TLOPO Release Notes - 2021

This Release Notes page will list major updates in the world of The Legend of Pirates Online during the year of 2021. But, for the latest information - also check The Legend of Pirates Online.

Release Notes 2007 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2008 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2009 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2010 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2011 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2012 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2013 (POTCO)

Release Notes 2015 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2016 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2017 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2018 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2019 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2020 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2021 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2022 (TLOPO)

Release Notes 2023 (TLOPO)

Newsletters

Pirates Online News Archive

December

2021-12-31 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.6

Maintenance

• Buffed the Goliath and Forts in Black Pearl Boss Battle.
  • Intended for groups sized 4-12.
• Increased QAR loot timer from 15 seconds to 30 seconds.
• Pressing ESC will no longer close the loot chest when receiving QAR loot.
• Ramming speed will now clear itself after used against another ship.
  • You are no longer forced to sail into the distance until the buff would normally run out.
• The Black Pearl Boss Battle now drops a loot container at the end of the battle!

Bugfixes

• Fixed a horrific stuttering in the Black Pearl Boss Battle while the Black Pearl was sailing.
• Fixed a server crash with fishing when the server was generating a new fish to put into the pond.
• Fixed Fernando Black Pearl quest.
• Fixed level requirement for Sword of Triton.
• Fixed ship ram exploit with Flagships/QAR.
• Fixed Valentina showing in the wrong location during the Black Pearl quest.
• Wave AI has been refactored to automatically complete a wave after 2 minutes if the wave is not completed.
  • This fixes the "Wave 2" hang bug.

2021-12-26 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.5

Maintenance

• Tweaked QAR task period to run every 30 minutes, at HH:00 and HH:30. There is a 50% chance for QAR to spawn on each server when the task runs.

Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue that caused loot to be shared across all players on the QAR. Now, everyone will get a personalized loot container.
• Fixed Raven's Cove visit ghosts quest.
• Fixed various client memory leaks.

2021-12-25 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.4

Features

• The Queen Anne's Revenge is now live!
  • Similar to invasions, the QAR periodically will spawn on the High Seas! We have it set to spawn more often than a traditional treasure fleet to provide more opportunities to defeat it.
  • Note: Sometimes before the QAR launches in, you'll see the QAR icon about Port Royal. Hang tight for a few more minutes and the QAR will spawn in.
• QAR has improved loot! When defeating the QAR, you can obtain Jacks Brew, the Admiral's weapon set, charms, PvP potions, and other high tier potions.

Maintenance

• The Sword of Triton is now a Legendary Broadsword. The original rare variant of this weapon will remain in the inventories of those who previously obtained it untouched.

Known Issues

• We are aware of an issue when completing the Fernando Black Pearl quest and the Raven's Cove visit ghosts quest.

2021-12-23 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.3

Bugfixes

• Fixed a crash when using Voodoo Doll skills.

2021-12-22 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.2

Maintenance

• Buffed Guns based on widely requested feedback. Note: We actually released this in 1.8.0 but forgot to mention it somehow.
  • Shoot: 67% stronger.
  • Lead Shot: 75% stronger.
  • Venom Shot: 40% stronger.
  • Bane Shot 100% stronger.
  • Hex Eater Shot: 125% stronger.
  • Silver Shot: 6.25% stronger.
  • Steel Shot: 6.25% stronger.
• Buffed Guns in PvP by 50%.
• Nerfed Storm Sphere in PvP by 20%.
• Optimized ship code.
• Optimized world loading code.
• Removed the passive ship crew reputation added in 1.8.0 (previously 1/4 rep if you didn't hit the target). You will still receive ship quest progression if you are in a crew on a ship and not AFK, but if you want cannon rep then you will need to land your shots.
• Slightly improved client RAM efficiency.
• Slightly reduced amount of rep awarded when using cannons.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that caused bonus quest rewards to not work.
• Fixed a bug where dialog would start before quest complete.
• Fixed a bug where Kudgel would not attack again if you died in the previous battle.
• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes say NPC player dialog.
• Fixed a bug with crew reputation bonuses.
• Fixed a bug with NPC random emotes.
• Fixed a crash in the Black Pearl boss battle.
• Fixed a crash related to the asynchronous loading of NPC nametags.
• Fixed a crash when unattuning a target twice.
• Fixed a district reset when exiting PvP matches.
• Fixed a strange crash when a voodoo doll attunes a boat.
• Fixed a typo in a Raven's Cove quest dialog that prevented the phrase "Cursed Blades" from being slanted in that specific dialog.
• Fixed doll filter menu options when using Evil Eye.

2021-12-14 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.1

Maintenance

• Tweaks for the Twelve Days of Celebration holiday.

2021-12-14 tlopo-pyp-v1.8.0

Features

• A mysterious island has appeared Northwest of Rumrunner's Island... but the fog is too dense to make port.
• Attunement menu options are now available on Voodoo Dolls!
  • You can now choose to focus attunement on enemies, allies, or both!
  • You can also use this feature to unattune only enemies or only allies.

Bugfixes

• Enemies will no longer move or gain aggro while they have their spawn bubble active.
• Fixed a bug where emotes would only show for other players if you used the emote twice.
• Fixed a bug where players were unable to teleport to ships.
• Fixed a bug where potion hints would continue showing even after you disabled them.
• Fixed a bug where some ships would not slow down when their sails were destroyed.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't zoom in on your character while using an emote.
• Fixed a bug where your active quest would not get chosen correctly after finishing one task in a multi-part quest.
• Fixed a client/server de-sync with ship positions when ships stopped moving.
• Fixed a crash in Black Pearl when your local avatar object sometimes lost its reference to local ship.
• Fixed a crash with ship cannons.
• Fixed a crash with skill buttons.
• Fixed a district reset when grappling ships.
• Fixed a district reset with the legendary fish minigame.
• Fixed a problem causing non-local player walking/running animations to misbehave.
• Fixed a rare crash with dinghies.
• Fixed a rare crash with the ship camera.
• Fixed Black Pearl panthers dropping anchor outside of range.
• Fixed Fantifico's transformation into a chicken.
• Fixed interact ring not working on the holiday roast pig on Tortuga.
• Fixed the dummy ship in the Tutorial misbehaving if you took too long to sink it.
• Fixed weird Black Pearl crash that seems to have been happening when a cannonball hits the ground and the local avatar's parent object was missing an id.
• Potentially fixed a client crash with titan effect.
• Potentially fixed a district reset related to poker.

Maintenance

• Added a bunch of new ship names to the ship name chooser.
  • There's over 1300 new name combinations!
• Added a new icon for crew leader options in the pirate profile panel indicating when you have the ability to manage your crew.
• Cleanup of player nametag GUI code.
• Disabled Python's native implementation of garbage collection.
  • We handle this differently anyway and Python's garbage collection system was just bogging things down.
• Improved loading time slightly when entering the game.
• Loading of NPC Shopkeeper nametag shop coins is now asynchronous.
  • This will help reduce frame drops when walking around towns and entering/exiting interiors.
• NPC Townfolk now rarely rebroadcast their positions.
  • Sending these positions so frequently is unnecessary and wasteful to server resources when their positions aren't changing.
  • Some NPCs, such as Crazy Ned and Kudgel, were excluded from this change.
• Optimized holiday code; yields ~20% faster loading screens.
• Optimized NPC Townfolk object construction.
• Optimized quests.
• Optimized task management on the servers for avatar voodoo recovery.
• Optimized world creator to reduce the number of geom nodes being rendered.
  • Most should be able to observe a higher frame-rate on land.
  • There should be no visual difference to any objects, this is purely a data structure optimization.
• Reduced the amount of enemy AI state changes during battle.
  • The AI was previously changing its state to idle when a walk point was reached. Now it will only set to idle if it no longer has a target.
  • This change will help reduce the amount of state changes being broadcasted to players.
• Reduced the amount of memory used by quests.
• Refactored how reputation is rewarded to players on ships who are in a crew if you do not get a hit on a target.
  • 1/4 Cannon rep if you are on cannon + quest event.
  • 1/4 overall rep if you were repairing + quest event.
  • 1/4 Sailing rep if you were sailing + quest event.
  • Only quest event if you were just standing (but not AFK!).
  • Reputation is rewarded from damage using the Ramming Speed skill.
• Temporarily replaced the fancy "shift" text decal in the cannon tutorial with plain text because of an engine bug preventing the fancy text from appearing.

2021-12-5 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.10

Maintenance

• Addressed a problem that occurred when deploying version 1.7.9.
  • A dependency we rely on inadvertently updated to a brand-new version that they just released which is not very stable yet.
  • This caused... unexpected problems for us, you could say.

