Pirates of the Burning Sea: Bonny server

[TomChick]

Okay, if anyone's inclined to try this out, join me and Geryk on the Bonny server. Rucker's here, too, but he might be RPing, so don't call him Rucker. My chick's name is, uh, Chick Lass.

-Tom

[Kalle]

Female avatar? Oh Tom....

[Skipper]

Wait are we still in Beta or is this now live? Yarr?

[Lee Johnson]

I believe this is the early start period for pre-order customers. Nominal live day is Jan. 22, if I recall correctly.

[Wholly Schmidt]

So the LOTRO is over again already?

[TomChick]

LOTRO is for fun and will never be over! I'm doing Pirates for an assignment.

Oh, and we're the pirate faction, natch.

-Tom

[Brooski]

Yeah, someone needs to give me a reason to do this kind of thing.

[Jasper]

You guys are making this game sound like a ton of fun... ;-)

[TomChick]

Yeah, someone needs to give me a reason to do this kind of thing.

Well, since you hate all hex-less games, yeah.

-Tom

[Sam Jones]

So the LOTRO is over again already?

The Quarter To Three Zeitgeist is currently operating at a frequency of forty-eight hours per complete cycle. Please do not touch the Quarter To Three Zeitgeist with your hands, or interfere with its rotation in any way.

[Marcus]

I don't think you could pay me to play this game.

[Erik J.]

I don't think you could pay me to play this game.

More specifics on your hate would be appreciated, Marcus.

Erik J.

[Marcus]

Well if they fixed the ground combat then cool but last I read it still sucked. Also the ship combat was OK but man the water looked like crap. I had everything maxxed and it was not impressive in the least bit.

I'd strongly suggest trying the demo or free trial before dropping any money on it.

Here this should work...

http://www.bloodelf.com/images/02.jpg

[Erik J.]

I've played crummier looking games, but that water does look particularly disappointing for a game about pirates. Hopefully the Qt3 think-tank will provide more details.

Erik J.

[Rasputin]

My chick's name is, uh, Chick Lass.

What is this, the Legion of Super-Heroes MMO? If so, I totally call "Lad Lass".

[TomChick]

It's me plowing past the mental lock of thinking up a character name. Which I did so effectively that my character actually ended up being named Lass Chick. Great. Now we have the same last name.


-Tom

[Brooski]

You are married!!

[TomChick]

That's just...ewww.

-Tom

[Brooski]

It is not even close to as much ewww as the thing from the GFW radio podcast about people who want to marry Sonic the hedgehog. I mean, who wouldn't want to marry a hot pirate? She is hot, right?

[RepoMan]

You mean HE is hot. I mean... you mean... nevermind.

[Soapyfrog]

Well if they fixed the ground combat then cool but last I read it still sucked. Also the ship combat was OK but man the water looked like crap. I had everything maxxed and it was not impressive in the least bit.

The avatar combat was retarded but I think the water looked fine, and the ship combat had real potential.

If they ditched the avatar combat completely or made it unnecessary then I would play maybe.

Well I guess the interface, especially the auction house interface, had a long way to go too. And running around looking for quests sucked. Just tear out everything with the avatars and the running around in towns. Also levelling sucks even though its at least moderately quick.

[Gladguy]

Well if they fixed the ground combat then cool but last I read it still sucked. Also the ship combat was OK but man the water looked like crap. I had everything maxxed and it was not impressive in the least bit.

I'd strongly suggest trying the demo or free trial before dropping any money on it.

Here this should work...

http://www.bloodelf.com/images/02.jpg
Ugh. I'm gearing up to release a $19.99 budget powerboat racing game with water that looks 100x better than that.

I'm hoping those are early PoC screenshots or something, cuz.. blech.

And yeah... arrrrrr....

[barstein]

IGN screenshots (http://media.pc.ign.com/media/569/569053/imgs_4.html) (Pages 4, 6, 9 and 10 for water)

Water and other criticisms raised in this thread aside, I think I am comparatively less trigger happy with new MMO's in general now, two weeks before Pirates' release, than I was with LOTRO and MMO's which predated it. I am actually not sure I want to get it, which is a big first in my MMO junkie history (always buy, rarely stick with it for long). I think the limitations that bother me the most in this type of game have remained more or less consistent for years and I'm finally aware of that unsated feeling at the critical moments before making the actual purchase decision.

[Brian Rucker]

I'm sorry Tom, I had to take "Chick Let" myself for this uber character concept I'm roleplaying. Let me tell you all about it...

Or not.

Well, my early impressions are pretty positive. I get hung up as much as the next guy about how pretty the water looks in any game. Not just sailing games. If there's a puddle, I want those reflections to look good damn it. I didn't spend a year's salary on a gaming machine for nothing.

My takeaway is that this is a (somewhat) simplified Eve Online with personality and the added bonus of avatar/crew based combat.

Yes, avatar combat is messy and confusing at lower levels but I like the basic concept a great deal. This ain't WoW. You have 100 hitpoints from level 1-50 (maybe a little more with certain special skills). The goal here is to "unbalance" your enemy in order to get past his automatic defenses and to build up your own "initiative" so that you can get off special attacks while keeping your own balance up. The feel, as far as this non-fencer can tell, is a great deal more like a real swordfight than any other MMO I've been near.

There are several complicating factors like dealing with multiple opponents, ranged attacks and managing NPC crew with other special abilities and, basic, tactical commands.

At the lowest levels this tends to be a very simple affair and against NPCs in most circumstances it's not too hard. However, as levels go up in your opposition and they start manifesting their own specials or you tangle in PvP things aren't quite as straightforward.

However, there seems to be a concensus in the forums that things do need tweaking but there are plenty of folks who are good with it including me. Then again, I'm still a newbie.

I'm really loving the naval combat (which is actually closer to somewhat realistic than I'd been given to think at first - if hyper accellerated to keep the low attentionspan crowd engaged), the character customizations, the storyline missions as well as many of the optional side missions, and the players. This is mostly an older bunch so far and many of them are former Eve Online players, pirate fanatics and so forth.

But, caveat, I'm new. Other seasoned folks here have probably been in beta all along and I'm still green and flush with the potential of a game that's at least trying to do a great many of the things I've wanted to see in an MMO for a while.

Besides, it's fun to talk like a pirate.

[barstein]

Damn it, Brian, you just raised my enthusiasm level a notch. Also I recalled after my last post, while bicycling home, that I've been unwittingly priming myself for The Age of Conan via the recentish Conan of Cimmeria books.

My main concern is the degree of treadmilling that is required to advance and experience new content and new types of content.

[Miramon]

I might try it out soon.

[pyrhic]

I was in the beta for a short period of time and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

For me, the single biggest shortcoming is something that any MMO that wants my money is going to have to overcome: either give me a way to move my character around between servers, or provide me solid server metrics so i can decide where to start playing.

Apart from that, and some items already noted(like melee combat in particular), i think they should have followed Sid's game a little closer. In that game, I liked how I had to make crew decisions, I liked how I had to make loot decisions, I liked how i had to make ship decisions. Solid decision-making is at the heart of any good game and PotBS curtails those decisions where another model would have embraced them.

Ha, for some reason now I just thought of Seven Cities of Gold, man i'm getting old...

[Lazy Shiftless Bastard]

Well if they fixed the ground combat then cool but last I read it still sucked. Also the ship combat was OK but man the water looked like crap. I had everything maxxed and it was not impressive in the least bit.

I'd strongly suggest trying the demo or free trial before dropping any money on it.

Here this should work...

http://www.bloodelf.com/images/02.jpg

That shirtless man is wearing someone else's skinned face as a hood. That makes him a pretty scary pirate, actually.

[Jason Cross]

I'm patching it up now to give it a shot. Pirate faction on Bonny server, eh? I'll let you know when I come up with my pirate's name...

Edit: Okay, I'm "Mudbeard Cross"

Oddly enough, when I tried to add "Chick Lass" to my friends list, it said it wasn't found. Do you need to actually be online at the time?

[Marcus]

That shirtless man is wearing someone else's skinned face as a hood. That makes him a pretty scary pirate, actually.

This is actually true. You should see what it looks like from behind!

http://www.bloodelf.com/images/022.JPG

[Brian Rucker]

Yeah, I tried to /addfriend Chick Lass and was told the same thing. That could be a problem!

I'm Mandrake Grim. Usually on after 8:30 PM EST or so until I gets sleepy or remember the Daily Show is on. If I'm having a good time, I usually forget.

http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x162/OddjobXL/CaptainGrimSmall.jpg

Custom Flag - Pending
http://www.burningsea.com/uploads/uc/images/bbd24387cfc440ae2aa2a88ae96a4a79.png

[TomChick]

Since I'm a retard, my character's name is actually "Lass Chick".

-Tom Lass

[balut]

I'm in. Character's name is Manny Greenjack (found in Manila, always sports a green jacket).

http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6083/pirate01fr6.jpg

[Skipper]

Moar pix!

[Jasper]

Is this a demo, or do some sort of preorder early opening? I.E. do I have to fork over cash to try it out?

[Brian Rucker]

Preorder. They call it "Preboarding."

[LionelThompson]

I rarely say no to an MMORPG and I'm THIS close to ordering this from the station store, but $50 seems steep when it will likely be half that in a month at a retail place.

Besides, pirates? How trite, the key to success is playing the French, so that I can re-introduce my French privateer, Guy Le Phart.

[Mordrak]

I wants me a pirate outfit. I can't afford two MMOs. NOOOO!

[Marcus]

I strongly suggest playing the game before you buy it. Strongly!

[Scrax]

Well if they fixed the ground combat then cool but last I read it still sucked. Also the ship combat was OK but man the water looked like crap. I had everything maxxed and it was not impressive in the least bit.

I'd strongly suggest trying the demo or free trial before dropping any money on it.

Here this should work...

http://www.bloodelf.com/images/02.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/22/29781951_f5daf97af9.jpg


YAAAR I be lookin for boo-tay

[Marcus]

Awesome gay pirates.

[Mordrak]

I strongly suggest playing the game before you buy it. Strongly!
Yeah, I'll probably wait for a free trial.

[Jasper]

I strongly suggest playing the game before you buy it. Strongly!
Presuming there isn't a free trial, I'd rather pay $50 to play now, while there's a group of people I know playing, than wait until a free trial or discount after everyone has moved on. Price doesn't enter into my decision much, considering the lion's share of the actual cost will be from the time I spend playing.

That, and Brian's reassurance more than offset my impression of the reasons you gave for not liking the game -- the strongest of which seemed to be that the water was ugly. I agree those screenshots make it look hilariously bad, but that doesn't matter much to me.

[Brian Rucker]

Hey, I don't review games for a living and I'm an admitted newbie! You won't see me taking Marcus or anyone else to task for having a different opinion. But I am loving this game so far.

Still, Jasper, I loved SWG too.

[Jasper]

I'm not knocking Marcus' opinion, and I may well end up hating the game (as you rightly point out, you did like SWG!), but my experience with MMOs is that they are only ever fun if you play with people you know, at least in passing. Considering how quickly the Qt3 crowd moves on, it's probably now or never. ;-)

Of course between kids, game backlog, possibly a new 360, boardgames, the Conan RPG I just started, and the startup company I'm itching to take off the back burner it probably should be "never", but it'll likely come down to a spur of the moment whim (as my MMO purchases always seem to). $50 and some ugly water won't make a dent either way.

[Slainte Mhath]

I was in the beta for PotBS for over a year. I'm kind of burned out on the game now actually, though it was fun for most of the time I played. It's just that starting over from scratch 6 times in 15 months tends to make you loathe doing it one more time once retail hits. Such is the price we pay for playing in beta.

Anyway, here's a little rundown I wrote for some friends of mine who were interested in the game now that it's on retail shelves: (I would second Marcus' recommendation of try before you buy!)

Be warned, this is not Pirates of the Caribbean Online. PotBS is much more mental of a game, requiring a lot of planning and foresight to succeed, especially in the economy. Calling it "Eve with Sails" is fairly accurate, though you'll spend far less time grinding in the economy because raw materials are produced in abstract even when you are offline.

