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New Skies: Marleybone

So, I’m sure many of you have already been on Test Realm to find out the new updates, so let us talk about them: Starting with Marleybone, of course! As I mentioned in my previous post(s), Marleybone was never one of my favorites worlds, all those rooftops were too tricky, it was –rather is– very easy to get caught in unwanted battles (which we’re always trying to avoid) but I was hopeful the new Marleybone KingsIsle would create for Pirate101 would be different (hope is always the last to die).

Thankfully the only glimpse of Marleybone we see is from a distance! And I must say: I only got caught in an unwanted battle two times! Yes, yes, I know it’s much easier to avoid them in P101 than in W101, but that might surprise anyone who doesn’t play Wiz!

~-~-Storyline spoilers starts now-~-~

I love the storyline, for those who haven’t been playing, let me tell a bit of the story: In our great quest for the pieces of Marco Pollo’s map to El Dorado, we’re lead to Port Regal to free a great military mastermind called Napoleguin. He climbed his way from a shipping clerk to emperor of Polaris –in only ten years. He then rebuilt the Polarian navy and attacked all his allies (Valencia, Marleybone and Monquista….the greatest military powers in the Spiral!) at the same time! With his military genius in charge of the Polarian navy, the war made Polaris the greatest realm!

However, Marleybone’s influence reached Napoleguin’s navy and converted many of his soldiers to their side and followed by the invention of the clockwork soliders in Valencia (also known as the Armada) it turned the tide against him. After the war ended (with the defeat of Polaris) he was captured and imprisoned in Fort Elena….part of Port Regal, a Marleybone colony in Skull Island. But the fortress is too well guarded so we cannot simply approach the fort and free the prisoners (of course!). We tag along with Catbeard who has a plan (stolen from the Polarian navy) to make the jail break happen!

In his plan we throw Marleybone and Valencia against each other, we kidnap Port Regal’s Governor’s oldest daugther Mable, assault the Armada fortress and attack both of their ships in the Port Regal skyway. With the war started, one of the armada leaders is captured by Marleybone and locked up in Fort Elena which leads the Armada to attack the prison, with the chaos going around we just sneak into the fort and free the prisoners that interest us.

Problem is: we started a true war but did nothing to stop it and while we venture back to Cool Ranch and eventually to MooShu, the clockworks and the Royal Navy continue their war. Later in the story, we have to contact Catbeard again, but he has been taken prisoner by Marleybone (for his previous “incidents” there, after all he’s a pirate) which leads us to visit the dogs’ world. We contact his lawyer who has a plan to free his client.

The plan has us assisting the Royal Navy  (they need all the help they can get due to the war) to help turn the tide against the Armada. After attacking their great fortress, the Beachhead, and preventing the fall of the Isle of Fetch,  AND finishing off Rooke,  we finally are officially accepted into Marleybone’s navy and take Catbeard as a crew member (who is freed by the Navy due to an emergency order for any able bodied assistance).

~-~-Storyline spoilers ends now-~-~

Even though the story is very entertaining, I must say the game play is quite repetitive. We literally run dungeon after dungeon after dungeon, in fact I lost count of how many we face before we finally switch to a small ship battle (and go back to dungeons, of course). They’re all pretty long and even though sometimes we see some new enemies (such as battle angels and dragoons) they all are mostly boring.

That’s not to say there aren’t SOME interesting fights, especially at the beginning, it keeps players interested. But it would be much better if the dungeons weren’t so long. I even recorded the fight of Rooke against Mason and I.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to upload it in a reasonable amount of time without losing some of the quality.

Moving on, KingsIsle also released what some would consider the most requested feature: The Bazaar! It’s located in the area called “Skull Island” on Skull Island (they need to be a little more original with that). The Bazaar will sell all kind of items as long as they are not labeled “No Auction”. Interestingly enough there’s some ship equipment being sold at the bazaar that is basically “Crown Copy” items…different names but still same stats and powers as Crown gear!

Another new item implemented is the “Turret Bosses”. KingsIsle, noticing how some players like to form large parties to defeat enemies, made these new ship turrets to challenge these players. These new turret have a huge amount of health and can attack up to four players at once! They can be found in several areas of the spiral. We tried with three players in Marleybone and we got destroyed, came back with nine ships and the turret got destroyed. In MooShu we defeated it with only two ships, but since it’s weaker than us, it gave us only ONE nautical experience point. They are also in Cool Ranch but I haven’t tried there yet.

