Pirates of the Burning Sea: Bonny server

[Erik J.]

What's the penalty for losing a swordfight during boarding?

Depending on your crew levels when you board, each captain will have waves of reinforcements. Say you board, and you have 3/4 waves, because your crew meter was full when you boarded. His was low, AND he has a lower maximum crew than you, so he only has 1/2 waves. Since you have 3 waves remaining, you may die 2 times, OR if your crew is dying, you may call another wave in, which also subtracts one from the total.

The fight could go something like this:
You both charge in, and he absolutely decimates your crew, but you're still standing. You call in a wave. Now you have 2/4. You can call 1 more wave, or you can resurrect once. Now, he kills you. Your crew continues to fight. In 10 seconds you will repop, and subtract another from your waves. So now you're 1/4 left and he is still at 1/2. That means if either of you die at this point, the fight is over, even if there are crew remaining on deck.

It is always imperative to go straight for the captain. There is a button that is "Attack my target", so you want to charge in, target the captain, and hit that. Essentially, you can win without ever hurting his crew.

If you lose completely, you are returned to your ship with very low crew levels until they slowly heal over time, or you pass out some rum. The sea battle continues as normal.

Erik J.

[Erik J.]

I'm level 18 and I'm still in a (player crafted) Bermuda Sloop. I've handled upwards of nine ships if they're broken up into groups and I've got some NPC cannonfodder around.

...

My tactic is pretty obvious. I sail at the closest enemy ship and ram. I've got a reinforced bow so I can take a few hits on it. If unable to grapple immediately I come alongside, with fresh starboard or larboard armor, and fire chain, bar or starshot at the sails. Generally I just stay right on top of the enemy vessel and steer into it. Sooner or later I get my grapple off. I fire off a repair before boarding of there are other enemy ships shooting at me.

Once onboard I tend to let my crew do what it wants. I always hit "Hold The Line" so I don't have to worry about my boarding party's numbers getting too low. And I cut through enemy crewmen first or the captain if I get to him. I never bother with toggling for a particular enemy or using "Attack My Target" except under certain circumstances.

Slow, methodical, under control is how I play it with my Florentine fighter. Sending everyone at the opposing captain can get you killed once NPCs start ganging up on you and have Bleed attacks. Need to keep that balance up.

I will pick on the captain though if I really outclass the defender and he doesn't have many waves left or if my ship's really beat up and under attack. I need to get back to keep it from being sunk while I fight!

So far it works like a charm with only a few close calls.

Haven't done any PvP yet so not sure if these tactics will hold up there.


Interesting. I'm just the opposite as florentine. My balance recovery and instant balance recovery skills allow me to send everyone at the captain, knock him down quickly, and generally finish off his crew in time for his repop.
However, I have to say after doing dirty fighting for awhile, I really like florentine. I haven't tried rapier much yet.

Erik J.

[JM]

Mysterio: It was a mission that had kicked my ass a few levels earlier and seemed like a good one to choose to show what missions are like.

After a long chat last night regarding skills after our bout of PVP, I'm starting to focus on the Pirate skills that allow me to cripple opposing ships. Right now I have a mix of skills that allow me to board easier, devestate the opposing crew and so on. My style of play gets me in close so I've got nearly everything in Gunnery for some serious close-range damage output. However, after the PVP I've seen that speed is everything - as well as the ability to smash sails.

My next choices will be almost all in Destruction, for the likes of Cut Shroud (-25% speed), Foul Rudder and the big daddy of the tree, Cripple Enemy. I'll also look to take the Survival skills because they're so useful, and I'll pick up the 2nd Sacrifice skill which is "Sacrifice For Speed", a huge boost to speed and turnrate at the expense of morale and crew. Given that I'll only use it to run down a fleeing ship it makes sense.

Pop-wise - mostly British, then Spanish, then French. Not sure about the Pirate pop at the moment, but there's some around. We're doing the 2nd best of the Nations at the moment.

[Skipper]

Depending on your crew levels when you board, each captain will have waves of reinforcements. Say you board, and you have 3/4 waves, because your crew meter was full when you boarded. His was low, AND he has a lower maximum crew than you, so he only has 1/2 waves. Since you have 3 waves remaining, you may die 2 times, OR if your crew is dying, you may call another wave in, which also subtracts one from the total.

The fight could go something like this:
You both charge in, and he absolutely decimates your crew, but you're still standing. You call in a wave. Now you have 2/4. You can call 1 more wave, or you can resurrect once. Now, he kills you. Your crew continues to fight. In 10 seconds you will repop, and subtract another from your waves. So now you're 1/4 left and he is still at 1/2. That means if either of you die at this point, the fight is over, even if there are crew remaining on deck.

It is always imperative to go straight for the captain. There is a button that is "Attack my target", so you want to charge in, target the captain, and hit that. Essentially, you can win without ever hurting his crew.

If you lose completely, you are returned to your ship with very low crew levels until they slowly heal over time, or you pass out some rum. The sea battle continues as normal.

Erik J.

That information would have been so good to know. The drawback of electronic download version is I don't have a manual. :( I didn't know that's how the captain repop / crew waves work. Thanks for that Erik.

Also I'm with Erik, I charge the captain usually. I may give my men a second or two to engage, but then I'll charge/shoot the captain, and send them in (attack target.) Knowing I usually get raped if I stand there and do this, I will occasionally "sprint" to disengage myself as I send in my crew on their captain. He will usually die, then I help my crew pick apart his until he repops (with little help left) and it's pretty easy after that. My problem area is that I have little to no sword defense with dirty fighting (parry/block), but decent offense (attack). My most used skills in boarding are attack target, aimed shot, vicious strike, sprint, and bandage.

[Brian Rucker]

Keep in mind through, that at higher levels NPC crew will have specials that lower your balance (and then inflict nasties like bleeds - the Swashbuckling forum is full of people complaining about bleed attacks precisely because they use the Target Enemy Captain tactic and then wonder what hit them) and if all your crew is chasing after a captain their crew may well end up on you.

[Lorini]

Manual is here:

http://mirror3.dlgamer.com/manuals/potbs_manual/english/PotBS_Manual_UK.pdf

[Skipper]

Manual is here:

http://mirror3.dlgamer.com/manuals/potbs_manual/english/PotBS_Manual_UK.pdf

I love you sir. In an appreciative gamer sort of way. Not that there is anything wrong with that. Or madam. I can't tell if that's you or your son posting.

[Lorini]

I love you sir. In an appreciative gamer sort of way. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Except that I'm a ma'am :) Actually I had meant to post that earlier and forgot. Your post reminded me.

Disheartening that we weren't able to take PoS, the Brits were predicting victory with great confidence when I logged last night. As a mere Freetrader and low level at that, I wasn't going to be able to participate. Oh well, I'm sure they'll be going at it again with a lot less confidence but more knowledge next time :)

[Skipper]

Yep you caught me before my ninja edit. I still get you and your son confused on xbox live. :)

[Skipper]

Yarr, I be making a video (http://allislost.net/stuff/yarr3.zip) of a mission where I be boardin' and scavenging plenty o'loot to show you landlubbers what this game looks like.

291mb, I suck at compression AND the game, but hey.

JM I finally got to watch your video. I really liked it. If I can find a place to host one I might post one as well. I liked how you redid your interface WoW style, I'll be copying that, hope you don't mind.

I did notice that you're doing some of the same things I do in the game which makes me thing there are a few usability issues. The sensitivity on movement (or lag?) causes me to initially move or face the wrong directioni a lot. This is especially bad in the boarding or swashbuckling fights. They made it WoW-like, but there is something wrgon there I can't put my finger on.

[JM]

JM I finally got to watch your video. I really liked it. If I can find a place to host one I might post one as well. I liked how you redid your interface WoW style, I'll be copying that, hope you don't mind.

I did notice that you're doing some of the same things I do in the game which makes me thing there are a few usability issues. The sensitivity on movement (or lag?) causes me to initially move or face the wrong directioni a lot. This is especially bad in the boarding or swashbuckling fights. They made it WoW-like, but there is something wrgon there I can't put my finger on.

Thanks! Yeah, found the interface easier to use wow-style. Makes sense.

One thing you have to remember when moving your Avatar around is that you dont flip direction the same was in WoW - you end up flipping the camera instead. Turn properly and you'll be fine.

[NuclearWinter]

Calistas, order the US / EU version and play on the US / EU servers. Same situation here in Oz, although they're saying March here plus the question of a dedicated Oceania server seems debatable. I play WoW on EU servers and the ping is perfectly acceptable.

All the servers are currently located in the same building, in the US anyway. They're only divided into regions for language and time zone purposes. So you're not going to get different ping times from any of them (well, not caused by location anyway).

[LionelThompson]

Aigh! I still haven't entered my Launch Key, but I'm nearly finished reading the Prima guide. But now my g/f wants me to go with her to Orlando today (returning Sunday) for her medical conference. Looks like I won't be hitting the Burning Sea until Sunday night, at the earliest.

How does the Pirate population look for Bonny on the server screen in US primetime? For that matter, how do the other three nations pops look?

What level are the Qt3 pirates, now?

JM, I got a kick out of your movie. Were you (lvl 11?) blasting and boarding lvl 1 ships? haha! Meanie! BTW, which swashbuckling and sailing skill lines have you been concentrating on?

For population, it looks like all is 'light' on our server when I log on, but not sure how that changes at prime time. We had an OUTSTANDING night last night of pvp and pve, taking on multiple players and fleets with mostly success (sorry Dutchman!), and ranged in levels from 10 through 25. What was great was that everyone contributed, with some folks with speed taking out the sails while the others like myself came up behind after with my 26 cannons and did huge damage. It was a LOT of fun and I hope to do it again soon.

[Alan Dunkin]

That video causes my Windows Explorer to crash every time I look at it (or even try to do anything with it).. my machine could just be unstable I guess (I've had this issue before occasionally).. it doesn't do any harm really, and you can still access it or use it even when the Explorer crash window is up.

Anyway, thanks for the video, gives me a better idea of what combat is like.

--- Alan

[Brian Rucker]

On Bonny we've had Medium populations in Britain and Pirate when I'm on and Light elsewhere. From word of mouth I think Spain comes in next followed by France.

I think Roberts and Blackbeard are the biggies in terms of server pop. One of them had Heavy population for Britain and Very Heavy for Pirate last night.

[JM]

That video causes my Windows Explorer to crash every time I look at it (or even try to do anything with it).. my machine could just be unstable I guess (I've had this issue before occasionally).. it doesn't do any harm really, and you can still access it or use it even when the Explorer crash window is up.

Anyway, thanks for the video, gives me a better idea of what combat is like.

--- Alan

Was encoded with latest DivX, but I'm no expert on it so I might've done something a bit dodgy.

Group combat is quite different to the solo missions. All good fun.

Oh, and people are trying to make Bonny the unofficial RP server. Great...

[Cougar]

So now you're 1/4 left and he is still at 1/2. That means if either of you die at this point, the fight is over, even if there are crew remaining on deck.

Your logic is sound, but it actually will let you respawn once more at 1/4 or 1/2. You win/lose a boarding fight when either Captain dies at 0/X.

I tend to work on crew till the number hits 0/X then switch to the captain and gamble on a "Attack My Target" - knowing that I don't have to survive the bleeds because if I kill him now I win. This tactic doesn't work really well on the first clash of the soldiers :)

Some of the times I'm still working on crew and I win because my crew have taken out the Captain without me helping, that's always a welcome surprise :)

To the guy above who rams; you might want to buy the grappling cannons to place in the cannon upgrade slots. That'll help your boarding chance some - assuming you aren't doing this already.

~C~

[Lee Johnson]

Oh, and people are trying to make Bonny the unofficial RP server. Great...
Seeing how well that went on Landroval for LotRO, or even considering the halfhearted and spotty RP in WoW, where there are official RP servers, I'd say you don't have much to worry about. :P

[Skipper]

RP'ers don't bother me at all. In fact, once one starts, everyone tends to join in a little and it can make the game pretty fun. But I could do without the 10 year old snots that can't spell in this MMO. Hopefully Bonny doesn't end up full of those.

Roberts seems far and away the most populated server though. It hit very heavy in two categories last night. Which makes me wonder, did they population cap in this game? If so I give them props for having the foresight to do it.

[DennyA]

Weird. I've been considering picking this up, but was freaked out because GoGamer was showing a PoTBS 1-month card for $19.90. But the site says it's only $15 a month.

This is the problem with MMoRPGs for us parental types. I'd like to play this, but I'll be lucky to get on twice a week. Is that worth $15 a month on top of $50?

[Alan Dunkin]

Well you can try it for the first month and find out if it's worth an extra $15 a month or so...

Pretty sure GoGamer is wrong in any event, unless they're including tax and/or shipping with it.

--- Alan

[Xemu]

Sweet. I'm still only level pathetic, but I'm hoping to have some time to play tonight. Do we have a society or whatever, or just some friends lists?

[William Abner]

Cool bit today. I was sailing to Mathew Town and entered a Pirate PvP Hot Zone by mistake (I'm PvP flagged anyway), and saw a French Player in a lvl 14 Snow of all things attack another Pirate in a Bermuda Sloop. When that happens other players may enter the fray...so I took my shiny new Cutter and joined to help a fellow pirate. Upon entering this poor sod was taking a BEATING from the Snow, but not only did I show up-- but another Pirate player joined in...sailing a Xebec.

We worked over the Snow in short order -- had a group pirate hug afterward -- and went on our way.

Totally fun.

[Brian Rucker]

JM: Bonny is already the unofficial RP server. It was voted in by the beta RP community. Not "official". No rules nothing like that. Just a place for RPers to gather and do their thing. So far there seems to be one, lone, anti-RP guy who vocally and repeatedly is out to remind people, in all caps when possible, that this isn't a roleplaying server. He's also confided to me in PMs that he's on to us and just knows there's a conspiracy to drive non-roleplayers away. And here I thought RPers were the odd ones. Go figure.

Most non-RPers on Bonny actually seem to be attracted to the unofficial RPness because it attracts more mature players based on posts I've seen and every RPer seems to like having non-RPers around too, at least the mature ones - we also want a populated server!

[JM]

I must admit I find the idea that "RPers are more mature" to be a little hilarious.

Edit: Xemu, check the earlier pages in this thread, we have a Society called Stand and Deliver. Give any of the names listed in the thread a tell or just let us know on here what your character's called.

[SuperHiro]

Hey, if anyone has a spare buddy key to give to an anonymous internet guy, that'd be great.

[Erik J.]

Now that I know what the hell I'm doing, I may roll an alt on Bonny and see how that goes. I should be on in a bit for the rest of the evening, so I hope to see some of you guys on. Cool news about the PvP takeovers. Sounds like a lot of fun!

Erik J.

