So is the game improving?

Ricardo12 · May 2008

I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.

When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.

I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

olddaddy · May 2008

No, the game has not improved.

PvP will always be broken, because it is poorly designed. It centers around the concept of having "red circles" in which PvP can occur, not open PvP. Once you are engaged in PvP in one of these "red circles" any allies/help has just a few minutes to enter the instance and help out. After that, they are locked out of the instance forever. In practice, 6 man gank teams jump the lone player knowing full well that another 5 allies cannot arrive in the instance to assist during the short time window.

This allows, for example, a six man gank team of British to sail with impunity around French waters and prey on anyone that happens to enter the red circle. They do this in one of several ways, either by hanging out at the edge of the red circle themselves, or by sending one of their players into the red circle to act as bait for a 1v1. Alternatively, one player sits outside a port in the red circle, with 5 buddies inside the port waiting to zone out and join the gank fest.

The game is made for ganking, not PvP. Had it been made for PvP, it would be open PvP anywhere. Thus, for British to prey on French merchants they would have to enter French waters and be subject to French attack throughout. Generally any nation outnumbers any other nation within their own waters. So, for the British to go after French merchants would be a major undertaking, involving alot of players. The way the game is designed it takes only you and 5 buddies to sail into French waters and gank. In response to this, everyone stays out of red circles, and there is no PvP.

There are times in the game you can actually see, in the same red circle, a 6 man British, French, Spanish, Pirate gank squads. But none of them will attack each other because the risk vrs reward is so badly broken. If you lose a ship you are in store for dull, redundant PvE to work up the cash to replace that ship. This can literally take hours, not so bad when you don't have a job, a spouse, kids, and work around the house. So, in exchange for about 15 minutes of PvP fun, if you lose your ship, you are in for an evening of grinding.

Most players countered this by rolling a Merchant alt so they could have the large cargo ships, manufacture, and haul to market. These alts accumulated the cash the combat mains needed to replace the ship losses. In their infinite wisdom FLS nerfed these alts because they were accumulating too much cash. FLS wants the players PvP poor so that you have to grind for endless, mindless, hours. The less you accomplish, the more time it takes, and the more subscriber dollars they make.

Since they will not change the formula, protected PvP gank teams, unbalanced risk vrs reward, and ineffective economy, there is no hope for this game.

This game will be an example, just like Vanguard, of how not to develope a game.

taxguy · May 2008

No, it is still broken but for different reasons given. First, solo missions are too damn hard. I have had beginner solo missions with as many as 5 ships against me, and I am not kidding! They need to make solo missions easier!

Secondly, there is a HUGE player based that is anti- PVP or only wants limited PVP. This game is as hard core PVP as EVE,which turns off about 60% of the playing world.

Even the PVP has problems as noted in the post above.

Lag is very bad too, and I am playing on a top notch rig with a very fast internet connection.

Thus, don't bother with this game. It had amazing potential that probably will never be realized.

vet-in-exile · May 2008

FLS is in full panic mode and they are throwing things at the game with no consideration in an attempt to stop the mass exodus of players. They tried catering to the gankers when the game launched and it backfired on them. Now even the gankers are leaving because they can't find enough people to grief.

It was obvious when they announced the deal with SOE that the game was going to fail but the magnitude of its failure is impressive.

CaptainPyle · May 2008

Originally posted by Ricardo12

I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.

When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.

I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?

IGN: 82

Gamespot: 80

Ah hell, just go to metacritic.

Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.

I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.

vet-in-exile · May 2008

Originally posted by CaptainPyle
The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?
IGN: 82
Gamespot: 80
Ah hell, just go to metacritic.
Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.
I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.
<modedit>

Yeah they are doing so well that they had to lose two-thirds of their servers with the merges...

Burntvet · May 2008

Originally posted by CaptainPyle

Originally posted by Ricardo12
I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.
When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.
I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?

IGN: 82

Gamespot: 80

Ah hell, just go to metacritic.

Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.

I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.

As has been stated in other threads, game reviewers RARELY play a game long enough to get a true feel for how a game is going to end up being for the normal player. This game was fun for maybe the first 2-3 weeks, and then the shallow game play, terrible economy and jacked PvP system become obvious.

