Portalus Games

Today is a special day in the history of PotBS as the game celebrates its 11th birthday! This is an accomplishment that many online games never achieve and stands as testimony to the players and fans of the game that support it. I can safely say, speaking for myself and those who have worked with and on the game over its lifespan, you have our thanks and gratitude for the support you all have given the game and we hope to keep the ship sailing onward into its 12th year with your continued support.

It is a special day for PotBS beyond its achievements in longevity in that the burning question for everyone regarding the future of that 12th year for PotBS now has an answer - we know who the new operator for the game will be and it will be Vision Online Games!

Vision Online Games has provided the following introduction message for the players on this celebration day:

This Year marks the Eleventh (11th) Anniversary of Pirates, and what a year it has been!

As everyone knows from our earlier announcements, Pirates was slated to be closed down in October of 2018. It was saved from that fate by the same company that has been hosting it all along -- Vision Online Games (https://www.VisionOnlineGames.com). Vision is based in Los Angeles, California. It's CEO is a senior software development executive from the game industry, with over 25 shipped titles to his name.

Vision has a plan to not only continue hosting Pirates moving forward, but to update its technology, steadily grow its population over time, fix outstanding issues and eventually to upgrade its graphics and add ever-more content to the game.

The first part of this plan kicked off at the end of October. During an extra-long scheduled down time, Vision's engineers took over the game's infrastructure and replaced most of the servers upon which Pirates runs. In this "Technology Refresh", the number of Server Cores in each Game Server increased from 4 to 32. Faster Memory, More Memory, Faster Drives and other benefits were put in place. Since then, Pirates has been running quite smoothly on its new equipment, and has been judged ready to move to the next stage.

Vision's plan moving forward consists of three key steps:

1. Advertise Pirates across Social Media

2. Increase the number of Daily Players

3. Add more Staff to the Pirates Team

Vision is aware that Pirates needs more GMs, Support Members, Programmers, Designers, Artists and a Live Operations team if it is going to continue to grow, and live up to its true potential.

Several frank discussions were held back in October in which the future of the game quite literally hung in the balance.

The outcome of these talks was that while Vision would put forward the equipment and manpower that would be needed to modernize the game's infrastructure, the game would have to prove itself beyond those core costs. In other words, the budget for the marketing / advertising stages of the game's growth would have to derive from the game's revenue.

The plan is that as the marketing stage begins and more players join the game, the added revenue they generate will be plowed back not only into more marketing, but it will allow much-needed additional staff to join the Pirates team.

The transition process of moving the License and Operating Responsibilities from Portalus to Vision is still underway, but is expected to be completed soon. Once complete, the game's 2019-2020 Marketing Campaign will be planned out and kicked off. More news on that when it becomes available!

It is anticipated that Vision will try to minimize the impact of the transition, and will be assuming control over the BurningSea.com domain, maintaining the Forums, etc. Until this process is complete, Support inquiries should continue being made using the same systems as are now in place ([email protected]). However, any inquiries pertaining to the game outside of that scope should be addressed to Pirates support email at Vision ([email protected]).

We will continue to keep you abreast of changes as they unfold and things settle back down.

In the meantime, Happy Anniversary! Let's all play, enjoy, and really make it happen out there!

For players who have had questions regarding whether or not their current accounts will be carried over from one operator to the next you now know that your current accounts will be continued with Vision Online Games. No migration will be necessary as Vision Online Games is already the game's host. Portalus Games will continue to provide customer service, administrative services and perform basic maintenance through the transition. Portalus Games will then continue with the original closure plans announced in September 2018 once the transition is complete.

Once again I want to thank everyone for supporting the game over the years and I hope that this announcement will bring some reason to celebrate this Anniversary for all. The good ship PotBS is about to embark on a new chapter in this 12th year of its life. May she be blessed with fair winds and clear skies as she sets sail upon new waters toward a brighter future!

Vision Online Vision Online

I am happy to announce that PotBS will continue to be available for the month of October. The combination of contributions from players and management have secured enough funding to support the game through the month allowing companies currently evaluating the game for future operation more time to make their assessments and/or preparations.

