Pirates of the Burning Sea

[thehalveric]

 

• Ship Gameplay- My initial thoughts on ship-to-ship combat was that it was visually stunning, but mechanically crude and imbalanced. For instance, when you’re in Ship Combat mode your ship has a little halo around it which shows the current direction of the wind and the best points of sailing for your particular ship.

Comments

[princeps]

Friends and loved ones? Where is my credit! Who got you the key!

[thehalveric]

You did, of course. But I also wanted to give credit to Learsfool and Kevin who walked to folks at the PAX con and spoke to the game devs on my behalf. Apparently these guys are based in Seattle!

[princeps]

Now everyone has been mentioned! Good. Right. Indeed.

[halaku]

Thank you. This review alone put the game on my list of things to do.

[thehalveric]

I'm definitely going to buy it when it comes out. I love the genre, so all the little details do nothing but endear me to the game. Plus there's the fun of increasingly large ships. So far the biggest I've handled was an 18-gun brigantine, although I find the sloops more handy.

The brig had two stern-chasers which made me try it out, and had all 7lb cannons (I was dealing with 5s and 6s before) but it sailed like a bucket of shit. I went back to my sloop and am happier now.

Partial downside to the ship-choosing process: you can't sell a ship you're done with. All you can do is trash it to make room for new ones. You can keep four ships at any given time, but you never get a partial refund on materials. I believe they're going to put a system into place where you can strip a ship of useful bits for later crafting.

[halaku]

I'd hope so.

Though, what would be as sweet if not sweeter would be the ability to capture (instead of sink) another's ship, and then strip it...

[thehalveric]

If you're a member of the pirate nation, you get to convert captured ships into Deeds which you can then convert back into personal ships to sail. The pirates are the only ones who get this kind of direct return on captures.

Downside: you rarely ever fight a ship that's an "upgrade" to you. otherwise you tend to lose. I'm not sure if you can toss the deeds on the Auction House, but if you can I suspect the Pirate Nation is filthy with cheap ship upgrades.

[scaryblackdeath]

This game played a critical role in enabling my relocation from SoCal to Seattle.

Funny how things finally shake out.

[regohemia]

Ah, it does my heart well to read you talking piratey type things.
Glad you've been enjoying it. :)

-Me