With Pirates of the
Caribbean 3 having wrapped up its time in worldwide
release and the epic PotC trilogy finished, our next does of Davy
Jones,  Jack Sparrow, Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner will
likely be coming from Disney Virtual Studios's style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
The past few months have seen little publicity from the upcoming game,
but a new rollout of info and screenshots have been pushed into our Ten
Ton Hammer mailbox! For your viewing pleasure, we've posted the PotC
Developer Diary #10 and have included several new screenshots in its
prose for you to enjoy!

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10252"
title="Ship Battle"> src="/image/view/10252/thumbnail"
width="200"> src="http://tth.tentonhammer.com/modules/gallery/images/pixel_trans.gif"
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Taking the battles to
the high seas!

As you probably know, one of the things that set MMOs apart from other
games is the socialization that players engage in. The bottom line
is… it's just more fun to play with friends! So, in
designing Pirates of the Caribbean Online, all aspects of in-game
socialization have been top-of-mind with our team.



Usually when players form a group in an MMO they "party up." Similarly,
in our game, players "crew up" since they are, of course, pirates. A
player's crew accompanies them on various high-seas adventures. In this
team-like environment, the Captain mans the helm and the crew stands
guard at the cannons, keeping a lookout for enemy ships. Any gold
earned at sea is split fairly amongst the crew and Captain. A crew can
also stick together on land taking part in quests and entering the PvP
(pirates vs. pirate) arena together.

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10249" title="Cave View"> src="/image/view/78292"
width="200"> src="http://tth.tentonhammer.com/modules/gallery/images/pixel_trans.gif"
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The scenery is
gorgeous!

We've designed the crewing-up experience to be convenient and as easy
as possible for players. While on land, players can click on another
player and, via a drop-down menu, ask them to join their crew. It is to
a player's benefit to have as many crew members as possible —
the seas of the Caribbean are not safe for lone travelers! There is
safety in numbers, not to mention more opportunity to earn gold. There
is, however, a limit to the number of crew members a player can have,
and this is determined by ship size. Smaller boats can hold 2 or 3
pirates while bigger ships hold between 6 and 8 crew members.

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10253"
title="Wasp Battle"> src="/image/view/78292"
width="200"> src="http://tth.tentonhammer.com/modules/gallery/images/pixel_trans.gif"
alt="" height="1" width="1">

Even fighting wasps
is exciting in PotC

A list of crew members is viewable in a drop-down menu alongside your
list of friends and your Pirate Band. Crews are somewhat temporary and
consist of other players that you interact with for only one or two
adventures at a time. A Band of Pirates, similar to guilds in other
MMOs, represents a group of players that are together for a longer
term. Within Pirates Bands, players can share resources and lean on
each other for help when needed. In Pirates of the Caribbean Online,
tapping into a Pirate Band is also a great way to crew up when first
entering a game-play session. Just as you clicked on another player to
ask them to join your crew, you will do the same to add members to your
Pirate Band. While anyone can join a band of Pirates, only Members with
Unlimited access can create them. Additionally, a Pirate can only be a
member of one band at a time.

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10250"
title="Jungle Team Battle"> src="/image/view/78292"
width="200"> src="http://tth.tentonhammer.com/modules/gallery/images/pixel_trans.gif"
alt="" height="1" width="1">

Fighting in a team is
always a good strategy.

In addition to embarking on exciting land and sea battles, players can
participate in parlor games alongside crew members. At launch there
will be three parlor games available — blackjack and two
variations of poker, what we call Tortuga Hold 'Em and your basic
Seven-Card-Stud. In addition to playing these for fun, we have also
built them into some of the quests.



To add a unique pirate twist to the card games, we've designed them so
players can cheat! In addition, we've incorporated a system of poker
"tells." Poker is a game of bluffing, a skill pirates can definitely
excel at. By stashing cards up their sleeves and whipping them out when
needed, a player can increase their chances of winning. Be careful,
though, because there is a penalty for getting caught, and for falsely
accusing someone of cheating — cheaters are promptly sent to
the local jail! If a player makes a good hand or suffers some bad luck,
he has the chance to exhibit a "tell," which other players may detect
and use to their advantage. Pay attention to the other players'
emotions at the table to pick up this useful bit of information to
increase your poker winnings.

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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10251" title="PvP Battle"> src="/image/view/78292"
width="200"> src="http://tth.tentonhammer.com/modules/gallery/images/pixel_trans.gif"
alt="" height="1" width="1">

A little PvP combat
always brings a smile to my face.

To kick off a parlor game, players can enter one of the various taverns
strewn about the islands for a pickup game. Or, if there is no one to
challenge, the match-making interface Lookout System will come in
handy. By opening their sea chest and clicking on the spyglass, players
can access the Lookout System from anywhere in the game. It can be used
not only to find other players to challenge in parlor games, but also
to find opponents for PvP combat, to look for crew members, or to find
others who share the same quests.



With all of that said, there is no limit to the number of parlor games
you can play … the limit comes only when you run out of gold
to wager! We've designed both the crewing-up system and the parlor
games to be fun and easy for players to use. We understand that even a
pirate needs to take the edge off, kick back and hang out at a tavern
once in a while. Socializing with mates and hitting the card table is
something every pirate will certainly enjoy!

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