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POTBS Ships

skull

Sea Dog
There is a mission at Golden Lake called Quality Assuarance where you test ships, type of ship you get to test out is most likely based on your level, I'm level 26 and to my pleasant suprise, got to sail and shoot at targets with a Defiant Frigate, one of the Big Boys in game and level 37 requirement to sail.

Gawd! I'm spoiled now, don't wanna give it back, I wanna keep it <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Seriously, this is an awsome ship with a serious punch. I may spend the rest of the game in this mission, I really, really, don't wanna give it back <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sailr.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":sail" border="0" alt="sailr.gif" />

<img src="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z93/dhuget/POTBS.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />

<img src="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z93/dhuget/030.jpg" border="0" class="linked-image" />
 
LOL! That's a pretty cool mission! <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/w00t.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":woot" border="0" alt="w00t.gif" />
 
hmm. i know someone who i can persuade to start playing the game. maybe i can have a shot at it there. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin.gif" />
 
Great... Now I'm starting to blame my crappy rig again for finding a excuse about not able to play this game. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dry.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="<_<" border="0" alt="dry.gif" />
 
The Port Battle I was involved in had a few Defiants, and I'm sure some Hercules Frigates, Was quite amazing to see. Was invited to this battle against the Spanish, I was ported to a Ready Room full of Pirate Captains where we discussed tactics and such. There is a timer that tells you how many minutes before battle. We then exited a door and ported to our ships. My Hermes Packet Ship was squeezed in the center of all these massive ships. It looked quite funny indeed.

The Spanish came straight for us in a line of ships, one behind the other. We broke off into two groups, The Big bad boys split off and formed a battle line to protect the fort, and the rest of us formed a second battle line up front, except for me, knowing I was gonna for sure be sunk by one of the Spanish battlewagons with one broadside. Proceded to attack lead ship, didn't have time to indentify type, but it was huge. Spanish Battlewagon was very sluggish turning as I had wind and speed in my favor, and unloaded two broad side shots of Bronze shot and knocked her armour and sails down some when a salvo from another ship pounded my stern and port side. The next salvo disenegrated my Hermes. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" /> Think I lasted maybe 6 or 7 minutes. No big loss as she was a British Scout I had captured and tossed some general fittings on to improve sails and cannons, so was only out 400 doubloons for cost of fittings and most fittings were scavenged off enemy ships.. Not the same for most others, if there ship gets sunk, many ours of labor and cost to replace.
It is a shame to see such a beautifull ship like the Defiant blown to smithereens, but as I was told, do not get attached to yer ship, you will get sunk in PVP or possibly even by an NPC. The ocean in POTBS can be a dangerous place if you don't keep yer wits about you <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Thought to post a few pics of my newly aquired Postillinon Frigate. Not as near big as the Defiant, but very quick tacking to the wind. Exceptionaly good for hit an run tactics, decent armour. Good for PVE- NPC missions.

<img src="http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z93/dhuget/Frigate.png" border="0" class="linked-image" />
 
Those are crystal clear graphics. Sweet. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/me.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":onya" border="0" alt="me.gif" />
 
very nice. they forgot some ropes, but the ones displayed are absolutely correct. what's with the blue sails?
 
Not sure about the blue sails Morgan, not like that in game,actualy the sails are black. Maybe from changing BMP to Jpeg, loading to photobucket then here <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/dunno.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":shrug" border="0" alt="dunno.gif" />
as for missing ropes, I cut them down with my Dirty Fighter Master Sword, they were in my way <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/laugh.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="xD:" border="0" alt="laugh.gif" />
 
Is it still the same gameplay as beta? I enjoyed the ship battles but was very dissapointed by the land/boarding battles, that was the only thing that stopped me from going to retail.

Edit: well that and the pirate starter town lag
 
Not sure about your Beta question as I've only been playing for a short time. There has been 3 patches released since Beta fixing a lot of issues and yes, the town lags were fixed in last patch. Game runs smooth as silk on my rig. Developers are frequently on the forums and they are constantly working on more improvements. Is the game perfect,, I'd say no, no PC game ever is. What impresses me is flying lab commitment to making this game as close to perfect as they can. I also read a post by one of the game developers for the next patch one of the things improved will be avatar combat, particularly the animated moves. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Cool, I'm sure its just a matter of time before things improve. One positive of mmos are that the development is usually subscriber driven. I had very high hopes for this game and in spite of my beta turn offs as few as they were, im sure to be playing this game in the fairly near future.
 
