Bsharp has written a developer's blog entry discussing some upcoming changes to female avatar textures in Pirates of the Burning Sea. These changes are in direct response to comments on the game's official forums. While some of the updates will take some time to implement, others will be seen in patch 1.14.

One change you'll see coming quickly is some improvements to darkness and de-saturation in the colorization process. If you ever thought some articles of clothing in the game looked dark or the colors weren't as vibrant as you expected, you will hopefully notice that these issues have been fixed in the upcoming milestone.

Also, keep an eye out for some fixes to female faces, as well as the addition of some new pieces of female clothing in the future. Bsharp said you can even help with the process: "Incidentally, if you have original clothing designs that you’d like to see in the game, please post your drawings on the forum discussion for this devlog. We love the idea of implementing things that will make our players happy." Keep reading the full blog entry here.

Pirates of the Burning Sea was patched on 10th March, adding extra quests, making changes to Population Incentives and introducing Brawling skills for avatar-based combat. The full patch notes for the 1.13 build can be found here.

The Pirates of the Burning Sea team implemented population incentives in Milestone 1.12 to give bonus loot and experience to nations on each server designated as underpopulated. The purpose of this, of course, was to entice players to even out the nation's populations.

But how exactly does the team decide which nations are underpopulated? Lum recently explained the process in a developer's blog and said, "while populations are evening out across nations, they’re also steadily growing overall." In response, nations deemed underpopulated in 1.13 will change, and so will the population incentives.

For example, no nations on Antigua will be underpopulated, but all nations on Defiant will be. You can keep reading the blog for information on the rest of the servers. Also, population levels will continue to be monitored on a monthly basis, so the incentives could change once again.

One major detail that sets MMOs apart from other video games is the sense of community they envoke. Community member TomSavage on the Pirates of the Burning Sea offical forums has gone one step further and organized a meet-up in London for European fans March 28-29.

While those who attend will get to enjoy numerous pirate-themed locations and activities, from a stop at the National Maritime Museum to a shipbuilding through the ages lesson on the HMS Belfast, all PotBS players are invited to participate in a live event on the testbed server on March 28.

In addtion, Community Manager Tom Atkinson-Edwards and Associate Producer Janice Von Itter will be in attendance and have prizes for those who make the trip, including a special in-game flag and sail set. You can read the detailed itinerary here.

The Pirates of the Burning Sea team has been discussing both new and upcoming additions to the game. The new addition is the opening of the Welcoming Committee, a subgroup of Boarding Party members who have volunteered their time to help out new players. Information on the system, as well as applying to become a member of the Welcoming Commitee, can be found here.

The second, and much more intricate, discussion revolved around the new skirmish system that will be implemented in Patch 1.14. It's the first completely new major game system that has been introduced since launch. Here's some more information on skirmishes, and you can read the whole dev blog here.

Skirmishes provide a vastly expanded range of PvP possibilities. You can now create customizable avatar or ship battles on demand. These battles range from one-on-one duels to massive clashes on a scale comparable to port battles. An easy-to-use matchmaking system helps you find opponents from all across the Caribbean without leaving the comfort of your home port.

As you may well know, Pirates of the Burning Sea hit it's first launch anniversary in January and released a gigantic game update yesterday. Our very own Togikagi caught up with the CEO of Flying Labs, Russell Williams, to talk about game update v1.11, v1.12, and what players can expect from PotBS in 2009. Russell also makes mention of Flying Lab Software's second, soon to be announced MMO.

Togikagi : Pirates of the Burning Sea celebrated its one-year anniversary in January. Happy anniversary! How does it feel to hit that mark?

Russell : Great! The one year anniversary coincides with a switch in our development. The first year was essentially filled with tuning and revamping the game based on live feedback. It’s been extraordinarily useful watching the live game and seeing what players like and dislike, much of which is reflected in how we’ve evolved the game.

What’s exciting about the one year milestone is that our updates have now turned from polishing to new features and content. The recently released revamp of our sword fighting system was a gargantuan amount of work between all the teams, but now that it’s out, we’re turning our attention to big new features like Skirmish, Player Governed Ports, and the new mission storylines. We’re also doing the planning for our first expansion, which will take players out of the Caribbean into new parts of the world and introduce new features and content for those areas. In the meantime, we’ll still be adding new features on our regular update schedule.

The age classification system found on video game boxes to help parents decide whether a game is suitable for their children has landed MMOs in some hot water in Australia. A report in the Sydney Morning Herald today (via IGN ) has stated that "Video game publishers and retailers are risking hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines by illegally selling online role playing games such as World of Warcraft without age classifications."

Basically, games such as WoW, Warhammer Online, Age of Conan and Pirates of the Burning Sea are being sold without being classified by the Australian Classification Board, which apparently goes against the NSW Classification Enforcement Act. The game industry, however, believes online games without a single player component don't need to be classified. Regardless, a spokesman for NSW Attorney-General John Hatzistergos explained the fines for breaking the act:

The spokesman added that enforcement of the act was the responsibility of police but penalties for breaking these laws ranged from $1,100 to $11,000 for individuals and/or 12 months' imprisonment. For corporations the fines were approximately double.

Blizzard poster Zarhym stated on the official World of Warcraft forums that "We will always respect the laws of the countries in which we operate."

It's official: Pirates of the Burning Sea, released on January 22nd, 2008 is now a year old. Celebrations are occurring not only in the offices of game developer Flying Lab Software, but server-side as well.

"To celebrate our anniversary, we will be giving all of our players access to a new Anniversary Coat, which will be available in the tailor shop. Each nation’s coat is different!"

Additionally, tomorrow marks the occasion where the Dread Saints fill the Caribbean with their woe and despair. All of this gets topped-off with a promise of new content and features. A chest-full of features is coming out of Flying Lab, so let it be known that it is time to set sail and maybe even enjoy another year of excitement and piracy.

Source: Pirates of the Burning Sea Online

Pirates of the Burning Sea celebrates its one-year anniversary this month and there's going to be an in-game event held on Saturday, Jan. 24 as part of the festivities. It looks like William Kidd tried to negotiate peace with the Dread Saints and was shot for his actions. Kidd is now calling on all factions to join forces against the Dread Saints to promote prosperity and commerce. Here's when you should log in (and keep and eye on your chat window):

• Roberts: 12:00 – 1:00pm PST / 8:00pm – 9:00pm GMT
• Antigua: 1:30pm – 2:30pm PST / 9:30pm – 10:30pm GMT
• Rackham: 3:00pm – 4:00pm PST / 11:00pm – 12:00am GMT
• Blackbeard: 4:30pm – 5:30pm PST / 12:30am – 1:30am GMT
• Defiant: 6:00pm – 7:00pm PST / 1:00pm – 2:00pm Australian Eastern (Sunday)

Even though Build 1.11 completely changed the Avatar Combat system, the Pirates of the Burning Sea team is far from done with new updates and content. In fact, Build 1.12: Rebel Apostles will add the first chapter of a serial story that unfolds over many milestones. According to the latest dev blog, "We will spin this tale over six milestones and many missions, making it the biggest addition of new content since launch."

Chapter 1 is called "Black Flags and Dread Saints" and is about the rise of a new pirate faction called the Dread Saints in the Caribbean. The missions in this update will revolve around the mysteries of this faction and how it will upset the balance of power. Also, this new content will have opportunities for players of all levels to participate.

The beginning of the serial story isn't the only update coming in 1.12. There will also be changes to career skills, which you can read about here. If you'd rather read more about "Black Flags and Dread Saints," the full dev blog can be found below.