IMHO that’s probably not true, as other factions can PvP just as easily, and are probably organized enough to more easily get 6 player groups.
The main edge Pirates have PvP-wise is cheaply replaced ships, at least at lower levels.
Edmund Fishfinger is now at level 12 and has just upgraded from a Bermuda Sloop to a Van Hoorn Snow. Once I got used to the snail-like acceleration, I was won over by the punch it packs! And the bow chasers too, of course.
I hit a brick wall with this game around level 8, where I was running through the early missions without really understanding how the combat system worked, and had no idea how to buy new ships etc. Half the problem was my familiarity with WoW - it’s incredibly simplistic in many ways, and Pirates has a lot more combat depth. But it doesn’t ease you into it as well.
Anyway, I got over the barrier and everything clicked into place. Getting out of that infernal starter ship was the first good decision, and now I’m going places. I did lose a ship deed in an early trading mission to Port Royal though before I tool-tipped over a deed and read the small font that explains you lose it when you sink! Argh!
Raife
603
Remember that you can store things in either another ship or a warehouse. I usually park a spare ship wherever I’m running missions just to have somewhere to offload the loot.
Just got my hands on a Triton Interceptor. What a cool ship. It’s a bit more long range, broadside to broadside, than I’m used to. Was sticking with a quick, nimble, Raa Courier frigate for a long while. That’s the kind of ship you can just mosey out with and sweep around enemy lines, tearing up soft aft armor or blocking a bow and hurling grapples over the side, and generally swashbuckling it up with. But I needed something a bit tougher so I could keep up with my missions.
Meh. And if I miss the daring do of risking my neck to execute improbable boarding actions I still have my poleacre. But, man, I should have rolled a PT not a FT. Folks love me for my buffs but I’m all abouts the privateering-style approach to gameplay not hauling cargo!
What did you decide upon? You’re on Antigua, right?
I will be “Father Calistas” on Antigua as soon as the bloody game gets out of Customs (this week? Gah). Anyway. Yes. Antigua it will be.
Damn, they’ve just started up an aussie server with cool parrot thing on your shoulder! Damn… I like parrot things on my shoulder… Never mind! I’ll be on Antigua on some faction or other…
Well, I downloaded the trial and made a pirate on Bonny named Edward Greymane, but sadly the naval combat is totally unplayable for me. 80% of the time, the ship refuses to respond to commands, and just turns in circles, or drives straight into islands. Enemy ships teleport all around. It’s really frustrating. Everything else works fine, and apparently a whole bunch of other people have complained about this issue in their forum, with no resolution.
Do you use a router? If so, are you forwarding the proper ports? Not sure if that would help, but I thought I would toss it out there.
Could be either lag or a video driver issue. If you use Vista there’s a new fix (linked in the patch notes on the launcher) that might help. If you use Nvidia there’s a thread in tech support that talks about the issue and might have links to beta drivers that are helpful.
Yep, I’ve got ports 7010 to 7100 forwarded, but it doesn’t make a damn bit of difference. The first naval battle I do works fine, anything after that doesn’t work at all. Ship won’t respond to commands, sails keep resetting to furled, can’t turn, can’t fire, just keep teleporting occasionally and getting shot repeatedly. Out of four MMO’s I occasionally play, only this one doesn’t work. I wonder what they fucked up in their net code.
It’s not a video driver issue, it’s unquestionably a net problem. I’ve tried the fix they have on their front page, it doesn’t do a thing, and the thread where they posted it is full of people saying the same thing, unfortunately.
Whoa, I saw Graymane when I was on today. Didn’t know it was you. Hope your problems get ironed out.
It’s Greymane, actually. I picture him as an english expat.
Ugh. Yeah, I doublechecked everything. Right ports open, tried the fix they suggested - does nothing. I can do one naval fight, but as soon as I board, or go back to town, or anything else, I’m helpless on the ocean. It might be the Linksys BESR41 v2, who knows.
My lag’s gone away since I’ve tried the Vista fix but I’m still getting the odd random discon (sometimes tied to a “SOE Connection Has Timed Out” message and sometimes not). I think the latter may have to do with the unoptimized netcode they’re using. If there’s any significant latency across the connections you’ve got to PoTBS it doesn’t recover very well at all. One of the techie devs mentioned this in a thread where some of us were talking about our issues and it’s definitely slated to be fixed.
Off Topic: I’m starting to remember why I don’t like PvP. Even on Bonny, a server where a goodly amount of the players are great people and a pleasure to be around, there’s just some kind of innate gravitic* force that comes with this kind of gameplay that attracts an inordinate amount of maniacal power freaks who take games way too seriously (this coming from an admitted Qt3 poster) and general purpose assholes that just haven’t yet met a nice girl to settle down with, or a stray dog to adopt, and beat on a nightly basis when life isn’t working out quite right.
Some of these people are just exhausting to be around. Some, though, are tres cool and helpful. But man…even when I see PvP implimented in a way I think is pretty brilliant it still grinds me the people that come along with the gameplay.
Maybe one day we’ll figure out how to make a PvP game without that second P.
*I mean gravitational. That’s just how tired I’m getting.
You’re always going to be running into those kind of folks, because PvP is a competitive aspect (even PvE), and those with a highly competitive nature will go there and let it dominate them. That’s just kind of how it is.
— Alan
I keep thinking the levels in this game are similar to those in WoW, but in reality it’s far more important to think about the type of ship and how much weight of iron it’s throwing out as to whether you stand much of a chance. Yesterday I beat a pirate (PvE) 14 levels higher than I was because my group mate went in there first and pummelled it until I could sneak in to board. I thought I’d get marmalised, but I had 3:1 in favour of crew and we all went for the captain… victory! Haha!
Sometimes targetting the captain can be a real pain, though - their crew plus your crew all running around like cockroaches on speed! There should be a “target highest ranking enemy” hotkey or something. Either that or my reactions are failing.
I tend to look at targeting as just another tactical option. Do I take the time to tab through all the targets around? Do I maintain optimal situational awareness and possibly fail to react to a threat (or threats) in front of me as efficiently as possible as a consequence? The answer is usually yes but sometimes I get sidetracked by a mob of hostiles or decide I want to thin the herd for this wave.
The only thing that really should change is that there’s no way of keeping track of my own boarding party. I’ve got all these “aid other” skills and no idea when to use them or who to use them on where NPCs are concerned (in the chaos of a boarding action at least). Player characters, on those very rare occasions we’re running around together, are listed as party members but NPCs are not.
The only leadership command I seem to use in boarding actions is “attack target” which comes in extremely useful to prevent them all dying because they won’t work as a team. But I freely admit that I tend not to experiment much in boarding actions because it always seems to get me killed if I do.
[ul]
[li]<Tab> to Captain
[/li][li]<Control>+<Click> Hold the Line for crew defense
[/li][li]<Control>+<Click> Advanced Dodge
[/li][li]<Control>+<Click> Preparatory Attack
[/li][li]run down to deck and click “Attack Target” when it lights up
[/li][li]back up and “Take Aim” for one pistol shot
[/li][li]move forward and whack Captain a few times to knock down his balance
[/li][li]crowd control move or “Brace of Pistols” to finish Captain off
[/li][li]<Control>+<Click> Active Parry
[/li][li]stay alive until Captain returns
[/li][li]<Tab> to Captain…
[/li][/ul]
Offhand shot to Brace of Pistols correction
