Has the Boss Battle been dumbed down?

[Dan_OB]

Not too long ago I went on a BB with several members of POF and during the battle one crew member commented " is this in Easy Mode?" I had to laugh because I was having similar thoughts. Since then I've been a a few BBs that seemed too easy. Then the other day I was on one that should never have succeed. it was the Helmsman's first effort and it showed. He made almost every mistake that could be made. Generally he positioned the ship so that it would take maximum fire and all too often so that gunners did not have an angle. In the past we probably would have sunk by the 3rd bridge, must certainly at the 4th.

The crew was large but not especially powerful. A couple of lvl 40s, a couple in the high 30's but also there where those with low cannon skills. Certainly not strong enough to overcome the mistakes the captain made. I should also not that the cap did not have take cover.

Has anyone else noticed this? I surely hope that the BB hasn't been made easier, that would ruin one of my favorite parts of the game.

[ could a mod correct the title to "Has the Boss battle been dumbed down" please?]

[Sven Osymthe]

Yeah i've noticed that too. It would really stink if that is the way they are going with the game.. but then again, its a good chance that is what they are going for.

[Kat Five Knives]

My baby pirate and one other beat the pearl on July 23rd. I didn't think it was possible for just two but here is the screenie. Cougar is my baby.

[Dr. Zeppers]

The first time I beat the boss battle, over a year ago, was with myself and 1 other pirate.
Weve even had pirates solo it back then as well.
Just noone talking about soloing it now I do not think.

I dont think they have changed it at all actually, I think pirates are just getting better at it.
Sure you may have had a few inexperienced, but it doesnt take a but a couple high level cannons to do the trick with a decent BB savvy sailor at the helm.

Luck is also a factor

One thing that I do also know for a fact, the BB does modify its level of difficulty when it launchs (always has), based on the number of crew, and thier notoriety levels.
If you have low level pirates, and fewer pirates it is easier, the ship does not take damage as quickly as with large high level crews (in theory it is just as hard though due to having fewer, or lower leveled pirates).

[Basil Dreadflint]

I haven't soloed it in quite some time, but have soloed it 11 times in the past. Won 7 lost 4. I'm not sure if you CAN still run it solo.

The BB does 'adjust' it's level of hardness based on the # of crew and thier level of Noto. I have done it solo where only two of the frigates will shoot at you, and only one side wall at each bridge will shoot. I have also seen it done with a crew of 12 level 40's and they take a MASSIVE pounding from the frigates.

If you went at it with only 2 people, and one was lower level , it probably WAS on easy mode. Not that it is ever a gimme, cause it isn't.

The BB has changed over time. When it was first released, it was buggie as all get out. They pulled it for a long time, and lots of pirates were ready for it when it was re-released in like Feb or early Mar '08. It was hard, but not impossible, and most people figured it out after only a few weeks.

Then, I think it was in September last year, they modified it again. Almost exactly what it is today. Most people complained that it got too hard. But in only a few weeks, most had the new "pattern" figured out again. It is still harder than it was before that ??September?? release.

I have found that my ideal crew is about 6 to 8 pirates. HAve at least a couple very high level, a few in their 30 with decent cannon skills, and a couple in their high 20's who are the one(s) trying to win. This gives you a nice challenge, but doesn't make the Navy aggression level to hard.

As far as the Goliath is concerned, it's a pushover. Always has been. If you make it past the 4th bridge with any health at all, you can beat the Goliath.

[CaptainGreenGene]

I just did it 2 days ago solo (you have to take a friend and let them die for it to allow you to solo now) and its no different then it was several months ago.

I agree, the more players you take the tougher it makes it and I also agree the optimal number is between 4-6 plus yourself. If you just follow the pattern from the frigates down to the bridges and put your ship in the right place you can do it easy.

[Angel Daggerfury]

