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Why is this game so dead?
NeonShadow
Member UncommonPosts: 326
So I got the game from Steam since it was only 2.50€. Admittedly I'm not very far in the game, but so far it's a decent game. It's something I could probably grow to enjoy quite a lot. My only problem is that the population seems to be direly low. I hardly ever see anyone, and the auction house doesn't have many items for sale. For a game that is entirely supported by the players, this isn't a very good situation to be in. So my question is: where is everyone?
Comments
This game had so much potential but like many developers they moved too slowly to correct issues and then over corrected. In effect they made changes for the users that already were so mad that they quit. Then more users who did not like the new changes quit. Ended up with huge population issues which is very bad for a PVP centric game.
If they could erase the past and launch again with the current design maybe it would have been a success.
This game is the poster boy for why a ganking game will not sell. The developers had a huge ego. They would post things like "no crying in the red zones" and unfair PVP is a good thing whenever the topic of ganking came up. I suspect most these vocal developers had their paychecks "ganked" by their boss and now you are left with the ones who don't rock the boat and deliver mediocre product.
Too bad its in SoE control they seem to like to keep dead games in their station pass to make the total number of games seem a better deal rather than try to make each game good enough to stand on their own.
Person above answered pretty well.
All boils down to they tried to make both a PVE game and a PVP game. And ended up with a game with both PVE problems, everything looking the same and the same boring missions. And PVP too much ganking and not enough reason to get into it.
If they had just made one or the other and concentrated their efforts would of ended up with a pretty good game i think.
The ship combat was always their strong point. Looks good and plays well but they fell well short in the rest of their efforts. And trying to add the avatar combat there at the end, they put a really terrible avatar combat part of game in. That was the end for me. Just could not ever get to like that at all.
It lost its core group of players when it catered to one 'crowd' exclusively. I think baby steps in the beginning were needed. PotBS came out of the door swinging with 'big fixes'. I know of many players who initially came to the game because of its player run economy, they left when the devs introduced economy killing measures. This removed that essential core group of players that a game needs to succeed. The fixes to the economy since that time are a step in the right direction. The problem is enticing that core group of players to return. I think if they take the time to see the game for what is now and where it appears to be heading we will see a return to initial populations. The additional problem we have now is a current playerbase (with the exception of a few individuals and societies) that is hesitant to return to the original economic intent of the game. A player run open market based economy. They tried, were scared away by a flawed system, and won't eat the grass on the other side for fear it isn't truly green. The long term health of the game is tied to its economy. I believe this is the original issue for the game. The pvp aspect to the game is functional and can stand on its own. I think FLS needs to redirect their efforts towards marketing, the economic aspect, and fixing bugs in game. The pvp in the game is strong enough that it doesn't at the moment need any fixes.
It is regaining lost momentum. I believe it also depends on what server you choose to join. Those servers that benefit from having a more open market based population have a healthier economy as a result. I would say to not drop the game as a result of one servers population issues. I would take the opportunity to make a character on each server before coming to a conclusion about the game.
Yeah the population is way lower then it should be. but it's not as dead as it seem's. on the server i use for british faction for example. i see my society sail past often and other ships to british and non-brit. no it's not flooding but i run into 1-3 ships between every outpost. Potbs is niche mmo and for niche mmo i think potbs subscriber numbers are still in the safe zone.
Server merges are needed asap. One or two servers at the most. This game is unable to retain the casual player and new players no longer stay with the game probably because most new players are treated with caution as they have allowed Cross Teaming which allows players to have multiple accounts on different nations on the same server. This has allowed the farming of ships and mov's. There is no need to worry about a port being captured if you have another account on a different nation. This has opened the door to spies standing on the docks and reporting movement to the "side" they are playing at the moment. Many will switch sides when the tide swings another direction. I have personally witnessed players in my own nation fail to shoot the enemy in a 6v6 fight and one actually blocked us from shooting the enemy. I have also witnessed players sail off in a port battle never to be seen again thus hampering our side.
Most econ is conducted with in societies, meaning all resources you make are sold to the society and you purchase everything from society mates. The Auction house is used only when necessary as the prices are beyond reasonable.
Population balance has always been an issue. Some nations like the Brits always seem to get new players while Spain always seems to be hurting. Leveling and re rolling is pretty easy so people seem to jump sides constantly which makes the cohesion in the game difficult at best.
There are groups of power gamers that take great pride in playing to crush. Crushing one nation only furthers the departure of players from the side being crushed.
This game has incredible potential that has been lost by poor decision making of FLS. Every patch has screwed up port battles lately and FLS has spent more time on making the world pretty with new towns than they have at fixing what is truly broken in the game. Boarding bugs have been in the game since beta, Avcom pvp is laggy. Decision like giving an underpopulation bonus to a nation that has moderate population while taking it away from those with low are just some of the things that have people leaving and trying other games. STO might very well bury POTBS.
Wow people still play this game?
Why the pop is so low? Just play the game and you will ask yourself why you got it.
One of the worst.
Played:
From Earth & Beyond, Anarchy Online, Matrix Online, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Tabula Rasa (Beta), EvE Online, City of Villians, Atlantica Online, Guild Wars, Lineage 2, Pirates of the Burning Sea, PlanetSide, RF Online, Second Life, Fallen Earth.
I played it for a few months including the beta , it was fun back then but it became very monotone and annoying eventually
But good memories
Perhaps my character still excists somewhere, I am not sure which server it is I was playing on but my character was Katherine Tournay, a Pirate in the Black Tide guild(?)
A rediculous observation if you think that magically one group owns the competitive nature in a game and can drive another out.
Because they sell it as an MMO... yet it has no real exploration.. you cant sail along the coastlines and fine anything or dock and roam..
The ship combat is fun.. but thats all there really is. Avatar combat was just ok.. and you feel like your're on rails whenever you're not on a boat.
All those islands arent really there.. they are just pretty pictures.. all thats really there is the port on the island.. there is NO exploration.
The age of sail was just as much about exploration as it was piracy and trading.. and exploration led to some having a huge advantage in that area.. but again.. you can dock at ports or run highly instanced missions.. dont attempt to leave the mission area.. it doesnt exist.
Better is the enemy of good
A rediculous observation if you think that magically one group owns the competitive nature in a game and can drive another out.
OP's comment is a totally true statement from the games heyday. Most servers it was the British but on 1 or 2 it was the French.
It only takes losing your ports and the maps so many times for players to start leaving. Dev's tried to fix it with the 'underdog' bonuses. Didn't really work, power groups would still show up with full groups to Port Battles and then see how fast they could win against 2 or 3 of the other side using their full group. Just made the snowball roll and have players not attending PB's since they knew they'd lose.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Ninjas killed all pirates.
"Traditionally, massively multiplier online games have been about three basic gameplay pillars combat, exploration and character progression. In Alganon, in addition to these we've added the fourth pillar to the equation: Copy & Paste."
I pointed out in another thread, there is simply nothing to keep people here. If you want to grind your guts out on a game you can play VCO for free. PvP is more like a youtube video that you can only watch so many times before its just not there any more. I'm paid untill the end of April. I dont see it lasting that long for me.