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Pirates of the Burning Sea celebrates its first birthday with style
It's been a whole year since Pirates of the Burning Sea left its dry dock and sailed out into the vast and sometimes-choppy waters of the ocean of MMOs. While it hasn't been a relatively safe year for adventurous new titles, Flying Lab Software's still got a lot to be happy with: Their game is solid, they're part of the SOE family and now they've got one year tucked under their belt.To celebrate the occasion, the team is gave all players a new and very stylish anniversary coat to wear. Plus there was an anniversary event yesterday that kicked off a new story arc for players to enjoy. All in all, while the game saw a slow start, Flying Lab has added a good deal of free content and new features that definitely make Pirates of the Burning Sea a title worth looking into for any lapsed or newly interested players. We're looking forward to seeing how the game progresses over the coming year, and wish the development team the best of luck.
SOE brings EQII, Vanguard and more to Steam
Sony Online Entertainment has recently announced the availability of EverQuest, EverQuest II, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Pirates of the Burning Sea on Valve's popular Steam service. To anyone familiar with Steam, you may realize what an important move this is by SOE. Fifteen million accounts on Steam is a pretty significant number.To kick off this event, PotBS, Vanguard, EQ Secrets of Faydwer and EQII Rise of Kunark are all being offered at a special introductory price for the first 10 days of their availability. This includes 30 days of free gameplay for any new accounts, as well. Head on over to the official press release on Steam's website for complete details.
Steam gets mo' MMOs from Sony Online Entertainment
Though we've always had to fight an urge to call them MOMs (massively online multiplayer-ers), MMOs have become an internet-bound force to be reckoned with. It's no surprise, then, that Valve's Steam service serendipitously bumped into Sony Online's mob of mmohs at a recent meeting of internet-bound forces to be reckoned with. They hit it off, one thing led to another and now it's all over the blogosphere. A "groundbreaking" library of SOE titles is now available on the digital download service, including the EverQuest and EverQuest II collections, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes and Pirates of the Burning Sea. You'll also find the expansions EverQuest Seeds of Destruction and EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey available for purchase. As a special introductory offer, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, EverQuest Secrets of Faydwer and EverQuest II Rise of Kunark are being sold at "special" prices during the first ten days of availability. New game accounts for purchased MMOs will receive 30 days of gameplay, though the offer excludes existing game and Station Access accounts. Well, enjoy the games! It was nice knowing you.
2008 wasn't a good year for MMOs
One of the blog posts over at the Hellforge community that is getting some traction is Agamemnon's look back at the MMO failures of 2008. Included are looks into why Tabula Rasa, Hellgate: London, Age of Conan, and Pirates of the Burning Sea either outright failed (in the case of Tabula Rasa and Hellgate) or were unable to get the subscriber numbers they expected with their launches.What separates this blog post from the myriad of other posts on the same subject is that the article ends with the many things that these games all did wrong and other developers should learn from. Little things, like listening closely to the feedback from your beta testers, fostering a community, and learning to stay away from the concept of "we'll patch it to perfection." It's a good analysis of the many failures of other games, and a kind tip of the hat to the things an MMO can do right, such as Mythic's openness with Warhammer Online.
Pirates of the Burning Sea's economic stimulus package
Over at Flying Lab, they're doing their part to make Pirates of the Burning Sea an enjoyable and balanced game. It's their job! So in a recent developer log, we get word of a revamp to the economy through streamlining items, structures and the recently introduced insurance for ships.This will all be accomplished through an extensive process of removing redundant crafting items in provision making and ship building, plus a readjustment of how insurance will work. What do you do with all of those obsolete items in your inventory? Luckily, they've created a merchant who will turn any obsolete good into its base raw material. Check out the lengthy developer log for complete information on what they plan to change.
Ten 2008 machinima worth checking out
IGN has put together a top ten 2008 machinima movie list that's most definitely great for killing some time, should you have any in need of slaying. The list is surprisingly diverse, with movies created in Age of Conan, City of Heroes, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Guild Wars and of course World of Warcraft.We're not too surprised to see an Oxhorn Christmas Tree and a Snacky's Journal 4 take the top two slots, as both series are always incredibly worth-while -- Snacky's Journal 4 won the 2008 Blizzcon Movie Contest. Although we highly recommend checking out The Return of The Revenge of Dr. Mechanico, as it's an amazingly wonderful use of City of Heroes as a storytelling device. Also, if you've really got some time to pass, take a look at Election Duel if you're in any way a politically-minded type with a sense of humor. Good stuff!