Aye mate, have heard that from other Beta testers as well. Having said that, 3 sizable pathes, last one being just over 800MB, fixed a lot of issues and their working on another patch to improve many aspects of game, The game is very playable and stable, <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
A quick Twopennorth.

Skull's descriptions are bang on - POTBS now plays very sweetly [I am on the European server (English - stupid choice on the European English server...) and the Kydd server (Pirate - good choice! )] - both with no lag problems at all at the moment.

My own rig is a bit rubbish too, but it handles the graphics with no problems (oh all right - after a good while I get some video tearing due to my Geforce overheating).

There are all sorts of things I would like to see added to POTBS (ships moored in more of the harbours for one thing - that IMO was the best "atmosphere" addition to the Build Mod) but I am really into it now - like many others it took a while for me to see the depth of it.

I had not seen a Defiant frigate before now (much lower level than Skull on both my servers - I have a nicked Bermuda Sloop) and I want one !
 
Hi Mate, Yeah it's a great game, Signed up with The Black Sails Guild on Antigua, great bunch of guys an Gals, much fun for sink'n for loot an XP. Although Istill enjoy solo every now an then, Bagged a level 38 Frenchie Arms Merchant im lvl27, 360 XP, captured banner,nice speed gun rig, <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/par-ty.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":cheers" border="0" alt="par-ty.gif" />
 
Can someone sail up and capture yer ship? And if someone blows ye out of the water, what happens to ye?
 
Hi there Mr Salt

Short answer is yes, they can take your ship, but there are caveats.

Once your ship is taken (or blown out of the water <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/rolleyes.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":rolleyes:" border="0" alt="rolleyes.gif" />) you are sent back to the nearest port of your nation. You may or may not have lost your ship permanently - please see below.

Only Pirates can actually "take" a ship from another player or computer controlled opponent. They can do this once every two hours. All other classes must leave the ship they have boarded behind, but they can take the ship's "Pennant" after Level 5 and if they have invested in that skill. A certain number of pennants collected can be exchanged for rewards - including ships - at your nation's capital. It goes without saying therefore that all Non-Pirate classes must buy their ships or get them via the Pennants award system (which is actually rather too much hard work to be worth it...).

You can only fight human players in areas designated as PVP enabled (unless you actively want to PVP - see further below). This happens when there has been enough "unrest" caused around the environs of a particular port. The more unrest there is (basically the more fights there are going on) the bigger the PVP area. Often they all overlap so extremely large areas of the Caribbean can become PVP. When that happens then the only really safe areas are those around the various nations' starter ports.

When you buy a ship it generally has 5 "Durability" points (I am assuming a good quality ship here - they vary depending on who built them). Each time you lose a fight then that ship loses a durability point, until eventually you lose the ship altogether (otherwise it's magically back in your dry dock when you get back to Port). However you can refill those durability points at any time if you happen to have a ship deed of the same type in your inventory.

A ship taken by Piracy however only ever has ONE durability point - so it can be taken away again permanently. You can keep taking them, so you can have a large supply instead of just one with five points on it but of course if you then invest money in outfitting one of those ships then you can easily lose quite a lot of investment in one go... The other thing is that if you happen to take a ship which is above your theoretical level (i.e. you would not be allowed to buy it legally until you are high enough level) then you are automatically given PVP Enabled status (you get big crossed swords appearing above your ship to other players) when travelling in that ship - and that's everywhere! You tend not to hang on to those ships very long.... however, being a bit rubbish at it I have not yet taken a ship too far above my class.

One last thing, if you are in to PVP then you can enable your PVP flag for combat anywhere anyway if you like. However, as with all PVP MMORPGS I suspect a lot of bullying goes on - I have been chased by people dozens of levels above me, which is fun when you are in a small ship that can escape relatively easily (if the wind is in the right direction and an island doesn't get in your way...) but not so much if you are in a ship on which you have lavished time and money. Moral: Don't go into PVP areas if you are afraid of losing your ship.

One thing I think would be a good idea would be to go the "World of Pirates" way and have those who's ship has been taken placed on to a small slow raft on which they have to make their way back to port....

Anyway, I hope I answered fully enough.
 
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