Basically the game revolves around three major aspects:

1) Your ship.
While you have an avatar in game, and some missions do require avatar combat, it's really your ship that is your "character" in game. Avatars can be equipped with a small range of weapons, armor and equipment that helps boost their effectiveness in swashbuckling combat, but ships can be equipped with a dizzying array of upgrades, add-ons and boosters to make them customized for a variety of purposes. Add to that the fact that there are literally dozens of ships you can choose from, and the combinations are endless. Your ship is how you travel, it's how you fight 80% of the time, and it's where you will spend the vast majority of your game time. Custom colors, flags and sails can give ships unique personalities or tie guilds together through uniform appearances. This is not WoW or Everquest, if you were hoping for a pirate that you could customize with epic armor and a flaming cutlass, this is not your game.

2) The economy
The economy in PotBS is based on "lots" located in ports. You have 10 lots you can manage, and they can be spread throughout as many ports as you like. Every port has specific resources tied to it, and those resources influence what sort of structures can be built there. Structures can either harvest raw materials, refine raw materials into components, and/or fashion components into finished goods.

A perfect example of the PotBS economy at work is shipbuilding. To build even the smallest and simplest of ships you will need wood, iron, cloth, stone, leather and provisions. You will need a lumber camp in a port with oak forests to harvest logs. Then you will need a mill to process the logs into boards, masts, keels, etc.. You will need an iron mine to produce iron, then a forge to smelt the iron (using limestone from a quarry) into ingots, nails and other components. You will need leather made in a tannery from hides gained from farms or hunting lodges. You will need cloth for the sails, gained from textiles mills that produce it from raw materials from plantations. You will need provisions, which are made form things like beans, wine, cheese, rum, meat and fish, all of which come from various raw materials sources. You will need guns, forged at a Weaponsmith from iron and wood. Finally you need to tie all this together into a ship with masts, sails, hull, guns and whatnot, which requires a shipyard. Shipyards can be small, medium or large, with each being able to produce larger ships but taking more lots. The larger yards can only be built in ports with deep harbors.

So you can see how building a single ship is a monumental effort that requires a robust economy to support it. In fact, it's nearly impossible to build a ship all by yourself, you simply can't build enough structures to do it solo. However, the economy is entirely player based, so while you may be able to crank out 75% of your ship parts yourself, you can sell or trade your overflow production to other people for the other 25% of the pieces you need. I was able to build my own ships in beta, forging trading alliances with other ship builders to support one another with pieces each of our economies could not produce on their own. You can also trade looted and/or manufactured goods to European Trader NPSc for some components like cannon, wine and other hard to find goods. There is a lot of room within the economy for people to get very wealthy with only modest production. I never wanted for income during beta, even with the limited player base I was making hundreds of thousands of doubloons once I got the hang of production.

3) Combat

Here is the real star of the game. Naval combat is a mix of Sid Meier's "Pirates!" and something more strategically complex. Sailing your ship in combat you must account for factors such as wind speed and direction, location, range and number of both your guns and your opponents, ammunition type used, hull strength and even number of crewmen if you want to initiate boarding combat. It takes a bit to get used to the sailing model, but it's easy once you're used to it. Just as in real life, a broadsides is recommended, with being able to do so against another ship who is angled away from you being the ideal situation to minimize return fire. Smaller, faster ships have the maneuverability advantage, but woe be to those who sail into the broadsides of a 50+ (or even 100+) gun ship of the line. Ships that close to within 40 yards or so can attempt to grapple and board, where the outcome is then determined by avatar combat on the deck of the ship.

Fighting the NPCs is fun and exciting. I got to where I was good enough with the smaller faster ships that I could often close on a larger vessel, soften it with some grapeshot to reduce the number of crew, and board it, fighting the captain and his crew to take the prize mostly undamaged. Larger ships just blow stuff out of the water, often employing chain shot and other sail reducing ammo to slow faster ships and make getting a devastating broadsides easier.

PvP is the crux of the game. Ports are assigned to a faction at the start of the game, but can be put into contention by attacking ships sailing in the waters around them. Once enough contention points are built up, a battle will ensue where ships from both sides can get invited to participate. Winning that battle either captures the port or saves it. It's important to control ports as it makes the economy much easier if you own the ports where the resources you need are located. While it is possible to build up reputation with the other factions so that you can trade in their ports, you do so at a distinct disadvantage (heavy taxes on all production) that make it undesirable to do so. Also, only the "merchant" character class can effectively trade in other factions ports.


So basically the jist of the game is: Explore the map, fight NPCs and do missions for loot and levels, build up your level/economy/wealth to afford bigger and better ships and outfitting, and then use those ships to explore further, complete more missions and eventually join in the PvP port contention end-game.

[Brian Rucker]

Also, there is pirate customization out the wazoo. However, it's not tied to "levels n' loot". At any time you can go into a tailor's shop and redesign your appearance, complete with layered clothing and jewelry, from scratch. You can get some items from quests that add to the already huge wardrobe (like an eyepatch or a pegleg) but they're mostly cosmetic.

While there are some equippable personal loot items they don't show up on the avatar (with the single exception of pet parrots - but few equip them as they take up one of three "active" item slots).

Edit: Swords do show up but not guns or equippable clothing items.

[Jasper]

That sounds awesome. My resistance is wavering...

For "pre-boarding", do you just get some sort of code when order, that then lets you download now?

[Brian Rucker]

I ordered via Amazon and they sent me an email with a preboarding code so I could get signed up. Some people have been having issues with different outlets. I'd check the forums over there and see what's up with that currently.

[Jasper]

I'll probably just order Amazon then, since it worked for you. Now I have the rest of the day to mull over my madness...

[Xemu]

Damn you folks! I had successfully put this game out of my mind entirely and now it is almost out?

Just put in my Amazon preorder...

[Raife]

I hate you people.

[Jasper]

Ok, so it didn't take all day, I just succumbed and picked it up from Amazon.

I, too, hate you bastards! That's probably why I'm a pirate. Yarr!

I just hope you can bury treasure, or if you can't, that they get right on that important feature.

[Lorini]

Does the combat require a lot of dexterity or quick reflexes? Please say yes so I don't have to pre-order :) My dexterity/quick reflexes limit is about what you'd find in WoW or EQ2. This and the PvP aspect (I've never been good in PvP) are my main concerns about the game.

[Skipper]

Must ... resist ... urge .... look .... away ....

[pyrhic]

Slainte, good write-up, but one thing i'd correct is that the 'crew' of your ship actually doesn't represent your crew, but your crew's morale/effectiveness(i cant recall the actual term used). This explains why you can reduce their 'crew' to 1, but they still manage to deliver a full 20 gun broadside to you.

There still is a crew number, but it's based on ship size and i believe it's the product of this number and the effectiveness which determines the size of your boarding party.

I found this to help me alot in understanding how the combat works(and why that red 'crew' bar kept refilling) and probably be helpful info to people just picking up the game...

lorini: not really. If you played Pirates!, it's a pretty similar mechanism. You set your speed(sail) and then adjust your rudder left and right, hitting the spacebar or mouse when you want to launch a broadside..

[Brian Rucker]

Well, avatar combat takes some ability to react quickly to changing circumstances - if you go the boarding route. However, you don't have to play as a hardcore combatant - there's a Freetrader class all nations (except for Pirate) have access to and he won't be doing much boarding at all if he doesn't feel like it.

In many cases you've got crew around and you can manage them effectively to minimize your own exposure - at least against NPCs.

PvP is going to be the beating heart of the endgame but that beating heart still needs arteries to feed it. That's where the economic game comes in. PvP isn't forced. It only happens when you're around a port that's disrupted or in contention or if you chose to flag yourself as full PvP.

If you don't like PvP, check your map to make sure you're avoiding dangerous waters, and don't toggle your PvP flag. That might be inconvenient at times but plenty of folks in the forums seemed to have done just fine focusing on the economy and the PvE game - and to an extent they can also contribute resources and victory conditions to the PvP game.

Putting a port into contention between factions is based on sinking a certain number of the local Nation's NPC ships in the vicinity. A PvE gamer can do that just as well as a PvP gamer.

[barstein]

Sigh. I caved. But then I noticed that I can hold onto my $ if I cancel the order before 12:01 a.m. on January 22. Anyway it's downloading.

[Erik J.]

Thanks for the write-ups and impressions. Sounds like an interesting game, but I think I'm going to wait on it a bit.

Erik J.

[Soapyfrog]

Avatar combat requires zero reflexes. My experience with boarding party combat is just run into the crowd and button mash, then eventually your crew wins.

Or if you are more savvy you can win a bit quicker by finding the enemy captain and stabbing him her repeatedly.

I played to level 20, up til then the vaatar combat had nothing to recommend itself. It was either childishly easy (most of the time) or impossible (a small amount of the time) and only very very rarely was it actually a challenge over which you could succeed with superior tactics and timing.

The ship combat on the other hand is very cool. Very fun. They did, IMHO get that right or almost right.

[barstein]

Intended to register Fzortimus Blartibus but got repeating Error_ConnectErrorTCP errors upon trying to access Bonny, even though that server doesn't appear from the list to be suffering from anything. This after quitting and reloading the game a couple of times. Google and forum searches yield nothing.

Edit: All the servers shown are yielding that error, so I assume it's something more central.
Edit: Man, some things never change. Not only does the "Server status" button point to a generic, non-server-specific MOTD page (http://www.burningsea.com/page/beta/motd) but the forums are bereft of any posts that pertain to this issue. Well, one thread, but there is nothing useful or informative in it.

I'm in! Seeking guild, or whatever it's called this time.

[balut]

Redid my main character. If any Qt3ers are out there, drop a line to my new main, the dread pirate Wolfram von Hart (and yes, that is a glowing yellow left glass eye):

http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/8877/piratewolfram01fu9.jpg

[Xemu]

Hm, I preordered from Amazon earlier today but never got a preorder code. I guess I'll not see y'all until the 22nd!

[Lorini]

Xemu, the activiation is in your Media Library. Not the easiest to find, but it's there if you look.

[Brian Rucker]

I got mine in an email. Odd.

[Lorini]

I got mine in an email. Odd.

Nope, I didn't get mine that way either. I wonder if it has something to do with whether or not you've bought digital stuff before.

[Xemu]

Huh, so it is!! Thanks for pointing that out!

[Brian Rucker]

Saw Tom on but got no answer to my hail. Ran a pile of missions and called it a night. My Society's slowly getting on the economic bandwagon but our leadership is MIA currently. One got called up for overseas service and the other one, well, I guess he didn't think he wanted to preorder the game? That's a good sign. I could be persuaded to defect. I don't even have to roleplay (but you know you want me to)!

[Skipper]

Saw Tom on but got no answer to my hail.

Fire a salvo across his bow t' get his attention matey. Or if ya crave a more direct approach, carve "Oh Hai!" on his cheek with yer cutlass and be smart about it.

[Xemu]

Ok, 'Xemu Arctangent' now sails the seas of Bonny, flying the black flag. How do I join our QT3 pirate crew or whatever?

[Cal]

Gotta chip in and say im having a ball with this too, loving the more realisitic ship battles, just took part in a 15v15 pvp battle on Roberts the EU server, it took a good 30min to resolve, but it was a lot of fun.

Also digging the econ system too.

Best of all, not an orc, or elf in sight!

Thumbs up so far. Can't wait till the 22nd and we can start capturing/defending ports.

[Erik J.]

God damnit people, say more negative things. Like I need something to suck up my time right when the semester begins on the 23rd! Bastards. I'm slowly caving.

Erik J.

[Alan Dunkin]

No open beta?

--- Alan

[Soapyfrog]

No open beta?
You missed it...

[Gremlinclr]

This does look interesting. But I've tried so many MMOs and I always get burned out on them really quickly. Is there grinding? I assume being an MMO there almost has to be. If there is then it's a no go. I just refuse to give a game time that makes me treadmill endlessly.

[Skipper]

My willpower sucks.

** Presses Submit Button **

[William Abner]

Damn I missed this thread. I'm a British Naval Officer on Blackbeard. Just upgraded my ship finally, too.

