It looks like an event will soon be held on the Testbed server for players to try out the final chapter of Black Flags, Dread Saints. According to a post by Fraxl, "this Epic Mission will take all your skill and group tactics to beat, so bring your best gear and your most elite friends."

More details on the event, such as when it will be held, will be released soon, but for now Fraxl suggests you transfer your live characters to the Testbed this week. If you're not sure how to access the test server, here's all the information you need to get started.

Build 1.17: Eye of the Storm is now live on Pirates of the Burning Sea servers. As we've reported, you can now place buy orders in the Auction House; ship storing and mission sharing features have been added; and a new combat mechanic called Cannon Resistance Penetration was introduced. New level 50 ships were also added for each class.

You can read the full patch notes below. They were released in this thread discussing 1.17 on the official forums.

In case you missed it, the fifth episode of the Pirates of the Burning Sea podcast was recently released on the game's official Web site. Flying Lab CEO Russell "Rusty" Williams, Game Designer Lum, Art Director BSharp and Brady, the dev lead, once again answer questions submitted by fans.

The team answers questions about numerous topics, including advertising, Port Battle environments and lag. You can listen to the podcast in your browser here, or save the mp3 to your computer to listen to at your leisure. You can also check out what players are saying about the podcast in this thread on the official forums.

As we've reported, there's a ton of changes coming to Pirates of the Burning Sea in patch 1.17. Well, "Eye of the Storm" is now on the testbed, and the team is asking for your opinions on the update before it goes live. To that end, a testbed event is scheduled to be held tomorrow, July 24, at 5 p.m. PDT.

The purpose of the event is to get player feedback on the new level 50 ships that are being added for each class. You can read more about them in this dev blog entry or after the jump. The team also wants to know what players think about the other changes we've already mentioned, such as the Auction House updates and the new ship storing and mission sharing features.

According to the announcement, the event will consist of two parts: "A swashbuckling skirmish using the new St. Pierre map and a level 50 ship skirmish using the new career ships. The new ships are available in the Testbed auction houses now, but GMs also be giving them out before the event."

The Pirates of the Burning Sea team has been posting a ton of information on the upcoming patch 1.17 in a series of dev blog entries. Changes are coming to the Auction House; ship storing and mission sharing features will be added; and a new combat mechanic called Cannon Resistance Penetration will be introduced.

The Auction House changes will introduce Buy Orders, which "let you place orders for goods you need when there isn’t anyone currently selling them," as well as make the AH cleaner and easier to use. Fraxl's blog entry explains how you’ll be able to store up to 100 ships in your nation’s capital and share missions with your groupmates, and Lum outlines all of the new set of stats cannons will have thanks to the CRP combat mechanic.

Here's the basic idea surrounding CRP in 1.17: "Bigger cannons are going to ignore a percentage of the Damage Resistance on their target. This helps compensate for the fact that larger guns do less damage per second makes them more valuable against targets with lots of resistance.

The Pirates of the Burning Sea held an event on the Testbed server on Thursday in an attempt to resolve a lag issue. While the team feels they have created a fix to resolve the problem, they need to test it again before it goes live. To that end, they're asking as many players as possible to log on to the Testbed today at 2 p.m. PDT to PvP or attack fleets on the open sea. A 24v24 skirmish ship battle will begin at 4 p.m.

Instructions on what you should do when you log on to the Testbed or what to do if you experience lag can be found here. More information on the event can be found below.

The Pirates of the Burning Sea team is deploying 1.16.60.0 to the Testbed and is attempting to mitigate the lag that many players have reported. In order to do test out the lag issue, the team needs as many players as possible to sign on to the Testbed at 4 p.m. PDT today and PvP with others or attack fleets on the open sea.

A 24v24 skirmish ship battle for players to join will be created at at 6 p.m. PDT. According to the announcement, "we will be handing out ships and levels at the start of the event and we will be turning the sea red with lots of PVP zones." You'll even have the opportunity to compete against Flying Lab staff members during the test event.

Instructions on what you should do when you log on to the Testbed or what to do if you experience lag can be found here. More information on the event can be found below.

Build 1.16: Black Bart’s Bounty is now live on all North American, European and Australian servers in Pirates of the Burning Sea. Blockading has been introduced as a way to generate contention; the team has opened up chat channels and removed the need for Diplomacy; and you can now respawn with other sunken teammates when you sink in a skirmish. Here's some more information from the announcement:

This milestone update contains the penultimate chapter of the Black Flags and Dread Saints story arc, new rooms for role-players, Blockading, combat mechanic improvements, and many other changes.

You can also check out the full patch notes here or below.

The fourth episode of the Pirates of the Burning Sea podcast is now available to download as an mp3 from the game's official Web site. the episode features Flying Lab CEO Russell "Rusty" Williams, Game Designer Lum and Producer Misha as they answer questions submitted by players.

A lot of players asked if there was any news on port governance. Since it touches on so many game systems and is so complex, there is no set date on when port governance will be complete. Misha said they certainly hope to add more port battle maps, and Lum said there will be a huge epic mission in the closing chapter of Black Flags and Dread Saints.

For more information, listen to the podcast.

According to the last couple dev blogs on the Pirates of the Burning Sea Web site, patch 1.16 will include improvements to combat mechanics and will introduce roleplay rooms that you can use purely for your RP events. The patch should be hitting the testbed soon, so you'll get the chance to try these updates out yourself before they go live.

For the combat changes, Taelorn provides all sorts of technical information in his blog entry, but here's the main point: "We are improving the underpowered brawling skill chain, changing the debuff stacking mechanic in ship combat and adjusting round shot damage." Check out the entry for all the intricate details on the changes.

As for the roleplaying rooms, Xenobia said they came about in response to the wishes of the RP community. You can find them in your nation's capital. The colors and textures of existing rooms have been redesigned, and before-and-after pictures are provided in the entry. Don't be surprised if Xenobia happens to make some color variations to interiors in older missions that are used a lot, as well.