Dunno whats worse bout this game, the repetitive combat or the character animations. What I do know is that its shallow and rather dull grinding 60 levels on the same map (although big). Quests are ok, but like the game far too repetitive. So unless your hardcore pirate fan or masochistic this isnt the game for you.
Dunno whats worse bout this game, the repetitive combat or the character animations. What I do know is that its shallow and rather dull grinding 60 levels on the same map (although big). ...
As a matter of fact PotBS is one of the smallest MMO worlds out there.
I have compared it to other games - look in my post history for threads on World Size etc. I would link for you but it's late.
personally the game went downhill for me just after preboarding, with the eco bombing by the spanish which ruined the first campaign.... the amount of bugs and the devs defiantly telling us "we were wrong", then they fixed it 4 times and still said "there was no problem".
meh.. cancelled. don't regret it.
Avatar combat was tagged on, and ship combat gets dull after a while, of course i played it when half the missions were bugged and i spent hours filling in bug reports. oh joys...
economy was broken (hell you could really use your characters to your advantage and just repeat the first missions over and over to get a generious supply of selling salts and sell those).... i hear they fixed many of the glaring bugs.. but i wouldn't rejoin.
was more expensive at one point than WoW or Lotro .... pffft nah, i had planned at one point to use this and EQ2 on the SOE MMO plan but sony screwed up my EQ2 account.. so yeah...
Get STO rather than this.... at least that'll eventually improve.. this died last year (when most of the servers were sliced).
another good one ruined...
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Ive got some questions .. are there still anyone playing?? can u pvp the whole time or do u need to say yes? is the visuals good? and it is the ship battles realistic? like in total war
1. Yes they are. Currently there are 2 servers; 1 US and 1 EUropean). Before this last server merge I found the EU one to be more populated. I'm willing to say that the game is more popular in Europe than here.
2. You can Pvp the entire time by either having your Pvp flag active (which lets you fight in the open ocean) or most just stay in the Red Zone's (contention area's around the ports that are under attack). Either way it would be just like Open World Pvp - no asking necessary. They also have a duel feature. You also can participate in Port Battles. Once a ports contention numbers reach X a countdown goes into effect for a large scale battle for control of the port. Port control is what determines who wins the map. These battles are 24 vs 24 battles and will be where you see the big ships come out to play.
3. Maxed out; yes the visuals are very good. Eye candy for the most part but combined with the music it makes for a lovely experience.
4. Never played total war so I'm not sure there, but at the base level tactics do come into play. What type of ammo you wish to use (vs rigging, armor or crew), ship placement (upwind to attack or be harder to catch - downwind to run away), board - broadside or go for the weaker bow or stern in manuvering etc.... Where it gets away from that is the standard MMO heals, buffs and debuffs. The magic spells so many of us have complained about. Some kind of make sense and others are totally outlandish.
The combat is good, but it's not a ship simulation.
I'm seeing a lot of posts from pre-boarding and the first days of PotBS.....if you arent up to date, its like commenting on WoW now when you played in Beta.... it just doesnt apply.
The servers have been merged to provide a fuller game experience; there are two now, one for US and one for Euro even though anyone can play on either the designation is for port battle time slots. FLS is also releasing an 'expansion' called Power and Prestige soon...
The learning curve is steeper than most games around, yes. The games visuals are better than most games, although the avatar detailing could use some retexturing. Speaking of avcom, about a year or so ago, it was revamped with an entirely new avcom system.... again, those that played in preboarding have no idea what im talking about here because their information is so out-dated.
Comparing PotBS to STO? have you even played them both? STO and PotBS have very little in common.... the only thing i can think of is the use of the WASD keys, although STO also uses Q and E. The ship combat in STO is completely different than that of PotBS seeing how the bigger ship wins in STO and the most versatile captain playing to his best advantage has a good chance of winning in a smaller ship in PotBS (hence the "tactical naval combat" part....). The avcom in STO and PotBS is also beyond comparison. The most glaring difference is that PotBS is loss based pvp, not a die-respawn-die system used in STO (applies to both STOs avcom and shipcom).
No crying in the red and such was brought about because people do lose in pvp, whether they meant to pvp or not.... the game warns you when you are sailing into a pvp zone by telling you in your chat window, popping text up in the middle of your screen and giving you a pvp icon by your health UI..... if you choose to sail in still, you are accepting the risks..... much like driving your car off a bridge, the guard rail and black&yellow signs are there for a reason.