[TomChick]

Doh, sorry I missed you, Brian. I have to play in a window because of graphics problems and I've been frequently alt-tabbed out, so I must have missed whatever gentle alert the game offers when someone /tells you.

I spent a good deal of the day yesterday doing some quests with Bruce and getting a foothold on the economy. This is a weird game. Most people won't like it, but those who do will love it. And the naval combat is absolutely aces, especially with a party.

-Tom

[Lorini]

I spent a good deal of the day yesterday doing some quests with Bruce and getting a foothold on the economy. This is a weird game. Most people won't like it, but those who do will love it. And the naval combat is absolutely aces, especially with a party.

-Tom

So why won't most people like it? :) I started a Free Trader to get a sense of the economy too. That's the main reason I'm playing, is to experience trading at a more complex level than WoW (the game I'm used to) but less complex than Eve. I'm Mayveena Whitman, btw.

[Skipper]

Any recommendations on what to start as? I'm still downloading. And what kind of graphics problems Tom? Bad hardware or game issues?

[Calistas]

Gosh, it does sound interesting. Is Amazon pre-order the only way to get in right now?

And multiple servers, damn I would miss the single world from EVE.

Tempting!

[Lee Johnson]

If you don't care about having a box or paper documentation, it's also available as a direct purchase from the SOE Station store. No futzing around with keys if you go that route: They just flag your Station account directly. Sure, it's a big download, but you were going to do it anyway to get an early look, right? :)

[barstein]

Yeah, I took the SOE route and it was painless. Still haven't dived into the game.

[Calistas]

Damn, that is pretty tempting! Can I download it without a purchased account? I'm travelling a bit and might get someone to mail me a CD.

Anyone had any thoughts about the end game PVP? It sounds a bit capture-the-flaggy... which could get tiresome.

And PVP is almost entirely optional? Sounds like it might be hard to be a true pirate...

[barstein]

With SOE I'm pretty sure you have to go through the motions of purchasing and they charge it at 12:01 a.m. on January 22, but won't if you cancel before then. At least, that's what I read after I did it.

[Erik J.]

You know, I really hate you all with a passion. Downloading. See you in the game, folks.

Erik J.

[Brian Rucker]

PvP can be avoided, Calistas, but it's much like in Eve - little ventured, little gained. Ports that are likely to go into contention (which makes the waters go PvP_okay) are probably those with the most desireable resources. PvP flagged ships, a player controlled toggle set at a port, also get a movement bonus in any waters.

The most effective merchants will be those with a PvP toggle on, they can get around faster, and those willing to run blockades into dangerous areas.

But creating an entirely free PvP game would pretty much crush alot of folks who just want to play PvE or an economic game.

And while PvE raiding can toss a port into contention only a grand 25 v 25 ship PvP battle decides control of that port.

PvP is blue ribbon here and central to everything but there's room for other playstyles too.

[Calistas]

Ooo sounds ideal. I like a game that pushes people towards PVP. Stops it being just a boring 'old boys' club that only a handful on the server ever do.

Is fleet combat fun? Are there interesting roles for all the different sized/set up vessels?

[Mysterio]

The downloadable excerpt from the Prima strategy guide on the game's economy sounds very interesting and detailed. Me thinks my will power is not strong enough to resist this title much longer.

[LionelThompson]

I'm curious about ports being contended and it reminds me a bit of Shadowbane. Isn't it likely, at least based on an early observation that there were a LOT more pirates than any of the nations, that the pirates will control all of the ports that matter, leaving the other nations 'isolated' and potentially either quitting or at least rerolling a pirate, perpetuating the problem?

[Brian Rucker]

I can't speak to PvP just yet myself. I'm busy doing missions and just sorting PvE and the economy out. It's quite likely I'll personally settle into more of a supporting/low risk lifestyle for a bit unless my Society gets more active. I'll want wingmen before I try PvP.

Edit: Pirates can't permanently hold enemy ports and their, initial, ports can only be held temporarily. They accumulate victory points along slightly different lines (which I'm not clear on).

Numberwise, you tend to see the British as the most popular faction with Pirates a close second and then the Spanish and the French. I suspect folks chose Britain on English speaking servers as a default that's familiar and these are people who are really into the strategic game.

Right now, Pirates have the edge because the economy is in daipers. They can snag free ships right off the waters. Once it's really rolling I suspect Nationals will have much better access to supplies and the upgrades that help ships move faster and shoot harder thanks to Freetraders (one of three classes Pirates don't have access to).

National Naval Officers also have access to bigger, meaner, ships. While pirates can jack ships of the line it's a hit or miss thing that autoflags them as PvP. Naval Officers can pick and chose when to be PvP in their ships of the line and if they're in a functioning Society they'll have better access to them as well as fittings. Lastly, Nations have Privateers who are, essentially, watered down pirates - they can't take ships outright but they do get rewards for taking them (as do NOs and FTs - but the PT can cull rewards from both the NO and FT branches). A Privateer is probably the best all around class for someone knocking about who wants to be part of the National economic/military scene. You can live off the land, to an extent, but you also have a role in a broader structure as a scout, tackler and can also participate in the economy fairly well.

[Mysterio]

my Society

What's a Society within the game?

The Freetrader career sounds the most appealing to me. I'll make a ton of gold and hire assassins to kill you pesky pirates.

Question: do you have to be on the Pirate career path to be part of the Qt3 guild (or whatever it's called)?

[Brian Rucker]

I haven't seen a Qt3 Society yet - a Society is a guild. On each server you and all your alts can only belong to one faction. Several Societies seem to have alts belonging to different factions on different servers for variety.

I'm even tempted to try out a national role just to see things from a different angle. Deep, deep, inside I don't think I'm a yo-ho-hoist. I like fighting but for a cause not for its own sake. Pirate's fun for now and my current Society (not Qt3) is piratical.

I may end up deleting this guy though and flipping British. Yeah, herd mentality - saftey in numbers - but that's also where the best RP scene (after Pirate) is to be had on Bonny.

[flyingelvis]

Nothing yet in the MMO world has come close to the adrenaline rush of an EQ1 Hate or Fear raid.

[Skipper]

Nothing yet in the MMO world has come close to the adrenaline rush of an EQ1 Hate or Fear raid.

Or better yet, that first time you were fighting up top in Blackburrow and read, "MASSIVE TRAIN TO ZONE!!!! OMG IT'S HUGE!!!!" Or that first run from Qeynos to Freeport when you were only level 5.

Those were the days eh?

[Skipper]

Dumb question here but why wouldn't you update your massive download client to the latest build before customers started joining the game? I spent all night downloading, had the dreaded disk 0 error which I fixed, now I have and hour and a half of patching. This game is brand new, why am I patching that much after downloading over 4.6 Gb of a game client?

-1 point for not having their shit together.

[Brian Rucker]

Tips thread:
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3099

[Mordrak]

Or better yet, that first time you were fighting up top in Blackburrow and read, "MASSIVE TRAIN TO ZONE!!!! OMG IT'S HUGE!!!!" Or that first run from Qeynos to Freeport when you were only level 5.

Those were the days eh?
I still remember my first run from Felwithe to Freeport. A kindly monk helped my bard find his way. The boat was filled with immigrants speaking all sorts of gibberish hoping to find adventure across the sea. I remember the first time I happened upon the wizard pillars or druid ruins, clueless they were actually used for teleporting. It was pretty cool finding out what they did the first time.

No game is going to capture that again, partly because information is everywhere. And much of that goes against the smooth, relatively painless, experience people want out of MMOs now. That's fine. I do miss the discovery though.

[Erik J.]

Interesting game so far. The customizations are pretty amusing. I'm in as a pirate now. Golden Sphinx is the character name. Yar, bitches.

Erik J.

[Skipper]

Okay, for the Pirate faction on Bonny server I have:
Lass Chick - TomChick
Mandrake Grim - Brian Rucker (Traitor, turned skalywag for the Spanish as ????)
Wolfram von Hart -balut
Xemu Arctangent - Xemu
Golden Sphinx - Erik J.
One-eye Willy - Lionel Thompson
Amilcar Bolivar - Jasper
Doc Faustus - William Abner
Possum Joe - Skipper (me)

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5058/possumjoebi3.jpg

[Brian Rucker]

Guys, I think I'm bailing on Pirate already and going Spanish. Those underdogs need help and there's a small but nice Society going there I'm applying to join. Need to get as much mileage as I can out of preboarding.

I'll bring my Pirate out tonight to play for a bit if anyone's around but if not, he's a'goin' bye-bye.

[Mysterio]

Sooo...with only 4 days remaining until the game hits retail, who's enjoying the pre-boarding, and who's not? Likes? Dislikes?

I'm considering purchasing the e-version of Prima's guide (updates are downloadable and free), since it looks like an enjoyable and informative read. Besides, I intend to become the richest Freetrader on the seas (and in the ports), so I need all the info I can absorb! :-)

[Skipper]

Roger that. Brian Rucker is our first Skalywag. Walk the plank!

[Erik J.]

Skipper and I are going to attempt to do some quests in groups, so we'll see how it goes. So far, Im enjoying the game a good deal, and I haven't gotten into the economic side yet. I even find the ground combat ok, though boarding a ship is very hectic. i.e. the targeting can be crappy, just learn your quick keys.

Erik J.

[Brian Rucker]

Harr! Catch me ye must, firstly!

Dislikes? The missions can feel a bit repetative over time though some along the main storyline are alot of fun. However, you can just blow the missions off and grind at sea via combat with ships in transit. That's as interesting as you feel like making it for yourself.

I also think avatar/swashbuckling combat needs some work. There seem to be some skill combos that make it too easy (not the ones I chose evidently) but the real issue for me is trying to sort out what my crew is doing. It's a real mosh pit duing a boarding action and I do have handy skills to, say, shove someone in danger out of the way. But I have no way of seeing the stats of my crew aside from clicking on them, in the middle of a furball, one by one or tabbing through targets and hoping for the best.

That said, I like the feel of melee and I really, really, like the feeling of commanding a "crew" in battle. But I'd like them to tighten up the UI, the AI and balance the duelling skills a bit better. Let me have just a little more situational awareness if not tactical control.

My likes are already pretty well covered.

[Deadbuffalo]

This thread has made it too tempting and I'll be pre-boarding tonight just to try it out. Being in a pirate's guild in Ultima Online was one of my favorite MMO experiences.

[LionelThompson]

Welp, it would appear that I do hate my life.

One-eye Willy has joined the pirate's life.

[Erik J.]

Feel free to grab Skipper or I if you need help, I should be in for most of the evening. Yay snow! Looks like some quests you can do groups, some not. Not sure how its working yet.

Erik J.

[Skipper]

Gah ... hard lockup. Be right back guys.

I shouldn't have made fun of (Lol)cat island.

[Brian Rucker]

Crash here too.

[Skipper]

Mmmkay, crashed again. Not nice. And when it happens I go black screen and have to hard reboot. (And "recheck" the game in order to log in.)

I think I'm done for the evening Erik. I'll be on tomorrow, lets do some more pirating.

[Erik J.]

Weird. I'm just going to attempt to setup this here economy and use the draughtsman plans I got, too. See what happens. I should be around a bit tomorrow.

Erik J.

[Erik J.]

Well folks, I got a drafthouse up and running, so if you need plans for any buildings, I believe I can send them your way given the time and money, as I think those are the only components in this particular workshop. So I can make plans for boatyards, mills, etc etc, now. Seems like a lot of fun, and I think you'll see a good amount of people in the game at launch.

They do need to find some way to make boarding a boat less crazy, though. Just got devolves into one big scrum. Cool in theory, not so much in practice.

Got to play a good deal with Skipper and Lionel joined us near the end, and we got to do some 6 v 6 sea battles and such that were a lot of fun. Lionel is the _shit_ when it comes to boarding ships.

Erik J.

[Jasper]

I finally got time to install and get started, playing as the pirate Amilcar Bolivar for now.

http://img237.imageshack.us/img237/7277/amilcarvg3.png

However, I too am tempted to join the Spaniards...

