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Beta Reviewers, please post honestly
Taram
Member CommonPosts: 1,700
I haven't gotten around to writing a review yet but guys, please, if you post a review post when you were last playing as well. While I myself am not 100% sure I'm going to buy the game I know a lot of folks who already pre-ordered and absolutely love it. So lets not post outdated reviews. If you haven't been in beta for more than a month or two take the time to go look at it again with an open mind before reviewing the game.
A LOT has changed... and I'm not just saying that. Yesterday, for example, I logged in. The tutorial is similar but obviously completely revamped. There's a 2nd, optional, tutorial that takes you through boarding both ships and forts and the treasure map you get in the tutorial already has at least one quest (and honestly looks like there's an entire storyline of quests but haven't gotten that far in open beta yet) attached to it that didn't even exist two weeks ago. (and frankly it's the best quest I've played in the game, by far at this point including the entire time I was in Beta)
So before you review, think about when you last played. If it was more than a few weeks ago you might want to play again so that you can see if your observations regarding the game are still valid 
I'm going to play the open beta up to about level 20 before I post a review. There's enough new stuff even just since the stress test that I want to make sure my data is accurate first.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Comments
Honest opinion here: Repetition is extremly boring. Game is fun for about 3 days. It has real lack of depth. Instancing is in the same maps over and over. Melee combat is repeated with the same maps over and over. All the towns look the same except tortuga.
No real point to the game. Looks like they were shooting for the casual gamer and that is how it feels. Once you've played for 2 days you've seen and done everything. It never really draws you in. Seriuos lack of social interaction. For what it's worth its a dumbed down version of voyage century with some better graphics, if you can say that, it's really cartoony.
Enjoy the open beta but don;t waste your money on another SOE disaster in progress.
Honest
I am all for honesty. I know many players tend to think in black/white, and a game can only be a killer game or trash, which of course is nonsense. PotBS has some strong aspects, especially the atmosphere is very cool. But it also has weak spots. I myself am still quite over the fence what to think, but unlike fashion goes to be so damn sure, I look at both sides.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
All true statements except the last one as this isn't an SOE product it's developed by FLS. SOE is just handling billing and marketting. IMO that last statement makes me doubt your veracity because it just screams "I am a SOE hater and just don't like this game because SOE is involved in any way shape or form". Leave the SOE bashing to games that SOE actually has involvement in. All they provide is the patcher and the game box. They don't even get input into the game design. Go read the damn blogs.
However: The reason Tortuga is different than all the others is that the Devs are currently working on adding nation and profession specific quests that will vary from each other greatly. The current quests were done very quickly becase, well, people wanted a 'ground game' as well so they were tossed in after the fact for the most part. Now they're going in and polishing that aspect. All the towns will eventually be revamped like Tortuga has. There was a post by Rick on the official forums about it. If you like Tortuga then give them some time and look again later. From what they were saying their roadmap is to revamp every single town in the game to be unique and different like Tortuga was. In fact, prior to the stress test (just 2 weeks ago) Tortuga was just like every other town.
And the missions they have added so far leave me thinking those will continue to improve as well. Like I said in another post. I'm not 100% sold. As I, like you, find the *current* state of the game to be leaving me 'on the fence' as to whether to buy it. The reason I'm even considering it, however, is b ecause I've seen how fast FLS moves to adress shortcomings and the direction they've been moving does appear to be the right one so far. So I'm in a 'wait and see mode' during the final stages of Beta. Still playing (hey it's free and still pretty fun) but still 'on the fence' as to whether to buy.
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
What a load of crap that is. All the nation towns have different styles from each other, and while some inconsequential towns have the same layout as previous ones, there are quite a few different town layouts. Just look at the british starting area. Jenny bay looks different from Rosignol which looks different from Georgetown which looks very different from Bartica which looks totally different from Les Hattes.
The OP wanted honest. This isn't honest. This is a review based on your dislike for SOE.
First of all, if you are looking for a korean-stlye leveling grind curve from hell, this probbably isn't the game for you. Second, not all towns look alike. Yes French towns looks the same as spanish towns, but once you chose a nation you are locked into it and cant play the others. So there is no issue here.
Its obvious that you did not play long enough to experience the end game in both pvp and economy.
