Pirates of the Burning Sea- OPEN BETA!

[WayAbvPar]

I am trying to decide if I want to go Pirate for release. They are exceedingly easy to play, especially at low levels. I have heard that isn't the case in the end game. I am a sucker for an underdog; if I go national, it will be Spanish (French are even worse off, but I can't stoop that low  ). If I go national I will probably use the prelaunch party to level a Freetrader to 20 or so and set up some economic stuff to support my other combat characters down the road.


If we get enough people to play from here we can always fire up a Bat Country society.

[Rasix]

Stress test key worked as an open beta key.  Fileplanet download no longer available for non subscribers. 

[Soukyan]

True but I've been surprised how many people are in the open beta and speaking highly of it. They may have more cash flow than anyone anticipated going in.

Could it be a sleeper hit in the MMOG market?

[lamaros]

Stress test key worked as an open beta key.  Fileplanet download no longer available for non subscribers. 

Yeah. I have a key but no place to download it. :(

[Sutro]

How're those gradients working out for you, tao?

/snicker

-Sutro

[taolurker]

/rude
Technically, I was correct, as all digital images have gradients, where colors merge at their border of pixels. I also have decided that Gimp attempted to destroy my hard drive, so for the time being I have decided that fighting with flags isn't as much fun as hurling cannon fire at other people's ships.

I am nearly to level 25, and setting up ship building soon as a Spaniard on Blackbeard, assuming the server is stable for long enough to not incur a roll back. If anyone wants a Laozi ship on that server, or even various upgrades, pm me.

Stress test key worked as an open beta key.  Fileplanet download no longer available for non subscribers. 

Yeah. I have a key but no place to download it. :(

Try one of the foreign downloads they had for overseas people

[Modern Angel]

True but I've been surprised how many people are in the open beta and speaking highly of it. They may have more cash flow than anyone anticipated going in.

Could it be a sleeper hit in the MMOG market?

Well, let's definite hit here. If it's in relation to what the budget cost is and what they were expecting I think this will be a sleeper hit. It's not going to make the big boys tremble, though.

I really do enjoy it. I've been working like a dog the past couple weeks but love it when I get on. It's weird... it's not the sort of game that I think about a lot when I'm not playing it but when I hop on I'm just absolutely entranced by it.

[HaemishM]

I think it's a pretty decent game, that's going to have major issues on release day unless it sells for shit. The rubberbanding I'm getting in most towns is pretty bad, even at lunch time. The open seas get really choppy framerates when I hit the currents and manage LUDICROUS SPEED! The release day patch will be bad.

And yet I'm still considering buying it on release.

[Modern Angel]

I get some rubberbanding in towns but everything else is silky smooth. 880GT and quad core but still... that's better than EQ2 at full blast.

[WayAbvPar]

They still have all sorts of monitoring software running on the servers, plus they are running over the planned capacity. There is some lag/latency being caused server-side somewhere, but they are tracking it down. I am fairly confident that the servers will be playable on launch day, but I am sure there will be some issues. I am more worried about the SOE side of things, to be honest. There have been more problems with the launcher/patcher than anything else.

[Draegan]

I've been lazy in the last week and havn't played since I patched it.

What makes this game good/decent?  When I played the swashbuckling stuff when you start the game was so bad that I had to shut it down.  The starting Pirate town had me running around looking for stuff before I even got a chance to try things out.  I know I need to give it a better over look but man it's tough.  What are you doing in an average 2-3 hour play session?  Is it Diku?  Questing and killing NPCs for loot and PVPing every once in a while?

[HaemishM]

It is questing and killing and looting, but the swashbuckling part of it is a small part, thankfully. It's the ship to ship combat that I love. I haven't had much of a chance to PVP yet. There is also what seems on first blush a robust economic game in there as well.

[SnakeCharmer]

The PvP, in beta anyway, was quite fun.  It rewarded good tactics and patience.  There were many an instance where I was able to take down bigger / higher level ships with my newbie starter ship by using common sense.  It was kinda cool to set myself in a bootlegger mindset, make a run to Cuba and back and see what kind of trouble I could stir up. 

The game kinda feeds my inner Jimmy Buffett.

