February 2009 update

Subject: February 2009 update Thu Feb 05, 2009 7:40 am

If A Homunculus Sees His Shadow, Does That Mean Six More Weeks of Cursed Fog?

From the Release Notes:

Portraits and New Items

New limited edition portrait backgrounds:
Damayi's Cupid's Party, Damayi's Pirate o' Love, Happyharlot's
Valentine's Day, Roseash's Lakeside Snow, Merethif's Winter Cabin
Returning seasonal portrait backgrounds: Valentine's Day Heart, Valentine's Day Swan
Limited edition white elephants are available in the Palace Shoppe
Seasonal Valentine's Day trinkets are available in the Palace Shoppe
New seasonal valentine furniture available in the Palace Shoppe: Rose wreath
Flower trinkets may now be held in portraits
Mugs may now be held in portraits
- Solid or greater experience in drinking allows foam in the held mug

New clothing available for tailors to manufacture: plain knickers for ladies
New starter clothing, also available from tailors: patchy pants and solid shirts for both genders

New Player Experience

New tutorial mission for first-time pirates
Make navy gunnery mission only require Apprentice instead of Narrow in the 3 basic duty puzzles
Make navy vessels better understand their available duty stations
Tweaks to the pirate creation interface
Allow pirate creation during initial game download when launching from the web page

Cursed Isles

Miscellaneous Tweaks

Decreased the number of dragoons boarding from sea monsters
New titles assignable to crew members
Scale blacksmithing scoring with difficulty level
Restrict what html is usable in trinket inscriptions/wrapped present text
Warp to portal arrows if necessary instead of complaining that they are unreachable
Use antialiased text throughout the game
Flotillas now only blockade an island after at least two weeks of existence, versus one before
Always show the 'To home' button, even when at home (and tell users as much if they try to use it there)
Don't require officerhood to see vessel lock status from the docks
Adjustments to mugs in drinking:
- Fix skull mug to properly only penalize by 40 pts on PLAYING the special, not drinking it
- Stein - Make it +15/-10 instead of +15/-5
- Horn - On playing specials, lose 10 points

Bug Fixes

Fix bug with foraging scores in puzzle competitions
Fix bug with inconsistently aged bandanas from item tutorial mission
Fix bug with vessels sunk between the time they pull into the CI cove and the end of the turn
Fix bug in ship placement coming out of cursed isle gauntlet - previously never placed to upper right of primary exit point.
Fix bug with the notice board's inn button when the inn is your home
Show "Board" instead of "Apply" on the jobbing board when a pirate is already jobbed into that crew
Add missing layers for dreadlocks & long-straight hair in portraits
Fix misaligned buccaneer jacket sleeves in portraits
Fix timing issues with some messages relating to scoring and
drunkenness; this includes timing issues causing incorrect scores to be
displayed game-end involving tankards