Missions are the exact same.......wow the quest story might be different, but almost every quest i did ended up to be killing 3 ships....wait sometimes 5. Avatar combat....is a joke. Total after thought in my opinion. Im not saying this game couldnt get better, because it has potential and maybe after awhile itll be good. Im just sayin at this stage its not all that great. But you should try it out and form your own opinion.

I'm afraid I have to agree with the OP on all accounts. Oh well, another game to cross off my list then

Originally posted by yesuconn

Missions are the exact same.......wow the quest story might be different, but almost every quest i did ended up to be killing 3 ships....wait sometimes 5. Avatar combat....is a joke. Total after thought in my opinion. Im not saying this game couldnt get better, because it has potential and maybe after awhile itll be good. Im just sayin at this stage its not all that great. But you should try it out and form your own opinion.

I can't be sure what game you're playing, but the PotBS that I play on has missions to:

- Kill x ships

- Board and capture ships (yes, this may involve killing other ships)

- Collect cargo

- Run a blockade

- Form a blockade

- Escort/protect a merchant to a certain point or for a certain period of time

- Deliver goods from ABC port to XYZ port

... and those are just the standard grind-fest style missions. I have also had missions in which:

- Force a group of privateers out of a grotto into the waiting arms of an ambush, one in which I chose how many ships assaulted the grotto and how many waited in ambush - balance it wrong and one gets away, flubbing the mission

- Someone sabotaged my ships, so they leaked for the entire battle (constant slow DoT)

- The port I was in got attacked, forcing me to fight off land invaders to get to my ship so I could sink the attackers

- Had to race to a fort ahead of an invasion to get the commander to deploy his fleet, then help the fleet fight off the attack

- Bait an enemy strike force into a small harbor where an ambush was waiting

- Escort a fireship (basically a ship full of gunpowder) into the middle of an enemy fleet and blow it up

- Destroy an enemy fort

 Indeed

To me, this game looks like it has some zealous supporters, but masses of disappointed pirate fans. 

As for missions, I saw a lot of creative writing on how to make "kill x ships" or "get to certain point" something different.  Creative rephrasing, but alas, I played it long enough to see those missions too.

As for world travel, it is slow, because it takes forever, AND it is unrealistic because ships just missile around non-stop with no needed stops, weather, ambushability.... basically nothing... but gank.  I don't see how that could be a confusing statement, but a short enough quote can sound like anything.

Lastly infinite cannonballs is totally reasonable considering ships repair themselves, crew regenerate, never eat, never age.... seriously we don't need elves for cannon balls, but we need cannonballs to have fun, and in this game.... cannonballs AND fun are in short supply

The game lacked some things.

1. There was no jump and without being able to jump it makes the game not feel like you are really there which is a very big aspect to MMOs and is why WoW was such of big hit. WoW was a big hit because when you played it you actually felt like you were a real Orc or Night Elf running around in foresty areas. POTBS did not have this capability.

2. Graphics is also what all creators of games are trying to accomplish in an MMO today. The problem with the race to see who can create the best graphics in a game is all upon how great of a graphics card everyone has. If you make the game look too good, your not going to have that many people as you expected to play.

3. POTBS is a game that many people, including myself, were expecting to be a great game because of the ship combat, which is new to all types of MMOs. The ship combat was a brilliant idea, but you notice that you are alone inside a cage called an instance. Instances in games are all very annoying and tiring to go through because you begin to feel attached to the game, when suddenly a loading screen comes up and is telling you to wait. If you haven't noticed, WoW did not have any instanced areas anywhere except for going into a instance area to recieve items to improve their combat. Most creators from my suspective are too worried to make no instances because that would cause lag, yet they make extreme graphics and expect everyone to not lag?

4. The game also felt linier in my opinion because all you really did was grab a quest and go 10 yards to the docks and instanced into an area. You didn't even have to search or do anything, just hit a button and then you have no clue where you are.

5. PVP wasn't as great as I thought it would have been because you can enable your PVP flag? I say either make PVE servers and PVP servers where you are either never PVP marked or always PVP marked. The idea of taking over ports with huge PVP zones was not a success in my opinion because there are 100 or something ports on the map and only one can be taken at a time? I say make it possible for multiple ports to be taken at one time.

The game had few problems, but I do not care for bugs since it is open beta. I am not saying I like WoW better because I hate WoW now, but POTBS did not have a better experience than WoW at the beginning.

                                          Overall rating for me: 6.5    Worth Playing, but not forever.

OFF TO ANOTEHR GAME!

Originally posted by yesuconn

Missions are the exact same.......wow the quest story might be different, but almost every quest i did ended up to be killing 3 ships....wait sometimes 5. Avatar combat....is a joke. Total after thought in my opinion. Im not saying this game couldnt get better, because it has potential and maybe after awhile itll be good. Im just sayin at this stage its not all that great. But you should try it out and form your own opinion.

