Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Lost of Focus?
Dracus
Member Posts: 1,449
I have some questions to bring up to see if PotBS has lost its Focus.
I had originally read that there would be some elements (leaning on the fantasy side) that would be introduced such as Sea Monsters and other things from old sailors tales. But seems that such concepts have been put on the back-burner, while attention is being made towards the economics and combat system. Well that is what it seems to me, and is this true?
Is PotBS moving towards more of a PvP style game system, following along the likes of Eve-Online?
Or correcting design flaws for now, until at some later time to introduce PvE elements?
Or something else?
And that is why...
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
Comments
Lost focus, well some say they have not opened thier eyes, but that is a different topic.
The game have PvP from the start , in the red circles around ports that have been put into contention.
They are trying to correct flaws in the game and the PvE content is part of the game already. It is needed to get port into contention to start with and it is needed to make cash to buy ships and outfits for these ships.
As to the mystic content of the game..... I havn't found any of it yet, but I havn't been looking that hard to find it.
The economic system is broken, the PvE combat system is a mindless grind, and the PvP system requires you to participate in the PvE mindless grind to support your PvP losses. So, yes, they really are working to fix broken content issues rather than introduce new content. Frankly, this is a good thing.
POTBS is first and foremost a PvP game. Once you play it you find the PvE to be unchallenging, you can do it in your sleep (I often drift mentally in the middle of a battle), the avatar combat is really a joke (even the fanbois will not defend Av Com), and the quests are pretty redundant.
I have played EVE also, the PvE is okay, there is no Av Com, and the quests are just like any other game (kill 10 of, Fedex). So in that they are somewhat similiar. The leveling is faster in POTBS, and POTBS uses a level up system to learn skills, rather than a time based system in EVE. POTBS uses restricted access combat instances, in EVE the planetary system is the combat instance and anyone can enter and attack anyone at any time.
My suggestion is to try the FLS website and see if you can get a buddy key (or create you own, if the buddy key system is still broken) to give it a try and decide on your own.
I think its really not disputable they lost their focus, or came into things with no organization. I think the devs are starting to move towards things that will help that. Only question is "is it too little too late" for those who justifiably walked away not wanting to wait.
They have also had terrible customer relations, as evidenced by a dev basically saying ganking is a lovely thing, and FOAD to paying customers. (If they have any brains, they will stick him in front of a bunch of code, and never let him post in their forums...... again.....)
-They are adding more "supernatural" content in a patch very soon.
-They are focusing the game more and more on PvP, as evidenced by the recent patches and dev logs.
-They are adding PvE elements, but they aren't a priority over the PvP balance right now.
-And, yes, they lost their focus.....a long, long time ago
Well, the game itself started with rather vague idea of a focus. Now, you can easily say waht is the focus of EVE or LOTRO, POTBS tried to wrap up PvP/PvE and economic play into one package.
Idea by itself has its merits but it was poorly designed and poorly implemented. Basically all the shortcommings came out rather quickly and they go as follows:
Economic play - free market approach in essence negates RvR aspect and in its execution is flawed causing over supply of goods. The only drain for created goods is PvP and nothing else. Due to the costs it is easier to avoid PvP or to set up internal, planned economy style production thus circumnavigating the market. Economy is always a problem in online games and FLS really lacks resources and capabilities to tackle to what amounts to one sorry mess.
That leaves two usual MMO pillars - PvE and PvP.
PvE - is a cash cow of MMO's and that is nothing new. The problem is that POTBS suffers from horribly weak PvE. The AI is one of the worst out there, quests are copy/pasted, there is only one boring and poorly made instance in the whole game, there is no world exploration, cities are copy/pasted etc. Quite simply FLS lacks building blocks to make a viable PvE game. At the very least lot of artwork and quest design is needed, not to mention AI simply needs to be rewritten. Again I doubt FLS simply have resources to do so if it wasn't done durign the five years of game's development. Not to mention that random popping up PvP zones hinder PvEing.
PVP - the last pillar of the game. First ad foremost game has aspirations to emulate EVE's PvP. This is I beleive false sicne EVE has a huge world opposed to POTBS fishbowl feel, working economy, and large areas of FFA PvP. POTBS lacks all of those features, PvP is instanced and limited to rather small areas of already small map. The risk vs reward ratio is no good and the system lends itself well to gankers and griefers. FLS might (or might not) get this segment into a more working order but in all honesty it is rather bland. Ships shooting at other ships ad infinitum. RvR simply doesn't work because capturing ports really has no impact save gathering conquest points - capture the flag FTW. Not to mention that ship to ship combat feels more like WoW with sails rather then an original idea of simplified age of sail simulation.
All in all FLS have little options then to float towards PvP as it lacks resources and tiem to make viable PvE and econ game. Two PvP centric games are comming out during this year and I don't think POTBS can compare with its weak and flawed PvP. Not even as the niche game.
The only solutions I can think of are either to: a) kill PvE & econ and make the game FFA PvP or b) separate servers to PvP (with increased PvP rewards and easy production) and PvE (elite mobs) - both optiosn served as is.
So yes, I would say they definitelly lost their focus, providing there was a focus to begin with.
Couldn't agree more.
Let's also not forget that ALL nations play exactly the same including pirates, with the exception of the ship capture ability. All the town, ships, quests et al are identical, so selecting a nation to represent is nothing more than choosing sides. It's cosmetic. Poorly designed from the get go, and would have to be completely re-designed to add any actual meaning to the game.
This game is like eating vanilla ice-cream every day for the rest of your life. Some people like vanilla ice-cream, but after awhile you'll be asking... "Where's the other flavors?"
Problem is, with POTBS, there are NO other flavors.
I don't think you can get rid of the economy in this game. It's not working, true (though I'm still making money...), but you still need it nonetheless.
As for PvE... also required to finance all that PvP.
Oh, I didn't say it was a good idea. The OP was talking about the loss of focus and my post was aimed at that. The thing I suggested at the bottom are the only ones I see as reasonably quick fixes having in mind the proven shortcommings of FLS staff.
The segments don't interact well and it doesn't seem they will interact well any time soon, if at all. I was arguing why FLS, as a matter of necessity, chose to cut economy and PvE. The trend will most likely continue in favour of PvP because they really have nothing to prop up economy and PvE.
And I disagree about not getting rid of the economy, exchange shops shows the path. It is not a good thing but that is where I think they are going.
Thanks for the replies so far.
Question, does anyone know of any screenshots or images of mythical creatures? I haven't come across one yet.
Some statements from the FLS suggest that the systems (PvP, PvE, economy, etc) were all too heavy interdependent of each other. And so taking a route that provides less interdependency may be the trend or focus. Of how that can be done....?
As for playing PotBS for myself, don't have the time (one MMO at a time) or the interests to provide SOE profit at this time. Although I do like to see Flying Labs succeed with the PotBS, which I why I have an interest on the forums.
And that is why...
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.