Pirates of the Burning Sea MMO: Opinions?

[Oskuro]

So, I'm considering maybe joining this game, but since they're not giving free trials, I was wondering if anyone has tried it and cares to share their opinion on the game?

I'm particularly attracted to the player driven economy and naval warfare, although the swashbuckling does rock my boat.

Link to the official site

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

It is goddamn awesome. EVE and SWG wished they had economies as cool as Pirates'.

And there are free trials, albeit only in the form of buddy keys.

I've got a 33 Pirate on Bonny, blazing through the levels pretty quickly, which is rare for me. Not necessarily because it's very easy to level, but I'm just enjoying it enough that I don't feel the grind much. The novelty of ship combat didn't wear off until I was well into my 20s, so I didn't even notice my XP bar until recently.

The naval combat model is a good blend of quasi-realism and arcadeness; neither too Byzantine nor too simplistic. The level system is very good, too: PvP (and to some extent PvE) level differences are "soft", meaning a level 50 will not automatically destroy a level 30 due to sheer lopsided mathematics (a la WoW). Now, the level 50 has more skills, abilities, experience with the game, and ship options available to him, but said level 30 is not immediately as good as dead. Two competent level 30s in appropriate ships could fairly easily take down an equally-skilled level 50, in fact (in general, at least - the exact ships used make a lot of difference).

It has a solid RvR and PvP model, unlike some games (*cough*WoW*cough). Currently there is a little bit of discrepancy between the Pirate RvR model and that of the three Nations - namely, that the Pirates are expected to compete in the same manner as the Nationals, which is not very feasible for a number of reasons. But that stuff is being ironed out pretty quickly, as they've been giving us lots of patches and shiny new content.

Speaking of content, the user content is awesome. Skilled modelers and historians can submit replicas and facsimiles of period ships (they want roughly 1650-1750, I think) for inclusion into the game - about half of the existing ships are player-created. You can also create and upload your own flag/ensign and sail designs for use on your ships.

[Stark]

I found it really boring, and it is Officially the Only Pirate Game Too Boring For Flash the Massive Pirate Fanboy who owns All Pirate Games Ever. We had trials and didn't even play the whole 7 days: soooo booooooriiiing.

However, I found the combat and PvE laughable simplistic, easy and boring. The boarding actions are almost farcical sub-Mount and Blade-level crap, and the land adventures in caves and shit are appalling. The ship combat is better (although still laughably easy) and the econ was very interesting, however.

This isnt' the game's fault, though. The devs were so fucking stupid they decided to set up separate AU servers. Guess what, there were like 80 players in a game that wouldn't be interesting until the players got to critical mass. How fucking retarded is that?

[CaptHawkeye]

So it sucks? Fuck it all. I had been hoping for a game roughly analogous to "Sea Dogs" or "Pirates of the Sea Dogs 2." that would have fixed all of their problems because of the non-existent AI in SD.

Just like SD though, player combat sucks. At least it's nice to see the economy worked out, since it was a widely trumpeted gameplay feature that worked out. I can't wait to hear stories of Depressions in the game market.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

So it sucks?

No. Stark just has ridiculously high standards (not that that's necessarily a bad thing, mind). Shame about the Aussie servers, though, although they seem to have picked up a bit.

Just like SD though, player combat sucks. At least it's nice to see the economy worked out, since it was a widely trumpeted gameplay feature that worked out. I can't wait to hear stories of Depressions in the game market.

Admittedly, yes, the personal combat definitely plays second fiddle to the naval combat. But again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. No, it's not fucking Mount & Blade, because it has to deal with things like "packet loss" and "client side prediction". Boarding combat has noticeable lag now and then as it is, so I'm happy it isn't some bandwidth-intensive super-intricate system.

That said, it is an improvement from typical WoW crap in that it goes outside the box a bit, which is refreshing.

[Thanas]

I've been thinking about trying this out....what do they charge you, and how time consuming is the game?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I've been thinking about trying this out....what do they charge you, and how time consuming is the game?

The usual for any A-grade MMO (so about the same as WoW). I dunno what that translates to in Euros, though.

As for time, it depends on what you're looking for. You can log in and play a mission or two (each takes about 15 minutes on average) and get quite a bit from it, especially at the lower levels. But if you're looking at high-end, endgame content, expect to need to sink more time into it - Port battles (the RvR/PvP endgame Thing To Do) run for 2 hours straight at a time and require a full commitment, plus they're scheduled in real-time.

[Oskuro]

The economic part seems very interesting, so that's covered.

The naval battles I guess are as good as can be expected on a high latency environment, so that's covered too.

So, I'd like to know....

How's the boarding action? Since you can't share your ship with anyone (pity), I guess it's just you, your NPC crew, vs the crew of the opposing ship/player, right? Not wonderful, but not bad either, I hope.

How about exploration? Is there more to the different locations? Or are they just simple ports with resources? Exploring the game-world is usually one of my greatest motivations to play MMOs.