Every one of my 20+ friends that bought this game, canceled after the first 30 days. I had one friend resub for 1 month, only to quit again, half way through. Let that be the true metric of how a game is, not how many people buy it, but how many pay for the second month. For Pirates of the BS, very few people stayed past their initial time.

7 of 11 servers are gone, and populations on the remaining 4 are not particularly healthy.

Take a pass, save your cash, and play Conan. Yeah, it might not live up to the hype, but you might sub for a second month after you throw down the $50 to buy it, unlike this game.

And, for the record, I no longer trust ANY gamesite review for MMOs, precisely because they pumped up this game, and TR and neither game delivered what was hyped.

smitty0356 · May 2008

Originally posted by olddaddy

No, the game has not improved.
PvP will always be broken, because it is poorly designed. It centers around the concept of having "red circles" in which PvP can occur, not open PvP. Once you are engaged in PvP in one of these "red circles" any allies/help has just a few minutes to enter the instance and help out. After that, they are locked out of the instance forever. In practice, 6 man gank teams jump the lone player knowing full well that another 5 allies cannot arrive in the instance to assist during the short time window.
This allows, for example, a six man gank team of British to sail with impunity around French waters and prey on anyone that happens to enter the red circle. They do this in one of several ways, either by hanging out at the edge of the red circle themselves, or by sending one of their players into the red circle to act as bait for a 1v1. Alternatively, one player sits outside a port in the red circle, with 5 buddies inside the port waiting to zone out and join the gank fest.
The game is made for ganking, not PvP. Had it been made for PvP, it would be open PvP anywhere. Thus, for British to prey on French merchants they would have to enter French waters and be subject to French attack throughout. Generally any nation outnumbers any other nation within their own waters. So, for the British to go after French merchants would be a major undertaking, involving alot of players. The way the game is designed it takes only you and 5 buddies to sail into French waters and gank. In response to this, everyone stays out of red circles, and there is no PvP.
There are times in the game you can actually see, in the same red circle, a 6 man British, French, Spanish, Pirate gank squads. But none of them will attack each other because the risk vrs reward is so badly broken. If you lose a ship you are in store for dull, redundant PvE to work up the cash to replace that ship. This can literally take hours, not so bad when you don't have a job, a spouse, kids, and work around the house. So, in exchange for about 15 minutes of PvP fun, if you lose your ship, you are in for an evening of grinding.
Most players countered this by rolling a Merchant alt so they could have the large cargo ships, manufacture, and haul to market. These alts accumulated the cash the combat mains needed to replace the ship losses. In their infinite wisdom FLS nerfed these alts because they were accumulating too much cash. FLS wants the players PvP poor so that you have to grind for endless, mindless, hours. The less you accomplish, the more time it takes, and the more subscriber dollars they make.
Since they will not change the formula, protected PvP gank teams, unbalanced risk vrs reward, and ineffective economy, there is no hope for this game.
This game will be an example, just like Vanguard, of how not to develope a game.

This assesment completely sums this game up, especially pvp. I have had quite a bit of experience in the pvp system, and I have never been able to express it like that.

This game is... and has been garbage since launch. The 3 million gold cow and the roving gank squads... and the supercheesy avatar combat shows that 3 out of the 4 systems are totally broken! Been saying that since closed beta... Just wish I could have saved more people 50 bucks plus the 15/month... if only I got commission!!

Ricardo12 · May 2008

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?

I think not.

Epyon529 · May 2008

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?
I think not.

Well from what I hear Puzzle Pirates is pretty good for a free to play MMO

vet-in-exile · May 2008

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?
I think not.

Pirates of the Caribbean Online

DJXeon · May 2008

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?
I think not.

One to look out for:

Total war - EMPIRE will have Pirates, newbie areas & destructable buildings at launch.

