PotBS Gen Con The Pirates of the Burning Sea (PotBS) crew has been working tirelessly to bring improvements and new features to the game since its launch in January of this year. Last week at Gen Con I got a chance to see what was in store for the immediate future with patch 1.7 which is in testing now and further into the future as 1.8 and 1.9 take form.

The most immediate change Donna 'Danicia' Prior (decked out in pirate gear and garb), the forum mod and chat goddess from the Flying Labs team pointed out to me during my game walkthrough was the new options for character creation. Everything from new facial choices, choosing your eye color from a rather broad selection, to new hats and jewelry has been added. Players who've already created characters can of course change their avatars to take advantage of these new options through the tailor shop feature in game.

Camera changes have been added to bring a unique visual appeal to the game. Now you can view under water events and landmarks as you fly through the Caribbean Sea, including underwater volcanoes, whales, and rocks. This brings a much larger sense of immersion to the game, and certainly makes it more fun to look around as you travel. Of course, the biggest immersion increase is the chance to watch your captain's avatar shout orders to your crew and then watch your crew hop to it and carry them out. Whether it be loading the cannons, firing them, or loafing off as you decide what to do, your crew is responding, and you can watch.

The chat system has been revamped, bringing a greater level of integration into the user interface (UI), and adds more ease of use than was present at launch. Switching between chat lobbies such as local and nation channels is now as easy as selecting a drop down menu in the chat interface, and the window is fully customizable for transparency as well. These changes bring an ease of use to new and old users alike, as well as making the UI much more streamlined. Options for the rest of the UI have also been increased, and customizations here abound as well. Window options, graphic options, and chat features now mirror the incredible detail offered in character customization.

For new players, or those rolling on a new nation of play, the tutorials have been revamped. Now they offer an introduction to the storyline that can't be beat, and give a much more intuitive feel to those learning the game. Nation loyalty is outlined well, and everything from ship combat, land combat and the UI is featured. The changes come just in time to fit the marketing push for Pirates of the Burning Sea being offered soon. The UI Strike Team, led by Flying Labs' Janice "Fraxl" Von Itter has gone through the entire new user experience to help streamline the process, and lessen the learning curve. Of course, skipping the tutorial is an option for all of you old hands on deck! A last note in the UI changes is the new mission journal functionality. Mission Journals now sort by level, group availability, tracking so that you can find the NPC to talk to, and is sortable by any of these options.

The tutorial now also offers a pop up window just before you leave, reminding you to loot your fallen adversaries. You'll find this pop up window as you exit all instances if there's still loot left, to remind you to plunder what's rightfully yours. Finally, the new renditions of the tutorials offer a better introduction to the storyline that you'll find once you get through the starting areas and into the rest of the world. Figuring out Nations and factions will now be much easier for new players and stepping from the learning phase into the action phase will continue much more smoothly.

Camera features have been updated, and the team is quite proud of the changes here. Changing views is much smoother, and ship views are now tied to the deck, helping remove some of the excess sea motion that caused some players to become motion sick while sailing their virtual vessels. Also, Danicia raved about the new click to change direction feature. If your character is standing in one direction and you look around, the camera used to reset every time you started moving. Now, the camera pauses while your character turns and starts in the direction the camera is facing. Definitely a boost to those of us who enjoy using the mouse to constantly admire the scenery, or passers-by.

On the subject of ships, eleven new ones were added in the last update (1.6), and some of them were even designed by players. These new additions to the game add depth for those looking to get behind the helm of a higher end vessel. The level 50 offerings include some heavy guns that went along with some heavy balancing to ensure that the gap between available ship types didn't cause as much disparity as it previously had.

While he was rushing around the booth helping players trying out the demo, I asked community manager Troy "Aether" Hewitt about pre-launch concerns that the game, specifically ship combat, moved at too slow a pace. He said that since launch those concerns have not been an issue, with the community focused more on what changes were coming to the game next, and what fixes could be expected, when.

Troy then introduced me to one of the gentlemen responsible for some upcoming changes being planned, Lead Animator, Matt Staltman. The art team has their hands full with their current project of redoing the avatar combat particles in game, and I asked Matt to elaborate. He said that particles can best be called "flashies, effects, or floaties". So anything that gives a visible clue that you're being hit, hitting someone, responding to a hit, or anything along those lines is a particle effect. So the team is looking at changing things to make them more vibrant and intuitive for players. They're hoping to make avatar combat engage players interest the same way ship combat does, and streamline the visual clues, making it easier for players to visually follow the events of combat.

Along with making the combat look more appealing, Troy said "We're looking to make avatar combat as deep, focused, and evocative as ship combat". Right now it feels almost as if you're playing two different games with the different combat types, and they'd like to ensure that the systems compliment, rather than detract, from each other. They want to make it a "richer, more enjoyable and immersive part" of game play. He said that "diversity of missions and the uniqueness of nations" was a definite goal with these changes. These changes are slated to make it into the 1.8 or .9 update.

The marketing push, mentioned previously, will include a 14 day welcome back offer for players who've since moved on, 14 day trials such as those offered at Gen Con, and buddy keys for current players to bring in friends to try the game. Keep in mind that trial accounts will not allow you to send tells to people, unless both the sender and receiver have friended each other via the chat system, and they won't be able to use the auction house either. Nation chat will also be locked from trial accounts, but all other chats, including society (guild) and local will be available.

Troy is probably most famous for his insistence that the developers he work with remain in close contact with the players. Not to say that the Flying Labs team isn't already community oriented, but sometimes updating and testing can get in the way of talking to the community. I asked him about the continued commitment that it takes to keep players informed and Troy promised to continue working on consistent devlogs, milestones and the continuation of the flow of information. In fact, he often threatens to sit on the people he needs information from!

I ended the meeting by asking about an expansion, and Troy, with the slightest wisp of a smile, said "just because we're not announcing doesn't necessarily mean it's not being worked on". Make of that what you will. The team continues to work on improvements, with the nightflipping issues (ports being taken away from nations during slow server times), avatar combat, and particles, as they move towards pushing 1.7 onto the live servers and testing 1.8 here in the next few weeks.

I can't wait to try PotBS again, with all of these improvements! Once the returning trial offer opens up, we'll have more coverage of the piratey goodness that can be found in the game!

Becky "Tovin" Simpson
Allakhazam.com News Editor & Staff Writer
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