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Beauman
Member UncommonPosts: 142
Okay, with the free 14 day trial for PoTBS coming soon, thought I would get some feedback in a single thread as opposed to reading dozens of them.
I've played a ton of MMOs. This goes back to the launch of EQ1. It also includes massively problemed games like SWG, MxO, and Anarchy Online. Games that have been killed, like Earth & Beyond. And even CoH and WoW.
My playstyle is casual (work and family), with some RP enjoyment here and there. Game immersion is a huge factor. Felt that in CoH and WoW to a degree. Original SWG (problems aside) went a good way toward it. Heck, so did MxO in its own right.
So, a few questions . . .
1) I understand PoTBS was originally conceived as a ship-to-ship game, and Avatars were tossed in later in development. I'm a PnP Publisher, and talked to one of the people at the SOE booth at last year's GenCon (forget his name, but he once wrote Magic: The Gathering novels for WoTC). My question: how does Avatar questing and combat rate?
2) How balanced or imbalanced is PvP? For me, what killed it in WoW was the "one spec for each class to survive." Is PoTBS designed the same way, or are different ship builds viable?
3) How unbalanced is the economy?
4) Playing Pirates of the Carribean Online, currently, I like the fact that in or out of combat, one can move about the ship. Is that possible in PoTBS, or is it all from "high above" with the camera like I see in the game-play videos at YouTube?
5) I'm not looking to race to level 50, or max a ship quickly, but how viable is it to play and accomplish anything in the game on a casual playstyle? or is it a hardcore, time-sink more in line with EVE Online?
Thanks,
Comments
I will post my observations after 3 Subscriptions/cancellations. Was on last maybe 2 weeks ago. It's a pirate game so I end up going back for more punishment eventually. My style is similar, casual, limited play time, family first.
I played on Bonny for a while which has subsequently been merged to Antigua. You can play solo if you choose but the RvR portion of the game may limit your experience a bit meaning if a port or ports that are part of your quest line is in contention which in my case something in my quest book always was then you will have to pump up the adreneline and make a run through conetested waters. This isn't that bad actually as you can pop on in off hours and make the run but if your caught you can be sunk. Lvl 50 against a lvl 1 means nothing, it's the way the game rolls.
You can't move about your ship if you are OS sailing. Going from point A to point B on the open sea you while be in a slightly reduced graphical representation of your ship with no crew or Capt. visible, kind of like driving a car with the wasd keys. If you enter OS/mission combat then your ship will be nicely detailed with crew and Capt. visible ( still can't move your toon ). Only when you are boarded or initiate a succesful boarding will you be in control of your avatar and free to walk about the deck.
There are land based missions which calls for avatar combat but for myself it was done poorly, most likely due to the last minute inclusion of the avatars. Last time I played I was treated to 5 or 6 instances over and over and over with different missions attached to them, so scenery is limited. Avatars are limited to boarding combat, missions, and running around the towns ( which a lot of them use the same layout as well ).
Everything is an instance. You will be treated to more loading screens than you'll no what to do with. Leave town "loading", crap forgot more ammo "loading", ah theres the AH "loading", well back to the ship "loading". hey there's the dock "loading" finally on the open sea, lets see my quest journal says to go to the next town up "loading" I could do that all day but you get the message.
I think it would be a real winner if they could find a way to integrate the different play styles instead of catering to the dwindling PvP crowd. Most of the PVE'rs figured it out a while ago and left, me I keep forgetting what I didn't like about the game and keep coming back only to remember 3 days later. One of these days I will learn.
I don't think I wasted my money as it would be a decent stand alne game for $49. It's got a long way to go before I think it should be entitled to $15 a month like it's big cousins with with 20+ times more content and features.
Seems to me like the free trial is the way to go.
Now, I'm not a WoW fandome member by any stretch. Usually I would jump between that and my CoH/V account on a cancel/sub cycle. CoH is notorious for very limited map-set choices, combined with nothing but instanced missions (except for the occassional street-hunt/kill X mission).
As for WoW, the gear/loot stuff aside, even I have to admit it is a pretty seamless game and well done for what it is meant to be.
