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Speeding away from combat in PotBS: balanced?
Keen from Keen and Graev's Gaming Blog recently wrote about his experiences in Pirates of the Burning Sea with PvPing against small, quick ships. He said that most of the time, the quick ships with the right fittings can simply get away from his larger vessel, but what inspired him to actually write about it is that he believes some players may be using this ability to grief a slower ship. They would achieve this by getting into combat, bringing both players to an instance, and then simply looping around and tapping the other player every 2 minutes with a quick shot to keep them in combat and stuck inside. Others would just engage and then run away, with no apparent purpose other than wasting time, or possibly stopping him from attacking another target.Personally, I am not at the stage where I'm doing much PvP yet (although one of my ships, the MC Cutter, is mentioned in Keen's article as a prime offender for this tactic), so I haven't the experience to comment on whether this really is widespread behavior or not. A ship like mine, meant for mid-levels, becomes insanely fast if a level 40-50 uses it with the skills and fittings available by then. The question is, should it be possible for a player to initiate combat with another PC and then simply run off inside the instance? Before anything is done, it would be interesting to know if this sort of griefing has happened to other people too.
Pirates creator criticizes Disney's hesitance to jump into games
At the DICE summit in Las Vegas Wednesday night, Pirates of the Caribbean creator Gore Verbinski gave a chat to game creators about movies, gaming, and his perspective of the industry in general. Beyond his generally complementary comments towards gaming, one particularly interesting aside that perked our interest was the displeasure he expressed towards Disney for not adapting the Pirates universe for an MMO more quickly than they did. According to Verbinski, they didn't even think of starting the project until a few years after the release of the original movie, and did so without his input. Of course, as we all know, they did eventually release Pirates of the Caribbean Online this past year, but Verbinski's comments certainly make us wonder if the game is all that it could have been.As we reported earlier today, Disney has ramped up its efforts in the MMO space considerably, putting a significant capital investment into what they see as an extension of the brand immersion seen in their theme parks. This conflicts somewhat with Verbinski's perception that the studios see MMOs in the same way that they see plush toys. One has to imagine that Pirates of the Caribbean Online would have been met with considerably more fanfare if it had the Pirates of the Burning Sea gameplay under the hood, but at what point does this sort of discussion degenerate into armchair quarterbacking? In this case, while I don't doubt Verbinski's sincerity on this issue, it sure seems like was hamming it up for the crowd.
PotBS lead animator and art director interviewed
Although this interview was done a couple of weeks ago, possibly before Pirates of the Burning Sea launched, all the other news that has come out about the game recently prevented PotBS Vault from posting it sooner. The interview features Lead Animator Tom Tobey and Art Director Bruce Sharp fielding questions about their work on PotBS, and there are a few hints in this article of things that may not have been discovered yet, even now, a few weeks into release.There are things they mention that a lot of players will already have found, but some are probably still a mystery. The most interesting of these is the talk of an island that is not marked on the world map, with no clues given as to what might be waiting there. There are also some features that look to have been left out in the current build of the game, like the ability to change your body type at character creation (which sounds small, but I know people that have said they wished it was there). It does seem as though Tobey and Sharp have plenty of ideas still up their sleeves, and hopefully a lot more of their work will make it into the game in future patches.
PotBS devlog: the road to v1.1, ships and ship combat
A new devlog is up on the Pirates of the Burning Sea official site, explaining in detail a few of the changes and fixes that have gone into the next build of the game. The next major patch will bring the game to version 1.1, and is being deployed to the Testbed server this week and to live servers not too long after. Although there is much more that will come with v1.1, the devlog discusses NPC AI, outfitting, and ship fixes.The most interesting part of the devlog is the discussion of the NPC AI. Previously, enemy ships didn't really change targets that often, and specifically did not react to the person who was dealing the most damage to them like in other MMOs (aggro). This has been fixed in v1.1, ending the viability of a few cheap tactics. Also being fixed with NPC AI is the seemingly random-at-times surrendering of NPCs. It's true that quite often a ship would just surrender out of the blue, but this is being changed so that NPCs will only abandon ship shortly after being attacked, so that there's some logical reasoning behind it. Check out the full devlog for the rest of the discussions on v1.1.
Introducing the Crow's Nest, community news from the PotBS site
A new feature has just been launched at the Pirates of the Burning Sea official website. Called the Crow's Nest, the feature will periodically highlight the goings-on in the PotBS community: "Fans can expect player profiles, Society spotlights, behind the scenes discussion with Pirates of the Burning Sea development team members, interesting forum topics and much, much more."In this first installment, a Community Member of the Month is named, there is a news round-up from various different sources around the web (including a story of our own here at Massively about the Seattle launch party), some links are provided to interesting forum posts (like a new player FAQ and a production cost analysis thread) and a couple useful game resource sites are name-dropped. The two sites mentioned are The Merchants of the Burning Sea, and the PotBS Wiki, both of which are full of handy information. Overall, a good showing from the first Crow's Nest, and we look forward to the next edition.
The Digital Continuum: This year, PvPing is the new raiding
Ever since World of Warcraft hit the scene back in late 2004, it has experienced enormous success that even its creators hadn't foreseen -- with an estimated 2.5 million active player-base in the United States, 5.5 in Asia and around 2 in Europe. I think we can all agree that World of Warcraft's position as king of the hill isn't going to change anytime soon, because change takes time with all things. There is, however, a change that's been coming to a slow boil. For the past three years players have been leveling up in WoW, but when they get to the end most players have only two choices. They can either choose to focus on battlegrounds/arena PvP or they can partake in endgame raiding of various instances.These last few months I've been looking closely at the two hyped-up massively games 2008 has to offer; Age of Conan and Warhammer Online. It has become more and more apparent to me that this year is going to be the year of the PvP endgame focus. A lot of people have played or seen the raid game and found it to be something they had no interest in. Ideally, if a developer can make a PvP endgame experience that's easy to get into and fun for everyone involved they will have something different on their hands that could potentially grab tons of subscribers.
30-day game cards available for Pirates of the Burning Sea
A lot of people out there prefer not to have an ongoing direct debit from their bank accounts for game subscriptions, and this crowd will be pleased to know that there are now 30-day game cards available for Pirates of the Burning Sea. The cards can be used on a new or existing PotBS account, and this sort of thing is also a great gift for MMO-inclined friends -- or for convincing the reluctant ones to try the game out with you. 30-day game cards cost USD$14.99 and can be purchased from Sony's Station store.
PotBS: Seattle launch party
A little more than five years ago, Flying Lab Software began nudging their pirate ship into the treacherous shoals of software development. As they navigated through the vagaries of deadlines and beta tests, constantly circled by the ever-present threat of player ennui, they made their way into the Bay of Beta Testing, and users got their first glimpses of a new, immersive world. As of yesterday, Pirates of the Burning Sea is live, and now everyone has the opportunity to participate in a battle royale between the naval forces of France, Britain, Spain, and the hordes of pirates that roamed the Caribbean in this version of 1720.Massively had the opportunity to attend the Flying Lab PotBS launch party in Seattle, and also had the opportunity to sit down with some of the movers and shakers who brought you this phenomenal title. What does all of this mean? It means we managed to get some more information about future patches and expansion plans. Now that we're back home, we can tell you what the developers, the producers, and the CEO of the company told us. So get a firm grip on your tricorns and batten down your hatches, you swabs, the seas are fierce ahead.%Gallery-14155%
Things you wish you'd known about PotBS
Potshot has an awesome roundup (from a post over on the official forums) just in time for today's Pirates of the Burning Sea release about "things you wish you'd known" (and that the in-game help didn't exactly tell you). From practical tips (you can CTRL-left click to set things on your action bar to autofire when they're available) to the should-have-been-obvious (ship position and wind direction when entering ship combat on open sea are the same in and out of battle), there's a lot of terrific insight here. And some of the tips even reveal stuff that make Pirates a much more attractive game-- did you know that you can train a skill to see what other nations say in chat, or that you could fire half-loaded guns?If you're entering PotBS to host the mizzenmast and keelhaul some landlubbers today (or even if you've been playing in the preorder), it's definitely a must read. Every game has its hidden depth and player lore, and it's great to see players start digging into a game like Pirates as early as release day.
Pirates of the Burning Sea is Live!
