Paper Pirates News

Put on your best pirate digs, and get ready for the Fashionable Update for Paper Pirates - bringing a hundred new outfit customisation options, which you can unlock by playing games of Paper Pirates, plus a whole new way to choose your events in custom games, and much more! Read on for the full details of everything included in this month’s update!

[h2]Earn Coins as you Play![/h2]
As you sail the seven seas, you’ll earn coins as a reward. Playing a Default game will grant you a small amount of coins, and playing a Scored game will grant you coins based on the amount of coins earned by each player pirate in the game. Your total coins can be viewed from the title screen - and if you’ve already been playing Scored Games, you might find that you already have some coins saved up from games you’ve played before 2.3!



[h2]Spend Coins to Unlock New Outfit Customisations![/h2]
But what can you do with those coins? You can spend them at the all-new Outfit Shop! Sam Sherbot, the Shopkeep, has opened their brand new Outfit Shop - and is selling 100 new outfit customisation options across all categories! The Outfit Shop lets you try on new pieces, and once purchased, you can access them from the outfit customiser in the lobby before starting your game.



[h2]Events? They’re the Crew’s Choice![/h2]
Custom Games have a new option under the ‘Events’ tab, which allows you to switch your event selection mode between Random (events selected randomly) and the new Crew’s Choice option. When Crew’s Choice is chosen, each day, every crew member will be offered a selection of possible events, and will vote on the event they’d like to happen. The more votes an event receives, the more likely it is to happen - but the actual event that’s picked is all down to the Compass of Fate! Crew’s Choice adds a whole new way to play, and another opportunity for pirates to get involved in voting and discussion - we love it, and we hope you will too!



If you’re playing with an audience, an audience event will be added to the Compass of Fate every day at least one person votes, and could be chosen to really mix things up in your game!

[h2]Bot Voting Improvements[/h2]
Our bots have gotten a little smarter, and will now make more informed decisions when asked to vote in events. They’ll attempt to use any knowledge they have, such as whether they think someone is a confirmed human or ghost, to make decisions in events such as exorcism - so you should hopefully see some more sensible bot plays in games with less human pirates!

[h2]Audience Mode Improvements[/h2]
Pirates who join the audience will experience a newly improved audience flow, which offers more guidance, instructions and explanation on how audience mode interacts with the game. The audience will be able to see which events other audience members voted for, and when you’re not currently voting, there’s a prompt to let you know what the next thing you can do is.



Audience members will also have access to the game log from the point they started observing a game, and there’s a new question mark button which offers a quick overview of the rules of Paper Pirates!

Additionally, audience members will now see in-game when an event is chosen by their votes. Look out for the “Audience’s Choice” badge on the event messages!

[h2]A Few Other Things[/h2]

• Certain elements of the game (such as the lobby) have been given a revised look and feel, to ensure consistency
  
• Crew in the lobby now have a ‘Ready?’ button they can use to signal that they’ve finished customising their pirate and they’re ready for the game to begin
  
• Auto-Hide Room Code will now hide the room code in-game, but can be revealed by clicking on the room code cloud
  
• The maximum length of chat messages has been increased slightly
  
• Our new shopkeeper, Sam Sherbot, may rarely join you on a voyage as a bot. Look out for them on your trips!
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• The Immunity event didn’t always present a countdown timer to prompt the Captain to choose quickly, but the timer should now always pop-up
  
• A few very rare server crashes have been fixed, so hopefully games are more robust!
  
• Fixed an issue which could cause games to start on days that weren’t numbered 1
  
• In the lobby, the room code no longer blocks the view of the pirates in the bottom right of the screen
  

As always, don’t forget that you can join us every Saturday at 8pm BST on Twitch for our weekly dev stream, or pop by our YouTube channel to see Let’s Plays of Paper Pirates, How To videos and more!

It’s about time we introduce you to Paper Pirates version 2.2 - an adventure of an update that includes a host of new events and achievements, a new game log feature in the device client, and a whole new way to create custom games! Read on for all the details!

[h2]Brand New Events![/h2]
To keep you on your toes, we’ve added nine new events - and for the first time ever, four of these events are exclusive to the Scored Games variant of Paper Pirates! If you’re looking to complete your events list in the Captain’s Log, make sure you’ve played at least a few scored games to uncover these hidden new events. We don’t want to spoil any surprises, but one of the new events has the potential to completely warp your game!


