Disney doing a good job?

[Davil]

Do you think Disney is doing a good job of running PotCO?

[Maximvs]

Though I believe POTCO has several issues which are in need of attention (such as SvS, PvP and some bugs which annoy the heck out of us ) - in the last 6 months they have put out a lot more material than they did in the first 6 - and - they have been somewhat quicker in responding to bug issues...

5 Months ago - I would of said no and gave a 3/10 - now I have to say yes and give a 6.5/10 - they have a way to go (NEW Storyline would be nice... *hint* - it would of gotten an 7.5/10 if there was a NEW storyline - and new Noriety Level would of gotten them an 8) but are more ahead than they were

Finally - I would ask everyone posting to be constructive with their posts... this thread will be monitored closely

[Dr. Zeppers]

Absolutely.

The only criticisms people seem to have are:

1. Lack of content (they are obviously working on this)
2. Inconsistency in moderation/review (Name/Guildname approvals, and application of disciplinary actions)

The first is obviously being worked on. The decision to put POTCO out there early before having developed more content has been an issue. Concerns over competing MMORGs apparently prompted this, however looking at them.. POTCO is in a category by itself when compared. I've played a few of the others, some love them, some hate them. When the games were published has little to do with what games people select to play. Irregardless, big D is working on it, and appears to be listening to us. The confusing part is that they listen to what we complain about, listen to our suggestions to solve it, and then do something entirely different. But with time... even this process may smooth out.

Inconsistency... well this shows there are humans behind the game. This is a fact of life. Overall although a frustration to some, I dont think this is any major issue. Safest pirate game on the net for your kids to play.... guaranteed.


Yes I think they are doing a great job under the circumstance. Keep up the good work Big D.

[Aliese]

Well, I'm going with "No", for several reasons:

The huge inconsistency in the bug and glitch fixes - they took out seemingly innocent (and very fun) glitches and not only left many annoying bugs, but they added more (several times yesterday I got no rep from enemies killed, my doll lost attunement randomly [yes, randomly, I'm aware of the moves that cause you to lose it - this wasn't that], enemies attacked from halfway across the map, I was hit by every enemy I ran past [yeah, apparently their reaction speed is now supersonic], when I was doing the poke n' run enemies would magically "sprint" up behind me and attack, enemy ships would fire and then spin, immediately firing from the other side...).

Changes like the one made to hex eater appeared to have been made to merely slow everyone down in leveling. That's lame.

Actual additions have been minimal. The "Bosses" are sad - all they did was scale up existing models and give them new names. The weapon quests keep you busy for a few days at most, and really only because of the ones that want all that lore from ships like Marauders that don't spawn reliably.

Many of the most common requests have been ignored - upping the notoriety cap, money cap, weapon level caps, bigger closets, etc, etc. All of those should just be simple changes in code. Requests like more real quests, more islands (with actual stuff to do on them), new enemies, etc, would require actual work, and D doesn't seem interested enough to do it.

[Sven Niscadae]

Originally Posted by Aliese

Many of the most common requests have been ignored - upping the notoriety cap, money cap, weapon level caps, bigger closets, etc, etc. All of those should just be simple changes in code.

I'm going to chime in on the money cap of 65k from a programming aspect. 65k is a magic number in programming. It seems to me that Disney used an integer data type to define "gold". An integer's upper limit is 65k (actually 65,535). Why did they pick an integer data type is probably because the most expensive thing you can buy in the game is the War Frigate for 60,000 gold.

So why not make the upper limit higher? The next integral data type available is a long integer that has an upper limit of about 4 million (4,294,967,295). Sure you could set the cap somewhere within that variable but there would be some wasted memory. Even if you don't use the maximum, an application reserves the maximum memory the data type allows for the variable (e.g. int = 32 bits, longint = 64 bits). It's a best practice to use the smallest data type per your application's needs.

Even if they decided one day to change the data type of "gold" to a long integer, they would have to go through the code, find every routine that uses "gold", and verify there will not be any sorts of conflicts between the different data types. I don't know how their code is structured but I'm sure the very idea would make them cringe at least just a little bit.

I can understand why they made the gold limit. I can understand some pirates are a bit miffed at gold falling to the bottom of the ocean because they've reached the cap. But even if you had the gold, what are you going to do with it?

Okay. I'm done with my programming theory lesson today.

[Aliese]

Originally Posted by Maximvs

This is why I score them a 6.5... they do tend to be giving out more - but these areas should be addressed by now or in very short order.



Before I comment on this one - I agree that many of these were fun I'm also gonna leave Hex out of it for a sec and just go with everything else...

