OGRank - Pirates of the Burning Sea: patch 1.0.41.0 on test

Graphics Fixes: This patch includes several client graphics fixes that will improve performance, remove glitches for some ATI video cards, and stop crashes. We also fixed several server crashes.
Sound Fixes: We fixed a client bug many of you encountered where your framerate in towns would slow down temporarily while music was playing. This is now gone. If you turned your Music volume slider down to avoid this problem, turn it back up again!
Low-level mission revamp: The Open Beta taught us that there were too many missions in the low-level towns and that they were even lower level than they should be. We have made many changes here so that the number and level of missions better matches your leveling rate. This change means you will have missions closer to your level more often. That means the missions will be less boring (fewer "minor" ships!) and will also give better XP and doubloon rewards because they'll be higher level. Details are below.

Black Heart, Black Powder: Fixed a bug that would prevent you from leaving the mission.
Low-level mission revamp: We had a LOT of missions in the starting town of each nation (Jenny Bay, Vera Cruz, Charlesfort, and Marsh Harbour). This was kind of cool, but it also meant that if you played every mission in the first town you could leave as level 11, which meant much of the mission content in the low-level towns would then be trivial and, frankly, boring. To improve this, we have removed several missions from the first town. These missions are now gone from the game:
Atonement
Big Cargo
The Captain-Cook
Good Riddance
No Loitering
The Roving Eye
Scout and About
Sea of Souls
Thinner Than Water
If you already have any of these missions on your characters, you will still have them and can finish them as usual. But they will no longer be offered by mission patrons.
Low-level mission revamp part 2: The levels of missions in the second and third towns were too low. Very quickly, you could be level 12 but still be playing level 4-6 missions. This meant too many low-level missions were boringly simple and you were frequently fighting "(minor)" ships, which are incredibly weak and can't be captured or claimed for pennants and commendations. We have done two things to improve the low-level mission experience in the second and third towns.
- We have adjusted mission levels throughout the second and third towns to keep better pace with your level as you play. This means the missions will be more challenging, and you will pretty much stop seeing "(minor)" ships once you get to the second town and beyond. In addition, since the missions are higher level they will give you better XP and doubloon rewards.
  The second town used to have missions that were mostly levels 4-6. They are now mostly levels 7-9. This affects Rosignol (British), Barilla (Spanish), Fort Caroline (French), and Morgan's Bluff (Pirate).
  The third town used to have missions that were mostly levels 6-7. They are now mostly levels 10-12. This affects Georgetown (British), Villa Hermosa (Spanish), St. Augustine (French), and Harbour Island (Pirate).
- As you may have noticed, most missions are reused for all four nations with different characters, text, and enemies. Because we had a surplus of missions in the second and third towns, we have removed some missions from some nations. That means if you play a different nation later on, you will find missions you haven't seen before.
  Second Town (Rosignol (British), Barilla (Spanish), Fort Caroline (French), and Morgan's Bluff (Pirate))
- - The Bettor Man: Now British and Spanish only.
  - Bon Appetit: Now French only.
  - Booty, Booty, Booty: Now French only.
  - Bring Him Back Alive: Now Spanish and Pirate only.
  - Damning Evidence: Now British only.
  - Escort Service: Now French only.
  - Important Discovery: Now British only.
  - A Matter of Honor: Now Spanish and French only.
  - No Respect: Now British only.
  - Out for a Limb: Now Spanish only.
  - Physic: Now Spanish only.
  - Proving Grounds: Now Spanish and Pirate only.
  - A Regular Customer: Now French only.
  - The Sage of Ale: Now Pirate only.
  - Suspicious Activity: Now British only.

Third Town (Georgetown (British), Villa Hermosa (Spanish), St. Augustine (French), and Harbour Island (Pirate))

Back Ordered: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
Dead of Night: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
Dirty Dealings: Now Spanish only.
An Eagerly Awaited Guest: Now Spanish only.
Free Samples: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
Looking for Trouble: Now Spanish and French only.
Meet the Father: Now Spanish only.
A New Business Partner: Now Spanish only.
Not in My Port: Now Spanish only.
Pay Day: Now Spanish only.
The Perilous Road: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
A Proposed Merger: Now Spanish only.
Rival Company: Now Spanish only.
Running Late: Now British only.
The Searcher: Now Spanish only.
Fort St. Catherine: Now French only.
Submit or Die: Now British and Pirate only.
Trying Dutchmen: Now British, French, and Pirate only.
Tying the Noose: Now British and Pirate only.
Under the Black Flag: Now Spanish and French only.
Un Viejo Convoy Grande: Now British only.
West by West India: Now British, French, and Pirate only.

If you already have any of these missions on your characters but they are no longer valid for your nation, you will still have them on your list and you can finish them as usual. But they will no longer be offered by mission patrons.

Made a graphics performance fix. Stopped rendering stuff every frame that didn't need to be rendered nearly that often.
Players with lower-end ATI cards encountered horrible visual problems in the game. We fixed most of these issues in the launch build, but now we've fixed some more. If the game ever looks like The Matrix to you, we think we've solved that problem.
Fixed a crash that would occur if you changed your graphics preferences (particularly your texture slider), and then talked to the Harbor Master to look at your Dry Dock UI.
Fixed a crash that occurred in boarding combat just after both the enemy captain and the player had been killed (in that order), and before the player respawned. This is what sending those crash reports to Microsoft buys you: This has been reported by a Beta tester but we couldn't figure out the repro. But once we got the crash dumps from Microsoft, we could tell what was going on and fix it.
Made a fix to the sound manager to clear sound buffer cache. This might prevent a game crash we've seen if you stayed in the same place for a while when there were a lot of sounds, such as Tortuga.
Added some logging to help track down a game crash we can't figure out.
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if players landed in the room not on the nav mesh.
Fixed a zone server crash that could occur if you leveled up just as you died.
Fixed a zone server crash that we saw numerous times over two days during Open Beta but not before or since. We don't know what caused it, but it shouldn't happen again.