Definately some interesting opinions. The point is well made that the game is in the developement stage and should not be seen as a polished, finished product, having had years to mature. The assumption is that it will continue to be polished...
But, as of now, the clunky game mechanics and poor graphics, as well as a certain lack of depth will keep me from buying this game. Combat mechanics have to be completely revamped in my opinion...
As for SOE or FLS, or any game dev., who cares, all that matters is if a game is fun or not....
I've noticed a common phenomenon here on MMORPG.com. When a game's NDS first comes down, the people that really dislike the game come to the forums first and post why the game isn't any good. (saw this with TR).
But then, a few days later, (especially after the game goes live) those how are enjoying the game start to trickle in with their opinions and the game gets painted in a more favorable light.
Heck, first few reviews of TR made me think it was a 6/10 game, yet, it stills well into the 8/10 category in many reviewers eyes now that its been released.
I think the jury is still out on PotBS...but it might appeal to niche market (could be a 500K player niche though) and still turn off a vast majority of the gaming community. (not saying they'll get 500k btw, just dropping some numbers)
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The honest truth? This game isn't going to be for everyone. We're talking about a game where the core component is that the world is in constant turmoil due to PvP. Every time you enter the Open Sea, you're going to fear for your ship and its cargo. You won't be able to easily access ports that have changed hands, and taxes will raise and lower with port control.
I absolutely love this design, and think it's amazingly original and unique, but I don't know how much I'll be able to do in a game like this, especially as a casual player. I don't like being prevented from getting to a city without having to go through a PvP zone. That's just not fair.
Again, the game design is cool and exciting, but I don't know that it's good for a person like me. I'm happy to sit by as a British character and watch my nation win over and over again, so I suppose that'll keep me going for a while
Well - I think it's still honest to review a game experience even if you haven't personally seen every last aspect of it. True - the RP story arc just went in and the tutorial was redone, but those tuning items don't change a lot of the fundamental elements of the game.
At the moment it's laggy, it's unoptimized, and there's a memory leak in there somewhere. The last will probably be caught before launch - the first two will get better over time (LOTRO improved by leaps and bounds in the first month for instance) but it's fair to say that is the state of the game right now.
What isn't likely to change are the basic mechanics. The Avatar combat is clunky and feels like a late-stage add-on, that isn't likely to change for several months after launch. The PvP system lacks variety and promotes some really boring gameplay (port camping - you play EVE, you know what that's like) - equally not likely to change for months if ever.
It's heavily instanced and lacks in a feeling of immersion. For many that's a game killer right there, likely to never change.
All these are fair statements to make even if you haven't played in a while and/or haven't played all elements of the game. The only thing that isn't fair is spouting purely false information (like SOE has a hand in development - they don't) or talking about a system you've never worked with.
PotBS in my honest opinion is an average game - 6/10 or so. They have a couple of interesting features (the economy, the port contention system, etc) but they're not really pulled off in a way that I think will be interesting over the long term. There are certain elements that I think will be really unappealing to the new player (the blind-bid auction hall primarily) but I don' t think it's enough to sink the game come launch as long as it's technically playable.
What Mr Jakin said.
I had only been in beta for a couple of months and i haven't socialize a lot (which might be the game's heart, just like Eve) but I am sure they could create a much better game if they would want to.
We will have to wait for future patch content to see.
Anyway, i will play it via pre-order when its available as i am looking for something new.
If you can't afford to possibly waste some money i suggest waiting for a couple of months when they will fix / add important things and possibly have a 1-2 week trial.
----------------
We don't need a king of MMOs, we need a group of Titans so that everyone can play what suits them best.
-Ascension08
Well the point of negative opinions and reviews is to make sure that people have a complete picture of the game BEFORE they purchase, not find out about these problems AFTER they have spent their cash.
Well the point of negative opinions and reviews is to make sure that people have a complete picture of the game BEFORE they purchase, not find out about these problems AFTER they have spent their cash.
An honest review either positive or negative would do the same thing.