You are not forced to level via missions, although some prefer to level this way. You can tackle NPCs on the Open Sea and defeat them either by sinking their ship or in boarding combat, this can also be done thru pvp. There are also fleets on the open sea, which are essentially groups of 8 and 12 ships that drop much better loot than normal ships and are also lvl 65 (level cap is normally 50) to better benefit low level players being powerleveled since xp rewards are given based on the difference in level.
Simplistic Economy? I dont know about you, but when building ships (integral part of the economy), I would rather not go and cut down each and every tree needed....the way they come in sets is much easier, although the economy is still quite complex even tho the raw materials part is very simple (hemp yields hemp and oak logging camps yield oak... seems simple enough right?).
All in all, this is a niche game (its no WoW), but the system works and is rewarding for those who work together.... the best part for me is the pvp (i love loss based pvp), if i wanted to kill someone just to watch them respawn 5 seconds later in the same fight, i'd play halo or MW2 (or this and that). There are new ships being implemented every couple patches. There are new missions being implemented every couple patches. This game is constantly growing larger..... oh wai..., its an MMO. thats what they do.
I've played off an on for 2 years. It's a great game - skill-based PvP of many flavors, and almost every combination of skill/build/tactic has a counter.
However... a warning for new players. The early game is interesting, the middle game is just a really annoying bridge to level 50, and the game starts over at level 50 when you start PvPing. FLS and players have talked about taking steps to make PvP work for lower levels (skirmish system, maybe shallow-water port battles one day) but for now it's like I said - fun PvE at first, annoying PvE for a while, deep end. Once you know how to swim, it is a great, great game. Just be prepared to spend some time learning. Get in a big society, participate in econ, get on vent, listen to people who have played. We all want more people to come play, so we'll try to help.
P. S. there is high-level PvE. I don't do it, so I can't speak on it, but I hear it has improved. It's important to understand that it(and econ) could be interrupted by RvR/involuntary PvP.
well it destroyed the game abit for me when i found out that u need to be flagged to do anything pvp:(
I may not have explained myself well on this point.
You do have to be flagged for open ocean combat and can then only attack other flagged players. That's open ocean only.
The red zones are the contention zones around ports and will have 2 set's of color rings around them. Outer ring is for the pirates and privateers, inner ring for anyone. Once you enter either ring you are automaticly set to Pvp. So say you're a merchant (trader) just taking a load of lumber into a port to sell. Once you go into the rings you are now a Pvp target without having done a thing on your own except for going into the rings(zone).
If you thought the game was FFA Pvp then no you are correct, you have to be 'flagged' for Pvp.
well it destroyed the game abit for me when i found out that u need to be flagged to do anything pvp:(
I may not have explained myself well on this point.
You do have to be flagged for open ocean combat and can then only attack other flagged players. That's open ocean only.
The red zones are the contention zones around ports and will have 2 set's of color rings around them. Outer ring is for the pirates and privateers, inner ring for anyone. Once you enter either ring you are automaticly set to Pvp. So say you're a merchant (trader) just taking a load of lumber into a port to sell. Once you go into the rings you are now a Pvp target without having done a thing on your own except for going into the rings(zone).
If you thought the game was FFA Pvp then no you are correct, you have to be 'flagged' for Pvp.
A little more clarification: If you voluntarily flag for pvp you can be tagged by anyone, not just other flagged players. However, regardless if the attacking person is flagged or not, his entire group will gain PvP Aggro, making them all flagged for 5 minutes.
The outer of the two red rings (the lighter one) is called a Pirate PvP zone and is also the initial small ring around ports (when 3000 contention is achieved). In the pirate pvp zone, if you are a pirate or privateer you can both attack and be attacked by other players regardless of their class. Example: A Freetrader spots another Freetrader in the pirate pvp zone, he will be unable to attack the other Freetrader without the aid of a privateer to initiate the combat, if either side were a pirate tho, they could be attacked or do the attacking. The inner ring is open to combat actions for everyone and is nearly the same as voluntary flagging for pvp, with the most noticeable difference being voluntary pvp flags allow players to travel slightly faster on the Open Sea.
Whoever decides to write the eventual "review" of this game, please do us ALL a favor and actully play to endgame and participate in the content , pvp, guild stuff,
I know this is a huge undertaking, but, as previous mmos have shown aka COnan, first 20 levels of a game can be great even if the rest of the game sucks.
I dont want a biased or uninformed review, I can go to gamespot for those kind of reviews!
PLEASE.... Play LONG, HARD, and give us the GOOD , The BAD , and the UGLY!
