Obsidian Ocean changelog

This page archives the changelog for the beta of the Obsidian Ocean. Changes made to this ocean may or may not find their way to the other production oceans. This page is for archival purposes and for historical tracking of feature changes.

Puzzle Pirates is under constant development. Major releases have historically come about once a month, although more recent releases have tended to be more irregular minor updates.

Release 2018-07-06

• Final preparation for today's Dark Seas release.
• Brigand Kings that have been scuttled will not attack islands that were previously blockaded by a Brigand King in the past 5 weeks.
• Shoppes that have been shut down by the governor will now be destroyed after 14 days, rather than 30.
• Adding a slider to the Voyage Configuration panel that allows reducing the number of swabbies that should be hired.
• Bugfix for a situation where Brigand King expeditions could create a target vessel weak enough to trigger the Black Ship.

Release 2018-07-02

• Seasonal content for July.
• Preparation for the upcoming Dark Seas release.
• Increasing the maximum number of swabbies that can be hired. There will now be one swabbie for every station on the vessel except for navigation, as long as it doesn't exceed the maximum capacity of the vessel. We'll be monitoring the effects of this change to see if further adjustments are needed.
  • NOTE: Currently, some vessels are receiving less than the new intended number of swabbies. This issue will be fixed when the oceans restart in the morning.
• Bugfix for a situation that could cause pirates to get stuck in the "preparation" phase when logging on.
• Bugfix for a minor color inconsistency between the male and female Kraken tattoo. This will go into effect for any new Kraken Tattoos created from this point forward.
• Bugfix to prevent the use of transformation artifacts during the portrait preparation phase. Pirates can still exit the portrait, apply the transformation, and then re-enter the portrait preparation.

Release 2018-05-09

The following changes will go into effect after the oceans reboot on the morning of May 10th:

• Sunken War Galleons will now be able to be salvaged in shipyards.
• The shipyard construction recipe for War Galleons will require 10 less wood so that it can be made in deluxe stalls .
• The icon for the bottled War Galleon has been fixed.

Clarifications:

• The Quest class LE War Galleon will be available until the end of June.

Dark Seas notes:

• As per this thread Brigand Kings taking over an island will now start the 30 day shutdown timer on shoppes, island attractions, and estate agents.
• Some ship delivery fees have been adjusted, additional information can be found here.

Release 2018-05-01

• New vessel type:
  • The War Galleon is now available in shipyards! This ship is similar in class to the Xebec, but with less survivability in exchange for increased firepower.
  • To celebrate the release, a new Limited Edition "Quest" class War Galleon is now available for construction on all oceans.
• Adding seasonal content for May.

Release 2018-02-28

• The Trading Post has been updated with a new Wolverine pet that can be purchased in exchange for Faction PvP trinkets. The special Crimson/Shadow colors have an increased cost.
• From this point forward, faction trinkets will only be awarded in PvP sinkings if both vessels have an active bounty on them.
• There is now a cool down period after a pirate receives a Faction PvP trinket, before they can receive more. This limit should very rarely affect pirates who are participating in legitimate PvP battles.
• The vessel bounty icon will now appear in the voyages jobbing panel for vessels that are being hunted by the opposing faction.
• Messages related to faction bounties will now be recorded in the vessel logs.
• Adding building records when a shop is forced to close or allowed to reopen by the governor.
• Bugfix for the text descriptions of the new PvP bounty trophies.
• Bugfix to allow flagless vessels to pay the bribe in order to port at enemy faction islands.
• Behind-the-scenes setup for the new War Galleon vessel type which will soon be added to the Ice ocean for testing and feedback.
• Fixed a bug that would allow a sinking vessel to be repeatedly engaged before the sinking process completed.
• Correcting the amount of labor required in the Gold warfrig and Dark warfrig recipes.
• Adding seasonal content for March.

Release 2018-01-29

Same as release 2018-01-29.