[h2]More Customisation in Custom Games[/h2]
Bringing more excitement to Custom Games, you can now include and exclude specific events and secret objectives from each custom game you play! Hate it when a last minute Mutiny disrupts your plans? You can ban the Mutiny event from your game! Wondering what would happen if every pirate was Demotivated? You can include it as the only secret objective in your game! Now your custom games can be as different as your heart desires!


[h2]Extra Achievements![/h2]
With new events and new ways to play custom games, we’re also adding a handful of new achievements - and as always, each new achievement comes with a new hat, which you can unlock as soon as you earn the achievement. If you want to be the most fashionable pirate on the seven seas, track down any of the eight new achievements as quickly as you can, and try out the new hats before yer crew!

[h2]The Game Log[/h2]
Didn’t see who went overboard? Looked away and missed an event? Each connected device now has access to the ‘Game Log’, which tracks all the important going-ons of each game, available to each player during the game. Use the new Game Log button to access it, and you’ll be able to recap whether the job each day was a success or failure - and who played in, which events happened each day and what they did, and who voted to throw a pirate overboard. Additionally, any chat messages sent will be logged in the Game Log too! Great for cross-referencing when someone claimed to be a human with what their actions showed.


[h2]Audience Experience Adjustments[/h2]
We’ve made some general adjustments to the audience experience, for a smoother overall experience. Audience members will now see a short description of each event when choosing which to vote for, and events voted for by the audience should now be slightly more likely to appear too. The audience flow has been adjusted, so audience members need to keep an eye on their devices so they know when to vote!


[h2]Performance Improvements[/h2]
We’ve tightened a few things up under the stern, making sure everything’s ship shape and ready for sailing. You may see some general performance improvements, particularly with certain graphics cards and drivers.

[h2]A Few Other Things[/h2]

• We’ve added How To Play guides, accessible from the title screen for both Default and Scored games. Just click the “?” button, and they’ll pop right open, detailing all the rules of Paper Pirates for you to browse!
  
• Some older events have been given new animations - see if you can spot them all!
  
• Each day now has a day/night cycle, to help impress upon the crew the passage of time.
  
• Buttons linking to the Iteration Games Twitter, Discord, Twitch and YouTube communities have been added to the title screen. Please visit us to talk about Paper Pirates, we’d love to hear from you!
  
• Pirates can no longer join a game using the name of a pirate who is already in the game.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• The Just Desserts achievement wasn’t being properly credited, but this is now fixed - Evil Chefs, get your soup at the ready!
  
• We’ve made the reconnection process a touch more robust, so you should now have a greater chance of reconnecting to a game when you’ve disconnected.
  

As always, don’t forget that you can join us every Saturday at 8pm BST on Twitch for our weekly dev stream, or pop by our YouTube channel to see Let’s Plays of Paper Pirates, How To videos and more!

Today, we’re super excited to share Patch 2.1, the Portraits Update, with all you scurvy sea dogs setting sail on the Paper Pirates oceans! This update includes a fancy new feature for makin’ portraits of your pirates, perfect for sharin’ with your mateys. We’ve also got a round of bug fixes and balance changes, to ensure your games play to the pirate code. Check out the patch notes in full just below deck!

[h2]The Photo Booth[/h2]
A new addition to the Captain’s Log, the Photo Booth, let’s you pick from your pirate templates, and prepare a custom snap all ready for sharin’! You can prepare your pirate in a whole range of poses, put them on different backdrops, pick a foil, and even add an adornment - such as a nameplate, a rosette, or some words of wisdom, to make the perfect picture. Hit the save button, and your pirate’s picture will be exported, ready for sharing with all your friends! We’d love to see your best #PiratePortraits, so why not share them with us on Twitter at @IterationGames.


[h2]Expand your Booth[/h2]
Looking to add more poses, backgrounds and foils to your photo booth to make the ultimate portrait? It’s now not only hats that you can unlock with achievements, but your photo booth will grow over time as you unlock achievements! Make sure you visit the photo booth when you’ve had a particularly exciting game to see if you have any fancy new decorations for your pirates - you might find a new favourite.


[h2]In-Game Patch Notes[/h2]
Look out for the “Patch Notes” button from the title screen, to view a quick summary of the latest changes to Paper Pirates in-game. Handy if you need to find out about the latest bug fixes and balance updates before setting sail!