2021-12-3 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.9

Maintenance

• The Frost Family re-opens the Yuletide Manor in preparation for the Winter Festival and all the seasonal celebrations that are about to begin in the Caribbean!
  • Collect Moonstones throughout the Caribbean!
  • Holiday Weapons and Winter Loot Drops!
  • Festive Tattoos back in stock!
  • Spread yer cheer with Holiday Music!
• The event area will be available from December 4th, 2021 to January 31st, 2022.
• Note: The Yuletide shop offerings this year are the same as last year's. We opted to focus our development efforts on something else that's much more interesting and yet to come.
• Added the ability to restart the servers without actually restarting the servers. Allowing us to deploy new code to existing Oceans without anyone being disconnected.
  • This is nothing less than voodoo magic! This new tool gives us greater flexibility when wanting to make much smaller patches on-the-fly.
  • This isn't a perfect solution, but it'll help reduce how often we need to do a full update.

Known Issues

• [Fixed in 1.7.10] This update's deployment inadvertently updated a dependency on our servers to a newer version that is now known to be unstable.
  • This problem was the cause of the district resets yesterday. We applied a hack-fix early this morning to temporarily prevent the servers from crashing.
  • In our next update we will be reverting this dependency back to a known stable version.

November

2021-11-26 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.8

Maintenance

• Performed maintenance on our server's infrastructure.

September

2021-9-12 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.7

Announcements

• Happy Birthday TLOPO! 6 years ago, we launched our closed alpha version of the game.
  • We've come a very long way since then. It's a good feeling that we've been able to accomplish our goal.
• It's always fun to look back once in awhile. Here are some videos from the early TLOPO era:
  • Alpha Gameplay 2016 (September 2016)
  • 1 Hour of TLOPO Alpha v1.9.2 (June 2016)
  • Beta Launch (December 2016)
• To celebrate our 6th year together, Double Materials, Loot, Gold, and XP are now live until September 22nd!
  • There will also be firework shows every hour on the islands of Port Royal, Tortuga, and Padres del Fuego.

Maintenance

• NPC humans now load most of their assets asynchronously.
  • This will optimize their loading and help prevent frame drops when changing zones, hopefully making for a better experience while walking around towns.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a district reset when exiting PvP.
  • We're aware of and are investigating the spawning bugs in Mayhem and Team Battle.

2021-9-9 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.6

Features

• Grenades can now be used against other ships!
• Smoke grenades will blind players on other ships when used in SvS.

Maintenance

• Cleaned up quest code.
• Grounded a floating prop on Port Royal.
• Quests givers will now give you a quest status instead of a random brush off when available.
• Optimized network code to use a more efficient data structure when handling network functions.
• Optimized ships networking code.
• There is now a skill effect icon on ships that have been hit with a smoke grenade.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that caused enemies to randomly disengage when in battle.
• Fixed a bug that caused ship mates voice to play when leaving ship or when no ship exists.
  • "They know this be a pirate ship!"
• Fixed a bug where Jumbee Fire's effect would cast a shadow, causing it to look very strange.
• Fixed a bug with grenade animations.
• Fixed a crash with finding your next active quest after completing part of a quest.
• Fixed a crash with smuggle DNA task.
• Fixed active quest switching when talking with NPCs.
• Fixed bugginess with Jumbee Fire rotation.
• Fixed crabs not showing boss visual effects.
• Fixed fire positioning on crabs.
• Fixed more server memory leaks.

August

2021-8-11 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.5

Maintenance

• Added nametags to Dogs!
  • Go meet "Prison Dog" in the Tutorial (and on Outcast)!
• Added better quest descriptions for early-game tasks.
• Adjusted some back-end functionality on how players progress between story chapters.
• The main chain of story quests has been revamped to match how they were displayed when the original game launched in 2007.
  • We made this change to save space in your quest journal and to make it cleaner to see how far you've progressed in the main story.
• Instead of the primary storyline being nested under a larger title of "The Liberation of the Black Pearl", each story chapter has been split up into the following:
  • Chapter 1: Jailbreak, which begins when you create your pirate and ends when you leave Rambleshack.
  • Chapter 2: Set Sail, beginning when you land on Port Royal and ending when you've seen Barbossa.
  • Chapter 3: The Black Pearl, beginning with visiting Jack in the Faithful Bride and ending with the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• When interacting (ex. driving ship) and the sea chest GUI is up, pressing escape will now close the sea chest. Pressing it again will end your interaction.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a client memory leak related to friendly creatures.
• Fixed a rare crash when completing the Sword tutorial super quickly.
• Fixed an issue where sailing and cannon skills showed as "locked" in popups that appear when you finish a story or weapon unlock quest.
• Fixed copy/paste on macOS.
• Fixed a server memory leak related to Lobbies.
  • This issue caused oceans to lag out over time, and would ultimately make them crash.
• Fixed some typos and formatting issues with quest descriptions.

Known Issues

• There is a minor client lag spike when copy/pasting on macOS. We are looking into an optimization for this.

2021-8-2 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.4

Features

• Overhauled enemy spawning on flagships. The enemies now spawn in waves for better performance to prevent players from being swarmed by a massive pile of soldiers.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that caused players to be transported to the void when grabbing the wheel of the Black Pearl.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Black Pearl to spawn in a misplaced position, often preventing players from being able to hit the attacking Navy Panthers.
• Fixed a bug that prevented players from enabling Discord Integration at all.
• Fixed a bug when transitioning to the open ocean after sailing the Black Pearl out of Black Pearl Bay.
• Fixed a bug where holiday props would appear in Madam Zigana's Voodoo Shop on Raven's Cove.
• Fixed a bug where the door to enter the Watcher's Hovel in Hollowed Woods would float off into the air when you pressed shift to enter.
• Fixed a bug where the chat tutorial would appear when you receive your pistol from Barbossa and after you've talked to Carver.
  • Now it will only show after receiving your pistol from Barbossa.
• Fixed a bug where the gun tutorial did not explain how to aim your pistol.
• Fixed a district reset with enemies.
• Fixed an issue where some battle-related content did not clean up properly.
• Fixed multiple district resets related to enemies despawning.

Maintenance

• Added back-end functionality that allows us to place players farther or closer to a door they just exited out of.
• Clarified language on a signpost on Original Tortuga so players are aware that "/stuck" exists before they attempt to glitch themselves into a wall.
• Code cleanup.
• Optimized AI loading of the Recover the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• We added some new back-end holiday functionality that will make it easier for us to hide/unhide specific event props.
  • Nothing noticeable yet in-game, though. This is just "under the hood," as it were.

July

2021-7-27 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.3

Maintenance

• Server maintenance to fix some outage issues. Thanks for your patience!

2021-7-19 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.2

Features

• You can now earn infamy in PvP for healing assists!
• Discord Rich Presence (also known as Discord Integration) has been overhauled! You can now choose between a few different settings.
  • Simple: Display just your session time as your Discord status.
  • Detailed: Display your current in-game location and activity as your Discord status.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where Discord's Rich Presence API wouldn't immediately clear after the game window was closed.
• Fixed a bug where healers were awarded a kill point for assisting a team member.
• Fixed a bug with how nametags were displayed when stacked on top of other nametags.
  • This fix also affects any text displayed during the Capture the Chest and Domination PvP modes.
• Fixed a bug with the watery grave portion of the Raven's Cove Story Quest that required players to stand ridiculously close to the idol when defeating an enemy.
  • It should now feel more natural and have a larger qualifying distance radius.
• Fixed a Disney crash with the Sell Items window.
• Fixed a major memory leak with voodoo dolls.
• Fixed a memory leak with Jolly Roger during invasions.

Maintenance

• Code cleanup.
• Optimized code regarding Bounty Hunter ships.
• Optimized how distance at sea is calculated.

2021-7-17 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.1

Features

• There is now an event notification on login to advertise the new islands. This "holiday" will last until August 20th. Don't worry, after that, the islands will still be there.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a district reset with quest tracking.
• Fixed a typo with Myrna's trivia signpost on Original Port Royal.
• Fixed an occasional bug where quests were not updating in the journal or in the tracking section next to the compass.

2021-7-16 tlopo-pyp-v1.7.0

Features

• Finally, after 12 long years, the Original Islands are back!
  • You can now visit Original Port Royal, Tortuga, and Padres del Fuego through lobbies!
  • To access the islands, go to the Lobby menu, select Adventures, and then the "Original Islands" game mode.
• All the missing NPCs from the early game are back, all with their exact physical appearances and positions in the world.
• We've added special signposts across the original islands that provide extra information and trivia about the old version of the game! See if you can find them all.
  • 20 signposts are on Port Royal
  • 14 signposts are on Tortuga
  • 13 signposts are on Padres
• We've taken care to make sure all enemies are the exact same levels they were in the original game, including bosses. Everything is exactly the way Disney had it. We double, triple-checked!
  • General Darkhart on Original Padres drops all the same loot as the Darkhart on main Padres! Yes, that includes Jack Sparrow's Blade!
• You can now view the entire 2008-era map, complete with old world map icons while in an Original Islands lobby!
• Seagulls!
  • When Disney redesigned the islands, the Seagulls on Port Royal were removed. We completely rewrote their AI, and they are now functional! You should see them perching around Original Port Royal.
  • Expect us to tweak these so they're in different animation poses. Also... we plan to add these to other islands as well! Stay tuned...

