Pirates of the Burning Sea beta

[tomster2300]

I just got into the open beta and am downloading it out - who else is trying it out?

I'm kind of excited.

[tomster2300]

Hey guys, I just remembered all the spyware problems that people had with Sony putting things on their computers. This game is made in association with Sony Entertainment...should I be wary?

[pam123]

I don't think you need to worry.
That rootkit debacle of Sony's has made then extremely touchy on the subject.
It's not that they've wised up but they're still paying from 2005.
That said the ordinary copy protections on games, and their misuse, cause plenty of problems without the need for further inventiveness.

edit : How is the game.?
Write us a review.

[tomster2300]

I would tell you if it would ever finish updating itself. I had it fully updated once but left the computer for awhile and didn't get to play it. I came back, tried to play, and it crashed on me. I reinstalled it (I skipped the dx 9 installation on the first try because I figured I didn't need it with dx 10 installed...) and now it's going through a two hour update. I did install a phys something on the first try, but it didn't ask me to install it again when I accepted the dx 9 installation. Hopefully the dx 9 covered it and it won't be the problem this time.

Keeping my fingers crossed that it won't crash again after this long update.

[tomster2300]

The beta ends on Dec. 23rd, so I thought I'd go ahead and write my initial impressions if anyone wanted to jump in and give it a spin before they begin charging money.

I chose the pirate class and began my journey hoping the game would be similar to Sid Meier's Pirates!, the latest release of the original Sid Meier's video game. Turns out, I was pleasantly surprised. The game is very similar in the look and feel of the classic remake, but on a much larger scale; somewhat similar to what I envisioned the original game could be.

The game is one gigantic map encompassing Latin America (the Caribbean, Cuba, etc.), and the southern portion of America, including Florida and Louisiana. Each island has a port where you can dock, outfit your ship, explore the town, interact with npcs, take on missions, and restock on supplies and visit the auction house. Each port is owned by one of the playable nations, with open pirate ports existing as well. You must sail between port to port on the map and npc ships are plentiful for you to attack. When you enter a naval battle a loading screen takes you out of the main map and into your own battleground which only members of your group (if you're currently in a group) can enter and exit freely. I'm not sure if clan members will be able to enter your battles, but there is an ability to send up flares when you're in need of assistance, so I'm hoping that the ability for larger battles to occur with reinforcements coming to your aid is something the developers are considering.

You can grapple your opponent's ship and board it, where a battle occurs on board between captains and their crews of 6. Based on how many crew each have you can call in reinforcements to replenish your party (you can counter this before boarding by shooting the enemy with anti-personnel ammo), and you win by killing the enemy captain once or twice (still trying to figure out why some victories occur after the captain dies once, while others let him respawn).

The control and combat scheme both on the sea and land is similar to WoW with the number keys being pushed to use skills and abilities that are leveled up through xp gained from battle and accomplishments. In this respect WoW and PoTBS are very similar. The exclamation and question marks over the heads of mission npc's are similar as well, while the menus and maps of PoTBS are not as fleshed out as WoW's.

There are missions on land as well, often times with npc escorts who fight alongside as you investigate pirate camps or confront specific renegades who need persuasion to join specific causes (often resulting in your killing them). The missions are similar in nature to WoW as well, although at the moment they don't seem as varied or indepth. Supposedly the developers plan on allowing ships to dock on specific islands and allow exploration on foot through various wooded and jungle environments. I haven't encountered this yet, so I'm assuming it should be something that's in the works.

PvP is accomplished through a system of unrest which can be caused by players in opposing nations' ports. Once enough unrest points are accumulated through missions, killing nearby npc's of that nation, or economic warfare the port and surrounding area turns into a pvp zone for everybody. After two days have passed a final battle begins where 50 players face off in a 25 vs. 25 battle (where everyone is either chosen through a random lottery or chosen based on their level of involvement in causing the unrest) with the winner claiming the port for their own nation. The goal of the game is for a nation to take over all of the ports on their server, which encourages players to unite and act together to achieve a common goal. Once accomplished the server resets all ports and awards and upgrades are dispersed accordingly.

You have the choice between an assortment of classes, including pirate, who answers to no side and has the ability to actually keep and command any ships that they attack in the open sea; privateer, trader, etc., with the only difference I've found so far is the ability of pirates to keep their own ships. Privateers and one other class get commendations which can be turned in for awards at their nation's capitol, but must scuttle any ship they catch. I'm sure they have other abilities specific to their class, but I need to play them first to find out.

The economy is player-run, allowing you to personally develop warehouses and various manufacturing buildings to create raw materials such timber and gravel, or manufactured goods such as ships. You have to first create, loot, or purchase the deeds and recipes for goods or ships in order to make them, while specific raw ingredients can only be found on specific resource plentiful ports. The entire system looks promising and should prove exciting if enough people join the game.