Scrennies look very cool:

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/21848/t/Facts-about-Empire-Total-War.html

iceman00 · May 2008

Originally posted by olddaddy

No, the game has not improved.
PvP will always be broken, because it is poorly designed. It centers around the concept of having "red circles" in which PvP can occur, not open PvP. Once you are engaged in PvP in one of these "red circles" any allies/help has just a few minutes to enter the instance and help out. After that, they are locked out of the instance forever. In practice, 6 man gank teams jump the lone player knowing full well that another 5 allies cannot arrive in the instance to assist during the short time window.
This allows, for example, a six man gank team of British to sail with impunity around French waters and prey on anyone that happens to enter the red circle. They do this in one of several ways, either by hanging out at the edge of the red circle themselves, or by sending one of their players into the red circle to act as bait for a 1v1. Alternatively, one player sits outside a port in the red circle, with 5 buddies inside the port waiting to zone out and join the gank fest.
The game is made for ganking, not PvP. Had it been made for PvP, it would be open PvP anywhere. Thus, for British to prey on French merchants they would have to enter French waters and be subject to French attack throughout. Generally any nation outnumbers any other nation within their own waters. So, for the British to go after French merchants would be a major undertaking, involving alot of players. The way the game is designed it takes only you and 5 buddies to sail into French waters and gank. In response to this, everyone stays out of red circles, and there is no PvP.
There are times in the game you can actually see, in the same red circle, a 6 man British, French, Spanish, Pirate gank squads. But none of them will attack each other because the risk vrs reward is so badly broken. If you lose a ship you are in store for dull, redundant PvE to work up the cash to replace that ship. This can literally take hours, not so bad when you don't have a job, a spouse, kids, and work around the house. So, in exchange for about 15 minutes of PvP fun, if you lose your ship, you are in for an evening of grinding.
Most players countered this by rolling a Merchant alt so they could have the large cargo ships, manufacture, and haul to market. These alts accumulated the cash the combat mains needed to replace the ship losses. In their infinite wisdom FLS nerfed these alts because they were accumulating too much cash. FLS wants the players PvP poor so that you have to grind for endless, mindless, hours. The less you accomplish, the more time it takes, and the more subscriber dollars they make.
Since they will not change the formula, protected PvP gank teams, unbalanced risk vrs reward, and ineffective economy, there is no hope for this game.
This game will be an example, just like Vanguard, of how not to develope a game.

If you are going to criticize the game, at least have a remote clue what you are talking about.

The first point helps you. It is not " a few minutes" but 30 seconds. A few minutes would be great.

Second, the whole hanging in port thing can no longer happen. That was fixed with a previous patch.

Also, in order to have additional structure slots, you need a full new account. Having a freetrader and a NO on one account STILL gives you only 10 lots. A lot of naval officers I know did roll FT's because of the huge speed increases FT's get on the open sea, making freetraders very deadly on open sea pvp if they know what they are doing. (And I joined about a week after launch and there were still 10 lots per account.)

I don't have too much a problem with people actually losing ships in PvP. It prevents the entire zerging phenom a lot of PvP games have. The original problem was that SOL's were too cheap, and the "high end ships" for everyone else but naval officer sucked. They have started fixing it, but there's still an imbalance. (i.e. NO's at port battles.)

There are indeed problems with this game. Yes the economy is still a bit borked because of the commendations that gave so many manufactured goods (which still exists, though not as bad as before with 1.3) Yet some of the examples you give don't even exist as is.

olddaddy · May 2008

Originally posted by iceman00

If you are going to criticize the game, at least have a remote clue what you are talking about.