[krayzkrok]

All the servers are currently located in the same building, in the US anyway. They're only divided into regions for language and time zone purposes. So you're not going to get different ping times from any of them (well, not caused by location anyway).

From what I read on the PotBS forums, that's another reason NOT to wait for a localised Oceania version. It seems that they're looking at making it a local server that is independent of the others, so you have the Aussies / Kiwis playing on Oceania, and the rest of the world playing on the US servers. It's going down like the proverbial lead balloon.

I've started my D2D download. Ugh... see you in about... a week.

[flyinj]

Ok, I'm thinking of getting this from the Station store to give it a whirl.

Initial reports of the beta were pretty negative... but this thread seems to be full of people who really like it.

I played a ton of EQ1, EQ2, WoW and Middle Earth... and am pretty bored of all of them. Should I give this a try? I love the idea of a Pirates MMO.

[flyinj]

Better yet, I hear there are buddy keys... if anyone has one to spare?

[Skipper]

My boxes arrive early next week I think? If they include buddy keys I'll hook you and superhiro up.

[Skipper]

My gaming buddy and I learned a lesson the hard way tonight. We were moving around in open sea killing pirates when suddenly he was attacked by 3 french PvP flagged folks (led by the strangely named Benjamin Franklin.) My bud was in a Curieuse Snow which is either French only or non-Pirate. Either way as soon as you get in those ships you auto-flag PvP. We had taken it earlier from a French NPC on open sea. So word of warning to others who might not know that certain ships will auto-flag you if you enter them.

[krayzkrok]

So what happens when you lose your ship? Is it Eve-like, in that you lost everything invested in it? Or is it some kind of temporary resurrectable thing?

[JM]

It depends on your faction, really. When you capture a vessel as a pirate, it only has one point of durability. When it's gone, it's gone. You can add more points by applying deeds for the same ship type (either buy them or capture), but pirate ships are still mostly disposable. Other factions have to buy their ships or have them built for them and I believe they come with "full" durability.

Lose a ship with more than a point of DR and you only lose the upgrades that were in it.

[Brian Rucker]

Here's a good explanation of durability:

I don't get what the point of this is. You're not saving any money because 1 durability would be the cost of a deed which is the cost of the ship in the first place... I don't understand why it's useful other than to save time running and buying another deed after the ship sinks?
Convenience and saving time are enough. It might not be only your own time you'd be wasting otherwise, either. And now we're assuming the ships are always available at the same price, or at all.

When you lose your last point of durability, you get sent to a port where you already have a ship. From my limited experience, not even the closest port. All the stuff that doesn't sink (ammo, equipped generic outfittings, all unequipped outfittings, consumables, personal inventory) is also sent there. Now you're away from the action in a possibly bad ship (like your dedicated transport ship when you need a battle ship). Simply jumping to a more suitable ship if you had another somewhere isn't enough since you probably want the outfittings and consumables you had on you previously, and you have to fetch those.

Ok, that might not seem a big deal when you get sunk once in a blue moon while killing stuff in the OS or in missions. But for PvP, especially group PvP where everybody needs you to get back ASAP, spawning at closest friendly port with 1 less durability is important. And that's enough to keep the economy churning. In OB our PvP group had to go on for even 2 hours without a member who got sunk and needed to find another good ship right then. (Up to half of that was just his travel time from across the map.) During the event at end of OB I sailed a bought (not captured) MC Bermuda tackler for a group of Pommerns/SoLs and kept reserve outfittings with me. Couple of times that day I got into a bad position and broadsides from much bigger ships easily sunk me. I was back by the time others finished the fight, coming fast from the nearest pirate port with fully outfitted ship.
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1832&highlight=upgrades+durability

[Brian Rucker]

Spent last night raiding with my Society around a British port in New Spain. Being on the defensive wasn't good enough evidently so we're taking the fight to them. It was very cool seeing Spanish ships, including other Societies and independants, crowding the waters there and taking down every British ship that moved (Well, except for us - too many Freetraders who didn't want the rep hit for killing merchantmen, but warships and pirate hunters were fair game). The Consortium, another big Spanish Society, was fully occupied smuggling in unrest packages on top of it all.

This game is so fun.

[JM]

I've been quietly muttered in Society chat for a while about not being comfortable with my new Xebec - well, I went and lost it in a mission. Gonna have to rethink my tactics, for now I'm back to my trusty heavy cutter. Starting to have problems in missions with several boats as I take a ton of damage going in, and generally it's hit-and-miss before I can get the option to grapple (need a foolproof method!)

[Brian Rucker]

As a pirate you should have a skill available, called Decimate, that gives you an all but automatic grapple success if you've a cannon loaded with anti-personnel shot (grape, cannister, etc). My pirate build was all about boarding and that skill was my absolute favorite - one I miss very much now as a Freetrader who's trying very hard to be a boarding combatant as well.

After that, you can get upgrades (both generic and specialized) that will boost your grapple chances. But the beauty of the Decimate is that you don't need 'em nearly as much. Just don't run out of grape (or chain-shot for that matter - they really need to be slowed down before one attempts boarding).

As for getting that chance to grapple - ram them. You'll get that chance for a second. Can't use Decimate unless you have bow guns of course...but it's a shot. You can swivel to one side, switch to Maneuver crew toggle, and then Decimate them. But a fast ship might already be moving off.

[Cougar]

My gaming buddy and I learned a lesson the hard way tonight. We were moving around in open sea killing pirates when suddenly he was attacked by 3 french PvP flagged folks (led by the strangely named Benjamin Franklin.) My bud was in a Curieuse Snow which is either French only or non-Pirate. Either way as soon as you get in those ships you auto-flag PvP. We had taken it earlier from a French NPC on open sea. So word of warning to others who might not know that certain ships will auto-flag you if you enter them.

As I understand it, if you are in Freetrader only ships as a Pirate you are auto flagged.

~C~

[JM]

As a pirate you should have a skill available, called Decimate, that gives you an all but automatic grapple success if you've a cannon loaded with anti-personnel shot (grape, cannister, etc). My pirate build was all about boarding and that skill was my absolute favorite - one I miss very much now as a Freetrader who's trying very hard to be a boarding combatant as well.

After that, you can get upgrades (both generic and specialized) that will boost your grapple chances. But the beauty of the Decimate is that you don't need 'em nearly as much. Just don't run out of grape (or chain-shot for that matter - they really need to be slowed down before one attempts boarding).

As for getting that chance to grapple - ram them. You'll get that chance for a second. Can't use Decimate unless you have bow guns of course...but it's a shot. You can swivel to one side, switch to Maneuver crew toggle, and then Decimate them. But a fast ship might already be moving off.

Thanks. Yeah, I took a lot of anti-crew skills, a grappling upgrade, and I do have Decimate, my problem was actually getting the opportunity to board. When the enemy has Repel Boarders does that stop you completely?

[Skipper]

Thanks. Yeah, I took a lot of anti-crew skills, a grappling upgrade, and I do have Decimate, my problem was actually getting the opportunity to board. When the enemy has Repel Boarders does that stop you completely?

Sounds like you are fighting a Free Trader? It doesn't stop me no, it's short lived. For NPC's the following works fine, for players, I would expect they would maximize defenses against you. I run a "grapple" xebec with the following:
Non-removable:
1 Medium Tough Sail (sail slot, mast integrity), 1 Medium Speed Rig (sail slot, additional ship speed)
2 Medium Grappling Cannons (gun slots, grapple offense)
2 Medium Armor Planking (hull slots, more armor)
General:
1 Grapples and Ladders (general slot)
1 Reinforced Bow (general slot, more bow armor)
1 Low Drag Rudder (general slot, more acceleration)

The technique, as another poster put earlier, is to haul ass as soon as you instance in for the closest ship. Get a shot or two of anti-crew (I use Langridge.) Then as soon as you can either block their path or get them to temporarily raise sails, hit your decimate, then cut back to zero speed and go for the grapple.

With the minimum (level 2) gear above you're at about a 24 Grapple offense, plus Decimate for 25 more (I think they are additive, I'll check later.) That gives you around +49 Grapple. The best Repel Grapple skill comes in at -45 grapple offense so you still have a chance. With higher level Grappling Cannons you have even more of an advantage. Actual players may have grapple defense mods as well, so really this is a back and forth game for us as pirates. Hope for no defense, and hope that he uses his skill too early or too late, or it's on cooldown for your best success rate.

This is also assuming you are actually fighting the Free Trader who gets that skill. Otherwise it's even easier. A non-FT would be limited to a single general Grapple Defense slot, and no Repel Grapple skill (that I know of.)

Somebody will come here in a minute and correct me on all the gear or skills I don't know about yet, but to my so far limited knowledge, that setup above will work for you pretty well. It's worth a shot, and it's fairly cheap. If needed I'll make you the Grapples and Ladders for your general slot for free.

[JM]

All good info, thanks.

Bit scared to log in right now - was doing a mission, boarded a vessel in the middle of a big fight, killed the captain then the game refused to load the ships again. Restarting the game didn't help, I couldn't log back in.

Over an hour later the sony launcher finally works again... think my Heavy Cutter is dead :)

[flyinj]

All you guys are in the Pirate faction on the Bonny server right?

[Skipper]

All you guys are in the Pirate faction on the Bonny server right?

Nearly all yep, and nearly all in "Stand and Deliver" society. Brian Rucker is in the Spanish faction on Bonny as well.

Bonny Server:
Pirates:
** Stand and Deliver society list (Pirates) **
Ali Mony - (QT3) Mordrak
Amilcar Bolivar - (QT3) Jasper
Amelie Daguerre
Dead Buffalo
Der Dutchman
Disco Wallyscag
Doc Faustus - (QT3) William Abner
Esta Putas - (SA) Goonfleet
Gerald Bellicose - (QT3) JM
Golden Sphinx - (QT3) Erik J.
Haytred Incarnate - (QT3) Skipper
Josiah West - (QT3) NuclearWinter
Kalaria Coy - (QT3) *Unknown*
Ketchy Harangue
Lass Chick - (QT3) Tom Chick
One-eye Willy - (QT3) Lionel Thompson
Possum Joe - (QT3) Skipper
Samson Osgood
William Black
Wolfram von Hart - (QT3) balut
Xemu Arctangent - (QT3) Xemu
Zoraida Ignacio - (QT3) Erik J.

Also on Bonny server ...

British:
Mayveena Whitman - (QT3) Lorini
Treasure Fancourt - (QT3) Lorini

Spanish:
Mandrake Grim - (QT3) Brian Rucker

French:
N/A

There are a couple of alts in here as well as some folks from Something Awful forums. If anyone knows names I'd be glad to fill them in.

[JM]

All good info, thanks.

Bit scared to log in right now - was doing a mission, boarded a vessel in the middle of a big fight, killed the captain then the game refused to load the ships again. Restarting the game didn't help, I couldn't log back in.

Over an hour later the sony launcher finally works again... think my Heavy Cutter is dead :)

She's dead, cap'n. (Ouch)

[Lorini]

I'm on as Mayveena Whitman, Freetrader. Also Treasure Fancourt, NO. Both British.

[Brian Rucker]

I'm Mandrake Grim, Freetrader (ex-pirate) in Vanguardia de la Cuarta Flota (Spain).

[NuclearWinter]

Have the servers gone down entirely? Just had my first crash and now can't log back in at all. Been waiting on server screen for 15 minutes with no servers appearing.

[Erik J.]

Well, I'm getting a warning saying I should open certain ports on my router when I try to login. I did that, and still can't log in. So the issue may be on their end for this one.

Erik J.

EDIT: Yeah, I got nothing. Updated firmware and all that, still no dice.

[flyinj]

Have the servers gone down entirely? Just had my first crash and now can't log back in at all. Been waiting on server screen for 15 minutes with no servers appearing.

I walked out of a pub about an hour ago, and it froze my character outside. Had to kill the task to get rid of the game... since then, no servers on the server list.

[NuclearWinter]

Well, I've managed to get back in now... But there's no chat and the society doesn't seem to exist anymore. So it's got to be a problem on their end.

[Deadbuffalo]

Apparently their login server queue is being overloaded... You can ignore the port warnings according to the official forums and it should eventually load the server list.

[JM]

Wait long enough and they might show up. The chat server is constantly being restarted ingame so there's no chat available. I'm docked for the moment while I do some research on stuff.

Only just docked, mind you - took a mission without really looking at what it was... turns out it's the same one that killed my previous Xebec. Oh dear. 5 or 6 pirate vessels in a fairly small playing area. Started off well, playing tag and sinking one of the smaller ships but took too long during a boarding action and got hemmed in. They repeatedly hammered my sails and I was left to maneouver like mad trying to get away from them. My new "Cut Shroud (-30% speed) ability helped massively and some good use of terrain saw me live by the skin of my teeth - I went through about 5 different repair kits and was on <10% sails on 3 different occasions. I was very, very happy when I killed the last of the pirates, I can tell you!

[Erik J.]

Yeah, I love those missions where you're just able to get out alive, limping along with a mast down and leaks all over your boat.

Erik J.

[NuclearWinter]

Booted from server again when I tried going to sea, doesn't seem to be worth trying to play right now. Hope they manage to get things fixed tonight.

[Erik J.]

the server is alternating between locked and offline, so who knows what is going on.

Erik J.

[TomChick]

Aww, man, that sucks. I was hoping to get on this evening to see if anyone was interested in forming a roving PvP band.

-Tom

[Skipper]

We will. Besides just the growth issues that FLS was experiencing, Bonny in particular was having extra issues. I'm hoping they are doing a full fix for whatever is going on.

Once we're back on though, I'm all for some PvP.

[Jasper]

As a pirate you should have a skill available, called Decimate, that gives you an all but automatic grapple success if you've a cannon loaded with anti-personnel shot (grape, cannister, etc). My pirate build was all about boarding and that skill was my absolute favorite - one I miss very much now as a Freetrader who's trying very hard to be a boarding combatant as well.

After that, you can get upgrades (both generic and specialized) that will boost your grapple chances. But the beauty of the Decimate is that you don't need 'em nearly as much. Just don't run out of grape (or chain-shot for that matter - they really need to be slowed down before one attempts boarding).

As for getting that chance to grapple - ram them. You'll get that chance for a second. Can't use Decimate unless you have bow guns of course...but it's a shot. You can swivel to one side, switch to Maneuver crew toggle, and then Decimate them. But a fast ship might already be moving off.
Decimate really kicks ass, and it works great in a group tag-team too. It's by far my single favorite skill.

I find it combines well with a Xebec, especially one stacked with grappling bonuses. I just sail downwind of my target, then pinch in upwind, pressing them to either move closer to me, or run close-hauled (where the Xebec is much faster than anything else). Sometimes I'll fire chain on the way in, but ideally they'll run upwind and I can slip in along side them.

