I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.

When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.

I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

No, the game has not improved.

PvP will always be broken, because it is poorly designed. It centers around the concept of having "red circles" in which PvP can occur, not open PvP. Once you are engaged in PvP in one of these "red circles" any allies/help has just a few minutes to enter the instance and help out. After that, they are locked out of the instance forever. In practice, 6 man gank teams jump the lone player knowing full well that another 5 allies cannot arrive in the instance to assist during the short time window.

This allows, for example, a six man gank team of British to sail with impunity around French waters and prey on anyone that happens to enter the red circle. They do this in one of several ways, either by hanging out at the edge of the red circle themselves, or by sending one of their players into the red circle to act as bait for a 1v1. Alternatively, one player sits outside a port in the red circle, with 5 buddies inside the port waiting to zone out and join the gank fest.

The game is made for ganking, not PvP. Had it been made for PvP, it would be open PvP anywhere. Thus, for British to prey on French merchants they would have to enter French waters and be subject to French attack throughout. Generally any nation outnumbers any other nation within their own waters. So, for the British to go after French merchants would be a major undertaking, involving alot of players. The way the game is designed it takes only you and 5 buddies to sail into French waters and gank. In response to this, everyone stays out of red circles, and there is no PvP.

There are times in the game you can actually see, in the same red circle, a 6 man British, French, Spanish, Pirate gank squads. But none of them will attack each other because the risk vrs reward is so badly broken. If you lose a ship you are in store for dull, redundant PvE to work up the cash to replace that ship. This can literally take hours, not so bad when you don't have a job, a spouse, kids, and work around the house. So, in exchange for about 15 minutes of PvP fun, if you lose your ship, you are in for an evening of grinding.

Most players countered this by rolling a Merchant alt so they could have the large cargo ships, manufacture, and haul to market. These alts accumulated the cash the combat mains needed to replace the ship losses. In their infinite wisdom FLS nerfed these alts because they were accumulating too much cash. FLS wants the players PvP poor so that you have to grind for endless, mindless, hours. The less you accomplish, the more time it takes, and the more subscriber dollars they make.

Since they will not change the formula, protected PvP gank teams, unbalanced risk vrs reward, and ineffective economy, there is no hope for this game.

This game will be an example, just like Vanguard, of how not to develope a game.

No, it is still broken but for different reasons given. First, solo missions are too damn hard. I have had beginner solo missions with as many as 5 ships against me, and I am not kidding! They need to make solo missions easier!

Secondly, there is a HUGE player based that is anti- PVP or only wants limited PVP. This game is as hard core PVP as EVE,which turns off about 60% of the playing world.

Even the PVP has problems as noted in the post above.

Lag is very bad too, and I am playing on a top notch rig with a very fast internet connection.

Thus, don't bother with this game. It had amazing potential that probably will never be realized.

FLS is in full panic mode and they are throwing things at the game with no consideration in an attempt to stop the mass exodus of players. They tried catering to the gankers when the game launched and it backfired on them. Now even the gankers are leaving because they can't find enough people to grief.

It was obvious when they announced the deal with SOE that the game was going to fail but the magnitude of its failure is impressive.

Originally posted by Ricardo12

I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.

When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.

I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?

IGN: 82

Gamespot: 80

Ah hell, just go to metacritic.

Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.

I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.

<modedit>

Originally posted by CaptainPyle

The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?

IGN: 82

Gamespot: 80

Ah hell, just go to metacritic.

Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.

I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.

<modedit>

Yeah they are doing so well that they had to lose two-thirds of their servers with the merges...

Originally posted by CaptainPyle

 

Originally posted by Ricardo12

I'm still very anxious to play this game, it sounds great.

When it first came out, lots of people were telling me to wait a few moths before buying it because of all the flaws in the game.

I was just wandering if the game has improved over the last few months?

The game is improving. It was pretty good to start with. Have you read the reviews?

IGN: 82

Gamespot: 80

Ah hell, just go to metacritic.

Anyway, the game has a free trial coming up (soon, not sure the date - sorry) just wait until then and give it a try.

I like the game, obviously, and I like the improvements they've done on it since launch.

