also be changed into the form of a ghost! Hurry and recover these weapons before they fall into the hands of Jolly Roger.

Both Basic and Unlimited Members will be able to collect these new items. However, Basic Access Members will only be able to equip basic items. Rarer items can only be equipped by Unlimited Access Members.

Opinion Polls: On the Far Horizon
In an opinion poll back in January, PotCo happened to ask players opinions on which of the following MAJOR updates they wanted the most: ( Scratched means done, Bold Italics means ongoing)
 * Battles against other Players (PvP)
 * More Adventures on Land
 * New Ship Types
 * Different Character Classes
 * New Weapon Types (Muskets, etc)
 * Customize your Ship
 * More Items and Trading
 * New Quests & 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
 * New Skills to Unlock
 * Meet Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, Elizabeth Swan in the game
 * Mini-games
 * Boss Battles
 * Work for the Navy, East India Trading Company, Jolly Roger, or Davy Jones
 * Crafting, Blacksmithing, Creating Voodoo Items

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.

Excepted from Pirates Online