A lot has happened in the world of Pirates of the Burning Sea in the last few days. First of all, patch 1.20 is now live and introduces the all new Puerto Del Principe. The update also includes multiple bug fixes and some changes to open sea NPC aggro. You can read the full patch notes after the jump.

The eighth episode of the Pirates of the Burning Sea podcast has been released, and this one features Flying Lab CEO Russell "Rusty" Williams and crew discussing Brawling and answering forum questions. In addition, Lead Designer John Grimm has written a dev blog entry outlining how the team creates new environments for the game that contains all sorts of interesting details.

Lastly, Prima has published an updated version of its official Pirates of the Burning Sea game guide. You can download an electronic version of the guide for $19.99 to unlock a code for a new exclusive in-game black iguana.

Flying Lab software is sending a care package to members of the United States military in the form of free game time for Pirates of the Burning Sea. Members of all branches of the military can head over to this page on the game's official Web site and enter their military e-mail address to play the high-seas MMO for six months at no cost. Military personnel with an existing account can add the free time to their subscription.

"The idea to do what we're calling the Care Package initially came about as a result of some posts in our Pirates of the Burning Sea community forums," Flying Lab CEO Russell Williams said in a press release. "One of our players posted about serving in Afghanistan, and it got us thinking about the challenges of trying to play an MMO while in an unpredictable situation like active service. We feel a special gratitude towards the members of the armed forces who take the time to get involved and play our game, in the face of the very difficult job they have to do to keep us all safe."

Members of the U.S. Military have until Nov. 30 to sign up for the six free months of game time.

Patch 1.19 is now live on Pirates of the Burning Sea servers and includes new port battle encounters and a revamped economy tutorial. As we've reported, the two new encounters are Jawbone Bay and Savage Cliffs. In addition, the other encounters now have their own swashbuckling rooms.

Cayo de Marquis has been updated so it no longer looks like Grenville. This is an example of Flying Lab's efforts to replace duplicate towns in the game. You can read the full patch notes after the jump.

The seventh episode of the Pirates of the Burning Sea podcast has been released on the game's official Web site, and Flying Lab CEO Russell "Rusty" Williams and crew talk about the new port battle maps and the upcoming Power and Prestige expansion.

The team also discussed a recent exploit that hit the game as a result of a zone server crash. The exploit allowed players to duplicate items, and rumors have been circulating that Flying Lab banned hundreds of players. In fact, a handful of accounts were temporarily frozen while the team assessed the situation and removed duplicated items. Flying Lab them returned the accounts to the players. If you ever find an exploit in Pirates of the Burning Sea, the team asks that you file a support ticket.

Listen to the 16-minute podcast for more information on the new port battle maps and the expansion. You can also check out our recent interview with Associate Producer Janice Vonitter and Game Designer Greg Hanefeld for Power and Prestige details.

As we reported, Flying Lab Software is adding two new port battle encounters to Pirates of the Burning Sea and giving existing encounters their own swashbuckling rooms. If you're interested in being among the first players to try out these new maps first-hand, all you need to do is participate in the upcoming testbed events. The first is actually being held today at 1 p.m. PDT, while the second will be held tomorrow, Sept. 25, at 11:30 a.m.

The Flying Lab team will be giving out levels and money before the events start so you can prepare your character for the test. Players who participate will be rewarded with an exclusive title and belt. Directions on how to take part in the events can be found below.

It looks like port battle encounters are getting some new additions in patch 1.19. Not only are the current encounters getting their own swashbuckling rooms, but two brand new maps are being released in the upcoming milestone. The two new encounters are Jawbone Bay and Savage Cliffs.

Lum said in a devlog entry that the new maps are "are both slightly more likely to appear in the random selection than the older maps are." The Flying Lab team is also working on more new maps, which should be added to Pirates of the Burning Sea in the coming months. Check out the entry for more details on the port battle encounter changes coming in 1.19.

Flying Lab Software is hiring additional personnel to work on Power and Prestige, the first major expansion for Pirates of the Burning Sea that was revealed at the Penny Arcade Expo. The new team members would also work on bug fixes and feature patches.

"With all of the great gameplay we are adding with this expansion, we are looking for talented programmers and game designers to join our terrific team of smart, dedicated people," said Russell Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software. There are currently seven positions open on the Flying Lab vacancies page, including one for a game producer. The company's full announcement can be found after the jump.

In case you missed it, we spoke with Associate Producer Janice Vonitter and Game Designer Greg Hanefeld about Power and Prestige at PAX. We also gave the expansion our "Best New Feature" Award in our first PAX Awards for the player-governed ports feature. We're currently running a Treasure Hunt contest in conjunction with Flying Lab that ends on Sept. 25, so be sure to participate if you'd like the chance to win prizes like an iPod Touch or an IZ3D 3-D Monitor.

This year we decided to cover PAX more aggressively than we have in the past and one of the by-products of that choice is our first annual PAX Awards. Even though the convention focuses on tabletop, PC and console games -- MMOs were featured extensively, demonstrating that they continue to become more and more popular in the gaming world. As such, due to our MMO focus we had to be extremely selective about what kind of awards we gave out and who we gave them to. Ultimately, this was not an easy task as all of our nominations are great games. This was especially difficult when it came to selecting the winner for "Best in Show". In the end, tough decisions were made and it's time to reveal those decisions to the world. Without further ado, the Winners!

During our meeting at PAX with Flying Labs, we spoke with Associate Producer, Janice Vonitter and Game Designer, Greg Hanefeld about their rum drinking ... and Pirates of the Burning Sea. The first expansion is tentatively called "Power and Prestige" and although it currently has no set release date, we've been told that it will definitely be released in 2010. Check out all the details in to Power and Prestige which was been nominated for one of our PAX awards.

ZAM: We understand that there's a new expansion that you guys are talking about at PAX. Can you tell us the name and some basic information?

Janice Vonitter: Yep, it's called "Power and Prestige." It's centered on influence and control over the Caribbean, and parts in it. The main feature in it is the player governed ports. So you can run to be a governor of the port, and if you get a bunch of people to support you, and they put you up for Governor, you can be elected. Once you are governor, you can do a lot of things that actually affect how the port performs, economically and defensively against other players when they try to take it over.

ZAM: What are some of the lesser features of this expansion?

Ahoy mateys! ZAM is running an epic contest over the next couple of weeks in conjunction with the great folks over at Flying Lab. We're sending ye on a TREASURE HUNT, to ... argh, steal all our booty, everything from iPod Touches to an IZ3D 3-D Monitor.  If you've never played Pirates of the Burning Sea, that's alright; with a revamped economy, enhanced PvP combat and tons of new epic missions, there's never been a better opportunity to do some swashbuckling!!

To get started, visit the official contest page and then click here to download the Pirates of the Burning Sea 14-day trial. We will be releasing one quest per day that must be completed on the day of release. Just click back to this page when ye be done and enter your answer. Ye can only enter once per day, but each correct answer will qualify you to win the prize of the day and accumulate entries towards the grand prize drawing on Sept. 26th!

Don't forget to check back every day for a new daily quest! I be wishin' ye good luck mateys!