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Age of Pirates Revealed!

Hear, hear! I echo the sentiments of Skull, Catalina, and Yellowbeard. I love the experience of `1st-person` sailing in PotC, but I understand the constraints involved in `island-to`-island sailing. I await the release of "Age of Pirates" with much anticipation, and I'm sure your team will do an exceptional job! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
<!--QuoteBegin-Captain Yellowbeard+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Captain Yellowbeard)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->For Alex L.

I think the reason alot of people want to be able to sail between islands in these games, and they don't mind in games like Pirates!, is that these games put you in a realistic sailing simulation, and having the ability to see if you can manage your ship all by yourself while actually sailing for those great distances would be a huge addition to gameplay.
And Akella's games make the sailing look so much better then Pirates!
In Sea Dogs, and PoTC you are a captain on your ship immersed in the game world (until you need the world map.
In Pirates!, you are playing a strategy game, and you are not immersed in the same way, you are not the captain on the ship, you are a game piece being moved around a board.
Since Akella games are more imersive, and focus on RPG elements over the strategy game play mechanics, the world map transition screen take you out of the game.

Not that it is going to effect my purchase. The interface has been changed, and that is enough change for me all ready.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Finally !!, someone who formulated it suplendidly <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_praise.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":bow" border="0" alt="icon_praise.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_praise.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":bow" border="0" alt="icon_praise.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_praise.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":bow" border="0" alt="icon_praise.gif" /> this is exactly what the people mean <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> as for `getting-in`-`the-lower`-decks will put also just that extra little realism into the game <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />


btw alex ? how are the boardings 'scenes' in AOP now ?.. (I hope not the way how it's now in POTC.. I hope more like instant battling like they had made for seadogs 2 <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" /> )
 
<!--QuoteBegin-Alex L.+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Alex L.)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->What I really can't understand is that why people are happy with sailing on global map in Sid Meier's Pirates and unhappy with sailing on global map in POTC and AOP.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Alex my little babushka- Take a look at these two screenshots I took from Age of Sail 2 Privateers Bounty. They are both taken from the same sea battle, the camera control in that game allows very close up views of the ships as well as views so high that you have hundreds of miles of view of the surrounding sea. Why not give people that kind of control with Age of Pirates. It would be like having a world map and a close up map combined.
<img src="http://img115.exs.cx/img115/438/dfs8mu.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
<img src="http://img115.exs.cx/img115/6075/sdfss6pa.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
 
also a question left, can ships explode now in AOP?.. like during battle.. that would be some awesome feature <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/yes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":yes" border="0" alt="yes.gif" /> ..also more gunpowder smoke please ! when the cannons are fireing there is relative to less smoke <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/huhh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":eek:k" border="0" alt="huhh.gif" />
 
<!--QuoteBegin-Ravenheart+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ravenheart)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->BradC that kind of camera will totaly ruin the game.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Why?
 
Cuz it starts to be strategy kind ,and the control over the ships is really corny. Its gonna be better for me to install Corsairs! Gold and it than AOP(if with that kind of camera).
 
<!--QuoteBegin-Captain Yellowbeard+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Captain Yellowbeard)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->For Alex L.

I think the reason alot of people want to be able to sail between islands in these games, and they don't mind in games like Pirates!, is that these games put you in a realistic sailing simulation, and having the ability to see if you can manage your ship all by yourself while actually sailing for those great distances would be a huge addition to gameplay.
And Akella's games make the sailing look so much better then Pirates!
In Sea Dogs, and PoTC you are a captain on your ship immersed in the game world (until you need the world map.
In Pirates!, you are playing a strategy game, and you are not immersed in the same way, you are not the captain on the ship, you are a game piece being moved around a board.
Since Akella games are more imersive, and focus on RPG elements over the strategy game play mechanics, the world map transition screen take you out of the game.

Not that it is going to effect my purchase. The interface has been changed, and that is enough change for me all ready.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Althought the Idea has merit, I have another interpretation of the transision of the world Map.

Historically most sailing was really uneventfull, could be days and weeks, even months at sea with nothing particular ever hapening.

In both SD and POTC, the way I see this is from a more RP point of view.

When I hit that Map Button it is like I go to my Cabin and Plot the Cource to the destination, and the rest is really routine up untill the point that someone spots another ship in the horison or Land is visible.

So to me it does not break the immersion at all to be honest.

I agree fully however that the immersion level of Pirates! is a joke, you are indeed playing from a God like view moving peaces on a Board.

I don;t know if anyone of you has ever player WWII Online, but it is a Worle Map built on the 1/2 scale of the real world.

It is, by far, the biggest Map in Online Games Ever.

The point hoever being that you can spawn a Tank in one town take you 2 hours to drive to another town and be killed in a 3 minute squirmish.

You do it once you do it twice you do it thrice, and you simply are starting to feel bored.