• Adding seasonal content for February.
• Vessels that have a faction bounty placed on them will now have a special icon shown in the sailing view, making them easier to identify (and pursue). There are 3 tiers of icon, based on how large the bounty on the vessel has become.
• From this point forward, only vessels that have a faction bounty on them will be able to win faction trinkets for sinking enemy vessels. All sailors aboard the victorious ship will receive between 1 to 3 faction trinkets, based on how large their ship's bounty has become. This provides incentive for jobbing on a ship that has a bounty, despite the increased risk of being attacked by the other faction.
• Adding new "Owl Eggs" that can be purchased at the Trading Post in exchange for Faction PvP trinkets (under the artifacts section). Opening the eggs will grant a non-tradeable Owl familiar with a randomly chosen color.
• In exchange for a larger number of trinkets, pirates can purchase a Crimson or Shadow owl egg, which will grant an owl familiar in the respective color (rather than one of the randomly chosen colors).
• Adding 3 new "Dark" vessel designs at the Trading Post in exchange for faction PvP trinkets.
• Faction bounties that have been placed on vessels will now slowly decrease over time, so that inactive vessels will eventually fall off of the bounties board.
• The "Slithery Keepsake" trophy will now be retroactively awarded to players who attacked the white Kraken head during the December team competition.
• Faction icons will now appear on the island overview page in YoWeb.
• Exploit fix: greedy brigands will now only appear on brigand vessels that were targeting your own vessel.
• Bugfix: clear any pending transfers for a vessel if the deed changes hands.

Release 2017-12-01

• Adding seasonal content for December.
• Preparing the monthly seals for 2018.
• Updating the "Shoppe Jobs" tab of the Notice Board with buttons that allow viewing an expanded listed of the jobs available on the island.
• Preparing holiday Team Competition for later this month.
• Bugfix for a specific situation that could result in a faceless portrait.
• Updating the "War" tab of the Notice Board with some initial setup for Faction Bounties.
  • The Shadow Fleet and Defiant Armada will award Pieces of Eight for sinking certain player ships. These bounties are added to the vessel's booty once the target vessel has been sunk.
  • Sinking player vessels from the opposing faction will cause the bounty placed on your ship to increase. The amount depends on the size of the vessel that was sunk.
  • The most notable bounties that have not yet been claimed are listed on the "War" tab.

Release 2017-11-03

• Enabling the Harvest class Cutter in shipyards as November's LE ship.
• Winning PvP battles against the opposing faction will now award everyone aboard the vessel an untradeable faction trinket. These trinkets will be used to purchase faction-related equipment at the Trading Post in the future, so start stockpiling now!
• Adding initial set of trophies related to Faction PvP. The conditions will need to be discovered by players!

Release 2017-10-25

• Black Boxes will now include the possibility of Kraken Sea Monster maps.
• Black Boxes will no longer award Sea Monster maps for currently disabled Sea Monster zones.
• Small decrease to the average value of Greedy Purses in preparation for Trading Posts.
• Updating the Team Competition text on the Notice Board to clarify that candies are collected in the form of Trophies (not trinkets).

Release 2017-10-19

• Setting up a Halloween Team Competition that will begin tomorrow afternoon (Oct. 20th).
• Updating the Black Box to Series VI. New prizes include a skeletal parrot familiar, two new furniture items (Vampire Basin and Large Smuggler Crate), as well as a black Patchy Fox. A Black Market will open up in the days ahead.
• Allowing the "Blockades" tab of the Notice Board to be accessed even when not on an island.
• Added an in-game Doubloon History link on the doubloons panel.
• Increasing the maximum number of free accounts that can be created by an account.
• Experimental update to allow shoppe inventory data to be exported to a text file in JSON format by double-clicking the "Inventory" tab in the client. If tools are created to parse and manage this sort of exported data, the functionality can be expanded to other panels in the future.
• Displaying faction icons next to job applicant notices in the Dark Seas client.

Release 2017-10-04

• Enabling the Phantom class Limited Edition sloop in shipyards for the month of October.

