Game Reforms!

[Tiberius Fireskull]

Time for ol' Davy to say something to this thread! I've seen a lot of good points thrown around on this thread, from various perspectives. Before I go on, you should all take into account that there aren't very many situations that are one definite answer. Remember how many factors need to be taken into account for things, such as choosing whether or not to give basics more freedom or prioritizing bug fixes over new content. Anyway, onto some quoting. It isn't really in any particular order. Just picking some posts and quoting.

I have been privateering for almost tow years, i have heard other players, and it's possibly the main and only thing keeping me to play POTCO. SvS in Andaba, Is so dramatic dues to bounty porting/running..., so much hatred goes on there which is sad considering a game and almost all want to see a change for the better there.

I do agree with the others... as for Bounty Porting, people should be able to do it. It is their ship and they should be able to do something with it. And if something comes up and they need to log out, well, not everyone trusts their ship with others. I know I don't, unless its friends or guildmates. I think people should be able to port with their bounties... but how about instead of the Bounty going POOF!, it is given to the person who has the next best score? Let's say the Shadow King has a score of 1000 and a bounty of 500. The Shadow King decides to port with all their bounty. The Dark Phoenix has a score of 900, right behind the Shadow King, and a bounty of 300. When The King ports, its bounty (or at least a good chunk of it) is passed on to the Phoenix. This makes it so that the bounty stays in play, but is just moved.

As for running... honestly, it does get annoying, but I think that people should be able to run. Perhaps I could see some sort of boundary, but not a tiny one. It would probably stretch from Tortuga to Devil's to Kingshead or something. That way you don't have Privateer Battles at Raven's Cove. As for those that have all the hatred: its just immature on their part.

As for the Leadership, depends how you use the skill. Leadership is supposed to help make skills recharge faster when you need them quick, but if you use leadership and you use the skill instantly right after you get it, it fails...If a player uses Leadership to make their skills recharge faster then the sailing skills: full sail, ramming speed, take cover etc will FAIL if used directly after they recharge.

While I don't usually encounter this with Leadership, it happens to me A LOT with all the other skills, especially Full Sail, Open Fire, and Ramming Speed. This doesn't bug me so much in SVS (then again, I don't SvS regularly) as it does in casual sailing. If I'm sailing to escape a Bounty Hunter right on my tail and my Ramming Speed doesn't work, chances are I'll get a full broadside and take some heavy damage. This is a must fix, I agree.

Basics - IDK whats hard to understand. Maybe define the word discouragement. I leave my personal info out but i will say that i work in business and looking at Disneys strategy to lure basics into becoming unlimited is just not good enough and is currently failing. I have heard that they did fire a few workers in the POTCO staff...

This is an interesting topic... again, there are many things to take into account. While basics should have enough to get a taste of the game, you want them to be limited enough to want unlimited. I am quite neutral on this, actually. But if I were to pick a side, perhaps they could give them just a bit more. Maybe instead of limiting them to crude items, limit them to weapons with X attack or less. Add in the Light Frigate... hardly any Unlimited access players use it anyway. Allow them to get to level ten on the weapons they DO have, but they cannot use weapons that require level 9 or 10. Other than those, I'd say leave it as is. Quests are fine, and shouldn't be altered. Same with weapons they can use.

Like i have said, This came is currently in critical condition(not because of my post) and no one can argue that! Everyone can see it and by the look of it the game is headed downhill as of lately!

While I can see where you're coming from, there are again many factors to take into account. I won't try to argue you, because you may be right, but I would really like to see specific reasoning as to why you think this.

*Make 3-5 separate servers for SvS only. in these servers, everything would be there such as Port Royal, Padres, Tortuga, etc however no player can go to them and they would look foggy like Ravens Cove did in the beginning (this should take basic programming and graphics therefore result in less lag). When you teleport to these servers, you will arrive to French or Spanish Isle depending on which island you were last time.

In this case, they should add a few more SVS isles. Otherwise we'd have a huge map with only a small part of it being used.

*Make 3-5 servers with ONE BIG PVP island. Unlike in SvS, In these Servers, the entire Map should be gone with the other islands, No NPCs, etc. There Would be just ONE PVP island and pirates fighting for themselves and respawn after dying - simple.

I say that we have a few islands that are PVP, with one that is a regular island with places for people to restock ammo. That way there are more maps to explore and battle in. When they respawn it should be in a simple area that is inaccessible to fighters, so you don't have "spawn killers."

*Pirates can get in these servers only by logging in and can get out only by logging out. This is to reduce drama, no teleporting when in battle, and no interfering of friends/guildies when fighting. etc

I say just being able to get in and out of the servers by being in a certain area of the server. Having to log in and out is too much of a hassle, and isn't really necessary.

*ONLY 40+ LEVELS CAN LOG INTO THESE SERVERS. This is for fairness in respect to the fights between pirates and to encourage players to level up. This would also encourage low levels to level up and be a reward to veteran player and pirates for achieving level 40+.

There should just be several servers instead, each one allowing a different level set. As for the motivation, there should instead be less islands in the lower level map and more islands (meaning more maps to explore) in the higher level maps. Perhaps even throw in a few enemies on the maps to be another obstacle. That wouldn't hurt.

Now onto things without quotes:

Lag was brought up. I agree wholeheartedly when I say that the developers need to fix the lag. I know nothing about computer programming, but from what I have heard it is that they have very Out of Date hardware (software too, perhaps) and don't have their servers very "modernized" and whatnot to make them perform better. They are running the game on servers that are designed to run on computers that existed four years ago. I may be wrong. This is what I am assuming.

I've seen a bit about how Cuba should be redone. I am neutral to this, but it wouldn't hurt. I at least would like them to add a minimap to Cuba and the other islands that don't have one. If they did redo Cuba, I could easily see it looking like a town that is a bit dumpy, with a nice and bad side, and then a part that's half submerged in the swamp. Again, I really could care less about what they did with Cuba.

Back to some more quoting. I realize I haven't covered everything.

*Swift Foot Glitch/Potion Glitch- Pirates have the ability to drink many swift foot potions allowing them to run super fast and jump very high. Uncertain if this happens with other potions. In many cases this causes lag...

This glitch should be fixed, but I don't think it should be a priority one to fix. There are other ones that are more harmful to player's game play than this one.

*Enemies Disappear - If enemies are attacked with a doll, or or other long range weapons, they will follow you however sometimes they just disappear going inside walls, underground, etc.

YES. YES YES YES YES YES. YES. This must be fixed! When I go to level at Tormenta bridge it gets VERY annoying when a Kelpbrain falls off a cliff and attacks me from the bottom, where I cannot see or hit him. Even worse are those Spineskulls that never seem to disengage. This is a huge problem with grenade using enemies, as they try to keep away from you so they have space to throw their 'nades. This is a must fix. It honestly cannot be that hard.

*Boarding Permission fail - Boarding permission is a total failure as players can can TP to other players on a ship even if ship is closed to friends, guilds, etc.

Agree. It should be fixed.

*In-wall Movement - Players can find certain spots to go inside walls, isles for sometimes to level, go to places etc. I know a lot of players do like this however i believe that POTCO should be glitch free as the game it self would be better that way.

I do agree with you that getting rid of these would help make POTCO a glitch free, shiny game, but it is again one of those glitches they don't need to prioritize. At least players are able to use it for something descent (getting to Darkhart, for example). Fix the ones that harm players first. This is a pretty innocent glitch. And if they fix it, they should make an easier way to get to Darkhart. Going through the Quarry and El Sudoron gets tiring.

*Pirate ship bumping - It's simply annoying and sometimes even makes you quit sailing for the time. Pirate ships bump into other ships and push them sometimes far resulting in total mess(especially in svs). There should be some smooth movement when ships contact each other.

Yes, the contact should be a bit smoother. Sometimes I have other ships inside my War Frigate when they crash into me. It is annoying. I've heard others say that it should do damage, but just imagine the wondrous griefing that would cause. I go sailing on my quite damaged ship with full royals, along comes a griefer and he rams me, sending me and my royals to the depths.

*Going through pirates - The developers removed the coin flip due to the fact that it was being used for inappropriate actions however i find that very invalid for an excuse because it was the developers who opened the door for pirates to do that when pirates could go through pirates resulting in many inappropriate actions.

We should be able to go through each other. If we couldn't, imagine a crowded invasion, a GM event, Abassa Tortuga, a guild party, etc. It just doesn't work out. Instead, make it so that if you are doing an emote, you get your personal bubble back. Otherwise people can go through you. That will not solve everything, but it will greatly minimize things.

1. Bring back being able to see the opponents/friends on their ships. IT'S MORE FUN, MORE REALISTIC, AND BETTER GAME PLAY!

Grape shot was fun in SVS when that still was in game. They should make the game less laggy first, though. As DP said, it will generate a lot more lag (more things in one area will take up more physical memory on your computer, which can lead to bad performance if it is bad enough). I do want this back though. It was fun giving a little shout out to a pirate that just saved you from a ship that was going to sink you. Or telling them to let you be if they are stealing your kills. Off-topic, but I remember a time I was leveling cannon (parking ship and shooting at enemies) and a light galleon pulls up and the guy on board starts spamming me crew requests (there was no time where you had to wait after someone declines). After I told him to let me be several times, a Storm Reaper I was going to shoot at sunk him. Good times.

2. New skills - This should be required because there has been no new skills since the release of POTCO. It is not very hard to think of new skills because you can ask any player and they will give great ideas...shouldn't be hard for the developers. New skills could also be released to be gained after finishing quests for all weapons...

Yes. This also gives more motivation for people to go all the way to level thirty weapons. Perhaps also when you master your weapon, you get a quest to get a "super skill" which is a very powerful move. Or perhaps you can choose a certain move. Either way, more skills would be nice. At least two per weapon. I wouldn't mind a Hex Eater Grenade.

3. NEW STORY QUESTS - very necessary. It does not matter if it's with the Kraken, as along as it's a quests with a great ending event and the quest is as long OR longer than the first story with the Pearl.

I agree. We have been waiting a long time for another Story Chapter and haven't gotten it. We should get another good Story Chapter. Raven's Cove is a story quest, but not a Story Chapter, for those of you that keep insisting it is. And if it was a Story Quest, it was a pathetic one, size-wise. We should also get more smaller quests that will offer rewards such as gold, rep, skills, clothing, etc.

6. Ship Customization - It's a pirate MMORPG! Not every pirate should have the same ship design with the same sails, figureheads, flag(not that we have one), deck, cannons, etc. Perhaps also adding new ships such as Schooner, Corvette, Brigantine, Barque, etc. which could be in light, normal or war based similar to the current ship levels now. This also should be required!

Yes please. It would be nice for players to be able to pick their own figurehead, masts, sails, hull color, etc. Perhaps they could even give the ship certain skills based on what they give. For example, Figurehead A gives a broadside boost. Figurehead B gives a Hull Boost. This would be nice. It's probably going to come with new ships, which may come soon (I hope).

8. Guild Features - This includes a Guild Bank that the guild master and the officers buy. A guild message board. And a guild hall for guild meetings.

Guild Halls I don't care too much about, but I think the Bank and Message board would be nice. I don't feel like going into detail, but they could have some sort of limits based on your rank in the guild (ex., Members/Veterans can only withdraw X amount of gold per week; You must be a veteran or up to post on the message board). It would be quite nice for guilds to have this. The one problem is that then certain people wouldn't have to really gain gold anymore. As in, Bob Joe doesn't need to save up for his War Frigate because there is already 100,000 gold in the guild bank. He just needs to get permission to take some out of it.

9. Infamy Should be harder to attain by getting less points from sinking ships/killing pirates or increasing the maximum number of points to get to the next infamy level. Example: from captain to commodore - 2000, from Commodore to vice Admiral - 3000, From Vice admiral to Admiral, 5000 points.

The Infamy points are fine. Most people have a hard time getting past level three Infamy. Best to leave it as is.

That is my two (hundred) cents on this thread. If you read the whole thing, I will buy you rum.

[leo]

Originally Posted by Davy Fireskull

That is my two (hundred) cents on this thread. If you read the whole thing, I will buy you rum.

Wheres my rum? ,Sorry off topic.

I like the pvp idea and the bounty idea passing to the next high scorer. Or maybe perhaps the last person they fought...and of course If svs got it's own servers, a new team or more ships on each side would be necessary.

[Captain Jorden]

Here's what needs to be fixed.

-The phantom spirit glitch (where you drink phantom spirits, dance than walk off your ship. Although it is fun)
-Swiftfoot glitch (drag swiftfoot to drink potion. Than quickly right click to drink another swiftfoot potion.)
-tortuga flying and underground glitch.
-port royal empty fort Charles glitch/ underground glitch.
-tormenta rock glitch.
-Padres shortcut to black hart.
-jumping/PvP glitches (Potco tried to fix the PvP glitch but pirates keep finding another way. Sometimes it gets you to The island!!!
-Ravens Cove shortcut to El Patrons Mine. (useful to people who don't have key).
-Galleon/War Frigate inside glitch.
-Not on public, but a person could get on your ship.
-Staff glitches(fire skull is the only one I know)

-Kingshead and fort Charles flying glitch.
-disconnected glitch


That's pretty much all bugs/glitches I know. I think theres more that needs added to this list.

[akamystic]

Jumping is high on the list for me. The squeaky wheel gets the oil. Keep submitting feedback in game and via Disney web site.

[leo]

NPC ships need to stop attacking SvS ships because it's just annoying. They should attack only if attack first... The whole SvS area needs to be cleared from any NPC ships. There is always a navy Man O'War by Spanish island and a couple of other ships that at random times appear between the islands. This also seems to just increase the lag more.

[Ice_Storm]

I sent the link to this thread as feedback to make sure the development team can see what the community thinks about the game's current state and what needs to be improved on.

This game has a lot of potential, I believe that.

[akamystic]

I truly believe many of the new items in the game came from the end users asking for it. Some items are out of our control and some of the game changes could solely be based on the development team.

I remember all the complaints about inventory, gold cap, more islands, more quests, more weapons etc. Well we got all of the above. Some things obviously cause major glitches and take more time to be implemented. Some items may never come to the game.

However, we.... as the paying users have to submit feedback. I even called support last night with questions and feedback. I am certain it is taken into account. Strength in numbers.

[MacIronhawk]

I will be fearful of this game's survival until something as big as a second story quest along with a Kraken boss battle are delivered.

Minor updates are fine and ship customization would be great but we need something to keep us busy. More islands are useless without quests and new quests are useless without new islands. I'm sure the developers will come through eventually but I fear the game will go down hill unless a second story quest is released before or during the fifth year anniversary.

[leo]

I have to say, POTCO has always had very bad lag problems but tonight, it was just sad.
~About 5 second delay to get on cannon/wheel, or take out a weapon
~5 seconds until damage shows up
~Skills are full yet a red message says not ready yet
~Freezing and jumping ships everywhere, both pirates and NPC ships
~skills take about 5 secs to go in effect after pressed
~runtime error after about 90 minutes
~skills failing
~REPAIR GLITCHED NOT FIXED EVEN AFTER THEY ANNOUNCED IT FIXED

Right now i think it's just ridiculous and disappointing the way the developers, Disney and whoever are in charge working on POTCO and the way its problems are being treated. You may call me a hard critic but when it comes to statistic with potco it is really just a sad story. It was released almost 4 years ago and yet 4 years of work, and still so many problems that have existed since the beginning...I think someone who has no experience in computers would of found a solution at most of these problems of just observing, learning and developing skill on the way for 4 YEARS. Or at least would of asked someone better skilled on game developing to help or work with it. They really need to step up their work in fixing first and adding later as the game is just plainly becoming a big disappointment and the developers work is becoming more problematic than fun to play. They have yet to completely fix ONE single bug or problem. In no other game, have i seen or heard history repeat so much as in POTCO regarding problems such as lag, delays, game closures(unannounced), unfixed bugs, etc. Enough is enough and POTCO has over-passed the limit a long time ago and I am not sure why are so many bugs are not being treated when they are so clearly noticeable...and so many players(many being old loyal and veteran players) are reporting them, asking them to be fixed and telling hem that there needs to be more fixing than more content as of NOW!

Another thing that is sad about the POTCO workers is that every time you tell the the game is laggy, they always say it's your computer(which i see as an invalid excuse)...when clearly I know my computer is more than good for POTCO and it's everyone who is experiencing these problems...again, a big disspaointment from the developers also considering it's a P2P game.

Problems above are not just in SvS but problems i continue to find everywhere but are really becoming a pain(for me) mainly in svs.

This was yesterday after 100+ ships in a row and eventually lead to me sinking...

[ruisen2000]

I mailed them the link to this thread, got a copy and paste message (without the extra input they sometimes give about your idea).
Wouldn't be surprised if the gm back there just hit the "delete" button...

[akamystic]

I certainly hope that's not how they handle feedback. They know about this Forum.... and they also know a nice % of their paying members are registered users. Not to mention the non-forum members that view threads for info.

Without paying users the game would either go free with pay for items as others have or cease to exist. Unfortunately I think it would be the second of the two. They need all of our feedback..... Via email, chat, in game and phone. So long as we are paying, we have every right to tell them what we want and how we feel.

Many new products and updates (regardless of what it is) are based on what the consumer wants.

[leo]

Disney did a server reset today( the 25th) which reduced lag a lot compared to yesterday and days before that. Though it did not fix any bugs and npc ships were still skipping in all servers(a little less now), it did help with lag a lot and i think they should do this regularly such as every 3 days or every week...since the developers don't seem to have any permanent solution as of now and this is a reoccurring problem in POTCO.

[leo]

Here is a visual message for players but mainly for the POTCO developers so they may fix as many bugs as possible ASAP.
http://www.piratesonlineforums.com/f...082#post346082

Bugs shown in the video

LAG/DELAYS - #1 PRIORITY THAT NEEDS TO BE FIXED
Boarding Permission
Leadership Fail
Swift Foot Glitch
Player friend list bug
Wild Enemies
NPC ships in SvS
Green announcements

POTCO is a great game with a lot of potential however it is also full of bugs, glitches and other technical issues. The developers need to start hearing the players as we ask for these problems to be solved and then move onto new content. Every time some new content has been added, some new bug or glitch has been added with it as well. The developers also need to leave new content in test server for a longer time for a better result in live instead of rushing and creating buggy content.

Players! You can also help in the game by avoiding the use of bugs/glitches/cheats/hacks completely or minimize their use as much as possible. This way the game may run more smoothly for all.

It seems as lag and delays caused by POTCO and not by the players is the #1 priority in the game to fix followed by other bugs, technical issues, glitches and new content. I noticed in multiple threads and forums that whenever there is talk(between players) about some new content, lag(and other issues) worries the players because it might worsen(since it's already bad). That is just wrong and disappointing(on Disney) because players do not even have the power to fix lag and other problems because it's the developers job to produce and develop a good gaming environment.

These are just a few of the bugs in POTCO shown in detail that need to be fixed by the developers. POTCO STAFF AND DEVELOPERS, PLEASE WORK IN FIXING WHATS IN THE GAME BEFORE ADDING NEW CONTENT OR PLEASE FIX AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE WHEN ADDING NEW CONTENT AND LEAVE NEW CONTENT LONGER IN TEST FOR A BETTER RESULT IN LIVE.

[kat truewalker]

Excellent video.

[mikhailskills]

just thought i would clear something up.....Jumping in pvp isnt a glitch. all your doing is jumping.

now SWIFT FOOT Glitch in pvp. yes that needs to be fixed.