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!

Saying Goodbye

When I first entered the drawings to get a Pirate 101 Beta key, I knew that sooner or later this day would come. With the new pre-sale bundles coming out tomorrow - for International Talk Like a Pirate Day, no less - word has come down from One-Eyed Jack that today's major build release will come with the dreaded character wipe.

All the pirates in the Spiral are getting deleted today, so we can start fresh and focus on testing the new player experience. This also gives KI a chance to load-test the system, to see how it deals with the massive tide of a simulated Launch Day.

So it's with a heavy heart I say goodbye to Silent Sydney Lewis, a Privateer with a Witch Doctor's heart, sailing off into the Mooshu sunset for the final time. I don't know yet what I'll be on the other side, but I'm grateful for the battle lessons she's taught me.

This is the way I'll remember her, hiding on a beach at Fort Elena, spying on the Armada fleet.

Smooth Sailing!

Color Negatives

Back in ancient times before digital cameras, color pictures were taken on film. This film was then developed into color negatives, which were then used to print the pictures onto light-sensitive paper. The Haunted Skyway of Pirate 101 feels like I'm flying through a color negative of Cool Ranch's Big Sky country. Cool Ranch is the oranges and pinks of the painted desert and southwestern sunsets. Its Haunted counterpart, home to abandoned forts and ghost towns, is a gloomy blue-green world over sickly yellow clouds. In short - well done yet again, KingsIsle. A+ for atmosphere!

Eatin' Yer Veggies

When it comes to questing I'm usually a completist. I'd rather finish every quest I can in one area before moving on to the next. I've even gotten a couple of badges so far for completing areas, so I know I've missed a couple somewhere. When I started Cool Ranch, though, I was so eager to see where the story led that I decided to skip all the sides for once and go straight up the story line. I did accept random quests as I found them, but I consistently went back to the main path time after time.

By the time I'd gone up through Port Regal and back to Cool Ranch again I'd built up about seven pages in my quest log, but Pirate 101 makes it easier to stay on track by reminding you of your current story quest every time you log in. On the good side, story quests usually offer the biggest experience rewards, so I was getting a new level or two every day. I started Cool Ranch at 18th level a week or two ago and just hit 33 night before last. I was beginning to wonder, though, if what they'd said about Privateers was wrong, that we get more Companions than any other class. I seemed stalled at a crew of a dozen, including a "mercenary" I'd hired from a Troggy Horde pack, when other folks at lower levels seemed to captain a lot more.

Last night I finally got tired of a steady diet of entrees and went back to clean up some of those tasty veggie side dish quests - and gained three new Companions in one night, including my very first Swashbuckler (a Unicorn). Apparently I'd picked just the wrong time to stick to the main dishes, leaving a lot of crew potential hidden out there in those sides.

This morning on the way to work, I was telling my son about one of my new Companions, a giant Buccaneer chicken:

"What kind of weapons does he have, Mom?"

"Well, he's a boxer or something, he just punches the bad guys with his fists."

"How'd you get him?"

"I rescued him from the Frogerales' jail."

"Whoa. They must've arrested him for cock fighting."

*groan*

Before & After

One of my Companions had their second promotion quest tonight, gaining some stat boosts and a couple of nice Epic Talents along with a new wardrobe.

The left side is how he looked after his first promo, the right was after tonight's update. Visually it doesn't look like much of an "upgrade" to me. Yes, he's got a fancier sword now, and his peg leg's a touch more polished, but the feather & gold trim looks a lot richer than the supposedly improved outfit he's got now.
Ignore the Water Mole in the background - he's just jealous because they're almost the same level and he hasn't even had his first promotion yet.
- Smooth Sailing!