<modedit>

As has been stated in other threads, game reviewers RARELY play a game long enough to get a true feel for how a game is going to end up being for the normal player. This game was fun for maybe the first 2-3 weeks, and then the shallow game play, terrible economy and jacked PvP system become obvious.

Every one of my 20+ friends that bought this game, canceled after the first 30 days. I had one friend resub for 1 month, only to quit again, half way through. Let that be the true metric of how a game is, not how many people buy it, but how many pay for the second month.  For Pirates of the BS, very few people stayed past their initial time.

7 of 11 servers are gone, and populations on the remaining 4 are not particularly healthy.

Take a pass, save your cash, and play Conan. Yeah, it might not live up to the hype, but you might sub for a second month after you throw down the $50 to buy it, unlike this game.

And, for the record, I no longer trust ANY gamesite review for MMOs, precisely because they pumped up this game, and TR and neither game delivered what was hyped.

Originally posted by olddaddy

No, the game has not improved.

PvP will always be broken, because it is poorly designed. It centers around the concept of having "red circles" in which PvP can occur, not open PvP. Once you are engaged in PvP in one of these "red circles" any allies/help has just a few minutes to enter the instance and help out. After that, they are locked out of the instance forever. In practice, 6 man gank teams jump the lone player knowing full well that another 5 allies cannot arrive in the instance to assist during the short time window.

This allows, for example, a six man gank team of British to sail with impunity around French waters and prey on anyone that happens to enter the red circle. They do this in one of several ways, either by hanging out at the edge of the red circle themselves, or by sending one of their players into the red circle to act as bait for a 1v1. Alternatively, one player sits outside a port in the red circle, with 5 buddies inside the port waiting to zone out and join the gank fest.

The game is made for ganking, not PvP. Had it been made for PvP, it would be open PvP anywhere. Thus, for British to prey on French merchants they would have to enter French waters and be subject to French attack throughout. Generally any nation outnumbers any other nation within their own waters. So, for the British to go after French merchants would be a major undertaking, involving alot of players. The way the game is designed it takes only you and 5 buddies to sail into French waters and gank. In response to this, everyone stays out of red circles, and there is no PvP.

There are times in the game you can actually see, in the same red circle, a 6 man British, French, Spanish, Pirate gank squads. But none of them will attack each other because the risk vrs reward is so badly broken. If you lose a ship you are in store for dull, redundant PvE to work up the cash to replace that ship. This can literally take hours, not so bad when you don't have a job, a spouse, kids, and work around the house. So, in exchange for about 15 minutes of PvP fun, if you lose your ship, you are in for an evening of grinding.

Most players countered this by rolling a Merchant alt so they could have the large cargo ships, manufacture, and haul to market. These alts accumulated the cash the combat mains needed to replace the ship losses. In their infinite wisdom FLS nerfed these alts because they were accumulating too much cash. FLS wants the players PvP poor so that you have to grind for endless, mindless, hours. The less you accomplish, the more time it takes, and the more subscriber dollars they make.

Since they will not change the formula, protected PvP gank teams, unbalanced risk vrs reward, and ineffective economy, there is no hope for this game.

This game will be an example, just like Vanguard, of how not to develope a game.

 

This assesment completely sums this game up, especially pvp.  I have had quite a bit of experience in the pvp system, and I have never been able to express it like that.

This game is... and has been garbage since launch.  The 3 million gold cow and the roving gank squads... and the supercheesy avatar combat shows that 3 out of the 4 systems are totally broken!  Been saying that since closed beta...  Just wish I could have saved more people 50 bucks plus the 15/month... if only I got commission!!

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?

I think not.

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?

I think not.

Well from what I hear Puzzle Pirates is pretty good for a free to play  MMO

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?

I think not.

Pirates of the Caribbean Online

Originally posted by Ricardo12

BUT, is there a better pirate MMO out there atm, or is there one in development?

I think not.

Scrennies look very cool:

http://shoguntotalwar.yuku.com/topic/21848/t/Facts-about-Empire-Total-War.html

Originally posted by olddaddy

No, the game has not improved.

PvP will always be broken, because it is poorly designed. It centers around the concept of having "red circles" in which PvP can occur, not open PvP. Once you are engaged in PvP in one of these "red circles&q