Paper Pirates News

[h2]New Trait: The Meddler[/h2]
Our first new trait for The Meddlesome Update is The Meddler!

On days when The Meddler does not play in, they may choose a pirate that is playing in and change whatever they’ve chosen to play in today to either an obey or a disobey. Like other active traits, their power is limited and The Meddler can only meddle a maximum of three times each voyage.



When a meddle takes place, the pirate whose job was meddled will receive a private prompt on their device to let them know that they’ve been meddled (and whether their choice is being forced to obey or disobey), and just before the job cards are revealed on the main screen you will see an indication that a meddle took place today.

Whether your Meddler is a ghost trying to meticulously frame a human pirate, or a human pirate thwarting the plans of your ghosts, The Meddler is sure to add an extra layer to all your social deducting.

[h2]New Trait: The Sensitive[/h2]
Our second new trait for The Meddlesome Update is The Sensitive!

The Sensitive is able to tell, by checking their black spot, whether they are currently next to a ghost on the ship. That means if the pirate one rank up, or down, from them is a ghost - or even if both are! - The Sensitive will know that they’re near some spooky business.



The Sensitive adds a whole new perspective to events which change pirate’s rank and positions on the ship. Watch out when the captain promotes you - they might be bringing you into the suspicion of The Sensitive!

[h2]New Feature: The Ship Shop[/h2]
Nat O’Bother has opened up his Ship Shop - a new expansion to the Shop Ship! Bobbing in his barrel, but always ready to go, nothing is too much bother for our Nat!

The Ship Shop’s specialism is helping you to customise your ship - as displayed on the title screen and sailing while you’re on a voyage. Everyone gets a free ship slot by default, so you can visit Nat and start building right away!



Nat sells a wide range of ship parts for PP Coins, from figureheads to flags, from sails to sterns, and you can combine them to build the ship of your dreams. To top things off, he’s also here to help you give each ship a name and icon.



If you’re feeling flush and customisation’s your thing, Nat can also sell you additional ship slots which let you own more than one ship - saving custom ship configurations to switch between quickly. The more ships you own, the more they cost, so having a navy of seaworthy ships might take more adventurin’ than you expect!

[h2]New Event: Ominous Winds[/h2]
With The Meddlesome Update, we’re also introducing one new event - Ominous Winds! When Ominous Winds blow, a pirate is sure to see an omen of the future. What will this omen do? Will it threaten to throw a pirate overboard? Offer them a promotion to captain? Or something else entirely?



All omens are tracked as ongoing events (so you can see the details at the side of the screen!) and grant a sense of impending fortune or doom to a particular pirate. Will your omen play out, or will it expire before it has a chance to take effect?

[h2]UI Improvements[/h2]
We’ve made some improvements to the Paper Pirates UI to increase readability, and to help add understanding to the way the game is played. The following three key features are designed with new players in mind in particular:

[h3]The Phase Tracker[/h3]
In the top left of the game screen, you’ll now see the phase tracker. The phase tracker indicates which stage (playing in, event or voting) of the current day you’re at, and which one is coming up next.



[h3]Device Action Reminders[/h3]
We’ve made it more clear when someone needs to take an action on their device, with a clearer indicator above a pirate. These trigger when a pirate needs to make a choice in an event or vote a pirate overboard for example.



[h3]‘Who Voted?’ Indicators[/h3]
In addition to the existing ‘Who voted for who’ tracker on each player’s device, we’ve added a visual indicator of who cast votes for who during voting in the form of coloured black spots.



[h3]‘Can Create a Ghost’ Indicator[/h3]
When an event has an action or decision that might create a ghost, the event message box will give you a little warning to let you know. Look out for this as a helpful reminder when weighing up whether it’s worthwhile to poison that soup or not!



We’ve also given the Credits page a bit of a facelift - check it out to see the pirates on the Iteration Games crew!

Across June and July, we’re celebrating with the eighth Paper Pirates Seasonal Celebration,The Pirate Pool Party! Running from 24th June to 22nd July, celebrate the warmer weather with a party dedicated to all things poolside, and a whole host of seasonal goodies in Paper Pirates!



[h2]Limited Time Costumes[/h2]
During The Pirate Pool Party, Sam Sherbot has some new outfit options available to unlock in the Outfit Shop! If you buy an outfit option during The Pirate Pool Party, you can wear it all year round - but the items will be disappearing from sale when the event is over, so don’t delay and buy today!