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!
The Digital Continuum: Looking back while moving foward
This last year has seen a lot of things happen in our beloved MMO-world. Things like the launch of Pirates of the Burning Sea and Age of Conan delays seem long lost in the fog of summer and winter. It was all buried underneath the revelations of DC Universe Online and Star Wars: The Old Republic. And the noise created by the build up to Warhammer Online's launch seemed squelched by the silent wall that was the Wrath of the Lich King launch. It was all a gust of insanity that blew through our brains, creating ebbs and tides in our attention and interest faster than any of us probably thought possible. And just when we all thought it was over, Atari bought Cryptic.But it seems safe to leave our homes and wonder about the great precipice of 2009. At least until the next massive storm rolls in and knocks an oak tree into our recently mended skulls.
Come and spend a fortnight in Pirates of the Burning Sea
Flying Lab games is calling all scurvy knaves back to the ranks of Pirates of the Burning Sea and offering 14 days free for all returning players. If you're new to the game, you can also get two weeks to try it out by visiting their free trial page. They have added lots of new features over the past several months and want to show everyone.For those of you who previously played and are interested in returning, here are some things to look forward to: New ships - many were created by players Dueling - you won't lose durability if your ship gets sunk in a duel Ship Insurance - get some of your investment back if you lose your ship Enhanced Ship Battles - changes to reinforcements and improvements to the ad hoc sea battle system So come on in and take a look around - on the house!
Anti-Aliased: You've been Auto-Assaulted, part deux
I'm one of those people that likes to think that NCsoft has enough money to get by on. It's just my gut reaction that if you have a few successful games then you probably have some spending money in your wallet. So, I like to think that NCsoft, even though they certainly took a pretty huge hit when they invested in Tabula Rasa, could have easily kept the development process going. Perhaps it would have been much slower than it currently was, but there was no reason it couldn't keep going on some type level.They have, at least, provided some compensation for players who are currently subscribed to the game; the chance to try out games like City of Heroes and Lineage 2 are offered in the stead of TR gameplay time.
Pirates of the Burning Sea's new NPC archetypes revealed
The latest Pirates of the Burning Sea developer blog focuses on the title's avatar combat revamp, which we've discussed a bit at Massively in the past. "AvCom Revamp: NPC Archetypes" is written by PotBS Content Designer Bryan Yarrow, aka 'HighLevelMob?'. In it, he introduces the NPC archetypes and the moves and abilities they can employ. "Now, NPCs will debuff you, combo you, set up big finishers, support their allies, and do a lot of other cool stuff as well," Yarrow writes. While the developers didn't want to mire the game in too much complexity, they settled on placing all but two kinds of NPCs into one of six archetypes, with several sub-archetypes within. The differing sub-archetypes represent the specific abilities each NPC uses to fulfill his or her role in that archetype. Yarrow broke the NPC archetype list down as: Defenders: largely focused on the parry stat, but with less ability to dodge. Damagers: high offensive stats allow them to deal out damage, at the cost of less defense. Duelists: high parry and increased offense, but they lack the specialization of either a Defender or a Damager. Duelists possess special abilities, such as a riposte attack combined with a parry. Supporters: alternately strengthen allies or weaken enemies. Brutes: soak up damage, but are easier targets coupled with a reduced parry. Gunners: ranged attackers, with low defense against melee attacks. See Yarrow's "AvCom Revamp: NPC Archetypes" for the full details on how they're changing NPCs in Pirates of the Burning Sea, and more info on roles the various sub-archetypes of NPCs can fulfill.
Massively.com giveaway: Pirates of the Burning Sea
Yesterday when we put up the post for the Pirates of the Caribbean Online skulls we used a lot of pirate-speak, so we'll spare you today. Suffice it to say that we love pirates, and pajama-clad martial artists are clearly inferior to rum-swilling treasure hunters. That's why we're so pleased to be able to team up with Flying Lab and SOE to offer a small pile of Pirates of the Burning Sea swaggery! We have four boxed copies of the game, plus five one month time cards! You can get the client for free online, so even if you don't play already the cards are a great snag! The time cards each retail for $14.99 and the box goes for about $25 each. Total retail value would be about $175.All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post telling us which you like better: Ninjas or Pirates? You'll need to comment before 7:00 AM EST Friday, November 7th. You can only enter once per person, and after the contest closes we'll ship out these fantastic prizes to 9 randomly-selected winners. Give us at least a week to ship out this massive pile of swag, though. To win you must be age 18 or up and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec). For full eligibility details, we suggest you read our official rules. Good luck!
