Pirates of the Burning Sea

[lostinthelab]

Is anyone out there playing Pirates of the Burning Sea (http://www.burningsea.com/page/home)?

I hear that it's pretty cool. I won't be able to pick up a new game (or a new computer) until I finish a major project, but I was hoping that maybe someone was playing and could share their experiences and their suggested computer build.

[Dr. Zeppers]

I read some about that game.
Was told that after your initial 30day membership that comes with the $50/game that it is $15/month to continue. That sorta killed it for me, thats 5 months of potco..

I've heard they have ship customization, etc.. sounded neat.

[Captain Grizzly]

I used to play it a little when we are in between updates for POTCO, just cancelled my subscription last week. Actually picked the game up on sale at Target for half price, but yea the $15 a month is a little much. Made it to level 23 with limited playing time so not that hard a game to work your way up on. Vastly different from POTCO. Yes you can customize your ship but you can't sail with a crew. You can chose which nation you want to play as, British, French, Spanish or Pirate and each nation has different sub-classes, such as for Pirate you can be a cutthroat or buccaneer, the other nations you can be a naval officer, privateer or free trader. Each nation and sub-class has their own skill sets and types of ships they can sail.

The game has a player driven economy (which brings out the gold farmers), you can develop skills to build your own ships, manufacture your own supplies and whatnot. What ever you produce that you don't need you can sell at the auction houses of your nation. You can also trade with other players. I never got involved with the societies (guilds) so I can't comment on the communication aspect in game. Starting a society costs money, 1000 dubloons.

Ship PvE and PvP are fairly well done, more accurate physics wise as in wind direction, weather conditions will affect your ships handling and speed. All sea battles happen in their own arena, no chance for anyone to interfere but you have the option to send up a flare requesting help if you're out numbered. Land PvP is also available but I didn't get involved with that. Land combat is entirely different than POTCO. You have your cutlass and a single shot pistol, thats it. No voodoo dolls, no staffs, no grenades.

If you are looking for a full blown pirate MMO POTBS is a decent game. Graphics are good, the open sea map is huge and accurate to the era and location. Wasn't what I was looking for as I really don't want to become that involved with keeping track of what I have in which warehouse, or if I need to make x number of this to build y number of that.

[Cris Carter]

I ve played it via Buddy Invite.

Well I expected more from it. Ship customisation is well, limited. And so is the overall world.


Let me tell the Pro's and Contra's

Contra

• Your Pirate isnt able to roam the world as it is in Pirates Online.
• Really everything is based on instances, e.g you need to take a quest on an Island or Cave, you are teleported to the instance after taking the quest instead of going by ship.
• Swashbuckling is odd. You need to push numbers instead of hittting a mouse button. Like you use Special Moves on POTCO
• The harbours are nice but limited. The overall area is clipped. You cant jump off a small bridge. You need to take stairs instead of using shortcuts you could jumpoff easily
• No ability to jump either
• Overall game concept is to complicated
• You need to purchase a game CD
• High bills

Pro

• You can visit many Harbours
• The world is huge
• Graphics is stunning
• Sailing is realistic. Need to sail with the wind. Without wind you can barely move
• Nice clothing and much possibilitys to dress up your character
• Choose factions. (Navy, Freetrader, or Pirate)
• Many available Ship Classes

Overall the game is nice but to complicated. Graphics is amazing,, but your Avatar is too limited in my opinion. About the Ships, its really nice to make your ship look unique and give it an own name. Much potential. But all thoose nice features are possible in POTCO too if we are patient and give them some time to work on.

I stick with POTCO

[davy redflint]

purchase it, hav not try it out yet, lot of my first pirates guild went ther. they say it a lot more detail than potc. will update u if i ever load it lol

[Kat Sheffield]

I was able to order my copy online for 30 dollars, a few of us from the guild are going to be checking it out. I'm curious to see if it really does come with the 30 day free pass, but I do know that it comes with 3 15 day free passes to hand out. I'm assuming, although I don't know for sure, that it will be a free download for that free pass period, then you have the option of continuing the game if you'd like and paying for it then.