Maintenance

• The memorial interactable on Ile d'Etable de Porc is now dynamic, allowing future props with message popups to be created with ease.
  • Its system is also responsible for the new signposts.
• Disabled dinghy interaction in the original island lobbies... for now?
• Island music on the original islands only uses 1 track instead of the day/night variants in the main game. This is intentional and is exact to 2008 POTCO.
• "Location sphere" technology is now functional. This is tech that was previously only present on the Original Islands and Kingshead.
  • Location spheres are invisible. When you walk into one, text will flash on your screen telling you you've entered into a new area.
  • You can see this occur when you walk into Fort Charles and Fort Dundee on Original Port Royal and Padres.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented lava on Original Padres del Fuego from displaying.
• Fixed a bug that prevented volcano smoke and hourly eruptions from displaying on Original Padres del Fuego.
• Fixed a bug where ambient music would not return after you exited combat.
• Fixed a bug with ocean color and transparency overlays for the original islands.
• Fixed a district reset when starting a Domination or Capture the Chest game.
• Fixed dozens upon dozens of visual issues with converting over models from the 2008 version of the game.
• Fixed some Disney bugs that prevented shadows and the green interact circles from appearing on Original Port Royal's docks or on the platforms/foundations in town.

Known Issues

• Mac players will be placed off in the water when using the teleport totems on Original Padres del Fuego instead of landing at the proper spot.
• In some rare cases, there is a culling bug with Fort Charles on Original Port Royal that causes the fort to become invisible.

Developer Notes

• We're really excited to finally have these islands out for you all. As you may recall, we've been tinkering with these for years, way back since Alpha. Now, they're finally in a state that we feel is complete enough for release.
• This is not the end for the Original Islands! We have a lot more planned. Original caves, building interiors, and some other fun details are planned. We want to have these be as accurate to the original game as possible.

2021-7-11 tlopo-pyp-v1.6.1

Maintenance

• CTC and Domination can now have up to 20 players in a match.
  • We would increase this further but it would make the game modes way too laggy.
  • When we are more comfortable with crowd performance we will increase this limit.
• CTC's time limit has been reduced to 10 minutes.
• Domination score points are now rewarded every other second instead of every second.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where you could accidentally clip onto a floor above your character if you jumped and your head collided with the above floor.
• Fixed a bug where you could inadvertently enter a tunnel if you were standing above it.
• Fixed a district reset in CTC.
• Fixed a district reset in Domination.
• Fixed a random crash when casting a voodoo staff.
• Fixed a random crash when fighting in crowds.
• Fixed a random district crash when battling enemies.
• Fixed a random district reset when joining PVP.
• Fixed an infinite loading screen when entering CTC.
• Fixed an issue where the CTC emote did not properly synchronize its open/closed state with the server.
• Fixed red earrings not showing properly.
• Fixed tunnel collisions not being set back up after exiting PvP.
• Potentially fixed client connection issues with the server.
• Removed a bad initial spawn position by Base C on Marauder's Cove in Domination.

2021-7-6 tlopo-pyp-v1.6.0

Announcement

• The "created-shader" crash has been fixed. If you were crashing immediately upon reaching the pick-a-pirate screen, you should now be able to play again.

Features

• Capture the Chest is now live!
  • Fall 2019 is here at last! There's so many pretty colors on the trees outside... they're just all various shades of green because it's actually Summer 2021.
  • Arrr! Ready yerself for battle! Ye must steal the opposing team's treasure chest and take it back to yer base. The team with the most treasure chest captures wins.
• Domination is now live!
  • Yarr! This be an all-out battle for total domination! Capture and maintain control of bases to earn points. The first team to reach 1000 points or the team with the highest score after the time limit wins.
• New Objective Infamy Track!
  • Rank up in a new Infamy track by playing Capture the Chest & Domination!
  • Earn exclusive new green Objective Infamy badges!
• New Infamy Rewards!
  • Have you ranked up in Objective Infamy?
  • Visit Rose Cabinmenace by Butcher Brown on Tortuga to buy some exclusive new clothing & tattoos!
• New Adventure Game Mode: Exploration.
  • Venture through PvP maps and other locations without a timer.
  • This mode can be found in the Adventure lobby category.
  • Exploration maps are also fully functional with PvP Potion spawns!
• Exploration Exclusive: Empty Kingshead
  • An exact replica of the classic glitched Kingshead area that was in POTCO from 2007-2009.
  • Yes, it even has that special area... if you get our drift. ;)
• There is a new CTC/Domination themed quest called the "Marauder's Cove Conquest"!
  • Visit any shipwright to pick it up.
  • This quest rewards a brand-new emote! Giving you earn the ability to pull out a treasure chest (and can even open/close it)!
  • Note: You must be level 30 or higher to obtain the quest.

Domination Mechanics Breakdown

• Base Game:
  • To steal or defend a base, players must stand within the proximity of bases.
  • When capturing a base, its health decreases as a ratio of your team vs the other team.
  • If there's 3 from your team and 1 from theirs, the base will decrease at a rate of 2.
  • If there's 4 from your team and 0 from theirs, the base will decrease at a rate of 4.
  • If there's an equal number from each team, the base will continue decreasing at a turtle slow rate.
  • If there are players from both teams on a base, the base will be in a contested state.
  • Contested bases cannot be stolen because a defender present, but the base's health is allowed to continue decreasing!
  • If a contested base is out of health, the last team standing will control the base.
• Spawn Positions:
  • If there is any base being captured or contested, players will spawn near the base that has the most players from their team.
  • If a team has no captured bases, players on that team will spawn near the least populated enemy base.
  • If a team has captured bases, players on that team will spawn near their team's most populated base.

Capture the Chest Mechanics Breakdown

• Base Game:
  • To steal a chest, simply approach it and press shift to pick it up. Then, carry the chest across the map and press shift to drop the chest at your team's base.
  • If you die while holding the chest or drop the chest, it will be locked in-place for a few seconds before anyone else can pick up or return the chest.
  • After the chest lock is removed, it can be picked up again or returned back to its base.
• Spawn Positions:
  • Players will spawn relative to their team's chest.
  • Ideally, you should be far enough away to not be able to spawn trap the chest holder. But you should also be close enough that you can still get back into the action.

Maintenance

• Added a dynamic minimap system for Marauder's Cove. Depending on the mode you're in, a slightly different minimap with header text of the mode you're in will appear.
• Added a small repair debuff when hit with grapeshot.
• Added several smaller new misc. prop assets that have been used in some of the newly designed interiors.
• Adjusted some collisions that were previously too short and were able to be jumped over.
• Aligned some button GUI.
• Code cleanup.
• Optimized camera collision task to not eat up as much CPU time.
• Refactored the entire world loading system to add the following to Marauder's Cove.
  • Now, there is a singular base world file that loads the majority of the island's props.
  • Then, depending on what game mode you're playing, additional key props like the player spawns and treasure chests are added in using a separate file.
  • This helps consolidate everything and may offer a slightly faster loading experience.
• Removed an extra prop that was added in due to a conversion error.
• Reworked infamy rewards for player who did most damage (if that player didn't also get the killing blow reward).
• Reworked kill messaging so that you now get a message for delivering the final blow.
• The infamy rank bar will now flash when you earn infamy.
• You can now scroll through the ship purchase list using your mouse wheel.
• You can now stun people in CTC to prevent them from picking up/returning a chest.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a crash related to shaders that closed the client immediately after reaching the pick-a-character screen.
  • This bug was preventing a large quantity of players from getting into the game. We're thrilled this is finally fixed.
• Fixed a bug that caused quest props like the Raven's Cove mining elevator to break all interactivity with any objects after being used.
• Fixed a bug with how some frayed-edge carpet models displayed when in building interiors.
• Fixed dozens of issues where players could shoot an enemy player through a wall in PvP.
• Fixed the issue where your ship will bounce off an island preventing you from clicking drop anchor.
• Fixed the SvS rock islands collisions from being way too big compared to POTCO. You can now properly sail between them again.
• Fixed additional desynchronization issues with PvP.
  • This bug would cause a variety of different issues in PvP requiring a client restart to fix.
  • We are fairly certain this issue is finally put to rest with these changes, and good riddance!
  • Examples: Unable to deal damage, no team icon, unable to move.
• Potentially fixed several issues with fishing.

May

2021-6-25 tlopo-pyp-v1.5.2

Features

• Re-added Disney's ship repair GUI shake when taking damage.
• New redesigned building interiors: La Bodeguita (Cuba Tavern) & Blanca's Tailor Shop (Las Pulgas Padres Tailor)
  • These are remnants of our big Caribbean Renovation Project from last fall. They're now finally out. Yay!