Today's a holiday! Launch days are always days to celebrate, if you like MMOs. The last six months or so have shown every fan of the genre how hard it is just to get to the point where you can launch a game. So let's take off our great big feathered hats in a show of respect: Pirates of the Burning Sea is live!Folks who took the day off to play already in and sailing, but the rest of us can reflect on the great work Flying Lab has done bringing this ship into harbor. They had a slight delay this morning getting the servers open, but players began logging on this morning as per the plan. The official post has details on getting access to the exclusive keys that tend to go along with MMO launches nowadays. Boarding Party members get those great swords and a parrot, while folks who purchased a guidebook get a need red birdy companion. They also make sure to specify that players who bought the game via Digital Download need to verify their accounts before they jump into the game if they're having difficulties.To tide yourself over before you jump in tonight, why not check out some of the Pirates of the Burning Sea coverage we've got here on the site? We certainly have enough. We've got a guide to crafting, a preview of what it's like to run missions in-game, and a press tour of the endgame experience! That'll give you something to look forward to. If you'd rather just look at pretty pictures, why not check out our galleries of PotBS images? We even have photos from on-the-ground at the PotBS launch part in Vegas the week before last.I'm looking forward to getting under sail tonight, for many reasons. The most basic reason is relief: I've been writing about Pirates of the Burning Sea for years now, since back in my days of freelance writing. Congratulations to the Flying Lab folks, and here's hoping for a steady launch and smooth saililng.%Gallery-12965%
Flying Lab banning for RMT already
In an almost "news of the weird" situation, word came out yesterday evening that the fine folks at Flying Lab are already seeing grey-market gold selling in their still-in-pre-launch game Pirates of the Burning Sea. While any MMO veteran knows just how pervasive gold selling is in any game, this is perhaps the first time we've heard of them opening up shop quite so openly before a game is even officially launched. As Aether states, "we will [be] following up with the appropriate disciplinary actions, which could include confiscation of the resources in question, and ultimately banning accounts that sell or buy these illicit resources." We certainly wish Flying Lab the absolute best of luck with stamping it out -- and hopefully keeping chat channels clear of the spam that seems to be everywhere these days. But you have to admit, the fact that the gold-selling companies are getting this brazen before official launch isn't exactly a good sign.
PotBS gets patch 1.0.44.0 before launch
Pirates of the Burning Sea has received its first patch (and whaddaya know, even before it actually gets released). Preorder-ers got to start playing last week, and apparently there are already a few fixes that need to go in.As you might guess, it's mostly a stability patch, although a few exploits were fixed as well (there was one where you could stack buffs and become invincible. Lower level missions were also retuned-- apparently there were too many missions in the beta that were too low, so FLS has tweaked those up a notch. Bam! Keen loves this change, but he would-- he loves everything PotBS (I kid! Keen's actually been doing a great job covering the game).The only other change of note is that FLS "removed text we thought might offend the ESRB." That's not piratical behavior! When you're a pirate, you don't worry about what landlubbers think! You say what's on yer mind, and damned be the consequences!
Pirates of the Burning Sea late-comers need not worry
Tobold has written a great post concerning whether or not players coming into Pirates of the Burning Sea at launch should worry about not getting into the pre-order play period. Well worry not -- aside from the fact that the level cap is 20 until launch day -- some solid points are also made by Tobold about why players late to the party are going to have an easier time starting from scratch. That reason? Simply put, there should be plenty of fair priced ships ready for purchase as players ding through content. Not only that, but new players will also have access to cheap ship outfittings, consumables and ammo from the moment they log in. Not only do we agree with Tobold on all of that, but we agree on the point that experience is going to play the largest advantage. The most experienced players are part of the super-dedicated beta guilds and will probably be helping to guide all the newbies at launch in the first place. Well that and blasting ships out of PvP waters. Either way, when you log into Pirates of the Burning Sea on launch day, feel comfort in knowing all the leg work of starting the economy is done.
PathEngine version 5.14 announced, new licensees
Gamasutra has a news post for all you tech-heads out there interested in pathfinding technology. It would appear that PathEngine has announced the latest release of its middleware technology, which touts quite a few improvements. On top of all those new performance boosts, the company has also announced some new licensees; Korea-bases Flyff developer Aeonsoft being one of them.Also, PathEngine let everyone know it was the winner of the middleware category of Game Developer Magazine's annual Front Line Awards. The PathEngine SDK is used in several games such as Granado Espada, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Titan Quest and Mobile Suit Gundam: Operation Troy. We're sure that if PathEngine were here it would like to thank the academy. It does seem like things are going quite well for the company, so don't be surprised if you start to see them in a few more massively games down the road.
PotBS user content submissions are open again
In case you weren't aware, Pirates of the Burning Sea is all for the user content submissions and it just happens that flag and sail submissions have been reopened. That's right, you can craft flags and sails of your own with the help of a dedicated forum. Then, after getting that perfect design it can be submitted for developer approval. Optionally, feel free to spread the word on your new flag or sail and get some votes for the sticky thread where people will do just that -- vote on your stuff! Flags and sails aren't the only things you can create, submit and eventually see in-game. Flying Lab Software also loves it when you design and submit ships as well. This could lead to some very cool community projects in the future. Unfortunately right now the ship forums are a bit sparse, mostly due to a forums move that happened a while back. We think that given the creativity of several other MMO communities, it's not unreasonable to expect some truly amazing designs from the ship-obsessed fans of PotBS.
