POTBS big waste of time

Inzane · Jan 11, 2008

since SOE has taken control over the POTBS boards, anyone without a key can no longer post on the boards. So you need to buy the game or have a valid key to post. This is plain retarded. I had good hopes for this game, the FLS team was helpful before SOE came into the picture. This a great way to treat future clients. Its been down hill, and it keeps getting worse.first was the outragous price for the game CD $49.00 usda,and they only give you 30 days for free play before you have to pay your monthly fees. No mmorpg has ever done this. and I checked it to make sure I was right. if anything right now they are so many deals going on its crazy. one mmorpg has the fee of $9.95 USD and cut the price to a mind blowing $4.65 usd. people, prices are coming down on these things. the price of the CD really burns my ass. I have seen WOW and others offer the CD for about $20.00 usd. In my better judgement I can not convince myself to buy this game for this much. and not to mention the Game is not what they planned to do. it was going to be more Ship PVP. and the timeline was going to be the late 1700s the Nelson Era. They gave the BS excuse that the game would not be balanced, so they went with the early 1700s. and SOTL would be to powerful. What a bunch of lies. there are powerful SOTL in game now. they scraped the offline feature of quick combat. something alot of us wanted. Being in the beta and open Beta opened my eyes. for anyone buy this game or planning to buy it. I will tell you to wait til its on the discount shelf. and the servers are more stable. Right now you would be just wasting your hard earned cash.

Kazeite · Jan 11, 2008

That is indeed unfortunate <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /> I had high hopes for this game, but it looks like it's not going to work.

Cylon13 · Jan 11, 2008

I'm not a big fan of mmorpg's. Anarchy Online was my first mmorpg and it turned out to be a COMPLETE DISASTER! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/piratesing.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :shock

" border="0" alt="piratesing.gif" /> Terrible just TERRIBLE! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cold.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":brr" border="0" alt="cold.gif" /> What a waste of time it was when
i realized that my character was wrongly build-up. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_eek.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :shock

:" border="0" alt="icon_eek.gif" /> <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/boom.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":boom" border="0" alt="boom.gif" />
WoW wasn't that bad but it got DEAD BORING at times. VCO seemed nice and unrealistic so i did not
even bother with it.

My experiences with mmorpg's are negative ..playing a mmorpg is like doing a hard work only to realize that you just pressed the wrong button and all your two months got sucked into the toilet like s**t. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/ko.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :ko

" border="0" alt="ko.gif" />

I can assure you - Stay with good ol' singleplayers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/danse1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :dance

" border="0" alt="danse1.gif" />

Pieter Boelen · Jan 12, 2008

That's a shame. Especially considering that you and many others actually did do a lot of hard work on that game. Personally I never play MMORPGs mainly due to my perpetual lack of time, but it's still a shame to see yet another pirate game being messed up. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="sad.gif" />

Cylon13 · Jan 12, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Pieter Boelen @ Jan 12 2008, 01:15 PM) [snapback]233666[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'>but it's still a shame to see yet another pirate game being messed up. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="sad.gif" /></div>

I would rather call that kind of thing as f*****g up. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="icon_wink.gif" />

Pieter Boelen · Jan 12, 2008

Trying to remain civilized. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/whistling.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :wp

" border="0" alt="whistling.gif" />

DonkeyPirate · Feb 16, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Inzane @ Jan 12 2008, 02:51 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=233508"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>since SOE has taken control over the POTBS boards, anyone without a key can no longer post on the boards. So you need to buy the game or have a valid key to post. This is plain retarded. I had good hopes for this game, the FLS team was helpful before SOE came into the picture. This a great way to treat future clients. Its been down hill, and it keeps getting worse.first was the outragous price for the game CD $49.00 usda,and they only give you 30 days for free play before you have to pay your monthly fees. No mmorpg has ever done this. and I checked it to make sure I was right. if anything right now they are so many deals going on its crazy. one mmorpg has the fee of $9.95 USD and cut the price to a mind blowing $4.65 usd. people, prices are coming down on these things. the price of the CD really burns my ass. I have seen WOW and others offer the CD for about $20.00 usd. In my better judgement I can not convince myself to buy this game for this much. and not to mention the Game is not what they planned to do. it was going to be more Ship PVP. and the timeline was going to be the late 1700s the Nelson Era. They gave the BS excuse that the game would not be balanced, so they went with the early 1700s. and SOTL would be to powerful. What a bunch of lies. there are powerful SOTL in game now. they scraped the offline feature of quick combat. something alot of us wanted. Being in the beta and open Beta opened my eyes. for anyone buy this game or planning to buy it. I will tell you to wait til its on the discount shelf. and the servers are more stable. Right now you would be just wasting your hard earned cash.</div>