Release 2017-09-29

• Pressing Shift+Escape will now close the client without logging out. This can be useful in situations where a player wants to reclient without leaving a vessel, for example.
• Small update to the "CPU Bugfix" option in the Options panel.

Release 2017-09-28

• Greenies will no longer spawn on Night Harbour or Lionhaven. As before, all new pirates will begin on Port Venture.
• Update to the "CPU Bugfix" checkbox in Options, to allow the Steam Overlay to continue working even while this option is checked.
• Adding debug logging to narrow down the cause of the Steam client auto-closing when a pirate idles out.

Release 2017-09-26

• Fix for bug that prevented some players' trophies from correctly exporting to Steam achievements. Starting tomorrow evening, trophies will be resent to Steam when players log in to their pirates.

Release 2017-09-25

These changes will not take effect until the server reboots this evening.

• Fix for labor bug in situation where a pirate holds a permanent labor badge and also a deluxe labor badge.

Release 2017-09-19

These changes will not take effect until the server reboots this evening.

• Fix for bug that could cause holders of the permanent labor badge to be treated as dormant.
• Modifying the colors of the shadow panther from the Battle Box to make it more distinct.

Release 2017-09-15

This update was applied 2017-09-18

Some of the changes below will not take effect until the server reboots this evening.

• Switching to a wrapped parlor badge in the Eminent Explorer pack.
• Increasing max poker buy-in to 20,000 pieces of eight.
• Increasing poker rake to 5%.
• Adding a "CPU Bugfix" checkbox at the bottom of Ye:Options:General, which can be used by players affected by excessive CPU usage when using Steam. This option may interfere with the behavior of the Steam overlay.
• Fixed the "Navigation" action on the Shadow sloop's navigation wheel.
• Fixed bug that allowed DLC to be claimed on oceans other than Obsidian.
• Typing "nh" in chat will no longer auto-swap to "nice hand", since that abbreviation is also used for Night Harbour.
• Updating Huracan island walkability (will take effect after ocean reboot).
• Adjusting the idle logoff delay to make it less frustrating in the Steam client.

Release 2017-08-08

• For Chart boxes purchased from this point forward, it will no longer be possible to win Sea Monster maps for the SMH zones that are out of rotation.
• Increasing Haunted Seas payouts.
• Decreasing Atlantis and Kraken payouts.
• Enabling the chroma crate and aquarium in furnishers.

Release 2017-08-07

• Shacks on the two Stronghold islands are now available.
• Enabling persimmon enamel for apothecaries.

Release 2017-07-19

• The Obsidian ocean has now been marked as "established", affecting certain things like the requirements to create a crew, which were temporarily lessened to help jumpstart the ocean.
• Stat-based trophies are now enabled.
• Navy pay has been adjusted to bring it in line with the other Puzzle Pirates oceans.
• The sloop has been removed from the palace shoppe, and will now exclusively be ordered through shipyards.
• The cost of opening a stall has been increased.
• The fame requirements to join or create a Flag have been increased.
• Fixed a bug that would cause the Dark Seas client to randomize the default selected ocean in the regular client.
• Spending limits from classic Puzzle Pirates have been carried over so that they will apply to Dark Seas as well.
• Updating doubloon delivery fee for the war brig and merchant galleon.

Release 2017-07-13

Some of the changes below will not take effect until the server reboots this evening.

• Bugfix for monster frays in situations where a sea monster map can not be created.
• Laborers in Dark Seas can now have up to 6 employers, increased from the previous max of 3.
• Reducing doubloon delivery fees on ships to account for the increased risk of sinking in Dark Seas. This reduction ranges from 25% to 50% for the various ship types. These changes are being tested and doubloon prices may continue to be increased or decreased during the beta.
• Adding rowboats to Lionhaven and Night Harbour to allow easier access to Port Venture.
• Minor changes to the Steam version of the billing panel.

Release 2017-07-05

• Rum consumption will now be enabled
• Brigand Kings are now allowed to place Flotillas
• Fixed visual glitches around the bank on Night Harbour
• Updated colors for the navies on the faction stronghold islands
• Fixing bug with offline messages left by Ocean Masters
• Removing a couple booched/empty crew and flag names from the database
• Lifeboats and rowboat kits have recently been enabled in shipyards and furnishers, Persimmon cloth enabled in weaveries

Release 2017-07-04

• Greedy brigands will no longer appear in the Greywaters archipelago after the ocean reboots. Pirates will need to venture further out into the contested areas in order to track down these types of brigands.

Release 2017-06-30

Overview of the changes

• At the time a Crew is created, it must choose one of two factions to support: Shadow Fleet or Defiant Armada.
  • Pirates will receive a faction icon next to their name once they join a crew.
  • Pirates are free to change crews at any time. Pirates without a crew are considered "neutral".
• Crews that support different factions are automatically and permanently at war. There will be no truce.
• Ships that are defeated by an opposing faction will be completely sunk, except for in the Greywaters archipelago. Bottled Ships can still be salvaged like usual.
• Flags can declare war (and make peace) with other flags in the same faction. This works the same as in classic Puzzle Pirates.
• Flags can not invite crews aligned with the opposing faction.
• Both factions have a single "Stronghold" island that is used as their base of operations. These two islands can not be blockaded.
• Pirates who are associated with a faction can whisk directly to their Stronghold for free using the "Crew" tab of the Sunshine panel.
• The maximum Poker buy-in has been largely reduced.
• A poker "rake" will be in effect for this ocean, which will take 3% of the pot at the end of the hand, before winnings are distributed. This percentage may be adjusted in the future.
• Governors now have the power to close down shops on their islands. If they do so, the shop will immediately go dark. A notice will be displayed in the "Building" tab clarifying that the shop was shut down by the governor.
• If the shop remains closed down for 30 days, it will be destroyed. Governors can open the shop back up at any time before it's destroyed, if they so choose.
• The ownership of the Inn will automatically transfer to whoever conquers an island.
• Sea Monsters and expeditions will only spawn in the Wild Eastern Seas, Wild Western Seas, and Ye Bloody Bounding Main.
• Sea Monster zones will now be "rotated" in order to focus activity into one particular zone each week. Only one type of Sea Monster map will drop from pillaging battles during that week. The enabled map type will change each Sunday.
• Bravery badges and Pirate Badges are not required on this ocean.
• There is a new "/faction" chat channel that can only be used and seen by pirates associated with that faction. This channel can be toggled with "/fmute".
• There is now a limit of 10 shops that can be placed on large islands.
• All blockades in Dark Seas (other than event blockades) are sinking.
• Many new islands have been created by our awesome Island Designer volunteers. Some islands from the other Oceans have been reimagined so that we could include them on Obsidian.
• The installer images, login panels, client icons, and intro music have all been reworked for the Dark Seas theme.
• The color of the ocean will change when one of the two factions controls at least 60% of the blockadeable islands. The water around the two Stronghold islands will continue to match the faction, however.
• Faction icons will now be shown on Pirate, Crew, and Flag pages in YoWeb.
• Adding a "War" tab to the Notice Board where players can see an overview of the ongoing battle and which side is winning. This page is WIP and still being designed.
• Faction icons will be displayed on the Voyages panel to allow players to choose if they prefer to job for one faction or another. However, there is nothing preventing individual pirates from jobbing for the other side if they so choose.
• A warning will now be shown if a player moves off a ship they own that was left unlocked. This is because of the increased likelihood of the ship being sunk in Dark Seas.
• Dark Seas uses a separate Doubloon database than classic Puzzle Pirates, so doubloons can not be transferred from Obsidian to other oceans (or vice versa). We want to try and give a level starting environment to playeres who try out Puzzle Pirates for the first time.

External link

Obsidian Ocean changelog