From everything that I have been reading on this game it sounds amazing. It makes you think, it poses a challenge, and it doesn't treat its players as if they're all ten years old. This is definitely a more adult game as it involves strategy, keeping an eye on the player market, establishing your foothold in the world, etc.

The idea of having some 4000 quests spread out over the four various careers is really appealing to me. And I doubt that it will have us doing something as mundane as fetching pints of grog. I also like the idea of picking sides and declaring allegiance, giving us something to truly fight for. Also, it looks to me as if Burning Sea is a unique experience for everyone who plays it - meaning, the choices that you make with the quests that you take on determine your direction in the game; I've been saying that this really reminds me of those Choose Your Own Adventure books that I used to read when I was younger.

The choice to explore another game outside of Pirates was a really difficult decision for me, especially being GM of my guild. And in a way, I feel a touch of disloyalty in doing so. But for me, Pirates has unfortunately grown dull. I have a fully mastered lvl 40, and now I have my second Pirate who is a lvl 30 - and I just don't think that I can keep grinding away at the levels with no real goal to work for other than to say that I have done it...again. Right now, the only reason that I've been playing Pirates is for my guild, to interact with them, help them, talk with them. But, as I have mentioned to them - this game isn't Vonage, I shouldn't be paying a monthly fee only to talk to people. For $15 a month, I can still play with my friends and enjoy what looks to be a great, mentally stimulating, challenging, and exciting game, well, it looks well worth it.

Of course, like here on Pirates, there are people over there on their forums who either love or hate the game. They praise it to the heavens or they damn it to hell. I think that it's just a matter of getting on the game and seeing for yourself. So, if you're hesitant to plunk down the money, see if you know anyone who has any guest passes available that they can give you. I'd offer one, but my guild has already snatched them up.

Happy 4th!

[lostinthelab]

Thanks all.

Some very good things to think about. It'll be a couple of months (or more) before I'm ready to play PotBS; I look forward to reading updates from everyone as their PotBS game progresses.

[Kat Sheffield]

Just wanted to give a quick update here. I'm a little over a week into the game and all I can say is that I absolutely love the game. I love everything about it. Yes, I'm sure that I'm a little starstruck, the way that I was when I first started playing POTCO and everything was new and shiny and exciting. But then realistically, this is a game that continues to expand the further that I get into it. It isn't about leveling to open up new weapons skills or get gold simply to purchase a better ship, it's about so much more than that. The idea of claiming ports for your nation, and battling to keep what belongs to you as yours is mind blowing. Socities (guilds) in Burning Sea actually serve a purpose here, and they work together within their own nations as there are true alliances that are formed as societies work together for towards common goals.

The game itself it truly huge. For example, from my starter port to sailing to Port Royal took around 15 minutes alone, and that was with a good wind. lol. There's so much to see and do. Countless quests, interesting battles, fantastic loot that actually means something. Imagine collecting treasure that has an actual purpose? Woah! I've said it before and I will say it again, Burning Sea is everything that POTCO should be...unfortunately, it's just not there yet. And yes, I know that Pirates is a relatively new game, but then again, so is Burning Sea.

But in deciding which game to play really comes down to what sort of game you're looking for and what sort of player you are. If you're looking for a simple game that isn't overly challenging and yet still fun, Pirates is great, and I'm not knocking that - everyone knows that I was obsessed with it when I started playing. However, if you're looking for something more out of your gaming experience, and you like the time frame but simply want more of a challenge from a game geared towards adults then Burning Sea might be what you're looking for. Yes, it's difficult, and it takes plotting and planning and strategy, but in the end you actually feel rewarded for having accomplished something.

Just this weekend was a huge turning point in the game where control of the Caribbean was up for contention. In the end it was the British versus the Pirates, Spanish and French. Pirates won out, but this battle will happen again soon. And things are certainly going to start getting crazy again. And I love the madness. I love being able to play and not having to worry about rep stealers or little kids, I love not having to censor myself, and I love that the game isn't dumbed down.

