List of Suggestions
 

I've decided to compile a bunch of suggestions I had for the game into one thread (yeah, I've been procrastinating). I'm not going to include bug fixes, as I think we all know we want those fixed, so for the most part, I'd rather we avoid talking about bugs in this thread. Instead, I'm going to be going into some suggestions for the game. Some relate to content, others more to aspects of the game itself (Like chat).


Like chat. I suppose I'll start out with that. Alright, the chat on POTCO quite frankly is extremely irritating. Simple phrases that are completely innocent get filtered without us knowing, and yet take one trip to Abassa and in a half hour you're bound to see people screaming curse words at each other that avoid filters by taking out a single letter. Next, we have SpeedChat and SpeedChat Plus users. It really is impossible for anyone to play with JUST SpeedChat (there are players that are restricted to only that. They can only use phrases from the pre-written list and do not see messages that are not from that) and actually survive in the game. For those of you that have encountered someone with SpeedChat, then you may know that if they are someone who follows you around, it is almost impossible to tell them to leave, or anything else. As for SpeedChat Plus... let me just ask, what purpose does it serve? I'll ignore the number filters (I'll get to those later), but why should they be restricted on chat more than someone who is 13+? Is it for their safety? Because I really don't see how having some random dictionary will keep someone younger safer. Most SC+ players I have met find it rather annoying. Instead of making all these nuisances and limitations and pretending it makes the game a better place (which it does not), POTCO should just clamp down on the reporting system (I'll try to get to that later as well) so that people who are trying to bring harm to others will be brought to justice. Now for number filters, these should be taken out. It is almost impossible to play the game without saying numbers, so it really is doing nothing but harming the game. And people find ways around it anyway (won, to, tree, for, ive, sticks, sven, ate, nina, tin) so it is quite pointless. Numbers should be allowed to be said. It is my opinion that chat limitations serve little purpose, and the cons of them really outweigh much of the good.

Now for filters... go on and play for a day and you're bound to encounter them. You're talking, and you enter a phrase but receive no response to it. You later find out that your chat was never even sent through. When your chat is filtered, you don't even get so much as a message saying "Your message did not go through because it contained the word(s) _____." This is extremely annoying when you are trying to have a conversation with someone, and when I have tried to mention this to POTCO, they have pointed me in the direction of the Dictionary Suggestions, even when I clearly state it is not a Dictionary problem, but a problem they have put in. It would benefit the game if either (a) All filters were removed except for messages containing curse/legitimately inappropriate words or (b) Give us a message when our message gets filtered so we can at least reword our innocent statement.


Most of us have all reported someone. For a while, to my knowledge, moderators would actually take action against misbehaving players. Should someone be reported, a moderator would actually look at the chat and give a ban if necessary. I have reported various people more recently now, and I am certain this is not the case anymore. I reported someone once for a very legitimate reason (calling me some nasty names, acting EXTREMELY rude towards me) and yet I still saw him the next day. The possible reasons I can think of are the following: The report system is bugged and reports never go through; the report system doesn't actually send in reports, and is merely a more fancy ignore button; or moderators don't actually read any reports. If POTCO wants to run a great online game, then they need several things: Great content, an almost or completely bug free game, and a good community. Unfortunately a good community can not exist if they do not take action against players who are being nasty to others. If they truly care about the players' well being, they would rid the game of those that bring harm to others. When a person is breaking the POTCO Rules and harassing others, they deserve punishment. The report system has to be fixed in order for this to occur. POTCO needs to understand that this is probably more important than anything, even adding content. A bad community will drive any new player away.

Also, they should allow us to type a description of the event, because "Rude or Mean Behavior" is way too vague. They can make a note that says something like "Please keep descriptions clean, accurate, and do not use excessive capitals, punctuation, or otherwise make the description unnecessarily hostile." so that we don't get players saying things like "THIS PERSON WAS REAL LYMEAN AND U SHUD BAN HIM!!1!!11!!". This would allow POTCO moderators to get a better idea of what they should be looking for. They should also add several categories to the report system such as Exploiting Harmful Glitches (Gold Glitch, Speeding, etc.) and something that would be able to relate to players coming into your area and blundering everything out with a blunderbuss. POTCO should be able to view these if they look at the person being reported's game log, but I am not 100% sure.


