A lot has happened in the world of Pirates of the Burning Sea in the last few days. First of all, patch 1.20 is now live and introduces the all new Puerto Del Principe. The update also includes multiple bug fixes and some changes to open sea NPC aggro. You can read the full patch notes after the jump.

The eighth episode of the Pirates of the Burning Sea podcast has been released, and this one features Flying Lab CEO Russell "Rusty" Williams and crew discussing Brawling and answering forum questions. In addition, Lead Designer John Grimm has written a dev blog entry outlining how the team creates new environments for the game that contains all sorts of interesting details.

Lastly, Prima has published an updated version of its official Pirates of the Burning Sea game guide. You can download an electronic version of the guide for $19.99 to unlock a code for a new exclusive in-game black iguana.

Release Notes for Build 1.20.47.0

This milestone build includes crash fixes, multiple mission fixes including the BFDS Epic Mission as well as some changes to the Open Sea NPC aggro. The biggest new feature is an all new Puerto Del Principe!

Release notes for build 1.19.57.0 are here.

Known Issues:

Differences between 1.19.57.0 and 1.20.47.0 include but aren't limited to:

Swashbuckling:

• A new fiery particle effect was added to the torches used in combat.
• NPC and Players would idle in their fighting stance without their weapons. Fixed.

Missions:

• In many missions, if you tried to command your ally NPCs, they would refuse to listen. They should now be more receptive to your commands. The list of missions affected by this is long and we know there are some that are still broken. If you find a mission where you can exploit by commanding NPCs or where you think you should be able to command NPCs but they won't obey, let us know ASAP.
• Animals in missions are easier to click on.
• Fixed a grammar error in the Pirate nation, Economy Tutorial.
• A Man of Wealth and Taste: Made a change to decrease the chance of battling ships sailing into each other.
• Dead Man's Vest: You could click on the withered skeleton and statue plaque in Marsh Harbour without being eligible for the missions they'd offer. Now, if you are not eligible for the mission or once their mission is complete, they stop being interactive.
• Stranger in a Strange Town: This mission gave no XP and no rewards. Fixed.
• Examination for Lieutenant: The sun was shining through the admiralty office windows, though it was night outside. Fixed.
• Island Harbour missions, Pigs in Spain, and Paperwork now offer rewards upon completion.
• Baptism by Fire (Daily): There was some weirdness with level 1 NPCs showing up and rewards not being given. Fixed.
• You're the Bait, Bait and Switch, and Final Justice: Reduced the amount and types of items you receive on arrival in the mission.
• You're the Bait: Lowered the ship level of your allies. This mission was too easy before and should be more challenging now.
• Final Justice: Clarified the destination - it's near Charlestown.
• Previously, in Fortaleza and Bey's Retreat missions, if you selected Revive after you die in a boss fight, you would be placed outside the room, waiting for the rest of your group to die, before you rejoined them. Now your group mates must revive you, or the boss must die in order to revive.
• Wolves at the Door: The enemy captain didn't have a weapon. Fixed.
• Cannons of Heaven and Earth: The waves of NPCs between you and Xin no longer drop loot when you kill them.
• Cannons of Heaven and Earth: The currents now turn off if you kill Xin before he reaches them.
• The Dread Saint: Replaced the Trinidad with a version that could not be captured.

PvP / Port Contention:

• Fixed a bug where if someone surrendered, it would count them as being defeated twice.
• The flags in the fortress for the Havana Harbour port battle room were not being nationalized, they now reflect the nation of the defender.

Open Sea:

• If you are solo on the open sea, NPCs will not attack a player more than 5 levels below them and will not attack players above their level. If you're in a group, they compare their level to your combined group level.

Art / Sound:

• Fixed a bug that caused female avatars to pop around on low graphics settings.
• Midcalf skirts are now called Evening skirts.
• Wild Keys: Port Battle Room: The doors are now visible at night and a texture issue on one of the doors has been fixed.
• Changed avatar LODs so weapons and props don't 'pop' at a distance.
• Camera fixes in the fort in the Savage Cliffs port battle room, also fixed a bug which allowed you to fire through the two tall islands. .
• Caracas: Hear the crashing waves!
• Cayo de Marquis: The shop door has its sparkly again. The Coxswain has been moved to a new location on the docks. The nun had some work done to her textures, not so pale anymore.
• Fixed some minor art issues in Golden Lake.
• Port Royal: Fixed a number of camera clipping the terrain issues.
• Puerto del Principe has been upgraded. Enjoy!
• Puerto de Plata: Calmed down the ocean waves audio-it's pleasantly peaceful!
• Rosignol: Added audio to the magistrates office and a lone chicken.
• Santa Catalina (and towns that look like it): Raised the sinking longboat.

UI:

• Certain titles appeared in the Exchange shops as code instead of text. Fixed.
• Non-human mission patrons (like Captain Billings, for example) didn't have portraits in their dialog boxes. Fixed. All portraits should look a bit better than they did.
• Targeting ring, firing arc and targeting circle can be turned off using F11.
• Title: Magistrate's Commendation for Excellence fixed so it is readable in the mission journal.
• HUD message appeared as code instead of text when entering ports after being pursued in the open sea. Fixed.
• Fixed a text string bug that appeared in the shirts drop down in character customization.
• German: Fixed an issue with the text getting cut off on deed names.

Stability / Performance:

• Made a tweak to the way Swashbuckling combat uses bandwidth. It should be slightly more performant now.
• Fixed a rare mission server crash that could happen if we somehow forgot whose side you were on.
• Fixed a rare zone server crash that happened at the same time as that mission server crash.
• We have rebuilt all of the 3rd party libraries we use (Alchemy, PathEngine, the SOE localization tool, etc.) to incorporate some security changes in the coding language. You should notice no change. However, let us know if you see odd behavior.
• Fixed a game crash involving rooms with rain effects.

Misc:

• Harbour Masters in starter towns would disappear if there were too many players around. That shouldn't happen. Fixed.