New Patch to 1.3.x

There is a big (700+ MB) patch waiting for us today it seems, this is for an upgrade to 1.3.x. At the moment, servers are still running on 1.2.86.0, they are trying to fix some minor things before going live with 1.3.x, see here.


Here are the release notes for 1.3.30.0, copied from the official support page:

This is a milestone build, so this patch is a large download (700+M). However, there are some exciting new things in 1.3.x!

* Unrest Protection: Conceptually, this protection represents the attention and presence of the owning nation keeping unrest to a minimum around the port. At the conclusion of a port battle, regardless of who won the battle, we put the port into a state of Unrest Protection for 96 hours. See below for details.
* Mission UI revamp: The same UI Strike Team that brought you chat bubbles and more intelligent chat channels (among other things) last milestone, bring you an overhaul of the Mission UI. Details below.
* Exchange shops: Turn-in missions involving marks, commendations, and the like were cumbersome and time-consuming. We've replaced them with Exchange Shops which are much more efficient. They're explained in some detail in this devlog and in this one.
* The new Pointe-à-Pitre: This updated town was supposed to have been in 1.2.x but it proved to be more challenging than we'd anticipated. It's in now, however, complete with new art and new missions. This devlog and this one give an overview.
* Dueling: The Dueling portion of the new skirmish system is in place. This devlog provides an overview of what is available and what is to come.

Known Issues:

* Yard Armor (and other Navy career missions): Logging out after doing the hard work but before turning in the mission will prevent completion. Be sure to turn in before logging out.
* When you're a member of a group and you win a PvP battle, loot goes into the group loot box even if your groupmates aren't in the battle.
* If you get disconnected during Boarding combat, the results are not what you'd hope or expect. We're working to resolve this ASAP.
* Landmark battles break after someone loses in boarding combat. We keep finding and fixing issues but apparently more remain.
* There are textures that flicker throughout the world. We are aware of several of these and working to fix them, but feel free to log them with screenshots in case we've missed any.

Differences between 1.2.84.0 and 1.3.24.0 include but aren't limited to:

Ships / Outfitting:

* Invincible: Sail patterns appeared in reverse on some sails. Fixed that.
* Mordaunt: Increased the production cost to 35,000 doubloons/durability. Also, when the ship was damaged, debris floated above the deck. Now it rests on the deck as it should. And some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Sleek Mordaunt: Increased the cost to 45,000 db/durability
* Valiant: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Triumphant: Hull damage wasn't showing up graphically. Fixed that.
* Agamemnon: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that. Also, hull damage on this ship didn't show up graphically. Fixed that.
* Alexander: Increased the cost to 45,000 db/durability. This ship was missing a 1 DR boost that it was supposed to receive on its bow/stern. Fixed. Also, some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Arcadia: When masts were shot down, debris remained floating in the air. Fixed that.
* Athena: Now, when masts are destroyed, there's a broken mast base instead of a clean and smooth deck.
* Capricieux: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that. Also, customized colorization wasn't showing up on the hull at longer ranges. Fixed that.
* Couronne: Increased broadside damage reduction to 14 and structure to 3300. Also, added bilge pump and fixed a colorization problem. Corrected the sails that would show sail patterns backwards.
* Cruizer: Fixed the bilge pump. No more water inside the hold. Also fixed the cannons that were firing through the sides of the ship instead of through proper gunports.
* Mediator: Aft cannons no longer clip through their gunports and the railing. Also, added bilge pump. No more water in the hold.
* Mignone Indiaman: Fixed an LOD problem with the deck. Also fixed sails that displayed sail patterns backward.
* Deliverance Frigate: Fixed UI to display top speed properly. It was incorrectly reporting a top speed of 15 when the top speed is 14.5.
* Myrmidon: Hull damage on this ship didn't show up graphically. Fixed that. Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Cerberus: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Heavy San Mateo: Increased broadside DR to 12.
* Trader's San Mateo: Increased broadside DR to 10.
* Hornet: Added bilge pump and moved the bow spray out to the front where it belongs.
* Dolphyn: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that. Also, there was a problem with using customized decals on the rear tri-sails. So customizing sails no longer adds a decal to those sails.
* Oliphant: Hull damage on this ship didn't show up graphically. Fixed that.
* Hermes: Reduced the resources used by the LOD version. This can result in better performance on the Open Sea if there's a Packet Boat in visible range. Also, the flying jib would reappear before its bowsprit did when being repaired. That's backward so we fixed it.
* Mystique: Fixed bilge pump. Also, sail patterns appeared reversed on some sails. Fixed that.
* Hercules: The ship fires 4 swivels but graphically only showed three. Similarly, it fired 12 lower cannons but graphically only had 11. Now graphics match ship stats. Also fixed a colorization bug and improved the look of shot-down masts.
* Sleek Hercules: Decreased the cost to 110,000 db/durability. Added structure and armor bonuses (12.5%), sail bonus (30%). Increased tracking to 21. Set visibility to ~69 miles. Increased acceleration to 2.12, capacity to 195, speed to 16.15.
* Heavy Hercules: Decreased the cost to 110,000 db/durability. Increased armor and structure bonuses to 35%, increased sail bonus to 15%, increased reload bonus to 10%, increased tracking to 16. Increased broadside DR to 11. Increased bow/stern DR to 5.
* MC Hercules: Increased accuracy to 4, increased structure and armor bonuses to 22.5%, increased sail bonus to 15%, increased reload bonus to 18.5%, increased tracking to 18. Set max acceleration to 1.66. Increased capacity to 170, speed to 15.8, broadside DR to 8.
* Pirate Hercules: Increased structure and armor bonuses to 20%, increased sail bonus to 15%, increased reload bonus to 16%, increased target tracking to 18. Added one bow/stern chaser. Set max acceleration to 1.51. Increased capacity to 180, speed to 15.8, broadside DR to 8.
* Postillionen: Reduced the resources used by the LOD version. This can result in better performance on the Open Sea if there's a Postillionen in visible range.
* Prince: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Raa: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Raft: Sail showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Rowboat: Added bilge pump to keep water out of the hold. Also added oarlocks.
* Chaleur Schooner: You could see the wake through the ship. Fixed that.
* St. Anne Schooner: Corrected the way customized sail patterns show up on the tri-sail. Also, per player feedback, the mainsail now furls.
* Otter Skuda: Damage on one side appeared graphically on the other side. Fixed that.
* Jamaica Sloop: Half the stern windows were always lit and half were not. Now, they're consistent.
* Stralsund: Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Sultan: Customized colors showed up in the wrong spots. Fixed that. Fixed the rear cannons - they weren't lined up with the gun ports. Also fixed the sails that showed sail patterns backwards.
* Trinity: The collision volume (the physics that says how close your ship can get to another ship) now matches the graphical size of the ship.
* Van Hoorn: Sail patterns appeared in reverse on some sails. Fixed that.
* Wenden: Hull damage on this ship didn't show up graphically. Fixed that. Some sails showed decals reversed. Fixed that.
* Dromedary Indiaman: Fixed some graphics issues.
* Yacht: Damage on this ship showed up as black dots. Should look better now.
* Smelling Salts: Looked like they were unsecured cargo and warned about being lost at sea even though they were secured and wouldn't be lost at sea. Now the text matches reality.
* Tar Kegs: It was possible to activate these while in the Open Sea and in town. Now you can only use them in ship space as intended.
* Loot: A few loot items had incorrect text. Fixed that.
* Leibniz's Mechanical Reloader (medium): Is now in the Ship Outfitting: Medium category where it belongs instead of the Ship Outfitting: General category where it didn't belong.

Ship Combat / Skills:

* It was possible to have more than six ships on a side in an ad hoc battle. Fixed that.
* Fixed the bug that caused you to lose all cargo on partial surrender. We've fixed it before but then we find a new way to break it.
* It was possible to get stuck in the "corners" of some combat rooms. We've smoothed out those corners to make it easier to escape.
* While in boarding combat, ships now have 75% resistance to damage.
* You can now board at speeds of up to 10 knots. You can now claim prizes at speeds of up to 8 knots.
* Warning Shot: Now has its own icon instead of using the one for Focused Fire.
* Sometimes it's possible for colliding ships to get stuck together. Usually, in that situation, at least one ship can't fire. If the other can, the one that can't fight back will be sunk. That's not fair. We've been as yet unable to prevent the collision. However, you now have a skill called Untangle Rigging to enable you to get unstuck.
* All repair skills allow repairs at 99% integrity and below.
* Removed career respec item from the junk buyer. You can find career respecs at the commendation exchange shops (more info below).
* Dropped boarding resist from 75% to 60% since it unintentionally stacks with outfitting resistance gear.

