Anyone in the Pirates Of The Burning Sea beta?

humanji

I was just wondering if anyone has tried this out and if it's any good? I'm not planning to subscribe to the game, but thought I may as well try it out while it's free.

Ivan

Got invited to the beta 3 days ago, completely forgot about it until I saw this thread. Going to download it now but it has a few warnings that the game files are 4.5gb which is just plain ugh

That and I didnt realise SOE was involved. What the hell though, I'll give it a go and see if its any good or not...

humanji

Well, the download file I'm currently downloading is 5.06, so count yourself lucky

I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. It's probably muck, but I quite liked the Sid Meier Pirate games, so hopefully this will be like it.

BlitzKrieg

I am currently in the beta


cant help but feel a bit disapointed. Its trying to strike a balance between EVE and WOW, problem is it is lacking alot of charm and polish that WOW has and it hasnt yet shown any of the scale that EVE has.

Currently playing as a Spanish Priveteer (Pirates faction is pretty much overflowing in the EU server.)

Quickest way to download it I found was via a torrent, had it done in one day that way.

The combat is fine I guess, but alot of minor elements are missing that cause gripes (the UI is really annoying the layout is not very friendly)

gonna keep at it though and see if it improves.


Also the on foot combat feels a little samy regardless of your fighting style.

Really this game needs to get its social aspect side improved or else it wont keep much interest.


When you do sign up, I am Ezekial Krieg on the EU server for the spanish nation.

Ivan

Just spent the last 8 hours or so playing it. Pretty damned good in my book, but then I tend to think so for every game I play. At least for the first few days. I'm not sure how much staying power it has but I definitely think it has copied alot of elements from City of Heroes, WoW and EvE which work surprisingly well together despite first appearances.

I really like the Naval combat. Its deceptively simple in that it adds alot of the strategic elements that you dont really find in EvE. I.e. angle of attack, faster turning speeds to stay out of lines of fire and forcing your opponent into the wind to immediately "stall" them giving a clear shot is nothing short of satisfying.

EvE produces alot of these aspects but they are alot less manual than PotBS (what a great abbreviation btw )

I'm not sure how I feel about the almost entirely instanced gameplay but then alot of the issues I had with CoH in that respect, are resolved by the simple addition of a faction wide chat channel.

So rarely has a game had me enjoying the PvE side of it for as long as I have. Most current MMORPGS, I am bored after a few hours not wanting to bother with all the grinding in order to be able to try out the meatier stuff, but this game has managed to do so. I can see alot of the joy of taking on more ships than you should be able to in your ship/loadout, simply because you are that good, lasting me a long time.

With the warfare/PvP system they have in place/planned I think I could grow to love it even more.

I do find the 1st person combat rather tedious though, dont get me wrong I think it is a bloody ingenious system to, if nothing else, remove one of the longstanding issues with RPG combat games. And that is, one shot to the head should kill you or one slice or stab of a sword should take you out of the fight if not outright kill you.

In PotBS you have a balance value, which slowly (or quickly depending on your skills) replenishs over time. As you take damage, generally you will dodge and lose some of your balance value. Once this gets low(er - I havent really figured out how the combat system works exactly) you become much easier to hit. Similarly instead of mana you use initiative to carry out special moves. This is akin to rage for warriors in WoW in that you gain it as you use certain moves.

My only problem with all of this is that it can take quite a long time to kill something without the right abilities or tactical button mashing. Obviously though, this is to make PvP alot more enjoyable by ensuring there are very limited amounts of "one-shots".

My major issues are with the UI too. The auction house system is very basic considering WoW's current mighty AH UI. The ability to search by level/skill requirements would go a long way, with the ability to have more than one category option would go a long way too.

All in all, I think I am thoroughly engrossed at least for the time being.

I'm a level 9 British Naval Officer on one of the US realms, of the name, Neeka Naraic. Though I imagine I'll probably move to the European one of anyone else is playing there or there is any kind of guild going?

humanji

I finally got this up and running last night and have to say that it's pretty damn good. It's more like Age Of Pirates that Sid Meier's Pirates, although AOP is based on Sid Meier's game, but POTBS has more 3d walking around bits.

I'm only starting off really, level 5 English freetrader on the EU server. I love the character creation system. There's so much to choose from, appearance wise, and in-game, you can find a tailor to change your appearance (and get new clothes along the way). I kind of like that idea since if you ever create your own guild, you can have matching uniforms (how sad am I?).

The melee combat is fairly standard stuff, but it's not too bad. I find that when you attack a fort or board a ship, that the combat is just too easy. The ship combat, on the other hand, is brilliant. It's a little easy at times, and then at others you can find yourself out numbered and out manuevered (and that's when I run away). And the fact that you can get all sorts of custom add ons for your ship(s), makes it a lot more tactical, as opposed to just buying generic upgrade A and then genereic upgrad B when you reach a certain level and have enough gold.

I kind of like the fact that the missions are instanced, since my biggest gripe with MMORPG's is waiting in line to kill a named NPC, only to have some git run in and attack it before you can.

Anyways, I'm really enjoying this and it's actually made me have second thoughts about returning to Lord Of The Rings over Christmas. I may even get this when it's released.

Kiith

Well, i'm downloading this tonight, and will be trying it tomorrow after work. Hoping it will be good. Is there different servers, or is it just US and EU at the moment?

Ivan

There are 2 US and 1 EU servers atm. Its definitely worth a go as it is quite enjoyable. I've found it pretty hard to get into though, since its still the beta and I'd rather not tire of the game before I can properly get into it That and I have a million other games that all demand my attention

Kiith

Well, i'll install it as soon as i get home. Spent most of the day reading up about it (i'm really busy in work ). Whats the combat like? Specifically the pvp. Is it easy to board an enemy ship?

Ivan

Well, I havent really pvp'd at all, as like I said, I'm trying to limit how much I play the game... but grappling/boarding npcs is stupidly easy. Though they do make very basic mistakes so I can only assume it would be tricky enough.

Kiith

Started playing there, and it seems pretty good. I've had a few weird things happen (i.e. graphical glitches and stuff) but i like it. I'll play it a bit more over the weekend.

But i ****ing hate Sony and their god damn Sony Centre that has to load every fukcing time i play the game. Why the **** does it have to analyse every god damn file, every time it starts?

smithy1981

The client finished downloading for me last night. I went to bed while it was patching, thinking that all would be done when i got up today. Not a chance... The ETA is now about 14 hours. How bloody big is the client when fully patched???

Ivan

It downloads a ~110Mb file, which installs launchpad with some of the basic files for Pirates. Then you run launchpad which starts to download the rest of the pirates of the Burning Sea files. This should be in the region of 4.5Gb so expect it to take a while

I got somewhat bored with it all and figured I'd try Bittorrent to download it. After some extensive weaseling about I finally found the installer I was looking for but it was going to take roughly 23 hours to finish downloading it all. Despite the fact that the Launchpad said it would have it down in roughly 14 hours (which it actually ended up downloading it faster than). So I reckon stick with launchpad as it seems to max out your connection, but all the same, with the game going live in a week or two, it is essentially a full game you are downloading so expect it to take a while

Ivan

Servers go live in approximately 9 hours, 34 minutes and 10 seconds. Cant wait