Since the early days, the controls for the camera have been a hotly discussed feature of Pirate Code. There have been suggestions to change the mouse cursor at the screen's edge to show that the camera can move and more than one person has suggested using the arrow keys to move the camera, which means they never tried since the arrow keys DO move the camera. Some users have suggested that if the camera was just zoomed out a little that there would be no need to move it at all. It was time to address these concerns!

Enter the Touch Screen

Personally, having worked on Pirate Code for years, I can say that I was comfortable with the arrows keys or wasd keys moving the camera. It wasn't until I had a chance to try Pirate Code on a touch screen that I realized how badly I wanted to just move the camera by dragging anywhere on the screen. So that's where we started. The results were a more fluid experience that will feel natural to anyone. It feels just as natural with a mouse and I've quickly adjusted to using it as the only way to move the camera. Also at user request, the middle and right mouse buttons also move the camera. So if you're use to moving the camera with a different button, those will work as well. There's an added benefit to using a different button too since there's no chance of accidentally clicking on a ship.

Here's a full list of ways the camera can be moved:

• Moving the mouse to the edge of the screen
  
• Using the arrow keys or wasd keys
  
• Dragging anywhere on the screen with the left, center, or right mouse buttons
  

Step Back to Study the Battlefield

As noted in the introduction, the camera might not need to move if you just could zoom out a little. Well now you can! If you're using a mouse, you can zoom out by simply using the scroll wheel. If you prefer the keyboard, then the +/- keys next to the zero (above the letters, not on a keypad) will zoom in and out. The zero key will reset the camera to normal. Finally, if you're using a touch screen, you can zoom in and out using the pinch gesture. This is new territory for Pirate Code, so please let us know in the forums if you have any problems with these new controls.

The Complete List

Naturally there were other changes as well and here's a complete list:

• Camera movement controls
  
• Camera zoom controls
  
• Camera now zooms to a specific setting on enemy turns and returns to the player's setting when finished. This better denotes the start and stop of enemy turns.
  
• Fixed a bug where music and/or sound effects where not being set to lower volumes as per the options when restarting the game. Released as hot fix 1.6.5b.
  
• Fixed a bug that caused a crash if the player tried to sell the first ship named Shadow Drift. You can now sell it if you so choose. Released in the hot fix 1.6.5b.
  
• Changed the color of the tiles when using Full Sails from green to blue to prevent confusing it with the movement phase.
  
• Fixed a bug that would cause the life bar to display the wrong bar size (numbers were not affected) if the ship lost and gained life at roughly the same time such as using drain on ships with vengeance.
  
• Fixed a bug where the morale bars would change back to blue despite the ship having high morale.
  
• Fixed a long list of typos
  

This update is available now for PC! Mac version will be following within a few days.