Well I hear alot of "honest reviews plz"here but infact that is indeed what every player is giving you "there honest review"sure some of them maybe only played it for a few days maybe even a few hours but some players are like that,If the game doesnt grab them from the start then they have a negative view of it and tbh if they state they only played it for a certain time then gave up as it was not for them,Then that is fine by me I am getting many different points of view on the game.To ask people to play it till the later levels and then give there opinion is basically being alittle foolish,They dont enjoy it,it aint for them so why should they play on just so they can in some people`s words"give an honest review".Every player is different and so is there needs,At the moment I am on the fence with this game even though I was really looking forward to it,Having read all the reviews on this site I am not sure there will be anywhere near enough content to keep me playing after a month but still a little time before the game is released so will keep checking here and see if I am swayed when more players post there thoughts.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
I tend to post the negative things more than the positive. IMO, the main reason to discuss things in forums is to come to a way to improve the games. What is working is ok, you can mention it and should in a complete review. But it is a natural and logical decision to write about the things which dont work or which you dont like, hoping to see them remedied someday. Knowing that I dont mind if people keep saying more negative things.
I mean, who wants to read endless posts "this quest wasnt bugged", "that area didnt make me fall through the world", and "that NPC was not graphically glitched" anyway??
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
...and then people are referring to those threads and posts saying there's only negatives around this or that game.
It's common to post about the problems. But they should be discussed maybe that thing that are mentioned as a problem maybe in the end are not.
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
Nothing has changed what I'm about to comment on.
With all of the missions, open sea combat and small zoned ports being instanced, PotBS plays and feels just like a single player PC game that has an option for multi-player online PvP.
My comment has nothing to do with the economy.
Note: I continually mentioned, in the Closed BETA Forums of PotBS, my concern about the decision to instance the game. Others voiced their concern as well, but FLS said that the choice hade been made and that they would stick with it.
"Don't corpse-camp that idea. Its never gonna rez"
Bladezz (The Guild)
I really can only review it as this;
Its not anything like I imagined it to be back when it was being developed practically in someones garage. I wont go as far as saying I am completely let down though. Its just not even close to what I had thought it would be like. I havent played very much which is very surprising to me.
I almost wish the could just fix up Age of Pirates and make it multiplayer. That would be closer to what I hoped for.
thx, what a waste of development time...did wait so loong for this game
I reall did hop it is some kind of pirate pvp simulation game, but when i takes only 10 min to go from one end of the world to the other, only pvp instances and you dont have the feeling sailing on a huge ocean, i better dont waste my money.
I thought it will be similar to silent hunter III just with pirates but a huge land mass with lots of territorial fights and not boring instances....very very disappointed !!
why o why most of the new mmorpgs just suck so big ...crazy
So "Pirates of the burning PEE" went reality and isnt used anymore as a joke hehe damn
I didn't like it. I felt that the quests lacked originality and a key ingredient... fun. I didn't like the land so much, as I felt confined and limited, like a GW instanced town. The lack of diversity in classes is also a con. I may keep testing as it passes into open beta, but I seriously doubt I will pay money for this game.
All true statements except the last one as this isn't an SOE product it's developed by FLS. SOE is just handling billing and marketting. IMO that last statement makes me doubt your veracity because it just screams "I am a SOE hater and just don't like this game because SOE is involved in any way shape or form". Leave the SOE bashing to games that SOE actually has involvement in. All they provide is the patcher and the game box. They don't even get input into the game design. Go read the damn blogs.
However: The reason Tortuga is different than all the others is that the Devs are currently working on adding nation and profession specific quests that will vary from each other greatly. The current quests were done very quickly becase, well, people wanted a 'ground game' as well so they were tossed in after the fact for the most part. Now they're going in and polishing that aspect. All the towns will eventually be revamped like Tortuga has. There was a post by Rick on the official forums about it. If you like Tortuga then give them some time and look again later. From what they were saying their roadmap is to revamp every single town in the game to be unique and different like Tortuga was. In fact, prior to the stress test (just 2 weeks ago) Tortuga was just like every other town.
And the missions they have added so far leave me thinking those will continue to improve as well. Like I said in another post. I'm not 100% sold. As I, like you, find the *current* state of the game to be leaving me 'on the fence' as to whether to buy it. The reason I'm even considering it, however, is b ecause I've seen how fast FLS moves to adress shortcomings and the direction they've been moving does appear to be the right one so far. So I'm in a 'wait and see mode' during the final stages of Beta. Still playing (hey it's free and still pretty fun) but still 'on the fence' as to whether to buy.
Very True sir, I am an SOE hater and for good reason. This game had been in development for 7 years and they rushed the design? Is that what your trying to tell us? Not for nothing, but you think they could have spent more time making it more unique. LOTR came out in about a year and looked more polished and ready to go than this by far. SOE provided the funding to get this POS off the ground. Otherwise it would still be on the CEO's mainframe waiting to get noticed. I said thsi before, when Johnny Depp goes back to playing real drama this game will be dead. IT has no depth, does not engage the customer and lack some basic MMO philosiphy. Fun for about 3 days, that's all. IMHO.Now, the real question remains, when will a company come out with a MMO outside of the fantasy genre that has some real depth to it? Star Trek online looks good but that's to be seen. Tabula Rasa is interesting but too FPS for its own good. SWG had it for sure until they rolled the NGE. When will a company have really unique character building? Engaging story lines? Socially driven quests and still be soloable when you want to?
Hard to say, but the question remains.........
i think so many people are dissapointed here becuase they set there expections way to high. When they see a new game they get their idea about what they want in the game and are dissapointed if doesnt have those ideas. I plan to get into the open beta to see what I think about the game. I very rarely will ingore a game based on other peoples reviews,
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Pirates of the Burning Sea Beta Experience
Flying Labs Software has lifted the NDA on the Pirates of the Burning Sea MMO set to go live in January, 2008. I have been an active beta tester for over a year and would like to share some of my experience and hopefully spark some interest in the game for those who may not know about it yet.
This post turned out to be a lot longer than I had figured it would be so I tried to highlight the sections a bit so you can jump around and read what you want.
Game Overview
For a quick overview PotBS is a historical themed MMO set in the Caribbean during 1720. Players can be a Freetrader, Privateer or Naval Officer for the French, Spanish or British, or they can be a Pirate. A large portion of the game is resolved by ship-to-ship combat on the sea which plays heavily in missions and Nation vs Nation game play. Along with ship based combat players also participate in land, and boarding action, based avatar combat. The game has a deep, fully player-run economy and the ability to create and submit your own user content.
What I like Most
What I like most about this MMO is how adaptable it is to allow me to be as challenged as I would like while running missions. This can be done either through a game mechanic that allows a player to increase the difficulty of their missions or by the type of ship used to run missions. Ship combat is far more tactical than any other MMO combat I’ve experienced. By challenging myself during missions, tactics become even more important and the game more enjoyable.
What I like Least
What I like least about this MMO is how difficult Nation vs. Nation game play and port battles can be to organize and resolve. The way Nation vs. Nation is implemented the entire nation has to mostly work together to accomplish a map victory. When a port has been flipped and the final port battle is launched it is resolved with a 25 vs. 25 battle on sea and land. Having 25 different solo players along with players from multiple societies makes the venture quite difficult to manage. It’s not hard for me to see how large, elite, societies can make this experience unpleasant for other players of the same nation and is a serious concern of mine upon launch when these societies start forming.
Experience Overview
My beta experience consisted of playing British avatars in the naval officer and freetrader careers. I did dabble a bit with the privateer career but not a whole lot. As a freetrader most of my work was in creating provisions for shipbuilders. As a naval officer my main focus was running through missions and participating in the Nation vs. Nation game play. I didn’t participate in much PvP, outside of the port battles, or much open sea hunting outside of building up contention points on ports.
While running missions my goal was to attempt to complete them solo, if possible, because I enjoy this type of game play. For the most part I was able to successfully solo the missions but it does take a lot of time and patience. There are missions where groups are needed but for the most part you won’t need to if you don’t want to. The mission types get repetitive but no two ship combat missions play out the same way because of the nature of combat. Running missions with NPC allies can be frustrating, especially ones where you have to protect another ship, because NPCs are not as smart as humans and do some pretty annoying things. This is usually the most frustrating part when working on missions because sometimes you fail the mission because of NPCs doing something you can’t control.