Being a major fan of Pirates and a variety of related films (even the Disney trilogy), Pirates of the Carribean Online has surprised me at how fun it is, given that it's a Disney Online game. Even though you load going from island to sea to island (and in changing some areas, like entering the Wild Woods), the load times are so fast that they actually don't bother me.
I'll have to see how fast or slow the load times in PoTBS are for my comp/connection during the trial. But, yes, constant load screens will grow annoying real fast. I hated that about EQ2.
The graphics for OS travel is a bummer. That might be a turn-off real quick, as I prefer to get into a MMO and that is a bit of a detractor.
I understand the NPC crews that accompany a PC on a boarding of another ship to take it over. However, in PoTBS is it possible for multiple PCs to be on the same ship?
I ask because in PoTCO this is possible, and actually quite fun.
No you can't walk around your own ship, and no other players can't join you, I will admit it its a let down there are some need for improvements in certain areas which are on the PotBS site forums, If you want the best pirate game or of similar area this is it I would have to say but there isn't very much to do once you get higher other than pvp. I'm lvl 30 atm and I have no idea where im to go for my next quest i'm incredibly poor as to I invested in the economy and no ones buying my things (i'm even doing 1 coin cheaper so mine sells first). I love the ship combat its my favorite part of the game the loading screens don't bother me to be honest if you have a nice rig there nothing more than a few seconds maybe a minute. I feel that if FLS gets going with upgrades and enhancements this will be a great game to sit back and play but right now the population is an issue and so are things to do, I say check back in around fall maybe winter and it should be better due to improvements if you want to get ahead of the game for that time/hope of a brighter future jump right in its not hard to level, even if you just play casual ( i played about 1-2 hours a day and get a lvl a day (side note: I did have quest to do than though) ). Another side note you can make your own sails and flags which i will admit I spent a day doing was quite fun and fulfilling as to i put thought into it.
Well, like I said, I'll give the free trial a shot in a couple of weeks, but right now I'm really hoping the game plays better than it sounds.
Walking around on the ship, and having other PCs on the ship- while a minor thing- could be a deal breaker for me. Sadly, when I'm in the mood for RP, I want to RP the setting. And that includes ship-based.
If the ships are only there to provide a sort of ship-combat simulation, I'm not interested. There are free games that provide that. Christ, even in Star Wars Galaxies (as bad as that is) one could walk around in, have other players aboard, and personalize the transport ships.
So, we'll see.
I was given the game as a present. My wife and I played for a while but didn't carry on after our first prepaid month. I never once engaged in PvP nor maxed out a character, so my play experience is probably quite different than a lot of people. ("Ganking" wasn't a factor in my decision to move along, for example.)
1) Avatar questing and combat was uneven for me. I never really liked the look and feel of the avatar-level game, for a start; "uncanny valley" seems to fit. The actual combat gameplay (exclusively in instances) either went from "cakewalk" to "doom" -- I could either sail through a combat or get trounced. The deciding factor was always # of opponents -- either too little to worry with or a three/four foe Zerg rush. I would've prefered a lot more "holy crap that was close" moments in swordplay. The storylines and writing in all the quests were quite good, however, especially compared to the "skin 10 rats" regurgitations of other games.
2) No clue.
3) Again, no clue, but I found the economic gameplay odd. It was based more on developing harvesting "plantations" (mines, gravel pits, whatever) at various ports, which seems fitting for a particular *type* of character rather than the baseline economy. All I know is that the game encouraged me to harvest a bunch of gravel. I did that, then couldn't sell it to break even, much less a profit. I went back to firing cannons at ships. Much more cathartic.
4) High above. It is nifty to watch your crew scurry about the deck. You're only an avatar on ship when you're doing a boarding-party fight, though.
5) I felt accomplished even though I only got up to, oh, 25 or thereabouts. Depends on what you mean by "viable." The early game is instanced quests, and while I like instanced quests I think the game REALLY overdoes it. I got my ding fix well enough, and levelling up gave me new doodads to play with, so there was accomplishment there.
Pvp is fun but mostly its just gank squads running around its never really one and one, the most fun i had thought is when I had a group of some lvl 30's after me ( i was 26 at the moment) and was about to out run them and board em required some patience (as one dropped out since he fell to far behind) and tactics but mostly like i said its large groups ganking either solo players smaller groups or same size groups so that needs work, Since in all other mmo's you will run by single players in pvp once in awhile.
