I went ahead and made a safer, more easier chat group. The IRC one is still here of course, but chat and go is much simplier.

You can get to it by clicking on the tab Chat And Go, or by going on the portal, and looking for the block that says Chat and Go

If you wish to have moderation access on there, click on the link that says Set Your Name and then click Sign Up

For everyone else, you can do either, you can sign up, or you can enter a temporary name.

Enjoy!

Thanks to Mahek's birthday money, we have purchased 50,000 ad free credits! Meaning that ads will no longer show on the forum for 50.000 clicks.

Everything you click will take one credit, so make them last

Enjoy no advertisments!

This is the old shop that we used before Project Shop
Project Shop is still under construction, and will be used here again when it is done.

You all know how this works You click the Shop tab and it will take you to the shop page, and it will go from there

Many of you probally didnt notice we had this before, a button for you to change the font. Well, I requested a code to add more, and it was made instantly!

If you go in a post, you see a drop-down menu that says "Change Font" if you choose a font, a result comes out like this:
Arial
Arial Black
Arial Narrow
Book Antiqua
Century Gothic
Comic Sans MS
Courier New
Fixedsys
Franklin Gothic Medium
Garamond
Georgia
Lucida Console
Lucida Sans Unicode
MIcrosoft Sans Serif
Palatino Linotype
System
Tahoma
Times New Roman
Tirebuchet
Verdana

Im gonna look so I can add HTML in it, so the title will show what it looks like.

Enjoy!

Hey all

Myself and the staff have discussed this, and we have decided to go ahead and make a guest board.

This is a board, where members do not have to register, they go to the board, enter a name, enter a email (optional) and say what they wanna say!

The guest board is heavily moderated by all staff members, unless you are a staff member or a guest, you do not have access to it.

For the staff members, the board can be found here:
http://pic.smfforfree4.com/index.php/board,160.0.html

Rules will be made shortly for that board.

Guests must also feel welcome too!

Celebrate Your Pirate's Freedom

A recent shipment of goods from Europe has brought with it a surprise - fireworks! In addition to gunpowder, legend claims Pirates from the Far East invented fireworks, which once ignited, shoot into the skies and explode in a cascade of bright lights and sparks. 

To celebrate the start of summer in the Caribbean, Pirates will be setting off these fireworks over the main islands. Find a spot on or near the shores of Port Royal, Tortuga, or Padres Del Fuego to watch them and enjoy the show!

What: Caribbean Summer Celebration   

When: July 3 (around 6PM) and continuing until July 6, midnight Pacific Time. The fireworks start once stars begin to fill up the night sky.

Where: All Oceans (servers), on or near the shores of Port Royal, Tortuga, or Padres Del Fuego



Reason for edit: Copied the code for Pirates Online Insiders

Important Update to Chat Moderation

Starting June 26, 2009, we will add a feature that will detect if players use bad language and will automatically suspend your account if you continue to attempt using foul language. Pirates will be automatically warned two times:



Bad language of any kind is never acceptable in Pirates Online.



On the final warning -- your account will be automatically banned from the Caribbean. The length of time you are removed from the game depends on your account history. If you've had previous violations, you could be banned from the game permanently!

Father's Day Quest Returns!

Back by popular demand, the Father's Day Quest returns starting June 17 and will be available through Father's Day, June 21. The Quest is available to both Basic and Unlimited Pirates.

Complete the Quest and you'll earn a x2 Reputation reward that is available for a limited time! Start the adventure by visiting Captain Jack Sparrow in the Rowdy Rooster (who will send you to Giladoga!).

NOTE: Avast ye Pirates! We're aware of an issue with this quest where players that completed it last year are not able to complete it this year - this is a bug and we're working to fix it. Another issue is the x2 Rep reward - the icon is not appearing for some players that have completed the quest. To see how much x2 rep time you have, just type the following in your chat window: /x2

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you, again we're working quickly to fix these problems as soon as possible.

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Calling All Testers!

Bad language of any kind is never acceptable in Pirates Online. We have added a feature that will detect if players use bad language and will automatically suspend your account if you continue to attempt using foul langauge .

It works like this: If you use foul language in chat, you get a warning. If you insist on using bad language, you get one more warning.  After that -- your account will be automatically banned from the Caribbean. The length of time you are removed from the game depends on your account history. If you?ve had previous violations, you could be banned from the game permanently!

This feature will be on the Test Servers to start and will eventually be introduced to the Live servers shortly thereafter.

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Win 30 Days of Unlimited Access Courtesy of Comcast

Congratulations to the Pirates that have already won a free month of Unlimited Access courtesy of our friends at Comcast! We've randomly selected the first group of winners and we'll be selecting more throughout the month of June.

Watch your email - you've still got a chance to win! If you haven't already registered your account for a chance to win 30 days of Unlimited Access, register now.

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Go Incognito as a Stowaway
The EITC has been conducting more patrols and looking for Pirates responsible for sinking EITC ships in the Caribbean. Those patrols have made the waters around the islands a bit more hazardous. Pirates trying to avoid a run-in with the EITC are now being smuggled on ships by becoming Stowaways. learn how to be a stoway.

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Win 30 Days of Unlimited Access


Throughout the month of June, our friends at Comcast are giving you a chance to win 30 days of Unlimited Access to Pirates Online! With Unlimited Access, you can fully customize your Pirate, captain bigger and better ships, and access all the Caribbean has to offer!

To enter, just register your account for the chance to win. Make sure to please provide a working e-mail address so that we can let you know if you've won. Hurry though, 10,000 winners will be randomly selected throughout the month of June -- time is running out! Enter today!

