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Cryptic North studio formed to polish Champions Online
In a recent interview with Gamasutra, Cryptic's Jack Emmert announced the formation of Cryptic North, a studio reborn from Pirates of the Burning Sea's Flying Lab and currently set to work on polishing Champions Online. Led by Flying Lab co-founder Russell Williams, Cryptic North is looking to grow the team by recruiting Seattle-based talent. When asked if the new studio will be working on any projects independent of Cryptic's Redwood City, California branch, Jack Emmert called that a "definite possibility." Be sure to read the entire interview over at Gamasutra for more. [Thanks to Psi for the tip!]
Flying Lab details Pirates of the Burning Sea F2P conversion
Flying Lab Software, makers of the Pirates of the Burning Sea historical naval MMORPG, recently decided it was time for the subscription-based business model to walk the plank. While Flying Lab CEO Russell Williams penned an introductory devlog breaking the news late last week, the piece was light on the details, setting the stage for a more in-depth look at the decision from a gameplay perspective. Flying Lab game designer Jason "Mr. Nutty" Gettel checks in with another devlog designed to address introductory questions that current players and tire-kickers may have about the title. While there's nothing revolutionary about Flying Lab's take on RMT (it features the standard item shop, along with the equally standard no-game-breaking-items-for-sale mantra), it's good to see it spelled out after Williams' somewhat cryptic announcement. One interesting wrinkle that bears watching is the way Flying Lab is implementing perks for Captain's Club members (the new name for monthly subscribers). Among other things, subbers will enjoy an experience bonus as well as increased loot and faction gain over their F2P brethren. Read the full article on the game's official website, and be sure to look for Massively's exclusive Flying Lab interview in the coming days.
Pirates of the Burning Sea to go F2P with next expansion
Having just cranked out the shiny new expansion Power & Prestige for Pirates of the Burning Sea, the team at Flying Lab Software has opted to set a course for another uncharted destination -- the free-to-play waters! Indeed -- it appears that the company has been planning this move since the tail end of last year, and what's more, it has already coded in the free-to-play elements -- currently in testing. While no specific date has been given, the hope is to release this change in the fall along with their next expansion content pack. Russell Williams, CEO of Flying Lab Software noted the change in a statement: "Since we launched Pirates of the Burning Sea in January 2008, players have been battling on the high seas to control the Caribbean. With Power & Prestige's Port Governance, we've added a whole new level of immersion to the struggle for power. Players also have access to a wealth of new content, and have a whole new fighting school to master. We're also excited to make Pirates of the Burning Sea even more accessible by making it free-to-play in the near future so that even more players can enjoy the amazing ship battles, in-depth missions, and the rich Caribbean setting." More information regarding the decision can be found on the Pirates of the Burning Sea website, for those curious. In the meantime, good thing that Talk Like a Pirate Day is coming! We can get to practicin' on our piratin' talk before it be time to weigh anchor and set sail on the F2P sea, mateys.
Got PotBS questions? Ask Rusty!
Flying Lab Software's CEO Russell "Rusty" Williams has been fairly vocal about his company's game Pirates of the Burning Sea in the past, doing the rounds with media outlets and spreading the word. His latest project has just been announced on the PotBS official site, and will allow him to maintain his parlance with the game's community; a new podcast series called "Ask Rusty" will be featured on the site on a regular basis, and players will have the chance to do as the name would suggest and Ask Rusty questions about PotBS.For the first podcast, questions were taken from the old "Ask an FLS developer" forum, but in the future, the questions will come from submissions to community AT flyinglab DOT com (make sure to use "Ask Rusty!" as the subject line). Russell is joined by lead designer Kevin Maginn and producer Michelle Williams in this first installment. There is a direct link to the podcast for those looking to download it or listen in their browser, and there is also an RSS feed that can be subscribed to if you like what you hear.
Pirates of the Burning Sea launches their avatar combat redesign
Avatar combat was always the stepchild system in Pirates of the Burning Sea. Where ship combat was polished, intense, and very different from your standard MMO combat fare, avatar combat just seemed plain weak and added in at the last moment. In fact, it was one of the last things added to the game, as lead designer Kevin "Isildur" Maginn tells us in his developer blog.But as of today, with the new "Clash of Steel" patch, avatar combat has gotten a complete redesign. Thar' be a major update, mateys! Kevin has been working on the avatar combat system for months now under the radar, telling us at Massively about it with Flying Lab CEO Russel Williams at his side back during DragonCon."I liked the avatar combat system, we had a good base system, but things just seemed off," said Kevin Maginn about the new revisions. "I was playing Dynasty Warriors 6 a lot, and I think the new system reflects that. I wanted a system that allowed players to move through combat quickly and have fun with missions instead of killing one man, waiting, killing another, and waiting."With today's patch we finally get to see the fruits of the development team's long labor. Even if you're not a subscriber to Pirates of the Burning Sea, you can still jump on a free trial and check out the new system along side plundering the sparkling seas of precious booty!