It used to be hard to win in anything but red or yellow last summer, I remember... heard it was super easy b4 where u could just sail from the harbor til the end and the forts would barely attack you. Then I think around May, they changed it made the forts do tons of damage and rarely was anyone able to win in Green in like June/July. Then when SvS got released end of July, its been the same ever since then. The addition of SvS brought the whole armor shield hull plating thing which made either the Pearl having stronger hull or that the forts and ships barely do any damage anymore, not sure which it is.
I've done it solo probably around 20x or so since the addition of being able to redo BB whenever u want to now, tho I hate u have to bring someone with u lol, oh well doesnt hurt to have a cheerleader hehe orrr someone to use as bait rofl Out of all the times I've sailed & gunned it solo, only 3 were green wins, everything else was yellow or red...& the 3 green ones were barely even green, i got 49% twice & a 44%, 50% would've made it yellow, so blah.
I think it gets dumbed down by how many ppl attack...ships+forts fire back more often and do more damage at the rate sort reciprocal to how much they themselves r being attacked. Try getting a full crew of people but tell no one to attack... hence why its better to get high lvl gunners instead of low lvl gunners coz low lvl attack a lot which makes the pearl get attacked more but the low lvl gunners r barely doing any damage with each hit, so kinda pointless. But yea the bigger the crew the tougher it is but only if everyone in crew attacks...haha somehow I always end up with at least 1 person who runs wild on deck and cant figure out left from right and doesnt fire a cannon at all lol.
Yea the ideal crew is you + 4-6-8 gunners.
And you dont have to have take cover to be successful lol. The high lvl gunners you had probably took over the lack of cannon power from the lower lvl gunners. I did it with my pirate that had lvl 5 sailing & I'm glad I had the gunners that I had

[Sven Osymthe]

Just to add to what some of the others have said, the Boss Battle isn't tough at all if you have a good crew to go along with you, or just a skilled enough captain.

A while back, it used to be so simple that you could just drive straight through it, then it got to the point where you had to take every bridge out. Since that update, i've only sunk once, maybe twice. Once was the very first time I had sailed since the update, and I wasn't even level 35 yet, or 20 sailing. The other time was sailing with just two people for the heck of it lol

Ever since then, depending on the crew or not, i've sailed in high green or high yellow. Don't use any skills (other than broadsides) until the Goliath, so it goes by fast.

It could be, like Zep said, everyone getting better. It could also be luck sometimes. But I have seen boss battles like the one mentioned. A random person who wasn't supposed to sail took the wheel, managed to get us into yellow at the first bridge, yet the crew still made it.

[Nelly Darkpaine]

I don't think its changed.

Honestly? I've run the boss battle with myself sailing - no exaggeration - with my wins now at 150+ times in a row (No sinking) This is with my Mastered Pirate - but, I sailed the BB and won with my baby pirate who was a level 23. I think just knowing how the pattern runs lets you master that as well. I DID take more damage with the baby pirate, due to no Take Cover, and no Leadership. Still got through well.

I've been sailing em for people for over a year now... anyone who remembers Vash from Thieves of Honor knows how much fun Boss Battles were! (RAM THE GOLIATH!!) He could win em consistently with his eyes closed.

I don't think its easier, but you CAN beat it alone, and you can EASILY beat it with only two pirates - we do it all the time for fun.

I personally would like to see a change in it - its to the point where people who know how to sail it well would have to TRY to lose if they have a decent crew aboard. A change would be nice!!

The coolest thing would be levels - beat goliath, then move on to another obstacle - hey Kracken - your rewards would be more plenty with more levels defeated. This would give it immense reply value. =) No ship repair - pure skill moves you along.

[Commodore Larence]

I have noticed one change over the last couple of months: When I start the BB the cut-scene video and audio is REALLY out of sync.

Is anyone else noticing this? I know I always try to ESC out during it, but I have let it play a few times and the audio is probably running 5-8 seconds either ahead or behind the animations. I have never had this happen before but probably the last 5 BB's I have been on over the last 3 months have been this way. At first I thought maybe it was a lag issue, but it has occurred way to many times.


Larence Tuppington

[Angel Daggerfury]

Yea agree on that prolly coz after doing it so many times, u can win it easily pretty much at the end of it all. I get almost the same result on all my pirates regardless of what lvl they are. My mastered sailing pirates gets mostly averages from 3%-12% ship damage and my pirate that has lvl 5 sailing who gets a lil bit more damage averages from 12%-16% ship damage...not that big of a difference, still pure green less than 20% ship damage... Guess that really shows how overrated Tacking, Open Fire, Ramming Speed, Taskmaster, Take Cover, Leadership is. You don't need them to win in green and of course you don't need to master sailing to win in green either, which gets on my nerves how people are like "whoever that has lvl 25 sailing will take the helm" rofl and then they wait for Take Cover to recharge at EVERY SINGLE FLIPPING fort...omg rofl and when I sail, people yell at me to wait so my TC can recharge, ROFL. Like I said, you don't need them geez, I only use them when they recharge, I don't wait around for it to finish recharging, I just go thru when each set of forts are destroyed, makes BB faster that way.

And ya the cutscene is totally out of sync, I cant even remember when it was in sync lol.

