Disney doing a good job?

[Davil]

Do you think Disney is doing a good job of running PotCO?

[Maximvs]

Though I believe POTCO has several issues which are in need of attention (such as SvS, PvP and some bugs which annoy the heck out of us ) - in the last 6 months they have put out a lot more material than they did in the first 6 - and - they have been somewhat quicker in responding to bug issues...

5 Months ago - I would of said no and gave a 3/10 - now I have to say yes and give a 6.5/10 - they have a way to go (NEW Storyline would be nice... *hint* - it would of gotten an 7.5/10 if there was a NEW storyline - and new Noriety Level would of gotten them an 8) but are more ahead than they were

Finally - I would ask everyone posting to be constructive with their posts... this thread will be monitored closely

[Dr. Zeppers]

Absolutely.

The only criticisms people seem to have are:

1. Lack of content (they are obviously working on this)
2. Inconsistency in moderation/review (Name/Guildname approvals, and application of disciplinary actions)

The first is obviously being worked on. The decision to put POTCO out there early before having developed more content has been an issue. Concerns over competing MMORGs apparently prompted this, however looking at them.. POTCO is in a category by itself when compared. I've played a few of the others, some love them, some hate them. When the games were published has little to do with what games people select to play. Irregardless, big D is working on it, and appears to be listening to us. The confusing part is that they listen to what we complain about, listen to our suggestions to solve it, and then do something entirely different. But with time... even this process may smooth out.

Inconsistency... well this shows there are humans behind the game. This is a fact of life. Overall although a frustration to some, I dont think this is any major issue. Safest pirate game on the net for your kids to play.... guaranteed.


Yes I think they are doing a great job under the circumstance. Keep up the good work Big D.

[Andrew]

I would agree with Max. Even with all the problems the game may have, I still think they are doing their best at this game

[Aliese]

Well, I'm going with "No", for several reasons:

The huge inconsistency in the bug and glitch fixes - they took out seemingly innocent (and very fun) glitches and not only left many annoying bugs, but they added more (several times yesterday I got no rep from enemies killed, my doll lost attunement randomly [yes, randomly, I'm aware of the moves that cause you to lose it - this wasn't that], enemies attacked from halfway across the map, I was hit by every enemy I ran past [yeah, apparently their reaction speed is now supersonic], when I was doing the poke n' run enemies would magically "sprint" up behind me and attack, enemy ships would fire and then spin, immediately firing from the other side...).

Changes like the one made to hex eater appeared to have been made to merely slow everyone down in leveling. That's lame.

Actual additions have been minimal. The "Bosses" are sad - all they did was scale up existing models and give them new names. The weapon quests keep you busy for a few days at most, and really only because of the ones that want all that lore from ships like Marauders that don't spawn reliably.

Many of the most common requests have been ignored - upping the notoriety cap, money cap, weapon level caps, bigger closets, etc, etc. All of those should just be simple changes in code. Requests like more real quests, more islands (with actual stuff to do on them), new enemies, etc, would require actual work, and D doesn't seem interested enough to do it.

[Maximvs]

Originally Posted by Aliese

Many of the most common requests have been ignored - upping the notoriety cap, money cap, weapon level caps, bigger closets, etc, etc. All of those should just be simple changes in code. Requests like more real quests, more islands (with actual stuff to do on them), new enemies, etc, would require actual work, and D doesn't seem interested enough to do it.

This is why I score them a 6.5... they do tend to be giving out more - but these areas should be addressed by now or in very short order.

they took out seemingly innocent (and very fun) glitches and not only left many annoying bugs

Before I comment on this one - I agree that many of these were fun I'm also gonna leave Hex out of it for a sec and just go with everything else...

Its funny that the things broken that we enjoyed we call 'glitches' and the things we don't like 'bugs'... but in reality - they are all broken, and need to be fixed. True, its too bad they seem focused on the fixing on the 'harmless' breaks (or what we see has harmless as we have no true idea on what the code is doing to the stability of POTCO) and not addressing the more 'harmful' breaks...

But in the end - its all broken and would need to be fixed. Pirates were never -really- supposed to fly off ships (I think they would call that witchcraft back then LOL ). I know this was a favorite of yours (just a Hex was a favorite of mine - coming up) - but I think its focus was to stop SvS issues - and not directly against us It is a broken issue - it got fixed, lets hope they continue to work on the other issues you've listed.

Now for my Hex...

Changes like the one made to hex eater appeared to have been made to merely slow everyone down in leveling. That's lame.

