NPCs have received a massive overhaul as part of the revision to avatar combat. Basically, almost all NPCs in the game now belong to one of six archetype groups: Defenders, damagers, duelists, supporters, brutes and gunners.

In the previous avatar combat system, most NPCs didn’t really do anything interesting. They just attacked you with a basic strike skill over and over. That was something we really wanted to change with the new system; now, NPCs will debuff you, combo you, set up big finishers, support their allies, and do a lot of other cool stuff as well.

The main archetype groups, which focus on things like parrying, damage and ranged attacks, are also divided into a number of sub-archetypes to further differentiate NPCs from one another. You can read all about it here or below.

Build 1.10: The Calm Before the Storm is now live.

Major changes include:

• Variable Wind: The wind now changes direction during battle. The changes on the Open Sea are now less jarring. See below for details.
• Christmas content: There are several new characters and missions as well as carols being sung in Jenny Bay, Vera Cruz, Marsh Harbour, Charlesfort, Port Royal, San Juan, Tortuga, and Pointe-a-Pitre. This content will become available closer to the holiday and be turned off again after the holiday.

The full release notes can be found here or after the jump.

Pirates of the Burning Sea will soon have a unique town for every port in the game, according to Eric, an environmental artist.

Our current task for the environment team is to create updated versions of all our in-game towns to replace the generic re-used art that we currently have in place at most ports. That means a unique town for every port in the game!

Geometry and textures will be changed, and the towns will receive new lighting effects for different times of day. You can check out some before and after screenshots in Eric's blog post. The updates are quite impressive.

Isildur has posted a developer's blog outlining the team's mission statement of Pirates of the Burning Sea. While they created the statement months ago to outline the direction they're going with the game's design and development, they've never publicly shared it before. Well, here it is:

“Pirates of the Burning Sea is a competitive game in which players take the role of adventurers in a romanticized version of the Caribbean in the Age of Sail, and seek fame, fortune, and glory for themselves and their nations.”

Seems straightforward, right? Well, there's actually a lot of implications carried in that statement. Keep reading for Isildur's full analysis. They haven't completely fulfilled their mission statement yet, but it provides a blueprint for the future of the game.

There's an awesome event going on tomorrow evening on the test server for Pirates of the Burning Sea !

This event will take place on the Testbed on Sunday November 9th at 14:00 Pacific (10pm GMT). The auction houses will be seeded with many items and ships to help you on your hunt.

Whoever lands the final shot on the Dread Missionary will receive a bounty 10,000 doubloons on a character of their choosing. Anyone who assists will receive a bounty of 5,000 doubloons.

You can find the details of the storyline, and the details here.