True. Quests were also the same thing over and over again. And so what if there were escort missions.. they were the same too. There was no difference in the game.

       (DEMON) Lets have a punchout!

ever seen the WoW beta?  man that sucked ass...look at it now

im not suprised that lots of people are bashing this game. overall, it wasnt a great experience playing. i was watching this game for about 2.5 years. i guess i had high expectations.

now, this is not to say it wont appeal to lots of other people...i can see how others would enjoy it thoroughly. there were some unique elements that i did enjoy, but i think it just doesnt fit the type of game im looking for. that is all.

Originally posted by smitty0356

To me, this game looks like it has some zealous supporters, but masses of disappointed pirate fans. 

As for missions, I saw a lot of creative writing on how to make "kill x ships" or "get to certain point" something different.  Creative rephrasing, but alas, I played it long enough to see those missions too.

As for world travel, it is slow, because it takes forever, AND it is unrealistic because ships just missile around non-stop with no needed stops, weather, ambushability.... basically nothing... but gank.  I don't see how that could be a confusing statement, but a short enough quote can sound like anything.

Lastly infinite cannonballs is totally reasonable considering ships repair themselves, crew regenerate, never eat, never age.... seriously we don't need elves for cannon balls, but we need cannonballs to have fun, and in this game.... cannonballs AND fun are in short supply

1. If you notice the crew does not regenerate, the tooltip reveals "Healthy Crew".

2. You think ganking is annoying? Sure an occasionally shipwreck from a storm would be nice.

(read the recent interviews of PoTBS game developers they have on this site. They explain why that will not work)

3. Yes, your crew eats. That is why provisions are required to make ships.

4. They dont age? I'm sorry if you have been playing beta for over month?

5. Ships do not repair themselves, if you look at your ship the crew is repairing it.

6. Cannonballs cost 300 doubloons for a stack of 100. VERY cheap if you do missions, sell goods, and capture enemy ships (which usually have cannon ammo for loot).

Just stop with the cannonball arguement, it's a lost cause.

Also, I wouldn't call me..... a "zealous" supporter. I only cruise around these boards dumbing down people who have no substance in their game rants.

By god, just go play another game and deal with the fact you don't like it.

p.s. Good job with the bias poll

Nice, thanks for posting good reasons Kilivin.

---

Originally posted by Hrica

[
Dude, I respect your opinion. But I disagree with you on all your points. POTBS is fun. It is a great change from sauturated MMO market of fantasy and sci-fi games. It has historical locations, themes, battles and more. You can have a first, middle and last name. The econmy is 99% soley player driven. You can change the way your avatar looks any time for free, rename your ship as much as you want, pvp or quest.....geez I could go on.....

And if the beta is so bad...then why do Flying Labs keep having to add more beta servers? POTBS has more beta servers than some established released games have total.

---

Now to some of your points
historical themems - this relates to gameplay how? this is only immersion
first middle last name - again gameplay how?
Avatar looks - gameplay how?
rename ship - gameplay how?

The games fundamental gameplay is bad, from land combat being well pathetic to the sea combat being more mario on ships than ship simulation. It's so far from realistic that any point of being historically immersive is pointless.

What this game was going to be originally and the direction it ended going are worlds apart and in the end its our loss. I think this game will weeze on for a while but it won't ever be much more than another footnote in the MMO market.

Not to kick sand..... but when I am saying "cannon balls" I mean the chain shot, star shot, grape shot, and not the generic cannonballs.  And I don't see how a crew can repair a completely destroyed ship in 15 a day between battles, but that's not even the point here.

What I'm saying is:  the game is neither realistic OR fun....  Would have been nice if they would have at least chosen one OR the other.  I mean both would have been nice, but as it is, I think most people are fairly disappointed.

PS:  I also beta tested wow, and felt the same as a few posters ago did, but Blizzard has almost completely remade the game since then, and I don't feel that an off-brand company has the time or the funds to correct a failing game.  If they do, cheers, but I'm not paying a monthly fee for the 2 years of "beta" that they would need to turn this ship around.  Pardon the pun.

PPS, I am also very excited about WARHAMMER online.

Originally posted by smitty0356

Not to kick sand..... but when I am saying "cannon balls" I mean the chain shot, star shot, grape shot, and not the generic cannonballs.  And I don't see how a crew can repair a completely destroyed ship in 15 a day between battles, but that's not even the point here.

What I'm saying is:  the game is neither realistic OR fun....  Would have been nice if they would have at least chosen one OR the other.  I mean both would have been nice, but as it is, I think most people are fairly disappointed.

PS:  I also beta tested wow, and felt the same as a few posters ago did, but Blizzard has almost completely remade the game since then, and I don't feel that an off-brand company has the time or the funds to correct a failing game.  If they do, cheers, but I'm not paying a monthly fee for the 2 years of "beta" that they would need to turn this ship around.  Pardon the pun.

 

PPS, I am also very excited about WARHAMMER online.