Due to the short notice of this operational extension there is the possibility of some service issues on October 1st. We will be working through the day to identify any potential issues and resolve them if possible beforehand. Unexpected or unavoidable issues will be posted here as soon as they are identified or experienced.

I’d like to thank the game community for their generous support which was instrumental in securing this extension. The added time will hopefully accelerate the process of securing a new operator for the game while allowing the community as a whole more time to enjoy the game.

IN-GAME RULES UPDATE 2018/3/24
March 24, 2018 / Fodderboy

We have updated our In-Game rules. We strongly recommend all players review these changes found here: https://portalusgames.com/policy/game-rules/

Changes have been made to the following sections of the game rules:

- The initial note from the top of the rule page has been incorporated into the Chat rules as the note pertained to chat behavior. There is no change to the rule as it has been applied.

- The Un-delete rules have been renamed Deleted Characters and the rules reworded to be more concise. There have been no changes to deleted character recovery.

- The Multiple Accounts rule section has been completely re-written and contains new rules regarding numbers of accounts allowed logged in at once and simultaneously. The new contents of this section of the rules is as follows:

Players may use multiple game accounts. When using multiple accounts account holders must adhere to the following restrictions:

1. No more than 4 accounts may be logged in from a single IP address/account holder simultaneously.

2. No more than 3 accounts from a single account holder may be logged in at the same time on the same server (Test server excluded).

3. No more than 2 accounts from a single account holder may be in ANY combat zone(red zone / port battle / blockading / patrolling), including the port within a combat zone.

4. If any account has a character in ANY combat zone (red zone / port battle / blockading / patrolling), including the port within a combat zone, all accounts logged in on the same server must be in the same nation (Skirmish and Duel excluded).

5. An account holder may not participate on both sides of a port battle. If you receive an invite to multiple nations for the same port battle, you may only accept one of those invitations and must decline the other.

6. If an account holder has a character who is a governor then all governors on associated accounts (alt governors) must be in the same nation. If an account holder wishes to change the nation of their governor(s) then all governor positions must resign, during the same conquest map cycle, before starting or bidding in a governor election in a new nation. Account users may not participate in building unrest on ports which they govern.

7. Multiple accounts may not be used to circumvent, exploit or manipulate game mechanics to negatively impact the game or design intent. Portalus Games will determine negative impact by server analysis and may utilize this rule at our discretion.

8. Account holders may not use excessive numbers of accounts for game play.
* Use of more than 4 accounts without account upgrades will be considered excessive. Account holders may use up to 6 additional accounts if the additional accounts have account upgrades.
* If an account holder exceeds 10 accounts all accounts must be fully upgraded (all account upgrade options added).
* A player may use no more than 20 accounts in total regardless of upgrade status.
* Legacy Captain's Club accounts are considered fully upgraded.

9. Account holders exceeding the limitations in Rule 8 prior to March 24, 2018 will have account numbers given grandfather status. Account holders found in violation of rules will have their grandfather status removed and be subject to account reduction until in compliance with this rule.

10. Players wishing to exceed the multiple account limitation restrictions for special events, assistance programs or other activities that may benefit the game community overall may request a limitation waiver by contacting customer service at [email protected].

- Regarding Rule 6 we will allow a few days for governors currently in rule violation status to resign from governor positions until all governors are in the same nation. If customer service determines a governor is absent or deliberately avoiding resignation customer service will remove governors from their positions.

- Regarding Rules 9 and 10 we are aware there are players who are currently possess more accounts than these rules allow. As these account numbers were accumulated prior to these restrictions those account numbers will be granted a grandfather status and players will be able to maintain them without penalty. This status however will be forfeit if an account holder is found in violation of ANY game rule.

* The Chat Behavior section has been re-worded and expanded for clarification. It contains no rule changes to how they have been applied.

* The Penalties section has been re-worded and expanded for clarification. It contains no rule changes to how they have been applied.

For additional clarification or questions regarding these rules please contact customer service at [email protected] .

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