POTCO's failures compared to other games

[ruisen2000]

There are some areas in POTCO that I find not as fun, compared to larger games.
I won't talk about the bugs, lag, etc in the game. Every game has that, and some even worse than POTCO. Leo has done an excellent job of stating POTCO's issues, and there is no need for me to restate it here.

Quest Storyline:
POTCO quest's storyline is ok, not very good, but not terrible either. However, there are not a lot of quests. Only one very long quest chain(BP), and another relatively long one (RC).

I have not seen a game with superb questlines yet, even WoW's questline, up the the point that I've tried, is just ok. However, what they lack in quality, they make up with quantity. Both these 2 games I've tried have HUGE amounts of quests.

I believe this keeps players playing for a lot longer, and avoids using the method of making players grind enemies to slowly level, which is VERY boring, and makes players annoyed.



Boss Animations:


Bosses don't need to have complicated stratagies to be fun. They just need cool fighting animations. In POTCO, boss fights are very plain. Darkhart just swings his sword at you, nothing interesting to look at. Boss fights in POTCO are just.. boring.

For example, darkhart could use the animation from thrust (not sure if you can see if on lower graphics settings, but when you use thrust, there's some kind of animation of wind being cutted aside, kinda like a whirlpool of wind), make it shadow coloured, and use it to deal continuous damage to all the players in front of him. He could also have dark mists around him which would again, deal continuouis damage to players. it doesn't need to be powerful, it just needs to look interesting.

In other games, boss fights are on the most exciting things you can do in a game, and gives the player a break from questing. There are flames, explosions, shadowy mists, strange auras, etc. They sometimes require to pay attention and avoid things, or kill others things that spawn during the fight, instead of just clicking on your mouse repeatedly and falling asleep on your chair.

Also, I think a cool looking boss makes the fight more interesting, and makes the player want to participate. In POTCO, bosses are plain, They're just large sizes of normal enemies we see everyday. Come on POTCO.


Boss area Background:

A cool background to look at in a boss area also makes the fight more interesting.
They should be designed to make the player think : "whoa!" NOT "oh..."
I don't have a picture of where bosses are, such as devil root, darkhart, or our voodoo friend Mr. timmy. But many of us have fought them before, and I'm sure have a good idea of what that area look like.

These 2 boss are also in a volcanic area like Darkhart and Tim, but their background, as well as entrace to the boss look more exciting then the one at Darkhart and Timmy:
AV.jpg
HOS .jpg
HODl.jpg

I think it would be interesting to see areas that are not as plain and simple as a few houses and trees, it doesn't need to be a major shrine, but just something more.. interesting.
Loot:


POTCO made famed and legendary weapons drop less in an attempt to keep players playing longer. But I think this would only drive players away. Patience is limited. They can't expect us to loot the same things for 10 years. After looting for a week at tormenta and finding nothing, I got bored and stopped.

I think famed/legendary loot should be back to normal drop rates, like they were when they first came out. Instead, make new bosses with new drops once in a while. They could be weapons of the same weapon group, but just higher up.
But give the players something to make them want to keep looting, don't make the drop rates horrible and expect people to keep looting.

We have a desire to find new things. This could be exploited for POTCO's use. Take cursed Blades for example. We already had swords, but because they were new, there was a desire to find them (at least for me).

While I'm not asking POTCO to release hundreds of islands and thousands of updates overnight, I think some aspects of the game could be modified to be more exciting, while leaving the rest simple.

[Mia Lightning]

Don't get me wrong, but why complain? If you are disappointed why play it?

Personally I really love the game, even if it has flaws, and prefer to spread the positive energy around. But maybe that's just me.....

[Cannonfury]

I agree 100% with the above posts! ^^^^

[lerzba]

Originally Posted by Ice_Storm

@The text in yellow:

Wrong. If Disney wouldn't be so dirt-cheap with choosing a game engine that actually passes business standards, then we would start seeing improvements.

With more subscription money, they'll just continue to hire more dumb workers and keep wages low, it won't ever change unless they:

1) Get rid of Panda 3D and use something updated

2) Release bug fixes every 1-2 weeks, earlier depending on severity.

Panda 3D is poorly documented, lacks performance optimization techniques, and is in the hands of a community college.

Panda 3D does not pass today's business standard 3D developing apps.

As I have stated in the past, Pirates Online is only a mere community project that's made off of a program created in a college.

They will continue to fail for the next 3 years at this rate.

That's true, they really do need to improve the game engine. I did say, PotCo was probably going to die in the next few years if they don't improve game performance and make weekly upgrades.

Every game starts from nothing, and builds up though. RuneScape was just a small little pixel game that 2-3 guys made in there house, and only a few hundred players played it, today it is one of the biggest and most popular games out there with hundreds of millions of players.

Hopefully Disney knows what they are doing, making these threads is really useless. I'm just hoping that PotCo improves, but then again its Disney. So I have to agree with you guys in some things.

[Ice_Storm]

Originally Posted by lerzba

Hopefully Disney knows what they are doing, making these threads is really useless. I'm just hoping that PotCo improves, but then again its Disney. So I have to agree with you guys in some things.