Sorry mate, you clearly have no clue about the game and MMO's in general. The Timeline was never going to be late 1700. This is a game where Pirates play a strong faction. In the late 1700 the golden Piracy era has been over! Therefore the game was always supposed to play around 1720 (since I started following it 4 or 5 years ago).
Offline feature? What the hell are you talking about? There was never going to be an offline feature.
All these things where already decided, long before SOE joined the ship. Not much of a Sony fan either, but you should at least inform yourself before (go and inform yourself on Platform Publishing from SOE). Otherwise ytour posting is nothing more then just trolling.

Besides there is loads of Ship PvP going on.

Furthermore every fecking new MMO costs 50 bucks and then "only" the first 30 days free (ALL MMORPG's do this). The reason why WoW is only 20 is because it's over 2 years old now. The monthly fee FLS ask is also standard.
Also every MMO grants only their members access to the official forum, simply due to the fact to prohibit some fools coming from other MMO's and trolling how bad a game is without even playing it (Strangely enough I could post on the forum without an account too though. All I needed was a station account).

Now, PotBS is a MMO, but not as user friendly as WoW.

The Ship Battles are fine, avatar combat is a bit choppy. Trade and crafting is good as many good items are players created. If you like MMO's and Pirates and are sick of Orcs and Elves, try it. It's a nice change.
If you are unsure read some reviews before deciding.

For most people I would give the advice to wait a bit till it's cheaper (thing should also improve gamewise by then).

Inzane · Feb 21, 2008

well DonkeyPirate, it you have been following this game for so long than you would have known it was meant to be in the later 1700s. So let me clear this up for you. and it starts with me telling you a story, Once upon a time FLS was trying to find a new game to make, as a small game dev or more like hobbyists gone pro at this time, A few members of the company liked to Play a Game called AOS II. We would all play into the wee hours of the night. Well it turned out this inspired our DEV friends. they posted on our forum over at SEALORDs, with their Ideas and what we thought of it. This was the ground work for what was going to be named "Pirates of the Burning Sea" the game was being born and first we just thought it was going to be vaporware. but it turned out that they were serious, they bought a Game engine called Alchemy. when the early ship models started to appear in screenshots, POTBS was born. it was crude compared to what it is now. but very promising. FLS at the time had no forum. or a website for POTBS, they used our forums until they got theirs setup. it was a slow crawl at first for them. The idea of the game has changed from when it was first imagined, thats what I am referring to. only those of us who been around that long will remember this. and understand it. So clearly you have no clue. this was back in 2001, in the gaming world that was a lifetime ago. It is never a good thing to assume that you know everything. if your lucky you can still find these very early screenshots. And the ships in them are, late 1700 warships, One I recall was a 74 SOTL, and a fantastic frigate from the same era. And a sweet brig, no longer in game. Oh and maybe you should read the early Dev logs because it is all in there to..And as for trolling thats a plain insult. I been here a long time and a contributer to this community. there is no reason to be insulting. If you cannot add to a thread in a positive manner, than don't post at all. We don't have time to engage in Flame Wars. If you want to we could continue this in PM, I am not about to clutter up the Forum.

