New Trait: The Meddler
Our first new trait for The Meddlesome Update is The Meddler!
On days when The Meddler does not play in, they may choose a pirate that is playing in and change whatever they’ve chosen to play in today to either an obey or a disobey. Like other active traits, their power is limited and The Meddler can only meddle a maximum of three times each voyage.
When a meddle takes place, the pirate whose job was meddled will receive a private prompt on their device to let them know that they’ve been meddled (and whether their choice is being forced to obey or disobey), and just before the job cards are revealed on the main screen you will see an indication that a meddle took place today.
Whether your Meddler is a ghost trying to meticulously frame a human pirate, or a human pirate thwarting the plans of your ghosts, The Meddler is sure to add an extra layer to all your social deducting.
New Trait: The Sensitive
Our second new trait for The Meddlesome Update is The Sensitive!
The Sensitive is able to tell, by checking their black spot, whether they are currently next to a ghost on the ship. That means if the pirate one rank up, or down, from them is a ghost - or even if both are! - The Sensitive will know that they’re near some spooky business.
The Sensitive adds a whole new perspective to events which change pirate’s rank and positions on the ship. Watch out when the captain promotes you - they might be bringing you into the suspicion of The Sensitive!
New Feature: The Ship Shop
Nat O’Bother has opened up his Ship Shop - a new expansion to the Shop Ship! Bobbing in his barrel, but always ready to go, nothing is too much bother for our Nat!
The Ship Shop’s specialism is helping you to customise your ship - as displayed on the title screen and sailing while you’re on a voyage. Everyone gets a free ship slot by default, so you can visit Nat and start building right away!
Nat sells a wide range of ship parts for PP Coins, from figureheads to flags, from sails to sterns, and you can combine them to build the ship of your dreams. To top things off, he’s also here to help you give each ship a name and icon.
If you’re feeling flush and customisation’s your thing, Nat can also sell you additional ship slots which let you own more than one ship - saving custom ship configurations to switch between quickly. The more ships you own, the more they cost, so having a navy of seaworthy ships might take more adventurin’ than you expect!
New Event: Ominous Winds
With The Meddlesome Update, we’re also introducing one new event - Ominous Winds! When Ominous Winds blow, a pirate is sure to see an omen of the future. What will this omen do? Will it threaten to throw a pirate overboard? Offer them a promotion to captain? Or something else entirely?
All omens are tracked as ongoing events (so you can see the details at the side of the screen!) and grant a sense of impending fortune or doom to a particular pirate. Will your omen play out, or will it expire before it has a chance to take effect?
UI Improvements
We’ve made some improvements to the Paper Pirates UI to increase readability, and to help add understanding to the way the game is played. The following three key features are designed with new players in mind in particular:
The Phase Tracker
In the top left of the game screen, you’ll now see the phase tracker. The phase tracker indicates which stage (playing in, event or voting) of the current day you’re at, and which one is coming up next.
Device Action Reminders
We’ve made it more clear when someone needs to take an action on their device, with a clearer indicator above a pirate. These trigger when a pirate needs to make a choice in an event or vote a pirate overboard for example.
‘Who Voted?’ Indicators
In addition to the existing ‘Who voted for who’ tracker on each player’s device, we’ve added a visual indicator of who cast votes for who during voting in the form of coloured black spots.
‘Can Create a Ghost’ Indicator
When an event has an action or decision that might create a ghost, the event message box will give you a little warning to let you know. Look out for this as a helpful reminder when weighing up whether it’s worthwhile to poison that soup or not!
We’ve also given the Credits page a bit of a facelift - check it out to see the pirates on the Iteration Games crew!
