Some info on Pirates of the Burning Sea (Coming out June 1st)
So they had this game on display at Comic-Con for people to test. I read the entire article from the guys from mmorpg.com who wrote this and cut out only the usefull information for people (so I basically cut out 3/4 of the article so you don't have to skim through the crap for this game)
Brief Game Description
"Pirates of the Burning Sea is best classified as an adventure driven tactical MMO. You play the role of an aspiring captain pledging your loyalty to one of three nations: Spain, England, France, or become a rebel by living a life as a pirate! These four factions work toward the ultimate goal of conquest in the Caribbean."
On Character-Looks Customization:
"From facial expressions down to the embroidery on your coat, many details go into making your character unique and distinguishable. It's very unlike other popular MMOs where you all farm the same dungeons, get the same armor, and look exactly the same. You can customize and choose at creation from over fifty blends of colors to give yourself a unique look. Or keep it simple and use guild colors so people know who you are with. Speaking of guilds and customization, did I mention that you can design your own guild flag in MS Paint and submit it to be imported into the game? There are 16 different areas of customization including coats, jewelry, eyewear, hats, hair, etc etc. And yes, in case you were wondering (I know someone was), you can play a pirate with a peg-leg."
Character Skills
"The game currently holds a total of 350 skills. Each career in the game (Pirate, Privateer, Naval Officer, Merchant etc) has 50 skills, and by level 50 each player will have 25. On top of this, each of the game's combat styles: fencing, Florentine and dirty fighting, carries 50 different skills of its own. Obviously, with so many possible skill combinations, diversity is easy to find in PotBS.
There are four different kinds of attack that you can use in combat: preparatory attack, basic attack, finishing move and special move.
Preparatory Attack
The preparatory attack is meant to force an opponent to come off of his or her guard. These attacks and feints aren't designed to hurt or damage your opponent as much as they are meant to throw them off balance to reduce their defensive capabilities.
Basic Attack
The tried and true "swing" falls into this category of attack. Basic attacks focus on hitting and causing damage to your opponent throughout the fight. As you use these attacks, you are also building what the game calls "initiative points". These can be used to gain more of an edge later in combat.
Finishing Move
This attack is meant to cause more damage quickly to finish off your opponents. In order to use your finishing moves though, you have to have built enough initiative points throughout the combat. Cleave is an example of one of the finishing move abilities.
Special Move
Your special move is tied to your fighting style (fencing, Florentine or dirty fighting). The special move adds flavor to the combat in the game. When I created my character for example, I created a pirate who used the dirty fighting style. Some of the "dirty" attacks that were available to me were elbow, stomp (yup, you step on the other guy's foot), throw dirt, grenade and more."
Interview response on Naval Combat (Including ship fights and boarding options)
"MMORPG.com:
When it comes to ship combat, what can players expect from a ship to ship fight?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Our combat is longer and more tactical than the fights in most MMORPGs. There is a lot of depth in the combat before any abilities even come into play. Depending on the weight of your guns, they take anywhere from 10 to 90 seconds to reload. Big ships have multiple gun decks, which means you aren't waiting 90 seconds between volleys. Planning and timing your volleys makes a significant difference. Your speed, your turn rate, your target's relative motion, range, your cannons and the size of the target all affect chance to hit. Right now, it takes a few minutes to sink an evenly matched NPC ship. Player versus player battles run from 8 minutes and up for a single opponent. Tactics and maneuvering are crucial in ship battles, because ships have limited firing arcs and they are vulnerable at their bow (front) and stern (rear). Small ships are a threat to large ships because they can outmaneuver them, but a close range broadside from a large ship can tear a small ship to shreds. It's entirely possible for players to form small wolf packs that take down large prey.
Ships have external armor values for each side and an internal structure value. You sink when you run out of structure, no matter how much armor you have left. The less armor remaining on a side, the more structure damage you take from every hit. One of the constant decisions players face is which side to expose to the enemy. Since you are controlling a sailing ship, it is essential to plan ahead and master the tools at your disposal. There is much less armor on the stern of a ship, which means raking (firing on a ship's bow or stern) quickly tears into a ship's structure.
