FLS the golden ticket to your success

[Xylander]

Do you folks not realize, that every time you sink a level 50 in 1v1 combat that you get 5 MoV and 5 MoT...

And on Antigua...that's equal to around 35,000 doubloons when sold on the AH. You can farm NPCs all you want for your 20-30k per hour, or you can just go and sink 1 guy.

I NEVER have MoV or MoT expire and they always sell within a day or two. I farm NPCs very, very rarely. I've only farmed maybe 2-3 hours this month. My PvP pays for itself...handily.

[Ged Bligh]

Originally Posted by Xylander

Do you folks not realize, that every time you sink a level 50 in 1v1 combat that you get 5 MoV and 5 MoT...

Movs. Mots. Mods. what next?
Just give us the money & be done with it.

[Xylander]

Originally Posted by Canaan

My view is that a company like SOE will want to make money. It is ultimately a business, and providing some people with a pleasant pasttime is quite frankly, a secondary consideration. So unless the first consideration is addressed adequately, I doubt that they will have any qualms about shutting down a non-profitable game.

SoE makes little to no money off of this game and are not the developers of this game. They only provide billing support...as far as FLS has admitted to date. And, according to recently released figures already posted on the general forums (sorry, I don't have the link)...but PotBS, as of last month, has over 40,000 active subscriptions. A far cry from WoW's 10mil+, but FLS' overhead is miniscule in comparison and therefore can remain profitable with an equally miniscule player base.

PotBS is a niche game that caters to a PvP/Naval warfare crowd. This will never be a fantasy hackie slashy game. It will never have free PvP outside of practice duels/skirmishes. Iti s a NICHE game...as FLS has defined it. A niche game will always have lower player bases, but will survive long-term because niche games typically garner a much more dedicated playerbase.

[Xylander]

Originally Posted by GB

Movs. Mots. Mods. what next?
Just give us the money & be done with it.

They are money. On antigua they're worth at a minimum of 3600 a piece. If you put them on the AH for 3700 they'll sell in 48 hours. I sell at least 100 of each per week, every week. I'm not bragging...I'm just saying that I easily make nearly a half mil a week...every week...just pvping. I may be a special case, but even a random player who sinks 3 guys in a week will make 90k-100k.

[dogstar]

No Crying in the PVE zone please.

[Canaan]

Originally Posted by Xylander

SoE makes little to no money off of this game and are not the developers of this game. They only provide billing support...as far as FLS has admitted to date. And, according to recently released figures already posted on the general forums (sorry, I don't have the link)...but PotBS, as of last month, has over 40,000 active subscriptions. A far cry from WoW's 10mil+, but FLS' overhead is miniscule in comparison and therefore can remain profitable with an equally miniscule player base.

PotBS is a niche game that caters to a PvP/Naval warfare crowd. This will never be a fantasy hackie slashy game. It will never have free PvP outside of practice duels/skirmishes. Iti s a NICHE game...as FLS has defined it. A niche game will always have lower player bases, but will survive long-term because niche games typically garner a much more dedicated playerbase.

Personally I have my doubts that SOE has such a small take from the game. POTBS is ultimately packaged into their Station Access scheme which includes other games like EQ2 which clearly isn't FLS. How many of that 40k active subscribers you mentioned include people like me who essentially get the game free (apart from the one off payment to purchase the game) due to our Station Access accounts? That being the case, SOE surely must be making some money off that? I can't imagine them packaging POTBS into Station Access out of the goodness of their hearts. Obviously I assume that it does make Station Access more attractive to have more games on offer so clearly SOE is benefiting from that but I doubt that FLS is getting a free ride on this.

Also, I'm not saying that an MMO needs to be a fantasy hack and slash to survive, but it needs to reach out to the masses, especially the casual gamers, if it wants to do well. The hardcore gamer is the least important group of players that a gaming company should be concerned about. A significant number in this crowd will always be looking for the next big thing. Even if you are right and let's say SOE takes only a small cut, surely FLS is in this for the money as well. They have pay checks to write and utility bills to pay for. I doubt that any serious developer today would want to design a game just to have a small niche crowd play it. Of course one would agree that a niche game would have a low player base, but the way this game is heading, it sure feels like no player base.

[MrOsterman]

Originally Posted by Xylander

Do you folks not realize, that every time you sink a level 50 in 1v1 combat that you get 5 MoV and 5 MoT...

And on Antigua...that's equal to around 35,000 doubloons when sold on the AH. You can farm NPCs all you want for your 20-30k per hour, or you can just go and sink 1 guy.

I NEVER have MoV or MoT expire and they always sell within a day or two. I farm NPCs very, very rarely. I've only farmed maybe 2-3 hours this month. My PvP pays for itself...handily.

What you do not realize is that this requires us to successfully sink that level 50. This is kinda hard because odds are he's not alone. Odds are he's got a full group. Odds are he's got good gear.

The problem with the PotBS vision/design is that if the only way to move forward is through PVP then the skilled and non skilled will continue to seperate. As you lose, you spend more time trying to recover and as you win you move further forward.

Let's take 2 players:

Player A wins 4 out of 5 PVP fights. That means she has 20 MoV's to sell and turn into DB's. And those DB's become what? She only has to replace one ship (or one Durability) so she can invest them in better gear, better ammo, better expendables.

Player B wins 1 out of 5 PVP fights. That means he has 5 MoV's to sell, only 1/4th of A's. So where does his money go? Yep. Replacing the 4 durabilities he lost. What he doesn't have is the same ability to get better gear, better ammo and better expendables.

I'm sorry but the "You just need win once in a while" horse doesn't run. It is true that you can probably replace a ship by getting a few MoV's for an occasional win, but while you're losing, you're giving the other side even MORE MoV's to sell and with it even MORE better gear making them even HARDER to beat.

And the entire system you propose is also predicated on a players ability to sell the MoV's. Eventually that will not be that easy, and personally I'm not sure I want to bank on my ability to move things through the AH. Not, when my ability to play the game (in anything better than a fall back) rests on my ability to replace my lost ships.

Mr. O

[keline]

Originally Posted by Ryokan76

Who are 'we'?

I prefer it the way it is. Indeed, if there's no loss when losing, I'm out of here.

how about the 80% of the initial playerbase that has left since release?

[keline]

Can we pinpoint a certain date at which FLS stopped listening to us?

[Jean Gris]

Originally Posted by CaptainCanuck

Again, the downfall you claim is greatly exaggerated.

And again, i ask the question, if you bought the game solely to play against computer generated enemies, why did you purchase a massively MULTIPLAYER online game?

They are catering to people who want to play against/with other people, kind of the point, dont you think?

Ahh yes, the old "people leaving the game in droves is all in your head" argument. I don't know which is worse, this or the grind an hour a day to pvp in a Mordaunt bit. I mean everyone in the game makes 100k in the space of a few posts in a thread right, right?