The economy aspect of the game is interesting in the sense of its implementation. It’s not as interactive as in other MMO but it’s very deep. For instance, as a Provisions maker it is not possible for one person to build every structure needed to pack a provision. In order to make provisions efficiently you need three, or more, people but you can do fairly well with two. However, even with two or three people you will end up purchasing at least some items from other players to pack a provision which is only one small part of building a ship. Depending on the items you choose to build there can be a lot of traveling involved when participating in the economy. For provisions the only traveling I needed to do was hauling grapes to make wine but the trip was from Biloxi, where the grapes are, to Bridgetown and took a good 20-30min each way. As a participant in the economy you are hauling goods to a warehouse where your structures are located, hauling finished goods to a port with an Auction house, or using the UI to manage the structures in a port. You have to pay upkeep on each structure to keep it functioning and build items by selecting the item you want from the structure and pressing a button to built it. The act of building items is not very exciting so most of the excitement comes from having to haul your goods around, potentially through PvP enabled ports, and using the Auction house to get the best price for any goods you need to buy from other players. Structures store labor in real-time with a maximum of 3 days stored and this stored labor is used to create the products. For example to pack 1 provision it takes 4 hours of stored labor, 30 doubloons and 9 other ingredients so at most you can pack 6 provisions from one structure in a 24 hour, real-life, period and ships require anywhere from 1 to 20 provisions to be constructed.
Thoughts on the Game
I’ll start off by stating the game is not perfect and needs to do quite a bit of growing. However, I am a fan of the game, have a pre-order, and intend to play the game upon launch.
I don’t see PotBS having mass appeal and there will be plenty of game elements for people to complain about if they want to. For example, during my time in beta there have been a number of people complaining about having to sail from port to port because it takes too much time. Since PotBS is a game based on sailing if you don’t like spending time traveling in a ship you’re not going to like the game. PotBS is not a fast paced game and takes patience. While some missions are fairly quick others can take 15-30 min, or longer, to complete and traveling between ports is going to take some time (although not as much as I would like to see).
Some Common Complaints
Society Tools: There isn’t much in the way of society tools. Apart from a society chat channel and email there is nothing else in the game for societies. For societies expecting to be catered to, and given advantages just because they are a society, this is going to be a huge disappointment and possible game breaker for them at launch. This topic has been discussed a great deal during the beta, especially around the wants for a society/shared warehouse, but society features will not be added in the first release. From my understanding of things FLS doesn’t want to give tools to societies to give them an advantage over other people or set themselves up in their own bubble (e.g. society warehouses would make it too easy for a society to bypass the player driven economy). While I agree societies shouldn’t be given any advantages I would like to see more tools added that can be used either by the society, or by a group of people not necessarily in the same society, and want to hear more about what is planed post-launch.
Communication: There has been a bit of complaints about how communication works in the game. The chat UI, and options, could use some work to make it more flexible. I would like to see the ability to add custom chat channels like in Eve because currently you are limited to Local, Area, Nation, Group, Trade, Combat, Battle, and Society chat channels so it’s difficult to chat with people in other societies you have special arrangements with. One of the bigger complaints revolves around having to get skills to talk to people in other nations or on special channels. Some people want to be able to talk to anyone in the game, at any time, from any distance. I can understand why people want this but I like the restrictions currently in place.
Repetitive: I’ve seen a lot of complaints from people about the game being repetitive with a lot of grinding. There is truth to this but I don’t see it being any more repetitive than any other MMO I’ve played. In fact, I enjoy it a great deal more than most other MMO’s I’ve played because each ship combat encounter resolves differently. To level you’ll either need to run PvE missions, hunt NPCs on the open sea, or participate in PvP. If you are a person who wants to be at level MAX as soon as possible then you are probably going to not like how repetitive the game can be. If you are a person who likes to smell the roses then you probably won’t be bothered too much by this because while there are only a handful of mission types, each one has its own unique aspects. If you take the time to enjoy these unique aspects then the missions are a lot of fun.
Instances: Another area I’ve seen complaints on have been the extensive use of instances in the game. I think most of these have been from people not in the beta though because the use of instances makes a lot of sense in PotBS. It seems like people are complaining more because of the word and not how instances are implemented. In PotBS instances are used for Ship Combat and Avatar missions. The Open Sea and towns are not instances. Ship combat would not be fun in the Open Sea, nor would the Ship Combat view be fun to experience in the Open Sea. When engaged in ship combat the speed of the ship is slowed down to resemble what you would expect during a real life sea battle. These speeds as very slow so to keep this view on the Open Sea while traveling from port to port would take an extremely long time and not be any fun. On the other hand the Open Sea space has fast travel and more of a top down view of the map so if you tried to engage in any ship combat from the open sea the speed and abstraction would make ship combat far less enjoyable. I do think FLS needs to add more open space to the game for people to do more exploring in a non-instanced environment. I’m not sure if this is something they will be able to do with ship combat but I can defiantly see this as possible for avatar combat. While I wouldn’t expect all the land masses to be exploreable, because it would be huge, I would like to have a lot more freedom than being limited to the towns.