So, instead people spwn directly besides the frontlines and there is forward and mobile spawn points close o the action. Originally it was not like that but it changed due to popular demand.

I think the same would happen in AOP if it was like that, and it maybe one of the challenges of Pirates of the Burning Sea Gameplay aswell.

Is it possible? Yes it is possible for sure to make it like that. But possible or not is not the only criteria in making a game.

It has to be enjoyable, otherwise the game simply flops.

So out of the 1000+ people in this forum, maybe 10 of you would actually love to set cource go see a movie and run back to your computer when you hear your sailors calling "Ship Ahoy!".

The rest of us will find such a gameplay very dull.

Now, some may say then why not combine the two, and that would be a possible alternative, however, both features call for different Engine and graphical design, and making it as such would extend the design time of the game as well as make the game double or triple its installed size.

So there is lots more to it to consider that just a simple decision of "lets include that feature".

You can actually do a test here, load POTC and Load the Build, and every time you need to go to a different location of an island, avoid using the shortcut buttons, sail there on your own, from a town port to a shore to conduct some smugling, also every time you sail out of port sail out 5 thousand yards before going in to the Map screen. Do the same when aproaching islands, as soon as you see the little land icon in your world map go in to Sailing mode maneuver your way in to the port.

Do that for a week.

And then, multiply that by 10 or 20 times in your mind and you will get a good aproximate Idea of how gameplay, and how uneventfull it would be if the game was made like that.

And no can't use the accelerated timers either. Always on Normal Time, good wind or Bad wind.

Try to see how long it may take you just to go out of the port with a front wind blowing in to the port. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=";)" border="0" alt="wink.gif" />

And then, lets see who gets excited about such a functionality, and if there is enough maybe we have a valid case to state.

So, we talk more in a week?

Cheers! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
I tend to agree that sailing across a vast ocean would get pretty boring after awhile, and would make a boring and frustrating game. Sure it might be cool the first or second time but after that, no way. I remember when playing Seadogs, many times I would use the speedup button to get to a certain point or closer to an enemy ship. With open ended sailing, I would definitely be looking for the speedup mode.
 
Sailin' between islands, in order tew werk well, would definitely require some sort o' variable time compression, changin' kinda like de rewind speed o' a VCR, startin' out slow, steadily speedin' up, reachin' max compression, an' den taperin' off as ye be approachin' land or encounterin' a ship! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />
 
I like that idea, Fred Bob. The gradual speed up and slow down would be helpful. <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />
 
In one of the WWII flight sims I play allows the user to control the time compression until the user encounters the enemy, a waypoint or other friendlies. At that point the game drops to real time and it will not let you change compression until you have dealt with the issue.

I think the time compression would work very well. It would also be cool to have crew interaction while at sea. Such as doling out punishment, sail drill to inprove repair and ship handling capabilities, gun drill for speed and accuracy improvement, or even deal with the occasional mutiny if the quality number drops to a low level.

Just my musings.
Greg.
 
S! from Sealords

I just found the interview of AoP.

It sounds a bit like akella tries to combine AOS and SD, espacially in the title.

for those, who don't know us, we are a community, that plays AOS2 and AOS:pB online and doing some RP in our forum. But as Fleets and not pirates.

So we have some experiances with akellas netcode. may things, that are running in single player are buggy in MP, like the collision system of AOS2.
it seems to be problematic for them to program for MP. they never managed it in AOS and just find a 4 Player solution for PB.
16 Players is not that much today. other games allow up to 64 players.

never the less i will take a look at this new game, cause our games are quite old now and making our own game, which is projected at SL, will take a long time. we have found an graphic engine, but a lack of `3d-artists` and programmers....

Mayby modding AoP would be the btter way to get the game, we waiting for such a long time, but akella never made.
 
<img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/hi.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":gday" border="0" alt="hi.gif" /> <b>Bladerunner, </b>and welcome aboard! Have an ale! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/beer2.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":beer" border="0" alt="beer2.gif" />

Give us a link to your website where you mod and play, I'm curious to see it! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/onya.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="onya.gif" />
 
Ahh.., multiplayer ..... coop on land and on sea, that would be like a mini mmo, that is a mmo for 4 players or so..... ahhhh... its like a dream, and thank god it doesnt have that high requierments, although a new engine would be nice . heres for AOP and hopefully a expansion to it! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" /> <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />

OMG! There has to have been some mix up here, looking over screens of AOP at gamespot, i found some that looked almost just like PotC, and some there im 100% sure that they are! this one for example
<a href="http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/seadogs2/screens.html?page=85" target="_blank">http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/seadogs2/sc...ns.html?page=85</a>

Look me in the eye and tell me thats not Oxbay, someone either mixed up PotC and AOP or someones takeing PotC's oxbay town and useing it for some of the towns in AOP...., strange...
 
Wow... Those look really cool, but the dates say they were added in 2002. Those pix are from PotC, or from Sea Dogs II... I don't know why they call it Age Of Pirates, unless that was another working title...