I have more than a remote clue, I played the game. Firstoff, things change every week because of a patch. Then they patch the patch because the changes didn't work.
The first point helps you. It is not " a few minutes" but 30 seconds. A few minutes would be great.
At launch players were allowed to enter when a flare was fired. Then they changed to a couple minute window. Today it's 30 seconds, tomorrow, who knows what it will be.
Second, the whole hanging in port thing can no longer happen. That was fixed with a previous patch.
The previous patch that fixed that didn't actually fix that. FLS makes announcements that something is fixed when it is not actually fixed. This tactic still occured after that patch. Take the experience books to compensate people for server downtime. They were patched into the game, didn't work, and had to be patched again. Take the spiking of ports, FLS announced they fixed that, that same night the Spanish went on and tested it, successfully spiking a port over 10,000 in about 3 minutes, then reporting their own exploit. Pray, don't tell me that FLS is Top Gun, and their patches always work. Fact of the matter is, they said they "tested" these experience books on the test server, and they didn't work live. They "test" alot of things that they patch, and they don't work in game. FLS has a poor quality assurance track record. On our server (Rackham), when FLS states they fixed an exploit, we believe them enough to go out and test that exploit the same night. That's how bad the FLS track record is.
Second, this tactic was used as an example of how the game is ganker friendly, not PvP. To you, maybe ganking is PvP, I don't know. But me, I get sick and tired of seeing 6 level 50s Jack Simples sail around New Orleans in Mastercraft Arcadias hunting noobs trying to run some quests. It got so bad, and so many of our French noobs dropped, my society detailed people to sit outside New Orleans and keep the gankers away. I spent a couple nights a week in my level 50 frigate parked outside Biloxi, with the wind at my back, reading a book, helping the kids with their homework, or watching TV, so that the gank squads could see a military presence, and leave our noobs alone. Trust me, I rather have been doing something else in game, but it allowed our noobs to play, and hopefully stay.
Also, in order to have additional structure slots, you need a full new account. Having a freetrader and a NO on one account STILL gives you only 10 lots. A lot of naval officers I know did roll FT's because of the huge speed increases FT's get on the open sea, making freetraders very deadly on open sea pvp if they know what they are doing. (And I joined about a week after launch and there were still 10 lots per account.)
My statement still stands. I did not say that NOs opened another account, I stated that they rolled a Freetrader alt to use the additional cargo space to haul more goods to market. A non-FT ship lacks the cargo capacity to haul large quantities of materials. Learn to read. No place in my post are lots mentioned.
I don't have too much a problem with people actually losing ships in PvP. It prevents the entire zerging phenom a lot of PvP games have. The original problem was that SOL's were too cheap, and the "high end ships" for everyone else but naval officer sucked. They have started fixing it, but there's still an imbalance. (i.e. NO's at port battles.)
This is an example of the whining that is ruining the game. "Nerf the NOs, they're too powerful". What you don't mention is that with the speed buffs a NO cannot catch a pirate, freetrader, or merchant, so open sea PvP is at the range dictated to the NO. And if the battle goes bad, the rat, priv, or ft can always use those speed buffs to run, and escape combat, a NO can't, and is stuck in a losing situation. Smart NOs don't take SOLs into OS combat. The port battle is about the only place that the NO shines. So, FLS nerfs the NO (who has only one repair skill that repairs sail, armor, and structure) by not allowing the NO to use that skill until they've taken a certain amount of armor/structure damage. So, the non-NOs now just demast the NO, preventing the use of the skill, the NOs respond by turning off their defense so they can take more structure damage and use the skill to repair their sails. Totally out of whack. FLS listens to the complaints of every Jack Simple out there and responds in knee jerk fashion, without ryhme, reason, or plan, on a weekly basis to keep people from fleeing the game. And it shows.....currently the whining is "nerf the rats"....
Question, if this is such a "pure" PvP game, why does FLS put so many mechanisms in game to escape PvP? Maybe because Jack Simple whines about things, like losing a ship to the "too powerful" NO? Maybe France, Britain, and Spain made a mistake in training NOs, what they really needed for line battles were FTs, rats, and privs? This part of the game was fine as originally designed, NOs should shine in port battles, it was what they do best. That, and escort commerce. They did have problems chasing down rats though, and rats never went out looking for NOs because they were "too powerful". So now, you want to whine, "nerf the NOs", so the rats can hunt NOs. Right......good move Jack Simple.
There are indeed problems with this game. Yes the economy is still a bit borked because of the commendations that gave so many manufactured goods (which still exists, though not as bad as before with 1.3) Yet some of the examples you give don't even exist as is.
Right....the 6 man gank squad zoning out of the port was an example of how the game encourages ganking. Per you, ganking does not exist, the game is not set up to encourage ganking. Tell me another fairy tale. If this were an actual PvP game, why does PvP only occur in a red circle in which the gank squads are protected by a closed combat instance? Why can a Brit sail right next to a Spanish warship in Spanish waters (outside a red circle) with immunity from attack? Why is the map so small? Why is the game so poorly designed?

smitty0356 · May 2008

completely agree... to understand this game, you pretty much have to play it and not read the patch notes. This is why game reviewers make superficial comments about 500 games, but cannot ever spot a stinker. The details is what makes a bad game a bad game.

