Erik_J
121
I have to say, the hilarity of grouping in this game could only be magnified with voice chat so you could hear each other screaming like little girls when a 20 cannon barrage comes flying at you. Run away! Run away!
It was a lot of fun, I do hope to see more of you in the game.
Erik J.
EDIT: Also, if you DO play, and you DO play in a group, realize that sometimes you will have to set the quests you’re doing to the “active group quest”, which essentially makes it the only choice of quest to do. Go into the journal, go to the group quest tab, which shows all the quests you and your group share, select the quest, then hit the activate button. This was aggravating Skipper and I for a bit til we figured it out.
Skipper
122
Those French ships nearly raped us. We weren’t even sure you could run from a fight at that point, it was an “OH SH*T” moment. :)
As for waiting until Tuesday, you could probably do that without any issue. You might miss a level or two but we’re really just learning the game at this point. I’ve even considered buying the Prima guide since I’m so lost, especially with all the things involved in trade.
Also, I missed a good screenshot of Willy in action (you don’t get to see someone else in boarding combat unless it’s a mission.) But we came into one of Willy’s missions maybe 60 seconds after the man had started. He was already boarding his second vessel. By the time we got to a point where we could shoot he was on his third. The mission completed just as we finally got to fire. He’s being way to humble, the man kicks butt.
EDIT: I agree we need some integrated voice or a ventrilo server for this. It’s way to much fun to miss out on the Monty Python style “Run away!”
How much time does one need to put in to play? Can I log on for 1/2 an hour and do something meaningful? Can I solo, or do I have to group?
It sounds like a great game (and Eve also intrigues me) but I don’t have much guaranteed gaming time - I get an hour or two here and there, but I need to be able to either pause a game or log out / back in once in a while to take care of family situations. This is why I’ve mostly avoided MMO’s since I got married…
Erik_J
124
Most of the quests are designed for you to solo if you do them at the appropriate level. There are some groups that will be sure to let you know THAT IT IS A GROUP QUEST in big caps. Depending on how you play, I think you can either be casual or hardcore. Your labor resources accrue over time, even when you’re not logged in, so you’re not getting screwed on that if you don’t play often.
Otherwise, I can’t see why you wouldn’t be able to do some quests, pirate some ships, etc. Especially if/when PvP gets in full swing. The game has some issues, as Skipper went over. I think this is one of those games where it is what you make of it.
Too bad Skipper didn’t get screen caps of us dropping people with our pistols. That was funny, too. So unfair.
Erik J.
Same here. I’m this close to pulling the trigger on the digital download version as opposed to the paper copy, since it’s an MMO, and they provide free digital updates as the game evolves.
Erik_J
126
Ok guys, I’m putting up a shipyard in Whitby. If you jump in to play, send Golden Sphinx a tell. I’m hoping to get some coordination so we can pop out some ships.
Erik J.
Putting up a shipyard already!? Daaaaa-um!
Does Whitby have a “deep, natural harbor?” I ask because it’s required to build a large shipyard (according to the Prima guide).
Erik_J
128
I’m only building a small shipyard for now, which is enough of an undertaking. The shipyard will be active in one hour build time. It also allows me to build recipes for hulls and rigs.
The pieces needed for a Xebec, which I understand is a pretty badass ship are: anchors, tar, hull, rigging (fore and aft), provisions, swivel cannons, small cannons, and some other things I’m probably forgetting. So, if anyone wants to setup some workshops that could pop out such things, that would be nice. I’m going to have to start pirating pretty heavily to pay for the upkeep on these things, heh.
Started getting some graphical glitches when I updated to Nvidias most recent drivers, so I’m gonna futz around with that before I go back in game.
Erik J.
EDIT: Also, I can create common lumber and gravel, which anyone else in Whitby who did the quests there can do, too, so if someone wants to set up shop in another pirate harbor so we can maximize goods, that might help. I haven’t looked too much at what other places have.
Mordrak
129
I may pick this up at retail, but may pre-order tonight and set it to download.
Someone mind saving the name Ad Hominem in the pirate faction for me? It’s probably taken, just PM me if you happen to save it or it’s taken.
Erik_J
130
Got it. Made Ad Hominem on the Bonny server.
Erik J.
Skipper
131
Funny you should ask that. Witby has indeed a pretty distinct harbor (see below.) Missing from that pic is a large ship shown in construction to the left of where I’m looking. Each port varies somewhat in it’s look. In addition, there is a pretty broad range in the mission locations as well. From a warehouse to a hidden cove, an underground hideout, another ship, a fortress, etc. I think they did a good job with the look and feel of the game.