One Shots: Battle at sunset
Pete sends us this beautiful shot from not-quite-yet-released Pirates of the Burning Sea, also available in wallpaper size for your desktop viewing pleasure. (We're jealous of Pete's video card! Note to self: time to upgrade.) He explains the scene better than we could:This is the start of a dusk battle in the Open Sea in Pirates of the Burning Sea. The Welsh Witch, captained by Mathias Rhydderch, was just a few miles out of Charlesport when the lookout spotted these two pirates prowling about, looking to cause trouble. You can see the flash of gun muzzles on the larger pirate as we bore down on them.One Shots lives on a steady diet of your screenshots! Snapped a good screenshot lately? Tired of seeing the same old games featured? Send us shots from your favorite game! It's easy to participate -- just send your screenshots and stories to oneshots@massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
WRUP: Dead man's chest edition
It's Friday, which means that not only is the weekend here, but it's time once again for our weekly query: we want to know just What aRe yoU Playing?I know quite a few folks will be headed into the Pirates of the Burning Sea preorder this weekend, as FLS just recently opened the floodgates on their servers. Me, I've just gotten my WoW addiction back into gear, so I'll be back pushing my very first character off into Outland and up towards 70. I'm also planning to head into Dungeons and Dragons Online for the first time-- being that I'm a huge fan of pen and paper D&D, it'll be interesting to see how Turbine has translated Eberron into MMO form.What are you up to in the virtual worlds this weekend?%Gallery-11461%
One Shots: Pirate's best friend
Dog may be man's best friend, but parrot is clearly pirate's best friend. This lovely blue bird is part of the Pirates of the Burning Sea pre-order rewards. (Though we hope there will be more parrots available as we progress through the game -- this one is quite charming as it fidgets on our shoulder and it would be a shame to limit these adorable pets to pre-order customers only.) Are you already out and enjoying your new life as a pirate? Tell us about it with your screenshots!One Shots lives on a steady diet of your screenshots! Snapped a good screenshot lately? Tired of seeing the same old games featured? Send us shots from your favorite game! It's easy to participate -- just send your screenshots and stories to oneshots@massively.com. %Gallery-9798%
How to choose a server
Wilhelm of AGN is one of the many players setting sail in the PotBS pre-order preboarding, and he's dealing with one of the hardest decisions MMO players ever make: choosing a server. OK, maybe it's not really that hard (choosing a class probably is), but there is an art to it.The first thing that determines where you want to play in a multi-realm MMO has to be your previous in-game friends-- if there's anyone already in the game that you need to play with, then you want to make sure to be on the same server they are (as Wilhelm says, "go play with your friends" trumps his rules entirely). After that, everyone's got their criteria. Me, I like a server with a little higher-than-normal population-- it can't be so high that it's overcrowded, but I don't want to play on a low-population server. These are massively multiplayer games, after all. Wilhelm says not to pick the first or last server on the list-- clearly, he's a man who avoids extremes, and probably the highest populations as well.After that, it's as arbitrary as you want it to be. Wilhelm goes for the most complicated name, but usually by the time I've punched in my criteria, the game only gives me one recommendation, and then I take it. Any other factors that go into choosing a server when you first fire up an MMO?
Pirates of the Burning Sea preboarding today!
Though the Pirates of the Burning Sea servers don't officially go live until January 22nd, players who pre-ordered the game have had access to game servers since 1PM EST today. Players participating in the "preboarding" program will be able to play up to level 21 and keep their characters after the game's official launch. And for those of you who haven't pre-ordered, there's still time to pick up a pre-order box and play before launch! If you head to your local Best Buy or GameStop you should be able to pick up a pre-order box (not just a pre-order -- there's a physical box that will have your preboarding code) or order online from Amazon, GoGamer, Direct2Drive (download only), or the Station Store (download only). (Your safest bet here may be the Station Store, as they'll apply your preboarding code directly to your Station account, while Best Buy is reporting backorders and we've heard reports of problems getting the code via e-mail from Amazon.) For full details on the preboarding program, check out the official preboarding FAQ.If two weeks of early gameplay isn't enough to tempt you, pre-orders also receive special swag: in-game swords for each fighting style, an in-game parrot pet, and (if you pick up a physical pre-order box, not just a download ) a CD filled with 60 minutes of delightful pirate-y music.