Freetrader Skills:

* Expert Carpenter: Reduced repair from 70% to 60% armor, 50% structure.
* Hold Together: Now has its own icon and no longer uses the one for Economy: Production.
* Provision Allies: Boarding: Was clearing when you zoned. Fixed that.
* Rum Ration: Now consumes 5 Kegs of Rum, Rough instead of 1 Rum
* Travel: Now has a more distinct icon instead of just being a mirror image of Battle Preparations: Maneuver.

Navy Skills:

* Break Morale: Stun now lasts 5 seconds.
* Desperate Shot and Last Stand: Now gated on armor integrity, not structure integrity.
* Emergency Repairs: No longer protects from reapplication of debuffs for its duration. Still strips debuffs.
* Escort: The floaty shield now lasts as long as the effect.
* Final Defense: The duration was too high in 1.2. Set to 40 seconds.
* Ultima Ratio Regum: Now has its own icon and no longer uses the one for Vital Strike.

Privateer Skills:

* Death's Embrace: Has its own icon now, instead of using the icon for Burst of Speed.
* Signals: The target of this skill would be set to in-combat. The cooldown for this skill is shorter than the cooldown for the in-combat status effect. Thus is was possible to use this skill to keep another player in combat indefinitely. Fixed that.

Pirate Skills:

* Drink and the Devil: Changed to a click buff instead fo a toggle. 3 minute duration, 15 minute recharge, costs 60 morale, increases turn rate, reload rate, acceleration and damage by 10%. Increases speed by 5%.
* Overloaded Shot: Now as text for a status effect tooltip instead of code.
* Rum Ration : Now consumes 5 Kegs of Rum, Rough instead of 1 Rum
* Run Them Down: Added +7.5% boost to OS speed.

Swashbuckling:

* When you zoned into the AvCom encounter on smaller ships, the Local Map was automatically zoomed out way too far. Fixed that.
* Removed swashbuckling respecs from the trainer shop. You can find them in the same place as the career respecs (exchange shops described below).

Dirty Fighting:

* Reckless Maelstrom: Corrected tooltip to say 40 initiative instead of 50.
* Terrifying Shot: Tooltip now mentions the 50 balance cost.
* Improved Vicious Strike and Vicious Strike: Corrected to deal weapon damage and weapon damage -1 respectively.

Florentine:

* Florentine Masters: They were using Fencing swords. Now using Florentine weapons.
* Flurry: Corrected tooltip to say 30 initiative instead of 40.
* Vicious Thrust: Tooltip now displays the correct range.

Fencing:

* Sprint: No longer requires a target because that was silly. You can no longer Sprint when Hamstrung. You can still Sprint out of the 'dazed' effect. This is intended.
* Strike: Gives 5 initiative when you kill a target with it.
* Vicious Strike: Gives 20 initiative when you kill a target with it. Corrected tooltip to say 0-4 additional damage.
* Improved Vicious Strike: Corrected tooltip to say deals weapon damage.



* Fixed the particle effect on the pistol death emote.

Missions:

* Changed the rooms for some standard missions to add a little variety.
* French Tutorial: Dimitri Sabate had a big, empty dialog box when you tried to talk to him sometimes. Now, if he has nothing to say, he doesn't take so much screen real estate to say it.
* New group missions are available for adding or reducing unrest in ports. Speak to your local rebel agent or garrison commander for details.Repeatable Faction missions: If you cancelled them, they weren't reoffered. Fixed that.
* Fighting School Missions: The trainers said you could retake all the missions but that's no longer true. Corrected the text.
* Pirate Suppression missions: If you died, your only choice was to Give Up. If you have Smelling Salts, you should be able to revive now.
* Sea of Souls (and others): The only way to leave was to win or die. No matter how long you waiting without firing, it always appeared you were in combat. Fixed that.
* Take Command of Ship: Clarified that you must return to the Pirate Trainer you took the mission from. The Pirate Trainer in Marsh Harbour can't help you unless he's the one you started with.
* Red Tide: Players doing this mission for the first time with group members who had completed it before weren't able to complete quest upon turn in. Fixed that.
* Jungle Missions: Have been revamped and will be removed from your mission list. You can take them again if you like.
* Commendable Action: Fixed an exploit in this mission.
* Groundbreaking: When leaving after completing the mission, you'd get a bogus warning that you hadn't completed everything. Fixed that.
* My Ship for a Drop of Gin: Removed patrols so that you don't chain-pull too many NPCs. They were making the mission tedious.
* Sea Madness: No longer points you to the wrong port to find Justin Pike.
* Supply Lines: Cancelling the mission now cleans up its mess better.
* Bloody Noses: NPCs killed in avatar combat weren't supposed to count. Now they don't - only ships sunk count.
* New in Town?: Mission name no longer overrides the name on the door for future missions.
* Picking Up The Pieces: It wasn't clear that you needed to go to the Tailor to replace your peg-leg. Clarified.
* Please Stow Your Valuables: Clarified why you're dealing with a different merchant in this mission.
* It's a Jungle Out There: Tourist NPCs, when rescued, now despawn properly. Also, you're no longer rescuing clones. Added more variety to the tourists.
* Bad Neighbors: Exiting Avatar Combat dumped you back into the upstairs room in the tavern which didn't make much sense. Improved that. Also, Mission text indicated you had been on patrol when you didn't remember having been on patrol. Fixed that.
* Debt Repaid: Nicole Esprit no longer stands with her back to you. That was just rude.
* Filthy Traitors: The mission rewards were swapped. Fixed that.
* Freakin' Deacon: The Bartender no longer sends you to the docks to find Benito Ortiz.
* The Lying Dutchman: Mission name no longer overrides the name on the door for future missions.
* With Interest: No longer uses the Shop door as that didn't make much sense.
* Cooler Heads Prevail: You were told to speak to Ibrahim in Cape de Vela but he's in Rio de la Hacha. Fixed that. Similarly for Gesture of Peace.
* Dividing Loyalties: Now the Freetrader Trainer speaks in text instead of code when you accept the mission.
* A Riot Is an Ugly Thing: Made it difficult to miss the fact that you need to talk to Joachim Dequoy.
* Unforeseen Cargo: Now offers a reward for your efforts.
* Bad Blood: Corrected location in mission description.
* The Devil in the Details: Mission name no longer overrides the name on the door for future missions. Also, moved yet another NPC off yet another chair.
* Support Your Local Farmer (and others): Allies were suicidal - they'd barrel in and draw aggro and get themselves sunk. They should be a little more intelligent now.
* Ransom: Now directs you to the correct location for turn-in.
* Beating the Brush: Corrected the spawns.
* Captive Audience: If you waffled, you could get yourself into a state of not being able to complete the story arc. Now we do a better job of protecting indecisive people from themselves.
* Dedicated Support: Now offers a trivial XP reward.
* Family Man: It was possible to do the missions in this chain in an order that would prevent you from turning in some of them. Made "Chain of Command" a requirement for "It Takes a Hero." This means you'll have to finish the spy subplot in order to continue the main story from the magistrate.
* Lady Adora Fausto: It was possible for French to take the Pirate version and vise versa. Not any more.
* Polacre Refit: You can now turn in for a Polacre refit any time. Speak to Ismail in Grand Turk.
* The level 25 and 45 career missions for each career were giving out way too many marks of victory. Reduced the MoV rewards: Level 25: was 36 -> now 5. Level 45: was 72 -> now 9.
