Pirates of the Burning Seas: Exploring?

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lani

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Exploring?

I've been playing the Open Beta now for a few days of and on and got my Shelaugh Na'Gig to her fifteenth season as a proud British Privateer. I keep feeling that I'm missing something in this game. On the Bartle Test I always rate either SEAK or ESAK, meaning Socializing and Exploring are my main reasons for playing, the Kill Index(PvP/conflict) doesn't even register most of the time, and Achievement really doesn't perform well as a motivation in my case. So I like to chat while exploring strange new zones :-)

Well, chatting in this game is a bit of a bore, what with System channel breaking through everything, on every Tab and not being able to talk to three quarters of the playerbase due to nation restraints. Assuming an equal divide which surprisingly isn't happening with Pirate/British taking up 80% of the populace. But what I miss most is Exploring I think. I did a bunch of missions in instanced pieces of rather similar looking plots of Oceanic real estate, missions which tended to fall in two categories, "boringly easy" or "WTF 12:1 odds?" and I wanted an Exploration Fix!

In between the System messages and GM's accidentally double-clicking their pre-fab Macro's telling the world how not to bother them directly, I'd caught people complaining about how far Port Royal, capital of the British nation (well, in the West Indies anyways) was. Well, that sounded interesting, from playing Pirates! I knew where I was and where Port Royal was and how many Pirate attacks one could expect in between. In PotBS I had to cross two-thirds of the map. So I set out for grand adventure fraught with danger and excitement.

10 Minutes later I moored at Port Royal. Of those 10 minutes I'd spent 6 minutes fleeing from two Pirates, respectively of levels 24 en 35. Those weren't very exciting 6 minutes as it seems the L35 AI expects a Level 15 Privateer in a L4 wallowing hulk to attack them rather than high-tail it out of there. Granted, I had filled out my slots with sailing close to the wind upgrades (I AM Dutch in RL you know. Besides, they're the cheapest upgrades).

Fleeing a ship that's at 600 Yards on start of engagement and is at 1800 yards a minute later isn't what I call thrilling. Neither was sailing about. There was one spot where I was cutting off another Pirate and was in doubt for 20 seconds whether I'd round the beach before he'd catch me, but as this was after the l35 encounter, this wasn't really any concern. The coast-lines are dull. I can't call them repetitive, that'd imply there is something that's repeatedly turning up and there isn't. Just Chibi-towns.

Biggest let down of it all was, after realizing you can sail across the length of the world-map (against the wind in 20 minutes / 25 if you're attacked), Port Royal itself. It's the capital. I saw there was one thing extra that the other towns don't have, a Trade House. Other than that, there was nothing to differentiate it of Georgestown or any other middling British town. Even though a lot of effort was spent on creating NPC's doing things to make the towns alive, they don't. Or not for me anyway.

The usual immersion / background giving run-around-town Quests are ok-ish, but with a pretty much known background (they're not deviating that much from history) there's little sense of wonder. While doing this, I was also a bit bothered by the apparently total female emancipation in the Burning Seas. I realize that the amount of Pirates running around is also completely unrealistic and un-historic, but you that's easier to ignore and female players is one thing, but it looks like two thirds of the British Marines consist of underdressed women. That jars me for some reason.

The more I see of this game, the more I think (fear) it's really about two things, Achievement through Economics and Killing / PvPing. And it's going to be repetitive real soon. With Eve there was the vastness of space to get lost in, for a day or two, but the Burning Seas pale after a few hours by comparison.

So, what do the people who've been at it more / longer say? Is this all there is to the game? Is it all about economics & PvP with some generic instanced missions in between? Or are there things to do for a socializing explorer like me?
It may sound from all this that I hate the game, which I don't, but I fear it's a game that I'd get bored with before that free first month of subion is out. And I'm kinda hoping people will rebut and give me hope for more.

Oh, hi I'm Lani and I write long posts :-)

MMORPG (Roleplaying): Mostly Men Online Role-Playing Girls
MMORPG (Acheivement): Miserable Malcontents Online Rehashing Past Glories
MMORPG (PvP): Macho Men Obviously Really Prefer Griefing
MMORPG (itemization): Misers May Obfuscate Recently Purchased Gold
MMORPG (Social): Virtual Worlds with Virtual Wealth and achievements, but with Real People with Real Feelings.

12/18/07 17:59

Feanaro Anwarun

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Joined: 11/12/2005
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RE: Exploring?

Well lani.. After scaring me away with your long post for some time, i now have the guts to reply..

