pirates of the ......owned by SOE?Follow

yep. its true.

bought my copy today. coarse the account key doesnt work. typical.

its true. i was. wasnt expecting anything really, just totally boared.
i dont think i have ever seen a launch of any game with little to no hype, and not seen anyone say anything positive about. its like watching a traffic accident. you just have to look.

bah, i have a little faith atleast. the party at any launch has always been worth the purchase price even if you uninstall it a week later. E&B was alot of fun learning. really boaring after you did though. AC2.....sucked.......from the get go. but the world was interesting to see. Guild wars had some awsome sceenery even if the avitars were really hard to look at.

and

there is absolutly nothing else out right now. i was ALMOST tempted to go see the new Rambo movie. would be interesting to see how many rocket launchers could actually be mounted on a walker.

Anyone tried Pirates of the Carribean?

My husband downloaded it. You start off with a lil tutorial by Capt. Jack, may even be J.Depps voice (sounds like him). I havnt gotten beyond the first 5mins though. Hubby won't tell me the password.

I don't know how you make repetition in an "MMO" seem out-of-place, but they did.

Leonai seems to love the game though.

game update.

they fixed the bad account key. seems all their servers were down.

logged in, launched game, and.....drum roll........back screen. then wireless connection lagged out real bad.........then computer locked up.

hahahahaha, it reminds me of when EQ1 launched. all i get is a black screen with the curser in the busy mode. expecting an emergancy patch to fix their emergancy patch any time now.........

So in 8 years the game will ne banned in Brazil?

next game update.

well, fixed the black screen. seems the graphics engine doesnt load right off the disk so you have to download the engine from the company that makes it and install it after you load the game.

ummm, not ready for retail comes to mind.......

anyhow, its actually kind of interesting. the graphics are certainly superrior to EQ1, but no where near as good as EQ2. kind a WoWish only less cartonnish. the character creation is by far its greatest asset. a good mix of colors and styles. better than everything out except mabe EQ2. EQ2 did do a great job. but it blows EQ1 and WoW away, but i may be biased, i kind a dig the whole island sceene personally.

the out of ship fighting.....blows. there really isnt another word that really describes the off ship fighting. you get a few gee wiz spam buttons like EQ2, and it doesnt take nearly as long as EQ1, but...so last decadeish.

but most of the action is about the ships. alot like earth adn beyond, only with some additional complexities. for instance, a schooner will go faster farther into the wind than a square rigger. however, the best armored and gun laden ships are square riggers. and you have 3 types of ammo. one for cutting down masts (think snare), one for cutting down people so its less risky when you board a ship, and one for sinking the boat outright.

thats kind of cool. you can have less guns and armor and still win a fight by out manuvering an opponent and hitting them only on the stern or bow where their guns are less powerfull. or, you can be a heavy hitter and pretty much sink the little skullywag with one full broadside load from a big gallion.

you can capture ships to keep. you can board ships to loot. no loot if you sink it. just strafe it with anti personel fire after you cripple it with mast damage, then board it and fight its captain and his men with yours who are hopefully superrior in number after strafing them.

the most intersting part for me is the islands. i work air traffic over the bahamas, and the islands in the game are pretty much in the correct place in relation to each other. they did a little research. great harbor is east of nassau, which is due south of marsh harbor. you have your factions too, the brits who hate the spaniards, who hate the french, who hate everyone, and the pirates who have no faction issues to worry about because even other pirates attack pirates. kill em all.

dont think its going to be anything more than a niche game, but, it is a refreshing break from the whack-a-mole grind fest of all the other mmorpgs out right now. it playes alot like earth and beyond. mostly about the ships. mostly quest driven, and mostly instances. im just so sick of whack-a-mole right now that anything a little thought provoking and differant would be better to me. it is certainly differant and it does make you think. it will appeal more to the older crowed than the young uns. you have to plan, and you have to learn what types of ships do what depending on the direction of the wind, and when yo chop masts, strafe crew, or just flat out sink the other ship.

one quest i did i was supposed to beat a competitor to an auction. the bay was filled with bad guys and he had a faster boat. if you stop to fight, you loose. if you just try to outrun him, you loose. i won by firing my mast cutters at him as i dead headed to the dock, and just ate the damage from the attacking ships without stopping. you have to position your boat by angling in toward him to get into firing position and range while still maintianing a steady heading to the dock.

you had to think a little. not just kill 10 of those, or keep whacking these till 15 thingamajiggers drops.

it was worth the purchase price. even with the glaring reality that SOE couldnt launch a red ryder wagon without the wheels falling off.

its not a flop. it is fun and thought provoking.

it will do better than Vanguard or earth and beyond, granted, one is gone and the other on deaths door waiting for someone to pull the plug.

i spent just as much money for Doom 3, and unreal tournament 3, and quake 4. i spent 2 to 3 weeks playing each untill the repetitveness sucked all the desire out of loading it up. even beat all 3 of the Doom boss mobs which did require a bit of trial and error and some thinking.

if i get 2 to 3 weeks of entertainment out of the game, how is that less than any of the other games i have played?

the best part of any game, ALL of them, is the discovery stage. the first 20 levels or so in a mmorpg, or the first level or two in a FPS. after that, its about the enviroment. is it interesting enough to want to see whats around the corner? once that becomes tedious, all you have left is the boaring as hell grind to the top or to the end in a FPS.

earth and beyond lasted a good month for me. that beats out most FPS games i have played. mabe its not what the game maker intended, but for me, its about fun and discovery. once that is gone........so am i.

