Rhaegar : Good evening everyone and welcome to this Pirates of the Burning Sea Developer Chat, joinly hosted by Coldfront and Burningseacommunity.com. We have Aether, Augustus and Brady here from Flyinglab software. Please PM any questions you have for them to those with a [QT] tag, don't PM the devs.
Rhaegar : Say hello, devs
[FLS]Brady : Hi!
[FLS]Aug : Hello everyone! Taylor Daynes, Lead Designer here
[FLS]Brady : Brady Houck, Game Programmer.
[FLS]Aether : Hello, Troy Hewitt, Community Envoy here.
[FLS]Aug : Brady = combat mastah
Jherid : Question about designing a mission: After having accepted a mission, is it possible that another npc then the original questgiver is spawned and walks towards the player, giving the player additional options in the mission? i.e. the other side giving you a better offer, before you sail out. (and in that way, also changing original mission objectives).
[FLS]Aug : Missions aren't my field of expertise, but I can say that we do have the power to do branching stories in our missions. However... I think we do have the ability to branch the missions like that, so what you describe should be possible. We don't generally make use of that ability because it means that much more work for us (two branches instead of one).
Raam : How goes guild management work? By that I mean, how soon can you start a guild in the game, and are there any requirements at all to make one ?
[FLS]Aug : Right now, our requirements for starting guilds are minimal, and people should be able to set them up very quickly once they are in game. This is an area that we are watching very closely in beta, however, and we'll bump up those requirements if we feel it necessary. Aside from that, guild management at launch will have the standard features, and will get better as we continue development
Ijs : Will you continue to accept user mission ideas after Jan. 1 ? (Assuming it's easier to create a mission after playing the game).
[FLS]Aether : We are actively seeking ways to expand the User Content Program, and including opportunities for players to submit missions strikes me as a solid idea. While there aren’t any hard and fast plans to do that just now, the idea is great, and we will most certainly consider it.
[Xan]Atul : How does the support for player groups work if they are pirates ?
[FLS]Aug : In most ways, Pirates are treated as their own nation... This means that they can group with other pirates the same way British folk can group with other British. We don't forsee any differences in the mechanics for getting into and participating in groups when you are a pirate.
Mopster : Does that mean pirates can't fight eachother ?
[FLS]Aug : Pirate players cannot currently fight other pirate players. We are very interested in allowing dueling, both one on one, and in groups, though, and as soon as that's in EVERYONE will be able to fight each other.
Raam : You have without a doubt discussed future expansions of
the game already. Can you picture an expansion to go beyond the carribean sailing wise, or will expansions rather be land-expansions.. aka melee combat and ground level areas ?
[FLS]Aether : PotBS: Atlantis!
[FLS]Brady : I'm not sure what our plans are for geographic expansion. Everybody is very excited about one day implementing avatar combat both for missions, and for boarding, though.
[FLS]Aug : Rusty is very excited about his plans for the "Asian Seas", so we've definitely talked about expanding the geography, but no set plans.
Cornwall : Question about flags: Has there been any final decision on the use of flags in the game yet? By this I mean how many flags will we be able to fly at a time, and are you assigning importance to one type of flag over another? (ie if only 2 can be flown personal & guild take precedence over national) ?
[FLS]Aug : While flags are *still* not in, we have got some new plans for them our current plan is to allow players to fly one flag on their ship, and this flag is purely aesthetic - it does not impact gameplay at all. So you won't be forced to fly your national ensign when you're in the navy (though many, I imagine, will still want to)
CaptObvious : Followup question: What methods of protection will there be from content on flags that shouldn't be seen ? I'm sure if there's no protection it won't be long until there's something explicit on a flag.
[FLS]Aug : The method currently in place is the combination of peer-review and developer approval. Nothing gets into the game without specific review and approval by devs, to ensure nothing obscene sneaks into the game. That goes for flags, sails AND ships!
[RR]Zach_Smith : How's the navmap coming ? Any new info on that ?
[FLS]Aug : The new nav-map looks great! Personally I like it a lot more than the one that's been seen before... They are fundamentally the same, no revolutionary leaps forward... but you can see the sky and horizon, and the world is much prettier colors - emerald green islands on beautiful sapphire seas... I want to go sail around it now.
FowlPlayChiken : What systems are in place to prevent ship dupeing; i.e., a brit gets a uber heavy frigate and lets all his pirate buddies kill him and take him a-prize so that they can have the same uber heavy frigate ?
[FLS]Brady : There's a couple of ways that a ship of your can be captured. You can lose at baording, or abandon ship. Both of these leave a derelict behind that can be captured. Now, any time you leave a derelict behind you have an effect placed on you. Currently for 48 hours. If you have that effect, all derelicts that you leave behind can not be captured. So only 1 ship of your can be captured per 48 hours.
[RR]DerangedPony : Will there be a central fleet fund (a guild bank account) where members can pool money for their guild ?
[FLS]Aug : Although we don't currently have a guild bank account, it's something we discussed when designing the guild system... And we know it's a feature you guys want, so you can be sure we'll take the first opportunity we get to put guild bank accounts in.
Xaphod : If only one ship per player can be captured per 48 hours, how do you expect to balance that with a pirate who works very hard to win a battle only to find out he can't capture the ship ?
[FLS]Brady : You will be able to see the dereliction effect on the enemy ship, letting you know that it won't be available for capture once it's beaten. Another thing that I forgot ot mention that comes into play here is that if a pirate captures a strong British-only ship, and it sinks, they lose it forever. So you have to be careful.
Also, when you have one of these ships as a pirate, you can be attacked anywhere on the sailing map. So you're marked.
Drbeagle : What is the percentage ratio for the time we spend on land and in ship.
[FLS]Aether : Players are able to really dictate that ratio. There are missions on land, and at sea, and the time is yours to spend as you see fit.
Mackenzie : Will Captains still have the ability to use 'repair items' during combat, or has that been phased out. If so, how will this factor in to the combat? Will crew resources be diverted to repair or will the item automatically fix sail, hull, or whichever specific area it pertains to ?
[FLS]Aug : Repairs! I'll cover this one.
Repairs are handled in two ways. Wise captains have spare parts on hand, to replace bits that have broken... These get applied quickly, and don't divert much of your crew's attention... And then there are skills, for those times when you need something extra, or you're out of spare planks. Skill-based repair is a large crew effort - it takes a lot of your crew's morale, and can't be done very often.
Our goal was to make repair be an important part of combat, but not make it so that victory goes to the guy with more potions.
[^]zippy : Question: what benifets from capturing ports are there, and also there opertunities for pirates to own/catpure land ?
[FLS]Aug : Ports are the places where you get missions, stock up on supplies, buy cool outfitting and trade commodities... So losing a port to the enemy makes it difficult to get your hands on those things. And getting a port FROM your enemy can give you access to ships and outfitting that you couldn't get to before.
As for pirates...
They can "raid" towns, but we currently don't plan on allowing them to conquer and hold territory.
Raam : How many ships can you own at any one time? And do each ship have an upkeep cost regardless if you use it or not ?
[FLS]Brady : You start out being able to keep 3 ships in drydock as well as your current ship. It's possible to expand the size of your garage, though there isn't anything in the game yet that does that. There isn't any upkeep cost right now for having a ship in drydock.
FowlPlayChiken : What systems are in place to prevent port-pong? i.e. ownership bouncing back and forthfrequently as it does during Player Controlled Station combat in eve ?
[FLS]Aug : Ports take a *minimum* of 3 days to capture, so while it's possible a port may pretty much always be in contention... It's not going to ping-pong more quickly than 3 days. And really, if that's the way the navies want to play it, that's fine with us!
[RR]Zach_Smith : How are long range crippling shots handled ? Will there be a chance(very slim, but still one) that a lucky shot hits a mast and breaks it ? Or will there be some skill resembling the rudder one but for masts ?
[FLS]Brady : This has changed back and forth over the many iterations of the combat system (2 of which I'vewritten), but no, there are not lucky shots like what you describe. The ammo system is very flexible though, and there could potentially be an ammo type that is not accurate but deals a huge amount of damage to masts when it does hit.
Ocat : Question about pirates and PvP, will pirates not miss out on a big thing if they cant capture land ?
[FLS]Aug : We think pirate raids are going to be really cool.
...
Seriously though, our goal is to make the pirate experience different, but just as cool as the national experience. That IS a big challenge, but we're trying hard to make sure that pirates aren't just the Spanish with better clothes.
scaryberry : National Attributes that balance out the navies, like WoW's racials ?
[FLS]Aug : Our goal is to have national differences, but for them to be subtle.
Subtle also helps with the balance issues you end up with any time you try to introduce differences
We're going to try to let history inspire us on those differences, but no promises.
Mackenzie : As a Captain progresses and moves on to larger ships, will the npc enemies he fights in missions be smarter, or will they just increase in size and number ?
[FLS]Brady : There's a lot I could say about this one... The answer is yes, they will sometimes be smarter. The challenge is that a smarter enemy isn't always the funnest to compete against. There's conflict between using good tactics and pressing the action. One of my big remaining tasks is AI personality tuning. I hope to have a wide range of AI skill levels in there that we can use, but also throw in AIs that will press the action and be "exciting".
Curmudgeon : In the 45 minute sail from Tampico to Barbados, how many NPC encounters do you expect a player to have ?
[FLS]Aug : How many NPC encounters do you want?
We're still open to tweaking the scale of the world based on beta feedback, but to a large extent it's up to you. On a trip that long, I'd expect at least 3 forced encounters - pirates or warships that spot you and chase you down...
