Yarr! I be tryin to like this game!

[ZipMckokup]

Avast ye dirty swabs!

(That means hello in Pirate)

I've been playing PotBS for a few days and I have a level 10 pirate. I've been watching Pirates of the burning sea's development avidly over the last couple of years and was anticipating its release. I gave it a week for the kinks to be ironed out before I jumped in, then I signed up for an account this weekend.

I was initially impressed by the starting port, the sound and the graphics style were fresh and new.. But after sailing around a few ports i've come to see the recycled NPCS and buildingsa a lot. Aestetics I can get over because I want a great age of sail MMO!

The avatar combat is terrible. I would like some views on if it gets better or not at higher levels because as it stands right now i'd rather it was just worked out automatically when your doing ship combat. Automate it or keep it simple like in Sid's Pirates at least that was funny!

I love the ship combat, I wish you could sail in the battle view all the time and not on the OS map, but im just **** that way and love sailing. I was a bit disapointed that sailing on the OS is very arcadey and you cant even go inside your ship.

Ok, over with the grumbles..

I'd just like to say that i'm trying really hard to like this game and I'd like to hear from some higher level players who it has all come together for. At the moment I feel like I can't face the quests that require me to play avatar combat at all. Im just sailing round pounding other ships as a pirate, but im sure that will get old soon. I don't really understand the economic game either, well I read the tutorials on the IGN site but i've not got round to implementing it yet.

If anyone can come back and reassure me that they are having a blast and state their reasons why then i'd apprieciate it.

Thanks!!

Pirate Zip

[Arronax]

Alright, here I go...

This game is so damn tactical when it comes to ship combat. Unbelievable so. Hitting the button first never helps people win battles. A Ship of the Line is not an automatic win button. I've seen level 10s take on level 50s and win.

And that's it, in a nutshell. This game rewards people that are good at using the game mechanics, not people who grind the most.

The reason AvCom blows right now is that it tries to appeal to grindfest players without the rewards. There's no tangible benefits.

[Lord Jim]

The melee combat is rather uninspired, however, after being completely disheartened with it at the outset I have found it more enjoyable lately. I just read up some more on the different attacks and which combos to use and basically have pretty quick battles now. Granted its not that much more inpsiring, but at least I feel like I know what I am doing and it is more fun.

I agree with you about the OS sailing and the lack of movement on the ship. Even if I could just walk around my ship in drydock that would be great, just to see what she looks like. I am still very much a newb, and the game is not very intuitive, even for experienced MMO gamers, but I find that is part of what makes better and better for me. Every time I learn something new I find myself getting more and more interested. Some of those learning curves have been pretty steep though.

[OddjobXL]

I started off right where you are Zip. My initial reaction, coming off a binge of modded Pirates of The Caribbean (the single-player game by Akella/Bethsoft not the MMO) was that this game was far too arcady and sped up. I think I compared it to Starfleet Battles, an old miniature game, more than tallship combat - but noted I kinda liked Starfleet Battles so it worked for me. I also found Avatar combat kind of bewildering and boring - but noted the concepts behind it were brilliant compared to generic MMO melee fighting.

What I found over time is that I increasingly appreciated the complexity and options for customizing ships and tactics with a group, my Society in my case, and as I acquired more Avatar combat skills those fights started taking on a different flavor. In boarding actions I knew to focus on the captain, either personally or by directing my forces, and got a better handle on husbanding and employing my skills and reinforcments.

It doesn't get worse. It gets better.

There are definitely some things I'd like very much to see.

I really would like a better way of keeping track of my men (not necessarily the enemy, a little chaos is good) in a fight so I can employ those skills that help an ally. Otherwise it's unlikely I'll even know there's a crewman in trouble until he's dead.

I'd also like a deck view, but zooming in real close is fairly comperable, for cinematic and dramatic reasons. I think rendered rooms and the like for a ship are wonderful (something I missed right away from the modded PoTC) but I'd settle for a captain's quarters, the one you see in missions, at least being available in port. When I'm at sea there are just too many potential dangers to want to be sitting around and vulnerable and a tool that lets you go invulnerable would be abused like crazy.

Anyhow, hang in there. Find some good folks and you'll start enjoying the game more. While a Pirate or Freetrader can be a pretty creditable soloist the real meat's in building up synergies within a Society.

Trust me, it does get much better.

