Awesome Gun Drop

If you're a Muskateer or a fan of Shooty weapons, when you get to Johnny Ringo in Cooper's Roost, take the time to farm him for his guns. They're no trade / no auction so you'll need to get your own set. I wish I could give these to my own little shooter. (They're in my Privateer's backpack.)

I've heard he also drops a couple of pets, a skysnake and an armadillo.

Too Many Monkeys

I've been playing my Privateer a lot lately, working my way through Monquista's religious and political turmoil. I spent yesterday cleaning up on side quests, including one which recruited a Monquisitor companion to my crew. He's not too fond of witchcraft - Witch Hunter lets him interrupt spells cast nearby - but he's been leaving Old Scratch and Eep Opp Ork Ah-Ah alone. (Not that anybody speaks Troggy anyway.)

We ran into problems hunting Monquistan vessels for sugar (to make lemonade) and for Holy Water. I thought at first I could double up and hit the same ships for both, but when I got a "did not collect" for one and not the other I realized they were slightly different boats - Monquistan Navy had the sugar, while the Holy Water was on Monquisition ships (not Monquistan ones as I'd first read it).

I finally found the Holy Monquisition hanging out between La Mancha and Diablo Cut. Unfortunately their red robes were virtually identical to my new crewmate's red with black trim, and several times we mistook him for one of them and caught him in area blasts. He seems to have forgiven us.

The Navy ships were much harder to locate, as none of the fleets up and down the length of Monquista mentioned the word Navy in their call letters. I finally found them by accident when I got caught by the Royal Squadron just east of the Summer Palace and found the first of the sugar I needed.

Um... Whoops

As Brody puts it, I think he could use a bigger boat. Not sure what glitch happened here but somehow our raft ended up docked to an invisible ship. It was still on the battle board so we managed to kill off the sharks and rescue him.

Unfortunately I was on Brody's ship when the last shark fell - and found myself stuck floating in space, unable to move or go claim any of the loot chests. I finally got unstuck by heading back to the life fountain, and fortunately Brody hitched a ride back with me so at least I'd rescued him & completed the quest.

Those sharks owe me a reckoning of treasure some day though.

Smooth Sailing,
Black Angus Armstrong, Buccaneer

Paying the Piper

Day 3: I finished the Presidio tonight, my first dungeon at level 7. I rescued an undead Buccaneer, Dead Mike, who died trying to save my parents when their crew mutinied. Kan Po doesn't seem to trust him but Mike's sworn to protect my family forever - and that didn't end at the grave.

I took Mike and the cargo back to the Frogfather, and he had a nice little surprise for me - the Lonely Pearl, my parents' old ship, repaired and ready to fly. So I ran over to his private drydock to pick her up - and ran smack into my first pay gate. Ouch! She was so close I could hear the wind in her rigging, but Boochbeard wouldn't let me go bottle her up until I paid his 749C docking fee to start Chapter 2. Rather than unlocking the game zone by zone as the Wizards do, we Pirates follow our story a Chapter at a time. Of course - what better way for a Captain to keep her log?


Smooth sailing!
Wicked Ginelle Vaughn, Witchdoctor

Set Sail!

Pirate 101 launched their Headstart Week today, for Beta players and those who pre-ordered game bundles. I had a few fights, did some fishing and sailing, and made my way to Jonah Town at level 6 so far.

Thanks to gifts from a very generous friend, I've already got a huge Volcano Island home of my very own. I think my decorator might be dyslexic though.

My raft The Brown Fool (on the left) has my correct flag, an autumn tree over an orange V on a blue background. The one on the right, flying from my home's observation deck, got my tree right but has the background upside down! Hopefully they can get me a new flag up there pronto.

Smooth Sailing!
Wicked Ginelle Vaughn, Witchdoctor

Tail of Two Foxes

Not only do we get to design our own pirate flags, but our crews of Companions all get dressed up in matching team colors! Here's Bonnie Anne, one of the "standard" Companions everyone hires, wearing two different pirates' colors.

The first Anne sails under a two-tone green flag, the second's flag is orange with a blue border.

Missing Pointer

Pirate 101 launched a new Beta update tonight, adding the final voiceovers and fixing a couple of bugs. With every update so far, all the graphic settings have been reset to defaults - and my mouse pointer vanishes. Here's the fix that works for me.

Go into Settings on the game launcher - that's the blue button at the lower left - before you hit the Login button to start playing. Go to the Video tab and un-check the box next to Hardware Cursor, turning it off (the default setting is On), then Apply the changes & hit OK to close the box. You should then be able to Login and play as normal.

This may not work for everyone, of course, but it fixed my problem and it just might work for you.

Smooth Sailing!