These are some tips I wanted to layout to make it simple for posting News Articles for Pirates Online

• Check out the Pirates Online Forums board for News Articles
• Then simply view the guide for Setting up POTCO News

Make it as close to you can, remember to use all the different Sub-Forums for the appropriate topic.

We have upgraded our North American, European & Australian SOE live servers to build 1.16: Black Bart’s Bounty.

This milestone update contains the penultimate chapter of the Black Flags and Dread Saints story arc, new rooms for role-players, Blockading, combat mechanic improvements, and many other changes. Full release notes can be found here.

Black Bart's Bounty 

It seems like we only just started working on the Black Flags and Dread Saints story arc and yet here we are at Chapter 5 in M16. Black Bart’s Bounty is the penultimate installment of BFDS and it hurtles the story towards its conclusion, Black Bart’s Gambit, in M18. In Black Bart’s Bounty, the nations of the Caribbean have regained their footing, reorganized, and gone on the offensive. It is a strange time for the Brethren of the Coast, as they find themselves allies of convenience of Britain, France, and Spain. Basically, none of the nations want to see Black Bart take over the Burning Sea, so old enemies are acting like friends, at least for the time being.

As you may recall from previous chapters, the Dread Saints had successfully recruited ships and captains from many of the evil pirate gangs, particularly Los Ladrondes, the Sharktooth Raiders, the Sons of Cortez, the Bloody Arms, and Hijos Verdaderos de la Libertad. Opponents of the Dread Saints have realized that the members of these gangs are weak links. Few believe in the pseudo-religious rantings of the Deacon. They joined the Dread Saints because they respected Black Bart and because the Dread Saints were enjoying success.

With the situation changing rapidly, how loyal will these swabs be? That is the central question of Black Bart’s Bounty. The new missions in this chapter involve taking out key leaders in the evil pirate gangs and isolating and destroying their ships. The nations of the Burning Sea are putting pressure on them in the hopes of forcing a break with the Dread Saints, and depriving Black Bart of key allies.

In addition to the new missions, we’ve also done some work on Open Sea NPCs. You’ve been able to hunt Dread Saint ships on the Open Sea for a while, but we haven’t had any rare Named Captains for you to fight until now. These were put together by Josiah, one of our mission designers, and they give you a chance to face off against notorious Dread Saints like Ichabod the Fervid and Prebendary Pillage. If you defeat the right captains, you may even win a special title in recognition of the feat.

ConCo has now turned its attention to the sixth and final chapter of Black Flags and Dread Saints. It’s going to end with a bang, so we’re taking two milestones to put that together. Get ready for Black Bart’s Gambit in M18!

The Lure of the Sea - Part 2

This is the second of two devlogs discussing the work we’ve done in 1.16 focusing on ways to give players more loot, more rewards for PvP, and more reasons to explore and fight on the Open Sea.

In last week’s devlog, I talked about three changes to the PvE side of the game. This week, I’m going to outline three PvP changes, and one change that will benefit both PvP and PvE players.

Marks of Victory and Insurance
Currently, when you sink another player in a PvP battle, you get Marks of Victory and Marks of Trade based on the level of ship you killed. There are no real problems with this, but it doesn’t give you the sensation of a big reward for sinking an expensive ship. Sinking a Prince is worth the same as sinking a Hercules.

In 1.16, we’re changing the way we reward MoV/MoT for PvP kills to work based on the insurance value of the ship you sink. More expensive ships will be worth more Marks. For sinking a basic level 50 ship, like a Mastercraft Capricieux, you’ll get about the same as you do now – 5 Marks. This scales up to the First Rate ships which award roughly three times that amount.

Captured ships, which have no insurance value, will be worth the same amount of Marks as the non-captured versions. Refit ships, which have a large portion of their insurance value derived from their MoV/MoT cost, will have their insurance value increased as a result of this change.

Blockading
Although we’ve increased Fleet spawns on the Open Sea, there are still areas of our world that are difficult to attack, and some that are difficult to defend simply because there are not enough ships in the area. We’re introducing a completely new mechanic to help mitigate this: Blockading.

In 1.16, all players over level 20 will receive two new skills: Blockade Port, and Patrol Port. These are passive skills that will periodically generate or reduce unrest at a target port, as long as you meet a few requirements:

• You must have the Voluntary PvP flag enabled.
• You must be stopped on the Open Sea within range of a valid port.
• You meet a minimum Group Strength rating. One ship alone cannot effectively Blockade, or Patrol a port.

Groups of attacking players with their PvP flag enabled will generate small amounts of Unrest every second, until they move, or are attacked. The same goes for players of the defending nation, only they’ll reduce unrest at the same port. To prevent huge fleets from bombing a port too quickly, a maximum of 6 players can generate unrest via Blockading on any given port.

Port Battle Titles
In 1.15, we introduced Port Battle Rewards. Both winners and losers get doubloons, Marks of Victory, and Marks of Trade. In 1.16, you will also get a title if you participate in port battles, either as a winner or as a loser. You won’t get the title until you’ve achieved the required amount of wins or losses.

There are three Titles for each:

• 10 Wins: Battle Worn Commander
• 25 Wins: Veteran Commander
• 50 Wins: Heroic Commander
• 10 Losses: Unlucky Commander
• 25 Losses: Ill-Fated Commander
• 50 Losses: Cursed Commander

Removing Chat Restrictions

We want communication to be easier all players, so we’re introducing a change that’s for everyone: In 1.16, we’re removing language restrictions from chat channels, and we’re also changing Area Chat so that it spans beyond town into the Open Sea.
As a result, the Diplomacy skill will no longer have any use, and you will no longer be able to get it from any skill trainer. If you already have the Diplomacy skill, you will need to use a respec if you want to use that skill point for something else.

We hope you enjoy these changes. Try them on Testbed and let us know what you think!