After playing around with the original game for about 1/3 through the game, I came across Build 12 Mod. Then, after installing it, and enjoying a LOT of the new additions/changes I started to notice more updates. They are the Post Build 12-Pre Build 13 files of course.
Now, after spending only a little time with each (not getting very far in the 'game' per say, but more of fooling around at sea and on land testing out all the new features/changes), I have come to the conclusion that maybe Build 13 might be headed in a dangerous direction.
I wanted to write up a small bit about this, maybe to help the "old eyes" look at what they are doing from a "new eyes" perspective. This is not a harsh post, just something to think about.
My background is in art & design/cgi with degrees in each. I am an interface designer, and flow analyzer, as well as a weenie internet programmer and website coder. I have dealt with, and even created some of my own, game mods over the many years since 1987 when I got my first computer. I have experience under my belt, so all of the following is not coming out of a young person who simply likes to complain about anything and everything with no real backing than to be a snit!
There is a line between making a game a chore, and making a game entertainment. Build 13 (Post Build 12) is on the line right now how I see it, and may cross it soon with a lot of the really insane ideas and additions coming up. I would rather go do real chores, than play a fake chore on the computer. It’s why we all play games, right? To have fun from doing chores in the real world?
"Ultra realism". You can make things realistic... but that should be as far as you take it: Real'ISTIC'. Not REAL. Having to concern yourself with flint, powder, ball, then even a stick, and maybe if its raining when your firing, and not being able to do this, or that, or some other factor, like the wind is blowing too hard from the left... when will it end? (that was only one example I singled out, it's not a jab at the creator)
Don't lose sight of what makes something FUN in order to fill it up with complete and utter realism.
Some things make the game more fun. Like the more realistic wave form, and cannon fire code. However, having to deal now with powder? That’s going borderline. Next thing you may feel like adding crew training, and broken jam sticks, or the chance that reloading a hot cannon will ignite the new charge when its plumbed.
Weapons locker? Another inventory to keep track of and update, because now there is this slightly annoying "weapon degrading/breaking" code where you now have to hunt down and constantly buy more replacement weapons, let alone finding better weapons to use for you, your team, and now your boarding parties. It's a great idea, which allows you to beef up your boarding party, but is it worth it? I never had a problem boarding in Stock, or Build 12... I basically would clear the decks personally, and my 'crew' were just road blocks to slow down the enemy, as I never allowed my officers to join me as they would ALWAYS die (stock game was stupid).
Morale is a really big one on the frustration side. Pirates! had introduced it, and did a decent job, but it had been annoying. Then I noticed it was added into POTC. To me, there are TOO MANY factors involved in the crew morale. Too many I can’t keep track of it all, and the crew gets upset just trying to sail across the sea from Redmond to Oxbay (which for some reason now is a SERIOUSLY LONG distance from the original map).
Morale can be fun, but it may have crossed the line into the chore zone. Thankfully I can at least turn off food checks to reduce the headaches of morale. Unfortunately, there isn't a "difficulty" setting for JUST morale checks. Playing Apprentice is no fun at all. Every officer I hire is level 10 with insane abilities... and selling some stolen loot gets me $20 grand easy, and ships are cheap! However, to raise the difficulty to make all the other stuff seem more fun/challenging, it ALSO raises (greatly) the quickness that crew get arnry. That needs to be a second difficulty setting “Morale Difficultyâ€.
The inventory is a mess. There are so many items now, that side-scrolling (the current inventory method) is laborious. Most of it is due to adding too much realism. All the ammo stuff. All the minerals? And then all this "throwable stuff". Let me talk about the land fighting system...
The game has the worst land based fighting system ever conceived. You cannot move at all while fighting. You cannot sidestep (properly), and it’s just a kludge overall. This is not the fault of the Build Mod! This is the ROOT system of the game. The original creators only saw fit to have simple sword play, and firing off a shot (once, because firing while in sword range gets you killed, and you can’t ever seem to run enough away to get distance to fire a second shot). So, they made the fighting system basic. This basic code does NOT lend room to enhanced land based fighting at all. Not until someone can break the code, and add new animation models, key presses, interaction code, and abilities.
Now, with the addition of all these new weapons, throwables, ammo, restrictions, fists, etc... the base fighting code simply does NOT WORK. A "Melee Fighting" setting in the BS.h file should be added of "Basic" and "Complicated" so people can turn all that off. Where if it’s set to basic, then all that extra stuff is removed from the game. Removed from inventory the throwables, the ammo parts, and fists etc.