If they'd make ships able to be crewed by friends and where you could 'live' on one, I'd be in that game with a quickness.  To me, that's the only thing that is missing, aside from the crappy avatar combat animations and such.

There is also what seems on first blush a robust economic game in there as well.

They had, at one point, an entire tutorial devoted to the POTBS economic megagame.  Is it still there?

[HaemishM]

Yes, the economy tutorial quests are still there. I'm running through them with two characters, the French Freetrader and the Pirate.

[Sutro]

I am more worried about the SOE side of things, to be honest. There have been more problems with the launcher/patcher than anything else.

Q. F. T.

In the "just after Christmas" market, which due to giftcarding is still a huge month for sales, you're reaching a whole market that is absolutely not going to have the obsessiveness patience to babysit a patcher for three days and take the initiative to find direct downloads for ginormous PIG files.

If they can't play within an overnight download of getting the game, they're going to open the disc drive, take it out, pack it neatly up and return your game. And then they will take the initiative to tell their friends how they couldn't get in game and probably come bitch on your forums to boot.

If I was FLS?

I'd make it clear to Sony in no uncertain terms that this -has- to be fixed, no matter if people are directed to download from mirrors or whatnot. If it's not fixed and it's the disaster it was on open beta launch, have a lawyer at the ready to sue SOE for breach of contract/nondeliverance of services and recoup the millions of revenue that you just lost. Then I'd throw SOE under the bus at every opportunity and forget about POTBS to start on my next game with the recouped money, because a bad launch day is game over in the MMOG market for sustainable success.

[Mrbloodworth]

Could the patcher Issues ETC be related to the fact that you are downloading the entire game? Not just an update. I would think things like the huge PIG files would be on the CD/dvd already.

[Sutro]

No, it's still going to be a huge release day patch. Game went gold over a -month- ago. I've heard that it's going to be a 2gig release patch.

[HaemishM]

No, it's still going to be a huge release day patch. Game went gold over a -month- ago. I've heard that it's going to be a 2gig release patch.

If so, that will be EPIC FAIL.

[Draegan]

Wow? 2gig download day one?  Are you kidding me?  What are they thinking?

[Furiously]

Obviously, "We'll fix it in release!"

[DrewC]

We are not going to have a 2 gig first day patch.

I don't know exactly how big it's going to be, and obviously it's going to be bigger than we'd like it to be (because in a perfect world it would be 0), but it will not be 2 gigs, nor even a single gig.  In fact I doubt it will come close to a gig.

The big space hog in most games is art assets, and we have not and are not changing those between gold master and the release day patch.

[WayAbvPar]

2 GB would be a clusterfuck. The bright side is that the patches since the gold version have drastically improved the game, and there should be at least one more before launch.

Edit- DrewC posted at the same time- that makes more sense. Art assets is big.

[Nevermore]

We are not going to have a 2 gig first day patch.

I don't know exactly how big it's going to be, and obviously it's going to be bigger than we'd like it to be (because in a perfect world it would be 0), but it will not be 2 gigs, nor even a single gig.  In fact I doubt it will come close to a gig.

The big space hog in most games is art assets, and we have not and are not changing those between gold master and the release day patch.

Now where's the fun in us posting baseless rumors if you just come along and shoot them down? 

[Draegan]

Well thats a good one.  Now they just need to get rid of the swashbuckling part and we're good to go.

--

Question though, I remember playing one of the newbie pirate quests where I had to kill some pirates in some fort or something and my health didn't regen.  Was I missing something?

[Nija]

Will we have to install anything if we have the beta installed?

As of now, I think I'm actually going to play this on release.

A couple things though. Specifically, which side to choose.

Personally, I think there is only a single choice.

1) Pirates are going to attract the dumbest people that play video games. If you're in a group of 6 the combined IQ is going to be 150. The only way I'd possibly play pirates is if pirates can attack each other.

2) French. Right now the Nation chat in Florida is FILLED TO THE BRIM with worthless French Canadians with fancy French role playing names, sassing it up like they're in a gay bath house. It's disturbing. There's no chance I could put up with that in retail.

3) English. This is going to be the #2 most populated race, right behind pirates. English, english, blah blah. I expect some snooty, super annoying RPers here too.

