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PotBS and F2p Difficulties
Nebless
Member RarePosts: 1,878
First let me say that I was a pre-boarder, played for about 18 months, left came back, left and have done a trial this year.
Also I’ve seen the free level 1-20 AoC arrangement, DDO in both the P2p and F2p versions and Beta’d and am playing the F2p LotRO (having also played the P2p version) and lest someone say that this is just a typical ‘Epic Fail’ thread, I am looking forward to playing PotBS again when it goes F2p.
The problem is, I don’t think going F2p is going to help in this case. AoC (while not F2p has some features I’ll use for examples), DDO and LotRO have used their F2p options to make their games more accessible to the masses. Longer than a typical trial or welcome back offer, they all have greatly increased their player bases. Now while some will never go farther, a number will end up continuing with the game; subbing, store buying or whatever.
Now this could also be said for PotBS and will happen to a degree, but the over-riding problem with PotBS is ……. IT EATS’ IT’S YOUNG.
Make no mistake, PotBS is a hardcore Pvp game at its base. To do anything, you WILL end up going into a Pvp zone as a low level and will get blown out of the water in a 6 v 1 gankfest. There’s nothing as motivating as getting totally hosed while each ship has its way with you in boarding action after boarding action. You really only have to read this paragraph to know why PotBS is in the trouble it’s in now. Players come to check it out, find out its more of a thinking man’s game, has a high learning curve and then have the above happen and are driven off.
DDO and LotRO don’t really have any Pvp worth talking about in this situation, but AoC does. While in the free level 1-20 area, new players do have 2 area’s where they can go and experience open Pvp. The big thing here is you can get through the first 20 levels without EVER going to either of these areas. You may miss a lot quest wise, but you don’t have to run those zones.
PotBS ……. You WILL end up in a red zone sooner, rather than later and if you really wish to advance, do the quests, get the rewards etc…. you HAVE to go. Spanish – level 5 mission, you go to San Juan to get your commendations rewards which not only has you sailing across most of the map, but then you have to thread through or into red zones to get into port. Or by putting a couple of the lower level Spanish ports into the red, you can lock up almost all of the beginning Spanish ports. Welcome to the game.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Comments
PvE. DDO, LotRO, AoC and PotBS are all about the same. F2p just allows more players, more time to experience them. This is one of those areas where F2p will work. Problem with PotBS is while the missions are good, well written etc….., the 1000’s of missions is over hyped because most of the Spanish, French, British and Pirate missions mirror each other. For those of us at end cap that doesn’t really matter, but as a selling point to new players it limits the replay value.
Having dealt with PvE in one short paragraph, its back to Pvp.
New players are fairly useless in the game until they make it to the end. They’re good for targets, cannon fodder and MOV’s. Other than that …….. ? So we have another strike against the game, telling a new player that until they end cap, they’ll pretty much be dead meat or just there to feed the higher levels isn’t much of a recommendation for a Pvp game.
There are things that could help. Suggestions from players, possibilities hinted at from the Dev’s, a lot of things that never happened; Open Sea or Port Battle shallow water area’s, tiered Port Battles (lower v lower / med v med / high v high levels), even flipping the red zones so that it’s the Open Sea that’s the Pvp area and the port areas are safe zones (why would this work? Same as in AoC; many in a same space = death, many spread out everywhere makes hiding easier) etc…..
I plan on playing the F2p version, but I have an end capped Captain and 2 other mid 20’s, in game experience and the knowledge of what I’ll be getting into to and how to make it work for me. New players won’t.
Without some difficult changes, we will see a surge in pop (which is good), some retention (which is good), but the biggest change will be a return to the Happy Hunting Season of the high’s preying on the low’s which will just put us back in the same situation we’re in now.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Lowbies can easily avoid the PvP areas, and if not the whole point is figuring out how to sneal through one without being found and caught. If the lowbie is overtaking they already lost, but that is really the game for them in the red zone at that point in their career.
Now in light of the f2p option I would recommend that the devs re-evaluate group ship strength requirements so that agressors can't be too high or too low to attack someone and so that aggressors can't have joiners from outside their group, only defenders.
I am a long time carebear and I only got caught twice in the red (and sunk).
Iv been keeping an eye on the F2p move, but in all honesty, this came was designed to cater to the hardcore pvp... its a play to crush game thru and thru. The problem with this game, is that you have to go through 50 levels of boring PVE/quest stuff to get to the good part
And if you dont have a grind fleet with a bunch of 50s, leveling in this game is so pitifully slow. Solo oS hunting and missioning just takes too long. I quit by the time i had my cutthroat to 35 , but it was just too boring to grind for hours a level and all I really wanted was pvp any way. Of course, the rapid population swings werent great either.
I think if Flying lab wants to help this game, they would add some sort of low level PVP mechanic that was allowed lowbies to participate and contribute to the nation without it interfering with high level play or being ganked by them. The idea of a shallow encounters has been discussed before but tbh the real problem is that a level based game in a pvp open enviroment is just plain wrong.
Ill check out the f2p for sure though, hopefully it will help POTBS.... potbs is one of the few mmos iv played where I thought there was a gem of a game slowly ebbed away by lack of developer experience
I started playing PotBS at launch, and I enjoyed it.... for a while. The problem I found was that at that time, it lacked a lot of content, but it had a lot of potential.
That said, I have only been back once or twice since, and checked in on my characters, reset skills after the changes and balances to the combat system. I also noticed a steady decline in server population, as evidenced by the server merges.
With PotBS moving to a Free to Play, I think the game has the potential for some new blood that might keep it going. While I enjoyed the game, (big pirate fan), I always had a hard time justifying the monthly fee on this one.
I know their planned F2P date is coming close. I am hoping they do a great job with the transition and pull it off!
Arrrrrr mateys!
Happy Gaming!
Lord Rcane
Join a Society and have a level 50 player power level you to level 50 within a week. Play a few missions while waiting. You can stay out of all the red zones if you want to.
Well with that concept why not just have new players start at lvl 50 and save the weeks time?
There's a reason lvl's 1 - 49 exist and it would be nice if FLS figured out how to make them useful to the masses.
Low level Pvp area's were mentioned above and the best I've seen so far was DAoC's Pvp dungeons. If you were over the lvl limit you couldn't get in. Not that AoC's work particularly well, but even they have 2 lvl 1 - 25 Pvp area's.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter