Guys, I think I’m bailing on Pirate already and going Spanish. Those underdogs need help and there’s a small but nice Society going there I’m applying to join. Need to get as much mileage as I can out of preboarding.
I’ll bring my Pirate out tonight to play for a bit if anyone’s around but if not, he’s a’goin’ bye-bye.
Sooo…with only 4 days remaining until the game hits retail, who’s enjoying the pre-boarding, and who’s not? Likes? Dislikes?
I’m considering purchasing the e-version of Prima’s guide (updates are downloadable and free), since it looks like an enjoyable and informative read. Besides, I intend to become the richest Freetrader on the seas (and in the ports), so I need all the info I can absorb! :-)
Skipper
103
Roger that. Brian Rucker is our first Skalywag. Walk the plank!
Erik_J
104
Skipper and I are going to attempt to do some quests in groups, so we’ll see how it goes. So far, Im enjoying the game a good deal, and I haven’t gotten into the economic side yet. I even find the ground combat ok, though boarding a ship is very hectic. i.e. the targeting can be crappy, just learn your quick keys.
Erik J.
Harr! Catch me ye must, firstly!
Dislikes? The missions can feel a bit repetative over time though some along the main storyline are alot of fun. However, you can just blow the missions off and grind at sea via combat with ships in transit. That’s as interesting as you feel like making it for yourself.
I also think avatar/swashbuckling combat needs some work. There seem to be some skill combos that make it too easy (not the ones I chose evidently) but the real issue for me is trying to sort out what my crew is doing. It’s a real mosh pit duing a boarding action and I do have handy skills to, say, shove someone in danger out of the way. But I have no way of seeing the stats of my crew aside from clicking on them, in the middle of a furball, one by one or tabbing through targets and hoping for the best.
That said, I like the feel of melee and I really, really, like the feeling of commanding a “crew” in battle. But I’d like them to tighten up the UI, the AI and balance the duelling skills a bit better. Let me have just a little more situational awareness if not tactical control.
My likes are already pretty well covered.
This thread has made it too tempting and I’ll be pre-boarding tonight just to try it out. Being in a pirate’s guild in Ultima Online was one of my favorite MMO experiences.
Welp, it would appear that I do hate my life.
One-eye Willy has joined the pirate’s life.
Erik_J
108
Feel free to grab Skipper or I if you need help, I should be in for most of the evening. Yay snow! Looks like some quests you can do groups, some not. Not sure how its working yet.
Erik J.
Skipper
109
Gah … hard lockup. Be right back guys.
I shouldn’t have made fun of (Lol)cat island.
Skipper
111
Mmmkay, crashed again. Not nice. And when it happens I go black screen and have to hard reboot. (And “recheck” the game in order to log in.)
I think I’m done for the evening Erik. I’ll be on tomorrow, lets do some more pirating.
Erik_J
112
Weird. I’m just going to attempt to setup this here economy and use the draughtsman plans I got, too. See what happens. I should be around a bit tomorrow.
Erik J.
Erik_J
113
Well folks, I got a drafthouse up and running, so if you need plans for any buildings, I believe I can send them your way given the time and money, as I think those are the only components in this particular workshop. So I can make plans for boatyards, mills, etc etc, now. Seems like a lot of fun, and I think you’ll see a good amount of people in the game at launch.
They do need to find some way to make boarding a boat less crazy, though. Just got devolves into one big scrum. Cool in theory, not so much in practice.
Got to play a good deal with Skipper and Lionel joined us near the end, and we got to do some 6 v 6 sea battles and such that were a lot of fun. Lionel is the shit when it comes to boarding ships.
Erik J.
I finally got time to install and get started, playing as the pirate Amilcar Bolivar for now.
However, I too am tempted to join the Spaniards…
bago
115
When I played I was a French Trader. Freedom Fries be damned.
This makes me laugh although I had a blast playing with you two and hope to do it again very soon. I played the beta for about an hour so I really had no idea what I was doing, but when I played last night, it seemed that I was having a very tough time sinking ships with the 4 cannons per side, so it made sense to just whittle down their crew a bit and then board them. Plus, bonus loot for doing so instead of sinking it.
Now I need to do a crash course on a pirate’s life as well as the economy so I know what I’m doing.
Oh, and bonus points for the copper pots and One-Eyed William in the game. I guess if I ever roll an alt, I’ll name her Cyndi Lauper.
Skipper
117
Wow, what a fun night of gaming. So far I would give PotBS a thumbs up, it’s been fun with a mix of MMO style questing, Eve style ship to ship fighting and a large amount of Pirates! style play. In fact I felt a lot like I was playing in a more detailed and adult version of Sid Meier’s game. One with other people playing right beside me.
I played solo for a bit before pairing up with Erik and later Lionel and I took some screenshots along the way. I would say the game’s strong points are very fun ship battles, a nice flavor of being in a pirate movie, what appears to be a pretty involved and complex player economy, and what appears to be some cool pvp options (we haven’t tried any yet though, more on that later.) The negatives so far would be some instability (server and client,) a lack of any pvp going on yet (that I saw,) and as Erik so nicely put it, very wooden animations (though there are a lot of them.)
I would have a hard time descibing all of the cool moments but there were quite a few times when I had a “damn this is pretty neat” thought. Notably the first time you have multi-ship combat, your first night mission, the variance of the shore based missions, tacking around an enemy and sinking him, boarding your first ship, getting chased by a high level ship, seeing a broadside coming at you by more than 20 guns (gulp!), seeing the open sea for the first time, etc.
Now for some pretty screenshots. There were a few graphics glitches, most I didn’t catch with a screenshot though. Things like edges bliking a bit and being able to see the shark in the bay with no water on him. Easily patchable I would think.
A completed quest.
The Golden Sphinx shows up (Erik J.).
First group naval battle.
The battle draws to a close.
Skipper
118
Erik and I tag-team a Spaniard. Arrrr!
Open sea fight against a pirate.
Traveling the open sea.
Our first night attack, a Dutch Merchantman.
Skipper
119
Erik and I fail to realize we go into combat with two ships about 40 levels higher than us. I crap my pants in the first broadside.
3 man fleet tactics against some pirates. Willy boarded and took out half of them. The man is a machine.
Grapple!
Captured ships ahoy!
Sorry for the pic spam. Damn forum restrictions.
Thanks for taking the time to post those screenshots, Skipper! I especially enjoyed the one of you guys being humbled by the French…
“Incoming munitions, Captain!”
“Holy *hit! Retreat! Retreat!”
haha Good stuff!
(You guys are gonna “make” me pay full price for this puppy today from Amazon rather than waiting until Tuesday to purchase it from BB with my Christmas gift cards, aren’t you?)