The full list of outfit items available during The Pirate Pool Party is:

• Accessories - Goggles
  
• Accessories - Sunglasses (Star)
  
• Accessories - Sunglasses (Round)
  
• Accessories - Rose-Tinted Glasses
  
• Coats - Rubber Ring (Striped)
  
• Coats - Rubber Ring (Flamingo)
  
• Coats - Rubber Ring (Unicorn)
  
• Coats - Crab Shell
  
• Coats - Turtle Shell
  
• Faces - Watermelon
  
• Feet - Flip-flops
  
• Feet - Flippers
  
• Hands - Crab Claws
  
• Headwear - Pendant (Solar)
  
• Headwear - Pendant (Pineapple)
  
• Headwear - Pendant (Cherry)
  
• Headwear - Pendant (Watermelon)
  
• Headwear - Hairpin (Flower)
  
• Headwear - Hairpin (Floral)
  
• Headwear - Hairpin (Ladybird)
  
• Headwear - Lei
  
• Legs - Bermuda Shorts (Flowers)
  
• Legs - Bermuda Shorts (Leaves)
  
• Shirts - Hairy Chest
  
• Shirts - Bikini Top
  
• Shirts - Shell Bra
  
• Shirts - Hawaiian Shirt
  

Additionally, during The Pirate Pool Party, pirates have access to three unique hats, available to everyone in voyages started during the event. Once the event’s over, the hats will disappear from your collection until next year, so be sure to wear them while you can!



[h2]The “Spooky Sandcastles” Event![/h2]
Go on a sailing adventure during The Pirate Pool Party, and any day when there’s a failed job there is a chance you may encounter the “Spooky Sandcastles” event. Encountering some mysterious haunted sandcastles, the crew must each choose one of the three to hide amongst! But be wary, for once all pirates have picked a hiding place, the most popular pick will reveal how many of the pirates choosing to hide amongst it was actually a ghost!



Watch out for pirates choosing to hide amongst their peers, or those choosing to go it alone hoping not to be discovered. Whether pirates are jumping in with others or not, there’s bound to be deception around the spooky sandcastles!

[h2]Get your Party On in the Photo Booth[/h2]
To celebrate The Pirate Pool Party, there is one limited-time Background and one limited-time Foil available in the Photo Booth, in the Captain’s Log. Take the opportunity to snap your favourite pirate templates, and share any pics you take!

[h2]Pirate Pool Party Bots[/h2]
Invite bots into your game during The Pirate Pool Party, and you may encounter any of three unique bots! Look out for Crabbot, Sandy Botney and Wes Overbot who are all eager to board your ship and throw you overboard! These bots will only join your games during The Pirate Pool Party, so take the chance to meet them now before they swim away for the rest of the year!

[h2]New Trait: The Shapeshifter![/h2]
It’s great to see so many people having fun with Trait games, and the popularity of The Wishful hasn’t gone unnoticed. We’re super excited to introduce some additional new traits in 3.2, which share The Wishful’s playful sense of having a power they can activate on days when they don’t play in. Our first new trait in 3.2 is: The Shapeshifter!



On days when The Shapeshifter does not play in, they may shift their shape, swapping their team (from human team to ghost team, or from ghost team to human team). Like The Wishful, their power is limited and The Shapeshifter can only change their shape three times each voyage.

The big limiting factor on The Shapeshifter is only being able to use their power when they don’t play in. Will you take the opportunity to shift your team early in the game, hoping things play out as you expect, or risk a later game switch and risk playing in every day and ending up trapped on the losing team?

[h2]New Trait: The Interrogator![/h2]
Our second new trait in 3.2 is: The Interrogator!

On days when The Interrogator does not play in, they may prepare an interrogation by choosing a pirate and a specific trait. They will then be told whether their interrogation was correct or incorrect through their trait information in the black spot. Like The Wishful and The Shapeshifter, their power is limited and The Interrogator can only prepare three interrogations each voyage.



As with most traits, The Interrogator can begin the game on either the Human team or the Ghost team, so you never know whether your Interrogator is working for good or for evil. Even if they’ve managed to uncover some juicy information, can you always trust what they want to share with the crew?

[h2]Reworked Trait: The Disguised![/h2]
We love The Disguised, and we know that you do too, but one of the things we’ve heard from a lot of players is that they want it to have more interaction throughout the game than with just The Psychic. The Disguised rework makes their trait apply to all team reveals through traits or events. Spy on a pirate who’s Disguised? Their team will be flipped! Census with a pirate who’s Disguised? It will report one higher, or lower, than the actual number of ghosts.