Its funny that the things broken that we enjoyed we call 'glitches' and the things we don't like 'bugs'... but in reality - they are all broken, and need to be fixed. True, its too bad they seem focused on the fixing on the 'harmless' breaks (or what we see has harmless as we have no true idea on what the code is doing to the stability of POTCO) and not addressing the more 'harmful' breaks...

But in the end - its all broken and would need to be fixed. Pirates were never -really- supposed to fly off ships (I think they would call that witchcraft back then LOL ). I know this was a favorite of yours (just a Hex was a favorite of mine - coming up) - but I think its focus was to stop SvS issues - and not directly against us It is a broken issue - it got fixed, lets hope they continue to work on the other issues you've listed.

Okay, I admit - I'm greedy. I don't care if something was intentional or not - if it's fun, don't take it out. Work on it and make it a legit feature, but don't take it out. The flying glitch was a massive happy accident IMO, and considering the TPing (come on, pirates go swirling up into the sky! LoL) and Voodoo usage, they could have explained it and made it work. Have it be a special skill that's unlocked with a quest...something. Just let me fly.

Now for my Hex...

I'm probably the BIGGEST poster here on Hex (if not the biggest - then the most whiny haha! ). I've posted more than once that then fixing Hex was wrong... I've sent in several detailed reports asking them not to fix it... I've logged more than a couple of Blogs of it Here in my profile... but - there is more to it...

I knew Hex was broken. I knew it would have to be fixed one day. Having creatures totally useless allowing me to just beat away at them I knew was not going to last forever. I wouldn't like it if the NPC's could hex me and I could never fight back and just die...

My messages to them were not to fix Hex - UNTIL they had a viable working bullet that allowed an enemy to be 'stunned' for a period of time and if they did revive - allow me to Hex them again.

Though they have done it backwards (took it away before putting in the real method)... on test now the Hex shot is doing just that (abit - its too short at 10 seconds and need to be increased - but it works - we can always push for more now that the code is right)

Changes never come fast enough when we want them - but I have to think change does come (and sometimes we don't want change - but it arrives anyway Thats why since Hex has been changed I've been working on new methods of obtaining my goals - the change (as with many others) have made me try different methods to accomplish the goal

Now - if they just increase it to 20 seconds...

Well, I have the same attitude about hex eater as the "fun" glitches, because I loved it the way it was. The problem was with how they described it - instead of just draining Voodoo, it should have said drained and disabled (period). Yeah, it's unfair and unrealistic and all that, but it's a Disney game. It was easy, and I liked it that way.

It sounds like they're going in the right direction now, but really - how are nades going to work with even 20 seconds? I'll be spending all my time re-disabling each one in the group...

Originally Posted by Sven Niscadae

I'm going to chime in on the money cap of 65k from a programming aspect. 65k is a magic number in programming. It seems to me that Disney used an integer data type to define "gold". An integer's upper limit is 65k (actually 65,535). Why did they pick an integer data type is probably because the most expensive thing you can buy in the game is the War Frigate for 60,000 gold.

So why not make the upper limit higher? The next integral data type available is a long integer that has an upper limit of about 4 million (4,294,967,295). Sure you could set the cap somewhere within that variable but there would be some wasted memory. Even if you don't use the maximum, an application reserves the maximum memory the data type allows for the variable (e.g. int = 32 bits, longint = 64 bits). It's a best practice to use the smallest data type per your application's needs.

Even if they decided one day to change the data type of "gold" to a long integer, they would have to go through the code, find every routine that uses "gold", and verify there will not be any sorts of conflicts between the different data types. I don't know how their code is structured but I'm sure the very idea would make them cringe at least just a little bit.

I can understand why they made the gold limit. I can understand some pirates are a bit miffed at gold falling to the bottom of the ocean because they've reached the cap. But even if you had the gold, what are you going to do with it?

Okay. I'm done with my programming theory lesson today.

Ah, now it makes more sense! However, they could maybe add money "pouches" without changing the data type, right?

[MacIronhawk]

Originally Posted by Aliese

The huge inconsistency in the bug and glitch fixes - they took out seemingly innocent (and very fun) glitches

I will have to point out that anyone who is working on a game doesn't like leaving bugs in their game no matter how "fun" they are for the players.

Of course the POTCO staff is doing a good job. The staff is smaller than most other online games. They could work on content and getting rid of bugs faster but they're doing ok.

I'd like to also point out that if you don't know what it's like to make a game then complaining about adding in things faster and getting rid of bugs seems out of the question. I believe almost none of us here know what it's like to help make an onlnie game.

