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Had so much Potential
Ramileus
Member Posts: 4
I played Potbs when it first launched and fell in love with it. The graphics out to sea were wonderful. The game play was alright though I did not like how they made ships so much faster than real sailing ships. There was so much good about the game, I dare not cut it down much because it is what it is and some people love the game for a long time. Sadly, It was a grind at sea and pvp was stale after awhile. I could not get past 42 because I could not bear the grind much longer.
I am an avid fan of EVE Online, now i know I am comparing apples and oranges here. But I think POtbs would have had much more replayability and popularity had it allowed players to have a full pvp area and in that area you could control your own island, build your own town, build a trade there or tap more resources. If they had modeled player made trade unions (similar to EVE alliances) of united societies. Players could declare war on each others trade unions, or just if there were more options for pvp other than port battles and red circles. Instead an entire Bahama islands dedicated to a free for all zone, it has hundreds of real islands too so if it were modled in the game players could have plenty of islands to claim.
I dont know all the answers as to how to make potbs more attractive, I just think it fell short and it sounds like the population is dieing off sadly. I love naval warfare and sailing (was in the navy :P) I think potbs would have done better had it stuck to realistic sailing models and a pve model based on less grind with little reward, rather fewer more challening quests with bigger rewards
Lastly, when i tried to return to the game they had inplemented an option where you could sail your ship in a test battle area just to try it out and enjoy, then they took it away LOL, for no apparent reason, usually the more options you give players the more they retain :P
Oh well, i hope someone else learns from Potbs mistakes and makes another naval mmo, we could use one.
Comments
I play both Eve Online and PotBS. Right now I am enjoying PotBS more. I'll probably get the Eve itch later, and since I can train offline, I think these games compliment each other well.
Potbs failed because they diden't lissen enough in development and went about all the things involved the wrong way.
It could be the next eve But it will take a lot more work.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude; greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
Samuel Adams
The FLS development on Potbs has come to a virtual halt; apart from the controversial skirmish system & the odd mission there is nothing else at the time being. The latest pod-cast indicates that they are spending most of their time on bug fixing.
It will take a monumental effort including new enthusiastic focused staff to get it going again.
There are advertisements under the job section here with positions vacant such as the Lead designer!
Also Danicia is leaving FLS in her position of forum admin so changes are happening; a good opportunity for a new approach toward community management.
Yeah, I read about the departure of Danicia, but I'm wondering who will be replacing her. Since no job opening has been posted, I'm guessing the position will be filled internally.
About those other openings... wow. Lead designer along with a slew of other designers? Where's Isildur now?
And they're apparently looking for another MMO producer, which if I read correctly is for a new project, so I'm guessing we'll be getting new adventures in MMO production from them in a few years. I was thinking that after the Burning Sea fiasco, they'd want to stay far clear off those whiny players who keep on pestering you for the same old things over and over again, and just go back to single-player games. Apparently not...
New builds say nothing of interest (where is port governance?), and fixing bugs a year and a half after the game has shipped is a bit late. I'm just mildly interested in skirmish, to see what impact it has on open-sea PvP. (Why risk getting ganked when you can PvP within the comfortable setting of an arena, with no losses to boot?)
It's not that they didn't listen but rather they listened to the wrong people. The game was pretty good during the beta and "preboarding" but then FLS started listening to the griefers and gankers (remember "no crying in the red circle"?) and it all went downhill very quickly. By the time they realized their mistake it was too late and the servers were too empty.
I disagree with your disagreement. Core aspects of the game changed on a dramatic level. Every couple of patches, major power swings in class balance occur. Damage Resistance rose to epic power and, after seeing their error, instead of fixing Damage Resistance they introduce new mechanics to fix a mechanic that was change all the while they have mechanics in place that do exactly that and were good before the damage resistance mechanic was so powerful.
I had hoped for a long time this game would turn around.. but every patch just takes it further and further away from what I liked.
Isildur.. they may have said where he was going, but honestly, I don't care. He made so many mistakes along the way.. that with his increasing invisibility from the community, it's probably a good thing he's gone. Yes, some of the systems he came up with were ok.. but in the end, how many of those systems have been twisted and contorted so much they are no longer even close to what he planned for them?
An MMO is always fixing bugs... usually they are bugs created by new content, and a lot of the time, they are done with a hotfix. FLS needs to learn what a hotfix is and use it.
Skirmish has had no real impact on open sea PvP, and is hardly ever used. Couple reasons why it failed. First, no real point other than training newbies. No contention gained, no marks earned, no damage to enemy players (yes, people like causing loss for other people). In the end, a lot of people think no risk equals no excitement.