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Would anyone care to verify or refute some of my initial impressions?
Neanderthal
Member RarePosts: 1,861
I've known about this game for a long time but for one reason or another I've never bothered to read up on it. But just yesterday I started checking it out because of some stuff someone said about it in another thread. So far I have to say I'm pretty damn impressed.
But we can all get lost in hype and buried under tons of text when we first start looking at a game so I was just wondering if someone who has been following the game closely for a while could tell me if some of my impressions are right or wrong.
So here is what I've gleaned thus far:
1. No uber loot or epics (thank god). Equipment is all pretty much normal and more realistic than in most games. Not sure yet if players' equipment can be looted or destroyed.
2. Guilds don't give any intrinsic benefits? In other words you don't get any extra skills or improved resource collection or any silly ass crap like that just because you're in a guild.
3. No mind-numbing raids. Please god let this be true.
4. It's basically realm versus realm.
5. Mostly player run economy and everyone can produce -something- if they want to. I think I'm fairly clear on this. You don't actually collect resources and craft stuff yourself, you manage NPCs who do it for you.
6. Leveling up is not what it is in most games. It just lets you add skills to your repertoire. No increased hitpoints. No increased AC or damage / damage avoidance?
7. A big part of the game is going to be improving your ship. But you can lose your ship in battle.
Ok, that's enough for now. And yeah, I know I should go read some more. I have been reading some and I'll read more but I just wanted to check these impressions with people who have been following the game closely. So far I like the picture I'm getting but I've only just dipped my toe in the waters of the burning sea.
Comments
I'm not in beta and don't read every little peice of whatever about the game... so grain of salt please.
1. To my knowledge there are no uber lootz that make you all powerful. I'm sure there are some good items, but nothing like other MMO's.
2. I dunno about that. Not that i've heard.
3. I've heard nothing about raids. Can't confirm nor deny.
4. Yea, Nation vs. Nation. But i believe it is more a faction thing, because I *think* a Spanish non-navy player can have faction with britain say, and interact with them. Not sure though.
5.. Economy is player run. Each character gets 10 "plots" of land where you can manage things like farms/manufacturing etc. These farms collect things for you (meaning no mining yourself). Think of it as you are a manager of your land, but your peons do it for you. You can use all your land for resource collection, and sell them at market. Or you can purchase all your materials and use them to construct ships etc. OR, you could split all your land for resources/construction, but they won't be as fast obviously.
6. From everything i've seen, you don't gain more hit points or anything, just adds skills, which in turn increases your suviveability.. but no artificial bonuses. Meaning, a level 1 person can still hit a level 50 ship.. a cannonball is a cannonball. Just hte level 50 is gonna have a lot more guns, etc. Same basic premise for the avatar combat.
7. Sounds about right.
Hazmats has it right, but I'll just fill in what he didn't know.
2)yes your right
3)I don't think so, but then again I'm not 100% sure what "raids" are.
POTBS username:yohorumrunner
Guild:St George Squadron
It reminds me of Planetside, where you can kill an opponent right off the bat -- your options are just severely limited in comparison. In fact it's the only MMO I can think of offhand that featured it.
One of many reasons I'm lookin' forward to it.
Not sure how recent this review is but it seems they have kept up pretty well with the state of the game. From the review and what I have seen it does look like a great game
http://www.whitewolfclan.net/pobs/review.htm
Thanks for the replies. And thanks for the link. I went and read through the whole thing. This really is sounding pretty good and so far I haven't come across any big snags that put me off.
Couple more question if anyone wants to answer:
1. If you encounter two or more enemy ships in PvP or PvE; when you go into the combat instance will it always be 1 on 1? The other enemies just wait their turn? I'm not clear on this.
2. Pirates can't capture ports, right?
1. No, it will not always be 1v1. When a battle begins, the instance is left open for 60 seconds or so? so any ships that are nearby can enter the battle. So technically it could be 20v1 i reckon.
2. Pirates can capture ports, but they cannot keep them. They can raid ports just like any other nation, but The port stays just "raided" and will revert back to the previous owner in 3 days or something like that. Towards the grand scheme of the game, Pirates can "Win the map" because they gain victory points by raiding a port. They just can't spread and take over the whole map.
Again, not a beta tester. Grain of salt.
1. Also, as I've read, you can send up a flare that will allow anyone in your group/team/wtfever it is called in this game -- join the fight after the timer has expired. If it is a PvE fight you will NOT gain EXP if you send up a flare.
Ok, thanks again guys.
Ive been getting caught up on this gamer too finally a breath of fresh air. I'll anwser yer questions jsut incase.
1. no uber loot this is not age of conan or WoW. Yay!
2. no favortism like that its about realm vs realm (nation vs nation) mostly
3. yes no raids its a requirement for me too. was so sad when i heard age of conan turned into a raidfest
4. yes Nation vs nation. should be real fun and gain mainstream appeal!!!
