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1.4: Cutthroat (Pirate) Skills! |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Wednesday, 07 May 2008 |
Taelorn has posted the last of the new devlogs talking about skill changes in 1.4, this one about the Cutthroat, the new name for the current Pirate class:
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A lot of the cutthroat changes were aimed at skill order and acquisition instead of new skills, since they already have so much functionality. The old skullduggery chain is gone, although some of the skills still exist. Due to the addition of the Buccaneer, Cutthroats now have the same number of skills as other careers. The two careers are intended to work together with complimentary abilities to compete on even terms against national groups. The removed skills were generally tiered skills and redundant skills. Were trying to move all the important Cutthroat functionality into a more condensed list, thereby providing more options with the same skill selection. This is harder to quantify, but important.
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Impromptu Dev Chat on #burningsea - CHAT LOG |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Monday, 05 May 2008 |
Taelorn is discussing the 1.4 skill changes in #burningsea on irc.coldfront.net - RIGHT NOW.
Now it's over.. click read more to read the log! |
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Read more...
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1.4: Introducing The Buccaneer |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Monday, 05 May 2008 |
Taelorn has posted another new devlog today, this time talking about the new Pirate class, The Buccaneer:
Up to this point, Ive talked about a lot of the changes that are happening to existing careers and all the new stuff theyre getting. Now its time for something thats completely new: the Buccaneer pirate career. Existing pirates will become Cutthroats, since the generic pirate is no longer applicable.
Our current career landscape is one that destined for imbalance. The game has changed a lot since pirates were created, and they need to fill a role in the Conquest endgame. A single, solo-emphasized career works great when pirate mechanics arent part of the overall war, but it doesnt lend itself to group PvP. Ive got a soft spot for solo PvP, but that doesnt mean we can ignore the group PvP necessity and the associated balance implications.
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Introducing a new career allows us a great deal of flexibility in how we approach the future balance of the game. Yet as much as I talk about balance, thats not the main motivation – this is about fun. We want to introduce a new play style and improve the overall situation of the pirate nation, in a way thats good for pirates and nationals alike.
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...the Buccaneer is an advanced career that focuses on taking advantage of the moment. Its not the career you want to jump into when you havent played the game before.
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Buccaneers cannot capture ships – thats an ability thats only available to Cutthroats. However, they can use captured ship deeds. Scavenge is given to Buccaneers for free as their version of Claim Prize at level 5.
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Introducing a whole new career is bound to be a controversial move, but from the sound of things they're coming at this from the right direction. |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Monday, 05 May 2008 |
Taelorn has posted a new devlog talking about upcoming changes to the Freetrader in 1.4!:
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Freetraders are in a unique position right now. Nobody can survive as long as an FT and they can excel in different areas. They have a moderate amount of combat strength, but it can be difficult to tap into that strength. Theres a definite limbo in FT effectiveness. We approached the Freetrader by giving them some new functionality (stealth, a strong attack debuff) and changing how two of their skill chains are used.
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
Taelorn has posted a new devlog talking about skill changes to the Privateer class for 1.4:
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One of the common complaints about Privateers is that they have skill options they want to take, but they are forced to invest in paths they dislike to get a specific skill. Sanctioned Piracy is the usual culprit. Now, Sanctioned Piracy is a free skill that Privateers receive at level 15. We've also done some restructuring and adjustments to make more chains viable.
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Devlog: Revisiting Point-a-Pitre |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Friday, 02 May 2008 |
Fraxl has posted a new devlog talking about Point-a-Pitre:
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We’ve been waiting a long time to send Point-à-Pitre into the live game. The towns in our game are great, but we see so much more possibility in them. This is why we made Tortuga and Point-à-Pitre. Sometimes though, we let our enthusiasm for the cool things our art and content teams can do eclipse the best possible game design. When that happens we listen to our players and make changes based on their feedback, which is what we’re going to do now.
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Devlog: The Harrassment Policy. |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Wednesday, 30 April 2008 |
Aether has posted a new devlog talking about Flying Lab's new Harrassment Policy for Pirates of the Burning Sea:
Recently, we’ve participated in several discussions asking us to clarify our policies on harassment, or griefing, and how that policy is enforced both on our forums, and in our game world. In a perfect world, we could distill the expectations we have of our customers to one simple statement: “Don’t be a jerk”.
Unfortunately, it isn’t as simple as that...
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1.4: Naval Officer Skills |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Wednesday, 30 April 2008 |
Taelorn has posted a new devlog talking about changes to the Naval officer skills in 1.4!
Removing all of the tiered skills has major ramifications for Navy because they have so many in 1.3. All of these skills are going the way of the dodo: Requisition Berth, Defender 1, Desperate Shot 1, For God & Country 1, Perfect Discipline, Fortress 1, Thundering Broadside 1, Speed Increase 1, Reload Discipline 1 and Military Intelligence 1.
That means Naval Officers are getting numerous new skills. Expect to see changes / renames / etc. before these go live. Once this update hits, there arent any other major changes planned for skills. Upcoming changes will be adjustments based on how these changes play...
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Underdog Tool Adjestments For 1.3 |
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
Quite a few people have been vocal about how the underdog tools are impacting the servers now that they have merged. In answer, Taelorn has posted a new devlog talking about it:
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In light of this, 1.3 includes changes to the underdog tools. There’s a significant reduction to the amount of unrest alteration based on ranking. Here are the changes to the values:
1st: Defensive Unrest +20% -> +5%
3rd: Offensive Unrest +15% -> +5%, Defensive Unrest -15% -> -5%
4th: Offensive Unrest +35% -> +10%, Defensive Unrest -35% -> -10%
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Written by Robert "Xaphod" Goforth
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Tuesday, 29 April 2008 |
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There's an interface bug introduced in 1.3 that prevents you from selecting anything other than your default server. Click on 'read more' for a workaround |
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Read more...
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