[bago]

When I played I was a French Trader. Freedom Fries be damned.

[LionelThompson]

Got to play a good deal with Skipper and Lionel joined us near the end, and we got to do some 6 v 6 sea battles and such that were a lot of fun. Lionel is the _shit_ when it comes to boarding ships.
Erik J.

This makes me laugh although I had a blast playing with you two and hope to do it again very soon. I played the beta for about an hour so I really had no idea what I was doing, but when I played last night, it seemed that I was having a very tough time sinking ships with the 4 cannons per side, so it made sense to just whittle down their crew a bit and then board them. Plus, bonus loot for doing so instead of sinking it.

Now I need to do a crash course on a pirate's life as well as the economy so I know what I'm doing.

Oh, and bonus points for the copper pots and One-Eyed William in the game. I guess if I ever roll an alt, I'll name her Cyndi Lauper.

[Skipper]

Wow, what a fun night of gaming. So far I would give PotBS a thumbs up, it's been fun with a mix of MMO style questing, Eve style ship to ship fighting and a large amount of Pirates! style play. In fact I felt a lot like I was playing in a more detailed and adult version of Sid Meier's game. One with other people playing right beside me.

I played solo for a bit before pairing up with Erik and later Lionel and I took some screenshots along the way. I would say the game's strong points are very fun ship battles, a nice flavor of being in a pirate movie, what appears to be a pretty involved and complex player economy, and what appears to be some cool pvp options (we haven't tried any yet though, more on that later.) The negatives so far would be some instability (server and client,) a lack of any pvp going on yet (that I saw,) and as Erik so nicely put it, very wooden animations (though there are a lot of them.)

I would have a hard time descibing all of the cool moments but there were quite a few times when I had a "damn this is pretty neat" thought. Notably the first time you have multi-ship combat, your first night mission, the variance of the shore based missions, tacking around an enemy and sinking him, boarding your first ship, getting chased by a high level ship, seeing a broadside coming at you by more than 20 guns (gulp!), seeing the open sea for the first time, etc.

Now for some pretty screenshots. There were a few graphics glitches, most I didn't catch with a screenshot though. Things like edges bliking a bit and being able to see the shark in the bay with no water on him. Easily patchable I would think.

A completed quest.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/4504/001au5.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=001au5.jpg)

The Golden Sphinx shows up (Erik J.).
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2033/002gb2.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=002gb2.jpg)

First group naval battle.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3651/003sq4.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=003sq4.jpg)

The battle draws to a close.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5913/004mw1.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=004mw1.jpg)

[Skipper]

Erik and I tag-team a Spaniard. Arrrr!
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/1962/005uh8.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=005uh8.jpg)

Open sea fight against a pirate.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/3161/006og9.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=006og9.jpg)

Traveling the open sea.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9235/007ba9.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=007ba9.jpg)

Our first night attack, a Dutch Merchantman.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/9913/009sl3.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=009sl3.jpg)

[Skipper]

Erik and I fail to realize we go into combat with two ships about 40 levels higher than us. I crap my pants in the first broadside.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/5392/010qj8.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=010qj8.jpg)

3 man fleet tactics against some pirates. Willy boarded and took out half of them. The man is a machine.
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7176/013mt3.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=013mt3.jpg)

Grapple!
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/925/015eq7.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=015eq7.jpg)

Captured ships ahoy!
http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/8195/016hp5.th.jpg (http://img442.imageshack.us/my.php?image=016hp5.jpg)

Sorry for the pic spam. Damn forum restrictions.

[Mysterio]

Thanks for taking the time to post those screenshots, Skipper! I especially enjoyed the one of you guys being humbled by the French...

"Incoming munitions, Captain!"

"Holy *hit! Retreat! Retreat!"

haha Good stuff!

(You guys are gonna "make" me pay full price for this puppy today from Amazon rather than waiting until Tuesday to purchase it from BB with my Christmas gift cards, aren't you?)

[Erik J.]

I have to say, the hilarity of grouping in this game could only be magnified with voice chat so you could hear each other screaming like little girls when a 20 cannon barrage comes flying at you. Run away! Run away!

It was a lot of fun, I do hope to see more of you in the game.

Erik J.

EDIT: Also, if you DO play, and you DO play in a group, realize that sometimes you will have to set the quests you're doing to the "active group quest", which essentially makes it the only choice of quest to do. Go into the journal, go to the group quest tab, which shows all the quests you and your group share, select the quest, then hit the activate button. This was aggravating Skipper and I for a bit til we figured it out.

[Skipper]

Those French ships nearly raped us. We weren't even sure you could run from a fight at that point, it was an "OH SH*T" moment. :)

As for waiting until Tuesday, you could probably do that without any issue. You might miss a level or two but we're really just learning the game at this point. I've even considered buying the Prima guide since I'm so lost, especially with all the things involved in trade.

Also, I missed a good screenshot of Willy in action (you don't get to see someone else in boarding combat unless it's a mission.) But we came into one of Willy's missions maybe 60 seconds after the man had started. He was already boarding his second vessel. By the time we got to a point where we could shoot he was on his third. The mission completed just as we finally got to fire. He's being way to humble, the man kicks butt.

EDIT: I agree we need some integrated voice or a ventrilo server for this. It's way to much fun to miss out on the Monty Python style "Run away!"

[espressojim]

How much time does one need to put in to play? Can I log on for 1/2 an hour and do something meaningful? Can I solo, or do I have to group?

It sounds like a great game (and Eve also intrigues me) but I don't have much guaranteed gaming time - I get an hour or two here and there, but I need to be able to either pause a game or log out / back in once in a while to take care of family situations. This is why I've mostly avoided MMO's since I got married...

[Erik J.]

Most of the quests are designed for you to solo if you do them at the appropriate level. There are some groups that will be sure to let you know THAT IT IS A GROUP QUEST in big caps. Depending on how you play, I think you can either be casual or hardcore. Your labor resources accrue over time, even when you're not logged in, so you're not getting screwed on that if you don't play often.

Otherwise, I can't see why you wouldn't be able to do some quests, pirate some ships, etc. Especially if/when PvP gets in full swing. The game has some issues, as Skipper went over. I think this is one of those games where it is what you make of it.

Too bad Skipper didn't get screen caps of us dropping people with our pistols. That was funny, too. So unfair.

Erik J.

[Mysterio]

I've even considered buying the Prima guide since I'm so lost, especially with all the things involved in trade.

Same here. I'm this close to pulling the trigger on the digital download version as opposed to the paper copy, since it's an MMO, and they provide free digital updates as the game evolves.

[Erik J.]

Ok guys, I'm putting up a shipyard in Whitby. If you jump in to play, send Golden Sphinx a tell. I'm hoping to get some coordination so we can pop out some ships.

Erik J.

[Mysterio]

Ok guys, I'm putting up a shipyard in Whitby. If you jump in to play, send Golden Sphinx a tell. I'm hoping to get some coordination so we can pop out some ships.

Putting up a shipyard already!? Daaaaa-um!

Does Whitby have a "deep, natural harbor?" I ask because it's required to build a large shipyard (according to the Prima guide).

[Erik J.]

I'm only building a small shipyard for now, which is enough of an undertaking. The shipyard will be active in one hour build time. It also allows me to build recipes for hulls and rigs.

The pieces needed for a Xebec, which I understand is a pretty badass ship are: anchors, tar, hull, rigging (fore and aft), provisions, swivel cannons, small cannons, and some other things I'm probably forgetting. So, if anyone wants to setup some workshops that could pop out such things, that would be nice. I'm going to have to start pirating pretty heavily to pay for the upkeep on these things, heh.

Started getting some graphical glitches when I updated to Nvidias most recent drivers, so I'm gonna futz around with that before I go back in game.

Erik J.

EDIT: Also, I can create common lumber and gravel, which anyone else in Whitby who did the quests there can do, too, so if someone wants to set up shop in another pirate harbor so we can maximize goods, that might help. I haven't looked too much at what other places have.

[Mordrak]

I may pick this up at retail, but may pre-order tonight and set it to download.

Someone mind saving the name Ad Hominem in the pirate faction for me? It's probably taken, just PM me if you happen to save it or it's taken.

[Erik J.]

I may pick this up at retail, but may pre-order tonight and set it to download tonight.

Someone mind saving the name Ad Hominem in the pirate faction for me? It's probably taken, just PM me if you happen to save it or it's taken.

Got it. Made Ad Hominem on the Bonny server.

Erik J.

[Skipper]

Putting up a shipyard already!? Daaaaa-um!

Does Whitby have a "deep, natural harbor?" I ask because it's required to build a large shipyard (according to the Prima guide).

Funny you should ask that. Witby has indeed a pretty distinct harbor (see below.) Missing from that pic is a large ship shown in construction to the left of where I'm looking. Each port varies somewhat in it's look. In addition, there is a pretty broad range in the mission locations as well. From a warehouse to a hidden cove, an underground hideout, another ship, a fortress, etc. I think they did a good job with the look and feel of the game.

They do need better chat commands though, we weren't able to find any reply command in game, so "/tell golden sphinx, 'message'" got old pretty quick. Fortunately the grouping is pretty simple, and once in a group you can set your default chat to go to the group. It's also not as seemless as in WoW where you can just hit / and start typing in the chat window. I distinctly had several times when I would start typing that way only to look up and see 5 windows open that I had pulled up with their associated hotkey.

As for the boarding and shore based combat it's more simplified than ship combat. There are a few techniques you use, each with an associated cost and effect, with varying cooldowns. The gun being is an awesome example of this, doing great damage in a shot but on a several second cooldown. Naturally we cheated with this, Erik shooting one guy, me the other, and easily got through some of the shore based missions. In addition, the standard MMO cheats apply. Running to the nearest zone (door, mission entrance, etc) will allow you to zone out and bandage without anyone following you.

Witby harbor.
http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/6558/017re0.th.jpg (http://img341.imageshack.us/my.php?image=017re0.jpg)

[Mordrak]

Got it. Made Ad Hominem on the Bonny server.

Erik J.
Yarrr! (Thanks). :)

[barstein]

Every time I see people post their avatar pics here, my first reaction is to think the poster is ElGuapo because of that silly pirate photo (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showpost.php?p=958340&postcount=20) he posted of himself last April.http://i14.tinypic.com/4bzp2me.jpg

[Brian Rucker]

Meanwhile, back on the roleplaying tip. Emotes are functional (though annoyingly not the default MUSH format of ":" and ";" - I'm currently typing out @emote <pose>) and there are some animated ones that are amusing - but they seem to spam spatial with code. That's not polished but there are more important things to work on here.

There is also no sit animation. So here's my Society's first meeting with us standing around a table instead of sitting properly in chairs. Not terrible but it'd be a big plus. All that atmosphere and we feel like we're in grand ma'ma's living room. "Don't touch that, you can't sit there."

There are no ingame bios available either. Often in games you can right click a character and read some entry the player wishes to put in that add details to appearance, backstory or simply advertising for goods and services.

Still, the custom costume design is a winner. I can almost immediately recognise folks by appearance and roleplayers always try to do something a little unique which helps too. The semi-historical setting's also wonderful. Folks with just a little reading can find a wholly original angle to play based on all kinds of factors. And if the details of Hapsburg politics, for example, don't float you there are all those little mysterious elements like lost Templar treasures and ghost ships to cook less real politik concepts up with.

This game rates as high as LoTRO for immersion and higher if the strategic and economic games work out well. We're actually able to take the fight to Sauron!

[Mysterio]

Does a Society have to contain the same career? That is, all members of the Qt3 society have to be Pirates? Or, can a society contain some or all of the four careers? I ask because I want to play a Freetrader and be part of the Qt3 socety, which appears to be made up solely of Pirates.

[Mordrak]

There are no ingame bios available either. Often in games you can right click a character and read some entry the player wishes to put in that add details to appearance, backstory or simply advertising for goods and services.

Many new MMOs lack this feature. It seems relatively simple to implement, but maybe they are afraid of policing that in addition character names. It's understandable, but I miss that a lot.