As far as how much you have to pay monthly, if you don't like paying 10$ a month try paying 80$ a year. It's 40$ cheaper than the 10$ a month for a year.
I also believe that other games charge much more money than what POTCO asks from us.

[Aliese]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

I will have to point out that anyone who is working on a game doesn't like leaving bugs in their game no matter how "fun" they are for the players.

IMO they should at least try to make them legit. If they want to keep people playing, they need to allow players to play the way they want (and in my case, the way I always had), and certainly not knowingly take out things that people like. And think about it - despite the "additions" and "fixes", the game has just gotten quieter and quieter. What they're doing is just not working.

I'd like to also point out that if you don't know what it's like to make a game then complaining about adding in things faster and getting rid of bugs seems out of the question. I believe almost none of us here know what it's like to help make an onlnie game.

While I have not ever created a game, I've certainly played with a ton of code (and didn't even break anything, even on the PS2! LoL). Now, I've never seen what Pirates' looks like, but if it's like any of the other games I've messed with, certain values can be changed really, really easily. Oh, and the clothing deal - I've made new skins for the critters in Zoo Tycoon. Considering the age of the games, Pirates' clothing had better not be more complicated than that.

[ukebec]

I voted no.

They have test servers, but apparently completely ignore the feedback they get from test. I read countless gripes from testers about glitches in test from the last update, and lo and behold, we're all dealing with those glitches now, although they are being slowly corrected.

The game was prematurely launched. I think we all agree on that point. We have a year-old game with one story line. I've never played a MMORPG in my life yet I'm mastered on this one. I'm thinking it should have been delayed on release as to make it more challenging. If a doofus like me can master in the first year...

Disney seems to favor surface over substance - "give them new weapons (which are just glorified versions of what we already have) and dances and they won't notice there's nothing new that's concrete to cling to". Hey...I like new pretties as much as the next gal, but I'd MUCH rather have a new story line and increased caps than a turkey (or dried beef) dinner.

And the curse??? I'm sorry. What the H was the point in that? All flash, no meat. We can all PvP every day, all day. And, if the GMs are to be believed, we're in for another round of it over Thanksgiving weekend. To what purpose? To keep us occupied for a while so we don't notice lack of new content. That's my thinking.

I'm probably just being harsh, but I really think they need to get on the ball and deliver substantial new content ASAP.

[MacIronhawk]

Originally Posted by Aliese

And think about it - despite the "additions" and "fixes", the game has just gotten quieter and quieter. What they're doing is just not working.

I believe they are working.
Most of the updates that have happened in the last two or three months are only happening to stall us.

You don't need to know psychology to figure out that most of these updates are here to keep us excited before the "big update".
I believe most of us have been waiting for a new story quest chapter, am I right? The pirates staff has had more than enough "extra time" during these small updates to be working on the second story quest.
Give the developers some credit. They're a small staff doing their best. Give it another month or two and some "big" changes will probably happen.

[Aliese]

Originally Posted by MacIronhawk

I believe they are working.
Most of the updates that have happened in the last two or three months are only happening to stall us.

I think that's the idea, but that's not what's actually happening (I'm know I'm not the only one still playing despite everything - if it weren't for my guild...). And if anything, the additions to date, for me, have been D crying wolf.

You don't need to know psychology to figure out that most of these updates are here to keep us excited before the "big update".
I believe most of us have been waiting for a new story quest chapter, am I right? The pirates staff has had more than enough "extra time" during these small updates to be working on the second story quest.
Give the developers some credit. They're a small staff doing their best. Give it another month or two and some "big" changes will probably happen.

Well, I don't blame the "devs", because they're not the ones at fault. Mr. Lead Designer or whatever his title was, OTOH... LoL

And as far as a real update goes, I'm not holding my breath. Considering how quiet the game has gotten, I don't see why D would risk putting a lot of time and effort into something big. When SvS came out it D thought it was a big enough deal that they pushed it in commercials and everything, but the novelty seemed to wear off in days. Who knows what'll happen next...

[Harukantos]

Originally Posted by OFxZeppers

Absolutely.

The only criticisms people seem to have are:

1. Lack of content (they are obviously working on this)
2. Inconsistency in moderation/review (Name/Guildname approvals, and application of disciplinary actions)

The first is obviously being worked on. The decision to put POTCO out there early before having developed more content has been an issue. Concerns over competing MMORGs apparently prompted this, however looking at them.. POTCO is in a category by itself when compared. I've played a few of the others, some love them, some hate them. When the games were published has little to do with what games people select to play. Irregardless, big D is working on it, and appears to be listening to us. The confusing part is that they listen to what we complain about, listen to our suggestions to solve it, and then do something entirely different. But with time... even this process may smooth out.