[ZipMckokup]

Thanks for your replies, i'll stick it out longer and see where it takes me. I found myself really not wanting to go do another quest and kill the nth clone pirate on some random beach whilst mashing the same three buttons over and over again. I recently got into a society and it was thrilling to be part of a group sinking bigger ships, so i'll just stick to that and the story quest I think.

Side quests can be little more then "take this meat to here and bring money back" but welcome to MMO's.

I also heard that there is some kind of courting quest chain in the game a la sid myers Pirates, is this true? Does the main quest line get more interesting as it goes on?

I guess im just looking to feel like im in the age of sail. Is there exploring to do? Is there a point to exploring? Can you find treasure? Is all AvCom fight clones? I rolled a freetrade alt for the Spanish and im appauled ot see that Freetraders cant level up without blowing stuff up? If I rolled a trader class I should be able to level through non combat duties, shouldn't I?

Any more testimonials of high level players and what makes the game great for them would be welcome. o/

[Cat Swift]

Originally Posted by ZipMckokup

Any more testimonials of high level players and what makes the game great for them would be welcome. o/

PvP. The PvP is great. If there wasnt pvp, I wouldnt be playing since theres not a lot of other things to do. The whole game is based on pvp and the port capture metagame.

I think theres also potential for the market pvpers and trying to establish a trade empire. Some people really like that.

[ZipMckokup]

Originally Posted by Cat Swift

PvP. The PvP is great. If there wasnt pvp, I wouldnt be playing since theres not a lot of other things to do. The whole game is based on pvp and the port capture metagame.

This is my problem you see, because I can't get my head round this whole "the game starts at endgame" poo. MMO's kind of force you into the mentality that rushing to the level cap and doing the endgame is what you should do. What about the journey? Nah let's skip it and go pwn noobs.

/sigh I was expecting more from the game.

[OddjobXL]

I'd say the underlaying engine is definitely PvP. It creates news to talk about, motivates people to work together towards a common goal and against common foes, and it fuels the economy.

However, an engine is just that. What I like most are the trimmings. While the quests can feel a bit repetative the writing is usually fairly good (if such things matter to you), the locales can be very nice - especially Tortuga, you have to see it to believe it, and I believe they're upgrading other ports as time goes on too. The character customization is great. Importing custom sails and flags is wonderful. Players developing new ship models for inclusion all the time will give a vast array of options, functional and aesthetic, for players.

Down the road I'm really looking forward to the raid content and I say this as someone who despises WoW. I don't even want fancy rewards with teh ubar stats. Pennants, clothing items, maybe even decorations for rendered cabins or Society headquarters (should they be implemented) in towns are good enough. Just make them challenging, land and sea, and group oriented. There's really nothing more fun than group activities and missions in this game for me.

That said, I don't want to discount PvP at all. It's the heart of the game. But the soul of the game is a love of the era and the subject. The brain of the game? That's us. I hope we're up to it.

[Cat Swift]

Originally Posted by ZipMckokup

This is my problem you see, because I can't get my head round this whole "the game starts at endgame" poo.

I started pvping around L12. I have been pvping so much that I stopped leveling. I spend 90% of my time pvping and im no where near L50. In this game a low level player can sink a higher level player. Ive sunk a lot of players higher level than me. Ive also been using low level ships for all my pvp. Im taking on L40+ players in my L21 and L23 boats. So this pvp game does not start at endgame.

There are tons of mission/quests to do all the way to L50 if thats what you are looking for, but you asked what I like about the game, and for me its the pvp that rewards brains more than levels.

[Canisn0ir]

The game has a steep and somewhat burtal learning curve (as Gamespy's review noted) but it's worth sticking it out and asking questions imho. What I like about the game is, well, the game. The economy and meta-game are unique and interesting and complex. Ship combat is second to none, it's not a fast button masher with my uber sword of ultimate doom game; it's slow and tacticle. (As an Age of Sail game should be). The PvP because it's totally voluntary and actually means something other than measuring epeens. The fact that a couple of lvl 12's can take out a lvl 50 with the right skills and tactics.

The game needs some work; but in my short MMO experience I've learned that they are all works in progress, so it's rather easy to enjoy what shines while waiting for them to polish the rest. The Avatar Combat from my understanding was a late addition to the game and there are plans on making that much better in future patches. In this at least, the developers agree completely with you I highly recomend spending some time on the Avatar Combat forum as there are lots of tips and tricks that will make the experience better for you.

My two cents; hope to see you on the ocean!