5punk

If any of you know me, I mean really know me, you'd know that the only thing I think that is cooler than pirates is dressing up and being a pirate (halloween, fancy dress parties or just going down the pub in). So obviously as soon as I heard that PoTBS was being released and there was an Open beta I was all over that bitch like a fat kid on a chocolate muffin.

Creating a character
There is a huge range of possibilites to create a character with and as with most SOE games plenty of costume pieces as well, for anyone thats played Tabula Rasa (oh just me and Vodka then?) it looks like a shinier version of there character selection screen.
There is a very Captain Jack Sparrow looking set of features and of course this means there is so many Johnny Depp clones it sometimes scares you.

Starting out
You start out in the captains quaters of your ship, your Captain has buggered off somewhere after some bandits have tried to board you (oooh eeer sailor). The series of missions that follow take about 10 mins tops to do, this includes fighting on the ship, sailing your ship, fighting others ships and boarding other ships. This is, as far as i can tell, the basics of everything you can do int the game excluding crafting. So you are on your way pretty fast.

Graphics/looks
They are pretty nice visuals for an MMO but the run cycles can look a bit juddery and when left to stand they characters always adopt a moody Emo teenager look that annoys me, they're bloody pirates not 14 year old kids (ok so behind the keyboard is a different story).

Controls
Ships: controlling the ships is similar to moving anythng on a keyboard (wasd or arrows) and wind has to be taken into account which makes for a more challanging than "just point and go" kind of movement whilst trying to say board an enemy ship.
Characters: on land control's are the same as most MMO's using wasd to move and numbers on the top of the keyboard for fighting actions. Whilst fighting your character has; Health (normal) Initative and Balance. some moves use up initiative which you have to use other moves to gain and some moves use up balance which regenerates over time. So whilst dueling others you have to take a lot more into account than just their health.

Ships
A great part of this game that i thought I would just have over looked and thought as gimmicky, EVE Players will be pleased to know ships are upgradable and you can make your own from different classes to suit your play style, you can have warships with lots of cannons or my favourite a little nippy ship that can turn on a starfish and fire off both sides before you have the chance to say "WTF Mate!?".

Conclusion I'm obviously not going to give a game that is still in its beta a mark out of 10, but if I had to it would be pretty high, there are still pleanty of bugs which is a given, but of all the parts that seem to be finished I am haveing a lot of fun and shouting Yarrrrr more than usual.[/b]

Glad to hear this. I'd love this to be good so we can have a little 5punky fleet bumming its way around the Caribbean.

this may be the first MMONG i will ever buy. maybe. depends on how the leveling works, i don't really have any patience for something like that.

Mr. Johnson wrote:this may be the first MMONG i will ever buy. maybe. depends on how the leveling works, i don't really have any patience for something like that.

Leveling seems to be fairly rapid, but that might just be the b3ta. I made a character and was level 6 before you could say "Mission complete" you don't really notice the leveling, i'm sure that it'll get harder further on, but not got that far yet.

MIkkyo wrote:you don't really notice the leveling

I'm gona hold you to this and give it a try, although I've not heard great things otherwise about it yet. Unless I've got this vastly mixed up with another new MMO (and I know Tabula Rasa is ment to have this feature so I might be getting it from there) the idea of couquoring an area, then having it re-set backt to NPC control after X amount of hours seems a wee bit mad to me. I'd sooner take and hold something for an indefinate period of time until a player kcks me off than be beaten by game mechanics.

Hehulk wrote:
I'm gona hold you to this and give it a try, although I've not heard great things otherwise about it yet. Unless I've got this vastly mixed up with another new MMO (and I know Tabula Rasa is ment to have this feature so I might be getting it from there) the idea of couquoring an area, then having it re-set backt to NPC control after X amount of hours seems a wee bit mad to me. I'd sooner take and hold something for an indefinate period of time until a player kcks me off than be beaten by game mechanics.

Burning Pee does have the game mechanic you describe alledgely, and i think its a good thing*.

To make an EVE example, I hate the fact that BOB (And to a lesser extent RA when they had the exploitable plex) have all the wizzy areas, and us lot when we were in ISS had the pish. Getting a regular chance to make tons of moneys seems 'fairer' to me.


Until I get into bob, and my shiney moneytree geyts stolen

I was going to write pretty much what Anham wrote, but couldn't think of a way to put it across last night at midnight.

NPC's re-controlling areas will make for a much more fluid game.

Hehulk wrote:
I'm gona hold you to this and give it a try, although I've not heard great things otherwise about it yet. Unless I've got this vastly mixed up with another new MMO (and I know Tabula Rasa is ment to have this feature so I might be getting it from there) the idea of couquoring an area, then having it re-set backt to NPC control after X amount of hours seems a wee bit mad to me. I'd sooner take and hold something for an indefinate period of time until a player kcks me off than be beaten by game mechanics.

In tabula rasa, each area has 2 "Control point" bases, of which you can defend and attack. They do not reset after XX hours, they reset when the NPCs overpower the defenses and take it back. The only trouble with this is that in well populated areas it is very rare that a control point will be lost to the enemy.

Anyone playing the full game still? I'd be interested in a more details if people have had a chance to give it a good go, with a view to perhaps having a play myself sometime.