Inconsistency... well this shows there are humans behind the game. This is a fact of life. Overall although a frustration to some, I dont think this is any major issue. Safest pirate game on the net for your kids to play.... guaranteed.


Yes I think they are doing a great job under the circumstance. Keep up the good work Big D.

Pretty much, the game used to be a giant search for enemies, and getting venom, and boring stuff like that. Luckily we're getting a little more action. Although, I wish they'd add smaller things to the game every week or so, so they don't overload themselves with multiple upgrades and jumping to fix one problem and causing another. They're doing good, it's just they're putting way too much against themselves to be anything big.

[Poison elf]

I have to say no, they haven't been doing a good job. Lately they have been at least doing something.

Deciding to do something about Hex shot and some of these things, umm 9 months later, I don't think is a good job.
Not fixing problems and going with a overall solution, not good. Just wonderful trying to hit a grenadier that backs into rocks out of reach. Just so all wall glitches and soldiers at Kings can run through anything.

40's only been downgraded, we can't say we have got a single thing to work further, yup also like 9 months. Thus why some of us see the 250 players that use to be in our guilds, at maybe three now.

People cry for something to go forward, content further on, new stuff.

We get what svs, filled with glitches and degrades because 40's rip everyone up, even if others cheat.

While this is geared to only making level 12 free accounts equal to level 40 payed accounts, there are going to be complaints, and low behold - guilds getting smaller.

You that think some of this a good thing maybe should think again, or why get in a guild that you will soon be talking only to yourself.

People leaving in troves speaks for it self, end of story.

[Andrew]

I would agree with Max. Even with all the problems the game may have, I still think they are doing their best at this game

[Maximvs]

Originally Posted by Aliese

Many of the most common requests have been ignored - upping the notoriety cap, money cap, weapon level caps, bigger closets, etc, etc. All of those should just be simple changes in code. Requests like more real quests, more islands (with actual stuff to do on them), new enemies, etc, would require actual work, and D doesn't seem interested enough to do it.

This is why I score them a 6.5... they do tend to be giving out more - but these areas should be addressed by now or in very short order.

they took out seemingly innocent (and very fun) glitches and not only left many annoying bugs

Before I comment on this one - I agree that many of these were fun I'm also gonna leave Hex out of it for a sec and just go with everything else...

Its funny that the things broken that we enjoyed we call 'glitches' and the things we don't like 'bugs'... but in reality - they are all broken, and need to be fixed. True, its too bad they seem focused on the fixing on the 'harmless' breaks (or what we see has harmless as we have no true idea on what the code is doing to the stability of POTCO) and not addressing the more 'harmful' breaks...

But in the end - its all broken and would need to be fixed. Pirates were never -really- supposed to fly off ships (I think they would call that witchcraft back then LOL ). I know this was a favorite of yours (just a Hex was a favorite of mine - coming up) - but I think its focus was to stop SvS issues - and not directly against us It is a broken issue - it got fixed, lets hope they continue to work on the other issues you've listed.

Now for my Hex...

Changes like the one made to hex eater appeared to have been made to merely slow everyone down in leveling. That's lame.

I'm probably the BIGGEST poster here on Hex (if not the biggest - then the most whiny haha! ). I've posted more than once that then fixing Hex was wrong... I've sent in several detailed reports asking them not to fix it... I've logged more than a couple of Blogs of it Here in my profile... but - there is more to it...

I knew Hex was broken. I knew it would have to be fixed one day. Having creatures totally useless allowing me to just beat away at them I knew was not going to last forever. I wouldn't like it if the NPC's could hex me and I could never fight back and just die...

My messages to them were not to fix Hex - UNTIL they had a viable working bullet that allowed an enemy to be 'stunned' for a period of time and if they did revive - allow me to Hex them again.

Though they have done it backwards (took it away before putting in the real method)... on test now the Hex shot is doing just that (abit - its too short at 10 seconds and need to be increased - but it works - we can always push for more now that the code is right)

Changes never come fast enough when we want them - but I have to think change does come (and sometimes we don't want change - but it arrives anyway Thats why since Hex has been changed I've been working on new methods of obtaining my goals - the change (as with many others) have made me try different methods to accomplish the goal

Now - if they just increase it to 20 seconds...

Originally Posted by Zep

1. Lack of content (they are obviously working on this)
2. Inconsistency in moderation/review (Name/Guildname approvals, and application of disciplinary actions)

As you said in another thread - amen to that brother "Build it and they will come - to play "