Weapon qualities are a nice idea, however having weapons degrade with usage borders the line of ruining fun. It is a chore to keep an eye on your sword, and go hunt down a new one, or a blacksmith to fix them. When did this turn into a fantasy RPG? Don’t get me started on the armor either, hehe. Armor (in its entirety) needs to be a toggle in BS.h.
I had touched on the "randomness" of ships in the shipyard in another thread. Granted, in the real world no two ships were EVER built the same, and their ratings, speed, holds are all different. A smuggler always had a hidden hold for extra loot. The Superior was faster than any other corvette. However, does that serious complexity really belong in a "game" ? I hate going into a shipyard now to find a new boat, because it becomes something that I'm going to waste a good halfhour/hour on reading and looking over all the specs. At least, if this feature was to be added, there should also have been a method of grouping and sorting the ships in game, and possibly little flags/markings of "this is better than this one" visuals to help the ship shopping go easier. Right now, I rather leave it to chance and go board a pirate ship and "take or leave" what I found. That seems more fun than going into a shipyard now to find a boat.
Wow, this has gotten really long. If anyone is still reading, thank you... hopefully I haven't upset anyone with this. I am just seriously concerned for this Build Mod. It has a massive amount of interface and flow upgrades that are wonderfully added, and duly appreciated over the 'stock' game interface/control. The updated graphics, the massive inclusion of more skins and visuals is all appreciated!
It's just however, at the cost of suffering way too much realism, to get all the wonderfulness of the additions... may be reaching (if not overstepped) the borderline of making the game a chore to play, instead of entertaining.
Personally, I would love to see a lot more toggles in the BS.h file for anything resembling realism. Either to toggle an entire system off, removing it from the game, both visually (as in unneeded items), and physically (as in too much code being run/calculated - which may not be possible with the way the root core was made, but at least turning off stuff visually can be done). For an old game, it runs pretty choppy on my system which can run Shader 3.0 games in full fluid ability. Hehe!
Please, this write-up was not a slam, nor was it meant to stab at any of the fine mod contributors out there. All of this stuff is incredible, and wonderfully built. I applaud you all. Just try not to lose sight of "THE GAME". If there are things that are more for the grueling real-time ultra-realistic players who like the chores in a game (thus making it a Simulation, not a Game), then PLEASE put all those things as settings in BS.h.
I will shut up now.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
Now, after spending only a little time with each (not getting very far in the 'game' per say, but more of fooling around at sea and on land testing out all the new features/changes), I have come to the conclusion that maybe Build 13 might be headed in a dangerous direction.
I wanted to write up a small bit about this, maybe to help the "old eyes" look at what they are doing from a "new eyes" perspective. This is not a harsh post, just something to think about.
My background is in art & design/cgi with degrees in each. I am an interface designer, and flow analyzer, as well as a weenie internet programmer and website coder. I have dealt with, and even created some of my own, game mods over the many years since 1987 when I got my first computer. I have experience under my belt, so all of the following is not coming out of a young person who simply likes to complain about anything and everything with no real backing than to be a snit!
There is a line between making a game a chore, and making a game entertainment. Build 13 (Post Build 12) is on the line right now how I see it, and may cross it soon with a lot of the really insane ideas and additions coming up. I would rather go do real chores, than play a fake chore on the computer. It’s why we all play games, right? To have fun from doing chores in the real world?
"Ultra realism". You can make things realistic... but that should be as far as you take it: Real'ISTIC'. Not REAL. Having to concern yourself with flint, powder, ball, then even a stick, and maybe if its raining when your firing, and not being able to do this, or that, or some other factor, like the wind is blowing too hard from the left... when will it end? (that was only one example I singled out, it's not a jab at the creator)
Don't lose sight of what makes something FUN in order to fill it up with complete and utter realism.
Some things make the game more fun. Like the more realistic wave form, and cannon fire code. However, having to deal now with powder? That’s going borderline. Next thing you may feel like adding crew training, and broken jam sticks, or the chance that reloading a hot cannon will ignite the new charge when its plumbed.
Weapons locker? Another inventory to keep track of and update, because now there is this slightly annoying "weapon degrading/breaking" code where you now have to hunt down and constantly buy more replacement weapons, let alone finding better weapons to use for you, your team, and now your boarding parties. It's a great idea, which allows you to beef up your boarding party, but is it worth it? I never had a problem boarding in Stock, or Build 12... I basically would clear the decks personally, and my 'crew' were just road blocks to slow down the enemy, as I never allowed my officers to join me as they would ALWAYS die (stock game was stupid).