Pirates of the Burning Sea is movin' on up
In the newest dev diary for Pirates of the Burning Sea, we get quite an update regarding the state of the game as well as what the future may hold. There's word of the PotBS team's recent studio upgrade in Seattle, which will directly influence productivity in the game's development. There's also the addition of new employees and of course the revamp to the avatar combat system that we mentioned last week.This revamp is the Flying Labs team's largest concern right now, as they say they've been planning to go back and re-examine the sword fighting from day one. Since ship combat got it's own rebuild, the avatar system will go through a similar re-balance to account for the new system. After this revamp is complete, they will focus on new features such as the in-progress skirmish and player-governed ports. This has inspired them to take on a whole new enthusiasm for an aggressive advertising campaign, so you can expect to see much more from PotBS in the near future.
Pirates of the Burning Sea to get revamped avatar combat
Swordfighting in Pirates of the Burning Sea is going through a major overhaul, not unlike how ship combat has evolved since the game launched. Flying Labs' Isildur has written a dev blog titled, "Avatar Combat Revision" which explains why changes were necessary, and how they envision the new system working. Ultimately, the changes are intended to bring Pirates of the Burning Sea's combat closer to Isildur's ideal system: "I wanted a system that would let me slice through armies of minions like a hot knife through butter, but that would be tactical and complex in a one-on-one duel between evenly matched opponents." Read on below the cut for a listing of the fundamental changes coming to the game's avatar combat.
Pirates of the Burning Sea offers free trials
The MMO scene is absolutely dominated by fantasy titles. You may have noticed. Obviously this sits well with most MMO gamers who can't seem to get enough of the genre. But if you've ever wanted to try your hand at something different, something other than sci-fi, there's probably never been a better time to look at Pirates of the Burning Sea. In the past, to even try the game, you had to purchase it and hope it lived up to your expectations. Well, no longer. Flying Lab has announced that they're offering a public launch of 14-day trial keys. The prolonged absence of a trial was a barrier for some to checking out the game. There are a few conditions though: Only new Pirates of the Burning Sea accounts are eligible for the 14-day trial, existing accounts and Station Access accounts are excluded from the trial offer. If this caught your attention, be sure to check out the full details on their announcement page.
Pirates of the Burning Sea celebrates Talk Like a Pirate Day
When you're the official game of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, today is your day to shine. So the folks at Flying Lab Software have been working hard to make today the ultimate in grog-swillin' and booty-plunderin' in their flagship game, Pirates of the Burning Sea.All day today and until September 26th, you'll find special missions and secret booty for all players. What makes it even better is a special 14-day trial, so you can try it all out for free. Plus, if you fear your Pirate-speak isn't up to par ...or yarr... today, Flying Lab has created a handy Pirate Reference Guide you can find right after the jump. If that's still not enough to shiver your timbers, several other MMOs are celebrating this day with special quests as well, including Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. Avast!
Flying Lab Software on Pirates, part 3
People don't like it and there is a hard core of people who really enjoy it but, frankly, most people avoid it. Well, I sat down and started playing with it and decided that, in fact, it was pretty much what I wanted in terms of how interesting and complex it was. It was just, essentially, totally unplayable.
Flying Lab Software on Pirates, part 6
We just always assumed that players can always struggle through to find ways of making social match-making but the fact is that we have a lot more casual players as a demographic than in a lot of other MMOs because we have a much broader audience than typically the EQ people. Somebody data mined out all of our ship stats and that's the reference we use for our ships now.
Flying Lab Software on Pirates, part 8
So it's not that bad, but people grind constantly to pay for their PvP ships. We don't want people to do that so we're making it so you don't have to, much the same way that WoW did with the Shattered Sun dailies.
Dragon*Con 2008: Flying Lab Software on Pirates
At this year's Dragon*Con, we ran into Flying Lab Software's Russell Williams (CEO) and Kevin Maginn (PotBS Lead Designer) who had a lot to say about the design philosophy behind Pirates of the Burning Sea as well as the challenges of continuing to work on a live game. After its release in January, Pirates has continued growing with monthly updates, providing new game systems and new content. How do the designers decide where Pirates is going from here? We've got the skinny on both where Pirates came from and where it's going, after the jump. %Gallery-12977%