Thanks
EDIT sorry i meant mmorpg.com EPIC FAIL on my part, WRONG WEBSITE lol
Comments
Dunno whats worse bout this game, the repetitive combat or the character animations. What I do know is that its shallow and rather dull grinding 60 levels on the same map (although big). Quests are ok, but like the game far too repetitive. So unless your hardcore pirate fan or masochistic this isnt the game for you.
edit: besides theres one mmo almost as good/worse with equal setting called bounty bay online http://www.bountybayonline.com/en/freetoplay/index.html which is f2p
As a matter of fact PotBS is one of the smallest MMO worlds out there.
I have compared it to other games - look in my post history for threads on World Size etc. I would link for you but it's late.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Ive got some questions .. are there still anyone playing??
can u pvp the whole time or do u need to say yes?
is the visuals good?
Hes just upset because he was owned.
and it is the ship battles realistic? like in total war
*yawn* took him a LONG time to get into it...
personally the game went downhill for me just after preboarding, with the eco bombing by the spanish which ruined the first campaign.... the amount of bugs and the devs defiantly telling us "we were wrong", then they fixed it 4 times and still said "there was no problem".
meh.. cancelled. don't regret it.
Avatar combat was tagged on, and ship combat gets dull after a while, of course i played it when half the missions were bugged and i spent hours filling in bug reports. oh joys...
economy was broken (hell you could really use your characters to your advantage and just repeat the first missions over and over to get a generious supply of selling salts and sell those).... i hear they fixed many of the glaring bugs.. but i wouldn't rejoin.
was more expensive at one point than WoW or Lotro .... pffft nah, i had planned at one point to use this and EQ2 on the SOE MMO plan but sony screwed up my EQ2 account.. so yeah...
Get STO rather than this.... at least that'll eventually improve.. this died last year (when most of the servers were sliced).
another good one ruined...
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
1. Yes they are. Currently there are 2 servers; 1 US and 1 EUropean). Before this last server merge I found the EU one to be more populated. I'm willing to say that the game is more popular in Europe than here.
2. You can Pvp the entire time by either having your Pvp flag active (which lets you fight in the open ocean) or most just stay in the Red Zone's (contention area's around the ports that are under attack). Either way it would be just like Open World Pvp - no asking necessary. They also have a duel feature. You also can participate in Port Battles. Once a ports contention numbers reach X a countdown goes into effect for a large scale battle for control of the port. Port control is what determines who wins the map. These battles are 24 vs 24 battles and will be where you see the big ships come out to play.
3. Maxed out; yes the visuals are very good. Eye candy for the most part but combined with the music it makes for a lovely experience.
4. Never played total war so I'm not sure there, but at the base level tactics do come into play. What type of ammo you wish to use (vs rigging, armor or crew), ship placement (upwind to attack or be harder to catch - downwind to run away), board - broadside or go for the weaker bow or stern in manuvering etc.... Where it gets away from that is the standard MMO heals, buffs and debuffs. The magic spells so many of us have complained about. Some kind of make sense and others are totally outlandish.
The combat is good, but it's not a ship simulation.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
I'm seeing a lot of posts from pre-boarding and the first days of PotBS.....if you arent up to date, its like commenting on WoW now when you played in Beta.... it just doesnt apply.
The servers have been merged to provide a fuller game experience; there are two now, one for US and one for Euro even though anyone can play on either the designation is for port battle time slots. FLS is also releasing an 'expansion' called Power and Prestige soon...
The learning curve is steeper than most games around, yes. The games visuals are better than most games, although the avatar detailing could use some retexturing. Speaking of avcom, about a year or so ago, it was revamped with an entirely new avcom system.... again, those that played in preboarding have no idea what im talking about here because their information is so out-dated.
Comparing PotBS to STO? have you even played them both? STO and PotBS have very little in common.... the only thing i can think of is the use of the WASD keys, although STO also uses Q and E. The ship combat in STO is completely different than that of PotBS seeing how the bigger ship wins in STO and the most versatile captain playing to his best advantage has a good chance of winning in a smaller ship in PotBS (hence the "tactical naval combat" part....). The avcom in STO and PotBS is also beyond comparison. The most glaring difference is that PotBS is loss based pvp, not a die-respawn-die system used in STO (applies to both STOs avcom and shipcom).
No crying in the red and such was brought about because people do lose in pvp, whether they meant to pvp or not.... the game warns you when you are sailing into a pvp zone by telling you in your chat window, popping text up in the middle of your screen and giving you a pvp icon by your health UI..... if you choose to sail in still, you are accepting the risks..... much like driving your car off a bridge, the guard rail and black&yellow signs are there for a reason.
You are not forced to level via missions, although some prefer to level this way. You can tackle NPCs on the Open Sea and defeat them either by sinking their ship or in boarding combat, this can also be done thru pvp. There are also fleets on the open sea, which are essentially groups of 8 and 12 ships that drop much better loot than normal ships and are also lvl 65 (level cap is normally 50) to better benefit low level players being powerleveled since xp rewards are given based on the difference in level.