Maintenance

• Added a small repair debuff when hit with grapeshot.
• Optimized camera collision task to not eat up as much CPU time.
• Padres has been rotated to fix ocean overlays being incorrectly positioned.
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dzyVI9sPA8
  • We know this isn't the exact rotation from POTCO. We've spent some time debugging some issues with the world globe recently. When we have a more concrete fix, we'll put Padres back to the way it always was. For now, it should at least look better than before.
• Reworked kill messaging so that you now get a message for delivering the final blow.
• PvP match creation has been refactored to fix desyncing issues in PvP.
  • Fixed damage not registering in PvP.
  • Fixed not being able to move after starting PvP.
  • Fixed PvP instructions text not cleaning up.
  • Fixed when a player would spawn into PvP with an incorrect team.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug when you finished a blackjack quest and it didn't refresh the ray of light.
• Fixed a bug where a player's first quest update would not be displayed to the player.
• Fixed a bug where Blackjack ties and some wins were not counting toward quests.
• Fixed a bug where the world map page sometimes showed "Preferred Server" instead of "Current Server" after arriving on your preferred ocean.
• Fixed a bug where water would be colored improperly after a flood event.
• Fixed a bug with the green interact circle that caused it to float or not appear entirely if there was a 2nd floor above the door that was able to be walked on by players. This change can be seen on the following buildings:
  • Decrepit Shop Exterior (Hollowed Woods)
  • Hollowed Woods Town Hall Exterior (Hollowed Woods)
  • Old Warehouse Exterior (Rambleshack)
  • The Card Game "Palace" (Parlor Games Lobbies)
• Fixed a crash when logging out.
• Fixed enemies lingering around after an invasion ended.

2021-6-9 tlopo-pyp-v1.5.1

Announcements - CALLING ALL TESTERS

• We've been hard at work on implementing and stabilizing some brand-new content into the game. We are so excited to say that we are getting ready to release Capture the Chest, along with another brand-new objective PvP game mode named Domination!
• Here are descriptions of each game mode:
  • Capture the Chest: Ready yerself for battle! Steal the opposing team's treasure chest and take it back to yer own base. The team with the most treasure chest captures wins!
  • Domination: Capture and defend bases on the map to earn points. The first team to 1000 points or the highest score after the time limit wins!
• Both game modes are available NOW to play on the Test Server.
• Please report any issues you find with these game modes.
  • We want to get these released onto the live servers as soon as we can. The more feedback we get the better.

Maintenance

• Modified PvP nametag colors to make it easier to tell who your opponents are.
• PvP team coins will no longer show above players who are on your own team.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that caused quest props, like the Raven's Cove mining elevator, to break all interactivity with other interactive objects after being used.
• Fixed a bug where the cannons would sometimes shoot an ammo you hadn't unlocked.
• Fixed a bug which prevented players from docking a ship if they were not the captain.
• Fixed a common crash when sailing on the high seas.
• Fixed a crash when playing blackjack in Adventure lobbies.
• Fixed a typo with an internal model name.
• Fixed dozens of issues where players could shoot an enemy player through a wall in PvP.
• Fixed scrolling with your mouse in the lobby GUI menu.
• Fixed some props that were placed in weird ways.
• Fixed spelling of the Diplomat Shoes.

Known Issues

• We are currently investigating an issue where players are crashing immediately upon reaching the pick-a-character screen. If you are experiencing this issue, please contact us at support@tlopo.com.
  • We are working double-time to identify and solve this crash. It has been extremely difficult for our team to track down.
  • This bug was introduced in tlopo-pyp-1.4.3.

2021-5-28 tlopo-pyp-v1.5.0

Features

• A special new "LOBBIES" SpeedChat menu option will appear when you are in a Lobby.
  • From within menu, you can tell other players the name of your Lobby ID.
  • For example, you can now say "Join my lobby! The ID is 8675309."
• You can now modify the volume of specific categories of sound effects, such as combat, footsteps, and loot drops.
• You can now say the names of other players in the nearby area, even if their name isn't on the white list.

Maintenance

• Added fire effect for Hot Shot and Fire Storm ammo types.
• Added ship combat and first mate voiceover volume sliders.
• Adjusted the nametag height of Chicken Fantifico, as it does not automatically adjust with the geometry swap.
• All players on a ship will now share the spawn point when a ship drops anchor.
• Changed default music and sound volume to be 50% instead of 100%.
  • Now your first experience with the game doesn't include frantically looking for how to turn down the music.
• Changed default window type from full screen to windowed.
• Code cleanup.
• Flagships can now spawn anywhere along their path, not just at one point.
• Game options volume sliders are now a bit smaller to fit all of the categories.
• Improved broadside auto aiming code.
• Pirate avatars on profile cards now render at much higher resolution. Before it was 256px, now it is 512px on low-medium graphics and 1024px on high graphics.
• Players can now manage their inventory when knocked out.
  • This will allow players to make room for an item if they had a chest open and died before being able to delete something from their inventory.
• Refactored camera collision detection code to address multiple issues with the camera clipping through walls in tight quarters.
• Refactored NPC Blackjack logic so it will only run if a player is present in a building interior or in a Lobby.
  • Previously, NPCs would play Blackjack 24/7/365 even if there were no players nearby to join or watch the game.
• Replaced the first mate toggle with a volume slider.
• Temporarily replaced all occurrences of letters with special characters with a temporary non-accented letter, such as the "i" in Fantifico's name.
• The PvP Scoreboard now has a scroll bar for teams that are really big.
• The sea chest can now be closed by pressing the escape key.
• Walk mode now has a message printed out both to chat and onscreen as a warning message to notify you that you are walking.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug on macOS where right-clicking to move the camera would stop working when moving the camera to the right.
  • Cannon gameplay on macOS is finally good with a mouse!
• Fixed a bug that caused cannon rams and sailing items to not apply skill boosts if a skill was not unlocked.
• Fixed a bug that caused the ROL to not track enemies closest to you.
• Fixed a bug that caused the ROL to not update properly after the Barbossa gun tutorial.
• Fixed a bug that would cause too many ghosts to spawn when battling El Patron.
• Fixed a bug where all players spawned at the same location when initially loading into any PvP game.
• Fixed a bug where Chicken Fantifico would be rendered in with ghost effects.
• Fixed a bug where grapple hooks would fire regardless of the cannon ammo selected.
• Fixed a bug where grenades could damage enemies before their spawn bubble disappears.
• Fixed a bug where players would not be given the Raven's Cove teleport quest immediately after talking with Crazy Ned.
• Fixed a bug where some ship skills would occasionally linger, causing a player to need to relog.
• Fixed a bug where the game could reappear off-screen when changing resolutions.
• Fixed a bug which allowed players to use Lobbies while knocked out.
• Fixed a crash from an enemy disengaging after its death.
• Fixed a crash from the unstuck command.
• Fixed a crash in cannon defense when upgrading to the repeater cannon.
  • This is the "Level 20 crash" It's fixed!
• Fixed a crash when boarding a flagship.
• Fixed a crash when flagships finish.
• Fixed a crash when starting lobbies.
• Fixed a crash when turning in a quest to Fantifico.
• Fixed a rare district reset caused by Blackjack.
• Fixed a rare district reset with inventories.
• Fixed a rare district reset with ships.
• Fixed a server crash related to persistent potions.
• Fixed an internal exception related to fishing.
• Fixed an internal exception with bayonet disable.
• Fixed an issue that caused completed quests to sometimes remain in your quest journal.
• Fixed an occasional client crash caused by loot containers.
• Fixed combat music fading out harshly when exiting combat.
• Fixed Fantifico not appearing as a chicken.
• Fixed missing nametag above Chicken Fantifico.
  • This also fixed his brushoff text missing.
• Fixed Raven's Cove teleport quest not automatically showing up.
  • You can no longer drop or deny to receive the Raven's Cove teleport totem quest either.
• Fixed resolution settings showing incorrectly.
• Fixed several bugs when caught cheating in poker/blackjack in a Lobby.
• Fixed several bugs with fullscreen on macOS and Windows.
• Fixed several interaction bugs with Darby Drydock in the tutorial.
• Refactored enemy spawner code to fix some memory leaks.
  • This might fix the issue causing the servers to lag out every week or so.

April

2021-4-12 tlopo-pyp-v1.4.5

Bugfixes

• Fixed several more miscellaneous district resets.