I like to use Langridge shot w/ Decimate; it's really short range, but also does sail damage. One close range blast (with gorgon cannons) is enough to drop their crew, and do some minor (but key) sail damage, then I cut them off, slow below 6 knots, and fire the grappling cannons. This works even against ships with grappling defense skills, although then you have some chance to fail and may have to slug it out in close with round shot for a while, possibly being forced to disengage if one side gets too many holes.

I've yet to try this in PvP though, and am not sure how well it'd play out against ships that max out sail speed bonuses (although I've done the same), as that initial pinch is crucial. I'm also rather leery of a target that stalls in boarding while his teammates pound me to slivers... My gut suspicion is that with a team who understands your plan it could be decisive -- I'm aiming to find out withy My new Sleek Xebec tonight. ;-)

[Jasper]

Also, I can make Medium and Small cannon upgrades, as well as ammo. I plan to put the bulk of it on auction, but will reserve some for the Stand and Deliver discount.

Let me know if you'd like to buy a bunch of cheap ammo, or custom order cannons!

[JM]

After losing my ships I got more aggressive with my attacks in PVE (not solo PVPing yet). Trying to see how high level a boat I can take down on my own. So far, Sleek/Mastercraft Xebecs and those Hermes Packet-Boats aren't proving too tricky...

[Brian Rucker]

Jasper, I've been playing around with ammo and like Langridge (one of my favorites for the reason you mention) there are other hybrid ammos that do useful things. Stone's a pretty good one. It's got decent range, does fair hull damage, but also shreds crew pretty well and does some sail damage.

It's good for me when I'm not exactly sure what tactic I'm going to be using, say sailing into a thick scrum with allied vessels. I'll just toss it out, left and right, liberally until some fool slows down against the wind for a convenient grapple. With some assistance, allied vessels can be useful. Just have to let them lead and work with them on an enemy ship - otherwise they'll just get in your way.

Edit: And I can't get on either. Damn it. It's my Birthday too. At least I got a nice present from South Carolina.

[JM]

Stone gets mentioned a lot on the forums as perfect for "grinding NPCs". It does do some nice all-round damage, and we all have spare granite from the economy tutorial...

[JM]

Some random useful links:

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=p9-PDmU05Uv0iqz9eB1olIA
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5431
http://www.potbswiki.com/

[flyinj]

ok, I have a noob question. One of my first quests is to gather different types of stone. But, the quest gives no indication of where or how I'm supposed to do this.

Any tips on what it wants me to do?

[JM]

Ah, the shopkeeper quests? Each one wants you to collect a variety of stuff. These will drop from opponents during the game. Cancel the quest for now.

[Jasper]

Jasper, I've been playing around with ammo and like Langridge (one of my favorites for the reason you mention) there are other hybrid ammos that do useful things. Stone's a pretty good one. It's got decent range, does fair hull damage, but also shreds crew pretty well and does some sail damage.

It's good for me when I'm not exactly sure what tactic I'm going to be using, say sailing into a thick scrum with allied vessels. I'll just toss it out, left and right, liberally until some fool slows down against the wind for a convenient grapple. With some assistance, allied vessels can be useful. Just have to let them lead and work with them on an enemy ship - otherwise they'll just get in your way.
I like Stone shot too, although for a slightly different reason. It's got long range (and thus accuracy), does enough crew damage to give a crew advantage should a boarding opportunity arise, and yet still knocks off lots of hull should things not work out. This allows you to drive your opponent a bit with the fear of being boarded, while also giving you the opportunity to switch tactics and just attempt to sink him, or at least make him reticent to give chase.

One of the problems with shooting anti-personal (and to a lesser extent anti-rigging) shot is that if you fail to grapple, your opponent is likely a long way from being sunk, while you've likely eaten a couple of full, point blank, round shot broadsides...

Edit: And I can't get on either. Damn it. It's my Birthday too. At least I got a nice present from South Carolina.
Happy Birthday, you Spanish Cur!

[Jasper]

ok, I have a noob question. One of my first quests is to gather different types of stone. But, the quest gives no indication of where or how I'm supposed to do this.

Any tips on what it wants me to do?
Watch out, as you have to keep such loot around for quite a while to get full sets, and it all goes away if you lose your ship. The simplest thing to do is keep it in a separate ship or warehouse, then get/complete the quest as you're able.

[Mordrak]

If anyone has a buddy key (I'm digital download) I have a WoW guild member (and former EVE player) that'd like to give the game a try. Just PM me if you have one available.

[LionelThompson]

Watch out, as you have to keep such loot around for quite a while to get full sets, and it all goes away if you lose your ship. The simplest thing to do is keep it in a separate ship or warehouse, then get/complete the quest as you're able.

Pfft, the best thing to do is never sink!

[krayzkrok]

Ok, finally downloaded it (only took 9 hours, plus about an hour of updates) created my account and... then my wife took over!

Disaster.

I'd better go and find out if I can use more than one sub with the same downloaded copy of the game (ie. same activation code, different subs).

[AndrewM]

I'd better go and find out if I can use more than one sub with the same downloaded copy of the game (ie. same activation code, different subs).

I'm going to guess no. Otherwise, somebody could just post one activation code here and we could all use it for our own accounts.

[Skipper]

Get another account straight off SOE, then just copy the download to the other machine. It'll save you time at least. (It's still full price though.)

[Mark Asher]

The ship combat sounds really interesting, and I like the idea of the various factions fighting for control of ports. How is the non-combat portion of the game? What are the quests like? Are they interesting or are they standard MMO quests -- Fedex, gather X number, etc.?

[JM]

Missions can be split into 4 categories:

1) Avatar combat

These missions are like playing a rudimentary version of WoW but there's enough depth to the skill system that it can be interesting. Feels very "gamey" though. Not the highlight of the game.

2) Instanced ship missions

These can vary from taking out ports to boarding certain ships to running blockades to wiping out fleets to taking part in large battles. Lots of variety.

3) Open Sea battles

Generally simple quests to kill X of Y.

4) Transport quests / talk to X

Travel quests, basically.

[Skipper]

The Avatar quests (Swashbuckling) can be fun, it very much depends on the skills you have and the mission, but I agree, ship combat is the highlight of the game (along with their nation vs. nation aspect and the deep crafting game.)

There is a pretty good variety of both types (ship and avatar) and they inject a bit of story and humor, similar to WoW questing. It's done port by port (progressing in difficulty) but some quests will take you to multiple ports before completion, and some will also mix ship combat with avatar combat.

They are quite well done. Besides that you can also make experience on the open sea from killing and looting, as well as from PvP for the same.

Also, ports have their own look and feel, even if only slightly different than the others. You'll get common NPC types in each port, along with quest NPC's as well (think WoW towns.) Each persons avatar is highly detailed and ends up being quite unique though certain items tend to get seen a lot (parrots, eyepatch, etc.) The ships too are very detailed and can be zoomed in on enough that you can even see a mini version of you and your crew when you are out at sea. Ships can be customized in their loadout (Eve-like) and there are a lot of ships in game. You can also customize your ships colors, sail colors, as well as flag and sail designs. Each nations ports, avatars, and sometimes ships can look pretty distinct from the other nations giving the game some pretty good visuals.

[Lorini]

I think (completely unscientifically of course) that this MMO will have the highest number of guys playing female characters ever. The lasses of POTBS look a lot better than the WoW female undead, I can promise you :).

There are some concerns regarding the economy. Essentially, societies (guilds) are setting up closed economies by having enough members to produce everything the society needs without having to deal with the AH. These same societies are motivated to engage in lots of RvR PvP, since they can afford to lose ships. The economy is supposed to be driven by the need to replace ships, but if there are a lot of closed society economies, then people who are not in those types of societies will have a hard time selling stuff, as there will be no demand. Right now, there is no demand anyway because not that many ships have been lost. Also, everyone can produce lots of everything, so I don't know how this will pan out. But I'm sure FLS will wait before making substantial changes.

There are also some concerns about RvR PvP, but those don't seem to be as clear. I think everyone is still getting a handle on how port contention is supposed to work and how it can be played effectively.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the whole thing develops. My main concern is that FLS's only other computer games product was Rails Across America, a niche railroad title, and I'm wondering if they have the experience and knowledge to pull this off. But I certainly hope so and have had a good time so far.

[Brian Rucker]

I think it's really too soon for anyone to know how the economy is shaping up or how RvR will work out. Most major ships are so complex I can't imagine any but the very biggest and most organized Societies will be able to produce everything in-house.

I suspect we'll see a mix of in-house production, off-AH "contracting" and some AH action too when people are dumping surplus or trying to fill a gap in the markets somewhere (for newbies, independants and smaller Societies).

Our Society is actually run by a female gamer and her husband/boyfriend(?) acts as a comptroller, managing building projects.

This game attracts alot of the types of players who got into crafting and character customization that were in SWG - but with a more comprehensible game attached. I'd say about 1/3 of our society are female gamers from what I can tell playing either female or male avatars.

This game may have Eve Online's brains but it's got personality too that appeals to roleplayers, and many female gamers fall in here as well.

It's a unique game alright. One thing that I've noticed is most players seem better spoken and more mature than I've run across elsewhere. Only LoTRO compares favorably. Of course that could just be our server but the forums as a whole aren't a stinking pile yet.

[Mordrak]

It's a unique game alright. One thing that I've noticed is most players seem better spoken and more mature than I've run across elsewhere. Only LoTRO compares favorably. Of course that could just be our server but the forums as a whole aren't a stinking pile yet.

Just wait. Heh. Speaking of stinking piles, here's my latest version of my custom flag. I was happy enough with it to submit it.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/hawksdr/rosencutlass.png
(http://www.burningsea.com/pages/page.php?pageKey=uc/viewItem&item_id=21572)

This is the latest version of my flag. Click and vote whether you like it or not.

Rucker, do you have a link for your flag? I didn't realize there was a voting process. I liked yours, so it deserves a positive vote from me at least. :)

I'd go sword blade pointing up and maybe try a google search on 'rose logo' and see what the images say... Maybe some of these?
http://images.google.com.sb/images?q=rose+graphic&ndsp=18&svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&start=36&sa=N

..and damn, tried to order the game off GameStop, but when they suggested I pay $59 do ship the game "international economy" I balked...
Thanks for the feedback. I ended up keeping the same basic design, but decided to spend more time with the pen tool to change it into a cutlass and make my own rose. I burned in a quick skull sketch to add something to fill in the empty center portion (which I think is what you were reacting to too).

Looking at it now the fabric texture is a bit much, I should have resized it. I may resubmit the flag with a more subdued texture, but this version works pretty well.

[Jasper]

That's a really nice flag! I like the "clothified" texture the way it is, exaggerated enough that you might actually notice it in game.

How long did it take you to finish it?

[flyinj]

Ok, so I've been playing a bit, and I have a few questions:

First of all, what is "ship durability"? Is that how many times it can sink before it's gone for good?

I'm level 5, and have about 2300 gold. Should I buy the $2250 civilian ship from the ship vendor? Or should I stick with my initial ship? Should I be buying upgrades for my initial ship from the auction house? Once I apply these, are they stuck to that ship or can I take them off and put them on another?

How do I use my pistol? Do I have to take that "off the hip shot" skill from the swashbuckler trainer? Or is there another way?

It really sucks that there is no manual, pdf or otherwise, for the downloadable version

[JM]

Pretty sure someone linked a downloadable manual on this thread.

Anyway, here goes:

1) Correct about Durability. You'll still lose the items you've attached for good to the ship, but you'll be back at the nearest port with all your ammo etc.

2) Civilian ships are mostly a waste of time. If you're one of our (arrr) pirates then don't bother buying ships, you'll be getting skills to steal them instead.

"General" upgrades - the 3 slots below your ship - can be removed and used elsewhere unless otherwise noted. The upgrades for sails, hull, guns cannot be removed.

Pistol: Need skills, yes.

[flyinj]

Ok thanks.

I'm on Bonny, and my name is Flynn Jaye... if you guys can invite me to the guild.

Thanks

[JM]

Done! Although you're rather quiet ;)

[JM]

Had some more PVP tonight that made me rethink the tactics we're using for group PVP.

On my first night of PVP we were generally picking off stragglers and having to chase ships, which suited my skillset and my ship. However tonight we got into a few scraps with ships that either had heavy defences or simply overwhelming firepower.

Irish Point was the scene as the Pirate nation attempted to put it into contention. A few of us from Stand and Deliver went to help the cause. We managed to get the contention points to 5000 in order to get it into a Pirate PVP zone, and then I dragged us into combat with the first Frenchman I saw.

Zoning in, it turned out that the 3 of us were up against 3 vessels - a well balanced fight. We stuck to the original target but it was a night battle and our ranged shots weren't really doing a great deal of damage. My setup - designed for chasing down runners and boarding weaker ships - was simply failing to make a dent on ships that didn't really care about being slowed. They had an excellent mixture of abilities that enabled them to repair quickly and added extra defensive abilities to their allies. Repeated attempts to cripple a ship simply failed, and we were starting to take some damage we couldn't shrug off.

Splitting up, we managed to get their main damage dealer seperated slightly and the 3 of them were strung out. We focused on the closest ship, moving around so that we could fire from several angles. Realising his teammate was in trouble, the middle ship (the weakest of the three, I think) raced forward to support - only to see all 3 of us suddenly surge forward and trap him on all sides with nowhere to go. 3 volleys of close-range / anti-crew ammo later, I board and he's despatched after a fairly protracted boarding battle (he was sneaky!).

Sadly the rest of them got away, simply because my Corsair can't sail downwind very well and so I couldn't get into range to use my Cut Shroud.

So, in a 3v3 we ended up with a kill and no losses. Not a bad start...

Later one, we replaced one of our guys with a pubbie and got dragged into another combat - this time with 3 30+ frigates. I spawned right next to one and didn't realise, eating a broadside that took out my entire bow armour. Again, I was undergunned for the fight and unable to really make much difference - Der Dutchman (the other S&D guy) was our only heavy gunboat and he swiftly got pounded by a seriously impressive bit of focus fire. The pubbie tried to escape but was clearly getting his sails tagged - I aborted my plan of running for the exit and came back, asking him all the time in group chat which ship was the biggest threat to him and which one he wanted crippled. I got no replies and tried to take one ship out of the fight, speed-wise, but he took just too much sail damage to get out of their claws and ended up being boarded and destroyed.

I sailed off, and noticed Nation chat had the guy complaining that we'd run away from a fair fight (hmm...). Scrolling up, he'd been answering my questions... in Nation chat. Which is a completely different tab in chat. WTF.

Anyway, the whole thing reminded me that catching people was only half my job - I'm a boarder and that's what I should be doing. If I'd spotted that ship next to me right from the start, I could've smashed him with anti-crew ammo and boarded him asap. At the very least it takes a lot of firepower out of the fight and evens up the odds for the rest of the team. With the ships we tend to take with us, I suspect it might be a good idea to have multiple ships simply racing towards the best target and boarding it as soon as the crew is low enough.

