Conception and server rates

Conception

Conception is the general idea of the server, which we will try to follow. It describes only the vector of progression, not the specifics.

Main information

Server type

The server is a modified version of the classic Tales of Pirates version 1.39. The pace of server progression is slow.

Rates

• Exp rates: x7
• Drop rates: x3 - the multiplier is conditional, drop formula has been changed.
• Fairy pet growth: x20
• Mounts growth: x3
• Resources: x1 - more information about resources can be found on page Life skill points
• Ship exp rates: x1 - ship rates no longer matter, more details in Ship guide.

General concept and progression vector

The concept is based on the following conclusions:

1. With the fast progression of the server, there are a large number of items that drop, but the life of the server is shortened quite quickly.
2. With the slow progression, there are not so many items so interest in the game is lost.

Based on this, a slow progression strategy was chosen, which was modified for the benefit of players getting profit, but not generating only gems and gold as the main exchange essences, their excess leads to a quick death of the economy and the subsequent death of the server. Taking loot away from players is also a very bad idea.

From this follows the theses of our concept:

1. The player's time should, if possible, be converted into the player's personal profit or interest.
2. The generation of gold and gems should be reduced by the generation of intermediate items and their outflow. If possible, regulate the outflow of gold and gems without breaking the impression of the players.
3. Items obtained by the players cannot be depreciated, with the exception of the natural obsolescence of previously relevant equipment, when a new one appears. When the time comes, we think over the disposal of irrelevant content: using it somewhere else. If this is not possible, then we provide recycling mechanisms with a partial return of the invested profit, or with a chance to get this profit.
4. Progression should be smooth and consistent. With the introduction of level cap and its revision with the progression of the server. Also revision of some aspects of the game over time.
5. When introducing new content, we try to touch upon several aspects of the game, in order to increase the synergy of players who are engaged in various activities where it's possible or necessary, the rule is not strict.
6. Players should have an idea of the upcoming changes, not in detail, as they may change based on the situation on the server, but in general terms.
7. We may introduce experimental features temporarily for players to evaluate and decide whether or not to keep them, after warning the players. And also, as small activities, add a temporary opportunity to get something that is usually impossible to get.
8. We do not introduce items for real currency that devalue the efforts of players or clearly affect the number of key items in the game (gems; consumable items, with some exceptions; "lottery" systems). At the same time, there may be infusions of a limited amount of any item with the agreement of the players through a poll or vote.

Based on the concept, the main changes were made:

• New entities have been added to the game, which are used in many aspects of the game, are one of the alternatives for loot. With the progression of the server, their relevance will only increase. New ones will be added and interact with old ones.
• Some character skills have been revised. Movement speed of characters has been changed.
• Slightly redistributed character stats from equipment to passive skills.
• Reduced difference in movement speed between characters with and without necklaces. Almosts all boots in game give movement speed. Mount gives a significant total amount of movement speed if mount is high level.
• All producing life skills was reworked, removed some of life skills and added new ones. Reduced the difficulty of obtaining items for recipes, but the difficulty of obtaining a recipe and the number of required items in the recipe have been increased, useless recipes have also been removed from the game, each recipe has value.
• The game no longer has a universal equipment such as Chaos set, Black Dragon set.
• Slightly changed starting mazes. Mazes that will appear later will contain more changes.
• Bosses are more dangerous than in the classic version. Logically, we classify bosses into the following categories: bosses and mini bosses in mazes, mini bosses, jade bosses, legendary bosses, sea bosses, world bosses. The latter are not yet presented in the game. In general, this is only a conditional grouping, it's not neccessary that mini boss is weak and boss is strong, it all depends on their location and the purpose for which they exist.
• Changes have been made to consumable items.
• Changed stats of equipment from chests and stats of unseals. Ways of obtaining have also been changed. With the progression of the server, each subsequent type of equipment will become more and more difficult to obtain.
• Updated reputation as an alternative to the IMPs.
• System of hand pets has undergone a revision in terms of item filtering, implemented custom filtering of items.
• Changed the set of available gems, small changes in the stats of some gems and parts of equipment where gems can be forged.
• Multiple economical edits.

Guides

For information on the aspects that interest you, you need to look in the guides provided by our Wiki. Each page will have a similar list and you will always be able to find the right page.

Server progression

What is development and stages

Server progression refers to the progress of players over time. The server goes through conditional stages that make changes to the content. It is important to understand that the stage and changing something during the game are two different things. There may be many updates, fixes, and changes between stages. The onset of the stage depends only on the average development of the characters of the players and the number of key items on the server.