I'm not knocking POTCO and this isn't propaganda for Burning Sea. Just my own opinions on the game so far. Hope this helps some of you who are considering making the move. A large core of my guild has jumped ship to Burning Sea and we all love it. However, as you can see by my trolling the boards here, I do miss Pirates, it was truly an excellent place to play my first MMO. To all of you who are still playing and enjoying it, I wish you all the best with the game and the new content to come, I really hope that the Summer Update breathes some new life into what I consider to be a floundering game. Privateer PVP simply isn't enough to keep Pirates afloat as a contender in the market.

[Swash]

when did potbs come out and when did potco come out

[Kat Sheffield]

Actually, I thought that I remember hearing that Pirates rushed their launch to compete with Burning Sea. But, after a little research I found that Pirates launched on October 31, 2007 and Burning Sea was released on January 22, 2008. So maybe it wasn't so much that Pirates wanted to compete with Burning Sea's launch as they wanted to get a few months jump on it...months that could have been further put to use by hammering out a few more bugs here and there.

[CrimsonRabbit]

How good is Burning Sea if you don't play very often...say past 10pm at night for a couple hours here and there. Is it something you can play that little or do you have to be more into the game and aware of what's going on on a daily basis?

[Dr. Zeppers]

Sounds interesting, in some ways it sounds excellent, yet in others.... not so...

Originally Posted by CrimsonRabbit

How good is Burning Sea if you don't play very often...say past 10pm at night for a couple hours here and there. Is it something you can play that little or do you have to be more into the game and aware of what's going on on a daily basis?

I would be interested in knowing that myself, although I enjoy interacting with others in the game, I am not big on forming "teams" to defend my territories, etc. on any regular basis. Having played exremely competitive team games in the past, I wish to avoid them now. I'm long burned out on "team" play. Im not out to beat anyone except my own boredom.

How does the game hold up to us solo'ing privateering types? How big a role does the creation and selling of items play in the economy? I want to play, not work.

[Kat Sheffield]

What I think is nice about Burning Sea is that it's fairly easy to level. The fighting that you do on land, although it isn't much, gives you a much smaller amount of rep than the ships that you challenge on the sea. Of course, the higher the level of ship the higher the rep, but there's nothing as ridiculous as getting penalized for using stronger attacks on the ships, nothing along the lines of more hits = more rep. Just the usual, basic attack higher levels and get more rep. So this definitely means that you can level quickly with only putting a couple hours in here and there. And even if you're going to play late, that shouldn't be a problem - we're set on a European server that has a good number of Americans on it as well, so really there are people on all hours of the day. Unlike POTCO where things do get distinctly quiet late at night.

But as far as needing to keep an eye on the game, I think that all depends on the direction that you take. For instance, I went Freetrader, which means that I focus more on the economy, producing and selling goods, in addition to everything else. So I have to watch the market, know what goods are selling for and where, that sort of thing. But if you went another direction, Privateer for instance, you don't have to worry about any of that if you choose not to. We have people in the Society who aren't even going to bother with that aspect of the game until they hit fifty. They just want to level, work on their skills, and sink plenty of ships along the way.

Also, not only does the rep come quickly but the gold as well. For the missions, when you complete one you normally get both a nice chunk of rep as well as gold and loot items that serve a purpose. Obviously, the higher the level the mission the better the rewards. But I will say that being part of a Society is helpful, because there are missions that you simply cannot do on your own; sometimes you only need one extra person, sometimes the specific group missions will tell you to bring "at least four", etc. But, you can bring help on almost any mission that you would like. For us, this has replaced our "Plundering Nights" from POTCO. We work on the same missions together, complete them so that everybody gets credit. It's just nice to sail out together and truly have something to do.

I have read that people do solo the game, although I can't understand why. So they do say that it is possible, but I would think that it's not very helpful. When a call goes out to defend a certain location or to attack another one, it goes out in the local chat for everyone to see. So, it's your choice whether or not you choose to go in. From what I have seen this early in, the game can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it. If you want to do nothing but missions and attack ships and/or ports, you can do that. If you want to start producing goods and selling them for profit in the auction houses you can do that as well. I think that the Devs there were very careful to give their players choices.