This game rates as high as LoTRO for immersion and higher if the strategic and economic games work out well. We're actually able to take the fight to Sauron!
Cool. It does sound a bit rough, but hopefully not as rough as Hellgate.

[William Abner]

I'm on Bonny as Doc Faustus, lvl 9 pirate with a captured sloop.

Where in the $#@! do you find nails? I need nails!!

I also need some fellow pirates to run red tide..

[Skipper]

Hrm ... a tip from the tips thread. "Backspace" works as /reply.

Mysterio from the Wiki information, everyone in a society has to be from the same nation, so pirates would be stuck with only pirates. This is quite unlike any other MMO I've played though, since not every nation can do every task. So I don't know how well that works in the long run. You also can only have characters from one faction per server. If you pick pirate, the rest of your characters on that server must be pirate. Same with any of the other nationalities, French, Spanish, and British.

There isn't an official QT3 society yet either, someone should set that up. I'd gladly kick in some money for it, I think the charter is 1000 dubloons.

[Mysterio]

Hmm...there are four nations (Britain, France, Spain, and Brethren of the Coast (Pirates)). Britain, France, and Spain nations allow the Naval Officer, Freetrader, and Privateer careers, yet do not allow the Pirate career, while the Brethren of the Coast nation allows only the Pirate career. So, I can only be a Freetrader for Britain, France, and Spain. Doh!

[Slainte Mhath]

You guys considering the Prima Guide might want to peruse the Flying Labs forums for a bit. If they kept them post-beta, there were some amazingly detailed threads and guides on everything from shipbuilding to combat to the economy. The PotBS beta community was probably the most tightly knit and helpful group of beta folks I've ever had the pleasure of playing an online game with, and they knew their stuff cold.

For help with the economy, look for posts by Monthar in particular. They guy was a whiz at the econ, and had a spreadsheet he shared with everyone that made figuring out production, costs and sales a hell of a lot easier.

[Lorini]

I just went ahead and purchased the Prima guide. While the stickied economy guide was interesting, the Prima guide actually contained info that wasn't in the stickied guide. Also, while the forums are indeed informative, there's a lot lot to wade through, and I wanted something more concise. Not to mention the fact I'm a strategy guide junkie anyway, and it's nice having this one online and updated.

[Skipper]

I just went ahead and purchased the Prima guide. While the stickied economy guide was interesting, the Prima guide actually contained info that wasn't in the stickied guide. Also, while the forums are indeed informative, there's a lot lot to wade through, and I wanted something more concise. Not to mention the fact I'm a strategy guide junkie anyway, and it's nice having this one online and updated.

The guide already has a slight update apparently:
http://www.primagames.com/catalog/promo_image/9780761557074_920.pdf

It's a missing page from the chapter on the economy.

[ElGuapo]

How much is it per month?

[Lorini]

Yeah thanks Skipper, I picked that up. Here's a link to a good overview of the game, written by a fan: http://www.whitewolfclan.net/pobs/review.htm The pricing is the usual $15 per month, with discounts for paying additional months. No Founder's or other pre-order specials are listed on the subscription page.

[Mysterio]

I just went ahead and purchased the Prima guide.

Digital or paper version?

[Mysterio]

Did anyone pre-order from Amazon and receive only the Pre-Boarding key (like me) and not the Landing Party key, as well? According to the game's producer, they should have provided both keys. I sent an e-mail to Amazon CS explaining this with a link to the producer's forum post.

Anyone in the same boat (no pun intended) as me?

[Lorini]

I got the digital version at $13.49. It's all black and white, and since I have a cheap B&W laser, it's cheaper to print that way than to pay the $20 for the paper one. I also am awaiting my retail key. I sent an inquiry to Amazon about it and they said to wait til "Wednesday" for my key. Except it was Tuesday when I asked, and I didn't get a key this past Wednesday. Now the game releases next Tuesday so maybe they mean the Wednesday after release. Which is disappointing, as I'll have hit the level cap before then. I also foolishly I guess asked for the 'free shipping' option, meaning that I won't get the box for a couple of weeks. So I'll see. If I do get my retail key before the release, I'll post about it.

[Jasper]

<Blowing off Steam>Ok, this game is really beginning to piss me right the fuck off.

It's actually a ton of fun to play so far (I even like the water!), but half the time the controls in naval engagements don't work. My cannons will read "blocked by line" when the shot is clear, my guns won't fire even when they say they're clear, and my ship either won't turn at all, or won't stop turning (although the GUI slider still show correctly).

Apparently I can fix this by quitting out and restarting a quest, but that's not exactly an optimal solution, especially considering there are chained missions with naval battles at the end. :-( It also makes me reluctant to join other players -- "Sorry guys, my rudder jammed again, I've got to quit!".

Anyway, has anyone else seen this problem? Or hopefully know of a better solution?

[LionelThompson]

I've just formed a societ 'Stand and Deliver'. Blame the name of the damn Adam Ant song stuck in my head from watching 120 Minutes on MTV Classic.

[Lorini]

Sounds like you are having a lag problem, Jasper. I have read that this can be caused by not having the right ports open on your router. I am deathly afraid of trying to open ports because the last time I tried it, everything but the game I was playing came to a screeching halt. But if you are interested, here is the FAQ on the matter-

http://support.flyinglab.com/cgi-bin/flyinglab.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=36&p_created=1131154237&p_sid=Vz2l2XVi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfc m93X2NudD0xNjksMTY5JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0 mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ub CZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=cF91c2VyaWQ9amVuczc3NyZwX3Bhc3N3ZD0mcF9lbWFpb D1qZW5uaWZlci5zY2hsaWNrYmVybmRAZ21haWwuY29tJnBfZml yc3RfbmFtZT1Mb3JpbmkmcF9sYXN0X25hbWU9amVuczc3Nw**&p_topview=1

[Skipper]

Sounds like you are having a lag problem, Jasper. I have read that this can be caused by not having the right ports open on your router. I am deathly afraid of trying to open ports because the last time I tried it, everything but the game I was playing came to a screeching halt. But if you are interested, here is the FAQ on the matter-

http://support.flyinglab.com/cgi-bin/flyinglab.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=36&p_created=1131154237&p_sid=Vz2l2XVi&p_accessibility=0&p_redirect=0&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfc m93X2NudD0xNjksMTY5JnBfcHJvZHM9JnBfY2F0cz0mcF9wdj0 mcF9jdj0mcF9zZWFyY2hfdHlwZT1hbnN3ZXJzLnNlYXJjaF9ub CZwX3BhZ2U9MQ**&p_li=cF91c2VyaWQ9amVuczc3NyZwX3Bhc3N3ZD0mcF9lbWFpb D1qZW5uaWZlci5zY2hsaWNrYmVybmRAZ21haWwuY29tJnBfZml yc3RfbmFtZT1Mb3JpbmkmcF9sYXN0X25hbWU9amVuczc3Nw**&p_topview=1

Also note that the first time I ran PotBS I got the windows firewall popup to allow it to connect out. It's possible that might be an issue as well.

[Skipper]

If you bought off Amazon, get your key off the Amazon site "Your Media Library" section. Go here:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/ays/index.html?app=home

Sign in. You'll be in your media library. On the right you'll see "Recently added to your collection." Click on "Pirates of the Burning Sea." Your pre-boarding key is there. The FULL key will be delivered with the box of the actual game when your order ships.

Use the link there to download.

Take that pre-boarding key and go here:
http://www.station.sony.com/en/pc.vm

Either log in if you have a station account, or create an account. Once done, under the "My account section" select "Activation Code." Enter PotBS and the pre-boarding code there. Once done, you use your Sony Station login to get into the game. This is also where you will go to enter the full game key, and at that time, your payment methods.

Also to answer ElGuapo:
1 month subscription: $14.99
3 month subscription: $41.99
6 month subscription: $77.99
12 month subscription: $143.00

[Lorini]

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I'm going to have to change the delivery to some sort of pay for delivery, which makes pre-ordering with Amazon totally not worth it. I thought I would save money by not paying tax or for shipping, but unless I want to wait 2 weeks while my character languishes at level 21, I'm going to have to fork over the money. Damn.

[Erik J.]

<Blowing off Steam>Ok, this game is really beginning to piss me right the fuck off.

It's actually a ton of fun to play so far (I even like the water!), but half the time the controls in naval engagements don't work. My cannons will read "blocked by line" when the shot is clear, my guns won't fire even when they say they're clear, and my ship either won't turn at all, or won't stop turning (although the GUI slider still show correctly).

Apparently I can fix this by quitting out and restarting a quest, but that's not exactly an optimal solution, especially considering there are chained missions with naval battles at the end. :-( It also makes me reluctant to join other players -- "Sorry guys, my rudder jammed again, I've got to quit!".

Anyway, has anyone else seen this problem? Or hopefully know of a better solution?

I haven't witnessed anything like that yet, Jasper. Only thing that was bothering me were some graphical glitches that I fixed by going into windowed mode.

Erik J.

[Skipper]

Yeah, that's what I was afraid of. I'm going to have to change the delivery to some sort of pay for delivery, which makes pre-ordering with Amazon totally not worth it. I thought I would save money by not paying tax or for shipping, but unless I want to wait 2 weeks while my character languishes at level 21, I'm going to have to fork over the money. Damn.

You could buy it off Sony Station then I think? Someone was saying that's an alternate method. I don't know if they provide the full game key electronically though.

[Skipper]

Um ... how long do I sit at this loading screen after sinking? Reboot?

[Mysterio]

The FULL key will be delivered with the box of the actual game when your order ships.

Not according to the producer of the game, John Scott Tynes: http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4294&postcount=1

Rather than wait around and get F'ed in the A by Amazon come Tuesday, I went to BB and picked up their last pre-order copy, and canceled my Amazon order. I now have the Pre-Boarding Party key and the Landing Party key, along with the original game soundtrack (I had BB CS open the package before I agreed to buy it to ensure the keys were in it, since many of the ones shipped to BB were missing the keys).

On the form within the pre-order case, though, it says, "Once you have purchased the final game software, you will need to access your account at www.piratesoftheburningsea.com/preorder (http://www.piratesoftheburningsea.com/preorder) and enter both the Landing Party Key and the Launch Key. The Launch Key will be located on the Key Card inside the final game software box." What? A THIRD key?! Jesus!

[NuclearWinter]

Are servers set up by region? Assuming the answer is yes, does anyone know if European accounts can play on US servers? Or if you can at least setup a US account with European credit card address?

If I can't play with US folks then I'll have to pass on this game.

[LionelThompson]

Are servers set up by region? Assuming the answer is yes, does anyone know if European accounts can play on US servers? Or if you can at least setup a US account with European credit card address?

If I can't play with US folks then I'll have to pass on this game.

Don't know if it works backwards, but I have access to European servers so I assume it'd go both ways.

[Erik J.]

Little update, folks. We have about 7-8 Society members at the moment. 3-4 are active in the economy getting things going. Raiding is going good, and we're starting to take ships over level 20, though we're still 12 or so. Just about everyone in the Society can invite you in, so just throw a tell to any one of us. Again, hope to see more of you join in.

Erik J.

[Mysterio]

We have about 7-8 Society members at the moment. 3-4 are active in the economy getting things going.

How about posting a roster of those in the Society, as well as the items they plan on supplying/producing?

BTW, the Landing Party key doesn't allow you to continue playing after the game launches on Tuesday; it merely allows you to continue /claim(ing) the bonus material on all current and future characters who have not yet claimed. The Launch key is what's required to continue playing after launch (duh, I know).

[barstein]

I'm still getting my bearings and will be unable to play much for a few days. I'll join up later on.

I don't know what just happened. I purchased the Prima guide and paid with PayPal, but they just took my money and said thanks. I received a standard PayPal confirmation and another email from Digital River directing me to use a form on their site. But that Digital River form results in an informational web page about orders paid for with checks and has no download links. And that's it. From there I can get to a Customer Service FAQ.

The FAQ has a few download entries but they tell you to use the same form. There's another form that triggers an email with download instructions, but that email consists of:

From: <service@digitalriver.com>
Date: Jan 19, 2008 12:20 AM
Subject: Requested Information
To:


** DO NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL **

Thank you for your order and have a good day.