2021-4-11 tlopo-pyp-v1.4.4

Bugfixes

• Broadside interest (for the ship you are actively on) is now opened on the AI.
  • This should fix some of the common sailing/cannon crashes from the last couple updates.
• Configured the engine to optimize vertex colors for OpenGL-style vertex colors instead of DirectX9, which is not an actively supported graphics API by TLOPO.
• Fixed a bug that caused some tattoos and clothing to not appear in your inventory properly. The items should now be displaying as normal.
• Fixed a bug where a Voodoo Doll fire effect was being played when using the Hollowed Flame skill.
• Fixed a bug where dagger hit sound effects would not play when daggers hit an enemy.
• Fixed a bug where the Bejeweled Broadsword had the Critical Damage skill instead of the Critical Strike skill.
• Fixed a bug which caused Jolly Roger's object to clean up too quickly, creating a visual bug in his death animation.
• Fixed a bug with the teleportation rewrite that caused players to occasionally be invisible to each other in the same zone.
• Fixed a couple rare crashes with broadsides and cannons.
• Fixed a crash related to island teleportation.
• Fixed a crash with Bloodfire effect clearing.
• Fixed a few looting crashes related to holidays.
• Fixed a rare district reset with docking ships.
• Fixed a typo causing secondary broadside ammo to not update on the client.
• Fixed another dialog quest crash.
• Fixed assertion errors with Bloodfire, Jumbee Fire, Fishing, and Cannon Defense.
• Fixed Bayonet Disable not playing the knockdown animation.
• Fixed Captain's Resolve not applying health.
• Fixed Cleanse skill not functioning at all.
• Fixed creatures (alligators, chickens, etc) not being smoothed, causing their movement to be jumpy and ignore floor collisions.
• Fixed Dodge skill not functioning at all.
• Fixed Feint & Hex ward auto-blocking the first attack, prior to the skill charging.
• Fixed graphical issues occurring on AMD RDNA graphics cards.
• Fixed healing boost not applying health.
• Fixed issues with the camera not resetting upon logging out.
• Fixed multiple sound effects failing to load, such as Raven's Cove's ambient wind.
• Fixed rare crash with loot containers.
• Fixed Sea Charms not applying their attributes upon login. This was reported with Revenant Cannon Ram and the cannon Fury skill.
  • If you equip the charm and then hop on a cannon, it works fine. However, if you were to log out and go to cannon (without re-equipping the charm), your Fury ammo count would show and would NOT be infinite (it may not actually deduct from your inventory, but it decreases on your skill bar).
• Fixed the Sure Footed skill not working when facing Powder Keg Runners or Fire Bats.
• Possibly fix rare crash with Fantifico quest.
• The long-standing bug with right-clicking to move the game camera on macOS has been fixed.
  • Previously, the camera would move incorrectly when right clicking; rendering many aspects of the game unplayable on macOS.

Maintenance

• Reworked code for generating water in building interiors, it should now be slightly more efficient.
• Reworked how draw distance works in Fort Charles. (This applies to how far away you are before props show up.)
• Reworked Keg Runner explosion logic to reduce network spam.
  • This also fixed their HP bars being empty and them not exploding upon reaching a barricade.
• The Dark Whisper dagger now has a red motion trail.

March

2021-3-23 tlopo-pyp-v1.4.3

Maintenance

• Fixed a couple rare crashes with broadsides and cannons
• Fixed a crash related to island teleportation
• Fixed assertion errors with Bloodfire, Jumbee Fire, Fishing, and Cannon Defense.
• Fixed creatures (alligators, chickens, etc) not being smoothed, causing their movement to be jumpy and ignore floor collisions.
• Fixed rare crash with loot containers.
• Possibly fix rare crash with Fantifico quest.

2021-3-18 tlopo-pyp-v1.4.2

Bugfixes

• Fixed a battle reset caused by an enemy attacking after cleanup has started.
• Fixed a crash relating to entering the fort stage of Black Pearl.
• Fixed a few client crashes related to weapon effects.
• Fixed a few holiday related client crashes.
• Fixed a few rare district resets with authentication and logging out.
• Fixed an issue which caused Cannon Defense ships to stutter again.
• Fixed broadsides not doing damage.
• Fixed enemies attacking while stunned.
• Fixed issues with SvS and teams/friendly-fire.
• Fixed multiple district resets with our enemy rewrite.
• Fixed SvS respawns spawning the player where they sank.
• Potentially fixed some weapon skill effects causing a crash.
• Reverted recent changes that fixed the ship void bug.
  • After originally fixing this bug, we've significantly reduced network latency.
  • Having reduced latency may alternatively fix the problem, making these original changes no longer necessary.
  • Please let us know if you continue experiencing the ship void issue or ship rubber-banding.

2021-3-15 tlopo-pyp-v1.4.1

Announcements

• We're aware of issues with SvS, both with respawning and with non-Privateer ships able to attack Privateering ships. Thanks for your patience as we fix these problems.
• We have rewritten a large amount of the server and client in update 1.4.0, please bear with us as we fix crashes as they pop up.
  • Most of the crashes on the servers and clients have been unique, meaning they happened once and have not repeated again.
  • We're actively monitoring the servers and are already hard at work on v1.4.2. It will be released ASAP with fixes for as many new crashes discovered as possible.

Maintenance

• Fixed a crash when logging high scores in Cannon Defense.
• Fixed all known district resets.
• Fixed various empty NP crashes.
• Reduced debug logging spam.

2021-3-14 tlopo-pyp-v1.4.0

Features

• Tons of new emotes are available!
  • Many have unused animations made by Disney but never-before-released.
  • Some of these animations are gender-specific. Our eventual goal would be to make all emotes unisex, but for the time being, technical limitations prevent us from doing so.
  • Rather than wait until all emotes are unisex, we wanted to release what animations we have now.
  • In addition to the animated emotes, we added tons of new text-only emotes based on player feedback over the years!
  • Also, several pre-existing emotes now have new slash prompts. They should be intuitive. For example, /sure for Yes or /farewell for waving bye.
• Animated Emote List:
  • Musical Instruments: /lute, /guitar, /flute, /music, /playmusic, /instrument
  • Scratch Butt: /butt, /buttscratch, /scratch, /scratchbutt
  • Duh (Female-Only): /duh, /duhhh, /scoff
  • Blow Kiss (Female Only): /kiss, /blowkiss, /mwah
  • Sassy (Female Only): /sassy, /stepback, /back
  • Talk to the Hand (Female Only): /talktohand
  • Crazy: /nuts, /crazy, /insane
  • Threaten: /threaten
  • Embarrassed: /embarrassed, /shy, /cringe
  • Hand it Over: /gimme, /handitover
  • Show Me the Money: /moneye
  • Thanks: /thanks, /ty, /thankyou
• Text Emote List:
  • Hi: /hi
  • Roll Eyes: /eyeroll
  • Smirk: /smirk
  • Blush: /blush
  • Welcome: /welcome
  • Stumped: /huh
  • Facepalm: /facepalm, /fp
  • Drink Rum: /rum
  • Show off Outfit: /outfit
  • Surprised: /surprise
  • Looking for Crew: /crew
  • Looking for Guild: /guild
  • Gross: /gross
  • Looting Emotes: /crude, /common, /rare, /famed, /legendary, /legend, /lc
  • You're Welcome: /yw, /yourewelcome
  • Shake Head: /smh
  • No Problem: /np, /noproblem
• Added back a variety of temporary names used in POTCO, such as "Freebooter" and "Swashbuckler."
  • When creating a new pirate with a custom name, there is a chance you'll get one of these as your temp name!
• Added back ocean zone functionality from POTCO
  • For example, when sailing through "Windward Passage," text will now flash on-screen.
  • Additionally, it will now show the text "Windward Passage" underneath your compass and on your profile card.
• The old logging out loading screen from 2011 POTCO has returned.
  • Previously, you would see your player stand in nothingness briefly.
• Added the Prison Dog to the Undead Poker Jail Lobby map.
• New Lobby Quality of Life additions:
  • Added "Select All" and "Deselect All" buttons to the lobby filter page for ease of use.
  • Hovering over a name in the lobby list will make it change color to indicate that it's clickable.
  • Hovering over the number next to a name in the lobby list will brighten to indicate that it's clickable for Lobby Member Options (accessible by the host only).

Balancing

• Lowered the turning and damage of Copperhead ships in SvS and SvE.
  • We want Copperhead ships to still be very powerful and desirable in all aspects of gameplay, while not being overpowered compared to every other hull class.
• Slightly increased the cargo space and chance of Fury broadsides for Skull & Bones ships in SvS and SvE.
  • Skull and Bones has been underused compared to other upgrades. This should make it a bit more desirable without taking away from what other hulls do best (I.E. Fortune Hunter and cargo space).
• Firebrand no longer applies Damage-Over-Time to sails.
  • This is more a bugfix than a balancing change, but we wanted to include it in this section so it doesn't get lost in the shuffle.
  • As we mentioned in a previous release, we're temporarily removing Firebrand's ability to deal DoT due to bugginess in DoT's behavior.
  • Once this is fixed, we'll reimplement DoT for Firebrand.
• Brawl cooldown reduced by 40 seconds. (60s -> 20s)
  • Brawl is a fairly underutilized skill on cutlasses and is not often picked. This should help bring the skill up to par with the other Cutlass skills.
• Taunt's accuracy reduction nerfed to align with Taunt effect duration.
  • Taunt is pretty solid currently, however, the accuracy debuff lasts for absolute ages. This slight nerf should make the skill make more sense overall.
• Treasure Sense now applies to both land and sea loot.
  • Treasure Sense in general is an under-picked skill in Sailing and is not frequently valued. This update should give the skill the extra help to be more sought after for sailors and land players alike.
  • To clarify, Treasure Sense increases the amount of gold given in loot. It does not increase your chances of getting any kind of weapon, famed, legendary, etc.
• Chain Shot hull value nerfed, Chain Shot sail value increased.
  • The hull damage of Chain Shot wasn't much to begin with, but to justify the buffing of its main purpose (sail damage), it has been reduced to help bring it more in line with its purpose, and to do it well.
• Firebrand armor damage increased by a slight margin.
  • Firebrand is in a much better place with the introduction of DoT (and the change to make sure it doesn't apply everywhere), this change simply applies 1% additional hull armor damage per rank to make the shot more specialized and viable in harder activities.
• Shrapnel completely reworked to increase Armor Penetration per rank.
  • Shrapnel has been commonly viewed as the single-most useless skill in the entire cannon skill menu. This buff removes the original effect (Wound damage on grenades and cannons) to instead increase cannon and broadside damage to enemy armor panels. A solid buff of 30% at Rank 5 to SvS and SvE all-around.

