After A Year Away

Nebless · August 2009

OK, so I totally love the time period, the setting etc... etc.... no matter if it's a book, movie or in this case a game. So after reading the Treasure Island prequel Flint and Silver, watching Charleston Heston do Long John on TNT and The Three Musketeers with Michael York; I'm thinking PotBS and it just so happens that I've still got a 14 day trial offer outstanding and have never seen it on my new rig so ........

6 hour total download using SOE's Station Login. Not too bad for a total fresh load. Now to play with the graphic's etc.... and max them all out, a quick sail around so the graphic's can re-set themselves to what they can handle (I kind of like this 'you've overloaded your graphic's card and some settings have been lowered to conform.). So ended day 1 of my 14.

And now to business. Spent most of the second play day just moving all my ships around and consolidating in San Juan (Yes I'm Spanish and on the Rackham Server). Funny how the mind forgets the bad parts of life. Totally forgot about the mind-numbing travel time. Burned about 3 hours just moving 3 ships and cleaning things out via the Junk Merchant.

Good: Graphic's really look sweet turned up. Was there always fancy work on the San Juan AH door? Sailing, the water, ship fighting etc..... I missed out on so much with my old rig.

Bad: Saw maybe 3? 4? players in Sisal, Havana and San Juan. Granted Spanish has always been low in numbers but never like that. Couple more on area chat and about 3 on ships east of San Juan running the Antilles. They've opened up chat to all nations; no diplomacy needed anymore so all I can say is I saw / heard Pirates, Brit's and French. Pretty low across the board though.

More Bad: Had to run 2 ships out of Havana which was in a Pvp Red Zone. Kind of worried at first as 1 ship had no ammo or repair items and the other no repair items but did have ammo. A PVP RED ZONE and I never saw a single ship both times I came out. That's sorry. Heck when I came out with my 2nd ship a red zone was forming around Cayo so someone was doing something but I still never saw anyone. Two of the easiest escapes I've ever done. Even the NPC ships weren't attacking.

Once all was fixed and I'd re-outfitted the ship I wanted to play on it was off to sea. Plenty of Red Zone's around Cayo, Havana, Port of Spain, Caracas, most of the Antilles Islands. Decided to do Caracas to get my feet wet. A quick sail down and it was into solo Pvp hunting mode. Took out some NPC's to counter the unrest thinking that would bring someone over to investigate, but nothing. No players except some guy on area chat looking for 1v1 or 2v1 play. Man have things sunk so low you can't find other players and have to look for fights on the chat channels?

Good: Graphic's, oh wait I rementioned that already didn't I?

Bad: Got to try out the new Avcom. WTF!?! Where are the prep's, attacks, guards? This is one area I've got to read up on and figure out since at this point it all looks like attacks that all work off the same cooldown timer. If so then why even have more than 1? Atleast the gun shot was independent and worked. Boarded a NPC Hermes and won through shear numbers. Did alot of air swishing since I wasn't able to lock up on targets and when I did I guess my range was off. Thank goodness for my gun and a bunch of dumb NPC's both thiers and mine.

OK, looks like Rackham is pretty dead. Brit's are still big players(based on a couple of Port Battle Reports) and Pirates won the last map.

I still had stuff I put up for auction when I left 308 days ago waiting for pickup. Got the San Juan stuff but not the Havana ('you have 1 sec left to pick it up or it goes to the poor'. You'd think after 308 days just sitting there, I'd get more than 1 second!).

Didn't look real hard all over but when I did a ALL ITEMS AH search from San Juan I only got 25 hits. San Juan itself was totally empty.

I've heard atleast 1 of the servers has a med pop and I did see a moderate under Pirates? at one time, but all others where showing light. Time to cram the survivors onto 1 server just so there's people to play with.

Sad really as the whole concept was a great idea and the mythos should have pulled players in.

Ionselon · August 2009

This is a game that I would really like to try, but I've not heard anything good about it's current state. I even bought a copy of the game when someone was selling it for less than $5 US, but have never even opened the box.

If anybody can offer positive thoughts on the game, please do. If you have only negative thoughts about it, never mind as I have already read enough of those.

Nebless · August 2009

It's an awesome ship vs ship sail game. Many of the PvE quest line's are good stories which is a plus in my book. If you have the right rig the graphic's are really sweet.

On the ship side it really is a thinking guys type game as you can't just plow in and hope to win, think a chess game vice whack a mole. You vs 1 NPC equal levels will almost always come out with a you win. If you're willing to challenge yourself and hunt higher levels or multiple targets you can win by out thinking the targets.