They do need better chat commands though, we weren’t able to find any reply command in game, so “/tell golden sphinx, ‘message’” got old pretty quick. Fortunately the grouping is pretty simple, and once in a group you can set your default chat to go to the group. It’s also not as seemless as in WoW where you can just hit / and start typing in the chat window. I distinctly had several times when I would start typing that way only to look up and see 5 windows open that I had pulled up with their associated hotkey.
As for the boarding and shore based combat it’s more simplified than ship combat. There are a few techniques you use, each with an associated cost and effect, with varying cooldowns. The gun being is an awesome example of this, doing great damage in a shot but on a several second cooldown. Naturally we cheated with this, Erik shooting one guy, me the other, and easily got through some of the shore based missions. In addition, the standard MMO cheats apply. Running to the nearest zone (door, mission entrance, etc) will allow you to zone out and bandage without anyone following you.
Witby harbor.
Every time I see people post their avatar pics here, my first reaction is to think the poster is ElGuapo because of that silly pirate photo he posted of himself last April.
Meanwhile, back on the roleplaying tip. Emotes are functional (though annoyingly not the default MUSH format of “:” and “;” - I’m currently typing out @emote <pose>) and there are some animated ones that are amusing - but they seem to spam spatial with code. That’s not polished but there are more important things to work on here.
There is also no sit animation. So here’s my Society’s first meeting with us standing around a table instead of sitting properly in chairs. Not terrible but it’d be a big plus. All that atmosphere and we feel like we’re in grand ma’ma’s living room. “Don’t touch that, you can’t sit there.”
There are no ingame bios available either. Often in games you can right click a character and read some entry the player wishes to put in that add details to appearance, backstory or simply advertising for goods and services.
Still, the custom costume design is a winner. I can almost immediately recognise folks by appearance and roleplayers always try to do something a little unique which helps too. The semi-historical setting’s also wonderful. Folks with just a little reading can find a wholly original angle to play based on all kinds of factors. And if the details of Hapsburg politics, for example, don’t float you there are all those little mysterious elements like lost Templar treasures and ghost ships to cook less real politik concepts up with.
This game rates as high as LoTRO for immersion and higher if the strategic and economic games work out well. We’re actually able to take the fight to Sauron!
Does a Society have to contain the same career? That is, all members of the Qt3 society have to be Pirates? Or, can a society contain some or all of the four careers? I ask because I want to play a Freetrader and be part of the Qt3 socety, which appears to be made up solely of Pirates.
Mordrak
136
Many new MMOs lack this feature. It seems relatively simple to implement, but maybe they are afraid of policing that in addition character names. It’s understandable, but I miss that a lot.
This game rates as high as LoTRO for immersion and higher if the strategic and economic games work out well. We’re actually able to take the fight to Sauron!
Cool. It does sound a bit rough, but hopefully not as rough as Hellgate.
I’m on Bonny as Doc Faustus, lvl 9 pirate with a captured sloop.
Where in the $#@! do you find nails? I need nails!!
I also need some fellow pirates to run red tide…
Skipper
138
Hrm … a tip from the tips thread. “Backspace” works as /reply.
Mysterio from the Wiki information, everyone in a society has to be from the same nation, so pirates would be stuck with only pirates. This is quite unlike any other MMO I’ve played though, since not every nation can do every task. So I don’t know how well that works in the long run. You also can only have characters from one faction per server. If you pick pirate, the rest of your characters on that server must be pirate. Same with any of the other nationalities, French, Spanish, and British.
There isn’t an official QT3 society yet either, someone should set that up. I’d gladly kick in some money for it, I think the charter is 1000 dubloons.
Hmm…there are four nations (Britain, France, Spain, and Brethren of the Coast (Pirates)). Britain, France, and Spain nations allow the Naval Officer, Freetrader, and Privateer careers, yet do not allow the Pirate career, while the Brethren of the Coast nation allows only the Pirate career. So, I can only be a Freetrader for Britain, France, and Spain. Doh!
You guys considering the Prima Guide might want to peruse the Flying Labs forums for a bit. If they kept them post-beta, there were some amazingly detailed threads and guides on everything from shipbuilding to combat to the economy. The PotBS beta community was probably the most tightly knit and helpful group of beta folks I’ve ever had the pleasure of playing an online game with, and they knew their stuff cold.
For help with the economy, look for posts by Monthar in particular. They guy was a whiz at the econ, and had a spreadsheet he shared with everyone that made figuring out production, costs and sales a hell of a lot easier.
