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Why I ran out of hope for Flying Labs Potbs
NortonGB
Member UncommonPosts: 279
After spending over two years being a fanboi with PVP & ships in Potbs I feel it is time to write a blog about how not to develop an mmorpg.
DELETED time to forget the past & move on.
Comments
I know this is making you bitter (based on your posts on the official forums), but I thought from the start that the artificial scarcity the game imposed with inflated prices (compared to the category of ships just below bundleboats proper) solved nothing: monkey grinders would get one sooner or later, at the expense of everybody else.
I remember one of the last port battles I attended, where everyone, except I, had a bundleboat; I was in a frigate. And keep in mind that I played for the French, one of the most under-represented factions in the game. The problem is that FLS left the bundleboats in the game for 2+ years, without bothering to justify themselves as to either their cost or their existence. Ships of the line, after all, were a rarity in the Caribbean.
This pretty much summarizes all the problems with Pirates of the Burning Sea: FLS introduces things that were never asked for (avcom revamp, really?) and brings necessary changes when it's too late. Now I see they're trying to call what was promised at release an "expansion", and that not many players seem to be biting.
Besides, looking at the activity on this server, nobody except its dwindling players are still paying attention to it.
I played and enjoyed this game when came out. Still for some reason SOE don't deliver as expected. Same thing happened with Vanguard and the destruction of the good old SWG. I think the game fell short on expectations. Don't take me wrong but some players, back when the beta launch and first months after release, wanted a similar game with a biut of Fantasy and, magic behind it. After all none of the battles felt real, I mean simulation stile, and the way Caribbean Islands were portrayed isn't how they were or are. Good game concept, it was fun untill I Became bored by it.
I know there got to be more good competent people out there. The problem is that they don't come by most of the time.
Wow GB... sorry to see that you have lost faith.
Sorry for you (that you invested so much time in them I mean) - not sorry for them (they really didn't deserve fans like you)
You missed a couple of things (or said them in different ways maybe?)
- their abysmal treatment of the Australian / NZ market.
- adding PvP as an afterthought.
- never planning for population imbalance (or how to fix it) in a RvR game.
- allowing pre realease forums to become Fanboi dominated - effectively shutting down any rational discussion / criticism of game features & mechanics
- having Moderators actively siding with the fanbois...
Meh. It's all here anyway
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/194724/What-did-PotBS-do-wrong.html
Anyway, good luck to you GB.
You did well to keep the faith for so long.
I hope your next game (that you follow) is a success. Maybe I will see you there.
S! (Salute!)
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Thanks for the link Gyrus. I spent an hour rereading it, and I find it fascinating how some of the issues affecting the game then didn't vanish, but only got worse. Someone should really pick it up where it stopped (it was locked).
The issue of the time: Insurance on bundleboats.
Today's issue: Disappearance of First and Second Rates. And from what I read, they get rid of the formula, but not of the existing ships. Yay legacy bundleboats!
On this last point, I feel like quoting the devlog entry that appeared: "Let that sink it (sic) for a second. Now let me tell you a story to illustrate why we’re making this change. A long time ago, in a game far away, we added Lineships because Lineships were cool and awesome and they had 100 guns and wow aren’t they amazing! Then, later, in the game we have now, we realized how overpowered these ships actually were. We created super-frigates, refits, and all manner of ships with inflated power levels specifically to combat these super-colossal ships of the line."
Two and a half years after release, "in the game we have now", they notice it. Couldn't they have predicted at release that, sooner or later, despite their disproportionate cost, First and Second Rates would come to dominate port battles? I would have gotten rid of them months ago, back when they were debating whether they should be insured, but the removal won't do what FLS expects of it: "more vanilla ships on the OS". Sure, the gap between a normal ship and a Third Rate is much smaller, but it exists nonetheless; what is really to blame is FLS's decision to go with the same level-based gear treadmill as every other game. Compare that to Puzzle Pirates, where the only difference is cost; you can be a newbie and buy yourself, not to mention helm, a grand frigate (especially in a game with RMT). And in PP, smaller vessels, while clearly more fragile, also serve a purpose: they're nimbler, and can be manned by a much smaller crew.
Also note: the devlog does not even address the economic impact, if there's an economy to be impacted, that is.
Thanks for your responses guys, I think it was far too late to remove 1st & 2nd rates they were meant to be be rare, the only mistake FLS made was to introduce insurance & encorage bundlezerg by halvnig labor time. They still should have been kept in-game as trophy ships by easily making them ridiculously un-economical to build.
I don't think the intention of the devs was bad they just failed to forsee the longterm effects some of their patches like insurace would make.
Also they have done nothing much since launch but cater for the PVP ganking minority crowd almost as if they have become afraid of them which have done a lot to chase populations away albeit unintentionally imo.