DonkeyPirate · Feb 22, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Inzane @ Feb 22 2008, 06:08 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240069"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>well DonkeyPirate, it you have been following this game for so long than you would have known it was meant to be in the later 1700s. So let me clear this up for you. and it starts with me telling you a story, Once upon a time FLS was trying to find a new game to make, as a small game dev or more like hobbyists gone pro at this time, A few members of the company liked to Play a Game called AOS II. We would all play into the wee hours of the night. Well it turned out this inspired our DEV friends. they posted on our forum over at SEALORDs, with their Ideas and what we thought of it. This was the ground work for what was going to be named "Pirates of the Burning Sea" the game was being born and first we just thought it was going to be vaporware. but it turned out that they were serious, they bought a Game engine called Alchemy. when the early ship models started to appear in screenshots, POTBS was born. it was crude compared to what it is now. but very promising. FLS at the time had no forum. or a website for POTBS, they used our forums until they got theirs setup. it was a slow crawl at first for them. The idea of the game has changed from when it was first imagined, thats what I am referring to. only those of us who been around that long will remember this. and understand it. So clearly you have no clue. this was back in 2001, in the gaming world that was a lifetime ago. It is never a good thing to assume that you know everything. if your lucky you can still find these very early screenshots. And the ships in them are, late 1700 warships, One I recall was a 74 SOTL, and a fantastic frigate from the same era. And a sweet brig, no longer in game. Oh and maybe you should read the early Dev logs because it is all in there to..And as for trolling thats a plain insult. I been here a long time and a contributer to this community. there is no reason to be insulting. If you cannot add to a thread in a positive manner, than don't post at all. We don't have time to engage in Flame Wars. If you want to we could continue this in PM, I am not about to clutter up the Forum.</div>

Relax mate.

I see you have been following the game longer then me, but the way you put it in your first post it sounded all like these changes where done <b>after</b> Sony took over. And also that you said that no MMO's did cost 50$ and then only 30 days free (that is actually really quite common with most MMO's really) sounded all together like trolling.
Reading your second post helps to understand your first post a bit better (not easy to understand if it's just a big block of text).

Don't know what timeline it initially was planned, but for the last years it was pretty clear it's going to be the 1720's. Also they never talked about an offline mode in the last years. Not that I know of at least.

I don't see this game as a waste of time, but it sure has it's flaws. If FLS makes itr right, this game can get something like EVE Online, a games that grows into a really good game.

Inzane · Feb 23, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DonkeyPirate @ Feb 23 2008, 04:38 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240313"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Inzane @ Feb 22 2008, 06:08 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240069"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>well DonkeyPirate, it you have been following this game for so long than you would have known it was meant to be in the later 1700s. So let me clear this up for you. and it starts with me telling you a story, Once upon a time FLS was trying to find a new game to make, as a small game dev or more like hobbyists gone pro at this time, A few members of the company liked to Play a Game called AOS II. We would all play into the wee hours of the night. Well it turned out this inspired our DEV friends. they posted on our forum over at SEALORDs, with their Ideas and what we thought of it. This was the ground work for what was going to be named "Pirates of the Burning Sea" the game was being born and first we just thought it was going to be vaporware. but it turned out that they were serious, they bought a Game engine called Alchemy. when the early ship models started to appear in screenshots, POTBS was born. it was crude compared to what it is now. but very promising. FLS at the time had no forum. or a website for POTBS, they used our forums until they got theirs setup. it was a slow crawl at first for them. The idea of the game has changed from when it was first imagined, thats what I am referring to. only those of us who been around that long will remember this. and understand it. So clearly you have no clue. this was back in 2001, in the gaming world that was a lifetime ago. It is never a good thing to assume that you know everything. if your lucky you can still find these very early screenshots. And the ships in them are, late 1700 warships, One I recall was a 74 SOTL, and a fantastic frigate from the same era. And a sweet brig, no longer in game. Oh and maybe you should read the early Dev logs because it is all in there to..And as for trolling thats a plain insult. I been here a long time and a contributer to this community. there is no reason to be insulting. If you cannot add to a thread in a positive manner, than don't post at all. We don't have time to engage in Flame Wars. If you want to we could continue this in PM, I am not about to clutter up the Forum.</div>

Relax mate.

I see you have been following the game longer then me, but the way you put it in your first post it sounded all like these changes where done <b>after</b> Sony took over. And also that you said that no MMO's did cost 50$ and then only 30 days free (that is actually really quite common with most MMO's really) sounded all together like trolling.
Reading your second post helps to understand your first post a bit better (not easy to understand if it's just a big block of text).