That leaves us with the only choice remaining. SPANISH. What makes Spanish good? Well, I'm going to be bluntly racist. Mexicans don't play computer games. Real Spaniards will be on Euro servers. That leaves this race wide open, with minimal crap to worry about. The longer I can play without absolutely needing to kill "friendly guys" (open a FFA PVP server ASAP) the better.

Question though, I remember playing one of the newbie pirate quests where I had to kill some pirates in some fort or something and my health didn't regen.  Was I missing something?

If you go to inventory, personal, you should have some first aid bandages. If not, you can buy them from the junk merchant, in any shop. I think. You can only use those out of combat, however.

[Modern Angel]

You and I are in agreement, Nija. The other benefit is that if you roll, say, a Spanish Freetrader and find out Freetraders are ass then you can reroll with all your buddies as something else. You find out Pirates are ass, well...

I was thinking Spain, too.

[SnakeCharmer]

My name is Inigo Montoya.  Joo killed my father.  Prepare to die.

How many times do you think this will be said in the first month?

[Falconeer]

My name is Machete. You just fucked with the wrong Mexican. Uhm, no wait...

[WayAbvPar]

Pirates are awfully fun to play, but the tard factor frightens me. If I go national, it will definitely be Spanish. I really wanna run a pirate society called Rhymin' and Stealin' though 

[HaemishM]

I haven't really paid attention to the Pirate community. I have seen a number of "Jack Sparrow" type of douchetards with that name or some variation.

Of course, I just named my captured Corvette The Sloppy Seconds, so I probably don't have a lot of room to talk.

[Modern Angel]

Pirates are awfully fun to play, but the tard factor frightens me. If I go national, it will definitely be Spanish. I really wanna run a pirate society called Rhymin' and Stealin' though 

The other thing is just the variety of play. Once you go Pirate that's not just your side for the remainder of your time there, that's your class. Alt? Why? I could change my mind (because capturing ships is swank) but I'm leaning heavily Spanish for now

[Sutro]

Heh! Well, I apologize for perpetuating that, then. In fairness, I heard it from a person who's rarely been wrong before and has been following (and in) beta much closer/longer than I have.

In other news, Drew, I also heard you were posing for Maxim in a green and white striped bikini.

-Sutro

[DrewC]

I'm fairly certain that's banned by the Geneva convention.

[Rasix]

Played for roughly an hour/hour and a half last night.  Made it to level 4, but I really wasn't ever looking at my exp bar.

Quick thoughts in the order they occurred:

-Customization options were very nice.  I have a Spanish privateer in UofA colors.

-I have no idea what my choice of Spansh privateer means.  What the hell did I just sign up for? Was there some hidden information I missed somewhere?

-Swashbuckling is horrible. This is the worst ground based MMO combat I've ever tried, and I'm including the time in Horizons where my baby dragon nearly died to an oversized maggot. It feels wooden and it seems like I have one viable option for attacking.  Adding a pistol later helped.  Adding AI crewmates that did nothing, didn't.

-Game needs polish badly.  It looks cheap when you're not sailing.

-The sailing and ship combat is neat.  Even if you're mainly circling someone at this level firing off your cannons as soon as they're ready. Experimented some with the other kinds of shot.  This is your hook.  I'd really love to walk around my ship though.

-Town isn't bad.  Performance at times can be even with graphics neutered.

-Some odd mission bugs.  One mission to kill pirates suddenly ended.  I had killed one and then started combat with the second when the 2 remaining ships became derelict. Whaa?

-Turned off nation chat in short order.   

-Quests and quest launching mechanisms are well done. Good use of instancing.

I still feel like I barely know what I'm doing, but this is a good thing.  Ship combat will get me to fire this up again.  If that wasn't so engaging and if my Spaniard didn't look so dapper, I don't think I would.  Feels like this game needs another 3-6 months, based on initial impressions. 

[Draegan]

I actually got some play time in last night and I enjoyed the ship combat.  It was really fun and entertaining.  If this game was all ship combat and I never had to go on land I would buy it.  The avatar combat and camera control is just atrocious.  I hate walking around town.

Rest of the game is pretty cool.