There should be a lot more guild related features. There is such little that you can do with guilds right now, and the ranks inside them are extremely limited. Some things I believe they should add:

Some more ranks for one. Member, Veteran, Officer, Guildmaster is a bit too few. Many guilds incorporate a system that includes several other ranks, but it would be nice for POTCO to make those official ranks. Some ranks to add would be Recruit, Senior Officer, Co-Guildmaster/First Mate, Officer in Training, and perhaps a few more that you could all suggest.

There should also be a guild notice board that would include several things. The first would be a Message of the Day that only the Guildmaster and higher officer ranks (assuming they were added) could edit. This message would just be a message that would be put in place (i.e. Kingshead Raid today at 7PM EST! Make sure to be there!) There should also be a spot for players to review the guild's rules that have been put in place that only the Guildmaster can edit. It would be a good place for a person to go if they were unclear on the rules. Perhaps it could also include some statistics that would show up on the leaderboards, such as how many enemies were killed yesterday and all that. there could also be a spot for people to view promotions, demotions, ejections, new arrivals, and departures of their fellow guildmates over the past week. I've heard the idea of a guild bank before, and I think you all know it, but if someone wants to talk about that, go ahead. I don't really want to focus on it though.


We need lots more quests. I actually wouldn't mind too much if they didn't release the second chapter for a while, but I would like a lot more quests that would be about from the length of a weapon quest to the length of the Raven's Cove quest. If they added several dozen into the game, then that would keep many players busy for a while. In addition, perhaps they could add quests involving entering things sort of like dungeons, where you need to explore the dungeon (just going to use that term... we'd need a more piratey one though), complete certain tasks, and make it out alive. People should also be able to redo these quests on different difficulties (Easy, Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Extreme) which would make enemies inside the dungeons tougher, as well as tweaking the objectives slightly. Obviously, the amount of rep you get would be based both on your notoriety level and the difficulty you play it on. Being able to replay these quests would definitely keep players interested in the game.

As a last note, I just want to say to some of you: Just because I have criticized the game a bit, does NOT mean that I do not like it. I am merely giving suggestions to the game to make it better, so do not say that I don't like the game, I don't care about it, and that I should not play it if I don't like it and all that. I do like the game, and I do care about it. That is exactly why I spent time typing this thread of my ideas. Because I want the game to improve.

That's all I've got for now. I'd appreciate comments, feedback, suggestions, and building off things I have.

i agree with the first two 100%
the third one they should just let you customize ranks
on the 4th the quests are fine and "dungeons" if they were to be added should have been long ago.

I'm in complete agreement as well. I took a two year break from the game due to Graduate School, and I decided to come back because of how much fun I tend to have here.

However, that being said, there are bugs that need fixing and much of what Tiberius stated is an accurate description of some adjustments/additions that would be nice! Since I'm 'new' again, I still have alot of quests to do - however for those that have been around awhile and have finished them, more would not hurt at all! The Ship Customization looks awesome, despite high costs.

I would also add the possibility of introducing more slash commands. Something like /whisper would be fantastic - the ability to send a whisper to someone without clicking their name or having to go through all that.

And for guilds - ABSOLUTELY! Even a Message of the Day would be a fantastic addtion. Something that guild leaders could post on saying: Hey guys, here's what we're gonna do tonight! or This event is coming up!

Even beyond just guilds, maybe having an in-game posting board for people to say: Hey, anyone interested in Cannon Defense? Go to Kokoros at 7PM EST on the 11th.

The Reporting system and the Quest system:

1) Both should have been added during beta.

2) Dungeons such as "instanced" areas where you can go in with a crew and complete whatever objectives the quest giver told you to do. Examples below.


Ex. Defeat Myraed - the two headed skeleton, in (Level name here).

Or...

Ex. While in (level name here), search for (amount goes here) of (Object/key item/material) and bring them to (Quest giver goes here).


Why can't they add these "instanced" areas where they could place mobs of enemies and new, fun challenges for us to play through? Or maybe throw in a puzzle in the dungeon and challenge us too? Why not?


This should have been added during beta :(

I would like to see it now too.