Pirates of the Burning Sea - Developer Interview Questions

[Bayard]

Note to moderators: This is a repost of a thread in our Pirates of the Burning Sea Forums so that people from outside the guild can see the questions and answers as originally intended.

As one of the Guilds interested in Pirates of the Burning Sea, The Older gamers was given the chance to ask the developers a number of questions via email. We have received the results back and I'm happy to say there's some really neat information here. The questions were asked a little while ago, so some of the answers may have changed a bit.

Cheers,

Bayard

On to the Questions:


1. Will there be monthly fee?

PotBS will have a monthly fee, but we have yet to announce an official subscription rate.

2. When you use the event scheduler, is it possible to have society versus society battles, restricting it to only to those people?

You can restrict an event you create however you like. We've designed the system to allow you to determine who can participate and who cannot.

3. Can scheduled events be non-combat oriented, like a regatta?

Yes. We plan to support and encourage events of all kinds.

4. Will there be raids that allow coordination between 20-40 players in a PVE environment? Examples might be capturing a treasure fleet, or assaulting a town in a PVE way, or disrupting a very notorious almost indestructible pirate who is terrorizing ports?

We have discussed this kind of content, and while systems like this are not currently in the game, they could be in the future.

5. Can I have a Purple Hat?

Yes.

6. Will I be able to ram people and wreck there ship?

No, we believe that allowing these kinds of maneuvers would create too much grief potential. However, while you will not be able to cause damage, a larger ship will actually push a smaller ship out of the way, which could provide a distinct advantage during battle.

7. Will The NPC's have names of historical people of the times?

Our names are all drawn from an historical database of real period names. Hand-created NPC names may be more entertaining, depending on how tired the content team is.

8. Will the Dev team be playing active players once the game is released & if so, will playing become part of their job, so as to help them experience & become aware of what the community wants OR will the dev team just reply on fault messages & forum feedback.

We'll be playing, but you won't know who we are. In addition to that, we'll also have in-game 'GM' characters to look into certain kinds of problems. That being said, there will be in-game support staff to handle day-to-day challenges typical of an MMO.

9. Will guilds be able to create in-game alliances with other guilds?

We've talked about alliances. Personally, I think it's going to happen before release. Joe, our Lead Software Engineer, is more skeptical.

10. Can we have monkeys as well as parrots?

Monkeys have a special place on our artist's wish list. We do have chickens, so why not monkeys? While I can't say that we're going to have pets at launch, I do know that there are many parrot, monkey, weasel, or jellyfish fans here in the Flying Lab offices.

11. Can you bribe a governor to go after a rival pirate - or at least increase his bounty?

We haven't created any systems intended to allow inter-nation PvP of any kind. Though, if you're not a pirate, and you want to go after a pirate, you are free lure him into a PvP area and kill him yourself.

12. What brand of rum do the pirates drink?

Grog. There isn't really a brand -- it's more of a lifestyle.

13. How many ships will have the skull and cross bones as their flag?

As many as want to; the PotBS user content system awaits your own personal take on the Jolly Roger.

14. What additional types of user content are you planning beyond 3D ships and flag / sail textures?

We'd love to do more texture-based user content -- changing clothing texture, for instance. While we don't have any additional types scheduled right now, it is a feature that we hope to explore very soon after launch.

15. Will actual historical figures from the time such as Woodes Rogers, or fictional characters of the time such as Long John Silver be in the game as NPCs?

There are several historical characters in our game world, and several story arcs that players can participate in that revolve around those characters. I think that Rogers is dead in our timeline, though, to explain the continued piracy in the Caribbean.

16. If I capture an enemy ship and send it and its cargo to the prize courts, will its cargo affect the supply and demand for a specific port?

Currently cargo just 'goes away' and you're paid money for it. I can say that there are alterations planned for the economy system, and the introduction of those changes could affect the way this is handled.