[h2]Steam Cloud[/h2]
A few updates ago, we added pirate templates, so that you can save your pirate appearances for names you use often. Now those appearances will be saved to the Steam Cloud, so they’re all safely backed up, along with some of your preferences, configurations, and stats data - as a bonus, they’ll also travel with you from computer to computer if you play Paper Pirates on multiple PCs!

[h2]Menu Improvements[/h2]
We’ve revisited some of our menu screens to improve the general user experience of Paper Pirates. Our options screens in particular have been revisited, and for the first time you can access some options directly from the lobby - so you no longer have to back out of a game to tweak your settings!

[h2]Balance Updates[/h2]
We’ve been reviewing the way that secret objectives play out in scored games and we’re making a few small adjustments to some secret objectives to ensure that they’re fun and to make sure everyone feels like they have a chance at earning some coins in each game.

[h2]Scored Games[/h2]

• The Pacifistic secret objective has been removed.
  
• The Diplomatic secret objective has been added! A Diplomatic pirate scores coins based on how many pirates haven’t been thrown overboard at the end of the game - we’re sure that a diplomatic pirate is bound to make an enemy of a ruthless pirate where both objectives appear!
  
• The Ambitious secret objective has been reworked. Instead of only awarding coins if you end the game as the captain, you now earn a number of coins based on how high your rank is amongst the crew.
  
• The Zealous and Spiteful secret objectives have been reworked. Instead of only awarding coins if your target pirate ends the game as captain/stowaway, you now earn a number of coins based on how high/low their rank is amongst the crew respectively.
  
• The number of coins available for completing the Dependent secret objective has been decreased.
  
• The number of coins available for completing the Ruthless secret objective has been decreased.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• Occasionally, pirates with no hat were assigned Blackbeard’s Beard upon starting a game. Pirates with no hat will now remain hatless once the game commences.
  
• Pirates created in the lobby for a game that is aborted before it’s started will now still be saved as templates.
  
• Rarely, when a bot foresaw an event through the Magic Lamp event, the event chosen wouldn’t actually take place. It should now always happen - watch out for those Shipwrecks!
  

As always, don’t forget that you can join us every Saturday at 8pm BST on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/iterationgames) for our weekly dev stream, or pop by our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqi1SJHkkB4a5h9Q-YJjLWQ) to see Let’s Plays of Paper Pirates, How To videos and more!

• Fixed issues with "No Hat" being overridden by the Blackbeard hat once unlocked.
  
• Fixed issues with some hats being behind the ocean in the title screen
  
• The Blackbeard hat now actually has flavour text in the Captain’s Log
  
• The “Treacherous” secret objective should now score correctly
  
• Resizing the game should now look a little less glitchy
  
• Mac users should now have a regular sized cursor
  
• Balloons should now float a distance relative to their character’s scale
  
• Fixed colouring issues with smoke particles
  

[h2]Additions[/h2]

• The Stats section in the Captain’s Log now has some stats to look at!
  
• Pressing Ctrl+C+M will now toggle a cinematic mode that turns off display text, the skip intro button, as well as the options button
  

We’re really excited to introduce Paper Pirates 2.0!

Headline features include fast mode, the Captain’s Log, and perhaps most excitingly, a whole new game mode with an entirely new way to play Paper Pirates! Without further ado, let’s get into the patch notes....

[h2]New Game Mode: Scored Games![/h2]
Our new game mode completely changes the way that you sail on the seven seas! Paper Pirates is team-based, it’s true, but in a Scored Game, each pirate earns coins depending on how well they play. To unlock scored games, just play one game of Paper Pirates, and then the Scored Game and Custom Game buttons will be available to you in the main menu!


[h2]What do points make? Coins![/h2]
In a Scored Game, pirates earn coins depending on how well they play. Vote to throw a ghost overboard as a human? Coins for you! Achieve your victory condition? Coins for you! The more coins you have, the better you’ll rank at the end of the game. Coin totals are hidden until the end of the game, so you never know quite who’s in the lead until the dramatic finale.