Balance: Balance is another hot issue. While I’m not sure how FLS is going to control this I can see how this could potentially become a big problem and a turn off for some people who want to play a French avatar. However, one thing we learned before the last wipe is that it’s not necessarily the affiliation with the most players that will win but the one that can coordinate their efforts the best and perform well in the Nation vs. Nation game play. If you are a player who likes to role an underdog character for the challenge you might enjoy it but if you do it so you can get extra benefits and bonuses and expect to use those to your advantage to win you’ll probably be disappointed.
Level means too much: To me this seems more like people are conditioned to think this is the case and automatically believe it to be true regardless of how it really is. At the same time people need to be realistic as well. If you expect to be able to take your level 1 "La Belle" fallback starter ship out and sink an "Invincible" first rate all by yourself then you’re going to be in trouble. A player’s skill at ship combat makes a huge difference in this game. If you are not tactically minded, and are up against a player who is, you’re going to have a hard time no matter what the level difference is. This being the case, if you have a player in a medium frigate that is very tactical and knows how to sail their ship they will more than likely be able to take out a first rate if it’s being captained by a button mashing, hack-and-slash, player. Your ability to captain your ship well is what makes the difference in this game, not character skills your avatar can learn or the level you have reached. Now for Avatar Combat the story is a bit different, unfortunately. As you level up you gain more health and it’s going to be much more difficult for a lower level player to defeat a higher level player in Avatar Combat. This is truly unfortunate and I don’t like this at all. Once Avatar Combat comes into the picture it’s almost all about level and very little about skill. I’m personally not a fan of Avatar Combat and would’ve been happy if they had not added it to the game because of this.
End Game: “The games been out for two weeks and I’m level 50, what do I do now?"I have never understood the mentality of the player who rushes as fast as they possibly can to the MAX level and then complains about there being nothing left for them to do. If you are one of these players you will probably get board with this game fairly quickly because at this point the end game is either participating in Nation vs. Nation game play or participating in the Economy. I’m not sure how quickly level progression is going to be for launch but I do know they are adjusting it from what it has been. During the beta it has been ramped up to allow for faster leveling so we may not have a good indication of how quickly a person can get to the MAX level until lunch. I do have a feeling by the end of the first month there will probably be several people at the MAX already though. I’m not a player who cares too much about being the highest level I can be as soon as possible. I’ve only reached MAX level in one MMO. I play to have fun and don’t worry about what level I am. I like PotBS because I can play the way I want to and still be competitive when I need to be, if I’m smart, in the Nation vs. Nation system. To be fair I’m not sure what FLS will do to continue to provide enjoyment for the players who have reached the MAX level. From what I have seen there doesn’t appear to be a lot of options for extending game play other than adding more missions. Hopefully they have some good plans to deal with this once the majority of the players start reaching the level cap.