Don't know what timeline it initially was planned, but for the last years it was pretty clear it's going to be the 1720's. Also they never talked about an offline mode in the last years. Not that I know of at least.

I don't see this game as a waste of time, but it sure has it's flaws. If FLS makes itr right, this game can get something like EVE Online, a games that grows into a really good game.
</div>
I still am a fan of FLS, regardless. but there has been some decisions made along the way I won't agree with. And one that rings out was the cost. years ago it was announced they want to keep it around 20 dollars USD. than for years it was never brought up. and at the moment of launch they announced 50 USD. A bit steep just for a installer. 35 usd would have been more acceptable. As with anything the cost will come down. and the servers more stable. my issues will be resolved.
FLS used me as a Beta tester because of my critical thinking and my abilty to point out issues a fan would overlook. getting a game ready for launch using fanboys as beta testers would be a huge mistake. None of us want to see POTBS head in the same direction SWG did. believe it or not FLS is paying attention, they already have made some changes. So I won't write them off just yet.

skull · Feb 23, 2008

Haaar! Gents, had to poke me nose in here cause just purchased the game 6 days ago. have to agree with Inzane cause in Canada, game cost $54.99 plus tax. Then you have to buy a month game card to get the 30 day free. Total cost $82.95 CDN. not cheap for shipmates still goi'n to School. Then if you play as a pirate and ye be want'n a Parrot, cause we all know if you play as a Pirate ye just have to have a parrot, if ye did not preorder, buy a Prima guide for another $29,95 + tax to get a free Parrot, yer over a C note.
Game wise, I'm at level 11, and luv play'n my customized character{ without my parrot} You can truly play as a pirate in this game, Graphics are decent, Huge learning curve, but I luv it. Hate the fact can't walk on the deck Of me ship { spoiled by POTC}. Just me humble opinion of a Newb to this game <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :drunk

" border="0" alt="buds.gif" />

DonkeyPirate · Feb 23, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Skull @ Feb 23 2008, 01:09 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240445"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>Haaar! Gents, had to poke me nose in here cause just purchased the game 6 days ago. have to agree with Inzane cause in Canada, game cost $54.99 plus tax. Then you have to buy a month game card to get the 30 day free. Total cost $82.95 CDN. not cheap for shipmates still goi'n to School. Then if you play as a pirate and ye be want'n a Parrot, cause we all know if you play as a Pirate ye just have to have a parrot, if ye did not preorder, buy a Prima guide for another $29,95 + tax to get a free Parrot, yer over a C note.
Game wise, I'm at level 11, and luv play'n my customized character{ without my parrot} You can truly play as a pirate in this game, Graphics are decent, Huge learning curve, but I luv it. Hate the fact can't walk on the deck Of me ship { spoiled by POTC}. Just me humble opinion of a Newb to this game <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/buds.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :drunk

" border="0" alt="buds.gif" /></div>

Now that really sucks. I'm not too mad about the Parrot (now I would love to have one), but this is sad practise now that people who preorder or spent additinal money elswhere get the goodies. No one is nice to the poor paupers anymore.
The game did cost 50â‚¬ here (standard price) and yes I had to make another subscription, but I used my credit card for it. So I don't need to pay subcription until the 30 days are over.
By a very lucky incident I got mine for 20â‚¬ (misslabeled stack of boxes)..

skull · Feb 23, 2008

Aye DP, a stroke O' luck to get the game at that price, heard a rumour ye can get a parrot as a quest reward, but as of yet have not found any info as to which quest or what level ye need to be to aquire a featherd friend <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :cheers

" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

Traymar · Feb 25, 2008

Hey guys do yourselves a favour and don't rubbish this game until you've actually tried it.

I am a long term pirate game fan and tbh this is very near the best there is. I paid the same price for this as I did PoTC when that was released, and the same price for WoW. The monthly fees are pretty much standard nowadays...i think WoW is Â£1 a month cheaper in the uk, but then again it is a 2 year old game now.

The sailing in this game is good and interesting, with numerous different tactics being employed, depending on type of ship and how it has been modified, and of course the players personal preferences and class.
The boarding combat and land combat is an interesting change from the sailing, and differs very little from the method of fighting in PoTC. It is easy to do with just a little knowledge, but has enough tricks/variations/styles to make it interesting.