I wonder where all those great locations ended up!!! <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/unsure.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":?" border="0" alt="unsure.gif" />
 
Tnx for your welcome.

They call it a sequel from SD2/PotC at gamespot and imo the news where just the 4 lines in the box at top. The rest are just old information about SD2, some from times before they renamed it to PotC.

Up to now i didn't find any other information about AoP, than your article and forum. Even akella didn't post on their website. ok, one of our russian members gave me a link to Corsair webpage month ago, but this is in russian language, which i am not able to read and it was at that time just for russian version.

To Sea Lords: Normally you find us <a href="http://www.sealordsvf.org" target="_blank">HERE</a>, but at he moment Sea Witch, our administrator, is working on the page and just the <a href="http://forum.sealordsvf.org/" target="_blank">FORUM</a> is availible.

The community made scenarios for AOS and PB and Ross from russian navy and his son made a 16th century mod for PB with the ships from SD.
we also have a `project-forum` for a new game, but there is not much work done up to now. We collected many ideas, but didn't really start up to now.
 
As long as were adding to the wish list.

I would love them to fix the smoke and the sail handling.

In the real world smoke is carried and scatterd by the prevailing wind. Hence it should always blow down wind. It is rather silly to be sailing striaght down wind in a 20 knot breeze, moving at say 8 knots, then fire the bow chasers and sail through my own smoke screen.

Typical sail handling is somewhat different. The crew swarms up and out on the yards to loose the gaskets on the sails. Then let the sail fall to hangs in it clews. Then gaskets are coiled and left hang. Next the clewlines are cast off, then sail sheeted home. Once the sail is sheeted and crew off the yard then yard is hauled up to its place. Only the lower yards from which the courses hang do not travel up the mast. Reducing sail for stowing is the somewhat the same process in revers. The sheets and clews are manned then the sheets are cast off and the clews hauled tawt. If you are simply taking the power from the sail the yard is not lowered, but simply clewed up. This is that real blousie look that you see in ballon shades. If the sail is to be stowed the yard and clewed sail are lowered to the doubelings and the sail is fisted and tightly secured to the yard. For reefing slack is given to the sheet while the sail is fisted up until the desired reef band is at the yard then the reef gaskets are used to secure the sail. When reducing sail for a storm the t'gallents would be stowed then the courses taken in and lastly the tops'ls reefed.

The order of setting and striking sails was typically tops'ls, heads'ls, courses, driver/gaff then t'gallents.

For more information on the subject check you local library for John Harlands 'Seamanship in the age of sail' or D'Arcy Lever 'Young Officer sheet Anchor'. I am not sure of the exact title of the second book but it was originally published in the early 1800's and is still requried reading for anyone working on a square rigged ship.

Sorry that got little wordy, but so much for sail handling 101.
I just think it would be really cool to be able to manipulate the sails to balance the rig for optimin speed. More sail does not always make a ship faster, especially if it be ill trimmed.

Sorry again for the rambling.

Greg.
 
I never had Age of Sail; is the sail handling a little more precise there?

Ignoring accuracy, I think the way it is now is okay. When you go to Battle Sails it gets your lower sails out of the way of any cannon blasts from the enemy. I'm always trying to knock out the topsails of an opponent because I can't get at their lower sails until they want more speed.

<b>Bladerunner, </b>our Q&A with Akella was a very kindly offered exclusive. They've been very nice to us in the past, I suppose because they know we're great supporters of their products and feature them heavily here. After all, WE are their audience, we're PIRATE GAMERS... <img src="http://www.piratesahoy.com/forum/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/icon_mrgreen1.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheeky" border="0" alt="icon_mrgreen1.gif" />
 
@ Catalina
AOS and PB have two ways to control sails:
1st you have three possibilities to for the sails like in PotC - Full, battle and no sails. changing need a bit time there.
2nd you have possibility to reef the sails with a slidebar to control speed. this runs imediately.

The steering of ships runs with mouse not with keyboard like in PotC.
you have a steering wheel to set course. This can be done for all selected ships at once.

At all AOS is more a strategy game or Battle simulation, i.e. there is a scenario for the Battle of Trafalgar. The pictures up in this thread are out of AOS: Privateers Bounty. So there is a god view camera like in RTS games and no action at land or realy boarding action (at bording you just see number of crew going down). there is also no real crew running on deck, just little blue men.

what i would like to know about AOP:
- Will the `MP-mode` be a bit more strategic, so that it could also be a game for our AOS/`PB-community` (they said in Q&A that there is no land action in MP). I'm sure it will be different to AOS, but mayby also a good game for `sea-battles`.
- Will there be a possibility to bring new ships into the game. We play in times of napoleonic wars. so `44-gun` frigattes and SOL with up to 120 guns would be good (although i don't know who shall do the `3d-art` in SL at the moment).
 
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