Now to put it into practice...

[Calistas]

Thanks for the feedback. I ended up keeping the same basic design, but decided to spend more time with the pen tool to change it into a cutlass and make my own rose.

Looks good to me, mate. Make sure you screeny us a shot once it gets in-game!

[Mysterio]

My gaming buddy and I learned a lesson the hard way tonight. We were moving around in open sea killing pirates when suddenly he was attacked by 3 french PvP flagged folks (led by the strangely named Benjamin Franklin.) My bud was in a Curieuse Snow which is either French only or non-Pirate. Either way as soon as you get in those ships you auto-flag PvP. We had taken it earlier from a French NPC on open sea. So word of warning to others who might not know that certain ships will auto-flag you if you enter them.

According to the strategy guide:

"Pirates can captain a ship they capture, which is good, but there is a penalty. If a Pirate takes another nation's warship and uses that as his primary ship, the entire fleet of that nation will be out hunting you within the hour. So now you have Pirate hunters coming for you, as well as the nation's naval ships."

Since your friend stole and then captained a French ship, it sounds like that tagged him for PvP against the French nation. Were any of the three French player-controlled ships captained by a Naval Officer or Privateer?

[Mysterio]

It really sucks that there is no manual, pdf or otherwise, for the downloadable version

It sucks no more!

http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1226972&postcount=256

[Mysterio]

If you're one of our (arrr) pirates...

Arr? Perhaps I'm a more sophisticated pirate than you, for I say, 'Yarr!' ;-)

[Brian Rucker]

Nah, you can take another nation's ship with no penalty and there are no "National" flagged ships yet, as far as I can tell.

The pirate PvP ship flag comes up when you take a ship that's exclusive to another class. That sounds like he took a Freetrader exclusive snow.

Anyhow, last night after midnight (EST) the British (after waiting for hours after they'd actually gotten within 50 points of the target) triggered contention again for Port of Spain.

Pretty cheesy tactic for people who are in the forums speculating that the Spanish will be too cowardly to show up. Yeah, great, lose your first battle to half as many ships so make sure to trigger a contention battle so late that most folks won't be able to either make it or stay through the whole thing.

We'll see how it goes I guess but that's well past the bedtime of most of my Society and there was considerable grumbling.

[Mysterio]

Nah, you can take another nation's ship with no penalty and there are no "National" flagged ships yet, as far as I can tell.

The pirate PvP ship flag comes up when you take a ship that's exclusive to another class. That sounds like he took a Freetrader exclusive snow.

Taking a nation's ship does not flag you for PvP with that nation; using it as your primary ship does.

There are 4 versions of the Curieuse Snow:

Curieuse Snow: Level 13, available to all careers
Curieuse Snow (Civilian): Level 15, available to all careers
Curieuse Snow (Fallback): Level 18, available to all careers
Curieuse Trader's Snow: Level 16, available only to Freetraders

We would need futher clarification from Skipper on which version his bud was sailing.

Also, where is it mentioned and confirmed that "the pirate PvP ship flag comes up when you take a ship that's exclusive to another class?" I'm trying to understand what will and will not get me into trouble...not that I'm avoiding the trouble, mind you. After all, I am a pirate. :-)

[Mark Asher]

Nah, you can take another nation's ship with no penalty and there are no "National" flagged ships yet, as far as I can tell.

The pirate PvP ship flag comes up when you take a ship that's exclusive to another class. That sounds like he took a Freetrader exclusive snow.

Anyhow, last night after midnight (EST) the British (after waiting for hours after they'd actually gotten within 50 points of the target) triggered contention again for Port of Spain.

Pretty cheesy tactic for people who are in the forums speculating that the Spanish will be too cowardly to show up. Yeah, great, lose your first battle to half as many ships so make sure to trigger a contention battle so late that most folks won't be able to either make it or stay through the whole thing.

We'll see how it goes I guess but that's well past the bedtime of most of my Society and there was considerable grumbling.

Shadowbane handled this kind of thing well, I believe. One side had to set a bane on a town, and then the town owners had to respond by scheduling the time for the battle. This way neither side had complete control over things, and both sides knew when the battle would start.

[Skipper]

We would need further clarification from Skipper on which version his bud was sailing.

Also, where is it mentioned and confirmed that "the pirate PvP ship flag comes up when you take a ship that's exclusive to another class?" I'm trying to understand what will and will not get me into trouble...not that I'm avoiding the trouble, mind you. After all, I am a pirate. :-)

It was indeed the trader version. Also, he had a debuff which we should have understood but was a bit strange. Something to the effect of "Invalid ship - PvP." He took that for "aww man, this ship blows, it can't be used in PvP." To be honest, it's poorly worded, but there was an indication, he just didn't know.

We took it from a French convoy of NPC's, but were also attacked (by chance I think) by a group of French players. Also note that I wasn't PvP flagged, we were just killing NPC's around the area. So all of a sudden he pops into combat and I was left baffled. He tried to run, but one of the ships had about a 2-3 knot speed difference and eventually caught up.

[Brian Rucker]

Taking a nation's ship does not flag you for PvP with that nation; using it as your primary ship does.

There are 4 versions of the Curieuse Snow:

Curieuse Snow: Level 13, available to all careers
Curieuse Snow (Civilian): Level 15, available to all careers
Curieuse Snow (Fallback): Level 18, available to all careers
Curieuse Trader's Snow: Level 16, available only to Freetraders

We would need futher clarification from Skipper on which version his bud was sailing.

Also, where is it mentioned and confirmed that "the pirate PvP ship flag comes up when you take a ship that's exclusive to another class?" I'm trying to understand what will and will not get me into trouble...not that I'm avoiding the trouble, mind you. After all, I am a pirate. :-)

Taking a ship means using it to me. Pirates don't get commendations or pennants. They board the ship or break it up on the spot for salvage. If you mean "taking" in the sense of breaking a ship up for salvage I can see where the confusion is.

And, no, you don't get auto-PvP flagged as a pirate unless you're using a ship that's exclusive to another class. He took the Trader's Snow. That's the only way this could have happened.

[JM]

Taking a ship means using it to me. Pirates don't get commendations or pennants. They board the ship or break it up on the spot for salvage. If you mean "taking" in the sense of breaking a ship up for salvage I can see where the confusion is.

And, no, you don't get auto-PvP flagged as a pirate unless you're using a ship that's exclusive to another class. He took the Trader's Snow. That's the only way this could have happened.

We get pennants.

[Skipper]

Zoning in, it turned out that the 3 of us were up against 3 vessels - a well balanced fight. We stuck to the original target but it was a night battle and our ranged shots weren't really doing a great deal of damage. My setup - designed for chasing down runners and boarding weaker ships - was simply failing to make a dent on ships that didn't really care about being slowed. They had an excellent mixture of abilities that enabled them to repair quickly and added extra defensive abilities to their allies. Repeated attempts to cripple a ship simply failed, and we were starting to take some damage we couldn't shrug off.

Splitting up, we managed to get their main damage dealer seperated slightly and the 3 of them were strung out. We focused on the closest ship, moving around so that we could fire from several angles. Realising his teammate was in trouble, the middle ship (the weakest of the three, I think) raced forward to support - only to see all 3 of us suddenly surge forward and trap him on all sides with nowhere to go. 3 volleys of close-range / anti-crew ammo later, I board and he's despatched after a fairly protracted boarding battle (he was sneaky!).

Sadly the rest of them got away, simply because my Corsair can't sail downwind very well and so I couldn't get into range to use my Cut Shroud.

So, in a 3v3 we ended up with a kill and no losses. Not a bad start...

I had a lot of fun in that fight. I was awed by how well we wrangled in the one that you killed. It was amazing to watch both in what happened and how it came together. A perfect V of me and you holding her in place with Dutch lined up directly perpendicular to her bow. Awesome. Also, she was in the smallest ship but was the highest level at 22. The others were 21 and 17. They used their cooldowns to great effect. Something they had spread the damage out across all armor, which greatly reduced any attempt to sink directly. Notice homeboy's armor here in the pic. Equal damage across the ship. Literally our only chance WAS to board. We did the poorest when we were split up, and we also didn't have a sprinter, which I think might be needed for more serious PvP engagements. My take-away from this was that I need a dedicated PvP ship with it's own setup. I think the society also needs more gunships, and a sprinter or three.

Also a quick screenshot of us pursuing the straggler who was the last to get away...

http://img183.imageshack.us/img183/3695/038mh6.th.jpg (http://img183.imageshack.us/my.php?image=038mh6.jpg)

[JM]

Yeah, in both our encounters it was notable how good the opposition were at both abilities and reducing damage via other means. They tend to pick the heavier boats, too.

I do have a dedicated sprinter, my Sleek Corsair does 22knots in the right wind but it's a fairly expensive setup. Firepower is something that we're going to struggle for as a nation I think, although we do have some pretty neat skills. Wonder if it's worth looking at a dedicated close-range setup, as our enemies seem to win the long-range fights...

[Brian Rucker]

We get pennants.

It's the same but different. When a National Privateer or Freetrader "Salvages" an abandoned derelict, it's a different skill with a different name for us, they don't get parts and resources like Pirates do they get a pennant (or commendation for NOs or Privateers with a certain skill) or some other token that can be traded in for a reward. Sometimes pirates will get pennants too but that's as loot and not an automatic return from each and every ship.

[JM]

Gotcha.

[Skipper]

Yeah, in both our encounters it was notable how good the opposition were at both abilities and reducing damage via other means. They tend to pick the heavier boats, too.

I do have a dedicated sprinter, my Sleek Corsair does 22knots in the right wind but it's a fairly expensive setup. Firepower is something that we're going to struggle for as a nation I think, although we do have some pretty neat skills. Wonder if it's worth looking at a dedicated close-range setup, as our enemies seem to win the long-range fights...

Believe it or not, 22knots is good but they have even faster ships as a base, it's part of the deal for Free Traders. Not to mention skills that help that even more, plus mods. Homeboy's ship there was capable of over 17 knots before mods, while our Corsairs are only 15 or so before mods. Adding to that, our advantage is against the wind (leeward) and he had the wind directly at his back. Good sailing on his part, and not much we could do.

According to the Prima guide, the non-level 50 ships that are the fastest base speed are:

#6 - Hermes Sleek Packet Boat (17.25)
#7 - Santiago Traders Galleon (17.25)
#8 - Hallifax Mastercraft Schooner (17)
#9 - Lancer Naval Cutter (17)
#10 - Triton Interceptor Frigate (17)

The problem is most of those either suck in the guns department, or aren't as useful for boarding combat. Overall though, the guide has helped a lot evaluating ships for me.

[Mysterio]

And, no, you don't get auto-PvP flagged as a pirate unless you're using a ship that's exclusive to another class. He took the Trader's Snow. That's the only way this could have happened.

I wonder what the design rationale was for this behavior. Interesting.

[JM]

Believe it or not, 22knots is good but they have even faster ships as a base, it's part of the deal for Free Traders. Not to mention skills that help that even more, plus mods. Homeboy's ship there was capable of over 17 knots before mods, while our Corsairs are only 15 or so before mods. Adding to that, our advantage is against the wind (leeward) and he had the wind directly at his back. Good sailing on his part, and not much we could do.

According to the Prima guide, the non-level 50 ships that are the fastest base speed are:

#6 - Hermes Sleek Packet Boat (17.25)
#7 - Santiago Traders Galleon (17.25)
#8 - Hallifax Mastercraft Schooner (17)
#9 - Lancer Naval Cutter (17)
#10 - Triton Interceptor Frigate (17)

The problem is most of those either suck in the guns department, or aren't as useful for boarding combat. Overall though, the guide has helped a lot evaluating ships for me.

The sleek corsair is 16.75 and accelerates faster, though.

[Skipper]

I agree JM, it's a nice ship, I love mine. :)

I know it's yellow with the wind directly behind it though, isn't that less than max speed? Either way I think you kept up with him, but couldn't overtake him. You pulled away from both me and Dutch if I remember right. I have (or had) zero speed mods on my sleek corsair.

[JM]

I was in my bog-standard Corsair for that one sadly.

It was Dutch who was chasing him down - I had too much sail damage to keep up at the start! Shame, because as soon as I get in range they're not escaping from Cut Shroud...

The Sleek is speed/grapple kitted to the max, almost to the point where I'm afraid to use it in PVP! However I'd be deeply impressed if anyone managed to catch me.

The yellow bars are slower, yeah. Basically some ships handle against the wind or across the wind much much better than others. One of the reasons I love my Heavy Cutter is that it's damn fast downwind (only one yellow bar).

[flyinj]

Ok, I'm getting a bit more established. I have the initial warehouse with a wood and gravel farm, and I've just established an iron mine in another city.

The most harrowing fight I've had so far was the quest to get my Salvage ability at level 10. The three enemy ships completely destroyed my sails, and I was barely able to repair them enough to board two of them, and then finally sink the third. I had about a sliver of main hull left in the end... and the battle must have taken an hour.

It's great fun so far. My only complaints are the extremely long travel times you have between ports when there isn't a current (and even with a current it can take forever). It's -exactly- like it was in Pirates... this game is basically Pirates converted almost exactly into an MMO. Which is a good thing.

How long it's going to hold up for me, I don't know. I've played a lot of Pirates. Almost 5 different versions of it. And I do love me some Pirates, but I can only take so much of it. Having the MMO carrot of constantly getting little upgrades definitely helps the formula... and the metagame of taking over entire ports in player raids and the economy are compelling.

How compelling the constant naval battles will be after three months is a bit worrisome.

Altogether though, a big thumbs up from me. If you like Sid Mier's Pirates, you're going to love this.

[LionelThompson]

How long it's going to hold up for me, I don't know. I've played a lot of Pirates. Almost 5 different versions of it. And I do love me some Pirates, but I can only take so much of it. Having the MMO carrot of constantly getting little upgrades definitely helps the formula... and the metagame of taking over entire ports in player raids and the economy are compelling.

How compelling the constant naval battles will be after three months is a bit worrisome.

Altogether though, a big thumbs up from me. If you like Sid Mier's Pirates, you're going to love this.

After three months, I too will be wondering if I'll still be with it, only because very few games have held me for that long (EQ, EQ2, and UO with LOTRO close behind), but definitely do not discount the fun that grouping provides in this game. When my time is short, I'm content to run a few missions or check on my factories, but when grouped, and especially in pvp, when, if you lose, YOU LOSE YOUR BOAT, adds an intensity to the game that keeps my rapt attention.