I'm probably the BIGGEST poster here on Hex (if not the biggest - then the most whiny haha! ). I've posted more than once that then fixing Hex was wrong... I've sent in several detailed reports asking them not to fix it... I've logged more than a couple of Blogs of it Here in my profile... but - there is more to it...

I knew Hex was broken. I knew it would have to be fixed one day. Having creatures totally useless allowing me to just beat away at them I knew was not going to last forever. I wouldn't like it if the NPC's could hex me and I could never fight back and just die...

My messages to them were not to fix Hex - UNTIL they had a viable working bullet that allowed an enemy to be 'stunned' for a period of time and if they did revive - allow me to Hex them again.

Though they have done it backwards (took it away before putting in the real method)... on test now the Hex shot is doing just that (abit - its too short at 10 seconds and need to be increased - but it works - we can always push for more now that the code is right)

Changes never come fast enough when we want them - but I have to think change does come (and sometimes we don't want change - but it arrives anyway Thats why since Hex has been changed I've been working on new methods of obtaining my goals - the change (as with many others) have made me try different methods to accomplish the goal

Now - if they just increase it to 20 seconds...

Originally Posted by Zep

1. Lack of content (they are obviously working on this)
2. Inconsistency in moderation/review (Name/Guildname approvals, and application of disciplinary actions)

As you said in another thread - amen to that brother "Build it and they will come - to play "

[Sven Niscadae]

Originally Posted by Aliese

Many of the most common requests have been ignored - upping the notoriety cap, money cap, weapon level caps, bigger closets, etc, etc. All of those should just be simple changes in code.

I'm going to chime in on the money cap of 65k from a programming aspect. 65k is a magic number in programming. It seems to me that Disney used an integer data type to define "gold". An integer's upper limit is 65k (actually 65,535). Why did they pick an integer data type is probably because the most expensive thing you can buy in the game is the War Frigate for 60,000 gold.

So why not make the upper limit higher? The next integral data type available is a long integer that has an upper limit of about 4 million (4,294,967,295). Sure you could set the cap somewhere within that variable but there would be some wasted memory. Even if you don't use the maximum, an application reserves the maximum memory the data type allows for the variable (e.g. int = 32 bits, longint = 64 bits). It's a best practice to use the smallest data type per your application's needs.

Even if they decided one day to change the data type of "gold" to a long integer, they would have to go through the code, find every routine that uses "gold", and verify there will not be any sorts of conflicts between the different data types. I don't know how their code is structured but I'm sure the very idea would make them cringe at least just a little bit.

I can understand why they made the gold limit. I can understand some pirates are a bit miffed at gold falling to the bottom of the ocean because they've reached the cap. But even if you had the gold, what are you going to do with it?

Okay. I'm done with my programming theory lesson today.

[Your Gladiator]

i agree with max i give it a 6.5/10

[davy redflint]

need more content for higher lvl pirates....uncap gold and raise noterityand story line quest....one more let u hav more than 4 pirates w out payin more... but over all it ok ... so yes by me or i wouldnt be playin still.

[Aliese]

Originally Posted by Maximvs

This is why I score them a 6.5... they do tend to be giving out more - but these areas should be addressed by now or in very short order.



Before I comment on this one - I agree that many of these were fun I'm also gonna leave Hex out of it for a sec and just go with everything else...

Its funny that the things broken that we enjoyed we call 'glitches' and the things we don't like 'bugs'... but in reality - they are all broken, and need to be fixed. True, its too bad they seem focused on the fixing on the 'harmless' breaks (or what we see has harmless as we have no true idea on what the code is doing to the stability of POTCO) and not addressing the more 'harmful' breaks...

But in the end - its all broken and would need to be fixed. Pirates were never -really- supposed to fly off ships (I think they would call that witchcraft back then LOL ). I know this was a favorite of yours (just a Hex was a favorite of mine - coming up) - but I think its focus was to stop SvS issues - and not directly against us It is a broken issue - it got fixed, lets hope they continue to work on the other issues you've listed.

Okay, I admit - I'm greedy. I don't care if something was intentional or not - if it's fun, don't take it out. Work on it and make it a legit feature, but don't take it out. The flying glitch was a massive happy accident IMO, and considering the TPing (come on, pirates go swirling up into the sky! LoL) and Voodoo usage, they could have explained it and made it work. Have it be a special skill that's unlocked with a quest...something. Just let me fly.

Now for my Hex...

I'm probably the BIGGEST poster here on Hex (if not the biggest - then the most whiny haha! ). I've posted more than once that then fixing Hex was wrong... I've sent in several detailed reports asking them not to fix it... I've logged more than a couple of Blogs of it Here in my profile... but - there is more to it...