Infrastructure Changes

• Added extensive support for asynchronous loading of 3D models and sound effects. This should significantly reduce load times.
• A major issue with our internal build of Astron (the server technology the game runs on) has been fixed.
  • More specifically, this was an issue with causing many objects to never properly be deleted.
  • This is responsible for an indeterminable amount of bugs. It is a very big deal this is now corrected.

• Inventory object generation has been completely rewritten. This will hopefully fix the 30% issues when logging in and should at least result in a slight reduction of loading times
• Enemy AI movement has been overhauled, it is much more natural now.
  • Additionally, this refactor has cut our server's RAM usage in half.

• Fixed a variety of bugs where nodes would be detached but not completely destroyed (causing some memory leaks). Places where this would happen
  • Potion game (leaving and re-entering).
  • Ship repair (both on-ship AND benches on land).
  • Skill page (opening and closing repeatedly).
  • Ship boarding (particularly when you are swinging to/from a ship).
  • Projectile effects (cannonballs, grenades, etc).

• Fixed an INSANE amount of network spam from inventory generation and activation. This should give a slight boost to performance.
• All database operations (create/query/delete/etc) have been rewritten to be asynchronous. This should make them more efficient. The following systems have been updated:
  • Authentication
  • Chat
  • Friends
  • Guilds
  • Inventories
  • Pirate Profile Panels
  • Ships

• Teleportation has been rewritten. Our previous implementation had a significant number of problems and was overall very, very sad.
  • Cross-server teleportation received special attention. That code was a total disaster and was unable to be salvaged.

• The client and server have been overhauled as a part of an effort to change how distributed object interest works within the game.

Bugfixes - Black Pearl Treasure Map

• Adjusted some descriptive text referring to the Black Pearl Treasure Map in players' quest journals.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to grab the ship wheel of the Black Pearl when the ship was tied down by Navy Panthers.
• Fixed a bug that caused Black Pearl Bay's model to be loaded twice when loading into the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• Fixed a bug that caused NPCs to disengage on the Black Pearl and flagships.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Black Pearl Treasure Map's signature music to stop playing if the player started steering the ship.
• Fixed a bug that caused the default creepy ambient music to play during the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• Fixed a bug that caused the forts in the Black Pearl Treasure Map to not award reputation points when defeated.
• Fixed a bug that caused the improper combat music to play when fighting the Navy Officers on the deck of the Black Pearl.
• Fixed a bug when dying and going to jail while on the Black Pearl.
• Fixed a bug where music from the Black Pearl Treasure Map would linger after you were sent to jail.
• Fixed a bug where the Black Pearl's health bar would still display in the mini cutscene that plays after sinking the Goliath.
• Fixed a bug where the compass icons for the Navy Panthers in the Black Pearl Treasure Map would show up before Stage 3 where they actually appear.
• Fixed a bug where the First Mate voice would speak when the Goliath attacked the Black Pearl. Who gave you permission to speak?
• Fixed a bug where the Navy Forts in the Black Pearl Treasure Map had super tiny enemy icons on the compass. They now shouldn't have any icons at all.
• Fixed a bug with Black Pearl Treasure Map forts and Cannon Defense cannons.
• Fixed a bug with how Black Pearl Bay's private instance was generated.
• Fixed a crash with cannons in the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• Fixed an infinite loading screen when dying in the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• Fixed a district reset when dying in the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• The Black Pearl Treasure Map code has been overhauled to reduce bugginess and decrease loading times.
• Fixed a crash when logging back out to the Avatar Chooser while on the Black Pearl.
  • There may be a new crash that has taken its place. Logging out is very touchy. We'll patch these issues as we find them.
• Fixed a crash related to text effects and the Navy Forts in the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• Fixed a crash with Navy Forts in the Black Pearl Treasure Map.
• Fixed multiple texture issues with the Black Pearl ship model, including the discolored bell.
  • These originated from Disney's ship customization update in 2011.
• The rewards panel at the end of the Black Pearl Treasure Map is now explicit that it's from said adventure, and not just a regular sailing plunder panel.

Bugfixes - Enemies

• Fixed a district reset with enemies.
• Fixed a bug that caused Jack the Monkey in Barbossa's Grotto to be t-posed and floating slightly above the ground.
• Fixed a bug that caused Jumbees to sometimes be larger or smaller than normal.
• Fixed a bug where enemies disengaged while on a ship.
• Fixed issues where enemies would crash randomly when gaining aggro on a player.
• Players are no longer able to kill Jack... the Monkey. Look! An undead monkey!
• Voodoo enemies now queue up their next ability when out of voodoo, and will use poke until they have enough voodoo.
  • This means if you spam Hex Eater Shot, they'll spam Poke instead of becoming brain-dead.

Bugfixes - Lobbies

• Fixed a bug that caused dying in lobbies or dying after exiting a lobby to trigger an infinite jail loading screen.
• Fixed a crash when dying in Meetup or Parlor Games lobbies.
• Fixed a crash when joining lobbies.
• Fixed the lobby page not cleaning up upon leaving a lobby instance.
• Players can no longer create lobbies while in Cannon Defense, fishing, interacting with NPCs, and playing parlor games.
• When dying in a Meetup or Parlor Games lobby, players now respawn at a spawn point within that location, rather than being sent to a jail outside of the instance.
• Fixed a bug where the Red Team and Blue Team icons on the Lobby menu page were reversed. People that chose Blue Team would load into the PvP match as Red Team, and vice versa.

Bugfixes - PvP

• Fixed a bug allowing players to use "/stuck" in PvP.
• Fixed a bug in PvP that caused match statistics to keep sending during the result screen.
• Fixed a bug that allowed players to die and respawn after a match had ended.
• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes spawn inside a tree in the Classic Pillager's Pass map in Team PvP.
• Fixed an AssertionError (a special type of crash) when/after your pirate transforms into a zombie.
• Improved the collisions in Fort Vagabond. You will no longer have camera clipping while standing on the middle spectator's ramp.
• Potentially fixed a bug where players would respawn outside of the world in PvP.
• Team icons were previously reversed, so selecting one color team in the list would put you on the opposite. This is now fixed.

Bugfixes - Quests

• Fixed a bug that caused Kudgel to disappear when walking away from him.
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when attempting to talk to a quest NPC while you had a weapon drawn.
• Fixed a Disney bug where preview icons for quest rewards in the journal would not clean up after that quest was completed.
• Fixed a district reset with the Defend Traitor Ghost quest scenario.
• Fixed the Defend Traitor Ghost quest scenario not/barely working.

Bugfixes - Sailing

• We've potentially fixed the "Ship Void" bug that's been around since POTCO.
  • If you aren't familiar, this is when you and the ship you're on suddenly are teleported to an empty void, and you're able to fly around.
• Bounty Hunters and Warships no longer linger after a player leaves the zone or dies.
  • They will now instead go after another ship at Threat level 3 or higher that is out at sea. If there is none, they will despawn.
• Fixed a bug that caused ocean zones like "Windward Passage" to not cleanup properly.
  • A symptom of this was the ocean zones still appearing on the world map when in the Black Pearl Treasure Map, even though that's a completely different location.
• Fixed a bug that caused the player ship's health bar to be duplicated on top of the health bar for the enemy ship that was currently being attacked.
• Fixed a bug where porting your ship and re-deploying (the same one) quickly caused Hunters to not despawn/sink.
• Fixed a bug where Sea Charm stat boosts that boosted an untrained skill would result in the Grapple Shot being used instead of the proper ammo that was selected
• Fixed a bug with ships causing their AI to not clean up.
• Fixed a bug with the ocean not cleaning up upon logging out (fixed bug where Ocean/Water was invisible on re-log)
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when enemy ships began to attack.
• Fixed a crash with player profiles caused by ocean zones (causing profiles to infinitely load) if a player was on a ship
• Fixed a crash with ships in general that was often caused by boarding a flagship.
• Fixed a district reset related to Treasure Fleets.
• Fixed a district reset with SvS.
• Fixed a few crashes with logging out when on a ship.
• Fixed a random crash on ships involving Firebrand
• Fixed a random sailing district reset.
• Fixed a rare crash that happened when sailing too close to an island.
• Fixed a rare crash with crews and sailing.
• Fixed rare AI crash with dying on a ship.
• Fixed Treasure Fleet world map icons not showing up if you had logged in while one started.
• Ship knots no longer display if the player isn't piloting the ship.
  • Previously, they would just show 0 knots. Now it is POTCO accurate. Yay!