We give you a choice on how to approach fights. Using different types of ammo, you can target the hull, sails or crew of an enemy ship. Even if you intend to sink your opponent, there is still value in damaging their sails or crew first.
Since we are making a sailing game, we have a natural force that impacts every fight: the wind. The direction you sail in relation to the wind affects the performance of your ship, which adds an extra dimension to combat. If you can control the wind, it gives you an distinct advantage over your opponent. Beyond that, different types of ships do not have the same performance at a particular wind angle. One of our ships, the Xebec, is noteworthy for its exceptional ability to sail against the wind.
MMORPG.com:
Tell us about boarding your enemy's ship? How does this play out in a fight?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
In order to board, you must first grapple the enemy ship. It's difficult to grapple a ship that is moving fast, and you need to be very close. It's dangerous because you risk taking a few point-blank broadsides if you fail to grapple.
When you succeed a grapple, you and your crew take up arms and bring the fight to the enemy's decks. You can fight outnumbered, but if you try to take on too many enemies you will quickly get overwhelmed. Boarding the enemy does not protect you from the surrounding battle. Other enemies can still fire on your ship, which means you must be careful when deciding to board.
MMORPG.com:
What type of hand to hand combat can occur when you board a ship? How do you eventually take it over?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Fights are molded in the spirit of cinematic swashbuckling. Players choose between three fighting schools: Dirty Fighting, Fencing and Florentine (two-weapons). You are victorious when the enemy does not have enough crew left to fight back. If you board a ship controlled by another player, then you will have a chance to cross swords in the encounter. Large groups of your crew are involved, so boarding combat is not a simple duel between captains.
There is a lot of room on multi-decked naval ships. That means several smaller ships can all board a large ship at once. We plan to allow up to 8 ships to grapple a single ship of the line."
MMORPG.com:
As a ship captain, will you be able to out run your opponents? As opposed to always getting stuck in a fight?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Yes, it is possible to outrun your opponents. This is especially true if you are outmatched. Weaker ships are usually fast enough to flee from ships that will destroy them. This means that small, fast ships are always valuable PvP assets. Players have access to skills and ammo that will help them ensnare players who try to run.
MMORPG.com:
For a player losing a ship seems like a huge loss. Can you tell us how ships can be replaced in game? Or at least what type of loot system will be used in this regard?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
We have a concept called durability that helps take some of sting out of losing a battle. A ship's durability shows how many times it can sink before you lose the ship permanently. As you build bigger and more expensive ships, they have less durability. PvP risk is low for new players.
We also have fallback ships. If you lose the last durability on your last ship, the game will give you a free ship appropriate for your level. It's not as strong as what you can get otherwise, but it allows you to continue playing.
MMORPG.com:
How will the use of cannons come into play? Will players be able to broadside each other and sink ships quickly?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Ships do not sink quickly. At medium to long range, the biggest ship in the game - the 104 gun - cannot one-hit kill the 6 gun starting schooner. That said, close range broadsides are devastating and large ships pack a lot of firepower. Getting too close can be fatal, which is one reason maneuverability is so valuable."
Final Thoughts of My Own
While this game looks fun, I was highly dissapointed when I discovered that you can not have any players in your crew. EVERY person who plays this game is a ship captain and captains a crew of NPCs. I found this dumb, for there will be thousands upon thousands of ships and itd be hells of fun to own a ship with my crew of friends. The cool part about that though is that we can just be our own fleet of ships, which would be cool. The emphasis and style of naval combat seemed a bit tiring to me (especially since it sounds a little bit like the gunbound style of fighting except in real time) but the fact that if you don't want to do naval combat you can shoot the rudder of an enemy out so that they can't steer anymore. This allows you to easily grapple and board their ship and force them into crew vs crew combat. That sounds fun to me.
I'm not quite sure if Pirates of the Burning Sea (the coolest part about this whole game is that we can call it PBS, lol) is going to be good or not. It seems like it'll be either really awesome or a total piece of crap. So, I'm going to try it when it comes out and we'll find out then. Hopefully it'll be good.