I knew Hex was broken. I knew it would have to be fixed one day. Having creatures totally useless allowing me to just beat away at them I knew was not going to last forever. I wouldn't like it if the NPC's could hex me and I could never fight back and just die...

My messages to them were not to fix Hex - UNTIL they had a viable working bullet that allowed an enemy to be 'stunned' for a period of time and if they did revive - allow me to Hex them again.

Though they have done it backwards (took it away before putting in the real method)... on test now the Hex shot is doing just that (abit - its too short at 10 seconds and need to be increased - but it works - we can always push for more now that the code is right)

Changes never come fast enough when we want them - but I have to think change does come (and sometimes we don't want change - but it arrives anyway Thats why since Hex has been changed I've been working on new methods of obtaining my goals - the change (as with many others) have made me try different methods to accomplish the goal

Now - if they just increase it to 20 seconds...

Well, I have the same attitude about hex eater as the "fun" glitches, because I loved it the way it was. The problem was with how they described it - instead of just draining Voodoo, it should have said drained and disabled (period). Yeah, it's unfair and unrealistic and all that, but it's a Disney game. It was easy, and I liked it that way.

It sounds like they're going in the right direction now, but really - how are nades going to work with even 20 seconds? I'll be spending all my time re-disabling each one in the group...

Originally Posted by Sven Niscadae

I'm going to chime in on the money cap of 65k from a programming aspect. 65k is a magic number in programming. It seems to me that Disney used an integer data type to define "gold". An integer's upper limit is 65k (actually 65,535). Why did they pick an integer data type is probably because the most expensive thing you can buy in the game is the War Frigate for 60,000 gold.

So why not make the upper limit higher? The next integral data type available is a long integer that has an upper limit of about 4 million (4,294,967,295). Sure you could set the cap somewhere within that variable but there would be some wasted memory. Even if you don't use the maximum, an application reserves the maximum memory the data type allows for the variable (e.g. int = 32 bits, longint = 64 bits). It's a best practice to use the smallest data type per your application's needs.

Even if they decided one day to change the data type of "gold" to a long integer, they would have to go through the code, find every routine that uses "gold", and verify there will not be any sorts of conflicts between the different data types. I don't know how their code is structured but I'm sure the very idea would make them cringe at least just a little bit.

I can understand why they made the gold limit. I can understand some pirates are a bit miffed at gold falling to the bottom of the ocean because they've reached the cap. But even if you had the gold, what are you going to do with it?

Okay. I'm done with my programming theory lesson today.

Ah, now it makes more sense! However, they could maybe add money "pouches" without changing the data type, right?

[Bartholomew Foulsteel]

I wouold say, based on the fact that I'm still playing, others are still playing, and that the membership seems to be growing that they are doing a good job.

I do believe they have MUCH room for improvement. But, I would say "GOOD" is an acccurate description of their job.

[Chris]

Im sorry but im gonna have to say no they arent doing a good job for alot of reasons and i know they can do better.

[anndreeuhh]

I agree with Chris. It's a great game but they could do better.

[League]

Uhhh... iunno.

[Maximvs]

Originally Posted by Aliese

Okay, I admit - I'm greedy.

LOL Well with the fun ones - I think we are all a bit greedy

I don't care if something was intentional or not - if it's fun, don't take it out. Work on it and make it a legit feature, but don't take it out. The flying glitch was a massive happy accident IMO, and considering the TPing (come on, pirates go swirling up into the sky! LoL) and Voodoo usage, they could have explained it and made it work. Have it be a special skill that's unlocked with a quest...something. Just let me fly.

I don't think General Flying was the issue - which is why it got ignored so long. It wasn't until it got used in SvS to kill other pirates on boats that they had to address it... we're just victims of it.

Maybe oneday they could allow code to be inserted which allows flying from normal ships and not SvS - but I doubt it. I have to say that your Flying - and my Hex - are gone... RIP

It sounds like they're going in the right direction now, but really - how are nades going to work with even 20 seconds? I'll be spending all my time re-disabling each one in the group...

Well, getting it to work is first Yes - I find that 20 seconds will be too short for gernades (my other pet peeve) - but at least if they have the code in we can all pressure them for longer times

Originally Posted by Bart

I would say, based on the fact that I'm still playing, others are still playing, and that the membership seems to be growing that they are doing a good job.

I do believe they have MUCH room for improvement. But, I would say "GOOD" is an acccurate description of their job.

That really is the $65,000 question isn't it... we're still playing - so it may not be up to par... but it can't be 'bad' (maybe the Poll should of been a scale of 1 to 5 )