POTCO Analysis/Critics
 

Great post, Leo.

Well stated. Unfortunately....regardless of the game you will have your glitches (some more than others). I'm with you as many of your complaints are felt across the Caribbean. Many of your questions/complaints will probably never be answered. We just keep sailing and hope the winds come our way. Or you could write technical support and get a cookie cutter response.

If we all send in what you have written word for word, we may get an answer that is not... copied and pasted.

Believe me.....I've sent in plenty of errors to technical support and provide feedback via test. In the immortal words of Body by Jake....

"Remember....don't quit!"

Nice find there.

The Panda3D engine has had an extremely bad memory leak for the past three years. Instead of fixing it, the developers have been forced to downgrade graphics so that every new update only creates a little bit more lag. That's why the islands are also closer together now than they were when the game first launched. Less ocean means less lag.

I don't know who updates the Panda3D engine but they need to fix the memory leak so that the developers don't have to continue downgrading things.

After playing for 3 and a half years I have finally given up my membership and only come on once in a great while to see a couple old friends that haven't bailed yet. Most have all left for other games.

I feel this game is going down quickly and without any true next chapter or major update I'm afraid more and more pirates will start leaving the game as well. They could have made this game into a real winner but chose not to, using the Panda3D game engine may have been a big mistake and cost them in the long run.



"May your rum never run dry"

I think POTCO is actually making nice profits (relative to previous years). Logged on today during a usually quiet time, and first 2 servers were both Full, many of the remaining ones ideal. We didn't even get free unlimited weekend this July, which tells a lot about the amount of people paying.

I just wish I could go to Darkhart, Abassa on High Graphics. I hit a black screen every time once I hit him, and I'd need to shut down my computer. Of course I don't have to play in HG, but Low Graphics are atrocious. That being said, I'm still content with what POTCO has come to, and I'll keep paying for a while.

I play Smash HG with no lag.But Disney does need to start fixing the serious problems with Panda3D,among others.

Aye.....there are issues to be dealt with. Did you submit a detailed report on this bug? They can't fix it if they are unaware of it.

Report .....report.....report....

You know what's weird? I just completed Crysis 2 on High everything, which is one of the most beautiful and graphic intensive games out there. However, I lag in Abassa on Med. Quality. Why is that? Why does POTCO require so much RAM when it has pretty simple graphics? Not only is this annoying, but it is also a barrier to progress. We can't get anything good because they would just cause client crashes. That is, in my mind, the NUMBER ONE priority for the Devs to work on right now.

Isn't strange when a game marketed for children is quickly becoming unplayable on conventional computers?

I have no problems with Darkhart Abassa on highest graphics. I usually never lag there, but as soon as I hit the seas.... then thats another story.

I agree that glitches and issues should be addressed and dealt with, but the potential that POTCO has is enormous and yet for some reason don't see an effort to make this game... what's the word that I'm looking for here?... keep you interested?

The laundry list can be quite long but many popular wants should be addressed, my few favs are larger ship variety AND customization, Captain"s power to plank out useless pirates onboard (Some will actually and purposely jam your ship repair abilities at sea), a mayhem island or entire server altogether, a place where you can go on on normal business BUT it would run as SvS AND PvP, imagine an invasion where you can side with Jolly (For whatever morbid purposes OK), etc.... SO MUCH potential on this game!

Yes....this game has HUGE potential. Unfortunately we don't have the details of what is going on behind the curtains.

Just for a moment let's talk statistics. Let's say.....the game has (making up a number) 250,000 active users. Out of that let's say 3% of those users submit feedback on issues. That's only 7,500 users. From Disney's perspective that might be acceptable. Keep in mind this is all speculation.

Let's take that same data and plug it into feedback regarding what players want added to the game. We can use it in another scenario ....what players don't like and want changed.

Minimal feedback yields minimal results. If Disney thinks users are content for the most part, why would they make any major changes (especially if they still have a good base of paying users) ?

Did I like it when they removed the F5/F6 keys for additional weapons? No. Did I submit feedback? Yes. I'm only 1 Pirate......they need to hear it from everyone.

Nobody is being forced to voice anything to Disney. If you are happy with the game and are not having any issues, you may not see a need to send any feedback.

On the other side of the coin....if you are not 100% happy and/or have technical issues....do something about it. Disney provides us with the tools to help us help them.

Let me take you out of the Caribbean for a moment. Let's say restaurant XYZ has a good flow of local business and a nice flux of seasonal business. Profits are pretty decent....and minor complaints from their customers. From their point of view, why would they change anything? Now if you ate there on a regular basis and were not satisfied with all of your meals or service .....why wouldn't you say something? Perhaps they would add new menu items if there was a big enough demand. Those customer survey cards on the tables are not to scribble on.....lol....they are for customer feedback. I fill them out along with any web survey.

If you want something you have to be heard. I don't think crossing your fingers is going to work.

In conclusion, I can guarantee I will continue to help everyone I can here on POF and in game. I have no plans on giving up.

P.S. Have you submitted feedback lately?

I do submit feed-back when I run into things that I feel need fixed. Bugs, glitches-like that. Like you stated in another thread-especially on test site. And it's great that you, AKA are on top of it, trying to get others to also submit feed-back. I am not as technical as some pirates, though, so my gripes are generally about things that go awry in game. Keep up the good work, mate.

Thank you Lizzy.....keep up the plundering and buying rounds of rum ......

Also in PvP you see cannons that isn't shooting a ship, and it hits your ship even though you didn't see it hit your ship. Also enemy ships are stuck for 5 seconds in there position, then move. Especially trying to attack hunters, fleets or QAR. I can't even go to fleets with ships.

I also learned that leader ship, once you use it, when you click a skill that's done and click right away, it won't activate. Even after a couple seconds. I half to count to ten before I use take cover, etc... Ok done here.