[Yaltan]

I've joined up on Bonny as French Freetrader "Guillaume Flauberge", currently level 6 and working through the tutorials. I'd love to join the society; I'm pretty clueless about how most things work at this point (wasn't in the beta).

http://img263.imageshack.us/img263/1907/avataroo0.png
By jaikin (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/jaikin) at 2008-01-28

[Lorini]

They are all pirates, so you can't belong to their society. Each faction can only belong in societies/groups with their own faction. So you can only belong to Spanish societies.

[LionelThompson]

I've joined up on Bonny as French Freetrader "Guillaume Flauberge", currently level 6 and working through the tutorials. I'd love to join the society; I'm pretty clueless about how most things work at this point (wasn't in the beta).
By jaikin (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/jaikin) at 2008-01-28

Sadly you have to belong to the same nation to join a society. Because of the pvp aspect of the game, this is done to prevent 'spies' passing information to the enemy. That said, level 6 I think comes quickly enough that if the life of piracy intrigues you, we'd love to have you. The downside is that instead of making money via commerce, which you admittedly can do, most of your income will have to come through murder and mayhem.

[Yaltan]

Avast, I wasn't paying attention! If I re-roll as a pirate I'll post here to request an invite. Thanks for the info.

[Skipper]

If you don' reroll and join us we'll hunt ye down like the scurvy fish feed that ye are!

But I do wish ye godspeed even if you don't me bucko. This game be like findin' a horde o' booty.

[Brian Rucker]

There's been some talk that for alot of people this might end up as more of a "second" MMO than a main one. Get bored of Eve? Grow your skills while playing PotBS. Need a break from raiding in WoW? Jump back into your Atlas Bark or Xebec for something completely different. It's sufficiently different and entertaining enough in terms of basic gameplay to be a nice change of pace.

That's probably where I'll end up. Playing anything day in and day out will eventually get tiresome but I can't ever see finding a sea battle here something unbearably boring. Even NPC fights. Either they're challenging on their own merits or I'm playing around with my camera looking for the most dramatic and cinematic angle as I chase down some small fry.

Think I'm going to respec from Freetrader to Privateer. I don't think I have the attention span necessary to play a good economic game and our Society is mostly Freetraders, with a few Naval Officers, as it is. I like the "Yarr!" just too much.

[Jasper]

Sadly you have to belong to the same nation to join a society. Because of the pvp aspect of the game, this is done to prevent 'spies' passing information to the enemy. That said, level 6 I think comes quickly enough that if the life of piracy intrigues you, we'd love to have you. The downside is that instead of making money via commerce, which you admittedly can do, most of your income will have to come through murder and mayhem.
You can still still run a business as a Pirate, it's just a bit less lucrative for certain goods (the ones freetraders can get advanced plots for), you can't see prices in distant markets, and you have to actually be in a port to use your plots there.

I've already made my initial investment back, and am now trying to feed that back in and multiply it. I could easily see this overtake the money I make from missions; well, unless I ran missions all day.

[Skipper]

Superhiro or anyone else still need a buddy key?

[flyinj]

Superhiro or anyone else still need a buddy key?

I have a friend who is very interested, if no one else here needs it.

It really sucks that you don't get a buddy key when you download it.

[Raife]

They should really fix buffs so that a boarding action doesn't shut them off. Half of the time I forget to reset them and then wonder why I'm suddenly getting hammered so badly.

I like it so far, but I'm not so keen on the whole not being able to resell your ships once you convert them from a deed deal.

[Skipper]

Ships are the money sink in game. Ammo and consumables are cheap so they get you on the ships.

[Jasper]

They should really fix buffs so that a boarding action doesn't shut them off. Half of the time I forget to reset them and then wonder why I'm suddenly getting hammered so badly.

I like it so far, but I'm not so keen on the whole not being able to resell your ships once you convert them from a deed deal.
It /is/ a bit weird, but pretty much necessary to offset the infinite supply of NPC ships ripe for the stealing on the open sea. You'd have to essentially get rid of NPC ships altogether to make a more realistic approach work, or at least NPCs would have to pay for them too.

It would have been cool if the NPC ships had been a manifestation of player run trading concerns, so that there wasn't an infinite supply of them, ships could be a normal part of the economy like everything else, and you could target shipping lanes for piracy as opposed to random ships and abstract port contention.

But if you suspend your disbelief, it's plenty of fun even with this wart.

[Mysterio]

Please add my pirate (Hugh Swift) to the Stand and Deliver society list (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=1228406&postcount=294)! Yarr!!!

[Calistas]

What's a buddy key? If someone wants to mail me the client and a buddy key so I can get sexy wid'it, I'll be keen. Otherwise I'll wait until it lands in NZ - 8th Feb...

[Erik J.]

What's a buddy key? If someone wants to mail me the client and a buddy key so I can get sexy wid'it, I'll be keen. Otherwise I'll wait until it lands in NZ - 8th Feb...

You will pay your dues for being a Kiwi and WAIT til the Feb 8th deadline damnit! I don't think the digital download came with keys, or I'd send you one.

Erik J.

[Calistas]

Ahh yes, such is the cross I bear! Hehehehe ;)

[DennyA]

<--- Would love a Buddy Key!

[flyinj]

I just captured a really good level 9 ship. So, again with the questions-

It has a durability of 1. From what I've gathered, that means when it's sunk, it's gone for good. What happens to all my cargo when this occurs? Is it all lost? Is some of it gone? What determines what is gone and what is not? Does it all get dumped into my "fallback ship"? In that case, what if there isn't enough room in the cargo hold of my "fallback"?

I seem to remember reading that you can use an existing deed for a similar ship on a captured one to give it another durability point. How do you do this?

And finally, my "fallback" ship is docked at a different port than my 2nd ship (the 3rd being the new one I captured). I read somewhere that you can "teleport" to the port this ship is in. Do you do this simply by making the distant ship your current ship? What happens to the cargo you have in the current ship if you transfer to a distant one? Does it stay with the ship you "teleported" from?

Thanks for any answers

[Raife]

I just captured a really good level 9 ship. So, again with the questions-

It has a durability of 1. From what I've gathered, that means when it's sunk, it's gone for good. What happens to all my cargo when this occurs? Is it all lost?

All cargo is lost regardless of Durability. Unless you're transporting it somewhere, either put cargo in another ship or in a warehouse.

And finally, my "fallback" ship is docked at a different port than my 2nd ship (the 3rd being the new one I captured). I read somewhere that you can "teleport" to the port this ship is in. Do you do this simply by making the distant ship your current ship?

Talk to any Harbor Master and highlight the ship you want to go to. Click "Transport to Ship".

What happens to the cargo you have in the current ship if you transfer to a distant one? Does it stay with the ship you "teleported" from?

Cargo stays in either the ship that you had active at the time you acquired it or the ship you put it in. If you want to transfer cargo between ships, you have to do it manually at the Harbor Master.

For some good general starting tips, see this thread (http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3099).

[flyinj]

All cargo is lost regardless of Durability. Unless you're transporting it somewhere, either put cargo in another ship or in a warehouse.


Ouch! Every single thing on the ship is gone? Even slot-able upgrades, statues, etc? Wow. Brutal!

[Jasper]

Not quite everything. Opened ammo crates aren't lost, and a few other things as well. Most cargo is though, including loot items like statues. Similarly, you lose your permanent "slot" upgrades, but keep the general ones.

[Skipper]

Superhiro hasn't responded so I sent buddy keys to the next two that requested them, Flyinj and Mordrak.

That leaves Calistas, DennyA and Superhiro (if he returns) still needing them. Any other full box owners that have spare keys for these guys?

Also, the buddy keys are good for 14 days, they seem similar to the WoW keys, I would expect they can be had at your local software store on a counter demo pretty cheap, just like WoW does it.

[Alan Dunkin]

I wouldn't mind getting a buddy key as I haven't gotten my box yet and probably won't for about two weeks. What's the procedure with them?

--- Alan

[Raife]

That leaves Calistas, DennyA and Superhiro (if he returns) still needing them. Any other full box owners that have spare keys for these guys?

Denny's already covered.

I wouldn't mind getting a buddy key as I haven't gotten my box yet and probably won't for about two weeks. What's the procedure with them?

Install the game from either the DVDs or the download at: http://piratesoftheburningsea.com/install.

The free trial is 14 days, but you'll still need to set up a rebill with a credit card in order to play. It just won't kick in for two weeks.

[Brian Rucker]

Second Battle for Port of Spain:

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7201

This time four of Vanguardia were among the 25 defenders. Two Freetraders, a Privateer and a Naval Officer.

[Skipper]

Second Battle for Port of Spain:

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7201

This time four of Vanguardia were among the 25 defenders. Two Freetraders, a Privateer and a Naval Officer.

Wow they defended yet again! Either the British are horrible at the 25 man or just unorganized at this point. Especially considering that first defense.

Of course the Pirates can't seem to hold a port contended either so ...

I read the note that if a certain team wins the overarching PvP game, upon reset the other teams get a bonus for the next game, thus balancing things a little bit. We're a long way from that currently but it's nice to know they kept PvP balance in mind for the long run.

Also a highlight, it's a shame the game didn't ship with stock voice support for grouping and pvp battles.

[Mysterio]

This guy (http://flagsrus.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=general) is designing custom flags (2000db) or flags and sails (3000db) upon request. Might be cool to have him incorporate the Qt3 logo (with Tom's permission?) or a unique concept for Stand and Deliver. What do you guys think?

[Mysterio]

Also a highlight, it's a shame the game didn't ship with stock voice support for grouping and pvp battles.

Agreed, although I've read that it wasn't a simple task for Blizzard to add it. Maybe they'll add it some day.

[LionelThompson]

This guy (http://flagsrus.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=general) is designing custom flags (2000db) or flags and sails (3000db) upon request. Might be cool to have him incorporate the Qt3 logo (with Tom's permission?) or a unique concept for Stand and Deliver. What do you guys think?

I like the idea and would pay for half of it. Given a choice, I'd like a flintlock pistol or the Qt3 logo (again, with Tom's permission), although Qt3 might not be as good as we have so many goons, but am otherwise easy.

Oh, and for anyone who was curious as to the inspiration of the society name: http://youtube.com/watch?v=VPgHbt0ODr4

[TomChick]

You guys can certainly use the logo if you want, but it seems a little strange if we're not a Qt3 guild. Are "normal" people going to want a big eyeball on their sails? Will we look like a bunch of Residents fans?

BTW, apologies to whomever came up with it, but our society name is even dumber now that I see the source. An Adam Ant video? Lordy. I think I'd prefer to be called "Don't Drink, Don't Smoke". Although, to be fair, it's not quite as dumb as "Knights of Quarter to Three", which was my off-the-cuff idea for our LOTRO guild...

-Tom

[flyinj]

BTW, apologies to whomever came up with it, but our society name is even dumber now that I see the source. An Adam Ant video?

Well, Adam Ant was a frilly pirate type. I find it pretty fitting.

Although, my guy looks like Al Swearengen from Deadwood. Which is totally awesome.

[LionelThompson]

BTW, apologies to whomever came up with it, but our society name is even dumber now that I see the source. An Adam Ant video? Lordy. I think I'd prefer to be called "Don't Drink, Don't Smoke". Although, to be fair, it's not quite as dumb as "Knights of Quarter to Three", which was my off-the-cuff idea for our LOTRO guild...

-Tom

Bite your tongue! I mean what better way to rob someone than to shout out 'stand and deliver'? Admittedly we sink them after anyway, but look, the video has flintlock pistols, and the game does as well so it's a perfect match!

(and the song isn't all bad, I still like it!)

[JM]

I just captured a really good level 9 ship. So, again with the questions-

It has a durability of 1. From what I've gathered, that means when it's sunk, it's gone for good. What happens to all my cargo when this occurs? Is it all lost? Is some of it gone? What determines what is gone and what is not? Does it all get dumped into my "fallback ship"? In that case, what if there isn't enough room in the cargo hold of my "fallback"?

I seem to remember reading that you can use an existing deed for a similar ship on a captured one to give it another durability point. How do you do this?

And finally, my "fallback" ship is docked at a different port than my 2nd ship (the 3rd being the new one I captured). I read somewhere that you can "teleport" to the port this ship is in. Do you do this simply by making the distant ship your current ship? What happens to the cargo you have in the current ship if you transfer to a distant one? Does it stay with the ship you "teleported" from?

Thanks for any answers

It's not made particularly clear to you but you actually get a free Warehouse at the starting port, and at Tortuga and Oranjetown(whatever it's called).

[Skipper]

It's not made particularly clear to you but you actually get a free Warehouse at the starting port, and at Tortuga and Oranjetown(whatever it's called).

Also not made particularly clear is if you leave a spare ship in each of those ports, you can "transport to ship" at the harbormaster and any personal items (not on the ship) will travel with you. You can't build anything beyond the warehouse in Marsh Harbor or Tortuga, but you can store 100 different items in each, including those personal items.

Transporting to another ship also allows you to do things like leave a ship at Whitby or Cat, transfer there to use your economy buildings, then transfer back when you are ready to head out to do missions on your fighting ship. You can't take cargo with you on those transfers, but it still has great uses.

Any ship cargo (ammo, consumables, things on the cargo section of the ship tab) stays at the old ship. So your new ship will need to have ammo on it as well if you intend to use it for fighting after the transfer. Transferring is nearly instant, it's like any normal zoning screen.

[flyinj]

Ok, let me get this straight:

I can get free warehouses in three different cities? The starting port (what is the name of the pirate starting port?) Tortuga and Oranjetown? All three free?

Well god-damn I wish I knew that.

I actually blew 3000 building a second warehouse on a place I didn't really need one thinking it would only cost me 200.

[TomChick]

They're actually there mainly for storing auction house junk. I don't think you can start any industry in those towns, so you still need to pay for warehouses for any industry you want to run.

But, yeah, the warehouses get increasingly expensive. It's a mandatory money sink that encourages players to chain their industries together.

-Tom

[Raife]

BTW, apologies to whomever came up with it, but our society name is even dumber now that I see the source. An Adam Ant video? Lordy. I think I'd prefer to be called "Don't Drink, Don't Smoke". Although, to be fair, it's not quite as dumb as "Knights of Quarter to Three", which was my off-the-cuff idea for our LOTRO guild...

Or Lass Chick?

[TomChick]

Yeah, but the difference is you guys don't have to play under my character's name. Aren't you glad? Anyway, I still think "Don't Drink, Don't Smoke" would be a better Adam Ant inspired guild name. I mean, if you're going to advertise that you're old enough to remember Adam Ant videos, why not avoid confusion with Edward James Olmos' "tough teacher" movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094027/)? :)

-Tom

[Soapyfrog]

Can't make everyone happy, eh?

I kinda wish I was playing this but I just can't stomach the avatar combat/running around. Is it reasonably easy to level just by "ratting"?

[Mordrak]

This guy (http://flagsrus.proboards61.com/index.cgi?board=general) is designing custom flags (2000db) or flags and sails (3000db) upon request. Might be cool to have him incorporate the Qt3 logo (with Tom's permission?) or a unique concept for Stand and Deliver. What do you guys think?

I was thinking of something like a the bust of a black steed, with crossing pistols as an allusion to Turpin. However, I'm down with whatever you guys want to use. :)

[TomChick]

Can we get a Che Guevera style stencil of Adam Ant? :)

-Tom

[JM]

Can't make everyone happy, eh?

I kinda wish I was playing this but I just can't stomach the avatar combat/running around. Is it reasonably easy to level just by "ratting"?

Have you tried it?

Levelling via taking down higher-level NPCs is probably the quickest way to go, but you make a lot of money from missions. Most missions are ship-based, though.

[Jasper]

Second Battle for Port of Spain:

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7201

This time four of Vanguardia were among the 25 defenders. Two Freetraders, a Privateer and a Naval Officer.
What is the "30 minutes before entering the port" rule mentioned? As described, it makes it sound pretty easy to stall a battle...

Also, do you have any idea what the average ship level was?

[Jasper]

Also a highlight, it's a shame the game didn't ship with stock voice support for grouping and pvp battles.
We really should get our own server up. Trying to organize by chat while sailing doesn't work so well. Anyone know of an existing server we can use?

[LionelThompson]

Yeah, but the difference is you guys don't have to play under my character's name. Aren't you glad? Anyway, I still think "Don't Drink, Don't Smoke" would be a better Adam Ant inspired guild name. I mean, if you're going to advertise that you're old enough to remember Adam Ant videos, why not avoid confusion with Edward James Olmos' "tough teacher" movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094027/)? :)

-Tom

Well, if you want to go about it that way, the song with that phrase is 'Goody Two Shoes' and that's not much for a pirate society. Maybe for the Frenchies =)

And images of Adama leading our fleet is a nice one thankyouverymuch!

[Soapyfrog]

Have you tried it?
Yes I was in beta until about a week before launch. It's definitely the part of the game I could not stand.
Levelling via taking down higher-level NPCs is probably the quickest way to go, but you make a lot of money from missions. Most missions are ship-based, though.
Is there an easy way to tell now which missions are ship based and which are avatar?

If I neglect avatar combat development will I be screwed in pvp?

[JM]

We really should get our own server up. Trying to organize by chat while sailing doesn't work so well. Anyone know of an existing server we can use?

I'll put up a Vent server. v2.1 due to the retarded licensing, but ventrilomix is a fine client so it shouldn't be a problem.

Edit for Soapy:

The mission descriptions usually give it away. The avatar missions so far have been 90% short and easy, and there's no risk attached to just dying and giving up as far as I can tell.

PVP - You'll want to be able to board ships or defend yourself, those fights are definitely short and sweet. You'll get Swashbuckling skillpoints purely because of levelling so you wont be gimping yourself, but if you have no idea what you're doing with your avatar you'll be at a disadvantage in boarding.

[Skipper]

JM I have an old server I could retask from WoW. It's a 3.0 hosted at ventrilo.org. If you're interested I'll see about a hostname change for it to get it going.

[Jasper]

Sweet! That'd be just thing.

Also, can we get Adam Ant music playing in the background? ;-P

[Jasper]

Yes I was in beta until about a week before launch. It's definitely the part of the game I could not stand.

Is there an easy way to tell now which missions are ship based and which are avatar?

If I neglect avatar combat development will I be screwed in pvp?
It's tedious to figure out which missions are swashbuckling, as they're not marked clearly. You essentially have to read the descriptions, typically after you accept the quest.

Also, I'm not sure why you didn't like Avatar combat, nor how long you played beta, but it does get more interesting around level 20 or so. The opponents start actually fight back, appear to use skills the same way you do, and you get much better results if you adjust to changing circumstances rather than do the same thing repeatedly. Hmmm, although this is less true for actual avatar missions where you're alone and face groups enemies 2 and 3 at a time, and most true for boarding. I wish more avatar missions had you take crew.

I haven't tried it, but I don't think you'll be gimped in PvP by avoiding avatar combat. Just pick skills and upgrades that focus on cannon exchange, and probably a few anti-boarding abilities. Boarding is much riskier in PvP than for missions, as other players may pound you during the fight, and have more time to do so. Not to mention that you risk getting singled out and being the victim of combined fire if you close. Not that it cant' be done, but it's by no means a mainstay tactic, and my gut feeling is that it'll only occasionally be effective.

I've set Amilcar up with speed and boarding in mind, but may well switch to more damage; a friend of mine (Der Dutchman) just switched to maxing out reload rate (Rum, Rum, Rum!), and I'm waiting to see how that goes for him. Plus I already used my free respec. :-/

Actually, I suggest everyone switch to maxing out their reload rate. Make sure to buy ammo at Matthew's Town! Conveniently located near Irish Point...

[JM]

JM I have an old server I could retask from WoW. It's a 3.0 hosted at ventrilo.org. If you're interested I'll see about a hostname change for it to get it going.

Whatever's easiest for people, really. I already run 2.1 for my WoW guild and another instance is no problem - what benefits do we get from 3.0?

Jasper: I REFUSE TO BUY MORE AMMO FROM YOU. The last lot barely scratched them :(

[Jasper]

You're supposed to put the powder into the cannon before the shot.

[Soapyfrog]

Also, I'm not sure why you didn't like Avatar combat

Mostly becuase it was quite boring, clumsy, badly animated, boring, involved running around when I'd rather be on the quarter deck of a ship, boring, looked bad compared to every other game out there, also it was boring and kinda lame, but I guess there is no accounting for taste!! :)

In the Beta the level cap was 20 I beleive so thats as far as I went. Honestly the avatar combat was no challenge, at any point. It just sucked up play time I'd rather be sailing my ship.

That sums it up I suppose. I would take your word for it that it gets more interesting after level 20 but I admit I don't care that much... I really had the feeling it was tacked on, superfluous.

[flyinj]

The thing that gets me about avatar combat is that I pretty much have my hotkey bar full of needed commands right off the bat.

I've only invested in one swashbuckling skill so far, and I'm level 10 (hip shot so I could use my pistol).

I assume that if I save up my points until level 15, I can invest all of them in one of the upper-tier fighting styles? Or should I invest all the points before 15 into dirty fighting?

[Mordrak]

That sums it up I suppose. I would take your word for it that it gets more interesting after level 20 but I admit I don't care that much... I really had the feeling it was tacked on, superfluous.

There are a few ways you might get gimped by avoiding avatar missions: if some career missions are avatar based you miss out on skills, you'd miss out on some quest reward gear that might be good for when you get boarded, and general inexperience when you are boarded.

There's three things that'd help remedy that, +def vs grappling enhancements so you're less likely to be boarded, practice boarding occasionally, and buying personal gear people find during missions off the auction house.

The avatar combat definitely needs some fine tuning. Movement is pretty floaty. However, I'm just now beginning to see some of the tactics. I think NPCs are generally pretty weak, just so it's not overwhelming. Also, the number of npcs (6+captain for each side) adds to the confusion in combat.

Honestly, there's enough avatar combat that you'd probably be annoyed fairly often, unless they mark avatar missions in the future, you rarely do missions, or you play only the economic aspects of the game and grind out levels on npc/pvp ships.

[Brian Rucker]

flyingj: You can respec your Swashbucking skills (or your Career skills) pretty easily. It costs 10k credits or, for nationals, 10 pennants turned in at our capital.

Not sure if pirates have a similar route to respeccing for free but I'd be surprised if they didn't.

I did experiment with some of the "top tier" skills and wasn't very impressed. Respecced into the full Intimidation line, or whatever it's called, and while there's some marginal edge to some of the skills they don't remotely compare - for day to day swashbuckling - with the core fighting skills of your class.

Maybe in groups of players for the "raid" instances down the road it'll be more useful.

As for the battle, I think the biggest ship was an NO's level 40 SoL on the Spanish side. Levels ranged from the low 20's to the mid 30's otherwise on our side.

Not sure about the rationale for the timer but some group missions have the same thing. My offhand guess is that this gives privateers something to do. SoLs and heavy merchantmen meet and duke it out while Privateers race in to land and clear a beachhead before the timer runs out. I can't say this is actually what happens in practice though.

Otherwise those tiny ships and their boarding function aren't much use. As has been pointed out boarding during a big battle is just painting a big target symbol on your unmoving vessel.

Taking it into the fort or the town for a fight, though, takes your ship off the map.

That's just a guess.

PS: And what's with this tiny-ass quick response box we have now?

[Skipper]

Whatever's easiest for people, really. I already run 2.1 for my WoW guild and another instance is no problem - what benefits do we get from 3.0?

Jasper: I REFUSE TO BUY MORE AMMO FROM YOU. The last lot barely scratched them :(

No advantage to it at all (very little anyway). And I'd have to steal mine back from my old WoW guild. If I can leave it in place I will. If you already have a tasked machine for it, I say just fire up another instance on a second port.

[Skipper]

Soapy, I get that feeling from avatar combat too, and I'm at 23 now. Sure I click different buttons, but it reminds me of a big mass of crappy battle AI thrown into a small clipping environment. Either I win or lose but my relative skills mean little if I'm getting raped by 4+ at once or they can mean a lot if I'm one on one in a small landing party mission. In other words, unlike the ship combat, it's not consistently an awesome experience.

That doesn't deter me from enjoying the game though, it's a very fresh break from WoW and I love the feeling that I'm playing in a live, breathing game of Pirates!

[JM]

No advantage to it at all (very little anyway). And I'd have to steal mine back from my old WoW guild. If I can leave it in place I will. If you already have a tasked machine for it, I say just fire up another instance on a second port.

Fired you a PM with the details. Feel free to add it to our MOTD and pass out info.

Edit: Seems to all work here. Just play around and let me know any problems, I'm off to bed though.

[Brian Rucker]

If you're getting jumped by many NPCs you need some incapacitating ability (Dirty Fighting is strong in crowd control and AoE) or pick up some skills that help you shed aggro (all fighting styles have one or more of these).

Also, "target enemy captain" might work sometimes but if all your crew rushes past the enemy crew without engaging them that leaves the enemy crew free to do the same to you.

[Skipper]

Fired you a PM with the details. Feel free to add it to our MOTD and pass out info.

Edit: Seems to all work here. Just play around and let me know any problems, I'm off to bed though.

Added to the MOTD, thanks for the host JM.

[Brian Rucker]

Actually - I think I totally misunderstood what the timer is all about. Good thread discussing the topic:

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7216

My Society friends are much more involved with the PvP aspect so far than I am so my PvP advice should be taken with more than a grain of salt.

[Sepiche]

I agree with the complaints about the avatar combat feeling "floaty". In a lot of boarding actions I do there also seems to be some odd lag with guys jumping around sometimes or being in a different spot than where it shows them.

Ignoring that, once you get a little higher in level and spend a little time looking over the combat trees it really starts to get better though. IMHO there are just some higher level abilities that are really needed to handle different situations in boarding and until you get those there are going to be times when you get screwed.

In the fencing line in particular there are some nice must have skills. The first skill in the nimble tree (can't remember the name, but it instantly gives you 60 balance) is a must have. Given the way balance effects combat it's almost like an instant heal. I use that skill a lot when I start to get overwhelmed. I can't remember at all what it's called or what tree it's in, but there's a skill that will reduce your hate and that one is also very, very handy. If I do too much damage during boarding and start to see 4 or 5 guys headed toward me I just fire off that skill and they will turn and start fighting my crew again.

It really does open up and get more fun and tactical as you go on, but I think that's more based on choosing good skills than just having the levels.

The ship combat seems really well polished though. I'm hoping they will eventually achieve that level of polish on the avatar side of things.

[TylerG]

Alright I'm giving this a shot. I'm a pirate creatively named Tyler Grant on Bonny. Could I get an invite to the guild?

[Sepiche]

Here's a really good thread on avatar combat tactics btw:
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5607

[Mordrak]

Can we get a Che Guevera style stencil of Adam Ant? :)

-Tom

This could be used for the sail or the basis of a flag.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/hawksdr/cheant2.png

I picked the base image for its similarity in tone to the Che Guevera print, but now I'm thinking sillier pose would be appropriate.

[TomChick]

Good lord. But, okay, if someone manages to transfer that to whatever format the game uses for sail art, I will proudly* fly that banner on my ship.

-Tom

* This isn't the adverb I'm looking for, but it will do.

[LionelThompson]

This could be used for the sail or the basis of a flag.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/hawksdr/cheant2.png

I picked the base image for its similarity in tone to the Che Guevera print, but now I'm thinking sillier pose would be appropriate.

Not what I had in mind, but that is absolutely awesome and would love that on the sails. Well done indeed!

[Mordrak]

Good lord. But, okay, if someone manages to transfer that to whatever format the game uses for sail art, I will proudly* fly that banner on my ship.

-Tom

* This isn't the adverb I'm looking for, but it will do.

I guess this is a lesson in being careful what you wish for. Bwhahaha.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/hawksdr/cheant3.png


Not what I had in mind, but that is absolutely awesome and would love that on the sails. Well done indeed!


I doubt it would pass the mods, since our flags and sails are supposed to fit the setting and be relatively reproducible for the time period. I'm just having fun in photoshop.

[Mysterio]

This could be used for the sail or the basis of a flag.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/hawksdr/cheant2.png

I picked the base image for its similarity in tone to the Che Guevera print, but now I'm thinking sillier pose would be appropriate.

If this image is stitched onto my flag and sails, I'll sink my ship!

[TheWombat]

Well, I now have a pirate on Bonny, named, um, Wombat McGee. Dumb name, I know, but it was all I could think of at the moment. Think I'm level 7 or something. I gather we have a Society there of some sort? If so, I'd like to join, though God knows how much "yarrring" I'll get in.

[LionelThompson]

Well, I now have a pirate on Bonny, named, um, Wombat McGee. Dumb name, I know, but it was all I could think of at the moment. Think I'm level 7 or something. I gather we have a Society there of some sort? If so, I'd like to join, though God knows how much "yarrring" I'll get in.

We have a society of about 50 now. Send me a mail in game or look on page 3 or 4 for a player list and if any of them are on, they should be able to invite.

[Skipper]

I'll be back from travel tonight. I've had limited play time since Tuesday. I can't wait to do some pirating, yarr!

For anyone that missed it, there was a really great special on pirates on Discovery a few years ago. I shrunk down the video to iPod size and watched it, really cool to hear the stories about all the big pirates of the day. A small hint, most of our server names were all famous pirates. Bonny was one of the few female pirates that became famous:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Bonny

At any rate, some folks probably knew that, I had no clue.

[Brian Rucker]

So far the Spanish, with TCON in the point position but Vanguardia playing a supporting role with others, have successfully defended Port of Spain twice from English aggression.

Tonight the shoe is on the other foot. Spain attacks Belize! Most of Vanguardia has some contention points there from grinding PvE ships and PvPing - including for the first time, moi. So I may see some action though I suspect my point totals are much lower than the many others who participated.

England, meanwhile, is grinding up contention on not just Port of Spain but another port (whose name escapes me right now) with the scheme of splitting the number of defenders. This isn't a bad plan. They've got far more combatants than we do and only TCON is a really organized PvP outfit. Most campaigning Spanish Societies are linked in a loose alliance and I'm curious as to the response our leadership will cook up here.

Also, of minor note, one shady ex-Pirate named Mandrake Grim was spotted puttering about Tortuga. Seems there was a meeting of pirate captains and fellow was there mingling with his former comrades. First RP event on Bonny was this meet'n'greet. Small turnout but some talented folks. Old Hob posts fairly regularly, and very well, in the Bonny forums and he's also quite the character in person as were several of the others. I expect this event will only increase in popularity over time.

If you don't speak Patois you might want to learn Diplomacy before attending or, alternatively, just make use of the /emote or /me command to make a pose and insert some speech behind it. You still won't understand what anyone else is saying but they'll be able to understand you. This actually makes Diplomacy somewhat useful even when around other folks from different Nations that don't have it. You can speak to them this way and Diplomacy helps you understand them even if they're just speaking in Local.

[Mysterio]

Using Monthar's excellent Excel spreadsheet for tracking production costs as a database, I'm creating an Excel spreadsheet that will allow us to track all the structures each member has built, the raw materials they're capable of producing, and the manufactured goods they're capable of manufacturing. It will allow us to see all the structures, raw resources, and manufactured goods each member has built (structures) or is capable of producing (raw materials and manufactured goods) at a glance.

Comments?

[Skipper]

Damn great idea. Would you like a list now?

Logging Camp (Fir)
Mine (Iron)
Quarry (Granite)
Hunting Lodge

Tanner
Carpenter
Forge

[Jakub]

Can someone send an invite out to John Long?

[Mysterio]

Using Monthar's excellent Excel spreadsheet for tracking production costs as a database, I'm creating an Excel spreadsheet that will allow us to track all the structures each member has built, the raw materials they're capable of producing, and the manufactured goods they're capable of manufacturing. It will allow us to see all the structures, raw resources, and manufactured goods each member has built (structures) or is capable of producing (raw materials and manufactured goods) at a glance.

Comments?

Ok, Rev 01 of Stand and Deliver's production capabilities is available here:

[link removed]

If you click on the link, it should open the Excel spreadsheet from within your browser. The tabs at the bottom are:

Structures
Structure Deeds
Raw Materials
Manufactured Goods
Shipwright Materials
Cannon Ammo
Consumable Items
Consumable Items General
Consumable Items Experts
Ship Deeds
Ship Deeds (Captured)
Ship Outfitting, Colossal
Ship Outfitting, General
Ship Outfitting, Huge
Ship Outfitting, Large
Ship Outfitting, Medium
Ship Outfitting, Small

Within each tab, you'll notice a column titled either 'Have Built (X)' (for the Structures tab only) or "Can Make (X)' (for all other tabs). Simply place an 'X' in that column aside all the structures you've built, all the raw materials you can produce, and all the manufactured goods you can manufacture.

You can send me the information in one of two ways:

1.) PM me the information here, along with your pirate's name. I'll then add your information to the master matrix.

2.) Hit Alt > File > Save As... > (save the file), and then send the file and your pirate's name to [e-mail address removed]. I'll then cut and paste the columns you marked into the master matrix.

If you have simple updates, just PM me here with the changes.

Let's see if this proves useful!

Hugh Swift

[Jakub]

So I capture a ship... how do I turn it into a deed?

[Mysterio]

So I capture a ship... how do I turn it into a deed?

A ship deed is a manufactured item. You can't turn a ship into a ship deed.

[JM]

Great work, Mysterio!

[Yaltan]

I've been more or less unable to play my little Freetrader the last couple of days. Two nights ago lag was so bad that an entire boarding action went by (4 respawns) without being able to hit a single key or take any action. It all went by in a blur after about 2 minutes of my crew standing around.

I upgraded to a new wireless device (802.11N) and get great throughput in most things but can't enter the game at all now. I get stuck at "loading" forever. Well, for 20-30 minutes, which I consider forever.

We'll see if their support has anything to say.

I really enjoy the game but this sort of issue kills me - literally and figuratively.

[quantum_mechani]

So, I'm giving this a try, the dread pirate Denny Crane is on the bonny server if anyone wants to send him an invite.

[Brian Rucker]

Yeah, I have intermittant connection and lag issues as well. Getting dumped or having the client freeze can be very crappy at the wrong time. And expensive. I know it's not me because I didn't have issues at all with my other MMOs in the past and SWG currently runs like greased lightning without any issues, ever. Don't think it's SOE.

That said it's just rare enough to be a constant dread without being a game killer. Yet. The day I lose a ship because of a crash or connection time-out will probably be the day I take up torch and pitchfork.

[Jakub]

K I quit.

Fucking rep grind.

To build a fucking copper mine I need a rep with smuggler's union? Suck my ass.

Not even remotely interested in replaying the worst part of Burning Crusade.

Back to Port Royale.

[Skipper]

K I quit.

Fucking rep grind.

To build a fucking copper mine I need a rep with smuggler's union? Suck my ass.

Not even remotely interested in replaying the worst part of Burning Crusade.

Back to Port Royale.

Wha? Dude are you serious? I've built everything so far without issue, do they require rep for certain facilities that I don't know about? If so that would SO suck ass. From all I could tell the only rep grind was for selling to different nations (which I give a rats ass about.) If this is true that's a big minus. The smugglers union is all about those painful ass collection quests that everyone pretty much ignores.

[Jasper]

Uh, as a pirate you start with Rep with the Smuggler's Union, and can build in all the pirate ports... Or at least that's been my experience.

[Jasper]

Here's my list of structures, split between Santa Clara and La Isabella:
3 x Weaponsmith
2 x Powderworks
1 x Forge
1 x Iron Mine
1 x Limestone Quarry
1 x Saltpeter Mine
1 x Oak Logging Camp

I'm considering ditching the Logging Camp for something more lucrative, as I don't really need very many logs, and their bulk makes them a pain to ship to market.

I can make (non-brass) ammunition, powder consumables, small arms, all general cannon upgrades, all small/medium cannon upgrades, basic large/huge/colossal cannon upgrades, plus all the related raw materials and manufactured goods of course. If you buy ammunition at Matthew's Town, it's probably from me!

Also, I take orders if you're looking for cannon upgrades, and won't charge much more than cost.

[LionelThompson]

K I quit.

Fucking rep grind.

To build a fucking copper mine I need a rep with smuggler's union? Suck my ass.

Not even remotely interested in replaying the worst part of Burning Crusade.

Back to Port Royale.

If you start as a pirate you are friendly with Brethern pirates. If you killed mobs that were green, as in friends, to you, and screwed up your faction, then you screwed up big time.

As far as plots go, all I have of interest right now is:
1 Hunting Lodge in Golden Lake
1 Coffee Plantation
1 Tobacco Plantation
1 Provisioner in Turpetude
2 Limestone quarries
1 Iron mine
1 Forge
1 Weaponsmith

This means I'll need rum for smelling salts and black powder for small arms for unrest.

[LionelThompson]

So I capture a ship... how do I turn it into a deed?

Assuming you have the level 10 salvage skill, defeat a boat without sinking it, and use that skill. If you are very lucky, you will get the deed.

[Jasper]

You can only get Ship Deeds from auction, creation via a careening camp, Salvaged loot, quest rewards, or trade from another player.

To answer Jakub's question specifically, you cannot turn one of the ships you are sailing around into a deed.

[Mysterio]

You can ... get Ship Deeds from ... Salvaged loot

Good to know!

[Mysterio]

Here's my list of structures, split between Santa Clara and La Isabella:
3 x Weaponsmith
2 x Powderworks
1 x Forge
1 x Iron Mine
1 x Limestone Quarry
1 x Saltpeter Mine
1 x Oak Logging Camp

I'm considering ditching the Logging Camp for something more lucrative, as I don't really need very many logs, and their bulk makes them a pain to ship to market.

I can make (non-brass) ammunition, powder consumables, small arms, all general cannon upgrades, all small/medium cannon upgrades, basic large/huge/colossal cannon upgrades, plus all the related raw materials and manufactured goods of course. If you buy ammunition at Matthew's Town, it's probably from me!

Also, I take orders if you're looking for cannon upgrades, and won't charge much more than cost.

I added all your structures, but I'm going to need specifics on your structures' recipes. The sheet (look under the appropriate tab at the bottom of the sheet) lists every recipe in the game.

Also, I need your pirate's name.

[Jakub]

Wha? Dude are you serious? I've built everything so far without issue, do they require rep for certain facilities that I don't know about? If so that would SO suck ass. From all I could tell the only rep grind was for selling to different nations (which I give a rats ass about.) If this is true that's a big minus. The smugglers union is all about those painful ass collection quests that everyone pretty much ignores.
Sorry, I should clarify:

I'm using my Navy character on another server. Tried to build a copper mine and found I needed indifferent or better rep with the Smuggler's Union.

[Mysterio]

If you start as a pirate you are friendly with Brethern pirates. If you killed mobs that were green, as in friends, to you, and screwed up your faction, then you screwed up big time.

As far as plots go, all I have of interest right now is:
1 Hunting Lodge in Golden Lake
1 Coffee Plantation
1 Tobacco Plantation
1 Provisioner in Turpetude

I also have 2 forges and 1 iron mine in Turp, but I don't know that I'm going to hold on to them.

I added all your structures. Are you able to tell me your structures' recipes?

I need you pirate's name, as well.

BTW, for fellow members, the purpose of this matrix is to...

1.) ...identify easily which structures have not been built by the society
2.) ...identify easily which materials can not be manufactured by the society
3.) ...identify easily the materials each member can manufacture so you know who to seek out and give your business :-)

Thanks!

[Mysterio]

Sorry, I should clarify:

I'm using my Navy character on another server. Tried to build a copper mine and found I needed indifferent or better rep with the Smuggler's Union.

Were you trying to build it in a Pirate port?

[Mordrak]

Sorry, I should clarify:

I'm using my Navy character on another server. Tried to build a copper mine and found I needed indifferent or better rep with the Smuggler's Union.

http://potbswiki.com/index.php?title=Copper_Deposits

These are all the ports that have copper deposits. It looks like every faction has at least one, with Pirates and the British having two.

[Jakub]

I know.

I'm at a British port. It's telling me I need Smuggler's Union rep.

[JM]

Ask on the official forums - it sounds like a bug. I've seen no reference to any rep grinds...

[Jakub]

http://www.badwojo.com/rep.jpg

[Jakub]

K nm.

I went to the port where I'm building and the rep changed to British Trade Union.

[tiohn]

I'm Silvia de Jesus on Bonny, but I'm still working through the tutorials. Looks interesting so far. At the very least, the setting and subject will keep my interest for a bit.

[LionelThompson]

I'm Silvia de Jesus on Bonny, but I'm still working through the tutorials. Looks interesting so far. At the very least, the setting and subject will keep my interest for a bit.

You are not a pirate :( I just tried to invite you to the society but it said you were a dirty national.

[tiohn]

You are not a pirate :( I just tried to invite you to the society but it said you were a dirty national.

Oh crap! I failed reading and didn't realize that I needed to be a pirate. Once I learn the ropes, I'll roll a pirate.

[Yaltan]

A technical diversion - I found my latest network problems to be due to some strange incompatibility between my cheap Encore 802.11n USB network adapter and my Apple Airport Extreme router. TCP was getting through, but UDP packets were corrupted about 50% of the time. Since most of the traffic in PoTBS is UDP, the game was basically crashing with bad data every time I tried to do anything.

I switched back to my old 802.11g card, updated the drivers, and things are much better. Without constant lag I can actually complete missions.

I'm still not a pirate though. I may end up re-rolling just to join the fun. I see folks from Stand and Deliver every now and then but I'm too slow to wave and not yet PvP flagged (level 13 in a 12 gun sloop, not going to do much with that).

Having lots of fun with the game, trying to make some money.

[Jasper]

I added all your structures, but I'm going to need specifics on your structures' recipes. The sheet (look under the appropriate tab at the bottom of the sheet) lists every recipe in the game.

Also, I need your pirate's name.
I'm Amilcar Bolivar. To be honest, I'm too lazy to page through the worst part of the PotBS interface and mark down everything, as it I can make scores of different things. Pretty much, if it's cannons, small arms, powder, or ammo, I can make it. I can make a variety of intermediate things, but I pretty much use them up, aside from Oak logs.

[Jasper]

K nm.

I went to the port where I'm building and the rep changed to British Trade Union.
Yah, you get weird results when looking at structure requirements when you're not on site. This can definitely be confusing, and I'd consider it a bug. It should tell you the correct requirements, and then specifically say that you need to be present.

[Lurb]

I hate QT3... I played a bit in beta and felt all meh! on this. Yet here I am waiting for the client to finish patching. I feel this will be another LOTRO for me... play for a while, admit that in fact it's a decent game, then lose any will to ever log back in again.

[InfiniteJest]

I'm Mal Grenouille a French Privateer on Bonny and have a low level Freetrader alt Ikbal Matisse, also on Bonny. I'm based out of Grenville so I occasionally see some of you Stand and Deliver types over in the Bahamas.

I've been playing around with the economy more than I expected. France, for all its low pop (seems to peak around 95) seems to be the economic powerhouse. Either that or the economy is still wildly out whack besides just being inefficient. I've been making and selling Ship Provisions. So if you find yourself needing a better deal than the bad one you're often getting in pirateland, send me or Jos Bleau a tell and we'll hook you up.

One thing I'm not understanding very well is how grouping affects difficulty. Does it have any effect for non-group missions when you're grouped? Does it have any effect if you're the only one running the mission but still grouped?

[flyinj]

Is there any way to sell goods (gravel, steel, wood) other than at the auction house as a Pirate?

[Jasper]

I'm Mal Grenouille a French Privateer on Bonny and have a low level Freetrader alt Ikbal Matisse, also on Bonny. I'm based out of Grenville so I occasionally see some of you Stand and Deliver types over in the Bahamas.
Don't forget to turn on your PvP flag and wave Hi when you see us!

[Jasper]

Is there any way to sell goods (gravel, steel, wood) other than at the auction house as a Pirate?
No. You can sell to different auction houses in different regions for different prices, perhaps. With enough of the proper reputation you can also sell to the national players, and there's the Dutch auction house in Orange Town.

If you make stuff that other players don't want to buy, tough luck!