Now, the combat, does it feel dynamic? (like in WoW, where you can move around, and strategic positioning is a factor), or static (like in Lineage, or Neverwinter, where you just push buttons, with no positional regards?). I'm a fencer, so a game with a fluid and somewhat realistic-feeling swordplay (no need for flashes of light with every attack) is something I'd like.


And finally, and I don't hold my hopes high in this regard. Can you immerse yourself in the game-world? (that is, roleplay) Or is the game flooded with leet-speaking smacktard jack-sparrow clones? (I know this will be VERY server-dependent)


Thanks for the replies so far, by the way.

[Stark]

Admittedly, yes, the personal combat definitely plays second fiddle to the naval combat. But again, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. No, it's not fucking Mount & Blade, because it has to deal with things like "packet loss" and "client side prediction". Boarding combat has noticeable lag now and then as it is, so I'm happy it isn't some bandwidth-intensive super-intricate system.

I meant it looks worse than M&B, not has M&B's swordfighting system. It has an interesting idea for combat (with the balance/hp thing), but it looks like a log of shit floating in piss and was completely broken when I played it (order guys to attack captain shoot captain with musket = you win).

In it's favour it has a fair bit of 'hands-off' play like the econ stuff (even moreso than EVE), and lowend levelling happens pretty fast. It's just hilarious that half the detailed/sim stuff they talked about isn't there, and the game looks like a 1999 game. Wouldn't matter if it wasn't boring/empty, and really it was TOTALLY RETARDED to make Australia-only servers. We could play for hours and never see another actual person, which means all the good parts of the design never even HAPPENED. It can 'pick up' all it wants: it'd be like playing an AU EVE shard: complete bullshit. I guess their netcode really, really sucks.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

How's the boarding action? Since you can't share your ship with anyone (pity), I guess it's just you, your NPC crew, vs the crew of the opposing ship/player, right? Not wonderful, but not bad either, I hope.

Yes. I kind of like the boarding combat, personally, but that is admittedly just my own tastes and I'm not sure if you'd like it.

How about exploration? Is there more to the different locations? Or are they just simple ports with resources? Exploring the game-world is usually one of my greatest motivations to play MMOs.

There's not a whole lot of exploration. It's the Caribbean in its entirety, and while there are a few hidden locations, that's pretty much all there is to it: lots and lots of water, with various ports to do stuff in.

Now, the combat, does it feel dynamic? (like in WoW, where you can move around, and strategic positioning is a factor), or static (like in Lineage, or Neverwinter, where you just push buttons, with no positional regards?). I'm a fencer, so a game with a fluid and somewhat realistic-feeling swordplay (no need for flashes of light with every attack) is something I'd like.

If you're an actual fencer, the Fencer class will probably just end up pissing you off, as it's not a particularly accurate rendition of fencing (the three combat classes are pretty romanticized). Positioning can matter to some degree, certainly more than WoW (though I'd take issue with you there that WoW is more 'dynamic' than NWN, but I digress). There's no flashy lights or anything - in fact, the animations are pretty nifty if you just let it sit there and dodge/block/parry all of the NPC attacks.

And finally, and I don't hold my hopes high in this regard. Can you immerse yourself in the game-world? (that is, roleplay) Or is the game flooded with leet-speaking smacktard jack-sparrow clones? (I know this will be VERY server-dependent)

This depends. Bonny is the unofficial RP server, and I've been having a blast there. The leading Spanish RP society (as in Spanish faction, not Spanish language) is hosting a formal RP event about a week or two from now, so I'm hoping to attend that. The metagame is developing nicely, with one British society now acting as mercenary privateers to the highest bidder.

That said, this is the internet. Don't expect lollipops and rainbows in a wonderful world where no one breaks character. As a RPer, you probably want to get the Diplomacy skill so you can talk to members of the other nations - but this has its downside in that you are now exposed to the Antilles area chat in its entirety: "lool [pirate's name here] is a coward runs from brits unless 6v1" "hahaha [brit's name here] come fight me 1v1 ill take you down" "w/e youll just bring friends i kno u r a wuss noob ganker neway" etc.

Immersion is what you make of it, IMO. I'm perfectly happy playing my pirate, because I can filter out the idiots and I realize lots of in-character stuff in normal day-to-day playing is unrealistic at best. Make of it what you will.

EDIT: Surprisingly, no, no Jack Sparrow clones. There's even a Jack Sparrow hair option, but I hardly ever see it, and even then, still no clones. More commonly everyone just makes all their clothes pitch black.

[Stark]

You have separate RP servers? That offends me.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

You have separate RP servers? That offends me.

Heh. Poor Stark.

It's unofficial, mind, and there's lots of people who want nothing to do with RP there. Can you not even join the other servers from AU? I'm pretty sure EU players can join the American servers. And I certainly see the EU servers in my server list, which implies I can join them.