The game as has been previously stated is set in the 1720s, but they have changed some things to adapt for gameplay since this is a game and not a simulation.
There is about 102 ships available in total which are being changed slightly as the game develops for balancing. This gives you the chance to play numerous different tactics/styles.

PVP at the moment is a little bit slower than I would like, but then again its a new game and will take a while for the numbers to settle down and level up a bit. The port battles with 26 people on each side are a blast though those having the higher number of SoLs (Ship of the Lines) are tending to dominate now, however tactics and working together are becoming an increasingly more important factor.
PVP is easily avoided since it can only take place in certain areas unless both sides are Tagged for pvp on. So if your not the pvp type its easily avoided.

The economy is very very good with products like ships can be produced from numerous raw materials which have to be harvested, manufactured into the numerous parts required then built as a ship. I myself have a Trader character and enjoy making regular runs through "blockaded" ports, avoiding player trying to intercept me as I go.

You can play the game as

Naval Officer - You get to use the biggest ships with the biggest firepower
Privateer - Concentrating more on manouverability and speed, you are effectively a "sanctioned" pirate
Trader - Speaks for itself
Pirate - Hehe who doesn't want to be a pirate...Board a ship kill the crew then take the ship for yourself

Also within each of these except Pirates, you get to choose a nation to be loyal too from the English, Spanish or French

At the end of the day folks this is a very good game for those who like Pirates or sailing warfare type games. Being able to play against other players adds a lot to the game since they will use varying tactics against you, preventing the boredom from predictability you can get from single player games.
The tutorial itself has improved vastly from when the game first came out, and anyone who has played a pirates type game before will have no problem getting used to the game.

I am in the UK and play on both a European and American server with the only lag i have encountered being my connection/computer.

PotBS is a very good game so please dont judge it until you have played it for yourself. There have been problems, which is what most people read about, but they are getting updates out to address these very quickly which is more than could be said for most companies.

Anyway I hope this helps ease the worries that some people have about the game, it is good and it certainly deserves more than a chance to get better. IMO this game is easily worth the Â£9.99 a month I pay, for the 30+ hours a week it provides me with entertainment.

morgan terror · Feb 25, 2008

how many NPC's are there? i've played a game much like it which had nearly no NPC's at all. the bigger ships often had 70 players on board EACH, and where completely built, maintained, captained and crewed by real players. it worked amazingly well. running a blockade would often involve 300 players on each side at the very least, and about 8 big ships. sometimes you'd have the flotilla of brigs and sloops, of course, but the bigger ships where usually preferred.

skull · Feb 25, 2008

Just for the record mates, I'm not trashing this game at all, I find it entertaining and interesting. It's not easily done getting a SOL in POTBS as POTC Moragan, you really have to work your butt off to get one when yer a newb. Currently sail'n a Bermuda Sloop with a deed and have all upgrad slots filled. All around nice ship my level of Sixteen. Took me a week of hard play'n to reach that level, simply cause of the learning curve. I'd really like to get my hands on a Mastercraft Packet ship with all the cool upgrades. Dirty fighting skills for a Pirate are pretty neat for sure, nothing like an elbow in the face or slashing your opponents foot to wake em up <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/danse1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :dance

" border="0" alt="danse1.gif" /> Overall am enjoying the learning curve as there is much to learn and do. ship battles are realy neat and yep as a pirate you can capture a ship only if you have that skill or scavenger for extra booty. Just got my first decent haul off a East India merchents, Pearls which gave me a nice boost to my coffers. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :cheers

" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

Traymar · Feb 26, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Morgan Terror @ Feb 26 2008, 03:37 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=241085"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>how many NPC's are there? i've played a game much like it which had nearly no NPC's at all. the bigger ships often had 70 players on board EACH, and where completely built, maintained, captained and crewed by real players. it worked amazingly well. running a blockade would often involve 300 players on each side at the very least, and about 8 big ships. sometimes you'd have the flotilla of brigs and sloops, of course, but the bigger ships where usually preferred.</div>