Morale is a really big one on the frustration side. Pirates! had introduced it, and did a decent job, but it had been annoying. Then I noticed it was added into POTC. To me, there are TOO MANY factors involved in the crew morale. Too many I can’t keep track of it all, and the crew gets upset just trying to sail across the sea from Redmond to Oxbay (which for some reason now is a SERIOUSLY LONG distance from the original map).
Morale can be fun, but it may have crossed the line into the chore zone. Thankfully I can at least turn off food checks to reduce the headaches of morale. Unfortunately, there isn't a "difficulty" setting for JUST morale checks. Playing Apprentice is no fun at all. Every officer I hire is level 10 with insane abilities... and selling some stolen loot gets me $20 grand easy, and ships are cheap! However, to raise the difficulty to make all the other stuff seem more fun/challenging, it ALSO raises (greatly) the quickness that crew get arnry. That needs to be a second difficulty setting “Morale Difficultyâ€.
The inventory is a mess. There are so many items now, that side-scrolling (the current inventory method) is laborious. Most of it is due to adding too much realism. All the ammo stuff. All the minerals? And then all this "throwable stuff". Let me talk about the land fighting system...
The game has the worst land based fighting system ever conceived. You cannot move at all while fighting. You cannot sidestep (properly), and it’s just a kludge overall. This is not the fault of the Build Mod! This is the ROOT system of the game. The original creators only saw fit to have simple sword play, and firing off a shot (once, because firing while in sword range gets you killed, and you can’t ever seem to run enough away to get distance to fire a second shot). So, they made the fighting system basic. This basic code does NOT lend room to enhanced land based fighting at all. Not until someone can break the code, and add new animation models, key presses, interaction code, and abilities.
Now, with the addition of all these new weapons, throwables, ammo, restrictions, fists, etc... the base fighting code simply does NOT WORK. A "Melee Fighting" setting in the BS.h file should be added of "Basic" and "Complicated" so people can turn all that off. Where if it’s set to basic, then all that extra stuff is removed from the game. Removed from inventory the throwables, the ammo parts, and fists etc.
Weapon qualities are a nice idea, however having weapons degrade with usage borders the line of ruining fun. It is a chore to keep an eye on your sword, and go hunt down a new one, or a blacksmith to fix them. When did this turn into a fantasy RPG? Don’t get me started on the armor either, hehe. Armor (in its entirety) needs to be a toggle in BS.h.
I had touched on the "randomness" of ships in the shipyard in another thread. Granted, in the real world no two ships were EVER built the same, and their ratings, speed, holds are all different. A smuggler always had a hidden hold for extra loot. The Superior was faster than any other corvette. However, does that serious complexity really belong in a "game" ? I hate going into a shipyard now to find a new boat, because it becomes something that I'm going to waste a good halfhour/hour on reading and looking over all the specs. At least, if this feature was to be added, there should also have been a method of grouping and sorting the ships in game, and possibly little flags/markings of "this is better than this one" visuals to help the ship shopping go easier. Right now, I rather leave it to chance and go board a pirate ship and "take or leave" what I found. That seems more fun than going into a shipyard now to find a boat.
Wow, this has gotten really long. If anyone is still reading, thank you... hopefully I haven't upset anyone with this. I am just seriously concerned for this Build Mod. It has a massive amount of interface and flow upgrades that are wonderfully added, and duly appreciated over the 'stock' game interface/control. The updated graphics, the massive inclusion of more skins and visuals is all appreciated!
It's just however, at the cost of suffering way too much realism, to get all the wonderfulness of the additions... may be reaching (if not overstepped) the borderline of making the game a chore to play, instead of entertaining.
Personally, I would love to see a lot more toggles in the BS.h file for anything resembling realism. Either to toggle an entire system off, removing it from the game, both visually (as in unneeded items), and physically (as in too much code being run/calculated - which may not be possible with the way the root core was made, but at least turning off stuff visually can be done). For an old game, it runs pretty choppy on my system which can run Shader 3.0 games in full fluid ability. Hehe!
Please, this write-up was not a slam, nor was it meant to stab at any of the fine mod contributors out there. All of this stuff is incredible, and wonderfully built. I applaud you all. Just try not to lose sight of "THE GAME". If there are things that are more for the grueling real-time ultra-realistic players who like the chores in a game (thus making it a Simulation, not a Game), then PLEASE put all those things as settings in BS.h.
I will shut up now.
<img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="
" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> ).
" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />
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