Once you get up to max (of in the 40's if you have someone with you) Pvp is an option. 1v1, 2v1, 2v2 or 2v3 are really really fun. Now it's you vs live players trying to out think each other. I've had 4 really super Pvp fights. 2 1v1, a 3v1 and a 2v3. Not all of them ending in sinkings for the other guys, but just the thrill of trying to get the wind, outfighting multiple targets etc.... Hunting the out of the way spots generally keeps you clear of the gank squads and let's you have the kind of fights you read about in the Hornblower or Bolitho books.

It's worth a 14 day free trial and if your $5.00 box has a free 30 day play involved in it you might as well go for it. Stick a toon on each of the servers so you can check out the populations to find the highest one. Brit's and Pirates will have the highest numbers, French are a lot lower and Spanish have always been the under dogs.

DJXeon · August 2009

The game is now at the state it should have been at release, many of the original Potbs subscribers or beta players have been put through the mill of constant changes many of which did not do anything to retain their longterm loyalty.

FLS spent over a year trying to correct what it thought was the reason players were leaving; it was a case of who shouted the loudest got the devs attention or they did what they wanted without listening to the community but there were & still are more fundamental issues that FLS have not had the resources or experience to put right, many of the original dev team lost the desire to work on Potbs including the lead designer so FLS had internal problems trying to recruit the right people & still are recruiting see flyinglabs.com - jobs.

The game has suffered but it is not dead, it's actually much fun doing missions & leveling up to 50 when there is not much else to do other than PvP or replacing lost ships. The economy is good & should suit most crafters - Ship combat is still the best in any mmorpg so its definitely worth a try if you haven't played before & should suit the kinda player that wants a challenge that is not easy mode WoW.

If FLS remain committed they should eventually retain more players as they add more depth & content.

Vetarnias · August 2009

I'd like to believe you, GB, but I was not particularly impressed with what I saw in April, when the grind monkeys took over the game and when the official forums just turned into thread after thread of who was leeter at PvP. This game could have catered to a wider demographic, but in the end they just got the PvPers who liked to grind mobs for their PvP; in other words, not that many people.

People like me, who were playing mainly for the economy, were slowly driven off by the closed-society systems and by the aforementioned class of players which regarded anything not directly concerned with PvP as inferior. And PvEers had PvP red circles thrown into their path wherever they had to go, with your PvP wiseguys talking about how they were forced to grind PvE, hence it was natural that PvE guys be forced to PvP. Guess what the PvEers did before such implacable logic? They left.

I've just played EVE, the game which FLS reportedly tried to emulate, and I didn't even last until the end of my initial two-month free playing time (as I'd bought the boxed edition), because it's a tiered game where it's fun for a select few who got there years ago and much boredom for the rest, along with some sadistic game mechanics along the way. I can't imagine anyone wanting to copy that, but I can certainly see some influence of EVE upon PotBS. The inane PvE, for starters, or the grindfest for high-level ships. They just ditched the rest, though, such as a vast universe, or an intricate economy.

PotBS isn't an EVE clone, it's more like a made-in-China plastic replica of a Rolex, but with the same price tag.

As for the state of the game, just look at this forum. The last post here before this thread was started was in mid-July. It has fallen off the radar. And as I have said before, I'm surprised it is still around.

Advice to FLS: Take your work on PotBS, graphics, etc, add a few things, and turn it into a single-player game -- which this should have been in the first place.

Nebless · August 2009

Numbers Update:

3 Port Battles last night;

British vs French, 24 vs 16

Spanish vs French, we had 19 ships vs 20 French

British vs Spanish, 24 vs 6 Spanish

The last was kind of a who care's battle for our side as we knew there'd be no chance against the Brit's.

Economy:

Yes the closed society econ totally killed the independents. I used to have to go shopping at Cayo for French goods all the time, as the Spanish markets were always so light and even then they started to dry up.

Anitilles area is fairly light with just 3 large outfittings avaliable, 2 in Pirate ports. Sisal has around 14 Large items but no Huge. You really either need to be in a society or on good terms with one to buy direct as the AH aren't getting alot of use.

Popped a toon over to the Roberts server to check on our Euro friends. San Juan is dead there too as was Sisal. Couldn't check Cayo as the toon I moved doesn't have French access.

Even though they've never come out and said it, it really is just a Pvp game. I've always looked at it as levels 1 - 49 PvE were just a long tutorial for the Level 50 Pvp. If the populations keep going down then the PvE will become more important but I don't think PvE alone can keep the game afloat.

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After A Year Away

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