When PotBS came out I decided to give it a go even though I saw a lot of hate threads out there.  The game was pretty busy a couple of months ago and the seas were packed.  Then they go and merge servers to increase population when the player base dropped off.  I logged on tonight after a 2 week break as I was a little bored with the game.  I failed to see anyone near me and I was the only person online in my 60 person corp.  Roberts did have medium pop across the board but only 2 other servers had medium on Pirate and English factions.   That's a lot of 'LOW' population everywhere else! 7am GMT

Feel a bit bad for the game because the ship combat is polished and on max settings it is quite astonishing in regards to detail.  However people like me who loved the ship combat are leaving because..well frankly there really isn't anything else worth doing.  I hope the game succeeds with a core audience but its looking pretty bad right now...

The PvP's all on the forums, don'tcha know?

Definently the action is on the forums, worth 10-15 mins an eve to swing by and see whats cooking there.  I was going to pop back into game last night for a last look before subscription ended but the patch was too slow so I canceled out.

I am not sure if it's just me but every update for PoTBS downloaded very sluggish which was annoyings as all get out and I live right across the Sound from FLS.

By the way Vetarnias, you have some great posts on both the forums. 

Drive through a cemetary on a tuseday night same sound.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

The PvP's all on the forums, don'tcha know?

Originally posted by Dracus

 

Originally posted by Vetarnias

The PvP's all on the forums, don'tcha know?

Even that is dying off.

 

 

And sadly, you're RIGHT.

PotBS is a lost cause. The devs don't even bother responding to stuff on their own forums. They are probably too busy negotiating with SOE to buy them out.

Oh, I haven't shown you my latest find, have I?

SOE president John Smedley to the Seattle Times:

Q: How are sales of "Pirates of the Burning Sea" (an online game developed for Sony by Seattle's Flying Lab Software)?

A: Good launch, doing OK. I would say that it's kind of for an audience that's really excited about pirates. It's probably not as big as "Everquest 1" or "Everquest 2" but it's actually doing terrific.

And that's from May 12th.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

Oh, I haven't shown you my latest find, have I?

SOE president John Smedley to the Seattle Times:

Q: How are sales of "Pirates of the Burning Sea" (an online game developed for Sony by Seattle's Flying Lab Software)?

A: Good launch, doing OK. I would say that it's kind of for an audience that's really excited about pirates. It's probably not as big as "Everquest 1" or "Everquest 2" but it's actually doing terrific.

And that's from May 12th.

Batton down the hatches, prepare the good ship FLS for boarding!

I do not hawe problems to find pvp in euro times on Roberts

Originally posted by Vetarnias

Oh, I haven't shown you my latest find, have I?

SOE president John Smedley to the Seattle Times:

Q: How are sales of "Pirates of the Burning Sea" (an online game developed for Sony by Seattle's Flying Lab Software)?

A: Good launch, doing OK. I would say that it's kind of for an audience that's really excited about pirates. It's probably not as big as "Everquest 1" or "Everquest 2" but it's actually doing terrific.

And that's from May 12th.

....

BWA HA HA HA ha ha ha ha ha ha hah!

...

Wow.

Originally posted by Vetarnias

A: Good launch, doing OK. I would say that it's kind of for an audience that's really excited about pirates. It's probably not as big as "Everquest 1" or "Everquest 2" but it's actually doing terrific.

So what is it, is PotBS doing Ok or doing Terrific?

Active participation says otherwise, however.

They might be selling a ton of copies but for some bizzare reason no one is logging on!  Going to check now...brb...

Right:

Roberts has 'medium' across all servers

7 other servers have 'light' across all of them.

3 servers at the end have 'light' across all bar Pirates / Britain which have medium.

So in summary:

11 servers with 44 nations

10 nations are on medium (4 on one server, 8/10 are Britain or Pirates)

34 are currently on light

7.50 pm GMT - prime time for EU and lunch time in the states.  

I fear PotBS is in way over its head.  Tabula Rasa has a pretty core following now and its packed compared to this game.  With the merger they should have brought it down to 4 servers total and set up different language channels.  They state the game needs a mass amount of players to work properly and right now it might as well be space.

Shame because it could have potential if people stuck with it and they invested more content...

*Moment of Silence*

And I assume you're relying on the PotBS login screen to get those levels, which if I recall only gets a sample of populations once a week and which is not regarded with not much credibility.

This site, however, has the numbers updated every 10 minutes.  Usually, it's all light, all the time.

Also funny that some factions on condemned servers still show up as "light".  I'm wondering what people who haven't left are doing there: Producing as many goods as possible before transferring?  Running missions without being hindered by red circles?  Or just sailing around, until the servers are taken down and they leave the game altogether?