Bugfixes - Flagships

• Fixed a bug causing flagships to teleport/glitch upon landing a grapple.
• Fixed a bug that caused a flagship's defeat to occur twice.
• Fixed a bug that caused a player's ship to break when dying on a flagship.
• Fixed a bug that caused flagships to teleport/glitch upon landing a grapple.
• Fixed a bug where a powerful one-shot broadside would cause a flagship to sink, rather than be crippled for boarding.
• Fixed a bug with flagships that caused Grappling Hooks to attack to a different hook node than the one it was shot at.
• Fixed a crash when boarding flagships.
• Fixed a district reset when dying on a flagship.
• Fixed a flagship crash related to broadside changes.
• Fixed a misc district reset with flagships.
• Fixed camera bugs when boarding a flagship (specifically with being on repair spots or the steering wheel).
• Fixed Firebrand DoT sinking flagships.
• Players are now kicked off wheels and cannons before boarding a flagship.

Bugfixes - Ship Repair

• Fixed a bug that allowed you to draw a weapon while repairing a ship.
• Fixed a rare issue with repairing ships causing a district reset.
• Fixed an AssertionError (a special type of crash) with leaving/re-entering Ship Repair rapidly.
• We're aware that there are still issues with Ship Repairing getting stuck, preventing players from completely repairing the ship until it has docked and is reset.
  • We're on the case, but it may take some time since it's a difficult bug to nail down. Thanks for your patience.

Bugfixes - Tutorial

• Fixed a crash when boarding Bo Beck's ship in the tutorial.
• Fixed a crash when leaving the jail on Rambleshack.
• Fixed a crash when logging back out to the character selection screen while making a pirate.
• It now takes 3 hits to sink the tutorial skeleton ship, so you aren't stuck there for ages whittling down its health.
• Potentially fixed a lighting bug when pressing "Cancel" in Make-A-Pirate.
• Removed the HP meter for Jack the Monkey in the Barbossa pistol tutorial (as the monkey takes no damage and it impedes the tutorial dialogue GUI).
• The undead ship that players battle in the tutorial now has the hull of a sloop, much like the Undead Shadow Crows on the High Seas.
  • This is in line with how Disney's tutorial was between 2009 and November 2011.
  • Now, the ship you're fighting in the cannon tutorial looks distinct from the one Jolly Roger arrives on in the following cutscene.

• Once you've begun the cannon tutorial, Bo Beck will begin to sail his ship, and the enemy skeleton sloop will chase you.

Bugfixes - Loading Screens

• Fixed a bug causing infinite loading screens when logging out during stowaway teleportation.
• Fixed a bug causing loading screen art to be incorrect when leaving PVP instances.
• Fixed a bug that caused an improper loading screen to display when loading into jail after death. It should now display the proper image and the text header "Jail."
• Fixed a bug that caused improper loading screen art to be displayed when walking into a jail from its street-side entrance.
• Fixed a bug that caused loading screens to display the wrong images when exiting a PvP match.
• Fixed a bug that caused the improper loading screen art to be displayed when walking into a jail from its street-side entrance.
• Fixed a bug that prevented the Winter Festival loading screen for Rumrunner's Isle to appear properly.
• Fixed a bug where loading screen art would be incorrect if you clicked on your current location (in the map) prior clicking a different one.
• Fixed incorrect loading screen art when teleporting to a person out at sea.
• Fixed issues with improper loading screen art when teleporting between shards/oceans.
• Fixed loading screens when teleporting between shards/oceans.
• Location-specific loading screen hints are now functional. For now, it is really only noticeable when loading Raven's Cove or Driftwood Island.

Bugfixes - Visual

• Fixed a bug that caused a particular hat to be equippable as male boots. That is HORRIFYING and UNNATURAL. That hat goes on your HEAD, not on your FEET.
• Fixed a bug that caused the incorrect quest titles to be displayed when picking up a quest from an NPC.
• Fixed a bug where clothes would be uncolored/undyed when logging in, as well as momentarily after putting them on.
• Fixed a bug where ghostly NPCs would lose transparency after pressing shift to talk to them.
• Fixed a bug where lighting in the Character Selection screen would change when you clicked on a different pirate in the list.
• Fixed a bug where NPCs would reset to a default pose when interacted with (press shift).
• Fixed a bug where ocean zone titles wouldn't show up when deploying your ship.
• Fixed a bug where skill buffs on a player or enemy's health bar would not display to someone new who just loaded the area.
• Fixed a bug where the initial loading screen (after clicking your Pirate) would not visibly progress past 79%.
• Fixed a bug with Game Area doors/buildings not generating (no interact circle, infinite loading screen, etc).
• Fixed a bug with the camera angle and animation used by Gordon Greer when being talked to.
• Fixed a variety of bugs with Treasure Fleet icons:
  • Icons for these events will no longer appear on land minimaps.
  • Icons will now only properly load and unload at sea and on the world map when launching and docking a ship respectively.
• Fixed an old Disney bug that prevented the "footprint" icon for Fort Dundee from appearing on the minimap.
• Fixed nametags not hiding properly when using F12.
• Fixed some cutscenes not showing their fade-in transitions.
• Previously, if a player loaded into an area, and other players in that area were using an emote or were AFK before they arrived, the animations for those emotes would not display. This is now resolved.
• Undid a previous change that accidentally broke animations for chickens, roosters, and pigs.

Bugfixes - Misc.

• Added a proper fix for various crashes when logging back out to the Avatar Chooser. This change also addresses several other issues, including:
  • Distance fog disappearing after logging back in on a new character.
  • The skybox appearing as daytime on the Avatar Chooser after logging out.
  • Crashing when logging out in combat.
  • Crashing when logging out while digging up a treasure chest.
  • Crashing when logging out while brewing potions.
  • Crashing when logging out during quest dialogue.
  • Many other misc. crashes
• Addressed a bug causing Cannon Defense ships to be "stuttering" across the water
• Potentially fixed a bug that caused the time of day to be desynced between players. For example, someone might be seeing nighttime while someone else sees daytime.
  • This may have also been the culprit of a variety of other issues, including:
  • Enemies hitting you from too far away.
  • Players shaking really intensely when on a ship.
  • Buff timers being incorrect.
• Fixed a bug affecting Cannon Defense that caused players to crash super frequently.
• Fixed a bug that caused deleted objects to generate after their parent object was deleted (resulting in crashes)
• Fixed a bug that caused dig spots to not cleanup if the player disconnected mid-animation.
• Fixed a bug that caused jewelry and tattoos to be unequipped after logging off.
• Fixed a bug that caused sound effects like footsteps or splashing water to play on a loop if a player switched sound effects from off to on in their settings.
• Fixed a bug where players could interact with Store, Poker, and Blackjack GUI when they were hidden by F12.
  • Unfortunely, a consequence of this change is that players can no longer glitch themselves into buying special dyed clothing items.
  • We know many players loved this little easter egg, and we're working with our community test server members to plan out a way to obtain these items outside of this glitch
  • Don't expect something in the immediate future, but we do have plans and haven't forgotten about this tiny little much-beloved glitch.
• Fixed a bug where the Logout hotkey (shift-f2) was not disabled when logging out.
  • Pressing this hotkey on the Avatar Chooser after logging out would crash you.
• Fixed a couple bugs causing crews to improperly clean up.
• Fixed a crash related to logging into an ocean with a pre-existing Treasure Fleet active.
• Fixed a crash that sometimes occurred when Padres del Fuego's volcano erupted.
• Fixed a district reset when going to jail.
• Fixed a district reset when using crew chat.
• Fixed a district reset with invasions.
• Fixed a district reset with Shrapnel.
• Fixed an issue which caused player online statuses to not properly update if the server responsible for handling this operation was down.
  • Additionally have fixed other related situations where player names were not updating in friends/guild list, and upon player online/offline messages.
• Fixed being unable to use /stuck on islands.
• Fixed multiple bugs that occurred when pressing shift to interact with something while holding a weapon out.
• Fixed various areas where players with long names bled off screen, such as in lobbies, friends lists, and chat. Now, if the name exceeds a certain number of characters, the name is cut of, and "..." are added at the end to indicate the name continues.

Other Changes

• Welcome Oceans have been removed. New players will now spawn in on the most populated server. This should make it easier for them to jump right into the action.
• We have disabled the Shift+F2 logout hotkey.
  • Using this hotkey has resulted in hundreds of crashes and unintended behaviors since POTCO days. Removing it makes the game much more stable.
  • You can still easily log out by doing F7 > Logout
• The list of purchasable emblems in the Ship Upgrade window is now organized alphabetically.
  • Also, white and black versions of a single design are now right next to each other instead of being hidden pages away.
• All invasion messages will now have the Jolly Roger message icon.
  • Previously, only the initial announcement would have the ico
• Changed the Attune Menu's "MP" to "VP", because "Voodoo Points" makes more sense
• Clarified the language on the Frostbite and Wellspring buffs so they're easier to understand.
• Clarified the language used when describing ship selling material reimbursement to make it less confusing.
• The /sorry emote now uses a sad animation instead of the sleep animation.
• The Black Silk Bandana bonus quest reward from Crystals in Hollowed Woods now has its proper resale price. It was previously discounted due to a quest change.
• Per community feedback, the Navy Forts in the Black Pearl Treasure Map now have slightly more health.
• Reworked how profile cards display location names when on player ships, flagships, Fishing Boats, or the Black Pearl.
  • You should not notice any changes, but on the back-end, the code is now more efficient.
• Updated the colors of various female clothing icons so they better match the color of the actual items.
• The buff icon for the respawn protection bubble is now a shield instead of an eye. This makes more sense, doesn't it?