19. Is there any ETA on player crafting and player driven economy?

This is an ongoing discussion here in our offices, and while I cannot give you a definitive answer, I can say that we continue to communicate this, and will work to

20. How will Flying Lab ensure server stability?

I'm not an expert on our server architecture, and most of this information is proprietary, but I can say that our server architecture is designed to scale dynamically as load increases, distributing it across more physical machines as necessary. We are confidant that this approach will mitigate lag issues for our players.

21. Can pvp encounters be conducted anyplace anytime, or will it be more like battlegrounds in WoW? or maybe both?

It's more like a dynamic EVE. That is, there will be large areas of the world that are PvP. There will also be areas where PvP is only allowed vs. pirates, and pirates can attack any ship of the other nations. The locations of these areas will be determined by player actions.

22. Will their be an opportunity to have a guild website officially connected to the PoBS site? Something that allows other guilds to see rankings, etc.

We're hoping to provide rankings and other statistical resources, accessible as XML, available to both guilds and fansites alike. This is not a system we currently support, and the ETA is uncertain.

24. What will be the opportunity in the future for 'famous' or high ranking players to be an actual part of the story in later content?

Pirates of the Burning Sea's storyline depends heavily on our players. It is important to us that all players have the ability to generate their own stories, and we are creating unique systems to support that.

For instance, we hope to give players the ability to engage in dynamic, player driven political intrigues that allow them to rule entire islands. At the same time, these systems would allow for players in opposition to work against those intrigues, inciting riots and staging a coupe.

24. Will each nation have its own banks?

We decided we weren't getting enough mileage out of the 'banks' idea, so we've effectively removed it. It may reappear in future content, but I wouldn't count on it.

25. Will a combat skilled Adventurer aka a Nation orientated privateer be able to compete with an equally skilled pirate in a 1v1 in comparable ships?

Absolutely. Balanced play is as important to you as it is to us.

26. Will a player in the Navigation Zone get any type of indication they have crossed into the various type PvP zones?

PotBS includes a mini-map feature, which with big red circles demarking PvP areas and your proximity to them. This allows you to avoid them if wish, or help point you in the right direction if you are looking for a PvP battle.

27. Whilst I believe it is set in a historically correct time as the game progresses it by its nature will not stick to the historical line, is there an intention to run "events" as such that could be historically based?

I was just talking about this recently with one of the content guys. The short answer is 'no'. The long answer is 'I have so many cool ideas for this...'

28. Will it be possible to progress to the top levels of the game without PVP involvement?

You will never be forced to engage in player versus player battle if you do not want to. That said, we have designed our PvP systems in such a way that so as to be more enjoyable and rewarding than the standard issue MMP. We hope it will actually lure in people who haven't enjoyed PvP encounters in the past.

29. Will you have to pay for expansions or add-ons?

We haven't made any official decisions about that, except that we do plan regular updates to PotBS outside of any possible expansions.

30. With expansions will you move ahead in time to make "new" ships available?

See above. Personally, I'd love to advance the timeline. I have so many cool ideas for that. But there aren't any plans for it.

31. Can pirates choose to change sides?

'Pirate' is a 'nation'. Once you choose the pirate nation, you aren't allowed to switch sides without remaking your character.

32. Will we able to make repairs to our battle damaged ships at sea, in order to remain at sea, or do repairs require going into port.

You can repair your ship's sails and hull at sea, but you can't replace your crew.

33. Can Spain remain a strong naval force well into the late 1700's, or will the story line follow true historical events?

That's up to the Spanish players. Spain could have remained a power, if they'd been willing to give up the idea of 'owning' the whole region, and instead focused on colonial development and inter-colonial trade. We're not 'gimping' Spain in order to stick to historical outcomes, if that's what you mean.

34. Will guilds eventually be able to make bases on uninhabited islands at some time in the future, if and when player housing is implemented? Are guild owned forts planned for the future?

