Yarr.
Posted by nefchast on January 26, 2008
Pirates of the Burning Sea. The game recently launched, and for those that do not know it is a MMO based in 1720 and deals with the Caribbean (sailing, pirates, colonial conquest, etc). I must say, before I tried the open beta back in December, I completely thought the game would be boring, worthless, just another attempt at making some quick cash. However, after playing it for… a day, I pre-ordered it. The game has some fairly new (or at least altered) game play features. The naval combat is a blend of tactical and real-time (I sort of think Eve Online combat, mixed with real-time features) which I think provided the biggest draw to me (game play-wise). The setting is also quite nice, not totally fantasy or sci-fi, but mostly historical. Being a bit of a history buff I even went so far as to join a RP’ing guild–which is providing the most fun for me, at the moment. Back to game play, PvP is done in a pretty cool way here, with ports (towns, have missions, merchants, and resources–much needed) that are conquerable by the opposing factions: ‘unrest’ is built up through different means, once high enough the port goes into a state of unrest and a big red circle is opened around the port allowing pirates (or privateers with the sanctioned piracy skill) to PvP (attacking the other nations, even if those players didn’t have their flags on). After more unrest is built up an even bigger circle appears and all nations are fair game for PvP. At this stage (I think, cannot remember exactly) there either needs to be a bit more unrest gained, or the port just automatically sets the period for the port contention battle (either way, in 24 hours after the battle is called, the battle will happen between the attackers and defenders). This sort of PvP is something I like, conquerable areas, RvR, and somewhat avoidable. Naval combat is more tactical than most MMO’s, you have to deal with the wind (which can be a huge benefit or huge setback), ship positioning (you can only fire cannons that are facing and in range of the enemy), and armor (you have four types of armor on the ship, corresponding with the sides ((port, starboard, stern, structure–center, ect)) as well as sail strength ((no sails, no moving)) and crew ((no crew means you have less reinforcement if you board or are boarded)). Having different health types creates different strategies for attack and different roles for ships in groups (which can only get to the size of 6, some disappointment with that–this game could benefit from larger battles outside of port contention). The crafting consists of 10 plots per server, each support one building and buildings require different resources depending on their function. The overall system is fairly standard, you have basic resource gathering, then refining, then manufacture – all of which is done through different buildings. The limit on plots means players have to choose wisely what they want to do in crafting, or join up in the societies (guilds) and work with others (which is a smart idea, anyway–this is an MMO). The rest of the game is pretty standard, quest grinds, leveling, crafting, etc. (there are some really interesting quests, however–even if they are pretty simple the naval combat can often make them far more exciting).
The game itself is a step towards some change in MMO’s I think, by no means perfect it is trying different things.
