I understand your ill feelings, but you're not as put upon as you like to make out.

You were adamantly lying to misrepresent yourself as having absolutely no negative bias or grudge but just an objective opinion about how "omg this game and FLS sucks so bad!" while dogpiling the game and anyone who had anything remotely nice to say about it with three of four others on a forum which very, very few of its active users are actually aware of.  I exposed that lie.  After which, you could still opine how the game is so terrible, but folks could understand better where you're coming from with all of your venom in particular.

It's really that simple.

By the way, FLS: You still need to advertise more ;)

Originally posted by Linna

Revisionist history ftw.

Linna

Nothing revisionist about it; go read it again, it's only a few pages deep.  vOv

Originally posted by DJXeon

 

He was more trouble than he was worth, as to how he got into community spotlight was beyond me.

Good writing and quality posting, mainly.  I see you're not angry at FLS about that temp forum ban you bought yourself at the PotBS board last year; good for you!  :)

Originally posted by Linna

Well, if you'll read back, you'll notice that I wasn't the one who originally hung out the dirty laundry, it was Havojeh (SP?) who tried to invalidate my opinions in another thread by pointing out I was banned.

Linna

Negative.  To clarify, I didn't point out your ban to 'invalidate your opinions' in the other thread; I pointed it out because you were very adamant about having no reason at all to have any sort of grudge against FLS or their game and I stumbled upon the fact that you in fact had a huge reason to carry a grudge - a grudge that you subsequently verified.  I pointed out your ban to illuminate the bias you were swearing up and down that you didn't have.  Your opinions, just like everyone else's, are always valid.  They're opinions.  Opinions are by definition subjective, they can't be invalidated.  Just agreed with or disagreed with.

 

• Having two populated servers makes a massive difference so that Potbs is played they way it was intended.
• Traders can fulfil buy orders on the AH.
• Switching nation in the 72 hour period to give the players a powerful option to change sides adds a lot of variety into game-play.
• Blockading port feature makes making red zones easy & port battles much more often.

What's this?  Four major features we were practically begging for a year ago?  If I weren't about to try Darkfall, I might resub for a month to look around.. good to hear about these changes.

PvP zones vary from day to day; to get an idea of which server has the action at any given moment, take a look at ArmEagle's API-powered server list website here: http://potbs.armeagle.nl/

Of the five SOE servers, Antigua, Blackbeard and Roberts are the most active (in that order) though at the time of this posting Antigua is pretty quiet while Blackbeard is on fire and Roberts has quite a few out-of-the-way PvP zones up right now.

Several people from Blackbeard and a few from Antigua just transferred to Defiant (all Brits, if I'm not mistaken but I may well be...).  Whether that will help push Defiant's population into an upward trend, who can say.  If you want a server where you can level up and jump right into the action, though, the top three servers are where it's at... just be aware that Antigua no longer has any low-population XP bonuses as things have apparently evened out over there.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

As much as this worries me (and in fact I'm placing any SOE-owned game on a permanent blacklist), Pirates of the Burning Sea is still owned by Flying Lab Software, and it has control over its design.

This does not guarantee that it won't happen.  But as long as this remains out of the game,  I can hardly blame PotBS for that.

I've given a quick look to the official forums and could find no thread to this effect (not in the general section anyway).  Maybe someone who can still post there could put the question to the developers.

I don't remember who it was, POSSIBLY Misha but I'm not sure, said that wasn't something that was being considered.  When the announcement was made that StationCash was being added to EQ/EQ2, a couple of threads about it showed up... for some reason, I can't find those threads now (they may have descended into trolling and been deleted :p)

It'd be a real long-shot; I'm not sure if there's a precedent for that, even.  I remember when I first bought/installed WoW, it was either use the discs and patch forever or download something closer to 'current' via FilePlanet and patch from there.  I think the logic presented was something to do with costs and logistics of manufacturing more up-to-date retail box discs or some such :(

The best advice I could offer you would be to submit a support ticket through www.burningsea.com/support/ explaining your predicament in detail and asking if they can do that (sending a disc or discs with a client closer to up-to-date) or something similarly helpful.  Hopefully they'll be able to 'meet you halfway' as it were.  I'm not sure what the standard practice is for situations like yours, but I suppose it couldn't hurt to try eh?  Sorry to hear things are going so roughly for you!  