More updates which include transporters, the world of Aquila and more, will be discussed in my next post!

~~Ravino

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New Skies: Test Realm for Books 13 and 14 Online!

That’s right, we just receive info that Pirate101 Test Realm is online, checking the Update Notes right now. See you there!

~~Ravino

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

The Test Realm is now offline, and a message from our community manager One-Eyed Jack:

“The Test Realm was never “officially” announced…y’all jumped the gun a bit. no ETA.
Totally understandable of course. Patience! We’ll announce when it’s ready.”

Of course, we’re hoping it comes back online soon.

~~Ravino

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-

Tëst Realm is back online, and well– at least it has been online for the past 8 hours so I assume it’s for real now! Mason and I made into the wonderful skies of Marleybone and I must say it’s a complete war over here so make sure to keep a safe distance from the clockworks’ central fortress, the Benchhead… unless you want to be blasted by the Armada like my pirate’s parents…

~~Ravino

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New Skies: New Pictures of Books 13 and 14

Ladies and gentlemen! Did you had much fun looking for pictures of the new worlds I did not provide in my last post??? So did I! And now the time has come to KingsIsle to release new images of the new content, but first the full version of the puzzle I spoke of in my post:

I said it once, but I will it again: Marleybone was never one of my favorites worlds in Wizard101, specially because of its tricky rooftops but I’m very excited to play it on Pirate101, even more than Aquila; I love mythology, but I was never much into greek legends even though it seems to be the most popular on the gaming world; if I could choose I surely would do Marleybone first, and who knows? Since we don’t know yet the order of the events in these books it’s possible we are able to choose which one to do first. I’m hoping Test will open this week and trust me: I’m not alone!

~~Ravino

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Lost Pages: Blasted & New Skies: Puzzle of Upcoming Pirate101 World(s?)

It seems only a few days have passed since Kestrel and I were editting the lastest post from our dear author, Scarlet DuneStaff, for this blog… and actually it was only two/three(depending on your time zone) days ago. She spoke of the new update in Test bringing that much needed change to the game: hair styles, PvP updates, pixie changes and, of course, the Lost Pages event.

So, just yesterday I have logged into the game to find out the promised “surprise” from W101 facebook page and I found out the new housing packs, Avalon themed, which I already used to upgrade my Tower of Winter Winds, as well as the new Tower Music Box also in the Crown Shop for the low price of 2000 Crowns, I already had the reagents to craft it so I just got the recipe over in GH and made any own without hurting my Crown bag. Together with the housing items, KingsIsle released a whole new house, in farming style, this house is “liked” by all plants which means they’ll grow faster there… by now, most of you might know I love housing, however I did not fell in love with the place when I saw it, I’m not very fond of the style but Scar really liked it and already bought it for her little Death(which currently keeps her King Parsley garden.

Let us not forget of the Lost Pages event, Scar and I just finished doing all the quests and getting our badges, remember the event will only be available until March 31st, even though we didn’t get nothing rare(despise three Regal Dragon Statues) but it’s known the boss drops items from the Dragon’s Hoard Pack, so hurry up to get what you want before it’s gone! I must say, the quest is nice, even though a bit repetitive(collecting pages from 10 minions, running back to the librarian in Wizard City, running to Athur WestherField in Ravenwood, then defeating a boss), also a bit annoying being not possible to get 4 goal mobs together(the highest amount we saw was three, but it’s easy to get two) but very nice and entertaining at a overview.

Now, while we were solving all this magical issues, the world of P101 was moving, yes, KingsIsle released today/yesterday(depending on your time zone) several puzzle pieces in all of their “official” fansites, hinting a new expansion. The pictures completed(which I’m not going to give away – go ask someone else) seems to feature Aquila and Marleybone, so we might expect two upcoming worlds, perhaps even released together, why? It’s actually pretty simple: the Stormgate to Marleybone in Hamamitsu(a skyway in MooShu) and the Stormgate to Aquila in Tierra Primata(a skyway in Monquista) both requires a yellow windstone which clearly means that once when we acquire such a windstone we’ll have access to both worlds, but the main question I have: How we will deal with both worlds at once?