All stages are somehow regulated here and the changes will be known long before the introduction of the stage. We will not write the exact time of the introduction of this or that stage. In the description of the stage, only the most important things will be written in thesis, so that the players have an idea of ​​what to expect. The exact set of changes directly depends on the situation on the server, despite the fact that there is a certain list in the plans. Only major changes remain constant.

It also indicates minor changes that we consider to announce in advance. They will be called "Interim changes".

Upcoming stages and changes

Intermediate change:

• Notes that give gold will be removed from any obtaining methods. They were introduced only for the first time and serve for the primary acceleration of the economy.

Demonic World 2:

• Opening of Demonic World 2.
• Adding Lv 65 unseals.

Chaos:

• Opening of Chaos.
• Adding unique gems (+5 stats).
• Adding 3rd socket in equipment.
• The appearance of the first equipment that can only be obtained with Crafting. (postponed)
• Preparing to add Boss framestones (equip) and it's parts. (postponed)
• Item for upgrading boots and gloves from lv 55 unseals to lv 65 unseals.

Rebirth:

• The appearance of Phoenix Rebirth quest
• The appearance of the Black Dragon

Stone equipment:

• Raising the maximum level to 85.
• Adding Boss Equipment (BS).
• Transfer mechanism for forged gems with possible loss of gem level.

Updates

What are updates

Updates are changes of server content for various purposes. In general, they are of 2 types: technical and content.

Technical - these are any changes designed to fix any things that do not work correctly, any errors and problems of a technical nature, removal of erroneously entered / adding accidentally lost content are also technical.

Content is any changes that affect the gameplay and players, and aims to change something on the server.

When are players notified?

Players may be notified of technical changes in cases where:

• Server restart required.
• Players are waiting for a specific bug to be fixed.
• Players need to update the client otherwise they will not be able to enter the game.

With minor "hotfixes" and changes that players do not know about and they do not touch the gameplay, we do not notify.

Players are always notified about content changes.

Notification occurs even if the changes are minor. Edits are also made to the Wiki to keep the data up to date. The Wiki only displays what is available at the time of the current update. If the content is available, but not yet used and waiting for the next stages, this is explicitly reported or already mentioned in the corresponding guide.

When players are notified

We plan to announce content changes at least a week before the update in case of big changes. Due to the technical features of Tales of Pirates, some parts of the update may "leak" immediately or due to forced reboots of locations or the server. In such case, this will be reported, and it will be explained what exactly has come into force.

Technical changes are not planned and will be applied as needed. If the situation is suitable for the notification case, then we first agree among ourselves when we can carry out the work and only then choose the time. If there is a transfer or force majeure, we notify the players about this.

Maintenance duration

The value is floating, it is not always possible to accurately determine the required time. More than once it happened that a small fix led to serious revisions. We will report only the approximate time, if the work is delayed and we will write.

At the moment when the maintenance is completed, we inform the players that the inclusion will occur 15-30 minutes after the publication of the notification about it. So that players know for sure that they will be able to enter the game.

Exceptions

In rare situations, there is a need to stop the server immediately in order to avoid potential or actual damage. In such situations, we can shut down the server first and then describe the situation.

In such situations, "rollbacks" are not excluded, which will also be reported.

Attitude towards RMT

What is RMT

RMT = Real Money Trading. Sale of game items, accounts, characters, resources or services provided in the game for real money. Cryptocurrency is also equated to money.

We divide the RMT into two parts

Unidentified RMT

An unidentified RMT means a situation where the administration knows about the commission of RMT by players, but does not have clear evidence. For example, trading for real money within the guild, between friends, etc.

The administration will not make any attempt to specifically identify such players or monitor the movement of items / characters in order to detect such trading. And, in general, will ignore such a phenomenon until the moment of explicit detection of trading for real money. If there is clear evidence of such trading, RMT becomes identified.

Identified RMT

The identified RMT is understood as a completed deal or an offer from one player to another to conduct a similar deal, which the administration became aware of in the presence of indisputable evidence of screenshots of correspondence, a recording of a conversation, etc.

In the event that a fact or an attempt to commit an RMT is revealed, all the characters of the seller are blocked, and the items sold are confiscated. The RMT who declared the fact has the right to redeem the items declared by the seller for 50% of the cost. But only if there is proof of sale for each specific item. That is, if there is evidence only for the sale of a conditional sword, while other items were also sold, then only the sword can be redeemed.