PvP/RvR: I’m not a fan of PvP in general and try to avoid it when possible. The PvP system in PotBS is a hot one because there is almost no way to avoid being affected by it. Even though I don’t like PvP I’m ok with the system PotBS has in place because it adds a level of excitement and danger to the game but it’s up to me as to when I want to take the risk (for the most part). The two main complaints in this area have been about forced PvP and ganking. The PvP game mechanics don’t necessarily force PvP on people but there may be times where a port you need to get access to, or one you’re currently docked in, has been activated for PvP. When this happens you will need to brave the PvP waters until you are clear of the zone. There are ways to avoid this, such has having a fallback ship in a port that can’t be PvP active, or waiting until the PvP zone clears from around the port you need to get to. Also, if you’re smart about what you are doing it is possible to get through a PvP zone without getting attacked. Ganking is another common complaint because it is possible for a level 50 character to attack a level 1 character. In other MMOs this doesn’t seem fair at all but in this game it makes a lot of sense because any ship is capable of carrying cargo. If there were restrictions in place then people would create low-level mule characters and use them to haul goods into PvP zones. Just because the player is only level 10 doesn’t mean he can’t haul several thousands of doubloons worth of merchandise in their ship, or better yet valuable supplies for the Nation vs. Nation economy missions to a port under siege. One thing I don’t like about the Nation vs. Nation system is the Port Battles. I like the idea and the execution in the game but it pretty much forces 25 players to work together and if you’re not all on Teamspeak, or something, then there are going to be problems. This turns these port battles more into society events and I’ve seen cases where the more prominent society has been extremely rude to the other people in the group which made the encounters very un-enjoyable. The Nation vs. Nation system has also had a lot of discussion because some people want to be able to flip a port in a matter of minutes while others want it to take days. I’m on the extreme side and would like to see it take several days of work before a port can be flipped and feel it should take several months for a map to be won and not something that can be done in a few weeks. Having too much Nation vs. Nation becomes very tedious, and boring, but unfortunately once you get to the MAX level there isn’t a whole lot else to do and if it takes several days to flip a port this becomes tedious and boring. There are a lot of things about the Nation vs Nation system I like but there are also a lot of things I don’t like. We’ll have to see how things turn out after launch to see how it really plays out. Hopefully it will work.
Areas needing work
Avatar Combat: At this point I wish FLS had not added avatar combat to the game. While I do have fun with it, and welcome the avatar combat missions to help break up the ship combat missions, it doesn’t work very well. It doesn’t feel like avatar combat is ready and needs a lot of tuning and mission work to make it more enjoyable. With the addition of avatar combat came boarding actions, which I hate, and gives more importance to character level than there was supposed to be with this game. The problem here is some missions force you to board ships so there is no way to avoid it in game play.
Immersion: This may be because I have been focusing more on testing missions and game play then enjoying the game but to this point I have never felt immersed in the game. I’ve always felt like my character was being lead around by the nose and had no choices or personality. I have not had time to play through all the career missions or the new story line arch yet so I’m hoping these will make me feel like I'm more a part of the world. The most immersive MMO I’ve played has been Horizons. While playing that game I felt like I was a part of the world and my presence there made a difference. When I first heard about the Nation vs. Nation aspect of PotBS I thought it might be similar but so far it hasn’t been and I have yet to get the feeling like my character matters to the world it lives in.
NPC behavior: I can only imagine how difficult it is to develop the AI for ship combat and there have been a lot of improvements since I first started playing; however, there is still bizarre, and frustrating, behavior from NPCs during ship combat missions. Some times this is good because when you are a single ship going up against five enemy NPCs you can use this to your advantage to beat the mission. There are other times, like when the NPC is an ally you need to escort, where bizarre behavior is not what you want and the NPC ends up getting killed and you can’t do anything. Based off of the improvements I’ve seen since starting the beta I know FLS will continue to refine and improve on this but it could be a point of contention for new players because it can be extremely frustrating.
Loading Times: I’m hoping this is something that will be completely resolved upon launch because if not this could be a game breaker for a lot of people. While I have not had this happen for some time because of the improvements made to the game I have been sunk, or nearly sunk, several times while sitting at the loading… screen waiting for an instance to load. Understanding this is a beta, losing a ship because of this has been acceptable but the first time I lose a player build ship that I paid good money for on the live server because of this I’m not going to be happy at all. At this point the main risk here is with PvP because there are measures in place for PvE encounters to help reduce the risk of this. I know FLS has been working hard to improve loading times and don’t expect this to be a problem upon launch but if it does become a problem it will be a serious one.
Conclusion
As you can see from my comments there are some good and bad things about Pirates of the Burning Sea. To this date I have never played an MMO as long as I have played PotBS and I still enjoy every minute of game time I can get. Ship combat, by far, has been the most enjoyable MMO combat I’ve ever experienced and the reason I like this game so much. FLS still has a lot of work to do on this game and a lot more features need to be added to make it a complete game but I feel the game is ready to go live. This is one the more stable and bug free MMOs I’ve played and the gaming experience is enjoyable. I don’t think the launch of the game will be a surprise success, and believe it will cater to a select group, but I do have a feeling this game can grow over time to become very successful if handled correctly. The FLS team has built a very strong foundation and their commitment to the game and the community is very clear. I’m looking forward to the first announcement of the new features they will be adding after launch. This will tell a lot about where the game will be going next year and how successful it will become. This game definitely isn’t for everyone and you need to check your pre-conceived MMO notions at the door when you start to play. If it’s something that sounds interesting I would encourage you to check it out. You have to give it some time to grow on you though because it does take a while to get use to the differences (at least get to level 20 before making a final decision). If you can get into the open beta before launch I would recommend it, if you don’t have time for the open beta, or want to want until the product is live, I would recommend waiting for a trial if you are not sure if you’ll like the game. If it does sound like a game you’d enjoy then I would recommend buying a copy when it’s released and giving it a month.