WoW made the game so easy to play in an hour or so that you could log on, play for a bit, and leave without any grief or fustraition. and thats why they have 11 million subscribers. all the rest, EQ1, EQ2, Vanguard, DAOC, AO, UO, shadowbane(yes its still up) and all the rest have only the OCD types. the kind of people who just have to get to the top, just have to get to the end, fun or not.

its worth the purchase price. i would pay the same for a FPS that is only going to entertain me for a few weeks also. all of them have been worth the purchase price. even AC2. well, mabe not AC2. but certainly all the rest. well, mabe not guild wars, but not because it didnt deliver, but because the whole japna wants to be an american with a big prick....sword....thing. was just to hard to get past.

one thing they did to BETTER than anyone else is the NPCs. in eveyr mmorpg out they are just kind of standing around. in pirates they are actually doing things. sawing or hammering a porch, sitting at a table shoveling food into their mouths in bars, carrying a wench across their sholders, etc. the towns feel a whole lot more alive than any of the bigger games out.

its not terrible. its not a block buster, but its not terrible. i have played worse.

Vanguard was sounding like such an awesome game.
Good class choice, 3 different ways to play the game.
Just poor Execution on a great idea.
Sony has struck again!

level 8 now, getting a handle on it i think.

what i dont like

1. the out of ship combat. atbest, i can see it ending up to be very much like EQ2. a spam fest of "special" abilities and attacks. boaring.

2. everything is instanced. everything. the only interaction between other players will be societies (guilds) and groups. the broker too. any and all fighting is instanced. even if you attack a wandering brit or frenchie.

3. the enviroment in the towns is 90 percent non-interactive. ie, there are mabe 4 or 5 buildings in any town you can actually go inside. and again, they are instanced. very much like AO, shadowbane, and D&D online. you cant climb anything. you cant jump in the water. you cant wander the beach. all you can do is access the little mini map area and go into a hand full of buildings.

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what i do like.

1. the character creation. great job. really fits the part and something in there for any taste. love the glass eye look. better than anything out cept mabe EQ2. EQ2 did a great job with this.

2. the NPCs in the town and on the water. constantly moving, constantly doing something you would expect to see on a caribean island. working on buildings, eating, entertaining, wenching(my favorite, probably gona get alot of flaq from feminests though). again, fantastic job, there isnt any other game out that captures the atmosphere as well and makes the world really feel alive. none.

3. the ship combat. great job. you have four zones, the bow, stern, starbord, and port side that all can be attacked individually. for instance you go broad side with a ship, it only damages the side it is fireing on. not only is it realistic, it gives you stratagy. go broad side untill that armor is almost gone, then turn the ship to the other side. and dont let him do the same, keep attacking him in the same side. all you have to do is destroy one side to win.

you also have another option in ship to ship fighting. you can board the other ship and defeat their crew. you get 6 crewmen of your own to help. but dont board untill you have decimated more of their crew than they have of yours. hence the multiple types of ammo. the shot does mostly armor damage, the bar does mostly mast and rigging damage immobolizing them, and the other does mostly crew damage. if the enemy is a bigger more armored ship, it might be better to just use the anti crew armor and board to win that way. especially if you know you cant go toe to toe armor wise.

if you sink the ship you win. if you board the ship and beat their crew you win.

pirates get another option. after you beat the ship, you can take it for your own. thats the primary way to get upgraded ships for pirates. the others have to pay. that really isnt that much of an advantage though, you still have to pay for upgrades and you cant transfer them from one ship to the next.

the ship to ship battles rock.

4. the mending or repairing. you get a durability rating for your ship. if its captured it is usually 1. you have to buy another ship and transfer its durability. if you get sunk, and you only had 1 durability, your ship is SUNK. FOR GOOD. along with every thing in its hold and all of its upgrades. you only take a durability hit if you get defeated in battle and sunk. to get higher durability, you have to basically pay for another ship. the best ships in the game will be player made, but really, like all mmorpgs, there isnt any point in buying one untill you get to the top being anything you buy untill that point will be replaced with something better in a few levels anyway.

its a great way to take money out of the economy, and adds realism to the game. fortunatly, so far, gold and ships are not hard to come by. especially if your a pirate.

5. the quests. they are well written and do a great job immersing you into the game. they also have alot of factual history woven into many of them. you can actually learn quite a bit about the history of pirates, adn how they came about and how differant nations either hunted them, or paid them, or both for their own purposes. how the french paid mercenaries(pirates) to protect their shipments, or attack merchant competitors. the whole thing was more about gold and riches than conquest and rule. they do a great job of bringing that out in the quests.

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over all. its fun, its interesting, its entertaining. but it is so very one dimensional. its about the ships and the missions around them. personally, i think what this game offers would be a fantastic addition to another game like WoW or even EQ or EQ2. the ship to ship battle is fantastic. and it adds yet another dimension for upgrading in a game. but by itself.....i think it will suffer the same fate as D&D online. so focused on one dimension, that people just get board of it very quickly reguardless of how much fun the action is. any repetitive action gets boaring.

D&D online did a great job with classes, ballance and the actual fighting. but that was all there was. in the end, after a few weeks you had done everything. i think this game will suffer the same fate. a small but dedicated following.

it is worth the purchase price. its new, its differant, its unique. wont be very big, and you wont stay very long, but its been a fun trip so far.

lol AC2 I really feel sorry for that game. They should have just made a new expansion for AC.

Why do you continue to play MMO's if you despise grouping so much, shadow?