Renewed marketing, free trials to come following PotBS build 1.5
Flying Lab Software is hoping to breathe new life into Pirates of the Burning Sea with the upcoming Build 1.5. We've already seen that many towns will be getting a face-lift, but now CEO Russell Williams has outlined some of the strategies which he hopes will have new ships sailing into their waters. A couple of the next initiatives for PotBS from FLS will be to start up a fresh marketing campaign, and to begin offering 14-day free trials.Williams mentions that the marketing around the game's launch was good, but short-lived, and that the new campaign will be aiming for longevity. The ads will talk about specific features of the game, mentioning the free trials that will be on offer. We are told that special care has been taken to stop trial accounts from being used as mules or tools for spamming, and that newbies can choose to convert to a paid subscription and continue to play their characters at the end of the 14 days. The trials should kick in around mid to late July, and the marketing will presumably follow.
Pirates of the Burning Sea developer wrap-up
In his post-launch developer wrap-up, Flying Lab CEO and co-founder Russell Williams talks about how Pirates of the Burning Sea went from an idea to a game, and what they learned after it launched. Their great idea: kick-ass ship combat, PvP that affected the world, a robust economy and great stories. In 2002, that was all they had -- an idea and a sense that the player should never have to look around too hard to find the fun. What followed was six long years of progress and setbacks as they put that simple idea into code and watched World of Warcraft completely change the face of MMOs.Players who played PotBS once it went live played completely differently than the beta players. They had tuned the game based on beta testing, but that led them false as players who might, in beta, have spent a substantial amount of time on the open sea, instead spent it on land or in instanced missions. Without the needs of world PvP-ers driving the economy, the economy itself hit a reef. They have a solution for that about ready to go. Williams feels the game plays well to its strength -- ship-to-ship combat, though he acknowledges that many of missions were created with a template, and look it. Could the avatar play better? Yes, he says: and they plan to reduce the instancing in towns and open up more combat options in upcoming patch 1.4.Players are eager these days to try the new game, play it for awhile, then move on to something new. It's hard to get a hook into these people, but Flying Lab has seen what people actually like best about the game now that PotBS has launched, and will keep playing to strengths and addressing weaknesses as it settles into its niche.
Flying Lab explains the 7-server shutdown
Flying Lab CEO Russell Williams has explained the reasoning behind the recent shutdown of 7 of the 11 servers that host Pirates of the Burning Sea. In an e-mail to news publication Next-Gen, Williams gives a number of factors that went into the decision to close down over half of their servers and consolidate the in-game population.Among the numerous reasons are the fact that they made some faulty assumptions concerning player balance and play style, based on the way their beta testers stressed the game more people showed up for the beta than stuck around after the official launch. Williams goes on to say " ... we have systems that require a minimum number of players to function correctly, such as our economy, and they break other systems if they're not working correctly (such as PvP). If we didn't have these kinds of interdependent systems, we wouldn't even be considering server merges."For the full list of reasons for the shutdown, read the entire article. What do you think, Learned Audience? Was this the right decision to make, based on the evidence?
FLS CEO does the rounds at Aussie gaming sites
The CEO of Flying Lab Software, Russell Williams, has been busy promoting the fantastic deal that involves Aussies getting Pirates of the Burning Sea for free, and has stopped in at the Australian branches of both GameSpot and IGN to discuss the finer points of the game.Both online publications have worthwhile articles, but while IGN's is intended (and named) as a PotBS Primer, the GameSpot interview with Williams focuses on the game's launch in Australia. Williams says that there is no retail launch planned at all for the Australian market, and that PotBS will only be available as a digital download through the aforementioned deal. He also says that there will be Australian servers -- although they won't actually be located in Australia. Check out both of the articles from the links below.GameSpot: Flying Lab Software on Pirates of the Burning Sea down underIGN: A Pirates of the Burning Sea Primer
Mythic Worlds and FLS CEO on PotBS
Mystic Worlds is among the many blogs (including ours) who have been posting impressions of Pirates of the Burning Sea during their beta, but she got something that not many other sites have gotten: answers from the CEO of Flying Lab Software himself. Russell Williams, FLS' CEO, emailed her about what she'd posted, and countered a few of her concerns about the game before launch.To her point that the female avatars look the same as men, he replied that FLS wanted customization to work across both sexes, so they had to use the same models (with a few modifications, obviously) for both. He says that the swashbuckling does need some tuning (and keep in mind that there are still weeks before the game launches for FLS to fix some of these issues), and that the invisible walls and tiny spaces in the beta are being worked on. He also says that a lot of the late-game instances and towns are much bigger-- as we heard in the press tour, FLS got better at designing as they went along (does that mean they should have designed the end of the game first?).Finally, he says that the three "star systems" FLS targeted were sailing combat, organic PvP, and the economy, so if you're looking for those in an MMO, they'll have something to offer. Of course they're working hard on everything else as well, but those were the three key things he says they aimed for.The date is almost on us-- after January 22nd, the game goes officially live for everyone, and then Williams has to let the game speak for itself.