It’s surely something to look forward to. Mason MoonMask, a friend of ours and member of OTH cast, is betting Test Realm will open tomorrow/later today(depending on your time zone), so that’s my plan? We’ll be waking early these next days hoping to catch up the Pirate101 Test Realm, but don’t worry: I will surely post the news, make a review of the content(probably faster than Scar for the last W101 Test) and post it here. In the meantime I will be working on PvP to regain my Warload badge when I feel confident enough, after all I want those new housing items!

~~Ravino

 

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Ch-ch-ch Changes: New Stuff from Test Realm

 

OK.

So it’s not a brand new world with a new quest to hunt down Morganthe, or even a side quest world at that. But there is some new stuff coming from Test that will bring some much needed change in the game. And although some people may think that this bit of change is not enough, let’s just think positively and see this- at least – as a start in the right direction.

So where to begin….

 

PVP: A New Dawn in the Arena:
This is really a great victory for the Knight Who Say Ni and others supporters in the PVP community who have been rallying together for fair PVP matches. Much has been said about the arena’s current system and how the match ups allows for the formation of Puppet Teams. And of course, these teams have been known to use this unfair advantage to rank up in dueling. King Isle has taken noticed and has made improvements with their flawed PVP system so that the match ups will put everyone on equal footing.

In essence, there should be no more puppets.

To make it even more fair, everyone’s rank will be busted down to Private. So now, when we step back into the arena, we’ll truly see those who actually have the dueling skills to back their ranks versus those who had been “strung along” all this time.

In other PVP news, we see the addition of Warlord gear being added to Diego’s shop as well as some neat housing items sold by Roland SilverHeart that would be great for your study or trophy room.  The Warlord gear has some decent stats but is definitely more suited for PVP than PVE game play.

Also in other changes, the reshuffle card has been re-made so that you can only use it once. After it’s played the card it will not be placed back into your deck, which is similar to how treasure cards work.
Advantages, disadvantages, it all depends on the user…

Since Azteca is the latest world added in the game, KI thought it fitting to add an Aztecan themed arena fitted with burning trees and raining meteorites of destruction.  And to complete this whole new PVP experience, observers who come to watch a match can view the duel using the new “spectators” function. This new view gives you the same camera angles that you would see if you were actually dueling in the match. So it makes for great entertainment for those on the sidelines and even better for those who like to record matches using Fraps.

 

 

Gardening With or Without Pixies

This change kinda makes me cringe, considering that I am still gardening with King Parsley for Amber. But oh well…I digress. I think a lot of us gardeners have had our grumblings about this.
For those who are not familiar or do not garden often, here’s a little trick we’ve been doing to get the most out of our harvest. When we tend to our crops, we have to make sure that our plants have as many “likes” as possible so that they can get to elder faster. Because an elder harvest reaps better rewards than the normal stuff you harvest as they are growing.
There are some “likes” that are easier to create like certain furniture items or other companion plants. But the pixie is something you have to work at because you have to wait for it to appear on a plant. The avid gardener will plant certain seeds – like for instance a firey boom shroom – that are known to generate the magical pixie. They’ll tend to that plant until the pixie comes, and then let the plant die. Now, although the plant is dead and the mystical green pixie light is not seen, the system’s glitch still generates the “like” of that pixie. So again, for the avid gardeners, when we replant our crops for the next harvest we do not have to constantly go through the rigors of creating that pixie effect. We just plant our crops around the dead plant that is still generating the phantom pixie so that our plants can gain that “like”.

That was the old way of gardening.

King Isle has now fixed the glitch so that when that plant dies, the pixie that it generates dies with it. So there will be no more phantom pixie to keep around for the next harvest. But…. This doesn’t mean you can’t keep a pixie. It just means you won’t be able to maintain one through the old “dead” method.  What KI has decided to do is create a trainable pixie gardening spell for you to summon a pixie in your garden to achieve that same effect for only 48hrs. You would have to be a level 10 gardener in order to obtain the spell and have 175K in gold (Yes, that is 175,000 … check the zeros) to buy it from the gardening vendor in Krokotopia. And the spell cost you 25 points in energy to summon the pixie.