There are hundreds of NPCs of various types/ships/levels.....i've never had a shortage of targets

Skull - at 17 get yourself into a locust corvette....very very good ship...combination of power speed and quick turning, a good all rounder. The locust MC is even better <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

DonkeyPirate · Feb 26, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Inzane @ Feb 23 2008, 10:22 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240396"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DonkeyPirate @ Feb 23 2008, 04:38 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240313"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Inzane @ Feb 22 2008, 06:08 AM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=240069"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'>well DonkeyPirate, it you have been following this game for so long than you would have known it was meant to be in the later 1700s. So let me clear this up for you. and it starts with me telling you a story, Once upon a time FLS was trying to find a new game to make, as a small game dev or more like hobbyists gone pro at this time, A few members of the company liked to Play a Game called AOS II. We would all play into the wee hours of the night. Well it turned out this inspired our DEV friends. they posted on our forum over at SEALORDs, with their Ideas and what we thought of it. This was the ground work for what was going to be named "Pirates of the Burning Sea" the game was being born and first we just thought it was going to be vaporware. but it turned out that they were serious, they bought a Game engine called Alchemy. when the early ship models started to appear in screenshots, POTBS was born. it was crude compared to what it is now. but very promising. FLS at the time had no forum. or a website for POTBS, they used our forums until they got theirs setup. it was a slow crawl at first for them. The idea of the game has changed from when it was first imagined, thats what I am referring to. only those of us who been around that long will remember this. and understand it. So clearly you have no clue. this was back in 2001, in the gaming world that was a lifetime ago. It is never a good thing to assume that you know everything. if your lucky you can still find these very early screenshots. And the ships in them are, late 1700 warships, One I recall was a 74 SOTL, and a fantastic frigate from the same era. And a sweet brig, no longer in game. Oh and maybe you should read the early Dev logs because it is all in there to..And as for trolling thats a plain insult. I been here a long time and a contributer to this community. there is no reason to be insulting. If you cannot add to a thread in a positive manner, than don't post at all. We don't have time to engage in Flame Wars. If you want to we could continue this in PM, I am not about to clutter up the Forum.</div>

Relax mate.

I see you have been following the game longer then me, but the way you put it in your first post it sounded all like these changes where done <b>after</b> Sony took over. And also that you said that no MMO's did cost 50$ and then only 30 days free (that is actually really quite common with most MMO's really) sounded all together like trolling.
Reading your second post helps to understand your first post a bit better (not easy to understand if it's just a big block of text).

Don't know what timeline it initially was planned, but for the last years it was pretty clear it's going to be the 1720's. Also they never talked about an offline mode in the last years. Not that I know of at least.

I don't see this game as a waste of time, but it sure has it's flaws. If FLS makes itr right, this game can get something like EVE Online, a games that grows into a really good game.
</div>
I still am a fan of FLS, regardless. but there has been some decisions made along the way I won't agree with. And one that rings out was the cost. years ago it was announced they want to keep it around 20 dollars USD. than for years it was never brought up. and at the moment of launch they announced 50 USD. A bit steep just for a installer. 35 usd would have been more acceptable. As with anything the cost will come down. and the servers more stable. my issues will be resolved.
FLS used me as a Beta tester because of my critical thinking and my abilty to point out issues a fan would overlook. getting a game ready for launch using fanboys as beta testers would be a huge mistake. None of us want to see POTBS head in the same direction SWG did. believe it or not FLS is paying attention, they already have made some changes. So I won't write them off just yet.
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I agree, I think FLS is going the right way. But the game isn't at a point yet I'm happy with, so I cancelled my subscription (for now).

I'm going to say what I don't like. I'm pretty sure some people will disagree with me on certain things (and I don't expect anything else).

Where to start?

What annoys me most is the loading times.
For example:
-I'm arriving in Morgan's Bluff from open see (Loading Screen). After the loading screen I better not move for 10 seconds because my HD is still spinning like crazy.
-I run to the shop, takes me just 10 second (Loading Screen). Again 10 seconds waiting till my HD stops spinning.
-Do my Shopping and exit (Loading Screen). And the wait again afterwards.
-Go to the Tavern, takes me 5 seconds (Loading Screen). Again waiting ... , I guess you got my point.
There are far too often loading screens and it just disrupts the game far too often. I know we'll always have a loading screen between Ship mode and Avatar mode, but ideally they should remove the loading screens when entering Shops, taverns and so on. Or at least shorten them if possible.