* Collision Course: The enemies are now Spanish, not French. This matches what the mission has been saying all along.
* Gather the Forces: This mission was too difficult to solo so it's now labeled as a group mission.
* Motherly Love: If you cancelled the mission, you couldn't complete it if you took it again. Fixed that.
* I Want Your Skull: Sometimes the NPC would speak in code instead of text. Fixed that.
* Escape from the Island of the Monkeys: This mission wasn't completing correctly for groups (and was showing up incorrectly in the Group Mission UI). Similarly for almost every other group-enabled mission in the game.
* Heirs in Judgment: It was possible to sink the ship early and break the mission. Fixed that.
* Island of the Monkeys: The player who speaks to the researcher is the one who needs to click the longboat to exit.
* The Thing Beneath the Fort: You could re-take Pig Tracks after completing this mission even though you shouldn't be able to. Fixed that.
* Fine Specimens: Clarified what the Specimen Vial does.
* Those Who Fight Further: Mission name no longer overrides the name on the door for future missions.
* Be He Ever So Humble (and others): There were some rare spawns who wouldn't behave correctly in combat (usually, they just wouldn't attack). This was hard to pin down because they are rare so the bug didn't repro every time. Fixed now, though.
* Corpi Hippocraticum: You actually have to complete all the missions offered by the Regimental Surgeon before you can complete this mission but that wasn't clear in the text. Clarified.
* Double Bluff: Mission name no longer overrides Mogens Brisebois' name on his door.
* Mogens Brisebois is Missing!: Mission name no longer overrides the name on the door for future missions.
* Research Assistance: What the scientists were saying and what actually happened weren't making much sense together. Altered reality to fit the scientists' version. Ah, the joy of living in a virtual world.
* Vendetta's End: The mission wouldn't advance after boarding the Admiral's vessel. Fixed that and other issues.
* Attracting Attention: There are now witnesses when you publicly arrest the pirate in the tavern.
* Blinded By Science: If you cancelled this mission after completing Pinch of Saltpeter and Blackpowder Art, you'd would never be able to complete the mission. Now you can and it's clear how. Also corrected the reference to Refined Pistol Powder.
* A Pinch of Saltpeter (and others): Several missions have been set to no longer allow partial delivery because there's a bug that would cause you to lose items.
* Battle of Grand Turk: This instance of the town had a Harbor Master in it, allowing you to leave a ship there and attempt later to teleport to it. Removed that Harbor Master.
* Buying In: Fixed the display of the rewards - they were getting truncated.
* For Science!: Fixed the door so you can leave the room.
* A Fort Too Far: Your allies wouldn't listen to commands and would run off and aggro everything. Now they're a little smarter.
* Seventeen Bones: You had to press X to pick up the bones. Now you can use the mouse instead, if you like.
* Step Right Up: This mission is no longer repeatable.
* Stop and Go: Clarified the encounter objectives are for the mission owner.
* Spiritual Currency: You used to click on the crate instead of burn it. Now you have to collect a barrel of rum and burn a crate of tobacco during the course of the encounter.
* The Gunner of God: You can now exit through the door.
* Yard Armor: NPCs now speak to you in text instead of code. Also, if you're not British, you weren't being sent to the correct port. Fixed that.
* You're the Bait: This mission is now solo-only because it gives a ship for use in the mission.
* Bait and Switch: This mission is now solo-only because it gives a ship for use in the mission.
* The Enemy Within: It is no longer assumed that you have spoken with Mayan warriors.
* Grim Raiders: The encounter objective now updates when you finish talking to the ship.
* The Hermit of High Wave Harbor: NPCs were missing forearms and hands. Fixed that.
* Horse Armor: The fort commander was using the wrong animation. He should look better now.
* An Ill Wind: Due to a bug, it was possible to complete both sides of this arc. Fixed that.
* In Nomine Patri: Now has "A Simple Retrieval" as a prerequisite. Previously, it was possible to get missions out of order.
* Matters of Great Importance: Destination line is now text instead of code.
* The Ruins: Mayan Guards now do a better job of trying to prevent you taking the idol.
* The Sawbones: You had to use the mouse to pick up the skulls. Pressing X should work now too.
* Walking Wounded, Walking Dead: Moved the door to the Coxswain.
* Supernatural mission rewards: They used to have each other as prerequisites. Now they only require that you have completed the necessary mission.

