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beta player recap the road to failure
Hi-Five
Member Posts: 48
Background: When POTBS was introduced to the MMO Community, all of us EVE pilots were very happy to see a game that will compete against EVE. During Beta Testing this game showed alot of potentials.
The reason why POTBS is great:
ship to shore, Walkable character
Ship based game with customization
Ports contention battle
what we asked for:
Fishing economy, similiar to mining... but an economy culture beside a PvP or PvE.
Manual crafting, pointing and click just won't work. current system is too easy!!!!
Manual resources collection economy.... point and click will not work
Huge maps, This will give more random on PvP. (in EVE it takes hours or days to travel from one corner of space to another)
Social card game, chess, casino or what ever in tarven.
More Ships types, i.e fishing, rowboat, small boats. (When you think about POTBS has only one type of ship, combat ships)
DONT RELEASE THE GAME UNLESS U CAN DO THE ABOVE ITEMS... i remember all of us yelling at FLS,... that POTBS was not ready...
why this game failed:
1) Didn't listen to us.. i think FLS didn't listen to a single beta tester. If you read the beta tester forum.
Comments
As much as I like your ideas, I think you're not sufficiently taking into account the possibility of players wrecking the system.
Fishing vessels? Sure, but what use would they have when everybody is concerns over PvP? (I'm thinking of all those useless ships now in the game, you know, Desperation rafts and the like, which serve absolutely NO purpose whatsoever).
Smaller games in the tavern? Good idea; just take a look at the wonders it's doing for Puzzle Pirates.
Huge maps, craftable economy, etc: Entirely agreed with you.
I hope they can turn the game around, but as long as there is no meat around the PvP bone, with a hardcore community attempting to drive everyone else away, I'm afraid things will continue to go downhill. Sadly, I think the game will not survive the year.
EvE works becuase there is a well balance economy, pvp, pve. People don't have to PvP. That is why a fishing ship would ve been a great idea. You can build a serious economy just on fishing. This will create a community of chatters, and group play.
I think they started with the best of intentions but got lost listening to the wrong people. I didn't play in beta but it sounds like the game was a lot of fun but when the game launched it seems like the griefers and gankers took over and made the game crash and burn. As soon as "No crying in the red circle" and "make war unfair in your favor" became the answer to any complaints about griefing the game became unplayable for a huge crowd of people who don't mind PvP but don't want to pay to be content for little kids with anger issues.
Not like EVE? That is why this game will be dead soon.
Ops is right on fishing & economy--it sucks. I don't think you need a computer to learn how to craft stuff.
EvE has a calculator within the game--now that is complex.
I hope this game is dead soon. So we can end this debate. Please please would you please just go away, POTBS!!
Hips Don't Lie.
Cute
I'm not sure what you expected or asked for.. but I surely didn't ask for most of the silly stuff you mentioned.
I want to do figthing not fishing.. and mining in EVE is BOOOOOOOOOOOOORING..
Crafting is just point and click in EVE as well it's doing by itself play some other mmo if you want to complex crafting system.
The economy could be more complex with more goods to trade etc...
Huge maps? I think the map is more than big enough for me... although I would like to have high seas and europe as apart of the game.
social card game in tavern like chess or casino? did you ever do any research about the taverns at that time? think dice and card games were more likely to be found but it would add flavour to the game but not required.
More ship types I agree on ... but heck fishingboats and rowboats? are you for real??? This is a combat game I mean did you think pirates actually did row out fishing just to earn their living? maybe when they needed something to eat but it was gun and smoke all the way.
This game was not intended as an EVE wrecker and it it's totally different games imo Potbs is the best for the causal player like me EVE require too much time and most of the time is wasted for nothing.
However Potbs could have been much better for those who ever played Sea dogs would know what I'm talking about... but I recon all games made now has too be simple and fast for the majority of players.
All in all Potbs is nice but not great it lacks to much... but this topic has the funniest "I want" items I seen for a game so far.
Most people who signed up for pirates wanted to sail and blow other ships up not go around fish.
I have to agree, here. But not with the OP.
I tried EVE and won't ever purchase it because it is way too much of a time sink. As a CEO and Creative Director for a growing PnP RPG company with licenses in various games, plus now a creator-owned studio imprint, I don't have the time to mine resources endlessly; or spend hours or days going from one end of a map to another.
Fishing, for one, is boring. I don't care if it's in WoW, the original version of SWG, or the MMO of your choice. The reason I am interested in PoTBS is for the PvP, mainly. Yes, I'm aware of the gank squads. I'm aware of the potential of losing my ship (although the upcoming insurance takes care of some of that, I suppose). I'm aware of some of the Avatar combat animation issues. I don't care. The point of fact, for me, is that I grow tired of the "absolutely no risk" PvP of games like WoW. Sure, BGs are fun at times, but right now I am looking for something a little more . . . even with the insurance they are adding in.
I've played SWG before the NGE (and a little afterward). I played Matrix Online and Anarchy Online. I've seen games with problems. The issues currently in PoTBS don't bother me all that much.
Some complain that the land quests are too linear or cookie-cutter. That, too, I can handle. Hell, I played City of Heroes/Villains for 3 years. Now that is a game where the questing can numb your mind, easily. Just like in WoW . . . Outland is the worse, in my opinion: 95% of the quests are just text disguised Kill X of whatever NPC happens to be in the zone. After 5 levels of Outland (60-65), I've basically retired from it for the time being.
So, no MMO is without its issues.
The reason I'll be trying PoTBS when the trial hits is to test the land and sea combat for myself. See how the community is on Antigua (the server of my choice), play a Pirate, enjoy the game, and occassionally go against the Brits, French, and Spainards.
What won't draw me to the game is fishing, time-sink crafting, and maps that take days to travel.
As far as the tavern games . . . those I'll go with. I enjoy them in Pirates of the Carribean Online. The other day I got my ship sunk, lost all my gold at the tables (and thus couldn't repair it), and had to bum a ride from Cuba to Port Royal so I could take on some Navy soldiers to get some gold for repairs, and then go out and get cargo from some ship for more money (at that time, I was still a free account, so didn't have access to many of the Gold reward quests).
So, the tavern games were fun, even losing like that.
Regards,
Your beta feedback was "Add more fishing!"?!? LOL.
I understand that you want more depth away from combat, but a complicated fishing system would be a complete waste of time. And there are already tons of useless boats. I thought the resource gathering in POTBS was actually pretty decent. Mining in EVE is booooooooorrrrrrring, unless you are venturing into 0.0 space for some goodies.
Where I will agree is that the economy is way too tightly focused on ship-building. It makes it a really constricted, over-priced and un-realistic closed system. Would have been nice to add all sorts of other goods and items, and varying NPC (or PC) wants and needs and prices. That would greatly help the economy and keep more traders around.
But no complex crafting. I think you may want to try A Tale In The Desert, that has a very complex little crafting system. Or Roma Victor, for that matter.
I dont think any of that stuff was "needed" ...sure more stuff is better but i don't think thats the real problems.
I think the real problems are
1. land combat wasnt very good
2. guild owned ports would have gave a reason to capture/defend the ports and gave an income to pvpers via tax
3.sony (depending on which side of the fence your on)
4. not being able to take others on ships
5. no option of fps aiming of cannons (ok this is kinda fluff)
Own, Mine, Defend, Attack, 24/7