[h2]Secret Objectives[/h2]
In a Scored Game, each pirate also has their very own secret objective, earning coins for meeting their objective as they progress through the game. Secret objectives are unique to you, and only displayed on your device, so don’t be sharin’ them with yer crew! Objectives range from trying to finish the game as the captain, to gaining bonus coins every time you throw a targeted pirate overboard, so they’re sure to mix up your usual style. But watch out! One player might be demotivated, earning a bumper crop of coins if they finish the game as the stowaway…




There are fifteen different objectives, and once you’ve unlocked scored games you can read all about them in the brand-new Captain’s Log. Once you know what they are, you’ll need to look out for any pirates who are behaving suspiciously… Try to achieve your secret objective, but don’t let anyone else get theirs to stay ahead of your crewmates!
[h2]Fast Mode[/h2]
We’ve heard your requests for a fast mode, for those of you who are seasoned sailors. If you’re looking for a speedier game of Paper Pirates, head over to the options screen and enable ‘Fast Mode’. In Fast Mode, fewer dialogue boxes will be displayed, and there’s less time spent waiting for animations. Don’t panic, we’ll still share important information, like when events are happening, so don’t feel like you need to know Paper Pirates inside out before you try it out. You can even turn it on in the middle of a game using the options menu!
[h2]Captain’s Log[/h2]
Lookin’ for info on all the secret workings of Paper Pirates voyages? The new Captain’s Log is for you! It holds the secrets of all the objectives, events, hats and bots in the game. Events won’t show up until you’ve seen them in a game, and hats won’t show up until you’ve unlocked them, so hunt them all down to reveal them in the log!



[h2]Emotes[/h2]
Brimming over with piratey feelings? Your pirates have learnt a whole new way to communicate! When you pop open the chat box, you’ll now see four new emote buttons that will prompt your pirate to express their feelings through the medium of animation. Feeling joyful? Your pirate can cheer with a heart! Feeling surprised? Your pirate can show an exclamation! Why not use emotes in combination with emoji to really show how you’re feeling when your crewmates have turned against you and are all voting to throw you overboard!
[h2]Bot Improvements[/h2]
For those of you who play solo or like to throw in a bot or two for a bigger game, we’ve made improvements to our bots to make them more seaworthy.
[h2]Bot AI Improvements[/h2]
We’ve tweaked our bot AI so that they’re a little smarter. They should now have a better understanding of event outcomes, and identify their vote targets a little more keenly, and may even send a chat message if they find out some secret information! Does that mean it’s a little bit harder to win against the bots? Maybe! Good luck out there pirates, you’ll need it.



[h2]Bot Identities[/h2]
Each of the bots now has their very own fixed appearance and personality, so you can spend a little bit of time getting to know them. There are eleven bots for you to know and love, and we hope that over time, you’ll welcome them into your games with a hearty yo ho ho! Have a favourite bot? Why not let us know in the comments!
[h2]Player Templates[/h2]
Finding that you’re spending ages in the pirate customiser, setting up the perfect pirate look every time you play? We’re introducing pirate templates! When you customise a pirate, it’ll be bookmarked using your pirate’s name. Next time you join a game hosted by the same person on the same PC with the same name, you’ll default to the same appearance! Don’t worry, you can still edit it and it'll update the template, so you’re never stuck with the same hat for too long.
[h2]Expanded Custom Game Options[/h2]
When starting a custom game, there are some new options to keep your games fresh. You can choose to play either Paper Pirates Classic, or the brand-new Scored Mode, and all customisation options are available to you whichever you choose. You can now also choose whether to fill your missing spaces with bots or not, perfect if you’re not sure how many pirates are coming aboard! Finally, you can now break the ghost slider apart, and choose a minimum and maximum number of ghosts - that means you’ll get a random number of ghosts in your game! In a random ghosts game, you don’t find out how many ghosts there are at the start, for that added layer of deductive difficulty.
[h2]Balance Updates[/h2]
To keep things fun and fair, and to always meet the pirate code, the following balance changes have been made to events:

• In the Election event, the stowaway is no longer eligible to vote and cannot be elected captain. The captain, on the other hand, is now able to vote!
  

[h2]A Few Other Things[/h2]

• A small number of new options have been added to the pirate customiser
  
• Idle on the title screen for long enough, and you might see some of the bots dropping in for a surprise visit!
  
• The appearance of the aura, indicating how many times a player has played into rounds successfully or unsuccessfully, has been improved
  
• The distance track has been revamped to more clearly indicate your progress
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

• The Stowaway event outcome now displays correctly in the Round History.
  
• Clicking in the Round History no longer accidentally mutes pirates hiding behind the history window.
  

Finally, don’t forget, you can join us every Saturday at 8pm BST on Twitch for our weekly dev stream. We love when the audience joins in, so please feel free to swing by and play a few games with us!