So what does all this mean? It’s hard to say. Again, the more likes you have, the quicker your crops grow to the elder stage. The most “likes” I have seen on a plant is five. So to do with one less like could possibly mean it could take maybe a day or so longer to reach an elder harvest from before.

Could you be patient enough to wait a day extra for an elder harvest, or spend all that gold to get a pixie just to have one more like added for 48 hrs?

 

Something Wyrd To Craft

If you been to Avalon and have gone through the Lake Shore area, then you’ll recognize the house that I speak of.

The new crafted house looks very similar to the Black Annie fight. It has its charm with the way the house dances on its spiny legs. And I must say it is very colorful with that purple bog water, the hazy mist, and the lively (or should I say un-lively) plants in the yard. But the house is not as large as the Grizzleheim crafted house, nor is it as hard to craft as the Celestian Observatory. It is a simple one story house with an extra house out in the back. The outside layout is as simple as the Wizard City small play house; there are no secret areas, caves, or levels to go through. There is a small patch of land to the side to do a bit of gardening. But other than that, it’s very basic as far as design goes. And so far, the crafting recipe for the Wyrd house is not all that complicated. But again, considering how small and simple the house is, I guess it would call for a much easier recipe.

So for all you crafters who have ever been intimated in building the other crafted houses, start with the Wyrd House first and then work your way up to Grizzleheim and the Observatory.

 

New Hair Do’s, New Furniture, and Something New To Do
As I have said earlier, these new things are just the start in a new direction that King Isle is taking in bringing some much needed change in the game. And though it may not be much, or anything too grand, it is a start.

A lot of us players, especially girls, have been asking for a change of hairdo or at least let us be able to take our hats off so that we can let our own hair down. Now King Isle had allowed us to do something like that with these new hair styles we can purchase from the crown shop.

So far, there are five styles to choose from: The Kestrel, Martlet, Owl, Swan, and the Housemartin. These are mostly short strait cut styles, except for the Swan which is a smooth bouffant like up do.
The Swan is my favorite. I feel like Adele when I put it on.

When buying your new hair, you have to make sure you pick the right color you want because you cannot re-dye it in the dye shop. Though King Isle has stated that these styles will be available as drops with different bosses around the spiral, in different colors. The good thing about these styles is that they are stitch-able. So if you are tired of your old hat, take the stats and put it on your new hairdo. And when you get tired of that, put it on another.

Good news, Ms. Eloise can now un-stitch your stats from an item if needed.
A new set of housing packs have been introduced in the crown shop also. There are three packs right now and they are all Aztecan themed. Each pack gives you some very rare and beautiful furniture pieces for your home. Some are interactive to make it even more fun.

Last, but not least, we do have a bit to do. KI has decided to give us some busy work to keep us preoccupied until the next expansion is out. Though it may not be much as far as a questing goes, it does break up the monotony a bit. If you’re like me, it seems like all we’ve been doing is logging in, tend to the garden, and maybe hang out in the Commons to listen to random conversations.

These little quests, or “mini-events” which are currently called “The Lost Pages”, do give us badges here and there for completing different parts of the quest. Plus at the very end, when you defeat the last boss on this journey, there is a chance to get some gear from the Dragon Hoards pack.

These changes are set to go live on 4/24/13.  And to me, I see this as a very impressive start to whatever else that may come down the pike.

Maybe in the future we can look forward to more furniture sets (Avalon or Celestian themed) or maybe some more hairstyles. I’ve been playing in Pirate101 lately and I am very partial to that Monquistan up-do Queen Eleanor has been wearing.

 

 

Time will only tell what King Isle will bring in the future.

 

 

 

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Audio Chapter – Book One – Chapter 02

Many thanks to Cassandra Drake for working with us again, the second Audio Chapter is ready check it out below!

 

 

If you wish to get involved on our Audio Chapter Project,  click on the Community Projects tab (click here) to get the details on how you can enter.

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First Audio Chapter!!

Many dozens of “Thanks”  to Daniel DeathCaster for doing the first chapter read!!!

I’m so happy to see this get underway!!  Check out Daniel’s narrative below…

If you want to get involved on our Audio Chapter Project,  click on the Community Projects tab (click here) to get details on how you can enter.

THANKS AGAIN, DANIEL!!!

 

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