THE END
Brief Game Description
"Pirates of the Burning Sea is best classified as an adventure driven tactical MMO. You play the role of an aspiring captain pledging your loyalty to one of three nations: Spain, England, France, or become a rebel by living a life as a pirate! These four factions work toward the ultimate goal of conquest in the Caribbean."
On Character-Looks Customization:
"From facial expressions down to the embroidery on your coat, many details go into making your character unique and distinguishable. It's very unlike other popular MMOs where you all farm the same dungeons, get the same armor, and look exactly the same. You can customize and choose at creation from over fifty blends of colors to give yourself a unique look. Or keep it simple and use guild colors so people know who you are with. Speaking of guilds and customization, did I mention that you can design your own guild flag in MS Paint and submit it to be imported into the game? There are 16 different areas of customization including coats, jewelry, eyewear, hats, hair, etc etc. And yes, in case you were wondering (I know someone was), you can play a pirate with a peg-leg."
Character Skills
"The game currently holds a total of 350 skills. Each career in the game (Pirate, Privateer, Naval Officer, Merchant etc) has 50 skills, and by level 50 each player will have 25. On top of this, each of the game's combat styles: fencing, Florentine and dirty fighting, carries 50 different skills of its own. Obviously, with so many possible skill combinations, diversity is easy to find in PotBS.
There are four different kinds of attack that you can use in combat: preparatory attack, basic attack, finishing move and special move.
Preparatory Attack
The preparatory attack is meant to force an opponent to come off of his or her guard. These attacks and feints aren't designed to hurt or damage your opponent as much as they are meant to throw them off balance to reduce their defensive capabilities.
Basic Attack
The tried and true "swing" falls into this category of attack. Basic attacks focus on hitting and causing damage to your opponent throughout the fight. As you use these attacks, you are also building what the game calls "initiative points". These can be used to gain more of an edge later in combat.
Finishing Move
This attack is meant to cause more damage quickly to finish off your opponents. In order to use your finishing moves though, you have to have built enough initiative points throughout the combat. Cleave is an example of one of the finishing move abilities.
Special Move
Your special move is tied to your fighting style (fencing, Florentine or dirty fighting). The special move adds flavor to the combat in the game. When I created my character for example, I created a pirate who used the dirty fighting style. Some of the "dirty" attacks that were available to me were elbow, stomp (yup, you step on the other guy's foot), throw dirt, grenade and more."
Interview response on Naval Combat (Including ship fights and boarding options)
"MMORPG.com:
When it comes to ship combat, what can players expect from a ship to ship fight?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Our combat is longer and more tactical than the fights in most MMORPGs. There is a lot of depth in the combat before any abilities even come into play. Depending on the weight of your guns, they take anywhere from 10 to 90 seconds to reload. Big ships have multiple gun decks, which means you aren't waiting 90 seconds between volleys. Planning and timing your volleys makes a significant difference. Your speed, your turn rate, your target's relative motion, range, your cannons and the size of the target all affect chance to hit. Right now, it takes a few minutes to sink an evenly matched NPC ship. Player versus player battles run from 8 minutes and up for a single opponent. Tactics and maneuvering are crucial in ship battles, because ships have limited firing arcs and they are vulnerable at their bow (front) and stern (rear). Small ships are a threat to large ships because they can outmaneuver them, but a close range broadside from a large ship can tear a small ship to shreds. It's entirely possible for players to form small wolf packs that take down large prey.
Ships have external armor values for each side and an internal structure value. You sink when you run out of structure, no matter how much armor you have left. The less armor remaining on a side, the more structure damage you take from every hit. One of the constant decisions players face is which side to expose to the enemy. Since you are controlling a sailing ship, it is essential to plan ahead and master the tools at your disposal. There is much less armor on the stern of a ship, which means raking (firing on a ship's bow or stern) quickly tears into a ship's structure.