All true statements except the last one as this isn't an SOE product it's developed by FLS. SOE is just handling billing and marketting. IMO that last statement makes me doubt your veracity because it just screams "I am a SOE hater and just don't like this game because SOE is involved in any way shape or form". Leave the SOE bashing to games that SOE actually has involvement in. All they provide is the patcher and the game box. They don't even get input into the game design. Go read the damn blogs.
However: The reason Tortuga is different than all the others is that the Devs are currently working on adding nation and profession specific quests that will vary from each other greatly. The current quests were done very quickly becase, well, people wanted a 'ground game' as well so they were tossed in after the fact for the most part. Now they're going in and polishing that aspect. All the towns will eventually be revamped like Tortuga has. There was a post by Rick on the official forums about it. If you like Tortuga then give them some time and look again later. From what they were saying their roadmap is to revamp every single town in the game to be unique and different like Tortuga was. In fact, prior to the stress test (just 2 weeks ago) Tortuga was just like every other town.
And the missions they have added so far leave me thinking those will continue to improve as well. Like I said in another post. I'm not 100% sold. As I, like you, find the *current* state of the game to be leaving me 'on the fence' as to whether to buy it. The reason I'm even considering it, however, is b ecause I've seen how fast FLS moves to adress shortcomings and the direction they've been moving does appear to be the right one so far. So I'm in a 'wait and see mode' during the final stages of Beta. Still playing (hey it's free and still pretty fun) but still 'on the fence' as to whether to buy.
Very True sir, I am an SOE hater and for good reason. This game had been in development for 7 years and they rushed the design? Is that what your trying to tell us? Not for nothing, but you think they could have spent more time making it more unique. LOTR came out in about a year and looked more polished and ready to go than this by far. SOE provided the funding to get this POS off the ground. Otherwise it would still be on the CEO's mainframe waiting to get noticed. I said thsi before, when Johnny Depp goes back to playing real drama this game will be dead. IT has no depth, does not engage the customer and lack some basic MMO philosiphy. Fun for about 3 days, that's all. IMHO.Now, the real question remains, when will a company come out with a MMO outside of the fantasy genre that has some real depth to it? Star Trek online looks good but that's to be seen. Tabula Rasa is interesting but too FPS for its own good. SWG had it for sure until they rolled the NGE. When will a company have really unique character building? Engaging story lines? Socially driven quests and still be soloable when you want to?
Hard to say, but the question remains.........
With all due respect, do some research. SOE didn't provide any funding for this game.
I agree with many of your statements but your assumptions about SOE's role in PotBS are outright innane. SOE has nothing to do with funding, development or any other aspect of the game. All SOE provides is the launcher (so that it can be on the station pass) marketting and billing. FLS funded the game, developed the game and made all design decisions regarding the game.
While I may or may not like some of those design decisions it is wrong to make false statements about SOE's role in the game just because you happen to hate SOE (clue: I hate SOE too, but that doesn't blind me to reality the way it seems to do to you.).
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
I have to say nice job. Did a great job of highlighting both the good and the bad.
Unfortunately for FLS the 'things needing improvement' are exactly the reasons I've decided not to pre-order. I've decided to give the game time to mature and grow and I'll revisit it again a few months down the road, hopefully on a free trial, to see if it's more my style then. The single biggest problem I have with the game is the absolute lack of immersion. The game just doesn't draw me in.
That said there are good aspects and bad aspects and each person should take the time to play the open beta before making any decision regarding PotBS. It's not like it'll cost you anything
"A ship-of-war is the best ambassador." - Oliver Cromwell
Just did the "boarding tutorial" 5 minutes ago and fighting with your character on keeps or onboard enemy ship is just horrible mess!
I'll continue later tonight but character fighting didn't impress me .