All of the points made by olddaddy are completely valid and need addressing. I don't think a game has ever intentionally been designed for ganking... but if one had been, it would have systems simaler to this one!

Bad game, save your money

Elnator · May 2008

Originally posted by taxguy

No, it is still broken but for different reasons given. First, solo missions are too damn hard. I have had beginner solo missions with as many as 5 ships against me, and I am not kidding! They need to make solo missions easier!
Secondly, there is a HUGE player based that is anti- PVP or only wants limited PVP. This game is as hard core PVP as EVE,which turns off about 60% of the playing world.
Even the PVP has problems as noted in the post above.
Lag is very bad too, and I am playing on a top notch rig with a very fast internet connection.
Thus, don't bother with this game. It had amazing potential that probably will never be realized.

LOL! The missions certainly are NOT broken. I solod every single mission in the game w/o a single problem. As did most others. Only people who have a legit gripe in this department are free traders as all the missions are COMBAT oriented and free trader ships absolutely blow for combat. But privateers, Pirates and navy have no right to complain about the missions. They are painfully easy unless you bump the game difficulty up by talking to a port captain.

Rest of your post is valid.

Elnator · May 2008

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?
I think not.

Actually much as it pains me to say this:

Pirates of the Carribean Online is better... yes... a disney game made for kids 10-15 is better than POTBS...

despite pretty poor graphics in fact....

Sad but true.

skeptical · May 2008

This game is most impressive. I never thought any game could outfail Vanguard. Server merge in 3 months is pretty amazing. Welcome to station pass life-support PotBs.

FLS......

COORS · May 2008

Originally posted by olddaddy

Originally posted by iceman00

If you are going to criticize the game, at least have a remote clue what you are talking about.