5. 100% player run baby! we hire NPCs and they do the dirty work yay us! this game looks great so far on paper
6. Yes! they say in an interview when a lowbie swings at a high lvl you will connect. no gay behind the scenes computations based on level. Level only give ya more skills. Now, they do say high lvl has more skills. -but- a lowbie at lvl 15 will have a full branch unlocked so will have a chance. high lvl can have a better ship but still lowbies can group up and contribute and take them down! good for nation vs nation my guess
7. yes! each ship has durability points. lowbies have high durability cause they know newbies r dumb. But as u get more experienced, the best ships will have really low durability and once it reach 0 pirates can capute the ship,. other nations can turn in captured ship for reward
so much better on paper then age of conan, tabula rasa, and the other everquest clones. should be good player run universe but still has minor restrictions to maintain mainstream appealk. im stoked about this one.
I've been following the game since January of 2004...
1.) No. There are some quest rewards that are "special" items or outfitting for your ship that can provide a bonus, but there definitely are no +3 Sails of Invisibility to French or any of that kind of crap that turns into an "I Win Button"... That said, purely cosmetic things like Peglegs and HookHands are quest rewards, too.
2.) None whatsoever, unless you count Guildchat as an 'intrinsic' benefit.
3.) No Raids, however the Devs have mentioned "Heroic" or "Epic" or somesuch-type content for PvE players at "elder game" - some people just aren't all about the PvP aspect, so I respect that. Again, it won't be "Must Have" items...but more like...(random, BS example) "Meet Blackbeard"... Also, they have implied that fully 50% of the quest content is geared toward level 50 Players, which means no huge, endless grind to Level Cap... more like...150-300 hours in PvE going 1-50 (not accounting for PvP-time, or playing in the Economy time) then another 150-300 hours of PvE quest content *at* level 50... This makes me smile.
Oh, and they've also recently said that if you count the run of the mill "delivery" quests, etc, alongside the more unique "primary" quests (of which there are something like 21 different "flavors", not just "Kill X of Y", "Fedex", "Retrieve Item Z", etc.), there are around 9000 individual quests in the game. This rates another big friggin grin out of me...
4.) Realm vs. Realm in a *winnable* game. Take over the Carribean (or enough of it to not matter anymore) and the server automatically resets in 24h... All the capturable ports are returned to their starting owner, and everyone goes at it again. Look to WWII Online for a similar model. When one side captures most of the map, and it's clear that the "loser" can't make a comeback, they declare a winner, reset to the default ownership, and go at it again...
5.) Correct. Just as you are the Ship's Captain, and not a member of the crew, you are the business Owner, not the "skilled craftsman".
Second, you are freed from the syndrome of "First you have to make 100 Iron Nails to make 100 Iron Barrel Hoops to make 100 Stair Railings... ... ... ... ...to make 100 Iron Cannons...finally." Instead, if you have the recipe for Iron Cannons, or Huge Dreadnaught Hull (which costs 115,000 Doubloons or so - *just to pay for the labor* (not counting cost of materials for the 80-odd components that go into it), then you can start there...without ever having made any other item beforehand.
This frees you up in two ways. First. you don't have to actually *craft* anything. There's a LITTLE bit of "handwavium" in the process for the sake of fun... The workers can read your mind, and give you whatever it is that you've got a recipe for, and that you've got "hours on the books" for, and can pay them to make for you... You say "Foreman! I need 100 tons of Iron Nails, here's 450 Doubloons to pay the men with..." and the Foreman says, "Funny you should ask, boss... here's 100 tons of Iron Nails we just finished last night! I'll distribute the men's pay forthwith, sir..."
6.) Levelling gives you *access* to more skills. Put a L50 in a L50 ship with L50 combat skills, and he'll eat a L20 in a L20 ship with L20 skills for lunch. HOWEVER... If that L50 has put most of his skills into, say, Trade-type skills (you can only have 25 of a total of 45 skills), and put that L50 into his L20 ship (because it's faster than his L50 Merchanter, say...) with L20 Outfitting...that L20 has a more than fair chance at beating that L50...
7.) Some quest rewards will be Outfitting for your ship. Some of those will be "permanent" items, in that they will not be lost with your ship. Other things will be part of the ship deed, and will very much be lost with your ship. They've recently said that they're adding some cool things like being able to potentially loot unique clothing items from players you defeat in PvP combat... (not to say that the other player will necessarily LOSE that item...only that you'll gain it... The Devs aren't real big on punishing failure compared to rewarding success. Punishment isn't really that fun, all things considered...)...but the whole "This was Mad Captain Winterdark's Coat" has a certain appeal to it, y'know?
...and yes, you can lose your ship in PvE OR PvP battle. That's all a part of the Player-Owned Economy.
If you couldn't lose it, there'd be no reason for players to invest time and energy making them to sell to you, and you'd find abyssally low demand for the resources you loot off of NPC ships on the Auction House, or produce as a Business Owner and sell on the AH or the LM (Local Market - One per Port, and you have to actually GO there to see the prices...which is a hook for savvy merchant -types to engage in Buy Low/Sell High as a viable play-style. *grins hugely at that prospect*)