Maintenance

• Clarified the language on Firebrand's skill tooltip.
• Cleaned up some notifications about Navy Forts in the Black Pearl Treasure Map that spammed the game logs.
• Cleaned up various prints in the game so there's less spam in the game's crash logs.
• Code cleanup with flagships. Expect more changes to come down the line with flagships. There's still some polishing to do, but now they're functional. Yay!
• Fixed various typos throughout the game.
• Major cleanup of login code.
• Modified how the client communicates with the server to reduce in-game latency (please test various things to make sure nothing is acting unusual after this!)
• Refactored generation of Treasure Maps (may further improve Main Menu -> Island loading times).
• Refactored ship AI code to ease server load.
• Refactored ship object hierarchy for better performance.
• Refactors of quest initialization have improved loading speeds when launching the game.
• Removed dead ship and world code from older POTCO-era refactors.
• Removed random code Disney used for debugging.
• Significant cleanup of client distributed networking code.
• Various deprecation warnings from Panda3D have been addressed.
• Whitelist and blacklist updates.

Known Issues

• Some enemies in Invasions may slide across the ground in a frozen pose.
• The sky may change randomly to daytime when you board Bo Beck's ship in the tutorial.
• The headers like "Sell Items" or "Catalog" in stores are blank.
  • This is due to a core Panda3D engine issue. We're coordinating with the P3D devs to get it resolved soon.
• When sailing, there may be an occasional issue where your ship skips across the water jaggedly.
  • This is an unintended consequence of several core changes we made to sailing to fix other issues that commonly plague the High Seas
  • We had to choose between this, or fixing the "Void" bug with sailing (details on that in the sailing bugfixes section of these notes)
  • Considering the void bug makes you lose your loot and boots you off the ship entirely, we figured we've chosen the lesser of two evils here.
  • We're still working on resolving this issue overall, thanks for your patience.
• The Goliath in the Black Pearl Treasure Map will not deal any damage.
  

February

2021-2-3 tlopo-pyp-v1.3.6

Bugfixes

• Fixed a rare district reset that'd wipe a whole ship when sinking in SvS.
• Fixed an occasional district reset loading into the Black Pearl Boss Battle caused by the Navy Guards being initialized in an invalid state.
• Loading into PvP matches has been polished.
  • There should be reduced jittering and jumping around in the directions screen.
• Potentially fixed a random '345' disconnect error. If this fix does not work, we have another potential fix already prepared to try.
• When loading into the Black Pearl Boss Battle, the cutscene and loading onto the ship is now properly polished and synchronized across all players.

Maintenance

• Server maintenance.

Known Issue

• We're tracking a random issue that's occurring with ship masts. We don't really know what caused this, but keep on the lookout for it.
  • If your crash log says "Mast Issue!" please send it to support@tlopo.com and let us know what you were doing when you crashed.

2021-2-1 tlopo-pyp-v1.3.5

Features

• The new Bane, Mojo, and Spirit Doll sound effects are now available.
  • We've received some internal feedback on these new sound effects and will likely be making more adjustments to them in an upcoming update.
  • Making custom sound effects is new territory for us, we're learning as we go. Thanks for your patience!
• The Behemoth Blade now has its own exclusive special skill, "Titan's Curse."
  • Increases maximum health, damage, and your attacks now apply a toxin while the transformation is active.
  • Dark Curse has become a more and more common skill over time, and we wanted to give Behemoth Blade something special since it's a well-revered legendary.

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug where admin announcement messages would only show in chat and not have a pop-up.
• Fixed a bug where teleporting into a lobby caused the loading screen to not show the proper image.
• Fixed a bug with Lobbies that caused crew chat to disappear in certain instances after you've left the lobby.
• Fixed an issue with Jumbee Fire.
• Fixed multiple issues with cross-shard functionality in Lobbies.
  • You should now be properly teleported into a lobby if you're joining from a different ocean.
• Fixed several other misc. issues with the teleportation system.
• Players who have not finished the Black Pearl Story Quest no longer can create a Black Pearl lobby.
• Players within a lobby now teleport independently to the Lobby interior location instead of to the Lobby host, except in a Find-A-Crew lobby where this behavior is desired.
  • This should significantly speed up Lobby load times.
  • This is because your teleportation was previously based on the Lobby host, so players who have slow computers would make everyone's loading times worse.

Maintenance

• Code cleanup.

January

2021-1-26 tlopo-pyp-v1.3.4

Features

• Treasure Fleet icons will now appear on the server list when one is active, much like with invasions.
• Functionality has also been added for the Queen Anne's Revenge's icon to show up as well, once we've properly patched up all of its bugs and have it fully released.
• When selling ships, you are now refunded 75% of the materials spent upgrading the ship to its current tier.
• This does not apply to downgrading, to encourage sticking to a path.
• You can now toggle Discord Rich Presence API on and off in the settings window.
  • This is a nice mini feature that was added a long time ago, which broadcasts what you're doing on the game as a Discord status message. Now you can actually toggle it on and off, a much-needed feature!

Bugfixes

• Fixed a bug that allowed players to click the Leave button in the Lobby menu while sitting down at a Parlor Game table.
  • Doing so would teleport them to what's known as a "quiet zone," a space in-between actual loaded areas like Port Royal.
  • Now, an error message will display saying you can't teleport while playing a Parlor Game.
  • Once you leave the table, the button will become functional as normal.
• Fixed a bug where certain quest NPCs weren't offering their quests to players, instead just brushing them off entirely.
• Fixed a bug where Davy Jones Crew random bosses wouldn't spawn.
• Fixed a bug where Dutchman's Wrath wasn't working on Davy Jones Crew bosses.
• Fixed a bug where enemies sometimes spawned in crookedly.
• Fixed a bug where fireworks shows would still play every hour even after their relevant holiday ended.
• Fixed a bug where forts in the Recover the Black Pearl Treasure Map were barely taking damage.
• Fixed a bug where music wouldn't play during fireworks shows for the Fourth of July and TLOPO Anniversary events.
• Fixed a bug where players were taking damage when leaving Undead Poker, instead of only when they lost.
• Fixed a bug where players would be stuck on an infinite black screen if they died while in jail while using a Muertos Mojito potion.
• Fixed a bug where players would sometimes drop into the water when spawning on Kingshead.
• Fixed a bug where win messages from Poker or Blackjack would be printed twice in chat.
• Fixed a bug where you couldn't properly speak to NPCs that provided hints, such as those on the beaches of the SvS islands, or Leon Frost in the Yuletide Manor.
• Fixed a bug with the Time of Day (skybox coloration) system that also factored into the broken fireworks.
• Fixed a crash related to PvP.
• Fixed a crash when clicking the Leave lobby button.
• Fixed a crash with loot drops.
• Fixed a deeper-rooted issue that caused random crashes when launching a ship.
  • Basically, the game was deleting a core function too soon while you were loading into your ship, causing the your game to crash.
• Fixed a district reset related to NPC's animations/idle emotes.
• Fixed a district reset when entering Cannon Defense.
• Fixed a district reset when exiting a Cannon Defense game.
• Fixed a district reset when throwing grenades at other players while using the Muertos Mojito potion.
• Fixed an exploit where players could swap weapons to increase their grenade damage with certain ammo types.
• Fixed an issue where Find a Crew was allowing players to stack over 12 people in a crew.
• Fixed an issue where loot containers would no longer be interactable when the player unloaded and reloaded the container by walking a far distance away.
• Fixed an issue where players would sometimes crash when an ammo collided with a ship in Cannon Defense. This was most likely to happen with ammo types such as Bait Shot.
• Fixed an issue where players would sometimes crash when purchasing certain Cannon Defense ammo like Bait Shot.
• Fixed an issue where the Muertos Mojito was breaking and allowing undead players to attack anyone when teleporting between islands.
  • If you are in a Meetup or Parlor Games lobby, and you drink a PvP potion, you are now able to open the lobby menu window, allowing you to manage the lobby if you're the leader, or leave through the GUI button if you want to.
  • Previously, you weren't able to access the lobby menu while in a lobby while undead (complicated, I know).
  • You will still be unable to access the lobby menu if you are undead while out in the main world. This only affects you if you entered a lobby non-undead, and then drank a PvP potion.
• Potentially fixed an issue where you couldn't speak to certain Shipwrights because they all offered the same quest.

Maintenance

• Added several new spawn points when loading onto Kingshead so players aren't bunched up on top of each other as much when loading in.
• Added some logging to help debug an issue with the Ship Repair minigame.
• Adjusted names for various daily quests for clarity.

Code Cleanup

• Rewrote the title and description the first task of the "Caribbean Struggle" quest so it isn't an exact copy of the overall quest's description & title.
• There is now a loading screen hint for the slow walk toggle key.
• Various typo fixes.
• Whitelist and blacklist updates.