Originally posted by DubonEngeven

My download speed is 45 kBps, what is yours if it only takes 2-3 hours?

Er... tbh, I really don't know :p  It's cable internet, though, supposedly fast-ish... (not much of a tech guy lol I just PUSH BUTAN!!!!!11)

10 hours is way too much.  I've reinstalled a couple of times due to PC issues and it's never taken me longer than 2.5 hours to reinstall from scratch.  Unfortunately, for some reason the old patcher is still accessible and folks occasionally run into the problem you're having.  I don't know how people get to the 'bad' patcher or I'd give you some advice myself but I got lucky when I first joined the game and got the 'good' patcher on my first try ;)

Try the following links to get pointed in the right direction:

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=51622

http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41632

Hope it helps!

Because saying that civilian lineship deeds from NPC vendors is a stupid idea is off-topic and personally insulting, am I right?

Also, yes the "I'll phone Rusty" 'threat' was made on IRC by you.  The following is taken from my IRC client's chat log, February 15th, 2009:

03[23:25] * GB (GB@coldfront-8C95B570.freedom2surf.net) has joined #burningsea
[23:26] <GB> Hi all why is FLS deleting support tickets with no response?
[23:27] <@NTRabbit> no idea
[23:27] <GB> anyone there?
[23:27] <@NTRabbit> i haven't filed a support tiket since last year
[23:27] <GB> there is a cover up going on
[23:28] <@NTRabbit> :O
[23:28] <GB> I'm gonna find out from Rusty if he know
[23:28] <@NTRabbit> but what if he's a part of the conspiracy?
[23:29] <GB> ah yes i will find out
[23:29] <GB> If he is ill let everyone else know
[23:30] <ArmEagle> heh, i've sent lots of tickets, and never got one deleted
[23:30] <GB> Just had two deleted withibn 5 mins
[23:30] <ArmEagle> well, be a bit nicer then! :)
[23:31] <GB> It says in Forum rules1 if you have a issue with a member of staff to sub a ticket
[23:31] <GB> i did it was deleted lol
[23:32] <GB> Then i asked why it was deleted in a separate ticket & that was deleted
[23:33] <GB> forum leaders are being deleted too
[23:33] <GB> Garbad & myself no longer listed
[23:35] <GB> me thinks there is conspiracy going one i'll let rusty know
[23:35] <GB> on*
[23:35] <GB> Hope hes not in on it
[23:36] <ArmEagle> heh
[23:36] <@NTRabbit> wasn't garbad banned for being a twat?
[23:36] <ArmEagle> anyway, Rusty is away for a few days I think
[23:37] <GB> i can be very nice but players should be allowed to post constructive critism
[23:37] <GB> ah ok ill e-mail him & phone him when hes back
[23:38] <@NTRabbit> phone him?!
[23:39] <GB> yer he picks up the phone sometimes
[23:39] <@NTRabbit> ...

You said more silly stuff after that, but the point's been made.

Originally posted by sbanting

Funny thing is, the live servers just got updated to 1.13 thats meant to have the skirmishes and its been taken out lol! You have to press alt+h to get it up and then you can't create one, so obviously they got bugs there, but the skirmish on the test server seemed to work ok.

I think its a good game, shame about the bugs, some of the bugs seem small and would be easy to fix but they haven't bothered. The game lacks moreness, other than normal ship pillies and the econ stuff there needs to be more, like palor games and tournaments, just things to keep a wider base interested if you can't be bothered to go out on a ship lol.

I hope they are able to fix this game up and give the game some tlc, and hope people realise its a pretty damn good game.

Minor correction: they didn't say Skirmish would be live in 1.13.  They said they "expect" to take it live in 1.14 (note that the use of the word expect means they're not saying 100% for certain that it will go live in 1.14).  Skirmish is on Testbed in 1.13 (that is, it's on testbed right now so we can see that they actually have been developing it).  Having used it in testbed, it still has plenty of work left to be done... my own estimate is 1.15 or 1.16, but I've been in a pessimistic mood this last couple of weeks :p  Anyway, you can get the UI via alt-h because it exists in the build... though why that couldn't be disabled as well, I don't know (I'd bet dollars to donuts that it was unintentional, though).