Simplistic Economy? I dont know about you, but when building ships (integral part of the economy), I would rather not go and cut down each and every tree needed....the way they come in sets is much easier, although the economy is still quite complex even tho the raw materials part is very simple (hemp yields hemp and oak logging camps yield oak... seems simple enough right?).
All in all, this is a niche game (its no WoW), but the system works and is rewarding for those who work together.... the best part for me is the pvp (i love loss based pvp), if i wanted to kill someone just to watch them respawn 5 seconds later in the same fight, i'd play halo or MW2 (or this and that). There are new ships being implemented every couple patches. There are new missions being implemented every couple patches. This game is constantly growing larger..... oh wai..., its an MMO. thats what they do.
I've played off an on for 2 years. It's a great game - skill-based PvP of many flavors, and almost every combination of skill/build/tactic has a counter.
However... a warning for new players. The early game is interesting, the middle game is just a really annoying bridge to level 50, and the game starts over at level 50 when you start PvPing. FLS and players have talked about taking steps to make PvP work for lower levels (skirmish system, maybe shallow-water port battles one day) but for now it's like I said - fun PvE at first, annoying PvE for a while, deep end. Once you know how to swim, it is a great, great game. Just be prepared to spend some time learning. Get in a big society, participate in econ, get on vent, listen to people who have played. We all want more people to come play, so we'll try to help.
P. S. there is high-level PvE. I don't do it, so I can't speak on it, but I hear it has improved. It's important to understand that it(and econ) could be interrupted by RvR/involuntary PvP.
We all got it coming, kid
The ship PvP combat in Potbs is far better than empire total war.
well it destroyed the game abit for me when i found out that u need to be flagged to do anything pvp:(
I may not have explained myself well on this point.
You do have to be flagged for open ocean combat and can then only attack other flagged players. That's open ocean only.
The red zones are the contention zones around ports and will have 2 set's of color rings around them. Outer ring is for the pirates and privateers, inner ring for anyone. Once you enter either ring you are automaticly set to Pvp. So say you're a merchant (trader) just taking a load of lumber into a port to sell. Once you go into the rings you are now a Pvp target without having done a thing on your own except for going into the rings(zone).
If you thought the game was FFA Pvp then no you are correct, you have to be 'flagged' for Pvp.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
I may not have explained myself well on this point.
You do have to be flagged for open ocean combat and can then only attack other flagged players. That's open ocean only.
The red zones are the contention zones around ports and will have 2 set's of color rings around them. Outer ring is for the pirates and privateers, inner ring for anyone. Once you enter either ring you are automaticly set to Pvp. So say you're a merchant (trader) just taking a load of lumber into a port to sell. Once you go into the rings you are now a Pvp target without having done a thing on your own except for going into the rings(zone).
If you thought the game was FFA Pvp then no you are correct, you have to be 'flagged' for Pvp.
A little more clarification: If you voluntarily flag for pvp you can be tagged by anyone, not just other flagged players. However, regardless if the attacking person is flagged or not, his entire group will gain PvP Aggro, making them all flagged for 5 minutes.
The outer of the two red rings (the lighter one) is called a Pirate PvP zone and is also the initial small ring around ports (when 3000 contention is achieved). In the pirate pvp zone, if you are a pirate or privateer you can both attack and be attacked by other players regardless of their class. Example: A Freetrader spots another Freetrader in the pirate pvp zone, he will be unable to attack the other Freetrader without the aid of a privateer to initiate the combat, if either side were a pirate tho, they could be attacked or do the attacking. The inner ring is open to combat actions for everyone and is nearly the same as voluntary flagging for pvp, with the most noticeable difference being voluntary pvp flags allow players to travel slightly faster on the Open Sea.
Dear MMORPG.com
Whoever decides to write the eventual "review" of this game, please do us ALL a favor and actully play to endgame and participate in the content , pvp, guild stuff,
I know this is a huge undertaking, but, as previous mmos have shown aka COnan, first 20 levels of a game can be great even if the rest of the game sucks.
I dont want a biased or uninformed review, I can go to gamespot for those kind of reviews!
PLEASE.... Play LONG, HARD, and give us the GOOD , The BAD , and the UGLY!
Thanks
EDIT sorry i meant mmorpg.com EPIC FAIL on my part, WRONG WEBSITE lol
Oh yes. In this instead of being told to kill 10 rats, you kill 10 pirats.
And god forbid that the amount of info would "disorient you", it should have been 100% WoW-clone, not only 90%
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