Bah. Stand & Deliver is toast, yet another flavor of the month casualty. ;-)
I’m toying with trying to get into the same guild as Quatoria, or switching to a more populous server in a different time zone, in the hopes of finding a bit more PvP density. Maybe Antigua, which should line up with my PST night owl habits, or the EU-EN server which just has tons of players.
Well I’m having a blast with Van Diemen’s Demise on Antigua. So far every day I’ve been on this last week I’ve had no problem getting groups together (usually a core group of players) and getting contention points in or outside PvP zones. There seems to be a regular involvement in port battles, and I hope to get involved in those this week. Plenty of alliances with other pirate socs as well to beef up their impact. So far it’s generally well-organised with the old hands teaching noobs like me how to properly PvP, so it’s a lot better than it was playing solo. There’s a group of US players and Aussie / NZ players with some overlap in time zones. Antigua is more active than Bonny, but not a patch on the EU-EN server. Mind you, not sure if that’s a good thing or not!
Yeah, Antigua is nice huh mate? I’m finding partnering up in this game quite good fun and the VDD guys are always keen on it.
Of course, in MMOs it’s always more fun multiplayer, but there seems to be a nice amount of depth introduced through the team play, especially in PVP. AvCom adds another slice of flavour with so many interesting strategies and approaches. It’s more than just bash the 3 standard attacks and cross your fingers.
IGJoe
764
I got a copy, but have not installed or activated yet. What server and nation should I go with for better chances of playing with fellow QTers?
Rackham has a ton of PvP. The french could use some help there. Currently the Brits and the Spaniards have allied together it appears to take down us French, who were leading for a while but it is now deadlocked again. A few nights ago there were 6 port battles. There are always 6 - 8 red circles on the map daily it seems.
We just had a great night of pirate PVP, on Bonny. I spent most of the night tackling in a corsair xebec, until we got near Havana. We’d been patrolling the waters, and saw that a few guys were hiding, docked at Havana. We pulled back some, and sure enough, a party of three shot out, like a bolt. I zeroed in on the guy in the middle, driving an expensive and hard to get Algiers Refit Polacre. Beautiful ship, commanded by Rhaegar Targaryen of Spain. Managed to catch him and drag him into combat, and as I stripped his sails and slowed him, my friends jumped in with us. After a short, brutal little combat, we boarded him, and then, after wiping the blood off, I took command of my brand new ‘Algiers’ Polacre. I’m fitting her out as a high speed interceptor, and so far, she’s the best trophy I’ve ever won. Man, PVP is sweet in this game.
Congrats on your heroic gank quatoria. salutes
I’m actually getting fried. Taking some time off. Vanguardia is hanging in with morale surprisingly high - except for me. So rather than bring the guys down I’m just backing off for a bit. It just is getting to seem pointless and rather relentless. Constant red circles in places you don’t want them to be and everyone just dropping all pretense of RP to worry about the economy, a battle, ship outfittings, enemy sightings, gankings. It just doesn’t stop.
Which really isn’t a complaint about the game. And certainly not about the server or my Society. This is actually where I thought MMOs should be going in developmental terms for a very long time.
The irony is that I don’t like it much, as it turns out. I don’t like the assholery. I’ve got less patience for being inconvenienced than I thought. I don’t like the sense that I’m letting my buddies down because I’m not in the mood to deal with a port battle or some contention fuss someone’s raising when I’ve got other things I’d rather be doing.
I didn’t feel this so acutely on Eve Online for two reasons, best as I can assess it:
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The server is so big and there are so many places and people out there it’s easy to find a niche where you and whatever corporation you’re in can find a comfortable fit. You really can play a big chunk of the game and never even worry much about PvP even in 0.0 in the quieter or more controlled sectors. There’s a huge amount of territory to get lost in.
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It’s not realm vs. realm. Here there’s a sense that you’re pretty much stuck in the position you started unless you want to reroll from scratch. If Spain’s getting its face kicked in, triggering a cycle of players quitting and few newbies showing up, there’s really no recourse to stop the death spiral. In Eve if an alliance is getting trashed players, hell whole guilds, can split off and do something different. You and those you associate with are their own masters. It’s a big damn universe out there. There’s always a new permutation or angle to explore.
So I’m going to take a break and get some breathing space for now. The new underdog tools could help but I’ll more likely read about them from afar than experience them up close. At least for a little bit.
Not quitting yet. Just regaining some altitude.
If my new laptop doesn’t arrive soon, I’m going to scream. Curse you, Alienware!
I can definitely see that angle, Brian, as the system so clearly rewards nations for abusing the weakest faction, who’s ports are still worth as much. In a more dynamic setting, the last place player wouldn’t hold as much of value, and so wouldn’t be such a tempting target.