Yeah, it's Disney.

A big corporation loaded with funds that refuses to invest into a good idea.

A big corporation that doesn't pick today's developing software


When it comes to the Disney Interactive Media Group, developing games are their worst area. I mean, we should except them to do tons more.

They are a big corporation with tons of money, are they not?

How can we not expect more from them? Smaller game companies are working with less funds and are still beating POTCO so bad.

It's Disney. They aren't doing enough. They have the money but refuse to spend it right.

[akamystic]

The bottom line is, we truly don't know what is in development, how many people are working on POTC Online or anything behind the curtains. For what Disney charges for the game is less than most other MMO's. Overall I still enjoy the game. Everything has room for improvement, regardless of the game.

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Okay, lemme just say this here. I've read all the posts in this thread, and I say most people have brought up good points. Before I elaborate on my own points, let me bring up a few things:

Ruisen never once stated that he didn't like the game. Just because someone points out an imperfection or something that can be improved, doesn't mean they hate the game. If he didn't like it, he wouldn't be here. The fact that he makes this thread shows truly how dedicated he is to the game and how he wants to improve it. Do not attack him and say he shouldn't play the game, because in my opinion, this just shows how much he truly appreciates and likes it.

To those saying that there shouldn't be threads like this, in that case we may as well not have the entire POF, or any forum. Forums are for discussions about these types of things, and they are most certainly not useless. Sharing ideas is never useless. Forgive me moderators if that was backseat modding. If it was, you can edit it out.

Now onto my own points. About the quests that Ruisen brought up. I would like to see some more quests. In most games you can find lot's of side quests that can be repeated over and over at different difficulty levels. Another Story Chapter would be nice, but if they gave a huge amount of other quests that offered very good rep and fun, then I would be satisfied with that. Perhaps even add some quests that have treasure maps or even things like dungeons (Not a very piratey term, but I think you should know what I mean by that). About the bosses: These would be some nice additions to add. Obviously they should not be the top priority of POTCO, but they would be a nice little side update. I am quite neutral about the loot drop rates.

Lerzba, you posted this list of updates you found when you came back from a break of POTCO. In bold I have updates that I personally feel would be keep someone who is thinking of quitting the game to stay. Ones that are in italics are things that would be just a little bit longer.

1# Invasions
2# New clothes monthly
3# New ships to fight
4# More cargo-hold
5# Become scoundrel of the sea
4# Looting - loot for weapons,clothes and other items.
5# Potions (what a lot of other games have), helps you level and have fun.
6# A lot of fixed bugs.
7# Ranks for SvS/PvP
8# Fishing
9# New redeem code items.
10# New quests It would be in Bold, but because not a huge amount were released, they could all be done in less than two weeks.
11# New bosses (foulberto is my favorite one)
12# New island (Ravens Cove)
13# They changed the look of some places such as Tormenta
14# New mini games (such as cannon defense which I love to play)

Sure, perhaps there are quite a few ones that would keep people in game for a little bit, but very few that provide long term enjoyment. Fishing I found fun for the first two weeks. I really haven't touched it; however, since I mastered it on my second pirate. While these would be great for a returning member, they are really not enough to keep a player thinking of quitting from quitting. I'm not arguing what POTCO should do about this, nor my personal opinion on how they are dealing with it/what they will do, but I just want to point those out.

If PotCo had more players, with more paying members, updates would happen more often and Disney would hire more employees.

Think about this for a moment... how can POTCO get more players, get more people playing, and make updates more frequent? I'm sure there are other options, but the most logical option IMO would be for Disney to actually put the employees and money in first. That way POTCO could do those things. It sort of works in a circle, but there needs to be a starting point and POTCO can't magically make more people pay and release awesome updates without a good boost.

To those talking about Panda 3D... yeah, it's crummy. They need to stop using ancient game engines that probably will be too old to work on computers in 3 years and step up to a better one. Once they do this, I'm sure that graphics will improve, as well as performance. It is the first step in the correct direction.

I'm not really taking sides in this post, just pointing out different points. I personally agree almost completely with Ruisen. This game has a lot of room for improvement, but if you try to say I don't like the game, or anyone else who gives suggestions like these, then you really are wrong. If I didn't like this game, I wouldn't play it. I play it because I like it, but I know there are flaws to it, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with pointing out these flaws, and it does not mean at all that I don't like this game.

[Catherine Ironcutter]

Originally Posted by Tiberius Fireskull

To those talking about Panda 3D... yeah, it's crummy. They need to stop using ancient game engines that probably will be too old to work on computers in 3 years and step up to a better one. Once they do this, I'm sure that graphics will improve, as well as performance. It is the first step in the correct direction.

Panda 3D does an okay job. I think the graphics in Pirates are okay, though they could use some improvement, especially after seeing the graphics in LOTRO. However, if it had better graphics, would it still be the classic Pirates we know? Probably not, but that's just my opinion.

I agree there's some room for improvement in Pirates, and adding the Brigs is a good step forward. Especially with ship customization, I think Pirates will become a little more entertaining when they work the bugs out, though I find Pirates quite fun as it is.