[Raife]

So I just had this mission where you get stranded on a desert island and end up with a fucking pegleg. Granted, you can apparently get restored by finishing another mission that crafts you a more lifelike wooden leg, but what kind of crappy arbitrary shit is this? "Oh, sorry, suddenly you've only got one leg."

[Mike O'Malley]

It was probably pretty crappy and arbitrary in real life too.

Realism FTW.

[Mordrak]

So I just had this mission where you get stranded on a desert island and end up with a fucking pegleg. Granted, you can apparently get restored by finishing another mission that crafts you a more lifelike wooden leg, but what kind of crappy arbitrary shit is this? "Oh, sorry, suddenly you've only got one leg."

What mission is that?

[Raife]

It was probably pretty crappy and arbitrary in real life too.

Realism FTW.

Dumbass FTL.

What mission is that?

One of the Santa Catalina British ones. The one where they give you a Mediator Cutter to sail. Abandon that puppy if you don't want to lose a leg. Also, the crocodile in that mission is a huge pain in the ass to kill. It has like 264 health and is immune to most abilities. The whole mission is pretty much a big "fuck you".

[NuclearWinter]

So I just had this mission where you get stranded on a desert island and end up with a fucking pegleg. Granted, you can apparently get restored by finishing another mission that crafts you a more lifelike wooden leg, but what kind of crappy arbitrary shit is this? "Oh, sorry, suddenly you've only got one leg."

Dude, the follow up mission to that (which you get as soon as you return from the desert island) takes like 2 minutes and will allow you to remove the peg leg at any tailor. I thought it was pretty fun myself, aside from that crazy tough crockadile.

That's how it works for the pirates anyway.

[Raife]

To clarify, taking control over their character away from a player is a really bad idea in an MMO.

[LionelThompson]

I added all your structures. Are you able to tell me your structures' recipes?

I need you pirate's name, as well.

BTW, for fellow members, the purpose of this matrix is to...

1.) ...identify easily which structures have not been built by the society
2.) ...identify easily which materials can not be manufactured by the society
3.) ...identify easily the materials each member can manufacture so you know who to seek out and give your business :-)

Thanks!

Aye, I'm One-Eye Willy, scoundrel extraordinaire:

For the forge I can:
Forge nails
Refine gold
Smelt copper
Smelt Iron
Smelt Silver
Grapple Defense 1, 2, 3, and 4
Crude, Fine, Normal, and Master's Spyglass
Kedge, Small Forge, Medium Forge anchors
Iron Fittings
Mast Hoops

Provisioner
Smelling Salts
Bake Bread
Cheesemaking
Pack ship Provisions
Unrest supplies: Food, Luxuries

Weaponsmith
All ship ammo
V. Small, Small, and medium cannons
Swivel guns
Unrest supplies: weapons
Small wadding, Small speed gun, small raider's guns, small grappling cannons, small accuracy gun rig and small perfected cannons 4 and 5
Small long-barreled guns, heavy cannon modifications 1-3
Large wadding, large speed gun rig, large raider's guns, large perfected cannons, large grappling cannons, large accuracy gun rig 3-4
Extra powder magazine 1-2
Explosive powder 1

Hunting Lodge
Skin game (furs)
Hunt game (meat)

Limestone quarry
Gravel
Quarry

[Cal]

To clarify, taking control over their character away from a player is a really bad idea in an MMO.

I thought this was a really fun quest. "Dont look at me! im a monstaaaaaaaaaar"

These quests are just tailor unlocks, and if you hate this one, you will hate the peg arm quest, and the parrot quest, or the quest that dresses you as a woman, or the one that dresses you as a pirate etc.

Personally i like unlockables, and it did explain how to change it back easily.

[Skipper]

Just finished the quest myself and I found it fun as well. You can remove the peg at the tailor but it's very "Piratey." And yeah the croc was a bitch but the dialog choices when you talk to the guy are pretty funny, with the included Vader response, "Noooooooooooo!"

I also just dinged 25 and got my Agamemnon Bark. Great ship, just don't sail her into the wind. I miss the Xebec already.

[Jasper]

So I just had this mission where you get stranded on a desert island and end up with a fucking pegleg. Granted, you can apparently get restored by finishing another mission that crafts you a more lifelike wooden leg, but what kind of crappy arbitrary shit is this? "Oh, sorry, suddenly you've only got one leg."
I thought this was fairly lame too, although it was a bit funny when all the pirates in town are walking around with the same peg leg. I imagine it must have been extra funny if you did the mission with friends -- oh look at that, we all lost the same leg!

Also annoying that you had to travel half way across the Caribbean to get to "tailor" where you can undo it, and that it wasn't clear where you needed to go to undo it.

The Pirate version is in Jacob's Clock somewhere. I'd have avoided it had I known it was coming.

[Jasper]

I thought this was a really fun quest. "Dont look at me! im a monstaaaaaaaaaar"

These quests are just tailor unlocks, and if you hate this one, you will hate the peg arm quest, and the parrot quest, or the quest that dresses you as a woman, or the one that dresses you as a pirate etc.

Personally i like unlockables, and it did explain how to change it back easily.
If there were a quick way to immediately undo it, and return to the previous outfit I wouldn't mind. But there wasn't, it just overrode it, and left you to remember what you had before.

You're probably right, I'll hate the other quests too, if they don't return me to my previous look when I'm done -- especially if it changes more than just the boots. Any idea where they are?

[TheWombat]

I've tried contacting One-Eye and Amilcar in game but my tells seem to either be lost in the clutter of gold farmers or not getting through...I'm Wombat McGee, a Pirate (12) and still lookin' for a Society invite. I'll try again though.

[Ryan A]

This thread made me purchase the game. Waiting now for the update to finish. I don't trust all you short attention span gamers though, and am planning to roll a Spanish character in the hopes of meeting up with Brian's group.

[Skipper]

I've tried contacting One-Eye and Amilcar in game but my tells seem to either be lost in the clutter of gold farmers or not getting through...I'm Wombat McGee, a Pirate (12) and still lookin' for a Society invite. I'll try again though.


I'll add you if you've not been gotten already.

[Skipper]

This thread made me purchase the game. Waiting now for the update to finish. I don't trust all you short attention span gamers though, and am planning to roll a Spanish character in the hopes of meeting up with Brian's group.

I'll have your head for that you scurvy dog! Arrr!

P.S. - Best of luck. I hear on the Spanish side they sit around and drink sangria while munching on tapas, oblivious to things going on until they actually, you know, have to go out and defend stuff. But they have the luck of the gods when it comes to defense.

[tiohn]

This thread made me purchase the game. Waiting now for the update to finish. I don't trust all you short attention span gamers though, and am planning to roll a Spanish character in the hopes of meeting up with Brian's group.

What is your character's name? Mine is Silvia de Jesus. They'll be best friends.

[Lurb]

What is your character's name? Mine is Silvia de Jesus. They'll be best friends.
You are lacking at least one more name and two surnames. Imposter! Spy!

I'm a fresh out of the tutorial pirate: Orrin Ravelle. I'm thinking about killing him and coming up with an original name while I browse frills for the shirt.

[Deadbuffalo]

Sorry I haven't been around much with Cap'n Buffalo.... I've pretty much moved on to having my main as a national. The economy plays a much larger role and it seems like theres a much greater sense of urgency amongst the players to organize or get rolled. Its also a great feeling creating a red circle by transporting in tons and tons of small arms. I haven't gotten into a good 4v4 or 6v6,but I've enjoyed running down players foolish enough to enter the red circle alone.

On the Morgan server, the French are by far the smallest nation, with the British and Pirates being the largest. The Spanish however have the most hardcore societies which has led to them dominating the Caribbean nearly unopposed. However, the French have some pretty decent groups and we managed to put Bridgetown into contention. Last night was the port battle. Its amazing to see that many players all together; its also really chaotic. One guy tried to reign in everyone and tried to show how to form a line, but we ended up with two groups, one of skirmishers which were to attack the fort initially and the other of the main line. The British were a lot more organized with a single line led by their level 50 and 2 or 3 skirmishers to harass ships that got out of line. The fort attack ended up destroying 4 out of 6 of my group, how I don't know since I was at the end of the main line. The rest of the skirmish group got destroyed by the end of the British line. Our biggest ships, the defiant frigates, were regularly being hammered and had to be screened several times to prevent their loss while the enemy seemed relatively unharmed. We also had issues keeping the line solid and calling proper targets; there was a lot of bumper boats. We pulled back and reformed and picked off a couple of ships that had broken from the British line to harass us, but that ended up separating us further. We lost 1 or 2 of our frigates at that point and called the attack off. I think in the end we lost about 10 ships and they lost 4. I wish I had a chance to do a bit more in my little MC Lexington Brig, like cross the T or pick off more stragglers, but that opportunity didn't really happen. Next time I'll volunteer to lead a group of skirmishers specifically for harassing the rear of the enemy's line. Below are some pictures, mostly of the fleets and one of someone who went link dead. I had to enhance the colors as they came out darker than I remember.

So for anyone who is finding the pirate's life is not for them, I'm more than happy to help and group with you. Morgan Server, Dasha La Russe, my free trader, and Sands D'Artagnan my low level NO that I plan to level up more once Dasha can start making advanced structures.


http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/741/enemylinesighteddf8.th.png (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=enemylinesighteddf8.png)
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/3820/linkdeadvi5.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=linkdeadvi5.jpg)
http://img134.imageshack.us/img134/4774/lineturncz8.th.jpg (http://img134.imageshack.us/my.php?image=lineturncz8.jpg)
http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/2043/fleetonitswaynf6.th.jpg (http://img88.imageshack.us/my.php?image=fleetonitswaynf6.jpg)

[wisefool]

You're a bunch of lice-infested mother-loving curs.

I'm downloading now and I think I'll roll a Spanish character since I thought of a neat name

Question, what's the least popular class? I know Verant, popular classes get the most nerfs.

[Ryan A]

Rodrigo Sangiovese, Spanish Privateer has been loosed upon the seas!

[Skipper]

Question, what's the least popular class? I know Verant, popular classes get the most nerfs.

Technically this isn't Verant/Sony. They just host the servers, it's FLS that runs the game (Flying Labs Software.) That being said though, if you want a challenge in combat with a strategic crafting game, go with a Freetrader. If you want more combat heavy go Naval Officer. If you want a mix of both, go Privateer.

[Skipper]

By the way, to the folks on Bonny in Stand and Deliver, ask around in society chat first when you're shopping for a new ship. I don't know about everyone else but I'm always loaded down with deeds. They sell only occasionally so I'd much rather give them to a guildmate than have them sit in my warehouse.

[Mysterio]

Due to a lack of response to my production matrix (I've only received input from three members), I've decided to ditch it. Thanks to those three members who provided input.

[Skipper]

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/funny-pictures-pirate-cat.jpg

There are no lolcats for you non-pirates. Ha ha.

[Lurb]

Due to a lack of response to my production matrix (I've only received input from three members), I've decided to ditch it. Thanks to those three members who provided input.

I'm just halfway through the economy tutorial. I still bet your matrix totally pwns.

[Brian Rucker]

Vanguardia de la Cuarta Flota is finally getting pretty organized.

We've got a regular meeting day for RP and going over events and plans in person. We're lining up days to practice formation drilling and operations in OS PvE. Moving that over to PvP once we've got it all sorted out. People are done with the first wave of experimenting with different ship builds and character classes. We're hitting missions in groups to get further practice together as well. Our shipwrights, as individuals, are pumping out medium craft at deep discounts to members and our Society as a whole pools together to do runs of more expensive ships for our Naval Officers and sells the extras off for bank money.

Several of our folks were involved in the ill-fated attack on Belize. I'm fairly convinced that it won't be until there are more ships and higher level folks that any attacker is going to do well unless a defender completely bumbles it up. I also suspect that the first few rounds of the strategic game will not be representative of what happens in the mature environment down the road.

These developers have planned well ahead for what they expect to see as the game matures. Many of the issues some individual have now in the forums are just frustration with shortcomings in the economy or imbalances in factions or the lack of PvP on some servers. But this game is still growing and maturing. It's built to shift and change.

Just hope they keep a firm hand on the tiller and believe in what they're doing. Because I'm actually surprised how many people do get it!

For those interested in going Spanish on Bonny and enjoy RP contact me, Mandrake Grim, or our Society leader Belleza Diaz. Say Grim sent you.

[wisefool]

There are no lolcats for you non-pirates. Ha ha.

Yes we do. More betterer too.

http://cache.viewimages.com/xc/51084814.jpg?v=1&c=ViewImages&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1939847EC77F5F8D1CE67C693DB6A70F255 A40A659CEC4C8CB6

[Jasper]

I've tried contacting One-Eye and Amilcar in game but my tells seem to either be lost in the clutter of gold farmers or not getting through...I'm Wombat McGee, a Pirate (12) and still lookin' for a Society invite. I'll try again though.
Sorry about that. You may well have gotten lost in a snow of Gold Farmer tells, I've gotten hundreds, and at this point just turn tell off. :-(

I wish there was simple method where you could just submit a screenshot of the randomly generated character names used and turn the culprits in.

[TheWombat]

Heh. I'm in, now. Thanks, all.

The gold farmer spam is insane. It's started up again in EQ2 as well; for a while it was all being caught and labeled spam, but now they are getting through as actual tells again. Sheesh.

Sorry about that. You may well have gotten lost in a snow of Gold Farmer tells, I've gotten hundreds, and at this point just turn tell off. :-(

I wish there was simple method where you could just submit a screenshot of the randomly generated character names used and turn the culprits in.

[JM]

Due to a lack of response to my production matrix (I've only received input from three members), I've decided to ditch it. Thanks to those three members who provided input.

Shame. I am completely lost in the economy (doesnt help that I'm back at work and can't really put much time into the game for at least a week) but it was a fantastic suggestion. Thanks for giving it a shot.

[Mysterio]

Shame. I am completely lost in the economy (doesnt help that I'm back at work and can't really put much time into the game for at least a week) but it was a fantastic suggestion. Thanks for giving it a shot.

Thanks, JM.

If members are still interested, I'll continue to accept input from members (structures they've built and recipes their structures contain). Perhaps when everyone's more comfortable with the economy (I know I'm not, yet!), this matrix will prove more useful.

[LionelThompson]

Cross posted from SA:

Attention Stand & Deliver Pirates on Bonny

My Character on Bonny; Esta Putas now can make captured ships. Apparently if you trade in 10 Pennons in Tortuga to some guy in the fort you can get the Careening Camp that allows you to make ship deeds.

For the complete list of ships go here. http://potbsvault.ign.com/View.php?...etail&id=72

I can make you a ship if you need it, but you must provide me the materials for it(also listed in link) and I'll gladly make it for you (just throw in some money for the labor, I guess some where in between 50-100db and hour would be nice, labor times are listed)

I have yet to build a ship but according to the FAQ It should pump out 3 deeds per build.