The Disguised now adds a lot of uncertainty to your games, and it’s a very safe claim for any initial ghost players - but as with all traits, it can only appear once, so watch out for those counter-claims (and maybe use the power of your Interrogator, if you have one, to find the real one).

As part of the rework, we’ve also made it so The Disguised can appear independently of The Psychic - so for those of you whose strategies relied on the presence of The Disguised to confirm or de-confirm the presence of The Psychic, you might need to think of new ways to force your Psychic out of hiding!

[h2]‘Watch a Pirate’ - On-screen team reveal[/h2]
Following the introduction of Spectator Mode in the Traitorous Update, we’ve added a new feature for players who would like to make their pirate’s team (and secret objective in Scored Games, or trait in Trait Games) public. We’ve seen streamers using Spectator Mode to run fantastic multi-perspective streams, and by using Watch a Pirate they can choose to share their team publicly on their stream with their viewers, while keeping it secret from other spectators.



To initiate the ‘Watch a Pirate’ feature, you can click on any pirate in the lobby or in-game and choose ‘Watch Pirate’ from the pop-up menu. This player will then receive a prompt on their device to approve or deny the request. At any time, you can stop watching a pirate using the close button next to the pirate’s information.

[h2]New Player Tutorial[/h2]
For players new to Paper Pirates, we’ve added a Tutorial Island to the Plot a Course options. The Tutorial offers a more guided, gentler introduction to Paper Pirates, with some in-depth explanations of the various mechanics as you play through the game. The Captain will appear on-screen, with animations, to explain to you what the rules are regarding playing in, voting, events, and more.



Additionally, if you are new to Paper Pirates, The Captain will introduce you to all the key features of the game, including The Captain’s Log and The Bounty Board. If you’re a Paper Pirates veteran, The Captain might pop up from time to time to tell you about a feature you already know about - but rest assured, he’s only trying to be helpful!

[h2]New ‘Choose a Pirate’ Screens[/h2]
Whenever you have to choose a pirate - either in voting or in an event - we’ve added a little bit of extra personality to the screen by including little avatars of each player’s pirate, plus their pirate colour in big chunky (harder to misclick!) buttons.



[h2]Improved In-Game Update Notes[/h2]
The Update Notes button from the title screen has had a facelift! The in-game update notes now cover the headline features of each update, with a short description, right in the client. It’s a little more fun and friendly than the notes that were there before! The full patch notes are always available on Steam for anyone who wants to dive into the full details.




[h2]A Few Other Things[/h2]

• We’ve made some general improvements to the Photo Booth, which now saves your snaps with correct transparency. That means if you want to take a pic of your pirate against the green screen background, you now get a nice crisp copy of your pirate on their own ready for you to use as you wish!
  
• If you have Remote Start enabled in the options, the pirate who has the option to start the game is now labelled in the lobby with the addition of a crown icon.
  
• We’ve added Steam Rich Presence, which shows what’s going on in your Steam Friends List while you’re playing Paper Pirates!
  
• A few additional tracks of music have been added to the game so listen out when planning a voyage or journeying to the Shop Ship!
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• We lost our special Paper Pirates cursor icon temporarily, but it has now returned!
  

[h2]New Trait: The Wishful![/h2]
After adding the Trait game mode in 3.0, we’ve had an outpouring of positive feedback, and it’s clear that everyone loves playing Paper Pirates with Traits! One of the most common requests we get is for more traits, so with 3.1 we’re introducing the first new Trait: The Wishful!



On days when The Wishful does not play in, they may wish for an event from a selection displayed on their device. Their power is limited, however, and The Wishful only has three wishes - so can only use their power three times during any voyage. Whether they use their power for good to help the humans, or for evil to help the ghosts, The Wishful is sure to have a huge impact on any games where they appear!

[h2]New Event: Stowaway’s Brawl[/h2]
We’re retiring an older event that we don’t think fits the Paper Pirates ethos, so we’re saying goodbye to Shipwreck in normal gameplay (it’ll still appear in certain Daily Voyages though, so it’s not gone for good!). To replace Shipwreck, we’re introducing a new event: Stowaway’s Brawl!



During a Stowaway’s Brawl, a random pirate is chosen to brawl with the stowaway. The two brawling pirates each choose from rock, paper or scissors; Rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, and scissors beats paper. If the defending pirate wins or there’s a draw, nothing happens, however, if the stowaway wins, the stowaway and the defending pirate swap ranks!