Customer Care

I assume that someone somewhere actually knows very well that I paid with PayPal but I won't be able to waste any more time on it until Monday, unfortunately. I just wanted to skim it for specific tips quickly before one quick hour of concentrated play. Lame.

[Jasper]

Sounds like you are having a lag problem, Jasper. I have read that this can be caused by not having the right ports open on your router. I am deathly afraid of trying to open ports because the last time I tried it, everything but the game I was playing came to a screeching halt.
I dug through the forums a bit, and troubleshot a bit; it seems like some sort of issue between my router and PotBS. If I jack straight into my DSL, I get much better results, and only occasionally have to quit + reload.

I'm still rather tweaked off by this, as I still do have occasional serious lag only fixed by restarting, and don't much like running naked on the net. :-/ Still, it's been fun, and I seem stable enough that I'm now comfortable grouping.

I'm sticking with Pirate for now, as I'm reluctant to delete my character so I can switch sides. If I go Spanish, it'll have to be on another server. I'm going to start up an Iron Mine pretty quick, and probably a Forge as well. I figure Metal's probably good for something... We should definitely coordinate our industry!

[Jeremy Noetzelman]

I dug through the forums a bit, and troubleshot a bit; it seems like some sort of issue between my router and PotBS. If I jack straight into my DSL, I get much better results, and only occasionally have to quit + reload.

I'm still rather tweaked off by this, as I still do have occasional serious lag only fixed by restarting, and don't much like running naked on the net. :-/ Still, it's been fun, and I seem stable enough that I'm now comfortable grouping.


Make sure your router firmware is updated. Many folks with your issue get good results after upgrading their firmware.

[Erik J.]

Ok, here's a quick rundown of what I more or less remember what we have right now since they are doing an emergency update:

Members are:
Dead Buffalo (I don't know who he is here) - Fir logging, general plantation, and tar. He is working on getting a textile mill operational.
Kalaria Coy (Lurker, she just joined up last night.) - Just started, hasn't decided on economy options as of yet.
One-eye Willy (LionelThompson) - See below
Possum Joe (Skipper) - See below
Doc Faustus (William Abner)
Golden Sphinx (Erik J.) - Small shipwright, tannery, hunting lodge, gravel pit, common lumber camp, basic draughtsman.

EDIT#2: That's it for now, but I haven't seen Xemu (Arctangent), or Wolfram von Hart on to send invites. Corrected Kalaria's name.

I'm sure I am forgetting a couple people and will update when the game comes back up. Willy or Joe have: Iron mine, copper mine, and a forge, but I can't remember which is doing what because these are the two I've grouped with the most. We've spread out a good deal with operations in Mexico, Florida, and the islands near Tortuga. Setting up an oak logging camp in Central America soon.

And just to let people know, by being a pirate, you're sort of a cobbling together of the three "classes" it appears. Again, will update more when I can actually get in game.

Erik J.

EDIT: Appears they've handed out their first bannings for gold sellers, too.

[Brian Rucker]

For those interested in going National, let me know. I'm involved with a small but fun little Society in the Spanish faction on Bonny. They've got loads of FTs and the roleplaying is solid. But, what we really need, are PvP-RP folks to fill out the NO ranks. I know ya'll are out there!

The beauty of playing a National is, of course, variety. You've three different classes to alternate between on different characters. We've got a really healthy economic game going already so NOs won't have to fight over supplies or worry where their next ship is coming from (not that Pirates do either - which might be more attractive to hardcore PvPers for just that reason).

Privateers and more Freetraders are also welcome but we're really hurting for PvP experts and, indeed, there's a Society leadership position available for someone who'd spearhead those efforts.

Because my character is played as a reformed Pirate in the Society any IC ex-Pirate characters who want to "defect" could keep a consistant backstory and be some of Grim's former comrades interested in joining the side with the gold mines.

Shiny, shiny, gold. Harr!

Or, of course, the preferable option would be a new backstory with a Spanish or Spanish colonial background. I think too many pirates in the Vanguardia would start making our powdered wig crowd nervous.

PM if interested!

[William Abner]

We're off to a rough start. heh

That Red Tide group mission didn't go QUITE as planned.

For those that have done that, how many people did it take? We ran it with 4last night and it wasn't pretty. My sloop now rests at the bottom of the harbor.

[Lorini]

Is there any interest in a British non-pirate Society? I'm perfectly happy to start one (as soon as I find out how) or join another. My main is a Free Trader named Mayveena Whitman. I also have a Privateer alt named Leena Sam.

[LionelThompson]

We're off to a rough start. heh

That Red Tide group mission didn't go QUITE as planned.

For those that have done that, how many people did it take? We ran it with 4last night and it wasn't pretty. My sloop now rests at the bottom of the harbor.

Someone mentioned in Nation chat that they did it with 4, and I was looking for strategies online and found nothing.

And for my crafting, I have a copper and iron mine and forge in NW Mexico as well as the common wood and gravel at Cat Island.

Lastly, I've been making everyone officers so anyone should be able to invite. I used the list posted on page four of this thread and friended everyone so I can invite to the society as I see them. Of course SOME people are apparently too good for us (eyes Tom Chick).

[Jasper]

Make sure your router firmware is updated. Many folks with your issue get good results after upgrading their firmware.
Yah, that's next on the list. I wanted to first try to determine that the router was to blame by pulling it out of the loop. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell, since I still get intermittent failure, albeit substantially less frequently. :-(

I've yet to actually build Mines/Forges, so perhaps there's something else I should pursue? What are you guys lacking?

[William Abner]

I'm still on the lookout for some friggin' nails...

[Mordrak]

I pre-ordered but my downloads are messed up. Looks like I'll be on sunday at the earliest. :( Still, I'm a sucker for a great character generator. Hehe.

[Skipper]

I pre-ordered but my downloads are messed up. Looks like I'll be on sunday at the earliest. :( Still, I'm a sucker for a great character generator. Hehe.

Speaking of which, the ability to change everything again once in game is very cool. Helps you keep a stealthy pirate! Yarrr!

[Jeremy Noetzelman]

Yah, that's next on the list. I wanted to first try to determine that the router was to blame by pulling it out of the loop. Unfortunately, it's hard to tell, since I still get intermittent failure, albeit substantially less frequently. :-(


Have you filed a support ticket? File one with specifics on your router model and your client log files and ask them to route it to Gray Noten and I'll take a look, or PM me that info here.

[Lee Johnson]

You could buy it off Sony Station then I think? Someone was saying that's an alternate method. I don't know if they provide the full game key electronically though.
The game is enabled in your Station account automatically, the one you place the preorder from. There is no need for a key in this process, since SOE controls the accounts. So long as your final billing goes smoothly (on the 21st, IIRC), that's it.

[Skipper]

Not according to the producer of the game, John Scott Tynes: http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showpost.php?p=4294&postcount=1

Mysterio, just wanted to let you know you were 100% correct. Today I received that second key in my email inbox. This was about 3 days after the order.

[LionelThompson]

I'm still on the lookout for some friggin' nails...

I can make them now that I tore down my original warehouse and set up at a second port in Mexico to collect limestone. Limestome + iron ore = iron ingots. Iron ingots = nails, but DAMN it is an expensive process.

[Deadbuffalo]

My Textile mill is up and running, i also have a carpenter's shop, tar plant, fir logging, and a bunch of general plantations. I'm based out of cats island and la isabela. Not too sure where I want to venture with my other lots, is there anything in particular that we need for shipbuilding that hasn't been fulfilled yet?

The game definitely has its faults, namely the UI and its horrible chat tabs. The lack of integrated voice is also kinda a downer after LOTRO. But the combat, player economy and historical setting are enough for me to not cancel my preorder.

[LionelThompson]

The game definitely has its faults, namely the UI and its horrible chat tabs. The lack of integrated voice is also kinda a downer after LOTRO. But the combat, player economy and historical setting are enough for me to not cancel my preorder.

Agreed, although I've only been playing for 3 days, so I don't know what kind of long term appeal it will have. The economy is interesting, but it very much takes a back seat, especially for pirates who can take whatever ships they want, to the gameplay and anticipated pvp. Still, I took the 60 percent tax rate drop perk so that I can sell to the enemy for inflated profits as needed.

Besides the chat functionality which needs work, the biggest drawback is that like Shadowbane, I have a feeling a large active guild is going to be necessary for enjoyment, especially upon release when ports start to go into contention and the map changes because of it.

[Calistas]

Damn, who do you order PotBS off if Amazon won't ship to the country you're in right now?

[Cal]

We're off to a rough start. heh

That Red Tide group mission didn't go QUITE as planned.

For those that have done that, how many people did it take? We ran it with 4last night and it wasn't pretty. My sloop now rests at the bottom of the harbor.

We managed it with 4 last night, but we had 2 lvl 21's.

With 5 people its cake, leave two to defend the fort, and your hardest hitters to kill the fleet fast. Unless your over the level req's you really want 5-6 people. Also note having one person with all speed mods and boarding the ships as fast as possible helps, whilst the other two use chain shot to slow them all down.

[Brian Rucker]

Ship outfitting and comparison web/java tool.

http://www.exchangeguild.com/potbs2.php

[Brian Rucker]

I've encountered a potential issue - I stress potential because I haven't spent much time in RvR games before so this is new to me. The Realm v. Realm setup means that certain Societies will be seen as more representative of their Nation than others. Diplomacy will be a bit of a mess as nobody can guarantee any agreement made with another side beyond what one Society will do. If one Society in a Nation turns out to be real troublemakers (in a bad way not a fun way) it tends to reflect on the whole Nation.

In Eve Online every association and relationship between players and groups of players was in the players hands. War, peace, trade and alliance. Here we're entirely subject to the whims of fate as to who moves in next door with no National options to seperate us from their dealings.

It's not as if we can switch our characters, intact, to other nations on the same server and if only one server suits our needs (say an unofficial roleplaying server) we're pretty screwed. Even if that's not the case, after grinding through a character or two is anyone going to want to start from scratch somewhere else?

Eve lets you roll with losses, determine your own friends, enemies and establish your own reputation. Here, you don't have that luxury at all.

[Calistas]

That's always been my concern with 'forced' sides. Half the time you hate your own team more than the supposed enemy!

[Skipper]

Diplomacy will be a bit of a mess as nobody can guarantee any agreement made with another side beyond what one Society will do. If one Society in a Nation turns out to be real troublemakers (in a bad way not a fun way) it tends to reflect on the whole Nation.

This is the one part I think you are expecting too much from. There will always be bad apples in any nation. But I think you are overestimating RvR. This is not like Eve, it's more like DAOC with ships (and an extra nation.) I would highly suspect you'll see less formal agreements (aka Eve alliances) and more pound-the-little-guy techniques instead. Don't get me wrong, the Eve system would work well here too. But this is less about alliances, and more about hard defined national territories. Lets face it, nobody wants BoB part two here.

One thing I would like to see though is more formal society tools that ARE similar to Eve. Not really wardecs per se, but something that can initiate wars further than just nation vs. nation. In general I find the game's society tools very lacking. It almost pushes people toward solo play en masse.

[Calistas]

Ok, damn... I know DHL will get stuff to me here, but does anyone know of an online store which will have PotBS that will ship DHL to odd corners of the Pacific??

[Jasper]

Have you filed a support ticket? File one with specifics on your router model and your client log files and ask them to route it to Gray Noten and I'll take a look, or PM me that info here.
I haven't yet had a chance, and am currently out of town, and so plundering from behind a different network (which works perfectly).

Once I play around a bit and decide I actually have something to report (e.g. that updating my router doesn't fix it) I'll fill out a support ticket.

[LionelThompson]

Assuming Mysterio makes it as we spoke earlier, that puts our little group to 10 in size. In addition, I put a post up on the PotBS boards as well with most of our character names. Everyone here will be highest rank, anyone else we add can be lowest or 2nd rank (no idea what the differences are). I'm excited to see our numbers as grouping has been a LOT of fun, particularly taking down the Mississippi galleon last night.