As long as we keep the words 'at some time in the future' in there, the answer to both is 'yes'. We're planning to offer interesting guild support mechanisms, both at launch and after launch, but I don't want to get into specifics just yet.

35. Is there any chance you will integrate "face mapping" to allow our avatars to appear as we do in real life?

We've talked about making textures another area of user content. We don't have specific plans yet, but it's something we've talked about.

37. Something I liked about Dark Age of Camelot was how fighting for the realms gave people a common purpose to work towards. So it was less about individual or guild PvE achievements and more about being part of one of three teams in PvP. Did the DAoC model help inspire PoTBS?

Yes. Several of us played quite a bit of DAoC, and that's always been one of the models for the national combat -- we even call it 'RvR' in our internal discussions.

38.How have you approached the inherit MMORPG problem of casual vs. hardcore gamers getting along, especially in the same guild?

One of our goals from the beginning has been to ensure that everyone could participate meaningfully in PvP gameplay. Key to this goal is: we do not use level numbers in our combat calculations. This means that sufficient numbers of 'lowbies' can beat any 'hardcore' player, if they're all competent. Increased rank gives you more options, but doesn't make you inherently more powerful, aside from your access to more powerful ships. A four-pound cannonball hurts just as much when a casual player fires it.

39. Do you have any tricks up your sleeve to keep some balance on numbers across teams?

Yes and no. We have some ideas for maintaining a level of balance, but we're also thinking about ways to minimize the impact, should imbalances occur.

40. will players encounter Pirates torn from the history pages?

Yes. John Tynes, our content and story lead, is very excited about incorporating real history into his plotlines.

41. Can a Captain (player) take a defeated ships men of skill? (Carpenters, Surgeons...etc) and add them to their current crew? (by force or persuasion)

Not initially. We ended up cutting the Officer system, precisely because it didn't support things like this, and we wanted to do a better job in a later release.

42. What kind of administrative functions will be giving to players for Controlling Guilds? Will there be a Guild Roster, Message of the Day, mute ability during guild chats, or customizable internal guild rankings etc?

Yes, yes, maybe, eventually. Guild support is very important to us, and we are spending a lot of time thinking about what kinds of tools guild leaders and guild members need to get the most out of PotBS.

43. Is it possible use terrain such as shallow waters, coves etc to draw in a large ship into unfavorable waters, so that a group of smaller ships can ambush it?

It's possible, although technically if a ship is able to enter a fight, it's (by definition) 'visible'. But a player who isn't paying attention might not realize there's a whole fleet of ships around the cape until it's too late to run.

44. What makes for a good beta tester?

We're looking for three primary things in a beta tester. First, can your system run the game? Second, do you have experience playing and or testing other games? Third, has application convinced us that you are someone willing to put in both time and effort into testing our product?

An individual providing a yes answer to the preceding questions would make for a good beta tester.

45. Can you loot other player's ships?

There are carefully designed systems that allow looting of ships in PvP. Our goal was to avoid unpleasant PvP experiences, because we believe even casual players should have a chance to kick butt in PvP and have a good time.

46. Will a guild's fleet of ships be allowed to fly identical flags?

Yes. Members of a guild will be able to fly identical flags, as well as You will have the ability to do this, yes.

47. Does the game draw upon previous Pirate games like the original Pirates and the remake etc etc?

Yes. We like Sid's Pirates. We like Elite. I am a huge Seven Cities of Gold fan (the original). We like Akella's games -- its part of why we turned to them when we wanted the best ship models in any game, ever.

48. Are any historical events represented in the game?

That's up to the content team. My gut feeling is 'no, we're diverging from history' but John loves to tie real-world events into his plots, so you never know.


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These questions were asked by members of The Older Gamers - Pirates of the Burning Sea Division. If you are interested in joining The Older Gamers in Pirates of the Burning Sea check the Barracks forum on this server for directions on how to join the guild. Our only requirement is that you are over 25. TOG is planning on having Societies on all Nations in PotBS. Come check us out.