Questions by Garrett
Fuller, Industry Relations
style="font-style: italic;">
Answers by David Hunt, Pirates
of the Burning Sea Game
Designer
The fantastic imagery associated with ship to ship combat is incredibly
popular in our modern collective psyche. Judging from the popularity of
movies like Pirates of
the Caribbean and Master
and Commander, the whole world wants to launch out into
the clear blue seas and test their mettle against another
ship’s cannons. The development crew at Flying Lab Software
is
trying to appeal to that sensibility in their upcoming MMOG
style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Burning Sea,
and the Ten Ton Hammer staff was anxious to hear about all the details
concerning ship vs. ship combat in the game. Ten Ton Hammer’s
industry relations specialist, Garrett Fuller, sat down with
PotBS’s David Hunt to discover all the nitty-gritty details
about ship vs. ship combat!
Ten Ton Hammer: Many
players in MMOGs are used to getting their own mount or spaceship when
they play their games. What will it be like to command your own pirate
ship?
border="1">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10302"
title="More ship battles.">
src="/image/view/10302/preview"
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style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the
Burning Sea uses a standard WASD control scheme.
uses a standard WASD control scheme for ship movement, but
that’s where the similarity to most MMOGs ends. Wind-powered
ships have a limited range of movement because they cannot make quick
180 degree turns, and their speed is restricted by the wind. Sailing a
ship is about watching the wind and utilizing it to exploit the
weaknesses of your enemies and take advantage of your strengths. Every
ship has a different set of handling characteristics that determine how
well it sails at the various wind angles.
Ten Ton Hammer: What type
of ship will players get at lower levels? How will players learn how to
captain their own ship?
Players start off as the captain of a 6 gun ship. The specific 6 gun
ship varies depending on the career you choose, but schooners are the
most common ones. We ease players into the sailing mechanics by giving
them weak opponents in the tutorial and first couple missions.
Ten Ton Hammer: Will you
be in command of a crew? How will the AI work so that your crew can
fight or fire cannons on your behalf?
you entering boarding combat, you bring small groups of your crew in
waves to attack or defend against the enemy ship. Your crewmembers
fight alongside you, and it’s possible to give them simple
commands to help direct the fight. As the captain, you determine how
and when to fire your guns. Once you issue the order, the crew carries
out the task and handles the minute details.
Ten Ton Hammer: Obviously
players can upgrade their ships and enhance their statistics. Can you
tell us some of the research that went into creating the types of ships
used in the game?
started with a set of ship models that we contracted from Akella. Since
then, all the ship additions came from our user content community. More
than half of the ship models in the game were created by fans, and the
efforts of the community make Pirates a better game.
Creating a ship is a huge undertaking that starts with proper ship
selection. It’s important to have a good set of time period
appropriate ship plans. Most ship models come from authentic 18th
century plans that were used for real ships. The ship modeler then
builds the ship piece by piece over months, while the community and the
Steering Committee help by providing feedback and guidance. Once the
modeler is satisfied with the project and gets the submission approved
by the Steering Committee, the model gets sent to FLS and we go through
a process to add it to all areas of the game world.
Ten Ton Hammer: Having
your crew board another ship to seems very exciting, but can the
players join the fray with their cutlass waving?
Boarding is an important element of ship combat, and it adds some extra
danger when you’re too close to an enemy ship in PvP. We have
three fighting schools: dirty fighting, fencing and Florentine.
You’ll need to choose dirty fighting if you want to wield a
cutlass!
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10303"
title="The Brits are going to win this battle.">
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style="font-style: italic;">The range of a
ship's guns is extremely important to think about in PvP.
Ten Ton Hammer: Will
cannons have different ranges? Can players purchase specific types of
cannons to arm their ships?
ship gun has a different weight that refers to the size of the shot it
fires. Heavier guns do more damage, fire farther and reload slower.
It’s extremely important to think about the range of your
guns, especially if you have a ship with multiple gun batteries. A
typical frigate will have a main battery of heavy guns and a top deck
battery with lighter guns. That means there’s a range gap in
their effectiveness depending on which sets of guns can hit.
Experienced PvP players learn the different ship load outs and gun
ranges and attempt to maintain a range that will give them a firepower
edge over their opponents.
of shot: round, dismantling and
antipersonnel. Round is the standard, ship-destroying shot type.
Dismantling shot is used for destroying masts and rigging to slow down
the enemy ship. Antipersonnel is used to target the crew to make the
target easier to board and reduce the performance of the ship.
Ten Ton Hammer: How will
ship combat play into PvP? Can players join up to man one ship and work
together in combat?
have two main areas for ship combat PvP. The first is AdHoc PvP that
takes place in the Open Sea. Currently, these battles allow up to 6
players on each side to fight each other. Port battles are the second
area, and they’re massive 24vs24 fleet battles.
player commands their own ship. Pirates was
designed from the start to have players acting as the captain of the
ship. Allowing multiple people to work together on one ship is contrary
to that design, and it doesn’t leave much for the players to
do if they aren’t the captain because they need to wait for
orders.
Ten Ton Hammer: What type
of loot will players get from raiding a ship?
depends on if it’s another player or an AI ship. If you
defeat another player in a PvP zone, then you get to loot the contents
of their hold. If it’s an AI ship, they have a smattering of
different sellable goods, economic goods and outfitting. Since we have
a player-run economy, AI ships will never carry a full cargo hold of
stuff because it would flood the economy. Instead, most of the loot
turns into doubloons.
Ten Ton Hammer: Are there
opportunities where a player can become an admiral and command a fleet?
if the fleet is comprised of players. Nations need to be organized to
win port battles, so there is usually a fleet commander in every
battle. The fleet commander coordinates the ships under his
nation’s flag against the enemy fleet.
player versus developer fleet battle in my devlog,
Waging War
(http://www.burningsea.com/page/news/article&article_id=10360).
I love fleet combat, and it’s a high priority to provide more
opportunities for players to get involved in coordinated fleet battles.
As such, our post-launch plans include a system that allows players to
create their own fleet battles against other societies.
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href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/10299"
title="Blasting the canons at night.">
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style="font-style: italic;">Players have the
ability to command an entire fleet of ships against a common foe.
Ten Ton Hammer: What can
you tell us about ship to ship combat that you are most excited about?
PvP combat. Ship combat is more detailed and tactical than most MMO
combat, but against AIs it often boils down to what players make of it.
That means if you just want to sail next to an AI ship and exchange
broadsides, you can do that but it’s not as fun or as
effective as other methods. Playing in groups against other ships
really requires that you learn and utilize the most advanced tactics.
Every maneuver matters, and it’s an intense experience.
Trying to parallel another player and slug it out is a recipe for
defeat.
Ten Ton Hammer: Finally,
who would win in a pirate sword fight: Johnny Depp or Errol Flynn?
Whoever’s first to realize the sword fight isn’t
going anywhere, and therefore decides to shoot the other guy with a
pistol.
already ventured into the pirate-laden world and engaged in ship vs.
ship combat? What's it like? Did you enjoy it? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=195226#post195226">Let
us know on the
forums!
Ten Ton Hammer is your unofficial source for Pirates of the Burning Sea
news
and articles!
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our Pirates of the Burning Sea Game Page.