We give you a choice on how to approach fights. Using different types of ammo, you can target the hull, sails or crew of an enemy ship. Even if you intend to sink your opponent, there is still value in damaging their sails or crew first.
Since we are making a sailing game, we have a natural force that impacts every fight: the wind. The direction you sail in relation to the wind affects the performance of your ship, which adds an extra dimension to combat. If you can control the wind, it gives you an distinct advantage over your opponent. Beyond that, different types of ships do not have the same performance at a particular wind angle. One of our ships, the Xebec, is noteworthy for its exceptional ability to sail against the wind.
MMORPG.com:
Tell us about boarding your enemy's ship? How does this play out in a fight?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
In order to board, you must first grapple the enemy ship. It's difficult to grapple a ship that is moving fast, and you need to be very close. It's dangerous because you risk taking a few point-blank broadsides if you fail to grapple.
When you succeed a grapple, you and your crew take up arms and bring the fight to the enemy's decks. You can fight outnumbered, but if you try to take on too many enemies you will quickly get overwhelmed. Boarding the enemy does not protect you from the surrounding battle. Other enemies can still fire on your ship, which means you must be careful when deciding to board.
MMORPG.com:
What type of hand to hand combat can occur when you board a ship? How do you eventually take it over?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Fights are molded in the spirit of cinematic swashbuckling. Players choose between three fighting schools: Dirty Fighting, Fencing and Florentine (two-weapons). You are victorious when the enemy does not have enough crew left to fight back. If you board a ship controlled by another player, then you will have a chance to cross swords in the encounter. Large groups of your crew are involved, so boarding combat is not a simple duel between captains.
There is a lot of room on multi-decked naval ships. That means several smaller ships can all board a large ship at once. We plan to allow up to 8 ships to grapple a single ship of the line."
MMORPG.com:
As a ship captain, will you be able to out run your opponents? As opposed to always getting stuck in a fight?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Yes, it is possible to outrun your opponents. This is especially true if you are outmatched. Weaker ships are usually fast enough to flee from ships that will destroy them. This means that small, fast ships are always valuable PvP assets. Players have access to skills and ammo that will help them ensnare players who try to run.
MMORPG.com:
For a player losing a ship seems like a huge loss. Can you tell us how ships can be replaced in game? Or at least what type of loot system will be used in this regard?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
We have a concept called durability that helps take some of sting out of losing a battle. A ship's durability shows how many times it can sink before you lose the ship permanently. As you build bigger and more expensive ships, they have less durability. PvP risk is low for new players.
We also have fallback ships. If you lose the last durability on your last ship, the game will give you a free ship appropriate for your level. It's not as strong as what you can get otherwise, but it allows you to continue playing.
MMORPG.com:
How will the use of cannons come into play? Will players be able to broadside each other and sink ships quickly?
David 'Taelorn' Hunt:
Ships do not sink quickly. At medium to long range, the biggest ship in the game - the 104 gun - cannot one-hit kill the 6 gun starting schooner. That said, close range broadsides are devastating and large ships pack a lot of firepower. Getting too close can be fatal, which is one reason maneuverability is so valuable."
Final Thoughts of My Own
While this game looks fun, I was highly dissapointed when I discovered that you can not have any players in your crew. EVERY person who plays this game is a ship captain and captains a crew of NPCs. I found this dumb, for there will be thousands upon thousands of ships and itd be hells of fun to own a ship with my crew of friends. The cool part about that though is that we can just be our own fleet of ships, which would be cool. The emphasis and style of naval combat seemed a bit tiring to me (especially since it sounds a little bit like the gunbound style of fighting except in real time) but the fact that if you don't want to do naval combat you can shoot the rudder of an enemy out so that they can't steer anymore. This allows you to easily grapple and board their ship and force them into crew vs crew combat. That sounds fun to me.
I'm not quite sure if Pirates of the Burning Sea (the coolest part about this whole game is that we can call it PBS, lol) is going to be good or not. It seems like it'll be either really awesome or a total piece of crap. So, I'm going to try it when it comes out and we'll find out then. Hopefully it'll be good.
THE END