I love the Caribbean setting, but nonetheless wonder if the game would work better with player run ahistorical nations, a bigger area, random fractal maps upon server reset, and EVE’s realm-lessness. Even if they do get the balance right (which IMHO with the 4 faction setup they have is impossible without balanced nation population/strength), there is only so much replay in the static map.
I may be a real outlayer so not sure what my opinion is worth in this context. It strikes me that huge battles should be icing on the cake not the cake itself. Battles should be driven by real economic and political motivations rather than scoring points. The thrill of conflict between player driven factions is important but only insomuch as it drives discourse and the economy without overwhelming every other element.
Instead of Master and Commander or even Pirates of The Caribbean out there I get more the sense of a bunch of frigates tricked out like 70’s wacky cars - you know - the kind with the googly eyed, oversized, monsters with bugged out eyes and waggling tongues behind the wheel.
There’s really no way I can see to belong to a faction in PoTBS without constantly being engaged in the fighting or feeling like I should be because everyone else is. There’s never any breathing room. You can’t just find somewhere better to be while you recouperate because the best places to be are red zones and patrolled, around the edges, by gank packs. If I just want to blow the war off and run missions odds are, at higher levels, those missions are in red zones too. You might be able to run the blockade in a sneaky sloop tricked out in dark gear but good luck doing the missions in any ship short of a massive tank of a frigate.
And, as I said, this is just my subjective as hell opinion. That kind of construct could well be what alot of players actually want.
But what I do like about PoTBS overwhelms Eve in my affections. But it should definitely be an object lesson to the folks working on World of Darkness online. Sure, PvP conflicts whether combatant or economic and political absolutely need to be in there. But you need a big world, big enough people can slink around the edges of things and find the degree and manner in which to be engaged, and the freedom to move around or between factions rather than feeling trapped. But from PoTBS we see just how much of a difference aesthetics do make. Avatars, places, emotes and the general lushness of the design makes me care much more about the game than I ever cared about Eve. It also attracts the kind of players who try to bring the setting to life - which WoD Online will desperately need to attract.
Thank you kindly, captain. She’s a beautiful ship, though I feel a bit bad for her previous commander.
You know, after this current cycle is over, Spain is going to end up with some pretty massive “last place” bonuses, to help them spring back. That will probably see them getting new players, once people realize they’ve got some big advantages in the new round.
Well, according to the patcher I’m in for another 22 hour wait. It’s either that or I take it back to the hotel where I’m at right now (and have been for a while) and pay $50nz every time it works through 250mb. Man, their patching is EXTREMELY inefficient is seems. A few small changes to the sound file for example, requires the entire massive file to be re-downloaded it seems.
Anyway, grumble grumble
God, I love this Algiers. She’s just an incredible little vessal, for the level. I managed to singlehandedly chase down and catch another victim in PVP tonight, and we had a few more close calls. She turns on a dime, she has over three hundred crew at level 26, has twenty strong broadside guns, aft and stern guns, and with my speed mods, she moves at 23 knots in battle. Just an INCREDIBLE ship. I’d recommend her to anyone. I REALLY can’t wait to pick up an Arcadia Mastercraft now, her bigger cousin, at level 44. They both have great speed and triangle sails, giving them better close haul speeds than anything else out there. And since pirates have improved close haul speed as part of their class bonus, it’s a match made in heaven. She’s a predator, born and bred.
My download kept stalling, and the ETA would slowly mount up while the completion bar didn’t move. I have to kill the client and restart several times to kick it through it’s paces.
It shouldn’t take that long, unless maybe you’re playing over dialup?
Aft AND stern guns? Holy crap! ;)
Ahh yes, I am essentially over nigh-dialup speeds from work. From home I’m faster, but pay through the nose for it. I am not in NZ right now, overseas on work.
Heh, sorry, I was a bit tired when I wrote that. Long night of PVP. I meant, of course, bow and stern guns.
Crystalized my thoughts in a thread called A Vacation From My Vacation:
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=20011
Come play a pirate! I think that was a great piece of advice on the forum. Mostly we PVP to annoy (as we can’t win) and the rest of the time folks are happy missioning or helping each other get to 50.
Economy stuff happens, but we’re not so busy with it as there’s not as much economy happening. And only one class means you’re not expected to run 3 characters and full production at all times.
Come say hello to Bishop Calistas on Antigua :)
And when we do win, victories are sweeter! Or at least they are for me, because I so rarely win. Mind you I’m still only lvl24 so I’m not really in demand for PvP stuff or port battles yet, so I’m enjoying a more laid-back lifestyle.