Lack of "moreness" is an interesting way to express the feeling I've had since I started playing; small things like being able to sit down on a chair or not have always presented a minor annoyance for me.  I'd like if the entire Avatar movement and interaction with the environment were more like what I got used to back in '04 with WoW (I mean keep the visual style the same, but improve the functionality), but since the game's primary focus is ship-based PvP I would much rather see whatever resources they have available to them spent on improving that... after all, changing the way we interact with the world while on land is more than just visual fluff for the Art Department, it'd take actual development.  But like I said, it's been a minor annoyance for me.  I think the major thing that makes the game not really meet its potential is the heavy reliance on instancing, which takes a relatively small setting and makes it feel even smaller at times.

Originally posted by DJXeon 

A lot depends on how soon FLS can fix the transfer system & build up a community based on respect, I could post a lot more solid suggestions on the FLS forums but i'm not allowed to right now & it's not clear that FLS want to listen, they seem more interested in getting rid of the so called "bad stuff", the problem there is that they may be biting the hand that feeds them & getting rid of the wrong enthusiastic people. They cut posts from their forums & give infractions that break no rules just because they think it is bad publicity when infact it is a deliberate attempt for them cover up the truth. The bacon goddess claims there is  "No reason for a deletion or edit as it's valuable constructive criticism" but there many other posts & threads that disappear that she doesn't talk about 

FFS, man, get over it already... people don't disrespect you because the forum community is bad, people disrespect you because your forum posting is bad (read: terrible).  We're all smart enough to see through the so-called "honest posts meant to inspire discussion and promote a mutual respect among players" and see them for the flamebait they really were.  When you didn't quit while you were arguably ahead, you got temp-banned and threw a tantrum.  Really, man, just get over it.  Don't go on IRC and threaten to call the CEO of the game development company on the phone to inform him of the dire forum conspiracy against you, or anything else equally silly, just stop.

All of the other feedback in this thread is pretty much spot on ( though I disagree with kaiserjager - Roberts, Blackbeard and Antigua all seem to be chugging right along, so it's 3 out of 5 servers functioning :p )... mistakes have been made by FLS and, even as communicative as they are with the community, they tend to post about inconsequential things rather than answer the burning questions we've been asking.  Even so, it's a great game for internet sailboat PvP!

Don't mind me.  I'm just here to buff my post count by agreeing with Vetarnias on all counts.

Welcome to the game, glad you're enjoying it so far!

Keep an eye out for players with the "Welcome Committee" title above their avatars - we are Boarding Party player volunteers who have opted to set aside some of our play time for helping new players figure out what's what in-game.  There are dozens of us across the servers, though not all of us have the Diplomacy skill so if you see one from another nation, don't feel put out if he doesn't respond - he may simply not understand you!

In my opinion, all games are repetitive/redundant where PvE is concerned.

1. Talk to quest guy

2. Go kill something

3. Talk to quest guy again to get paid.

4. Find another quest guy

5. Go back to step 1

It's been that way in every online game I've played... sure, some games have more elaborate PvE scripts with flashy effects (I haven't seen anyone do it better than Blizzard yet, though I haven't played WAR or AoC...), but even for all the bells and whistles it's essentially the same PvE drudgery.  They were exciting for the first 50 /played hours or so, but after that... not so exciting (though the roleplayer in me still loves a good story).

I play for PvP.  I play to take peoples' pixels and to have mine taken away by better, faster, savvier players.  I'm not as young as I once was, so I can't get my competitive needs filled with things like pick-up basketball or street hockey or football, so I get it via PvP in online games.  I hate FPS, I suck at RTS, so that leaves MMOs.  MMOs with a risk attached to losing in PvP are a plus.

In before "no u" - I know SOMEBODY'S gonna say it before this thread is over

Originally posted by DJXeon

Originally posted by BingoBango00

More like your first hand experience being one of the asshats that made it unfriendly.  Must be nice to rewrite reality in your head all the time.

 

The childish arguments were going on long before I joined & populations increased while I was there.

If the community improves a bit I might come back but as it is today I'm not the slightest bit interested.

For me its not that Potbs is a bad game it attracts the wrong kind of people that land up pulling it down.

The FLS boarding party leader thinks that introducing Ship soccer is a great idea, that tells you something about the immature mentality - If someone brings out an Age of Sail game based more on historical accuracy & respect I'll be there.

The thread topic is hardly news as it has been flogged to death on other forum threads; far better to let it die.