Unban

To unban the characters, the seller must pay 5000 IMPs. At the same time, if the unban was paid for, and the buyer refused to redeem the items, the administration can offer the seller to buy back the confiscated items for 50% of their value. If the seller does not agree to buy them back, the administration keeps the items and returns the seller access to the characters.

Triggers for attributing case to the Identified RMT

• Dialog screenshot
• Recorded conversation or screen
• A tip from a player that was confirmed by server logs
• A careless message in the game chat that the administrator saw and the event was confirmed by the server logs or from other sources
• A message in the chat of third-party programs that the administrator saw, confirmation with logs is not required

Attitude towards bots

What is bots

By bots, we mean the imitation of game activities in order to level up characters or get valuable game items.

Imitation means the use of game features or third-party software that fully or partially controls the character, or gives commands to the character / client of the game, as a result of which one of the goals described above is achieved. This also includes full or partial imitation of the game client.

We divide botting into two parts, depending on the severity of the penalty

Non-strict

Non-strict means the use of game features, such as autocasting through Shift + skill or the use of a program that simulates pressing certain keys (clicker) to kill monsters.

Considering that changes have been made to the game client that do not allow autocasting area-of-effect skills, we assume that every character that is on autocast with an AoE skill and does not move or moves slightly uses third-party software.

In this case, the administrator has the right to immediately send the character to prison without warning. The administrator can limit himself to only warning or teleporting the character to another location at his discretion.

 The administration allows the use of clicker programs to grow fairies/mounts and to open stackable items. Within reasonable limits and at low speeds, repeat actions, ideally, no more than once per second per character. If the use of such a program interferes with the stable operation of the server and the administration identifies the culprit, it may ask not to use a specific program, or to reduce the frequency of use. The administration may also prohibit the use of the clicker during certain periods of time; such events will be reported in the news.

Strict

Strict means using software to simulate complex actions and kill monsters, including automating parts of the pk process. For example, if the clicker is used to automate the use of pots in pk, this is considered a strict violation, while feeding the fairy pet is allowed. Or, the clicker is used to deal the first damage to the boss or quickly change parts of the equipment, etc.

If the fact of using third-party software outside the permitted limits is revealed, the following sanctions are provided:

• 1 violation - sending the character to prison
• 2nd violation - blocking of all characters with ransom of 5 000 IMPs.
• 3 and subsequent violations - blocking of all characters with a ransom of 10 000 IMPs.

Administrator rights in the process of identifying a player who use bot and when bot using is detected

If the administrator suspects a player of using a bot, he has the following rights:

• Ask the player questions
• Stay close and chase the player
• Interfere with gameplay
  • Interfere with the player
  • Teleport the player short distances
  • "Stop" the character with special abilities
  • Give trade to player, transfer and pick up items
  • Pick up dropped items, drop random items
• Send the player to jail
• Send the player to a city or other area
• Block player access to the game

Conclusion

The administration does not aim to deliberately punish players for profit. If it were possible to guarantee non-use of bots and software by all players, then this point would not exist at all.

The administration can also make mistakes. Since botting detection methods are not 100% accurate, administrators may erroneously sanction a player. In this case, it is worth contacting the administration and reporting that the sanctions were applied by mistake.

If your character falls under "erroneous" sanctions too often, then this looks suspicious from the side of the administration and you may be denied an amnesty.

IMPs Refund Policy

The refund is carried out at the request of the player to return the IMPs for the mistakenly purchased items.

Refunds are made if the following points are met

• No more than 24 hours passed between the purchase and the appeal to the administration.
• The player has on hand and is ready to return the items purchased in the Item Mall in full. That is, in the same quantity / type as the item and is sold in the Item Mall. For example, a player mistakenly bought fairy pet ration and spent 1 piece. In this case, it is non-refundable.
• The administrator was able to establish the fact of the purchase and the willingness of the player to return the items.

Making a refund

1. The player tells the nickname of the character or account on which the purchase was made. It is important to write the nickname or account name correctly.
2. The administrator checks the logs.
   1. The administrator refuses to receive a refund with justification.
   2. Administrator confirms the return.
3. If the return is confirmed, then it depends on when the administrator and the player can be online at the same time. From this moment on, there are no time limits and the administrator cannot refuse to refund.
4. IMPs and items are exchanged between the administration and player.

Conclusion

We could have missed some point aspects or not indicated in this description, but this does not mean that we did not do them, but maybe it does. You can always remind / clarify and we will supplement the concept on issues of interest if we consider that this should be mentioned separately.