Then there is the lagging issue.
Whenever I run past other players it starts lagging. Also the overall performance isn't good. Sure my PC isn't high end (it's still good), but the graphics in PotBS are nothing special. It's not the crysis engine. I got much better looking games running smoother on my PC then PotBS.
Oh and I did all the tricks to increase performance. Work myself in IT and used to be workstation support) and it's a hobby of mine. I very confident about my PC skills (not the mega expert, but good enough).
I just can't accept that amount of lagging for a game that looks like PotBS.

Things repeat themselves too often.
After doing mission after mission, I realised that all the warehouses I had to search looked exactly the same. Caves almost the same.
Now I play CoH/CoV and yes every warehouse there looks the same, but the layout changes at least. That needs to happen with PotBS too.

Lets go to the sea. Open sea travelling is fine.
But I would like to switch to a closer view (the battle view) and see my ship sailing (much like in EVE watching your ship flying through space). That brings me to another problem. The physics are completely wrong. The way ships behave on waves is just wrong. That really destroys the feel of sailing for me.
Also I miss the weather effects. Storms would be very fun. Imagine to have to sail through a storm in the battle view.
Also great would be walking on your ship and be able to enter the Captains Cabin (maybe with the option to redecorate it).

The game just feel to much like a single player game right now.
You really rarely get encouraged to group. There is almost no interaction between the players beside the chat. I never saw any RP going on. Sure most of it is nothing FLS can do about, but it is mostly a SP game right now. Now that itself would not be a too big problem for me, but there are better Pirate themed SP games out there right now (and I wouldn't need to pay a subscription to play them).

There are other smaller bits and pieces, but I don't want to start boring people too much.

I will play till my 30 days are over, then I will put the DVD in my drawer and I think in a year or so I'll come back to take a look at PotBS. Maybe things that will make the game worthwhile for me will have improved by then.

As I said before I think that FLS is on a good way. I also think that this game will grow over time like EVE did (and still does).

skull · Feb 26, 2008

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>There are hundreds of NPCs of various types/ships/levels.....i've never had a shortage of targets

Skull - at 17 get yourself into a locust corvette....very very good ship...combination of power speed and quick turning, a good all rounder. The locust MC is even better <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="

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Aye mate, hit level 16 last night and captured a Mediator Heavy Cutter, Nice speed and firepower, doesn't turn as well, maybe with some turning buffs that will imrove. At level seventeen more opportunities seem to open up ship wise. Iv'e looked at corvette and does look to have nice stats on the mastercraft. Either a MC locust corvette or a MC Packet ship will probly be what I'm after. Try the Master Dirty Fighter at Golden Lake, got me arse whopped good on the beach against 5 of his cronnies, although I beat Master Dirty Fighter at Morgan Bluff. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=" :cheers

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morgan terror · Feb 26, 2008

i didn't say getting a big ship was easy in the online game i'm talking about either. almost all the big ships are privately owned by the flag leaders, who've taken years to get up to that position. the officers of the flag are allowed to use them in battle or add a whole ship of themselves to the fleet. it can take at least two years to get yourself a war frigate, and then you have to somehow get the crew together, raise a flag, and learn how to guide 70 people from around the world into running a ship properly. it's tricky stuff. each player mans a single post. manning the guns, sails, and everything else is done by players. the captain is fully dependent on his own management and the skill of his crew. the game? puzzle pirates. i made my way up to officer and had a few sloop commands myself, including a dozen or so battles.

POTBS big waste of time

Master Mariner

Privateer

Super Zealot

Navigation Officer

Super Zealot

Navigation Officer

Landlubber

Master Mariner

Landlubber

Master Mariner

Sea Dog

Landlubber

Sea Dog

Landlubber

Magnificent bastard

Sea Dog

Landlubber

Landlubber

Sea Dog

Magnificent bastard