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Pirates of the Burning Sea: PAX: Avatar Combat Preview & More
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
John Scott Tynes, the Producer of Pirates of the Burning Sea, spoke to us in Seattle about the game. They had just announced their release date (June 2007) and the addition of avatar combat. We find out the nitty-gritty details of this system in this article.
;) nd now, what youve all been waiting for: boarding. Currently, when you grapple a ship there is a straight mathematical calculation based on the relative sizes of crews. Soon, that will not be the case. Tynes did note though that all of this is at a design stage and is subject to change.
When two ships grapple, theyll be instanced off to an area with two decks tied together. These decks may not be able to perfectly represent the two ships (practically, many ships sit at different heights in the water, but that wont work in a deck battle), but hopefully it will be close. There, you control your captain and run the decks operating just as you would in combat on land. Youre joined by your crew, who have their own AI and do their own thing. The two crews fight in brutal hand-to-hand combat. No decision has been made on the scale of the combat. Theoretically, you could have a crew of 200, but it is unlikely that they will actually render 200 guys on either side. Instead, expect to see the numbers scaled down, while retaining the relative sizes. |
You can read more here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
http://www.alextambellini.com
It just gets better and better.
I'm looking forward to the launch!
Apply lemon juice and candle flame here to reveal secret message.
wo0o, i'm so excited! i'm glad that it's a skill based system rather than a leveling system, like pre-cu. AHH, i can't wait!
Which FF Character Are You?
I got to try out the Avatar creation and ship combat over the weekend at PAX. It was A LOT of fun. Dana is right about how it doesn't look too exciting (albeit very pretty!) from afar, but when you play, it's totally different. The character creation was on par with City of Heroes...well more like Villians I guess. Tons of options, and I'm sure they will even add even more. I had my pirate all pimped out in white, even had a white eyepatch. One of the designers said sometimes he wasn't sure if they were making a game about pirates, or a game about pimps! (some very pimpolicious outfits).
Ship combat reminded me a lot of Sid Meyers Pirates!, but a lot grander with more nuances and skills to implement. The final mission I tried, which no one at the con had been able to beat (though I got the furthest
) was very tense. It seamed easy at first (destroy ship being repaired before fleet arives), but once the fleet arrived, I was screwed! Trying to escape the fleet and using the wind to my advantage, their disadvantage, along with the coast line and other ships, I was more focuses on escaping than actual combat, which was soooo great!
Another fun thing to was "/e jig" and the whole crew started dancing around on the deck! It was hilarious. The captain avatar you've created is actually right there on deck yelling and poiting out commands as you press the keys on the keyboard and use the mouse. It was pretty great. I am looking forward to this game next year.
What a refreshing change from all the fantasy driven MMO's that are currently either on the market or in development.
The deck battles sound really cool. It's to bad though that your ship won't look 100% acurate in the instanced battle sequences. This could break immersion a bit.
Either way this game is doing the right thing by holding off on the release date. The more polished an MMO is at release the better press it gets and first impressions are huge in this market.
I must say I was a little dissapointed about the announcement to hold off til 2007, due in part to no great innovative games launch this year, and many are comming end o f06 or next year. As I thought more on it however, other games comming won't matter as PotBS aint out so it won't suffer a drop in subs like some current active ones will. Also much much smarter, and better to release with more polish, than to launch all buggy, and have to fix and patch
From the Get go the Dev's have said Avatar combat, and boarding will come, but didn't know it it would make it into launch, and now they are putting it in. Which I think that's a much better idea, after all imagine you play at launch with the implemented boarding system, and then a revision comes to put Avatar combat in, and it changes the boarding style/way of what you've been using. Anyone else know of a MMO that has a major play style revision after launch that completly changes the game dynamic? ( hint hint ) Now how did that games community like/support the change?
Not to mention FLS has commented that the open Beta may include upwards of 20,000 just to test server reliability at high loads for a time, so personally I don't think I'll have to wait 10 months to begin blasting....
I think the game will rock, yes it's taken a long time, but they started with only 6 devs. It's gonna be fun to watch them give some of the bigger company's a run for the money.
SWTOR. Face it, in the Scooby Doo Mystery Solving Van of coolness, this game is Velma. In this current MMO climate it has about as much chance for survival as a group of inquisitive teenagers in a 1980s slasher flick. -Tardcore May, 2011
SWTOR. Face it, in the Scooby Doo Mystery Solving Van of coolness, this game is Velma. In this current MMO climate it has about as much chance for survival as a group of inquisitive teenagers in a 1980s slasher flick. -Tardcore May, 2011
Oh this looks too good to be true....
But I am looking forward to this game.
And the best part they are not going to ONLY offer it via download!
June 2007 heh yeah I can wait that long...wish it would come out sooner though.
I am so with you on that... but let them develop fully. I'd rather wait a couple of extra months for something relatively bug free than a complete mess that is released too early.
Man - this game is gonna be great!
"I have live my life by these nine simple words: It sounded like a good idea at the time."
--Livingston Taylor
Overall I might actually gives this one a go once it's in beta or release. Happy that it is skill based, but if you gain skills like you do in EVE that would totally turn me off from the game.
It's better be hated for who you are, than loved for who you aren't.