[Stephen O'Malley]

I think they may just be making everything easier for the new updates (I hope).

.................

That Kraken better be sending shivers mates! The navy sure ain't!

[bartholomew bladeroberts]

oh yes my`cutscene is horibbly out of sync i've reported this seems easy to fix

[Dan_OB]

I'll pick on Zep because his response was the most on topic and list the possible answers most succinctly.

Originally Posted by Dr. Zeppers

The first time I beat the boss battle, over a year ago, was with myself and 1 other pirate.
Weve even had pirates solo it back then as well.
Just noone talking about soloing it now I do not think.

Thats how I learned to drive a boss battle, a friend of mine and I did boss battles, just the 2 of us, till we both could win it consistently. Which is probably why I don't care about crew size in a BB now. With 2 mastered pirates and another in the 30's combined with the fact that I never pass-up an opportunity to take part in one i have considerable experience with them. I haven't kept track, but It has been ages since I have lost one driving and I can win with almost any crew. so I know what is required to win and have a good idea when a BB should fail. I've also read almost everything said about BB's in this forum - so I've at least read everything mentioned in this thread before.

I dont think they have changed it at all actually, I think pirates are just getting better at it.

No doubt , with the BB being repeatable and with so many pirates with nothing else to do, more and more people are becoming adept at it. But in the cases I'm talking about, the drivers clearly didn't know what they where doing.

Sure you may have had a few inexperienced, but it doesnt take a but a couple high level cannons to do the trick with a decent BB savvy sailor at the helm.

Emphasize mine

In the cases I'm talking about the helmsmen, far from being savvy, clearly didn't know what they where doing. In the BB I mentioned in the OP the captain did almost everything wrong (think of the worst steering job you have ever seen in a BB). In the past it would have been a near certainty that the BB would be lost. I mention the crew only to point out it was an average crew, not particularly powerful and not particularly weak , so probably not an answer to the success of the BB.

So a better title to this thread might have been: "Does the BB still require a decent BB savvy sailor at the helm?"

Luck is also a factor

This was my first assumption, but when you find yourself saying "that was lucky!" many times in a row you start to doubt that it is luck. I still hope this is the answer though, even if the odds are against it.

One thing that I do also know for a fact, the BB does modify its level of difficulty when it launchs (always has), based on the number of crew, and thier notoriety levels.
If you have low level pirates, and fewer pirates it is easier, the ship does not take damage as quickly as with large high level crews (in theory it is just as hard though due to having fewer, or lower leveled pirates).

Thought about this too. But as in the case I referred to in the OP, the crews where on the large size with average to low fire power and so this compensation factor would have worked against the probable success of the BB, not for it.

The reason I raised the question is that I have recently been in many BB's that where so badly driven that, in the recent past, failure would have been all but guaranteed, but yet they where all won.

A final note - If your a knowledgeable, experienced driver, your experiences driving aren't really relevant. I'm talking about badly driven BBs.

[Dr. Zeppers]

Originally Posted by Commodore Larence

I have noticed one change over the last couple of months: When I start the BB the cut-scene video and audio is REALLY out of sync.

Is anyone else noticing this? I know I always try to ESC out during it, but I have let it play a few times and the audio is probably running 5-8 seconds either ahead or behind the animations. I have never had this happen before but probably the last 5 BB's I have been on over the last 3 months have been this way. At first I thought maybe it was a lag issue, but it has occurred way to many times.


Larence Tuppington

Originally Posted by jack sparrow 7352

oh yes my`cutscene is horibbly out of sync i've reported this seems easy to fix

I play pirates on two separate computers. One it works perfectly, the other it is out of sync (just under a second... Ive captured the video, and had to resync the audio). So I dont think the issue is on POTCOs side other than maybe they have a corrupt file in their distribution perhaps that my one system already has (not corrupt?). Seeing it not out of sync on another system anyhow doesnt seem to support it being any form of a programming issue though.

Originally Posted by Dan_OB

I'll pick on Zep because his response was the most on topic and list the possible answers most succinctly.

Why not, everyone else does, and hey.. you actually have a reason!

Originally Posted by Dan_OB

A final note - If your a knowledgeable, experienced driver, your experiences driving aren't really relevant. I'm talking about badly driven BBs.

Well I have been on many boss battles with first time drivers that wont listen to suggestion, and I have been quite surprised that we survived and beat it. Each time I chalked it up to superior cannonfire. If your good at the helm part, then you know what needs to be done with those cannons, and waste no time going about it. Other than that ... <shrug> hehe never a dull moment in potco, unless your questing.