:P

I kinda feel the same way, especially about exploring.. I want to explore! Running around jungles, islands, beaches.. all that!.. I think they could have done a lot more with that, maybe even involving the economy into it. Now you just got a list at every harbor of what ''resources'' it has.. How bout you being able to find your own mines.. But I'd rather even find my own treasures! This is a pirate game aint it? Gimme a treasure map and send me into the wilderness! And with a wilderness I mean a REAL wilderness.. So far the jungle hasnt been very exciting, it being all the same path etc.. :) Then again it was still BETA of course.
I do have the feeling a lot will change and get better.

But even if we dont get that form of exploring.. I could live with it if it was exciting to see how each town looked and felt.. But way to much towns look the same.. The capital is.. Well.. to sum it up: Sad. Doesnt feel like a capital and it isnt even a unique town.. -_-'

Of course the economy is brilliant.. And the sea battles are, imo, fun too. Not so much in the beginning but a bit later on they get quite exciting :D or just plain freakin awesome with several other players. :D

So for me really the only big flaw is the exploring.. And unfortunatly, that is something i love to do in MMO's.

Check out Pirates of the Burning Sea... Yarr! We got some interestin stuff goin on!
Always enjoyed the credibility titles here on GameAmp? Help us with your suggestions for some funny or awesome titles over here at PotBS!

01/08/08 04:36

lani

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 595
Joined: 09/08/2005
Credibility: 28 pts

RE: Exploring?

He he he. You should be used to my posts-gone-bloggish-rant by now :-)

I actually tried to download the trial for Bounty Bay Online, published by Frogster and supported by Yusho. Both German companies. Made by a Chinese studio afaik. Anyhow, that is kinda like PotBS with a more dated engine (no partial shadows of clothes on avatar bodies e.t.c.) but does have a lot more on-shore discovery to do, including a recent expansion that's really a kind of Lost World island.

However, after my client download, the update went completely haywire and after following the recovery procedures which turned German halfway through, it fubarred again. So in the end I didn't get to try that. I did catch several people saying this is the place to go if you really miss the exploring / land-lubbing in PotBS. Interestingly no such recommendations showed themselves for PotC, the movie/Johnny Depp based game.

I'll not dispute that the economy game looks to be pretty well done. Ship combat can get boring in the lower levels and boarding too, but if you read the article in the News I posted you know they're addressing that.

As for it being Beta. It was Open Beta. Open Beta isn't about finding bugs e.t.c. it's the Demo version of the game while the CD Master is being replicated and shoved into boxes for distribution. It should not be an unfinished game. Well that's the lesson Developers and Publishers alike should have learned from Blizzard and ArenaNet by now. Naturally, most completely miss the point. Or at least the MMOGs that were already under development while WOW hit the scene did. (DDO, Vanguard, LotRO, Tabula Rasa, PotBS). It will be interesting to see what the games coming out this year, the ones started due to a "How many milion copies did they sell it for?" investment spree. AoC and WAR this year. Heroes Journey, Startek Online, Firefly Online whenever they finally show.

01/08/08 05:30

Feanaro Anwarun

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RE: Exploring?

QUOTE

He he he. You should be used to my posts-gone-bloggish-rant by now :-)

...

I still have nightmares, Lani.

That german/chinese (Wth..) pirate game sounds interesting. Maybe I'll give the client download an attempt too. Might improve my German. :P

Oh and about PotC (johnny depp MMO :P), have you seen the screens etc? I mean, I think that is only appealing to 8 year olds.. Though I have read it is delayed, So of course it might improve.
I dont mind a kiddy kind of look, like PotBS sort of has and WoW but PotC online has taken that to another level and completely ruined it. :P

01/08/08 05:58

lani

GameAmp Staff
Posts: 595
Joined: 09/08/2005
Credibility: 28 pts

RE: Exploring?

What's wrong with the PotC graphics?

This looks pretty ok in a WOW-sih cartoony way.

And this is very reminiscent of the glory days of Raven modifying the original Unreal Engine for Adventures and FPS action games in the Nineties. Yes, we're almost out of the naughties now, so the target audience probably doesn't remember sitting on their father's lap while he was playing Raven Games :-)

BBO also has a bit dated engine, but these look pretty good to me:

Link
link

I'll go as far as saying BBO has a better looking interface than PotBS

01/08/08 06:38

Feanaro Anwarun

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Posts: 69
Joined: 11/12/2005
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RE: Exploring?

some screens look to be from a whole other game.. xD
I dont like how the characters look.. the player character's weird short legs..

Though I guess that is a matter of ''personal taste'' of course. :)

I just think the game should look better with the stuff available now-a-days. Especially if its based on the very succesful movies.. Might be a bit more prestigious. :)

***THIS POST HAS BEEN EDITED***

01/08/08 07:10

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