[Ice_Storm]

Originally Posted by Catherine Ironcutter

Panda 3D does an okay job. I think the graphics in Pirates are okay, though they could use some improvement, especially after seeing the graphics in LOTRO. However, if it had better graphics, would it still be the classic Pirates we know? Probably not, but that's just my opinion.

I agree there's some room for improvement in Pirates, and adding the Brigs is a good step forward. Especially with ship customization, I think Pirates will become a little more entertaining when they work the bugs out, though I find Pirates quite fun as it is.

Yeah. That's all it'll ever do. An "okay" job.

The combat system in this game is what brought me to enjoy playing pirates online.

Like, how the game doesn't do all your skill actions for you like other big MMOs do, such as WoW or LOTR. Really makes it boring that way... in my opinion anyways.

That and PvP mode. When you combine good combat system with PvP, you get a win.

The problem with PvP is people exploit like there's no tomorrow.

1) Fast switch

2) Grenade with sword damage glitch

3) PvP Glitch

4) Wall glitch

I wouldn't be here if Pirates didn't have PvP. The game wouldn't live as long without it. Plus, you'd see people fighting "basic" like. Nah, that makes the game further boring.

PvP is broken, content is lacking, and bug fixes are taking longer than 2 months to develop.

Obviously, the game has been getting worse with every update. I can never enjoy the real "Pirates Online" experience that made me go unlimited for 07-early 09.

Hey, at least I said something positive about the game this time

But, can't relive it anymore :/

[Captain Del]

The main problem with the points you brought up are:

1. POTCO is a pirate game caught in the middle between reality and fantasy. It really doesn't have much it can do in terms of creating these big, dramatic areas or these huge, extravagant bosses without going pretty far off kilter, because in the Pirates of the Caribbean Universe there are still substantial amounts of realistic elements that would prevent it from going all-out.
2. POTCO has barely any money compared to World of Warcraft or Runescape. It isn't as big of a commercialized game, and thusly it doesn't really have any major funds it can dip in to to get weekly bug fixes done while at the same time working on new content.

Either way there will always be bigger and better ways to do things. The dev team just needs to find that magic touch.

[lerzba]

It's not really that great graphics, though. I play on max graphics and I think they are bad, but they should work on improving them later.

The game is really all glitchy and stuff, I fell in a Ravens Cove glitch just while walking to Foulberto yestersday.

Adding new ships and new ship features is good too, but I think they should get a better game engine before improving the game.

[Ice_Storm]

Originally Posted by lerzba

It's not really that great graphics, though. I play on max graphics and I think they are bad, but they should work on improving them later.

The game is really all glitchy and stuff, I fell in a Ravens Cove glitch just while walking to Foulberto yestersday.

Adding new ships and new ship features is good too, but I think they should get a better game engine before improving the game.

If you play on max graphics, ALL computers in the world, no matter how fast they are, will lag while playing this game.

Max settings are broken 100%. Textures are rendered wrong, which causes sudden freezes with packet direct and redirect paths when download other player pirates.


Shadows are all over the place, not stable, creating further lag.

I could go on more with this, because disney needs to stop being a pawn-shop and start behaving big like EA, Nintendo, etc, big companies, because they have $$$.

They refuse to spend it right. Use a real game engine please, disney! :/

[combatlizzy]

To reiterate on something that I had posted b4-Disney is an enormous corporation, but POTCO is just a small part of the Disney world completely self-financed. So, paying accounts keep it afloat so to speak. At $10/month what else can you do for 24/7 & have the great interaction of community that POTCO has? Other games ARE more advanced. It all depends on what one is looking for in the virtual world. This is not a diss of any post here-just my thoughts after reading the former. Pirate on, mates....

[Ice_Storm]

Originally Posted by combatlizzy

To reiterate on something that I had posted b4-Disney is an enormous corporation, but POTCO is just a small part of the Disney world completely self-financed. So, paying accounts keep it afloat so to speak. At $10/month what else can you do for 24/7 & have the great interaction of community that POTCO has? Other games ARE more advanced. It all depends on what one is looking for in the virtual world. This is not a diss of any post here-just my thoughts after reading the former. Pirate on, mates....

So long as PvP gets fixed, doesn't break anymore and it stays on POTCO, I will 'pirate on'!

[Captain Jorden]

Almost everyone who has played computer games knows the game runescape, a large successful game company that started with little money. Now look at them, they don't need money but to pay everyone in bussinness, they need the money.

Also look at Wizard101, that game started with a few people, i think it was a family, but its successful(its even a childrens game!), then look at poor pirates, toontown, club...

ToonTown and club Peignun is more successful then pirates, I'm not saying I don't like pirates either, I like to sail ships and sink navy ships. So stop acting like you got nothing to do on pirates, other then to stand on tortuga abassa and say "I hate this game..."

If you don't like the game then go to other games, just don't be rude to other people(especially low lvs) cause then its gonna pass from this generation of pirates and go on forever. Now to me I was never runescape fan but Everyone can live without a social game.