[h2]The Shop Ship: Gene Botley’s Map Shop[/h2]
Sam Sherbot has set sail and set up shop with Gene Botley! The pair are now the proud owners of the brand new Shop Ship, which houses Sam Sherbot’s Outfit Shop as before, and the all-new Map Shop run by Gene Botley.



The Map Shop offers pirates an opportunity to buy maps for a small amount of PP Coins which show you how to reach a previously played Daily Voyage. The Daily Voyage locations are mysterious though, so each map can only be used once! Be sure to visit Gene’s Map Shop if there’s any Daily Voyages you particularly enjoy playing.





[h2]Nine New Daily Voyages[/h2]
To celebrate the opening of Gene Botley’s Map Shop, we’ve expanded the destinations you can visit on your daily voyages with nine brand new daily voyages! They’re entering the daily voyage rotation, so look out for them appearing when you check your daily voyage each day. Including new adventures where the crew can get stranded on a desert island, to being thrown overboard by a lethal assassin, there’s a whole new suite of configurations here offering a new take on Paper Pirates every day!



[h2]Save your Custom Game Configurations[/h2]
We love making custom games, and we know that you do too! To help streamline the process, we’ve added the functionality for you to save a predefined configuration to play again later. You can save up to fifty different game setups, and access these directly from the new Plot a Course menu.



[h2]Plot a Course Menu[/h2]
To help keep things fresh, we have a new menu screen for when you’re choosing to plot a course. Deciding between a Classic, Scored or Trait game has never been more fun!



Additionally, the Plot a Course screen lets you access your saved Custom Configurations or play any Maps you’ve bought from Gene Botley’s Map Shop!

[h2]Revamped ‘How to Play’ Guides[/h2]
We’ve overhauled the way the how to play information is presented from the game setup screens, to make it more informative and to help new players get into the game. Filled with video clips and guides to show the different elements of Paper Pirates, we hope the How to Play button for each game mode offers a quick and easy way to bring any new players up to speed on how to get started with Paper Pirates.



Additionally, we’ve made some improvements to the ‘How to Play’ button on the device. If you’ve got players who are new to the game, make sure to point them to the menu - there’s always a handy rule summary there if they need it!

[h2]In-game Chat Tooltips[/h2]
When you’re playing Paper Pirates on your device, we’ve given a few bits and pieces a lick of paint to make them look a bit spiffier. As part of the visual overhaul, we’ve also added tooltips to the in-game chat! Say the name of a secret objective in a Scored Game, or a Trait in a Trait Game, and it’ll create a tooltip link where you can immediately check out the details of that objective or trait, directly from the chat interface. Handy for all landlubbers new to the crew!



[h2]New Emotes[/h2]
The new in-game chat interface also comes with an added bonus: four new emotes! Your pirates have never been so expressive! The four new emotes include waving, laughing, confusion and most excitingly, a rank-based emote! That’s right, whether you’re the Captain, Stowaway, Cook, or any other rank, pressing the rank-specific emote button will have your pirate enact a little animation that’s unique to that rank! They’re super cute!

[h2]A Few Other Things[/h2]

• The ‘Default’ game mode is now referred to as the ‘Classic’ game mode throughout Paper Pirates
  
• We’ve made some improvements to the Day One experience for spectators, to decrease the likelihood of spectators having to wait until the host reaches day two to start spectating
  
• There’s a new “Copy” button in the Lobby, next to where the room code appears. Clicking the copy button copies a join URL to your clipboard, which you paste into any chat applications to share with your crew. If they click the link, they’ll be taken to the Paper Pirates joining website, with the room code already pre-filled (e.g. https://paperpirat.es/?room=TEST) to make joining your game even easier! What’s even better - you don’t need to reveal the room code to copy the URL to your clipboard, so if you’re streaming the game, you can share the link to join the game without even needing a room code hider!
  
• If you’ve got ‘Auto-hide Room Code’ turned on in your game options, entering a room code to spectate a game will now hide the room code as you enter it so you don’t reveal the room code to your audience when streaming
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• The default number of innocent players in a customised trait game should now be a more rational number
  
• Bots sometimes failed to hide from the wasps in the Wasp Nest event, but should now always be ready to jump into a barrel!
  

As part of the Remote Play Together Sale we'll be streaming Paper Pirates! Play along and see if you can guess who is a ghost!