 

That's the second time you've linked Daeke's playful post as if someone whose title is Community Intern Liaison has his every whim converted into code and made an in-game reality.  Next thing you know, they'll have ME rebalancing classes for PvP (The days of FT OPness has passed, now it is the day of the BU.  When I am king, CTs shall reign supreme!).   I can't see how that's on-topic in relation to an article about a poor choice in distribution deals and a mishandled server launch.   But as I also didn't catch your use of the video game term "ganking" in reference to the activities of real-life pirates such as those operating out of Somalia, I guess I'll give it the benefit of the doubt...

Originally posted by Shreddi

Are there only 2 people posting on this thread.  now 3 including myself.  I am looking for something positive in game to come back to.  This is the only game I found that actually uses simulation in it.  The sailing that is.  Im so sick of clubs, bows and arrows in the other games.   I also really dont care about the avatar combat.  The sailing battles in potbs could get very intense at times.  Being you actually lose stuff made the risk kinda real.  Did they change that?  I thought I read somewhere about insurance.  The world is still as small as it was before?  No gank squads is positive.  lack of population is not.  I guess ill throw 15 bucks at it before I delete from HD.   Thanks. 

Most of the active PotBS players don't seem to be active on this forum, more's the pity.  The best gauge of current players' prevailing opinions is the official forum itself, particularly the Suggestion Box forum section where you'll see what players are suggesting could be improved (and how). 

Ship combat is as fun as ever, with the exception of a rebalance here and there.  I don't know if many would go as far as to call it a 'simulation' given the presence of repairs and stuns and such, but it is a video game after all.  IMO the sailing battles are still quite intense, particularly PvP.  When you sink, you still lose some of your stuff; they did add insurance to ships and expensive outfittings but recently pulled back on 50% of the insurance for the most expensive ships by reducing insurance paid out on lineship structure bundles.

World size hasn't changed, no.  However, that might be eased some as a side effect of the oh-so-long awaited Skirmish system which is on TestBed now and scheduled to hit the live servers in the next Milestone patch (1.14).  There is a lot of speculation as to exactly what effect Skirmish will have on RvR and OS PvP.

The lack of gank squads has been sort of exaggerated and I'm not sure exactly how this impression has gotten around.  It's not AS bad as it once was, but you're always going to have situations where a group of friends are looking for fights and all they see is solo targets or smaller groups... those solo targets or smaller groups will get hit.  Once a player learns the ins and outs of the system, though, it really is very, very easy to avoid being ganked.

The game doesn't have the huge population of a WoW or WAR, or even EVE, but the servers Antigua, Blackbeard and Roberts have large enough, active enough populations to "make it happen."  Defiant and Rackham, while their populations are small, are home to some pretty enthusiastic and determined players... most of whom seem to enjoy the more leisurely pace of things on the less populated server.  During most time zones, though, it can be difficult to find folks to play with under those conditions.  It's also worth emphasizing that even on the three "high population" servers, there is a "top dawg" and an "underdog".  That can make the open market situation very frustrating if you can't access other nations' auction houses.  Especially since closed-loop society econ is still generally the way to go for medium- to large-sized societies floating bundleboats and SOLs.  Nations of most servers have eased back on the "play to crush" mentality, but losing key econ ports still imposes an undeniable inconvenience.

I don't know how long ago you played or how long you've been away from the game, but I think that if you come back you might find that the good things have gotten better while the bad things have ranged between "slowly improved upon" or "at least it hasn't gotten worse."

Originally posted by DJXeon

Originally posted by Havohej

lol you said it and I quoted it.  "it must be understood that Pirates gank or play ambush game-play as that is what they do in real life."

What other context is there for that?  Explain how this is out of context?  Those words only have on definition, GB.  Your comment didn't say anything about "so do nationals at times," it said "Pirates gank or play ambush game-play as that is what they do in real life." 

EDIT: Thanks for starting the thread, but seriously man... you can't say something very clearly and then claim people are "twisting my words" and trying to "intimidate" you when you get called on it.  Instead, why not try something along the lines of, "That's not really what I meant, let me clarify."  

 

Do a seach for Pirate on google & you'll find out what they do in real life.

i give up with you - you win the forum.

OH, so you were talking about real life pirates like the ones in Somalia, not what pirate players do in real life.  See, since the word gank was used, I didn't make the connection between "video game slang" and "real life criminals".  Clarifying that wasn't so hard, was it?

Cheers!

{ Mod Edit }