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Profile: Gyrus
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UsernameGyrus
Rank: 80/100Rank: 80/100Rank: 80/100Rank: 80/100Rank: 80/100
Real Name 
RankHard Core Member
JoinedNovember 20, 2007
GenderMale
Age38
LocationAdelaide, Australia
Last VisitMay 15, 2008
Post Count408
Biography

Began gaming on a ZX81
WWIIoL
PotBS Open Beta

 
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    • I know its Tuesday night but damn its quiet!

    • 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.


      0.0

      ....

       

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

      ...

      Wow.

    • Posted: 5/14/08 4:47 AM
      Pirates of the Burning Sea
    • Slow death on the Burning Sea.

    • Originally posted by Vetarnias

      ... the "bean counter".  He will be the one doing the number-crunching, and the first to realize that 100 times 15 does not even cover the rent.  ... 

      Oddly - I did the rough math on this last night.
      4 servers (not counting Australia here) all with light populations on all 4 nations.

      What is the threshold for "moderate"?  IIRC AgtSmith / SWBgHz established it was about 100 players?
      So, we are looking at 4x4x100 players on line maximium at most times.
      That's 1600 people and assume that is 10% of total subscribers (very generous) then they have 16000 subscribers left.
      16000 x 15 x 12 = 2.9 million per annum.
      Divide by $100000 per staff member (including overheads) which is again generous then they can only support about 28 staff at best.

      Sadly DJXeon / GB, as well written as Vetarnias'es posts are the time to listen was pre-release.
      But, those of us that tried were shouted down by a handfull of Fanbois who enjoyed tacit Mod support.
      Threads were flamed and locked if we dared to question.

    • Posted: 5/12/08 1:49 PM
      Pirates of the Burning Sea
    • The Agency: SOE Aims for Free-to-Play Business Model

    •  

      Originally posted by Elikal

      ....

      First, F2P means TONS of freeloaders, kids and ppl I dont want around, see Guild Wars. Never seen more immature Pron/Trash talking ppl than there.

      Second, it means usually low quality and every really interesting stuff is bound to extra coin, which drives the REAL cost usually much higher than a constant subscription rate.

      ...


      And that's how it makes money.

       

      Everyone joins 'cause it's free.  Then the players who like the game - but dislike the F2P crowd and the 'trash talk' complain.
      Answer: If you don't like it pay for *premium* access and get your own *special area* and *special forums*.
      So, they pay.

      But they can come out of their area to pwn the kiddies - which (despite their self proclaimed maturity) they do.

      So, the kiddies cry to mommy.  "Mommy!  I wan teh *Elite Bullet Proof Vest*!  I want teh *James Bombed Tuxedo*!  Please mommy!  It's only $5... Please please please please please....
      Then they get that and the "To Russia with Love" mission is another small fee ($0.50) but the reward is teh Laser Beam Watch!  "MOMMY!!!!!"

      And Mommy does not realise this is all adding up... or does not care because it keeps them quiet and stops them fighting with each other...

      "MOMMY!  I just got pwned" sob sob "and I can't beat him back without the *SLR Delux Sniper rifle and Heat Scope!*"  sob sob... "Mommy...pleeeaaaaaaaase?"

      That and people with no life and tons of money who are happy to PAY for the top gear to see their name on the top of the "Agency Double Oh Agents" list.

      And the people who paid to get away from the trash talkers find they are followed to the *Special Places* by them... they complain
      Answer: They paid their money just like you...

      The only positive is that this sort of game really caters to gankers and griefers... but it makes them PAY for the privilage.

    • Posted: 5/12/08 8:41 AM
      General Discussion
    • Slow death on the Burning Sea.

    • Vetarnias,

      Well thought out and said - I will follow this one with interest.

       

      Originally posted by olddaddy

      I do hope you are going to address the open sea (OS) 50 mile visability, and the "speed boats". Oh, heck , I'll start it....

      You can see ships at a 50 mile distance, allowing you to vector in on them for the "big gank". That is why PvP occurs only in a red circle. Had FLS decided not to make a fantasy game, they would have kept visability down to between 3 and 5 miles, reduced OS speed, thus stretching the world, and allowing open PvP anywhere. If you were a Freetrader (FT) hauling cargo you would stand a pretty good chance away from the ports of not ever seeing another player. Thus, "contention", and "blockade" of ports comes into play. So does naval officer (NO) "patrol" of OS, either as a "man to man", or "zone" defense.

      Back to visibilty, players can see a port at 100 miles.

      ...

      This game was first brought to my attention about 3 years ago (maybe more) and I visited the Dev Forums at that time to see what the concept was.
      At that time the plan was to have a wide ranging open sea (un-instanced) similar to the way the naval game works in WWIIoL.  The distances (and the travel times) would have been huge (in comparison to what we have now).
      I did not really follow the game closely and only really became involved a year ago.
      On reading the design notes I discovered the "Travel Map" concept had been introduced.  
      I do see the reasons for that - cutting down travel times because of player boredom (impatience?) - but I also thought that it was inflexible and would lead to a host of other problems.

      I gave my arguements in the pre-release forums
      (this thread is one example - post 94 on)
      http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?p=454425&highlight=relativity#post454425

      Well, sadly I was more right than wrong.

      Day/Night cycles?
      Draft?
      OS Weather?
      None of these things can easily be made to work with the "travel map" in place.

      And as for Vetarnias'es comments on the Elitism of port battles - that is something else that could be fixed if not for the travel map and short transit times.

      IMHO the "travel map" is a killer and it's totally inflexible too.  What's worse however is that without a fundimental redesign of the whole game FLS can't really do much about it.
      Really, a redesign that fundimental is more akin to a whole new game?

      I look forward to the next part of Vetarnias'es post, but sadly I think it is all pretty much an academic exercise now.

      PS:  Just found this thread too
      http://archive.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=29368&page=6&highlight=instances
      Start about post 89...
      I wonder where GroverPete and Xandax are now?

    • Posted: 5/11/08 7:11 AM
      Pirates of the Burning Sea

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