I have more than a remote clue, I played the game. Firstoff, things change every week because of a patch. Then they patch the patch because the changes didn't work.
The first point helps you. It is not " a few minutes" but 30 seconds. A few minutes would be great.
At launch players were allowed to enter when a flare was fired. Then they changed to a couple minute window. Today it's 30 seconds, tomorrow, who knows what it will be.
Second, the whole hanging in port thing can no longer happen. That was fixed with a previous patch.
The previous patch that fixed that didn't actually fix that. FLS makes announcements that something is fixed when it is not actually fixed. This tactic still occured after that patch. Take the experience books to compensate people for server downtime. They were patched into the game, didn't work, and had to be patched again. Take the spiking of ports, FLS announced they fixed that, that same night the Spanish went on and tested it, successfully spiking a port over 10,000 in about 3 minutes, then reporting their own exploit. Pray, don't tell me that FLS is Top Gun, and their patches always work. Fact of the matter is, they said they "tested" these experience books on the test server, and they didn't work live. They "test" alot of things that they patch, and they don't work in game. FLS has a poor quality assurance track record. On our server (Rackham), when FLS states they fixed an exploit, we believe them enough to go out and test that exploit the same night. That's how bad the FLS track record is.
Second, this tactic was used as an example of how the game is ganker friendly, not PvP. To you, maybe ganking is PvP, I don't know. But me, I get sick and tired of seeing 6 level 50s Jack Simples sail around New Orleans in Mastercraft Arcadias hunting noobs trying to run some quests. It got so bad, and so many of our French noobs dropped, my society detailed people to sit outside New Orleans and keep the gankers away. I spent a couple nights a week in my level 50 frigate parked outside Biloxi, with the wind at my back, reading a book, helping the kids with their homework, or watching TV, so that the gank squads could see a military presence, and leave our noobs alone. Trust me, I rather have been doing something else in game, but it allowed our noobs to play, and hopefully stay.
Also, in order to have additional structure slots, you need a full new account. Having a freetrader and a NO on one account STILL gives you only 10 lots. A lot of naval officers I know did roll FT's because of the huge speed increases FT's get on the open sea, making freetraders very deadly on open sea pvp if they know what they are doing. (And I joined about a week after launch and there were still 10 lots per account.)
My statement still stands. I did not say that NOs opened another account, I stated that they rolled a Freetrader alt to use the additional cargo space to haul more goods to market. A non-FT ship lacks the cargo capacity to haul large quantities of materials. Learn to read. No place in my post are lots mentioned.
I don't have too much a problem with people actually losing ships in PvP. It prevents the entire zerging phenom a lot of PvP games have. The original problem was that SOL's were too cheap, and the "high end ships" for everyone else but naval officer sucked. They have started fixing it, but there's still an imbalance. (i.e. NO's at port battles.)
This is an example of the whining that is ruining the game. "Nerf the NOs, they're too powerful". What you don't mention is that with the speed buffs a NO cannot catch a pirate, freetrader, or merchant, so open sea PvP is at the range dictated to the NO. And if the battle goes bad, the rat, priv, or ft can always use those speed buffs to run, and escape combat, a NO can't, and is stuck in a losing situation. Smart NOs don't take SOLs into OS combat. The port battle is about the only place that the NO shines. So, FLS nerfs the NO (who has only one repair skill that repairs sail, armor, and structure) by not allowing the NO to use that skill until they've taken a certain amount of armor/structure damage. So, the non-NOs now just demast the NO, preventing the use of the skill, the NOs respond by turning off their defense so they can take more structure damage and use the skill to repair their sails. Totally out of whack. FLS listens to the complaints of every Jack Simple out there and responds in knee jerk fashion, without ryhme, reason, or plan, on a weekly basis to keep people from fleeing the game. And it shows.....currently the whining is "nerf the rats"....
Question, if this is such a "pure" PvP game, why does FLS put so many mechanisms in game to escape PvP? Maybe because Jack Simple whines about things, like losing a ship to the "too powerful" NO? Maybe France, Britain, and Spain made a mistake in training NOs, what they really needed for line battles were FTs, rats, and privs? This part of the game was fine as originally designed, NOs should shine in port battles, it was what they do best. That, and escort commerce. They did have problems chasing down rats though, and rats never went out looking for NOs because they were "too powerful". So now, you want to whine, "nerf the NOs", so the rats can hunt NOs. Right......good move Jack Simple.
There are indeed problems with this game. Yes the economy is still a bit borked because of the commendations that gave so many manufactured goods (which still exists, though not as bad as before with 1.3) Yet some of the examples you give don't even exist as is.
Right....the 6 man gank squad zoning out of the port was an example of how the game encourages ganking. Per you, ganking does not exist, the game is not set up to encourage ganking. Tell me another fairy tale. If this were an actual PvP game, why does PvP only occur in a red circle in which the gank squads are protected by a closed combat instance? Why can a Brit sail right next to a Spanish warship in Spanish waters (outside a red circle) with immunity from attack? Why is the map so small? Why is the game so poorly designed?

Spot on olddaddy...

The game is simply poorly designed from the bottom up. PVP is NOT the only problem with this game. The reason everyone focuses on the PVP aspect is because there is NOTHING else to do in game.

Ship combat is fun, but... That's the ONLY thing this game has. It's a ONE TRICK PONY!

Think about this if you will.

All nations play EXACTLY the same. Pirates ability to capture ships is the only thing that makes them different. Choosing a nation to represent at character creation is nothing more than "choosing" sides. No depth what-so-ever.

All nations have the same exact quests, ships and skills.

All towns look alike or are cut and paste copies. No diversity.

The economy is the same for everyone and is boring at best. Nothing special here. No visual representation of warehouses.

Large societies don't need to use the AH by design. Most everything they need is produced by society members. Poor design.

NO EXPORATION of any kind! Terrible, terrible game design here.

The ocean looks like a large lake. Ships fly around unrealistically at Mach 1. Nary a wave to be seen anywhere on the OS. No weather!

No ability to walk about on your ship or join a "crew" and board someone else's ship. Heck, even POTC Online has this feature, and that's a kid's game.

The outside world looks fake. Dull at best. There's NOTHING interesting to see as you travel about. Nothing at all.

The world is WAY to tiny. Other than for questing, there's really ZERO reason to travel anywhere. It all looks the same, and the quests will put you in the exact same instance anyway.

Way, way too much instancing. Over the top here. The PVP would be immensely more fun without instances. Full out, if you can see the battle, you can join in. Actually, POTC Online has this also. LOL!