Economy:

* If you list items in the Auction House and the port changed hands and then changed back before the items sold, you may not be able to see the items yourself. They'd show up in the Sell tab, but searching in the Buy tab wouldn't list them, even though they were there. This caused many players to think they'd lost items even when they hadn't. Fixed that - if you can see the Auction House, you should be able to see items you've listed there.
* Uncertified Deeds, lineship bundles, rigging and hulls are now unsecured cargo.
* Crated ammo can be lost when you sink. Unpacked ammo is still secured cargo. But manufacturers of ammo should be able to lose their goods in a battle same as anyone else.
* Improved the distinction between the icons for gold ingots and brass ingots.
* Brass Fittings now has its own icon instead of using the one for Iron Fittings.
* Zink Ore now has its own icon, instead of using the icon for Silver Ore.
* Hemp Canvas: Now has its own icon and no longer uses the one for Spun Cotton.
* Shipwright Materials: A few had incorrect text - said they were large when they were small. Fixed that.
* Recipe: Extract Saltpeter: Icon was a cannon which didn't make much sense. Now it's a bowl of white powder.
* Careening Camp recipe: Fixed reference. Now Rebuild: 'Minerva' Frigate (Captured) is text, not code.
* "Rebuild" ship recipes: The icons were all red, indicating warships, even for merchant ships and scout ships. The color of the icon should match the type of ship now.
* Xebec recipes: They're Corsair Xebecs, not Algiers Xebecs.
* Reduced the number of different commendation types from 10 to 5 for nationals. Added a new commendation exchange shop that allows conversion of deprecated commendations into their valid equivalents.
* Re-tuned all commendation turn-ins. In some cases, this means that a turn-in now gives more items per commendation; in others, it means the turn-in gives less per commendation.
* Removed all ship deeds from commendation turn-ins. They were badly distorting the ship crafting market.
* Removed all experience books from commendation turn-ins.
* If your inventory was full when you tried to use a European Commendation, you'd lose the commendation and not receive the items. Fixed that.
* Fixed issues where writs were available to the wrong career.
* Increased the cost of respec items from 10 to 20 commendations for all careers.
* Exchange Shops: This is a major revision to turn-ins for Marks of Victory and Citations of Conquest. Most loot-only recipe books were moved to exchange shops. More common books were added to the MoV shop; rarer books were added to the CC shop. As noted above, there are a couple very informative devlogs on this topic that go into much more detail.

Open Sea:

* When we modified the range at which you could click to enter towns from the Open Sea to prevent the problem of spawning so far away you couldn't click to re-enter, we made it so that, in a few cases, you could enter one town from another without sailing. We tweaked the range again to fix that, hopefully without returning the previous issue.
* It was possible to join a PvP battle that existed before you entered the Open Sea. That shouldn't be. We think we've fixed it.
* It was possible to achieve more than 6 on a side in an ad hoc. That shouldn't be possible any more.
* Right-clicking on an enemy ship shouldn't attack it / engage it in battle. Right-click does attack without targeting inside a battle but shouldn't initiate battle while in the Open Sea.
* Fleets: These are large, non-aggressive, groups of high level NPCs. They sail around in packs of 8 or 12 (8 being more common) level 50 ships. The goal is that an organized group of players can attack these fleets and generate a large amount of unrest from sinking them. Nationals have three different kinds of fleets: 1) Patrolling Fleets: 8 level 50 frigates. Sinking all 8 generates about 300 unrest. 2) Maneuvering Fleets: 5 elite SOLs (they cannot be captured), and 7 non-elite escorting frigates. Sinking all generates about 450 unrest. The elite SOLs have improved loot tables. 3) Resupply Fleets: 1 Elite Couronne Gallon (that can't be captured), 4 elite Ships of the Line (that can't be captured), and 7 escorting frigates. The Galleon drops a huge amount of potentially very valuable loot. The SOLs have improved loot tables, and the escorts have the normal navy loot tables. Sinking all will generate roughly 450 unrest. Resupply Fleets are quite rare, particularly at ports that are not in unrest or contention. Pirates have 2 different kinds of fleets: 1) Lurking Fleets: 1 Elite level 50 frigate and 7 regular level 50 frigates. The elite frigate has improved loot tables. Sinking all ships generates roughly 300 unrest. 2) Hunting Fleets: 6 Elite level 50 frigates and 6 regular level 50 frigates. The elite frigates have improved loot tables. Sinking all ships generates roughly 450 unrest.
* Increased the chance that ports will spawn merchants of other nations.
* Some NPCs now spawn closer to their target port. Spawning ships part way along the path to their destination port increases the rate at which ships arrive at any given port, creating a relative increase in the supply of ships at any given port. This is offset with a decrease in ships leaving the port, or passing by on the way to other ports, but since we changed ports to call for a fairly even mix of ships, we're want to see more of the ships that particular port is calling for.
* Once a port has moved into Unrest it will almost exclusively spawn ships of its nation and the nation attacking it, in approximately equal proportion. This should make contention manipulation easier.
* Eliminated the chance that local merchants will spawn during the Unrest phase. Added a chance for local merchants to spawn during the Contention phase. This should also make it more likely that you will see ships of the attacking and defending nation during the critical unrest phase.
* Reduced the chance of spawning evil pirate gangs at ports that are in the Unrest state. This should help further increase the supply of appropriate ships to these ports.
* The Athena Frigate should now appear much more frequently in NPC groups.
* Cached AI paths to help improve performance.