1) the avcom is fun, but not perfect. Duels are a 1on1 you can initiate with anyone where you fight in an instanced environment. Boarding combat where it is you and a crew vs your oponent and his crew is hugely entertaining. You explore towns and get quests in avatar mode, when you are at port. Quests are split, some are avcom missions and some are ship battles. Some avcom missions were unique and fun, many felt cookie cutter. The game reuses many of the avcom environments constantly.
2) PVP is very well balanced. All types of ship / class combinations have their uses. Port battles ( 24 on 24 ) ARE SO AMAZING. I play a freetrader and am hugely succesful in pvp, so even the trading class in the right boat with the right equipment can go toe to toe with anyone. The downside to the pvp is being outnumbered in the open sea. Unless you have a fast boat, sailing around solo in the combat zones is typically considered a great way to get sunk. 1vs1 - 6vs6 open sea fights are all great. All classes have a variety of skills you can spec into, builds are based more on your playstyle, there is no "uber" build of the week.
3) The economy is not unbalanced at all. It is the most fine tuned and one of the most addictive aspects of the game. You can even choose to ignore it all together, but I recomend becoming part of a society with an active economy. It is hugely satifsying when you are working together to produce expensive boats.
4) I fooled around with potco and found it childish but entertaining. You can not explore your ships in potbs, it camera view that is centered on your ship, you can however watch your crew climb around the boat, get shot into the water, your avatar is always at the wheel, and when you emote you can see your avatar move just as they always do.
5) The game is not just for the hardcore, and with the patch that potbs released today, there is now insurance on your ships, so you do lose durability when sunk, but you now get a large chunk of doubloons to help you purchase a new boat. I think this mechanic will soften the game and make it more aproachable to new players. Really it is a game that can be rewarding even if you only log in for an hour and do a mission and manage your economy. The way the economy is set up you can make money constantly while not being logged in as your items sell in the auction houses.
I have played many MMOs, my first was UO. The games that I rank as the most fun for me personally. DAoC, SWG ( when it first came out ), UO, and recently potbs. Since DAoC and the ruin of SWG, this is the first MMO I have actually enjoyed playing week after week.
Potbs also has an extremly active development team. New boats, new classes, new instances, new missions, new items, are always coming out.
Oh, and the game is very stable.
1) The way avatar combat works is that you have direct control of the movement of your character. You do not however have control over the actions the character makes directly - what you do is queue up actions, and then your character performs them when they can.
In a certain way it's almost like a very fast verison of the active time battles in some fo thefinal fantasy games - anyone can fire off an attack when their timer is ready, but not until then, though the timer is only a couple of seconds long.
There are other aspects to avcom too, such as balance, which works as a sort of damage buffer preventing characters from actually receiving damage from hits - so in some situations it's best to use what's called a preperatory attack to reduce balance and only switch to actual damaging attacks once balance is reduced.
Other times it can be best to use skills and personal equipment to increase your melee attack so that your hits are more likely damage foes - regardless of balance. The key is knowing where to balance these two approaches.
Avatar combat also has several special moves which have special effects, and defensive moves which increase your likelihood of dodging, parrying or blocking attacks.
2) While your choice of ship, skills and to some extent outfitting does affect things like your burst damage output or sustained damage per second, PvP is very much about applying your own skill to that. You don't have to be level 50 to beat a level 50 in a 1 on 1 and a relatively low level group can still come out above a level 50 gang. Higher level gives you better gear, bigger ships, and more options. The skill though is in using them.
3) I don't think the economy is unbalanced at all myself. I manage to sell a reasonable amount of stock in a decently short amount of time so I'm okay with that.
4) No you can't walk around the deck of your ship.
5) PotBS was designed as a game that can be played casually. While some of the endgame style rvr stuff isn't really practical for a casual gamer to engage in fully, you can still participate by building up more contention in just ten minutes, you just aren't likely to be able to reap the reward of that fully by engaging in the port battle. Most missions can be done in a short time, and you can just sail out and sink some npcs in an even shorter time. That said, avoiding PvP zones can be a hard thing for a casual gamer to deal with.