Anyone Remember Pirates of the Burning Sea?

Pnakotic

I saw that there was a review of the game posted a few days ago, and, as one of the comments on that topic stated, therea are some pretty swqeeping changes planned for the game over the next few months. I've played the game since launch, albeit with a few breaks here and there, and generally had a good time, but I know keeping population has always been a struggle - short of the F2P bounce, it's been in steady decline since launch.

Anyway, a lot of the old-timers in the game are pretty worked up about some proposed changes, and maybe with good reason (first draft on the Test Server looks rough for an Alpha), but in general most see that the main target of changes, the ship combat system, isn't something that needs to be messed with. While the developers have stated they think changes will improve new player retention, there's a lot of concern brewing (at least among people I've spoken with) that things are going off the rails.

Of course, the community is fairly small and some strong opinons have crystalized over time, and I realize that a single-game forum population might seen as a "vocal minority" which may not be entirely representative of the entire base of players (both current and former) who play and have played the game, so I'm re-posting a survey from the main game forums (http://www.burningsea.com/forums/index.php) out here for anyone interested, who may have played the game in the past.

Just to get something of a feel for what some former players may think about how the game played, and what its relative strengths and weaknesses were, if they really knew what they were getting into, and what might have made them want to stay.

Thanks in advance for your participation.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/DNK2H5Q

Shiftyt

Very good looking game, which I believe is F2P now.  Biggest issue I had was that i couldn't  jump.  LoL I know but it really bugged me.

Jimmac

Can you briefly summarize the main changes? Maybe they are changing some of the things that keep me away from the game.

Quizzical

Originally posted by Shiftyt

Very good looking game, which I believe is F2P now.  Biggest issue I had was that i couldn't  jump.  LoL I know but it really bugged me.

I think it would be a bigger problem if ships could jump.

(Yes, I know that you meant on land.  But nothing interesting happens on land, anyway.)

Pnakotic

Originally posted by Jimmac

Can you briefly summarize the main changes? Maybe they are changing some of the things that keep me away from the game.

Summarize? Phew... well, how long ago did you last play? Ship combat has seen iteration over the years, a few skills changed or swapped out here and there that weren't found to be tactically useful, and buff or nerf here or there to balance things out.

The new changes take the old ship comabt system and throw almost everything away, starting over witha new system. The new system tries to break down skills into areas like battle skill (mostly special shots) some maneuvering abilities, some crew-focuses abilities (resiting or initiating boarding, healing wounded, etc.), and a whole bunch of new repair abilities, most of which consume raw and manufactured materials generated by econ structures (like logs or nails or rope or cannons). Within those areas. The new skill trees are further broken down into "General" and "Advanced" lines. The "General" abilities tend to be fairly weak, but give only small buffs; many are passive and require no management, and in theory they are supposed to make it easier for new players to learn and become competent in the game. The "Advanced" abilities are intended for more experienced plyers, and mostly come with some sort of downside, or percentage chance of something bad happening (like a 35% damage spike that has a 20% chance to destroy your guns and crew, or a speed buff that has a 60% chance to make you do faster but a 20% chance to wreck your sails) or just a smallish percentage that something very bad happens to you opponent (like a debuff with a 10% chance to reduce turn rate by half for 2 minutes). Where each class used to have a totally unique skill tree, now about 82% of skills are shared, around ten or eleven unique to a class. A lot of stuff isn't working right just yet, and theres obviously going to have to be a lot more balancing between Advanced and General skills from what I've seen thus far. It also seems pretty hard to sink anyone if they have enough logs and stuff for repairs in their cargo hold.

There have been a bunch of ship changes as well, with a number of stronger frigates nerfed to be quite weak now, and the reintroduction of new 1st, 2nd, and 3rd rate lineships. The 90-100 gun ships have stats taht are as good or better than the old ones, and require a combination of economic cost, fleet grind items (the old commendations) as well as unique low-drop rate items from one NPC pirate faction (presumably so the production rate can be limited on Flying Lab's side), as well as cash shop items. There is some concern as to how this will effect class balance, and nation balance, since the powerful  1st and 2nd rates are Naval Officer-only, and cannot be captured by pirates in combat.