[Stark]

I'm not sure: I think you'd have to hack it, it only showed the AU servers when we were playing (the main and the test). With some actual other players the game would be way better.

EDIT - maybe they changed it? Could you always see other region's servers?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

I've been able to see the EU servers for a couple weeks, at least. Prior to that, I don't know.

[Losonti Tokash]

Gaius, would you be able to set me up with a trial invite?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Since you asked, sure. 'Tis my last one. I'll AIM you.

EDIT: You're not on, so I'll PM you.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Stark

Found This, which may be of some interest to you. Seems a lot of Aussies are playing on the US and EU servers anyway.

[Oskuro]

Since you asked, sure. 'Tis my last one.

Funk! Should have asked for it!

[Oskuro]

Immersion-breaking as they might be, these kind of make me like the game more: Fun Facts

Anyway, I've got my mind set on trying the game now, if at least to try something new/different, and since the price tag includes a "free" month of play, that's fine.

Here's to hoping the European servers are not a pile of retard-infested shitholes.... As many of the WoW realms I've played have been.


I'm thinking of making an Spanish privateer, so I can get a taste of most of the game. Any recommendations?

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Here's to hoping the European servers are not a pile of retard-infested shitholes.... As many of the WoW realms I've played have been.


I'm thinking of making an Spanish privateer, so I can get a taste of most of the game. Any recommendations?

Apparently Roberts (the English EU server) is their "unofficial RP" server. From what I can tell, they (as one might expect) have an overabundance of Brits, so can certainly use more Spaniards.

We have plenty of Europeans over in the US servers though, and I feel compelled to pimp Bonny (our "unofficial RP" server). We definitely need Spaniards - they're currently the underdog, but they've slowly been pulling it together. They're pretty hardcore, and definitely have one of the best RP guilds (Vanguardia de la Cuarta Flota) on the server.

Privateer's not a bad choice for an all-rounder looking to just explore the game, though for this reason they're pretty common while Naval Officers and Freetraders are significantly less so. Also bear in mind that while you'll get special fast, nimble Privateer ships, you won't get the real beasts - Ships of the Line, which only Naval Officers can use (and Pirates who have absconded with said Officers' ships). Since fleet tactics are dominated by period line warfare, it's the Naval Officers who carry the port battles for the nationals. So if you're interested in the endgame RvR, you might want to look at NO.

[Oskuro]

I'm a bit of an alt-aholic, so I'll probably have a couple characters, at least to try all the options.

The idea of joining a US server is appealing, although the major drawbacks are latency, and different time frames (you'll all probably be at work/school while I play), but if there's free access to both sides, I'll probably scout around a bit.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

There's actually an advantage to being around at weird hours - port battles are scheduled in real-time, meaning if the 10,000 points on a port needed to start the battle are accrued at 4 AM, the battle is scheduled 48 hours after that, at 4 AM. Which should translate to something like 11 AM for Europeans.

The current fuss on the Bonny forums is that we Pirates just hammered the French hard, racking up those 10k points on several important ports of theirs, and since we finished it at late night (1-2 AM), their complaint is that they won't be awake to defend the ports come the battles.

So in this respect, weird-hour players (i.e., insomniacs and Europeans) are rather valuable to the team as a whole, in that they can cover otherwise vulnerable hours.

[Oskuro]

Oh well, it is done.... I've got the game, and set it up, but couldn't begin playing (had to to this weird thing called "sleep"), so I'll try it out when I get home after work.

[Oskuro]

I'm finally sailing through the Caribbean, as a proud privateer of the Spanish Crown.

I haven't made it out of the "newbie" areas yet (still sailing on my Halifax Schooner), but so far I can say the game is interesting, and shows promise. If the whole thing doesn't flop like many other titles, and the Devs do improve on the foundation they've laid, it can become quite a good game. We'll see....

Of course, this means there are a lot of rough edges that will scare off very sensitive or perfectionist players, but I'd rather have a game with an stable group of loyal players who love the game (like City of Heroes/Villains), than a bunch of trend-junkies that sign up to whatever is shiny at the time, and cause untold amounts of grief to those who want to enjoy the game. We'll see, indeed.


And, Brother-Captain Gaius... I've joined the Bonny server, and you Pirates are kicking ass! Heh, also, I see why you said the Spanish faction was underdeveloped.

Maybe some day we'll cross paths.... or blades.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

And, Brother-Captain Gaius... I've joined the Bonny server, and you Pirates are kicking ass! Heh, also, I see why you said the Spanish faction was underdeveloped.

Maybe some day we'll cross paths.... or blades.

Perhaps.

I've recently started devoting a lot of time to dedicated PvP (mostly in attempts to intentionally sink my obsolete frigates in glorious combat... and half the time just getting sunk in inglorious combat against chickenshits), so perhaps I'll see you should you venture through some of the PvP zones. That said though, I usually leave the Spanish alone and concentrate on the French and Brits when I can.