by
Gavin Irby, Mission Designer for Pirates of the Burning Sea



One of the new pieces of content that we’ve created for 1.3
is repeatable group missions for port conquest. We wanted to give
players of all levels the chance to participate in group-oriented
content to generate or reduce unrest so they could more easily
participate in the PvP game. For the aggressors, this takes the form of
destroying a fort’s defenses in order to make way for a
ground invasion force. On the defender side, this involves protecting a
fort from multiple waves of attackers on both sea and land.

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Update 1.3 will bring
huge changes for PvP in PotBS.

Because this was designed to be group content but also repeatable,
there were several design considerations I had to take into account
while developing these missions:



1. It needed to provide a challenge for 4-6 players, while still being
reasonable to complete on a regular basis. Cannon ammunition and repair
consumables can get very expensive. If the mission were too difficult,
it wouldn’t be cost effective for players to do with any
frequency.



2. It needed to require a team effort, with players being assigned to
distinct and essential tasks. As a designer, I prefer this method over
a “throw more ships at ‘em” approach to
group content. Repeatable missions are an excellent place to develop
your group tactics and coordination, especially for low-level players.
I wanted to put them in a situation where finesse would be more likely
to succeed than brute force.



3. It had to be easily scalable for level.



These considerations led to a number of interesting features. For the
aggressor side, I decided to bolster the fort’s defenses with
a “gunboat swarm.” While gunboats are small ships
(with only one cannon!), they can be dangerous in large numbers. They
also provide a very interesting challenge due to the fact that their
cannon points straight off the bow. The vast majority of ships attempt
to sail parallel or perpendicular to their target, while the gunboat
simply sails straight at you. This makes them difficult to engage, and
requires new tactics. On the other hand, it’s very fun and
satisfying to see them go down in one broadside!

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Making the changes
for the next update was a time intensive process.

For the defender mission, the most interesting addition is the use of
cannons in avatar space. The attacking ships continually drop off
landing parties at the beach which attempt to enter the fort on foot.
At least one player must assist in defending against these landing
parties or the fort’s crew will be overwhelmed. To do this,
the player is able to use three cannons that have been loaded with
grape shot and pointed at the beach. Firing them will radically reduce
the number of attackers that the forts crew actually has to deal with.



To adequately test these new missions for balance and playability, we
did a playtest once a day for about a week each. The group typically
consisted of myself, DrewC, Taelorn, and one or more of our QA testers.
Isildur and Ivy also got in on the action occasionally. After each
session I would meet with the group and discuss what worked and what
didn’t, what was too hard or too easy, and how we could make
it more fun.



This usually resulted in a number of tweaks that I would then implement
for the playtest the next day. Once we were satisfied that we had fun
and challenging missions, I sent them off to QA for comprehensive bug
testing.



It ends up being quite a process, but I think you'll enjoy the result.

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