Unknown

Really didn't like that game. Just didn't feel very fun to me.

Loktofeit

Took the survey. Hope it helps. For the last two about new players I just clicked anything as there was no option for "New Player experience seems fine to me."

 

Tigasnake

I remember when that game was in beta and still deciding on a publisher.  The beta was enjoyable, and the ship and ocean graphics were incredible.  I'll admit I was casual in beta, but I had high hopes for this game.  It featured sandbox elements like nations battling for ports, player economies, and non-linear ways to level.  I remember following it at E3 and PAX.  Heck, I remember the whole SOE publishing choice dilemma.

When it launched, it took only a few weeks to realize the avatar combat was horrible, and the ship combat is always the same.  Line up broadside, fire.  Rinse&repeat.  I'm sure there's more strategy, but that is pretty much the summary of it.

Naevius

I played in beta and for about a year after it launched. It had a lot of great ideas, but some of them just never worked (like the player-run economy just didn't cut it for providing ships.) It was fun ship combat, however. Definitely a F2P game worth looking at.

Tigasnake

Originally posted by Naevius

I played in beta and for about a year after it launched. It had a lot of great ideas, but some of them just never worked (like the player-run economy just didn't cut it for providing ships.) It was fun ship combat, however. Definitely a F2P game worth looking at.

It's definitely a game to pick up after watching Pirates of the Caribbean. 

Vaross

Moved to the right forum.

eddieg50

Why is ship combat so so so so slowwwwww, yes I understand its shios but it is sleep inducing, even STO move faster

spankybus

Originally posted by eddieg50
Why is ship combat so so so so slowwwwww, yes I understand its shios but it is sleep inducing, even STO move faster

Lol STO ships have warp-drive, PotBS ships have sails. Age of Sail combat was tactical, not action-packed.

 

That being said, this game was always a very confused title. The sailing combat was not SLOW enough or tactical for AoS purists. Sail evolutions are instantaneous, you can react very quickly to situations as a result, instead of planning a strategy and sticking to it because lowering sails takes 15 minutes on your ship. You could sail directly into the wind, no real need to tack, though it was at a much reduced speed. Wanted to be ON-THE-DECK in first person perspective during all combat...I wanted my massive Ship of the Line to FEEL massive.

 

A lot of things were asked for by the long-time followers of this game, before beta even happened (I was one of them). They decided however to go with a more 'mainstream' approach...trying to make it more like STO and appeal to more gamers. Fair enough.

 

It ended up being something in the middle, neither main-stream nor AoS hardcore authentic. This is why naval combat feels slow to you and too fast for me. It ended up being that both sides could play, but not go crazy about.

 

I made a few ships for this game, so it will always have a special place in my heart. Sadly, I could never get into it enough to even earn my own ships and play them. Bummer.

 

Sips to my name, created under my 'Spankybus' alias:

Mystique Polacre

Dromedary West Indiaman

Mignone East Indiaman

Loktofeit

Originally posted by spankybus

Sips to my name, created under my 'Spankybus' alias:

Mystique Polacre

Dromedary West Indiaman

Mignone East Indiaman

You created some of my favorite ships in the game. Thank you!

spankybus

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by spankybus

Sips to my name, created under my 'Spankybus' alias:

Mystique Polacre

Dromedary West Indiaman

Mignone East Indiaman

You created some of my favorite ships in the game. Thank you!

Thank he for the kind words! Glad you enjoy them.

Thorqemada

I played it a few months, i feel the ship combat is very well done but the av combat is obsolete.
My mmo-friends did like it initially but for some reason get bored to death after three weeks each time they tried it out.
Its the only game that gave me a human male avatar i was satisfied with (though the legs be a tad to short but for both genders).

Yeah, i liked your Ships very much!