But if you WANTED to get in fights, you could probably have as many as you want.
And if you don't like being chased down by pirates, you should do a better job running
[JoL]Philchow ( ) : Because of the ticket lottery system, is there anything planed (like special event, etc) for guilds to take part in final harbor battles instead of pick-up groups ?
[FLS]Aug : The lottery ticket system doesn't currently support guilds very well, but rest assured that we are VERY interested in ways to support guilds in these RvR battles. I have my plans, but for now, they will have to remain secret.
Xaphod : Do you feel that the fact that the development team has been so open with the community has led to the final product being better than were it all decided behind closed doors ?
[FLS]Aether : From my vantage point, as a relatively new member of the team, I can tell you that PotBS fans are crucial partners in the development process. While not every idea will make it to the drawing board, every idea is given careful consideration. In some cases, our fans have come up with solutions and approaches that were more ingenious than our own. The transparent process allows the community to actively participate in the checks and balances aspect of game development. Without that input, the game most certainly would suffer.
[FLS]Aug : You guys have always been great. Your enthusiasm has kept us afloat, and your ideas and feedback have inspired and guided us the whole way through. I guess that's just speaking for myself, though
One of the biggest things (and it's on the forefront of my mind right now) is the user-created ships. We thought that would be asking too much, but certain members of the community pushed on it anyway, and look where we are today!
[FLS]Brady : It's very cool to have a mechanism to get feeback from fans of the game. Any other game that I've worked on, the dev team has been completely in a bubble. It great to get not only the suggestions, but also the sense of anticipation for the game that's out there.
Curmudgeon : I don't expect you to say which ones but have you incorporated any of the community's suggestions into the game ?
[FLS]Aug : Yes, we definitely incorporate the feedback you guys offer. No specifics though... Except for support ships.
zippy : Question: there going to be patrolled trade routes and shortcuts for the more adventurous ?
[FLS]Aug : We hope so.
If you guys are patrolling the sea lanes, then yes! There will certainly be NPC traders and warships out there too, if that's what you were getting at. And if you venture off into the wilderness... You're likely to be on your own
FowlPlayChiken : What systems are in place to deal with players logging out during combat ?
[FLS]Aug : If a player logs off in the middle of combat, their ship remains in the world getting pounded on. The ship won't leave the world until it's out of combat, and since you're not fighting back, that's likely to be when you sink.
If it as an accidental disconnect, you can log back in to that combat, though. Just be quick about it.
Xaphod : Are there any plans to open avatar components - clothing, hats, heads, and so on - up to user content in the future ?
[FLS]Aether : As we said earlier in the chat, we are really committed to expanding the User Content Program beyond ships, sails and flag design. The intention is to include things like clothing, weapons, jewelry, etc. Isildur, Augustus and myself have bandied around ideas for managing that process, and we are including members of our Steering Committee to help guide that process as well. You can expect to see regular and frequent updates on our progress with that. So in short, erm.. yes.
CaptObvious : How much of the game's events (trading, combat, missions etc) will be logged on the client side ? I'm a bit of a programmer and I like to write little utilities for games - in EVE the combat was logged minimally, but utilities still sprang up to parse the logfiles and provide statistics etc - will that be possible with PotBS ?
[FLS]Brady : I can speak for the combat part of the game at least. There is an enormous amount of logging that goes on for the combat. Until recently it was default to have this on in the chat window. During playtest all you would see was combat log messages. Basically the results of every shot fired. I imagine it will be much the same with those other areas of the game. This should also be available in a text file.
Curmudgeon : Are there mangroves in the game yet ?
[FLS]Aug : You're going to love one of the capital cities.
Mackenzie : Close to two years ago there was a lot of discussion around local religions like black magic and voodoo. What can we expect as far as local culture is concerned? Also, will the slave trade be included in the varied stories ?
[FLS]Aug : Great question! It really gets at the heart of reality vs. fun
We don't plan on involving the slave trade in any way. At all. But as far as religion goes, I can say that we've already got Catholic priests in the game and while we're still not planning on having magic, I'm not going to discount the possibility that voodoo and other local religions might creep in. Voodoo is just so cool
CaptObvious : Okay, and that's a wrap guys and gals - thank you all for coming and special thanks to Aether, Augustus and Brady for joining us here tonight. The log of this devchat will be posted on
http://potbs.coldfront.net and
http://burningseacommunity.com shortly. Adios!
[FLS]Aug : Thanks everyone! And especially to The Burning Sea Community, and Coldfront - you guys were great hosts and organizers. Thanks so much!
[FLS]Brady : Thanks everyone. That was cool.
[FLS]Aether : Alright folks, I'm stepping out. Have a great weekend!
[FLS]Aug : Well gang, I need to go and do some Christmas shopping! So cheers, and have a very merry Solstice.
14/12/2005, 02h22
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