There is an auction house like in WoW, although I haven't played enough to learn if it is world encompassing such as WoW's, or if each port has their own, with larger ports being the more popular for specific items. There's a lot of potential here for pirates because traders and manufacturers have to transport their goods across the sea from port to port because there's no teleporting cargo between locations. This opens up ample opportunities for pirates to intercept players in resource rich pvp zones and steal their goods, only to turn around and either sell it themselves on the market or use it to manufacture their own goods. Pirates get to manufacture anything they'd like as well, including their own ships and ammunition, so they aren't left out at all as far as I can tell.

Pirates gain the skill to scavenge ships after reaching level 10, which allows a more thorough search among abandoned ships (you never actually sink npc ships when fighting them; the crew always abandon ship before you destroy it - you can destroy it later on if you'd like). The ship disappears when scavenged, but often times turns up more quality loot, such as upgrades or actually ship deeds (which can be sold or turned into their corresponding ship at any dry dock at any port).

In all, I really liked this game. It's not as polished as WoW by any means, but it is surprisingly fun for a game that's still in beta. It crashed to Vista four times, some npc's failed to appear before the lastest patch, and some quests still are bugged and grammatically incorrect. But, there's currently enough there to make me want to keep playing it, if only to see how robust the economy becomes and to work my way up to pilot the larger frigates, while the potential definitely exists for more things to be added. It certainly is a satisfying feeling to upgrade ships and feel that increased firepower more effectively pound your enemy. I feel the biggest problem that's going to hurt the game are the land battles, especially the "dungeons" (I guess you could call them that). They're extremely short right now (around 5 minutes for the low level ones) and extremely easy. Even though you can upgrade your land fighting skills and attacks, it's not as robust as the weapon / power customization systems found in WoW.

Of course, WoW has been out for a number of years, and I doubt it was as feature rich as Pirates is when it was first debuted. If that's the case, then we may be seeing a lot more from Pirates after its launch.

Whether you enjoy the pirates theme or not, it definitely deserves a shot.

[tomster2300]

I wrote a lot, but I think at least one or two points I made were a little confusing.

Everybody on the server has to travel around on the open sea to get from port to port, so player interaction is going to be high, even if you can't shoot each other when passing.

The other classes such as privateer can intercept ships on the sea just like the pirate class, but they cannot keep the ships for themselves like pirates can. Once they defeat the ship they get a commendation for it which becomes redeemable for varied rewards at their nation's capital port. I don't think the rewards amount to much atm, but I'm sure the developers will do something more lavish with them in the future.

I personally got tired of the missions and began teaming up with random people to try and pirate the open seas. We took down larger ships together which were a lot of fun, especially since you wouldn't be able to touch those things while on your own. The sea missions, especially the beginning ones, automatically place you outside the port engaged in battle with the enemy (or near them so you can engage yourself). Some missions require you to get close enough to their ship so you can "talk to them", but they all end up with the same ending - a battle where you have to obliterate them or weaken them enough to board them and have a one - on - one battle with their captain to "persuade" him (or her) to join your cause. Luckily in these missions you can usually take the enemy's ship too if you like it or need an upgrade.

I mean, in all honesty WoW's missions weren't much better, and in some cases the missions in Pirates were on par if not better than some of the usual missions found in WoW.

If anyone has tried Pirates of the Burning Seas please respond with your own impressions. I'm getting pretty tired of WoW and this game may take its place, especially since I'd be getting in on it during the very beginning (something that's sometimes key in being able to do everything in some MMOs).

EDIT: I forgot to talk about how beautiful the sea battles were (and the water). Everything about the sea is gorgeous during sea battles - the lighting is superb and definitely shines when the shadows of your ship's sails are cast on the sails of your enemies. The water itself is amazing, especially the rolling waves and the random, but few, weather effects you may play in. You have night battles, and some occurring at dusk too, although the majority happen during the day. It all may depend on an in-game time clock, although none was mentioned during any part I played (I did have to log out during a tutorial because of a problem I found with my router needing a firmware update - which forced me to skip all the other tutorials as well), so maybe it was mentioned somewhere in there. The ships themselves are beautiful and break apart realistically, with shards of wood flying everywhere on specific hits. Yourself and your crew are walking all over your ship during the battle; climbing the sails when raising or lowering them, reloading and firing the cannons, and moving about the ship like you would expect them to during a battle.

Here is a picture of the game, although it looks even better than this at the higher resolution I play it at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Sshot238.jpg

No game to date has been able to implement a moving crew during any kind sailing sequence, let alone during a ship battle, so I was very surprised to find it in a mmo. Very nice touch in my opinion, especially when sailors fly off the ship like rag-dolls when your ship gets really slammed.

[Kasturi]

tomster - I have been enjoying this game since the first stress test.

I can not wait until the release.

You will have to let me know which server you will be on in the release. Maybe we can team up.

Also in case you didnt know, you can leave a ship in your capital city & teleport there anytime you want. For example you leave a ship in Port Royal and you are in Jenny Bay, you can go to the harbor master & click on your ship in Port Royal, you will be teleported to Port Royal.