   After playing the beta I tend to agree with your logic there.  Pretty soon we'll start hearing words like "POTENTIAL" and  "IT'S BETA".  Oh.....wait a minute.....we already are.

PS I'm also excited about WoW2 also......uh......I mean WARHAMMER.

Chain shot, Star shot, and Grape shot all perform the same function as Bar-shot and Langridge.

They are..... somewhat "rare" loot off of other ships (and occasionally quest rewards).

Though they can be made by players. Unfortunately the beta gives no one the incentive to set up an ammo business when the other default ammo works just as well (for the time being).

As for the poll, I felt it was biased by the choices you placed on it.

Three appealing negative answers

Super lame, I quit after one day, and tried it but still disappointed

One central answer

Neutral

One appealing positive answer

Good solid game

And two answers that seem to be aimed at everyone against you, which appeal to no one.

"fanboi" and defender of PoTBS blind to all else

Perhaps some better choices would be.....

-I hate this game

-I do not like this game, but believe it will improve.

-I do not like this game, it will not improve

-Don't care

-I like this game and it will improve

-I like this game, but believe it will not improve

-I love this game

^^^^^ That is less biased

Also, I am not a fanboi for PoTBS. Thanks

I could actually care less how this game turns out. BUT I do feel it has MUCH potential. Unfortunately, by writing up this topic, you are attempting to ward of others because of your dislikes. Thus I feel I should take the other side so that the people who come to this site to learn about games that interest them, hear more than I hate this, I hate this, and I hate this so you should hate it too.

I am also waiting for Warhammer Online so that I can be a bloody Warrior Priest of Sigmar

If I am a fanboi for anything it would be Warhammer. (Although, I d0n'7 2p34k l1k3 @ f4nb01)

Also, to the person above me. ^^^^^ If you would like me to, I will give you a link to a page with a good explaination of WHY Warhammer looks like WoW.

Great. We all don't don't need to write 5000 word essays detailing the EXACT reasons behind why you hate this game. If you have a problem you should write an email to the devs (you'd be surprised how much they listen). What is writing in these forums about how much "this game sucks" going to do? Go right to the source, make the game better. Your wasting your own time, scaring potential players from even trying it, and wasting anyones time who actually reads it. OH MY GOD! WHAT AN IDEA! You get to complain about why you hate the game WHILE making the game better for those who do like it.

Werid.

I haven't quite read through the entire thread <ducks> but I think there are a few misconceptions about the game.  Admittedly, the game is far from perfect, but shows some potential and can be a lot of fun depending on your play-style. I beta'd WoW, L2 and others and subscribed to many of them afterwards, and this game's fun-factor blows them all out of the water when comparing to similar stages of development.  The only beta I enjoyed more was way back when Ultima Online was the next big thing.

PvP is mostly voluntary, yet game mechanics do a pretty good job at encouraging the players to "volunteer" (speed bonus for pvp flagging, shortcuts through pvp zones, potential loss of port/resources).  Thus, being ganked is voluntary as well (that is, unless you are incompetent).  In fact, I have played the game through to lvl 30, as well as several lower level alts, and not been ganked once, despite having my pvp flag up 2/3s of the time (Though I must admit to having lost a pvp battle or two, I entered them all willingly).  Playing the right class paired with the right skills and the right ship (and making the right decision at the right time), you can escape from just about any combat situation.  I would like to see slightly more bonuses to enabling your pvp flag, as well as some large improvements to the avatar missions, but I don't see those as being far off.  The devs have come clean to state that the melee combat underwent only a fraction of the work that the ship combat did, and that they plan to change this.  I'm unsure if the changes will be enough, but I'm hopeful that they will be.

It is, as many have stated, definitely more of a sandbox-type game, with a good balance of risks and rewards, rather than an i-never-played-sports-cuz-i-am-too-fat-and-lazy-and-thus-never-learned-how-to-lose-without-crying-about-it WoW type game.  In other words, if you're a WoW-hater, willing to involve yourself with the game's economy, and can at least tolerate pvp, you might like this game.  If on the other hand, you are easily amused by shiny, sparkly things, cartoon characters, and your face gets wet when something doesn't go your way, stick with WoW.

I keep reading that people say this is a sandbox MMO. Is there any immersion and can you fully explore all places/ports and go wherever you want? Or are you locked in to a local location??

Originally posted by acg11

It is, as many have stated, definitely more of a sandbox-type game, with a good balance of risks and rewards, rather than an i-never-played-sports-cuz-i-am-too-fat-and-lazy-and-thus-never-learned-how-to-lose-without-crying-about-it WoW type game.  In other words, if you're a WoW-hater, willing to involve yourself with the game's economy, and can at least tolerate pvp, you might like this game.  If on the other hand, you are easily amused by shiny, sparkly things, cartoon characters, and your face gets wet when something doesn't go your way, stick with WoW.

Simply an amazing post.