Questions?

[Officerpuppy]

Small preview on Naval combat on IGN
<a href="http://pc.ign.com/articles/840/840568p1.html" target="_blank">POTBS</a>

 

[Peter Willemoes]

<!--quoteo(post=223930:date=Dec 1 2007, 04:00 AM:name=Koor)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Koor @ Dec 1 2007, 04:00 AM) [snapback]223930[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec--><!--quoteo(post=221814:date=Nov 17 2007, 07:01 PM:name=PeterWillemoes)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PeterWillemoes @ Nov 17 2007, 07:01 PM) [snapback]221814[/snapback]</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->A higher level don´t make you that more powerfull in PotBS compared to new players. Higher levels means more variety in the stuff you can do in combat.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->


Really?

As a level 7 I was just trying to do the economy mission, and was attacked by a level 50 player in the contested area.

My sailing a sloop, I thought I could simply outrun his giant warship. Instead he had an ability that let his massive ship overtake me, turn, broadside me, turn back around, catch up, and broadside me again.

I died in two barrages.

I wasn't too happy right then, considering the effort i'd taken to get that sloop, and how quickly i lost it all because a level 50 saw me and decided to tear me apart.
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You were sailing in a PvP zone then..in a Player vs Player Zone, anybody can attack everybody.
And remember, he was level 50 against your level 7, that is a huge difference and when it comes to that, his hitpoints are bigger than yours of course...

 

[OddjobXL]

Just started poking around in the PoTBS information and stumbled across this:

<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Sophisticated Missions
Our mission system gives you a starring role in your own epic. Each player accumulates a personal supporting cast of NPCs, including old enemies, new friends, lost loves, and treacherous allies. No two players have the same cast, and their stories will take them to different places and fight in different battles. And since each NPC can have multiple roles, the pirate who is your arch-nemesis may be the good friend and ally of an enemy player. Your long-lost cousin may turn out to be your best friend’s sweetheart – or a treacherous spy! We bring the plot twists and the bold adventure of classic adventure fiction to life every time you play.

Ship battles aren’t just spawn camps. Our AI personalities and dynamic goals ensure that no two battles are alike. Unexpected reinforcements, nighttime stealth missions, and secondary objectives mean you get gameplay as intricate as any handcrafted single-player game level.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

As a roleplayer my interest was piqued. I remember in Daggerfall that there was a random background generator which could give you relatives, friends and enemies (who, sadly, never actually show up) and always wished that would work right. Having a unique background for each character could really shape the game experience if done right. I have to wonder how well this works, or to what extent, in PoTBS? Any thoughts on it?

 

[cerebus23]

since there are no full time pvp servers, and the starting ports are all non contestable it should be pretty easy to avoid pvp, looking at your map, avoiding "invalid" shipa (ships that as a pirate you cannot buy deeds for and sail normally are invalid and auto flag for pvp, some barqs all sols are invalid for pirates), and pvp contested zones are easy to see on your world map and you get a warning when you wander into one, so you either use your head and take your chances or wait until that port goes out of contention to conduct quests or do business there.

The dev on our server mentioned a captians cabin area for ships that i think will be customizable etc, and plans to invite people onboard into your cabin but this is a long term thing i think.

Also mentioned future expansions that would add new seas with quests and their own unique ships like asian and european seas but these will be major pay updates and you will have to book passage to these new areas you will not be able to sail your ships around the globe, but they will have their own seperate docks etc i believe.

They are also debating refit sols for pirate factions but not 100% sure on if they are going to do this, since first rate sols are going to cost over 9 million to build and all sols are slow running and slow turning you would have to be suicidal as a navy guy to go tromping around in one in a small enough group in retail to make capture easy for pirates. and any sols i have have run into in missions are all "mission" ships and uncapturable.

Far as pricing its 49.99 for the game and 15 a month to play, after all they are going to add content regularly and expand the game, including redoing some of the generic towns to give them more flavor, and add more faces and avatar stuff. Of course there will be balancing and bug fixing as the game goes on. And they hope to add more people to the dev team if they get a good launch so yes they need money and they need funds rolling in to keep making the game better.

Far as the quests go some are really good (if you bother to read the stories and dialogue) there is an overarcing storyline and some towns have their own storylines to complete i found them good to outstanding, tho particularly for the melee missions you have to overlook the very limited instances they occur in and pretty much enjoy the stories. Since i soloed most mission and lost alot of allies doing so heh dunno how often they show up later, tho the storyline particularly the on land parts you have the main npc of the storyline often helping you or fighting you.

Missions are worth doing very much so since you get special skills through them and often times you get green mods for your ships that are very good for your level add to this that you get good weapons and accesories through the quests as rewards. Also by cranking up the difficulity for missions nets you better loot and salvage so it is your interest to group early on and often to crank the mission difficulty up to get better stuff.

all i can think of atm hope this answers some questions.