PvP / Port Contention:

* PvP Rewards: We've added a new item, the Mark of Trade. It has distinct art from the MoV, as well as a distinct description and name, but is otherwise identical to the MoV and has no inherent functionality. Whenever you get Marks of Victory, you should also get an equal number of Marks of Trade. Whenever you kill an enemy player, if you get Marks of Victory, you should also get doubloons. The amount of the doubloon reward is equal to what you would get from an AI ship of that level. Note this is based on the ship level, not the enemy player's character level. More info can be found in this devlog.
* Surrender: Fixed a bug that sometimes prevented the winner from receiving surrendered loot.
* Reduced the duration of the existing +damage and +speed conquest consumables.
* Increased the number of conquest consumables gained from a turn-in from 1 to 10 (5 for the new XP/loot consumables).
* Revised the tooltips on the old conquest consumables to be clearer about their effects.
* Added requirements to all conquest consumables to prevent you from accidentally using more than one at a time.
* Increased the amount of unrest generated for killing NPCs and PCs by roughly 5 times. This is to compensate for the change to group unrest generation.
* Group kills now generate personal contention points.
* Added chat window notifications when a port enters or exits Martial Law state.
* The time remaining for the unrest and unrest protection states now show in the Conquest Status tab on the Local Map.
* Broke the underdog benefit effect into two effects, one for XP and one for loot, and gave those effects distinct new stacking categories. Created two new conquest consumables: +10%XP/4hr and +10%loot/4hr. Assigned their effects to the same stacking categories as the underdog benefits.
* Cayo de Marquis: Had unrest decay. It should not have. Fixed that.
* Landmark Battles now show you how many ships remain alive on your side as well as how many enemies remain.
* Landmark Battles: Fixed an exploit that enabled folks who died in avatar combat to return to the battle.
* Unrest Protection: In order to allow wider access to ports, we are adding Unrest Protection to ports after the port battle for that port has taken place. At the conclusion of a port battle, regardless of who won the battle, we put the port into a state of Unrest Protection for 96 hours. If unrest or contention is generated in any way at a port with Unrest Protection, that unrest is instead generated at the nearest port that is able to generate unrest. If no port is able to generate unrest within the maximum unrest range (about 100 miles), then the unrest is discarded. Discarded unrest is not added to the player's personal contention total for the port, nor to his global contention total. The pirate raid state takes precedence over Unrest Protection, but the timer for Unrest Protection duration begins when the pirate raid state begins. This means that a port that is raided by pirates will experience 48 hours of pirate raid, followed by 48 hours of Unrest Protection.

Art / Sound:

* Added infoservices to Pirate Hunters in several towns. Also upgraded their appearances.
* Tweaked appearances of Garrison Commanders in various towns.
* Tweaked the appearances of Society Registrars.
* De Zeetrekkers got a change of clothes.
* In certain towns, the door to the Company Office wasn't showing up correctly. Fixed that.
* If you logged out near the pews on the balcony of what we call the small church (like the one in Jenny Bay), when you logged back in, you'd be stuck there. Fixed that.
* Bluefields: Chickens now sound like chickens.
* Campeche: Wooden cannons are now metal.
* Cape de Villa and similar towns: Your camera could intersect building walls and such way too often. Improved that.
* Caracas: Magistrate's Office no longer has daylight streaming through the windows.
* Cartegna, Havana, Port au Prince, Santiago, Tampico, Villa Hermosa: Added Spanish NPC music & Spanish dancers.
* Cayenne: It no longer sounds like it's raining when it's not.
* Charlesfort: Earthbound a floating NPC.
* de L'isle: The Junk Merchant was bending over a non-existent desk outside. He's been moved to his actual desk in the shop. Also fixed his name.
* Fort de France: The Junk Merchant was bending over a non-existent desk outside. He's been moved to his actual desk in the shop.
* Golden Lake: Added wood carving sounds to the wood carver.
* Grand Turk: Fixed an issue where the mystery map would appear on your wall without having completed the House of Solomon missions.
* La Isabela: Hired a bartender to work in the tavern.
* Puerta de Plata: The Junk Merchant was bending over a non-existent desk outside. He's been moved to his actual desk in the shop.
* Puerto del Principe: This town now uses a different layout than what it had before. This change is in preparation for new content being added in a future milestone.
* Rosignol (and towns that look like it): Fixed a seam that was running along the beach.
* San Juan: One of the priests was speaking code. Now he speaks English.
* Santiago: Improved the look of the northern coastline.
* Tortuga: The bartender in the open air bar is now behind the bar. Moved the sound for the beggars over to the beggars. The sign on the Tailor Shop door now indicates a Tailor Shop instead of just a shop.
* Vera Cruz: NPC walking on water now moved to dry land.
* Villa Hermosa Company Office: NPC's feet no longer penetrate the floor.
* Fixed several other NPC interpenetration or location issues.
* Changed the default texture for "can't find UC sail or flag" to something a little more period.
* Tweaked the transparency of the texture used to denote "this user-content sail has been banned."

UI:

* Mission UI changes:
*
o Removed the Personal and Group tabs. There is now one list.
o Added a "Show Group Missions" check box which only shows if you are grouped. It puts missions from the other members of your group in your list. Any mission you have, regardless of whether other group members have it, it always in your list. Also, the active group mission is always in your list.
o The mission list has a number of columns for mission level, type, distance, etc. The mission list headers can be clicked to sort the list on that column.
o There are new icons for mission types.
o There are now 5 mission difficulty colors. Which color depends on the player level and some rather complicated math.
o Changed the "mission difficulty label" to show the current challenge rating (Captain through Admiral). Moved that label into the mission details pane. The challenge rating will be either the character's rating or the group leader's rating, depending. (We don't show the challenge rating if it is the player's and it is the default.)
o Added a list of mission owners to the "Player count" (# column) tooltip in the mission list, and to the detail pane for each mission.
o Reworked the layout of the detail pane to make it work better for wrapped lines, some spacing changes, etc.
o When the mission UI is shown, we always select the first mission in the list automatically.
o If a mission is selected and it then disappears, we no longer select another mission. We leave the selection off, which leaves the detail window blank. This happens on Cancel Mission, for instance. It also can happen without the player's intervention, like if they have another player's mission selected, and that person cancels the mission.
* User Content UI: Text overlapped its box. Fixed that.
* Brightened the color of System HUD messages.
* Radar/Compass: BSharp modified the zoom ranges. Let us know what you think.
* Chat UI: The largest font size wasn't working correctly. Fixed.
* Chat UI: Fixed a bug that caused players to lose chat focus while grouped.
* Preferences: Added a new preference for General Messages in chat. Previously, the default color was purple. Now it's black and can be customized
* Tooltips: The ship deed tooltips are huge, and sometimes were displayed partially off the bottom of the screen. They're less likely to have that problem now.
* Esc will now close the Longboat Coxswain's UI as it should have done all along.
* Tailor Shop UI: The Show Body button works better than it did. There are still ways to prevent it working like putting yourself in a position that would require the camera to clip through a wall.

Stability / Performance:

* We had report of a player character getting into a funky state whereby he couldn't enter an ad hoc. Our server logs were full of "We're asking a player to join an ad-hoc encounter who's already in one." We're still not quite sure how he got into that state, but we've made a change that should make it less likely to happen again.
* Fixed a crash in the zone server that could occur if you tried to use a skill just at the wrong moment of leaving the room.
* Fixed a rare zone server crash.

Misc:

* Added more localized text from SOE