NOTHING what-so-ever FUN to do in game. No diversity. Even POTC Online has holdem poker and blackjack against not only NPC's, but other players as well. This game has ZERO social amentities.

I could go on, but you get the idea. This game was created by a design team that has ZERO imagination. It is simply "plain" Jane, and it gets boring fast.

Ricardo12 · May 2008

1st of all thanks to all who have replyed to my topic.

However, it just seems like alot of you have some sort of grudge against the game, surely it cant be that bad, i meen alot of people still play it and love it.

As ive already said, it was a very brave thing for FLS to do, most MMO's are based on medevil and fantasy. also, there isnt a better pirate/carribean style MMO out there.

Alot of MMO's have the problem of a boring combat system, poorly designed pvp etc, but that dosent necassarely meen its a bad game.

Obviously, i dont really have a leg to stand on because i havent played the game yet, but when i do, i hope its better than alot of people are saying.

grimboj · May 2008

Originally posted by Ricardo12

Obviously, i dont really have a leg to stand on because i havent played the game yet, but when i do, i hope its better than alot of people are saying.

I'm considering playing this game too but please dont go out and buy the thing. Its obvious from what people are saying that you need to be trying the free trial :P

Burntvet · May 2008

A lot of people do NOT play it and love.

A lot more people bought it for full price, realized after a couple weeks that it was not worth the $50 they paid, for many of the reasons they cited in this thread, and did NOT subscribe after the first month. The sold a reasonable amount of copies, but the retention rate was staggeringly low.

They just did server merges, which did not help much. They have devs talking about how PvP ganking is the way they wanted it and that there's "no crying in the red circle". Didn't help. But more than that, the game disappointed a lot of people that were excited about it, and threw down the cash.

The game didn't deliver. Period.

Dracus · May 2008

Originally posted by skeptical

This game is most impressive. I never thought any game could outfail Vanguard. Server merge in 3 months is pretty amazing. Welcome to station pass life-support PotBs.

I think that is incorrect to say that PotBS has failed greater than Vanguard. Vanguard drove a company to bankruptcy at a loss of about $30 million. Although I don't know what the budget for PotBS was, I think it was much less than $30 million.

Also, PotBS shouldn't be considered as a failure. As long as it is still pulling in a profit and on track to clear from the red, it isn't a failure. Now as a failure for meeting its project expectations, that I can go with.

vet-in-exile · May 2008

Originally posted by Dracus

Originally posted by skeptical

This game is most impressive. I never thought any game could outfail Vanguard. Server merge in 3 months is pretty amazing. Welcome to station pass life-support PotBs.

I think that is incorrect to say that PotBS has failed greater than Vanguard. Vanguard drove a company to bankruptcy at a loss of about $30 million. Although I don't know what the budget for PotBS was, I think it was much less than $30 million.

Also, PotBS shouldn't be considered as a failure. As long as it is still pulling in a profit and on track to clear from the red, it isn't a failure. Now as a failure for meeting its project expectations, that I can go with.

The difference between Vanguard and PotBS is that Vanguard failed because of massive incompetence on the part of Brad and the developers at Sigil and PotBS failed because the devs were arrogant and catered to the gankers and griefers even though the majority of their beta testers told them exactly what they needed to do before launch to make the game successful.

Briansho · May 2008

This is one of those weird instances where PVPers and carebears are actually working together to tear the game apart from inside different forums. Its been pretty entertaining so far.

Thunderous · May 2008

Originally posted by CaptainPyle

Originally posted by Ricardo12
I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.
When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.
I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?

IGN: 82

Gamespot: 80

Ah hell, just go to metacritic.

Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.

I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.

People like you cost curious games their money. PotBS just got rid of MOST of their servers. This is a new game and it just downsized immensely.

The game is NOT improving. The game is broken at the foundation and can't be fixed, add to that the fact that SOE is publishing, you have a disaster.

The game won't be around in a year, and that is a deserved fate for this crapfest with no depth and no vision. FLS threw together a game that is fun for about a week, and then you realize how much it lacks and will ALWAY lack because of the design.

Nice Viral Marekting though. Probably earned you a few weeks of free play.

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