[Mysterio]

Assuming Mysterio makes it as we spoke earlier

No need to assume! Once I craft my character, I'll be sending ya a /tell or mail asking for an invite. So you best be on! :-)

Does anyone else's cursor (the triangular pointer) scroll very slowly? If it's not already in the game (I and others couldn't find it!), this game really needs a Mouse Sensitivity setting. It's already been mentioned on the PotBS forums.

[Skipper]

By the way just, just a note to let you know I'm still around, I rolled an alt pirate yesterday to help power level a friend who I talked into pre-ordering as well. So I think I now have:
Possum Joe - 15
Haytred Incarnate - 12

I was also crashing pretty badly yesterday, my 8800 GT should run the game fine but I get pretty random crashes that sometimes lock me up completely. I noticed a patch this morning, I hope it will help with some of that, it's getting really annoying. It seems to be mostly 8000 series Nvidia getting bitched about in the support forums. And I didn't know this morning but there are some issues with running full FSAA and AF which I might have enabled. At any rate, another great time with the game yesterday, I'm interested to see how well the servers handle the go-live on Tuesday though.

[Brian Rucker]

I've got a Nvidia Go card and I've had lockups and lag problems too (which may or may not be related). Oddly, those are all fairly recent. It was only really bad yesterday for some reason.

[Mordrak]

I finally got it installed. Woo! Just before they are going to take the servers down for tuesday's launch. I don't have a pirate's luck I'll tell ya.

Anyway, in my impatience I made a character named Ali Mony. She's a level 1 pirate on the Bonny server. I'll be making another pirate for mucking around with called Ad Hominem thanks to Erik. Though I like the cut of Ms. Mony's coat, so I'll probably be sticking with her as my main.

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a120/hawksdr/alimony.jpg

I've just played through the tutorial, but the interface is kind of confusing. Important parts of it feel a bit too spread out and the tutorial is pretty minimal. Still, me wants to get my yar on and seeing my crew on my ship while blasting away the Rats (hehe) was pretty exciting. The water does look pretty poor from a distance, but up close near your ship it isn't bad. I don't know what's up with that, maybe it just doesn't tile well. I get these weird stripes across the water sometimes, not sure if that's an unintentional artifact or not.

Edit: Quick Question: Do the classes branch at all? I've got 6 character slots, but being a pirate I can't select anything else. It seems like they should have made subclasses for the pirate, like "Smuggler" or something. Can I make two pirates that are relatively distinct as far as how they play and the bonuses they get?

[Erik J.]

Pirates just kinda mush all the other classes together. You'll get a little bit of everything. Smuggling is one of the pirate skill trees.

Erik J.

[Skipper]

After playing a pirate, trust me you can spec one very differently. They are kind of like WoW's druid class. You can do so much it ends up being very flexible overall.

Probably the biggest thing to get over in the game is that despite the class being called Pirate, it doesn't mean they are a PvP only class. To be honest, any class can be PvP and good or bad depending on skill selection (although FT's would be a weak offering I think.) I do, however, look forward to capturing a few nice player ships. Yarrr!

[Lorini]

After playing a pirate, trust me you can spec one very differently. They are kind of like WoW's druid class. You can do so much it ends up being very flexible overall.

Probably the biggest thing to get over in the game is that despite the class being called Pirate, it doesn't mean they are a PvP only class. To be honest, any class can be PvP and good or bad depending on skill selection (although FT's would be a weak offering I think.) I do, however, look forward to capturing a few nice player ships. Yarrr!

Now how exactly does that work? I understand the RvR PvP, but I don't uderstand the actual PvP style of play. Can any pirate just come along and attack me if I'm in a non Civilian ship?

[Skipper]

No, and in fact, Pirates are no different from the other classes they have the same basic rules of PvP (below.) Note that the port part has been disabled in the pre-boarding this week so we'll see all this stuff start to play out tomorrow when they go live. I guess more info will be had then:

1) If you have your PvP flag set (done manually.) Very similar to WoW on a blue server, but you can only "flag on" from inside a port, then set sail to find a fight and "flag off" again in another port.
2) If you are in an area/town under current contention. (see below)

On that last item, Wikipedia gives this:

Port Contention

Port Contention is the system used to determine which nation controls the various ports of the Spanish Main. By completing special PvE missions, killing NPCs around an enemy port, or even dumping goods on a port and unbalancing the economy, nations can accumulate 'contention points.' When one nation has accumulated enough points, the port goes into contention.

Pirate PvP Zone

The early stage of port contention is reflected in the creation of a Pirate PvP zone. This zone is shown on the minimap as a circular area around the given port, letting all players know this area is contested. Pirates (and Privateers with the right skills) are free to attack any of the other nations in PvP combat, but the 3 nations cannot attack each other. In this stage the defending nation can counter the contention and return the port to normal. If they fail to do so, the Port Contention goes to the next step.

Open PvP Zone

In the second stage, a smaller, open PvP zone is created around the port. This is also reflected on the minimap and known to all players. In this zone any nation can attack any other nation. Like the Pirate PvP zones, there is a chance that this area will overlap nearby ports, forcing careful travelers to chose their path if they wish to avoid combat.

Battle Royale

Finally, a Battle Royale takes place to determine if the port is going to change hands. Twenty Four players are chosen for each side. Players who earned the most contention points have a higher chance of being selected to represent their nation. The Battle Royale is an instanced 25 v. 25 massive ship battle. Whichever side wins takes control of the port.

Any nation (England, France, Spain) that wins a Battle Royale takes control of the port instantly and the port returns to a normal state of things. If the Pirates win the Battle Royale, they loot the port for a few days, after which they sail off and the port returns to the control of the nation that they originally stole it from.

[Lorini]

Well I'm really enjoying it so far, the visuals are just incredible. I saw the sexiest mmmmm mmmmmmmmmm mmmmmmmmmmmmm!! pirate on Bartica this morning. More like him! :) :)

[Brian Rucker]

Merchants of The Burning Sea (may be dated but mostly looks good):

http://www.merchantsoftheburningsea.com/

[Soapyfrog]

It's too bad port contention and fleet fights are so contrived; but I guess it's one way of keeping the numbers under control.

[barstein]

Hmm. Just got home from a trip and the client is telling me I need to activate. Naturally, my PotBS purchase is not visible in my account at station.sony.com and store.station.sony.com is unable to show me my activation code while it's under maintenance (would have been nice to have received the code in an email).

[Jeremy Noetzelman]

Hmm. Just got home from a trip and the client is telling me I need to activate. Naturally, my PotBS purchase is not visible in my account at station.sony.com and store.station.sony.com is unable to show me my activation code while it's under maintenance (would have been nice to have received the code in an email).

All prelaunch keys are deactivated right now (as of 6pm PST). The Launch keys go live at 9am PST tomorrow. Since you bought from SOE direct, you won't have to activate anything.

[Jarrodhk]

<waits impatiently for the launch key to show up>

[Skipper]

Yeah same here Jarrodhk. The Amazon boxes haven't shipped yet. :( My fix for Pirates may reach beyond the pre-order. If so maybe some lucky QT3 member will get a full key later this week.

[Mysterio]

I'll be heading to BB this morning when they open to see if they have the game on the shelves, even though they list tomorrow as the release date on their website. Although I pre-ordered, I've been waiting to purchase the guide before starting to play. So, I'll be picking up the game and the guide today if they have both in stock. Hope they have it!

[Deadbuffalo]

From the same guy who made the ship comparision, an economy tool:
http://www.exchangeguild.com/potbs.php
You can save your production lines, input price lists, it looks like its really helpful for keeping track of the economy and your contributions to it. It makes me realize that I'll need a second tar distillery for maximum hemp rope production. It kinda pissed me off though that as a pirate I'll never be able to make lignum vitae blocks as those are a free trader only manufacture. As these are key components for making sail upgrades, it drastically increases the cost of my production line. Maybe this is to encourage piracy around ironwood ports?

[Mysterio]

From the same guy who made the ship comparision, an economy tool:
http://www.exchangeguild.com/potbs.php
You can save your production lines, input price lists, it looks like its really helpful for keeping track of the economy and your contributions to it. It makes me realize that I'll need a second tar distillery for maximum hemp rope production. It kinda pissed me off though that as a pirate I'll never be able to make lignum vitae blocks as those are a free trader only manufacture. As these are key components for making sail upgrades, it drastically increases the cost of my production line. Maybe this is to encourage piracy around ironwood ports?

I like that only Freetraders have the ability to produce certain goods. And, as you hinted to above, you're a pirate! Take what you want, and leave the producing to those wussy Freetraders! :-)

(Spoken by someone who wants to play a Freetrader on another server. Anyone else interested in playing as one of the other three nations on a different server, as well?)

[Skipper]

How will that work though if we can only hold ports for three days as Pirates? Probably a huge assumption on behalf of the devs is that the Pirate faction will always be balanced on a server enough that piracy legitimately supports their Nation.

[Brian Rucker]

I'm increasingly getting the feeling that the Pirate faction is more or less intended for people who play part-time or just want to mess around on another server and for people who want to solo. It's the anarchist faction.

The depth of the game is the economy and the strategic game. There's more tactical variety in characters and how to play in the Nationals so they'll probably attract more of the people who make it a point to live on PoTBS. Pirate is something you can pick up and play with fairly easily.

Could well be the developers don't think the Pirates will often win but will always be unpredictable and disorganized spoilers.

[Xemu]

Hm, if you can only be one faction on one server, maybe we should pick a server other than Bonny to check out one of the national factions?

Before I really understood the economy I bought Ironwood plans... I guess I need to start lower on the totem. What's the best way to raise enough doubloons to start up a higher tier economy? Selling common wood & gravel seems to be a totally losing proposition.

[Lorini]

Before I really understood the economy I bought Ironwood plans... I guess I need to start lower on the totem. What's the best way to raise enough doubloons to start up a higher tier economy? Selling common wood & gravel seems to be a totally losing proposition.

Remember that until folks start losing ships in the RvR PvP, the economy is stalled. Of course I would assume that the economy won't jumpstart just because the full game went live today. It will probably take a bit to work out all the backlog.

Maybe someone who was in the beta where the RvR PvP was enabled can comment on how well the raw materials sold during that time.

[Brian Rucker]

On the other hand, it dawns on me, that just as Pirates can't permanently hold National ports, Nationals can't permanently hold Pirate ports. So this means Pirate ports will probably be less attractive targets. Only when Pirates as a whole become a real threat will people come after them, I'll bet.

[Lorini]

On the other hand, it dawns on me, that just as Pirates can't permanently hold National ports, Nationals can't permanently hold Pirate ports. So this means Pirate ports will probably be less attractive targets. Only when Pirates as a whole become a real threat will people come after them, I'll bet.

If Pirate ports have resources that the nationals need, they will be targets, don't worry :)

In other news, the launch has been delayed because (gasp!) SOE screwed up the launcher. 10AM PT at the earliest.

[Brian Rucker]

Yeah, but why take 'em from Pirates knowing you're going to lose the investment (or have it taxed to a ridiculous extent) if you can take a National's port and hold onto it? At any rate, Freetraders do have an optional skill that offsets hostile nation tax penalties so it's easier to just go ahead and set up shop in a Pirate port that way anyhow.

[Arkon262]

Yeah, but why take 'em from Pirates knowing you're going to lose the investment (or have it taxed to a ridiculous extent) if you can take a National's port and hold onto it? At any rate, Freetraders do have an optional skill that offsets hostile nation tax penalties so it's easier to just go ahead and set up shop in a Pirate port that way anyhow.


Pirates can also get that skill in the smuggling line I believe it is. 60% reduction to the tax rate.

[Deadbuffalo]

I like that only Freetraders have the ability to produce certain goods. And, as you hinted to above, you're a pirate! Take what you want, and leave the producing to those wussy Freetraders! :-)

(Spoken by someone who wants to play a Freetrader on another server. Anyone else interested in playing as one of the other three nations on a different server, as well?)

I'm definitely interested in playing a national on another server... And selling Lignum Blocks to Pirates :). I started out a French Freetrader on Morgan, but i've barely played her. Anyone else set up as a national on a sever besides bonny? If so (or not) lets get a Qt3 national, i don't care which nation, going on one of the other servers.

As for good startup production lines, focusing on leather or iron seems to be pretty important to the early economy. Demand is always going to be there for things that people always need to replace, ammo, permanent upgrades, and later on, ships. Follow those production lines and you'll find the ingredients people need the most. Hemp rope and wood tar have been pretty successful for me, and I'd imagine leather and iron can be profitable as well. Getting the seed money is easiest by doing missions and open seas plundering.

[LionelThompson]

I made a small mistake on an earlier post. It looks like the goons are playing as French on Antigua, not Spanish.

That said, while I'm keen to try it out, I'm still enjoying the pirate's life. For one thing, we get first chance it looks like on pvp on ports in contention, and for another, who needs to build ships when we can let them make them and we just take them?

[William Abner]

Anyone else set up as a national on a sever besides bonny? .

I have a lvl 10 or 11 Brit Naval Officer on Blackbeard.

[Skipper]

Although trying out another server sounds cool, I'm not sure I would stick with it as my main. Free Traders of the Burning Sea just doesn't have the same ring to it, nor would it be as interesting for me, not to say it won't be fun. I'm hoping (and really haven't even seen it yet) that the PvP aspect of the game is pretty deep and engaging. If pirating ends up not only valid but fun, man that's going to be a blast.

[Sneaky]

I started on Blackbeard before I found out Q23 was going to gang up on PotBS as well! Anyway, here's my character, for good measure, though she changes outfits almost daily :P

She's a french NO

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb208/Dunstwolke/PotBS/PotBSNimwaSternentanz.jpg

[NuclearWinter]

Josiah West - Pirate on Bonny

[Mordrak]

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

This is my first pass at a custom flag. The sword feels too dominant to me. A similarly simplified rose I think is beyond my skills in photoshop (especially w/o a tablet), so I just used a free brush I found online.

Suggestions?

[Calistas]

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...

[Brian Rucker]

I hear the war is on. Didn't get my box yet from Amazon so I can't log in but I'm hearing stories of ports already going into contention, of contention attemps disrupted, and battles on the high seas.

Any first hand accounts?

[Mysterio]

I hear the war is on. Didn't get my box yet from Amazon so I can't log in but I'm hearing stories of ports already going into contention, of contention attemps disrupted, and battles on the high seas.

Any first hand accounts?

Dang nabbit! I have the retail game and Prima strategy guide, yet haven't had a chance to dive in (spent all day yesterday trying to hunt down a copy of Tetris DS for my g/f with no luck). I'm also concerned it won't run well on her PC (P4 2.8 GHz, 1 GB RAM, X1550 PCI card (yeah, freakin' PCI, not PCI-e!)), while my power rig sits home in Phoenix. Oh, and she uses a CRT monitor, not an LCD. <heavy sigh> But I'll be on the seas soon!

TIP
If you want the Prima strategy guide, head to Circuit City where, this week, all strategy guides are 50% off. So, this $20 guide will cost you only $10. As an FYI, Best Buy will match CC's deal.

[JM]

Yarrr. I be Gerald Bellicose, Pirate, on Bonny.

[Skipper]

Mysterio and JM, be sure and send a PM to one of the folks in the thread if you go Pirate. We'll get you in the growing society.

Format for doing that in game:
/tell firstname lastname, message

[JM]

Done. Slowly getting my head round all this...

[Skipper]

Geez ... these graphics problems are killing me. Last night I crashed 4 times in 30 minutes before throwing my wireless mouse and walking away. And I'm am as laid back as nearly anyone you would meet. I submitted multiple tickets, I hope to god they fix it.

As it stands I'm on a decent system with an 8800 card, but to play with less crashes I'm forced to run in a window with graphics set low, no FSAA, and no AF. And I've disabled my second display. Tell me there isn't something seriously wrong with that.

At any rate, once I handicapped the hell out of my system I got over to Santa Clara this morning so I can go in search of a Xebec this evening. Thanks for the tip on that place Tom. It's loaded with pirates roaming around in those ships. For anyone heading there though, note that the lowest level I've seen the pirates in the Xebec's is 16. There are a few that pass by lower than that but they aren't in the Xebec ships.

LATE EDIT: Xebec acquired. Thanks again for the tips guys.

[JM]

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]

Avast! We be hurtin' the good folk of Gibara tonight. Inter-natio-nal ten-shuns, they call it! We call it darn good pickings.

... That was a lot of fun. Despite some issues with getting everyone in the group to actually join the combat, we took on some high-level NPC convoys for money and loot (and excellent XP), as well as several players. Our little group certainly punched above its weight, and I really enjoyed being the "tackler" by virtue of having the fastest ship - it led to some really tense chases and on one occasion I had the tables turned on my by a well-prepared opponent, who shot my sails to bits and was chasing me down before some nifty manouevering by the rest of the guys brought him into the range of everyone's guns.

After many such battles we got baited into a fight where we were heavily outgunned - we lost our Goon (BEES!) while I heroically fled back to base. Outstanding stuff.

Meanwhile, the first battle for contention erupted about 20mins ago - a 25 v 25 fight between Britain and Spain for ownership of Port of Spain. It's still going and might take some time...

[Alan Dunkin]

Looking to get my copy Friday night sometime, hopefully will be pirating (or something) soon...

--- Alan

[Calistas]

Arg... NZ won't get it until Feb 8th at the earliest, and from there I've got to get it shipped to where I am.. Argg! *jealous*

[Jasper]

You can buy it online, though the download is around 5-6 gigs. That's essentially what everyone who pre-ordered did.

[Calistas]

Yeah, can't download that much here - on pre-paid wifi - 250mb or 7 days - whichever comes first - for $30us.

[krayzkrok]

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.

[krayzkrok]

You can buy it online, though the download is around 5-6 gigs. That's essentially what everyone who pre-ordered did.

Station.com or Direct2Drive? I'm not sure I trust that SOE site!

[Calistas]

There's a kiwi shop ordering the US version. Gah, I'm really going to miss the One-Server approach of EVE Online. Really love that.

...shit I'm stupid. Should have asked someone with the pre-order to burn it on DVD for me and mail it to me. Gah, I miss out on playing now, and I miss out on the cool parrot :(

I want a cool parrot :(

[JM]

I've got an EU copy and I'm playing on a US server...

[Harkonis]

From the same guy who made the ship comparision, an economy tool:
http://www.exchangeguild.com/potbs.php
You can save your production lines, input price lists, it looks like its really helpful for keeping track of the economy and your contributions to it. It makes me realize that I'll need a second tar distillery for maximum hemp rope production. It kinda pissed me off though that as a pirate I'll never be able to make lignum vitae blocks as those are a free trader only manufacture. As these are key components for making sail upgrades, it drastically increases the cost of my production line. Maybe this is to encourage piracy around ironwood ports?

I am a pirate and I make Lignum Vitae Blocks already.

[Deadbuffalo]

I am a pirate and I make Lignum Vitae Blocks already.

Yeah, I found that out eventually. I was confused with the Advanced Block making recipe.

[Brian Rucker]

Big victory last night for Spain out of Port-of-Spain. 10 ships defending beat 20 attacking British ships. Conquistador Central headed the force with the most ships deployed but one of our own Vanguardia was there too!

This morning the British are already building up unrest. Probably trying to force another battle before people can get home from work and actually put up a fight this time.

[Mysterio]

Avast! We be hurtin' the good folk of Gibara tonight. Inter-natio-nal ten-shuns, they call it! We call it darn good pickings.

... That was a lot of fun. Despite some issues with getting everyone in the group to actually join the combat, we took on some high-level NPC convoys for money and loot (and excellent XP), as well as several players. Our little group certainly punched above its weight, and I really enjoyed being the "tackler" by virtue of having the fastest ship - it led to some really tense chases and on one occasion I had the tables turned on my by a well-prepared opponent, who shot my sails to bits and was chasing me down before some nifty manouevering by the rest of the guys brought him into the range of everyone's guns.

After many such battles we got baited into a fight where we were heavily outgunned - we lost our Goon (BEES!) while I heroically fled back to base. Outstanding stuff.

Meanwhile, the first battle for contention erupted about 20mins ago - a 25 v 25 fight between Britain and Spain for ownership of Port of Spain. It's still going and might take some time...

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?

[Mysterio]

Big victory last night for Spain out of Port-of-Spain. 10 ships defending beat 20 attacking British ships. Conquistador Central headed the force with the most ships deployed but one of our own Vanguardia was there too!

This morning the British are already building up unrest. Probably trying to force another battle before people can get home from work and actually put up a fight this time.

Was the 25 vs. 25 PvP action as cool to watch/play in as it sounds?

[Brian Rucker]

I'm too low level and too broke to leap into a Contention battle myself but one of our guildies did. However, he the sort of laconic character where the pits of hell could be opening under his feet and he'd note, off-handedly, it was getting a bit warm. I suspect it was pretty exciting but he sounded mildly worried and coolly interested at best. Sadly, Capitan Ramirez logged off shortly after his ship was sunk and he left thinking the battle was lost - though happy that our side seemed to put up such a good fight.

Remember, 10 Spanish ships against 20 attacking Brits.

Then someone named Don Juan, not certain who he's affiliated with, but he was our self-appointed "sportscaster" over the Conquest channel, reported victory! Unbelieveable. When accounts crop up I'll stick them over here for perusal.

Edit: TCon also seems to have had 3 players there and the Brits had 24, by their own count, not 20. Here's a description of the action from assorted viewpoints:

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=4486&page=3

[Skipper]

It was certainly cool to see that they announce the contention battle as a broadcast. Glad you guys won Brian. I agree this may end up being a pretty fun process to watch, especially over the life of a server. I could see though late in the game (when one country dominates) it may not be such a cool deal if you're the loser. But there are a few ports that can't be taken, so at least you can port. Ammo would become an issue though. You could eventually starve a nation of ship building, ammo production, consumables, etc.

I just hit level 16 and having a rough time in my brand new Xebec. I have minimal upgrades to it, but the missions usually involve multiple enemies lately and I'm getting pounded pretty easily. The Xebec has little to no leeward mobility (downwind / against the wind.) It has nice firepower though, so if I can position well I can tack to hit an enemy from one side, then the rear, then another side. I just have to be careful about the rear armor, it's a little weak.

Any tips on what upgrades you guys are using in missions? And has anyone seen a good guide on swordplay? I'm still just winging it, and dirty fighting for me ends up with either a quick victory or quick defeat.

[JM]

I just picked up my Xebec too, and frankly I prefer my Heavy Cutter. Maybe the Xebec *needs* decent upgrades, but I've nearly lost it twice in combat with ships that the cutter just runs down.

[Mysterio]

Any tips on what upgrades you guys are using in missions? And has anyone seen a good guide on swordplay? I'm still just winging it, and dirty fighting for me ends up with either a quick victory or quick defeat.

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

[Skipper]

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

As leader I think you can lose twice before you lose the battle. Repop is a few seconds (10 I think?) during which time your crew continues to fight. You also get waves of reinforcements depending on how many crew both sides had as the battle begins. Six fighters and a captain per side can be on the boarding crew.

The issue is that it's a bit of a mashup where you either overload the opposing captain, or they overload you. You can pick off his fighters but really that's wasting time until he actually gets killed off. There is also a point where if he has lost enough men and then dies, it only takes one kill of the opposing captain to finish the battle. I feel like either I'm riding a wave that kills the captain with ease, or I'm running like a little girl trying to get away from being surrounded.

If you can break off, you can bandage a small amount of health. It's a channeled action though, so if you are getting hit, it would be worthless to attempt it.

[Harkonis]

The advanced freetrader production recipes use 80% of the labor the normal one does. Basically they just are a bit more efficient at making goods and can make mastercraft ships.

[Brian Rucker]

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.

As a Freetrader I tend to do alot of patching up. I've got "Hold Her Together" which allows me to repair all aspects of my ship with Oak (Planks) and Hemp Canvas and has a timer like those of consumable Repair kits and, of course, I use alot of cheapie Consumable repair kits.

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.